title: Definition of terrorism

text: The USA PATRIOT Act of 2001 defines domestic terrorism as "activities that (A) involve acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the U.S. or of any state; (B) appear to be intended (i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or (iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and (C) occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the U.S."


title: Definition of terrorism

text: Section 102(1)(a) of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act contains a definition of terrorism in order for insurance companies to provide coverage to all prospective policy holders at time of purchase and to all current policyholders at renewal and requires that the federal government pay 90 percent of covered terrorism losses exceeding the statutorily established deductible paid by the insurance company providing the coverage. It reads:


title: Definition of terrorism

text: After the September 11 terrorist attacks in the U.S., many insurers made specific exclusions for terrorism in their policies, after global reinsurers withdrew from covering terrorism. Some governments introduced legislation to provide support for insurers in various ways.


title: Definition of terrorism

text: Some insurance companies exclude terrorism from general property insurance. An insurance company may include a specific definition of terrorism as part of its policy, for the purpose of excluding at least some loss or damage caused by terrorism. For example, RAC Insurance in Western Australia defines terrorism thus:


title: Definition of terrorism

text: Listed below are some of the historically important understandings of terror and terrorism, and enacted but non-universal definitions of the term:


title: Definition of terrorism

text: Any act carried out by an offender in furtherance of an individual or collective project, directly or indirectly, intended to disturb the public order of the state, or to shake the security of society, or the stability of the state, or to expose its national unity to danger, or to suspend the basic law of governance or some of its articles, or to insult the reputation of the state or its position, or to inflict damage upon one of its public utilities or its natural resources, or to attempt to force a governmental authority to carry out or prevent it from carrying out an action, or to threaten to carry out acts that lead to the named purposes or incite [these acts].


title: Definition of terrorism

text: Terrorism consists in the practice, by one or more individuals, of the acts listed in this article for reasons of xenophobia, discrimination or prejudice of race, color, ethnicity and religion, when committed with the objective of provoking social or generalized terror, exposing people, property, the public peace or the public safety.


title: Definition of terrorism

text: Schmid and Jongman (1988) counted 109 definitions of terrorism that covered a total of 22 different definitional elements, and Walter Laqueur counted over 100 definitions, concluding that the "only general characteristic generally agreed upon is that terrorism involves violence and the threat of violence". This is clearly inadequate, as many other actions involve both elements.


title: Definition of terrorism

text: After surveying the various academic definitions of terrorism, Rhyl Vallis and others (2004) concluded that:


title: Definition of terrorism

text: A definition proposed by Carsten Bockstette (2008), a German military officer serving at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies, underlines the psychological and tactical aspects of terrorism:


title: Definition of terrorism

text: Academics and practitioners may also be categorized by the definitions of terrorism that they use. Max Abrahms (2010) introduced the distinction between what he calls "terrorist lumpers" and "terrorist splitters." Lumpers define terrorism broadly, brooking no distinction between this tactic and guerrilla warfare or civil war. Terrorist splitters, by contrast, define terrorism narrowly, as the select use of violence against civilians for putative political gain. As Abrahms notes, these two definitions yield different policy implications:


title: Definition of terrorism

text: In 2011 Alex Schmid published an updated academic consensus definition in "The Routledge Handbook of Terrorism Research", which includes additional discussion of the UN struggle to find a legal definition, and 260 other definitions. The revised definition includes 12 points, the first of which is:


title: Definition of terrorism

text: Schmid returns to the problem of legal definition in an October 2020 article in "Contemporary Voices", in which he reviews the history of the efforts to arriving at agreement on a common legal definition of terrorism and names six reasons underlying the challenges faced in achieving this. In a new major work edited by Schmid, "Handbook of Terrorism Prevention and Preparedness" (2020–2021), he states:


title: Definition of terrorism

text: In contrast to a consensus on the legal definition however, the 2011 academic definition of terrorism, which is social-scientific rather than legal in nature, has gained a fair degree of acceptance among scholars.


title: Henry Stern (California politician)

text: Henry Isaac Stern (born April 12, 1982) is an American politician elected to the California State Senate. He is a Democrat representing the 27th district, encompassing parts of Los Angeles and Ventura counties. He was elected in November 2016. Prior to being elected to the State Senate, he was an environmental attorney and senior advisor to his predecessor Fran Pavley. He is the first millennial elected to the California State Senate. He was also an American law lecturer at University of California, Los Angeles and UC Berkeley.


title: Henry Stern (California politician)

text: Stern has served as counsel to Congressman Henry Waxman on the House Energy & Commerce Committee to help construct clean energy projects for businesses. He has also taught civics, founded a tech incubator, and advocated for juvenile justice.


title: Henry Stern (California politician)

text: Henry Isaac Stern was born to a Jewish family in Malibu, California on April 12, 1982. His father is actor Daniel Stern, who is best known for his role as Marv Merchants in the films "Home Alone" and "".


title: Henry Stern (California politician)

text: A former high school and collegiate water polo player, Stern graduated from Harvard University. He went on to graduate from UC Berkeley School of Law, before becoming an environmental attorney.


title: Henry Stern (California politician)

text: Henry Stern represented the Democratic Party in the 2016 race for California's 27th State Senate district against Republican Steve Fazio. On November 8, 2016, he was elected for California's 27th District State Senate.


title: Henry Stern (California politician)

text: Stern ran on a platform of five main issues in the 2016 elections. These included standing up to oil and gas companies, fighting to create incentives for companies to create "clean transportation and renewable energy infrastructure," improving the economy with small businesses, clean technology, good-paying jobs and job training, supporting education by securing funding, and creating safer communities by providing funding to local governments.


title: Henry Stern (California politician)

text: During the 2016 election, Stern was endorsed by Senator Fran Pavley, the Sierra Club, the California League of Conservation Voters, teachers and school board members from Los Angeles and Ventura county school districts, the Association of Los Angeles County Sheriffs, and the California Association of Highway Patrolmen. He was endorsed by elected officials such as President Barack Obama and Governor Jerry Brown, among many more. Publications such as the Ventura County Star and Ventura County Signal endorsed him as well.


title: Henry Stern (California politician)

text: On June 22, Henry Stern conceded his race for Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors after receiving 24% of the vote in the primary.


title: Henry Stern (California politician)

text: Henry's father, Daniel Stern, performed the narrative voiceover of adult Kevin Arnold for the hit television series "The Wonder Years" for six seasons. At the end of the show's series finale, Henry delivered the next-to-last line of the entire series when he called to his father—in voiceover--"Hey Dad, wanna play catch?" to which his father replies "I'll be right there."


title: Gravity Falls (season 2)

text: The second and final season of the American animated television series "Gravity Falls" began on August 1, 2014 on Disney Channel and on August 4, 2014 on Disney XD, and ended on February 15, 2016.


title: Gravity Falls (season 2)

text: The second season continues right where the first season left off. The first 12 episodes mainly focus on Dipper, Mabel, Soos, and Wendy working on discovering the identity of the author of the journals, while Stan continues to work on operating the mysterious portal beneath the Mystery Shack. The last eight episodes primarily focus on the gang trying to stop Bill Cipher, a dream demon with infinite power who wants to take over the world with weirdness.


title: Gravity Falls (season 2)

text: On July 29, 2013, the show was renewed for a second season. On February 16, 2014, it was announced that Gravity Falls would move from Disney Channel to Disney XD in Spring 2014, and that the second season would be shown on that channel. On March 4, 2014, Alex Hirsch announced on his Twitter account that the second season would premiere in Summer 2014. On June 14, 2014, it was confirmed that Season 2 would premiere on August 1, 2014 on Disney Channel and on August 4, 2014 on Disney XD. On the same day, it was announced that Season 2 would air on both Disney XD and Disney Channel. However, most of the new episodes would premiere on Disney XD before Disney Channel. It was announced that the second season will consist of 20 to 22 episodes.


title: Gravity Falls (season 2)

text: On November 20, 2015, creator of the show Alex Hirsch announced that the second season would be the show's last and that it was his decision to end the show, not the network's.


title: Gravity Falls (season 2)

text: The main characters, voiced by Jason Ritter as Dipper, and Kristen Schaal as Mabel, with series creator Alex Hirsch portraying Grunkle Stan and Soos, and Wendy Corduroy played by Linda Cardellini, reprise their roles. Hirsch also voices Bill Cipher, who returns in the fourth episode, "Sock Opera". J. K. Simmons plays Stan's twin brother, Stanford Fillbrick "Ford" Pines, starting with the twelfth episode, "A Tale of Two Stans".


title: Gravity Falls (season 2)

text: The recurring characters comprises the voices of Dee Bradley Baker as Mabel's pet pig, Waddles, and Hirsch also playing Old Man McGucket, the "local kook" of the town. Kevin Michael Richardson plays Sheriff Blubs, with partner Deputy Durland being voiced by Keith Ferguson. Pacifica Northwest is played by Jackie Buscarino. T. J. Miller plays as Robbie Valentino. Frank Welker voices Gompers, a goat who lives in the forest of Gravity Falls. Thurop Van Orman voices the recurring villain Li'l Gideon. Voice acting veteran John DiMaggio plays Manly Dan, a strong lumberjack and father of Wendy. Niki Yang and Carl Faruolo play Candy Chiu and Grenda, Mabel's two best friends, respectively. Toby Determined, a journalist for "Gravity Falls' Gossiper", is voiced by Gregg Turkington, and Will Forte plays Tyler Cutebiker.


title: Gravity Falls (season 2)

text: For this season, the show broadcast most of its original episodes on Disney XD, with Disney Channel airing reruns, although "Scary-oke" and "Little Gift Shop of Horrors" aired on Disney Channel first.


title: Gravity Falls (season 2)

text: The season premiered on Disney Channel Europe, Middle East and Africa on December 3, 2014. It also airs on Disney XD Canada with differently assigned numbers: "Northwest Mansion Mystery" is counted 11 instead of 10, "Not What He Seems" is counted 10 instead of 11, "The Last Mabelcorn" is counted 17 instead of 15, "Dipper and Mabel vs. the Future" is counted 16 instead of 17, and "Weirdmageddon 3" is counted 24 instead of 20.


title: Vozrozhdeniya Island

text: Rebirth Island (; , "Vozrojdenie araly"; ) was an island in the Aral Sea. The former island's territory is split between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. In 1954, the Soviet Union constructed a biological weapons test site called Aralsk-7 there and on the neighbouring Komsomolskiy Island, which also no longer exists.


title: Vozrozhdeniya Island

text: Vozrozhdeniya was once a small island; it was only in the nineteenth century. However, in the 1960s, the island began to grow in size as the Aral Sea began drying up as the Soviet Union dammed its feeder rivers for agricultural projects. The shrinkage of the Aral continued and accelerated over time, and the receding waters briefly made Vozrozhdeniya the second-largest fresh water island in the world, at , in the final days of its existence in mid-2001, becoming a peninsula when the South Aral Sea dried up enough that the island joined the mainland. Upon the disappearance of the Southeast Aral Sea in 2008, Vozrozhdeniya was simply a part of the surrounding land, and by 2014 it was simply a part of the land within the extensive Aralkum Desert.


title: Vozrozhdeniya Island

text: In 1848-1849, a Russian marine expedition of the Aral Sea was organized with the schooner "Konstantin", commanded by naval officer and investigator A.I. Butakov. One of the members who served as the expedition's artist was Taras Shevchenko. A group of islands was discovered that were named the Tzar Islands, consisting of Nicholas I Island, Konstantin Island and Naslednik Island. In the Soviet period Nicholas I Island was renamed Vozrozhdeniya.


title: Vozrozhdeniya Island

text: In the 1920s, leaders of the Red Army were searching for an appropriate place to build a science and military complex for inventing, producing, and testing biological weapons.


title: Vozrozhdeniya Island

text: An ideal location for such complex would be a relatively large island from a coast. Initial sites discussed for this complex included Lake Baikal, but choices were narrowed down to the Solovetsky Islands in the White Sea, Gorodomlya Island located on Lake Seliger and Vozrozhdeniya Island. The Russian Civil War and several unsuccessful attempts to build the complex from 1936 to 1941 led to a belief that such a complex must be built far from the Soviet Union's borders with other nations. Vozrozhdeniya Island's location in the middle of the Aral Sea, well within Soviet borders, satisfied this consideration.


title: Vozrozhdeniya Island

text: In the summer of 1936, Ivan Mikhailovich Velikanov led the Red Army's first expedition to conduct tests of biological weapons on Vozrozhdeniya Island. Around 100 personnel from Velikanov's Biotechnical Institute participated in the experiments. In July 1937, while planning for a second expedition to the island, Velikanov was arrested by the Soviet security organs and subsequently shot. Later that same summer, Leonid Moiseevich Khatanever, the new director of the Biotechnical Institute and an expert on "Francisella tularensis" (the causative agent of tularaemia), led a second expedition to Vozrozhdeniya. Two special ships and two aircraft were assigned to Khatanever for use in tests focused on the dissemination of tularaemia bacteria. In 1948, a top-secret Soviet bioweapons laboratory was established on the island which tested a variety of agents, including anthrax, smallpox, plague, brucellosis, and tularemia. In 1954, the site was expanded and named Aralsk-7, one of the main laboratories and testing sites for the Soviet Union's Microbiological Warfare Group tasked with inventing and testing the effects of multiple fatal diseases.


title: Vozrozhdeniya Island

text: In 1971, an accidental release of variola virus (the causative agent of smallpox) from the island infected ten people, of whom three died. In the 1990s, word of the island's danger was spread by Soviet defectors, including Ken Alibek, the former head of the Soviet Union's bioweapons program. According to released documents, anthrax spores and bubonic plague bacilli were made into weapons and stored at the complex. The main town on the island, where scientists and employees of the complex lived, was called Kantubek, which lies in ruins today, but once held approximately 1,500 inhabitants. The official Soviet name of this city was the same as the weapons complex itself: Aralsk-7. It contained simple infrastructure that consisted of a social club, a stadium, a couple of schools and shops. A unique airfield, "Barkhan", was also located close to Kantubek. It was the only airfield in the Soviet Union with four runways, in an intersecting starburst pattern. The weather on the island changed very frequently; thus, planes landed on one of the four runways depending on weather and wind direction at the time.


title: Vozrozhdeniya Island

text: Faced with the imminent dissolution of the USSR, the Soviet military authorities held a meeting in November 1991 at the USSR Ministry of Defence's Virology Centre in Zagorsk to discuss the fate of Aralsk-7. Here the decision was taken to terminate experimental work on the island and by late April 1992 all military units had been evacuated from the base. All people who lived on Vozrozhdeniya Island were evacuated within several weeks; civil and military infrastructure were abandoned and Kantubek became a ghost town. Many of the containers holding biological agents were not properly stored or destroyed, and over the last decade many of these containers have developed leaks.


title: Vozrozhdeniya Island

text: In 2002, through a project organized and funded by the United States with the assistance of Uzbekistan, ten anthrax burial sites were decontaminated.


title: Vozrozhdeniya Island

text: The former island and its laboratory have subsequently appeared in novels and video games. In "", the island was under U.S. occupation but was captured by the fictional Global Liberation Army. The area and its former biological weapons base and laboratories were also featured in a mission in "" called "Rebirth", where Alex Mason goes lone wolf against Friedrich Steiner, while Jason Hudson leads a team to extract Steiner out of the area. "" mixes the island's chemical weapon history with a recreation of the Alcatraz prison for its Rebirth Resurgence mode. The novel "The Home Team: Weapons Grade" also mentions the site; the book's villains dig up two metric tons of "Anthrax 836" from an impromptu dump site 11 km from the island for use in a terror plot.<ref name="Chalker/Dockery"></ref>


title: Chemical shift

text: In nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, the chemical shift is the resonant frequency of an atomic nucleus relative to a standard in a magnetic field. Often the position and number of chemical shifts are diagnostic of the structure of a molecule. Chemical shifts are also used to describe signals in other forms of spectroscopy such as photoemission spectroscopy.


title: Chemical shift

text: Some atomic nuclei possess a magnetic moment (nuclear spin), which gives rise to different energy levels and resonance frequencies in a magnetic field. The total magnetic field experienced by a nucleus includes local magnetic fields induced by currents of electrons in the molecular orbitals (note that electrons have a magnetic moment themselves). The electron distribution of the same type of nucleus (e.g. ) usually varies according to the local geometry (binding partners, bond lengths, angles between bonds, and so on), and with it the local magnetic field at each nucleus. This is reflected in the spin energy levels (and resonance frequencies). The variations of nuclear magnetic resonance frequencies of the same kind of nucleus, due to variations in the electron distribution, is called the chemical shift. The size of the chemical shift is given with respect to a reference frequency or reference sample (see also chemical shift referencing), usually a molecule with a barely distorted electron distribution.


title: Chemical shift

text: where is the actual strength of the magnet in units like Teslas or Gauss, and is the gyromagnetic ratio of the nucleus being tested which is in turn calculated from its magnetic moment and spin number with the nuclear magneton and the Planck constant :


title: Chemical shift

text: MRI scanners are often referred to by their field strengths (e.g. "a 7 T scanner"), whereas NMR spectrometers are commonly referred to by the corresponding proton Larmor frequency (e.g. "a 300 MHz spectrometer", which has a of 7 T ). While chemical shift is referenced in order that the units are equivalent across different field strengths, the actual frequency separation in Hertz scales with field strength (). As a result, the difference of chemical shift between two signals (ppm) represents a larger number of Hertz on machines that have larger and therefore the signals are less likely to be overlapping in the resulting spectrum. This increased resolution is a significant advantage for analysis. (Larger field machines are also favoured on account of having intrinsically higher signal arising from the Boltzmann distribution of magnetic spin states.)


title: Chemical shift

text: Chemical shift is usually expressed in parts per million (ppm) by frequency, because it is calculated from:


title: Chemical shift

text: where is the absolute resonance frequency of the sample and is the absolute resonance frequency of a standard reference compound, measured in the same applied magnetic field . Since the numerator is usually expressed in hertz, and the denominator in megahertz, is expressed in ppm.


title: Chemical shift

text: The detected frequencies (in Hz) for H, C, and Si nuclei are usually referenced against TMS (tetramethylsilane), TSP (Trimethylsilylpropanoic acid), or DSS, which by the definition above have a chemical shift of zero if chosen as the reference. Other standard materials are used for setting the chemical shift for other nuclei.


title: Chemical shift

text: Thus, an NMR signal observed at a frequency 300 Hz higher than the signal from TMS, where the TMS resonance frequency is 300 MHz, has a chemical shift of:


title: Chemical shift

text: Although the absolute resonance frequency depends on the applied magnetic field, the chemical shift is independent of external magnetic field strength. On the other hand, the resolution of NMR will increase with applied magnetic field.


title: Chemical shift

text: Practically speaking, diverse methods may be used to reference chemical shifts in an NMR experiment, which can be subdivided into "indirect" and "direct" referencing methods. Indirect referencing uses a channel other than the one of interest to adjust chemical shift scale correctly, i.e. the solvent signal in the deuterium (lock) channel can be used to reference the a H NMR spectrum. Both indirect and direct referencing can be done as three different procedures:


title: Chemical shift

text: Modern NMR spectrometers commonly make use of the absolute scale, which defines the H signal of TMS as 0 ppm in proton NMR and the center frequencies of all other nuclei as percentage of the TMS resonance frequency:


title: Chemical shift

text: The use of the deuterium (lock) channel, so the H signal of the deuterated solvent, and the Ξ value of the absolute scale is a form of internal referencing and is particularly useful in heteronuclear NMR spectroscopy as local reference compounds may not be always be available or easily used (i.e. liquid NH for N NMR spectroscopy). This system, however, relies on accurately determined H NMR chemical shifts enlisted in the spectrometer software and correctly determined Ξ values by IUPAC. A recent study for F NMR spectroscopy revealed that the use of the absolute scale and lock-based internal referencing led to errors in chemical shifts. These may be negated by inclusion of calibrated reference compounds.


title: Chemical shift

text: The electrons around a nucleus will circulate in a magnetic field and create a secondary induced magnetic field. This field opposes the applied field as stipulated by Lenz's law and atoms with higher induced fields (i.e., higher electron density) are therefore called "shielded", relative to those with lower electron density. Electron-donating alkyl groups, for example, lead to increased shielding whereas electron-withdrawing substituents such as nitro groups lead to "deshielding" of the nucleus. Not only substituents cause local induced fields. Bonding electrons can also lead to shielding and deshielding effects. A striking example of this is the pi bonds in benzene. Circular current through the hyperconjugated system causes a shielding effect at the molecule's center and a deshielding effect at its edges. Trends in chemical shift are explained based on the degree of shielding or deshielding.


title: Chemical shift

text: Nuclei are found to resonate in a wide range to the left (or more rare to the right) of the internal standard. When a signal is found with a higher chemical shift:


title: Chemical shift

text: In real molecules protons are surrounded by a cloud of charge due to adjacent bonds and atoms. In an applied magnetic field () electrons circulate and produce an induced field () which opposes the applied field. The effective field at the nucleus will be . The nucleus is said to be experiencing a diamagnetic shielding.


title: Chemical shift

text: Important factors influencing chemical shift are electron density, electronegativity of neighboring groups and anisotropic induced magnetic field effects.


title: Chemical shift

text: Electron density shields a nucleus from the external field. For example, in proton NMR the electron-poor tropylium ion has its protons downfield at 9.17 ppm, those of the electron-rich cyclooctatetraenyl anion move upfield to 6.75 ppm and its dianion even more upfield to 5.56 ppm.


title: Chemical shift

text: A nucleus in the vicinity of an electronegative atom experiences reduced electron density and the nucleus is therefore deshielded. In proton NMR of methyl halides (CHX) the chemical shift of the methyl protons increase in the order from 2.16 ppm to 4.26 ppm reflecting this trend. In carbon NMR the chemical shift of the carbon nuclei increase in the same order from around −10 ppm to 70 ppm. Also when the electronegative atom is removed further away the effect diminishes until it can be observed no longer.


title: Chemical shift

text: Anisotropic induced magnetic field effects are the result of a local induced magnetic field experienced by a nucleus resulting from circulating electrons that can either be paramagnetic when it is parallel to the applied field or diamagnetic when it is opposed to it. It is observed in alkenes where the double bond is oriented perpendicular to the external field with pi electrons likewise circulating at right angles. The induced magnetic field lines are parallel to the external field at the location of the alkene protons which therefore shift downfield to a 4.5 ppm to 7.5 ppm range. The three-dimensional space where a diamagnetic shift is called the shielding zone with a cone-like shape aligned with the external field.


title: Chemical shift

text: The protons in aromatic compounds are shifted downfield even further with a signal for benzene at 7.73 ppm as a consequence of a diamagnetic ring current.


title: Chemical shift

text: Alkyne protons by contrast resonate at high field in a 2–3 ppm range. For alkynes the most effective orientation is the external field in parallel with electrons circulation around the triple bond. In this way the acetylenic protons are located in the cone-shaped shielding zone hence the upfield shift.


title: Chemical shift

text: H and C are not the only nuclei susceptible to NMR experiments. A number of different nuclei can also be detected, although the use of such techniques is generally rare due to small relative sensitivities in NMR experiments (compared to H) of the nuclei in question, the other factor for rare use being their slender representation in nature and organic compounds.


title: Chemical shift

text: In general, the associated increased signal-to-noise and resolution has driven a move towards increasingly high field strengths. In limited cases, however, lower fields are preferred; examples are for systems in chemical exchange, where the speed of the exchange relative to the NMR experiment can cause additional and confounding linewidth broadening. Similarly, while avoidance of second order coupling is generally preferred, this information can be useful for elucidation of chemical structures. Using refocussing pulses placed between recording of successive points of the free induction decay, in an analogous fashion to the spin echo technique in MRI, the chemical shift evolution can be scaled to provide apparent low-field spectra on a high-field spectrometer. In a similar fashion, it is possible to upscale the effect of J-coupling relative to the chemical shift using pulse sequences that include additional J-coupling evolution periods interspersed with conventional spin evolutions.


title: Chemical shift

text: The Knight shift (first reported in 1949) and Shoolery's rule are observed with pure metals and methylene groups, respectively. The NMR chemical shift in its present-day meaning first appeared in journals in 1950. Chemical shifts with a different meaning appear in X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy as the shift in atomic core-level energy due to a specific chemical environment. The term is also used in Mössbauer spectroscopy, where similarly to NMR it refers to a shift in peak position due to the local chemical bonding environment. As is the case for NMR the chemical shift reflects the electron density at the atomic nucleus.


title: Lavinia Fisher

text: Lavinia Fisher (1793 – February 18, 1820) was an American criminal who, according to urban legends, was the first female serial killer in the United States of America. She was married to John Fisher, and both were convicted of highway robbery—a capital offense at the time—not murder.


title: Lavinia Fisher

text: Historians have begun to question the veracity of the traditional legend and some assert that Lavinia Fisher never killed anyone. She was, however, an active member of a large gang of highwaymen who operated out of two houses in the backcountry near Charleston, the Five Mile House and the Six Mile House. It is not clear whether the Six Mile House was a hotel, but it served as a hideout for a number of outlaws.


title: Lavinia Fisher

text: Fisher and her husband resided in Charleston, South Carolina for most of their lives. Together, they owned an inn, the Six Mile Wayfarer House, which they managed in the early 19th century. The hotel was located six miles north of Charleston, hence the name. During the couple's time there, reports were made to the local sheriff about guests disappearing. Due to lack of evidence, and the popularity of the couple with many locals, these complaints came to nothing.


title: Lavinia Fisher

text: Lavinia Fisher would invite lone travelers into the Six Mile Wayfarer House to dinner and ask them questions about their occupations, trying to determine if they had money. She would send them up to their rooms with a cup of poisoned tea. Once the men drank their tea and went to bed, her husband would go to the room to beat them almost to the point of killing.


title: Lavinia Fisher

text: Another version of the legend was that the tea would only put the men to sleep for a few hours. Then, when they were almost asleep, Lavinia would pull a lever and the bed would collapse and drop the victim into a pit. Some believed that there were spikes waiting at the bottom of the pit.


title: Lavinia Fisher

text: Much of what actually occurred in the alleged murders at the hands of John and Lavinia Fisher has become wildly exaggerated through time, so factual details are hard to find. However, contemporary news accounts in the "Charleston Post and Courier" claimed that a vigilante gang went to the Fishers' neighborhood in February 1819 to stop the purported 'gang activities' that were occurring there. Satisfied that they had accomplished their task, the group returned to Charleston, but left a young man by the name of David Ross to stand watch in the area.


title: Lavinia Fisher

text: Early the next day, Ross was attacked by two men and dragged before the gang that had terrorized the region. Among them was Lavinia Fisher, to whom he looked for help. However, rather than help him, she choked him and then smashed his head through a window. Ross managed to escape and immediately alerted authorities.


title: Lavinia Fisher

text: Immediately following this incident, another traveler named John Peeples asked if there were any vacancies; Lavinia replied that there was unfortunately no room, but he was welcome to come inside and rest and have some tea. John happened to hate tea, and not wanting to seem rude, he dumped it when she wasn't looking. She interrogated him for hours and eventually said she discovered that in fact, they did have a room. He then went to bed. He had felt suspicious about the interrogation and was worried about being robbed, so he decided to sleep in the wooden chair by the door. In the middle of the night, he awoke to the loud sound of the bed collapsing and discovered the Fishers' plan. He jumped out the window and rode to Charleston to alert the authorities.


title: Lavinia Fisher

text: Based on these two accounts, the assailants were finally identified by name, something that law enforcement had previously lacked. Police were immediately dispatched to the location and during the ensuing investigation Lavinia and John were located, along with two other gang members. John Fisher surrendered the group in an effort to protect his wife and shield her from possible gunfire. Later, during interrogation, he again attempted to protect Lavinia by giving the identities of all involved in the gang.


title: Lavinia Fisher

text: Nearly a full year elapsed between the time of their arrest and their execution. At their arraignment the Fishers pleaded not guilty but were ordered to be held in jail until their trial, which would take place in May, while their co-conspirators were released on bail. At their trial, the jury rejected their pleas of innocence and found them guilty of highway robbery, a capital offence. However, the judge allowed an appeal and they were given a reprieve until the January session of the court.


title: Lavinia Fisher

text: During this time the Fishers occupied themselves with plans to escape, as they were housed together at the Charleston, South Carolina jail (the "Old City Jail") in a 6x8 cell and not heavily guarded. On September 13 they put their plans into action and began their escape. Things did not go as planned as the rope they had made from prison linens broke, leaving Lavinia trapped in the cell and John set free. He was unwilling to continue the escape plan and was recaptured. The two were then kept under much tighter security.


title: Lavinia Fisher

text: The Constitutional court rejected their appeals and on February 4, 1820 both were sentenced to be hanged. Awaiting execution, John accepted the counsel of the Reverend Richard Furman, a local minister, but Lavinia became even more vitriolic.


title: Lavinia Fisher

text: On the gallows in front of the Old City Jail before John Fisher's execution, Rev. Furman read aloud a letter John had composed, which stated that since he had become a Christian he could not be executed with a lie held to his account. Therefore, he insisted on his innocence and asked mercy on those who had done him wrong in the judicial process. After the minister read the letter, Fisher then began to plead his case before the gathered crowd of some 2,000. He then seemingly contradicted himself by asking for their forgiveness.


title: Lavinia Fisher

text: Believing that she would be pardoned up until the moment she was hanged, Lavinia, according to legend, used her last breath to scream, "If any of you have a message for the devil, tell me now, for I shall be seeing him shortly." Then jumped off the stand and killed herself. Her ghost is believed by some to haunt the Old Charleston Jail House, and tourists still claim sightings of her ghostly apparition.


title: Lavinia Fisher

text: Lavinia was buried in a potter's field near the Old City Jail. Claims of her burial at 150 Meeting Street (The Circular Congregational Church) or at 4 Archdale Street (The Unitarian Church) appear to have been fictions promoted by tour guides.


title: Valerianella locusta

text: Valerianella locusta, called mâche or mache; common cornsalad; or lamb's lettuce, is a small, herbaceous, annual flowering plant in the honeysuckle family Caprifoliaceae. It is native to Europe, western Asia and north Africa, where it is eaten as a leaf vegetable.


title: Valerianella locusta

text: Cornsalad grows in a low rosette with spatulate leaves up to 15.2 cm long. It is a hardy plant that grows to zone 5, and in mild climates it is grown as a winter green.


title: Valerianella locusta

text: In warm conditions it tends to bolt to seed, producing much-branched stems with clusters (cymes) of flowers. The flowers have a bluish-white corolla of five fused petals, long and wide, and three stamens. At the base of the corolla is a whorl of bracts. Fertilized flowers produce achenes with two sterile chambers and one fertile chamber.


title: Valerianella locusta

text: Cornsalad grows wild in parts of Europe, northern Africa and western Asia. In Europe and Asia it is a common weed in cultivated land and waste spaces. In North America it has escaped cultivation and become naturalized on both the eastern and western seaboards.


title: Valerianella locusta

text: As a cultivated crop, it is a specialty of the region around Nantes, France, which is the primary producer of mâche in Europe.


title: Valerianella locusta

text: Cornsalad was originally foraged by European peasants. Jean-Baptiste de La Quintinie, royal gardener of King Louis XIV, introduced it to kitchen gardening. It has been eaten in Britain for centuries and appears in John Gerard's "Herbal" of 1597. It was grown commercially in London from the late 18th or early 19th century and appeared on markets as a winter vegetable, but it only became available in modern supermarkets there in the 1980s. American president Thomas Jefferson cultivated mâche at his home, Monticello, in Virginia in the early 1800s.


title: Valerianella locusta

text: Common names include lamb's lettuce, common cornsalad, or simply cornsalad, mâche (), fetticus, feldsalat, nut lettuce, field salad and valerian salad. The common name 'cornsalad' refers to the fact that it often grows as a weed in cornfields ('corn' is used in the sense of 'cereal', not the US meaning of maize).


title: Valerianella locusta

text: In German-speaking Switzerland it is known as Nüsslisalat or Nüssler, terms that have been borrowed by the area's many English speakers. In some areas of Germany it is known as rapunzel, and is the origin of the long-haired maiden's name in the eponymous fairy tale, but see "Campanula rapunculus". In restaurants that feature French cuisine, it may be called doucette or raiponce, as an alternative to mâche, by which it is best known. In Balkan region it is known as matilovac.


title: Valerianella locusta

text: Cornsalad has a characteristic nutty flavour, dark green colour, and soft texture, and is popularly served as salad greens.


title: Valerianella locusta

text: Like other formerly foraged greens, cornsalad has many nutrients, including three times as much vitamin C as lettuce, "beta"-carotene, B, iron, and potassium. It is best if gathered before flowers appear.


title: Arctium lappa

text: Arctium lappa, commonly called greater burdock, , edible burdock, lappa, beggar's buttons, thorny burr, or happy major is a Eurasian species of plants in the family Asteraceae, cultivated in gardens for its root used as a vegetable. It has become an invasive weed of high-nitrogen soils in North America, Australia, and other regions.


title: Arctium lappa

text: Greater burdock is a biennial plant, rather tall, reaching as much as . It has large, alternating, wavy-edged cordiform leaves that have a long petiole and are pubescent on the underside.


title: Arctium lappa

text: The flowers are purple and grouped in globular capitula, united in clusters. They appear in mid-summer, from July to September. The capitula are surrounded by an involucre made out of many bracts, each curving to form a hook, allowing the mature fruits to be carried long distances on the fur of animals. The fruits are achenes; they are long, compressed, with short pappus hairs. These are a potential hazard for humans, horses, and dogs. The minute, sharply-pointed, bristly pappus hairs easily detach from the top of the achenes and are carried by the slightest breeze – attaching to skin, mucous membranes, and eyes where they can cause severe dermal irritation, possible respiratory manifestations, and ophthalmia. The fleshy taproot can grow up to deep.


title: Arctium lappa

text: Burdock roots contain mucilage, sulfurous acetylene compounds, polyacetylenes and bitter guaianolide-type constituents. Seeds contain arctigenin, arctiin, and butyrolactone lignans.


title: Arctium lappa

text: This species is native to the temperate regions of the Old World, from Scandinavia to the Mediterranean, and from the British Isles through Russia, and the Middle East to India, China, Taiwan and Japan.


title: Arctium lappa

text: It is naturalized almost everywhere and is usually found in disturbed areas, especially in soil rich in humus and nitrogen, preferring full sunlight.


title: Arctium lappa

text: The leaves of greater burdock provide food for the caterpillars of some Lepidoptera, such as the thistle ermine ("Myelois circumvoluta").


title: Arctium lappa

text: The species is commonly cultivated in Japan where it gives its name to a particular construction technique, burdock piling.


title: Arctium lappa

text: The roots are edible cooked. Greater burdock root is known as "niúbàng" () in Chinese, which was borrowed into Japanese as "gobō" and Korean as "ueong" (), and is widely eaten in Japan, Korea and Taiwan. It was used in Europe during the Middle Ages as a vegetable, but now it is rarely used except in Italy and Portugal, where it is known as "bardana" or "garduna". It is also known under the same names and eaten in Brazil. Plants are cultivated for their slender roots, which can grow about 1 m long and across. The root was traditionally used in Britain as a flavouring in the herbal drink dandelion and burdock, which is still commercially produced.


title: Arctium lappa

text: The root is very crisp and has a sweet, mild, and pungent flavor with a little muddy harshness that can be reduced by soaking julienned/shredded roots in water for five to ten minutes. The harshness shows excellent harmonization with pork in miso soup (tonjiru) and takikomi gohan (a Japanese-style pilaf).


title: Arctium lappa

text: A popular Japanese dish is "kinpira gobō", julienned or shredded burdock root and carrot, braised with soy sauce, sugar, mirin and/or sake, and sesame oil. Another is burdock makizushi, rolled sushi filled with pickled burdock root; the burdock root is often artificially colored orange to resemble a carrot. Burdock root can also be found as a fried snack food similar in taste and texture to potato chips and is occasionally used as an ingredient in tempura dishes.


title: Arctium lappa

text: Fermentation of the root by "Aspergillus oryzae" is also used for making miso and rice wine in Japanese cuisine.


title: Arctium lappa

text: The tender leaf stalks can be peeled and eaten raw or cooked. Immature flower stalks may also be harvested in late spring, before flowers appear. The taste resembles that of artichoke, a burdock relative.


title: Arctium lappa

text: In the second half of the 20th century, burdock achieved international recognition for its culinary use due to the increasing popularity of the macrobiotic diet, which advocates its consumption. The root contains a fair amount of dietary fiber (GDF, 6 g per 100 g), calcium, potassium, amino acids, and is low calorie. It contains polyphenols that causes darkened surface and muddy harshness by formation of tannin-iron complexes. Those polyphenols are caffeoylquinic acid derivatives.


title: Arctium lappa

text: Dried burdock roots ("Bardanae radix") are used in traditional medicine. The seeds of greater burdock are employed in traditional Chinese medicine under the name "niubangzi" (; some dictionaries list the Chinese as just 牛蒡 niúbàng.)


title: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (season 1)

text: The first season of "Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters", based on the manga by Kazuki Takahashi, premiered in Japan on April 18, 2000, and concluded on April 3, 2001, on TV Tokyo. The season was directed by Kunihisa Sugishima, and written by Junki Takegami, Masashi Sogo, and Shin Yoshida. The English version of this season premiered in the United States on September 29, 2001 on Kids' WB, and concluded on November 9, 2002.


title: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (season 1)

text: The season follows Yugi Mutou and his friends - Katsuya Jonouchi, Hiroto Honda, and Anzu Mazaki (renamed to Joey Wheeler, Tristan Taylor and Téa Gardener in the English adaptation) - to Duelist Kingdom, a tournament on the island of the same name, to free the soul of his grandfather, Sugoroku (renamed Solomon Moto in the English adaptation) from imprisonment by Pegasus J. Crawford (renamed Maximillion Pegasus in the English adaptation). The last ten episodes deal with the aftermath of Yugi's duel with Pegasus, including several filler episodes featuring original storylines not seen in the manga.


title: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (season 1)

text: Between September 24, 2002 and February 22, 2005, Funimation released twenty DVD sets for the season: twelve sets containing three episodes, three containing four episodes, one with two episodes, one containing all forty-nine episodes and the last three containing uncut versions of the first nine episodes. All DVDs were encoded in Region 1. The first season of "Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters" was formerly licensed by 4Kids Entertainment in North America, and other English-speaking territories and countries, and was formerly distributed by FUNimation Entertainment, LTD. on Region 1 home video and formerly distributed by Warner Bros. Television Animation through North American TV rights, when it aired on Kids’ WB! and Cartoon Network. It is now licensed and distributed by 4K Media.


title: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (season 1)

text: The first ten DVD volumes, as well as volumes 12 and 13, contain 3 episodes each. Volumes 11, 15, and 16 contain four episodes each and the fourteenth volume contains two episodes. The first volume was released on September 24, 2002. The complete first season set was released on August 10, 2004.


title: Nightmare (Marvel Comics)

text: Nightmare is a fictional supervillain that appeared in the American comic books published by Marvel Comics. He first appeared in "Strange Tales" #110 and was created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. The character is depicted most commonly as a major enemy of Doctor Strange and Ghost Rider. Nightmare is the ruler of a Dream Dimension and he is one of the Fear Lords. He is also part of the group called The Six Fingered Hand. He also has the ability to draw power from the psychic energies of the subconscious minds of dreaming beings.


title: Nightmare (Marvel Comics)

text: Nightmare first appeared in "Strange Tales" #110 (the first appearance of his enemy, Dr. Strange) and was created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.


title: Nightmare (Marvel Comics)

text: He is the evil ruler of a "Dream Dimension", where tormented humans are brought during their sleep. He roams this realm on his demonic black horned horse named Dreamstalker. He appears as a chalk-white man with wild green hair, a green bodysuit, and a ragged cape. He was the first foe met by Doctor Strange when a man who was having troubling dreams went to Strange for help, though it is revealed this is due to him committing a murder. Later Nightmare imprisons several humans in his dimension, but Strange frees them. When Doctor Strange forgot to recite a spell before he slept, Nightmare started tormenting him, before Strange was freed after tricking Nightmare by casting an illusion of one of Nightmare's enemies.


title: Nightmare (Marvel Comics)

text: Nightmare is a demon from the dimension Everinnye, like his "cousin", the Dweller-in-Darkness. Nightmare is dependent on the human race's need to dream. Without this ability, Nightmare would cease to exist, but humanity would go insane. At one point Strange and Nightmare had to join forces to prevent that from happening. Nightmare has run afoul of Spider-Man, Captain America, Ghost Rider, Dazzler, Wolverine, the Hulk, and Squirrel Girl on different occasions. Nightmare also served under Shuma-Gorath and warned Strange that the demon would be a force that even the Sorcerer Supreme would have trouble defeating, and he once joined the Fear Lords, a group of supernatural creatures who fed on fear, to attack Dr. Strange together. Their plans were undone when D'Spayre tricks him into competing with the Dweller-in-Darkness over who could frighten humanity more.


title: Nightmare (Marvel Comics)

text: Nightmare is the father of the Dreamqueen, a similar being who rules her own "dream dimension". She was conceived when Nightmare impregnated a succubus named Zhilla Char.


title: Nightmare (Marvel Comics)

text: Nightmare's realm is not part of The Mindscape, but the Sleepwalkers are aware of him and consider him an enemy. Because Sleepwalkers do not have to sleep, Nightmare has never been able to affect or dominate them. He sought to do this through the hero Sleepwalker, who had been connected into the brain of the human Rick Sheridan. Nightmare sent Sleepwalker back to his own realm, with a monitor to assure the hero Rick was not being tormented. Rick was being tormented, with the intent of driving Sleepwalker mad and thus giving Nightmare access to the minds of Sleepwalker's people. The hero was not fooled and sacrificed his return home in order to stop Nightmare.


title: Nightmare (Marvel Comics)

text: Later, Nightmare was able to access human minds through the concept of the 'American dream'. Many people who were deeply patriotic or had achieved a degree of success through hard work were going on violent rampages. Nightmare was soon stopped by the combined forces of Captain America, Sharon Carter, and S.H.I.E.L.D.


title: Nightmare (Marvel Comics)

text: In the "Tempest Fugit" storyline of "The Incredible Hulk" it is revealed that Nightmare has been plaguing the Hulk for years with hallucinations, misdirections, and manipulations of reality, by empowering himself. His second, more benevolent, daughter "Daydream" is also introduced in this story arc. Nightmare here claimed that this daughter was conceived by forcibly entering the mind of the Hulk's late wife, Betty Ross Banner, raping her in her sleep, and is temporarily killed by the Hulk in retaliation.


title: Nightmare (Marvel Comics)

text: When Hercules and the God Squad needs to make their way to the Skrull gods' realm during the "Secret Invasion" storyline, they require a map of the Dreamtime, and barter with Nightmare for it. Nightmare agrees, in exchange for access to the fears of the five gods; however, he actually intends to use these divine fears to conquer the world. Hercules and the others escape his realm, having stolen the map via trickery as Mikaboshi had created a shadow duplicate of himself to fool Nightmare. Nightmare summons up an army of monsters to attack them, but they escape.


title: Nightmare (Marvel Comics)

text: Nightmare later attempts to revenge himself on Hercules by manipulating the supervillain Arcade into trapping Hercules and Deadpool in a labyrinth they constructed. The ploy fails, and Nightmare withdraws.


title: Nightmare (Marvel Comics)

text: He later plots to conquer the entirety of fiction, adding it to his realm of nightmares, but was defeated by the Fantastic Four.


title: Nightmare (Marvel Comics)

text: During Osborn's Dark Reign, it was revealed that Nightmare is Trauma's father, which explains Trauma's fear powers. He later manifests on Earth and proves to be a problem for the Avengers Resistance and the Initiative.


title: Nightmare (Marvel Comics)

text: During the "Chaos War" storyline, Amatsu-Mikaboshi (now adopting the title of Chaos King) has amassed an army of alien slave gods and is attempting to destroy absolutely everything and become the only being in the Universe once more. He travels to Nightmare's realm while they are trying to torment Hercules with visions of Amatusu-Mikaboshi and quickly defeats the demon. Nightmare attempts to join Amatsu-Mikaboshi's forces but the ancient force of nature doesn't get tricked by his begging and destroys the heart, apparently killing Nightmare. His apparent death is felt by those who have psionic powers and it is later revealed that those who fall asleep enter into a state of berserk rage. Amatsu-Mikaboshi steals Nightmare's powers and minions.


title: Nightmare (Marvel Comics)

text: When the Asgardian Fear God was released from his prison and launched the Serpent War, Mephisto goes to The Infinite Embassy to learn what the other gods plan on doing about the Serpent, he visits several gods and locations, his last stop being Nightmare's chamber. Still unclear how Nightmare survived the Chaos King, Nightmare explains to Mephisto that the Serpent is starving him by taking all the fear. Nightmare wants to fight the Serpent, but Mephisto talks him out of it, citing that he will lose all respect from the other evil gods. Then, when Nightmare talks of joining the Serpent, Mephisto argues against it, claiming that the Serpent will keep starving him and he will die. Nightmare, unsure of what to do, listens to Mephisto when he advises for him to do what everyone else is doing: stay neutral, and wait for something else to happen.


title: Nightmare (Marvel Comics)

text: Nightmare was later seen tormenting Loki as part of a plan to garner greater powers in "The Terrorism Myth" storyline. However he was unable to use Loki's own nightmares against him and Loki challenged him to a duel to the death, where the loser would give up their immortality, to which Nightmare accepted. Loki beat Nightmare and killed him.


title: Nightmare (Marvel Comics)

text: With the recent demise of Doctor Strange, several mystical threats were able to freely move into position to try and doom the world of man, including Nightmare, who quickly finds himself in New York where he confronts Cyclops, Jean Grey and X-23 during their sleep. However, Jean managed to break free from the nightmares and confronting Nightmare on equal footing is able to call out Nightmare for his attempts to feed on the minds of others.


title: Nightmare (Marvel Comics)

text: Nightmare is a nigh-omnipotent, nigh-omniscient and nigh-omnipresent entity who rules the Dream Dimension. He also has the ability to draw power from the psychic energies of the subconscious minds of dreaming beings. As long as there are beings that dream, Nightmare will exist. While he has been defeated, he can never truly be destroyed.


title: Nightmare (Marvel Comics)

text: The Ultimate Marvel incarnation of Nightmare can shape shift into different forms based on a victim's memories. He appears in "Ultimate Spider-Man" as a demon of dreams that plagues Doctor Strange's mind with nightmares. When Spider-Man (Peter Parker) entered the building, a misconnection led to Nightmare moving to Spider-Man's mind, where the young web-slinger gets plagued by Nightmare's torture. To torment Spider-Man, Nightmare takes the forms of Mary Jane Watson, Aunt May, Eddie Brock, Harry Osborn and the Green Goblin. Doctor Strange eventually entered Spider-Man's mind via a spell and vanquished Nightmare, however, the demon takes Doctor Strange's own father's form. After some effort, Nightmare's main appearance (a half-rotted, grey corpse) is revealed as he's defeated. During the events of "Ultimatum", Nightmare escaped Dr. Strange's Sanctonum after the Ultimatum wave broke the building's seal. Nightmare then possessed Dr. Strange's body before confronting Spider-Man and the Hulk. Nightmare attacked them both, plaguing Hulk with nightmares of hundreds of Hulk's own dead victims, and Peter with Spider-Man's various villains from in the past as well as a decayed Uncle Ben. Upon solidifying into a young looking purple being, Hulk attacked him in response to the nightmares, causing Nightmare to jump into Dr. Strange's Orb of Acmantata. Hulk attacked the orb resulting in a large explosion, presumably destroying Nightmare.


title: Decline of the Byzantine Empire

text: The Byzantine Empire experienced several cycles of growth and decay over the course of nearly a thousand years, including major losses during the Early Muslim conquests of the 7th century. However, modern historians generally agree that the start of the empire's final decline began in the 11th century.


title: Decline of the Byzantine Empire

text: In the 11th century the empire experienced a major catastrophe in which most of its heartland territory in Anatolia was lost to the Seljuk Turks following the Battle of Manzikert and ensuing civil war. At the same time, the empire lost its last territory in Italy to the Norman Kingdom of Sicily and faced repeated attacks on its territory in the Balkans. These events created the context for emperor Alexios I Komnenos to call to the West for help, which led to the First Crusade. However, economic concessions to the Italian republics of Venice and Genoa weakened the empire's control over its own finances, especially from the 13th century onward, while tensions with the West led to the Sack of Constantinople by the forces of the Fourth Crusade in 1204 and the dismemberment of the empire.


title: Decline of the Byzantine Empire

text: Although a number of small Byzantine successor states survived and eventually reclaimed Constantinople in 1261, the empire had been severely weakened. In the longer term, the rise of Turkish power in Anatolia eventually gave rise to the Ottoman Empire which rapidly conquered the former Byzantine heartland over the course of the 14th and 15th centuries, culminating in the Fall of Constantinople to the army of Sultan Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror in 1453.


title: Decline of the Byzantine Empire

text: The most significant events generally agreed by historians to have played a role in the decline of the Byzantine Empire are summarised below:


title: Decline of the Byzantine Empire

text: Probably the most important single cause of Byzantium's collapse was its recurrent debilitating civil wars. Three of the worst periods of civil war and internal infighting took place during Byzantium's decline. Each time, these civil wars coincided with a catastrophic reduction in Byzantine power and influence, which was never fully reversed before the next collapse.


title: Decline of the Byzantine Empire

text: This was followed by a period of secure dynastic rule by the Komnenos dynasty, under Alexios I (1081-1118), John II Komnenos (1118-43) and Manuel I Komnenos (1143-1180). Cumulatively, these three emperors were able to partially restore the empire's fortunes, but they never were able to fully undo the damage caused by the instability at the end of the 11th century, nor return the empire's frontiers to those of 1071.


title: Decline of the Byzantine Empire

text: The second period of civil war and collapse took place after Manuel's death in 1180. Manuel's son Alexios II Komnenos was overthrown in 1183 by Andronikos I Komnenos, whose reign of terror destabilised the empire internally and led to his overthrow and death in Constantinople in 1185. The Angelos dynasty which ruled Byzantium from 1185 to 1204 has been considered one of the most unsuccessful and ineffectual administrations in the empire's history. During this period, Bulgaria and Serbia broke away from the empire, further land was lost to the Seljuk Turks. In 1203, the imprisoned former emperor Alexios IV Angelos escaped jail and fled to the west, where he promised the leaders of the Fourth Crusade generous payment if they would help him regain the throne. These promises later proved to be impossible to keep; in the event, the dynastic squabbling between the weak and ineffectual members of the Angelid dynasty brought about the Sack of Constantinople; Constantinople was burned, pillaged and destroyed, thousands of its citizens were killed, many of the surviving inhabitants fled, and much of the city became a depopulated ruin. The damage to Byzantium was incalculable; many historians point to this moment as a fatal blow in the empire's history. Although the empire was reformed in 1261 by the recapture of the city by forces from the Empire of Nicaea, the damage was never reversed and the empire never returned to anywhere near its former territorial extent, wealth and military power.


title: Decline of the Byzantine Empire

text: The third period of civil war took place in the 14th century. Two separate periods of civil war, again making extensive use of Turkish, Serbian and even Catalan troops, often operating independently under their own commanders, and often raiding and destroying Byzantine lands in the process, ruined the domestic economy and left the state virtually powerless and overrun by its enemies. Conflicts between Andronikos II and Andronikos III, and then later between John VI Kantakouzenos and John V Palaiologos, marked the final ruin of Byzantium. The Byzantine civil war of 1321–1328 allowed the Turks to make notable gains in Anatolia and set up their capital in Bursa 100 kilometers from Constantinople the Byzantine's capital. The civil war of 1341–1347 saw exploitation of the Byzantine Empire by the Serbs, whose ruler took advantage of the chaos to proclaim himself emperor of the Serbs and Greeks. The Serbian king Stefan Uroš IV Dušan made significant territorial gains in Byzantine Macedonia in 1345 and conquered large swathes of Thessaly and Epirus in 1348. In order to secure his authority during the civil war, Kantakouzenos hired Turkish mercenaries. Although these mercenaries were of some use, in 1352 they seized Gallipoli from the Byzantines. By 1354, the empire's territory consisted of Constantinople and Thrace, the city of Thessaloniki, and some territory in the Morea.


title: Decline of the Byzantine Empire

text: The disintegration of the Byzantine Empire's traditional military system, the 'theme' system, played a role in its decline. Under this arrangement, which was in its heyday from circa 650 to 1025, the empire was divided into several regions which contributed locally raised troops to the imperial armies. The system provided an effective means of cheaply mobilizing large numbers of men, and the result was a comparatively large and powerful force – the army of the theme of Thrakesion alone had provided about 9,600 men in the period 902–936, for example. But from the 11th century onwards, the theme system was allowed to decay. This played a major role in the loss of Anatolia to the Turks at the end of that century.


title: Decline of the Byzantine Empire

text: In the 12th century, the Komnenian dynasty re-established an effective military force. Manuel I Komnenos, for example, was able to muster an army of over 40,000 men. However, the theme system was never replaced by a viable long-term alternative, and the result was an empire that depended more than ever before on the strengths of each individual emperor or dynasty. The collapse of imperial power and authority after 1185 revealed the inadequacy of this approach. After the deposition of Andronikos I Komnenos in 1185, the dynasty of the Angeloi oversaw a period of military decline. From 1185 onwards, Byzantine emperors found it increasingly difficult to muster and pay for sufficient military forces, while the failure of their efforts to sustain their empire exposed the limitations of the entire Byzantine military system, dependent as it was on competent personal direction from the emperor.


title: Decline of the Byzantine Empire

text: Despite the restoration under the Palaiologoi, Byzantium was never again a great power on the scale of the past. By the 13th century, the imperial army numbered a mere 6,000 men. As one of the main institutional strengths of the Byzantine state, the demise of the theme system left the empire lacking in underlying structural strengths.


title: Decline of the Byzantine Empire

text: As far back as the invasion of Africa by Belisarius, foreign soldiers were used in war. While foreign military intervention was not an all together new occurrence, the reliance on it, and its ability to damage political, social, and economic institutions were dramatically increased in the 11th, 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries. The 11th century saw increasing tensions between Courtly, and Military factions. Until the mid 11th century the empire had long been under the control of the Military Factions with leaders such as Basil II, and John I Tzimiskes, however the crisis of Basil II's succession led to increasing uncertainty in the future of politics. The army demanded Constantine VIII's daughters ascend to the throne by virtue of their relation to Basil II, leading to a number of marriages, and increasing power for the Courtly faction. This culminated after the failed Battle of Manzikert. As civil wars broke out, and tensions between courtly, and military factions reached a zenith, the demand for soldiers led to the hiring of Turkish mercenaries. These mercenaries aided in the Byzantine loss of Anatolia by drawing more Turkish soldiers into the interior of the empire, and by giving the Turks an increasing presence in Byzantine politics. These interventions also led to further destabilization of the political system.


title: Decline of the Byzantine Empire

text: Reliance on foreign military intervention, and sponsorship for political motives, continued even during the Komnenoi Restoration, Alexius I used Turkish mercenaries in the civil wars he participated in with Nikephoros III Botaneiates. In 1204, Alexios IV Angelos relied on Latin soldiers to claim the throne of Byzantium, leading to the sack of Constantinople, and the creation of the successor states.


title: Decline of the Byzantine Empire

text: Economic concessions to the Italian Republics of Venice and Genoa weakened the empire's control over its own finances, especially from the ascension of Michael VIII Palaiologos in the 13th century onward. At this time it was common for emperors to seek sponsorship from Venice, Genoa, and the Turks. This led to a series of disastrous trade deals with the Italian states; drying up one of the empire's final sources of revenue. This further led to competition between Venice, and Genoa to get emperors on the throne who supported their respective trade agenda to the detriment of the other, adding another level of instability to the Byzantine political process.


title: Decline of the Byzantine Empire

text: By the time of the Byzantine–Genoese War (1348–49), only thirteen percent of custom dues passing through the Bosporus strait were going to the Empire. The remaining 87 percent was collected by the Genoese from their colony of Galata. Genoa collected 200,000 "hyperpyra" from annual custom revenues from Galata, while Constantinople collected a mere 30,000. The loss of control over its own revenue sources drastically weakened the Byzantine empire, hastening its decline. At the same time, the system of Pronoia (land grants in exchange for military service), became increasingly corrupt and dysfunctional by the later empire, and by the 14th century many of the empire's nobles were not paying any tax, nor were they serving in the empire's armies. This further undermined the financial basis of the state, and placed further reliance on unreliable mercenaries, which only hasted the empire's demise.


title: Decline of the Byzantine Empire

text: Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos signed a union with the Catholic church in the 13th century in the hope of staving off western attack, but the policy was unsuccessful. The empire's western enemies soon resumed attacking the empire, while the social divisions the deeply unpopular union created inside the empire were damaging to Byzantine society. The controversy over church union failed to provide the empire with any lasting benefit, while the prisons were soon full of dissenters and Orthodox clergy. This undermined the legitimacy of the Palaiologos dynasty and further facilitated social divisions, which were ultimately to play a role in the loss of Anatolia to the Ottoman Turks.


title: Decline of the Byzantine Empire

text: Byzantine envoys presented themselves at the Second Council of Lyons 24 June 1274. On the fourth session of the Council the formal act of union was performed, however with Pope Gregory's death (January, 1276), the hoped for gains did not materialise.


title: Decline of the Byzantine Empire

text: While the union was opposed at all levels of society, it was especially opposed by the greater populace, led by the monks and the adherents of the deposed Patriarch Arsenios, known as the Arsenites. One of the chief anti-unionist leaders was Michael's own sister Eulogia (aka Irene), who fled to the court of her daughter Maria Palaiologina Kantakouzene, Tsarina of the Bulgars, from where she intrigued unsuccessfully against Michael. More serious was the opposition of the sons of Michael of Epirus, Nikephoros I Komnenos Doukas and his half-brother John the Bastard: they posed as the defenders of Orthodoxy and gave support to the anti-unionists fleeing Constantinople. Michael at first responded with comparative leniency, hoping to win the anti-unionists through persuasion, but eventually the virulence of the protests led him to resort to force. Many anti-unionists were blinded or exiled. Two prominent monks, Meletios and Ignatios, were punished: the first had his tongue cut out, the second was blinded. Even imperial officials were harshly treated, and the death penalty was decreed even for simply reading or possessing pamphlets directed against the Emperor. "From the intensity of these disorders, tantamount almost to civil wars," concludes Geanakoplos, "it might appear that too great a price had been paid for the sake of union."


title: Decline of the Byzantine Empire

text: The religious situation only worsened for Michael. The Arsenite party found widespread support amongst the discontented in the Anatolian provinces, and Michael responded there with similar viciousness: according to Vryonis, "These elements were either removed from the armies or else, alienated, they deserted to the Turks". Another attempt to clear the encroaching Turkmen from the Meaender valley in 1278 found limited success, but Antioch on the Maeander was irretrievably lost as were Tralles and Nyssa four years later.


title: Decline of the Byzantine Empire

text: On 1 May 1277, John the Bastard convoked a synod at Neopatras that anathematized the Emperor, Patriarch, and Pope as heretics. In response, a synod was convoked at the Hagia Sophia on 16 July where both Nikephoros and John were anathematized in return. John called a final synod at Neopatras in December 1277, where an anti-unionist council of eight bishops, a few abbots, and one hundred monks, again anathematized the Emperor, Patriarch, and Pope.


title: Decline of the Byzantine Empire

text: Though the Crusades assisted Byzantium in driving back some of the Turks, they went far beyond the military assistance envisaged by Alexios I.


title: Decline of the Byzantine Empire

text: Instead of following the strategic necessities of the war against the Turks, the Crusaders were focussed on the quest of re-conquering Jerusalem,


title: Decline of the Byzantine Empire

text: and instead of returning territory to Byzantium, the Crusaders established their own principalities, becoming a territorial rival to Byzantine interests in their own right.


title: Decline of the Byzantine Empire

text: This was true already during the Third Crusade, which induced emperor Isaac II Angelos to make a secret alliance with Saladin to impede the progress of Frederick Barbarossa, but open conflict between Crusaders and Byzantium erupted in the Fourth Crusade, resulting in the Sack of Constantinople in 1204. Constantinople was now itself a Crusader state, known as the Latin Empire in historiography, but from the Greek perspective as "Frankokratia" or "rule of the Franks". Vestiges of imperial power were preserved in minor principalities, the Nicaean Empire, Trebizond and Epirus. Much of the Nicaean Emperors' efforts now went into combating the Latins, and even after Constantinople was returned to Greek rule under the Palaiologoi in 1261, the Empire exerted much of its efforts into defeating its Latin neighbours, contributing to the eventual failure of the Crusades by 1291.


title: Decline of the Byzantine Empire

text: No emperor after the Komnenian period was in a position to expel the Turks from Asia Minor, while the preoccupation of the Nicaean emperors with the attempt to recover Constantinople meant that resources were diverted away from Asia Minor and towards the west. The result was a weakening of the Byzantine defenses in the region, which, when combined with insufficient resources and incompetent leadership, led to the complete loss of all the empire's Asian territory to the Turks by 1338.


title: Decline of the Byzantine Empire

text: The disintegration of the Seljuk Turks led to the rise of the Ottoman Turks. Their first important leader was Osman I Bey, who attracted Ghazi warriors and carved out a domain in north-western Asia Minor. Attempts by the Byzantine Emperors to drive back the Ottomans were unsuccessful, and ceased in 1329 with the Battle of Pelekanon. Following a number of civil disputes in the Byzantine Empire, the Ottomans subjugated the Byzantines as vassals in the late 14th century and attempts to relieve this vassal status culminated in the Fall of Constantinople in 1453.


title: How Did This Get Made?

text: How Did This Get Made? ("HDTGM") is a podcast on the Earwolf network. It is hosted by Paul Scheer, June Diane Raphael and Jason Mantzoukas with occasional substitutes and/or guest hosts. Each episode features the deconstruction and mockery of outlandish and bad films.


title: How Did This Get Made?

text: The hosts and guest make jokes about the films as well as attempt to unscramble plots. After discussing the film, Scheer reads "second opinions" in the form of five-star reviews posted online by Amazon.com users. The hosts also often make recommendations on if the film is worth watching. The show is released every two weeks.


title: How Did This Get Made?

text: During the show's off week a ".5" episode (also known as a "minisode") is uploaded. These episodes feature Scheer's "explanation hopeline" where he answers questions from fans who call in, the movie for the next week is announced, Scheer reads corrections and omissions from the message board regarding last week's episode, and he opens fan mail and provides his recommendations on books, movies, TV shows etc. that he is enjoying.


title: How Did This Get Made?

text: Some full episodes are recorded in front of a live audience and include a question and answer session and original "second opinion" theme songs sung by fans. Not all content from the live shows is included in the final released episode - about 30 minutes of each live show is edited out.


title: How Did This Get Made?

text: "How Did This Get Made?" began after Scheer and Raphael saw the movie "". Later, the pair talked to Mantzoukas about the movie and joked about the idea for starting a bad movie podcast. , "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps" has never been covered on the podcast.


title: How Did This Get Made?

text: In 2020 and 2022, "How Did This Get Made?" won an iHeartRadio award in the category of Best TV & Film Podcast.


title: How Did This Get Made?

text: Between February and September 2017, a 17-episode spin-off series of the podcast was released. Entitled "How Did This Get Made?: Origin Stories", author Blake J. Harris would interview people involved with the movies discussed on the podcast. Guests on the show included director Mel Brooks, who served as executive producer on "Solarbabies", and screenwriter Dan Gordon, who wrote "Surf Ninjas".


title: How Did This Get Made?

text: In May 2018, Scheer began a new podcast with Amy Nicholson titled "Unspooled" that is also devoted to movies. Unlike "HDTGM?", however, "Unspooled" looks at films deemed good enough for the updated 2007 edition of the AFI Top 100. This is often referenced in "How Did This Get Made?" by Mantzoukas and Raphael, who are comically annoyed at how they were not invited to host the podcast, instead being subjected to the bad films that "HDTGM" covers.


title: How Did This Get Made?

text: In June 2019, the Earwolf network launched the podcast "How Did This Get Played?", hosted by "Doughboys" host Nick Wiger and former "Saturday Night Live" writer Heather Anne Campbell. The podcast was positioned as the video game equivalent of "HDTGM?", where Wiger and Campbell review widely panned video games. The podcast was later changed to "Get Played", focusing on multiple aspects of video games and deviating from the original format.


title: How Did This Get Made?

text: The program was adapted in France in 2014 under the title "2 heures de perdues" ("2 hours wasted"), a podcast in which several friends meet to analyze bad films in the same style ― mainly focusing on American, French, and British films. The show then ends with a reading of comments found on AlloCiné, the biggest French-speaking cinema website, or from Amazon.


title: How Did This Get Made?

text: The program was adapted in Denmark in 2014 under the title "Dårligdommerne" ("The bad judges"), a podcast in which the hosts Jacob Hinchely, Troels Møller and Christopher “sideburns” Andersen meet to analyze bad films in the same style ― mainly focusing on Danish films.


title: Southampton, New York

text: Southampton, officially the Town of Southampton, is a town in southeastern Suffolk County, New York, partly on the South Fork of Long Island. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the town had a population of 69,036. Southampton is included in the stretch of shoreline prominently known as The Hamptons.


title: Southampton, New York

text: The town was founded in 1640, when settlers from Lynn, Massachusetts established residence on lands obtained from local Shinnecock Indian Nation. The first settlers included eight men, one woman, and a boy who came ashore at Conscience Point. These men were Thomas Halsey, Edward Howell, Edmond Farrington, Allen Bread, Edmund Needham, Abraham Pierson the Elder, Thomas Sayre, Josiah Stanborough, George Welbe, Henry Walton and Job Sayre. By July 7, 1640, they had determined the town boundaries. During the next few years (1640–43), Southampton gained another 43 families and now there are thousands of people in southampton.


title: Southampton, New York

text: From 1644, the colonists established an organised whale fishery, significant in the history of whaling as the first in New England. They chased pilot whales ("blackfish") onto the shelving beaches for slaughter, a sort of dolphin drive hunting. They also processed drift whales they found on shore. They observed the Native Americans' hunting techniques, improved on their weapons and boats, and then went out to ocean hunting.


title: Southampton, New York

text: The first meeting house was on a hill that is the site of the current Southampton Hospital. The town's oldest existent house is the Halsey House at 249 Main Street, which was built by Thomas Halsey, one of the first Englishmen to trade with the Shinnecocks.


title: Southampton, New York

text: Southampton has 47 public and private cemeteries, not including Shinnecock Hills Golf Club, which is claimed as an Indian burial ground that is no longer in active use. Southampton is named after the port city of Southampton in Hampshire, England.


title: Southampton, New York

text: Southampton operates an official historical web site. The site shows the locations of over 100 points of interest, historic markers, and historic districts as well as over 1500 photos.


title: Southampton, New York

text: In 2005, the Shinnecock Indian Nation filed a lawsuit against the state seeking the return of 3,500 acres (14 km) in Southampton near the tribe's reservation, and billions of dollars in reparations for damages suffered by colonial land grabs. The disputed property includes the Shinnecock Hills Golf Club, which Shinnecock say is the location of tribe burial grounds. The tribe challenged the state legislatures' approval of an 1859 sale of the 3,500 acres of tribal land. The tribe alleged this broke the terms of a 1,000-year-lease signed by Southampton colonial officials and the tribe in 1703. The suit charged that in 1859, a group of powerful New York investors conspired to break the lease by sending the state Legislature a fraudulent petition from a number of Shinnecock tribal members. Although other tribal members immediately protested that the petition was a forgery, the legislature approved the sale of 3,500 acres (14 km) of tribal land. In 2006, the court ruled against the tribe finding the lawsuit was barred by laches.


title: Southampton, New York

text: According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the town has an area of 295.6 square miles (765.6 km), of which 138.9 square miles (359.7 km) is land and 156.7 square miles (405.9 km is water. The total area is 53.02% water.


title: Southampton, New York

text: Southampton contains seven incorporated villages and 16 unincorporated areas, which are called hamlets in New York state.


title: Southampton, New York

text: As of the census of 2000, there were 54,712 people, 21,504 households and 13,805 families residing in the town. The population density was 394.0 people per square mile (152.1/km). There were 35,836 housing units at an average density of 258.0 per square mile (99.6/km). The town's racial makeup was 87.98% White, 6.62% Black or African American, 0.41% Native American, 0.89% Asian, 0.08% Pacific Islander, 2.28% from other races, and 1.73% from two or more races.


title: Southampton, New York

text: There were 21,504 households, of which 27.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 50.8% were married couples living together, 9.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 35.8% were non-families. 28.6% of all households were made up of individuals, and 12.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.45 and the average family size was 2.99.


title: Southampton, New York

text: In the town, the population was spread out, with 21.1% under the age of 18, 7.7% from 18 to 24, 28.5% from 25 to 44, 26.0% from 45 to 64, and 16.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females, there were 99.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 97.2 males. The town's median household income was $53,887, and the median family income was $65,144. Males had a median income of $47,167 versus $32,054 for females. The town's per capita income was $31,320. About 5.3% of families and 8.3% of the population were below the poverty line, including 10.2% of those under age 18 and 6.0% of those age 65 or over.


title: Southampton, New York

text: In 2016, according to "Business Insider", the 11962 zip code encompassing Sagaponack, within Southampton, was listed as the most expensive in the U.S., with a median home sale price of $8.5 million.


title: Southampton, New York

text: The town supervisor is Jay Schneiderman, a former Independence Party member, now a registered member of the Democratic Party, who was elected in November 2015 with 56.34% of the vote, and again in November 2017 with 62.3%.


title: Southampton, New York

text: The Long Island Rail Road's sole line in the Town of Southampton is the Montauk Branch, which includes stations in Speonk, Westhampton, Hampton Bays, Southampton and Bridgehampton. Quogue and Southampton Campus also had their own stations until 1998.


title: Southampton, New York

text: The Town of Southampton is served primarily by Suffolk County Transit bus routes, although Hampton Jitney buses are available for trips to and from New York City.


title: Southampton, New York

text: The town of Southampton contains the Francis S. Gabreski Airport north of Westhampton, and East Hampton Airport along the Southampton-East Hampton Town Line. The Southampton Heliport can also be found on the east side of the Shinnecock Inlet.


title: Southampton, New York

text: The sole ferry in the Town of Southampton takes NY 114 drivers across the Shelter Island Sound between North Haven and Shelter Island.


title: Leana Wen

text: Leana Sheryle Wen (; born Wen Linyan; January 27, 1983) is an American physician, an op-ed columnist with "The Washington Post" and a CNN medical analyst. She is a practicing physician, a former Health Commissioner for the City of Baltimore, and author of the books "When Doctors Don't Listen: How to Avoid Misdiagnoses and Unnecessary Tests" and "Lifelines: A Doctor's Journey in the Fight for Public Health". Currently, she is a research professor of Health Policy and Management at the George Washington University, where she is a Distinguished Fellow in the Fitzhugh Mullan Institute for Health Workforce Equity. She is also a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution.


title: Leana Wen

text: Wen previously practiced as an emergency physician at the George Washington University, where she also served as a professor in the School of Medicine & Health Sciences and professor in health policy at the Milken Institute School of Public Health. Prior to this, she was an emergency physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital, where she was on the faculty of Harvard Medical School. She also served as the national president of the American Medical Student Association and the American Academy of Emergency Medicine/Resident and Student Association.


title: Leana Wen

text: From December 2014 until October 2018, Wen served as the health commissioner for Baltimore City under two mayors. She resigned when she was appointed head of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. She was the first physician to serve as the organization's president in nearly 50 years. Wen was asked to step down by Planned Parenthood's board of directors on July 16, 2019.


title: Leana Wen

text: In May 2020, Wen became a contributing columnist for "The Washington Post", focusing on health policy and public health. She writes a weekly column and a weekly newsletter called "The Checkup with Dr. Wen". She has served as a public health communicator during the COVID-19 pandemic and 2022 monkeypox outbreak, appearing frequently on CNN as an on-air medical analyst. Wen was asked to testify four times to Congress during the COVID-19 pandemic, including twice to the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis. Wen's evolving views on the COVID-19 pandemic have garnered support and controversy from both sides of the political spectrum. A Texas man pleaded guilty to threatening her due to her advocacy for COVID-19 vaccines and was sentenced in federal court to six months in prison.


title: Leana Wen

text: Born Wen Linyan () in Shanghai China on January 27, 1983, to Ying Sandy Zhang and Xiaolu Wen, Wen moved with her parents to the U.S. when she was eight, by then having the English name Leana Sheryle Wen. Granted political asylum, the Wen family lived in Compton and East Los Angeles in Southern California. In 2003, Wen and her family became U.S. citizens.


title: Leana Wen

text: Wen's mother, who died of breast cancer in 2010, first worked as a hotel room cleaner and video store clerk before becoming an elementary school teacher. Her father delivered newspapers and was a dishwasher, later serving as technology manager for "The Chinese Daily News" in Los Angeles.


title: Leana Wen

text: Attending the Early Entrance Program (EEP) at California State University, Los Angeles starting at age 13, Wen graduated "summa cum laude" at age 18 with a bachelor's degree in biochemistry, in 2001. She received a Doctor of Medicine from Washington University School of Medicine and has two master's degrees, one in Economic and Social History and another in Modern Chinese Studies, both from the Merton College, Oxford in England where she was a Rhodes Scholar. She also met her future husband, Sebastian Walker, during her time in England.


title: Leana Wen

text: In 2005, Wen took a one-year leave of absence from medical school to serve as the national president of the American Medical Student Association, where she led campaigns to increase healthcare access, decrease health disparities, and combat conflicts of interest between physicians and the pharmaceutical companies who notoriously use attractive sales representatives and free gifts to influence doctors, especially young interns and medical residents. Wen became involved in U.S. and international health policy during medical school, serving in Geneva, Switzerland as a fellow for the World Health Organization and in Rwanda as a fellow for the U.S. Department of Defense. In addition, she advised the U.S. Congress on physician workforce and medical education through her appointment on the Council on Graduate Medical Education by the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services.


title: Leana Wen

text: Following medical school, Wen completed a residency at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) and Massachusetts General Hospital (Mass General) and a clinical fellowship at Harvard Medical School in Boston. She is board certified in emergency medicine. Wen started working in emergency medicine at BWH and Mass General before moving to the ER at the George Washington University (GW) in Washington, DC, where she became a professor in emergency and health policy, and the Director of Patient-Centered Care Research. She served as a consultant to the Brookings Institution and the China Medical Board, and conducted international health systems research including in South Africa, Slovenia, Nigeria, Singapore, and China.


title: Leana Wen

text: As president of Planned Parenthood, Wen worked to expand non-abortion services like maternal health and mental health services and to rebrand Planned Parenthood from its image as an abortion rights advocate to a comprehensive women's health organization that serves women and families. She spoke out about her own experiences as a cervical cancer survivor who struggled with infertility, and about a miscarriage she suffered while in the role. Wen was named one of TIME's 100 Most Influential People in 2019 and referred to by Cynthia Nixon in the magazine as a "fierce visionary" for reproductive rights and health care.


title: Leana Wen

text: In July 2019, Leana Wen was forced out of her job as president of Planned Parenthood. The board gave no reason, but sources cited a dispute over management and organizational philosophy. In a letter to Planned Parenthood affiliates, Wen claimed philosophical differences in the direction of the organization. On July 19, 2019, Wen published an opinion editorial in "The New York Times" which set forth the circumstances underlying her departure from Planned Parenthood. She stated her view that "As one of the few national health care organizations with a presence in all 50 states, Planned Parenthood's mandate should be to promote reproductive health care as part of a wide range of policies that affect women's health and public health."


title: Leana Wen

text: In 2013, St. Martin's Press published her book, "When Doctors Don't Listen: How to Avoid Misdiagnoses and Unnecessary Tests" with coauthor Joshua Kosowsky. It is about how patients can take control of their health to advocate for better care for themselves.


title: Leana Wen

text: Wen wrote a blog, The Doctor is Listening. She was a regular contributor to the Huffington Post and Psychology Today on patient empowerment and healthcare reform. She was also an advisor to the then-newly established Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, and an advisor to the Lown Institute and the Medical Education Futures Study. She was the founder of Who's My Doctor, an international campaign that called for transparency in medicine.


title: Leana Wen

text: Wen is a frequent keynote speaker on healthcare reform, education, and leadership, and has given several TED Talks. Her TED talk on transparency in medicine has been viewed over 1.9 million times.


title: Leana Wen

text: In December 2014, Wen was appointed by Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake to serve as the health commissioner; in December 2016, she was reappointed by Mayor Catherine Pugh. In this role, she oversaw the Baltimore City Health Department, an agency of 1,100 employees and $130 million annual budget with wide-ranging responsibilities, including management of acute communicable diseases, animal control, chronic disease prevention, emergency preparedness, food service inspections, HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, maternal-child health, school health, senior services, and youth violence issues.


title: Leana Wen

text: She directed the city's public health recovery efforts after the 2015 Baltimore riots, including ensuring prescription medication access to seniors after the closure of 13 pharmacies, and developing the Mental Health/Trauma Recovery Plan, with 24-hour crisis counseling, and healing circles and group counseling in schools, community groups, and churches.


title: Leana Wen

text: Following the 2015 Baltimore riots, the Baltimore City Health Department team launched numerous campaigns, including a citywide trauma response plan, youth health and wellness strategy, violence prevention programs, B'Healthy in B'More blog, and B'More Health Talks, a biweekly town hall and podcast series on health disparities.<ref name="Baltimore Sun: Mental Health/Trauma Recovery"></ref>


title: Leana Wen

text: In May 2016, she served as the commencement speaker for the University of Maryland School of Medicine and the Notre Dame of Maryland University, where she was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters. She has also served as commencement speaker at Washington University School of Medicine and at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. In 2017, Wen was named as one of "Modern Healthcare's" 50 Most Influential Physician Executives and Leaders and in 2018 as one of its Top 25 Minority Physician Executives.


title: Leana Wen

text: In March 2018, on behalf of Wen and the Baltimore City Health Department, the City of Baltimore sued the Trump administration for cutting teen pregnancy prevention funds, which resulted in a federal judge ordering the Trump administration to restore $5 million in grant funding to two Baltimore-based teen pregnancy prevention programs. She wrote an opinion editorial criticizing proposed changes to the Title X program which would affect health clinics in Baltimore providing reproductive health care for low income women. This court decision was later reversed by the 9th Circuit court, enabling the Trump administration to withhold Title X funding for abortion.


title: Leana Wen

text: Wen has led implementation of the Baltimore opioid overdose prevention and response plan, which includes a blanket prescription for the opioid antidote, naloxone; "hotspotting" and street outreach teams to target individuals most at risk; training family/friends on naloxone use; and launching a new public education campaign. Wen testified to the U.S. Senate HELP Committee and U.S. House Oversight Committee on Baltimore's overdose prevention efforts. She led a group of state and city health officials to petition the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on adding black box warnings to opioids and benzodiazepines. In March 2016, she was invited by the White House to join President Barack Obama and CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta on a panel discussion, where she spoke about Baltimore's response. She convened doctors and public health leaders to sign the Baltimore Statement on the Importance of Childhood Vaccinations and to successfully advocate to ban the sale of powdered alcohol in Maryland and synthetic drugs in Baltimore.


title: Leana Wen

text: Congressman Elijah Cummings cited Wen's efforts to combat the opioid epidemic in Baltimore and sought her help in creating national legislation to change how the United States fights it.


title: Leana Wen

text: In 2018, the National Association of County and City Health Officials awarded the Baltimore City Health Department the Local Health Department of the Year.


title: Leana Wen

text: Wen was appointed to the position of President of Planned Parenthood Federation of America on September 18, 2018. She was the first medical doctor to serve in the role in nearly 50 years and was the first woman doctor to do so ever. In an interview with Elle magazine, Wen described her excitement to be at the helm of the organization where both she and her mother had received significant medical care many years prior. Wen envisioned a new direction for discourse surrounding Planned Parenthood, endeavoring to frame abortion access as an issue of healthcare rather than politics. She also wanted to expand the services provided by Planned Parenthood clinics to include treatment for medical concerns unrelated to reproduction, especially treatment for opioid addiction and easy access to Naloxone (in keeping with her former work as Health Commissioner in Baltimore). In an op-ed for the New York Times after her departure from the organization, she described her initial goal as "finding common ground with the large majority of Americans who can unite behind the goal of improving the health and well-being of women and children." Wen's appointment and proposed strategic plan received mixed reviews, with commentators on both sides of the political spectrum both praising her novel approach and criticizing it as "backing away from the fight [for abortion access]."