title: Techno-thriller

text: The genre dates back to as early as the 20th century and a lot of techno-thrillers are comparable to science-fiction and many of the subcategories within science-fiction. The popularity of the genre had evolved significantly and it continues to be a growing genre that is still publicly experimented on and thriving today.


title: Techno-thriller

text: One of the earliest techno-thrillers is thought to be "The Satan Bug" (1962) by Alistair MacLean, while a lot of what counted for science fiction in the pre-war and early post-war Soviet Union were essentially techno-thrillers, full of technical details and featuring complex spy-rich plots, one of the most enduring example being the Grigory Adamov's "The Mystery of the Two Oceans" (1939). Michael Crichton and Tom Clancy are considered to be the fathers of the "modern techno-thriller"; Crichton's book "The Andromeda Strain" and Clancy's book "The Hunt for Red October" set out the type example which defined the genre, although many authors had been writing similar material earlier, such as Craig Thomas, whom BBC News also credits as an early innovator.


title: Techno-thriller

text: Techno-thrillers focus strongly on details, especially on the technology, which is frequently of military origin. Techno-thrillers tend to have a broad scope in the narrative, and can often be regarded as contemporary speculative fiction; world wars are a common topic. Techno-thrillers often overlap, as far as the genre goes, with near-future science fiction, military fiction, and espionage fiction. To the extent that technology is now a dominant aspect of modern global culture, most modern thrillers are "techno-thrillers" in broad sense, and the genre is somewhat diffuse. Techno-thrillers blur smoothly into the category of hard science fiction; the defining characteristics of techno-thriller are an emphasis on real-world or plausible near-future technology. There is often a focus on military or military-political action. Techno-thrillers also overlap with conspiracy fiction and apocalyptic fiction. While techno-thrillers borrow concepts and ideas from other forms and styles of other genres, notably science-fiction and its subcategories, it is a fresh and still developing style with it being more of a hybrid genre, more closely related to thrillers and technology. Since technology is always changing, that brings a fresh take on techno thrillers with advancement always on the scope.


title: Techno-thriller

text: Techno-thrillers have at least five varieties within the genre. These are military techno-thrillers, spy techno-thrillers, crypto-techno-thrillers, disaster techno-thrillers, and science-fiction techno-thrillers.


title: Smoky Mountain Wrestling

text: Smoky Mountain Wrestling was a professional wrestling promotion that held events in the Appalachian area of the United States from October 1991 to December 1995, when it was run by Jim Cornette. The promotion was based in Knoxville, Tennessee, with offices in Morristown, Tennessee.


title: Smoky Mountain Wrestling

text: Cornette formed the promotion in October 1991 upon leaving World Championship Wrestling, with Sandy Scott and backed financially by music producer Rick Rubin. The first events and TV tapings were held in October and November 1991. Matches from these shows were first shown in February 1992. The first Smoky Mountain Heavyweight Champion, "Primetime" Brian Lee, won the championship in a tournament held at Volunteer Slam on May 22, 1992, in Knoxville, Tennessee. The first Smoky Mountain Tag Team Champions were crowned in a tournament final at a TV taping on April 23, 1992, in Harrogate, Tennessee, when The Heavenly Bodies defeated The Fantastics; the match would air on May 9, 1992.


title: Smoky Mountain Wrestling

text: Cornette had initially envisioned a territory reaching from Kentucky into as far as South Carolina and Georgia. Though they did eventually run events over that large of a region, including a few shows at the Cobb County Civic Center in Marietta, Georgia, the promotion's biggest towns included Knoxville, Tennessee, and Johnson City, Tennessee. SMW event tours also included high school gyms and fairs in cities throughout Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia, and North Carolina.


title: Smoky Mountain Wrestling

text: In 1993, Smoky Mountain Wrestling signed deals with World Championship Wrestling and the World Wrestling Federation to showcase their wrestlers on the larger companies' shows. This led to The Rock 'n' Roll Express wrestling The Heavenly Bodies (Tom Prichard and Stan Lane) at SuperBrawl III in February 1993. The Heavenly Bodies (Prichard and Jimmy Del Ray) then faced The Steiner Brothers for the WWF Tag Team Championship at SummerSlam 1993, and then defeating The Rock 'n' Roll Express at Survivor Series 1993 for the SMW Tag Team Championship.


title: Smoky Mountain Wrestling

text: The promotion featured a number of wrestlers who were regulars in the Southeastern wrestling scene the Heavenly Bodies, Stan Lane and Tom Prichard and later Prichard and Jimmy Del Ray. The Heavenly Bodies, managed by Jim Cornette, were featured heavily throughout the years as they worked storyline feuds with The Rock 'n' Roll Express, The Fantastics and The Armstrong Family (especially Bob Armstrong) SMW also featured a number of younger wrestlers who had not yet made their mark on a national stage, including Bob Holly, New Jack, Al Snow, Balls Mahoney, Chris Jericho, Glenn Jacobs (then known as Unabomb, later better known under the ring name Kane), Lance Storm, Chris Candido, Tammy Lynn Sytch, Brian Girard James (B.G. James / Road Dogg) and D'Lo Brown, but ultimately, like most independents, was not financially successful. Cornette eventually signed a working agreement with the World Wrestling Federation to trade talent, manage and serve as an on-air talent for that company.


title: Smoky Mountain Wrestling

text: Brian Hildebrand was a Smoky Mountain mainstay, occupying such myriad roles as Head of Merchandise, referee (under his alter ego Mark Curtis) and sound director.


title: Smoky Mountain Wrestling

text: Cornette, a traditionalist, catered to fans that Mick Foley described as ""old-time fans...who still believed in good guys and bad guys, and to whom cheating was still reason to get upset."" Bob Caudle, who was the play-by-play announcer on the TV program, would also proclaim at the beginning of each show that Smoky Mountain Wrestling was ""professional wrestling the way it used to be, and the way you like it."" This was in sharp contrast to ECW, in which edgy angles, "tweeners" and anti-heroes increasingly took precedence over clearcut heroes and villains. Smoky Mountain was, however, the birthplace of the controversial "Gangstas" gimmick, where black wrestlers New Jack and Mustafa would cut promos about activist Medgar Evers, while also using fried chicken and watermelon as props. The gimmick, among other things, led to the end of the friendship between Cornette and Mark Madden and their ongoing feud to this day, as Madden--who at the time was coming off the heels of getting Bill Watts fired from WCW after informing Hank Aaron of Watts' employment within the Turner Broadcasting System following publications of controversial comments made by Watts--had called the Gangstas gimmick racist.


title: Smoky Mountain Wrestling

text: The promotion had a brief association with the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), whose flagship promotion Eastern Championship Wrestling had split away in August 1994, leaving the NWA with no World Heavyweight Champion. A 10-man tournament was held in Cherry Hill, New Jersey in November, featuring many SMW wrestlers; the participants were Tracy Smothers, Devon Storm, Eddie Gilbert, Johnny Gunn, Chris Candido, Al Snow, Dirty White Boy, Jerry Lawler, Lou Perez, and Osamu Nishimura. The winner was Chris Candido, who defended his title mostly at SMW events. In February 1995, however, Candido lost the belt to Ultimate Fighting Championship winner Dan Severn, who as a freelancer decided to become a traveling World Champion, depriving SMW of a basis for World Heavyweight championship matches. However in April 1995, The Rock 'n' Roll Express won the NWA World Tag Team Championship for the fifth time, giving SMW a handful of World Tag Team championship matches.


title: Smoky Mountain Wrestling

text: Though the promotion was highly thought of, it struggled to get a profitable television deal, and operated throughout a wrestling recession that would not end until the second half of 1996. After years of operating in red ink, and the loss of financial backing from Rubin, Cornette shut the promotion down in December 1995 to work full-time with the WWF. The last SMW show was held on November 26, 1995 in Cookeville, Tennessee (though it had been announced on SMW TV's November 25, 1995 episode that upcoming shows were to be held at the Collett Street Rec Center in Morganton, North Carolina on December 1, 1995, and at Cloudland High School in Roan Mountain, Tennessee the following night), and featured the entire SMW roster attacking Jim Cornette, who was then pinned by referee Mark Curtis. Several SMW wrestlers would soon obtain work in the WWF, including Tracy Smothers, The Dirty White Boy, and Boo Bradley. WWE now owns the SMW video library.


title: Smoky Mountain Wrestling

text: Both "Curtis Comes Home" and the 2005 sequel show, held in memory of SMW head referee Mark Curtis are considered "unofficial" reunion shows.


title: Smoky Mountain Wrestling

text: Smoky Mountain Wrestling held a variety of professional wrestling tournaments between 1992 and 1995 that were competed for by wrestlers that were a part of their roster.


title: Smoky Mountain Wrestling

text: The SMW Tag Team Championship Tournament was a tournament to crown the first-ever SMW Tag Team Champions. It was held between March 12 and April 23, 1992; the finals of the tournament was originally scheduled for Volunteer Slam on May 22 in Knoxville, but the teams that made the finals, The Fantastics and The Heavenly Bodies, decided to have the tournament final on the April 23, 1992 TV taping, which aired on May 9.


title: Smoky Mountain Wrestling

text: The King of Kentucky Tournament was a one-night single elimination tournament held in Hazard, Kentucky on June 24, 1993.


title: Smoky Mountain Wrestling

text: The NWA World Heavyweight Championship Tournament was a one-night single elimination tournament held in Cherry Hill, New Jersey on November 19, 1994, to decide a new NWA World Heavyweight Champion. The previous champion Shane Douglas had infamously "threw down" the NWA title in favor of the ECW World Heavyweight Championship after defeating 2 Cold Scorpio at the NWA World Title Tournament three months earlier.


title: Smoky Mountain Wrestling

text: The Carolina Cup Tag Team Tournament was a one-night single elimination tournament held at the Grady Cole Center on August 13, 1995.


title: Smoky Mountain Wrestling

text: † After SMW closed, Brad Armstrong declared himself SMW champion and defended the SMW Heavyweight Championship in the United States Wrestling Association. He eventually lost the belt to Jerry Lawler on December 30, 1995.


title: V16 engine

text: A V16 engine is a sixteen-cylinder piston engine where two banks of eight cylinders are arranged in a V configuration around a common crankshaft. V16 engines are less common than engines with fewer cylinders, such as V8 and V12 engines. Each bank of a V16 engine can be thought of as a straight-8, a design that can be inherently balanced. Most V16 engines have a 45° bank angle.


title: V16 engine

text: The first use of a V16 engine was in the 1910 Antoinette VII experimental aircraft, followed by several cars in the 1930s. Today, the most common applications for V16 engines are railroad locomotives, marine craft, and stationary power generators.


title: V16 engine

text: The first production car to use a V16 engine was the Cadillac V-16, introduced in January 1930. The Cadillac V16 engine was initially produced with a displacement of , OHV and a V-angle of 45 degrees. For the 1938 Series 90, the engine was revised to a displacement of , a flathead valvetrain and a V-angle of 135 degrees (the latter in order to achieve a lower cowl height). This 431 cu. in. version produced as much power as its immediate predecessor while being far less complex, had a stiffer crankshaft that aided durability and smoothness, and even had an external oil filter, a rarity for any car at any price in those days.


title: V16 engine

text: The Marmon Motor Car Company actually began development of a V16 engine in 1927 (earlier than Cadillac). Its development program took longer, however, and the "Marmon Sixteen" was released in 1931. This engine had a V-angle of 45 degrees, used pressed steel cylinder liners and was constructed mostly of aluminium. Only 400 Marmon Sixteens were produced between 1931 and 1933.


title: V16 engine

text: In 1991, the Cizeta-Moroder V16T began production, featuring a 16-cylinder engine in a unique configuration. Rather than a conventional V16 layout, the engine was actually two separate transversely mounted V8 engines with gearing between the two providing a single output from the centre of the engine assembly to the transmission. Only a few cars were produced before the company ceased operations.


title: V16 engine

text: The Peerless Motor Company developed a V16 engine in the early 1930s, yet just a single prototype was built before all automobile production ceased and the company converted its factory into a brewery following the end of Prohibition in the United States.


title: V16 engine

text: In the late 1980s, the BMW Goldfish V16 engine was developed, based on BMW's then-new V12 engine. Prototypes were fitted to a long-wheelbase 7 Series and then in the early 1990s to a Bentley Mulsanne. At around the same time, Mercedes-Benz developed a V16 engine for the S-class limousine. Between 1988 and 1990, approximately 35 prototypes were built.


title: V16 engine

text: The 2003 Cadillac Sixteen concept car was unveiled with a V16 engine, which was based on the General Motors LS V8 engines. The following year, the Rolls-Royce 100EX concept car was unveiled with a V16 engine. The car featured in the film "Johnny English Reborn" is powered by this V16 engine.


title: V16 engine

text: The first known use of a V16 in motor racing was the "Maserati Tipo V4" car used in Grand Prix racing. The Tipo V4 debuted at Monza in 1929 and achieved a world speed record of at an event in Cremona, Italy.


title: V16 engine

text: At the 1931 Indianapolis 500, a custom-built V16 engine was fitted to a Cord "supercar" driven by Shorty Cantlon. The car was competitive, charging from 26th on the grid to 3rd, but was slowed by unreliability, further exacerbated by having to change all sixteen spark plugs. The following year, Bryan Saulpaugh qualified the car in third position. The car suffered a broken oil line on lap 55 and their race was over. Shortly after the race the V16 was removed and replaced with a conventional Miller four-cylinder engine.


title: V16 engine

text: The mid-engined Auto Union "Type A", "Type B" and "Type C" Grand Prix cars of 1933 to 1938 were powered by supercharged engines. Due to a rule change in 1938, these were replaced by a V12 engine for the "Type D" racing car. Prior to this rule change, the Alfa Romeo Tipo 316 competed at the 1938 Tripoli Grand Prix powered by a 60-degree V16 engine.


title: V16 engine

text: The only known use of a V16 engine in the post-World War II era is the British Racing Motors (BRM) V16 engine used in Formula One racing from 1950 to 1955. The engine was a supercharged design, which was unsuccessful despite its high power output. Officially, it produced but probably delivered around . The car was difficult to drive, due to the power band being in a narrow range and at high RPM.


title: V16 engine

text: The V16 configuration is also used in several large displacement diesel engines that are used as marine engines or in rail locomotives. This is due to manufacturers often designing an engine around a fixed displacement per cylinder, then adding additional cylinders to the design until the required power output is achieved. For example, the Electro-Motive Diesel 710 engine range uses a displacement of per cylinder, with the 16 cylinder version (called the "EMD 16-710") producing over .


title: V16 engine

text: GE Transportation Systems produces the "7FD Series" four-stroke engines (used in marine, locomotive, and stationary applications), which have a displacement of per cylinder and can produce over . GE also manufactures the GEVO-16, which produces over .


title: V16 engine

text: In the UK from 1947 onwards, the English Electric company's subsidiary English Electric diesel engines developed a V16 engine for rail and marine use based on its 10" bore x 12" stroke (254mm x 305mm) K series from the 1930s, notably used in British Railways class 40 and 50 locomotives with power output in the range 2000-3000 hp (1492-2238 kW) at speeds ranging from 600 to 900 rpm. This engine too derives from a series based on a fixed cylinder size of 942 cu.in. (15.4 L) per cylinder, giving the V16 a total capacity of 15,072 cu.in. (246 L).


title: V16 engine

text: Another notable maker to offer the V16 configuration was Detroit Diesel corporation, especially in their 71, 92 and 149 series 2-stroke diesel engines, with output ranging from around 650 to over 2400 bhp (485-1790 kW) at speeds over 2000 rpm in the smaller ranges. Once again these engines were based on common parts (the numeric designation is the cylinder size in cubic inches) and were used for maritime, generator and off-road mine truck applications. The modular nature of the engines meant that the V16 configuration was built by putting together 2 V8 engine blocks and the 2-stroke cycle offered excellent power to weight, with the 16V149 being capable of equalling the output of much larger, slower-running 4-stroke engines.


title: V16 engine

text: Fairbanks Morse manufactures the following V16 diesel engines, FM | ALCO 251F, FM | COLT-PIELSTICK PA6B STC, FM | COLT-PIELSTICK PC2.5 STC, FM | MAN 28/33D STC, FM | MAN 32/44CR, FM | MAN 48/60 CR and the FM | MAN 175D.


title: V16 engine

text: The 1910 version of the Antoinette VII was powered by a V16 engine and competed in the 1910 Gordon Bennett Cup in the United States.


title: Hair of the Dog (album)

text: Hair of the Dog is the sixth studio album by the Scottish hard rock band Nazareth, released on 3 April 1975. The album was recorded at Escape Studios, Kent, with additional recording and mixing at AIR Studios, London, and is the group’s best known and highest selling release, with over two million copies sold worldwide.


title: Hair of the Dog (album)

text: After three albums with Deep Purple's Roger Glover producing, Manny Charlton stepped into that position, one he filled for several subsequent albums.


title: Hair of the Dog (album)

text: "Hair of The Dog" was Nazareth's first big hit album (aside from the minor success of "Razamanaz"), including classics such as the title track, a version of The Everly Brothers' "Love Hurts" (on the US version, but not the Canadian/European, it replaced the original "Guilty"), "Beggars Day" and "Please Don't Judas Me".


title: Hair of the Dog (album)

text: According to Nazareth frontman Dan McCafferty, the track on "Hair of the Dog" in which a dishonest young woman finally meets her match provided the original album title with its recognizable chorus of “now you’re messing with a… a son of a bitch!” (an “heir of the dog”). Nazareth’s record label wasn’t about to let them name the project "Son of a Bitch". Thus, "Hair of the Dog" was selected as a compromise, putting the finishing touches on a career-defining release.


title: Hair of the Dog (album)

text: The album title is often considered to be a shortened form of the phrase describing a folk hangover cure, “"the hair of the dog that bit you"”.


title: Hair of the Dog (album)

text: The album was first reissued on CD in the USA in 1984; the disc was manufactured in Japan with the inserts printed in Japan. There are also remastered editions released since 1997 with different sets of bonus tracks. The name of the creature on the album cover is unknown.


title: Hair of the Dog (album)

text: The remastered editions include both "Guilty" (track 3) and "Love Hurts" (track 8) plus the following bonus tracks:


title: Dal makhani

text: Dal makhani (pronounced [daːl ) is a dish originating in New Delhi, India. A relatively modern variation of traditional lentil dishes, it is made with "urad dal" (black beans) and other pulses, and includes butter and cream ("makhan" is Hindi for butter).


title: Dal makhani

text: Kundan Lal Jaggi and Kundan Lal Gujral, both Punjabi Hindu migrants from Peshawar, had already invented butter chicken and were looking to create a vegetarian dish that would complement it. A regular diner at Moti Mahal, the restaurant that Jaggi ran in Daryaganj in Delhi, suggested that something exciting could be created out of "urad dal" commonly used in traditional dishes, leading to the invention of "dal makhani".


title: Bark (botany)

text: Bark is the outermost layers of stems and roots of woody plants. Plants with bark include trees, woody vines, and shrubs. Bark refers to all the tissues outside the vascular cambium and is a nontechnical term. It overlays the wood and consists of the inner bark and the outer bark. The inner bark, which in older stems is living tissue, includes the innermost layer of the periderm. The outer bark on older stems includes the dead tissue on the surface of the stems, along with parts of the outermost periderm and all the tissues on the outer side of the periderm. The outer bark on trees which lies external to the living periderm is also called the rhytidome.


title: Bark (botany)

text: Products derived from bark include bark shingle siding and wall coverings, spices and other flavorings, tanbark for tannin, resin, latex, medicines, poisons, various hallucinogenic chemicals and cork. Bark has been used to make cloth, canoes, and ropes and used as a surface for paintings and map making. A number of plants are also grown for their attractive or interesting bark colorations and surface textures or their bark is used as landscape mulch.


title: Bark (botany)

text: The process of removing bark is decortication and a log or trunk from which bark has been removed is said to be decorticated.


title: Bark (botany)

text: In young stems, which lack what is commonly called bark, the tissues are, from the outside to the inside:


title: Bark (botany)

text: Cork cell walls contain suberin, a waxy substance which protects the stem against water loss, the invasion of insects into the stem, and prevents infections by bacteria and fungal spores. The cambium tissues, i.e., the cork cambium and the vascular cambium, are the only parts of a woody stem where cell division occurs; undifferentiated cells in the vascular cambium divide rapidly to produce secondary xylem to the inside and secondary phloem to the outside. Phloem is a nutrient-conducting tissue composed of sieve tubes or sieve cells mixed with parenchyma and fibers. The cortex is the primary tissue of stems and roots. In stems the cortex is between the epidermis layer and the phloem, in roots the inner layer is not phloem but the pericycle.


title: Bark (botany)

text: As the stem ages and grows, changes occur that transform the surface of the stem into the bark. The epidermis is a layer of cells that cover the plant body, including the stems, leaves, flowers and fruits, that protects the plant from the outside world. In old stems the epidermal layer, cortex, and primary phloem become separated from the inner tissues by thicker formations of cork. Due to the thickening cork layer these cells die because they do not receive water and nutrients. This dead layer is the rough corky bark that forms around tree trunks and other stems.


title: Bark (botany)

text: Cork, sometimes confused with bark in colloquial speech, is the outermost layer of a woody stem, derived from the cork cambium. It serves as protection against damage from parasites, herbivorous animals and diseases, as well as dehydration and fire.


title: Bark (botany)

text: Often a secondary covering called the periderm forms on small woody stems and many non-woody plants, which is composed of cork (phellem), the cork cambium (phellogen), and the phelloderm. The periderm forms from the phellogen which serves as a lateral meristem. The periderm replaces the epidermis, and acts as a protective covering like the epidermis. Mature phellem cells have suberin in their walls to protect the stem from desiccation and pathogen attack. Older phellem cells are dead, as is the case with woody stems. The skin on the potato tuber (which is an underground stem) constitutes the cork of the periderm.


title: Bark (botany)

text: In woody plants, the epidermis of newly grown stems is replaced by the periderm later in the year. As the stems grow a layer of cells form under the epidermis, called the cork cambium, these cells produce cork cells that turn into cork. A limited number of cell layers may form interior to the cork cambium, called the phelloderm.


title: Bark (botany)

text: As the stem grows, the cork cambium produces new layers of cork which are impermeable to gases and water and the cells outside the periderm, namely the epidermis, cortex and older secondary phloem die.


title: Bark (botany)

text: Within the periderm are lenticels, which form during the production of the first periderm layer. Since there are living cells within the cambium layers that need to exchange gases during metabolism, these lenticels, because they have numerous intercellular spaces, allow gaseous exchange with the outside atmosphere. As the bark develops, new lenticels are formed within the cracks of the cork layers.


title: Bark (botany)

text: The rhytidome is the most familiar part of bark, being the outer layer that covers the trunks of trees. It is composed mostly of dead cells and is produced by the formation of multiple layers of suberized periderm, cortical and phloem tissue. The rhytidome is especially well developed in older stems and roots of trees. In shrubs, older bark is quickly exfoliated and thick rhytidome accumulates. It is generally thickest and most distinctive at the trunk or bole (the area from the ground to where the main branching starts) of the tree.


title: Bark (botany)

text: Bark tissues make up by weight between 10 and 20% of woody vascular plants and consists of various biopolymers, tannins, lignin, suberin and polysaccharides. Up to 40% of the bark tissue is made of lignin, which forms an important part of a plant, providing structural support by crosslinking between different polysaccharides, such as cellulose.


title: Bark (botany)

text: Condensed tannin, which is in fairly high concentration in bark tissue, is thought to inhibit decomposition. It could be due to this factor that the degradation of lignin is far less pronounced in bark tissue than it is in wood.


title: Bark (botany)

text: It has been proposed that, in the cork layer (the phellogen), suberin acts as a barrier to microbial degradation and so protects the internal structure of the plant.


title: Bark (botany)

text: Analysis of the lignin in bark wall during decay by the white-rot fungi "Lentinula edodes" (Shiitake mushroom) using C NMR revealed that the lignin polymers contained more Guaiacyl lignin units than Syringyl units compared to the interior of the plant. Guaiacyl units are less susceptible to degradation as, compared to syringyl, they contain fewer aryl-aryl bonds, can form a condensed lignin structure and have a lower redox potential. This could mean that the concentration and type of lignin units could provide additional resistance to fungal decay for plants protected by bark.


title: Bark (botany)

text: Bark can sustain damage from environmental factors, such as frost crack and sun scald, as well as biological factors, such as woodpecker and boring beetle attack. Male deer and other male members of the Cervidae cause extensive bark damage during the rutting season by rubbing their antlers against the tree to remove their velvet.


title: Bark (botany)

text: Bark is often damaged by being bound to stakes or wrapped with wires. In the past, this damage was called bark-galling, and was treated by applying clay laid on the galled place and binding up with hay. In modern usage, "galling" most typically refers to a type of abnormal growth on a plant caused by insects or pathogens.


title: Bark (botany)

text: Bark damage can have a number of detrimental effects on the plant. Bark serves as a physical barrier to disease pressure, especially from fungi, so its removal makes the plant more susceptible to disease. Damage or destruction of the phloem impedes the transport of photosynthetic products throughout the plant; in extreme cases, when a band of phloem all the way around the stem is removed, the plant will usually quickly die. Bark damage in horticultural applications, as in gardening and public landscaping, results in often unwanted aesthetic damage.


title: Bark (botany)

text: The degree to which woody plants are able to repair gross physical damage to their bark is quite variable across species and type of damage. Some are able to produce a callus growth which heals over the wound rapidly, but leaves a clear scar, whilst others such as oaks do not produce an extensive callus repair. Sap is sometimes produced to seal the damaged area against disease and insect intrusion.


title: Bark (botany)

text: A number of living organisms live in or on bark, including insects, fungi and other plants like mosses, algae and other vascular plants. Many of these organisms are pathogens or parasites but some also have symbiotic relationships.


title: Bark (botany)

text: The inner bark (phloem) of some trees is edible. In hunter-gatherer societies and in times of famine, it is harvested and used as a food source. In Scandinavia, bark bread is made from rye to which the toasted and ground innermost layer of bark of scots pine or birch is added. The Sami people of far northern Europe use large sheets of "Pinus sylvestris" bark that are removed in the spring, prepared and stored for use as a staple food resource. The inner bark is eaten fresh, dried or roasted.


title: Bark (botany)

text: Bark can be used as a construction material, and was used widel in pre-industrial societies. Some barks, particularly Birch bark, can be removed in long sheets and other mechanically cohesive structures, allowing the bark to be used in the construction of canoes, as the drainage layer in roofs, for shoes, backpacks, and other useful items.


title: Bark (botany)

text: In the cork oak ("Quercus suber") the bark is thick enough to be harvested as a cork product without killing the tree; in this species the bark may get very thick (e.g. more than 20 cm has been reported).


title: Bark (botany)

text: Some s have significantly different phytochemical content from other parts. Some of these phytochemicals have pesticidal, culinary, or medicinally and culturally important ethnopharmacological properties.


title: Bark (botany)

text: Bark contains strong fibres known as bast, and there is a long tradition in northern Europe of using bark from coppiced young branches of the small-leaved lime ("Tilia cordata") to produce cordage and rope, used for example in the rigging of Viking Age longships.


title: Bark (botany)

text: Among the commercial products made from bark are cork, cinnamon, quinine (from the bark of Cinchona) and aspirin (from the bark of willow trees). The bark of some trees, notably oak ("Quercus robur") is a source of tannic acid, which is used in tanning. Bark chips generated as a by-product of lumber production are often used in bark mulch. Bark is important to the horticultural industry since in shredded form it is used for plants that do not thrive in ordinary soil, such as epiphytes.


title: Bark (botany)

text: Wood bark contains lignin which when pyrolyzed yields a liquid bio-oil product rich in natural phenol derivatives. These are used as a replacement for fossil-based phenols in phenol-formaldehyde (PF) resins used in Oriented Strand Board (OSB) and plywood.


title: Owney Madden

text: Owen Vincent "Owney" Madden (December 18, 1891 – April 24, 1965) was a British-born gangster of Irish ancestry who became a leading underworld figure in New York during Prohibition. Nicknamed "The Killer", he garnered a brutal reputation within street gangs and organized crime. He ran the Cotton Club in Manhattan and was a leading boxing promoter. After increased harassment from law enforcement in New York, Madden moved to Hot Springs, Arkansas, in 1935, where he remained until his death from natural causes in 1965.


title: Owney Madden

text: Owen Vincent Madden was born into a working-class family at 25 Somerset Road in Leeds, England, on December 18, 1891, the son of Irish immigrants Francis Madden and Mary Madden (née O'Neil.) After his mother became a widow she emigrated to New York to become a maid, leaving Owen and his sister Mary and brother Martin in a British orphanage. In 1896, Owen's mother saved up enough money to take them out of the orphanage and get them tickets to join her in New York City.


title: Owney Madden

text: The young Madden grew up on the streets New York where he learned how to use blackjacks, knuckledusters, bats, pipes, knives, and stilettoes. By the age of 21 years old, Madden had become the leader of a feared New York street gang known as the Gopher Gang. He earned the nickname, "The Killer" for getting away with two brazen murders. On September 6, 1911, he shot dead a gang member of the rival Hudson Dusters in the heart of Dusters' territory around 30th Street. In February 1912, Madden was on a crowded street trolley, arguing with a store clerk named William Henshaw about a woman, and Madden shot Henshaw in the face. Henshaw was not a gang member, and as he was dying, he named Owney Madden as his killer. Despite the police having his name, and there being eyewitnesses to the crime, Madden never went to trial—witnesses in both killings were intimidated, and disappeared.


title: Owney Madden

text: In 1915, he eventually went to prison for ordering the killing of William “Little Patsy Doyle” Moore, who had been waging a three-year vendetta campaign against Madden and the Gopher Gang.


title: Owney Madden

text: After serving seven years of a 10-to-20-year sentence for Moore's manslaughter, Madden was released on parole in 1923. The Gopher Gang had broken up, and many members of his own faction were either in Sing Sing or working for bootlegging gangs.


title: Owney Madden

text: During this time, Madden employed a young friend as a personal driver. The driver, George Raft, later became a film star noted for his authentic portrayals of gangland figures.


title: Owney Madden

text: Madden purchased the Club Deluxe from former heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson and reopened it a year later. Nightclub patrons flooded into Harlem from downtown Manhattan to catch performers such as Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Lena Horne, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, and the Nicholas Brothers.


title: Owney Madden

text: Madden and his partners, Big Bill and George Jean "Big Frenchy" DeMange, also muscled their way into a piece of the exclusive Stork Club, where the influential gossip columnist Walter Winchell held court and everyone who was anyone wanted to see and be seen. As a celebrity with ownership in more than twenty night clubs, Madden became well-known and glamorized for his Prohibition-era activities. He also gained recognition for his revenge tactics and payoffs of City Hall.


title: Owney Madden

text: In 1932, Madden was involved in the murder of Vincent "Mad Dog" Coll, who had been extorting money from several mobsters, including DeMange and Madden. After being arrested for a parole violation that same year, Madden began facing greater harassment from police and encroachment on his territory by Italian-American Mafia families, until he finally left New York in 1935.


title: Owney Madden

text: Leaving behind racketeering, Madden settled in Hot Springs, Arkansas, which had become known as a haven for various criminals, with a corrupt city government and police force. He also became involved in local criminal activities, especially illegal gambling. The Southern Club became a popular nightspot for mobsters; Charles "Lucky" Luciano was apprehended there in 1936. Madden became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1943 and eventually married the daughter of the city postmaster. He lived in Hot Springs until his death in 1965.


title: Arbalest

text: The arbalest (also arblast) was a late variation of the crossbow coming into use in Europe during the 12th century. A large weapon, the arbalest had a steel prod (the "bow" portion of the weapon). Since the arbalest was much larger than earlier crossbows, and because of the greater tensile strength of steel, it had a greater force. However, the greater draw weight was offset by the smaller which limited its potential in fully transferring the energy into the crossbow bolt. The strongest windlass-pulled arbalests could have up to of force and be accurate up to . A skilled arbalestier (arbalester) could loose two bolts per minute.


title: Arbalest

text: The term "arbalest" is sometimes used interchangeably with "crossbow". "Arbalest" is a Medieval French word originating from the Roman name ' (from ' 'bow' + ' 'missile-throwing engine'), which was then used for crossbows, although originally used for types of artillery. Modern French uses the word ', which is linguistically one step further from the stem (disappearance of the "s" phoneme in the last syllable, before the "t").


title: Arbalest

text: The word applies to both crossbow and arbalest (the latter may be referred to as a "heavy crossbow", but an actual heavy crossbow may not be the same as an arbalest). In some cases, the word has been used to refer to arbalists, the people who actually used the weapon.


title: Dheena

text: Dheena is a 2001 Indian Tamil-language action film written and directed by then-debutante A. R. Murugadoss, starring Ajith Kumar, Suresh Gopi, in his Tamil debut, and Laila. The music and background score is composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja and cinematography by K. Aravind. It was released on 14 January 2001. The film was remade in Bengali as "Deva" (2002) and in Kannada as "Dhumm" (2002). The movie received positive reviews and became a commercial success at the box office.


title: Dheena

text: The film starts with the police arresting Aadhikesavan's men as suspects for burning Minister Malarvannan's liquor shop. Aadhi sends Dheenadhayalan aka Dheena, his adopted brother, to attack the false witnesses in this case and bail them out. This leads to further conflicts between Adhi, Dheena and Malarvannan and Dheena ends up chopping off Malarvannan's hand.


title: Dheena

text: Meanwhile, Dheena falls in love with a girl named Chitra. After a little bit of pursuing and getting to know one another, they fall in love, and when Chitra learns that Dheena is involved in rowdyism, she stands by her decision to be with him because of Dheena's essential good character. Meanwhile, Dheena learns that Ashok has teased his sister Shanthi and thrashes him. A little later, he finds that Ashok has again given a love letter to Shanthi and beats him up, but learns that he is Chitra's brother. Chitra tells that Shanthi is also in love with Ashok. Dheena realises this misunderstanding and agrees to help them get married. Finding difficulties in obtaining Aadhi's permission, Shanthi elopes with Ashok and gets critically injured in an accident. In the hospital, Shanthi asks for Dheena's promise to protect Ashok's family from Aadhi before she succumbs to her injuries.


title: Dheena

text: Aadhi, enraged by his sister's death, orders Dheena to kill the family of Ashok. But Dheena refuses and tells that Shanthi was also in love with him. Aadhi refuses to believe this and misunderstands the reason for Dheena's refusal to obey him is since he loves the boy's sister Chitra. Aadhi swears that he will kill everyone responsible for this including Dheena and the brothers become sworn enemies. Dheena moves to Chitra's flat to protect her family, but Ashok is intimidated and does not believe his intentions. Aadhi kills one of Ashok's friend and lands in jail. But Dheena continues to protect the family at various instances from Aadhi's men, and they all understand Dheena's good intentions.


title: Dheena

text: Aadhi gets released and orders his men to kill Dheena and Chitra's family. The MLA Malarvannan finds about the brothers' enmity and tries to join hands with Aadhi to get his revenge on Dheena, but Aadhi refuses to get him involved. Malarvannan, however, is determined to get his revenge on Dheena and sends his henchmen under the guise that they all belong to Aadhi's group. Dheena finds out about this and fights them off, but Malarvannan's men stab Chitra. Meanwhile, Aadhi learns about Shanthi's love for Ashok from some of her friends and realises his mistake and joins forces with Dheena once again and fights off Malarvannan and his men. Knowing that Malarvannan was responsible for this, Aadhi tries to kill him, but Dheena stops him and tells that if he kills him, someone will avenge and this chain could continue and asks him to stop the violence. Chitra recovers from her injuries and finds that Aadhi has accepted their family. Aadhi finally declares Dheena to be his brother hereafter and they are all united.


title: Dheena

text: The film's director AR Murugadoss had previously worked as an assistant to S. J. Suryah. Murugadoss cast Ajith Kumar and signed up Ajith to play the lead roles with Malayalam actor Suresh Gopi roped in to play a parallel supporting role. The team considered signing Vasundhara Das as the lead actress, before opting for Laila. Nagma was selected to appear in an item number. In 2020, Laila revealed how she felt was not feeling well during the shooting of "Kadhal Website", but the upbeat tune of the song encouraged her to dance and the song became a hit upon release.


title: Dheena

text: The film released on 14 January 2001, during Pongal. It received a positive review from "The Hindu", with the critic stating that the "acts of the hero does appeal or impress the audience because his bloody adventures in the film are justifiable" labelling the film as a mass masala entertainer. Rediff.com suggested that "overall, the film is briskly paced, and holds your interest throughout. What prompts the 'Can do better' report are the little, but eminently avoidable, niggles." but praised the performances of Ajith Kumar and Suresh Gopi. Visual Dasan of "Kalki" gave the film a verdict of "average".


title: Dheena

text: The film's success indirectly marked the beginning of a new image of Ajith Kumar, that of an action hero that would appeal to the masses. Furthermore, Ajith Kumar's nickname in the film, "Thala" (Leader) became a new identity for the actor amongst his fans. The film also established Murugadoss who went on to become one of the successful directors whereas Yuvan Shankar's songs were equally successful which are considered to have played a major role for the film's great success.


title: Nadine Labaki

text: Nadine Labaki ( "Nādīn Labikī"; born February 18, 1974) is a Lebanese actress, director and activist. Labaki first came into the spotlight as an actress in the early 2000s. Her film-making career began in 2007 after the release of her debut film, "Caramel", which premiered at the Cannes 2007 Film Festival. She is known for demonstrating everyday aspects of Lebanese life and covering a range of political issues such as war, poverty, and feminism. She is the first female Arab director to be nominated for an Oscar in the category for Best Foreign Language Film for Capernaum (2018).


title: Nadine Labaki

text: Labaki was born in Baabdat, Mount Lebanon Governorate, Lebanon, to a Maronite family to Antoine and Antoinette Labaki. Her father is an engineer while her mother is a homemaker. She spent the first seventeen years of her life living in a war-torn environment, until 1991 when the civil war in Lebanon had ended. Early in life, she learned the art of storytelling from her uncle, who was the family "hakawati" (storyteller). Her grandfather also owned a small theatre in Lebanon where she found her love for film. She began her career with Studio El Fan, a Lebanese talent show, in 1990. The show aired during the 1970s, which continued through to the early 2000s. At the talent show, Labaki won a prize for directing various music video productions.


title: Nadine Labaki

text: Labaki obtained a degree in audiovisual studies at Saint Joseph University in Beirut. In 1997, she directed her graduation film, "11 Rue Pasteur", which won the Best Short Film Award at the Biennale of Arab Cinema at the Arab World Institute in Paris. Labaki is unique among her fellow Lebanese and Arab Film Makers in that she was not educated or trained abroad.


title: Nadine Labaki

text: In 1998, she attended a workshop in acting at the Cours Florent in Paris. With her sister Caroline Labaki as executive producer, she went on to direct advertisements and music videos for renowned Middle Eastern singers, for which she won several awards. Striving to project the contemporary Lebanese woman, she "created examples of Lebanese women who were very at ease in their bodies."


title: Nadine Labaki

text: In 2003, Labaki's name began to become more popular within the Arab media. 2003 was also the year when she began directing music videos for singer Nancy Ajram. The song, "Akhasmak ah" (Yes, I'll fight you), sparked controversy due to its scenes of sexually suggestive dancing. Ajram's female character, who serves as a waitress to male customers, was seen as inappropriate and too evocative. Labaki defended her script, stating that Ajram was actually portraying an "assertive and powerful female figure". Labaki and Ajram worked to redefine the image of the current Arab woman as feminine, alluring and in control. Ajram continued to collaborate with Labaki on her music videos, "Ya Salam," "Lawn Ouyounak" and "Inta Eih." The three videos were awarded with best music video honors.


title: Nadine Labaki

text: In 2005, Labaki took part in the Cannes Film Festival Residence for six months. During that time, she wrote "Caramel", her first feature film. In 2006, she directed and played one of the leading roles in "Caramel", which showcases a Beirut that most people are not familiar with. Rather than tackle political issues that have plagued Lebanon, she presents a comedy that deals with five Lebanese women in Beirut who gather at a beauty salon and deal with issues related to love, sexuality, tradition, disappointment, and everyday ups and downs. The film premiered at the Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival in 2007, which was a commercial success in the summer of that same year. It sold worldwide and collected important prizes at many festivals around the world, garnering Labaki much acclaim both as a director and actress. It also put her on Variety's 10 Directors to Watch list at the Sundance Film Festival. In 2008, the French Ministry of Culture and Communication gave her the Insignia of Chevalier in the Order of Arts and Letters.


title: Nadine Labaki

text: In 2010, Labaki directed and starred in her second feature film, "Where Do We Go Now?" The film humorously tackles a delicate subject about a war-ravaged Middle Eastern village in which Muslim and Christian women try to keep their men from starting a religious war. The idea for this film first came about when Labaki was pregnant with her son in 2008. At that time, Lebanon was at the brink of its most violent turmoil in decades. The inter-religious conflict led to outbursts in the streets of Beirut. Labaki speaks of friends becoming enemies due to religious differences. Preparing for motherhood, she began to ponder what extreme lengths mothers would go to to prevent their sons from obtaining arms and taking to the streets to fight. This one idea sparked the narrative of this film, in which an entire town of women begin a mission to prevent the men from brutally killing each other. The story takes place in Lebanon, although never explicitly stated. Labaki's reasoning for this was that "the film is universal... this conflict does not only happen in Lebanon. I see it everywhere . . . We are scared of each other as human beings." Similar to "Caramel", her second feature casts non-professional actors. In effort to heighten the reality, Labaki states that "normal people deserve to be on the big screen."


title: Nadine Labaki

text: The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in the "Un Certain Regard" category in 2011. The film won the Cadillac people's choice award at the Toronto International Film Festival. It also collected many other awards in festivals around the world, like Cannes Film Festival, San Sebastián International Film Festival, Stockholm Film Festival, and Doha Tribeca Film Festival. The film was also nominated for the best foreign film at the Critics Choice Awards in Los Angeles. During its opening weekend, the film hit the largest ever admissions total for an Arabic-speaking film in Lebanon, amounting to 21,475 admissions for a total of $153,358.


title: Nadine Labaki

text: In late 2013, Nadine Labaki started work on her third feature film called "Capernaum" which was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival. The film tells the story of a 12-year-old boy living in the slums of Beirut. He strives to sue his parents for bringing him into a world of suffering and negligence of children. Labaki wrote the screenplay along with Jihad Hojeily, Michelle Kesrouani, Georges Khabbaz and her husband, Khaled Mouzanar. Mouzanar further produced the film and composed the music. The title "Capernaum", means 'chaos'.


title: Nadine Labaki

text: For three years prior to writing, Labaki extensively researched the city's children to gather accounts of their experiences, stories and pasts. She used mostly non-professional actors for this film, including lead child actor Zain Al Rafeea, who was found in one of the slums playing with friends, a Syrian refugee himself. Although a rather anti-classical style of filmmaking, Labaki deems her system as "very organic." She strived to provide these "forgotten children" with a voice and use her cinematic tools to ignite a lasting change.


title: Nadine Labaki

text: Labaki's style of cinematography uses cinematic conventions, such as illuminations, atmosphere lighting, and silence to help convey the meaning in her films. Despite the often dangerous political situations, Labaki continues to write and direct films that do not focus on conflict.


title: Nadine Labaki

text: "Capernaum" won the Jury Prize at Cannes, and Labaki won Best Directing at the 12th Asia Pacific Screen Awards.


title: Nadine Labaki

text: She was selected to be on the jury for the Un Certain Regard section of the 2015 Cannes Film Festival.


title: Nadine Labaki

text: Following the success of "Capernaum", Creative Artists Agency (CAA) signed Labaki in all areas, but she continues to be represented in France by Art Media Agency.


title: Nadine Labaki

text: Her movie "Capernaum" was nominated in the foreign-language Oscars category, which was a first for a female director in 2019. She is the first female Arab director to ever be nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.


title: Nadine Labaki

text: In collaboration with the UNHCR and UNICEF, Zain Al Rafeea and his family have been resettled in Norway. He and his siblings are attending school for the first time in their lives with a hope of regaining their childhoods. This, says Labaki, is the greatest reward.


title: Nadine Labaki

text: Nadine Labaki started acting in short films during the early 2000s. She starred in Zeina Durra's "The Seventh Dog." The work won the audience award at the Circuito Of Venice International Short Film Festival in 2006.


title: Nadine Labaki

text: In 2006, Labaki starred in "Bosta," a Lebanese musical comedy. The film was a box office success, outgrossing "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire."


title: Nadine Labaki

text: She appears in the Moroccan production "Rock The Casbah," directed by Laila Marrakchi, alongside actors Hiam Abbas and Lubna Azabal.


title: Nadine Labaki

text: Labaki often casts herself in her movies. She feels, "When I act with the people I cast, they feel more comfortable. I like to improvise a lot, and when I am in the film, it's like directing the scene from the inside."


title: Nadine Labaki

text: In 2021, she was selected as jury member at 11th Beijing International Film Festival for Tiantan Awards.


title: Nadine Labaki

text: Growing up during the Lebanese Civil War, Labaki's films are informed by her experiences of political unrest in her home country, often exploring themes of violence and trauma.


title: Nadine Labaki

text: Labaki's films challenge apathy towards important issues, such as the refugee crisis and poverty. Though themes of war and tragedy are prevalent in Labaki's works, so is humor. Her films cover the Lebanese Civil War and the lasting impacts it had on the country. Her experiences impacted Labaki personally, as well as how it shaped her film-making. As a director, she feels that she has to do something good for her country. She then decided that talking about problems such as poverty and the refugee crisis is important. FF2 Media covered a Q&A with Labaki in 2018 about her movie "Capernaum", which received an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film of the Year (as well as 34 other wins and 46 other nominations). While trying to brainstorm concepts for the script, her team came up with ideas that she wanted to include, such as "child labor, migrant labor rights, children's rights, the absurdity of having to have the papers to prove that you exist, the absurdity of borders, and early marriage". She believes that “Cinema can be a way to [create] change.” She has stated that politics and art are intertwined and that her films are her own “way of revolt”. According to Labaki, "sometimes, a line in a film, or a scene can make you think about yourself, about your decisions. By touching your hearts films can offer hope more than politics". Labaki's films have no solutions for the issues Lebanon faces, but she hopes that her films will "simply shake audiences out of their chronic lethargy". She has stated that her film-making and activism are the same, believing that cinema can effect social change.


title: Nadine Labaki

text: Another common theme in her work is feminism and the female narrative. She does this by focusing on the everyday lives of women in the Middle East in her films.


title: Nadine Labaki

text: Through her films, Nadine Labaki connects themes from the Arab world and the Western world. Her transnational feminism highlights ordinary women affected by complex realities deeply rooted in decades of political turmoil.


title: Nadine Labaki

text: Labaki's films are often cast with non-professional actors. She often finds men, women, and children who live in the real neighborhoods shown on screen where they re-enact scenes from their own experiences, often in some of Beirut's grittiest slums. Labaki does this to make the film as realistic as possible. Labaki is also known for spending long periods to research and pick the cast for her films. She immerses herself in the lives of her subjects and spent four years researching her subject and the mistreated children in Beirut. For her film "Capernaum", she gave her actors minimal direction and used hand-held cameras to capture life in the streets of Lebanon. For her film Caramel, she spent almost a year searching for women who resembled her characters. She purposely did not want professional actors, she explained, and the spontaneity of each authenticates the plot of women supporting each other as they cope with their problems. The filmmaker amassed months of raw footage, which she later edited down to just over two hours.


title: Nadine Labaki

text: Labaki states that she was inspired by the photo of a 3-year-old Syrian refugee whose lifeless body sparked outrage around the world. Stating, "I remember thinking if this child could talk, what would he say, and how would he address the adults that killed him?" she says. "I wanted to become their voice, their vehicle for them to express themselves."


title: Nadine Labaki

text: In a 2012 interview with Jan Lisa Huttner from FF2 Media, Labaki said: "I have a problem with injustice. I have a problem with seeing the wrong things around me and just not saying anything about them". She likes to address relevant issues and portray them through her art, be it acting, directing, or even dance. Her movie "Where Do We Go Now?" heavily incorporates dance, and in the same interview with FF2 Media, she mentioned that she has a background of being a dancer.


title: Nadine Labaki

text: Labaki is multilingual, fluent in Arabic, French, English and Italian. In 2007, she married musician and composer Khaled Mouzanar. In 2009, Nadine Labaki gave birth to her first boy, Walid. Seven years later (2016), Labaki gave birth to a daughter, Mayroun.


title: Nadine Labaki

text: In 2016, Labaki received an honorary degree from the American University of Beirut and was the speaker at the 150th Commencement Ceremony.


title: Nadine Labaki

text: Nadine Labaki was a candidate on the list of the new political movement Beirut Madinati for the capital's May 2016 local election. Beirut Madinati focuses on social justice and the good of the public utilizing a diverse group of citizens as representatives.


title: Nadine Labaki

text: Despite achieving about 40% of the popular vote, the movement lost against its opponent, the 'Beirutis' list' supported by Saad Hariri, in all 6 out of 12 wards, but did not gain a single seat under the election's one-district First-past-the-post system.


title: Nadine Labaki

text: In 2014, Labaki was the goodwill ambassador for the bilingual and multimedia campaign produced by The Brave Heart Fund (BHF). Based out of the Children's Heart Center at the American University of Beirut Medical Center, the BHF creates awareness and helps to fund operations and procedures for underprivileged children with Congenital Heart Disease.


title: Insemination

text: Insemination is the introduction of sperm into a female’s reproductive system for the purpose of impregnating, also called fertilizing, the female for sexual reproduction. The sperm is introduced into the uterus of a mammal or the oviduct of an oviparous (egg-laying) animal. In mammals, insemination normally occurs during sexual intercourse or copulation, but insemination can take place in other ways, such as by artificial insemination.


title: Insemination

text: In humans, the act and form of insemination has legal, moral and interpersonal implications. However, whether insemination takes place naturally or by artificial means, the pregnancy and the progress of it will be the same. Insemination may be called "in vivo" fertilisation (from "in vivo" meaning "within the living") because an egg is fertilized inside the body, this is in contrast with in vitro fertilisation (IVF).


title: Insemination

text: In plants, the fertilization process is referred to as pollination. It is the process of transfer of pollen grains from one anther to stigma of other plants.


title: Insemination

text: Insemination of a woman by sexual intercourse is referred to as "natural insemination" (NI) (i.e., insemination by natural means). Natural insemination involves ejaculation during penile–vaginal penetration, with the erect penis inside the vagina. If an artificial lubricant needs to be used, care must be taken that it does not have spermicidal properties. During ejaculation, semen, containing male gametes known as sperm, is expelled through the penis into the moist and warm environment of person’s reproductive tract. In humans, semen is usually ejaculated into the posterior vaginal fornix in direct contact with cervical mucus, though sperm may swim from other areas of the vagina or vulva to the cervix. The average volume of semen produced at ejaculation is 2 to 5ml (about 1 teaspoon), containing an average of 182 million sperm. Only a small proportion of the sperm in each ejaculation reach the site of fertilization in the fallopian tubes, their numbers decreasing exponentially as they progress through the female reproductive tract. The majority of sperm either die in the acidic environment of the vagina or drip out with the semen. Prior to ovulation, the cervical mucus becomes thinner and more hospitable to sperm. Sperm swim rapidly into the uterus upon encountering cervical mucus, though many become lost in the cervical crypts where they either die or are delayed. Further attrition occurs in the uterus, where sperm are attacked by the female immune system. Only about 100-1000 sperm reach the fallopian tubes, where they may survive for up to 6 days. If ovulation occurs and the sperm encounter an ovum in the fallopian tube, fertilization may occur.


title: Insemination

text: A woman may also be naturally inseminated while having penile-vaginal intercourse for pleasure without any intent to conceive. This may be unintentional as a result of the failure of a barrier or behavioural method of contraception, or may be intentional if relying on female contraceptive methods or indifferent to the possibility of pregnancy. In most cultures, insemination by a male through sexual intercourse, whether the woman's husband, normal sex partner or not, is subject to social and sexual inhibitions and taboos, and has legal, moral and interpersonal implications.


title: Insemination

text: The term is also used in the context of third-party insemination, where a male who is not the woman's usual sexual partner (i.e., a sperm donor) fathers a child for the woman by providing his sperm through sexual intercourse rather than by providing his sperm for it to be used to produce a pregnancy in the woman by artificial means. The incidence of natural insemination by a sperm donor is usually a private matter, and may also carry greater health risks than where sperm has been processed by a fertility center. Advocates claim natural insemination generates higher pregnancy rates and a more 'natural' conception which does not involve the intervention and intrusion of third parties. However, it has not been medically proven that natural insemination has an increased chance of pregnancy. Additionally, conceiving through natural insemination is considered a natural process, so the father may be liable for child support and have custody and other rights of the child. The law usually draws a distinction between a man fathering a child by natural means, and a man who provides his sperm for it to be used to father a child by artificial means (i.e. by artificial insemination).


title: Insemination

text: Artificial insemination is the introduction of sperm into the reproductive tract of a female by means other than sexual intercourse for the purpose of impregnating or fertilizing the female. In humans, artificial insemination may be used when a woman or her normal sex partner cannot, for any of a number of reasons, conceive by natural means. A number of artificial insemination strategies are available, including intracervical insemination (ICI) and intrauterine insemination (IUI). Compared with natural insemination, artificial insemination may be more invasive, and may require professional assistance and medical expertise, which will have a higher cost.


title: Insemination

text: ICI attempts to simulate natural insemination, without the sexual element. It is painless and is the simplest, easiest and most common method of artificial insemination, and can be performed in the home, either by the female on herself or with non-professional assistance. ICI involves the introduction of unwashed or raw semen into the vagina at the entrance to the cervix, usually by means of a needleless syringe.


title: Insemination

text: The sperm for insemination may be provided by either a sexual partner of the female’s choice or by a sperm donor. Donor sperm is most commonly used by lesbian couples, single women, and heterosexual couples when the male partner is suffering from male infertility. There have been situations where a female has been inseminated with sperm collected from a female’s partner before him going off to war or even harvested after he has already died. There are laws in some countries which restrict and regulate who can donate sperm and who is able to receive artificial insemination, and the consequences of such insemination. Subject to any regulations restricting who can obtain donor sperm, donor sperm is available to all women who, for whatever reason, want or need it. Some women living in a jurisdiction which does not permit artificial insemination in the circumstance in which she finds herself may travel to another jurisdiction (a 'fertility destination') which permits it. (See Sperm donation laws by country.)


title: Insemination

text: Artificial insemination has been and continues to be commonly used in livestock breeding as an efficient way of increasing production.


title: Insemination

text: In various other animal species, sperm can be introduced into the female's reproductive tract by various means. For example, in some species of hemiptera sperm can be introduced violently by traumatic insemination, parenteral injection through the body wall. In some species of animals, sperm finds its way through the body wall when the spermatophore is left in contact with the female's skin, such as in the onychophora (velvet worms).


title: Zegna

text: Zegna () is an Italian luxury fashion house. It was founded in 1910 by Ermenegildo Zegna in Trivero, Biella of the Piedmont region of Northern Italy.


title: Zegna

text: Prior to the founding of the company, founder Ermenegildo Zegna's father Angelo – a former watchmaker – owned a wool mill and looms in the Alps of Piedmont, Italy. Ermenegildo, together with his brothers Edoardo and Mario, founded the company in 1910 in Trivero in the Biellese Alps when he was only 18, utilizing his father's looms and assets. In 1915 the company was renamed "Fratelli Zegna di Angelo".


title: Zegna

text: Zegna's vision was to create high-quality fabrics, so he began to source wool directly from several countries around the world, such as Mongolia, Australia, South Africa; he also bought modern machinery from England.


title: Zegna

text: During the Interwar period, Zegna's business started to flourish. In the late 1920s, the Lanificio (wool mill) employed more than 700 workers, growing to more than 1,000 in the late 1930s. In 1938 the company began to export fabrics in the US. through its subsidiary Zegna Woollens Corporation established in New York City.


title: Zegna

text: In 1942, Ermenegildo's sons Aldo (born in 1920) and Angelo (born in 1924) entered the company, which was renamed "Ermenegildo Zegna and Sons". In the mid-1950s, the company employed 1,400 workers.


title: Zegna

text: Ermenegildo Zegna's sons, Aldo and Angelo, took over the company in the mid-1960s. Under their guidance, the label both expanded its business to ready-made suits and established new plants and distribution network abroad. In 1968, the first factory producing sleeve-units and trousers was opened in Novara, followed by openings in Spain, Greece, and Switzerland. Sales and marketing departments were also established in France, Germany, the U.K., and the U.S.


title: Zegna

text: Zegna's attention to wool quality continued through 1960s and 1970s, as the company established the Wool Awards in Australia (1963) and the Mohair Trophy in South Africa (1970).


title: Zegna

text: The international development strategy run by the Zegna brothers brought to the openings of the first owned boutique in Paris in 1980, followed by Milan in 1985. In 1991 Zegna became the first luxury label to open a store in China.


title: Zegna

text: During the 1990s, the third generation of the Zegna family entered the business. Angelo's son, and namesake of the company's founder, Ermenegildo "Gildo" Zegna, became CEO of the Group in 1997; his cousin Paolo became the chairman. Under their governance, the company began a strategy of brand extension and full verticalization.


title: Zegna

text: In 1991 Zegna was the first luxury brand to enter the China market, with a flagship store in Beijing; and one of the first to access the Indian market.


title: Zegna

text: In 2008, the Group established its new headquarters in Milan, in a building designed by architects Antonio Citterio and Gianmaria Beretta.


title: Zegna

text: Moreover, a large number of acquisitions and partnerships have been signed since the late 1990s to the present day.


title: Zegna

text: In 2014, Zegna acquired the majority of Achill, an Australian wool farm counting about 12,500 sheep in its flock.


title: Zegna

text: In 2016, the Group acquired a majority stake in Bonotto, a high-end textile manufacturer based in Molvena, Vicenza, Italy, giving the Group the possibility to explore new areas such as furnishing and experimental fabrics.


title: Zegna

text: Two years later, Zegna – through its subsidiary ZECA company – took over the historic Cappellificio Cervo hat-maker.


title: Zegna

text: In 2018, Ermenegildo Zegna Group – already present in India with three stores – together with Reliance, acquired a stake into Indian fashion designer Raghavendra Rathore's firm. In the same year Zegna announced that they purchased 85% of the eponymously named Thom Browne, a New York City-based menswear and womenswear brand, founded in 2001.


title: Zegna

text: In 2019, Zegna bought a 65% stake of Italian high-quality jersey fabrics manufacturer Dondi, increasing its control over the textile supply chain.


title: Zegna

text: In June 2021, the Zegna Group bought a 60% majority stake in Tessitura Ubertino, a high-end fabric maker based in Piedmont, Italy. A few weeks later, Zegna also bought a 40% share in Tessitura Biagioli Modesto, an Italian spinning mill specialized in cashmere production.


title: Zegna

text: In 2021, Zegna agreed to go public by combining with a US special-purpose acquisition company launched by European private equity group Investindustrial.


title: Zegna

text: On December 20, 2021, the Zegna Group went public in New York with a valuation of $3.1 billion. It is the first Italian fashion company to be listed in New York.


title: Zegna

text: Zegna was founded in 1910 as a textile company (“Lanificio Zegna”). The brand is now recognized as a leader in luxury menswear. Formerly known as "Ermenegildo Zegna", in 2021, in parallel with the Group's stock market listing, the brand name became simply "Zegna". A new logo was also adopted, which recalls a road. This is a tribute to the vision and commitment of the founder, who in the 1930s promoted the construction of a road in Piedmont, which today runs through the Oasi Zegna.


title: Zegna

text: In 2003 Zegna entered the fragrance market. Over the years, it has also signed partnerships with other major brands such as Estee Lauder, Maserati, Marcolin.


title: Zegna

text: Since June 2016, the artistic director of Zegna has been Alessandro Sartori, who is entrusted with the creative functions of all Zegna brands and lines. Sartori promotes values such as corporate responsibility, environmental sustainability, the use of new techniques and materials, as well as a modern and innovative vision of the male wardrobe and masculinity itself.


title: Zegna

text: Thom Browne is a New York City-based luxury fashion brand, founded by American designer Thom Browne. Ermenegildo Zegna Group acquired an 85% stake in Thom Browne in August 2018, at a $500 million valuation.


title: Zegna

text: The brand is offered in some 300 stores in 40 countries; in 2021, it accounted for 20% of Group revenues.


title: Zegna

text: Lanificio Zegna (“Zegna Wool Mill”) is located in Trivero, in the Piedmont region of Northern Italy. It was founded by Ermenegildo Zegna in 1910, when he was 18. Under the Zegna Group supervision, shorn fleeces coming from several countries are processed at the Lanificio, from raw material to finishing, combining both modern technology and artisan craftsmanship.


title: Zegna

text: Founded in 1960, Pettinatura di Verrone is a combing mill based in the textile district of Biella. In 2009, Zegna acquired a 15% stake of the company.


title: Zegna

text: Originally founded in 1912 as a straw hats maker, Bonotto was converted in a textile manufacturer by Nicla Donazzan and Luigi Bonotto in 1972. In 2016, Zegna Group acquired a controlling stake in the company. Bonotto is known for following a “slow factory” model, aiming at craftsmanship and rejecting standardization and low cost chain production.


title: Zegna

text: Based in the Carpi textile hub, near Modena, Dondi was founded in the 1970s as Dondi Jersey and is a renowned manufacturer of high-end knitwear for men and women. In July 2019, the Zegna group acquired a 65% stake in Dondi, while the remaining 35% is retained by the Dondi Capelli family who still runs the business.


title: Zegna

text: Tessitura Ubertino is a fabric maker specialized in high-end fabrics for womenswear, such as tweed and jacquard. It was founded in 1981 and is based near Biella. In June 2021, the Ermenegildo Zegna Group acquired a 60% stake in the company; the two sons of founder Adalgiso Ubertino have retained a 40% stake.


title: Zegna

text: In 2021 Zegna Group and Prada Group jointly acquired the majority shareholding in Filati Biagioli Modesto, a company specialized in cashmere and other noble yarns. Zegna CEO Gildo Zegna was appointed chairman.


title: Zegna

text: Based in Biella, Cappellificio Cervo is a historic hattery acquired by Zegna-controlled ZECA company in 2018.


title: Zegna

text: Ermenegildo Zegna Group is the largest menswear brand in the world by revenue. As of 2021, Ermenegildo Zegna operated over 500 retail stores across the world. Following the company's strongly export-oriented strategy, exports account for over 90% of total sales.


title: Zegna

text: In 2021, the Group has become a public company. Consequently, Ermenegildo (Gildo) Zegna, grandson of founder Ermenegildo, took on the role of chairman in addition to CEO, while his cousin Paolo Zegna joined the board of directors.


title: Zegna

text: A number of actors and models have advertised Zegna's lines through the years. Celebrities featured in Zegna's advertising campaigns include Oscar-winning actor Adrien Brody, American model Ryan Burns, Irish actor Jamie Dornan, English actor Sam Riley.


title: Zegna

text: In 2017, Ermenegildo Zegna launched a four-chapter campaign called "Defining Moments". The campaign featured Robert De Niro, McCaul Lombardi, Benjamin Millepied, Park Chan-wook, Yoo Ji-tae, Wang Deshun, Sunny Wang, Javier Bardem, Dev Patel. The first three chapters were directed by Craig McDean; the last one was directed by Luca Guadagnino.


title: Zegna

text: In 2019 Zegna launched the new ""What does it mean to be a man today?"", campaign, featuring Mahershala Ali and Nicholas Tse, focused on the definition of modern masculinity.


title: Zegna

text: Zegna also produced a four-part series of short films titled "A Rose Reborn", directed by Park Chan-wook in 2014.


title: Zegna

text: During the 1930s, founder Ermenegildo Zegna actively promoted social facilities in his native town Trivero. Before the advent of popular ecology, he also planted thousands of trees and financed the panoramic road which was named after him. Coherently with the founder's commitment towards sustainability, in 1993 Ermenegildo Zegna Group created the Oasi Zegna, a protected natural area of 100 km in the mountains surrounding Trivero. In 2014 the Oasi was granted the patronage of FAI Fondo Ambiente Italiano, the National Trust of Italy.


title: Zegna

text: In 2000 a charity organization, Fondazione Zegna, was set up by the Zegna family with the aim of giving continuity to the founder's thought that quality and dedication can live in harmony with the protection of the natural environment, social welfare and cultural development.


title: Zegna

text: Among the educational projects supported by Fondazione Zegna there is the Ermenegildo Zegna Founder's Scholarship, a program aimed to give continuity to the Zegna family's sense of responsibility through a commitment to donating 25 euro million over 25 years. The program provides €1million annually to enable talented Italian graduates to pursue international postgraduate studies, while encouraging them to return to Italy upon completion of their programs abroad.


title: Zegna

text: In 2019, the Zegna Group launched #UseTheExisting, a project that gives new life to used fabrics and creates new ones from surplus fibers and offcuts, in order to completely reduce waste. The project was awarded the Italian ADI Design Index 2020 Innovation Award.


title: Zegna

text: The Zegna Group is one of the signatories of the Fashion Pact, a plan signed by 32 major fashion brands to reduce their environmental impact. The Pact was presented at the 45th G7 summit in Biarritz on August 26, 2019.


title: Samsung Galaxy S II

text: The Samsung Galaxy S II is a touchscreen-enabled, slate-format Android smartphone designed, developed, and marketed by Samsung Electronics, as the second smartphone of the Samsung Galaxy S series. It has additional software features, expanded hardware, and a redesigned physique compared to its predecessor, the Samsung Galaxy S. The S II was launched with Android 2.3.4 "Gingerbread", with updates to Android 4.1.2 "Jelly Bean".


title: Samsung Galaxy S II

text: Samsung unveiled the S II on 13 February 2011 at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona. It was one of the slimmest smartphones of the time, mostly 8.49 mm thick, except for two small bulges which take the maximum thickness of the phone to 9.91 mm.


title: Samsung Galaxy S II

text: The Galaxy S II has a 1.2 GHz dual-core "Exynos" system on a chip (SoC) processor, 1 GB of RAM, a WVGA Super AMOLED Plus screen display and an 8-megapixel camera with flash and 1080p full high definition video recording. It is one of the first devices to offer a Mobile High-definition Link (MHL), which allows up to 1080p uncompressed video output to an MHL enabled TV or to an MHL to HDMI adapter, while charging the device at the same time. USB On-The-Go is supported.


title: Samsung Galaxy S II

text: The user-replaceable battery gives up to ten hours of heavy usage, or two days of lighter usage. According to Samsung, the Galaxy S II is capable of providing 9 hours of talk time on 3G and 18.3 hours on 2G.


title: Samsung Galaxy S II

text: The Galaxy S II was popular and a huge success both critically and commercially, selling 3 million units within its first 55 days on the market. It was succeeded by the Samsung Galaxy S III in May 2012.


title: Samsung Galaxy S II

text: The Galaxy S II was given worldwide release dates starting from May 2011, by more than 140 vendors in some 120 countries. On 9 May 2011, Samsung announced that they had received pre-orders for 3 million Galaxy S II units globally.


title: Samsung Galaxy S II

text: Some time after the device's release, Samsung also released a variation of the phone known as the Galaxy R, which uses a Nvidia Tegra 2 chipset.


title: Samsung Galaxy S II

text: Another variant of the SII, called the Galaxy SII Touch Epic, was announced in August 2011 and was released on September that same year. The phone was available via Sprint, and has a bigger capacity battery than the original SII. It was heavier than the original SII, at 130g.


title: Samsung Galaxy S II

text: Samsung also reportedly shipped Galaxy S IIs for free, to several developers of the custom Android distribution CyanogenMod (particularly those who had maintained its ports for the Galaxy S with an intent for them to port CyanogenMod 7 to the device). In 2020, the Galaxy S II received Android 11.0 "Red Velvet Cake" (through custom ROMs), although it only officially supported Android 4.1.2 "Jelly Bean".


title: Samsung Galaxy S II

text: The Galaxy S II was launched with Android 2.3 "Gingerbread". American variants began shipments with the slightly updated version 2.3.5 installed. Version 2.3.6 was made globally available on 12 December 2011. On 13 March 2012, Samsung began to roll out upgrades to Android 4.0.3 "Ice Cream Sandwich" through their phone management software KIES to users in South Korea, Hungary, Poland and Sweden. Russian users received the update on 5 July 2012, while the rest of Europe received it on 1 August 2012. In February 2013, Samsung began rolling out an update to Android 4.1.2 "Jelly Bean" for the device. Unofficially the phone can run Android 11 "Red Velvet Cake".


title: Samsung Galaxy S II

text: The S II employs the TouchWiz 4.0 user interface, following the same principle as TouchWiz 3.0 found on the Galaxy S, with new improvements, such as hardware acceleration. It also has an optional gesture-based interaction called "motion" which (among other things) allows users to zoom in and out by placing two fingers on the screen and tilting the device towards and away from themselves to zoom in and out respectively. This gesture function works on both the web browser and the images in gallery used within this device. "Panning" on TouchWiz 4.0 allows the movement of widgets and icons shortcuts between screens, by allowing the device to be held and moved from side to side to scroll through home screens. This gesture-based management of widgets is a new optional method next to the existing method of holding and swiping between home screens. The Android 4.1 update backports the TouchWiz Nature interface and other features from the Galaxy S III, such as Direct Call, Pop-up Play, Smart Stay, and Easy Mode.


title: Samsung Galaxy S II

text: Four new Samsung Hub applications were revealed at the 2011 MWC: Social Hub, which integrates popular social networking services into one place rather than in separate applications, Readers Hub, providing the ability to access, read and download online newspapers, ebooks and magazines from a worldwide selection, Music Hub (in partnership with 7digital,) an application store for downloading and purchasing music tracks on the device, and Game Hub (in partnership with Gameloft,) an application store for downloading and purchasing games. Additional applications include Kies 2.0, Kies Air, AllShare (for DLNA), Voice Recognition, Google Voice Translation, Google Maps with Latitude, Places, Navigation (beta) and Lost Phone Management, Adobe Flash 10.2, QuickOffice application and 'QuickType' by SWYPE.


title: Samsung Galaxy S II

text: Before launch, it was announced that Samsung had taken steps to incorporate Enterprise software for business users, which included On Device Encryption, Cisco’s AnyConnect VPN, device management, Cisco WebEx, Juniper, and secure remote device management from Sybase.


title: Samsung Galaxy S II

text: The Galaxy S II comes with support for many multimedia file formats and codecs. For audio it supports FLAC, WAV, Vorbis, MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, WMA, AMR-NB, AMR-WB, MID, AC3, XMF. For video formats and codecs it supports MPEG-4, H.264, H.263, DivX HD/XviD, VC-1, 3GP (MPEG-4), WMV (ASF) as well as AVI (DivX)), MKV, FLV and the Sorenson codec. For H.264 playback, the device natively supports 8-bit encodes along with up to 1080p HD video playback.


title: Samsung Galaxy S II

text: The Galaxy S II has a 1.2 GHz dual core ARM Cortex-A9 processor that uses Samsung's own 'Exynos 4210' System on a chip (SoC) that was previously code-named "Orion". The Exynos branded SoC was the source of much speculation concerning another branded successor to the previous "Hummingbird" single-core SoC of the Samsung Galaxy S. The Exynos 4 Dual 45 nm (previously Exynos 4210) uses ARM's Mali-400 MP GPU. This graphics GPU, supplied by ARM, is a move away from the PowerVR GPU of the Samsung Galaxy S.


title: Samsung Galaxy S II

text: The Exynos 4210 supports ARM's SIMD engine (also known as "Media Processing Engine", or 'NEON' instructions), and may give a significant performance advantage in critical performance situations such as accelerated decoding for many multimedia codecs and formats (e.g., On2's VP6/7/8 or Real formats).


title: Samsung Galaxy S II

text: The Mali 400 GPU in the Exynos 4210 SOC is one of the only, if not the only GPU powering Android devices, that does not support GL_RGB Framebuffer Objects (FBOs), only GL_RGBA. The newer Galaxy S II (9100G), based on the PowerVR SGX540, does not exhibit the issue.


title: Samsung Galaxy S II

text: At the 2011 Game Developers Conference ARM's representatives demonstrated 60 Hz framerate playback in stereoscopic 3D running on the same Mali-400 MP and Exynos SoC. They said that an increased framerate of 70 Hz would be possible through the use of an HDMI 1.4 port.


title: Samsung Galaxy S II

text: The Motorola Atrix advertised in June 2011 that it was "the world's most powerful smartphone"; in August 2011 the UK Advertising Standards Authority ruled that the Atrix was not as powerful as Galaxy S II due to its faster processor.


title: Samsung Galaxy S II

text: A newer Samsung Galaxy S II (i9100G) uses a 1.2 GHz dual core TI OMAP 4430 processor with PowerVR SGX540 graphics.


title: Samsung Galaxy S II

text: The Galaxy S II has 1 GB of dedicated RAM and 16 GB of internal mass storage. Within the battery compartment there is an external microSD card slot capable of recognizing and using a 32 GB microSDHC memory card.


title: Samsung Galaxy S II

text: The Samsung Galaxy S II uses a WVGA (800 x 480) Super AMOLED Plus capacitive touchscreen that is covered by Gorilla Glass with an oleophobic fingerprint-resistant coating. The display is an upgrade of its predecessor, and the "Plus" signifies that the display panel has done away with Pentile matrix to regular RGB matrix display which results in a 50% increase in sub-pixels. This translates to grain reduction and sharper images and text. In addition, Samsung has claimed that Super AMOLED Plus displays are 18% more power efficient than the older Super AMOLED displays. Some phones have display issues, with a few users reporting a "yellow tint" on the left bottom edge of the display when a neutral grey background is displayed.


title: Samsung Galaxy S II

text: The Galaxy S II uses Yamaha audio hardware. The Galaxy S II's predecessor, the original Galaxy S, used Wolfson's WM8994 DAC. User feedback on Internet forums as well as an in-depth review at "Clove", have expressed the Yamaha chip's inferior sound quality compared to that of the Wolfson chip featured in the original Galaxy S.


title: Samsung Galaxy S II

text: On the back of the device is an 8-megapixel Back-illuminated sensor camera with single-LED flash that can record videos in full high-definition 1080p at 30 frames per second.


title: Samsung Galaxy S II

text: It is the first mobile phone by Samsung Mobile that is able to record videos in full high-definition (FullHD 1080p).


title: Samsung Galaxy S II

text: There is also a fixed focus front-facing 2-megapixel camera for video calling, taking photos as well as general video recording, with a maximum resolution of 640x480 (VGA).


title: Samsung Galaxy S II

text: The Galaxy S II is one of the earliest Android devices to natively support NFC Near field communication. This follows on from the Google Nexus S which was the first de facto NFC smartphone device. Reportedly the UK version was supplied without an NFC chip at the beginning of its production run,<ref name="UK w/o NFC"></ref> with an NFC-equipped version released later in 2011.<ref name="UK w/ NFC"></ref>


title: Samsung Galaxy S II

text: Samsung has also included a new high-definition connection technology called Mobile High-definition Link (MHL). The main specialty of MHL is that it is optimized for mobile devices by allowing the device's battery to be charged while at the same time playing back multimedia content. For the Galaxy S II, the industry standard micro USB port found on the bottom of the device can be used with an MHL connector for a TV out connection to an external display, such as a high definition television.


title: Samsung Galaxy S II

text: The micro USB port on this device also supports USB OTG standard which means the Galaxy S II can act as a 'host' device in the same way as a desktop computer in allowing external USB devices to be plugged in and used. These external USB devices typically include USB flash drives and separately powered external hard drives. A video demonstration on YouTube has shown the OTG function to be readily available with an ordinary micro USB (B-type) OTG adaptor. The same YouTube video goes on to mention a successful test completed on a 2 TB USB external hard drive (requiring own power source) but however reports of failure when trying to connect USB keyboards, tested USB mice and tested USB game pads. Currently the only file-system supported for USB drives within OTG is FAT32.


title: Samsung Galaxy S II

text: A 3.5 mm TRRS headset jack is available and is located on the top side of the device. The micro USB connection port is located on the bottom side of the device.


title: Samsung Galaxy S II

text: Broadcom BCM4330 combo chip integrates 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0+HS and FM radio. Phones released to the US market lack the FM receiver. BCM4330 supports Wi-Fi Direct that enable devices to communicate directly with one another without having to interact with an access point. Even if the BCM4330 chip supports Bluetooth 4.0, the Galaxy S2 is limited to Bluetooth 3.0 using the last Android version released by Samsung (4.1.2). Bluetooth 4.0 support has been introduced in Android 4.3 versions, however the upgrade to an alternative firmware is required.


title: Samsung Galaxy S II

text: The Samsung Galaxy S II GT-I9100G was released in late 2011, and is usually sold instead of the original GT-I9100 in certain markets (mostly Asia and some parts of Europe). An overview of the Samsung Galaxy S II GT-I9100G can be seen on Samsung's official website. It features a Texas Instruments OMAP4430 SoC instead of the Exynos 4210 in the GT-I9100. It is visually identical to the GT-I9100, as well as having the same 1.2 GHz processor speed and dual-core ARM Cortex A9 processor technology. However, the SoC is of a different design and the Mali-400 GPU has been replaced by a PowerVR SGX 540 GPU. This difference in the SoC makes this variant incompatible with custom ROMs intended for the I9100, but it has been steadily gaining its own aftermarket support (such as from CyanogenMod) due to the relative ease of development and the openness of the TI OMAP platform.


title: Samsung Galaxy S II

text: The Galaxy S II (Model GT-I9100T) sold by Telstra, Vodafone Australia and some certain other carriers outside Australia is virtually identical to the I9100 and is functionally equivalent.


title: Samsung Galaxy S II

text: In Australia the Galaxy S II 4G (Model GT-I9210T) uses a Qualcomm processor and supports Telstra's and Optus' 4G networks. However, analog radio and digital media are not supported.


title: Samsung Galaxy S II

text: Bell's Galaxy S II (Model GT-I9100M) Samsung Galaxy S II is identical to the international version except that its model number is GT I9100M. All custom ROMs running on international versions can be flashed to bell's Galaxy S II also.


title: Samsung Galaxy S II

text: Bell's Samsung Galaxy S II HD LTE (Model SGH-I757M) is identical to the cancelled AT&T's Skyrocket HD hence making the device another variant of the South Korean model of the Galaxy S II HD LTE. One difference between the South Korean model and the Bell Mobility model is the lack of a physical home button, instead, four capacitive buttons are used, one of which directly replaces the physical home button. The specification of the device is identical to the South Korean model. However, different frequencies bands are enabled on this device.


title: Samsung Galaxy S II

text: The Rogers Galaxy S II LTE (Model SGH-I727R) is identical to the AT&T Skyrocket, and features a larger screen 4.52", a bigger battery 1,850 mAh, and a different 1.5 GHz Qualcomm processor.


title: Samsung Galaxy S II

text: Rogers' Galaxy S Glide (Model SGH-I927) is the same phone with the same specs as the AT&T's Captivate Glide, except the carrier logo is on the back instead of behind the front glass panel.


title: Samsung Galaxy S II

text: Rogers launched the Samsung Galaxy S II LTE, launching in Fall 2011, soon after its LTE Launch in Toronto.


title: Samsung Galaxy S II

text: Telus Mobility's 4G Galaxy S II X (Model SGH-T989D) has a Qualcomm 1.5 GHz dual core processor, larger 4.52 inch screen and 1,850 mAh battery, is thicker at 9.4 mm and has a different design. There is a chrome band around the edge and the plastic on the back has a leathery feel. Instead of the hardware home button, it has the standard four capacitive buttons. The Qualcomm processor allows for 42 Mbit/s HSPA+ download speeds that the Samsung Exynos processor is not currently capable of. It was released on 28 October 2011.


title: Samsung Galaxy S II

text: The Samsung Galaxy S II (Model GT-I9108) was released in late 2011, and it is sold in China by China Mobile. It is identical to the GT-I9100G, featuring the same Texas Instruments OMAP4430 SoC with a 1.2 GHz dual-core ARM Cortex A9 processor and PowerVR SGX 540 graphics processor. However, the GT-I9108 has TD-SCDMA support in place of WCDMA support found in other variants. The GT-I9108 is a regional model and has few available custom ROMs.


title: Samsung Galaxy S II

text: The Samsung Galaxy S II (Model SCH-I929) was released in late 2011, and it is sold in China by China Telecom. It is based on the design of Galaxy S II LTE (GT-I9210), but supports CDMA2000 1x EVDO for use with the carrier.


title: Samsung Galaxy S II

text: The Samsung Galaxy S II (Model GT-I9100P) was released in late 2011. It has the same hardware as GT-I9100 plus the NFC chip and battery (the battery is specific because it includes the antenna). To keep NFC enabled it is necessary to update the firmware using a P version. Any I9100 firmware can be used, but doing so will disable the NFC hardware.


title: Samsung Galaxy S II

text: The KDDI Au Galaxy S II WiMAX (Model: ISW11SC) was first released on 20 January 2012 in the color Noble Black and was followed by a Ceramics White model on 24 March 2012 and a Shiny Magenta model on 20 July 2012. The ISW11SC currently runs Android 4.0.4 via an OTA update from the original 2.3.6 firmware. The ISW11SC uses the Samsung Exynos 4210 dual-core 1.4 GHz main CPU and a Qualcomm QSC6085 Modem chipset running at 192 MHz. It features 1 GB of RAM and 16 GB of ROM (11 GB available for user data storage) with support for up to 64 GB additional storage via the internal microSD slot. An 1850mAh battery powers the device. The ISW11SC features a Samsung SUPER AMOLED HD 1280x720 screen measuring 4.7 inches. Connectivity includes CDMA 800 MHz/2,100 MHz; 3G EV-DO Rev A; 2.4 GHz / 5 GHz 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi; Bluetooth 3.0 and an integrated WiMAX modem with speeds up to 40Mbit/s down and 15.4Mbit/s up. Like most Japanese domestic model phones the ISW11SC includes many Japan-specific applications. This phone features NFC functionality which is technically compatible with FeliCa RFID (such as with PASMO and SUICA payment systems) however, the software doesn't support the Japanese "Osaifu Keitai" mobile wallet and thus the phone cannot be used to make transactions with NFC in Japan.


title: Samsung Galaxy S II

text: NTT DoCoMo introduced a variant of the Galaxy S II (Model ) on 23 June 2011 as the successor to the DoCoMo Galaxy S (Model ). The SC-02C includes 1seg terrestrial television support, as well as i-mode software functions specific to DoCoMo handsets, such as i-channel, BeeTV, MelodyCall and DoCoMo map navigation. The SC-02C is powered by the Samsung Exynos 4210 Orion Dual-core 1.2 GHz (S5PC210) processor. The SC-02C uses the Wnn Japanese input system.


title: Samsung Galaxy S II

text: All of variants optimized for use with South Korean wireless carriers have Samsung's Korean input system for feature phones, a Dubeolsik-layout virtual keyboard and a T-DMB tuner in place of an FM radio tuner.


title: Samsung Galaxy S II

text: The KT variant, the Galaxy S II KT (Model SHW-M250K) uses KT's Wi-Fi CM instead of Android's Wi-Fi CM to connect to Wi-Fi networks. Additional features for KT users are installed by default.


title: Samsung Galaxy S II

text: Instead of WCDMA and HSPA, LG U+'s variant of the Galaxy S II (Model SHW-M250L) uses EV-DO Rev.B (KPCS 1.8 GHz) to accommodate the network technology deployed by LG U+. The SHW-M250L is slightly thicker (9.4 mm) than SK Telecom and KT variants (8.89 mm). Additional features for LG U+ users are installed by default.


title: Samsung Galaxy S II

text: The SK Telecom variant of the Galaxy S II (Model SHW-M250S) uses the SK-MMS system instead of the OMA-MMS system for multimedia messaging. Additional features for SK Telecom users are installed by default.


title: Samsung Galaxy S II

text: AT&T Mobility began offering its first variant of the Galaxy S II (Model SGH-I777) on 2 October 2011. Prior to its release, AT&T Mobility's first variant of the device was code named "Attain" by Samsung.


title: Samsung Galaxy S II

text: The AT&T Mobility variant maintains the 4.3 inch display of the international version, but features four capacitive buttons. It also includes NFC capability.


title: Samsung Galaxy S II

text: AT&T Mobility introduced a second variant of the device called the Galaxy S II Skyrocket (Model SGH-I727) on 6 November 2011. Prior to its release, this second variant was code named "Skyrocket" by Samsung. This variant is similar to the international Samsung Galaxy S II LTE and is notable for its inclusion of an LTE radio. The inclusion of the LTE radio required changing the device's main processor from the Exynos to the Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8660 because the Exynos does not support LTE. This version features the same 4.52 inch screen of the Sprint model. This variant supports Near Field Communications (NFC).