title: Julia Ward Howe

text: Howe produced eleven issues of the literary magazine, "Northern Lights", in 1867. That same year she wrote about her travels to Europe in "From the Oak to the Olive". After the war, she focused her activities on the causes of pacifism and women's suffrage. By 1868, Julia's husband no longer opposed her involvement in public life, so Julia decided to become active in reform. She helped found the New England Women's Club and the New England Woman Suffrage Association. She served as president for nine years beginning in 1868. In 1869, she became co-leader with Lucy Stone of the American Woman Suffrage Association. Then, in 1870, she became president of the New England Women's Club. After her husband's death in 1876, she focused more on her interests in reform. In 1877 Howe was one of the founders of the Women's Educational and Industrial Union in Boston. She was the founder and from 1876 to 1897 president of the Association of American Women, which advocated for women's education. Unlike other suffragists at the time, Howe supported the final version of the Fifteenth Amendment, which had omitted the inclusion of language originally barring discrimination against women as well as people of color. Her reason for supporting this version of the Fifteenth Amendment was that "she viewed black men's suffrage as the priority."


title: Julia Ward Howe

text: In 1872, she became the editor of "Woman's Journal", a widely-read suffragist magazine founded in 1870 by Lucy Stone and Henry B. Blackwell. She contributed to it for twenty years. That same year, she wrote her "Appeal to womanhood throughout the world", later known as the Mother's Day Proclamation, which asked women around the world to join for world peace. (See .) She authored it soon after she evolved into a pacifist and an anti-war activist. In 1872, she asked that "Mothers' Day" be celebrated on the 2nd of June. Her efforts were not successful, and by 1893 she was wondering if the 4th of July could be remade into "Mothers' Day". In 1874, she edited a coeducational defense titled "Sex and Education". She wrote a collection about the places she lived in 1880 called "Modern Society". In 1883, Howe published a biography of Margaret Fuller. Then, in 1885 she published another collection of lectures called "Is Polite Society Polite?" ("Polite society" is a euphemism for the upper class.) In 1899 she published her popular memoirs, "Reminiscences". She continued to write until her death.


title: Julia Ward Howe

text: In 1881, Howe was elected president of the Association for the Advancement of Women. Around the same time, Howe went on a speaking tour of the Pacific coast and founded the Century Club of San Francisco. In 1890, she helped found the General Federation of Women's Clubs, to reaffirm the Christian values of frugality and moderation. From 1891 to 1893, she served as president for the second time of the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association. Until her death, she was president of the New England Woman Suffrage Association. From 1893 to 1898 she directed the General Federation of Women's Clubs, and headed the Massachusetts Federation of Women's Clubs. Howe spoke at the 1893 "World's Parliament of Religions" in Chicago reflecting on the question, "What is Religion?". In 1908 Julia was the first woman to be elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a society; its goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in American literature, music, and art.


title: Julia Ward Howe

text: Howe died of pneumonia October 17, 1910, at her Portsmouth home, Oak Glen at the age of 91. She is buried in the Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts. At her memorial service approximately 4,000 people sang "Battle Hymn of the Republic" as a sign of respect as it was the custom to sing that song at each of Julia's speaking engagements.


title: Julia Ward Howe

text: After her death, her children collaborated on a biography, published in 1916. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography.


title: Masoud Barzani

text: Masoud Barzani (; born 16 August 1946) is a Kurdish politician who has been leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) since 1979, and was President of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq from 2005 to 2017.


title: Masoud Barzani

text: Barzani was born in the territory controlled by the self-declared Republic of Mahabad, and succeeded his father Mustafa Barzani as leader of the KDP in 1979.


title: Masoud Barzani

text: Working closely with his brother Idris Barzani until Idris's death, Barzani and various other Kurdish groups fought with the Islamic Republic of Iran against the Iraqi military during the Iran–Iraq War. Barzani has played a key role in the development of the Kurdistan Region polity since the Gulf War.


title: Masoud Barzani

text: A major result of Saddam Hussein's defeat in the Gulf War (1991) and Operation Provide Comfort was the ultimate establishment of Kurdish control over their traditional homeland in northern Iraq, known as Iraqi Kurdistan and "South Kurdistan". Just a few months after the creation of the autonomous zone, free elections (a first in Iraq) were held in 1992. The two main Kurdish parties, namely Barzani's KDP and the Jalal Talabani-led Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), split the vote, and subsequently split the government ministries evenly. In May 1994, however, fighting broke out between the Peshmerga of the PUK and of the KDP. On August 31, 1996 Barzani called on the assistance of Saddam Hussein's regime to help him combat the PUK, which was receiving Iranian assistance. With the aid of the Iraqi army, the KDP drove the PUK from Iraqi Kurdistan's major cities. The PUK eventually regrouped and retook Suleimani and parts of Hawler province. An end to the civil war was brokered in 1998 in the Washington Peace Accords, leaving the Kurdish zone divided between the KDP in the Northwest and PUK in the Southeast. After the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the KDP and PUK gradually established a unified regional government. Barzani became a member of the Iraqi Governing Council and was the president of the council in April 2004. He was elected as the President of Iraqi Kurdistan by the Parliament of Iraqi Kurdistan in June 2005.


title: Masoud Barzani

text: As President of the Kurdistan Region, Barzani has made official visits to several countries and met dignitaries of the likes of US President George W. Bush, UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, the Pope at the Vatican, the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in Rome and King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia in Riyadh.


title: Masoud Barzani

text: In July 2009, in the first direct elections for the presidency of the autonomous Kurdistan Region, Masoud Barzani was reelected as president by a popular ballot, receiving 69.6% of the votes. The elections were closely monitored by international observers and the Iraqi Electoral Commission. In August 2013, after the expiration of his 8-year term, the parliament extended his presidency for another two years, and he continued in the role even beyond this extension.


title: Masoud Barzani

text: Masoud Barzani was one of the eight candidates shortlisted in the "Time" magazine's 2014 Person of the Year, for his efforts to push for Kurdish independence with the ongoing fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.


title: Masoud Barzani

text: On 7 June 2017, Barzani had announced that Kurdistan Region would hold an independence referendum on 25 September 2017. On the day following the referendum, 26 September 2017, he announced that the referendum had been a success in seeking independence, and called on neighboring countries to be open to future dialogue.


title: Masoud Barzani

text: The Iraqi government rejected the results of the referendum. On 15 October, units of the Iraqi security forces and Popular Mobilization Forces, entered the Kurdish-held city of Kirkuk, forcing a withdrawal of the Peshmerga and prompting similar withdrawals across other contested cities in northern Iraq.


title: Masoud Barzani

text: Following the failure of the referendum and the Peshmerga's territorial losses, Barzani announced on 29 October that he would step down as the President of Kurdistan Region.


title: Masoud Barzani

text: Members of the Barzani family allegedly control a large number of commercial enterprises in Iraqi Kurdistan, with a gross value of several billion dollars, although no evidence of such ownership by Masoud Barzani himself exists. While accusations of corruption against both the KDP-Barzanis and the PUK-Talabanis are often levied by both Kurdish sources and international observers such as Michael Rubin, President Barzani on several occasions has denied involvement in any commercial enterprises.


title: Masoud Barzani

text: Insufficient financial transparency in the region serves to both exacerbate the accusations and hamper efforts to find any evidence of malfeasance. In July 2010 the opposition paper "Rozhnama" accused the Barzani-led KDP of pocketing large sums from illegal oil-smuggling.


title: Masoud Barzani

text: In December 2005, Kamal Qadir, a Kurdish legal scholar with Austrian citizenship, was arrested in Iraqi Kurdistan for a series of articles criticizing Barzani's government and family. He was charged with defamation and sentenced to thirty years' imprisonment. He was released in 2006 following international pressure from Amnesty International, Reporters Without Borders, and the government of Austria. In May 2010 the journalist Sardasht Osman was killed after criticising the Barzani family.


title: Masoud Barzani

text: Barzani's detractors say he is tribal, conservative, and unworldly, often playing traditional tribal roles. However, his administration in Erbil successfully built modern transportation infrastructures, attracted foreign business investment, and prioritized education.


title: Robert Irsay

text: Robert Irsay (March 5, 1923 – January 14, 1997) was an American professional football team owner. He owned the National Football League's Baltimore/Indianapolis Colts franchise from 1972 until his death in 1997.


title: Robert Irsay

text: Irsay was born on March 5, 1923 in Chicago, the son of Charles Irsay (born Charles Israel) and Elaine Nyitrai, Jewish immigrants from Hungary. In 1942 he joined the United States Marine Corps. In 1946 he was hired by his father's heating and ventilation business. In 1951 Irsay founded his own business, the Robert Irsay Co., and sold the business to Zurn Industries about a year before purchasing the Colts in 1972.


title: Robert Irsay

text: Irsay assumed ownership of the Baltimore Colts on July 13, 1972 after acquiring the Los Angeles Rams from the estate of Dan Reeves and swapping franchises with Carroll Rosenbloom, all made official on the same day. His last-minute US $19 million bid for the Rams was $2 million more than that of future Tampa Bay Buccaneers owner Hugh Culverhouse. Irsay's majority share in the Colts was initially 51%, with Willard Keland of Racine, Wisconsin owning the rest. He additionally announced the appointment of Joe Thomas as Baltimore's new general manager, succeeding Don Klosterman who accompanied Rosenbloom to Los Angeles.


title: Robert Irsay

text: Irsay's first controversial act with the Colts was his changing of head coaches from Howard Schnellenberger to general manager Joe Thomas after a 30–10 defeat to the Philadelphia Eagles at Veterans Stadium on September 29, 1974 which extended the team's season-opening losing streak to three. While stalking the Colts sideline during the second half, he voiced his preference for Bert Jones as the starting quarterback over Marty Domres by asking Schnellenberger about when he was going to make such a change. Schnellenberger's sarcastic reply resulted in his postgame dismissal. Irsay had first gone to the press box to inform Thomas that he was the new head coach and then to the locker room to announce his actions to the Colts players before breaking the news to Schnellenberger in a heated discussion in the coaches office. Middle linebacker Mike Curtis voiced the players' displeasure by saying, "This just tears me up. In defense of Irsay, he's a nice guy, an emotional guy. He doesn't know a lot about football but sometimes you lose control in an emotional situation."


title: Robert Irsay

text: Irsay's verbal abuse of his players after a loss in a final preseason match to the Detroit Lions at the Pontiac Silverdome on September 2, 1976 led to head coach Ted Marchibroda's resignation three days later on September 5. Marchibroda was also at odds with Thomas over player personnel decisions. He was rehired two days later on September 7 after offensive and defensive coordinators Whitey Dovell and Maxie Baughan threatened to quit and the players considered boycotting practice, all in support of Marchibroda.


title: Robert Irsay

text: Irsay's dysfunctional relationships with certain players in contract disputes and coaches accelerated the Colts' on-field decline in the ensuing years. He was accused of bad faith bargaining and racial discrimination by running back Lydell Mitchell who was eventually sent to the San Diego Chargers on August 23, 1978. Defensive end John Dutton contended that Irsay had spread "too many lies" about him and sat out the early part of the 1979 campaign while demanding a trade. He added, "I don't think he cares about the team, it's just a toy to him." Dutton was dealt to the Dallas Cowboys on October 9, 1979. Irsay also continually second-guessed Marchibroda.


title: Robert Irsay

text: In January 1984 Irsay appeared before the Baltimore media and exclaimed, "This is my team!" He reiterated that, despite problems, the rumors that he was moving the team were untrue. With negotiations over improvements to Memorial Stadium at an impasse, one of the chambers of the Maryland state legislature passed a law on March 27, 1984, allowing the city of Baltimore to seize the Colts under eminent domain, which city and county officials had threatened to do. Irsay claimed the city promised him a new football stadium, something they later denied, citing the team's poor attendance. The next day, fearing a dawn raid on the team's Owings Mills headquarters, Irsay accepted a deal offered by the city of Indianapolis.


title: Robert Irsay

text: Indianapolis Mayor, William H. Hudnut III, contacted John Burnside Smith, then CEO of the Mayflower Transit Company, who arranged for fifteen trucks to pack the team's property hurriedly and transport it to Indianapolis in the early hours of the morning of March 29. An ecstatic crowd in Indianapolis greeted the arrival of its new NFL team, and the team received 143,000 season ticket requests in just two weeks.


title: Robert Irsay

text: Baltimore was without a National Football League team until another controversial move in 1996, when Art Modell brought the personnel of the Cleveland Browns there to become the Baltimore Ravens.


title: Robert Irsay

text: After Irsay's death in Indianapolis on January 14, 1997, the Colts were inherited by his son, Jim, who serves as CEO. Bill Polian handled the day-to-day operations of the team as vice-chairman until his dismissal after the 2011 season.


title: Robert Irsay

text: Irsay is one of the members of the Indianapolis Colts Ring of Honor, being inducted on September 23, 1996.


title: Robert Irsay

text: In 1946, Irsay married Harriet Pogorzelski, the daughter of Polish Catholic immigrants. They raised their children Catholic. They had three children – Thomas, Roberta and Jim. Roberta was killed in an automobile accident in 1971 on I-294 outside Chicago. Thomas, who lived with a severe mental disability, lived in a Florida facility until his death in 1999 at the age of 45. Jim is now the CEO and principal owner of the Colts. Irsay, who had divorced from Harriet, married Nancy Clifford on June 17, 1989, at Second Presbyterian Church in Indianapolis; Hudnut officiated the ceremony. Nancy Irsay died November 7, 2015 at the age of 65.


title: Robert Irsay

text: Irsay suffered a stroke in November 1995 and was in intensive care at St. Vincent Indianapolis Hospital for several months. After his release he developed pneumonia, heart and kidney problems, for which he was transferred to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. He died in Indianapolis on January 14, 1997. He is interred at Crown Hill Cemetery.


title: Red Rover

text: Red Rover (also known as The King's Run and Forcing the City Gates) is a team game played primarily by children on playgrounds, requiring 10+ players.


title: Red Rover

text: The game has changed over several decades, evolving from a regular "running across" game, with one single catcher in the center of the playground, to a "combat game" with two opposing teams. The change basically consisted of merging pre-existing rules from other games with those of the original "Red Rover".


title: Red Rover

text: Originally, "Red Rover" was a regular tag and running game with several players on one side and one person (the "Red Rover") placed in the center of the playing field. The person in the center calls ""Red Rover, Red Rover, let" [player's name] "come over!"" to challenge and catch one of the players who tries to reach the other side of the playing area. If the Red Rover succeeds they both return to the center. Each player tagged joins the center and helps tag the others.


title: Red Rover

text: According to Katherine Barber, the name of the game could be based on the novel of "The Red Rover" by New York author James Fenimore Cooper. It should be of no surprise that – for a chasing game – children prefer the name of a pirate who ravages the British seas.


title: Red Rover

text: The game was first recorded in New York in 1891 in Stewart Culin's publication "Street Games of Boys in Brooklyn, N. Y.". Until the 1940s, various descriptions of this version of "Red Rover" have been published, e. g. in 1907 in Dorothea Frances Canfield's book "What Shall We Do Now? Five Hundred Games and Pastimes". In the book Canfield compared "Red Rover" with the German game of Black Man.


title: Red Rover

text: In 1903, "Red Rover" has been mentioned in "Some London Street Amusements" by Edwin Pugh, published in George Robert Sims' book "Living London – Vol. III". It also appeared in 1916 in "London Street Games", a book by Norman Douglas, although British folklorists Iona and Peter Opie stated that no record of "Red Rover" has been found in the United Kingdom before 1922.


title: Red Rover

text: The game of "Red Rover" was sometimes confused with the British game of "Warning!", and in the U.S. with a game called "Red Lion", which are both tag games but with different playing instructions. The confusion was mainly due to the similarity of names (in Moray, Scotland, the game of "Warning!" was primarily known by the name of "Johnny Rover"). Parallels, on the other hand, exist with "Bar the Door", a game that was described in 1901 by Robert Craig Maclagan in "The Games & Diversions of Argyleshire".


title: Red Rover

text: In the second half of the 1930s, the game rules started to change. A variation, representing the missing link between the original "Red Rover" and the team game, was published in 1945 in the United States by Neva Leona Boyd in the "Handbook of Games".


title: Red Rover

text: The game combines the rules of the traditional pastime, such as calling and tagging players individually by a catcher placed in the center of the playground, with those of the team game, which comes into being when the increasing number of players caught in the middle forms a chain by grasping each other's hand. The chain must be broken by the remaining players. These rules were very similar to those in the German game of Chinese Wall. Years before, in 1938, rules for "Red Rover" had already been adopted from Chinese Wall, e. g. the marking of a narrow field in the center of the playground, which the catcher is not allowed to leave.


title: Red Rover

text: By the end of the decade, the transformation process of the game was fully completed. In March 1949, Warren E. Roberts of the Indiana University Folklore Institute explained that two versions of "Red Rover" exist. In his article "Children's Games and Game Rhymes" Roberts tried to delineate the particularities between the traditional "Red Rover" and the combat game of the same name and phrase. Since the beginning of the 1950s, "Red Rover" has been described primarily as a team game. It remained unclear why the playing rules had been modified over time.


title: Red Rover

text: The later combat version of "Red Rover" is of German or Chinese origin. An early description of the game appeared in 1862 in the German education handbook "Merkbüchlein für Turner" (memorandum book for sportsmen) by Eduard Angerstein under the name "Kettenreißen" (literally "chain breaking" or "chain bursting"). Alternative names are "Kettensprengen" and "Kettenbrechen".


title: Red Rover

text: The same team game was described in 1884 – entitled "Der König schickt Soldaten aus" (the king sends out soldiers) – in the sixth edition of "Spiele zur Übung und Erholung des Körpers und Geistes" by J. C. F. GutsMuths, published in Germany by Otto Schettler in co-operation with Friedrich Wilhelm Klumpp and Justus Carl Lion.


title: Red Rover

text: In 1896, an English translation of the game named "The King's Run" was published in the United States by William Albin Stecher in the scholastic manual "A Textbook of the German-American System of Gymnastics". Further descriptions of "King's Run" followed until the late 1920s in several American books on physical education.


title: Red Rover

text: A similar variant has been recorded in China in 1901 by professor Isaac Taylor Headland of the Peking University under the name "Forcing the City Gates". In this game one of the children's groups sings a rhyme before sending a boy to the enemy's line.


title: Red Rover

text: In his article "Child Life in China" published in the "Delineator" magazine from January 1901, Headland annotated that this game was well-known to the majority of American children. He also mentioned numerous other games played by Chinese boys, among them Blind Man's Buff, Hide and Seek, Prisoner's Base, Black Man, Hockey and Shinny.


title: Red Rover

text: "Forcing the City Gates" was also described in 1909 in the recess guide "Games for the Playground, Home, School and Gymnasium" by Jessie H. Bancroft, using the game instructions of "King's Run" as a basis.


title: Red Rover

text: The game is played between two lines of players (usually called the "North" and "South" team, although this does not relate to the actual relative locations of the teams), positioned approximately thirty feet apart with hands or arms linked together. The game starts when the first team, in this example the North team, calls a player out, by saying the line ""Red Rover, Red Rover, let" [player on opposite team] "come over!"" (alternatively ""..., send" [player's name] "right over!"" or ""..., I call" [player's name] "over!"").


title: Red Rover

text: The immediate goal for the chosen one is to run to the North team's line and break the chain (formed by the players' hands). If the chosen one successfully breaks the chain, they may select either of the two "links" broken by the successful run, and take the link to join the South team. If the selected person fails, they join the North team. The South team then calls out for a person on the North team, and the play continues.


title: Red Rover

text: When only one player is left on a team, they must try to break through a link. If the player does not succeed, then the opposing team wins. Otherwise, the player gets a player back for their team.


title: Red Rover

text: In Russia and other former USSR countries, this game has been known as "", in Hungary as "Adj, király, katonát!" (King, give us a soldier!) and in Serbia as "Јелечкиње, барјачкиње" ("jelečkinje, barjačkinje", i.e., city crier and flag bearer).


title: Red Rover

text: In Romania, the game is called "Țara, țara vrem ostași" (Country, country we want soldiers). In Republic of Moldova the line is "Împărate, împărate, dați-ne un soldat!" (King, king, give us a soldier).


title: Red Rover

text: In the Czech Republic, the game is known as "Král vysílá své vojsko" (The king sends out his army), with the difference that each team chooses which of its members will attempt to break the opposite team's line, rather than sending the member called by the other team.


title: Red Rover

text: Like British Bulldog the game of "Red Rover" has been banned by many schools because of the risk of potential physical harm. This negative reputation has a long history.


title: Red Rover

text: In a description from the book "Illustriertes Spielbuch für Knaben", published in Germany in 1864, game collector Hermann Wagner stated that the game of "Kettenreißen" (chain breaking) is perceived as violent. Its practical execution often causes peevishness among the boys. Therefore, any kind of beating and punching and the use of brute force with the help of arms and legs should be strictly prohibited.


title: JP Cooper

text: John Paul Cooper (born 1 November 1983) is an English singer and songwriter. He is best known for featuring on the Jonas Blue single "Perfect Strangers". The song was certified platinum in the UK. His follow-up solo single was "September Song". He is signed to Island Records.


title: JP Cooper

text: In 2002 JP Cooper studied Contemporary Popular Music at North Trafford College, based at Beehive Mill in Manchester. There he joined a band called Kid Conspiracy, who later changed their name to Azure Glow. They grew a small following locally and enjoyed limited success, releasing self made EPs including ‘December Falls’ and ‘Listen’. They ultimately disbanded following their last UK tour in 2006.


title: JP Cooper

text: On 27 June 2012, JP Cooper released his first two extended plays "EP1" and "EP2". He featured on Don Diablo's single "The Artist Inside", it was released on 9 November 2012. He released his third extended play, "EP3" on 8 February 2013. On 20 July 2014 he released his fourth extended play "Keep the Quiet Out". He released his fifth extended play, "When the Darkness Comes" on 26 January 2015.


title: JP Cooper

text: On 18 March 2016, he released the single "Five More Days", featuring vocals from Avelino. He featured on Jonas Blue's single "Perfect Strangers", it was released on 3 June 2016. The song peaked at number 2 on the UK Singles Chart, and reached the top ten positions in eight additional countries, including Germany, Australia and Sweden. On 10 June 2016, he released the single "Party" as the lead single from his debut studio album. He released "September Song" on 16 September 2016 as the second single. The song peaked at number 7 on the UK Singles Chart, and also reached the top 10 in the Republic of Ireland and Sweden. "Passport Home" was released as the third single on 7 April 2017, peaking at number 86 on the UK Singles Chart. On 21 July 2017 he released "She's on My Mind" as the fourth single. "Wait" was released as the fifth single of his debut studio album on 25 August 2017. He eventually released his debut studio album, "Raised Under Grey Skies" on 6 October 2017. He was featured on Craig David's seventh studio album "The Time Is Now" on the song "Get Involved", that was released on 26 January 2018. On 16 June 2018, he played at Pinkpop, a festival in the Netherlands. On 26 July 2018, Cooper released "All This Love", featuring singer-songwriter Mali-Koa Hood. In August 2019, he collaborated with Gabrielle Aplin on her song "Losing Me" and in November that same year he collaborated with Stefflon Don. Cooper's second album, "She", was released on 21 February 2022.


title: 2021–22 NBA G League season

text: The 2021–22 NBA G League season was the 21st season of the NBA G League, the official minor league basketball organization owned by the National Basketball Association (NBA). The prior season, the league played a shortened season with 18 teams and all games were held at ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Bay Lake, Florida, in similar to the 2020 NBA Bubble due to the ongoing restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2021–22 season consisted of two phases: a Showcase Cup from November 5 to December 22, with all 30 teams participating before 28 of the league teams underwent a traditional regular season intended to span 36 games for each team from January 5 to April 2 before postseason. Untimely postponements, however, would lead to a varying level of games played before the end of the season, which meant roughly 31-35 games were played by each team.


title: 2021–22 NBA G League season

text: The NBA G League added one new team, had three teams relocate, and two teams rebrand for the 2021–22 season:


title: 2021–22 NBA G League season

text: Additionally, the Westchester Knicks temporarily relocated their home games from White Plains, New York, to Bridgeport, Connecticut, as their home arena, the Westchester County Center, was still being used as a COVID-19 vaccination site.


title: 2021–22 NBA G League season

text: The league changed its season format to be played in two stages: a 14-game Showcase Cup and then an intended 36-game regular season with a playoff. All 30 teams played in the Showcase Cup that ended with the NBA G League Winter Showcase on the weekend of December 19 to 22. The regular season was then set to start on December 27, but was then pushed back to January 5. The league standings reset for the start of the regular season for qualifying for the playoffs. The NBA G League Ignite and Capitanes de Ciudad de México will not participate in the regular season or playoffs, but will play a few exhibition games that do not count towards the other teams standings.


title: 2021–22 NBA G League season

text: This season is the first for Wilson as the G League's official ball brand. On May 14, 2020, the NBA announced a multi-year partnership with Wilson as the manufacturer and supplier of G League game balls, to succeed Spalding, which supplied the league since 2001 as the National Basketball Development League (NBDL).


title: 2021–22 NBA G League season

text: For the fifth time in the best-of-three series era and for the first time since 2018, a team went undefeated in postseason play, as the Rio Grande Valley Vipers went 4-0 to win their fourth league title, defeating the Delaware Blue Coats in two games. The Vipers set a couple of records during the G League Finals, most notably in Game 1 when they scored 145 points in a 145–128 victory, which was the most points scored by a team in G League Finals history. Trevelin Queen scored 44 points, the second most scored in a Final; two triple-doubles were recorded by the Vipers: Daishen Nix scored 31 points, twelve rebounds, and eleven assists and Anthony Lamb scored ten points, ten rebounds, and ten assists. This was the first time a triple-double had been recorded in the League since 2013 and it was the first Finals game to feature two triple-doubles in the same game. Mfiondu Kabengele recorded eight blocks, a Finals record. The Blue Coats became the first team since the Santa Cruz Warriors (2013, 2014) to lose back-to-back G League Finals.


title: March Hare

text: The March Hare (called Haigha in "Through the Looking-Glass") is a character most famous for appearing in the tea party scene in Lewis Carroll's 1865 book "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland".


title: March Hare

text: "Mad as a March hare" is a common British English phrase, both now and in Carroll's time, and appears in John Heywood's collection of proverbs published in 1546. It is reported in "The Annotated Alice" by Martin Gardner that this proverb is based on popular belief about hares' behaviour at the beginning of the long breeding season, which lasts from February to September in Britain. Early in the season, unreceptive females often use their forelegs to repel overenthusiastic males. It used to be incorrectly believed that these bouts were between males fighting for breeding supremacy.


title: March Hare

text: Like the character's friend, the Hatter, the March Hare feels compelled to always behave as though it is tea-time because the Hatter supposedly "murdered the time" whilst singing for the Queen of Hearts. Sir John Tenniel's illustration also shows him with straw on his head, a common way to depict madness in Victorian times. The March Hare later appears at the trial for the Knave of Hearts, and for a final time as "Haigha" (which is pronounced to rhyme with "mayor", according to Carroll, and a homophone of "hare" in a non-rhotic accent), the personal messenger to the White King in "Through the Looking-Glass" (Alice either does not recognize him as the March Hare of her earlier dream, or chooses not to comment about this).


title: March Hare

text: The major departure from Carroll's original here is that instead of appearing a jittery witness, the March Hare is cast as the Prosecutor. After the charge is read, the Hare addresses the court with an opening statement that more or less vindicates the accused, before turning his accusing eye upon the court itself for failing to serve tea with the evidence (the tarts).


title: March Hare

text: Disney's "Alice in Wonderland", an animated film, depicted the March Hare at the tea party as being deliriously confused. He repeatedly offers Alice a cup of tea, but distractedly pulls the cup out of her reach or takes it from her hands just as she is about to drink. He was voiced by Jerry Colonna, after whom his appearance and personality were modelled. He was animated by Ward Kimball.


title: March Hare

text: This version of the character was also a semi-regular on "Bonkers" and one of the guests in "House of Mouse", often seen seated with the Mad Hatter. During these appearances, the March Hare was voiced by Jesse Corti and Maurice LaMarche.


title: March Hare

text: The March Hare appears in the 2010 Disney film "Alice in Wonderland", voiced by Paul Whitehouse. His full name is Thackery Earwicket; this, however, is not mentioned in the film. In the movie, the March Hare behaves as if constantly nerve-wracked and completely delirious. He is a cook in the film, and the way he eccentrically throws dishes and pots suggests he is an amalgam of both the March Hare and the cook from Lewis Carroll's original book. The March Hare has a strong Scottish accent in this movie, while his friend the Mad Hatter (played by Johnny Depp) switches into a Scottish accent as well whenever his emotions are strained. He is first seen in the "Tea Party" scene, which takes place at his "Hare House" windmill. Thackery hosts a tea party, which he shares with Tarrant Hightopp the Mad Hatter, Mallymkun the Dormouse, and Chess the Cheshire Cat. He appears a second time in the White Queen's kitchen, frantically cooking and throwing dishes. His third appearance is at the Frabjous Day scene, in which he stands with the other characters wielding a ladle as his weapon, nervous and somewhat ready to go to battle. Burton stated that because Whitehouse is a great comedic actor, a lot of his lines came from improvisation.


title: March Hare

text: The March Hare appears in the "Mad T Party" in Disney's California Adventure park. He is based on the 2010 film's interpretation, and plays bass guitar. He is often found hopping around with Mallymkun the Dormouse on stage.


title: Brea, California

text: Brea (; Spanish for "tar") is a city in northern Orange County, California. The population as of the 2010 census was 39,282. It is southeast of Los Angeles. Brea is part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area.


title: Brea, California

text: The city began as a center of crude oil production, was later propelled by citrus production. It is a significant retail center, including the Brea Mall and downtown Brea. The city has an extensive public art program which began in 1975 and continues today with over 140 artworks in the collection placed and located throughout the city.


title: Brea, California

text: The area was visited on July 29, 1769, by the Spanish Portolá expedition – the first Europeans to see inland parts of Alta California. The party camped in Brea Canyon, near a large native village and a small pool of clean water. A historical marker dedicated to his visit stands in Brea Canyon just north of town.


title: Brea, California

text: The village of Olinda was founded in present-day Carbon Canyon at the beginning of the 19th century and many entrepreneurs came to the area searching for "black gold" (petroleum). In 1894, the owner of the land, Abel Stearns, sold west of Olinda to the newly created Union Oil Company of California, and by 1898 many nearby hills began sporting wooden oil drilling towers on the newly discovered Brea-Olinda Oil Field. In 1908 the village of Randolph, named for railway engineer Epes Randolph, was founded just south of Brea Canyon for oil workers and their families. Baseball legend Walter Johnson grew up in Olinda at the start of the 20th century where he worked in the surrounding oil fields as a youth.


title: Brea, California

text: The villages of Olinda and Randolph grew and merged as the economy boomed. On January 19, 1911, the town's map was filed under the new name of Brea, from the Spanish language word for natural asphalt, also called bitumen, pitch or tar. With a population of 752, Brea was incorporated on February 23, 1917, as the eighth official city of Orange County.


title: Brea, California

text: As oil production declined, some agricultural development took place, especially lemon and orange groves. In the 1920s, the Brea Chamber of Commerce promoted the city with the slogan “Oil, Oranges, and Opportunity.”


title: Brea, California

text: In 1950 Brea had a population of 3,208. The citrus groves gave way gradually to industrial parks and residential development. In 1956, Carl N. Karcher opened the first two Carl's Jr. restaurants in Anaheim, California and Brea, California. The opening of the Orange Freeway (57) and the Brea Mall in the 1970s spurred further residential growth, including large planned developments east of the 57 Freeway in the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s.


title: Brea, California

text: In the late 1990s, a swath of downtown Brea centered on Brea Boulevard and Birch Street was heavily redeveloped into a shopping and entertainment area with movie theaters, sidewalk cafes, a live comedy club from The Improv chain, numerous shops and restaurants, and a weekly farmer's market. It is locally known and signed as Downtown Brea. The downtown area opened in 2000.


title: Brea, California

text: "Sunset" magazine named Brea one of the five best suburbs to live in the Western United States in early 2006.


title: Brea, California

text: According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of . of it is land and 0.26% is water.


title: Brea, California

text: It is bordered by unincorporated Orange County and Los Angeles County to the north and east, La Habra to the west, Fullerton to the southwest, Placentia to the south, and Yorba Linda to the southeast.


title: Brea, California

text: According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Brea has a hot-summer Mediterranean climate, abbreviated "Csa" on climate maps.


title: Brea, California

text: Brea is governed by a council-manager system. The five-member city council is elected to four-year terms in elections held every two years to fill alternately two and three seats. The council is made up of the mayor, the mayor pro tem and three councilmembers. The council elects a mayor from the serving councilmembers to serve a one-year term as mayor. The city council hires a city manager to direct the city's departments and advise the council. The council appoints members of the Planning Commission; Parks, Recreation and Human Services Commission; Cultural Arts Commission, and Traffic Committee.


title: Brea, California

text: Fire protection for Brea is provided by the Brea Fire Department (BFD) and law enforcement is provided by the Brea Police Department. Within Carbon Canyon, in the Olinda neighborhood of Brea, is situated Olinda Landfill, a major waste management facility serving a large part of Orange County.


title: Brea, California

text: The 2010 United States Census reported that Brea had a population of 39,282. The population density was . The racial makeup of Brea was 26,363 (67.1%) White (52.7% Non-Hispanic White), 549 (1.4%) African American, 190 (0.5%) Native American, 7,144 (18.2%) Asian, 69 (0.2%) Pacific Islander, 3,236 (8.2%) from other races, and 1,731 (4.4%) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 9,817 persons (25.0%).


title: Brea, California

text: The census reported that 39,213 people (99.8% of the population) lived in households, 69 (0.2%) lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 0 (0%) were institutionalized.


title: Brea, California

text: There were 14,266 households, out of which 5,043 (35.3%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 8,132 (57.0%) were opposite-sex married couples living together, 1,605 (11.3%) had a female householder with no husband present, 632 (4.4%) had a male householder with no wife present. There were 569 (4.0%) unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 100 (0.7%) same-sex married couples or partnerships. 3,070 households (21.5%) were made up of individuals, and 1,265 (8.9%) had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.75. There were 10,369 families (72.7% of all households); the average family size was 3.23.


title: Brea, California

text: The population was spread out, with 9,057 people (23.1%) under the age of 18, 3,654 people (9.3%) aged 18 to 24, 10,669 people (27.2%) aged 25 to 44, 10,952 people (27.9%) aged 45 to 64, and 4,950 people (12.6%) who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38.7 years. For every 100 females, there were 95.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.9 males.


title: Brea, California

text: There were 14,785 housing units at an average density of , of which 9,266 (65.0%) were owner-occupied, and 5,000 (35.0%) were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.3%; the rental vacancy rate was 5.3%. 26,889 people (68.5% of the population) lived in owner-occupied housing units and 12,324 people (31.4%) lived in rental housing units.


title: Brea, California

text: According to the 2010 United States Census, Brea had a median household income of $82,055, with 5.6% of the population living below the federal poverty line.


title: Brea, California

text: There were 13,067 households, out of which 34.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 56.6% were married couples living together, 10.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 28.8% were non-families. 23.0% of all households were made up of individuals, and 8.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.70 and the average family size was 3.21.


title: Brea, California

text: In the city, the population was spread out, with 25.6% under the age of 18, 8.5% from 18 to 24, 30.4% from 25 to 44, 24.1% from 45 to 64, and 11.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females, there were 95.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.9 males.


title: Brea, California

text: The median income for a household in the city was $64,820, and the median income for a family was $68,423. Males had a median income of $50,500 versus $35,674 for females. The per capita income for the city was $26,307. About 3.4% of families and 5.3% of the population were below the poverty line, including 6.7% of those under age 18 and 5.2% of those age 65 or over.


title: Brea, California

text: Brea is traditionally a Republican stronghold at the presidential level; however, Democratic candidate Joe Biden carried the city in 2020. According to the California Secretary of State, as of October 22, 2018, Brea has 24,775 registered voters. Of those, 9,991 (40.33%) are registered Republicans, 7,370 (29.75%) are registered Democrats, and 6,466 (26.10%) have declined to state a political party or are independents.


title: Brea, California

text: According to the city's 2019 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the top employers in the city are:


title: Brea, California

text: The city is primarily served by the Brea Olinda Unified School District which operates six elementary schools, one junior high school (Brea Junior High School), one high school (Brea Olinda High School) and one continuation high school (Brea Canyon High School). A small portion of Brea is also directed to Sonora High School in La Habra in the Fullerton Joint Union High School District. That small portion is also directed to the La Habra City School District. In addition, students can also take an assessment to place in nearby Troy High School in Fullerton, also part of the Fullerton High School District.


title: Brea, California

text: There are many private schools in Brea, the Brea Head Start (Pre) Brea Olinda Friends School (Pre-6), Brea Congregational Pre-School, Brea Foursquare Church (Pre-5), Brea United Methodist Pre-School ("BUMPS"), Carbon Canyon Christian School (K-12), Christ Lutheran School (Pre-8), St. Angela Merici Parish School (TK-8), and Montessori of Brea (K-6). Brea is also home to the Southern California College of Business and Law and the Southern California extension of Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary.


title: Brea, California

text: Local schools have won several awards. Brea Olinda High School and Olinda Elementary School have been named Blue Ribbon Schools. Additionally, Arovista Elementary, Country Hills Elementary, Fanning Elementary, Mariposa Elementary, Olinda Elementary, Brea Junior High and Brea Olinda High schools have been named California Distinguished Schools. Laurel Elementary received a Title I Academic Achievement Award. Brea Junior High School and Brea Olinda High School have been named California Gold Ribbon Schools.


title: YTMND

text: YTMND, an initialism for "You're the Man Now, Dog", is an online community centered on the creation of hosted memetic web pages (known within the community as "fads", "YTMNDs" or "sites") featuring a juxtaposition of an image (still or short animation) centered or tiled along with optional large zooming text and a looping sound file. Images and sound files used in YTMNDs are usually either created or edited by users. YTMND is generally considered to be a humor website, owing its tone and culture to the original YTMND and its early imitators.


title: YTMND

text: YTMND originated in 2001 from Max Goldberg's original website, "yourethemannowdog.com", which he registered along with "dustindiamond.com" after seeing a trailer for the movie "Finding Forrester" in which Sean Connery says the line "You're the man now, dog!". Originally, the website featured the text "YOURE THE MAN NOW DOG.COM" drawn out in 3D ASCII text with a sound loop from the "Finding Forrester" trailer of Sean Connery reciting the phrase "You're the man now, dog!". The advent of zoomed text currently on the website was seen in the following months, where the website also featured a photograph of Sean Connery. Goldberg's new


title: YTMND

text: creation inspired others to make similar sites with other movie and television quotations (or any other sound clip they wished to use). At first, Goldberg maintained a list and mirror of these sites, but the list soon became exceptionally long.


title: YTMND

text: In 2004, Goldberg wrote a press release after winning a lawsuit filed by Dustin Diamond for the "fan page" at the aforementioned dustindiamond.com. He mentioned yourethemannowdog.com, as well as a new website, YTMND, that would be ready by April 10. The website opened that day after a rushed coding and design process. The site caught on in popularity and became an Internet phenomenon when major weblogs and Internet forums began linking to the "Picard Song" YTMND.


title: YTMND

text: In November 2005, YTMND changed its layout and added new features, including a comment management system and new lists for the main page. A feature debuted soon after allowing users to donate money on behalf of a YTMND chosen by the user in exchange for its increased exposure through the main site.


title: YTMND

text: On September 24, 2006, YTMND changed to a new layout and design. The re-design added new features, such as the YTMND digest.


title: YTMND

text: On August 29, 2016, Max Goldberg announced that YTMND would likely soon be shutting down, citing ill health and the site's inability to fund its own hosting fees from ad revenue. Goldberg stated "Besides being a time capsule I don't really see a reason for it to continue to exist... It seems like the internet has moved on...And I've moved on too. I don't have much interest in the site beyond it being good memories."


title: YTMND

text: In August 2018, Archive Team revealed that it had archived the entirety of the site's content up to that point. On May 12, 2018, the site stopped accepting new user signups as a result of Google shutting down version 1 of its ReCAPTCHA anti-spam mechanism.


title: YTMND

text: In May 2019, the site experienced major downtime, which led media outlets to report that the site had been shut down permanently. The site itself partially came back online, with a page stating that there had been a "catastrophic failure" in its database, and stating that whether the site will be restored was undecided.


title: YTMND

text: On May 17, 2019, Max Goldberg wrote to supporters on his Patreon that an "outpouring of support" had convinced him to work to save the site, opening a community Discord and soliciting input on modernizing the site. Suggestions included abandoning Adobe Flash Player in favor of HTML5, as well as implementing Transport Layer Security and "other modern necessities." On May 21, 2019, the main page was updated to reflect that YTMND subdomains and search functionality should be functional. He announced the launch of the HTML5 player using Ogg Vorbis on June 5, 2019. The restoration of search functionality on a repaired database was completed in December 2019.


title: YTMND

text: On March 31, 2020, YTMND re-launched in earnest, including all of the previously hosted YTMND sites and the ability to log in, create accounts, recover passwords, and post new sites. It has also been updated to work using HTML5 media playable, HTTPS communications, and includes a mobile-friendly interface.


title: YTMND

text: In January 2006, eBaum's World hosted and watermarked a Lindsay Lohan montage created by YTMND user SpliceVW without crediting either SpliceVW or YTMND. In response to their actions, users from YTMND joined users from other Internet communities and launched an attack on the forums on eBaum's World, using spam posting and denial-of-service attacks to repeatedly crash them.


title: YTMND

text: Goldberg denounced the ongoing attacks, stating that they had "really crossed the line" and were a "vulgar display of power". He later stated that any YTMND member whose site promoted attacks would have his or her account deleted and that the conflict had placed both himself and his hosting company in a negative light.


title: YTMND

text: On January 10, eBaum's World alleged the attacks were a form of cyberterrorism, and on January 11, Neil Bauman, the executive vice president of eBaum's World, publicly stated that arrests were being made in relation to the attacks. Eventually, Goldberg and Bauman came to an agreement: Bauman removed the montage from his website, and Goldberg removed references to "eBaum" from his. Though the conflict was resolved, both sites experienced DDoS attacks on the morning of January 12, 2006.


title: YTMND

text: On June 10, 2006, a cease and desist form was sent to Goldberg by lawyers of the Church of Scientology, claiming that several YTMND pages with Scientology-related content had infringed on Scientology copyrights. In response, Goldberg replied to the lawyer that the cease and desist form was "completely groundless" and he would not be deleting any Scientology-related sites. Days later, a Scientology page section appeared on the front page along with a disclaimer on the bottom stating the following: "This website is in no way affiliated, sponsored or owned by the Church of Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard, SeaOrg, Dianetics, volcanoes or aliens of any sort. We are, however, sponsored by Citizens for the Release of Xenu, a not-for-sanity organization." According to Goldberg, there have not been any recent updates regarding the potential lawsuit.


title: YTMND

text: On January 11, 2007, Goldberg revealed that Sega Europe had sent a cease and desist letter concerning the "Sonic Says..." fad, which features a clip from the Sonic animated series. The letter alleged that consumers "may be confused into believing that [the offending pages are] in someway [sic] linked to or associated with" the company. In its letter, Sega stated that it would take legal action after seven days if ownership of all "that's no good" web domains were not handed over. After almost two weeks of silence following the original 7-day limit, Goldberg declared the issue had "blown over."


title: YTMND

text: On July 17, 2007, Goldberg received a string of letters and phone calls from lawyers representing Scholastic threatening legal action if sites revealing spoilers for "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" were not removed, in response to several YTMNDs with scanned pages that Goldberg posted on the front page. As more sites were created with spoilers, additional letters were sent. Goldberg responded to Scholastic by declining to take down Harry Potter-related sites.


title: YTMND

text: In May 2009, the Pez corporation sent a cease-and-desist letter regarding two YTMNDs depicting fake Pez dispensers with Adolf Hitler and Charles Manson's heads on the containers, which they found insulting, and demanded that YTMND refrain from allowing any Pez-related items to be displayed on the site. Goldberg responded by starting a fad contest involving the candy company, with the prize being a possible lawsuit.


title: YTMND

text: Due to the nature and format of YTMNDs, the site has garnered attention from outside media sources. In 2005, Reuters wrote an article on Tom Cruise which made a reference to the "Tom Cruise Kills Oprah" YTMND. The site received further publicity when "The Wall Street Journal" published an article about YTMND, and mentioned several popular website creations, linking to many of them through their website. The original "Tom Cruise Kills Oprah" video, on which the YTMND is based, was mentioned on Dateline NBC's "The Mank Blog" segment, VH1's show "Web Junk 20", and CBC Newsworld's with George Stroumboulopoulos.


title: YTMND

text: On the February 1, 2006, episode of "Attack of the Show!", viewers were asked to "make a kickass YTMND" for the show's "user created" segment. In order for sites to qualify for this YTMND competition, members were required to add "aots" at the beginning of the site's URL. In March, Game-Revolution held a contest for video game-themed YTMNDs. The winner won a PSP as a prize. In the March 2006 issue of "Stuff" magazine, there is a mention of the original "You're the Man Now Dog" website. YTMND was again mentioned in the magazine in June 2006 when a link to timetraveler.ytmnd.com was printed. In May, Current TV host and producer Max Lugavere was spotted wearing a YTMND T-shirt on the network. In the August 2006 issue of "Wired", an article under the "Expert" column by the name of "1 Web Site, 250,000 Idiotic Clips. LOL!" was printed. In the article, five of Goldberg's favorite YTMNDs (You're the Man Now, Dog; Vader Coaster; Lohan Facial; LOL Internet; Blue Ball Machine) were mentioned, along with commentary from Max himself for each one. The article's writer, James Lee, can be quoted as saying "Repeat an image loop and a sound file – as 24-year-old Max Goldberg with You're the Man Now, Dog – and pretty soon you'll have 4 million visitors a month and 120,000 contributors uploading their own clips." Also in August 2006, an effort of YTMND users to post satirical reviews on the Amazon page for Tuscan whole milk was covered by "The New York Times".


title: YTMND

text: YTMND was featured in an article for the July 30, 2006, issue of "The Washington Post". The article describes how Goldberg conceived yourethemannowdog.com, its rise in popularity, and the elements of a YTMND site. The article also referred to the creators of YTMNDs as "artists". Goldberg signed a release for "The Colbert Report" to show Stephen Colbert-related YTMNDs. A select few seconds of a YTMND was shown. On November 23, "The Washington Post" reported on telemarketing pranks in which they named a number of websites, including howtoprankatelemarketer.ytmnd.com. Various other news reporting sites have printed the same article, including Reuters and "The Wall Street Journal". A Swedish newspaper, "metro", also included the site in a separate article.


title: Bullet Points (Breaking Bad)

text: "Bullet Points" is the fourth episode of the fourth season of the American television drama series "Breaking Bad", and the 37th overall episode of the series. It originally aired on AMC in the United States on August 7, 2011.


title: Bullet Points (Breaking Bad)

text: The episode opens with Mike Ehrmantraut riding in the back of a Los Pollos Hermanos refrigerator truck on a meth delivery run. The truck suddenly screeches to a halt as it is forced off the road by a pair of hijackers. Mike quickly pulls out his gun and listens as the gunmen pull the driver from the cab and shoot him in the head. He then takes cover as the gunmen raise Heckler & Koch MP5K submachine guns and shoot up the trailer. After firing two volleys, the gunmen break into the truck, only to be promptly shot dead by Mike. Only after he steps out of the truck does Mike find that one bullet has grazed his right ear.


title: Bullet Points (Breaking Bad)

text: Walter White and Skyler White prepare an elaborate story about Walter having a gambling addiction and a successful card counting method. They hope it will explain how they can pay for Hank Schrader's medical bills and purchase a car wash (that will actually be used to launder Walter's meth profits). Walter remains too distracted to put much effort into the charade and is worried about how Walter White Jr. will perceive him. During a family dinner at Hank and Marie Schrader's, Skyler and Walter tell everyone the gambling addiction story, but Hank and Walter Jr. turn out to be impressed by it.


title: Bullet Points (Breaking Bad)

text: Later, Walter is shocked to learn that Hank is investigating Gale Boetticher's murder. Hank says that he believes that Gale was the elusive Heisenberg and expresses regret that he was not able to arrest him. When asked by Hank to read about a chemical process written in Gale's lab notes, Walt notices a line from a Walt Whitman poem and a dedication: "W.W. My Star, My Perfect Silence." When Hank mentions the initials matching Walt's, Walt jokingly admits "you got me," before telling Hank that "W.W." refers to the poet. When Walt asks Hank about the investigation, he learns that the only leads are some fingerprints and an eyewitness spotted at the scene. Hearing about this evidence, Walt is spooked and worries that the police will connect Jesse Pinkman to the murder.


title: Bullet Points (Breaking Bad)

text: Walter goes to Jesse's house and is disgusted by its condition, as it is now being used as a drug den by addicts and vagrants. Jesse is adamant nothing can connect him to Gale's murder, but when he is asked if he picked up the shell casing from the gun (which could have his fingerprints on it), it is revealed he did not. When he is further questioned about the murder, Jesse starts to panic due to the memory of it and pays two druggies to kick Walter out of the house. Walter later laments to Saul Goodman about how the meth business is falling apart because no one is acting professionally, and rejects an offer to go into hiding.


title: Bullet Points (Breaking Bad)

text: Jesse's detached complacency eventually leads to all of his meth money being stolen from his house, but Mike quickly recovers it and warns Jesse that he's on thin ice. Jesse is apathetic about the loss and recovery, leading Mike to tell Gus Fring that Jesse's lack of professionalism is a problem for the organization, and they must intervene. Jesse does not show up at the lab the next day and Walter realizes that he has been kidnapped. The episode ends with Mike driving Jesse to an unknown destination. When he asks Jesse if he would like to know where they are going, the only reply is a simple "nope."


title: Bullet Points (Breaking Bad)

text: "Bullet Points" was written by Moira Walley-Beckett and directed by Colin Bucksey, the third "Breaking Bad" episode he directed after "Phoenix" in season two and "I See You" in season three. During the cold open scene, one of Gus' drug-smuggling trucks is attacked by members of a Mexican drug cartel. This is a reference to what series creator Vince Gilligan refers to as a brewing "cold war" between Gus and the cartel due to Gus' actions against them during the third season. The scene in "Bullet Points" is the first reference to this storyline since the third-season finale "Full Measure", when Mike killed several cartel henchmen who had taken over one of Gus' chemical supply warehouses. To create the bullet holes that strike the truck Mike is hiding inside, the special effects department drilled, wired and hand-planted 380 squib explosives onto the truck, including 150 on each side of the vehicle and 80 for the back door. Two sets of the back door were used, one for the view of shots being fired at the exterior of the door and one for the view of the interior.


title: Bullet Points (Breaking Bad)

text: For the scene with Mike waiting inside the refrigeration truck, series creator Vince Gilligan wanted audiences to be able to see his breath so they would know how cold it was. To create that effect, the special effects crew designed a tiny plastic box with holes in it and placed dry ice inside, which Banks kept inside his mouth to create condensation when he exhaled. The idea was based on a similar device film director Frank Capra previously used with his actors in one of his films, which Gilligan read about in Capra's autobiography. The device worked, but had to be adjusted because it initially created an effect that looked more like cigarette smoke. Also for that scene, a bloody chunk of skin can be seen dangling from Mike's ear after he is shot. For that effect, special effects creators Greg Nicotero and Howard Berger, who are part of the company KNB Efx Group, made a mold of actor Jonathan Banks' ear and made an application for him to wear during filming. It was applied onto Banks by "Breaking Bad" make-up artists Corey Welk and Frieda Valenzuela.


title: Bullet Points (Breaking Bad)

text: David Costabile briefly reprised his role as Gale Boetticher. When Hank first reveals to Walter that he is investigating Gale's murder, he shows him a DVD of Gale singing karaoke with Thai subtitles. The idea was that Gale participated in a karaoke booth in Thailand and kept the DVD as a souvenir; "Breaking Bad" music supervisor Thomas Golubic specifically found someone who could translate the song lyrics into Thai for the video. A similar joke was featured in the HBO comedy series "Flight of the Conchords", which also features Costabile in a supporting role. Gilligan said he was not aware of that joke at the time, but watched it after conceiving of the Gale joke and researching karaoke. He said of it: "It was freaking hilarious. It's brilliant. And then I was thinking, 'Oh shit, should we even do this now, because how can it be as good as those guys?'" Gale sings the Peter Schilling song "Major Tom (Coming Home)", which Gilligan chose because he felt it was appropriate for the character: "It felt right. It's a bit cheesy, it's earnest, but it also kind of sticks in your head and it's fun."


title: Bullet Points (Breaking Bad)

text: In the background of the karaoke performance, stock footage from the science-fiction television series "Quark" was visible in the background. Gilligan was a fan of the show during childhood and recognized it while reviewing available stock footage. The full karaoke video was made available on the official "Breaking Bad" website after the episode was first broadcast. The scene when Walter looks through Gale's notebook at Hank's behest features a montage of quick cuts between the notebook pages and Walter's face as he read. The montage was conceived by Gilligan, who wanted to express Walter's stress over reading the notebook to the viewers without overtly showing those emotions on Walter's face and arousing Hank's suspicion. It was difficult to shoot because the actors had to display these emotions without overtly expressing them, and the scene had to be reshot a second time as a result.


title: Bullet Points (Breaking Bad)

text: Jeremy Howard made a guest appearance in "Bullet Points" as Sketchy, a drug addict who speaks non-stop during scenes at Jesse's parties. Howard was acquainted with Bryan Cranston, who had cast him in an episode of the comedy series "Malcolm in the Middle" that Cranston directed. Howard was originally only slated to play Sketchy in the "Breaking Bad" episode "Open House", but Gilligan liked him so much he brought the character back for "Bullet Points". During one scene, Sketchy walks off-screen and accidentally knocks over several beer bottles, making a loud noise. The moment was accidental and unscripted, but the crew found it so funny they included it in the final cut of the episode. During a different scene at Jesse's party, Jesse buzzes the heads of several of his long-haired guests. MacLaren said it was difficult to find extras willing to have their heads shaved because those with long enough hair were so conscious of their hair that they did not want it cut. Several extras who signed up for the part dropped out before they finally found those willing to do it. Jesse also has his head buzzed, which was actor Aaron Paul's idea because he felt it was appropriate for the inner turmoil his character was experiencing.


title: Bullet Points (Breaking Bad)

text: The episode received positive reviews. Seth Amitin of IGN awarded the episode an 8 out of 10 calling it "a solid building block for future story lines". Alan Sepinwall of HitFix gave the episode a positive review calling it "very oddly-structured, but never uninteresting". Matt Richenthal of TV Fanatic awarded the episode 4.9 out of 5 calling it "phenomenal". Donna Bowman reviewing for "The A.V. Club" gave the episode an "A−".


title: Iron(II) oxide

text: Iron(II) oxide or ferrous oxide is the inorganic compound with the formula FeO. Its mineral form is known as wüstite. One of several iron oxides, it is a black-colored powder that is sometimes confused with rust, the latter of which consists of hydrated iron(III) oxide (ferric oxide). Iron(II) oxide also refers to a family of related non-stoichiometric compounds, which are typically iron deficient with compositions ranging from FeO to FeO.


title: Iron(II) oxide

text: The procedure is conducted under an inert atmosphere to avoid the formation of iron(III) oxide (FeO). A similar procedure can also be used for the synthesis of manganous oxide and stannous oxide.


title: Iron(II) oxide

text: Iron(II) oxide adopts the cubic, rock salt structure, where iron atoms are octahedrally coordinated by oxygen atoms and the oxygen atoms octahedrally coordinated by iron atoms. The non-stoichiometry occurs because of the ease of oxidation of Fe to Fe effectively replacing a small portion of Fe with two thirds their number of Fe, which take up tetrahedral positions in the close packed oxide lattice.


title: Iron(II) oxide

text: In contrast to the crystalline solid, in the molten state iron atoms are coordinated by predominantly 4 or 5 oxygen atoms.


title: Iron(II) oxide

text: Below 200 K there is a minor change to the structure which changes the symmetry to rhombohedral and samples become antiferromagnetic.


title: Iron(II) oxide

text: Iron(II) oxide makes up approximately 9% of the Earth's mantle. Within the mantle, it may be electrically conductive, which is a possible explanation for perturbations in Earth's rotation not accounted for by accepted models of the mantle's properties.


title: Iron(II) oxide

text: Iron(II) oxide is used as a pigment. It is FDA-approved for use in cosmetics and it is used in some tattoo inks. It can also be used as a phosphate remover from home aquaria.


title: Lois McMaster Bujold

text: Lois McMaster Bujold ( ; born November 2, 1949) is an American speculative fiction writer. She is an acclaimed writer, having won the Hugo Award for best novel four times, matching Robert A. Heinlein's record (not counting his Retro Hugos). Her novella "The Mountains of Mourning" won both the Hugo Award and Nebula Award. In the fantasy genre, "The Curse of Chalion" won the Mythopoeic Award for Adult Literature and was nominated for the 2002 World Fantasy Award for best novel, and both her fourth Hugo Award and second Nebula Award were for "Paladin of Souls". In 2011 she was awarded the Skylark Award. She has won two Hugo Awards for Best Series, in 2017 for the Vorkosigan Saga and in 2018 for the World of the Five Gods. The Science Fiction Writers of America named her its 36th SFWA Grand Master in 2019.


title: Lois McMaster Bujold

text: The bulk of Bujold's works comprises three series: the Vorkosigan Saga, the World of the Five Gods, and the Sharing Knife series.


title: Lois McMaster Bujold

text: Bujold is the daughter of Robert Charles McMaster and attributes her early interest in science fiction, as well as certain aspects of the Vorkosigan Saga, to his influence. He was editor of the "Nondestructive Testing Handbook".


title: Lois McMaster Bujold

text: Bujold writes that her experience growing up with a famous father is reflected in the same experience that her characters (Miles, Fiametta) have of growing up in the shadow of a "Great Man". Having observed this tendency in both genders, she wonders why it is always called "great man's son syndrome", and never "great man's daughter's syndrome." Her brother, an engineer like their father, helped provide technical details to support her writing of "Falling Free".


title: Lois McMaster Bujold

text: She has stated that she was always a "voracious reader". She started reading adult science fiction at the age of nine, picking up the habit from her father. She became a member of science fiction fandom, joined the Central Ohio Science Fiction Society, and co-published "StarDate", a science fiction fanzine in which a story of hers appeared under the byline Lois McMaster. Her reading tastes later expanded and she stated she now reads "history, mysteries, romance, travel, war, poetry, etc".


title: Lois McMaster Bujold

text: She attended Ohio State University from 1968 to 1972. While she was interested in writing, she didn't pursue an English major, feeling it was too concerned with literary criticism instead of literary creation.


title: Lois McMaster Bujold

text: She married John Fredric Bujold in 1971, but they divorced in the early 1990s. The marriage produced two children, a daughter named Anne (born 1979) and a son named Paul (born 1981). Anne Bujold is currently (January 2020) Artist-In-Residence for the Metals Department at the Appalachian Center for Craft, a campus of Tennessee Tech; formerly she was a metal artist and welder in Portland, Oregon and vice president of the Northwest Blacksmith Association. Bujold currently lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.


title: Lois McMaster Bujold

text: Bujold had been friends with Lillian Stewart Carl since high school, where they "collaborated on extended story lines [but where] only a fragment of the total was written out.". At one point, she even co-produced a "Star Trek" zine called "StarDate" which she wrote for. In college, she wrote a Sherlock Holmes mystery as well. However, she stopped writing after that, being busy with marriage, family, and a career in hospital patient care.


title: Lois McMaster Bujold

text: It wasn't until her thirties that she returned to writing. Bujold has credited her friend Lillian Stewart Carl's first book sales with inspiring her to return to the field: "it occurred to me that if she could do it, I could do it too." She originally planned to write as a hobby again, but discovered the amount of work required was too much for anything other than a profession, so she decided to turn professional. With support from Carl and Patricia Wrede, she was able to complete her first novel.


title: Lois McMaster Bujold

text: Lois Bujold wrote three books ("Shards of Honor", "The Warrior's Apprentice" and "Ethan of Athos") before "The Warrior's Apprentice" was finally accepted, after four rejections. "The Warrior's Apprentice" was the first book purchased, though not the first Vorkosigan book written, nor would it be the first one to be published. On the strength of "The Warrior's Apprentice", Baen Books agreed to a three-book deal to include the two bracketing novels. By 2010, Baen Books claimed to have sold two million copies of Bujold's books.


title: Lois McMaster Bujold

text: Bujold is best known for her Vorkosigan Saga, a series of novels featuring Miles Vorkosigan, a physically impaired interstellar spy and mercenary admiral from the planet Barrayar, set approximately 1000 years in the future. The series also includes prequels starring Miles' parents, along with companion novels centered on secondary characters. Earlier titles are generally firmly in the space opera tradition with no shortage of battles, conspiracies, and wild twists, while in more recent volumes, Miles becomes more of a detective. In "A Civil Campaign", Bujold explores yet another genre: a high-society romance with a plot that pays tribute to Regency romance novelist Georgette Heyer (as acknowledged in the dedication). It centers on a catastrophic dinner party, with misunderstandings and dialogue justifying the subtitle "A Comedy of Biology and Manners".


title: Lois McMaster Bujold

text: The author has stated that the series structure is modeled after the Horatio Hornblower books, documenting the life of a single person. In themes and echoes, they also reflect Dorothy L. Sayers' mystery character Lord Peter Wimsey. Bujold has also said that part of the challenge of writing a series is that many readers will encounter the stories in "utterly random order", so she must provide sufficient background in each of them without being excessively repetitious. Most recent printings of her Vorkosigan tales do include an appendix at the end of each book, summarizing the internal chronology of the series.


title: Lois McMaster Bujold

text: Bujold has discussed her own views on the optimum reading order for the Vorkosigan series in her blog.


title: Lois McMaster Bujold

text: Bujold also wanted to break into the fantasy genre, but met with early setbacks. Her first foray into fantasy was "The Spirit Ring". She wrote the book "on spec", shopped it around, and found low offers, sending her back to Baen Books, where Jim Baen bought it for a fair price in exchange for the promise of more Vorkosigan books. Bujold called this experience very educational; the book received little critical acclaim, and had only mediocre sales.


title: Lois McMaster Bujold

text: She would not attempt to break into the fantasy market again for almost another decade, with "The Curse of Chalion". This book was also written on spec and offered up to a book auction. This time, she met with considerable critical and commercial success by tapping into a crossover market of fantasy and romance genre fans. The fantasy world of Chalion was first conceived as a result of a University of Minnesota course she was taking about medieval Spain in her spare time. She would eventually expand the setting into the "World of the Five Gods" series, including "Paladin of Souls", "The Hallowed Hunt", and the eleven novels, novellas, and short stories of the Penric and Desdemona series.


title: Lois McMaster Bujold

text: The next fantasy world she created was the tetralogy set in the universe of "The Sharing Knife", borrowing inspiration for its landscapes and for the dialect of the "farmers" from ones she grew up with in central Ohio. She writes that her first readers who helped proofread it said she got it exactly right and they could recognize Ohio features in the descriptions and dialects.


title: Lois McMaster Bujold

text: Bujold has generally been supportive of fan fiction written about her characters and universe. Amy H. Sturgis, in her essay "From Both Sides Now: Bujold and the Fan Fiction Phenomenon", notes that this is unusual for writers of Bujold's generation, most of whom are opposed to fan fiction. Sturgis relates this to Bujold's own production of "Star Trek" and Sherlock Holmes fan fiction early in her life, which Sturgis saw as an apprenticeship for her professional writing career.


title: Lois McMaster Bujold

text: Bujold herself ties her appreciation of fan fiction to her appreciation of "active" readers. To her, good readers are the "unsung collaborators" who make the story work, by actually constructing the world and characters in their heads. Books, to her, don't actually exist until they enter the reader's head and grow there. And sometimes, the characters and stories in a book grow so much that they escape the writer's original confines and become fan fiction. To Bujold, great literature is never "sterile", stopping with only what the original author wrote. She further believes that fan fiction gives authors a unique chance to see into the minds of those "invisible collaborators", the readers.


title: Lois McMaster Bujold

text: Despite this, she no longer reads fan fiction about her own characters due to legal and financial concerns, "fascinating as [she] finds it".


title: Bulgarian Land Forces

text: The Bulgarian Land Forces () are the ground warfare branch of the Bulgarian Armed Forces. The Land Forces were established in 1878, when they were composed of anti-Ottoman militia ("opalchentsi") and were the only branch of the Bulgarian military. The Land Forces are administered by the Ministry of Defence, previously known as the Ministry of War during the Kingdom of Bulgaria.


title: Bulgarian Land Forces

text: The Land Forces were made up of conscripts throughout most of Bulgaria's history. During World War I, it fielded more than one million troops out of Bulgaria's total population of around four million. Two-year conscription was obligatory during Communism (1946–1990), but its term was reduced in the 1990s. Conscription for all branches was terminated in 2008; since then, the Land Forces are a volunteer force. Bulgarian Land Forces troops are deployed on peacekeeping missions in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo.


title: Bulgarian Land Forces

text: Since 2004, the Land Forces are in a process of continued restructuring. Under the most recent reform, brigades were reduced to regiments, while several garrisons and brigades were disbanded.


title: Bulgarian Land Forces

text: The Land Forces are functionally divided into 'Active" and "Reserve Forces". Their main functions include deterrence, defense, peace support and crisis management, humanitarian and rescue missions, as well as social functions within Bulgarian society.


title: Bulgarian Land Forces

text: The Active Forces mainly have peacekeeping and defensive duties, and are further divided into Deployment Forces, Immediate Reaction, and Main Defense Forces. The Reserve Forces consists of Enhancement Forces, Territorial Defense Forces, and Training Grounds. They deal with planning and reservist preparation, armaments and equipment storage, training of formations for active forces rotation or increase in personnel.


title: Bulgarian Land Forces

text: During peacetime the Land Forces maintain permanent combat and mobilization readiness. They become part of multinational military formations in compliance with international treaties Bulgaria is a Party of, participate in the preparation of the population, the national economy and the maintenance of wartime reserves and the infrastructure of the country for defense.


title: Bulgarian Land Forces

text: In times of crisis the Land Forces' main tasks relate to participation in operations countering terrorist activities and defense of strategic facilities (such as nuclear power plants and major industrial facilities), assisting the security forces in preventing proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, illegal armaments traffic and international terrorism. In case of low- and medium-intensity military conflict the Active Forces that are part of the Land Forces participate in carrying out the initial tasks for the defense of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the country. In case of a military conflict of high intensity the Land Forces, together with the Air Force and the Navy, aim at countering aggression and protection of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the country.


title: Bulgarian Land Forces

text: On 22 July 1878 (10 July O.S.) twelve battalions of "opalchentsi" who participated in the Liberation War, formed the Bulgarian Armed Forces. According to the Tarnovo Constitution, all men between 21 and 40 years of age were eligible for military service. In 1883 the military was reorganized in four infantry brigades (in Sofia, Pleven, Ruse and Shumen) and one cavalry brigade.


title: Bulgarian Land Forces

text: The Bulgarian unification of 1885 made Bulgaria the largest Balkan state in terms of territory, which immediately sparked dissent in Serbia and Greece, which demanded territorial compensations. While the agitation of the Greek side calmed down, Serbia – backed by Austria-Hungary – launched a military campaign against Bulgaria. The Serbs, expecting a quick end to the war, suffered losses and were pushed back by Bulgarian troops who did not have higher-ranking officers than captains at the time. Owing to its militaristic policy at the time, Bulgaria was labelled as a "Balkan Prussia".


title: Bulgarian Land Forces

text: In the early 1900s instability in the Balkans continued, as the collapse of the Ottoman Empire progressed. After an anti-Ottoman rebellion in Macedonia and an Ottoman defeat in the Italo-Turkish War, Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia and Montenegro settled their differences and formed a coalition against the Ottoman Empire, known as the Balkan League. In late September 1912, both the League and the Ottoman Empire mobilised their armies. Montenegro was the first to declare war, on 25 September. The other three states, after issuing an impossible ultimatum to the Sublime Porte on 13 October, declared war on 17 October. Bulgaria was militarily the most powerful of the four states, with a large, well-trained and well-equipped army. The peacetime force of 60,000 men was expanded during the war to 370,000 (more than half of the League's total of 700,000 troops), with almost 600,000 men mobilised in total, out of a population of 4,300,000. The field army counted for 9 infantry divisions, 1 cavalry division and 1,116 artillery units. Bulgarian troops marked a decisive victory at Kirk Kilisse and captured Adrianople after a prolonged siege. A British war correspondent of the era compared the determination of Bulgarian troops to kill their enemy with that of the Japanese and the Gurkhas.


title: Bulgarian Land Forces

text: The Second Balkan War began shortly after the end of the first one. A dispute between Bulgaria, Serbia and Greece over the division of Macedonia prompted the Bulgarian leadership to attack its neighbours. Bulgarian troops were still exhausted by the first war, and the majority of Bulgaria's forces were deployed along the Ottoman border. During the war, Bulgaria fought against all its neighbours, including Romania, which did not participate in the first war. The 500,000-man Bulgarian army faced a total of 1,250,000 enemy troops from all sides. Supply and coordination problems and the overwhelming numbers of the attackers brought about an end to the war in less than two months.


title: Bulgarian Land Forces

text: The outcome of the Balkan Wars sparked a very strong revanchist sentiment among Bulgarians. In 1915 Germany promised to restore the boundaries according to the Treaty of San Stefano and Bulgaria, which had the largest army in the Balkans, declared war on Serbia in October the same year. In the First World War Bulgaria decisively asserted its military capabilities. The Second Battle of Doiran, with general Vladimir Vazov as commander, inflicted a heavy blow on the numerically superior British Army, which suffered 12,000 casualties against two thousand from the opposite side. One year later, during the Third Battle of Doiran, the United Kingdom, supported by Greece, once again suffered a humiliating defeat, losing 3,155 men against just about five hundred for the Bulgarian side. The reputation of the French Army also suffered badly. The Battle of the Red Wall was marked with the total defeat of the French forces, with 5,700 out of six thousand men killed. The 261 Frenchmen who survived were captured by Bulgarian soldiers. Out of a 4.5 million population, Bulgaria fielded 1,200,000 people in its army. Even this vast expansion of the military could not save Bulgaria from the imminent defeat of its patron Germany. The Allied breakthrough at Dobro Pole and the subsequent soldier mutiny at Vladaya completely disrupted the war effort in 1918. Bulgaria capitulated soon after these events. Bulgarian casualties amounted to 412,000, along with 253,000 refugees created from the lost territories.


title: Bulgarian Land Forces

text: During the interbellum the Bulgarian military was not allowed to have active combat aircraft or naval vessels, and the army was reduced to about twenty thousand men in peacetime. In the early 1920s army officers participated in repressions during the Tsankov regime as part of paramilitary groups known as "shpitskomandi". In 1923 the army, along with "shpitskomandi" and Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) militia, violently suppressed the leftist September Uprising. Two years later Bulgarian troops stopped a short-lived Greek invasion of southwestern Bulgaria, known as the War of the Stray Dog. By the mid-1930s, the army had begun an expansion in violation of the Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine, following the rearmament pattern of Nazi Germany. During this period, the Bulgarian government procured combat aircraft from Germany and France, and light tanks from Italy.


title: Bulgarian Land Forces

text: During World War II, Bulgarian troops did not participate in either the invasions of Yugoslavia or Greece, but occupied parts of northern Greece and Yugoslav Macedonia after they were conquered by Germany. The army was the main tool in imposing a policy of relocation, and expulsion of the local Greek population in the occupied areas. By late 1941, more than one hundred thousand Greeks had been expelled from the Bulgarian occupation zone. Increasing attacks by partisans in the latter years of the occupation resulted in a number of executions and wholesale slaughter of civilians in reprisal. In September, 1944, a Red Army-backed left-wing coup d'état overthrew the pro-German government and installed a Fatherland Front government. All active Bulgarian troops were incorporated into the Soviet 3rd Ukrainian Front and began to fight their former German allies. The Bulgarian 1st Army took part in the Yugoslav campaign. During Operation Frühlingserwachen, it fielded 101,000 men. At the end of March 1945, 1st Army led the Nagykanizsa–Körmend Offensive. After defeating the German units, the Bulgarians reached the Austrian Alps and on 13 May they met the British 8th Army near Klagenfurt. The Vienna Offensive was one of the final operations with Bulgarian participation during World War II.


title: Bulgarian Land Forces

text: By 1947, the Soviet Union began to strengthen the armed forces of its new satellite state. The only armoured formation in the Army of the Kingdom of Bulgaria was the Armoured Brigade, based in Sofia and armed with German equipment. In addition to the Armoured Brigade a new tank regiment was formed in Samokov with 65 T-34 tanks (in 1947) and an armoured troops school was formed in Botevgrad (in 1950). The formation of the 1st Tank Division also started in Kazanlak in 1947 with T-34s, only to be disbanded in 1949 with its four tank regiments to be converted into tank brigades and subordinated to the 1st, 2nd, 3rd Army and the General Reserve respectively. The front line infantry divisions started forming tank battalions (one each) and several hundred trophy German tanks were transferred to Bulgaria to form a static fortified defensive line along the Turkish border, unofficially called the "Krali Marko Line". Later, when the T-54 and T-55 started replacing the T-34 in larger quantities, some of the retired Soviet tanks were added.


title: Bulgarian Land Forces

text: In 1950 two new tank divisions were formed (in Sofia and Kazanlak), but with the technological advancements and the increase in weight and dimensions of the tanks at that time after an evaluation it was decided, that the predominantly mountainous terrain of Bulgaria was unsuitable for the deployment of tank divisions, and the Bulgarian Land Forces reorganised their tank forces into brigades and regiments.


title: Bulgarian Land Forces

text: At the end of 1955 the Bulgarian Land Forces had a peacetime structure of two armies and two independent rifle corps, made up of a total of 9 rifle divisions and 14 other formations.


title: Bulgarian Land Forces

text: The 16th Mountain Rifle Brigade had been established in 1950 with its headquarters in Zvezdets, being given the old number of the 16th Infantry Division. In addition to that in a case of war five additional rifle divisions and 9 other formations of the different arms would mobilize. With Bulgaria's accession to the Warsaw Pact on 14 May 1955, a new stage commenced. The Land Forces operated 800 tanks and had a formidable artillery corps.


title: Bulgarian Land Forces

text: In 1963 the Bulgarian People's Army peacetime strength was set at no less than 100,000 men, with four motor rifle divisions (the 16th Mountain Brigade had been upgraded into the 16th MRD on 6 February 1961) and five tank brigades at full strength within the Land Forces, and additional three motor rifle divisions at reduced strength. By August 1966, the Institute for Strategic Studies in London was reporting that Bulgaria had a total of eight motorized infantry divisions.


title: Bulgarian Land Forces

text: 333 Т-72s of Soviet and Czechoslovak manufacture were delivered up until the collapse of the Socialist bloc, spread between the 9th and 13th Tank Brigades and training centers. The 5th, 11th and 24th Tank Brigades and the tank regiments had T-55s. The 220 T-62s were put in reserve storage. In 1992 another 100 T-72s and 100 BMP-1s were received second-hand from Russia, went to the 24th Tank Brigade.


title: Bulgarian Land Forces

text: The five tank brigades (9th Tank Brigade at Gorna Banya in Sofia, in the 1st Army, 5th and 11th in the 2nd Army and the 13th Tank Brigade at Sliven, and the 24th Tank Brigade at Aytos in the 3rd Army) included three Tank Battalions, with T-72 main battle tanks or T-55; a motor Rifle Battalion, with BMP-23 infantry fighting vehicles or BMP-1; a Self-propelled Field Artillery "Divizion," with 18x self-propelled 122mm 2S1 Gvozdika howitzers; a Reconnaissance Company, with BRDM-2 armored cars and tracked BRM "Sova" reconnaissance vehicles; an Anti-aircraft Battery, with 4x Strela-10 air defence missiles; a missile division, with 2x 9K52 Luna-M ballistic missile launchers (Were being replaced with OTR-21 Tochka in the late 1980s); an Engineer Company; and logistic, maintenance, chemical defence, medical, and signal units.


title: Bulgarian Land Forces

text: By July 1987, the International Institute for Strategic Studies estimated that the Land Forces were organised in eight motor rifle divisions, five tank brigades; four surface-to-surface missile brigades with "Scud" SSMs; three artillery regiments; three anti-aircraft artillery regiments; a SAM brigade; and a parachute regiment (later identified as the 68th Independent Parachute Reconnaissance Regiment, forerunner to today's 68th Special Forces Brigade (Bulgaria)) and special commando companies. It appears by the late 1980s that a Bulgarian-helmed Balkan Front was active in embryo, which would unfold and direct the three armies after mobilization. After 1987 the motor rifle divisions were reorganised into brigades as well. At that time the IISS estimated that ground units operated a total of 2,100 tanks (200 T-72 and 1,500 T-54/55) though later estimates have raised the figure to 2,550.


title: Bulgarian Land Forces

text: The eight motor rifle divisions did not all have the same structure. Four had a tank regiment and three motor rifle regiments and four divisions fielded four motor rifle regiments. Also the two training/reserve divisions (18th, 21st) were partially equipped with older equipment.


title: Bulgarian Land Forces

text: The only armoured formation in the Army of the Kingdom of Bulgaria was the Armoured Brigade, based in Sofia and armed with German equipment. After the end of the Second World War and the signing of the Paris peace treaty by Bulgaria in 1947, the Soviet Union began to strengthen the armed forces of its new satellite state. In addition to the Armoured Brigade a new tank regiment was formed in Samokov with 65 T-34 tanks (in 1947) and an armoured troops school was formed in Botevgrad (in 1950). A formation of 1st Tank Division also started in Kazanlak in 1947 with T-34s, only to be disbanded in 1949 with its four tank regiments to be converted into tank brigades and subordinated to the 1st, 2nd, 3rd Army and the General Reserve respectively. The front line infantry divisions started forming tank battalions (one each) and several hundred trophy German tanks were transferred to Bulgaria to form a static fortified defensive line along the Turkish border, unofficially called the "Krali Marko Line". Later, when the T-54 and T-55 started replacing the T-34 in larger quantities, some of the retired Soviet tanks were added. In 1950 two new tank divisions were formed (in Sofia and Kazanlak), but with the technological advancements and the increase in weight and dimensions of the tanks at that time after an evaluation it was decided, that the predominantly mountainous terrain of Bulgaria is unsuitable for the deployment of tank divisions and the Bulgarian Land Forces reformed their tank forces into brigades and regiments.


title: Bulgarian Land Forces

text: 333 Т-72s of Soviet and Czechoslovak manufacture delivered until the collapse of the Socialist bloc and spread between the 9th and 13th tank brigades and training centers. The 5th, 11th and 24th tank brigades and the tank regiments with T-55s. The 220 T-62s put in reserve storage. In 1992 another 100 T-72s and 100 BMP-1s received second-hand from Russia, went to the 24th Tank Brigade.


title: Bulgarian Land Forces

text: The five active tank brigades (9th in the 1st Army, 5th and 11th in the 2nd Army and 13th and 24th in the 3rd Army) were organized as follows – three Tank Battalions, with T-72 main battle tanks or T-55; a motor rifle battalion, with BMP-23 infantry fighting vehicles or BMP-1; a self-propelled Field Artillery Divizion, with 18x self-propelled 122mm 2S1 Gvozdika howitzers; a reconnaissance company, with BRDM-2 armored cars and tracked BRM "Sova" reconnaissance vehicles; an anti-aircraft rocket battery, with 4x Strela-10 air defence systems; a missile division, with two 9K52 Luna-M ballistic missile launchers (Were being replaced with OTR-21 Tochka in the late 1980s); an engineer company; and logistic, maintenance, chemical defence, medical, and signal units.


title: Bulgarian Land Forces

text: The three rocket artillery brigades included 3x Rocket Artillery Divisions, with 18x 122mm BM-21 Grad multiple rocket launchers; a Rocket Artillery Division, with 130mm RM-51 multiple rocket launchers; and logistic, maintenance, chemical defence, medical, security, and signal units.


title: Bulgarian Land Forces

text: The three Army Operational-Tactical Missile Brigades – one for each army, plus a Frontal Operation-Tactical Missile Brigade as General Reserve, each had two missile divisions, with 4x R-300 Elbrus (Scud-B) ballistic missile launchers assigned to each of the Army-level brigades, while the frontal brigade was armed with the R-400 Oka, plus logistic, maintenance, chemical defence, medical, security, and signal units


title: Bulgarian Land Forces

text: The three army artillery regiments each had 3x Field Artillery Divizions, with 18x towed 122mm M-30 howitzers; a ong Range Artillery Divizion, with 18x towed 130mm M-46 howitzers; a Heavy Howitzer Artillery Divizion, with 18x towed 122mm ML-20 howitzers (Were being replaced with towed 152mm D-20 howitzers in the late 1980s); and logistic, maintenance, chemical defence, medical, security, and signal units.


title: Bulgarian Land Forces

text: The three army anti-tank regiments each comprised three Anti-tank Artillery divizions, with 12x towed 100mm T-12 guns and 6x BRDM-2 vehicles in the anti-tank variant with Konkurs anti-tank missiles


title: Bulgarian Land Forces

text: The 61st Mechanised Brigade is earmarked for deployment with the Greek NATO Rapid Deployment Corps for exercises, emergencies and for actions alongside NATO. For that reason the corps has a Bulgarian major-general as a deputy commander. In addition to its training tasks the Specialists Training Center, Sliven, is the storage facility of the operational reserve of 160 T-72M1 tanks and many other armoured vehicles.


title: Bulgarian Land Forces

text: The plan for the mechanised brigades is for each of them to have three battalion battlegroups. Although the first three battalion battlegroups are already formed the MoD disclosed very little information about their actual structure. What little is known is, that each of them will have three rifle companies and integral fire and engineer support (including EOD disposal). In addition to that, according to the modular principal of actions the structure is optimised to easily integrate additional supporting units tailored to the actual mission, such as tanks, self-propelled artillery, self-propelled missile air defence units, special forces, heavy engineering, CIMIC etc. Contingency plans envision, that one of the brigades will be fully ready to deploy entirely for operations overseas, while the other, alongside the new Mountain Infantry Regiment, assumes the armed forces' paramount mission of defending the territorial integrity of the country.