title: MBB/Kawasaki BK 117

text: Separate elements of the design were assigned to each company; MBB were responsible for developing the rotors (these were based on the rigid rotor system previously used on MBB's Bo 105), tailboom, flight controls and hydraulic system while Kawasaki undertook the development of the landing gear, airframe, main transmission, electrical system and other minor components. German vehicle manufacturer BMW acted as a consultant on the styling of the BK 117. As per their agreement, each company established their own final assembly line for the type, on which they would produce the rotorcraft to meet demands within their respective local markets.


title: MBB/Kawasaki BK 117

text: Originally, each company intended to construct a pair of prototypes (in actuality, Kawasaki opted to only build a single prototype) which were to be completed by 1979; one for flight testing purposes and the others for tie down testing and static testing. On 13 June 1979, MBB's flying prototype conducted its maiden flight at Ottobrunn, Bavaria, Germany; months later, it was followed by the Kawasaki prototype at Gifu, Chūbu region, Japan on 10 August 1979. The pace of development on the programme had been slower than expected, a problem that was exacerbated by a shortage of skilled manpower that was available at MBB. Although it was originally planned for the rotorcraft's airworthiness certification to be achieved before the end of 1980, German certification was not achieved until 9 December 1982, being quickly followed by the receipt of Japanese certification on 17 December 1982. On 29 March 1983, the type secured the all-important United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) certification, clearing it for widespread use.


title: MBB/Kawasaki BK 117

text: During 1983, the initial production version, designated as the "BK 117A-1" was first delivered. Improved variants were quickly developed; in early 1985, the "BK 117A-3", featuring an increased maximum takeoff weight and an enlarged tail rotor with twisted airfoils, was certified; two years later, the "BK 117A-4", equipped with LTS 101-750B-1 engines for improved hot/high performance and increased maximum takeoff weight, along with improvements to the main rotor transmission and tail rotor mast, as well as a larger capacity fuel tank, was introduced. During 1990, MBB's American division launched a dedicated corporate version of the BK 117; it was furnished with a Honeywell-built SPZ-7000 digital automatic flight control system and a cocoon-type interior system; optional extras included a Bendix/King electronic flight instrumentation system (EFIS) and a clamshell cabin door. During 1992, the "BK 117C-1", equipped with a revised EFIS panel and an improved environmental control system, along with greater hot-and-high performance, was introduced to service.


title: MBB/Kawasaki BK 117

text: At one stage, there was considerable attention paid to the concept of a dedicated militarised variant of the type. During the 1985 Paris Air Show, the concept of an armed attack helicopter derivative, referred to as the "BK 117A-3M", was revealed to the general public. As promoted, this variant would have been capable of being armed with launchers for eight Euromissile HOT 2 missiles and a chin-mounted Lucas-built turret for a Browning 12.7mm machine gun, aimed using a helmet-mounted sight. It was also to be equipped with various advanced targeting sensors, including an SFIM APX-M 397 roof-mounted stabilized sight. In order to provide sufficient ground clearance for the gun turret, the use of higher skid landing gear would have also been necessitated.


title: MBB/Kawasaki BK 117

text: During the 1990s, as a result of the commercial success of the type, a refined derivative, initially marketed as the "BK 117 C-2" prior to its rebranding as the EC 145 and later as the "H145", was developed from the BK 117 C-1 version; this improved version of the rotorcraft has succeeded and eventually replaced the original BK 117 in production. In total, 443 BK 117s were manufactured by the two partners; 329 (and two prototypes) were produced by MBB at their Donauworth facility while 111 (and one prototype) were completed by Kawasaki in Japan. during the 1980s, an agreement was formed with Indonesian Aerospace, enabling the type to be produced under license in Indonesia, which was accordingly designated as the "NBK 117"; however, according to economics author Sören Eriksson, the Indonesian production programme was terminated after only a handful of rotorcraft were completed.


title: MBB/Kawasaki BK 117

text: Since exiting production, third parties have produced their own upgrade programmes for existing BK 117s. In 2010, Airwork launched its conversion programme for the type, replacing the original LTS101-750B-1 engine with the newer LTS101-850B-2 engine, increasing both its performance, reliability and safety margins, resulting in the "BK117-850D2"; by 2016, Airwork had upgraded nearly 50 rotorcraft in this manner.


title: MBB/Kawasaki BK 117

text: The MBB/Kawasaki BK 117 is a twin-engined medium utility–transport helicopter. It possessed several attributes that lend itself to performing many different roles, such as twin-engine redundancy, sizable clamshell-shaped rear-facing double doors, and a relatively spacious cabin; one mission to which it was deemed to be particularly suitable was the emergency medical services (EMS). The airframe is composed of rivetted metal, making minimal use of composite materials, and machined to a high standard; in order to free up internal space, both the engines and transmission are positioned above the main cabin. Considerable efforts were made to reduce the weight of the aircraft where possible albeit without compromising the aircraft's structural integrity. The cabin could be outfitted with various interiors in order to suit its purpose, or to incorporate greater comfort levels, which included measures to dampen both noise and vibration.


title: MBB/Kawasaki BK 117

text: Early versions of the BK 117 were powered by a pair of Lycoming LTS101 turboshaft engines, rated to generate 550 shp at takeoff with considerable reserve power to guard against a single engine failure. While each engine possesses sufficient power to maintain flight and even takeoff in the event of a single engine being rendered inoperable, the type also has favourable autorotation capabilities. In order to extend their operational lifespan and increase their reliability, MBB tuned the engines to operate at lower-than-standard revolutions per minute (RPM). The engines are regulated using a specialised control system which smoothly and evenly regulate RPM and torque between both engines, even during vigorous manoeuvers. Power management has been greatly eased via the addition of an automatic engine-governor system, allowing pilots to simply monitor the torque and engine temperature gauges. The aircraft can be suitably equipped for flight under instrument flight rules (IFR) as well as for single-pilot operations.


title: MBB/Kawasaki BK 117

text: According to aviation publication "Flying", as a consequence of its uncommon rigid main rotor system, the BK 117 possessed relatively high stability and manoeuvrability which, amongst other capabilities, reportedly gave the type the ability to perform a steeper approach than any other helicopter in its class. The four-bladed main rotor was smaller and slower-turning than many of its contemporaries, reducing both vibration and noise while also enabling the type to use more compact landing sites. The high-mounted tail boom and tail rotor of the BK 117 also presented several benefits, such as enhanced safety to personnel on the ground. In terms of its flight performance, the type was considered to be suitable for the execution of various aerobatic manoeuvres, such as flying loops and rolls, while retaining such levels of inherent stability that pilots could readily release both the cyclic and collective controls, unlike the majority of rotorcraft. The controls of the BK 117 are heavy and distinctly "un-twitchy". An optional Sperry-built three-axis stability augmentation system also served to improve the rotorcraft's ease of handling.


title: MBB/Kawasaki BK 117

text: A single BK 117 A-3 (c/n 7106) was leased by the Canadian Forces Air Command for a test program and designated as the CH-143. When the program was over, the aircraft was returned to MBB Canada.


title: MBB/Kawasaki BK 117

text: A BK117 helicopter contracted by the New South Wales Rural Fire Service to fight fires crashed on 17 August 2018, the pilot died in the crash.


title: MBB/Kawasaki BK 117

text: NOTE: All later variants are derived from the BK 117 by Eurocopter Deutschland and later Airbus Helicopters.


title: MBB/Kawasaki BK 117

text: The majority of the helicopters are operated by various emergency services although it is also operated by private individuals, companies and executive charter operators.


title: Catalans Dragons

text: The Catalans Dragons (French: "Dragons Catalans", Catalan: "Dracs Catalans") are a professional rugby league club from Perpignan, Pyrénées-Orientales department, France. The team competes in the Super League and are the only team from outside England. The Dragons play regular home games at Stade Gilbert Brutus in the centre of the city. Catalans Dragons are the first non-British team to win the Challenge Cup since the competition started in 1896, after beating Warrington Wolves 20–14 at Wembley Stadium on 25 August 2018.


title: Catalans Dragons

text: The club was formed in 2000 by a merger of XIII Catalan and AS Saint-Estève into Union Treiziste Catalane (UTC). They won the 2005 French Championship and the Lord Derby Cup in 2004 and 2005. In 2006, they were granted a Super League licence, taking the name Catalans Dragons. UTC continues to compete in the French Championship's Elite One Championship as a feeder club for the Dragons, now under the name Saint-Estève XIII Catalan.


title: Catalans Dragons

text: The club was founded in 2000 after the merger of two teams in Perpignan, XIII Catalan and AS Saint Estève. The merged team took the name Union Treiziste Catalane, often abbreviated to UTC.


title: Catalans Dragons

text: XIII Catalan were founded in 1935 and thus were founding members of the French Championship. During their run, they won 11 French Championships and 11 Lord Derby Cups. AS Saint-Estève were founded in 1965. They won six championships and four Lord Derby Cups. There were two other clubs in the twelve-team competition in Pyrénées-Orientales: Pia XIII and Saint-Cyprien. In 2002 Saint-Cyprien joined the merged UTC side. UTC won the 2005 French Championship and the 2004 and 2005 Lord Derby Cups.


title: Catalans Dragons

text: In 2005, UTC applied to join the Super League, the highest tier of professional rugby league in Europe. They were selected ahead of Toulouse Olympique and Villeneuve Leopards to enter the league for the 2006 season. The franchise was named Catalans Dragons; UTC remained in the French Championship to serve as a reserve club. The club set a target for 75% of the players be qualified to play for France.


title: Catalans Dragons

text: The Catalans are not the first French side to play in the Super League, but the first, Paris Saint-Germain, lasted only two seasons. Both rugby codes have their stronghold in the southwest of France, and the north of France is more football-friendly. Players on loan from French league clubs had to play for their own clubs as well, train in the south and take the long journey to Paris or England for matches.


title: Catalans Dragons

text: To ensure that the Catalans had the best French players available to them, the French rugby league decided to let them sign players from other French clubs without paying a transfer fee. The league also would not relegate them from the Super League for three years, even if they finished last. Many believe that the Catalans will be joined by other French clubs in the Super League, but the whole idea of expanding into France had critics. The Catalans won their first ever Super League match 38–30 against Wigan on 11 February 2006, at Stade Aimé Giral. The club encountered a steep learning curve in their first season in the Super League. Many of less experienced French players suffered from tiredness towards the end of a gruelling, injury-marred campaign. A particular loss was that of key playmaker and captain Stacey Jones, who missed much of the season with a broken arm. The team eventually finished bottom of the table, but the three-year exemption from relegation kept them in the Super League.


title: Catalans Dragons

text: The year 2007 saw a strong recruitment by new coach Mick Potter with a string of high-profile signings from Australia, including Clint Greenshields, Casey McGuire, Jason Croker and Aaron Gorrell, all seasoned NRL campaigners. Gorrell, a goalkicking 'hooker', impressed in the first month but sustained a bad knee injury in February's win over Leeds and missed the rest of the season. On 10 March 2007, it was announced that Newcastle Knights hooker Luke Quigley would cover Gorrell's absence for the remainder of the campaign, but a number of players sustained injuries throughout the campaign.


title: Catalans Dragons

text: On 29 July 2007, the Catalans became the first French side and first non-British side to reach the final of the Challenge Cup after beating Wigan 37–24 in the semifinal. The Catalans lost the 2007 Challenge Cup Final with St. Helens at Wembley Stadium on 25 August 2007. They also managed to finish the 2007 season off the bottom of the table, ending the season in a respectable tenth place.


title: Catalans Dragons

text: In 2008, the Catalans secured their first playoff berth by finishing third on the league ladder largely on the back of a ferocious forward pack. They smashed Warrington 46–8 in their first-ever playoff match on 13 September in Perpignan, but 20 September saw Wigan blow open what had been a close game in the second half of their elimination semifinal, with Wigan ultimately winning 50–26. Coach Mick Potter left the Dragons at the end of the 2008 season to replace Daniel Anderson at St Helens.


title: Catalans Dragons

text: In 2009, they were involved in two historic milestones for the sport of rugby league in Europe. During their match away to the Welsh club Crusaders on 23 May, the two clubs played the first Super League match to not feature an English team. History was also created on 20 June, when the club played in the first Super League game to be played in Spain, at Barcelona's Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys, the venue for the 1992 Summer Olympics, against Warrington. The Dragons led 10–6 at halftime, but Warrington finished as the winners 12–24. The purpose of the latter fixture was to promote the sport in Catalonia, with around 1000 tickets being sold in the local area, and the game was televised on the Catalan channel El 33. Immediately after the game, Walters commented that the event in Spain could become an annual one, apparently complementing comments made by the club's general manager about using a new high-speed link between Perpignan and Spain, supposed to start running within two years.


title: Catalans Dragons

text: In 2016 Catalans Dragons celebrated ten years in the Super League competition. After a recruitment drive, which saw a number of transfers from the NRL, expectations were high. After opening defeats to Wigan and Hull FC, the Dragons edged Leeds 32–28 in round three and then took seven wins from their next eight matches. Following their 42–32 win over Salford at the end of April, Laurent Frayssinous' side sat second in the table, level on points with leaders Warrington. However, a series of injury setbacks to key players in the second half of the season saw them drop down the table. Catalans lost their final six regular season games which meant they headed into the Super 8s two points adrift of fourth-placed St Helens. Five defeats from seven saw them finish the season in sixth place and miss out on a play-off spot. After a difficult two years at Huddersfield, Jodie Broughton's move to the south of France saw him kick-start his career. The winger scored 19 tries in 2016 including four in the Dragons' 30–12 win over St Helens in April. Todd Carney was released after two seasons at Catalans.


title: Catalans Dragons

text: On 25 August 2018, Catalans Dragons won their first Rugby League trophy, after defeating Warrington 20–14 in the 2018 Challenge Cup Final, in the process becoming the first non-English team to win the competition in its long, illustrious history.


title: Catalans Dragons

text: During the 2019 season, Catalans Dragons held their home match against Wigan at the Camp Nou in Barcelona. The match was the first Super League game in Spain and attracted a record attendance for a Super League game outside of the Grand Final of 31,555. The game resulted in a 33–16 victory for the Dragons.


title: Catalans Dragons

text: On 28 January 2020, Catalans Dragons announced that they had signed Israel Folau despite him holding to the Biblical teaching that those who practice homosexuality without repenting will go to hell (going so far as to suggest that the 2019–20 Australian bushfires were God's judgment on Australia for allowing same sex marriage and abortion).


title: Catalans Dragons

text: In 2021, Catalans won Super League's League Leaders' Shield for the first time, following a 31–30 golden point extra time victory over reigning champions St Helens during Magic Weekend. On 9 October 2021, Catalans played in their first ever Super League grand final with the opponents being reigning champions St Helens. Catalans lead the match in the second half but a try late to St Helens saw Catalans lose 12–10.


title: Catalans Dragons

text: In the 2022 Super League season, Catalans finished 4th on the table and qualified for the playoffs. The club would be eliminated from the playoffs in the first week, suffering a shock 20-10 loss against Leeds.


title: Catalans Dragons

text: The Catalans moved into the stadium in 2006, when they were accepted into Super League. They ground shared with rugby union side USA Perpignan, which own and operate the stadium, but it is a multipurpose stadium used occasionally for other sports and events.


title: Catalans Dragons

text: The Stade Gilbert Brutus was opened in 1962 and has hosted mostly rugby league and union and hosted numerous test matches involving the French national team. It was previously the home to Northern Catalonia rugby league team. When the Dragons moved in the capacity was just over 4000.


title: Playboi Carti (mixtape)

text: Playboi Carti (commonly referred to as Self Titled) is the debut mixtape by American rapper Playboi Carti. It was released on April 14, 2017, by AWGE Label and Interscope Records. The mixtape features production from Pi'erre Bourne, Southside and others, and guest appearances from American rappers Lil Uzi Vert, ASAP Rocky, and Dutch singer Leven Kali. The physical version of the mixtape was released on October 6, 2017, and a vinyl edition was released on November 17, 2017.


title: Playboi Carti (mixtape)

text: The mixtape was supported by three singles – "Lookin", "Wokeuplikethis", and "Magnolia", the third peaking at number 29 on the US "Billboard" Hot 100. It was Carti's highest-charting single at the time.


title: Playboi Carti (mixtape)

text: Two singles were released prior to the mixtape's release. These included "Lookin", which featured Lil Uzi Vert, released on March 9, 2017, and "Wokeuplikethis", which also featured Lil Uzi Vert, which released on March 10, 2017. The single "Magnolia" was released on April 14, 2017 prior the mixtape's release


title: Playboi Carti (mixtape)

text: "Playboi Carti" debuted at number 12 on the US "Billboard" 200, with 28,000 album-equivalent units, of which 21,000 were streaming units and 7,000 were pure album sales. As of September 2017, the mixtape has moved over 367,000 units. The mixtape was certified Gold by the RIAA on January 10, 2018 for sales over 500,000 units.


title: Playboi Carti (mixtape)

text: A music video was released for "Magnolia" on July 10, 2017. It was directed by Hidji Films and features cameo appearance from the song's producer Pi'erre Bourne, as well as cameo appearances from Southside, ASAP Rocky, Slim Jxmmi, A Boogie wit da Hoodie, Don Q, Nav, Casanova, Smooky Margielaa, Squidnice and Cash, one of the XO members. It has amassed over 170 million views as of September 2022.


title: Playboi Carti (mixtape)

text: A music video was released for "Wokeuplikethis" on August 9, 2017. The music video features Lil Uzi Vert, and has amassed over 80 million views as of September 2022.


title: Playboi Carti (mixtape)

text: A music video for "New Choppa" was released on August 31, 2017. It features ASAP Rocky, and has amassed over 30 million views as of September 2022.


title: Playboi Carti (mixtape)

text: The mixtape received generally positive reviews from critics. In a positive review, Jon Caramanica of "The New York Times" called the project "erratic, sometimes transfixingly so," stating that "Playboi Carti’s album takes hip-hop’s ad-lib era to its logical extreme — everything sounds like an ad-lib, even the main lyrics." In a more negative review, "HipHopDX" critic Narshima Chintaluri described the record as "simply a glorified beat tape with ad-libs", stating Carti "need[s] to further develop his songwriting in order to maintain this allure alongside his more successful contemporaries."


title: Playboi Carti (mixtape)

text: Brian Duricy of "PopMatters" described the record as "the sonic equivalent of the stereotypical laissez-faire worker who breezes through presentations on sheer personality alone," stating that "over the production, however, you’re not getting particularly much." "Pitchfork"'s Briana Younger wrote that ""Playboi Carti" feels like a break from life, the soundtrack to a mindless good time," and adding that "Carti is tactful in discerning where and when he can get away with letting the instrumental ride and when he needs to rise to the occasion." The single "Magnolia" was awarded Best New Track by "Pitchfork".


title: Playboi Carti (mixtape)

text: The mixtape appeared on 2017 year-end album lists by publications such as "Fact", "Pitchfork", and "Tiny Mix Tapes". John Twells of "Fact" stated that the project "adeptly taps into a widespread youthful malaise and the genre-fluid playlist culture that has come to dominate rap’s mainstream [...] Sad and restless but also party-ready, Playboi Carti doesn’t need political rambling or conscious posturing to get its message across." Corrigan B of "Tiny Mix Tapes" wrote that "of everything that 2017 promised about rap’s future, Playboi Carti felt the most like a real path forward, a crystallization of the SoundCloud underground’s zeitgeist in a format built to transcend the scene’s messy adolescence."


title: Heian-kyō

text: Heian-kyō was one of several former names for the city now known as Kyoto. It was the official capital of Japan for over one thousand years, from 794 to 1868 with an interruption in 1180.


title: Heian-kyō

text: Emperor Kanmu established it as the capital in 794, moving the Imperial Court there from nearby Nagaoka-kyō at the recommendation of his advisor Wake no Kiyomaro and marking the beginning of the Heian period of Japanese history. According to modern scholarship, the city is thought to have been modelled after the urban planning for the Tang dynasty Chinese capital of Chang'an (modern-day Xi'an). It remained the chief political center until 1185, when the samurai Minamoto clan defeated the Taira clan in the Genpei War, moving administration of national affairs to Kamakura and establishing the Kamakura shogunate.


title: Heian-kyō

text: Though political power would be wielded by the samurai class over the course of three different shogunates, Heian remained the site of the Imperial Court and seat of Imperial power, and thus remained the official capital. In fact, even after the seat of Imperial power was moved to Tokyo in 1868, since there is no law which makes Tokyo the capital, there is a view that Kyoto legally or officially remains the capital even today.


title: Heian-kyō

text: Heian-kyō was built in what is now the central part of Kyoto city covering an area spanning the and of Yamashiro Province. The city boundaries formed a rectangle measuring 4.5 km from east to west and 5.2 km from north to south. The city layout followed Heijō-kyō (Japan's capital during the Nara period) with the Imperial palace, Daidairi, placed in the center of the northern city limits and the Suzaku Avenue (Suzaku-ōji), the main thoroughfare extending from the palace down through the center of the city, dividing it into the Right (Ukyō) and Left Capitals (Sakyō) (the eastern side being the Left and the western side being the Right from the emperor's viewpoint.) The design followed Sui and Tang dynasty Changan with the exception that Heian-kyō had no city walls. It is thought that the site for the city was selected according to the principles of based on Chinese Feng shui and relating to the Four Symbols of Chinese astrology.


title: Heian-kyō

text: The boundaries of Heian-kyō were smaller than those of modern Kyoto, with at the northern limit corresponding to present-day , between and , Kyūjō-ōji in the south corresponding to slightly to the south of the present-day JR Kyōto Station and Higashi-kyōgoku-ōji in the east corresponding to present-day Teramachi Street (Teramachi-dōri). The location of Nishi-kyōgoku-ōji at the western limit is estimated as a line running north to south from Hanazono Station on the JR San'in Main Line to Nishi-Kyōgoku Station on the Hankyu Kyoto Line.


title: Heian-kyō

text: The layout of Heian-kyō was plotted in accordance with the principles of geomancy as a square city. was the basic unit of measurement. 40 sq. jō made a . The city was further divided by major streets called and minor streets called . Four lines of chō running east to west (excepting the first 2 rows in the north) were together called a and four lines of chō running from north to south were called a The Cho which shared the same Jo and Bo were each given a number from 1 to 16. In this way addresses could be identified as follows: "Right Capital, Jō Five, Bō Two, Chō Fourteen" .


title: Heian-kyō

text: The width of even the minor streets was 4 Jō and for the major streets over 8 Jō . Almost all of the streets in present-day Kyoto have become considerably narrower. Suzaku-ōji for example was 28 Jō wide. In addition a river ran alongside and .


title: Heian-kyō

text: In 784 AD emperor Kammu constructed Nagaoka-kyō, moving the capital from Heijō-kyō. It is thought that he wished to build a new, Emperor Tenji faction capital far from Yamato Province which was the power base for the temples and aristocrats who supported the Emperor Tenmu faction. However, only 9 years later in January 793 AD, Emperor Kammu assembled his retainers and announced another relocation of the capital (for the reason see the entry on Nagaoka-kyō.) The location for the new capital was to be Kadono located between two rivers in the north of Yamashiro, ten kilometers to the northeast of Nagaoka-kyō. It is said that the Emperor Kammu had previously looked out on Kadono from the Shōgun Tsuka in Higashiyama Ward of Kyoto City, deciding then that it was a suitable location for the capital. Emperor Kammu's words are recorded in the "Nihon Kiryaku" as follows: "Kadono has beautiful mountains and rivers as well as good transport links by sea and land making it convenient for people to assemble there from all four corners of the country."


title: Heian-kyō

text: It is thought that the construction of Heian-kyō began from the palace, with the construction of the remainder of the city following afterwards. As a display of the emperor's authority the Daigokuden (main building of the palace) was constructed at the far north of the central thoroughfare, Suzaku-oji, making the building visible from anywhere in the city. Ports such as Yodonotsu and were set up along the river next to the city. These ports acted as a transit base for collecting in goods from all over the country and for forwarding them on to the city. The goods which arrived in Heian-kyō reached the people by way of one of the two large markets (the East market and the West market.) This arrangement provided a stable supply of food and goods which encouraged population growth. Measures were also taken to guard against the flooding which had plagued the residents of Nagaoka-kyō. Although there was no natural river in the center of Heian-kyō, two artificial canals (the present day Horikawa and Nishi Horikawa) were dug whose water level could be adjusted, simultaneously securing a supply of water and guarding against flooding. It was also permitted to construct Buddhist temples in Heian-kyō, something which had been forbidden in Nagaoka-kyō. It was thought that the power of the East and West temples might protect the city from natural disaster and disease, and priests such as Kūkai were welcomed, being able men, well versed in Buddhist scripture and with no interest in political power. On 22 October 794 AD, Emperor Kammu arrived at the new city and on 8 November proclaimed, "I hereby name this city Heian-kyō." On 8 November, he changed the second kanji character of Yamashiro from ("back") to ("castle") because the capital looked like a naturally formed "mountain castle" surrounded by the Eastern (Higashiyama), Northern (Kitayama), and Western (Nishiyama) mountains.


title: Heian-kyō

text: A movement in favor of returning the capital to Heijō-kyō arose in 810 AD, during a standoff over the emperor's succession. However, Emperor Saga thought that keeping the capital in Heian-kyō would be best for the stability of the country and resisted this movement, naming Heian-kyō .


title: Heian-kyō

text: The land of the Right Capital overlapped the wetlands formed by the Katsura River and even by the 9th century little progress had been made in developing the area. By the 10th century when the Ritsuryō system was almost at an end, the district had become so dilapidated that it began to be used as farmland, something which had previously been forbidden within the city limits. With the exception of an area in the north of the Right Capital near to the palace, the residential areas which housed the aristocracy were all situated in the Left Capital, with the highest echelon of aristocrats such as the Fujiwara clan gathering in the northernmost part of the district. The poor of Heian-kyō began to set up home by the Kamo River, beyond the eastern limits of the city, and on the eastern banks of the river temples and country homes sprung up. So started a tendency for the city to extend out to the east. In 980 AD, at the southern tip of Suzaku-oji the Rajōmon (the grandest of the two city gates) collapsed never to be rebuilt. In this way the original borders of Heian-kyō extended out to the east, forming the streets of first medieval and then modern-day Kyoto.


title: Heian-kyō

text: With the advent of the Kanto centered Kamakura and Edo shogunates, Heian-kyō began to lose its significance as a seat of power. The greatest decline was during the Muromachi and Sengoku periods when almost half the city was burnt to the ground during the Ōnin war. After this Heian-kyō separated into upper (Kamigyō) and lower (Shimogyō) cities each becoming places of little note. However, the two were to be reunited into one city during the Azuchi–Momoyama period following the ascension of Oda Nobunaga. During the Meiji Revolution, Edo was re-christened Tokyo (becoming the new capital of Japan). Although Heian-kyō lost its status as capital city, it became a backup capital while the emperor was away in Tokyo. Since that time the emperor has not returned to Kyoto. However, at the direction of the Emperor Meiji, the imperial residences have been preserved and the —a special throne whose location traditionally marked the seat of the emperor—remains at the palace in Kyoto.


title: Heian-kyō

text: The green areas in the diagram are markets, temples and a garden. There were two large markets, West Market and East Market , facing the seventh street, Shichijō-ōji . Tō-ji and Sai-ji were Buddhist temples built on the southern edge of the capital. An imperial garden called Shinsenen was adjacent to the Daidairi.


title: Heian-kyō

text: The gates of the Daidairi are marked in Japanese Kanji in the above grid, below are the romanization of said gate names alongside the kanji:


title: Heian-kyō

text: Below is a 1696 map of Kyoto, known as Genroku 9 Kyoto Daizu () held by the International Research Center for Japanese Studies (Nichibunken).


title: Nathan Larson (politician)

text: Nathan Daniel Larson (September 19, 1980 – September 18, 2022) was an American white supremacist politician. A self-described "quasi-neoreactionary libertarian", he was expelled from the Libertarian Party of Virginia in 2017. Larson advocated for curtailing women's rights and decriminalizing child sexual abuse and incest.


title: Nathan Larson (politician)

text: Larson served fourteen months in prison for the felony of threatening the president of the United States in 2008. In 2020 he was arrested at Denver International Airport for allegedly kidnapping a 12-year-old girl. During a search of his home, detectives found evidence suggesting that he operated a website encouraging pedophilia and child rape. Larson died in custody during legal proceedings.


title: Nathan Larson (politician)

text: Larson was from Charlottesville, Virginia, and lived with his parents in Catlett, Fauquier County. An accountant, Larson earned a degree from George Mason University, where he was a cannabis reform activist.


title: Nathan Larson (politician)

text: After graduating from college, Larson became a member of the Libertarian Party. He ran for Congress in Virginia's 1st congressional district during the 2008 election, running on an anarcho-capitalist platform. He received less than 2% of the vote.


title: Nathan Larson (politician)

text: As a convicted felon, Larson was barred from seeking state office in Virginia from 2009 until Governor Terry McAuliffe restored voting and candidacy rights to thousands of felons in 2016. The following year he stood as an independent candidate for the Virginia House of Delegates in the 31st district, again receiving less than 2% of the vote. His candidacy was discussed in the 2017 gubernatorial campaign, with the Republican nominee, Ed Gillespie, using it to criticize McAuliffe's action. Larson was expelled from the Libertarian Party of Virginia early that year.


title: Nathan Larson (politician)

text: In 2018, Larson ran as a "quasi-neoreactionary libertarian" for election to Congress from Virginia's 10th congressional district, before withdrawing in August.


title: Nathan Larson (politician)

text: In his 2008 candidacy for Congress, Larson advocated doing away with government at all levels, saying, "All government functions could be better performed by the private sector". Endorsed by the Libertarian Party of Virginia, he stated in its newsletter that the primary aim of his candidacy was introducing libertarian ideas; he focused on transportation, proposing that the U.S. highway and rail systems be auctioned off to private owners who would compete to offer toll-based services, and also that private property rights be extended to Chesapeake Bay. In 2017, as a self-described "red pill Libertarian", his platform included legalizing child pornography and polygyny, eliminating state funding for girls' and women's education and repealing the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which gave women the right to vote.


title: Nathan Larson (politician)

text: Larson's online manifesto in 2018, which has since been taken down, advocates "benevolent white supremacy" and names Adolf Hitler as a "white supremacist hero". It calls for free trade, "putting an end to U.S. involvement in foreign wars arising from our country's alliance with Israel", drug legalization, "suicide rights", protection of gun ownership rights, legalization of child pornography and incest, and repeal of the 1994 Violence Against Women Act. Regarding women he states, "We need to switch to a system that classifies women as property, initially of their fathers and later of their husbands"; he has blamed school shootings on feminism, saying: "Guns don't kill people — feminists do." After withdrawing his candidacy in August 2018, he offered his endorsement to Democrat Jennifer Wexton, giving as one of his reasons that the Republican incumbent, Barbara Comstock, "continually takes the side of career women". On white supremacy, he said that whites are supposedly superior to other races because of "our cultural creativeness, our willingness to invest in the long term rather than living for today, and our conscientious desire to do the right thing even if it requires heroic self-sacrifice for the good of society", and must resist Jews' attempts to "attain complete supremacy" in the U.S., which would lead to their "destroy[ing] what made this country worth living in".


title: Nathan Larson (politician)

text: Larson began editing Wikipedia under his real name in 2005, contributing to articles and policy debates. Identifying as an inclusionist, he endorsed using Wikipedia in an attempt to make taboo or illegal topics, including child sexual abuse, culturally acceptable. He opposed Wikipedia's child protection policy and began using sock puppet accounts to promote positions such as decriminalizing child sexual abuse. He was banned from the site in 2008.


title: Nathan Larson (politician)

text: Larson also created Internet chat rooms for self-identified "incels" (involuntarily celibate men) and for pedophiles, "suiped.org" and "incelocalypse.today", and wrote posts on the sites endorsing child rape and describing himself as a "hebephilic rapist". Both sites were removed by the hosting company in late May 2018 after a complaint by the website "Babe.net". Larson told "The Huffington Post" in response to a question about whether he was actually a pedophile or merely wrote about it online, "It's a mix of both ... When people go over the top there’s a grain of truth to what they say." He described the term as "vague" and described men being attracted to underage girls as "normal".


title: Nathan Larson (politician)

text: In 2009, Larson pleaded guilty to sending a letter in December 2008 to the U.S. Secret Service threatening to kill the President of the United States. At that time, the message was sent just after Barack Obama was elected president while George W. Bush was still in office, although Larson did not specify which president the threat was for. He was sentenced to sixteen months' imprisonment and three years' supervised release; he served fourteen months. In March 2017, he described the letter as "an act of civil disobedience".


title: Nathan Larson (politician)

text: In August 2010, Larson wrote to the federal prosecutor describing the mental health treatment he had received after his conviction as "a complete waste of taxpayer money" since he did not have a mental illness and announced that he would violate the terms of his release from prison: "If you happen to hear the distinctive sound of gunfire of a Solothurn S-18/100 20 mm Anti-Tank Cannon emanating from my backyard, as cardboard cutouts of statist federal politicians, federal judges, federal prosecutors, and federal agents become riddled with large, ragged bullet holes, please know, that there is nothing amiss; it is just me engaging in target practice".


title: Nathan Larson (politician)

text: Larson admitted to raping his ex-spouse, who was transgender, and who died by suicide after the birth of their daughter. In November 2015 a jury in Colorado denied him custody of the girl, and he announced the following month that he would seek legal termination of his parental rights. He eventually remarried.


title: Nathan Larson (politician)

text: On December 14, 2020, Larson was arrested at Denver International Airport on felony charges of attempted kidnapping, child abduction, soliciting child pornography from a minor, and meeting a child for the intention of sex, along with a misdemeanor charge of harboring a minor. The charges were in relation to an alleged plot to kidnap a 12-year-old girl from California. Larson had met the victim in October 2020 and convinced her to send him inappropriate images of herself, and eventually to leave her home to fly back with him to Virginia. Authorities intercepted Larson and the girl while they were in Denver for a layover. During a search of Larson's Virginia home, detectives found evidence suggesting that he operated a website encouraging, and facilitating sharing media of, pedophilia and child rape. A criminal complaint was filed against Larson on December 23, 2020, and he was indicted on multiple federal charges Because the victim was a minor and Larson was not a family member, he faced a minimum of twenty years in prison on the kidnapping charge and up to life in prison on the charge of transportation of a minor with intent to engage in illegal sexual activity.


title: Nathan Larson (politician)

text: At his arraignment on February 25, 2021, Larson pleaded not guilty to the charges and requested to represent himself under "Faretta v. California". He was initially represented by attorney Peter M. Jones; in March 2022, Judge Jennifer L. Thurston granted him "pro se" status and allowed him to represent himself. His "pro se" status was revoked on March 31 and Jones was re-appointed to represent him for all further proceedings.


title: Nathan Larson (politician)

text: Larson died in custody in an Arizona facility on September 18, 2022. On October 11, the indictment against him was dismissed.


title: Francis III, Duke of Brittany

text: Francis III (; ; 28 February 1518 – 10 August 1536) was Duke of Brittany and Dauphin of Viennois. He was the first son of King Francis I of France and Duchess Claude of Brittany.


title: Francis III, Duke of Brittany

text: Francis I said of his son at birth, "a beautiful dauphin who is the most beautiful and strong child one could imagine and who will be the easiest to bring up." His mother, Claude, Duchess of Brittany, said, "tell the King that he is even more beautiful than himself." The Dauphin was christened at Amboise on 25 April 1519. Leonardo da Vinci, who had been brought to Amboise by Francis I, designed the decorations.


title: Francis III, Duke of Brittany

text: One of the most researched aspects of the Dauphin's short life is the time he and his brother Henry (later Henry II of France) spent as hostages in Spain. The king had been badly defeated and captured at the Battle of Pavia (1525) and became a prisoner of Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor, initially in the Alcázar in Madrid. In order to ensure his release, the king signed the Treaty of Madrid (1526). However, in order to ensure that Francis abided by the treaty, Charles demanded that the king's two older sons take his place as hostages. Francis agreed.


title: Francis III, Duke of Brittany

text: On 15 March 1526, the exchange took place at the border between Spain and France. Francis almost immediately repudiated the treaty and the eight-year-old Dauphin and his younger brother Henry spent the next three years as captives of Charles V, a period that scarred them for life. The Dauphin's "somber, solitary tastes" and his preference for dressing in black (like a Spaniard) were attributed to the time he spent in captivity in Madrid. He also became bookish, preferring reading to soldiering.


title: Francis III, Duke of Brittany

text: As first son and heir to a king of France the Dauphin was a marriage pawn for his father. He could not be wasted in marriage, as many felt his brother Henry had been with his marriage to Catherine de' Medici, and there were several betrothals to eligible princesses throughout the Dauphin's life. The first was when he was an infant, to the four-year-old Mary Tudor (later Mary I of England), daughter of Henry VIII of England and Catherine of Aragon; this arrangement was made as a surety for the Anglo-French alliance signed in October 1518, but abandoned around 1521 when Mary was instead betrothed to Charles V.


title: Francis III, Duke of Brittany

text: In 1524, the Dauphin inherited the Duchy of Brittany on his mother's death, becoming Duke Francis III, although the Duchy was actually ruled by officials of the French crown. The Duchy was inherited upon the death of Francis by his brother, Henry; upon Henry's succession to the French throne in 1547, the Duchy and the crown were effectively merged, the Breton estates having already tied the succession of the Duchy to the French crown, rather than to the line of succession of the Dukes of Brittany, by vote in 1532.


title: Francis III, Duke of Brittany

text: The Dauphin Francis died at Château Tournon-sur-Rhône on 10 August 1536, at the age of eighteen. The circumstances of his death seemed suspicious, and it is believed by many that he was poisoned. However, there is ample evidence that he died of natural causes, possibly tuberculosis. The Dauphin had never fully recovered his health from the years spent in damp, dank cells in Madrid.


title: Francis III, Duke of Brittany

text: After playing a round of tennis at a jeu de paume court "pré[s] d'Ainay", the Dauphin asked for a cup of water, which was brought to him by his secretary, Count Montecuccoli. After drinking it, Francis collapsed and died several days later. Montecuccoli, who was brought to the court by Catherine de' Medici, was accused of being in the pay of Charles V, and when his quarters were searched a book on different types of poison was found. Catherine de' Medici was well known to have an interest in poisons and the occult. Under torture, Montecuccoli confessed to poisoning the Dauphin.


title: Francis III, Duke of Brittany

text: In an age before forensic science, poison was usually suspected whenever a young, healthy person died shortly after eating or drinking. There was no way to pinpoint and trace the substance after death; therefore, it was considered a quick, easy and untraceable form of homicide. There have been several other suspected cases of political-murder-by-poison in the French royal family through the ages.


title: Florence Airport

text: Florence Airport, Peretola , and formally Amerigo Vespucci Airport, is the international airport of Florence, the capital of the Italian region of Tuscany. It is the second-busiest Tuscan airport in terms of passengers after Pisa International Airport.


title: Florence Airport

text: The first air field in Florence was created in the Campo di Marte area in 1910, when military authorities allowed a field to be used for "experiments in air navigation". Campo di Marte thus became Florence's first airport, and remained so throughout the 1920s. However, the field was soon surrounded by houses and was inadequate for the new aircraft that were then replacing the first canvas-covered craft. In 1928, a location on the plain between Florence and Sesto Fiorentino was chosen. Peretola Airport opened there on 4 June 1931.


title: Florence Airport

text: At first, Peretola was a large field where airplanes took off and landed with no formal direction, but eventually, the Ministry of Aeronautics decided to enlarge and upgrade it. The airport was extended toward Castello, and in 1938–39, an asphalt runway 60 metres wide and 1,000 metres long, facing northeast, was built.


title: Florence Airport

text: During World War II, Peretola was used both by the Royal Italian Air Force and the Luftwaffe and from 1944 by Allied air forces. Then later in the 1940s it welcomed its first passenger flights, operated by Aerea Teseo with Douglas DC-3 aircraft. In 1948, Aerea Teseo went out of business. In the late '50s and early '60s, Alitalia, also using the DC-3, offered two routes: Rome–Florence–Venice and Rome–Florence–Milan. ATI then offered several domestic flights with the Fokker F27.


title: Florence Airport

text: In the early 1980s, plans were made to upgrade the airport's facilities. In 1984, Saf (now AdF, the company that manages the airport) was founded, and restructuring work was completed: lengthening (from 1,000 to 1,400 metres) and lighting the runway, installing a VOR/DME navigation system, and rebuilding the airport terminal. In September 1986, regular flights resumed. Since then, the number of airplanes and passengers has steadily increased.


title: Florence Airport

text: In 1990, the airport was renamed after Florence native Amerigo Vespucci, an Italian merchant and cartographer.


title: Florence Airport

text: In 1992, the building now dedicated to arrivals, constructed by AdF, was inaugurated. Two years later, a departures building opened, and the City of Florence opened a car park at the entrance to the airport. In 1996, the runway was extended by 250 metres, and AdF funded further enlargement of the departure area. Today, the new area has 15 check-in desks and covers a total of 1,200 square metres, 770 of which are for public use.


title: Florence Airport

text: Since 9 April 1998, AdF has had a global concession to managing the airport's infrastructure, and it has assumed responsibility for maintenance and development.


title: Florence Airport

text: On 5 December 2012, Vueling announced the opening of a base of operations in Florence, with flights to several destinations in Europe.


title: Florence Airport

text: In late 1999, a renovation and expansion of the terminals, aircraft parking areas, and other facilities began. In July 2000, AdF made its debut on the stock market, and in 2001, the airport was among the first in Europe to obtain UNI EN ISO 9001/2000 certification for the quality of its services.


title: Florence Airport

text: Florence Airport has a single runway, and the main taxiway is situated at the end of Runway 5, with an overshoot/holding area at the end of Runway 23. As is common at smaller airports, after landing, planes turn around at the end of the runway, then taxi back down to reach the parking area and terminal. Because of the close proximity of Monte Morello, planes normally take off from Runway 23, thus forcing aircraft to taxi down the runway again to depart.


title: Florence Airport

text: The second line of the Florence light-rail network has a terminal at the airport. The airport is also connected with the city of Florence by a bus line that runs to and from the central railway station every half-hour, operated by the local bus company ATAF. Taxis are available to downtown Florence.


title: Comic Book Guy

text: Jeff Albertson, commonly known as Comic Book Guy, is a recurring fictional character in the animated television series "The Simpsons". He is voiced by Hank Azaria and first appeared in the second-season episode "Three Men and a Comic Book", which originally aired on May 9, 1991. Comic Book Guy is the proprietor of a comic book store, The Android's Dungeon & Baseball Card Shop. He is based on "every comic book store guy in America" and represents a stereotypical middle-aged comic-book collector. He is well known for his distinctive accent, disagreeable personality and his catchphrase, "Worst [-] ever!"


title: Comic Book Guy

text: Comic Book Guy (who states Jeff Albertson to be his real name in the episode "Homer and Ned's Hail Mary Pass") is a nerdy, snobby and quarrelsome man. He is best known for his eloquence and crabby, sarcastic quips. He is obsessed with collecting comic books and is an avid science fiction buff. He holds a master's degree in folklore and mythology (having translated "The Lord of the Rings" into Klingon as part of his thesis), as well as a degree in chemical engineering, has an IQ of 170, and is a member of the Springfield branch of Mensa. He is morbidly obese and has long hair, which he always keeps tied in a ponytail.


title: Comic Book Guy

text: His catchphrase is the declaration "worst/best [subject] ever", sometimes to the point of breaking the fourth wall. For example, in the episode "Saddlesore Galactica", he wears a T-shirt saying "Worst Episode Ever". Another example of breaking the fourth wall occurs in an episode when Comic Book Guy's chair collapses, and he sarcastically says "Ooh, a fat man falls. "Real" original." Despite his solitary life, in "The Simpsons Movie", minutes before his anticipated death, Comic Book Guy says that his obsessive comic book collecting has been a "life well spent". However, in "Treehouse of Horror VIII", when a nuclear missile homes in on him, he says to himself, "Oh, I've wasted my life", although the "Treehouse of Horror" episodes are not part of the normal "Simpsons" canon. In the 2008 episode "Any Given Sundance" it was revealed that he is also a writer and posts to his own site called "Ain't I Fat News", a take on the real-life movie review website Ain't It Cool News.


title: Comic Book Guy

text: Comic Book Guy was once married in an online role-playing game. He and his Internet wife contemplated having children, but that would have severely drained his "power crystals". In Season 16's "There's Something About Marrying", he hopes to wed a "" cardboard figure. While part of an intellectual junta that briefly ran Springfield in "They Saved Lisa's Brain", he proposes plans to limit breeding to once every seven years (a reference to the Vulcan blood fever of mating, called Pon farr), commenting that this would mean much less breeding for most, but for him, "much, much more". He is a virgin well into his forties, but becomes sexually and romantically involved with Principal Skinner's mother Agnes. He later dates Edna Krabappel after she leaves Skinner at the altar. They are nearly married at a science fiction convention with Skinner trying to stop the wedding, but Edna changes her mind, preferring not to be tied down to a relationship. Comic Book Guy is not particularly surprised by this, saying, "There are a million valid reasons, but which one did you pick?" When Edna gently explains "It's like I'm DC Comics, and you're Marvel", he accepts the comparison without any rancor. In "Married to the Blob" Comic Book Guy marries Kumiko Nakamura, a Japanese manga artist.


title: Comic Book Guy

text: Comic Book Guy is the owner of The Android's Dungeon & Baseball Card Shop, a local comic book store. The comics, collectibles, and toys he sells are of wildly varying quality and often have very high prices. His store is his sanctuary, where he holds some level of self-esteem, imperiously lording over pre-teen kids, like Bart Simpson and Milhouse Van Houten, using a heavily sarcastic tone and often banning certain customers for minor infractions. His store contains a lower level full of illegal videos (which include Mr. Rogers drunk, "Alien autopsy", "Illegal Alien Autopsy", a "good version" of "The Godfather Part III", and Kent Brockman picking his nose).


title: Comic Book Guy

text: In "Husbands and Knives", the store was closed due to bankruptcy when a rival comic book shop opened across the road, run by an owner with significantly better customer service and social skills. Although his old store was bought by Marge Simpson in the same episode and not returned, Comic Book Guy continues running his store in future episodes and the rival store is usually not mentioned, though it was referred to again when its owner showed up in "Married to the Blob".


title: Comic Book Guy

text: Comic Book Guy was partly inspired by a clerk at the Los Angeles comic book shop who often "[sat] on the high stool, kind of lording over the store with that supercilious attitude and eating behind the counter a big Styrofoam container full of fried clams with a lot of tartar sauce." Groening noted:


title: Comic Book Guy

text: Azaria based Comic Book Guy's voice on a college contemporary named Mark who went by the nickname "F", short for "Flounder" from the film "National Lampoon's Animal House", and lived in the room next door to him at Tufts University. Hank Azaria further explained that "F" would listen to the song "867-5309" all day long and that Mark would keep a list of top five and bottom five people whom he liked and hated in the dorm and post it hourly. Azaria stated that he himself was always on the bottom five of the list because he complained about the playing of the music. Azaria "loves that the character is an adult who argues with kids as if they're his peers."


title: Comic Book Guy

text: Within the series, the character Comic Book Guy is often used to represent a stereotypical inhabitant of the newsgroup alt.tv.simpsons. The first such instance occurred in the seventh-season episode "Radioactive Man", in which Comic Book Guy is logging on to his favorite newsgroup alt.nerd.obsessive. David X. Cohen often read alt.tv.simpsons to gauge audience response to episodes. He decided to lampoon the passion and the fickleness of the fans.


title: Comic Book Guy

text: In the eighth-season episode "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show" after Comic Book Guy views the "Itchy & Scratchy" episode featuring Poochie, he immediately goes on the Internet and writes, "Worst episode ever" on a message board; a commentary on how the active audience nitpicks the episode. The writers respond by using the voice of Bart Simpson:


title: Comic Book Guy

text: The catchphrase further appears on his T-shirt in the eleventh season episode "Saddlesore Galactica", and as the title of the twelfth season episode "Worst Episode Ever". The catchphrase can also be used for describing other things by saying, "Worst. (Noun). Ever."


title: Comic Book Guy

text: A long-running gag on the show was never to reveal the character's name, with other characters referring to him as "Comic Book Guy". The writers had intended to name the character as early as his first episode, but they could not think of a name for him, and they called him "Comic Book Guy", with the intention of naming the character the next time they used him. However, they continually procrastinated. Finally, in the February 6, 2005 episode, "Homer and Ned's Hail Mary Pass", Comic Book Guy nonchalantly tells Ned Flanders: "My name is Jeff Albertson, but everyone calls me 'Comic Book Guy'". Showrunner Al Jean remarked: "That was specifically done to make people really mad. We just tried to pick a generic name. It was also the Super Bowl show. We did it so the most people possible would see it." Groening stated that he had originally intended him to be called Louis Lane and be "obsessed and tormented by" Lois Lane, but Groening was not present when the writers chose the name. His name is also mentioned in "The Simpsons Game".


title: Comic Book Guy

text: Hank Azaria has won several Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance for his work on "The Simpsons", winning one in 2001 for voicing Comic Book Guy and various other characters in the episode "Worst Episode Ever".


title: Comic Book Guy

text: Comic Book Guy is featured on the cover of the twelfth season DVD. He appears on other media as well, including T-shirts and drinking glasses.


title: Comic Book Guy

text: In "The Simpsons Game", he explains all the clichés that the player comes across during the game. Comic Book Guy has appeared in his own five-part comic book, in which his death influenced a nerd and geek gang war. "The Simpsons Library of Wisdom" includes a volume entitled "Comic Book Guy's Book of Pop Culture".


title: Comic Book Guy

text: Comic Book Guy appears in "" as a drivable character, the host for bonus mission level four and host for a level seven mission. He is also a passenger in "".


title: Comic Book Guy

text: Comic Book Guy makes a cameo appearance in the season two finale of "The Cleveland Show" saying the line, "Worst. Cameo. Ever."


title: Comic Book Guy

text: Comic Book Guy makes a brief appearance in the "Simpsons"/"Family Guy" crossover episode "The Simpsons Guy" to say "Worst. Chicken Fight. Ever."


title: Comic Book Guy

text: Comic Book Guy makes a brief appearance as the clerk of "Karl's Komics" selling comics to Chip Flagston of "Hi and Lois", March 25, 2018.


title: Firearm death rates in the United States by state

text: In 2020, over 45,000 people in the United States (13.6 per 100,000 people) died by firearms. More than half of these people died by suicide. According to the FBI's 2020 Uniform Crime Report, the total number of murders increased by nearly one-third from 2019 to 2020. In both years, three-quarters of these murders were committed with firearms; that percentage slightly increased from 2019 (74%) to 2020 (77%).


text: In 2017 and 2018, of all trauma-based deaths in the United States (including car crashes), firearm deaths caused the greatest loss of "years of potential life," a unit of measurement that considers each person's age at death.


text: This is a list of the U.S. states and the District of Columbia. The population data is the official data from the U.S. Census Bureau. The murder rates and gun murder rates were calculated based on the FBI reports. The official population of each state for 2010 and gun ownership rates were added for context.


text: The gun murders in 2010 from FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) program was 8,775. The total number of murders from all weapons was 12,996. These figures includes murders and willful manslaughters, but excludes "deaths caused by negligence, suicide, or accident" and justifiable homicides. The U.S. reports a 70% conviction rate for murder prosecutions.


title: Lassen Peak

text: Lassen Peak ( ), commonly referred to as Mount Lassen, is a lava dome volcano and the southernmost active volcano in the Cascade Range of the Western United States. Located in the Shasta Cascade region of Northern California, it is part of the Cascade Volcanic Arc, which stretches from southwestern British Columbia to northern California. Lassen Peak reaches an elevation of , standing above the northern Sacramento Valley. It supports many flora and fauna among its diverse habitats, which are subject to frequent snowfall and reach high elevations.


title: Lassen Peak

text: Lassen Peak has a volume of , making it one of the largest lava domes on Earth. The volcano arose from the former northern flank of now-eroded Mount Tehama about 27,000 years ago, from a series of eruptions over the course of a few years. The mountain has been significantly eroded by glaciers over the last 25,000 years, and is now covered in talus deposits.


title: Lassen Peak

text: On May 22, 1915, a powerful explosive eruption at Lassen Peak devastated nearby areas, and spread volcanic ash as far as to the east. This explosion was the most powerful in a series of eruptions from 1914 through 1917. Lassen Peak and Mount St. Helens in Washington were the only two volcanoes in the contiguous United States to erupt during the 20th century.


title: Lassen Peak

text: Lassen Volcanic National Park, which encompasses an area of , was created to preserve the areas affected by the eruption, for future observation and study, to protect the nearby volcanic features, and to keep anyone from settling too close to the volcano. The park, along with the nearby Lassen National Forest and Lassen Peak, have become popular destinations for recreational activities, including climbing, hiking, backpacking, snowshoeing, kayaking, and backcountry skiing. Lassen Peak is dormant, meaning the volcano is merely inactive, and it has a functioning magma chamber under the ground still capable of eruptions. Thus it poses a threat to the nearby area through lava flows, pyroclastic flows, lahars (volcanically induced mudslides, landslides, and debris flows), ash, avalanches, and floods. To monitor this threat, Lassen Peak and the surrounding vicinity are closely observed with sensors by the California Volcano Observatory.


title: Lassen Peak

text: Located in Lassen Volcanic National Park, Lassen Peak lies in Shasta County, east of the city of Redding, in the U.S. state of California. Lassen Peak and the rest of the National Park area are surrounded by the Lassen National Forest, which has an area of . Nearby towns include Mineral in Tehama County and Viola in Shasta County.


title: Lassen Peak

text: Lassen Peak reaches an elevation of , according to 1992 data from the U.S. National Geodetic Survey; 1981 data from the Geographic Names Information System lists the mountain's elevation at . Lassen Peak marks the southernmost major volcano in the Cascade Range, rising above the northern Sacramento Valley. Bounded by the Sacramento Valley and the Klamath Mountains to the west and the Sierra Nevada mountain range to the south, it is the second tallest peak in the California segment of the Cascades, behind Mount Shasta, which lies to the north. Due to its proximity to nearby volcanoes Mount Tehama and Mount Diller, it is not easy to distinguish from its neighboring peaks.


title: Lassen Peak

text: Lassen Peak has the highest known winter snowfall amounts in California. There is an average annual snowfall of , and in some years, more than of snow falls at its base elevation of at Lake Helen. The Lassen Peak area receives more precipitation (rain, sleet, hail, snow, etc.) than anywhere in the Cascade Range south of the Three Sisters volcanoes in Oregon.


title: Lassen Peak

text: Though the volcano lies too far to the south to support a permanent snow cover over the entire mountain, the heavy annual snowfall on Lassen Peak creates fourteen permanent patches of snow on and around the mountain top, despite Lassen's rather modest elevation, but no glaciers.


title: Lassen Peak

text: Lightning has been known to strike the area frequently during summer thunderstorms. These can initiate fires. On July 23, 2012, a lightning strike started the Reading Fire to the northeast of the Paradise Meadow region, which was contained after it reached an area of . During the summer and fall of 2016, the National Park Service carried out prescribed fires to help reduce the amount of fuel available for fires in the Mineral Headquarters area and the Manzanita and Juniper Lake areas, respectively.


title: Lassen Peak

text: Lassen Peak supports a variety of flora that include mountain hemlock, whitebark pine, and alpine wildflowers. Mountain hemlocks generally only reach an elevation of , while whitebark pines reach up to . Throughout the national park, forests can be found featuring red fir, mountain alder, western white pine, white fir, lodgepole pine, Jeffrey pine, ponderosa pine, incense cedar, juniper, and live oak. Other plants found in the Lassen Peak area consist of coyote mint, lupines, mule's ears, ferns, corn lilies, red mountain heathers, pinemat manzanitas,


title: Lassen Peak

text: buckwheat, granite gilia, mountain pride, mariposa tulips, creambush, and a variety of chaparral shrubs.


title: Lassen Peak

text: The various habitats in the Lassen Volcanic National Park support about 300 vertebrate species like mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fish, and birds, including bald eagles, which are listed as "Threatened" under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, and peregrine falcons, which were removed from the endangered species list in 1999. In forested areas below , animals include American black bears, mule deer, martens, brown creepers, mountain chickadees, white-headed woodpeckers, long-toed salamanders, and several bat species. At higher elevations, Clark's nutcrackers, deer mice, and chipmunks can be found among mountain hemlock stands, and subalpine zones with sparse vegetation host populations of gray-crowned rosy finches, pikas, and golden-mantled ground squirrels. Among scattered stands of pinemat manzanita, red fir, and lodgepole pine, animals include dark-eyed juncos, montane voles, and sagebrush lizards. Meadows at the bottoms of valleys along streams and lakes support Pacific tree frogs, Western terrestrial garter snakes, common snipes, and mountain pocket gophers. Other animals found within the national park area include snakes like rubber boas, common garter snakes, and striped whipsnakes; cougars; amphibians like newts, salamanders, rough-skinned newts, and Cascades frogs; 216 species of birds including MacGillivray's warblers, Wilson's warblers, song sparrows, spotted owls, northern goshawks, and bufflehead ducks; five species of native fish that include rainbow trout, tui chubs, speckled daces, Lahontan redsides, and Tahoe suckers; and four invasive fish species including brook trout, brown trout, golden shiners, and fathead minnows. Prominent invertebrate species include California tortoiseshell butterflies.


title: Lassen Peak

text: Lassen Peak lies near the southern end of the Cascade Volcanic Arc, at the western edge of the Basin and Range Province. Like other Cascade volcanoes, it was fed by magma chambers produced by the subduction of the oceanic Juan de Fuca tectonic plate under the western edge of the continental North American tectonic plate. The region is also affected geologically by the Cascadia subduction zone, which dips eastward beneath the western coast of North America in the Pacific Northwest, as well as horizontal stretching to the east of crustal rock in the Basin and Range Province. About 3 million years ago, the southern limit of active volcanoes in the Cascades corresponded to the Yana Volcanic Center to the south of Lassen Peak, but currently the southern edge of the Lassen Volcanic National Park now marks the same border, indicating that the Cascade Arc's southern end migrates at a rate of annually.


title: Lassen Peak

text: In the southern segment of the Cascades, volcanoes exhibit widespread and long-lived activity produced by magma that ranges from low-silica basalt to siliceous (silica-rich) rhyolite. The Lassen volcanic center is fed by two magma chambers, one calc-alkaline reservoir common to the rest of the Cascade Volcanoes, and the other a smaller volume of low-potassium olivine tholeiitic basalt associated with the Basin and Range province. Within the region, most if not all of the volcanic rock has erupted in the past 3 million years. During this period, at least five large andesitic stratovolcanoes (such as Mount Maidu) formed in the vicinity of Lassen Volcanic National Park, building volcanic cones before going extinct and undergoing erosion. For most volcanic centers in the Southern Cascades, one volcano becomes active and normally becomes extinct as another begins to erupt, but at the Lassen locus, the Maidu and Dittmar volcanic centers overlapped during the late Pliocene to the early Pleistocene. Volcanism within the Lassen vicinity follows a trend of intermittent, episodic eruptions punctuating long periods of dormancy, a pattern which persisted through the late Pleistocene and Holocene. During the past 825,000 years, the area has produced hundreds of explosive eruptions over an area of , and the past 50,000 years have seen seven major silicic eruptive episodes that produced dacitic lava domes, tephra, and pyroclastic flows, along with five periods of basaltic and andesitic lava flows.


title: Lassen Peak

text: Local activity began 600,000 years ago with the formation of Brokeoff Volcano (alternatively known as Mount Tehama). Around the same time, about 614,000 years ago, an explosive eruption southwest of Lassen Peak produced of pumice and ash, covering the area between the vent and what is now the city of Ventura, California. This deposit, referred to as the Rockland tephra, reaches up to several inches in thickness within the San Francisco Bay area, and can be found as far as northern Nevada and southern Idaho. The same eruption also formed one of three known calderas within the Cascade, the others being Crater Lake and the Kulshan Caldera at Mount Baker. Shortly after, the Lassen volcanic center, a cluster of closely spaced volcanoes, formed in the area, covering the nearby caldera. During the late Pleistocene it produced andesite lava flows that built the Brokeoff composite volcano (stratovolcano). Following the end of volcanism at Brokeoff Volcano hydrothermal fluids began chemically weathering minerals in the andesite flows, altering the once strong rocks into easily eroded materials. Glaciers and streams were able to rapidly erode deep channels into these altered volcanic rocks, reducing the once lofty peak of Brokeoff Volcano into the landscape we see today. Following the erosion of Brokeoff Volcano, volcanism migrated to the Lassen Domefield to the northeast.


title: Lassen Peak

text: Lassen Peak's lava dome formed about 27,000 years ago from a series of eruptions over a few years, undergoing significant glacial erosion between 25,000 and 18,000 years ago. The bowl-shaped depression on the volcano's northeastern flank, called a cirque, was eroded by a glacier that extended out from the dome. By 18,000 years ago, Lassen Peak started to form a mound-shaped dacite lava dome, pushing its way through Tehama's former northern flank. As the lava dome grew it shattered overlaying rock, which formed a blanket of angular talus around the emerging steep-sided volcano. Likely resembling the nearby 1,100-year-old Chaos Crags, Lassen Peak reached its present height in a relatively short time, probably in just a few years. Within the past 1,000 years or so, activity at Lassen Peak has produced six dacite lava domes, erupted tephra and pyroclastic flows, and built Cinder Cone and the Fantastic Lava Beds. It also created the rockfalls at Chaos Jumbles.


title: Lassen Peak

text: The only Cascade volcano with an elevation above that is not a stratovolcano, Lassen Peak is a rhyodacitic lava dome. It represents one of the largest lava domes on Earth, with a height of above its surroundings, and an approximate volume of . Unlike more conventional, conical stratovolcanoes like Mount Shasta or Mount Rainier, Lassen Peak is part of a volcanic center that erupts from different vents, which each remain active for a number of years or decades but often do not erupt from the same vent twice, also known as a monogenetic volcanic field. 2000 years after Lassen's formation, it was surrounded by glaciers which ate away at its spiny protrusions of dacite. Due to glacial erosion from the last local glacial advance, which ceased roughly 15,000 years ago, Lassen's lava dome is now covered in broken rock fragments at the base of crags called talus deposits. Only its crag formations on its southern flank, near the summit trailhead, have not been significantly altered by glacial erosion.


title: Lassen Peak

text: The Lassen volcanic center includes Brokeoff Volcano, Lassen's dacitic lava dome, and a number of small andesitic shield volcanoes found northeast of Lassen Peak. The Lassen dome field includes 30 dacitic lava domes such as Bumpass Mountain, Mount Helen, Ski Heil Peak, and Reading Peak; other major lava domes include Chaos Crags, Eagle Peak, Sunflower Flat, and Vulcans Castle. Nearby shield volcanoes include Prospect Peak and West Prospect Peak, and there are three cones close to Lassen Peak: Cinder Cone, Hat Mountain, and Raker Peak. The hydrothermal area inside the Lassen Peak volcanic center, with features located southeast and southwest of Lassen Peak, represents the largest geothermal area in the United States besides the one present at Yellowstone National Park.


title: Lassen Peak

text: The Chaos Crags, a series of five small lava domes, represent the youngest part of Lassen volcanic center's dome field, reaching an elevation of about above their surroundings. They were produced by vigorous explosive eruptions of pumice and ash followed by effusive activity, which created unstable edifices that partially collapsed and formed pyroclastic flows made of incandescent lava blocks and lithic ash. Six domes were originally formed, though one was destroyed by a pyroclastic flow. Roughly 350 years ago, one of the domes collapsed to produce the Chaos Jumbles, an area where three enormous rockfalls transformed the local area and traveled as far as down the dome's slopes.


title: Lassen Peak

text: Cinder Cone, which reaches an elevation of above its surrounding area in the northeastern region of the Lassen Volcanic National Park, forms a symmetrical pyroclastic cone. The youngest mafic volcano in the Lassen volcanic center, it is surrounded by unvegetated block lava and has concentric craters at its summit. Cinder Cone is comprised by five basaltic andesite and andesite lava flows, and it also has two cinder cone volcanoes, with two scoria cones, the first of which was mostly destroyed by lava flows from its base. In 1850 and 1851, a number of observers reported an eruption at Cinder Cone visible from more than away, with one observer near the mountain claiming to have observed a lava flow "running down the sides of the volcano." However, despite these testimonies and accounts in newspaper articles and several scientific journals, the veracity of these eruptions has been questioned by scientists from the United States Geological Survey. In addition to the fact that cinder cones usually erupt lava from base vents, there is a lack of physical evidence suggesting activity at the volcano since its formation in 1650. In addition, an old willow bush growing near the summit crater that was documented during the 1850s was still present in the 1880s after the alleged eruptions, suggesting that no eruptions took place during the 1850s.


title: Lassen Peak

text: The areas surrounding Lassen Peak, especially to its east, south, and southeast, represented a meeting ground for Maidu, Yana, Yahi, and Atsugewi Native Americans. The volcano is known among some native populations as "Amblu Kai", which means "Mountain Ripped Apart" or "Fire Mountain," and as "Kom Yamani," which means "Snow Mountain," among the Mountain Maidu. Because the area was not suitable for permanent habitation, there is relatively scarce archaeological evidence of a native presence in the Lassen area.


title: Lassen Peak

text: The first white man to reach Lassen Peak was Jedediah Smith, who passed through the area in 1821 as he made his way for the western coast of the United States. After the California Gold Rush brought increased numbers of settlers into the area, Lassen Peak was named in honor of a Danish blacksmith, Peter Lassen, who guided immigrants past the peak to the Sacramento Valley during the 1830s. This trail was replaced by the Nobles Emigrant Trail, named for the guide William Nobles, who pioneered the trail in 1851.


title: Lassen Peak

text: Lassen Peak's first recorded ascent took place in 1851, led by Grover K. Godfrey. In 1864, painter Helen Tanner Brodt became the first woman to reach the summit of Lassen Peak, wanting to sketch the surrounding landscape. A tarn lake on Lassen Peak is named "Lake Helen" in her honor. The Bumpass Hell, a hydrothermal vent area near Lassen Peak, was named after a pioneer who suffered burns there and lost his leg shortly after. Other historic names for Lassen Peak include Mount Joseph (from 1827), Snow Butte, Sister Buttes, and Mount Lassen.


title: Lassen Peak

text: United States President Theodore Roosevelt established the Lassen Peak National Monument in 1907. Despite Native population claims that Lassen Peak was "full of fire and water" and would erupt again, this motion was based on the general belief that Lassen Peak was now extinct, and that its vicinity contained intriguing volcanic phenomena, which could be studied and observed. Once the volcano became active again in 1914, the monument was expanded to establish the Lassen Volcanic National Park on August 9, 1916. The park, in area, can be reached from the California State Route 89 highway.


title: Lassen Peak

text: Between 385,000 and 315,000 years ago, volcanism at the Lassen center shifted from andesitic stratovolcano construction to production of dacite domes. Over the past 300,000 years, the Lassen Peak area has produced more than 30 lava domes, Lassen Peak being the largest. These lava domes formed as a result of rising lava that was pushed up but was too viscous to escape its source, creating steep edifices. Lassen Peak's lava dome formed 27,000 years ago from a series of eruptions over a few years, undergoing significant glacial erosion between 25,000 and 18,000 years ago. No volcanic activity took place 190,000 years ago to roughly 90,000 years ago, but during the last 100,000 years, there have been at least 12 periods of eruptive activity in the Lassen volcanic center, and since 90,000 years ago, the Twin Lakes sequence has been producing mixed lavas with variable appearances and compositions, including andesite and basaltic andesite lava flows and agglutinated volcanic cones (made of fused pyroclastic rocks) located by the Lassen dome field. The Twin Lakes sequence includes the construction of the Chaos Crag dome complex between 1100 and 1000 years ago and eruptions at Lassen Peak beginning in 1914.


title: Lassen Peak

text: Prior to 1914, Lassen Peak likely underwent at least one explosive eruption, which created a summit crater deep with a diameter of . Deposits from older mudflows that can be traced specifically to the Lassen dome have also been found in Hat Creek, Lost Creek, and in a region to the east of the Devastated Area.


title: Lassen Peak

text: On May 30, 1914, despite an apparent lack of precursor earthquakes, Lassen became volcanically active again after 27,000 years of dormancy, when it produced a steam explosion that carved out a small crater with a fairly deep lake on the volcano's summit. The crater grew as it was carved by more than 180 similar phreatic explosions over the span of more than 11 months, reaching a length of . On May 14, 1915, Lassen Peak erupted lava blocks, which extended as far as Manton, west of the mountain. By the next day, the volcano had produced a dacitic lava dome, between 63 and 68 percent silica, which occupied its summit crater. On May 19, a large eruption destroyed this dome, and a new crater formed at the summit. No lava erupted, but parts of the dome fell on the upper flanks of the mountain, which were covered in more than of snow. The lava mixed with snow and rock to form a lahar (volcanically induced mudslide, landslide, and debris flow), in width, which coursed down the side of the volcano, traveling and reaching Hat Creek. After being deflected to the northwest at Emigrant Pass, the lahar extended an additional down Lost Creek. On May 20, the lower Hat Creek valley flooded with muddy water, which damaged ranch houses in the Old Station area and caused minor injuries among a few people, all of whom escaped. Removing homes from their foundation, the lahar also uprooted trees more than tall. The flood continued for another , killing fish in the Pit River. Simultaneously, dacite lava with lower viscosity than dacite from the previous eruption filled the summit crater, overflowing and extending in two streams for down the mountain's western and northeastern sides.


title: Lassen Peak

text: On May 22, 1915, at about 4:00 p.m., Lassen Peak produced a violent explosive eruption that ejected rock and pumice and formed a larger and deeper crater at its summit. Within 30 minutes, volcanic ash and gas formed a column that reached altitudes of more than and could be seen from the city of Eureka, to the west. This column underwent a partial collapse, generating a pyroclastic flow composed of hot ash, pumice, rock, and gas that destroyed of land and spawned a lahar extending from the volcano and again reaching Hat Creek Valley. Smaller mudflows also formed on every side of the volcano, as well a layer of pumice and volcanic ash that reached as far as northeast; volcanic ash was detected up to east at the city of Elko, Nevada. Additionally, the lava flow on the volcano's northeastern flank was removed by this eruption, but not the similar deposit on the western flank.


title: Lassen Peak

text: The eruptive output volume totaled , dwarfed by the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, which had a volume of . The region on the volcano's northeastern flank destroyed by the eruptions, in area, is now known as the Devastated Area, and it along with other deposits from the volcano has been altered by erosion and regrowth of vegetation, though the vegetation in Devastated Area is sparse due to its siliceous (rich in silica), nutrient-deprived soil, which cannot sustain normal tree growth due to its lack of water retention. Due to their small size and thin deposits, the 1915 eruptions will likely not be well-preserved geologically.


title: Lassen Peak

text: After 1915, steam explosions continued for several years, indicating extremely hot rock beneath Lassen Peak's surface. In May 1917, an especially strong steam explosion formed the northern crater on Lassen Peak's summit, with eruptions lasting two days and producing an ash cloud that extended into the sky. June saw 21 additional explosions reported, further transforming the crater and creating a new vent on Lassen Peak's northwestern summit. In June 1919, steam eruptions occurred, and similar activity was observed on April 8 and 9 in 1920, followed by steam eruptions lasting 10–12 hours in October of the same year. During February 1921, white steam erupted from eastern fissures on the volcano. In total, about 400 eruptions were observed between 1914 and 1921, which were the last eruptions in the Cascades before the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, which was the only other volcanic eruption in the contiguous United States during the 20th century.


title: Lassen Peak

text: During its eruptions in the early 20th century, Lassen Peak attracted widespread media attention as the first volcano to erupt in the United States during the 20th century. Unlike eruptions at Mount Baker, Mount Rainier, Mount St. Helens, or Mount Hood during the 19th century, Lassen Peak's eruptions


title: Lassen Peak

text: were very well documented by newspapers and extensively photographed. Though there is a large supply of images documenting these eruptions at Lassen Peak, the best and most complete images were taken by the local businessman Benjamin Franklin Loomis. Using an 8x10-inch camera with glass-plate negatives, Loomis made his own film and set up a darkroom in a tent. He wrote of the eruption he witnessed on June 14, 1914, "The sight was fearfully grand." Loomis's pictures were published in his book "Pictorial History of the Lassen Volcano" (1926); a number of his original plates remain in the archives of the National Park Service. His photographs have been used to help understand the timeline and geology of the 1915 eruptions of Lassen Peak.


title: Lassen Peak

text: One of Lassen Peak's 1917 eruptions was captured on film by Justin Hammer from the nearby Catfish Lake. Originally silent, the film features sound effects added by his grandson, Craig Martin. The film was rediscovered and published in 2015 by the Shasta Historical Society.


title: Lassen Peak

text: Lassen Peak remains an active volcano, as volcanic activity including fumaroles (steam vents), hot springs, and mudpots can be found throughout Lassen Volcanic National Park. Their activity varies based on the season; during the spring, when meltwater is more abundant, fumaroles and pools of water have lower temperatures, while mudpots have more fluid mud supplies. During summer and droughts, they become drier and hotter, since they cannot be cooled by ground water. Geothermal activity can be observed at Bumpass Hell, Little Hot Springs Valley, Pilot Pinnacle, Sulphur Works, Devils Kitchen, Boiling Springs Lake, and Terminal Geyser, as well as the Morgan and Growler Hot Springs south of the national park in Mill Canyon. These are produced by the boiling of underground bodies of water, which generates steam. At Bumpass Hell, these features are at their most vigorous, with temperatures reaching at Big Boiler, the park's biggest fumarole and one of the hottest hydrothermal fumaroles in the world. Because of their acidic conditions and heat, none of these hydrothermal bodies are safe for bathing except for at Drakesbad Guest Ranch. Fumaroles near Lassen Peak in particular remained active through the 1950s, but have grown weaker over time; they can still be found among the volcano's summit craters. These hydrothermal features are monitored continuously for their physical and chemical conditions by the United States Geological Survey.


title: Lassen Peak

text: Climbers reported steam eruptions in the summit craters for decades after activity apparently ceased in 1921, and the naturalist Paul Schulz documented 30 steam vents at the summit in the 1950s. A report from the United States Geological Survey declared that "No one can say when, but it is almost certain that the Lassen area will experience volcanic eruptions again." Similarly, the California Volcano Observatory lists its threat level as "Very High." At the time of the early 20th century eruptions, the area surrounding the volcano was only sparsely populated, but a similar eruption today would threaten many lives and the northern Californian economy. Volcanic eruptions occur with similar frequency to major earthquakes from the San Andreas Fault, and at least 10 eruptions have taken place within the state during the past 1,000 years, the most recent at Lassen Peak. Under 1 percent of the state's population lives within hazard zones that could be affected by an eruption, but collectively hazard zones are visited by more than 20 million people each year. Moreover, a number of the potentially active Californian volcanoes reside less than from highly populated areas, and explosive eruptions could produce ash that travels for several hundred miles. In the case of signs that suggest impending volcanic activity, the United States Geological Survey has a plan in place to utilize portable monitoring instruments, deploy scientists to the area, and implement an emergency response plan developed by the National Park Service if an eruption were imminent.


title: Lassen Peak

text: Although basaltic lava flows are the most common eruptive activity in the Lassen volcanic center, they could also produce more violent and thus more hazardous silicic lava flows, in addition to building additional, unstable lava domes that could collapse and spawn pyroclastic flows that could extend for several miles. Because Lassen Peak has a significant amount of snow and ice, these pyroclastic flows (or hot volcanic ash) might mix with water to form lahars (volcanically induced mudslides, landslides, and debris flows) that could destroy nearby communities. Dacitic eruptions could produce volcanic columns of gas and ash that could threaten aircraft in the area. Moreover, the Lassen volcanic center poses threats to visitors from sudden avalanches that could be entirely unrelated to eruptive activity. Due to the threat of an avalanche from nearby Chaos Crag if volcanic activity renewed in the area or an earthquake occurred, the Visitor Center for Lassen Peak located at Manzanita Lake closed in 1974. In 1993, a rockfall with a volume of fell down Lassen Peak's northeastern flank, but no visitors were harmed. Despite the volcano's current quiet state, rockfalls still pose significant hazards due to the peak's inherent instability.


title: Lassen Peak

text: The volcano is monitored by the California Volcano Observatory, which has a sensor network that can measure increased seismicity, ground deformation, or gas emissions suggesting movement of magma towards the surface near the volcano. The United States Geological Survey, in cooperation with the National Park Service, has been monitoring Lassen Peak and other volcanic areas in the park with tiltmeters, seismometers, and inclinometers. Prior to 1996, geodetic surveys at Lassen Peak did not detect ground deformation, but Interferometric synthetic-aperture radar (InSAR) surveys between 1996 and 2000 suggested that downward subsidence was occurring at a rate of each year within a circular area with a diameter of centered just of the volcano. As a result, additional surveys using the Global Positioning System took place in 2004, and further InSAR surveys showed that subsidence continued through 2010. Lassen Peak is one of four Cascade volcanoes that has undergone subsidence since 1990, with Medicine Lake Volcano, Mount Baker, and Mount St. Helens. Though not conclusively linked to a possible eruption, this subsidence may offer insight into how magma is stored within the region, tectonic setting, and how hydrothermal systems evolve over long periods of time. GPS receivers have been in place to monitor deformation within the Lassen volcanic center since 2008, and 13 seismometers in the vicinity, first installed in 1976 and since updated each decade, continually survey earthquakes within the locale.


title: Lassen Peak

text: The Lassen Volcanic National Park is visited by more than 350,000 people every year. Incorporating more than of hiking trails, it is visited by people looking to hike or backpack during the summers. Popular winter activities include snowshoeing and backcountry skiing. As the second-tallest volcano in Northern California, trailing only Mount Shasta, Lassen Peak is frequently visited by climbers and hikers from around the world. The summit opens for use most years near the end of June, remaining in use until heavy snow falls in October or November. After a 9-year-old boy died from a collapsed retaining wall along the summit trail on July 29, 2009, the path closed for six years for construction, reopening in 2015.


title: Lassen Peak

text: The mountain's summit trail can be accessed from a parking lot on the northern side of the California State Route 89. The Lassen Peak Trail, which starts from this parking area, runs for with switchback turns, a round-trip hike in length that ascends approximately from the trailhead at to the summit at . From the northeast summit, Lassen's 1915 mudflow and Prospect Peak are visible; the northwestern summit offers views of Lassen's two bowl-shaped craters and Mount Shasta, to the north.


title: Lassen Peak

text: The southern entrance to the park area has a winter sports area where visitors can ski, snowshoe, and within the Lassen National Forest, visitors can also bicycle, go boating, or use snowmobiles.


title: Slalom skiing

text: Slalom is an alpine skiing and alpine snowboarding discipline, involving skiing between poles or gates. These are spaced more closely than those in giant slalom, super giant slalom and downhill, necessitating quicker and shorter turns. Internationally, the sport is contested at the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships, and at the Olympic Winter Games.


title: Slalom skiing

text: The term slalom comes from the Morgedal/Seljord dialect of Norwegian word "slalåm": "sla", meaning "slightly inclining hillside", and "låm", meaning "track after skis". The inventors of modern skiing classified their trails according to their difficulty. "Slalåm" was a trail used in Telemark by boys and girls not yet able to try themselves on the more challenging runs. "Ufsilåm" was a trail with one obstacle ("ufse") like a jump, a fence, a difficult turn, a gorge, a cliff (often more than high) and more. "Uvyrdslåm" was a trail with several obstacles. A Norwegian military downhill competition in 1767 included racing downhill among trees "without falling or breaking skis". Sondre Norheim and other skiers from Telemark practiced "uvyrdslåm" or "disrespectful/reckless downhill" where they raced downhill in difficult and untested terrain (i.e., off piste). The 1866 "ski race" in Oslo was a combined cross-country, jumping and slalom competition. In the slalom participants were allowed use poles for braking and steering, and they were given points for style (appropriate skier posture). During the late 1800s Norwegian skiers participated in all branches (jumping, slalom, and cross-country) often with the same pair of skis. Slalom and variants of slalom were often referred to as hill races. Around 1900 hill races are abandoned in the Oslo championships at Huseby and Holmenkollen. Mathias Zdarsky's development of the Lilienfeld binding helped change hill races into a specialty of the Alps region.


title: Slalom skiing

text: The rules for the modern slalom were developed by Arnold Lunn in 1922 for the British National Ski Championships, and adopted for alpine skiing at the 1936 Winter Olympics. Under these rules gates were marked by pairs of flags rather than single ones, were arranged so that the racers had to use a variety of turn lengths to negotiate them, and scoring was on the basis of time alone, rather than on both time and style.


title: Slalom skiing

text: A course is constructed by laying out a series of gates, formed by alternating pairs of red and blue poles. The skier must pass between the two poles forming the gate, with the tips of both skis and the skier's feet passing between the poles. A course has 55 to 75 gates for men and 40 to 60 for women. The vertical drop for a men's course is and measures slightly less for women. The gates are arranged in a variety of configurations to challenge the competitor.


title: Slalom skiing

text: Because the offsets are relatively small in slalom, ski racers take a fairly direct line and often knock the poles out of the way as they pass, which is known as blocking. (The main blocking technique in modern slalom is cross-blocking, in which the skier takes such a tight line and angulates so strongly that he or she is able to block the gate with the outside hand.) Racers employ a variety of protective equipment, including shin pads, hand guards, helmets and face guards.


title: Slalom skiing

text: Traditionally, bamboo poles were used for gates, the rigidity of which forced skiers to maneuver their entire body around each gate. In the early 1980s, rigid poles were replaced by hard plastic poles, hinged at the base. The hinged gates require, according to FIS rules, only that the skis and boots of the skier go around each gate.


title: Slalom skiing

text: The new gates allow a more direct path down a slalom course through the process of cross-blocking or shinning the gates. Cross-blocking is a technique in which the legs go around the gate with the upper body inclined toward, or even across, the gate; in this case the racer's outside pole and shinguards hit the gate, knocking it down and out of the way. Cross-blocking is done by pushing the gate down with the arms, hands, or shins. By 1989, most of the top technical skiers in the world had adopted the cross-block technique.


title: Slalom skiing

text: With the innovation of shaped skis around the turn of the 21st century, equipment used for slalom in international competition changed drastically. World Cup skiers commonly skied on slalom skis at a length of in the 1980s and 1990s but by the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City, the majority of competitors were using skis measuring or less.