title: Digital cinematography

text: The first digitally filmed and post produced feature film was "Windhorse", shot in Tibet and Nepal in 1996 on a prototype of the digital-beta Sony DVW-700WS and the prosumer Sony DCE-VX1000. The offline editing (Avid) and the online post and color work (Roland House / da Vinci) were also all digital. The film, transferred to 35mm negative for theatrical release, won Best U.S. Feature at the Santa Barbara Film Festival in 1998.


title: Digital cinematography

text: In 1998, with the introduction of HDCAM recorders and 1920 × 1080 pixel digital professional video cameras based on CCD technology, the idea, now re-branded as "digital cinematography," began to gain traction in the market. Shot and released in 1998, "The Last Broadcast" is believed by some to be the first feature-length video shot and edited entirely on consumer-level digital equipment.


title: Digital cinematography

text: In May 1999 George Lucas challenged the supremacy of the movie-making medium of film for the first time by including footage filmed with high-definition digital cameras in "". The digital footage blended seamlessly with the footage shot on film and he announced later that year he would film its sequels entirely on hi-def digital video. Also in 1999, digital projectors were installed in four theaters for the showing of "The Phantom Menace". In June 2000, "" began principal photography shot entirely using a Sony HDW-F900 camera as Lucas had previously stated. The film was released in May 2002. In May 2001 "Once Upon a Time in Mexico" was also shot in 24 frame-per-second high-definition digital video, partially developed by George Lucas using a Sony HDW-F900 camera, following Robert Rodriguez's introduction to the camera at Lucas' Skywalker Ranch facility whilst editing the sound for "Spy Kids". Two lesser-known movies, "Vidocq" (2001) and "Russian Ark" (2002), had also been shot with the same camera, the latter notably consisting of a single long take.


title: Digital cinematography

text: Today, cameras from companies like Sony, Panasonic, JVC and Canon offer a variety of choices for shooting high-definition video. At the high-end of the market, there has been an emergence of cameras aimed specifically at the digital cinema market. These cameras from Sony, Vision Research, Arri, Silicon Imaging, Panavision, Grass Valley and Red offer resolution and dynamic range that exceeds that of traditional video cameras, which are designed for the limited needs of broadcast television.


title: Digital cinematography

text: In 2009, "Slumdog Millionaire" became the first movie shot mainly in digital to be awarded the Academy Award for Best Cinematography. The second highest-grossing movie in the history of cinema, "Avatar", not only was shot on digital cameras as well, but also made the main revenues at the box office no longer by film, but digital projection.


title: Digital cinematography

text: Major films shot on digital video overtook those shot on film in 2013. Since 2016 over 90% of major films were shot on digital video. , 92% of films are shot on digital. Only 24 major films released in 2018 were shot on 35mm.


title: Digital cinematography

text: Digital cinematography captures motion pictures digitally in a process analogous to digital photography. While there is no clear technical distinction that separates the images captured in digital cinematography from video, the term "digital cinematography" is usually applied only in cases where digital acquisition is substituted for film acquisition, such as when shooting a feature film. The term is seldom applied when digital acquisition is substituted for video acquisition, as with live broadcast television programs.


title: Digital cinematography

text: Professional cameras include the Sony CineAlta(F) Series, Blackmagic Cinema Camera, RED ONE, Arriflex D-20, D-21 and Alexa, Panavision Genesis, Silicon Imaging SI-2K, Thomson Viper, Vision Research Phantom, IMAX 3D camera based on two Vision Research Phantom cores, Weisscam HS-1 and HS-2, GS Vitec noX, and the Fusion Camera System. Independent micro-budget filmmakers have also pressed low-cost consumer and prosumer cameras into service for digital filmmaking.


title: Digital cinematography

text: Flagship smartphones like the Apple iPhone have been used to shoot movies like "Unsane" (shot on the iPhone 7 Plus) and "Tangerine" (shot on three iPhone 5S phones) and in January 2018, Unsane's director and Oscar winner Steven Soderbergh expressed an interest in filming other productions solely with iPhones going forward.


title: Digital cinematography

text: Digital cinematography cameras capture digital images using image sensors, either charge-coupled device (CCD) sensors or CMOS active-pixel sensors, usually in one of two arrangements.


title: Digital cinematography

text: Single chip cameras designed specifically for the digital cinematography market often use a single sensor (much like digital photo cameras), with dimensions similar in size to a 16 or 35 mm film frame or even (as with the Vision 65) a 65 mm film frame. An image can be projected onto a single large sensor exactly the same way it can be projected onto a film frame, so cameras with this design can be made with PL, PV and similar mounts, in order to use the wide range of existing high-end cinematography lenses available. Their large sensors also let these cameras achieve the same shallow depth of field as 35 or 65 mm motion picture film cameras, which many cinematographers consider an essential visual tool.


title: Digital cinematography

text: Unlike other video formats, which are specified in terms of vertical resolution (for example, 1080p, which is 1920×1080 pixels), digital cinema formats are usually specified in terms of horizontal resolution. As a shorthand, these resolutions are often given in ""n"K" notation, where "n" is the multiplier of 1024 such that the horizontal resolution of a corresponding "full-aperture", digitized film frame is exactly formula_1 pixels. Here the "K" has a customary meaning corresponding to the binary prefix "kibi" (ki).


title: Digital cinematography

text: For instance, a 2K image is 2048 pixels wide, and a 4K image is 4096 pixels wide. Vertical resolutions vary with aspect ratios though; so a 2K image with an HDTV (16:9) aspect ratio is 2048×1152 pixels, while a 2K image with a SDTV or Academy ratio (4:3) is 2048×1536 pixels, and one with a Panavision ratio (2.39:1) would be 2048×856 pixels, and so on. Due to the ""n"K" notation not corresponding to specific horizontal resolutions per format a 2K image lacking, for example, the typical 35mm film soundtrack space, is only 1828 pixels wide, with vertical resolutions rescaling accordingly. This led to a plethora of motion-picture related video resolutions, which is quite confusing and often redundant with respect to the relatively few available projection standards.


title: Digital cinematography

text: All formats designed for digital cinematography are progressive scan, and capture usually occurs at the same 24 frame per second rate established as the standard for 35mm film. Some films such as "" have a High Frame Rate of 48 fps, although in some theatres it was also released in a 24 fps version which many fans of traditional film prefer.


title: Digital cinematography

text: The DCI standard for cinema usually relies on a 1.89:1 aspect ratio, thus defining the maximum container size for 4K as 4096×2160 pixels and for 2K as 2048×1080 pixels. When distributed in the form of a Digital Cinema Package (DCP), content is letterboxed or pillarboxed as appropriate to fit within one of these container formats.


title: Digital cinematography

text: In the early years of digital cinematography, 2K was the most common format for digitally acquired major motion pictures however, as new camera systems gain acceptance, 4K is becoming more prominent. The Arri Alexa captured a 2.8k image. During 2009 at least two major Hollywood films, "Knowing" and "District 9", were shot in 4K on the RED ONE camera, followed by "The Social Network" in 2010. , 4K cameras are now commonplace, with most high-end films being shot at 4K resolution.


title: Digital cinematography

text: With video-tape-based workflow, video is recorded to tape on set. This video is then ingested into a computer running non-linear editing software, using a deck. Upon ingestion, a digital video stream from tape is converted to computer files. These files can be edited directly or converted to an intermediate format for editing. Then video is output in its final format, possibly to a film recorder for theatrical exhibition, or back to video tape for broadcast use. Original video tapes are kept as an archival medium. The files generated by the non-linear editing application contain the information necessary to retrieve footage from the proper tapes, should the footage stored on the computer's hard disk be lost. With increasing convenience of file-based workflows, the tape-based workflows have become marginal in recent years.


title: Digital cinematography

text: Digital cinematography has mostly shifted towards "tapeless" or "file-based" workflows. This trend has accelerated with increased capacity and reduced cost of non-linear storage solutions such as hard disk drives, optical discs, and solid-state memory. With tapeless workflows digital video is recorded as digital files onto random-access media like optical discs, hard disk drives or flash memory-based digital "magazines". These files can be easily copied to another storage device, typically to a large RAID (array of computer disks) connected to an editing system. Once data is copied from the on-set media to the storage array, they are erased and returned to the set for more shooting.


title: Digital cinematography

text: Such RAID arrays, both of "managed" (for example, SANs and NASs) and "unmanaged" (for example, JBoDs on a single computer workstation), are necessary due to the throughput required for real-time (320 MB/s for 2K @ 24fps) or near-real-time playback in post-production, compared to throughput available from a single, yet fast, hard disk drive. Such requirements are often termed as "on-line" storage. Post-production not requiring real-time playback performances (typically for lettering, subtitling, versioning and other similar visual effects) can be migrated to slightly slower RAID stores.


title: Digital cinematography

text: Short-term archiving, "if ever", is accomplished by moving the digital files into "slower" RAID arrays (still of either managed and unmanaged type, but with lower performances), where playback capability is poor to non-existent (unless via proxy images), but minimal editing and metadata harvesting is still feasible. Such intermediate requirements easily fall into the "mid-line" storage category.


title: Digital cinematography

text: Long-term archiving is accomplished by backing up the digital files from the RAID, using standard practices and equipment for data backup from the IT industry, often to data tapes (like LTOs).


title: Digital cinematography

text: Most digital cinematography systems further reduce data rate by subsampling color information. Because the human visual system is much more sensitive to luminance than to color, lower resolution color information can be overlaid with higher resolution luma (brightness) information, to create an image that looks very similar to one in which both color and luma information are sampled at full resolution. This scheme may cause pixelation or color bleeding under some circumstances. High quality digital cinematography systems are capable of recording full resolution color data (4:4:4) or raw sensor data.


title: Digital cinematography

text: Most compression systems used for acquisition in the digital cinematography world compress footage one frame at a time, as if a video stream is a series of still images. This is called intra-frame compression. Inter-frame compression systems can further compress data by examining and eliminating redundancy between frames. This leads to higher compression ratios, but displaying a single frame will usually require the playback system to decompress a number of frames from before & after it. In normal playback this is not a problem, as each successive frame is played in order, so the preceding frames have already been decompressed. In editing, however, it is common to jump around to specific frames and to play footage backwards or at different speeds. Because of the need to decompress extra frames in these situations, inter-frame compression can cause performance problems for editing systems. Inter-frame compression is also disadvantageous because the loss of a single frame (say, due to a flaw writing data to a tape) will typically ruin all the frames until the next keyframe occurs. In the case of the HDV format, for instance, this may result in as many as 6 frames being lost with 720p recording, or 15 with 1080i. An inter-frame compressed video stream consists of groups of pictures (GOPs), each of which has only one full frame, and a handful of other frames referring to this frame. If the full frame, called I-frame, is lost due to transmission or media error, none of the P-frames or B-frames (the referenced images) can be displayed. In this case, the whole GOP is lost.


title: Digital cinematography

text: Discrete cosine transform (DCT) coding is the most common data compression process used in digital film recording and editing, including the JPEG image compression standard and various video coding standards such as DV, DigiBeta, HDCAM, Apple ProRes, Avid DNxHD, MPEG, Advanced Video Coding (AVC) and AVCHD. An alternative to DCT coding is JPEG 2000 discrete wavelet transform (DWT) coding, used in the Redcode and DCI XYZ video codecs as well as digital cinema distribution.


title: Digital cinematography

text: For theaters with digital projectors, digital films may be distributed digitally, either shipped to theaters on hard drives or sent via the Internet or satellite networks. Digital Cinema Initiatives, LLC, a joint venture of Disney, Fox, MGM, Paramount, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Universal and Warner Bros. Studios, has established standards for digital cinema projection. In July 2005, they released the first version of the Digital Cinema System Specification, which encompasses 2K and 4K theatrical projection. They also offer compliance testing for exhibitors and equipment suppliers.


title: Digital cinematography

text: JPEG 2000, a discrete wavelet transform (DWT) based image compression standard developed by the Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) between 1997 and 2000, was selected as the video coding standard for digital cinema in 2004.


title: Digital cinematography

text: Theater owners initially balked at installing digital projection systems because of high cost and concern over increased technical complexity. However new funding models, in which distributors pay a "digital print" fee to theater owners, have helped to alleviate these concerns. Digital projection also offers increased flexibility with respect to showing trailers and pre-show advertisements and allowing theater owners to more easily move films between screens or change how many screens a film is playing on, and the higher quality of digital projection provides a better experience to help attract consumers who can now access high-definition content at home. These factors have resulted in digital projection becoming an increasingly attractive prospect for theater owners, and the pace of adoption has been rapidly increasing.


title: Digital cinematography

text: Since some theaters currently don't have digital projection systems, even if a movie is shot and post-produced digitally, it must be transferred to film if a large theatrical release is planned. Typically, a film recorder will be used to print digital image data to film, to create a 35 mm internegative. After that the duplication process is identical to that of a traditional negative from a film camera.


title: Digital cinematography

text: Determining resolution in digital acquisition seems straightforward, but it is significantly complicated by the way digital camera sensors work in the real world. This is particularly true in the case of high-end digital cinematography cameras that use a single large bayer pattern CMOS sensor. A bayer pattern sensor does not sample full RGB data at every point; instead, each pixel is biased toward red, green "or" blue, and a full color image is assembled from this checkerboard of color by processing the image through a demosaicing algorithm. Generally with a bayer pattern sensor, actual resolution will fall somewhere between the "native" value and half this figure, with different demosaicing algorithms producing different results. Additionally, most digital cameras (both bayer and three-chip designs) employ optical low-pass filters to avoid aliasing; suboptimal antialiasing filtering can further reduce system resolution.


title: Digital cinematography

text: The process of using digital intermediate workflow, where movies are color graded digitally instead of via traditional photochemical finishing techniques, has become common.


title: Digital cinematography

text: In order to utilize digital intermediate workflow with film, the camera negative must first be processed and then scanned to a digital format. Some filmmakers have years of experience achieving their artistic vision using the techniques available in a traditional photochemical workflow, and prefer that finishing/editing process.


title: Digital cinematography

text: Digitally shot movies can be printed, transferred or archived on film. Large scale digital productions are often archived on film, as it provides a safer medium for storage, benefiting insurance and storage costs. As long as the negative does not completely degrade, it will always be possible to recover the images from it in the future, regardless of changes in technology, since all that will be involved is simple photographic reproduction.


title: Digital cinematography

text: In contrast, even if digital data is stored on a medium that will preserve its integrity, highly specialized digital equipment will always be required to reproduce it. Changes in technology may thus render the format unreadable or expensive to recover over time. For this reason, film studios distributing digitally-originated films often make film-based separation masters of them for archival purposes.


title: Digital cinematography

text: Film proponents have argued that early digital cameras lack the reliability of film, particularly when filming sequences at high speed or in chaotic environments, due to digital cameras' technical glitches. Cinematographer Wally Pfister noted that for his shoot on the film "Inception", "Out of six times that we shot on the digital format, we only had one useable piece and it didn't end up in the film. Out of the six times we shot with the Photo-Sonics camera and 35mm running through it, every single shot was in the movie." Michael Bay stated that when filming "", 35mm cameras had to be used when filming in slow-motion and sequences where the digital cameras were subject to strobing or electrical damage from dust. Since 2015 digital has almost totally replaced film for high speed sequences up to 1000 frames per second.


title: Digital cinematography

text: Some film directors such as Christopher Nolan, Paul Thomas Anderson and Quentin Tarantino have publicly criticized digital cinema, and advocated the use of film and film prints. Tarantino has suggested he may retire because he will no longer be able to have his films projected in 35mm in most American cinemas. Tarantino considers digital cinema to be simply "television in public." Christopher Nolan has speculated that the film industry's adoption of digital formats has been driven purely by economic factors as opposed to digital being a superior medium to film: "I think, truthfully, it boils down to the economic interest of manufacturers and [a production] industry that makes more money through change rather than through maintaining the status quo."


title: Digital cinematography

text: Another concern with digital image capture is how to archive all the digital material. Archiving digital material is turning out to be extremely costly, and it creates issues in terms of long-term preservation. In a 2007 study, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences found that the cost of storing 4K digital masters is "enormously higher – 1100% higher – than the cost of storing film masters." Furthermore, digital archiving faces challenges due to the insufficient longevity of today's digital storage: no current media, be it magnetic hard drives or digital tape, can reliably store a film for a hundred years, something that properly stored and handled film can do. Although this also used to be the case with optical disc, in 2012 Millenniata, Inc. a digital storage company based in Utah, released M-DISC, an optical storage solution, designed to last up to 1,000 years, thus, offering a possibility of digital storage as a viable storage solution.


title: Pneumoperitoneum

text: Pneumoperitoneum is pneumatosis (abnormal presence of air or other gas) in the peritoneal cavity, a potential space within the abdominal cavity. The most common cause is a perforated abdominal organ, generally from a perforated peptic ulcer, although any part of the bowel may perforate from a benign ulcer, tumor or abdominal trauma. A perforated appendix seldom causes a pneumoperitoneum.


title: Pneumoperitoneum

text: Spontaneous pneumoperitoneum is a rare case that is not caused by an abdominal organ rupture. This is also called an idiopathic spontaneous pneumoperitoneum when the cause is not known.


title: Pneumoperitoneum

text: In the mid-twentieth century, an "artificial" pneumoperitoneum was sometimes intentionally administered as a treatment for a hiatal hernia. This was achieved by insufflating the abdomen with carbon dioxide. The practice is currently used by surgical teams in order to aid in performing laparoscopic surgery.


title: Pneumoperitoneum

text: A spontaneous pneumoperitoneum is a rare case that is not caused by an abdominal organ rupture. This is also called an idiopathic spontaneous pneumoperitoneum when the cause is not known. Causes of a spontaneous pneumoperitoneum, with no peritonitis include a barotrauma due to mechanical ventilation, and a tracheal rupture following an emergency intubation. In the ventilation case, air had passed from the chest into the abdominal cavity through the diaphragm. In the tracheal rupture air had passed along the great vessels.


title: Pneumoperitoneum

text: When present, pneumoperitoneum can often be seen on projectional radiography, but small amounts are often missed, and CT scan is nowadays regarded as a criterion standard in the assessment of a pneumoperitoneum. CT can visualize quantities as small as 5 cm³ of air or gas.


title: Pneumoperitoneum

text: The "double wall sign" marks the presence of air on both sides of the intestine. However, a false double wall sign can result from two loops of bowel being in contact with one another. The sign is named after Leo George Rigler. It is not the same as Rigler's triad.


title: Pneumoperitoneum

text: The "football sign" is when the abdomen appears as a large oval radiolucency reminiscent of an American football on a supine projectional radiograph. The football sign is most frequently seen in infants with spontaneous or iatrogenic gastric perforation causing pneumoperitoneum. It is also seen in bowel obstruction with secondary perforation, as in Hirschprung disease, midgut volvulus, meconium ileus and intestinal atresia. Iatrogenic causes like endoscopic perforation may also give football sign.


title: Pneumoperitoneum

text: As differential diagnoses, a subphrenic abscess, bowel interposed between diaphragm and liver (Chilaiditi syndrome), and linear atelectasis at the base of the lungs can simulate free air under the diaphragm on a chest X-ray.


title: Pneumoperitoneum

text: Pneumoperitoneum can be described as peritoneal emphysema, just as pneumomediastinum can be called mediastinal emphysema, but "pneumoperitoneum" is the usual name.


title: Kariba Dam

text: The Kariba Dam is a double curvature concrete arch dam in the Kariba Gorge of the Zambezi river basin between Zambia and Zimbabwe. The dam stands tall and long. The dam forms Lake Kariba, which extends for and holds of water.


title: Kariba Dam

text: The dam was constructed on the orders of the Government of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, a 'federal colony' within the British Empire. The double curvature concrete arch dam was designed by Coyne et Bellier and constructed between 1955 and 1959 by Impresit of Italy at a cost of $135,000,000 for the first stage with only the Kariba South power cavern. Final construction and the addition of the Kariba North Power cavern by Mitchell Construction was not completed until 1977 due to largely political problems for a total cost of $480,000,000. During construction, 86 men lost their lives.


title: Kariba Dam

text: The Kariba Dam supplies of electricity to parts of both Zambia (the Copperbelt) and Zimbabwe and generates per annum. Each country has its own power station on the north and south bank of the dam respectively. The south station belonging to Zimbabwe has been in operation since 1960 and had six generators of capacity each for a total of .


title: Kariba Dam

text: On November 11, 2013 it was announced by Zimbabwe's Finance Minister, Patrick Chinamasa that capacity at the Zimbabwean (South) Kariba hydropower station would be increased by 300 megawatts. The cost of upgrading the facility has been supported by a $319m loan from China. The deal is a clear example of Zimbabwe's "Look East" policy, which was adopted after falling out with Western powers. Construction on the Kariba South expansion began in mid-2014 and was initially expected to be complete in 2019.


title: Kariba Dam

text: In March 2018, president Emmerson Mnangagwa commissioned the completed expansion of "Kariba South Hydroelectric Power Station". The addition of two new turbines, brings to at capacity at this station to . The expansion work was done by Sinohydro, at a cost of US$533 million. Work started in 2014, and was completed in March 2018.


title: Kariba Dam

text: The north station belonging to Zambia has been in operation since 1976, and has four generators of each for a total of ; work to expand this capacity by an additional to was completed in December 2013. Two additional 180 MW generators were added.


title: Kariba Dam

text: The Kariba Dam project was planned and carried out by the Government of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. The Federation was often referred to as the Central African Federation (CAF). The CAF was a 'federal colony' within the British Empire in southern Africa that existed from 1953 to the end of 1963, comprising the former self-governing British colony of Southern Rhodesia and the former British protectorates of Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland. Northern Rhodesia had decided earlier in 1953 (before the Federation was founded) to build a dam within its territory, on the Kafue River, a major tributary of the Zambezi. It would have been closer to Northern Rhodesia's Copperbelt, which was in need of more power. This would have been a cheaper and less grandiose project, with a smaller environmental impact. Southern Rhodesia, the richest of the three, objected to a Kafue dam and insisted that the dam be sited instead at Kariba. Also, the capacity of the Kafue dam was much lower than that at Kariba. Initially the dam was managed and maintained by the Central African Power Corporation. The Kariba Dam is now owned and operated by the Zambezi River Authority, which is jointly and equally owned by Zimbabwe and Zambia.


title: Kariba Dam

text: Since Zambia's independence, three dams have been built on the Kafue River: the Kafue Gorge Upper Dam, Kafue Gorge Lower Dam and the Itezhi-Tezhi Dam.


title: Kariba Dam

text: The creation of the reservoir forced resettlement of about 57,000 Tonga people living along the Zambezi on both sides.


title: Kariba Dam

text: There are many different perspectives on how much resettlement aid was given to the displaced Tonga. British author David Howarth described the efforts in Northern Rhodesia:


title: Kariba Dam

text: American writer Jacques Leslie, in "Deep Water" (2005), focused on the plight of the people displaced by Kariba Dam, and found the situation little changed since the 1970s. In his view, Kariba remains the worst dam-resettlement disaster in African history.


title: Kariba Dam

text: In an effort to regain control of their lives, the local people who were displaced by the Kariba dam's reservoir formed the Basilwizi Trust in 2002. The Trust seeks mainly to improve the lives of people in the area through organizing development projects and serving as a conduit between the people of the Zambezi Valley and their country's decision-making process.


title: Kariba Dam

text: The Kariba Dam controls 90% of the total runoff of the Zambezi River, thus changing the downstream ecology dramatically.


title: Kariba Dam

text: From 1958 to 1961, Operation Noah captured and removed around 6,000 large animals and numerous small ones threatened by the lake's rising waters.


title: Kariba Dam

text: On 6 February 2008, the BBC reported that heavy rain could lead to a release of water from the dam, which would force 50,000 people downstream to evacuate.


title: Kariba Dam

text: Rising levels led to the opening of the floodgates in March 2010, requiring the evacuation of 130,000 people who lived in the floodplain, and causing concerns that flooding would spread to nearby areas.


title: Kariba Dam

text: In March 2014, at a conference organized by the Zambezi River Authority, engineers warned that the foundations of the dam had weakened and there was a possibility of dam failure unless repairs were made.


title: Kariba Dam

text: On 3 October 2014 the BBC reported that "The Kariba Dam is in a dangerous state. Opened in 1959, it was built on a seemingly solid bed of basalt. But, in the past 50 years, the torrents from the spillway have eroded that bedrock, carving a vast crater that has undercut the dam's foundations. … engineers are now warning that without urgent repairs, the whole dam will collapse. If that happened, a tsunami-like wall of water would rip through the Zambezi valley, reaching the Mozambique border within eight hours. The torrent would overwhelm Mozambique's Cahora Bassa Dam and knock out 40% of southern Africa's hydroelectric capacity. Along with the devastation of wildlife in the valley, the Zambezi River Authority estimates that the lives of 3.5 million people are at risk."


title: Kariba Dam

text: In June 2015 The Institute of Risk Management South Africa completed a Risk Research Report entitled "Impact of the failure of the Kariba Dam". It concluded: "Whilst we can debate whether the Kariba


title: Kariba Dam

text: Dam will fail, why it might occur and when, there is no doubt that the impact across the region would be devastating."


title: Kariba Dam

text: In January 2016 it was reported that water levels at the dam had dropped to 12% of capacity. Levels fell by , which is just above the minimum operating level for hydropower. Low rainfalls and overuse of the water by the power plants have left the reservoir near empty, raising the prospect that both Zimbabwe and Zambia will face water shortages.


title: Kariba Dam

text: In July and September 2018, "The Lusaka Times" reported that work had started relating to the plunge pool and cracks in the dam wall.


title: Kariba Dam

text: On 22 February 2019 Bloomberg reported "Zambia has reduced hydropower production at the Kariba Dam because of rapidly declining water levels" but "Zambia doesn't anticipate power cuts as a result of shortages". On 5 August that year, the same publication reported that the reservoir was near empty, and that it may have to stop hydropower production.


title: Kariba Dam

text: As of November 2020 the water level in the Kariba reservoir has remained steady around the 25% capacity, up from nearly half that in November 2019. The Zambezi River Authority has stated that it is optimistic about rainfall estimates for the 2020/2021 rainfall season, allocating an increased amount of water for power production. As it sits now, the reservoir is holding 15.77 billion cubic meters of water, with the water line sitting at around 478.30 metres (1,569.23 ft), just above the minimum capacity for power generation of 475.50 metres (1,560.04 ft).


title: Kariba Dam

text: It was reported in February 2022 that rehabilitation work has been underway since 2017 on the Kariba dam. The Zambezi River Authority (ZRA) said that work on the Kariba Dam Rehabilitation Project (KDRP), which includes efforts to reconfigure the plunge pool and rebuild the spillway gates, is scheduled to be finished in 2025. The rehabilitation of the dam is being financed by the European Union (EU), the World Bank, the Swedish government and the African Development Bank (AfDB), with the Zambian and Zimbabwe governments contributing counterpart funding. The project’s goal is to guarantee the structural integrity of the Kariba Dam, assuring the sustained generation of power primarily for the benefit of the inhabitants of Zimbabwe and Zambia and the broader Southern African Development Community area. The work on redesigning the plunge pool involves bulk excavating the rock in the current pool to assist plunge pool stabilization and avoid additional scouring or erosion along the weak fault zone towards the dam foundation. This reshaping work will be accomplished by constructing a temporary water-tight cofferdam to complete the reshaping work under dry conditions.


title: Kickboxer: Retaliation

text: Kickboxer: Retaliation is an American martial arts film directed and written by Dimitri Logothetis. It is the seventh film in the "Kickboxer" film series and is a direct sequel to the 2016 film "", also written by Logothetis. The film stars Alain Moussi, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Christopher Lambert, Ronaldinho, Mike Tyson and Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson. Aside from Moussi and Van Damme, Sara Malakul Lane and Sam Medina reprised their roles from the previous film.


title: Kickboxer: Retaliation

text: It has been eighteen months since Kurt Sloane killed Tong Po and avenged the death of his brother Eric. Now a professional mixed martial artist, Kurt defeats Renato Sobral using a move he calls the "Hurricane Armbar", a hurricanrana into an armbar. Kurt has been plagued by nightmares where he and his wife Liu are on a train and he finds himself fighting on the train which ends with him falling into water and possibly drowning. After the fight, Kurt is met by two U.S. Marshals who inform him that he must return to Thailand to be implicated in the death of Tong Po. When Kurt asks to see one of the Marshal's badges, he is tasered.


title: Kickboxer: Retaliation

text: Awakening in a prison in Thailand, Kurt meets Thomas Tang Moore, the mastermind behind the underground tournament where Kurt, Eric, and Tong Po have competed. Moore tells Kurt that when Tong Po was defeated, he was to remain there as the new champion, but instead with Kurt returning home, Moore needed to find a new champion. Moore offers Kurt to fight the new champion, Mongkut, a 6'8" 400-lb. fighter. Kurt finds himself taunted by Crawford, Tong Po's former right-hand man who is working for Moore. Moore offers Kurt $1 million to fight Mongkut, but Kurt refuses. Stuck in prison, Kurt finds himself under constant threat from various prisoners, in which he then finds himself whipped by the prison guards each night. During one encounter, Kurt runs into Briggs, an American boxer who soon bonds with Kurt and even offers him a way to go through the pain from the whippings. Kurt also soon learns that his Muay Thai teacher, Durand, is now training some of the prisoners, but reveals that for his troubles, he has been blinded.


title: Kickboxer: Retaliation

text: Moore, realizing Kurt still will not accept the offer, decides to take drastic measures and finds Liu at the train station. Having bribed the same police officers she had accused of corruption to find Kurt, she gets additional help from old friend Gamon. However, Moore's goons, led by Somsak, have kidnapped Liu and that night, Crawford shows Kurt a video of Liu. Kurt decides to take the fight with Durand, Briggs, and fellow prisoners Big Country, Fabricio, Ronaldo, and a huge convict whose size nearly matches that of Mongkut. When Moore offers to take Kurt out of prison and in a private facility, Kurt agrees but only if his "team" continues their training and Moore agrees. Durand goes to one of Mongkut's training sessions only to learn the fighter is a product of bioengineering by Ivy League graduate Rupert, who has developed a combination of adrenaline and steroids, thus making Mongkut virtually invincible except for one small weakness: a glass jaw. Gamon joins in on the training and Kurt recognizes Somsak. Moore talks to Crawford about a test fight, to which Moore agrees and Kurt goes to a local nightclub where he and Durand once again meet Joseph King, whose last fighter decimated Kurt. Kurt faces King's new champion Moss while Durand distracts an onlooker and steals his cell phone to call his son Travis. Kurt defeats Moss and make a narrow escape with the help of Travis.


title: Kickboxer: Retaliation

text: The next day, Kurt finds Somsak and chases him. After fighting more of Moore's men, Kurt catches up to Somsak and demands to know where Liu is. Liu is being held in Moore's apartment. Kurt, Gamon, and Travis take on Moore's men with Kurt facing Moore's two female valets in a room full of mirrors only to defeat them, finding Liu and rescuing her. When O'Keefe, Moore's right-hand man, leads an ambush to stop the group, Mongkut arrives. He is about to hit Kurt when Liu steps in and Mongkut hits her hard in the stomach, knocking her unconscious. An angry Kurt tells Crawford to tell Moore he will face Mongkut anytime and anywhere. Liu is comatose in the hospital for a few days until she wakes up and learns Kurt has taken the fight. She fully accepts his decision.


title: Kickboxer: Retaliation

text: The fight is set at the old Muay Thai temple with both Kurt and Mongkut ready to fight. Mongkut proves to be too much for Kurt and mid-way through, Mongkut throws Kurt to a statue, virtually killing him. When it is believed that Kurt has died from his injuries, Liu finds Rupert's suitcase of adrenaline and uses a needle to revive Kurt. Awakening, Kurt finds a second wind and despite getting some of the upper hand, Mongkut once again throws Kurt towards a statue and this time, takes him to a nearby fountain to drown him. Kurt imagines himself once again drowning as he did in his dream, but overhears the voices of Liu and Durand, prompting him to "swim out". Kurt grabs a chain and wraps it around his fist, enabling him to match Mongkut punch for punch. Using his skills, Kurt gets the upper hand and knocks Mongkut down. When Mongkut comes back up, Kurt resorts to taking Mongkut down with the chain, wrapping it around his neck and choking him out, resulting in Mongkut's neck breaking. Kurt has won and is surrounded by Durand, Liu, Gamon, and Travis. Hearing the news that Kurt has beaten Mongkut, Briggs is seen smiling in his prison cell.


title: Kickboxer: Retaliation

text: An end credit sequence shows outtakes, following by an epilogue of Kurt once again in the MMA ring as he prepares for his next fight against Mauricio Rua.


title: Kickboxer: Retaliation

text: Headmon Entertainment and Acme Rocket Fuel announced the sequel to the film "", titled "Kickboxer 2: Retaliation". Rob Hickman produced the film through Our House Productions along with Dimitri Logothetis through Acme Rocket Fuel and executive produced by Steven Swadling and Larry Nealy. The film was retitled "Kickboxer: Retaliation", began pre-production in February 2016, and Dimitri Logothetis was film's director and writer, while Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson was cast to play the role of a fighter. Ultimate Fighting Championship's Paige VanZant was cast in the film to make her feature debut, with other cast returning: Alain Moussi, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Sara Malakul Lane, Sam Medina, and Steven Swadling. Former world champion boxer Mike Tyson played a tough convict forced into a world of fighting behind bars.


title: Kickboxer: Retaliation

text: UFC fighter Paige VanZant, who was set to make her film debut in the film as "Gamon", left the project to focus on an then-upcoming fight. Jessica Jann replaced her in the role. Originally a small role in the film, UFC fighter Roy "Big Country" Nelson's role was expanded. Christopher Lambert joined the cast as Thomas Moore, an ex-pat and martial artist who is the one responsible for coercing Kurt to face Mongkut.


title: Kickboxer: Retaliation

text: Principal photography on the film began in mid-May 2016, in California and Nevada, and in Bangkok, Thailand in July.


title: Kickboxer: Retaliation

text: Well Go USA Entertainment released the film in a limited theatrical release and on Demand platforms on January 26, 2018, and later on Blu-ray and DVD on March 13.


title: Kickboxer: Retaliation

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of based on reviews, and an average rating of . On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 54 out of 100, based on 5 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".


title: Kickboxer: Retaliation

text: Simon Abrams for "RogerEbert.com" called it a "very dumb, and very satisfying throwback to a simpler time when American action films were as predictable as they were formulaic". John DeFore of "The Hollywood Reporter" wrote: "A pulpy and fun fight flick that is better in some respects than it needs to be, Retaliation may not do for Moussi what the original Kickboxer did for Van Damme, but it won't send fans home disappointed".


title: Kickboxer: Retaliation

text: Producer Rob Hickman announced the name of the third and final installment of the trilogy as "Kickboxer: Syndicate". It was later renamed as "Kickboxer: Armageddon" and was set to begin production in 2018. Alain Moussi, James P. Bennett and Brazilian footballer Neymar will star, and Conor McGregor was rumored to also appear in the film.


title: Bonfire Night

text: Bonfire Night is a name given to various annual celebrations characterised by bonfires and fireworks. The event celebrates different traditions on different dates, depending on the country. Some of the most popular instances include Guy Fawkes Night (5 November) in Great Britain, which is also celebrated in some Commonwealth countries; Northern Ireland's Eleventh Night (11 July), and 5 November in Newfoundland and Labrador. In various parts of Ireland, Bonfire Nights are held on Saint John's Eve (23 June), Bealtaine eve (30 April) and Halloween (31 October). In Scandinavia it is known as Walpurgis Night (30 April) and in Denmark and Norway also sankthansaften (23 June). In Finland bonfires are lit on the eve of Juhannus (Friday between 19 and 25 June). Saint John's Eve is also a very important celebration in Spain and Northern Portugal. Several other cultures also include night-time celebrations involving bonfires and/or fireworks.


title: Bonfire Night

text: Bonfire Night is also celebrated in Northern Ireland on 15 August in Catholic communities to mark the Feast of the Assumption.


title: Bonfire Night

text: In Great Britain, Bonfire Night is associated with the tradition of celebrating the failure of Guy Fawkes' actions on 5 November 1605. The British festival is, therefore, on 5 November, although some commercially driven events are held at a weekend near to the correct date, to maximise attendance. Bonfire night's sectarian significance has generally been lost: it is now usually just a night of revelry with a bonfire and fireworks, although an effigy of Guy Fawkes is burned on the fire. Celebrations are held throughout Great Britain; in some non-Catholic communities in Northern Ireland; and in some other parts of the Commonwealth. In many areas of the UK, celebrations also feature funfairs, family entertainment, and special food and drinks. In the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador, 5 November is commemorated with bonfires and firework displays, and it is officially celebrated in South Africa.


title: Bonfire Night

text: In Northern Ireland, the term "Bonfire Night" can refer to the Eleventh Night celebrations of 11 July. Like 5 November, this Bonfire Night also has its roots in the sectarian struggle between Protestants and Catholics. Unlike 5 November the sectarian significance of 11 July is still strong. It celebrates the Battle of the Boyne of 1690, in which the Protestant William of Orange defeated the Catholic James II.


title: Bonfire Night

text: In the city of Cork and many rural parts of the Republic of Ireland "Bonfire Night" refers to 23 June, Saint John's Eve night. It has its origins in a religious celebration and originally featured prayers for bountiful crops.


title: Bonfire Night

text: The night is linked to the summer solstice or Midsummer's Eve. Originally fires were lit to honour the goddess Áine as part of a Celtic celebration; the Catholic Church took over the pagan festival and linked it to the birth of St John. In the city of Limerick, "Bonfire Night" is held on May Eve, 30 April, on the eve of the Celtic festival of Bealtaine.


title: Bonfire Night

text: Bonfire celebrations can pose a risk to public safety due to the possibility of fires, injuries, or fights. For example, in London, calls to firefighting services are nearly tripled on Bonfire Night. In Belfast, the July 2003 Eleventh Night resulted in £10,000 worth of damage to a park. The use of fireworks may lead to dangerous pyrotechnic incidents. In parts of the Caribbean, laws banning fireworks and explosives have muted the occasion, and safety concerns in New Zealand have resulted in restrictions on fireworks use, although public firework displays remain popular there.


title: Bonfire Night

text: The tradition of Bonfire Night has been criticised for its environmental impact. A 1994 study conducted in Oxford, England, found a four-fold increase in dioxin and furan concentration in the air after a Bonfire Night celebration. In 2005 a Bonfire Night in Newfoundland prompted the provincial Minister of Environment and Conservation to remind the general public of their responsibilities for safety and the environment.


title: Bonfire Night

text: There are many food items that are associated with Bonfire Night. Toffee apples, treacle toffee, black peas and parkin, and even the jacket potato, are traditionally eaten around Bonfire Night in parts of England. Also, some families eat soups to warm up on a cold night and toast marshmallows over the fire.


title: Valeriy Chybineyev

text: Valeriy Viktorovych Chybineyev (; 3 March 1988 – 3 March 2022) was a Ukrainian sniper who served as commander of the sniper company of the 79th Air Assault Brigade. He fought in the war in Donbas and was awarded the Order of the Gold Star (Hero of Ukraine) in 2016 for his actions during a combat mission in Avdiivka. On his 34th birthday, Chybineyev was killed in the Battle of Hostomel during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.


title: Valeriy Chybineyev

text: Chybineyev was born on 3 March 1988 in Berdiansk. His parents died while he was young and he was subsequently raised in an orphanage. He was influenced by the son of the orphanage's director who was a paratrooper. Chybineyev attended the Zaporizhzhya Regional Military Sports Lyceum Zakhisnik before graduating from the Odessa Military Academy.


title: Valeriy Chybineyev

text: In the spring of 2014, Chybineyev's unit was deployed to , where they faced enemy fire that injured several of his soldiers. In another instance, he helped rescue three soldiers inside a tank that had hit a land mine. To avoid being taken captive, Chybineyev once claimed to be part of Russian-backed forces. In January 2015, he was one of the soldiers who fought in the Second Battle of Donetsk Airport.


title: Valeriy Chybineyev

text: In 2016, Chybineyev became the commander of the sniper company of the 79th Air Assault Brigade. In July 2016, he led sniper teams during a combat mission near Avdiivka. The unit successfully destroyed all twelve targets, including machine guns, grenade launchers, and snipers.


title: Valeriy Chybineyev

text: Chybineyev was injured when a shell fragment lodged in his shoulder. He continued to lead the unit. For his actions, he was honoured with the Order of the Gold Star by President Petro Poroshenko during the Independence Day of Ukraine parade on Khreshchatyk street.


title: Valeriy Chybineyev

text: While fighting during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Chybineyev was killed in action in the Battle of Hostomel on 3 March 2022, his 34th birthday.


title: Valeriy Chybineyev

text: In December 2016, Chybineyev was named by the "Kyiv Post" as one of the "Top 30 Under 30" young leaders in Ukraine. In a subsequent interview, he stated that he wanted to establish a sniper school.


title: Disney and LGBT representation in animation

text: The Disney Channel, which launched in 1983, Disney XD, which began in 2009, Disney Junior, which launched in 2011, and shows on Disney+, along with the short-lived Toon Disney, have all occasionally featured lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) characters in their programming.


text: From 1983 onward, Disney struggled with LGBTQ representation in their animated series, and their content often included LGBT stereotypes, like queer-coded characters in the films "Beauty and the Beast", "Aladdin", and "Mulan" or the content was censored in series such as "Blazing Dragons". Some reviewers have argued that when Disney and Cartoon Network are compared in terms of such representation, it is "easy to see who actually cares about LGBT representation." Some creators have also criticized Disney studio executives of cutting LGBTQ scenes from their shows in the past, or criticized that their shows were not seen as part of the "Disney brand".


text: In later years, there were efforts to ameliorate this, with series like "The Owl House" which featured a bisexual protagonist, Luz Noceda and various other LGBTQ characters. Other such characters were depicted in "DuckTales" and other series.


text: Gender has always been a component of animation, with scholars Harry Benshoff and Sean Griffin writing that animation has always "hint[ed] at the performative nature of gender." Some argued that the Walt Disney Company played with gender stereotypes in the past, featuring effeminate or sissy characters, or those coded as gay, which occurred while the characters were comedic and kept at arms length. Continuing from the late 1980s, villains in Disney films which were queer coded began to appear.


text: Gaston and LeFou in the 1991 film "Beauty and the Beast" and Jafar from the 1992 film "Aladdin" were created by an openly gay animator named Andreas Deja, and sang music by Howard Ashman, who was also openly gay. Deja supervised animation for those characters, with some noting the campy value of these characters. The fact that Deja had also worked on Scar in "The Lion King" and the titular character in "Hercules", for example, has been discussed as an influence on the development of some Disney characters. In a June 1994 article in The Advocate, an executive producer of "The Lion King", Thomas Schumacher, a gay man, argued that there were "a lot of gay people at every level" of Disney, and called it a "very supportive environment". He noted that he brought his partner, Matt White, to an annual company beach party and long company retreats and that while some executives were uncomfortable with Schumacher bringing his partner, higher executives didn't give him any trouble. Schumacher also said that while he regretted handing over reins of the film to Don Hahn, he was proud of songs by Tim Rice, a lyricist, and Elton John in the film. "The Advocate" noted that even if there aren't any openly gay or lesbian characters in the film, there is sensitivity to LGBTQ issues in the upper echelon of Disney.


text: This queer coding had its disadvantages, with networks not wanting to show overt representation. Rebecca Sugar argued that it is really heavy for a kid to only exist as a villain or a joke in an animated series. In 2011, Deja told news.com.au Disney would have a "family that has two dads or two mums" if they find the "right kind of story with that kind of concept." However, other critics criticized such queer-coded villains as contributing to homophobic discourse and equating queerness with evil itself.


text: Historian Peter C. Kunze argued that Ashman was recruited by Disney from Broadway, saying that while working with Alan Menken, he crafted songs in "The Little Mermaid" (1989), "Beauty and the Beast" and "Aladdin". Kunze noted that Ashman and animators on "The Little Mermaid" were inspired by gay culture and gay icons. He also pointed out that Ashman was supported by Jeffrey Katzenberg after coming out as HIV-Positive, with the company even creating a production unit near his home so he could receive treatment in New York City rather than traveling to Burbank, California, before his death in 1991, with "Beauty and the Beast" dedicated to him. Kunze further noted that Albert Tavares, a gay man, oversaw casting on "The Little Mermaid".


text: A show created by Terry Jones and Gavin Scott, "Blazing Dragons", aired on Teletoon in Canada, Spacetoon in Arab countries, and Canal+ in France from 1996 to 1998. In the series, Sir Blaze is a member of the Square Table, and is flamboyant and effeminate. Throughout the series, he is implied to be gay. His implicit homosexuality was censored when the series aired on Toon Disney in the United States.


text: In June 1998, "Mulan", an animated musical adventure film would begin showing in theaters. The film would include a bisexual captain Li Shang (voiced by BD Wong). Shang, in the film, loved Mulan when she was disguised as a male alter ego named Ping, and in her true form as a woman. However, Shang was not included in the 2020 live-action remake. One of the film's producers said that Shang was dropped in response to the MeToo movement, arguing that "having a commanding officer that is also the sexual love interest was very uncomfortable and we didn't think it was appropriate". This was met with social media backlash from fans of the original film and members of the LGBTQ community, with Reed initially surprised by criticism of Shang's removal, but acknowledged that the character had become a LGBTQ icon. He added that Shang's role would be served by two new characters, Commander Tung and Chen Honghui. Even so, some reviewers called the interactions between Honghui and Mulan to be more homoerotic than Li Shang's in the animated version and can be read as bisexual while others criticized the reasoning of Reed as incorrect. Mulan was described, by one scholar as having a character, Mulan herself, who could successfully pass as the opposite sex and as subverting her traditionally assigned gender signifiers, while having an unusually masculine body. It was further stated that as a result, Mulan was the "perfect embodiment of a drag king" even though she maintains her heterosexuality as she is attracted to Li Sheng, comparing Mulan's interpretation of her sexuality to that of Bugs Bunny. Furthermore, gay playwright Harvey Fierstein voiced a character in Mulan, and only accepted the part after confirming that the rest of the cast was Asian so he would not take work away from an Asian actor.


text: From December 2004 to December 2006, "W.I.T.C.H." aired on ABC Kids, ABC Family, and Toon Disney, along with France 3 in France. In April 2016, Greg Weisman, the producer of Season 2, said that Irma is a lesbian, only interested in "guys that are obviously out of reach," trying to be straight, but by doing this, she is "guaranteeing that she won't have to actually wind up with a guy" and when she comes close, she "comes close to landing one of them, she bolts." Even so, he left it open to interpretation, saying that this doesn't make it "impossible for her to be straight or bisexual or whatever." Weisman also said that Nerissa was Cassidy's lover, killing each other when they were in a romantic relationship with one another. Both began a relationship, in Weisman's words, after spending a lot of time together as teammates, and said that she "loved and mourned Cassidy." Even so, Weisman did not correct a fan when they described Nerissa as bisexual. Weisman also said that Cassidy and Nerissa were in a relationship when Nerissa killed her.


text: The episode from the original "Proud Family" series "Who You Calling a Sissy" was pulled from the network after its initial airing on August 12, 2005 as a result of regarding Michael’s sexual orientation while frequently being called a "sissy" at the time. The ban was lifted in 2020 as the episode is available to stream on Disney+. Ralph Farquhar revealed that in "The Proud Family", which aired on the Disney Channel from 2001 to 2005, they had to use "code to talk about if Michael was gay, to talk about sexuality" and to be "sort of underhanded about it." He said this changed with "" with the biggest changes to the show were "gender identity, obviously racial identity and quote-unquote wokeness,” and said that sexuality can be "sort of in your face with it a lot more," manifesting itself in the storytelling. Bruce W. Smith also said that the show has more than "just one gay person...representing the entire LGBTQ+ spectrum" and said that it is "not fair" to only have one LGBTQ character in the series. Barry and Randell kiss in the episode "Father Figures". It is the first Disney series to feature a same-sex kiss between a married couple.


text: A few conservative Christian commentators decried the promotional homosexuality in the 2013 film "Frozen", owing to the results of Elsa's being different from others, her ostracism from society, and her independence and rejection of male suitors, are metaphors for lesbianism. Elsa's song "Let it Go" has been compared to the phenomenon of coming out of the closet.


text: On February 15, 2016, series finale of "Gravity Falls", aired on the Disney Channel featured Sheriff Blubs and Deputy Durland confirmed as a gay couple.


text: In 2016, Byron Howard, director of "Zootopia" and "Encanto", mentioned in the Fusion documentary "Imagining Zootopia" that he is openly gay and has been married since 1988. The film "Zootopia" features gay couple Bucky and Pronk Oryx-Antlerson. The couple later returned in the series "Zootopia+" which was released on Disney+ in 2022.


text: In March 2017, "Star vs. the Forces of Evil" would make headlines with an episode entitled "Just Friends." The episode featured characters attending a concert and later concert-goers starting to kiss, "including several same-sex couples...in the background."


text: In August 2017, "Doc McStuffins", featured a lesbian (and interracial) married couple, Thea and Edie, voiced by lesbian actresses Wanda Sykes and Portia de Rossi respectively. These two characters would be the first same-sex couple featured in a Disney Junior pre-school series. Some, like Jeremy Blacklow, GLAAD director of entertainment media, would argue that this episode would be a turning point for executives who fears boycotts from conservative groups like the Family Research Council and One Million Moms, calling the episode a "major win for both Disney and preschool series," showing that LGBTQ characters could appears in shows aimed at younger viewers without retaliation or crisis.


text: On September 30, 2018, "" aired on the Disney Channel and Disney XD. The team included America Chavez, the first Latina, and lesbian, superhero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, who had already appeared in animated shorts titled "Marvel Rising: Initiation". GLAAD expressed hope that the film would allow Chavez to be represented accurately, and "serve as an introduction of America and further queer characters to the Marvel Cinematic Universe." The film was later described as "a superhero tale with diversity oozing out of every animated frame," with note of Chavez having two mothers.


text: "Star Wars Resistance", which aired from October 2018 to January 2020 on the Disney Channel and Disney XD, featured LGBTQ characters. In this animation, Orka and Flix run the Office of Acquisitions on the "Colossus", with Orka doing the negotiations. Justin Ridge, an executive producer for the show, said that it's safe to call them a couple, adding "they’re absolutely a gay couple and we’re proud of that" on the "Coffee With Kenobi" podcast. Some said that they didn't see themselves in the show because they were only confirmed outside of the show's universe by the show's creators. Flix is voiced by gay actor Jim Rash.


text: In December 2018, the creator of "Big City Greens", Chris Houghton, confirmed, on Tumblr, that Alexander and Terry are a couple, although protagonist Cricket Green does not seem to realize that they are gay throughout the series. Alexander is loud, rather effeminate and bossy, and Terry is silent and an introvert. They both appear to be hanging out each other in a few episodes such as "Gridlocked", "Fill Bill", "Barry Cuda", and "Trailer Trouble". Alexander is voiced by John Early, a gay actor.


text: In April 2019, it was shown that Jackie Lynn Thomas, a character in "Star vs. the Forces of Evil", is bisexual. This was because she dated a male character but ended that relationship due to his feelings for the protagonist. Then, in the April 2019 episode "Britta's Tacos", it is revealed that Jackie has a relationship with a French girl named Chloé. As such, it is clear that Jackie is bisexual.


text: On March 6, 2020, "Onward", a computer-animated urban fantasy adventure film, was released. In the film, Officer Specter briefly appears and in one scene she discusses her girlfriend's daughter pulling her hair out. She is voiced by Lena Waithe, a lesbian actress.


text: In April 2020, an episode of "T.O.T.S.", "Seas the Day," would feature a baby dolphin named Donny, adopted by a dolphin lesbian couple. Also in April 2020, "DuckTales", premiered two characters, Indy and Ty, the guardians of Violet Sabrewing and the foster fathers of Lena Sabrewing, who were slated to be recurring characters.


text: On May 22, 2020, an animated short film titled "Out" premiered on Disney+. This short Pixar film revolves around Greg attempting to hide a framed photo of him and his boyfriend, Manuel, from his parents, out of fear for their disapproval. The seventh short film in the "SparkShorts" series, it is both Disney's and Pixar's first short to feature a gay main character and storyline, including an on-screen same-sex kiss.


text: On July 7, 2020, Dana Terrace, the creator of "The Owl House", implied a romantic subtext between Amity and Luz, when responding to a fan who posted a screenshot from the upcoming episode "Enchanting Grom Fright" on Twitter, which showed one of the characters in the show, Amity Blight, putting her hands on the shoulders of Luz Noceda, the show's main protagonist, and looking into Luz's eyes. Claiming "there is no heterosexual explanation" for Amity's action, Terrace responded, "there really isn't". On August 8, 2020, the episode, written by Molly Ostertag, aired, openly presenting and confirming Disney's first animated LGBT+ female non-recurring character. In previous episodes, Luz had shown interest in male characters but had begun to grow closer to Amity. On the other hand, Amity is shown to have a crush on Luz, confirming her to be lesbian or bisexual. Terrace confirmed Luz as bisexual in a Reddit AMA in September 2020.


text: In the August 2020 "Enchanting Grom Fright" episode of "The Owl House", Luz and Amity dance together, while casting spells, to defeat "Grom," a demon that manifests as their deepest fears. The animation supervisor for the show, Spencer Wan, hinted at this, referring to their intimate dance, which he storyboarded with Hayley Foster, as "the gay thing" and the first time he got to "do anything even remotely queer." The following day, he posted an animatic of Luz and Amity's dance scene. Amity and Luz represent Disney's first animated LGBT+ female regular characters. Terrace confirmed Amity as lesbian in a Reddit AMA in September 2020.


text: In the August 2020 episode of "The Owl House", titled "Understanding Willow", one of the main characters (Willow Park) is shown to have two dads (Gilbert and Harvey Park).


text: In September 2020, Amber Vanich, a story revisionist for "Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure" revealed that Cassandra "Cass" was gay coded, with sapphic looks toward the story's protagonist, Rapunzel, and that some of these feelings are shown in the episode about memory loss. She also said that there were many "queer women who boarded scenes [of] Cassandra," and that women-love-women vibes were ingrained in every drawing she did of the character. These beliefs were also reflected by Klaudia Amenábar of "The Mary Sue", calling Cass an "extremely gay-coded sword lesbian best friend" of Rapunzel. Earlier in the year, the series creator of "Tangled", Chris Sonnenburg, said that he would be willing to produce a spinoff show focusing on Cass, "if the call came." The year before, in November, he called Cass a strong female character and talked about the "real friendship bond" between her and Rapunzel in September of the same year.


text: On September 29, 2020, Samantha "Sam" King, a writer for the Season 3 episode of "DuckTales", "They Put a Moonlander On the Earth!", confirmed that Lieutenant Penumbra is a lesbian character. However, King wished it had been more overt and said that people should continue to ask for better representation.


text: In February 2021, Ralph Farquhar revealed that in "The Proud Family", which aired on the Disney Channel from 2001 to 2005, they had to use "code to talk about if Michael was gay, to talk about sexuality" and to be "sort of underhanded about it." He said this changed with "" with the biggest changes to the show ere "gender identity, obviously racial identity and quote-unquote wokeness,” and said that sexuality can be "sort of in your face with it a lot more," manifesting itself in the storytelling.


text: In February 2021, Deadline reported that the film adaptation of "Nimona" was cancelled due to the shutdown of Blue Sky Studios. Webcomics commenter Gary Tyrrell criticized the decision, saying, "[Disney] "could" have allowed a very different kind of young heroine... I mourn for those who would have found a vision of themselves in an animated version". Sources told CBR that the film was "75% complete". Anonymous staffers at Blue Sky interviewed by Business Insider bemoaned the cancellation of the film, calling it "heartbreaking," arguing that the film "didn't look like anything else in the animated world," and saying that they believe it will never "be completed and released." A few staffers confirmed to BuzzFeed News that the film had an "I love you" scene between Blackheart and Goldenloin. In June 2021, Mey Rude, a writer for "Out", said she still held out "hope that this film…will find its way back to life somehow." In July 2021, Meggie Gates in Bitch, said the film would have been Disney's first "legitimately queer film" and could have been a turning point "for how the corporation handles queerness" but that the Disney chose to "bury its gays" by cancelling the film, a blow to queer Disney fans. In April 2022, it was announced that Annapurna Pictures revived the film and will be releasing it on Netflix in 2023.


text: In March 2021, Kelly Marie Tran, the voice actress of Raya in the film "Raya and the Last Dragon", argued that Raya is queer, stating that she believed there were "some romantic feelings" between Raya and Namaari in the story. She later made clear that this isn't the official Disney position and hoped for a Disney warrior that is "openly in the LGBTQ community" in the future, perhaps even a person who is disabled.


text: On March 17, 2021, two days after the broadcast of the series finale of "DuckTales", storyboarder Sam King said that although she did not wish to "become "Word of Board Artist" on every headcannon and ship", she would permit fans to "assume I think every character except, like, Lunaris, is LGBTQIA+ in some shape or another."


text: On May 12, 2021, the reboot of the early 2000s animated sitcom, "The Proud Family", which is titled "" was announced. The series will include Barry and Randall Leibowitz-Jenkins as the adoptive parents of Maya Leibowitz-Jenkins, an interracial gay couple. Michael Collins, a recurring character from "The Proud Family", is confirmed to be gender non-conforming and gay. The executive producers of the series, Bruce W. Smith and Ralph Farquhar, said that the "show never really went away" and called it the "perfect time to bring back this show." ScreenRant argued that the revival will break down barriers through inclusion of multicultural families and characters belonging to the LGBTQ+ community.


text: In early June 2021, in celebration of Pride Month, Disney unveiled new merchandise and tweeted an illustration. In response, Alex Hirsch, the creator of A Disney series, "Gravity Falls", criticized Disney studio executives for cutting LGBTQ scenes from their shows. In his tweet, which was retweeted thousands of times he urged people to "mercilessly" spam the executives by saying there is "room for everyone under the rainbow" if the executives claim LGBTQ+ characters are not "Disney appropriate."


text: In June 2021, "Luca" was released on Disney+. Some argued that the film felt "gay" even if not "explicitly queer," and more ambiguous, comparing it to the 2017 live-action film "Call Me by Your Name" and the 2020 animated film "Wolfwalkers". Others said that Luca and Alberto hiding their true sea monster identities was an allegory for people who are members of the LGBTQ+ community, feeling as though they need to hide their true selves in order to be accepted. The film's director, Enrico Casarosa, said this was unintentional and that his original vision for the film was to explore the time in a child's life before romance, but he has since welcomed the interpretation after the film's release, also stating: "While I identify with pronouns he/him and I am a straight man, the themes of diversity, acceptance and inclusion in our movie are dear to my heart".


text: On July 10, 2021, "The Owl House" episode "Through the Looking Glass Ruins" premiered on the Disney Channel. One reviewer, Mey Rude said that the episode pushes forward the relationship between Luz and Amity, with Amity putting her job as a librarian in jeopardy to help Luz, while the latter goes through trials to get Amity her job back, and Amity kissing Luz on the cheek. Rude also noted that the LGBTQ characters in the show are "fleshed-out characters," pointed out the episode, directed by Bo Coburn, was co-written by Molly Ostertag and Terrace, with the former writing "Enchanting Grom Fright" and "Wing It Like Witches." That episode was co-written by Rachel Vine. Another reviewer described the episode as delivering a "definitive message that love transcends gender even in the world of children’s animation." The same reviewer also said that fans shouldn't look to "giant corporations for continual queer representation" and expressed their frustration at the end of "The Owl House" after its third season airs. Another reviewer noted that Luz and Amity were beginning to "understand their feelings for one another."


text: On July 24, 2021, "The Owl House" episode "Eda's Requiem" featured a character named Raine Whispers, who goes by they/them pronouns and is voiced by transgender and non-binary actor Avi Roque. Raine is Disney's first non-binary character. In the episode, Eda Clawthorne is shown to have feelings for Raine. The subsequent episode, "Knock, Knock, Knockin' on Hooty's Door", which aired on July 31, reveals that Eda and Raine were formerly dating, before breaking up. The episode also has Luz and Amity asking each other out, officially becoming a couple. GLAAD praised the episode, saying they were excited to see a "wonderful and affirming message" from the series. The teen version of Raine Whispers is also voiced by a non-binary actor Blu del Barrio.


text: The series' Latin American dub in September 2021 was met with criticism by both viewers and Roque for portraying Raine as a cisgender male instead of non-binary. The character has also been portrayed as a cisgender male in other dubs.


text: On October 3, 2021, one of the creators of "The Ghost and Molly McGee", Bob Roth, said there is LGBTQ representation in the show, which starts small and later includes main characters, and urged fans to "let it unfold naturally." He also said that people were reading too much into the interactions between Libby and Molly McGee in one episode, assuming it is romantic. On October 5, 2021, the series introduced Ms. Roop, a history teacher at Brighton Middle School. In the episode "Mazel Tov, Libby!", she is shown slow-dancing with a woman. In the following episode "No Good Deed", she is confirmed to be a lesbian and the woman she dance with is Pam, her wife. Ms. Roop is voiced by lesbian actress Jane Lynch.


text: On October 5, 2021, in an AMA on Reddit, Dana Terrace, the creator of "The Owl House", explained the show was cancelled not because of ratings or COVID-19 pandemic but rather because business people at Disney believed it did not fit "into the Disney brand." She stated that this was the case due to the serialized nature of the show and an audience which "skews older," rather than due to its LGBTQ+ representation, saying she wouldn't "assume bad faith" against those she works within Los Angeles. She also noted that due to the pandemic, budgets were constrained, episodes were cut, and noted that she wasn't allowed to present a case for a fourth season, and said she believed there was a future for the show if Disney Television had "different people in charge."


text: "Amphibia" introduced the same-sex couple, Ally and Jess, collectively known as The I.T. Gals. In the text of their video descriptions, the pair describe themselves as "just two girlfriends", qualified with an LGBT pride flag emoji. Lead character designer Andy Garner-Flexer later confirmed, in late October 2021, on his Twitter account that they are dating, saying that Ally's color palette was based on the pansexual pride flag, while Jess' was based on the bisexual pride flag.


text: On November 6, 2021, the "Amphibia" episode "Sprig's Birthday" was released, in which, during a brief scene, a marriage proposal is taking place between two men, with one of them, Tyler, having arranged with a stunt plane to spell the words "Will You Marry Me?" in the sky for his partner.


text: In February 2022, the short-form series "Rise Up, Sing Out" was released on Disney Junior and Disney+. The character Amelia has two moms.


text: On March 10, 2022, Pixar employees argued that "nearly every moment" of openly gay affection was cut due to demands from Disney executives, even if creative teams and Pixar executives objected, arguing that these employees are being barred from creating queer content in animated films. Some critics countered that Pixar also downplayed queer moments in films like "Luca" and "Turning Red".


text: It was later reported in mid-March 2022 that a same-sex kiss in "Lightyear", which was released on June 17, is being reinstated, with the film featuring the studio's "first-ever on-screen kiss between two characters of the same gender" between Alisha Hawthorne and her wife Kiko. At the same time, Lilith, Eda's older sister in "The Owl House", was confirmed to be aromantic asexual. Jade King of The Gamer noted that Cissy Jones said that her letter during a charity stream saying that Lilith didn't have any romantic attractions was "basically canon," further confirming those identities.


text: On April 16, 2022, Boscha was hinted to have two moms in "The Owl House" episode "Them's the Breaks, Kid" as two Hexside students bear a resemblance to Boscha. On April 25, 2022, Dana Terrace confirmed The Collector is non-binary and uses he/they pronouns.


text: On May 14, 2022, Sasha was confirmed to be bisexual and General Yunan and Lady Olivia become a same-sex couple in the "Amphibia" series finale. Five days after the series ended, Matt Braly confirmed Mayor Toadstool and Toadie became a same-sex couple as well.


text: On May 21, 2022, Luz and Amity kissed each other on the lips in "The Owl House" episode "Clouds on the Horizon". It is the first same-sex kiss between the main characters in a Disney animated series.


text: On June 29, 2022, the "Baymax!" episode "Mbita" featured the titular character starting a romantic relationship with another man named Yukio. He also appears in the sixth episode "Baymax". Mbita is voiced by gay comedian Jaboukie Young-White. The third episode "Sofia" features a transgender man recommending menstrual products to Baymax.


text: On September 21, 2022, "Firebuds" was released on Disney Junior and Disney+. The series features Violet’s moms Val and Viv and Axl’s dads Arnie and AJ. Val is voiced by queer actress Natalie Morales and Arnie is voiced by gay actor Stephen Guarino.


text: On October 15, 2022, The first "The Owl House" special "Thanks to Them" has Luz come out to her mother as bisexual. The special also reveals that Vee's campmate Masha is non-binary as they use they/them pronouns in their nameplate and their nails are painted in the colors of the non-binary pride flag.


text: "Strange World" which was released on November 23, 2022, features Ethan Clade, who is the first gay lead character in a Disney animated film. Ethan Clade is voiced by gay comedian Jaboukie Young-White.


text: Disney executives did not always receive LGBTQ characters and relationships positively. They, for instance, axed a proposed lesbian relationship in "Gravity Falls", at the same time that "Gumball" was censored for supposed "homosexual overtones" by various countries, and the National Expert Commission of Ukraine on the Protection of Public Morality in Ukraine advised the banning of SpongeBob SquarePants on the grounds that it promoted homosexuality. As such, Disney has been criticized for its approach to LGBTQ representation as compared to Cartoon Network. In June 2021, David Levine, a former Disney executive who oversaw kids programming for 16 years, said that "a lot of conservative opinion" driving depictions of characters of the Disney Channel, Cartoon Network, and Nickelodeon, with no hope for LGBTQ representation, saying he still has similar conversations to this day.


text: In March 2022, amid the controversy of Disney's involvement in Florida's Parental Rights in Education Act and lack of criticism from CEO Bob Chapek until after the bill had passed, three former Blue Sky staff members stated the "Nimona" film received pushback from Disney leadership, centered around the film's LGBT themes and a same-sex kiss. While staffers said that the kiss scene was taken out of presentations to Disney executives, they said still held out hope that it would be included in the final film.


text: In March 2022, leaked clips from a Walt Disney Company meeting showed the president of Disney General Entertainment, Karey Burke, explain to staff that she is a parent of "two queer children," and the production coordinator at Disney Television Animation, Allen Martsch, note that his team is trying to include "more trans and gender non-conforming characters" in Disney animations. Also, in the meeting, Layota Raveneau, series director of "" and "Rise Up, Sing Out", said that she was adding queerness wherever she could in the projects she worked on for Disney. Elsewhere, Burke promised that 50% of the characters in content created by the Disney General Entertainment would be "from minority groups."


text: In April 2022, Peter C. Kunze, a historian at Tulane University argued that there is a "long history of LGBTQ audiences and employees supporting, even saving, the company from veritable demise." He also said that Disney relied on LGBTQ people to "revamp its animated films", taking the example of Howard Ashman, an openly gay man who was the lyricist for "The Little Mermaid" and "Beauty and the Beast". Kunze argued that Disney CEO Bob Chapek should remember the company's history and "understand the invaluable contributions LGBTQ communities have made to the company he leads."


title: UFC 196

text: UFC 196: McGregor vs. Diaz was a mixed martial arts event held on March 5, 2016 at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.


title: UFC 196

text: The event was officially announced in November 2015 as "UFC 197," taking place on March 5, 2016 at HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Weeks later on December 29, UFC announced that the event was canceled and would be moved to a different location. On January 12, it was confirmed the event would take place at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States.


title: UFC 196

text: On January 13, UFC revealed this event was originally intended to take place at Arena da Baixada (a much larger venue) in Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil, and feature a UFC Heavyweight Championship rematch between champion Fabrício Werdum and former two-time champion Cain Velasquez, with former UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva in the co-main event slot, possibly against Michael Bisping. Due to a series of injuries, the company moved the heavyweight bout to a separate event scheduled for February 6, which at that time was . This change made the March 5 event a smaller draw, which led to the transition to the smaller venue in Rio de Janeiro. To maintain local interest, the company then considered booking the main event as a rematch between two Brazilian fighters, Silva and former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Vitor Belfort. Belfort declined the bout, as he wished to wait for the result of the middleweight title fight at UFC 194. This final fall-through is what prompted the cancellation of the event in Brazil and relocation to Las Vegas. On January 27, it was revealed the Werdum-Velasquez bout (which had been moved to "UFC 196" scheduled for February 6, 2016) was cancelled entirely. This forced that event to alter into a "UFC Fight Night" card, and the originally scheduled "UFC 197" event was renamed UFC 196.


title: UFC 196

text: The event was expected to be headlined by a UFC Lightweight Championship bout between champion Rafael dos Anjos and UFC Featherweight Champion Conor McGregor. This would have been the second time in UFC history that champions in different divisions would fight for the same title. The first time was at UFC 94 on January 31, 2009, when then-UFC Welterweight Champion Georges St-Pierre defended his title against then-lightweight champion B.J. Penn. On February 23, the planned bout suffered a setback as it was announced that dos Anjos pulled out due to a broken foot. Former UFC Featherweight Champion José Aldo declined the initial opportunity to replace him due to "lack of time" to prepare for the bout. Former lightweight champion and top featherweight contender Frankie Edgar also declined the opportunity due to a groin injury. Eventually, The Ultimate Fighter 5 winner and former lightweight title challenger Nate Diaz was announced as the replacement and the bout took place in the welterweight division.


title: UFC 196

text: A UFC Women's Bantamweight Championship bout between then champion Holly Holm and former Strikeforce Women's Bantamweight Champion Miesha Tate co-headlined the event.


title: UFC 196

text: Michael Johnson was expected to face Tony Ferguson in a lightweight rematch. On January 27, it was announced that Johnson withdrew from the bout due to injury. Ferguson was then rescheduled to fight at on April 16 against Khabib Nurmagomedov.


title: UFC 196

text: A welterweight bout between Brandon Thatch and Siyar Bahadurzada, originally slated for , was rescheduled to this event due to Thatch's medication being banned by Pennsylvania's athletic commission.


title: UFC 196

text: The following is the reported payout to the fighters as reported to the Nevada State Athletic Commission. It does not include sponsor money and also does not include the UFC's traditional "fight night" bonuses.


title: PRS Guitars

text: Paul Reed Smith Guitars, also known as PRS Guitars, is an American guitar and amplifier manufacturer located in Stevensville, Maryland. The company was founded in 1985 in Annapolis, Maryland by Paul Reed Smith.


title: PRS Guitars

text: Paul Reed Smith set up a partnership to create a factory in Annapolis, Maryland. and set off work on producing guitars. The company's first outing was for the 1985 NAMM Show where they debuted the PRS Custom. Featuring a mahogany neck set into a mahogany body with a maple cap, a patented vibrato, customized tuning pegs, and custom rotary pickup switching with high quality electronics, the guitar represented influences from both old and new; something striking in the midst of an industry that was producing "high tech" guitars. "I saw Adrian Belew on King Crimson's "Beat" tour in 1982," says Smith, "and the sound he was getting out of his guitar was on another planet somewhere. He let me rebuild his Ibanez Blazer. I put in our whole tuning-peg/bridge system and a new electronic system with an Alembic Stratoblaster pre-amp. It sounded unbelievable. Right then I decided that I wanted to put those sounds on a humbucking guitar, which is when I went back to the rotary switch and redesigned it for humbuckers." After three years, the company employed 45 people, and was producing 15 guitars per day.


title: PRS Guitars

text: Nuts are synthetic and tuners are of PRS's own design, although some models feature Korean-made Kluson-style tuners. PRS guitars feature three original bridge designs: a one-piece pre-intonated stoptail, a vibrato, and a wrapover tailpiece. The vibrato was designed with the help of guitar engineer John Mann. It was an update on the classic Fender vibrato and used cam-locking tuners, which offered wide pitch bending with exceptional tuning stability.


title: PRS Guitars

text: Pickups are designed and wound in-house. While most of the pickups are humbuckers, some are actually a pair of single coils wound in opposing directions, one intended for the neck and one for the bridge position. Through the use of a unique rotary pickup selector switch, PRS pickups offer 5 different sounds: a combination of thick humbucking Gibson-like tones, and chimey single-coil Stratocaster-like tones. The standard treble and standard bass pick ups use magnetic pole pieces in the non-adjustable inner coil, and a rear-placed feeder magnet in order to achieve a more authentic single-coil tone when split by the rotary switch.


title: PRS Guitars

text: PRS developed pickups for the aggressive rock market, offering pick ups such as the chainsaw, and the Hot-Fat-Screams (HFS) initially used on the Special model.


title: PRS Guitars

text: In 1998, an electronic upgrade kit was released for pre-1993 instruments which included lighter-weight tuner buttons, nickel-plated brass screws for saddles and intonation, a simulated tone control, and high-capacitance hookup wire. In 2012, PRS released the 408 pickups used on the 408 and Paul's Guitar models. These pickups include innovations that feature no loss of volume when in coil split mode. They have an exclusive agreement to use wire drawn from the same machine that made wire for Les Paul and Stratocaster pickups in the 1950s.


title: PRS Guitars

text: Certain models of PRS Guitars have also used pickups by Lindy Fralin, notably in the EG II and certain specs of the Custom 22.


title: PRS Guitars

text: In 1985, Paul Reed Smith started producing factory made guitars, which later became known as PRS Standard.


title: PRS Guitars

text: In 1988, Paul Reed Smith introduced its more affordable Bolt-On series known as classic electric (CE models) which were discontinued in 2009. In 2016, the CE line was put back in production.


title: PRS Guitars

text: In 1990, PRS EG was introduced as company's first 22-fret guitar. Later on in the more successful 1992 PRS EG II was introduced, which includes PRS's first left-handed guitar.


title: PRS Guitars

text: In 1992, PRS introduced the Dragon 1 model. Only 50 units were produced. It featured an intricate dragon inlay which ran down the finger board, a wide 22 fret neck, a non-vibrato Stop-tail bridge, and a new pick up design. The changes in design from previous models added a noticeable tonal improvement which led the company to use the same characteristics in later models such as the PRS Custom 22. The Dragon 2 was released in 1993, and the Dragon 3 in 1994. Both featured dragon inlays which became more extreme with every year. Only 100 of each of the 2 models were made. In 1999, PRS released the Dragon 2000, which featured complex body curves, and a 3 dimensional dragon inlay. Just 50 Dragon 2000's were ever produced.


title: PRS Guitars

text: In 1994, Paul Reed Smith collaborated with Ted McCarty and launched the "McCarty" Series. The McCarty series offers a more vintage feeling and sounding PRS Guitar.


title: PRS Guitars

text: PRS introduced a more affordable line of guitars in 2000 referred to as the "SE" which are manufactured in Korea by World Musical Instrument Co. Ltd. for the electrics and Wildwood for the acoustics. PRS produces a large range of models in the SE series including the Custom 24, SE245, SE Kestrel and Kingfisher bass guitars as well as signature guitars such as the Bernie Marsden, Mark Tremonti, Zach Myers and Carlos Santana amongst others. They also intro their Singlecut models in 2001.


title: PRS Guitars

text: In 2013, PRS added the S2 Series and in February 2018 PRS began producing a Silver Sky model based on two of John Mayer's favourite guitars from the 1960s.


title: PRS Guitars

text: In 2019, PRS announced three SE signature models: PRS SE Santana Singlecut Trem, PRS SE Paul's Guitar, and PRS SE Schizoid.


title: PRS Guitars

text: In 2001, PRS released their Singlecut model, which resembled the traditional Les Paul. Gibson Guitar Corporation filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against the owner, Paul Reed Smith. An injunction was ordered that required PRS to stop manufacturing of the Singlecut at the end of 2004. Federal District Court Judge William J. Haynes, then ruled the Singlecut was an imitation of the Gibson Les Paul. However, in 2005, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit reversed the lower court decision and ordered the dismissal of Gibson's suit and PRS resumed production.


title: PRS Guitars

text: While no changes to the design of the Singlecut occurred as a result of the lawsuit, some Singlecut owners and sellers have adopted the term 'pre-lawsuit' to differentiate their Singlecut guitar from others.


title: Body louse

text: The body louse (Pediculus humanus humanus, also known as Pediculus humanus corporis) is a hematophagic ectoparasite louse that infests humans. It is one of three lice which infest humans, the other two being the head louse, and the crab louse or pubic louse.


title: Body louse

text: Despite the name, body lice do not directly live on the host. They lay their eggs on fibres of clothing and only come into contact with the host whenever they need to feed. Since body lice cannot jump or fly, they spread by direct contact with another person or more rarely by contact with clothing or bed sheets that are infested.


title: Body louse

text: Body lice are disease vectors and can transmit pathogens that cause human diseases such as epidemic typhus, trench fever, and relapsing fever. In developed countries, infestations are only a problem in areas of poverty where there is poor body hygiene, crowded living conditions, and a lack of access to clean clothing. Outbreaks can also occur in situations where large groups of people are forced to live in unsanitary conditions. These types of outbreaks are seen globally in prisons, homeless populations, refugees of war, or when natural disasters occur and proper sanitation is not available.


title: Body louse

text: "Pediculus humanus humanus" (the body louse) is indistinguishable in appearance from "Pediculus humanus capitis" (the head louse), and the two subspecies will interbreed under laboratory conditions. In their natural state, however, they occupy different habitats and do not usually meet. They can feed up to five times a day and as adults can live for about thirty days, but if they are separated from their host they will die within a week. If the conditions are favorable, the body louse can reproduce rapidly. After the final molt, female and male lice will mate immediately. A female louse can lay up to 200–300 eggs during her lifetime.


title: Body louse

text: The two "P. humanus" subspecies are morphologically quite identical. Their heads are short with two antennae that are split into five segments each, compacted thorax, seven segmented abdomen with lateral paratergal plates.


title: Body louse

text: The body louse diverged from the head louse around 170,000 years ago, implying an earliest date for the adoption of clothing by humans. Body lice were first described by Carl Linnaeus in the 10th edition of "Systema Naturae". The human body louse had its genome sequenced in 2010, and at that time it had the smallest known insect genome.


title: Body louse

text: The body louse belongs to the phylum Arthropoda, class Insecta, order Phthiraptera and family Pediculidae. There are roughly 5,000 species of lice described, 4,000 are parasitizing birds, while additional 800 are special parasites of mammals worldwide.


title: Body louse

text: Since an infestation can include thousands of lice, with each of them biting five times a day, the bites can cause strong itching, especially at the beginning of the infestation, that can result in skin excoriations and secondary infections. If an individual is exposed to a long-term infestation, he or she may experience apathy, lethargy and fatigue.


title: Body louse

text: In principle, body louse infestations can be controlled by periodically changing clothes and bedding. Thereafter, clothes, towels, and bedding should be washed in hot water (at least ) and dried using a hot cycle. The itching can be treated with topical and systemic corticosteroids and antihistamines. In case of secondary infections, antibiotics can be used to control the bacterial infection. When changing regularly of cloths and bedding is not possible, the infested items could be treated with insecticides.


title: Body louse

text: Unlike other species of lice, body lice can also act as vectors of disease. The most important pathogens which are transmitted by them are "Rickettsia prowazekii" (causes epidemic typhus), "Borrelia recurrentis" (causes relapsing fever), and "Bartonella quintana" (causes trench fever).


title: Body louse

text: Epidemic typhus can be treated with one dose of doxycycline, but if left untreated, the fatality rate is 30%. Relapsing fever can be treated with tetracycline and depending on the severity of the disease, if left untreated it has a fatality rate between 10 and 40%. Trench fever can be treated with either doxycycline or gentamicin, if left untreated the fatality rate is less than 1%.


title: Waterstones

text: Waterstones, formerly Waterstone's, is a British book retailer that operates 311 shops, mainly in the United Kingdom and also other nearby countries. As of February 2014, it employs around 3,500 staff in the UK and Europe. An average-sized Waterstones shop sells a range of approximately 30,000 individual books, as well as stationery and other related products.


title: Waterstones

text: Established in 1982 by Tim Waterstone, after whom the company was named, the bookseller expanded rapidly until being sold in 1993 to WHSmith. In 1998, Waterstones was bought by a consortium of Waterstone, EMI and Advent International. The company was taken under the umbrella of HMV Group, which later merged the Dillons and Ottakar's brands into the company. Following several poor sets of results for the group, HMV put the chain up for sale. In May 2011, it was announced that A&NN Capital Fund Management, owned by Russian billionaire Alexander Mamut, had bought the chain for £53.5m and appointed James Daunt as managing director. The company is incorporated in England and Wales as Waterstones Booksellers Ltd, with its registered office at 203–206 Piccadilly, London (which is also the location of its flagship shop). As well as the Waterstones brand, the company owns the London bookseller Hatchards, Irish shop Hodges Figgis, and reached an agreement to purchase Foyles in 2018. In April 2018, hedge fund Elliott Management Corporation bought a majority stake in the company.


title: Waterstones

text: The bookseller has concession agreements with Paperchase and previously with coffee chains Costa Coffee and Starbucks in some shops, but since 2012 has introduced its own Café W brand. For a time, Waterstones sold eReaders, including in 2012 partnering with Amazon to sell the Amazon Kindle, but has since pulled out of this market for commercial reasons.


title: Waterstones

text: Waterstones administers and supports various literary awards, including the Children's Laureate award and the Waterstones Children's Book Prize.


title: Waterstones

text: The chain was founded by Tim Waterstone after he took a £6,000 redundancy payout from WHSmith. He set up his first shop in Old Brompton Road, Kensington with the ambition of creating a 'different breed of bookshop', using techniques he had seen in the United States. He used literary authors in front of shop displays and employed highly literate staff.


title: Waterstones

text: The model proved successful and the chain set about expanding its shop portfolio. In 1990 WHSmith took a strong minority stake in the chain, and ten years after its birth, by 1992, Waterstone's had grown to be the largest bookseller group in Europe. WHSmith then acquired the company in 1993 at an enterprise value of £47m, paying £5.27 a share on 8.1m 10p shares, a 53x multiple for the early stage investors. Under WHSmith, Waterstones pursued international expansion, opening its first US shop in Boston in 1991, as well as further domestic expansion – opening its 100th UK shop in a former chapel in Reading.


title: Waterstones

text: The chain was part of the eventual dismantling of the Net Book Agreement, when in 1991, following a promotion by then rivals Dillons, the company decided to pursue its own discounting promotion on selected titles. By 1997, the agreement had collapsed and been declared illegal.