title: Culture of Saudi Arabia

text: The ten-day-long Jenadriyah National Festival celebrates the founding of the kingdom and showcases Saudi culture and heritage, traditional crafts such as pottery and woodcutting, folk dance and traditional songs.


title: Culture of Saudi Arabia

text: Music and dance have always been part of Saudi life. Bedouin poetry, known as "nabaṭī", is still very popular.


title: Culture of Saudi Arabia

text: Traditional music is generally associated with poetry and is sung collectively. Instruments include the "rabābah", an instrument not unlike a three-string fiddle, and various types of percussion instruments, such as the "ṭabl" (drum) and the "ṭār" (tambourine).


title: Culture of Saudi Arabia

text: "Al-sihba" folk music has its origins in al-Andalus. In Mecca, Medina and Jeddah, dance and song incorporate the sound of the "mizmar", an oboe-like woodwind instrument, in the performance of the "mizmar" dance. The drum is also an important instrument according to traditional and tribal customs. "Samri" is a popular traditional form of music and dance in which poetry is sung.


title: Culture of Saudi Arabia

text: Of the native dances, the most popular is a martial line dance known as the Al Ardha, which includes lines of men, frequently armed with swords or rifles, dancing to the beat of drums and tambourines. As one non-Saudi described it, the performance consists of : "barefooted males clad in their normal street clothes of thobe and gutra jumping up and down mostly in one spot while wielding swords".


title: Culture of Saudi Arabia

text: "Dahha" is another popular dance in Northern Saudi performed by one line of men or two lines facing each other while a man in between sings a poem which can be a satirical, eulogy or a descriptive poem.


title: Culture of Saudi Arabia

text: Bedouin poetry is a cultural tradition in Saudi Arabia. According to Sandra Mackey, author of "The Saudis: Inside the Desert Kingdom", "the role that formal poetry, prose, and oratory play in Saudi culture is totally alien to Western culture." Mackey explained that the Bedouin poet was the origin of Saudi society's traditionally strong attachment to the concept of language. She said that poetry "can arise in the most curious of situations" due to the role of poetry in Saudi culture.


title: Culture of Saudi Arabia

text: The literary renaissance began during the first quarter of the 20th century where the literary genre of poetry was improved in language and number of poets. The pioneer poets during that era include Mohammed Faqi (1914-2004), Tahir Zamakhshri (1914-1987), and Hasan Alqurashi (1926-2004).


title: Culture of Saudi Arabia

text: Novel writing is another literary genre in Saudi literature where the first Saudi novel was The Twins (1930) by Abdul Alquddus Alansari. In the modern era of Saudi novel, some novel writer becomes popular like Turki Alhamad, Abdu Khal Raja Alim.


title: Culture of Saudi Arabia

text: Theatre in Saudi Arabia back to 1928 where their origins were schools. The earliest attempts were in Qassim and Makkah, and subsequently, universities contributed to the theatre activities.


title: Culture of Saudi Arabia

text: During the 1970s, cinemas were numerous in the kingdom although they were seen as contrary to tribal norms. All cinemas and theaters were closed in 1980 as a political response to the Islamic revival and the increase in Islamist activism, most particularly the 1979 seizure of the Grand Mosque in Mecca. As of 2018, cinemas opened in multiple cities including Riyadh and Jeddah.


title: Culture of Saudi Arabia

text: Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's Vision 2030 should bring cinemas back to the country in early 2018. The establishment of the General Authority for Entertainment in 2016 has pushed for entertainment options of the including cinemas, public concerts, international conferences, competitions, singing show and other cultural activities.


title: Armenia, Colombia

text: Armenia () is the capital of Quindio Department. Armenia is a medium-sized city and part of the "coffee axis" along with Pereira and Manizales. It is one of the main centers of the national economy and of the Colombian coffee growing axis. As a result, the historic center of Armenia was named as part of the "Coffee Cultural Landscape" of UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2011.


title: Armenia, Colombia

text: The city was founded on October 14, 1889, by Jesús María Ocampo, also known as "Tigrero" (translates to "tiger killer") due to his love of hunting jaguars, known locally as tigers. Ocampo came from Anaime, Tolima, looking for shelter in the mountains of Quindío because he was running away from General Gallo. He paid one hundred pesos in gold coins to Antonio Herrera for the land on which to build a fonda, or trade center, not only for himself but also for other colonists who came from Salento, Antioquia, Manizales, and areas surrounding the Quindío River and La Vieja River. Ocampo then proceeded to sell land for settlement. To encourage settlement, Ocampo returned to Anaime to ask for the help of his friend Juan de la Cruz Cardona and to marry thirteen-year-old Arsenia Cardona. Six months after its founding, in August 1890, Armenia had reached a population of 100 people, allowing it to gain legal recognition by the government. In the founding meeting of the city, on October 14, 1889, the name of Villa Holguín was suggested, in honor of Carlos Holguín Mallarino, the then-current president of the country. However, the proposal was rejected, and the name Armenia was put to a vote and approved on November 30, 1889. Therefore, the belief that the name was changed to Armenia after the country of the same name, in memory of the Armenian people murdered by the Turkish Ottomans in the Hamidian Massacres of 1894–97 and later the Armenian genocide of 1915–23 is unsubstantiated, as the murders happened years after the town was already named, although some sources do dispute this. While other sources claim that it is most likely that the city was renamed after the historical Kingdom of Armenia, rumours persist of being named for Armenia or Armenians in tribute of the Hamidian Massacres of the 1890s, it is more probable that colonists in those countries took to the Bible in some cases in naming their settlements.


title: Armenia, Colombia

text: Despite Armenia's quickly expanding economy at the time, the means of transport were still very limited. The main form of transporting people and merchandise was by mule, due to the mountainous terrain surrounding the city. It was not until the construction of the first asphalt road—in 1927 to Zarzal in the Department of Valle del Cauca—that transport was improved.


title: Armenia, Colombia

text: Nowadays, the city combines its contemporary development with all of the traditional ways of its forefathers' heritage, like the historic Liberator Pathway, the path used by Colombia's 19th century liberator Simon Bolívar to move his army between the west of the country and Santa Fe de Bogotá during his successful independence campaign from Spain, currently one of the top-two tourist destinations in Colombia. Due to its namesake, many Armenian tourists also visit the city.


title: Armenia, Colombia

text: It is estimated that a large earthquake, approximately 6–7 in magnitude, will hit this area every 20 years due to high seismic activity. It can be explained by the Galapagos Triple Junction, which is located at the northwest corner of the South American Plate where the Nazca, Cocos, and Pacific plates converge.


title: Armenia, Colombia

text: On Monday, January 25, 1999, a 6.2 earthquake occurred in Quindío. The epicenter was located 17 km south of Armenia. The earthquake was one of the most devastating events to have occurred in Colombia in recent history, with an estimated 1,900 casualties. The earthquake was also felt in Risaralda, Valle Del Cauca, Tolima, Antioquia, and Cundinamarca, but Armenia was the hardest-hit city. In just 15 years, the city was rebuilt, becoming one of the most visited tourist destinations in Colombia.


title: Armenia, Colombia

text: The city of Armenia is located 290 kilometers west of Bogotá at a height of 1,483 m., Geographical coordinates, the following: 4.3270° north latitude 75.4120° west longitude.


title: Armenia, Colombia

text: It has an area of . It limits the north with the municipalities of Circasia and Salento, west to the town of Montenegro, east to the town of Calarcá and south with the municipality of La Tebaida.


title: Armenia, Colombia

text: Armenia is often referred to as "Ciudad Milagro" (Miracle City) due to its fast urban growth and development. The city center includes a nine block pedestrian walkway, lined by shops and restaurants, through the center of the city and connecting two of the city's plazas. The local economy main trade is still based on the production of coffee, plantains, and bananas.


title: Armenia, Colombia

text: To the south of the city as it gets closer to sea level, the temperature favors not only Quindio's agricultural economy, but a renewed tourist industry in the shape of villas for rent, theme parks, eco-hotels and family day leisure centers, not excluding all-time favorites like local cuisine restaurants, exhibition centers and country clubs specializing in fishing, tennis, golf, cart racing and other sports. Many traditional plantations still exist in the surrounding area and many offer bed and breakfast accommodation and "ecotourism" packages. The city has a modern international airport El Edén International Airport with daily links to Bogotá, Cartagena de Indias, Medellín, Panama City and Fort Lauderdale which make the city a convenient choice for conferences, meetings, business and social events.


title: Armenia, Colombia

text: Armenia is part of the program "friendly cities" which seeks to improve the quality and service in urban transport in major urban centers of the country.


title: Armenia, Colombia

text: The city of Armenia implements its program called strategic public transport system, which is a program that advances the town hall by Friendly Company, an industrial and commercial entity been created to manage project resources.


title: Armenia, Colombia

text: The Strategic Public Transport System comes from the national strategy Gracious Cities National Development Plan which aims to improve the provision of public transport in intermediate cities of less than 400,000 inhabitants. It results from a national urban transport program established in 3167 CONPES of May 23, 2002, and responds to the need to establish a system that structures and allow better management of the city.


title: Armenia, Colombia

text: Thanks to the union of the three main utilities urban city (Armenia Buses, Urban Transport and Cooburquin City Miracle), new company was formed transport operator in the city, called TINTO (Transporte Integrado Operador de Armenia, in English: Integrated Transport Operator of Armenia), showing its citizens a new image, coffee, icon of the city and the department.


title: Armenia, Colombia

text: " Part of this information is taken from Armenia Friendly program, the website of the Strategic Public Transport System of Armenia."


title: Armenia, Colombia

text: El Edén International Airport is approximately 10 km from the city, on the road to the municipality La Tebaida.


title: Armenia, Colombia

text: The renewed tourist industry has activated the popularity of the city and its surrounding areas. The region's northern area is the gateway to Los Nevados national park, where the highest peaks in central Colombia rise to perpetual snows at more than 4,500 metres. At the Quindio side of the foothills of this national park, lies the Cocora Valley, where the National Tree of Colombia, the wax palm grows, and whose municipality of Salento is a tourist destination known for its culinary delicacy (fried river trout), for its guadua crafts and furniture (the strong native bamboo cane), its art galleries and its position as a bohemian centre of regional artists. Tourists and hikers walk from here to reach the views of the park.


title: Armenia, Colombia

text: The county's folklore is represented throughout events and traditions visible during most of its towns festivities to name a few:


title: Armenia, Colombia

text: The Yipao (Parade of Jeeps): After World War II Armenia was given imported general purpose Jeeps vehicles so that they may be used for the difficult paths. However, these old vehicles have been also adopted into a traditional parade carrying oversized loads of coffee, local agriculture products and people.


title: Armenia, Colombia

text: The Chapoleras beauty pageant, with costumes depicting the traditional coffee harvesting dress in the fashion of late 19th century, and the various dances, is known in the entire country.


title: Armenia, Colombia

text: Each fall, La Asociacion Quindiana de Orquideologia hosts an orchid show, open to the public. This includes local judging by Colombian judges and often international judging by the American Orchid Society.


title: Armenia, Colombia

text: This region was widely known in the country in the early 20th century for the production of storage receptacles made of the empty dried shell of the fruit of a local species of inedible bottle gourd, the "Cuyabra" or "totumo", which gives the demonym of "cuyabros" to the people born in this city. Nowadays, they are no longer mass-produced for practical purposes as cheaper materials such as plastics displaced them from the market, but these traditional receptacles are still produced and hand-painted.


title: Armenia, Colombia

text: The Carriel is a traditional handbag leather handcraft symbolic of the paisa culture and the early antioquian colonisation. It is often used in the typical dances and parades, and its miniature version is sold to tourists as souvenir. The cabuya handicrafts are often seen.


title: Armenia, Colombia

text: The main sports centre in the city is the Centenario Stadium, and the Coliseo del cafe (Armenia, Colombia). Where local sporting events can be seen, including national and international football tournaments and the local professional football club Deportes Quindío. Other sport events are bullfighting, golf, swimming, and cycling. The highly varied geography surrounding Armenia has helped create some of the greatest climbing cyclists in the world, many of whom compete internationally in events such as the Tour de France.


title: Armenia, Colombia

text: The local university in the city is the University of Quindio. Its campus is spotted in the north of the city and it is the most important educational and research entity in the place and in the whole department.


title: Armenia, Colombia

text: The Quimbaya museum designed by Rogelio Salmona, offers a permanent display of pre-Columbian handcrafts, ceramic, and gold artpieces.


title: Sylvia Anderson

text: Sylvia Beatrice Anderson (; 25 March 1927 – 15 March 2016) was an English television and film producer, writer, voice actress and costume designer, best known for her collaborations with Gerry Anderson, her husband between 1960 and 1981. In addition to serving as co-creator and co-writer on their TV series during the 1960s and early 1970s, Anderson's primary contribution was character development and costume design. She regularly directed the fortnightly voice recording sessions, and provided the voices of many female and child characters. She also helped develop the shows and characters, in particular creating the iconic characters of Lady Penelope and Parker in "Thunderbirds".


title: Sylvia Anderson

text: Anderson was born in Camberwell, London, England on 25 March 1927. Her father, Sidney Thomas, was a champion boxer, and her mother, Beatrice (), a dressmaker.


title: Sylvia Anderson

text: After graduating from the London School of Economics with a degree in sociology and political science, she became a social worker. She emigrated to the United States to live with her first husband, Jack Brooks, an American golfer. While in America she worked as a journalist.


title: Sylvia Anderson

text: Anderson returned to the United Kingdom in 1955 with her daughter. She joined the newly founded and short-lived Polytechnic Films as an office assistant in 1957. There, she met Gerry Anderson, an editor and director. That year, when Anderson and Arthur Provis created AP Films following Polytechnic's collapse, she joined them on the board of directors of the new company, alongside their colleagues John Read and Reg Hill.


title: Sylvia Anderson

text: In 1957 AP Films was commissioned by writer Roberta Leigh to produce films based on her children's stories, including "The Adventures of Twizzle" and "Torchy the Battery Boy". Sylvia Anderson worked on these projects as a production assistant. In late 1960 the couple married, and she developed a wider role in production duties.


title: Sylvia Anderson

text: The couple worked together as a team, co-writing and co-creating the first episode of a series then sharing the work according to their strengths. Gerry tended to specialise in special effects and hardware, and Sylvia in character, voices, costume, dialogue, and plotlines.


title: Sylvia Anderson

text: In this way, Anderson contributed plot development and voice work for a series of half-hour shows including "Supercar", "Stingray" and "Fireball XL5". The "Supercar" end titles credit her (as Sylvia Thamm) as the Dialogue Director, a task which she would also handle in other projects. However, she felt the half-hour format was insufficient to fully develop characters and stories, and she persuaded the team's TV producer Lew Grade to extend their shows to a full hour.


title: Sylvia Anderson

text: In the early 1960s, the Andersons co-created the series "Thunderbirds", and Sylvia created the characters. She was aware that Grade intended to sell the show to American TV networks and wanted to make the show appealing to American audiences, hence she introduced the "British aristocrat" character of Lady Penelope, and Parker her "Cockney chauffeur".


title: Sylvia Anderson

text: Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward, an aristocratic fashionista who was an undercover agent, was to become one of her most popular characters; Anderson both created the character and provided her voice. AP Films puppet designer Mary Turner used Anderson as the template for the creation of the Lady Penelope puppets, a decision of which Anderson was not immediately aware. Interviewed by the "Daily Mirror" in 1968, Turner commented: "we wanted a glamorous blonde and [Anderson] was the obvious choice." In 1966 and 1968, Anderson produced two feature-length films based on the "Thunderbirds" story, "Thunderbirds Are Go" and "Thunderbird 6".


title: Sylvia Anderson

text: She was co-creator with Gerry Anderson for the series "UFO" (1969-1970) on which she co-produced, was responsible for fashions on the show and did the majority of the casting.


title: Sylvia Anderson

text: The Andersons' creative partnership ended when their marriage broke down during the production of the of "" in 1975. Gerry announced his intention to separate on the evening of the wrap party, following which Sylvia ceased her involvement with the company, which by this time had twice been renamed and was now called Group Three.


title: Sylvia Anderson

text: In 1983 she published a novel titled "Love and Hisses" and in 1994 she reprised her voice role as Lady Penelope for an episode of "Absolutely Fabulous". She worked as a London-based talent scout for HBO for 30 years.


title: Sylvia Anderson

text: Her autobiography, "Yes M'Lady", was first published in 1991; in 2007, it was re-published as "My FAB Years" with new material to bring it up to date with the latest developments in her life, such as her role as a production consultant for the 2004 live-action film adaptation of "Thunderbirds".


title: Sylvia Anderson

text: Of the film, Anderson commented, "I'm personally thrilled that the production team have paid us the great compliment of bringing to life our original concept for the big screen. If we had made it ourselves (and we have had over 30 years to do it!) we could not have improved on this new version. It is a great tribute to the original creative team who inspired the movie all those years ago. It was a personal thrill for me to see my characters come to life on the big screen." "My FAB Years" was re-released as a spoken CD, narrated by Anderson, in 2010.


title: Sylvia Anderson

text: In 2013, Anderson worked with her daughter Dee, a jazz singer, on a concept for a new TV series named "The Last Station".


title: Sylvia Anderson

text: In 2015, Anderson briefly returned to the "Thunderbirds" universe, when she guest-starred in an episode of the reboot TV series, "Thunderbirds Are Go", as Great Aunt Sylvia, a relative of Lady Penelope.


title: Sylvia Anderson

text: Anderson was also known for her charity work, particularly in support of Breast Cancer Care and Barnardo's.


title: Sylvia Anderson

text: In 2015, Anderson travelled to Italy to receive a Pulcinella Award in recognition of her career in television production.


title: Sylvia Anderson

text: In 1946, Anderson married Jack Brooks, with whom she had a daughter, Dee. The marriage ended in divorce and in 1952 she married George Thamm, this marriage also ending in divorce. Her third marriage, in 1960, was to Gerry Anderson, with whom she had a son, Gerry Anderson Jr, before divorcing Anderson in 1981.


title: Artificial intelligence in healthcare

text: Artificial intelligence in healthcare is an overarching term used to describe the use of machine-learning algorithms and software, or artificial intelligence (AI), to mimic human cognition in the analysis, presentation, and comprehension of complex medical and health care data. Specifically, AI is the ability of computer algorithms to approximate conclusions based solely on input data.


title: Artificial intelligence in healthcare

text: The primary aim of health-related AI applications is to analyze relationships between clinical techniques and patient outcomes. AI programs are applied to practices such as diagnostics, treatment protocol development, drug development, personalized medicine, and patient monitoring and care. What differentiates AI technology from traditional technologies in healthcare is the ability to gather data, process it, and produce a well-defined output to the end-user. AI does this through machine learning algorithms and deep learning. These processes can recognize patterns in behavior and create their own logic. To gain useful insights and predictions, machine learning models must be trained using extensive amounts of input data. AI algorithms behave differently from humans in two ways: (1) algorithms are literal: once a goal is set, the algorithm learns exclusively from the input data and can only understand what it has been programmed to do, (2) and some deep learning algorithms are black boxes; algorithms can predict with extreme precision, but offer little to no comprehensible explanation to the logic behind its decisions aside from the data and type of algorithm used.


title: Artificial intelligence in healthcare

text: As widespread use of AI in healthcare is relatively new, research is ongoing into its application in various fields of medicine and industry. Additionally, greater consideration is being given to the unprecedented ethical concerns related to its practice such as data privacy, automation of jobs, and representation biases.


title: Artificial intelligence in healthcare

text: Research in the 1960s and 1970s produced the first problem-solving program, or expert system, known as Dendral. While it was designed for applications in organic chemistry, it provided the basis for a subsequent system MYCIN, considered one of the most significant early uses of artificial intelligence in medicine. MYCIN and other systems such as INTERNIST-1 and CASNET did not achieve routine use by practitioners, however.


title: Artificial intelligence in healthcare

text: The 1980s and 1990s brought the proliferation of the microcomputer and new levels of network connectivity. During this time, there was a recognition by researchers and developers that AI systems in healthcare must be designed to accommodate the absence of perfect data and build on the expertise of physicians. Approaches involving fuzzy set theory, Bayesian networks, and artificial neural networks, have been applied to intelligent computing systems in healthcare.


title: Artificial intelligence in healthcare

text: Medical and technological advancements occurring over this half-century period that have enabled the growth of healthcare-related applications of AI to include:


title: Artificial intelligence in healthcare

text: AI algorithms can also be used to analyze large amounts of data through electronic health records for disease prevention and diagnosis. Medical institutions such as The Mayo Clinic, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and the British National Health Service, have developed AI algorithms for their departments. Large technology companies such as IBM and Google, have also developed AI algorithms for healthcare. Additionally, hospitals are looking to AI software to support operational initiatives that increase cost saving, improve patient satisfaction, and satisfy their staffing and workforce needs. Currently, the United States government is investing billions of dollars to progress the development of AI in healthcare. Companies are developing technologies that help healthcare managers improve business operations through increasing utilization, decreasing patient boarding, reducing length of stay and optimizing staffing levels.


title: Artificial intelligence in healthcare

text: Artificial intelligence algorithms have shown promising results in accurately diagnosing and risk stratifying patients with concern for coronary artery disease, showing potential as an initial triage tool, though few studies have directly compared the accuracy of machine learning models to clinician diagnostic ability. Other algorithms have been used in predicting patient mortality, medication effects, and adverse events following treatment for acute coronary syndrome. Wearables, smartphones, and internet-based technologies have also shown the ability to monitor patients' cardiac data points, expanding the amount of data and the various settings AI models can use and potentially enabling earlier detection of cardiac events occurring outside of the hospital. Another growing area of research is the utility of AI in classifying heart sounds and diagnosing valvular disease. Challenges of AI in cardiovascular medicine have included the limited data available to train machine learning models, such as limited data on social determinants of health as they pertain to cardiovascular disease.


title: Artificial intelligence in healthcare

text: Dermatology is an imaging abundant speciality and the development of deep learning has been strongly tied to image processing. Therefore, there is a natural fit between the dermatology and deep learning. There are 3 main imaging types in dermatology: contextual images, macro images, micro images. For each modality, deep learning showed great progress. Han et al. showed keratinocytic skin cancer detection from face photographs. Esteva et al. demonstrated dermatologist-level classification of skin cancer from lesion images. Noyan et al. demonstrated a convolutional neural network that achieved 94% accuracy at identifying skin cells from microscopic Tzanck smear images.


title: Artificial intelligence in healthcare

text: Recent advances have suggested the use of AI to describe and evaluate the outcome of maxillo-facial surgery or the assessment of cleft palate therapy in regard to facial attractiveness or age appearance.


title: Artificial intelligence in healthcare

text: In 2018, a paper published in the journal Annals of Oncology mentioned that skin cancer could be detected more accurately by an artificial intelligence system (which used a deep learning convolutional neural network) than by dermatologists. On average, the human dermatologists accurately detected 86.6% of skin cancers from the images, compared to 95% for the CNN machine.


title: Artificial intelligence in healthcare

text: AI can play a role in various facets of the field of gastroenterology. Endoscopic exams such as esophagogastroduodenoscopies (EGD) and colonoscopies rely on rapid detection of abnormal tissue. By enhancing these endoscopic procedures with AI, clinicians can more rapidly identify diseases, determine their severity, and visualize blind spots. Early trials in using AI detection systems of early gastric cancer have shown sensitivity close to expert endoscopists.


title: Artificial intelligence in healthcare

text: AI has shown potential in both the laboratory and clinical spheres of infectious disease medicine. As the novel coronavirus ravages through the globe, the United States is estimated to invest more than $2 billion in AI-related healthcare research by 2025, more than 4 times the amount spent in 2019 ($463 million). Neural networks have been developed to rapidly and accurately detect a host response to COVID-19 from mass spectrometry samples. Other applications include support-vector machines identifying antimicrobial resistance, machine learning analysis of blood smears to detect malaria, and improved point-of-care testing of Lyme disease based on antigen detection. Additionally, AI has been investigated for improving diagnosis of meningitis, sepsis, and tuberculosis, as well as predicting treatment complications in hepatitis B and hepatitis C patients.


title: Artificial intelligence in healthcare

text: AI has been explored for use in cancer diagnosis, risk stratification, molecular characterization of tumors, and cancer drug discovery. A particular challenge in oncologic care that AI is being developed to address is the ability to accurately predict which treatment protocols will be best suited for each patient based on their individual genetic, molecular, and tumor-based characteristics. Through its ability to translate images to mathematical sequences, AI has been trialed in cancer diagnostics with the reading of imaging studies and pathology slides. In January 2020, researchers demonstrated an AI system, based on a Google DeepMind algorithm, capable of surpassing human experts in breast cancer detection. In July 2020, it was reported that an AI algorithm developed by the University of Pittsburgh achieves the highest accuracy to date in identifying prostate cancer, with 98% sensitivity and 97% specificity.


title: Artificial intelligence in healthcare

text: For many diseases, pathological analysis of cells and tissues is considered to be the gold standard of disease diagnosis. AI-assisted pathology tools have been developed to assist with the diagnosis of a number of diseases, including breast cancer, hepatitis B, gastric cancer, and colorectal cancer. AI has also been used to predict genetic mutations and prognosticate disease outcomes. AI is well-suited for use in low-complexity pathological analysis of large-scale screening samples, such as colorectal or breast cancer screening, thus lessening the burden on pathologists and allowing for faster turnaround of sample analysis. Several deep learning and artificial neural network models have shown accuracy similar to that of human pathologists, and a study of deep learning assistance in diagnosing metastatic breast cancer in lymph nodes showed that the accuracy of humans with the assistance of a deep learning program was higher than either the humans alone or the AI program alone. Additionally, implementation of digital pathology is predicted to save over $12 million for a university center over the course of five years, though savings attributed to AI specifically have not yet been widely researched. The use of augmented and virtual reality could prove to be a stepping stone to wider implementation of AI-assisted pathology, as they can highlight areas of concern on a pathology sample and present them in real-time to a pathologist for more efficient review. AI also has the potential to identify histological findings at levels beyond what the human eye can see, and has shown the ability to utilize genotypic and phenotypic data to more accurately detect the tumor of origin for metastatic cancer. One of the major current barriers to widespread implementation of AI-assisted pathology tools is the lack of prospective, randomized, multi-center controlled trials in determining the true clinical utility of AI for pathologists and patients, highlighting a current area of need in AI and healthcare research.


title: Artificial intelligence in healthcare

text: Primary care has become one key development area for AI technologies. AI in primary care has been used for supporting decision making, predictive modelling, and business analytics. Despite the rapid advances in AI technologies, general practitioners' view on the role of AI in primary care is very limited–mainly focused on administrative and routine documentation tasks. There are only few examples of AI decision support systems that were prospectively assessed on clinical efficacy when used in practice by physicians. But there are cases where the use of these systems yielded a positive effect on treatment choice by physicians.


title: Artificial intelligence in healthcare

text: In psychiatry, AI applications are still in a phase of proof-of-concept. Areas where the evidence is widening quickly include predictive modelling of diagnosis and treatment outcomes, chatbots, conversational agents that imitate human behaviour and which have been studied for anxiety and depression.


title: Artificial intelligence in healthcare

text: Challenges include the fact that many applications in the field are developed and proposed by private corporations, such as the screening for suicidal ideation implemented by Facebook in 2017. Such applications outside the healthcare system raise various professional, ethical and regulatory questions. Another issue is often with the validity and interpretability of the models. Small training datasets contain bias that is inherited by the models, and compromises the generalizability and stability of these models. Such models may also have the potential to be discriminatory against minority groups that are underrepresented in samples.


title: Artificial intelligence in healthcare

text: AI is being studied within the field of radiology to detect and diagnose diseases through Computerized Tomography (CT) and Magnetic Resonance (MR) Imaging. It may be particularly useful in settings where demand for human expertise exceeds supply, or where data is too complex to be efficiently interpreted by human readers. Several deep learning models have shown the capability to be roughly as accurate as healthcare professionals in identifying diseases through medical imaging, though few of the studies reporting these findings have been externally validated. AI can also provide non-interpretive benefit to radiologists, such as reducing noise in images, creating high-quality images from lower doses of radiation, enhancing MR image quality, and automatically assessing image quality. Further research investigating the use of AI in nuclear medicine focuses on image reconstruction, anatomical landmarking, and the enablement of lower doses in imaging studies.


title: Artificial intelligence in healthcare

text: An article by Jiang, et al. (2017) demonstrated that there are several types of AI techniques that have been used for a variety of different diseases, such as support vector machines, neural networks, and decision trees. Each of these techniques is described as having a "training goal" so "classifications agree with the outcomes as much as possible…".


title: Artificial intelligence in healthcare

text: To demonstrate some specifics for disease diagnosis/classification there are two different techniques used in the classification of these diseases include using "Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) and Bayesian Networks (BN)". It was found that ANN was better and could more accurately classify diabetes and CVD.


title: Artificial intelligence in healthcare

text: Through the use of Medical Learning Classifiers (MLC's), Artificial Intelligence has been able to substantially aid doctors in patient diagnosis through the manipulation of mass Electronic Health Records (EHR's). Medical conditions have grown more complex, and with a vast history of electronic medical records building, the likelihood of case duplication is high. Although someone today with a rare illness is less likely to be the only person to have had any given disease, the inability to access cases from similarly symptomatic origins is a major roadblock for physicians. The implementation of AI to not only help find similar cases and treatments, but also factor in chief symptoms and help the physicians ask the most appropriate questions helps the patient receive the most accurate diagnosis and treatment possible.


title: Artificial intelligence in healthcare

text: The increase of telemedicine, the treatment of patients remotely, has shown the rise of possible AI applications. AI can assist in caring for patients remotely by monitoring their information through sensors. A wearable device may allow for constant monitoring of a patient and the ability to notice changes that may be less distinguishable by humans. The information can be compared to other data that has already been collected using artificial intelligence algorithms that alert physicians if there are any issues to be aware of.


title: Artificial intelligence in healthcare

text: Another application of artificial intelligence is chat-bot therapy. Some researchers charge that the reliance on chatbots for mental healthcare does not offer the reciprocity and accountability of care that should exist in the relationship between the consumer of mental healthcare and the care provider (be it a chat-bot or psychologist), though.


title: Artificial intelligence in healthcare

text: Since the average age has risen due to a longer life expectancy, artificial intelligence could be useful in helping take care of older populations. Tools such as environment and personal sensors can identify a person's regular activities and alert a caretaker if a behavior or a measured vital is abnormal. Although the technology is useful, there are also discussions about limitations of monitoring in order to respect a person's privacy since there are technologies that are designed to map out home layouts and detect human interactions.


title: Artificial intelligence in healthcare

text: Electronic health records (EHR) are crucial to the digitalization and information spread of the healthcare industry. Now that around 80% of medical practices use EHR, the next step is to use artificial intelligence to interpret the records and provide new information to physicians.


title: Artificial intelligence in healthcare

text: One application uses natural language processing (NLP) to make more succinct reports that limit the variation between medical terms by matching similar medical terms. For example, the term heart attack and myocardial infarction mean the same things, but physicians may use one over the over based on personal preferences. NLP algorithms consolidate these differences so that larger datasets can be analyzed. Another use of NLP identifies phrases that are redundant due to repetition in a physician's notes and keeps the relevant information to make it easier to read. Other applications use concept processing to analyze the information entered by the current patient's doctor to present similar cases and help the physician remember to include all relevant details.


title: Artificial intelligence in healthcare

text: Beyond making content edits to an EHR, there are AI algorithms that evaluate an individual patient's record and predict a risk for a disease based on their previous information and family history. One general algorithm is a rule-based system that makes decisions similarly to how humans use flow charts. This system takes in large amounts of data and creates a set of rules that connect specific observations to concluded diagnoses. Thus, the algorithm can take in a new patient's data and try to predict the likeliness that they will have a certain condition or disease. Since the algorithms can evaluate a patient's information based on collective data, they can find any outstanding issues to bring to a physician's attention and save time. One study conducted by the Centerstone research institute found that predictive modeling of EHR data has achieved 70–72% accuracy in predicting individualized treatment response. These methods are helpful due to the fact that the amount of online health records doubles every five years. Physicians do not have the bandwidth to process all this data manually, and AI can leverage this data to assist physicians in treating their patients.


title: Artificial intelligence in healthcare

text: Improvements in natural language processing led to the development of algorithms to identify drug-drug interactions in medical literature. Drug-drug interactions pose a threat to those taking multiple medications simultaneously, and the danger increases with the number of medications being taken. To address the difficulty of tracking all known or suspected drug-drug interactions, machine learning algorithms have been created to extract information on interacting drugs and their possible effects from medical literature. Efforts were consolidated in 2013 in the DDIExtraction Challenge, in which a team of researchers at Carlos III University assembled a corpus of literature on drug-drug interactions to form a standardized test for such algorithms. Competitors were tested on their ability to accurately determine, from the text, which drugs were shown to interact and what the characteristics of their interactions were. Researchers continue to use this corpus to standardize the measurement of the effectiveness of their algorithms.


title: Artificial intelligence in healthcare

text: Other algorithms identify drug-drug interactions from patterns in user-generated content, especially electronic health records and/or adverse event reports. Organizations such as the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) and the World Health Organization's VigiBase allow doctors to submit reports of possible negative reactions to medications. Deep learning algorithms have been developed to parse these reports and detect patterns that imply drug-drug interactions.


title: Artificial intelligence in healthcare

text: The trend of large health companies merging allows for greater health data accessibility. Greater health data lays the groundwork for the implementation of AI algorithms.


title: Artificial intelligence in healthcare

text: A large part of industry focus of implementation of AI in the healthcare sector is in the clinical decision support systems. As more data is collected, machine learning algorithms adapt and allow for more robust responses and solutions. Numerous companies are exploring the possibilities of the incorporation of big data in the healthcare industry. Many companies investigate the market opportunities through the realms of "data assessment, storage, management, and analysis technologies" which are all crucial parts of the healthcare industry.


title: Artificial intelligence in healthcare

text: The following are examples of large companies that have contributed to AI algorithms for use in healthcare:


title: Artificial intelligence in healthcare

text: Digital consultant apps like use AI to give medical consultation based on personal medical history and common medical knowledge. Users report their symptoms into the app, which uses speech recognition to compare against a database of illnesses. Babylon then offers a recommended action, taking into account the user's medical history. Entrepreneurs in healthcare have been effectively using seven business model archetypes to take AI solution[] to the marketplace. These archetypes depend on the value generated for the target user (e.g. patient focus vs. healthcare provider and payer focus) and value capturing mechanisms (e.g. providing information or connecting stakeholders).


title: Artificial intelligence in healthcare

text: IFlytek launched a service robot "Xiao Man", which integrated artificial intelligence technology to identify the registered customer and provide personalized recommendations in medical areas. It also works in the field of medical imaging. Similar robots are also being made by companies such as UBTECH ("Cruzr") and Softbank Robotics ("Pepper").


title: Artificial intelligence in healthcare

text: The Indian startup Haptik recently developed a WhatsApp chatbot which answers questions associated with the deadly coronavirus in India.


title: Artificial intelligence in healthcare

text: With the market for AI expanding constantly, large tech companies such as Apple, Google, Amazon, and Baidu all have their own AI research divisions, as well as millions of dollars allocated for acquisition of smaller AI based companies. Many automobile manufacturers are beginning to use machine learning healthcare in their cars as well. Companies such as BMW, GE, Tesla, Toyota, and Volvo all have new research campaigns to find ways of learning a driver's vital statistics to ensure they are awake, paying attention to the road, and not under the influence of substances or in emotional distress.


title: Artificial intelligence in healthcare

text: Artificial intelligence continues to expand in its abilities to diagnose more people accurately in nations where fewer doctors are accessible to the public.  Many new technology companies such as SpaceX and the Raspberry Pi Foundation have enabled more developing countries to have access to computers and the internet than ever before. With the increasing capabilities of AI over the internet, advanced machine learning algorithms can allow patients to get accurately diagnosed when they would previously have no way of knowing if they had a life-threatening disease or not.


title: Artificial intelligence in healthcare

text: Using AI in developing nations who do not have the resources will diminish the need for outsourcing and can improve patient care. AI can allow for not only diagnosis of patient is areas where healthcare is scarce, but also allow for a good patient experience by resourcing files to find the best treatment for a patient. The ability of AI to adjust course as it goes also allows the patient to have their treatment modified based on what works for them; a level of individualized care that is nearly non-existent in developing countries.


title: Artificial intelligence in healthcare

text: While research on the use of AI in healthcare aims to validate its efficacy in improving patient outcomes before its broader adoption, its use may nonetheless introduce several new types of risk to patients and healthcare providers, such as algorithmic bias, Do not resuscitate implications, and other machine morality issues. These challenges of the clinical use of AI has brought upon potential need for regulations.


title: Artificial intelligence in healthcare

text: Currently, there are regulations pertaining to the collection of patient data. This includes policies such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The GDPR pertains to patients within the EU and details the consent requirements for patient data use when entities collect patient healthcare data. Similarly, HIPAA protects healthcare data from patient records in the United States. In May 2016, the White House announced its plan to host a series of workshops and formation of the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) Subcommittee on Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence. In October 2016, the group published The National Artificial Intelligence Research and Development Strategic Plan, outlining its proposed priorities for Federally-funded AI research and development (within government and academia). The report notes a strategic R&D plan for the subfield of health information technology is in development stages.


title: Artificial intelligence in healthcare

text: The only agency that has expressed concern is the FDA. Bakul Patel, the Associate Center Director for Digital Health of the FDA, is quoted saying in May 2017:


title: Artificial intelligence in healthcare

text: "We're trying to get people who have hands-on development experience with a product's full life cycle. We already have some scientists who know artificial intelligence and machine learning, but we want complementary people who can look forward and see how this technology will evolve."


title: Artificial intelligence in healthcare

text: The joint ITU-WHO Focus Group on Artificial Intelligence for Health (FG-AI4H) has built a platform for the testing and benchmarking of AI applications in health domain. As of November 2018, eight use cases are being benchmarked, including assessing breast cancer risk from histopathological imagery, guiding anti-venom selection from snake images, and diagnosing skin lesions.


title: Artificial intelligence in healthcare

text: In January 2021, the FDA published a new Action Plan, entitled Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning[AI/ML]-Based Software as a Medical Device [SaMD] Action Plan. This plan lays out the FDA's future plans for regulation of medical devices that would include artificial intelligence in their software. There are five main actions the FDA plans to take to increase regulation: 1. Tailored Regulatory Framework for Ai/M:-based SaMD, 2. Good Machine Learning Practice (GMLP), 3. Patient-Centered Approach Incorporating Transparency to Users, 4. Regulatory Science Methods Related to Algorithm Bias & Robustness, and 5. Real-World Performance(RWP). This plan was in direct response to stakeholders' feedback on a 2019 discussion paper also published by the FDA.


title: Artificial intelligence in healthcare

text: According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has issued guidance on the ethical use of AI in healthcare. The guidance outlines four core ethical principles that must be followed: respect for autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice. Respect for autonomy requires that individuals have control over their own data and decisions. Beneficence requires that AI be used to do good, such as improving the quality of care and reducing health disparities. Non-maleficence requires that AI be used to do no harm, such as avoiding discrimination in decisions. Finally, justice requires that AI be used fairly, such as using the same standards for decisions no matter a person’s race, gender, or income level. The OCR also has issued rules and regulations to protect the privacy of individuals’ health information. These regulations require healthcare providers to follow certain privacy rules when using AI. The OCR also requires healthcare providers to keep a record of how they use AI and to ensure that their AI systems are secure. Overall, the U.S. has taken steps to protect individuals’ privacy and ethical issues related to AI in healthcare


title: Artificial intelligence in healthcare

text: The U.S. is not the only country to develop or initiate regulations of data privacy with AI. Other countries have implemented data protection regulations, more specifically with company privacy invasions. In Denmark, the Danish Expert Group on Data Ethics has adopted recommendations on 'Data for the Benefit of the People'. These recommendations are intended to encourage responsible use of data in the business sector, with a focus on data processing. The recommendations include a focus on equality and non-discrimination with regards to bias in AI, as well as human dignity. The importance of human dignity is stressed, as it is said to outweigh profit and must be respected in all data processes


title: Artificial intelligence in healthcare

text: The European Union has implemented the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to protect citizens' personal data, which applies to the use of AI in healthcare. In addition, the European Commission has established guidelines to ensure the ethical development of AI, including the use of algorithms to ensure fairness and transparency. With GDPR, the European Union was the first to regulate AI through data protection legislation. The Union finds privacy as a fundamental human right, it wants to prevent unconsented and secondary uses of data by private or public health facilities. By streamlining access to personal data for health research and findings, they are able to instate the right and importance of patient privacy. In the United States, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) requires organizations to protect the privacy and security of patient information. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have also released guidelines for the development of AI-based medical applications.


title: Artificial intelligence in healthcare

text: In order to effectively train Machine Learning and use AI in healthcare, massive amounts of data must be gathered. Acquiring this data, however, comes at the cost of patient privacy in most cases and is not well received publicly. For example, a survey conducted in the UK estimated that 63% of the population is uncomfortable with sharing their personal data in order to improve artificial intelligence technology. The scarcity of real, accessible patient data is a hindrance that deters the progress of developing and deploying more artificial intelligence in healthcare.


title: Artificial intelligence in healthcare

text: According to a recent study, AI can replace up to 35% of jobs in the UK within the next 10 to 20 years. However, of these jobs, it was concluded that AI has not eliminated any healthcare jobs so far. Though if AI were to automate healthcare related jobs, the jobs most susceptible to automation would be those dealing with digital information, radiology, and pathology, as opposed to those dealing with doctor to patient interaction.


title: Artificial intelligence in healthcare

text: Automation can provide benefits alongside doctors as well. It is expected that doctors who take advantage of AI in healthcare will provide greater quality healthcare than doctors and medical establishments who do not. AI will likely not completely replace healthcare workers but rather give them more time to attend to their patients. AI may avert healthcare worker burnout and cognitive overload


title: Artificial intelligence in healthcare

text: AI will ultimately help contribute to progression of societal goals which include better communication, improved quality of healthcare, and autonomy.


title: Artificial intelligence in healthcare

text: Recently, there have been many discussions between healthcare experts in terms of AI and elder care. In relation to elder care, AI bots have been helpful in guiding older residents living in assisted living with entertainment and company. These bots are allowing staff in the home to have more one-on-one time with each resident, but the bots are also programmed with more ability in what they are able to do; such as knowing different languages and different types of care depending on the patient’s conditions. The bot is an AI machine, which means it goes through the same training as any other machine - using algorithms to parse the given data, learn from it and predict the outcome in relation to what situation is at hand


title: Artificial intelligence in healthcare

text: Since AI makes decisions solely on the data it receives as input, it is important that this data represents accurate patient demographics. In a hospital setting, patients do not have full knowledge of how predictive algorithms are created or calibrated. Therefore, these medical establishments can unfairly code their algorithms to discriminate against minorities and prioritize profits rather than providing optimal care.


title: Artificial intelligence in healthcare

text: There can also be unintended bias in these algorithms that can exacerbate social and healthcare inequities.  Since AI's decisions are a direct reflection of its input data, the data it receives must have accurate representation of patient demographics. White males are overly represented in medical data sets. Therefore, having minimal patient data on minorities can lead to AI making more accurate predictions for majority populations, leading to unintended worse medical outcomes for minority populations. Collecting data from minority communities can also lead to medical discrimination. For instance, HIV is a prevalent virus among minority communities and HIV status can be used to discriminate against patients. In addition to biases that may arise from sample selection, different clinical systems used to collect data may also impact AI functionality. For example, radiographic systems and their outcomes (e.g., resolution) vary by provider. Moreover, clinician work practices, such as the positioning of the patient for radiography, can also greatly influence the data and make comparability difficult. However, these biases are able to be eliminated through careful implementation and a methodical collection of representative data.


title: Soli Deo gloria

text: As a greeting, it was used by monks in cistercian and trappist monastic orders in written communication.


title: Soli Deo gloria

text: As a doctrine, it means that everything is done for God's glory to the exclusion of mankind's self-glorification and pride. Christians are to be motivated and inspired by God's glory and not their own.


title: Soli Deo gloria

text: The three words "" (abbreviated "S. D. G.") have meaning in Latin as follows: "soli" is the (irregular) dative singular of the adjective "lone", "sole", and agrees with the dative singular "Deo" (in the nominative dictionary form "Deus"), meaning "to God"; and "gloria" is the nominative case of "glory", "gloria".


title: Soli Deo gloria

text: "" is usually translated "glory to God alone", but some translate it "glory to the only God". A similar phrase is found in the Vulgate translation of the Bible: "". This is grammatically the same as the signature of Bach and Handel, but using the dative "to the only God" then two nominative subjects "honour and glory." The verse reads differently in Greek and English because of the additional adjective "wise": , "aphthartôi, aoratôi, mónōi, sophôi Theôi"—"to the immortal, invisible, unique, wise God."


title: Soli Deo gloria

text: The Baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach wrote the initials "S. D. G." at the end of all his church compositions and also applied it to some, but not all, his secular works. This dedication was at times also used by Bach's contemporary George Frideric Handel, e.g. in his Te Deum. The 16th century Spanish mystic and poet St. John of the Cross used the similar phrase, "Soli Deo honor et gloria", in his "Precautions and Counsels".


title: Soli Deo gloria

text: In tribute to Bach, the term was also chosen by Sir John Eliot Gardiner as the name for his own record label after leaving Archiv Produktion, to continue and complete his Bach cantatas project.


title: Soli Deo gloria

text: Aaron Shust's 2009 song "To God Alone (be the Glory)" was inspired by Bach's writing "S.D.G." at the bottom of his musical scores.


title: Soli Deo gloria

text: Together with "sola fide", "sola gratia", "sola scriptura" and "solus Christus", the phrase has become part of what is known as the "Five Solae", a summary statement of central tenets of the Protestant Reformation. Although these individual phrases have been used for centuries, it is not clear when they were first put together.


title: Soli Deo gloria

text: In Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic theology, the term latria is used for the form of adoration and glorification directed only to the Holy Trinity. The term dulia is used for saints in general and hyperdulia (below latria, above dulia) for the Virgin Mary. The definition of the three level hierarchy of "latria", "hyperdulia" and "dulia" goes back to the Second Council of Nicaea in 787.


title: Soli Deo gloria

text: "Soli Deo Honor et Gloria" is the motto of the Worshipful Company of Leathersellers, and appears on their gate at the entrance to St Helen's Place, City of London. "Soli Deo gloria" is the motto of the Brotherhood of Saint Gregory, a Christian Community of friars of the Episcopal Church founded within the Anglican Communion in 1969; of Wheaton Academy, a high school located in West Chicago, Illinois, which was founded in 1853; of Dallas Baptist University, Dallas, Texas, founded in 1898; of Concordia College (Moorhead, Minnesota); of Luther College, Decorah, Iowa; of Dordt College, Iowa founded in 1955; of the American Guild of Organists; of the Christ Presbyterian Academy in Nashville, Tennessee; of Ursuline High School, a Catholic high school located in Youngstown, Ohio which was founded in 1905; and of the Bishop's Stortford College, a British public school founded in 1868 in Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire. It is also imprinted on the South African 1 Rand coin.


title: Nephele

text: In Greek mythology, Nephele (; Ancient Greek: Νεφέλη from νέφος "nephos" "cloud"; Latinized to "Nubes") was a cloud nymph who figured prominently in the story of Phrixus and Helle.


title: Nephele

text: Greek myth has it that Nephele is the cloud whom Zeus created in the image of Hera to trick Ixion to test his integrity after displaying his lust for Hera during a feast as a guest of Zeus. Ixion's restraint failed him, and he assaulted Nephele, eventually fathering the Centaurs (through Imbros or Centauros).


title: Nephele

text: Nephele married Athamas, and had twins, a son, Phrixus, and a daughter, Helle. Athamas then divorced her for Ino, who hatched a devious plot to get rid of the twins, roasting all the town's crop seeds so they would not grow. The local farmers, frightened of famine, asked a nearby oracle for assistance. Ino bribed the men sent to the oracle to lie and tell the others that the oracle required the sacrifice of Phrixus. Before he was killed though, Phrixus and Helle were rescued by a flying golden ram sent by their natural mother Nephele.


title: Nephele

text: Phrixus and Helle were instructed to not look down to Earth for the duration of their flight. Helle, though, did look down, and fell off the ram into the Hellespont (which was named after her, meaning "Sea of Helle") and drowned. Phrixus survived all the way to Colchis, where King Aeetes took him in and treated him kindly, giving Phrixus his daughter, Chalciope, in marriage. In gratitude, Phrixus gave the king the Golden Fleece of the Golden Ram, which Aeetes hung in a tree in his kingdom. The Golden Fleece would later be taken by Jason and his Argonauts.


title: Nephele

text: Cesare Pavese's rendition of the myth was adapted for the screen by the filmmaking duo Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet (otherwise known as Straub-Huillet) as part of their 1979 film "Dalla nube alla resistenza", starring Olimpia Carlisi as Nephele and Guido Lombardi as Ixion.


title: Nephele

text: Animals as Leaders released a progressive metal song named "Nephele" on their 2014 album "The Joy of Motion".


title: Internet censorship in South Korea

text: Internet censorship in South Korea is prevalent, and contains some unique elements such as the blocking of pro-North Korea websites, and to a lesser extent, Japanese websites, which led to it being categorized as "pervasive" in the conflict/security area by OpenNet Initiative. South Korea is also one of the few developed countries where pornography is largely illegal, with the exception of social media websites which are a common source of legal pornography in the country. Any and all material deemed "harmful" or subversive by the state is censored. The country also has a "cyber defamation law", which allow the police to crack down on comments deemed "hateful" without any reports from victims, with citizens being sentenced for such offenses.


title: Internet censorship in South Korea

text: From 1995 to 2002, the government of South Korea passed the Telecommunications Business Act (TBA), the first internet censorship law in the world. Passing of the act lead to the establishment of the Internet Communications Ethics Committee (ICEC), which would monitor the Internet and make recommendations for content to be removed. The ICEC pursued criminal prosecutions of those who made unlawful statements and blocked several foreign websites. In the first eight months of 1996, the ICEC took down roughly 220,000 messages on Internet sites.


title: Internet censorship in South Korea

text: From 2002 to 2008, the government passed a revision of the TBA legislation. This allowed the ICEC to engage in more sophisticated internet policing and other bureaucratic entities to monitor the Internet for illegal speech or take down websites that violated the laws. During this time, there was political drive to increase extensive internet censorship, in part as a response to cases of suicide associated with online rumors. In 2007, over 200,000 incidents of cyberbullying were reported.


title: Internet censorship in South Korea

text: In 2008, the election of President Lee Myung-bak was followed by the inauguration of major increases in broadcast censorship. The South Korean government passed a law that created a new agency called the Korea Communications Standards Commission (KCSC) to replace the ICEC, becoming the new South Korean Internet regulation and censorship body. The first major change by the Lee Myung-bak government was to require websites with over 100,000 daily visitors to make their users register their real name and social security numbers. A second change made by the government was to allow KCSC to suspend or delete any web posting or articles for 30 days as soon as a complaint is filed. The reason for the new law was to combat cyberbullying in South Korea. Every week, portions of the South Korean web are taken down by the KCSC. In 2013, around 23,000 South Korean webpages were deleted and another 63,000 blocked by the KCSC.


title: Internet censorship in South Korea

text: South Korea's government maintains a broad-ranging approach toward the regulation of specific online content and imposes a substantial level of censorship on election-related discourse and on many websites that the government deems subversive or socially harmful. Such policies are particularly pronounced with regard to anonymity on the Internet. The OpenNet Initiative classifies Internet censorship in South Korea as pervasive in the conflict/security area, as selective in the social area, with fewer evidence of filtering in the political and Internet tools areas. In 2011 South Korea was included on Reporters Without Borders list of countries "Under Surveillance". This designation persisted in 2012, shared with Russia and Egypt among other countries. Freedom House has also reported that online harassment, particularly newer, digitally mediated forms of violence against women has continued.


title: Internet censorship in South Korea

text: In 2019, the South Korean government announced that it would use SNI snooping to censor HTTPS websites. This was met with strong opposition, with more than 230,000 South Korean citizens signing a petition to protest the measure, but the opposition was disregarded by the government. The South Korean government defended its decision by stating that the Korea Communications Standards Commission was an independent commission, a claim which turned out to be false, as most members of the commission were appointed by the president of the country.


title: Internet censorship in South Korea

text: During the military dictatorships of Park Chung-hee and Chun Doo-hwan (1961-1987), anti-government speech was frequently suppressed with reference to the National Security Act (NSA, 1948) and the Basic Press Law (1980). Although the Basic Press Law was abolished in 1987, the NSA remains in effect. The government has used other "dictatorship-era" laws in order to prosecute critics in contemporary contexts; for example a law against the spreading of "false rumors" was used to charge a teenage protester during the 2008 US beef protest in South Korea.


title: Internet censorship in South Korea

text: According to the Telecommunication Business Law, three government agencies in South Korea have responsibility for Internet surveillance and censorship: the Broadcasting Regulation Committee, the Korea Media Rating Board, and the Korea Internet Safety Commission (KISCOM, 2005). KISCOM censors the Internet through orders to internet service providers to block access to "subversive communication", "materials harmful to minors", "cyber defamation", "sexual violence", "cyber stalking", and "pornography and nudity". Regulators have blocked or removed 15,000 Internet posts in 2008, and over 53,000 in 2011.


title: Internet censorship in South Korea

text: In April 2020, the national assembly passed a bill to handle the culprits of digital sex crimes. According to the bill, those who purchase, sell or watch media graphics of non-consensual sexual activity will be jailed for up to 3 years or fined up to 3 million Won (US$2,600).


title: Internet censorship in South Korea

text: Freedom to criticize government leaders, policies, and the military is limited to the extent that it "endangers national security" or is considered by censors to be "cyber defamation". The government has cited "character assassinations and suicides caused by excessive insults, [and] the spreading of false rumors and defamation" to justify its censorship.


title: Internet censorship in South Korea

text: In May 2002, KISCOM shut down the anti-conscription website "non-serviam" on the grounds that it "denied the legitimacy" of the South Korean military. The Navy of South Korea accused an activist of criminal libel when he criticized plans to build a controversial naval base in the country.


title: Internet censorship in South Korea

text: The government has deleted the Twitter account of a user who cursed the president, and a judge who wrote critically about the President's Internet censorship policies was fired. In 2010, the Prime Minister's Office authorized surveillance on a civilian who satirized President Lee Myung-bak.


title: Internet censorship in South Korea

text: In 2007, numerous bloggers were censored and their posts deleted by police for expressing criticism of, or even support for, presidential candidates. This even led to some bloggers being arrested by the police. Subsequently, in 2008, just before a new presidential election, new legislation that required all major Internet portal sites to require identity verification of their users was put into effect. This applies to all users who add any publicly viewable content. For example, to post a comment on a news article, a user registration and citizen identity number verification is required. For foreigners who do not have such numbers, a copy of passport must be faxed and verified. Although this law was initially met with public outcry, as of 2008, most of the major portals, including Daum, Naver, Nate, and Yahoo Korea, enforce such verification before the user can post any material that is publicly viewable. YouTube refused to conform to the law, instead opting to disable the commenting feature on its Korean site.


title: Internet censorship in South Korea

text: South Korea has banned at least 65 sites considered sympathetic to North Korea through the use of IP blocking. Most North Korean websites are hosted overseas in the United States, Japan and China. Critics say that the only practical way of blocking a webpage is by denying its IP address, and since many of the North Korean sites are hosted on large servers together with hundreds of other sites, the number of real blocked pages increases significantly. Estimates are that over 3,000 additional webpages are rendered inaccessible.


title: Internet censorship in South Korea

text: In September 2004, North Korea launched the website of , "Our Nation School". Three days later, Internet providers in South Korea were ordered by the National Police Agency, National Intelligence Service (NIS) and the Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) to block connections to the site, as well as more than 30 others, including Minjok Tongshin, Choson Sinbo, Chosun Music, North Korea Info Bank, DPRK Stamp and Uriminzokkiri.


title: Internet censorship in South Korea

text: In September 2007, Democratic Labor Party activist Kim Kang-pil was sentenced to one year in prison for discussing North Korea on the party's website.


title: Internet censorship in South Korea

text: In January 2011, a South Korean man was arrested for praising North Korea through social networking sites. That same year another South Korean was arrested for posting 300 messages and 6 videos of pro-North content and sentenced to 10 months in jail. A further 83 South Koreans were arrested for distributing pro-North material on the Internet.


title: Internet censorship in South Korea

text: In January 2012, a South Korean freedom-of-speech activist was arrested for reblogging a post from a North Korean Twitter account.


title: Internet censorship in South Korea

text: South Korean president Lee Myung-bak's 2011 policies included cracking down on pro-North Korean comments on social network sites like Facebook and Twitter. Reporters Without Borders noted that the government "[had] intensified" its campaign to censor pro-North Korea material in 2012 as well.


title: Internet censorship in South Korea

text: In 2018, a South Korean man was arrested for demanding abolishment of the National Security Law and praising North Korea. He was sentenced to one year in prison.


title: Internet censorship in South Korea

text: The Government of South Korea practiced censorship of gay-content websites from 2001 to 2003, through its "Information and Communications Ethics Committee" (정보통신윤리위원회), an official organ of the Ministry of Information and Communication, under its category of "obscenity and perversion"; for example, it shut down the website "ex-zone", a website about gay and lesbian issues, in 2001. That practice has since been reversed.


title: Internet censorship in South Korea

text: Since 2008, attempts by anybody to access "indecent Internet sites" featuring unrated games, pornography, gambling, etc., are automatically redirected to a warning page which states "This site is legally blocked by the government regulations."


title: Internet censorship in South Korea

text: Search engines are required to verify age for some keywords deemed inappropriate for minors. For such keywords, age verification using a national identity number is required. For foreigners, a copy of their passport must be faxed for age verification. As of 2008, practically all large search engine companies in South Korea, including foreign-owned companies (e.g. Yahoo! Korea), have complied with this legislation. In April 2009 when the Communication Commission ordered user verification be put on the system at YouTube, Google Korea blocked video uploading from users whose country setting is Korean. In September 2012, Google re-enabled YouTube uploads in Korea following a three-year block.


title: Internet censorship in South Korea

text: On December 21, 2010, the Korea Communications Commission announced that it planned to create guidelines about monitoring Internet content in case of a tense political situation, such as automatically deleting any online anti-government message.


title: Internet censorship in South Korea

text: The 2009 modification of the copyright law of South Korea introducing the three strikes policy has generated criticism, including regarding Internet freedoms and censorship. Tens of thousands of Korean Internet users have been disconnected from the Internet after not three, but one strike.


title: Internet censorship in South Korea

text: On September 6, 2011, the Electronic Frontier Foundation criticized the Korea Communications Standards Commission for proposing censorship and restriction on the blog of an Internet free speech activist, Dr. Gyeong-sin Park. The United Nations Human Rights Council's Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression warned South Korea's government about its censorship, noting among other things that South Korea's defamation laws are often used to punish statements "that are true and are in the public interest".


title: Internet censorship in South Korea

text: Korean officials' rhetoric about censored material, including that it is "subversive", "illegal", "harmful" or related to "pornography and nudity", has been noted as similar to that of their Chinese counterparts. Critics also say that the government takes prohibitions on profanity as "a convenient excuse to silence critics" and chill speech.


title: Internet censorship in South Korea

text: South Korean conservative media outlets loyal to the Lee Myung-bak government are accused of advocating further Internet censorship, because the Internet is the main source of information for progressive South Korean youths.


title: Robin Hood Foundation

text: The Robin Hood Foundation is a charitable organization which attempts to alleviate problems caused by poverty in New York City. The organization also administers a relief fund for disasters in the New York City area. In 2010, a key supporter gave every family with children on welfare in New York State $200 to buy school supplies. In 2017, Robin Hood appointed author and US Army veteran Wes Moore as its first CEO. In September 2021, Richard Buery, Jr. joined Robin Hood as the new Chief Executive Officer.


title: Robin Hood Foundation

text: Founded in 1988 and named after the heroic outlaw from English folklore, the Robin Hood Foundation was conceived by hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones and co-founded with Peter Borish and Glenn Dubin.


title: Robin Hood Foundation

text: The foundation combines investment principles and philanthropy to assist programs that target poverty in New York City. In 2006, the board of directors included such names as Jeffrey Immelt, Diane Sawyer, Harvey Weinstein, Marie-Josee Kravis, Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs, Richard S. Fuld, Jr., formerly of Lehman Brothers, Glenn Dubin of Highbridge Capital, Marian Wright Edelman and actress Gwyneth Paltrow.


title: Robin Hood Foundation

text: Funding for the organization's activities comes from donations and fund raising efforts. In 2009, George Soros gave the foundation a US$50 million contribution. The money reportedly helped the organization raise significantly more than that amount. In 2001 The Concert for New York City provided funds for the organization. After Hurricane Sandy, the concert also provided funds for the foundation's efforts. Artists including The Rolling Stones, Robert Plant & The Strange Sensation, Shakira, John Legend, The Black Eyed Peas, Lady Gaga, The Who and Aerosmith have performed at the group's annual fund raising galas. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Rise Up New York! telethon provided funds to those impacted by the pandemic.


title: Robin Hood Foundation

text: In 2017, Robin Hood appointed author and veterans advocate Wes Moore as its CEO. Moore grew up in poverty in the Bronx before becoming a Rhodes scholar at the University of Oxford, a paratrooper and captain in the 82nd Airborne, and investment banker at Citigroup. Moore succeeded David Saltzman who was the Executive Director since co-founding the organization.


title: Robin Hood Foundation

text: Wes Moore stepped down as CEO of Robin Hood Foundation in May 2021. Derek Ferguson, who served as Robin Hood’s Chief Operating Officer since December 2017 stepped into the role of Interim Chief Executive Officer, until a permanent replacement was identified. As of September 2021, Richard Buery, Jr. joined Robin Hood as the new Chief Executive Officer. Buery brings extensive experience in nonprofit and civic leadership to Robin Hood, after serving in leadership roles with Robin Hood partners like Achievement First and Children’s Aid, and as a Deputy Mayor of New York City.


title: Robin Hood Foundation

text: In May 2022, during Robin Hood’s annual event to benefit poverty-fighting efforts in New York, the company announced the launch of a new, $100 million Child Care Quality and Innovation Initiative for New York City. The fund was created from commitments of $50 million from Robin Hood, $25 million from Ohanian’s 776 Foundation and $50 million from New York City. Additionally, the annual event raised $126 million, all of which will support poverty-fighting programs citywide.


title: Robin Hood Foundation

text: According to the Foundation "Since 1988 Robin Hood has targeted poverty in New York City by supporting and developing organizations that provide direct services to poor New Yorkers as well as improving their earning power and long-term prospects. Robin Hood provides program grants, general operating support, capital grants, and funds to build management capacity."


title: Robin Hood Foundation

text: "Fortune" magazine said "Robin Hood was a pioneer in what is now called venture philanthropy, or charity that embraces free-market forces. An early practitioner of using metrics to measure the effectiveness of grants, it is a place where strategies to alleviate urban poverty are hotly debated, ineffectual plans are coldly discarded, and its staff of 66 hatches radical new ideas."


title: Robin Hood Foundation

text: The Robin Hood Foundation works with more than 240 nonprofit organizations in New York and surrounding areas. They categorize their programs into "Core fund recipients" and "Relief fund recipients". Core fund recipients consist of four portfolios: early childhood, education, jobs and economic security, and survival.


title: Robin Hood Foundation

text: The relief fund also benefited victims of Hurricane Sandy. As of March 14, 2013, they were "no longer accepting online grant applications for Hurricane Sandy Relief" (and resuming the organization's regular work).


title: Robin Hood Foundation

text: On May 11, 2020, the Robin Hood Foundation partnered with New York area television stations, and local radio stations owned by iHeart Radio and Entercom to televise the Rise Up New York telethon to support those impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The event raised $110 million in approximately an hour.


title: Robin Hood Foundation

text: The Robin Hood Foundation was featured in "Fortune"'s 18 September 2006 issue, where the article states that the foundation is "one of the most innovative and influential philanthropic organizations of our time". On September 16, 2013 the news show "60 Minutes" aired a report on Jones and how the Foundation has given away more than 25 million dollars.


title: Abey Kuruvilla

text: Abey Kuruvilla (born 4 August 1968) is an Indian former cricketer and general manager of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). He played as a bowler in mid-1990s for Indian cricket team. He was a selector of BCCI.


title: Abey Kuruvilla

text: Kuruvilla notable for his 1.98 meter height and broad frame. He grew up in Chembur, Mumbai. He retired from all forms of cricket in 2000, and has taken up coaching.


title: Abey Kuruvilla

text: In his brief international career, Kuruvilla played in thirty-five international matches, ten Tests and twenty-five One Day Internationals, all in the same calendar year.


title: Abey Kuruvilla

text: Kuruvilla lead the pace attack on the tour of the West Indies in 1997, when Javagal Srinath was sidelined with a rotator cuff injury. While he returned adequate figures from that tour, and bowled decently in subsequent Test matches on flatter pitches, he was dropped from the team. He announced his retirement from first-class cricket in April 2000 during the quarter-final of the Ranji Trophy, at 31, reasoning that he "had decided [to retire] at the beginning of the season itself that this would be [his] last season. He added, "A lot of young boys are coming up and I have to make room for them, there is no specific reason."


title: Abey Kuruvilla

text: On 27 September 2012, Kuruvilla was appointed as the national selector from the BCCI. He was appointed as talent scout for Mumbai Indians.


title: Abey Kuruvilla

text: He was the main reason behind selection of Pravin Tambe in Rajasthan Royals IPL team. On 24 December 2020, Kuruvilla was appointed as the national selector of the Indian Cricket Team. he has been associated with DY Patil group Navi Mumbai since 2009. On 10 February 2022, Kuruvilla quit his selection committee post as he completed his five years tenure with the board.


title: Derinkuyu

text: Derinkuyu ("deep well") (Cappadocian Greek: Μαλακοπή) is a town and district of Nevşehir Province in the Central Anatolia region of Turkey. According to 2010 census, population of the district is 22,114 of which 10,679 live in the town of Derinkuyu. The district covers an area of , and the average elevation is , with the highest point being Mt. Ertaş at .


title: Derinkuyu

text: Located in Cappadocia, Derinkuyu is notable for its large multi-level underground city, which is a major tourist attraction. The historical region of Cappadocia, where Derinkuyu is situated, contains several historical underground cities, carved out of a unique geological formation. They are not generally occupied. Over 200 underground cities at least two levels deep have been discovered in the area between Kayseri and Nevşehir, with around 40 of those having at least three levels. The troglodyte cities at Derinkuyu and Kaymaklı are two of the best examples of underground dwellings.


title: Derinkuyu

text: The oldest written source about underground structures is the writings of Xenophon. In his "Anabasis" he writes that the people living in Anatolia had excavated their houses underground, living well in accommodations large enough for the family, domestic animals, and supplies of stored food. The first two floors of the Derinkuyu Underground City have been dated to this early period.


title: Derinkuyu

text: From Byzantine times (4th century CE) through 1923 Derinkuyu was known by its Cappadocian Greek inhabitants as Malakopea (). The underground city was greatly expanded in the middle Byzantine period to serve as a refuge from the raids of the Umayyad Arab and Abbasid armies, during the Arab–Byzantine wars (780-1180). The city contained food stores, kitchens, stalls, churches, wine and oil presses, ventilation shafts, wells, and a religious school. The Derinkuyu underground city has at least eight levels and depth of 85 m and could have sheltered thousands of people. The city continued to be used as protection from the Mongolian incursions of Timur in the 14th century. After the region fell to the Ottomans the cities were used as refuges (Greek: καταφύγια). As late as the 20th century the town's inhabitants, called Cappadocian Greeks, were still using the underground chambers to escape periodic waves of Ottoman persecution. (The Cambridge linguist Dawkins, who spent time in the towns from 1910–1911 while writing his book on Cappadocian Greek wrote, "their use as places of refuge in time of danger is indicated by their name καταφύγια. In 1909, when the news came of the recent massacres at Adana, a great part of the population at Axo took refuge in these underground chambers, and for some nights did not venture to sleep above ground. When the Cappadocian Greeks were required to leave in 1923 in the population exchange between Greece and Turkey, the tunnels were finally abandoned.


title: Volstagg

text: Volstagg is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. He is a charter member of the Warriors Three, a trio of Asgardian adventurers and supporting cast of Thor. He is known for having multiple children. These include, but are not limited to, Hilde, Rolfe, and the adopted Midgardians Kevin and Mick.


title: Volstagg

text: Ray Stevenson portrayed the character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe films "Thor" (2011), "" (2013), and "" (2017).


title: Volstagg

text: Volstagg first appeared in "Journey into Mystery" #119 (August, 1965), and was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.


title: Volstagg

text: He is not taken from Norse (or any other) mythology but is an original creation, modeled on Shakespeare's Falstaff in character and name.


title: Volstagg

text: Volstagg's origin story beyond being a member of the Asgardian race, a warrior and adventurer, and a friend of Thor has not been revealed. Volstagg is fairly advanced in age for an Asgardian, and it has been suggested that he was a highly respected and feared warrior in his prime.


title: Volstagg

text: In a sense, Volstagg's entire career has been one long origin story. The character was first introduced in a "Tales of Asgard" filler in "Journey Into Mystery" #119 (August 1965), the magazine carrying Thor's Asgardian adventures. As originally envisioned by Jack Kirby, Volstagg was a huge, bumbling oaf much given to boasting and bragging: the last into battle and the first to claim victory (usually undeserved). Referring to himself as "The Lion of Asgard", he usually caused more problems than he solved and seemed totally unaware of the chaos that almost always followed in his wake. A flashback revealed in "Captain Marvel" #42 tells how a drunken Volstagg incurred the wrath of Odin by spilling the secrets of the first Frost Giants to a younger Thor. Strangely enough, he was considered a trusted and worthy comrade by his closest friends and allies, Fandral the Dashing, Hogun the Grim, and Thor.


title: Volstagg

text: Another flashback showed Volstagg as a thin but muscular man, a great confidante of Thor himself. Hogun and Fandrall, practically strangers to him at the time, join with a quest on a dare to simply "pet" the Fenris wolf. The creature deals them a humiliating defeat. Advanced Idea Mechanics, having their own personal interest in Fenris, theorize it is this defeat that led to Volstagg's unhealthy eating habits.


title: Volstagg

text: In his first comic book appearance, Volstagg joined with the Warriors Three in Thor's quest for the power that had cracked the Odinsword of Asgard. Though Volstagg, Fandral and Hogun had been recruited by Loki, they proved loyal to Thor when the time came. Volstagg's first battle involved him mainly falling onto his enemies. Volstagg then helped repel the attack of the Flying Trolls of Thryheim, although he cowered for much of the fight. Volstagg helped defeat the forces of Harokin. Though this man was an avowed enemy of Asgard, he fought so well and nobly that Hela herself came to fetch him when a lifetime of wounds caught up with the warlord. Volstagg and the other Asgardians assisted as much as they could in Harokin's ride to Valhalla, for they all honored a warrior, even one in opposition. Later, Odin send the Warriors Three and Thor to a long demolished land. Volstagg was lured into a trap by the dragon Fafnir who used an illusion. In another incident the four went to free Hogun's land from the murderous tyrant called Mogul of the Mystic Mountain; Volstagg's bumbling caused him to lose his companions and gain a new one. However, as soon as he gained a weapon that was capable of opposing Mogul, he rushed back to his friends to assist in the battle.


title: Volstagg

text: In another flashback appearance, Volstagg mistook a mystical portal for a warming fire and literally fell into it. A rescue mission causes a destructive battle which then gives the Great Sphinx of Giza its unique face.


title: Volstagg

text: As the Warriors Three made increasingly frequent appearances in "The Mighty Thor" and other Marvel titles, a slightly more heroic side to his personality began to emerge. In "Tales To Astonish" #101, Volstagg squared-off with The Incredible Hulk for two panels (before being dumped contemptuously in a roadside ditch by the green-skinned behemoth); Volstagg helped defend Asgard against the demonic Mangog (a creature possessed of the power of a "billion billion" beings) and in "Thor" #164, the Lion of Asgard rushed through a tunnel to battle Mangog but was prevented when the passage proved too narrow to accommodate his considerable girth. During a trip to Hades to rescue his comrade-in-arms Thor, Volstagg offered to battle Mephisto in return for his friend's soul (despite being aware that the God of Thunder had already bested the Lord of Hell in fair combat some time previously). Ultimately, he helped Thor escape Mephisto.


title: Volstagg

text: A real change to Volstagg's character came in the early seventies, when Thor and the Warriors Three were battling the interstellar parasite Ego-Prime in the streets of New York City: hiding behind a festering heap of garbage, Volstagg saw a group of extraterrestrial monstrosities preparing to devour a little girl, a sight which drove him to a remarkable (for him) display of courage and resolution. Despite his obvious terror, the Volumous One struck the creatures down with his "bare hands" and carried the child to safety (it would be revealed much later that Volstagg was himself a family man and would never stand to see an innocent child harmed in any way).


title: Volstagg

text: Following a brief hiatus towards the end of the seventies, Volstagg underwent a renaissance of sorts when Walt Simonson took over "The Mighty Thor" in 1982. Reaching back to Kirby's initial concept, Simonson redefines Volstagg as a big, likeable bear of a man, a friend to all with a song in their heart (and a glass in their hand). A good-natured old warrior somewhat past his prime, Volstagg is still held in high regard by his comrades, if only for his amusing company and unparalleled drinking ability. Simonson also added another dimension previously unseen in his earlier incarnations — a household full of children.


title: Volstagg

text: This updated persona becomes a crucial plot device in several of Simonson's classic story arcs: when Balder the Brave returns broken and hopeless from the land of the dead, Volstagg takes the fallen warrior under his wing, introducing him to the twin joys of gluttony and drunkenness.


title: Volstagg

text: When Surtur the fire demon rouses his forces to attack Earth, the Warriors Three are tasked by Odin to gather all the soldiers at his command. It is noted that such a task makes even Volstagg quiet. Later, during the battle proper in Manhattan, his boasting returns but his skill for battle is ever-present. The temptations of Earth do compel him to stay behind but Hogun stops this; he shoots Volstagg in the backside with approximately a dozen Migdardian tranquilizer darts. This is enough to stun and confuse the warrior. In a later plotline, when Thor's actions indirectly orphan two humans (Kevin and Mick), he takes them to Asgard and places them under Volstagg's care - a situation he gladly accepts.


title: Volstagg

text: Volstagg and his family have also encountered the New Mutants. During the group's first trip to Asgard, Volstagg makes friends with Roberto DaCosta, aka Sunspot, challenging him to feats of strength, including arm-wrestling and the lifting of Volstagg himself.


title: Volstagg

text: In the group's second visit, Volstagg's children encounter Boom Boom, Hrimhari and Warlock, who were on the run from Hela's forces. Hela herself is currently following through with a plan to kill Odin and conquer Asgard. The children switch places with the group so as to emphasize to their elders, when they return, of the seriousness of the situation. They tell the heroes of Tiwaz, a powerful sorcerer who might help them in the fight. Hrimhari, wolf-prince of a far-away tribe of wolf-people, tells the children that tales of Volstagg's children were told to his people and it was an honor to be in their debt. Boom Boom, Warlock and Hrimhari rescue the Warriors Three from being slain by Queen Ula and her hive. The sheer girth of Volstagg is enough to delay the plans but Tiwaz provides a magical spell to temporarily shrink the enormous warrior. The Warriors Three, various Asgardians and even Queen Ula's troops join with the New Mutants; their efforts stop Hela from killing Odin.


title: Volstagg

text: Volstagg is later overcome by a mystery plague. He then helped defend Asgard against the forces of Seth. He went on a quest with Thor to seek Ulagg. He helped the Avengers battle Blastaar. Volsagg then battled Ymir and Surtur. He also attempted to prevent the second Thor (Eric Masterson) from entering Asgard.


title: Volstagg

text: Soon after this point, when Odin is awake and aware, his mind becomes overtaken by the influence of Loki. Persecuted, the Warriors Three are forced to go on the run, gaining a new ally in the form of a young palace guardsman named Arko. After this is cleared up, the trio and Thor are involved in the dishonorable death of a giant's son. To redeem themselves, they set out on an adventure involving multiple heroic efforts. Volstagg suffers greatly over the course of this quest.


title: Volstagg

text: Volstagg was used primarily as comedy relief in the same way Falstaff, who Volstagg was modeled on, was comedy relief in Shakespeare's "Henry IV". Stan Lee admitted his comics were inspired by Shakespeare, his Asgardians speaking in an English halfway between Shakespeare and the King James Bible. Volstagg's name is derived from Falstaff and the Volsunga Saga of Norse mythology.


title: Volstagg

text: Volstagg, like Falstaff, is fat, vain, boastful, and cowardly, but also boon companion to the prince (Hal or Thor). He seems to know more about raising a mug (his favorite weapon, evidently) than raising a sword (of which he actually knew very little). Ironically, whenever his courage fails (at the slightest sign of danger), Volstagg's innate clumsiness would somehow seize victory from the jaws of defeat. In a typically Kirbyesque touch, Volstagg inadvertently saves his companions' lives on at least two occasions by stumbling onto the one weapon capable of saving the day (and later claiming that his initial cowardly retreat was all part of a vast master plan).


title: Volstagg

text: There have been at least two sub stories about Volstagg's past that presented him as exceptionally well built and a capable warrior. On the other hand, in the "" series (confirmed to be canonical from Official Handbook files of Asgardians), Volstagg is depicted as obese and cowardly even as a young man. Oddly enough, while apparently somewhat older than Thor, he does not seem to be considerably older.


title: Volstagg

text: It has also been hinted at on numerous occasions that he ceased his full-time warrior's life to be a husband and father.