title: Cosmological constant problem

text: Some physicists propose an anthropic solution, and argue that we live in one region of a vast multiverse that has different regions with different vacuum energies. These anthropic arguments posit that only regions of small vacuum energy such as the one in which we live are reasonably capable of supporting intelligent life. Such arguments have existed in some form since at least 1981. Around 1987, Steven Weinberg estimated that the maximum allowable vacuum energy for gravitationally-bound structures to form is problematically large, even given the observational data available in 1987, and concluded the anthropic explanation appears to fail; however, more recent estimates by Weinberg and others, based on other considerations, find the bound to be closer to the actual observed level of dark energy. Anthropic arguments gradually gained credibility among many physicists after the discovery of dark energy and the development of the theoretical string theory landscape, but are still derided by a substantial skeptical portion of the scientific community as being problematic to verify. Proponents of anthropic solutions are themselves divided on multiple technical questions surrounding how to calculate the proportion of regions of the universe with various dark energy constants.


title: Cosmological constant problem

text: Other proposals involve modifying gravity to diverge from general relativity. These proposals face the hurdle that the results of observations and experiments so far have tended to be extremely consistent with general relativity and the ΛCDM model, and inconsistent with thus-far proposed modifications. In addition, some of the proposals are arguably incomplete, because they solve the "new" cosmological constant problem by proposing that the actual cosmological constant is exactly zero rather than a tiny number, but fail to solve the "old" cosmological constant problem of why quantum fluctuations seem to fail to produce substantial vacuum energy in the first place. Nevertheless, many physicists argue that, due in part to a lack of better alternatives, proposals to modify gravity should be considered "one of the most promising routes to tackling" the cosmological constant problem.


title: Cosmological constant problem

text: Bill Unruh and collaborators have argued that when the energy density of the quantum vacuum is modeled more accurately as a fluctuating quantum field, the cosmological constant problem does not arise. Going in a different direction, George F. R. Ellis and others have suggested that in unimodular gravity, the troublesome contributions simply do not gravitate.


title: Cosmological constant problem

text: Another argument, due to Stanley Brodsky and Robert Shrock, is that in light front quantization, the quantum field theory vacuum becomes essentially trivial. In the absence of vacuum expectation values, there is no contribution from QED, weak interactions and QCD to the cosmological constant. It is thus predicted to be zero in a flat space-time.


title: Cosmological constant problem

text: In 2018, a mechanism for cancelling Λ out has been proposed through the use of a symmetry breaking potential in a Lagrangian formalism in which matter shows a non-vanishing pressure. The model assumes that standard matter provides a pressure which counterbalances the action due to the cosmological constant. Luongo and Muccino have shown that this mechanism permits to take vacuum energy as quantum field theory predicts, but removing the huge magnitude through a counterbalance term due to baryons and cold dark matter only.


title: Cosmological constant problem

text: In 1999, Andrew Cohen, David B. Kaplan and Ann Nelson proposed that correlations between the UV and IR cutoffs in effective quantum field theory are enough to reduce the theoretical cosmological constant down to the measured cosmological constant due to the CKN bound. In 2021, Nikita Blinov and Patrick Draper confirmed through the holographic principle that the CKN bound predicts the measured cosmological constant, all while maintaining the predictions of effective field theory in less extreme conditions.


title: Metallicity

text: In astronomy, metallicity is the abundance of elements present in an object that are heavier than hydrogen and helium. Most of the normal physical matter in the Universe is either hydrogen or helium, and astronomers use the word ""metals"" as a convenient short term for ""all elements except hydrogen and helium"". This word-use is distinct from the conventional chemical or physical definition of a metal as an electrically conducting solid. Stars and nebulae with relatively high abundances of heavier elements are called "metal-rich" in astrophysical terms, even though many of those elements are nonmetals in chemistry.


title: Metallicity

text: The presence of heavier elements hails from stellar nucleosynthesis, where the majority of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium in the Universe ("metals", hereafter) are formed in the cores of stars as they evolve. Over time, stellar winds and supernovae deposit the metals into the surrounding environment, enriching the interstellar medium and providing recycling materials for the birth of new stars. It follows that older generations of stars, which formed in the metal-poor early Universe, generally have lower metallicities than those of younger generations, which formed in a more metal-rich Universe.


title: Metallicity

text: Observed changes in the chemical abundances of different types of stars, based on the spectral peculiarities that were later attributed to metallicity, led astronomer Walter Baade in 1944 to propose the existence of two different populations of stars.


title: Metallicity

text: These became commonly known as Population I (metal-rich) and Population II (metal-poor) stars. A third stellar population was introduced in 1978, known as Population III stars. These "extremely metal-poor" (XMP) stars are theorized to have been the "first-born" stars created in the Universe.


title: Metallicity

text: Astronomers use several different methods to describe and approximate metal abundances, depending on the available tools and the object of interest. Some methods include determining the fraction of mass that is attributed to gas versus metals, or measuring the ratios of the number of atoms of two different elements as compared to the ratios found in the Sun.


title: Metallicity

text: Stellar composition is often simply defined by the parameters "X", "Y" and "Z". Here "X" is the mass fraction of hydrogen, "Y" is the mass fraction of helium, and "Z" is the mass fraction of all the remaining chemical elements. Thus


title: Metallicity

text: In most stars, nebulae, H II regions, and other astronomical sources, hydrogen and helium are the two dominant elements. The hydrogen mass fraction is generally expressed as formula_2, where formula_3 is the total mass of the system, and formula_4 is the mass of the hydrogen it contains. Similarly, the helium mass fraction is denoted as formula_5. The remainder of the elements are collectively referred to as "metals", and the metallicity—the mass fraction of elements heavier than helium—can be calculated as


title: Metallicity

text: Due to the effects of stellar evolution, neither the initial composition nor the present day bulk composition of the Sun is the same as its present-day surface composition.


title: Metallicity

text: The overall stellar metallicity is conventionally defined using the total hydrogen content, since its abundance is considered to be relatively constant in the Universe, or the iron content of the star, which has an abundance that is generally linearly increasing in time in the Universe. Hence, iron can be used as a chronological indicator of nucleosynthesis. Iron is relatively easy to measure with spectral observations in the star's spectrum given the large number of iron lines in the star's spectra (even though oxygen is the most abundant heavy element – see metallicities in HII regions below). The abundance ratio is the common logarithm of the ratio of a star's iron abundance compared to that of the Sun and is calculated thus:


title: Metallicity

text: where formula_8 and formula_9 are the number of iron and hydrogen atoms per unit of volume respectively. The unit often used for metallicity is the dex, contraction of "decimal exponent". By this formulation, stars with a higher metallicity than the Sun have a positive common logarithm, whereas those more dominated by hydrogen have a corresponding negative value. For example, stars with a [Fe/H] value of +1 have 10 times the metallicity of the Sun (10); conversely, those with a [Fe/H] value of −1 have , while those with a [Fe/H] value of 0 have the same metallicity as the Sun, and so on. Young Population I stars have significantly higher iron-to-hydrogen ratios than older Population II stars. Primordial Population III stars are estimated to have metallicity less than −6, a millionth of the abundance of iron in the Sun.


title: Metallicity

text: The same notation is used to express variations in abundances between other individual elements as compared to solar proportions. For example, the notation "[O/Fe]" represents the difference in the logarithm of the star's oxygen abundance versus its iron content compared to that of the Sun. In general, a given stellar nucleosynthetic process alters the proportions of only a few elements or isotopes, so a star or gas sample with certain [/Fe] values may well be indicative of an associated, studied nuclear process.


title: Metallicity

text: Astronomers can estimate metallicities through measured and calibrated systems that correlate photometric measurements and spectroscopic measurements (see also Spectrophotometry). For example, the Johnson UVB filters can be used to detect an ultraviolet (UV) excess in stars, where a smaller UV excess indicates a larger presence of metals that absorb the UV radiation, thereby making the star appear "redder". The UV excess, δ(U−B), is defined as the difference between a star's U and B band magnitudes, compared to the difference between U and B band magnitudes of metal-rich stars in the Hyades cluster. Unfortunately, δ(U−B) is sensitive to both metallicity and temperature: if two stars are equally metal-rich, but one is cooler than the other, they will likely have different δ(U−B) values (see also Blanketing effect). To help mitigate this degeneracy, a star's B−V color can be used as an indicator for temperature. Furthermore, the UV excess and B−V color can be corrected to relate the δ(U−B) value to iron abundances.


title: Metallicity

text: Other photometric systems that can be used to determine metallicities of certain astrophysical objects include the Strӧmgren system, the Geneva system, the Washington system, and the DDO system.


title: Metallicity

text: At a given mass and age, a metal-poor star will be slightly warmer. Population II stars' metallicities are roughly 1/1000 to 1/10 of the Sun's ([Z/H] = ), but the group appears cooler than Population I overall, as heavy Population II stars have long since died. Above 40 solar masses, metallicity influences how a star will die: outside the pair-instability window, lower metallicity stars will collapse directly to a black hole, while higher metallicity stars undergo a Type Ib/c supernova and may leave a neutron star.


title: Metallicity

text: A star's metallicity measurement is one parameter that helps determine whether a star may have a giant planet, as there is a direct correlation between metallicity and the presence of a giant planet. Measurements have demonstrated the connection between a star's metallicity and gas giant planets, like Jupiter and Saturn. The more metals in a star and thus its planetary system and proplyd, the more likely the system may have gas giant planets. Current models show that the metallicity along with the correct planetary system temperature and distance from the star are key to planet and planetesimal formation. For two stars that have equal age and mass but different metallicity, the less metallic star is bluer. Among stars of the same color, less metallic stars emit more ultraviolet radiation. The Sun, with 8 planets and 5 known dwarf planets, is used as the reference, with a [Fe/H] of 0.00.


title: Metallicity

text: Young, massive and hot stars (typically of spectral types O and B) in H II regions emit UV photons that ionize ground-state hydrogen atoms, knocking electrons and protons free; this process is known as photoionization. The free electrons can strike other atoms nearby, exciting bound metallic electrons into a metastable state, which eventually decay back into a ground state, emitting photons with energies that correspond to forbidden lines. Through these transitions, astronomers have developed several observational methods to estimate metal abundances in HII regions, where the stronger the forbidden lines in spectroscopic observations, the higher the metallicity. These methods are dependent on one or more of the following: the variety of asymmetrical densities inside HII regions, the varied temperatures of the embedded stars, and/or the electron density within the ionized region.


title: Metallicity

text: Theoretically, to determine the total abundance of a single element in an HII region, all transition lines should be observed and summed. However, this can be observationally difficult due to variation in line strength. Some of the most common forbidden lines used to determine metal abundances in HII regions are from oxygen (e.g. [O II] λ = (3727, 7318, 7324) Å, and [O III] λ = (4363, 4959, 5007) Å), nitrogen (e.g. [NII] λ = (5755, 6548, 6584) Å), and sulfur (e.g. [SII] λ = (6717,6731) Å and [SIII] λ = (6312, 9069, 9531) Å) in the optical spectrum, and the [OIII] λ = (52, 88) μm and [NIII] λ = 57 μm lines in the infrared spectrum. Oxygen has some of the stronger, more abundant lines in HII regions, making it a main target for metallicity estimates within these objects. To calculate metal abundances in HII regions using oxygen flux measurements, astronomers often use the "R" method, in which


title: Metallicity

text: where formula_11 is the sum of the fluxes from oxygen emission lines measured at the rest frame λ = (3727, 4959 and 5007) Å wavelengths, divided by the flux from the H emission line at the rest frame λ = 4861 Å wavelength. This ratio is well defined through models and observational studies, but caution should be taken, as the ratio is often degenerate, providing both a low and high metallicity solution, which can be broken with additional line measurements. Similarly, other strong forbidden line ratios can be used, e.g. for sulfur, where


title: Metallicity

text: Metal abundances within HII regions are typically less than 1%, with the percentage decreasing on average with distance from the Galactic Center.


title: Metallicity

text: In November 2022, astronomers, using the Hubble Space Telescope, discovered one of the most metal-poor galaxies known. This nearby dwarf galaxy, 20 million ly away and 1,200 ly across, is named HIPASS J1131–31 (nicknamed the "Peekaboo" Galaxy). According to one of the astronomers, "Due to Peekaboo’s proximity to us, we can conduct detailed observations, opening up possibilities of seeing an environment resembling the early universe in unprecedented detail.”


title: Love's Train

text: "Love's Train" is a song by American R&B and funk band Con Funk Shun from their tenth studio album, "To the Max" (1982). The song was written by Michael Cooper and Felton C. Pilate II, and produced by Con Funk Shun. Cooper wrote the song to a music track created by Pilate, which had different lyrics. It is an R&B, funk and quiet storm song that includes a "steering bass guitar", "glittering keys", and "synth-centric flair of '80s R&B". Lyrically, the song is about a love triangle, involving Cooper and Pilate. Since its release, the song has received praise from music critics, with the majority commending the band's vocals.


title: Love's Train

text: While the song was never released as a single, it has since become an audience favorite and a signature song for the band. The song has since appeared on multiple compilation albums, and has been re-recorded and remastered in 2010. The song was covered by Dru Hill on their 1996 eponymous album and by Silk Sonic in 2022, as a commemorative song for Valentine's Day; the latter's version peaked at number 47 on the "Billboard" Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs.


title: Love's Train

text: During an interview with "Vibe", Felton Pilate affirmed that he wrote a song called "Baby Please Come Home", which was the original version of "Love's Train", for the "To the Max" album. After Michael Cooper heard the song, he asked for a copy of the track without the original lyrics. Cooper decided to create new lyrics to the song, these made the final cut of the track. Initially, Pilate didn't enjoy the new lyrics and it took a week "before the other group members were able to convince" him. Pilate explained, that the "original version was a softer, more laid-back thing", while Cooper's version "was full of hard, gritty emotion".


title: Love's Train

text: Usually, Con Funk Shun would listen to the finished songs together and they would vote the songs they wanted to submit to Mercury Records. Initially, they heard Pilate's original track, along with other songs, and only afterward Cooper's reworked version was played. At this point, they affirmed having already listened to the song, but Cooper said that his version was different. Only "halfway through the song" the band noticed the lyrics concerned "what had happened between Pilate and Cooper" and "started staring at the floor". When they counted the votes, "Love's Train" received the most votes. Later, Pilate wanted to remove his music, which, according to Cooper "would've killed the song." Danny Thomas, Con Funk Shun's keyboard player, told Pilate "in an expletive-laden rant" he needed to be crazy because the song was a hit. Pilate bowed and replied he was sorry, then "they all began laughing".


title: Love's Train

text: Musically, "Love's Train" is a R&B, funk, and quiet storm ballad. Its instrumentation includes a "steering bass guitar", "glittering keys", and "synth-centric flair of '80s R&B". The song was written by Cooper and Pilate II, and produced by Con Funk Shun. It was mastered by Chris Bellman at Allen Zentz in Los Angeles.


title: Love's Train

text: "Love's Train" was written about "a love triangle Cooper and Pilate found themselves in, both lovelorn and yearning". The songwriters have acknowledged there was no awkwardness during the writing sessions. One day, a young lady showed up at the studio in San Francisco and Pilate "moved on her quickly". After a month of relationship, she told Cooper that she wanted him, instead of Pilate. At this point, Cooper thought the woman had left Pilate, but she was "juggling" both of them. One night Cooper showed up at her apartment and she was with Pilate. The former told Pilate "[i]f by chance you let me come up, we can talk about this"; these words would become the bridge in "Love's Train". Cooper decided to go home and poured out his sorrow into the lyrics of a song, which started "warm night, can't sleep, too hurt, too weak, gotta call her up". Cooper wrote the song to a music track created by Pilate, but with different lyrics.


title: Love's Train

text: According to AllMusic's Craig Lytle, "the romance in the song is manifested by the guitar and piano rhythms". Lytle, affirmed the lead tenor, performed by Cooper, was "husky and smooth". Matt Doria from "NME" described Con Funk Shun's vocals as "ultra-suave and honeyed". Since its release, "Love's Train" has become an audience favorite and a signature song for the band. "Love's Train" was included as the seventh track on Con Funk Shun's tenth studio album "To the Max", released in 1982 by Mercury Records. The original recording was never released as a single. "Love's Train" has appeared on numerous compilation albums, including "The Best of Con Funk Shun" (1993), "20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection: The Best of Con Funk Shun" (2002), and "Touch/Con Funk Shun 7/To the Max" (2011). The song was re-recorded and remastered in 2010. Con Funk Shun first performed "Love's Train" on "Soul Train" in 1983 and later for Funky Nights: United We Funk All Stars, which was released on a DVD in 2003. In 1996, the song was covered by Dru Hill on their eponymous album. After listening to Dru Hill's cover, Pilate was "surprised and honored."


title: Love's Train

text: The American superduo Silk Sonic, which consists of Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak, recorded a version of "Love's Train" as a commemorative song for Valentine's Day. It was released on February 14, 2022, by Aftermath Entertainment and Atlantic Records. The song was selected as the fourth single from their debut album "An Evening With Silk Sonic" (2022) and was first issued to airplay in Italy on March 18, 2022. It was later added to the album "An Evening With Silk Sonic" on streaming services and is also included on the webstore exclusive vinyl recording. A soul and funk song, it features new production by Bruno Mars and D'Mile. "Love's Train" was well received by music critics, who praised Mars and .Paak's vocals and their commitment to the original version of the song. To promote "Love's Train", Silk Sonic performed it at the 2022 Billboard Music Awards.


title: Love's Train

text: Felton Pilate confessed that the group was surprised by the Silk Sonic's cover, as not only the latter didn't contact them, but Con Funk Shun's publishing company didn't tell Pilate about Silk Sonic's intention to record a cover of "Love's Train". He was grateful and humbled that Silk Sonic chose their song. Regarding the cover's production Pilate felt that Mars and .Paak were able "to keep the original emotion, and the energy behind it". He furthered, that Silk Sonic and D'Mile studied the original song in order to recapture its authenticity, and added some new sounds that Con Funk Shun could have done if they "had another shot at covering" their own track.


title: Love's Train

text: On February 14, 2022, Mars announced the release of Con Funk Shun's "Love's Train" cover, via Instagram. He also affirmed that it is one of his and .Paak's favorite songs to play and cover. .Paak wrote on his Instagram account, "We wanna dedicate this to that special someone!" In a similar publication, Silk Sonic typed on Twitter, "We love this song so much we wanted to sing it for y'all". A press release also describes the track as one of Mars and .Paak’s "favorite songs".


title: Love's Train

text: Musically, the "Love's Train" cover is a "silky and smooth" 1970s funk and soul song. It is composed in the key of A Major with a tempo of 70 beats per minute. The singers' vocal ranges span from the low note of E4 to a high note of E6. According to "Rolling Stone" Larisha Paul, Mars and D'Mile "added the bounce of Silk Sonic's signature groove, picking up the pace of the original". The cover version kept most of the original instrumentation. However, the 1980s R&B synths were replaced with "balmy horns and analogue production", as the Silk Sonic version is centered around the 1970s decade.


title: Love's Train

text: Andy Bustard, writing for "HipHopDX", said the duo go back far in time "by swapping the '80s production for lush, analog instrumentation that would sound at home in the previous decade". Bustard added that they "apply a fresh sonic coat to the love ballad". Uproxx's Aaron Williams described the bass as "buzzing" and the horns as "soaring". The cover version was recorded at Shampoo Press & Curl Studios and features new production by Mars and D'Mile. It was mixed by Serban Ghenea with assistance by Bryce Bordon and mastered by Randy Merrill.


title: Love's Train

text: "Love's Train" was released on February 14, 2022, by Aftermath Entertainment and Atlantic Records as a commemorative song for Valentine's Day. On March 18, Warner Music Group (WMG) issued the track for radio airplay in Italy. On April 21, 2022, "Billboard" reported that "Love's Train" was the album's fourth single, with no official date of release in the United States. In February, the song was added to Silk Sonic's debut album "An Evening With Silk Sonic" on digital and streaming services and it was also included on the webstore exclusive vinyl recording.


title: Love's Train

text: "Love's Train" was met with acclaim from music critics. The song was included on "Under the Radar" Songs of the Week on February 18, 2022, as part of the Honorable Mentions. Eddie Fu, writing for "Consequence", dubbed the song as Silk Sonic's latest "soundtrack for...ahem adult activities". Fu commented that both Mars and .Paak stayed "true" to Con Funk Shun's original and "easily slip into their seductive role". Similarly, Doria also found Silk Sonic to be "largely faithful to the five-minute jam". Doria called Silk Sonic's version "expectedly sensual...soulful and groove-laden". "Billboard" Jason Lipshutz compared the best songs on "An Evening With Silk Sonic" to the cover version of "Love's Train", saying "the homage pops with modern production and two self-assured vocal performances".


title: Love's Train

text: Bustar affirmed that "Silk Sonic's rendition stays faithful" to the original version. Bustar praised the merge of Mars "soaring falsetto", and .Paak's "raspy timber" as it "adds more sensuality to the Valentine's Day jam." Jordan Darville of "The Fader" commented that while "the aesthetic of Silk Sonic may seem tongue-in-cheek, the music and the duo's appreciation for the era they're channeling certainly isn't". In a mixed review, Uproxx's Williams called Silk Sonic's vocals "velvety", and noted that despite being a love song, "it's as much about the messiness as anything on their debut album". "Love's Train" peaked at number 47 on the "Billboard" Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. It failed to reach the "Billboard" Hot 100, though entered the Bubbling Under Hot 100, which acts as an extension of the former chart, peaking at number 111. "Love's Train" spent thirteen weeks on the top spot of the "Billboard" Adult R&B Songs chart.


title: Love's Train

text: Silk Sonic performed the song live at the 2022 Billboard Music Awards. They were joined on stage by a band and two backup singers. Silk Sonic and the backup singers wore "maroon leisure suits", while the band used "complementing outfits". The performance included a "fully choreographed routine" by Silk Sonic and everyone on stage. The performance was well received by critics. "Entertainment Tonight" Zach Seemayer dubbed Silk Sonic's performance as one of the show highlights, saying "Just flawless '70s crooning that is every bit as smooth as their name wound lead you to expect." Melissa Ruggieri writing for "USA Today" placed Silk Sonic's performance as the fifth-best of the show. Ruggieri noticed the "pelvic thrusts and Temptations-styled dancing". Austin Williams from "Vibe" commended Silk Sonic's singing and choreography. Starr Bowenbank of "Billboard" magazine praised "their smooth dance skills". They also sang "Love's Train" during the concert residency, An Evening with Silk Sonic at Park MGM (2022).


title: Faora

text: Faora is a supervillainess appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, commonly in association with Superman. The character was created by Cary Bates and Curt Swan, and first appeared in "Action Comics" #471 (May 1977). Most commonly, Faora is an ally and sometimes the wife and/or lover of Superman's Kryptonian nemesis General Zod.


title: Faora

text: Faora appears in the television series "Smallville", portrayed by Erica Durance and Sharon Taylor. Faora appears in the DC Extended Universe films "Man of Steel" (2013) and the upcoming film "The Flash" (2023), portrayed by Antje Traue.


title: Faora

text: The first Faora, Faora Hu-Ul, was introduced in "Action Comics" #471. She is a beautiful Kryptonian woman whose unexplained hatred for men led her to torture and kill 23 of them in the secret concentration camp. For this, she was imprisoned in the Phantom Zone to complete a sentence of 300 Kryptonian years, the second longest term after Jax-Ur. Surviving her homeworld's destruction, along with the other Phantom Zone prisoners, she existed in an invisible ghost-like form. While in the Zone, she often depicted plotting against Superman with General Zod and Jax-Ur. The hatred of men was not limited to different races, as she demonstrates this pointless murder on a young Frenchman who was attracted by her beauty.


title: Faora

text: Faora is an expert at the Kryptonian martial of Horo-Kanu. This allows her to take advantage on the body's pressure points. This made her an extremely dangerous foe for Superman to face in close combat. When she beaten him, he was forced to flee from their first encounter. During one of her appearances, Faora could manifest some sort of "mental lightning" to physically attack Kryptonian survivors, but did not exhibit this additional power during later battles.


title: Faora

text: Following the "Crisis on Infinite Earths", another Faora (renamed Zaora) appeared in the Pocket Universe created by the Time Trapper, along with General Zod and Quex-Ul. The three tricked the Pocket Universe's Lex Luthor into releasing them from the Phantom Zone. After the Pocket Earth's population continued to resist their conquest of it, the three villains destroyed the atmosphere, killing almost all life. Superman defeated them by permanently stripping the three of their super powers with gold Kryptonite. He then executed them with Kryptonite in punishment for their crimes, and to protect the real Earth after they threatened to somehow regain their powers and destroy it as well. Zaora pleaded with Superman for her life, offering him "all sorts of favors", before she succumbed to the Kryptonite.


title: Faora

text: In the "Eradicator" mini-series, Dr. David Conner was pressured into embracing his programming by another construct of Kem-L. This artifact, which was trapped in the Phantom Zone, claimed to be called Faora, after Kem-L's grandmother, and to be the ultimate repository of Kryptonian mythology. However, it is unclear how much of this is true.


title: Faora

text: The Eradicator rejects it, "downloading" all these aspects of ancient programming that contradicted his morality into Faora's artificial intelligence. Unknown to him, this gave it a new, monstrous form and dimensional-based powers. After leaving the Zone, it targeted Conner's family. The Eradicator destroyed Faora, but not before it kills his wife.


title: Faora

text: Another Faora was introduced as one of General Zod's aides in a fictional Pokolistan nation. This character, who debuted in "Action Comics" #779 (July 2001), is an orphan metahuman. Faora has molecular abilities to a limited degree. She created a mutagenic virus for Zod as part of the linchpin plan. Her whereabouts following the General's defeat are unknown.


title: Faora

text: In a 2001–2002 storyline, Superman and Lois Lane visit a version of Krypton which is later revealed to have been created by the villainous Brainiac 13 and based on Jor-El's favorite period in Kryptonian history. In this Krypton, Lois and Clark become fugitives and are pursued by Faora and Kru-El, romantically linked manhunters known as "the Hounds of Zod." This version of Faora, calling herself "the Tigress of Zod", later returns as an ally of Jor-El. She and Kru-El are both killed in a struggle against Kryptonian religious zealots.


title: Faora

text: Faora Hu-Ul returned during "New 52" and following into "DC Rebirth" where they shared a loathing of Krypton's ideals of peace and science and desired a return to the old days, when Krypton was a brutal militaristic empire. In time, she met Dru-Zod, a colonel who shared the same dream. Zod gathered a group of like-minded supporters, but he became especially interested in Faora because of her blood lust. Faora became complicit in Zod's engineering of a false flag operation, which triggered a war with the alien Char. Jor-El, an old friend of Zod's, discovered the deception and turned Zod over to the authorities. This resulted in the sentencing of Zod and his followers, Faora among them, to the Phantom Zone but later sent Doomsday into the boundaries allowing an escape. But the escape leaves Faora in the zone while Zod tricks Superman into releasing her using the Fortress of Solitude's technology. The duo would later face Superman again and Wonder Woman in the South Pacific.


title: Faora

text: As a Kryptonian, Faora has superpowers derived from under the light of Earth's yellow sun in that solar system. These basic abilities are sufficient for her to bend steel, overpower a locomotive, leap over a tall building in one bound, and outrun a speeding bullet; as well as virtual invulnerability, accelerated recovery, laser eyebeams, vortex breath, and flight. She possesses extraordinary senses of hearing and sight, including x-ray, telescopic, and microscopic vision. The Pre-Crisis version of Faora had gotten new powers. She can telepathically communicate or sometimes does it unconsciously and project bolts of psychic energy to weaken other Kryptonians from the Phantom Zone. While in the Zone, she is effectively immortal (and untouchable). Faora knows Horu-Kanu - the deadliest form of martial arts on Krypton. This technique utilizes precisely aimed pressure points to disable, cripple, or kill opponents. Both versions have expertise in unarmed combat. Even her power levels are more akin to Supergirl. Like all Kryptonians, she is also vulnerable to Kryptonite, red sunlight, and magic.


title: Faora

text: In the "DC Bombshells" continuity, Faora resembling her "Man of Steel" counterpart led a coup on Krypton during its final days which consisted of herself, Lara Lor-Van, and Alura In-Ze, who weren't considered "clean" enough by Kryptonians for fertility. The three conceived a daughter that they believed would be the strongest of Krypton, as she had a balance of "clean" and "unclean" Kryptonian genes. When Lara and Alura discovered Faora was willing to kill to achieve her vision, they banished her to the Phantom Zone. Her pod is discovered and broken open by the Thanagarians, who provided her with a ship that could allow her to travel anywhere. She travels to Earth, where she waits decades for the baby's escape pod to crash into the planet. When the baby's pod would land in Russia and the girl would become adopted by the Starikov's and named Kara, Faora took samples of Kara's blood from the pod, which allowed her ally scientist Hugo Strange to create clones of Kara who would become known as Power Girl and Superman. She also allied herself with other villains who wanted to take over the world such as Paula von Gunther, the Joker's Daughter, and Killer Frost. She monitor's Kara's progress in the Soviet Army and as Supegirl under the disguise of General Khulun. She invites Supergirl to join her in conquering the world, but the girl refuses as she views Faora's methods as no better than the dying Krypton's. When Trigon's daughter Raven briefly transforms into an unstable demonic being after her father's death, Faora takes some of Raven's blood and injects herself with it, transforming into this dimension's version of Doomsday. The heroes stop her by trapping her inside of Swamp Thing and casting a spell that required the sacrifice of Kara's adoptive parents and Stargirl's father.


title: Pope Benedict XIV

text: Pope Benedict XIV (; ; 31 March 1675 – 3 May 1758), born Prospero Lorenzo Lambertini, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 17 August 1740 to his death in May 1758.


title: Pope Benedict XIV

text: Perhaps one of the best scholars to sit on the papal throne, yet often overlooked, he promoted scientific learning, the Baroque arts, reinvigoration of Thomism, and the study of the human form. Firmly committed to carrying out the decrees of the Council of Trent and authentic Catholic teaching, Benedict removed changes previously made to the Breviary, sought peacefully to reverse growing secularism in European courts, invigorated ceremonies with great pomp, and throughout his life and his reign published numerous theological and ecclesiastical treatises. In governing the Papal States, he reduced taxation on some products, but also raised taxes on others; he also encouraged agriculture and supported free trade within the Papal States. A scholar, he created the Sacred and Profane Museums, now part of the present Vatican Museum. He can be considered a polymath to an extent due to his numerous studies of ancient literature, his publishing of ecclesiastical books and documents, his interest in the study of the human body, and his devotion to art and theology.


title: Pope Benedict XIV

text: Towards the end of his papacy Benedict XIV was forced to contend with issues surrounding the Society of Jesus. He expelled them from Portugal at the behest of Joseph I in 1758, just before his death. The papacy reluctantly acceded to the anti-Jesuit demands while providing minimal theological justification for the suppressions.


title: Pope Benedict XIV

text: Horace Walpole described him as "loved by papists, esteemed by Protestants, a priest without insolence or interest, a prince without favorites, a pope without nepotism, an author without vanity, a man whom neither intellect nor power could corrupt."


title: Pope Benedict XIV

text: Lambertini was born into a noble family of Bologna, the third of five children of Marcello Lambertini and Lucrezia Bulgarini. At the time of his birth, Bologna was the second largest city in the Papal States. His earliest studies were with tutors, and then he was sent to the Convitto del Porto, staffed by the Somaschi Fathers. At the age of thirteen, he began attending the Collegio Clementino in Rome, where he studied rhetoric, Latin, philosophy, and theology (1689–1692). During his studies as a young man, he often studied the works of St. Thomas Aquinas, who was his favorite author and saint. While he enjoyed studying at Collegio Clementino, his attention turned toward civil and canon law. Soon after, in 1694 at the age of nineteen, he received the degree of Doctor of Sacred Theology and Doctor Utriusque Juris (both ecclesiastical and civil law).


title: Pope Benedict XIV

text: Lambertini became an assistant to Msgr. Alessandro Caprara, the Auditor of the Rota. After the election of Pope Clement XI in November 1700, he was made a consistorial advocate in 1701. Shortly after, he was created a Consultor of the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition, and then in 1708 Promoter of the Faith. As Promoter of the Faith, he achieved two major successes. The first was the canonization of Pope Pius V. The second was the composition of his treatise on the process of the beatification and canonization of saints.


title: Pope Benedict XIV

text: In 1712, Lambertini was named Canon Theologus of the Chapter of the Vatican Basilica and member of the Sacred Congregation of Rites; in 1713 he was named monsignor; and in 1718 secretary of the Sacred Congregation of the Council.


title: Pope Benedict XIV

text: On 12 June 1724, only two weeks after his election, Pope Benedict XIII appointed Lambertini titular bishop of Theodosia. Lambertini was consecrated a bishop in Rome, in the Pauline Chapel of the Vatican Palace, on 16 July 1724, by Pope Benedict XIII. The co-consecrators were Giovanni Francesco Nicolai, titular Archbishop of Myra (Vicar of the Vatican Basilica), and Nicola Maria Lercari, titular Archbishop of Nazianzus (Papal Maestro di Camera). In 1725, he served as the Canonist at the Roman Synod of Pope Benedict XIII.


title: Pope Benedict XIV

text: In 1718, the Istituto delle scienze ed Arti Liberali in Bologna had begun construction of a chapel for everyday convenience dedicated to the Annunication of the Virgin Mary. In 1725, Bishop Prospero Lambertini of Theodosia, who was working in the Roman Curia but was mindful of his origins, ordered the chapel to be painted. He handed over the work to Carlo Salarolo, who had the walls of the chapel adorned. Lambertini also ordered and paid for the painting above the main altar, an image of the Virgin being greeted by the angel, the work of Marcantonio Franceschini.


title: Pope Benedict XIV

text: He was made Bishop of Ancona on 27 January 1727, and was permitted to retain the title of Archbishop, as well as all the offices which he had already been granted. He was also allowed to continue as Abbot Commendatory of the Camaldolese monastery of S. Stefano di Cintorio (Cemeterio) in the diocese of Pisa. In 1731, the new bishop had the main altar and the choir of the cathedral restored and renovated. Once he became pope, Lambertini remembered his former diocese, sending an annual gift to the Church of Ancona, of sacred vessels of gold or silver, altar appointments, vestments, and other items.


title: Pope Benedict XIV

text: Bishop Lambertini was created a Cardinal on 9 December 1726, though the public announcement of his promotion was postponed until 30 April 1728. He was assigned the titular church of "Santa Croce in Gerusalemme" on 10 May 1728. He participated in the 1730 conclave.


title: Pope Benedict XIV

text: On 30 April 1731, Cardinal Lambertini was appointed Archbishop of Bologna by Pope Clement XII. During his time as archbishop, he composed an extensive treatise in three volumes, "De synodo dioecesana", on the subject of the diocesan synod, presenting a synthesis of the history, Canon Law, practices, and procedures for the holding of those important meetings of the clergy of each diocese. He was in fact preparing the ground for the holding of a synod of his own for the diocese of Bologna, an expectation he first announced in a "Notificazione" of 14 October 1732. When the first edition of the "De Synodo" was published in 1748, however, the synod still had not taken place. He continued in the office of Archbishop of Bologna even after he became Pope, not finally resigning until 14 January 1754.


title: Pope Benedict XIV

text: After the death of Pope Clement XII on 6 February 1740, Cardinal Lambertini attended the papal conclave to choose a successor. The Conclave opened on 18 February, but Lambertini did not arrive until 5 March. He was not one of the 'papabili', not being one of the favorites of any of the factions (Imperialists, Spanish, French, Zelanti). The Conclave lasted for six months. At first Cardinal Ottoboni, the Dean of the Sacred College, was favored to be elected, but a number of cardinals were opposed to him because he was the protector of France in the Papal Curia. His death on 29 February 1740 eliminated him from consideration.


title: Pope Benedict XIV

text: Cardinal Domenico Riviera of Urbino received a respectable number of votes for a while, and then, in July, Cardinal Pompeio Aldrovandi of Bologna. He had enemies, however, who assembled enough votes to ensure that he would never get the two-thirds needed to be elected. His greatest enemy, the Camerlengo Cardinal Annibale Albani, chose instead to support Cardinal Giacomo de Lanfredini of Florence, who worked in Rome in the Curia. In mid-August, Albani asked the leader of the Imperialist faction, Cardinal Niccolò del Giudice, to give a thought to Lambertini. After long deliberations, Lambertini was put forth to the cardinal electors as a compromise candidate, and it is reported that he said to the members of the College of Cardinals "If you wish to elect a saint, choose Gotti; a statesman, Aldrovandi; an honest man, me."Vincenzo Ludovico Gotti (1664–1742) was professor of philosophy at the College of Saint Thomas, and perhaps the leading Thomist of his time. Cardinal Aldrovandi was a canon lawyer.


title: Pope Benedict XIV

text: This witticism appears to have assisted his cause, which also benefited from his reputation for deep learning, gentleness, wisdom, and conciliation in policy. On the evening of 17 August 1740 at around 9:00pm, on the 255th ballot, he was elected pope and took the throne name of Benedict XIV in honour of Pope Benedict XIII to whom he owed his eccleiastical career. He was solemnly crowned by the protodeacon on 21 August 1740. By 30 August 1740 the famous ephemeral baroque structures of the Festival of the Chinea and the triumphal arch of Benedict XIV were erected by Charles III of Spain, who was then King of Naples and a papal vassal.


title: Pope Benedict XIV

text: Benedict XIV's papacy began in a time of great difficulties, fueled by anticlericalism and chiefly caused by the disputes between Catholic rulers and the papacy about governmental demands to nominate bishops rather than leaving the appointment to the church. He managed to overcome most of these problems — the Holy See's disputes with the Kingdom of Naples, Sardinia, Spain, Venice, and Austria were settled.


title: Pope Benedict XIV

text: The apostolic constitution "Pastoralis Romani Pontificis", which was Benedict's revision of the traditional "Coena Domini" anathematization, was promulgated on 30 March 1741. In it Benedict again excommunicated all members of Protestant sects, including Lutherans, Calvinists, Zwinglians, and Huguenots. It ordered that ecumenical councils not be resorted to by opponents of papal decisions. Its most stringent clause was §20:


title: Pope Benedict XIV

text: We excommunicate all those who shall by themselves or others, directly or indirectly, under whatever title or pretext, presume to invade, destroy, occupy and detain, wholly or in part, the City of Rome, the Kingdom of Sicily, the islands of Sardinia and Corsica, the territories on this side of Lesina, the patrimony of St. Peter in Tuscany, the Duchy of Spoleto, the Counties of Venaissin, and Sabina, the March of Ancona, Massa Trebaria, Romagna, Campagna, and the maritime provinces and their territories and places, and the territories under special commission of the Arnulfi, and our cities of Bologna, Cesena, Rimini, Benevento, Perugia, Avignon, Citta di Castello, Todi, Ferrara, Comachio, and other cities, territories and places, or rights, belonging to the Roman Church, and mediately or immediately subject to the said Roman Church; and likewise those who presume to usurp de facto, to disturb, to retain, or in various ways to trouble, the supreme jurisdiction, belonging in them to Us and to the said Roman Church; and likewise their adherents, patrons, and protectors, or those who aid, counsel or abet them in any way whatsoever.


title: Pope Benedict XIV

text: This clause, if applied, excommunicated the governments of Spain, France, and the Empire, in addition to lesser princes who held, without papal grant or investiture, territory claimed by the Papacy. The bull was smiled at even by Pope Benedict XIV who once said, "I like to leave the Vatican lightnings asleep." Its application to the Duchy of Parma by Pope Clement XIII in 1768 had major consequences, including the beginning of expulsions of Jesuits from European states.


title: Pope Benedict XIV

text: At the beginning of his reign, the papal government was heavily in debt, to the amount of 56,000,000 scudi, and was running an annual deficit of more than 200,000 scudi. Benedict attempted to improve the finances of the Papal States, but even at his death the administration was still running a deficit. His greatest economic action was the reduction in the size of the papal army, which had become ineffectual in terms of contemporary military practice, even in keeping order inside the Papal States; and he severely reduced the pay of both officers and soldiers. He instituted economies in his own household and in the bureaucracy, but these were insignificant in terms of the debt and deficit. In 1741, on the advice of Cardinal Aldovrandini (who had nearly been elected pope instead of Benedict), he instituted a new tax, a duty on stamped paper on legal documents; it did not produce the revenue expected, and it was abolished in 1743. He reduced taxes on imported cattle, oil, and raw silk, but imposed new taxes on lime, china clay, salt, wine, straw, and hay. In 1744 he raised taxes on land, house rents, feudal grants to barons, and pensions derived from prebends.


title: Pope Benedict XIV

text: Despite these fiscal problems, the Papacy was able to buy two frigates in England, and in April 1745 Benedict personally christened a galley, named the Benedetta, which he had ordered constructed. He also ordered the modernization of the harbor of Anzio, but the work was so expensive that it had to be abandoned in 1752.


title: Pope Benedict XIV

text: He encouraged agriculture and free trade and drastically cut the military budget, but was unable to completely reform the administration, still corrupt from previous papacies. At the University of Bologna he revived the practice of anatomical studies and established a chair of surgery. He had a clear view of ecclesiastical problems, had respect for differing opinions and an ability to distinguish between dogma and theory.


title: Pope Benedict XIV

text: On 22 December 1741, Benedict XIV issued the Bull "Immensa Pastorum Principis" and sent an Apostolic Brief to the Bishops of Brazil and King John of Portugal, against the enslavement of the indigenous peoples of the Americas and other countries. It excommunicated any person who, for whatever motive, enslaved a native Brazilian. It did not address the case of black Africans. The Bull ordered the Jesuits to cease engaging in commerce, which was strictly forbidden by their own statutes, and meddling in politics. The bull went unenforced in Brazil.


title: Pope Benedict XIV

text: The Apostolic Constitution "Sacramentum Poenitentiae" of 1741 assigned to the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition the responsibility of safeguarding the sanctity of the sacrament of penance.


title: Pope Benedict XIV

text: On 18 May 1743, Benedict XIV signed a document addressed to the Archbishops and Bishops of the Kingdom of Poland regarding marriage, communicating his dissatisfaction with the dissolution of Christian marriages, some even long-stable ones, by the Ecclesiastical Courts of Poland without due cause or in violation of canon law. Troubles arose from what are called "clandestine marriages", a secret arrangement between partners, usually for the purpose of marrying a person of choice rather than entering into an "arranged marriage".


title: Pope Benedict XIV

text: Benedict XIV was also responsible, along with Cardinal Passionei, for beginning the catalogue of the oriental manuscripts in the Vatican Library. The Pope added some 3,300 of his own books to the collection. In 1741 the collection of manuscripts relating to Chinese religion and history were left to the Vatican Library by bequest of Msgr. Fouchet, a one-time missionary. During his reign the library of Marchese Alessandro Capponi was acquired through bequest. The collection of the antiquarian Filippo Stosch of Florence also came to the Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana after his death, including a large collection of manuscripts that went back as far as the twelfth century.


title: Pope Benedict XIV

text: In 1747, Benedict promulgated the bull "Postremo mense superioris anni", which summarised and restated certain aspects of Catholic teaching on infant baptism, in particular that 1) it is generally not licit to baptise a child of a Jewish family without parental consent, 2) it is licit to baptise a Jewish child in danger of death without parental consent, 3) once such a baptism had occurred (whether licit or not), the ecclesiastical authorities have a duty to remove the child from its parents' custody in order to provide it with a Christian education.


title: Pope Benedict XIV

text: Since his days as a Consultor at the Holy Office (Inquisition), Benedict had been involved in issues pertaining to the missions, both those seeking to convert non-Christians, and those seeking to reconcile heretics and schismatics to the Roman Church. One concern was the Coptic Christians in upper Egypt, where efforts to seek union with the Coptic Patriarch had not been successful. Numbers of Coptic priests and laity had entered into union with Rome, but had no bishop to serve their needs. In the Bull "Quemadmodum ingenti" of 4 August 1741, Benedict entrusted their care to the one Coptic bishop who was in union with Rome, the Patriarch Athanasius of Jerusalem, who was given extensive powers to supervise uniate Copts in Egypt.


title: Pope Benedict XIV

text: In his encyclical "Allatae Sunt", promulgated on 26 July 1755, and sent to missionaries working under the direction of the Congregation "de propaganda fide", Pope Benedict addressed the numerous problems arising in dealing with the clergy and laity belonging to various eastern rites, particularly the Armenian and Syriac rites. He reminded the missionaries that they were converting people from schism and heresy:


title: Pope Benedict XIV

text: We also wanted to make clear to all the good will which the Apostolic See feels for Oriental Catholics in commanding them to observe fully their ancient rites which are not at variance with the Catholic religion or with propriety. The Church does not require schismatics to abandon their rites when they return to Catholic unity, but only that they forswear and detest heresy. Its great desire is for the preservation, not the destruction of different peoples—in short, that all may be Catholic rather than all become Latin.


title: Pope Benedict XIV

text: Benedict XIV, however, echoing the words of Pope Gelasius I, universally banned the practice of females serving the priest at the altar, noting that the practice had spread to certain Oriental Rites.


title: Pope Benedict XIV

text: He had a very active papacy, reforming the education of priests, the calendar of feasts of the church, and many papal institutions. Perhaps the most important act of Benedict XIV's pontificate was the promulgation of his famous laws about missions in the two bulls, "Ex quo singulari" (11 July 1742), and "Omnium sollicitudinum" (12 September 1744). In these bulls he ruled on the custom of accommodating non-Christian words and usages to express Christian ideas and practices of the native cultures, which had been extensively done by the Jesuits in their Indian and Chinese missions. An example of this is the statues of ancestors – there had long been uncertainty whether honour paid to one's ancestors was unacceptable 'ancestor worship,' or if it was something more like the Catholic veneration of the saints. This question was especially pressing in the case of an ancestor known not to have been a Christian. The choice of a Chinese translation for the name of God had also been debated since the early 17th century. Benedict XIV denounced these practices in these two bulls. The consequence of this was that many of these converts left the church.


title: Pope Benedict XIV

text: During his papacy, Benedict XIV commissioned a team of architects, led by Nicola Salvi and Luigi Vanvitelli, to design a large palace that was to be 'more complex and with greater baroque style than the box of a palace Vanvitelli designed in Caserta'. The palace was to be built south of St. Peter's Basilica, but was never built, as the plans were quietly ignored by Benedict's successor, Clement XIII. They were brought up once more by Pius VI late in his papacy, but had to stop due to the possibility of invasion. On 15 December 1744, Benedict XIV blessed the baroque chapel (Chapel of St. John the Baptist) in Sant'Antonio dei Portoghesi in Rome, which featured mosaics on the sides, floor, and wall behind the altar made of semi-precious stones. The chapel, which had been commissioned by King John V of Portugal in 1740, was designed by Nicola Salvi and Luigi Vanvitelli. When complete, it was then shipped to Portugal to be placed in the Igreja de Sāo Roque, the Jesuit church in Lisbon.


title: Pope Benedict XIV

text: The Capuchins, under the leadership of Italian priest Joseph Mary Bernini, grew the community of Bettiah Christians in colonial India. He was invited to spread Catholic Christianity by Maharaja Dhurup Singh of the Bettiah Raj, an appointment that was blessed by Pope Benedict XIV on 1 May 1742 in a personal letter to the king.


title: Pope Benedict XIV

text: Benedict XIV created 64 cardinals in seven consistories; among the new cardinals he elevated into the cardinalate was the Henry Benedict Stuart (1747). The pope also reserved one cardinal "in pectore" and revealed that name at a later time, therefore validating the creation.


title: Pope Benedict XIV

text: The pope canonized seven saints during his pontificate including Camillus de Lellis and Fidelis of Sigmaringen. He also beatified several individuals such as Charlemagne and Niccolò Albergati.


title: Pope Benedict XIV

text: On 5 May 1749, Pope Benedict XIV declared a Holy Year, to begin on Christmas Eve, 1749 and to extend throughout the next year until Christmas 1750. During the month of April 1750, 43,000 meals were served to the poor at the Trinita Hospital. Later that year, the Pope banned card games.


title: Pope Benedict XIV

text: With the papal bull "Peregrinantes", Benedict XIV convoked a Jubilee in 1750. Furthermore, the pope called upon Saint Leonard of Port Maurice to preach; both had a close relationship and the year previously saw Benedict XIV ask him to give sermons on penance and conversion in Rome. Among the initiatives that the pope designed for the Jubilee were the call for Christian unity and organizing for proper accommodation for those pilgrims who flocked to Rome.


title: Pope Benedict XIV

text: Upon the advice of Saint Leonard, the pope was the first to institute the "Via Crucis" at the Colosseum, which he consecrated as a site of martyrdom for the early Christians. The pope placed the stations of the Cross in the arena, however, these were removed in 1874 before being restored in 1925.


title: Pope Benedict XIV

text: Benedict XIV was considered one of the best scholars to have sat on the papal throne, noted for his keen intellect and his consistent morals. Noted for his modesty, Horace Walpole procured for the pope a statue of him with an accompanying plaque. When the copy of the inscription was forwarded to Rome for approval, Benedict XIV smiled upon reading it and, shaking his head, exclaimed: "Alas! I am like the statues of the Piazza San Pietro — admirable at a distance but monstrous when seen at close quarters!"


title: Pope Benedict XIV

text: However, Benedict XIV also had his personal faults, unable to resist gambling in cards and was known for the use of profane language which one of his early biographers classified as "unfortunate phraseology". Despite his best efforts, the pontiff was unable to completely cut out bad language. A deeply pious man, Benedict XIV had a crucifix placed in every room, and it is said that the sight of a crucifix helped to restrain his poor language more often than not.


title: Pope Benedict XIV

text: Despite his faults, Benedict XIV was jovial and was lucid until the very end. To those who knew him, his blue eyes seemed to sparkle with humor and cordiality.


title: Pope Benedict XIV

text: Benedict XIV had suffered from kidney problems for years. His health worsened in 1758 and, after a battle with gout, he died on 3 May 1758 at the age of 83. His final words to those surrounding him on his deathbed were, "I leave you in the hands of God." Despite those words, the pope is alleged to have recited the famous Latin phrase "Sic transit gloria mundi" before poignantly adding "I now fall into silence and forgetfulness, the only place that belongs to me".


title: Pope Benedict XIV

text: Benedict XIV originally demonstrated symptoms of illness on 26 April 1758 after having previously rallied from a serious illness that included gout that February. However, a contracted fever aggravated his asthma and he suffered from difficulties in urinating. However, his condition deteriorated rapidly in the following days after his gout and contracted kidney disease increased his sufferings. Despite this, his appetite had not diminished which was interpreted as a sign that he could potentially rally from his malady. However, into May, his condition had worsened considerably, though the pope remained lucid until the end, able to impart one last blessing before he died on 3 May.


title: Pope Benedict XIV

text: Following his funeral, he was interred in Saint Peter's Basilica and a large catafalque was erected in his honour.


title: Capella University

text: Capella University is a private for-profit, online university headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The school is owned by the publicly traded Strategic Education, Inc. and delivers most of its education online.


title: Capella University

text: Capella has 52 degree programs with over 1900 online courses. Approximately 38,000 students are enrolled from all 50 states and 61 other countries, with 23 percent enrolled in doctoral programs, 47 percent enrolled in master's programs, and 27 percent enrolled in bachelor's programs.


title: Capella University

text: Capella University was originally established as The Graduate School of America by Dr. Harold Abel and Stephen Shank in 1993. Shank was the former CEO of Tonka. Abel, formerly the president of Castleton State College, Central Michigan University, and Walden University, became the first president of the institution.


title: Capella University

text: In 1997, Capella University received regional accreditation. Two years later the parent company and university were renamed Capella Education Company and Capella University, respectively. In 2000, Capella began to offer bachelor's degree programs.


title: Capella University

text: In 2005, Capella Education Company announced their intention to go public with an initial public offering. In 2006, they became a publicly traded company (NASDAQ: CPLA), raising $80 million with the offering.


title: Capella University

text: In 2007, Capella was named one of 86 higher education institutions in the United States to have received the National Centers of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education (CAE/IAE) designation by the National Security Agency (NSA). The designation was valid for the academic years 2007 through 2012.


title: Capella University

text: In March 2008, Capella Education Company, longtime occupant of the 225 South Sixth skyscraper in downtown Minneapolis, signed a new lease that expanded its office and renamed the building Capella Tower. The building houses all of the company's 1,150 downtown Minneapolis administrative staff.


title: Capella University

text: In 2009, The Project Management Institute (PMI) Global Accreditation Center for Project Management (GAC) accredited two Capella University online degree programs: the MS in Information Technology with a specialization in Project Management; and the BS in Information Technology with a specialization in Project Management. It also launched its School of Public Service Leadership.


title: Capella University

text: In 2010, Capella, along with three other schools, was awarded the CHEA Award for Outstanding Institutional Practice in Student Learning Outcomes by The Council for Higher Education Accreditation.


title: Capella University

text: In August 2018, Capella University's parent company Capella Education merged with Strayer Education Inc. to form Strategic Education, Inc.


title: Capella University

text: In 2006, the United States Department of Education, Office of the Inspector General (OIG) began a compliance audit of Capella. OIG focused on the university's policies and procedures concerning the return of Title IV funds as required by Federal Law for students who failed to give official notice that they were withdrawing from the school. The OIG found that Capella made accounting mistakes in how it calculated student eligibility for government-subsidized loans, including failing to return all funds disbursed on behalf of students who dropped out before their first day of class. Capella, in a response to the audit, says it recognizes some past shortcomings in its accounting practices and has made changes to ensure that such errors are not repeated.


title: Capella University

text: In 2012, Capella received criticism for its expenditures on marketing, profit, and CEO pay rather than instruction, and its use of aggressive recruiting practices. According to a report issued by former U.S. Senator Tom Harkin for the Senate Education Committee, approximately 79% of the institution's cash flow comes from US government Title IV payments, including Pell grants. The report concluded that Capella's recruiting and student services were better managed than most other for-profit competitors, especially among graduate degree students. The high withdrawal rate among Bachelor's student hopefuls, the over-reliance on part-time instructors, and the high relative marketing budget were cited as potential causes for concern.


title: Capella University

text: In 2018, a lawsuit was filed against Capella in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota alleging that the school "violated doctoral students' rights by creating a process intended to ensure that it would be difficult, if not impossible, for students to timely complete, or complete at all, their doctoral programs." The school rejected the lawsuit's claims, stating that the court had thrown out the majority of the legal claims.


title: Capella University

text: According to College Navigator, Capella's faculty consists of 207 full-time instructors and 1,321 part-time instructors.


title: Capella University

text: Undergraduate applicants who do not have any credits eligible for transfer must successfully complete a university-approved examination to be considered for admission.


title: Capella University

text: Capella's enrollment is composed mainly of graduate students including 47 percent MS/MBA students and 23 percent PhD/PsyD doctoral students. The undergraduate population of Capella makes up 27 percent of the student body. Less than one percent are working on certificate programs. The average age of a Capella student is 40. Ninety-five percent of students are enrolled part-time, 74 percent are female, and 54 percent are ethnic minorities.


title: Capella University

text: Capella allows a limited number of credits to be earned through a prior learning assessment program, which can provide college credit for past experiences.


title: Capella University

text: Capella University is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. Baccalaureate and graduate level teacher education programs are accredited by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education. The graduate level counseling program is accredited by The Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP). Baccalaureate and graduate level nursing programs are accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education. Baccalaureate and graduate level business programs have been accredited by the Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs since 2014. Baccalaureate level information technology programs have been accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, Inc (ABET).


title: AgustaWestland CH-149 Cormorant

text: The AgustaWestland CH-149 Cormorant is the Canadian Forces designation for the AgustaWestland AW101 (formerly EH101), a helicopter used for air-sea rescue in Canada. Developed as a joint venture between Westland Aircraft in the UK and Agusta in Italy (now merged as Leonardo), the CH-149 is a medium-lift helicopter for military applications.


title: AgustaWestland CH-149 Cormorant

text: In 1977, the British Ministry of Defence issued a requirement for an anti-submarine warfare (ASW) helicopter to replace the Royal Navy's Westland Sea Kings. Westland responded with design "WG.34" that was approved for development. Meanwhile, the "Marina Militare" (Italian Navy) was also seeking a replacement for its Agusta-built Sea Kings, leading Agusta to discussions with Westland about the possibility of a joint development. This culminated in the joint venture being finalised in November 1979 and a new company called EH Industries was formed to manage the project the following year - EH being an abbreviation for "Elicottero Helicopter", the Italian and English words for "helicopter." As the design studies progressed, EH became aware of a broader market for an aircraft with the same capabilities required by the British and Italian navies, leading to a more generalised design that could be customised. After a lengthy development, the first prototype flew on October 9, 1987.


title: AgustaWestland CH-149 Cormorant

text: Following the lead of the UK and Italy, the Canadian government placed a C$4.4 billion order in 1987 for 48 (later 42) EH101s to replace the Canadian Forces's Sikorsky CH-124 Sea Kings and Boeing Vertol CH-113 Labradors. These were to be assembled in Canada under the designations "CH-148 Petrel" (33 originally, reduced to 28) and "CH-149 Chimo" (15) in the anti-submarine warfare and air-sea rescue roles respectively. The replacement programme was cancelled, however, after a change of government in 1993, leading to the payment of $157.8 million in cancellation penalties.


title: AgustaWestland CH-149 Cormorant

text: In 1998, the Canadian government announced that the CH-113s would now be replaced by a new scaled down search-and-rescue variant of the EH101, carrying the designation "CH-149 Cormorant". Unlike the Petrel/Chimo contract, these 15 aircraft were to be built entirely in Europe. The first two aircraft arrived in Canada in September 2001 and entered service the following year.


title: AgustaWestland CH-149 Cormorant

text: When it became obvious that the Sea Kings were in need of immediate replacement, the EH101 was again part of a Canadian competition (Maritime Helicopter Project), against a variant of the Sikorsky H-92, for a total price tag of C$5 billion. The Sikorsky entry won the competition on July 23, 2004, with the first six delivered June 2015.


title: AgustaWestland CH-149 Cormorant

text: The first operational CH-149 flight occurred in 2002 when a Cormorant of 442 Squadron performed a medical evacuation from a merchant ship offshore in Hecate Strait. An even more dramatic demonstration of Cormorant capabilities occurred in January 2003 when a 103 Squadron CH-149 successfully flew a 1,200 km round-trip rescue mission to the Finnish container ship MS "Camilla" off Newfoundland. Two refuelling stops at the Hibernia oil platform were required. This rescue became the subject of an installment of the 2007 National Geographic Channel documentary series "Trapped".


title: AgustaWestland CH-149 Cormorant

text: On October 25, 2006, a search and rescue crew from 442 Squadron in Comox, British Columbia, conducted a rescue from the side of a cliff in a box canyon with the CH-149 Cormorant which Canadian Forces Captain Sean Morris described as "pretty much the worst situation I've been in my entire life." Captain Morris and his colleagues received international recognition for the rescue as the first Canadian winner of the Prince Philip Helicopter Rescue Award issued by the Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators in the UK


title: AgustaWestland CH-149 Cormorant

text: In August 2010, the Canadian Forces fleet of 14 CH-149 Cormorants passed 40,000 operational hours. The fleet had a higher flying rate than any other AW101 fleet and Cormorant 901, currently stationed at Canadian Forces Base Comox with 442 Squadron, has the highest number of airframe hours on any of the AW101s anywhere in the world. The worldwide fleet of 190 AW101 helicopters had achieved in excess of 200,000 flight hours in Canada, UK, Italy, Denmark, Portugal, and Japan.


title: AgustaWestland CH-149 Cormorant

text: In June 2011, several former USN VH-71s, which are also based on the AW101, were purchased by Canada to be used as spare parts for the CH-149 fleet. In 2013, Canada was reportedly studying whether up to four of the VH-71s could be certified for operational use.


title: AgustaWestland CH-149 Cormorant

text: In 2017, the Liberal government announced funding for the mid-life upgrade of the fleet, to be led by 'Team Cormorant', a team composed of Leonardo Helicopters, IMP Aerospace and Defense, CAE, GE Canada and Collins Aerospace. Estimated at around C$1.5bn, the programmes would offer a common fleet featuring latest avionic and mission systems, advanced radars and sensors, vision enhancement and tracking systems as well as a new GE CT7-8E engine. On May 10, 2017, a report by the Senate Standing Committee on National Security and Defence recommended the government move forward with a proposal to expand the Cormorant fleet by upgrading the 14 CH-149 aircraft and converting seven VH-71 airframes currently in storage to the same operational capability. This would expand the Cormorant fleet to 21 aircraft, and keep them operational until 2040. This recommendation was not adopted by the Liberal Government and instead, in August 2019, the Government announced that "at least" two additional Cormorant helicopters would be purchased while the other 14 would be modernized. Ostensibly this might have permitted some Cormorant helicopters to be based at CFB Trenton in central Canada, in addition to other bases on the East and West coasts. However, by 2021 it was reported that the entire acquisition had been put on hold, at least temporarily, as being "unaffordable".


title: United States congressional delegations from New York

text: These are tables of congressional delegations from New York to the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate.


text: The current dean of the New York delegation is Senator and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, having served in the Senate since 1999 and in Congress since 1981.


text: This is a list of members of the current New York delegation in the U.S. House, along with their respective tenures in office, district boundaries, and district political ratings according to the CPVI. The delegation has a total of 27 members, including 19 Democrats and 8 Republicans.


text: During these two decades, New York had its maximum apportionment (to date) of 45 seats. From 1933 to 1945 there were 43 districts and two seats At-large. After 1945, there were 45 districts.


text: New York lost two seats following the 1950 census. It continued to lose seats from this point forward following every reapportionment.


title: Cerebral amyloid angiopathy

text: Cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) is a form of angiopathy in which amyloid beta peptide deposits in the walls of small to medium blood vessels of the central nervous system and meninges. The term "congophilic" is sometimes used because the presence of the abnormal aggregations of amyloid can be demonstrated by microscopic examination of brain tissue after staining with Congo red. The amyloid material is only found in the brain and as such the disease is not related to other forms of amyloidosis.


title: Cerebral amyloid angiopathy

text: CAA is associated with brain hemorrhages, particularly microhemorrhages. Since CAA can be caused by the same amyloid protein that is associated with Alzheimer's dementia, brain bleeds are more common in people who have a diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease. However, they can also occur in those who have no history of dementia. The bleeding within the brain is usually confined to a particular lobe and this is slightly different compared to brain bleeds which occur as a consequence of high blood pressure (hypertension) – a more common cause of a hemorrhagic stroke (or bleeding in the brain).


title: Cerebral amyloid angiopathy

text: CAA has been identified as occurring either sporadically (generally in elderly populations) or in familial forms such as Flemish, Iowa, and Dutch types. In all cases, it is defined by the deposition of amyloid beta (Aβ) in the leptomeningal and cerebral vessel walls. CAA occurring in the Flemish type has been observed to be linked to large dense-core plaques observed in this pedigree.


title: Cerebral amyloid angiopathy

text: The reason for increased deposition of Aβ in sporadic CAA is still unclear with both increased production of the peptide and abnormal clearance having been proposed as potential causes. Under normal physiology Aβ is cleared from the brain by four pathways: (1) endocytosis by astrocytes and microglial cells, (2) enzymatic degradation by neprilysin or insulysin (3) cleared by way of the blood–brain barrier or (4) drained along periarterial spaces. Abnormalities in each of these identified clearance pathways have been linked to CAA.


title: Cerebral amyloid angiopathy

text: In familial forms of CAA, the cause of Aβ build up is likely due to increased production rather than poor clearance. Mutations in the amyloid precursor protein (APP), Presenilin (PS) 1 and PS2 genes can result in increased rates of cleavage of the APP into Aβ. An immune mechanism has also been proposed. apolipoprotein E (APOE) ε2 and ε4 are associated with increased risk of getting cerebral amyloid antipathy. The use of antiplatelet and anticoagulant therapy increases the risk of getting intracerebral haemorrhage in CAA.


title: Cerebral amyloid angiopathy

text: Several familial variants exist. The condition is usually associated with amyloid beta. However, there are types involving other amyloid peptides:


title: Cerebral amyloid angiopathy

text: The vascular amyloid pathology characteristic of CAA can be classified as either Type 1 or Type 2, the latter type being the more common. Type 1 CAA pathology entails detectable amyloid deposits within cortical capillaries as well as within the leptomeningeal and cortical arteries and arterioles. In type 2 CAA pathology, amyloid deposits are present in leptomeningeal and cortical arteries and arterioles, but not in capillaries. Deposits in veins or venules are possible in either type but are far less prevalent.


title: Cerebral amyloid angiopathy

text: CAA can only be definitively diagnosed by a post-mortem autopsy. Biopsies can play a role in diagnosing probable cases. When no tissue is available for biopsy, the Boston Criteria are used to determine probable CAA cases from MRI or CT scan data. The Boston Criteria require evidence of multiple lobar or cortical hemorrhages to label a patient as probably having CAA. Susceptibility weighted imaging has been proposed as a tool for identifying CAA-related microhemorrhages.


title: Cerebral amyloid angiopathy

text: Cerebral amyloid angiopathy can be presented with lobar intracerebral hemorrhage or microbleeds in the brain. The bleeding usually occurs on the surfaces of the brain in contrast with intracranial haemorrhage due to high blood pressure which occurs in deep locations of the brain such as basal ganglia and pons. In lobar intracerebral bleed, computed tomography (CT) scan would show hyperdense haemorrhage area and hypodense odema around the haemorrhagic site.


title: Cerebral amyloid angiopathy

text: MRI sequence of gradient echo and susceptibility weighted imaging (SWI) are useful in detecting microbleeds and deposition of iron on the brain cortex (cortical superficial siderosis). Other MRI indicators of CAA include white matter hyperintensities and cortical thinning.


title: Cerebral amyloid angiopathy

text: The aim in cerebral amyloid angiopathy is to treat the symptoms, as there is no current cure. Physical, occupational and/or speech therapy may be helpful in the management of this condition.


title: Cerebral amyloid angiopathy

text: Gustav Oppenheim was the first to report vascular amyloid β deposits on the vasculature of the central nervous system in 1909. The first paper focusing solely on what would come to be known as CAA was published in 1938 by WZ Scholz. In 1979, H. Okazaki published a paper implicating CAA in certain cases of lobar intracerebral hemorrhage. The Boston Criteria for CAA originated in a 1995 paper from Harvard Medical School.


title: International economics

text: International economics is concerned with the effects upon economic activity from international differences in productive resources and consumer preferences and the international institutions that affect them. It seeks to explain the patterns and consequences of transactions and interactions between the inhabitants of different countries, including trade, investment and transaction.


title: International economics

text: The economic theory of international trade differs from the remainder of economic theory mainly because of the comparatively limited international mobility of the capital and labour. In that respect, it would appear to differ in degree rather than in principle from the trade between remote regions in one country. Thus the methodology of international trade economics differs little from that of the remainder of economics. However, the direction of academic research on the subject has been influenced by the fact that governments have often sought to impose restrictions upon international trade, and the motive for the development of trade theory has often been a wish to determine the consequences of such restrictions.


title: International economics

text: The branch of trade theory which is conventionally categorized as "classical" consists mainly of the application of deductive logic, originating with Ricardo's Theory of "Comparative Advantage" and developing into a range of theorems that depend for their practical value upon the realism of their postulates. "Modern" trade analysis, on the other hand, depends mainly upon "empirical analysis".


title: International economics

text: The theory of "comparative advantage" provides a logical explanation of international trade as the rational consequence of the comparative advantages that arise from inter-regional differences - regardless of how those differences arise. Since its exposition by David Ricardo the techniques of neo-classical economics have been applied to it to model the patterns of trade that would result from various postulated sources of comparative advantage. However, extremely restrictive (and often unrealistic) assumptions have had to be adopted in order to make the problem amenable to theoretical analysis.


title: International economics

text: The best-known of the resulting models, the Heckscher-Ohlin theorem (H-O) depends upon the assumptions of no international differences of technology, productivity, or consumer preferences; no obstacles to pure competition or free trade and no scale economies. On those assumptions, it derives a model of the trade patterns that would arise solely from international differences in the relative abundance of labour and capital (referred to as factor endowments). The resulting theorem states that, on those assumptions, a country with a relative abundance of capital would export capital-intensive products and import labour-intensive products. The theorem proved to be of very limited predictive value, as was demonstrated by what came to be known as the "Leontief Paradox" (the discovery that, despite its capital-rich factor endowment, America was exporting labour-intensive products and importing capital-intensive products) Nevertheless, the theoretical techniques (and many of the assumptions) used in deriving the H–O model were subsequently used to derive further theorems.


title: International economics

text: The Stolper–Samuelson theorem, which is often described as a corollary of the H–O theorem, was an early example. In its most general form it states that if the price of a good rises (falls) then the price of the factor used intensively in that industry will also rise (fall) while the price of the other factor will fall (rise). In the international trade context for which it was devised it means that trade lowers the real wage of the scarce factor of production, and protection from trade raises it.


title: International economics

text: Another corollary of the H–O theorem is Samuelson's factor price equalisation theorem which states that as trade between countries tends to equalise their product prices, it tends also to equalise the prices paid to their factors of production. Those theories have sometimes been taken to mean that trade between an industrialised country and a developing country would lower the wages of the unskilled in the industrialised country. (But, as noted below, that conclusion depends upon the unlikely assumption that productivity is the same in the two countries). Large numbers of learned papers have been produced in attempts to elaborate on the H–O and Stolper–Samuelson theorems, and while many of them are considered to provide valuable insights, they have seldom proved to be directly applicable to the task of explaining trade patterns.


title: International economics

text: Modern trade analysis moves away from the restrictive assumptions of the H-O theorem and explores the effects upon trade of a range of factors, including technology and scale economies. It makes extensive use of econometrics to identify from the available statistics, the contribution of particular factors among the many different factors that affect trade. One example of such an econometric model is the gravity equation. The contributions of differences of technology have been evaluated in several such studies. The temporary advantage arising from a country's development of a new technology is seen as contributory factor in one study.


title: International economics

text: Other researchers have found research and development expenditure, patents issued, and the availability of skilled labor, to be indicators of the technological leadership that enables some countries to produce a flow of such technological innovations and have found that technology leaders tend to export hi-tech products to others and receive imports of more standard products from them. Another econometric study also established a correlation between country size and the share of exports made up of goods in the production of which there are scale economies. The study further suggested that internationally traded goods fall into three categories, each with a different type of comparative advantage:


title: International economics

text: There is a strong presumption that any exchange that is freely undertaken will benefit both parties, but that does not exclude the possibility that it may be harmful to others. However (on assumptions that included constant returns and competitive conditions) Paul Samuelson has proved that it will always be possible for the gainers from international trade to compensate the losers. Moreover, in that proof, Samuelson did not take account of the gains to others resulting from wider consumer choice, from the international specialisation of productive activities - and consequent economies of scale, and from the transmission of the benefits of technological innovation. An OECD study has suggested that there are further dynamic gains resulting from better resource allocation, deepening specialisation, increasing returns to R&D, and technology spillover. The authors found the evidence concerning growth rates to be mixed, but that there is strong evidence that a 1 per cent increase in openness to trade increases the level of GDP per capita by between 0.9 per cent and 2.0 per cent. They suggested that much of the gain arises from the growth of the most productive firms at the expense of the less productive. Those findings and others have contributed to a broad consensus among economists that trade confers very substantial net benefits, and that government restrictions upon trade are generally damaging.


title: International economics

text: Nevertheless, there have been widespread misgivings about the effects of international trade upon wage earners in developed countries. Samuelson's factor price equalisation theorem indicates that, if productivity were the same in both countries, the effect of trade would be to bring about equality in wage rates. As noted above, that theorem is sometimes taken to mean that trade between an industrialised country and a developing country would lower the wages of the unskilled in the industrialised country. However, it is unreasonable to assume that productivity would be the same in a low-wage developing country as in a high-wage developed country. A 1999 study has found international differences in wage rates to be approximately matched by corresponding differences in productivity. (Such discrepancies that remained were probably the result of over-valuation or under-valuation of exchange rates, or of inflexibilities in labour markets.) It has been argued that, although there may sometimes be short-term pressures on wage rates in the developed countries, competition between employers in developing countries can be expected eventually to bring wages into line with their employees' "marginal products". Any remaining international wage differences would then be the result of productivity differences, so that there would be no difference between unit labour costs in developing and developed countries, and no downward pressure on wages in the developed countries.


title: International economics

text: There has also been concern that international trade could operate against the interests of developing countries. Influential studies published in 1950 by the Argentine economist Raul Prebisch and the British economist Hans Singer suggested that there is a tendency for the prices of agricultural products to fall relative to the prices of manufactured goods; turning the "terms of trade" against the developing countries and producing an unintended transfer of wealth from them to the developed countries.


title: International economics

text: Their findings have been confirmed by a number of subsequent studies, although it has been suggested that the effect may be due to "quality bias" in the index numbers used or to the possession of "market power" by manufacturers. The Prebisch/Singer findings remain controversial, but they were used at the time—and have been used subsequently—to suggest that the developing countries should erect barriers against manufactured imports in order to nurture their own “infant industries” and so reduce their need to export agricultural products. The arguments for and against such a policy are similar to those concerning the "protection" of infant industries in general.


title: International economics

text: The term "infant industry" is used to denote a new industry which has prospects of gaining comparative advantage in the long-term, but which would be unable to survive in the face of competition from imported goods. This situation can occur when time is needed either to achieve potential "economies of scale", or to acquire potential "learning curve" economies. Successful identification of such a situation, followed by the temporary imposition of a barrier against imports can, in principle, produce substantial benefits to the country that applies it—a policy known as “import substitution industrialization”. Whether such policies succeed depends upon the governments’ skills in picking winners, with reasonably expectations of both successes and failures. It has been claimed that South Korea's automobile industry owes its existence to initial protection against imports, but a study of infant industry protection in Turkey reveals the absence of any association between productivity gains and degree of protection, such as might be expected of a successful import substitution policy.


title: International economics

text: Another study provides descriptive evidence suggesting that attempts at import substitution industrialisation since the 1970s have usually failed, but the empirical evidence on the question has been contradictory and inconclusive. It has been argued that the case against import substitution industrialisation is not that it is bound to fail, but that subsidies and tax incentives do the job better. It has also been pointed out that, in any case, trade restrictions could not be expected to correct the domestic market imperfections that often hamper the development of infant industries.


title: International economics

text: Economists’ findings about the benefits of trade have often been rejected by government policy-makers, who have frequently sought to protect domestic industries against foreign competition by erecting barriers, such as tariffs and import quotas, against imports. Average tariff levels of around 15 per cent in the late 19th century rose to about 30 percent in the 1930s, following the passage in the United States of the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act. Mainly as the result of international agreements under the auspices of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and subsequently the World Trade Organization (WTO),


title: International economics

text: average tariff levels were progressively reduced to about 7 per cent during the second half of the 20th century, and some other trade restrictions were also removed. The restrictions that remain are nevertheless of major economic importance: among other estimates,


title: International economics

text: the World Bank estimated in 2004 that the removal of all trade restrictions would yield benefits of over $500 billion a year by 2015.


title: International economics

text: The largest of the remaining trade-distorting policies are those concerning agriculture. In the OECD countries government payments account for 30 per cent of farmers’ receipts and tariffs of over 100 per cent are common. OECD economists estimate that cutting all agricultural tariffs and subsidies by 50% would set off a chain reaction in realignments of production and consumption patterns that would add an extra $26 billion to annual world income.


title: International economics

text: Quotas prompt foreign suppliers to raise their prices toward the domestic level of the importing country. That relieves some of the competitive pressure on domestic suppliers, and both they and the foreign suppliers gain at the expense of a loss to consumers, and to the domestic economy, in addition to which there is a "deadweight loss" to the world economy. When quotas were banned under the rules of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the United States, Britain and the European Union made use of equivalent arrangements known as "voluntary restraint agreements" (VRAs) or voluntary export restraints (VERs) which were negotiated with the governments of exporting countries (mainly Japan)—until they too were banned. Tariffs have been considered to be less harmful than quotas, although it can be shown that their welfare effects differ only when there are significant upward or downward trends in imports. Governments also impose a wide range of non-tariff barriers that are similar in effect to quotas, some of which are subject to WTO agreements. A recent example has been the application of the "precautionary principle" to exclude innovatory products.


title: International economics

text: The economics of international finance does not differ in principle from the economics of international trade, but there are significant differences of emphasis. The practice of international finance tends to involve greater uncertainties and risks because the assets that are traded are claims to flows of returns that often extend many years into the future. Markets in financial assets tend to be more volatile than markets in goods and services because decisions are more often revised and more rapidly put into effect. There is the share presumption that a transaction that is freely undertaken will benefit both parties, but there is a much greater danger that it will be harmful to others.


title: International economics

text: For example, mismanagement of mortgage lending in the United States led in 2008 to banking failures and credit shortages in other developed countries, and sudden reversals of international flows of capital have often led to damaging financial crises in developing countries. And, because of the incidence of rapid change, the methodology of comparative statics has fewer applications than in the theory of international trade, and empirical analysis is more widely employed. Also, the consensus among economists concerning its principal issues is narrower and more open to controversy than is the consensus about international trade.


title: International economics

text: A major change in the organisation of international finance occurred in the latter years of the twentieth century, and economists are still debating its implications. At the end of the Second World War, the national signatories to the Bretton Woods Agreement had agreed to maintain their currencies each at a fixed exchange rate with the United States dollar ($), and the United States government had undertaken to buy gold on demand at a fixed rate of $35 per ounce. In support of those commitments, most signatory nations had maintained strict control over their nationals’ use of foreign exchange and upon their dealings in international financial assets.


title: International economics

text: But in 1971 the United States government announced that it was suspending the convertibility of the dollar, and there followed a progressive transition to the current regime of "floating exchange rates" in which most governments no longer attempt to control their exchange rates or to impose controls upon access to foreign currencies or upon access to international financial markets. The behaviour of the international financial system was transformed. Exchange rates became very volatile and there was an extended series of damaging financial crises. One study estimated that by the end of the twentieth century there had been 112 banking crises in 93 countries, another that there had been 26 banking crises, 86 currency crises and 27 mixed banking and currency crises, many times more than in the previous post-war years.


title: International economics

text: In making an influential case for flexible exchange rates in the 1950s, Milton Friedman had claimed that if there were any resulting instability, it would mainly be the consequence of macroeconomic instability, but an empirical analysis in 1999 found no apparent connection.


title: International economics

text: Neoclassical theory had led them to expect capital to flow from the capital-rich developed economies to the capital-poor developing countries - because the returns to capital there would be higher. Flows of financial capital would tend to increase the level of investment in the developing countries by reducing their costs of capital, and the direct investment of physical capital would tend to promote specialisation and the transfer of skills and technology. However, the eventual outcome of these policies was not what had been expected. Theoretical considerations alone cannot determine the balance between those benefits and the costs of volatility, and the question has had to be tackled by empirical analysis.