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Voskhod (spacecraft)

The Voskhod (Восход, "Sunrise") was a spacecraft built by the Soviet Union's space program for human spaceflight as part of the Voskhod programme. It was a development of and a follow-on to the Vostok spacecraft. Voskhod 1 was used for a three-man flight whereas Voskhod 2 had a crew of two. They consisted of a spherical descent module (diameter 2.3 m), which housed the cosmonauts, and instruments, and a conical equipment module (mass 2.27 t, 2.25 m long, 2.43 m wide), which contained propellant and the engine system. Voskhod was superseded by the Soyuz spacecraft in 1967.

Design
The Voskhod spacecraft was, essentially, a Vostok spacecraft that had a backup solid fuel retrorocket added to the top of the descent module. The ejection seat was removed for more space and two or three crew couches were added to the interior at a 90° angle to that of the Vostok crew position. There was no provision for crew escape in the event of a launch or landing emergency.

Lack of space meant that the three crew members of Voskhod 1 did not wear space suits. Both crew members wore spacesuits on the Voskhod 2 mission, as it involved an EVA and used an inflatable airlock. This allowed cosmonaut Alexei Leonov to exit and re-enter the craft. It was needed because the vehicle's electrical and environmental systems were air-cooled, and complete capsule depressurization would lead to overheating. The airlock weighed 250 kg, was 70 cm in diameter, 77 cm high when collapsed for launch. When extended in orbit, it was 2.5 m long, had an internal diameter of 1 m and an external diameter of 1.2 m. The second crew member wore a spacesuit as a precaution against accidental descent module depressurization. The airlock was jettisoned after use.

The lack of ejection seats meant that the Voskhod crew would return to Earth inside their spacecraft, unlike the Vostok cosmonauts who ejected and parachuted down separately. Because of this, a new landing system was developed, which added a small solid-fuel rocket to the parachute lines. It fired as the descent module neared touchdown, providing a softer landing.

A backup solid-fueled retrorocket was added to the top of the descent module in the event that the main retrorocket failed. This had not been necessary on Vostok as the orbit was low enough that the spacecraft's orbit would decay in ten days if the retrorocket failed, there being enough onboard consumables to sustain the cosmonaut that long. In any case, the Blok E equipped R-7 booster lacked sufficient lift capacity for a backup retrorocket. Since Voskhod was well below the maximum lift capacity of the larger Blok I equipped R-7, it would be put into a quite high orbit and not decay in ten days.

Voskhod utilized the 11A57 booster, essentially the Molniya 8K78L with the Blok L stage removed to create a medium-lift LEO launcher, and later the launch vehicle for the Soyuz program.

The spacecraft lacked any launch escape system, meaning that the crew would not survive a booster failure that occurred in the first 2.5 minutes of launch (after payload shroud jettison, the descent module could be detached). Although work had begun on an LES in 1962, it was not ready yet and so the engineers and cosmonauts had to gamble that the booster functioned properly during ascent, as by 1964, the R-7's success rate was improving but still not perfect.

Vostok 3KV (1964)
Also known as Voskhod. Adaptation of the Vostok spacecraft for three cosmonauts. This version flew twice, on 6 October 1964 uncrewed (as Kosmos 47) and on 12 October 1964 crewed as Voskhod 1.

Basic data

 * Crew size: 3 (without spacesuits)
 * Endurance: 14.0 days
 * Overall length: 5.0 m
 * Maximum diameter: 2.4 m
 * Total mass: 5682 kg
 * Propellant mass: 362 kg
 * RCS total impulse: not available
 * Primary engine thrust: 15.83 kN
 * Main engine propellants: nitrous oxide/amine
 * Total spacecraft delta V: 215 m/s
 * Power: batteries, 24.0 kW total

Reentry module

 * Crew size: 3
 * Diameter: 2.3 m (sphere)
 * Total mass: 2900 kg
 * Attitude control: none
 * Environment: oxygen + nitrogen at 1 atm
 * Controls: as Vostok 3KA
 * Navigation indicator: Globus IMP navigation instrument version 3
 * Landing system: Sphere made ballistic reentry, with shield side seeking correct orientation by virtue of the center of gravity being aft of the center of the sphere.
 * Parachutes: single with suspended retrorocket package for soft landing. Crew stayed within the capsule.

Equipment module

 * Length: 2.3 m
 * Maximum diameter: 2.4 m
 * Total mass: 2300 kg
 * Propellant mass: 275 kg
 * Reaction control system
 * Thrusters: not available
 * Thrusters pressure: 59 PSI (4 bars)
 * Propellant media: Cold gas (nitrogen) at 2200 PSI (150 bar)
 * Propellants storage: 20 kg stored in 12 pressure bottles (5 + 5 + 2 for first, second and reserve)
 * Specific impulse: not available
 * Total impulse: not available
 * Retro-rockets
 * Thrust: 15.83 kN
 * Propellant: nitrous oxide/amine
 * Specific impulse: 266 seconds
 * Delta V: 155 m/s
 * Power: batteries, 24.0 kW total, 0.20 kW average

Landing retrorocket module (commonly known as landing rocket pack)

 * Length: 0.6 m
 * Maximum diameter: 0.3 m
 * Total mass: 143 kg
 * Propellant mass: 87 kg
 * Thrust: 117.7 kN
 * Propellant: solid
 * Specific impulse: 224 seconds
 * Delta V: 60 m/s

Voskhod 3KD (1965)
This version flew twice, on 22 February 1965 uncrewed (as Kosmos 57) and on 18 March 1965 crewed as the Voskhod 2 spacecraft.

Reentry Module
Reentry Module: Voskhod SA. Also known as: Spuskaemiy apparat - Sharik (sphere).
 * Crew Size: 2
 * Length: 2.3 m
 * Diameter: 2.3 m
 * Mass: 2900 kg
 * Heat Shield Mass: 837 kg
 * Recovery equipment: 151 kg
 * Parachute deploys at 2.5 km altitude
 * Crew lands in spacecraft. Touchdown rocket softens landing.
 * Ballistic reentry acceleration: 8 g (78 m/s²)

Equipment Module
Equipment Module: Voskhod PA. Also known as: Priborniy otsek.
 * Length: 2.25 m
 * Diameter: 2.43 m
 * Mass: 2300 kg
 * Equipment in pressurized compartment
 * RCS Propellants: Cold gas (nitrogen)
 * RCS Propellants: 20 kg
 * Main Engine (TDU): 397 kg
 * Main Engine Thrust: 15.83 kN
 * Main Engine Propellants: Nitrous oxide/amine
 * Main Engine Propellant Mass: 275 kg
 * Main Engine Isp: 266 s (2.61 kN·s/kg)
 * Main Engine Burn Time: 60 seconds (typical retro burn = 42 seconds)
 * Spacecraft delta V: 155 m/s
 * Electrical System: Batteries
 * Electric System: 0.20 average kW
 * Electric System: 24.0 kW-h

Auxiliary Retrorocket Module
Auxiliary Retrorocket Module: Voskhod KDU. Also known as: Engine unit
 * Length: 0.60 m
 * Diameter: 0.25 m
 * Mass: 143 kg
 * Engine Thrust: 118 kN
 * Engine Propellants: Solid
 * Propellant Mass: 87 kg
 * Engine Isp: 224 seconds (2.20 kN·s/kg)
 * Spacecraft delta V: 60 m/s

General data

 * Total Mass: 5682 kg
 * Total Length: 5.0 m
 * Endurance: Supplies for 14 days in orbit
 * Launch Vehicle: Voskhod 11A57
 * Typical orbit: 163 km x 591 km, 64.8° inclination

title: Voskhod (spacecraft)


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Gimje

Gimje is a city in North Jeolla Province, South Korea.

History
The Gimje area is located on the "great plains" of Korea and has been cultivated since ancient times. Nations of early date ascended in the year 200. The Baekje Kingdom invaded and incorporated several small mahan states in the 13th year of King Onjo's reign. The Baekje Kingdom changed its name to Byeogol, but when is not clear.

In the Joseon dynasty, Gimje first appeared in the year 1466 when Sejo of Joseon ruled. He promoted Gimje to an independent county. In 1628, Gwanghaegun of Joseon combined the nearby district of Mangyeong District into Gimje County.

The Baekje Kingdom was ruined by the Tang and Silla Kingdoms, and the Unified Silla Kingdom changed the city's name to Gimje city.

The Goryeo dynasty promoted Gimje city to Gimje District in the 21st year of King Injong’s reign.

City government has always highly regarded and promoted the cultivation of rice and other crop species. From the Baekje Kingdom through the 21st century, Gimje has been one of the best areas for growing rice.

Horizon Festival
Gimje is known as the region where the sky meets the ground, hence the festival of horizon or 'jipyeongseon.' It is held at Byeokgolje area, and more than one million tourists visit it each year. Gimje Horizon Festival hosts a wide range of programs including Samullori (traditional percussion quartet) contest, rural landscape drawing contest, celebratory performances, street parade, Ssireum (wrestling), and traditional weddings. Gimje is the only region where Koreans can see the horizon from a landlocked area. The festival was appointed an Excellent Festival for 4 years between 2004 and 2008. It also provides city residents a chance to experience traditional farming methods.

Twin towns – sister cities
Gimje is twinned with:
 * 🇯🇵 Kikuchi, Kumamoto, Japan (1985)
 * Nantong, Jiangsu, China (1997)
 * Gumi, North Gyeongsang, South Korea (1998)
 * Donghae City, Gangwon, South Korea (1999)

People from Gimje

 * Masutatsu Oyama, Zainichi Korean Karate master, founder of Kyokushin Karate (Real Name: Choi Yeong-eui,, Choe Yeong-ui)
 * Sin Chang-won, notorious South Korean criminal
 * Casanova Wong, South Korean martial artist (Taekwondo), martial arts actor and film producer (Real Name: Kim Yong-ho,, Gim Yong-ho)
 * Lee Jung-hyun, South Korean actress, singer and K-pop idol
 * Kim Se-jeong, South Korean actress, singer, dancer and K-pop idol, former member of K-pop girlgroups I.O.I, gugudan (in which she was the leader of the group), and the second gugudan's subgroup, gugudan SeMiNa.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Gimje


text:
User:Benc

Rarely-active-nowadays, long-term wikipedian. If you're reading this, hi.

Very old stuff exists in my user subpages.

title: User:Benc


text: User:Sam Francis/Anarchism

title: User:Sam Francis/Anarchism


text:
Talk:Sullivan Act

Highly questionable information
"Many believe the act was to discriminate against immigrants in New York, particularly Italians, as the first person arrested under the law was mobster Giuseppe Costabile." This statement is sourced to a pro-gun blog, and not even to a particular blog entry there. "Many believe" seems a questionable way to make a factual statement. Positioning this information above the facts about Mayor Gaynor seems to bias the conclusions away from the factual causes and toward specualtive ones -- that is, the Gaynor shooting was a definite factor in the law's passage and discrimination only a possible one, and yet discrimination is given privilege of place (and length, and consideration). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.229.172.169 (talk) 21:14, 19 January 2011 (UTC)

Gaynor statement moved
Moved from article page, as it does not constitute either a "pro" or "con" position on the act: (It could go elsewhere in the article, though)

 * In 1910, mayor William Jay Gaynor was shot and seriously wounded by a disgruntled former public employee, prompting calls to regulate guns in New York.

--snoyes 00:19, 9 Dec 2003 (UTC)

 * Yeah, I could of wrote some of it better. I wanted to get a quick dirty stub out there. Seems to have been fixed; fine with me. --  dino

Unclear
A quick question: The following sentence is unclear: "Upon first passage, the Sullivan Act banned the ownership of pistols in New York, more formally, it required licenses for New Yorkers to own guns small enough to be concealed." Does it mean that pistols were outright prohibited at first, but then allowed if licensed? Was it not in fact a ban, but rather a mandatory licensing? --snoyes 00:22, 9 Dec 2003 (UTC)

 * Yes it was a de facto ban, because anyone who already owned a handgun was immediately in violation until they could get a license; in fact two of the first-day arrests were of pawnbrokers – one had five revolvers displayed in the shop window, the other had several in a desk drawer. --CliffC 11:29, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Not just guns
I expanded the list of weapons cited by the law. While working on "Mad Bomber" George Metesky I was surprised to discover he was also charged with Sullivan Law violations for carrying the thirty-odd bombs he placed around town. The law also makes having a cute little gadget called a slungshot a felony; I thought it was a typo for slingshot, but it's not. --CliffC 11:29, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Slungshot and slingshot in early 20th century weapons laws: Tennessee law on "going armed" forbids carrying the "slingshot" which appears to reference either the weaponized slungshot or a large metal ball (shot) in a leather or canvas bag. This has led to some humor among modern readers who read it as banning carry of slingshots. Naaman Brown (talk) 17:10, 14 March 2009 (UTC)

After finding this reference to slungshot, I followed the link. The article for "slungshot" lists states that outlaw it, and New York is not one of them. Is that an error in the "slungshot" article, or just on this talk page? They can't both be right.Jororo05 (talk) 21:18, 18 May 2013 (UTC)

Timothy Sullivan?
It's attributed to Timothy Sullivan, but I couldn't find anything solid saying it was his act, though this reference makes a bland statement about gun control. Sullivan is a common name. So was it Timothy Sullivan? Some other Sullivan?

dino (talk) 01:42, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

 * It was Timmo all right, here's the lead paragraph of a January 17 1909 NY Times editorial titled "THE POLICEMAN'S CLUB" about himself, stating that Timmo wants to disarm the police, link here, he was a fine fellow and a model crook.
 * TIMOTHY SULLIVAN, major, introducing in the State Senate a bill to deprive policemen of their weapons of offense and defense, yclept clubs, stands forth as a true representative of his constituency. A disarmed police force is one of the cherished dreams in the district of Mr. SULLIVAN, the larger.
 * --CliffC (talk) 03:31, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

I am a direct descendant of Big Tim and he was the primary sponsor of the 1911 legislation. Also, Sullivan was not "committed" to a mental hospital. He did suffer from tertiary syphilis and was adjudicated incompetent to handle his own affairs. With that, I removed that incorrect sentence. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.65.53.241 (talk) 19:22, 18 August 2014 (UTC)

Dan Czitrom, "Underworld and Underdogs: Big Tim Sullivan and Metropolitan Politics in New York, 1889-1913", Journal of American History, 78.2. (1991) THAT Timothy Sullivan arrogant power- and money-grabbing thug. Naaman Brown (talk) 14:48, 8 February 2010 (UTC)

Removing "notoriously corrupt" from the intro, because it's not pertinent to the act. There is info about Mr Sullivan's personal involvement later in the article. David (talk) 12:10, 19 June 2022 (UTC)

 * @Dpm64 I oppose this change. I believe that longstanding detail filled the purpose of illustrating the controversial nature of the act. Oktayey (talk) 00:02, 20 June 2022 (UTC)

 * I'd suggest it would be analogous to mentioning Watergate in the lede of an article about Nixon reopening relations with China. It's not relevant to the event, and looks like an attempt to discredit via an ad-hominem attack. The Sullivan Act article does a good job describing the controversy further on. David (talk) 13:11, 24 June 2022 (UTC)
 * @Dpm64 I feel like its controversy is significant enough to be illustrated in the lede. If "notoriously corrupt" is removed, how would you suggest that be done? Oktayey (talk) 14:11, 24 June 2022 (UTC)
 * As a non-American, I get the feeling that this article is touching on a bigger political debate, where discrediting the act (vs describing it as objectively as possible) is important to some people (not specifically @Oktayey). Wikipedia is an international project, and it's best to leave political baggage at home. David (talk) 22:37, 24 March 2023 (UTC)

Perhaps we could describe the nature of the controversy itself. The lede mentions the event that generated widespread support for the act; what was the nature of the opposition? David (talk) 01:56, 26 June 2022 (UTC)

Correction — the lede does ``not`` mention the murder-suicide that generated support. Perhaps we could briefly summarize the controversy itself. David (talk) 01:58, 26 June 2022 (UTC)

 * @Dpm64 There a couple controversial aspects to the law in question: the anti-Italian sentiment linked to the act and its selective enforcement, and the discriminatory issuance of permits, practically limited exclusively to retired police and those who paid bribes.
 * I don't know if the mention of both aspects can be succinct enough, so should we choose just one? Oktayey (talk) 17:56, 26 June 2022 (UTC)

 * Which has the most-credible citations/evidence? David (talk) 01:02, 30 June 2022 (UTC)
 * @Dpm64 Although there is definitely sufficient evidence illustrating the selective enforcement of the law early on, the latter has actual recent examples of officials getting convicted of participating in bribery schemes. Oktayey (talk) 19:39, 2 July 2022 (UTC)

Question:
I am searching for a reference that research which supported the Sullivan Act was admitted on the death bed of it's author to have been falsified. Anybody know who that was? Contact me "at" kc4iai_hotmail.com

LK Tucker 108.206.18.197 (talk) 06:24, 4 September 2015 (UTC)

Discuss the Majority Opinion in the Bruen case.
Currently this article quotes from Justice Alito’s concurrence in the Bruen case, but shouldn’t it also make reference to the majority opinion of the Supreme Court, authored by Justice Thomas, which declared the “proper cause” requirement unconstitutional (after it had apparently stood for a over a century)? RoslinTollcross (talk) 23:08, 21 November 2022 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: Advanced Legal Research
— Assignment last updated by Simmsmls (talk) 16:41, 10 February 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Sullivan Act


text:
Soyuz

Soyuz is a transliteration of the Cyrillic text Союз (Russian and Ukrainian, 'Union'). It can refer to any union, such as a trade union (profsoyuz) or the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (Сою́з Сове́тских Социалисти́ческих Респу́блик, Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik). As terminological shorthand "soyuz" by itself was often used interchangeably with each of the slightly longer terms Сове́тский Сою́з (Sovetskiy Soyuz, 'Soviet Union'). It was also a shorthand for the citizenry as a whole.

Soyuz is also the designated name of various projects the country commissioned during the Space Race.

Space program uses

 * Soyuz programme, a human spaceflight program initiated by the Soviet Union, continued by the Russian Federation
 * Soyuz (spacecraft), used in that program
 * Soyuz (rocket), initially used to launch that spacecraft
 * Soyuz (rocket family), derivatives of that rocket design
 * Soyuz Launch Complex in Kourou, French Guiana

Other Soviet/Russian/Ukrainian uses

 * SS Albert Ballin, a 1922 German-built ship recovered and renamed Soyuz by the USSR
 * Sovetsky Soyuz-class battleship, an aborted ship construction program, 1938–1941
 * Sovetsky Soyuz, a propaganda magazine published by the Soviet Union, beginning in 1956
 * Soyuz Station, a base established in 1982 by members of the Soviet Antarctic Expeditions in Mac. Robertson Land
 * , a Moscow-based media company, founded in 1988
 * Soyuz (faction) in the Congress of Soviets, 1990–1991
 * Soyuz (political party), a political party in Ukraine, established in 1997

Uses in fiction

 * Soyuz, a team of Russian superheroes in DC Comics
 * Soyuz, a character in Dr. Stone, a Japanese manga series

title: Soyuz


text:
Talk:Computational chemistry

Wiki Education assignment: CHEM 300
— Assignment last updated by CHEM 300 UBC CJA (talk) 18:02, 8 November 2023 (UTC)

 * Added a small citation at the introductory paragraph. It's meant to show that computational chemistry aids drug development Bird flock (talk) 03:05, 8 October 2023 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: CHEM 300 II
Added a small citation at the first bullet point in "Several major areas may be distinguished within computational chemistry" It's meant to show that computational chemistry involves using simulations of forces or advanced quantum chemical methods to find stable points on the energy surface as the positions of the nuclei change. Erdabravest2001 (talk) 07:06, 10 October 2023 (UTC)

Want to add:

Wiki Education assignment: CHEM 300 III
Erdabravest2001 (talk) 06:00, 23 October 2023 (UTC) I am starting to add quantum computational chemistry as part of this page. As I have worked on this type of stuff before I am going to add the Variation Quantum Algorithm here and others as well as a more mathematical formulation for specific parts of computational chemistry. I will try finishing by 2023-11-1st.06:00, 23 October 2023 (UTC)~

Update the Chemistry Computational Chemistry Page
We were wondering if we could have someone look over our page before we publish them on wikipedia. They are here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Bird_flock/Computational_chemistry

Please update your thoughts using a peer review.

Just In case we need this
Examples of such properties are structure (i.e., the expected positions of the constituent atoms), absolute and relative (interaction) energies, electronic charge density distributions, dipoles and higher multipole moments, vibrational frequencies, reactivity, or other spectroscopic quantities, and cross sections for collision with other particles.

The methods used cover both static and dynamic situations. In all cases, the computer time and other resources (such as memory and disk space) increase quickly with the size of the system being studied. That system can be a molecule, a group of molecules, or a solid. Computational chemistry methods range from very approximate to highly accurate; the latter is usually feasible for small systems only. Ab initio methods are based entirely on quantum mechanics and basic physical constants. Other methods are called empirical or semi-empirical because they use additional empirical parameters.

Both ab initio and semi-empirical approaches involve approximations. These range from simplified forms of the first-principles equations that are easier or faster to solve, to approximations limiting the size of the system (for example, periodic boundary conditions), to fundamental approximations to the underlying equations that are required to achieve any solution to them at all. For example, most ab initio calculations make the Born–Oppenheimer approximation, which greatly simplifies the underlying Schrödinger equation by assuming that the nuclei remain in place during the calculation. In principle, ab initio methods eventually converge to the exact solution of the underlying equations as the number of approximations is reduced. In practice, however, it is impossible to eliminate all approximations, and residual error inevitably remains. The goal of computational chemistry is to minimize this residual error while keeping the calculations tractable.

In some cases, the details of electronic structure are less important than the long-time phase space behavior of molecules. This is the case in conformational studies of proteins and protein-ligand binding thermodynamics. Classical approximations to the potential energy surface are used, typically with molecular mechanics force fields, as they are computationally less intensive than electronic calculations, to enable longer simulations of molecular dynamics. Furthermore, cheminformatics uses even more empirical (and computationally cheaper) methods like machine learning based on physicochemical properties. One typical problem in cheminformatics is to predict the binding affinity of drug molecules to a given target. Other problems include predicting binding specificity, off-target effects, toxicity, and pharmacokinetic properties. Erdabravest2001 (talk) 01:16, 5 December 2023 (UTC)

 * Materialscientist  Please do not edit this. My partner, @Bird flock is adding citations as we speak. Erdabravest2001 (talk) 01:45, 5 December 2023 (UTC)

I hope this message finds you well. My partner (@Bird_flock) and I would like to share some updates regarding our recent editorial revisions, guided by the valuable insights from Ian, our Senior Educational Expert.

Upon review, Ian advised that references should be positioned at the end of a paragraph when multiple sentences draw from the same citation. We realized that our previous format, which placed the citation after the first relevant sentence, was not optimal. This oversight led to instances where only a single sentence in a paragraph was cited, which was not our intention.

To enhance the readability and professional appearance of the document, we have now adjusted the citations to follow punctuation marks, ensuring a more streamlined and coherent format. Additionally, we have updated the section headers to adopt sentence case, moving away from the previous numbered format. This change aligns with standard editorial practices and improves the overall structure of the document.

Furthermore, we have addressed the specific issue with the section titled "Algorithm: Investigate the…" by removing the colon from the heading. This alteration brings the section titles in line with our revised formatting standards.

These revisions have been an enlightening process for our team, significantly enhancing our understanding of effective and professional document formatting. We are committed to continuous improvement and appreciate the guidance provided by Ian and the feedback from our readers.

Methods for Solids
I deleted this due to the GA Review.

''Computational chemical methods can be applied to solid-state physics problems. The electronic structure of a crystal is in general described by a band structure, which defines the energies of electron orbitals for each point in the Brillouin zone. Ab initio and semi-empirical calculations yield orbital energies; therefore, they can be applied to band structure calculations. Since it is time-consuming to calculate the energy for a molecule, it is even more time-consuming to calculate them for the entire list of points in the Brillouin zone.''

''The determination of molecular structure by geometry optimization became routine only after efficient methods for calculating the first derivatives of the energy with respect to all atomic coordinates became available. Evaluation of the related second derivatives allows the prediction of vibrational frequencies if harmonic motion is estimated. More importantly, it allows for the characterization of stationary points. The frequencies are related to the eigenvalues of the Hessian matrix, which contains second derivatives. If the eigenvalues are all positive, then the frequencies are all real and the stationary point is a local minimum. If one eigenvalue is negative (i.e., an imaginary frequency), then the stationary point is a transition structure. If more than one eigenvalue is negative, then the stationary point is a more complex one and is usually of little interest. When one of these is found, it is necessary to move the search away from it if the experimenter is looking solely for local minima and transition structures.''

''The total energy is determined by approximate solutions of the time-dependent Schrödinger equation, usually with no relativistic terms included, and by making use of the Born–Oppenheimer approximation, which allows for the separation of electronic and nuclear motions, thereby simplifying the Schrödinger equation. This leads to the evaluation of the total energy as a sum of the electronic energy at fixed nuclei positions and the repulsion energy of the nuclei. A notable exception is certain approaches called direct quantum chemistry, which treat electrons and nuclei on a common footing. Density functional methods and semi-empirical methods are variants of the major theme. For very large systems, the relative total energies can be compared using molecular mechanics.'' Erdabravest (talk) 20:35, 22 January 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Computational chemistry


text:
Mimic (comics)

Mimic (Calvin Montgomery Rankin) is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. He was briefly a member of the X-Men in the 1960s, and was the first character to be added to the team after the original line-up and the first X-Man who was not a mutant.

An alternate reality version of Mimic became a popular member of the Exiles, the reality-hopping team.

Publication history
Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Werner Roth, he first appeared in The X-Men #19 (April 1966) as a villain.

Origins
Calvin Rankin was born in Passaic, New Jersey. After an accidental mixup of chemicals from his father Ronald Rankin's experiments, he gained the ability to temporarily copy the skills, physical traits, knowledge, and superpowers of any person within close range (approximately ten feet), which led people to fear him. When Ronald found out about this, he retreated with Calvin into a mine where his father worked on a machine which, as he claimed, would make the abilities his son absorbed permanent. However, these experiments with the device caused several power outages in the vicinity; to hold off the mob which was tracking these disturbances, Ronald blasted the mine entrance, but was accidentally caught and killed in the explosion, and the device sealed deep inside the mine.

With the X-Men
Calvin first encountered the X-Men when he got into a fight with X-Men members Beast and Iceman in their civilian identities and duplicated their powers to defeat them. He later came across Marvel Girl, and found out her secret after gaining Marvel Girl's telekinetic power. Rankin decided to seek out the X-Men in a plot to get to the machine and make their powers his permanently. Taking the costumed identity "Mimic", he went to their mansion and battled the X-Men. He then escaped them, taking Marvel Girl hostage and drove to the mine, knowing the rest would follow. As the others came near, he regained their abilities, and he used Cyclops's optic power to break through the rubble to the machine. The other X-Men freed Marvel Girl and battled Mimic. Initially, he gained the upper hand and activated the machine after using Professor X's power to understand how the machine worked, but his powers were removed by Ronald's device, as Professor Xavier had expected. Xavier then wiped his memory and let him go.

It was while attending the same college as Jean Grey that his memory returned. In another attempt to gain the X-Men's abilities, Mimic set his sights on joining their ranks, becoming deputy leader in the process when he blackmailed his way into joining the X-Men. As a member of the team, he aided them against Banshee and the Ogre of Factor Three, but soon began to antagonize the other X-Men with his arrogant behavior and ended up expelled after a fight with Cyclops. However, shortly afterwards he saved his ex-teammates from the Super-Adaptoid, defeating the android by tricking it into trying to copy his artificial powers. This battle robbed him of his abilities, and he was left powerless but a better person.

After the X-Men
Eventually, Mimic regained his powers, but they were enhanced to also absorb people's life forces, killing them. As the Beast tried to work out a solution, Calvin seemingly perished in a self-sacrificial fight against the Hulk after absorbing Hulk's gamma radiation. For a long time, the X-Men believed him to be dead. In actuality, Mimic was in a coma which lasted for years. Mimic woke up when Wolverine came near him, because his power copied Wolverine's healing ability. Mimic also ended up copying Wolverine's other powers, including his claws, but after a confrontation with Wolverine, the Hulk (in his "Joe Fixit" persona) and an artificial intelligence remnant of his father, he began learning self-control by a meditation technique Wolverine taught him.

Mimic's powers soon began to drain the life energy of those around him again. He fled to a remote Siberian village, where he soon encountered X-Force investigating a distress call. X-Force arrived to find a number of dead scientists and the enraged Mimic who illogically blamed X-Force for their deaths. During the fight, Mimic copied Sunspot's powers, and their identical charge caused a large explosion, after which Mimic disappeared.

Mimic was later recruited by the entity Onslaught and his powers stabilized. Along with the Blob, he confronted X-Force member Warpath. But with the assistance of Risque, Warpath was able to subdue them. Soon after, Onslaught himself was defeated and Operation: Zero Tolerance imprisoned Mimic. Later, Excalibur tracked his telepathic signature and freed him, thinking that he was Professor Xavier. He was injured in this encounter and came to Muir Island to recover.

Excalibur
Mimic became friends with Excalibur. He helps confront the threat of the misguided Feron confronting the team with the Crazy Gang and the Technet. Mimic attends Captain Britain's wedding.

Mimic later joined Mystique's Brotherhood of Mutants and assisted in freeing the real Xavier. That group eventually disbanded, and Mimic was not among later groupings.

Dark X-Men
During the Dark Reign storyline, Mimic became a member of Norman Osborn's Dark X-Men featured in Matt Fraction's The Uncanny X-Men stint where it was revealed that his unstable behavior was caused by his previously undiagnosed bipolar disorder which is now being treated with medication.

After Emma Frost and Namor defect to the X-Men taking Cloak and Dagger along with, Rankin continues as a member of Osborn's X-Men alongside former Brotherhood member Mystique, Weapon Omega and Dark Beast as they try to capture Nate Grey during Osborn's reign. Osborn forces Mimic to mimic the powers of Weapon Omega and forces the two to siphon Grey, succeeding in neutralizing Nate's powers at least temporarily.

Wolverine's X-Men
After Osborn was taken down by the Avengers following the Siege of Asgard, Mimic and Weapon Omega left H.A.M.M.E.R. where Weapon Omega's powers started acting up. Mimic went to Hank McCoy, the only person who had always aided him when he needed, for help. Mimic took Weapon Omega to the Xavier Institute where Beast found out that Weapon Omega was about to explode. The X-Men tried various ways to prevent the explosion. But in the end, the only way left outside of death was an induced artificial coma. Weapon Omega asked his only friend to do it and Mimic complied. Borrowing Rachel Grey's powers, Mimic put Weapon Omega to sleep promising to stay by the man's side until waking up. After the ordeal, he asked Rogue if he could stay at the school to which Rogue agrees noting that he is going to be a wonderful teacher.

Following the Avengers vs. X-Men storyline, Mimic and Rogue were the only ones to respond to a prison riot at an unnamed prison. Although they were overpowered by the villains Griffin, Icemaster, Lightmaster, Quicksand, Ruby Thursday, Schizoid Man, Silk Fever and Supercharger, Rogue and Mimic were able to stop the riot by copying the powers of Armadillo, Equinox and Man-Bull.

Extermination
When the mutant-hunting Ahab comes from the future to try and kill the time-displaced original five X-Men, a younger version of Cable abducts the displaced team to send them home after killing his future self. He also captures Mimic so that he can amputate Mimic's wings and transplant them to the younger Warren in place of his 'new' cosmically-enhanced wings so as to preserve the timeline, but Mimic makes it clear that he knew what he was signing up for and agreed to the procedure. When Ahab tries to attack Cable's base, Mimic sacrifices himself by posing as the young Cyclops, distracting Ahab long enough for the young X-Men to return to their home time after finding a way to stop Ahab.

Powers and abilities
Mimic is able to copy the knowledge, skills, and powers (if any) of every individual within a certain range of him; different sources list this as anywhere from several feet to a mile radius. In his first appearances, he needed to get within about 5 feet to initially copy someone's powers, but once he copied them he would retain the abilities so long as he was within several miles of them, even if he left that radius and then returned later. This was established shortly after he joined the X-Men, when Professor X had him fly in increasing circles using Angel's wings and he flew beyond his copy range and the wings started to vanish, but they returned immediately when he turned back, but this has been retconned and changed several times. This applies to both superpowered and "normal" abilities, as shown when he duplicated Kitty Pryde's ninja training. He has shown the capacity to manifest numerous powers at the same time, and since he also absorbs knowledge, he can immediately use copied powers with the same skill level as the original owner. However, he occasionally shows difficulty in juggling multiple powers, and his body can be overloaded by absorbing too many at once. Usually the Mimic loses his duplicated abilities once out of range of the owner, but due to the length of time spent with them, his body permanently retains the powers of the original five X-Men: Angel, The Beast, Cyclops, Iceman and Marvel Girl (the High Evolutionary's temporary elimination of the mutant gene once erased these powers from the Mimic's genetic template, but they appear to have returned since). Thus, he has the powers of flight (granted by angelic wings) of Angel, the increased strength and agility of Beast (complete with enlarged hands and feet), the optic blasts of Cyclops (because he lacks Cyclops' brain damage, Mimic is able to control them), the temperature manipulation of Iceman, and the telekinesis of Jean Grey. He partly retains Professor X's telepathic powers, which once caused his telepathic signature to be mistaken for that of Charles Xavier, although he was not shown to be located during more recent searches for Xavier. He may also retain Wolverine's recuperative abilities. Among the characters his powers have temporarily copied are Banshee, Marrow, Gambit, Rogue, Storm, Colossus, Nightcrawler, Shadowcat, Feron, Meggan, Kylun, Micromax, Marvel Girl (Rachel Summers), Wolfsbane, Pete Wisdom, Psylocke, Risque, Siryn, Warpath, Sunspot, Cable, Caliban, Domino, Boom-Boom, Rictor, Cannonball, Shatterstar, Post, Blob, Mystique, Toad, members of the Crazy Gang, Weapon Omega, and numerous others.

The original Mimic as created by Stan Lee and Werner Roth was not a mutant, but received his powers after breathing in some gas during an explosion in his father's laboratory. Later X-Men writer Scott Lobdell claimed it merely awakened and enhanced Mimic's latent mutant powers, but this point is never made in the comics themselves and remains a point of discussion.

Reception

 * In 2014, Entertainment Weekly ranked Mimic 78th in their "Let's rank every X-Man ever" list.

Age of Apocalypse
In the Age of Apocalypse, Calvin Rankin was a prisoner and test subject of the time travelling Sugar Man who had travelled back from Earth-616 in order to create a plague. Rankin died because of the Sugar Man's experiments. It is unknown if he had the copied powers of any mutants here.

Civil War: House of M
In House of M, Mimic is one of the government agents (alongside Nuke and Agent Barnes) sent to Genosha to kill Magneto and as many of his followers as possible. He and Nuke served as a distraction while Agent Barnes sneaked into Magneto's headquarters. He then engaged Magneto in battle. But despite all the mutant powers he manipulated simultaneously, he was ultimately defeated when Magneto used an inhibitor collar to disable Mimic's powers. The powers Mimic has copied are of Magneto's and some unnamed Genoshans who possesses the abilities of hydrokinesis, flight (through reptilian wings), claws, optic blasts, cryokinesis, sharp fangs, pyrokinesis, and having multiple eyes.

Exiles
Mimic's heroic counterpart from the parallel world Earth-12 is a founding member of the multiverse-traveling Exiles superhero team. This iteration has a clear mutant origin and his powers have a restriction: he can only copy a maximum of five mutant powers at a time. The copied abilities are about half as powerful as those of the original owners, and he is not able to copy knowledge or skill. For most of his appearances, he retains the powers of Wolverine, Colossus, Cyclops and Beast. He is originally depicted with the feathered wings of Angel, but gives those up in order to briefly copy the Dark Phoenix's powers, and soon after mimics Northstar's abilities.

In this reality, Calvin Rankin joined the Brotherhood of Mutants and was defeated by the X-Men. Abandoned by the Brotherhood, Mimic was imprisoned and was only freed by Professor X's intervention, inviting him to join the X-Men. Mimic became a dedicated member. His abilities raised the team's morale, as each member knew they were not alone in their powers, as Calvin could do exactly what they could. Calvin eventually rose to become leader of the team, and helped make his world one where mutants, along with other heroes, are respected and treated with a level of fame and celebrity. Much like Wolverine, who in Rankin's reality is one of his closest friends, Rankin is fond of beer and music and has an unrequited love for Jean Grey. Rankin owns a chain of record stores and is a published author.

Although Rankin is accustomed to leading, he defers leadership to Blink on the grounds that she is from a reality that is more removed from the 'mainstream' universe than the other Exiles, and will therefore be able to make the judgement calls that their missions require without being potentially compromised by her connection to the counterparts of their opponents. Rankin also begins a romantic relationship with Blink. The Exiles' missions grow increasingly dangerous, and Mimic is forced to kill more than once to safeguard entire realities. Many of those he slays are alternate versions of heroes he knows as allies in his home reality and their deaths weigh heavily on his mind, Mimic coming to increasingly resent how so many versions of the people he knows have been corrupted by their power. After an encounter with the sorcery of a vampiric Union Jack, Mimic is trapped for four years on an Earth overrun by the Brood. On this Earth, he is implanted with a Brood egg. He returns to his teammates incubating an egg only held at bay by his acquired healing factor. The Brood egg hatches during a moment of weakness, and the possessed Rankin is forced to attack his teammates, killing Mariko Yashida (Sunfire). Devastated by his actions, Mimic swears never to kill again. During an encounter with Weapon X, Mimic is forced to mimic Deadpool's healing factor in order to survive. Unfortunately for Mimic, the healing factor also comes with Deadpool's unique skin condition; the very sight of which instigated a conflict with Blink concerning their relationship. After swearing never to kill again, his subsequent hesitation to do so, further compounded by an illusion in which Blink claims to no longer love him, allows the villain Proteus to possess him when the Exiles visit the House of M version of the regular Marvel Universe. After Proteus leaves Mimic's burnt husk of a corpse, the Exiles put his body into stasis. Blink later takes him back to his home reality for burial.

The Big M
Set on Earth-Earth-5423, another alternate Mimic called The Big M was his world's greatest criminal and leader of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. With his team he slaughtered his reality's X-Men and committed numerous other crimes — including mass murder — until he was finally captured by the Avengers and sent to a high security prison.

He encounters the Exiles Mimic when the latter enters his dimension. Using his telepathy, The Big M reads the Exiles Mimic's mind and realizes that the only difference between the lives they led is that while one of them accepted Xavier's offer of training and help, the other rejected it and sought a more destructive path. He reforms and reinvents the Brotherhood as his world's X-Men. He retains the powers of Magneto, Professor X, Cannonball, Blink, and one unknown mutant.

X-Men: Evolution
In issue #6 of the X-Men: Evolution comic book, Mimic befriends Spyke but leaves the team due to his arrogance. His body apparently does not change in appearance when he copies powers, with the brief exception of taking on Nightcrawler's skin coloration.

Ultimate Marvel
During the Ultimate Avengers vs New Ultimates storyline, an Ultimate Marvel equivalent of Mimic is a prototype weapon who is being sold on the black market labeled as Super Soldier under Nick Fury. He was originally a soldier that served in Afghanistan who volunteered for the project, possibly due his admiration for Captain America. Shown to be transported by a terrorist cell in Bulgaria but intercepted, the collision activated his abilities while being released by the terrorists in the hopes of fighting the Ultimates. His powers go haywire while coming into contact with Scott Lang and is consoled by Giant-Man as Mimic died in front of the team.

Marvel Noir
In the Marvel Noir reality, an unpowered spy named Calvin Rankin/"The Mimic" is shown to be the target of Kurt Wagner and his agency Weapon X to broker a deal between Germany and its borders. Wagner freed him but later Rankin revealed himself as Weapon X, the target of the agency to replicate his skills of unmatched deception.

In other media
Mimic makes a non-speaking cameo appearance in the X-Men: The Animated Series episode "One Man's Worth" as a member of a mutant resistance.

title: Mimic (comics)


text:
PFLAG

PFLAG is the United States' largest organization dedicated to supporting, educating, and advocating for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) people and those who love them. PFLAG National is the national organization, which provides support to the PFLAG network of local chapters. PFLAG has nearly 400 chapters across the United States, with more than 350,000 members and supporters.

PFLAG (pronounced ) is no longer an acronym, but the actual name of the organization. Prior to 2014, the acronym stood for Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (later broadened to Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays). Until removal of the hyphen in 1993 the name was officially styled as P-FLAG. In 2014 the membership of the organization voted to officially change the name to PFLAG to reflect the decades of fully inclusive work it had been doing in the LGBTQ+ community.

History
In April 1972, Jeanne Manford, an elementary school teacher, and her husband were at home in Flushing, Queens, when they learned from a hospital's telephone call that her son Morty, a gay activist, had been beaten while distributing flyers inside the fiftieth annual Inner Circle dinner, a political gathering in New York City. In response, she wrote a letter of protest to the New York Post that identified herself as the mother of a gay protester and complained of police inaction. She gave interviews to radio and television shows in several cities in the weeks that followed, sometimes accompanied by her husband or son. On June 25, she participated with her son in the New York Pride March, carrying a hand-lettered sign that read "Parents of Gays Unite in Support for Our Children". Prompted by their enthusiastic reception, they developed an idea for an organization of the parents of gays and lesbians that could be, she later said, "a bridge between the gay community and the heterosexual community". They were soon holding meetings for such parents, together with her husband. She called him "a very articulate person ... a much better speaker than I. He was right along with me on everything."

The first formal meeting of Parents of Gays (later PFLAG) took place on March 11, 1973, at the Metropolitan-Duane United Methodist Church in Greenwich Village (MDUMC – later the Church of the Village). Approximately 20 people attended. Rev. Ed Egan of MDUMC (1971–1977) was one of the founding members of "Parents of Gays." Parents of Gays continued to meet monthly at MDUMC until at least 1984.

In the next few years, through word of mouth and community need, similar groups sprang up around the country, offering "safe havens" and mutual support for parents with gay and lesbian children. In 1976, PFLAG LA had their first meeting of 30 parents. By 1977, the group had integrated with other LGBT activist groups to oppose Anita Bryant's anti-gay crusade and defeat the statewide Briggs Initiative. Following the 1979 National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights, representatives from these groups met for the first time in Washington, DC.

By 1980, PFLAG, then known as Parents FLAG, began to distribute information to educational institutions and communities of faith nationwide, establishing itself as a source of information for the general public. When Adele Starr, who organized the Los Angeles P-FLAG chapter, called advice columnist Dear Abby to discuss the purpose of P-FLAG, Dear Abby mentioned PFLAG in one of her columns. Los Angeles P-FLAG then received more than 7,500 letters requesting information. Every letter was answered by a member of the chapter. In 1981, members decided to launch a national organization. The first PFLAG office was established in Los Angeles under founding president Adele Starr.

In 1982, the Federation of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, Inc., then representing some 20 groups, was incorporated in California and granted nonprofit, tax-exempt status. In 1987, PFLAG relocated to Denver, under President Elinor Lewallen. Also in the 1980s, PFLAG worked to end the US military's efforts to discharge lesbians—more than a decade before military issues came to the forefront of the LGBT movement. And by the late 1980s, PFLAG began to have success in organizing chapters in rural communities.

In 1990, following a period of significant growth, PFLAG employed an Executive Director, expanded its staff, and moved to Washington, DC. Also in 1990, PFLAG President Paulette Goodman sent a letter to Barbara Bush asking for Mrs. Bush's support. The first lady's personal reply stated, "I firmly believe that we cannot tolerate discrimination against any individuals or groups in our country. Such treatment always brings with it pain and perpetuates intolerance." Inadvertently given to the Associated Press, her comments caused a political maelstrom and were perhaps the first gay-positive comments to come from the White House.

In time the scope of the organization expanded to include bisexuals, and ultimately, transgender people, but the name remained P-FLAG. In particular, in 1998, gender identity, including transgender people, was added to the mission of PFLAG after a vote at their annual meeting in San Francisco. PFLAG was the first national LGBT organization to officially adopt a transgender-inclusive policy, vowing not only to include transgender people in all of its work, but also never to support any policies or laws that are not trans-inclusive. In 2002, PFLAG's Transgender Network, also known as TNET, became PFLAG's first official "Special Affiliate", recognized with the same privileges and responsibilities as regular chapters. In 2013, TNET was replaced by the Transgender and Gender Nonconforming (TGNC) Advisory Council.

In 2004, PFLAG/Chicago was inducted into the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame as a Friend of the Community.

In 2013, Jeanne Manford was awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal by then President Barack Obama.

In 2013, a bronze plaque was installed at The Church of the Village in Greenwich Village, memorializing the fact that the first meeting of what came to be PFLAG was held at the church in 1973. The plaque reads,"In 1972, Queens schoolteacher Jeanne Manford walked alongside her gay son, activist Morty Manford, at the 1972 Christopher Street Liberation Day Parade, carrying a sign that read 'Parents of Gays: Unite in Support of Our Children.' The overwhelming response to that simple act led Jeanne, her husband Jules, and early pioneers of the LGBT equality movement to create a support group for LGBT people, their parents, family, and friends. The first meeting of that group - now known as PFLAG - took place on this site in March 1973. Placed by the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation in partnership with PFLAG members everywhere, in honor of the legacy of love that began here."In 2017, PFLAG celebrated the 45th anniversary of founder Jeanne Manford's famous march with her son, gay-rights activist Morty Manford.

Programs
Straight for Equality is a national outreach and education project created by PFLAG National to empower new straight allies and trans allies who, unlike a more traditional PFLAG member, do not necessarily have a family or friend connection to the LGBTQ community. The Straight for Equality project was launched in 2007. This nationwide initiative expanded the organization's efforts to include more people in the equality movement.

Since the 2007 launch, Straight for Equality in the Workplace has been PFLAG's most successful initiative, with an array of workshops available to corporations in the US. In 2009, PFLAG launched Straight for Equality in Healthcare to educate and engage healthcare providers in all disciplines to be more culturally inclusive in their work. In 2012, PFLAG launched Straight for Equality in Faith Communities, which features faith-focused resources and tools for people of all denominations to start having critical conversations in their faith communities to create more welcoming institutions. And in 2014, PFLAG launched a new trans ally program through Straight for Equality.

Each year since 2009, PFLAG National has held the Straight for Equality Awards Gala, the only awards gala that exclusively celebrates the contributions of straight allies to the movement for LGBT equality. Past winners include civil rights pioneers like Maya Angelou and Johnnetta B. Cole; entertainer Liza Minnelli; actors Rosie Perez, Patrick Stewart, Martha Plimpton, and Sigourney Weaver; Broadway stars Audra McDonald and Will Swenson; sports icons Brendon Ayanbadejo, Scott Fujita, Chris Kluwe, and Hudson Taylor; authors Charlaine Harris and John Irving; faith leaders like Jay Bakker; and organizations including IBM, KPMG, MetLife, Sodexo, and Whirlpool.

Cultivating Respect: Safe Schools For All is PFLAG National's umbrella program to support the efforts of educators, parents, and other trusted adults to make schools safe and inclusive.

Claim Your Rights, created in partnership with GLSEN, is a program to help parents, teachers, administrators and other trusted adults file complaints with the Office for Civil Rights at the US Department of Education on behalf of youth who have experienced school-based bullying, harassment, or discrimination.

PFLAG Connects was created in April 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Hundreds of PFLAG's local chapters moved their in-person support meetings to virtual meetings. PFLAG National also launched PFLAG Connects: Communities which are national support group meetings for a variety of BIPOC communities.

Campaigns
In the mid-1990s, "Project Open Mind" caused some controversy from Pat Robertson. He threatened to sue PFLAG and any television station that aired the project's ads, which showed clips of anti-LGBT quotes from several people, including Robertson, Jerry Falwell, and United States Senator Jesse Helms. The ads can currently be seen on the Commercial Closet webpage.

Advocacy work
PFLAG National and the PFLAG chapter network engages in advocacy at the local, state and federal level and has issued public policy statements on a wide variety of issues. In the early 1990s, PFLAG chapters in Massachusetts helped pass the first Safe Schools legislation in the country. By the mid-1990s a PFLAG family was responsible for the Department of Education's ruling that Title IX protects gay and lesbian students from harassment based on sexual orientation. When Pat Robertson threatened to sue any station that carried Project Open Mind advertisements, the resulting media coverage drew national attention to PFLAG's message linking hate speech with hate crimes and LGBT teen suicide. PFLAG National campaigned to repeal "don't ask, don't tell" and in the fight for marriage equality in the United States—including filing an amicus brief with the United States Supreme Court. It continues working to end the practice of conversion therapy, to combat laws that permit discrimination under the guise of religious freedom such as the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, and more.

Outside the United States
Similarly purposed (and sometimes similarly named) organizations have been established outside the United States since PFLAG's 1973 establishment, although the majority of such organizations are unaffiliated with each other or with the PFLAG National in the U.S. (the founding organization). Most recently, a PFLAG organization in People's Republic of China, PFLAG China, was established in June 2008 by Wu Youjian in Guangzhou after she accepted her son's homosexuality.

Other organizations

 * Tehila (Israel)
 * Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (United Kingdom)
 * PFLAG Canada (Separately originated, similarly named)
 * Tels Quels (Belgium)
 * CONTACT (France)
 * BEFAH (Germany)
 * AGedO (Italy)
 * Association of Fathers and Mothers of Gays and Lesbians (Spain)
 * FELS (Switzerland)
 * Stolta föräldrar (Sweden)
 * Families for Sexual Diversity (Latin America)
 * PFLAG Vietnam (Vietnam)
 * PFLAG China (People's Republic of China)
 * PFLAG in Australia
 * PFLAG South Africa
 * PFLAG Myanmar/Burma
 * Chapter Four Uganda

title: PFLAG


text:
Randy Glasbergen

Randy Glasbergen (February 20, 1957 – August 11, 2015) was an American cartoonist and humorous illustrator best known for three decades of newspaper syndication as well as a freelance career. He produced the syndicated strip The Better Half from 1982 to 2014.

Glasbergen's work appeared in magazines, newspapers, greeting cards, calendars, social media, websites, textbooks, video screens and advertising worldwide. Thousands of Glasbergen's cartoons and comic illustrations have been used by clients including The Wall Street Journal, Reader's Digest, China Daily, Good Housekeeping, Microsoft, Dow Jones, Standard & Poor's, Time Warner Cable, the Harvard Business Review Funny Times, American Greetings, Hallmark Cards, America Online, and many others around the globe. In addition to cartooning, Randy Glasbergen wrote text for hundreds of greeting cards for Hallmark Cards, American Greetings, and others.

Biography
Glasbergen began his professional cartooning career at age 15. While still in high school, his cartoons were published regularly in many major magazines, including the Saturday Review, The Wall Street Journal, Kiplinger’s Changing Times, the Saturday Evening Post, Cosmopolitan, Weight Watchers, Reader's Digest, and New Woman. After two semesters of journalism studies at Utica College of Syracuse University, he left school to pursue a full-time career as a freelance cartoonist in 1976.

Glasbergen's comic panel The Better Half (originated by Bob Barnes in 1956) was syndicated by King Features Syndicate for 32 years, starting in 1982. From 1982 to 1992, Glasbergen did the strip under the pseudonym "Jay Harris," so as not to confuse publishers who were familiar with his different style of humor and character design. ("Harris" was his wife's maiden name.) At the end of syndication, The Better Half was appearing seven days a week in approximately 150 print and online newspapers around the world. With newspapers losing more and more readers to the Internet, Glasbergen retired The Better Half at the end of 2014 to devote more time and energy to his cartoon licensing operation, Glasbergen Cartoon Service.

His Glasbergen Cartoons feature was syndicated online by GoComics. Glasbergen's Thin Lines health and fitness cartoons also appeared on GoComics as a weekly cartoon panel. Daily Glasbergen cartoons were found on his own website and sponsored editions of his cartoons appeared regularly on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social media outlets.

Personal life
Glasbergen lived in Sherburne, New York, a small rural town, with his wife and three basset hounds. He worked at home on the third floor of a very old house that once served as a boarding house for local school teachers.

He died on August 11, 2015, of cardiac arrest following admission to a hospital for an infection.

Glasbergen's cartoons are still being used around the world in presentations, textbooks, newsletters and all forms of social media thanks to his family and their desire to continue his legacy.

title: Randy Glasbergen


text:
Fabrizio Moretti

Fabrizio Moretti (born June 2, 1980) also known as Fab, is a Brazilian-American musician and visual artist best known as the drummer for American rock band The Strokes, with whom he has released six studio albums since 2001. A collaborative artist, he has been part of a series of groups since the mid-2000s, most notably the Brazilian-American band Little Joy, which released one album in 2008, and the experimental pop collective Machinegum, which he has led since 2018. Throughout his career, Moretti has worked on a variety of art projects which span the mediums of drawing, sculpture, and installation and performance art.

Early life
Moretti was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from Stefano, an Italian nuclear engineer, and Ana Moretti, a Brazilian. He was raised with his older brother, Leo Moretti. Moretti and his family moved to New York City when he was three years old for his father's career; they planned to live there for only three years, but ended up staying for seventeen before returning to Brazil. Speaking on identity during his young adulthood in New York, Moretti said, "I didn't feel like a Brazilian, I didn't feel like an Italian, and I certainly didn't feel like an American. So I was walking around trying to find my identity through New York City."

He began playing the drums at age five, playing in a soundproofed closet in his family's Midtown Manhattan apartment, and became more serious during high school. As an adolescent, Moretti attended the Anglo American International School, which later merged with the Dwight School and is where he met fellow band members Nick Valensi and Julian Casablancas. Upon graduating high school, Moretti studied sculpture at SUNY New Paltz before dropping out to focus on his music career with The Strokes.

The Strokes
Moretti began drumming in an informal band with vocalist Casablancas and guitarist Valensi in high school, and continued after the two left Dwight. Later, Nikolai Fraiture joined as the bassist and the band was formed when guitarist Albert Hammond Jr. joined in fall 1998. Their first show as The Strokes was at the Spiral in New York City on September 14, 1999. The band released The Modern Age EP in 2001 under Rough Trade Records and was signed for a five-album record deal by RCA Records. The band released six LPs including Is This It, Room on Fire, First Impressions of Earth, Angles, Comedown Machine and The New Abnormal with tours and festival sets in the North America, Europe, South America, East Asia and Australia. Following the completion of their album contract deal with RCA Records in 2013, the band has continued to release new music through Casablancas' Cult Records.

Moretti's drumming style has been called crisp and clean, and having a mature elegance. He has said that he wants to provide a steady, driving force with his playing which resulted in him simplifying his drum kit to a four-piece set up with a hi-hat and ride cymbals. He commonly uses a Ludwig Classic Maple drum kit with Zildjian cymbals and Ahead sticks. Early on, he was known for drumming very hard, often breaking his drums sticks. Early records convey a more simplistic and 'punk' style of playing and recording while later records feature more compressed drums in the style of industrial and dance music.

Little Joy
In 2007, Moretti joined with Los Hermanos guitarist, singer, songwriter Rodrigo Amarante and Binki Shapiro to form the trio Little Joy, a Los Angeles-based Brazilian/American rock supergroup. Amarante and Moretti had met in 2006, at a festival in Lisbon where both their bands were performing, and the idea came up to start a new musical project unrelated to their respective bands. Little Joy was signed to Rough Trade Records label. Their debut album, produced by Noah Georgeson, was released in 2008.

Machinegum
Since 2018, Moretti has led the New York synth pop band and artist collective Machinegum (stylized machinegum) which both performs and records music and presents gallery installations. The group is composed of Moretti and Ian Devaney (vocalist of Nation of Language), Delicate Steve, Chris Egan, Martin Bonventre, and Erin Victoria Axtel. The group has also collaborated with architect Joseph Vescio and actor/director Justin Bartha in the past.

Machinegum released their debut album Conduit in December 2019. Released on Frenchkiss Records, the group later signed to the record label in February 2020.

Music
Outside of his more traditional musical work, Moretti's output often blends musical, performance, and visual art. He has frequently collaborated with musicians Devendra Banhart, Rodrigo Amarante, and New York City contemporaries including his Strokes bandmates. He has contributed songwriting and remixes to other artists and, throughout his career, has deejayed events.

Moretti was part of a project, Megapuss, with Devendra Banhart, Gregory Rogove and Noah Georgeson in 2008. The group released one album, Surfing. The following year, Moretti and Banhart collaborated on a project called Permanent Adventure. Moretti played drums for Neon Neon, on their track "Dream Cars", from 2008's Stainless Style. Moretti also played on Kesha's 2012 song "Only Wanna Dance With You", together with bandmate Julian Casablancas. He co-wrote "Prisoner," from Har Mar Superstar's 2013 album Bye Bye 17, with Banhart and Amarante. Moretti and Amarante also were part of Banhart's backing band during his 2013 tour which had dates in the US and Europe. Moretti also contributed to Amarante's debut solo album in 2014.

In 2015, Moretti remixed Spoon's 2014 track "Inside Out" for the band's remix EP. In 2016, Moretti contributed an Eagles of Death Metal cover for the Play it Forward campaign, supporting aid for the victims of the 2015 Paris attacks; with Beck and Nick Valensi, he covered "I Love You All the Time." Moretti sat-in as drummer for The 8G Band, the house band for Late Night with Seth Meyers, during the second weeks of April 2016 and January 2023. Moretti played drums on the 2017 track "Indignities” by New York synth-pop band Nation Of Language; he also filled in as bassist on one of the band's tours. In 2018, Moretti contributed the original instrumental song "In Case of Separation" to French conceptual artist Sophie Calle's "tribute" album, Souris Calle.

In 2007, it was announced that Moretti was to executive produce a VH1 series called Clash of the Music Videos with then-girlfriend Drew Barrymore. However, the show was never produced.

Art
Moretti is an enthusiastic visual artist and enjoys sculpture and drawing. Since the mid-2000s, he has been contributing his work to various projects. This includes a 2013 art installation for Rag + Bone and showcasing his drawings in New York. He has also worked on artistic project FUZLAB with French cartoonist Luz in 2012; he continued to collaborate with Luz later in the decade, at one point sharing a studio with him in Paris. In 2017, a sculpture of his was included at a show in New York City's Elizabeth Street Garden.

In December 2019, Moretti collaborated with Italian art dealer Fabrizio Moretti to present the exhibit Fabrizio Moretti x Fabrizio Moretti In Passing at Sotheby's in New York City. The latter Moretti curated a collection of Old Master paintings and the former conceptualized the interactive exhibit.

In December 2021, Moretti designed and built, "Kube," a nine-foot tall installation made of one-way mirror, polished steel and fluorescent lights. Inspired by the work of Yayoi Kusama and Bruce Nauman, "Kube" was crafted by hand in Brooklyn with the help of welder Franco V. and artist girlfriend Gabriella Corey, and was designed to showcase the viewer and the object together as one being repeated ad infinitum. Anish Kapoor's "Mirror (Pagan Gold to Organic Green)", a disc of polished and highly reflective aluminium, is placed inside the Kube. In an interview with Flaunt Magazine, Moretti describes the experience from within the Kube, "[t]he crux of this is that you become part of the art work when you’re in it, as you just experienced. When you’re inside, you can’t see out. It’s almost like the viewer becomes this nebulous being—but outside the box, you can be seen very clearly.” Speaking to the LA Times on the concept of the work, Moretti describes, "[t]he mirror can be a source of vanity... But it can also be a point of self-reflection, you kind of see yourself outside yourself, one of many perhaps. And being able to see yourself and the relationship you have with the artwork kind of sanctifies that moment—I’m hoping."

Personal life
He was born in Brazil and has lived in the United States from a young age, having recently become a citizen of the United States in addition to holding citizenship with his father's country of origin, Italy. Moretti speaks English, Portuguese, Italian and French.

In the 2000s, Moretti was in a highly publicized relationship with actress Drew Barrymore. The two dated intermittently from 2002 to 2007. In 2007, he briefly dated actress Kirsten Dunst. Moretti has become progressively more private since this time. He was later in a four-year relationship with Little Joy bandmate Binki Shapiro. From late 2011 to 2013, actress Kristen Wiig and Moretti dated.

Moretti resides in New York City; he maintains an apartment near Union Square in the East Village, which he first bought in 2003. During the late 2010s, he lived in Paris for some time.

Discography
Solo discography (as remix artist)

 * "Inside Out" (2015) (originally by Spoon)
 * "Oblivius" (2016) (originally by The Strokes)

The Strokes discography

 * Is This It (2001)
 * Room on Fire (2003)
 * First Impressions of Earth (2005)
 * Angles (2011)
 * Comedown Machine (2013)
 * The New Abnormal (2020)

Little Joy discography

 * Little Joy (2008)

Other studio albums

 * Megapuss (2008) (as part of Megapuss)
 * Conduit (2019) (as part of machinegum)

title: Fabrizio Moretti


text:
Peter Deutsch

Peter Russell Deutsch (born April 1, 1957) is an American politician from the U.S. state of Florida. Deutsch was a Democratic Representative from Florida's 20th congressional district from 1993 until 2005.

Background
Deutsch was born in the borough of the Bronx in New York City in 1957.

He graduated from the Horace Mann School in 1975 and attended Swarthmore College, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1979. In college, he worked as an intern for the Senate Judiciary Committee. Deutsch graduated from Yale Law School with a Juris Doctor in 1982.

After graduating from Yale, Deutsch moved to Broward County, Florida, where he was a lawyer in private practice. He founded the nonprofit Medicare Information Program of Broward County, while working to help Medicare recipients in the area, and served as the group's director during 1982.

In 1982, Deutsch was elected for the first of five two-year terms in the Florida House of Representatives, where he wrote legislation protecting seniors from illegal nursing home evictions.

In the 1992 House election Deutsch was elected to the United States House of Representatives. He was reelected in 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, and 2002. Several times, including in 2000 and 2002, he ran for reelection unopposed. In the House he became the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations of the Energy and Commerce Committee, which investigated amongst other things the Enron scandal, the Firestone Tire issue, NIH Conflicts and Martha Stewart’s ImClone stock trading case. Deutsch served from January 3, 1993, to January 3, 2005.

During the Florida election recount after the 2000 presidential election, Deutsch led many of the recount efforts in Broward County and brought the motion to the floor of the Senate to contest the results of the 2000 election, an effort that had been seconded by Alcee Hastings.

U.S. Senate race, 2004
In 2004, Deutsch declared his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for the Senate seat being vacated in 2005 by retiring Democratic Senator Bob Graham. Although Deutsch consistently led opinion polls in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale metropolitan area, and had the largest amount of cash on hand for most of the race, he lagged in statewide opinion polls behind rival Betty Castor, whose fundraising dramatically accelerated during the summer of 2004 with the help of EMILY's List, which contributed close to $4.5 million in television and advertising dollars. The Castor campaign was accused of inappropriate coordination with EMILY's List, and a lawsuit was filed with the Federal Elections Commission.

In May 2004, Deutsch hired Roy Teicher, a former television writer, newspaper reporter and editor, as his communications director. In June 2004, he hired Sanford Dickert, CTO for the John Kerry for President Campaign, as his Director of Internet Strategy. In June, he came under heavy criticism from the Castor campaign after American Democracy Project, a 527 group run by Bernie Friedman, began attacking Castor's handling of the Sami al-Arian incident. On March 2, 2006, Al-Arian entered a guilty plea to a charge of conspiracy to help the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a "specially designated terrorist" organization. He was sentenced to 57 months in prison, and ordered deported following his prison term. Deutsch denied any involvement in the ADP efforts and denounced their tactics in public.

Later in the campaign, Senator Bob Graham and Florida’s other senator Bill Nelson proposed a pledge between Castor, Deutsch, and Alex Penelas to refrain from negative campaigning; Deutsch agreed to the pledge, but added a clause allowing him to raise "legitimate" electability issues. Deutsch released an ad questioning the veracity of Castor's statements on the investigation and suspension of al-Arian.

Deutsch was defeated by Castor in the Democratic primary on August 31, winning only three counties (Miami-Dade, Broward, and Monroe). Castor went on to lose the Senate election to Republican nominee Mel Martinez. Deutsch was unable to run for reelection to the House because of his Senate campaign, and was succeeded by the new Democratic candidate, Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

Personal life
Deutsch currently resides in Ra'anana, Israel, with his family. However, he has not taken Israeli citizenship, does not speak Hebrew, and frequently visits Florida. He also founded Ben Gamla Charter School in Hollywood, Florida. Deutsch and his wife Lori have two children, Jonathan and Danielle.

Electoral history
Write-in and minor candidate notes: In 2000, write-ins received 187 votes.

** According to Florida law, no totals need be submitted when there is no opposition.

title: Peter Deutsch


text:
Platinum group

The platinum-group metals (PGMs), also known as the platinoids, platinides, platidises, platinum group, platinum metals, platinum family or platinum-group elements (PGEs), are six noble, precious metallic elements clustered together in the periodic table. These elements are all transition metals in the d-block (groups 8, 9, and 10, periods 5 and 6).

The six platinum-group metals are ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, osmium, iridium, and platinum. They have similar physical and chemical properties, and tend to occur together in the same mineral deposits. However, they can be further subdivided into the iridium-group platinum-group elements (IPGEs: Os, Ir, Ru) and the palladium-group platinum-group elements (PPGEs: Rh, Pt, Pd) based on their behaviour in geological systems.

The three elements above the platinum group in the periodic table (iron, nickel and cobalt) are all ferromagnetic; these, together with the lanthanide element gadolinium (at temperatures below 20 °C), are the only known transition metals that display ferromagnetism near room temperature.

History
Naturally occurring platinum and platinum-rich alloys were known by pre-Columbian Americans for many years. However, even though the metal was used by pre-Columbian peoples, the first European reference to platinum appears in 1557 in the writings of the Italian humanist Julius Caesar Scaliger (1484–1558) as a description of a mysterious metal found in Central American mines between Darién (Panama) and Mexico ("up until now impossible to melt by any of the Spanish arts").

The name platinum is derived from the Spanish word platina “little silver", the name given to the metal by Spanish settlers in Colombia. They regarded platinum as an unwanted impurity in the silver they were mining.

By 1815, rhodium and palladium had been discovered by William Hyde Wollaston, and iridium and osmium by his close friend and collaborator Smithson Tennant.

Properties and uses

The platinum metals have many useful catalytic properties. They are highly resistant to wear and tarnish, making platinum, in particular, well suited for fine jewellery. Other distinctive properties include resistance to chemical attack, excellent high-temperature characteristics, high mechanical strength, good ductility, and stable electrical properties. Apart from their application in jewellery, platinum metals are also used in anticancer drugs, industries, dentistry, electronics, and vehicle exhaust catalysts (VECs). VECs contain solid platinum (Pt), palladium (Pd), and rhodium (Rh) and are installed in the exhaust system of vehicles to reduce harmful emissions, such as carbon monoxide (CO), by converting them into less harmful emissions.

Occurrence
Generally, ultramafic and mafic igneous rocks have relatively high, and granites low, PGE trace content. Geochemically anomalous traces occur predominantly in chromian spinels and sulfides. Mafic and ultramafic igneous rocks host practically all primary PGM ore of the world. Mafic layered intrusions, including the Bushveld Complex, outweigh by far all other geological settings of platinum deposits. Other economically significant PGE deposits include mafic intrusions related to flood basalts, and ultramafic complexes of the Alaska, Urals type.

PGM minerals
Typical ores for PGMs contain ca. 10 g PGM/ton ore, thus the identity of the particular mineral is unknown.

Platinum
Platinum can occur as a native metal, but it can also occur in various different minerals and alloys. That said, Sperrylite (platinum arsenide, PtAs2) ore is by far the most significant source of this metal. A naturally occurring platinum-iridium alloy, platiniridium, is found in the mineral cooperite (platinum sulfide, PtS). Platinum in a native state, often accompanied by small amounts of other platinum metals, is found in alluvial and placer deposits in Colombia, Ontario, the Ural Mountains, and in certain western American states. Platinum is also produced commercially as a by-product of nickel ore processing. The huge quantities of nickel ore processed makes up for the fact that platinum makes up only two parts per million of the ore. South Africa, with vast platinum ore deposits in the Merensky Reef of the Bushveld complex, is the world's largest producer of platinum, followed by Russia. Platinum and palladium are also mined commercially from the Stillwater igneous complex in Montana, USA. Leaders of primary platinum production are South Africa and Russia, followed by Canada, Zimbabwe and USA.

Osmium
Osmiridium is a naturally occurring alloy of iridium and osmium found in platinum-bearing river sands in the Ural Mountains and in North and South America. Trace amounts of osmium also exist in nickel-bearing ores found in the Sudbury, Ontario, region along with other platinum group metals. Even though the quantity of platinum metals found in these ores is small, the large volume of nickel ores processed makes commercial recovery possible.

Iridium
Metallic iridium is found with platinum and other platinum group metals in alluvial deposits. Naturally occurring iridium alloys include osmiridium and iridosmine, both of which are mixtures of iridium and osmium. It is recovered commercially as a by-product from nickel mining and processing.

Ruthenium
Ruthenium is generally found in ores with the other platinum group metals in the Ural Mountains and in North and South America. Small but commercially important quantities are also found in pentlandite extracted from Sudbury, Ontario, and in pyroxenite deposits in South Africa.

Rhodium
The industrial extraction of rhodium is complex, because it occurs in ores mixed with other metals such as palladium, silver, platinum, and gold. It is found in platinum ores and obtained free as a white inert metal which is very difficult to fuse. Principal sources of this element are located in South Africa, Zimbabwe, in the river sands of the Ural Mountains, North and South America, and also in the copper-nickel sulfide mining area of the Sudbury Basin region. Although the quantity at Sudbury is very small, the large amount of nickel ore processed makes rhodium recovery cost effective. However, the annual world production in 2003 of this element is only 7 or 8 tons and there are very few rhodium minerals.

Palladium
Palladium is preferentially hosted in sulphide minerals, primarily in pyrrhotite. Palladium is found as a free metal and alloyed with platinum and gold with platinum group metals in placer deposits of the Ural Mountains of Eurasia, Australia, Ethiopia, South and North America. However it is commercially produced from nickel-copper deposits found in South Africa and Ontario, Canada. The huge volume of nickel-copper ore processed makes this extraction profitable in spite of its low concentration in these ores.

Production
The production of individual platinum group metals normally starts from residues of the production of other metals with a mixture of several of those metals. Purification typically starts with the anode residues of gold, copper, or nickel production. This results in a very energy intensive extraction process, which leads to environmental consequences. Carbon dioxide emissions are expected to rise as a result of increased demand for platinum metals and there is likely to be expanded mining activity in the Bushveld Igneous Complex because of this. Further research is needed to determine the environmental impacts. Classical purification methods exploit differences in chemical reactivity and solubility of several compounds of the metals under extraction. These approaches have yielded to new technologies that utilize solvent extraction.

Separation begins with dissolution of the sample. If aqua regia is used, the chloride complexes are produced. Depending on the details of the process, which are often trade secrets, the individual PGMs are obtained as the following compounds: the poorly soluble (NH4)2IrCl6 and (NH4)2PtCl6, PdCl2(NH3)2, the volatile OsO4 and RuO4, and [RhCl(NH3)5]Cl2.

Production in nuclear reactors
Significant quantities of the three light platinum group metals—ruthenium, rhodium and palladium—are formed as fission products in nuclear reactors. With escalating prices and increasing global demand, reactor-produced noble metals are emerging as an alternative source. Various reports are available on the possibility of recovering fission noble metals from spent nuclear fuel.

Environmental concerns
It was previously thought that platinum group metals had very few negative attributes in comparison to their distinctive properties and their ability to successfully reduce harmful emission from automobile exhausts. However, even with all the positives of platinum metal use, the negative effects of their use need to be considered in how it might impact the future. For example, metallic Pt are considered to not be chemically reactive and non-allergenic, so when Pt is emitted from VECs it is in metallic and oxide forms it is considered relatively safe. However, Pt can solubilise in road dust, enter water sources, the ground, and increase dose rates in animals through bioaccumulation. These impacts from platinum groups were previously not considered, however over time the accumulation of platinum group metals in the environment may actually pose more of a risk then previously thought. Future research is needed to fully grasp the threat of platinum metals, especially since as more internal combustion cars are driven, the more platinum metal emissions there are.

The bioaccumulation of Pt metals in animals can pose a significant health risk to both humans and biodiversity. Species will tend to get more toxic if their food source is contaminated by these hazardous Pt metals emitted from VECs. This can potentiality harm other species, including humans if we eat these hazardous animals, such as fish. Platinum metals extracted during the mining and smelting process can also cause significant environmental impacts. In Zimbabwe, a study showed that platinum group mining caused significant environmental risks, such as pollution in water sources, acidic water drainage, and environmental degradation.

Another hazard of Pt is being exposed to halogenated Pt salts, which can cause allergic reactions in high rates of asthma and dermatitis. This is a hazard that can sometimes be seen in the production of industrial catalysts, causing workers to have reactions. Workers removed immediately from further contact with Pt salts showed no evidence of long-term effects, however continued exposure could lead to health effects.

Platinum use in drugs also may need to be reevaluated, as some of the side effects to these drugs include nausea, hearing loss, and nephrotoxicity. Handling of these drugs by professionals, such as nurses, have also resulted in some side effects including chromosome aberrations and hair loss. Therefore, the long term effects of platinum drug use and exposure need to be evaluated and considered to determine if they are safe to use in medical care.

While exposure of relatively low volumes of platinum group metal emissions may not have any long-term health effects, there is considerable concern for how the accumulation of Pt metal emissions will impact the environment as well as human health. This is a threat that will need more research to determine the safe levels of risk, as well as ways to mitigate potential hazards from platinum group metals.

title: Platinum group