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Deus Ex: Invisible War

Deus Ex: Invisible War is a 2003 action role-playing video game developed by Ion Storm and published by Eidos Interactive for Microsoft Windows and Xbox. It is the second game in the Deus Ex series. The gameplay—combining first-person shooter, stealth, and role-playing elements—features exploration and combat in environments connected to multiple city-based hubs, in addition to quests that can be completed in a variety of ways and flexible character customization. Conversations between characters feature a variety of responses, with options in conversations at crucial story points affecting how some events play out.

Invisible War takes place twenty years after Deus Ex. The game follows a scenario whereby the first game's events led to a period of war and economic depression dubbed the "Collapse", which resulted in several factions attaining power and influence across the world. The player character, Alex D, is evacuated from Chicago to Seattle following a terrorist attack, soon becoming embroiled in a network of plots as the world's factions fight for control of the world. In addition to the series' recurring cyberpunk setting and conspiracy theory motif, the story focuses on the theme of terrorism.

Development of Invisible War began following the success of Deus Ex. The aim was to create a more accessible version of the original game's systems while preserving its essentials. Original designer Harvey Smith directed the game, while Alexander Brandon and Sheldon Pacotti returned respectively as composer and scenario writer. Additional music and voice work was provided by the rock band Kidneythieves. Due to being developed for PC and Xbox, the game's environments needed to be designed with the console's hardware limitations in mind. In later interviews, members of the team have faulted their decisions for the title.

The game was acclaimed for its graphics, narrative and the freedom of choice in both gameplay and story. Criticism was directed towards enemy artificial intelligence, some of the design choices and problems with the PC port. The game has sold over one million copies worldwide as of 2011. Later opinions from both journalists and the game's staff have been polarized, with several websites calling Invisible War the weakest entry in the Deus Ex series. After several unsuccessful efforts to create a third Deus Ex game prior to Ion Storm's 2005 closure, a prequel to the first game, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, was developed by Eidos Montréal and released in 2011.

Gameplay
Deus Ex: Invisible War is an action role-playing game with incorporated first-person shooter and stealth mechanics. Players take the role of Alex D, whose gender and general appearance can be customized at the beginning of the game. The game has multiple difficulty settings; these range from "Easy", which increases damage to enemies, to "Realistic", which raises enemy health while also decreasing available ammunition. The player moves around the environment, being able to climb ladders and jump onto crates, and crouch to negotiate narrow spaces. Items such as datacubes and holoprojectors can be accessed to expand upon the narrative and progress the story. Certain objects in the game can be carried or thrown, from small items to human bodies. Each hub area of the game has a variety of missions given to the player by non-playable characters (NPCs), which the player can choose to accept or ignore; these missions include quests linked to the main story and side quests unique to each hub area. These objectives can be completed in a variety of ways; these include using stealth to infiltrate an area, opening access points using hacking, or launching an armed assault. When talking with NPCs, the player has access to multiple dialogue options, with the option chosen influencing the course of the conversation.

There are a variety of melee and ranged weapons in the game, both lethal and non-lethal; the melee weapons include a combat knife, a baton, and a "stun prod" shock device. Ranged weapons include a pistol, a shotgun, a rifle, an SMG, and a rocket launcher. Other weapon types include a variety of grenades and bombs. All guns found in the game share the same ammunition pool, which is represented by a bar, and each gun type uses different amounts from the pool. Guns can be customized with items and pieces of equipment, such as outfitting a gun with a silencer or allowing it to shoot through glass silently. Other upgrades increase maximum damage and decrease ammunition use. Items, weapons, ammunition, and equipment are purchased with credits, the in-game currency either gathered in the environment or earned through quests. Items range from tools such as disposable multitools for unlocking doors to canisters that replenish health or energy. Defeated enemies drop items that can be collected, or can be found in the environment or in containers such as boxes and cabinets. The player can carry up to twelve item types, with consumable items able to be stacked in a single slot.

During the course of the game, the player acquires biomods – nanite-filled canisters that enhance their physical and mental attributes. There are two types of biomod canisters in the game: standard canisters and black market versions, both either found in the environment or purchased from certain NPCs. Standard and black market biomods cannot be installed in the same slot. Biomods are installed in five different slots representing different parts of the body—"Arm", "Cranial", "Eye", "Leg", and "Skeletal". Each region has three enhancement options the player can activate. Some biomod enhancements are exclusive to either standard or black market biomods. Biomod abilities range from enhancements to strength and agility to abilities linked to hacking terminals and taking control of hostile robots. Once activated, further biomod canisters can be used to upgrade existing abilities, or uninstall an ability to change it around, deleting and replacing the chosen enhancement with the new one. Biomod abilities tied to abilities such as cloaking use up the a portion of the player's energy bar when activated.

Setting
Invisible War is set in the year 2072, twenty years after the events of the original Deus Ex; the Deus Ex series is set in a cyberpunk future rife with secret organizations and conspiracies such as the Illuminati and Majestic 12, an Illuminati splinter faction. During the first game's events in 2052, original protagonist JC Denton—a clone designed to serve Majestic 12—was drawn into a secret war between the Illuminati and Majestic 12, led by industrialist Bob Page. Page intended to make himself a global dictator by first undermining the Illuminati by creating a pandemic to blackmail the world's elite into supporting Majestic 12, then merging himself with the artificial intelligence (AI) Helios. In the back-story revealed in the course of Invisible War, a combination of all three possible endings of Deus Ex took place; JC kills Majestic 12 leader Bob Page, merges with Helios, destroys Majestic 12's base in Area 51 to cripple the world communication network, then sides with the Illuminati to rebuild the world in the wake of these events. JC's actions triggered a worldwide period of war and depression dubbed the "Collapse". Following the Collapse, major capitals organize themselves into city states, creating walled enclaves where the population can be watched and expansion is closely controlled. The story moves between a variety of locations across the world, starting in Seattle and moving on to Cairo, Trier and Antarctica. A recurring feature are "Augmentations", advanced nanotechnologies that enhance the human body; the type used in Invisible War are dubbed "biomods".

Characters and factions
The main protagonist is "Alex D"; their full name is Alex Denton, a clone from the same program which created JC and Paul Denton. Spirited away shortly before the events of Deus Ex, Alex is raised in Chicago before being inducted into the Tarsus Academy, a group controlled by the Denton-created ApostleCorp. At Tarsus, Alex is trained in the use of biomods. Alex's gender is chosen at the beginning of the game, with their selected gender affecting how some people react to them in conversations. Along with Alex, three other Tarsus students are encountered through the story: Billie Adams, a long-term friend of Alex; Leo Jankowski, a high-ranking and impulsive trainee; and Klara Sparks, a modest student who acts as Leo's friend and support. The students are overseen by Leila Nassif. Returning characters from Deus Ex include JC Denton; his brother Paul, who is rendered comatose after an unsuccessful biomod infusion; and Tracer Tong, an ally of the Dentons.

There are several factions within Invisible War that Alex is contacted by and can choose to side with and represent different viewpoints on how humanity's post-Collapse society should develop. The two factions handling reconstruction in city enclaves are a future version of the World Trade Organization (WTO), which builds and maintains the emergent city states, acting as the de facto government body; and the Order, a religion combining concepts from multiple faiths which has gained support from people outside the enclaves and is opposed to the WTO's policies. Later in the game it is revealed that both the Order and the WTO are puppet organizations of the Illuminati, respectively led by Illuminati members Nicolette DuClare and Chad Dumier, the latter a veteran of the war against Majestic 12. Two other factions are the Knights Templar, a group led by former Order leader Saman that makes militant strikes against groups espousing biomod use; and the Omar, a cult of cybernetically-enhanced humans who share a hive mind.

Plot
''Note: While the general plot of Invisible War follows a distinct path, many elements such as faction alliances and character interactions are subject to the player's decisions. The game also offers several subplots and explanations which the player may or may not encounter, depending on their actions within the game. This synopsis concentrates on the main, unavoidable plot thread of the game.''

The game opens after a terrorist attack on Chicago by the Knights Templar: a nanite bomb turns the entire city into grey goo, with the staff and trainees of the city's Tarsus Academy facility barely escaping in time to Tarsus' Seattle facility. After that too is attacked by terrorists, Alex discovers with Billie's help that Tarsus has been observing their trainees in secret under the guidance of Nassif, escapes the facility and is subsequently offered missions by Tarsus, the Order, the WTO, and the Omar. During these missions, Alex learns that their biomods were created by ApostleCorp, and follows Nassif from Seattle to Cairo, which is being disrupted by fighting between the factions. Alex's fellow students follow different paths during the narrative; Billie initially allies with the Order before joining the Knights Templar, Klara joins the WTO, while Leo becomes involved with the Omar and can become an unwilling convert.

After locating Nassif, Alex learns that they are part of JC's plan to distribute their biomod technology worldwide, and that JC is currently incapacitated due to his own augmentations clashing with Helios. Alex goes to Trier to use a teleportation gate to reach JC's hiding place in Antarctica. While in Trier, Alex meets up with Tong and is sent to save key figures from being killed by the Templars, learning of the Illuminati's involvement. After activating the teleportation gate and reaching Antarctica, Alex is confronted by Billie and then revives JC. JC explains his plan of connecting all of humanity to Helios using Alex's biomods, paving the way for an ideal democracy. Alex is sent to Cairo to revive Paul with their compatible biomods. There Alex has the option of saving Paul, killing him under orders from Dumier, or handing him over to Saman.

Brought by JC's agents to Liberty Island, Alex learns that the island holds an old part of the pre-Collapse worldwide communication network which can be used by each faction. No matter what choices Alex has made up to now, they can choose to side with any faction, or kill all the leaders on Liberty Island. If Alex follows JC's plan, the biomods are distributed worldwide, giving Helios the ability to access all human thought, allowing it to govern humanity. If Alex sides with the Illuminati, they use the network to help create a global surveillance state where communication and the economy are controlled. If Alex joins the Templars, they help unite humanity under a theocracy where biomod use and those considered impure are ruthlessly suppressed. Killing all other factions on Liberty Island leads to global chaos, turning Earth into a wasteland dominated by the Omar.

Development
Development of Invisible War began at series creator Ion Storm following the success of the original Deus Ex. Most of the development team returned, eager to both tell a new story and refine the original gameplay. There were also relative newcomers who had worked on the original game's PlayStation 2 (PS2) port. Harvey Smith, lead designer for the original game, was chosen by the original director and series creator Warren Spector to direct the game; Spector instead took on a supervisory role for both Invisible War and other projects within the company. While Smith was tempted to act as both director and designer, he saw that it would be too much work, so brought on Ricardo Bare as lead designer. Bare had been involved in the later development of Deus Ex, and despite his lack of experience as a designer was given the role when more qualified staff members were unavailable.

The music for the game was composed by Alexander Brandon and Todd Simmons; Brandon had previously worked on the original game. Brandon's guidance when composing the music for Invisible War was the sparse musical style of the Thief series, shifting away from the style used for the original game. The voice acting style also underwent changes, with the aim being for more professional performances. The improved voice acting was attributed to the team being given a larger budget. The soundtrack included six tracks from the album Trickster by industrial rock band Kidneythieves; the band's lead singer Free Dominguez provided voice work for the idol character NG Resonance. Dominguez described the experience of recording her voice work being fun.

When creating the game, the team's main aim was to create an experience that emulated the original game's freedom of choice while giving mainstream players more options for defining the player character. The gameplay drew inspiration from Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss, System Shock, Dungeon Master and Thief: The Dark Project. Due to the game being designed for both consoles and PC players, the team wanted to minimize the number of menus to navigate, maintaining the core feeling of a first-person shooter. One of the aims was to improve the stealth elements, which the team felt was "broken" in Deus Ex. When designing the stealth, the team received input from the team developing Thief: Deadly Shadows, which was also in production at Ion Storm. They also had staff who had worked on Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell, then regarded as one of the best recent stealth-focused games. The original game's two different levelling systems of augmentations and skill points were combined into the biomod system. The use of universal ammunition was implemented so players would not need to worry about collecting ammunition types for multiple gun types. Spector later explained these changes as a means of helping sell the game to players outside the core fanbase; with both Invisible War and Thief: Deadly Shadows, they needed a wider player base in order to make the games profitable. A multiplayer mode, which had been added to the original game via a patch, was not included in Invisible War due to time and quality concerns.

The story was influenced by popular conspiracy theories, spy stories, and science fiction. The original writer for Deus Ex, Sheldon Pacotti, returned to write the game's script with newcomer Sarah Paetsch. A major difference from the first game was the player's freedom to change factions throughout the game, something not available in the first game. A core part of the experience was the branching narrative, giving the player multiple options of progress despite missions having a linear progression. Paetsch estimated that the game contained over 30,000 lines of voiced dialogue. The game's subtitle referred to the unseen battle that took place both around people and within them. The suggestion that all endings of Deus Ex should be part of the canon series of events was suggested by a staff member who worked on the original game's Hong Kong storyline. The locations were chosen for their distinct feel and—in some cases—iconic landmarks. They also chose locations associated at the time with the organizations featured in-game, such as Seattle and the WTO. The Antarctica setting was influenced by the John Carpenter's film The Thing. Rather than use JC as the main protagonist due to his actions in Deus Ex making him a grand figure in world history, the team created newcomer Alex, someone who would share JC's roots and begin "at the bottom of the pyramid", as was a popular element of many "immersive sim" games at the time. One of the themes included in the game was the nature of terrorism, and how people could be classified as terrorists or freedom fighters depending on circumstance.

While the original game was developed for Windows, the team developed Invisible War for console, using their experience creating the Deus Ex PS2 port. They chose the Xbox as it had the largest memory capacity. The biggest problem was the smaller processing power and RAM compared to PCs. Due to the limited hardware of the Xbox, the environment sizes needed to be scaled down compared to the first game, but the team tried to make the smaller areas denser, with more interactive elements. When creating the game, the team rebuilt all the systems from scratch from the engine to the render and sound system. The game used a combination of the Unreal Engine and the Havok physics software. The choice of Unreal was governed by several factors including familiarity with the engine and the wish to develop for both PC and console environments; while the basic structure of the Unreal Engine was used, the team replaced the renderer, artificial intelligence (AI) programming and physics engine. Integrating Havok allowed for "richer" simulation of real-time physics. The AI was designed to exhibit a wider range of responses than the original game, noticing disturbances, searching environments and being able to call in reinforcements.

A sequel to Deus Ex was revealed by Eidos in 2001 through job listings advertising for designers to work on the game. Later that month at the 2001 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), Eidos confirmed that both the second Deus Ex and the next Thief game would be coming to consoles before arriving on PC; the explanation was that taking the restrictions of console hardware into account would make later ports to PC more effective. Eidos officially announced the game E3 2002; the platforms listed were PC, Xbox and PS2. It was later revealed that Ion Storm were struggling to work out how to port the game to PS2 given the extensive hardware differences between the three platforms, and were reluctant to do so due to these issues. Following the game's release, it was clarified that no PS2 version would be developed. As part of the promotion, the soundtrack was made available for download through the game's website. A demo was released in November 2003. The game was released in North America on December 2, 2003. Following the North American release, Ion Storm released a patch to fix issues with the graphics and additional gameplay elements such as quick saves. The game released in Europe on March 5, 2004. The Xbox version was also released in Japan. First announced in March 2004, the game was released on June 17.

Sales
During its debut week in the United Kingdom, the game reached #3 in the charts, described as a respectable debut. In their financial report in April 2005, Eidos reported that Invisible War was among the titles to have sold between 500,000 and one million copies since release, placing it among their successful titles. As of April 2011, Invisible War has sold over 1.2 million copies worldwide, placing it above the original game in terms of copies sold.

Critical reception
Computer and Video Games called both versions of the game enjoyable despite elements of world building and gameplay not carried over from the original. Eurogamer's Rob Fahay, while noting that its focus on some aspects of the first game over others left it at a disadvantage, still called it "excellent". Adam Biessener and Justin Leeper of Game Informer, respectively reviewing the PC and Xbox versions, praised the variety of choices in gameplay and the quality of the story and voice performances, calling both great examples of games within the science fiction genre. GamePro praised the story, its extensive voice acting, the number of choices available in gameplay progression and the completion of objectives.

GameSpot's Greg Kasavin, who reviewed both versions, praised the game's ambition and the elements that worked, but said that people would focus on the faults with its narrative delivery and gameplay structure; he summed up the game as a "great and original experience that's well worthwhile". Steve Butts of IGN said that, while some would say the gameplay made too many concessions towards casual players, it was still a well-built and enjoyable video game, praising most of the alterations made by the developers. Ryan McCaffrey of Official Xbox Magazine called the game a "brilliant RPG" despite noting its short length, praising its narrative, gameplay freedom, and in-game physics. Kieron Gillen, reviewing the game for PC Gamer, praised the game's wide variety of choice despite some elements such as the biomod upgrade system not evolving. He noted that the elements that had not been directly carried over from Deus Ex would taint people's perception of the game.

General praise went to the variety of choice in its narrative and gameplay, despite the former being seen as lacking in places and the latter being held back by other factors such as the limitations of the Biomod upgrade system and its limited environment sizes. Poor AI behavior was also a recurring criticism. The Xbox version was praised for its performance and graphics despite several reviewers noting distracting drops in frame rate and other technical issues. The PC version was frequently criticized as having similar frame rate issues in addition to problems with the controls, the necessity for a powerful computer to run the game properly, and the fact that the game was scaled down to run on the Xbox.

Accolades
As part of his review, McCaffrey named the game as "Editor's Choice". At the National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers 2003 awards ceremony, Invisible War was nominated for awards in the "Character Design" and "Lighting/Texturing" categories. At the 2004 Game Developers Choice Awards, Pacotti and Paetsch were nominated in the "Excellence in Writing" category for their work on the game. At that year's Interactive Achievement Awards, the game was nominated in the categories of "Computer Role-Playing Game of the Year" and "Console First-Person Action Game of the Year".

Legacy
Invisible War has retrospectively been seen as the weakest mainline entry in the Deus Ex series compared to both the original game and subsequent titles. IGN's Brian Albert, in a history of the series, felt that its technical shortcomings and science fiction aesthetics prevented Invisible War from finding the same appeal as the original game. Neon Kelly of VideoGamer.com said the game was "widely regarded as a disappointment" due to the controversial design choices relating to its gameplay and console-focused structure.

Several retrospectives on the game have cited it as a disappointing game in the wake of the highly acclaimed original:  both Heather Alexandra of Kotaku and Richard Cobbett of PC Gamer said that—while the game was not bad in itself—it failed to live up to the Deus Ex series traditions and worked against the brand. In a dedicated retrospective of the game for Eurogamer, Tristan Donovan said that the game was "destined to spend its future living in the shadow of the game that came before it and, now, the game that came after it", despite it having enough elements to be considered an entry in the Deus Ex series.

Members of staff have also spoken out against their role in the game:  Spector openly regrets listening to the focus testers during early development as this influenced the shift in setting, Brandon faulted the sound—the more professional voice acting and sparse musical style—as being foreign to the Deus Ex series,  while in multiple interviews Smith expressed disappointment with the design decisions taken with the game despite him still liking it. In a conversation with Spector during a lecture at the University of Texas, Smith voiced his opinions on the game's development: ""I feel like we f- [sic] up the technology management of it, [...] We had bad team chemistry. We wrote the wrong renderer. We wrote the wrong kind of AI. And then we shipped too early. The story was even bad. Like, it wasn't a bad story story. It was more like we moved into the future, which – we didn’t realize at the time – undermined a lot of what made Deus Ex great.""

Future games
Following the release of Invisible War, multiple attempts were made to create a third Deus Ex title, even after both Spector and Smith left Ion Storm. The two main projects were dubbed Deus Ex: Insurrection, which used the same engine as Invisible War while moving away from its divisive mechanics; and Deus Ex 3, which aimed to be an open world game with a branching narrative. Prospective development on the third Deus Ex game was halted when, following further staff departure and financial difficulties, the studio's owner Eidos Interactive closed them down in 2005. A separate project developed by Crystal Dynamics, intended as the fourth Deus Ex project following Insurrection and titled Deus Ex: Clan Wars, was reworked as Project Snowblind. Invisible War was the last Deus Ex game developed by Ion Storm prior to its closure.

In 2007, the next entry in the Deus Ex series at the newly-established Eidos Montréal with the aim of revitalizing the Deus Ex series, with the game being both a prequel and a reboot of the series. First announced shortly after beginning development, Deus Ex: Human Revolution was released in 2011 to critical and commercial success. A direct sequel to Human Revolution, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, released in 2016. Mankind Divided and other projects following Human Revolution form part of a project dubbed the "Deus Ex Universe", with both games and additional media designed to expand upon the series setting.

title: Deus Ex: Invisible War


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Bradyseism

Bradyseism is the gradual uplift (positive bradyseism) or descent (negative bradyseism) of part of the Earth's surface caused by the filling or emptying of an underground magma chamber or hydrothermal activity, particularly in volcanic calderas. It can persist for millennia in between eruptions and each uplift event is normally accompanied by thousands of small to moderate earthquakes. The word derives from the ancient Greek words βραδύς bradús, meaning "slow", and σεισμός seismós meaning "movement", and was coined by Arturo Issel in 1883.

Phlegraean Fields
The area of Phlegraean Fields (Campi Flegrei), near Naples, is a collapsed caldera, namely a volcanic area formed by several volcanic edifices, which includes the Solfatara volcano, well known for its fumaroles. The Campi Flegrei area is especially noted for bradyseismic uplift and subsidence. The inflation and deflation of this caldera is especially well documented due to its seaside location and a long history of habitation and construction in the area.

In particular, the town of Pozzuoli features the Roman Macellum of Pozzuoli in which three marble columns show bands of boreholes or Gastrochaenolites left by marine Lithophaga molluscs. These occur up to 7 metres up the columns, showing how bradyseism in the area lowered the land to at least this depth under the sea and subsequently raised it again.

More recently, between 1968 and 1972, the Campi Flegrei area suffered an episode of positive bradyseism and rose by 1.7 metres. Another rise of 1.8 metres occurred between 1982 and 1984. This correlated with a shallow (4 km deep) earthquake swarm during the same period, which led to the evacuation of 30,000 people due to the perceived risk of imminent eruption.

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

title: Bradyseism


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User:Markcollinsx

FreeBSD rocks Linux sucks :-)

Some links:
 * FreeBSD
 * Rewind
 * Open Directory Project
 * TenDRA C++ Compiler
 * TenDRA C++ Compiler development page
 * FreeBSD vs Linux vs Windows

title: User:Markcollinsx


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Black Friday (1978)

Black Friday is the name given to an incident occurring on 8 September 1978 (17 Shahrivar 1357 in the Iranian calendar) in Iran, in which 64, or at least 100  people were shot dead and 205 injured by the Pahlavi military in Jaleh Square  in Tehran. According to the military historian Spencer C. Tucker, 94 were killed on Black Friday, consisting of 64 protesters and 30 government security forces. The deaths were described as the pivotal event in the Iranian Revolution that ended any "hope for compromise" between the protest movement and the regime of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

Background
As protests against the Shah's rule continued during the first half of 1978, the Iranian government declared martial law. On 8 September, thousands gathered in Tehran's Jaleh Square for a religious demonstration, unaware that the government had declared martial law a day earlier.

Massacre
A crowd of the protesters had gathered in Jaleh square, Tehran, who were surrounded by the army. The gathering was shot at indiscriminately by the army leading to death of numerous people.

Aftermath
Black Friday is thought to have marked the point of no return for the revolution, and it led to the abolition of Iran's monarchy less than a year later. It is also believed that Black Friday played a crucial role in further radicalizing the protest movement, uniting the opposition to the Shah and mobilized the masses. The incident is described by historian Ervand Abrahamian as "a sea of blood between the shah and the people." Initially, opposition and western journalists claimed that the Iranian army had massacred thousands of protesters. The clerical leadership announced that "thousands have been massacred by Zionist troops". According to the historian Abbas Amanat:

"The clerical activists, backed by the Qom marja's, capitalized on the Jaleh Square massacre to paint the regime as brutal and illegitimate. Aided by a rumor-mongering machine that became fully operational in the absence of reliable media and news reporting, the number of casualties, the “martyrs” on the path of Islam, was inflated to thousands, and the troops who opened fire on them were labeled as Israeli mercenaries who were brought in to crush the revolution."

The events triggered protests that continued for another four months. The day after Black Friday, Amir-Abbas Hoveyda resigned as minister of court for unrelated reasons.

A general strike in October shut down the petroleum industry that was essential to the administration's survival, "sealing the Shah's fate". The continuation of protests ultimately led to Shah leaving Iran in January 1979, clearing the way for the Iranian Revolution, led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

Legacy
Initially, Western media and opposition reported "15,000 dead and wounded", but Iranian government officials reported that 86 people had died in Tehran in the whole day. French social theorist Michel Foucault first reported that 2,000 to 3,000 people had died in Jaleh Square, and he later raised that number to 4,000. Johann Beukes, author of Foucault in Iran, 1978–1979, notes that "Foucault seems to have adhered to this exaggerated death count at Jaleh Square, propagated by the revolting masses themselves. Thousands were wounded, but the death toll unlikely accounted to more than hundred casualties".

The BBC's correspondent in Iran, Andrew Whitley, reported that hundreds had died.

According to the military historian Spencer C. Tucker, 94 were killed on Black Friday, consisting of 64 protesters and 30 government security forces. According to the Iranologist Richard Foltz, 64 protesters died at Jaleh Square.

According to Emadeddin Baghi, a former researcher at the Martyrs Foundation (Bonyad Shahid, part of the current Iranian government, which compensates families of victims) hired "to make sense of the data" on those killed on Black Friday, 64 were killed in Jaleh Square on Black Friday, with two females: one woman and a young girl. On the same day in other parts of the capital, 24 people died in clashes with martial law forces, with one female, making the total casualties on the same day to 88 deaths. Another source puts the Martyrs Foundation tabulation of dead at 84 during that day.

The square's name was later changed to the Square of Martyrs (Maidan-e Shohada) by the Islamic republic.

Since the 2000s, some former Pahlavi dynasty politicians have suggested greater ambiguity in the situation, in particular the presence of Palestinian guerrillas in Iran, who they believe were agitators.

In Persian
In 1978 shortly after the massacre, the Iranian musician Hossein Alizadeh set Siavash Kasraie's poem about the event to music. Mohammad Reza Shajarian sang the piece "Jāleh Khun Shod" (Jaleh [Pers. "the dew"] turned to blood.).

In English
Nastaran Akhavan, one of the survivors, wrote the book Spared about the event. The book explains how the author was forced into a massive wave of thousands of angry protesters, who were later massacred by the Shah's military. The 2016 adventure video game 1979 Revolution: Black Friday is based on the event. The game is directed by Navid Khonsari, who was a child at the time of the revolution and admitted he did not have a realistic view of what was taking place. Khonsari described creating the game as "[wanting] people to feel the passion and the elation of being in the revolution – of feeling that you could possibly make a change."

title: Black Friday (1978)


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User talk:WolvenOne

Hello "WolvenOne" and welcome to Wikipedia. A few tips for you:

 * Peruse Welcome, newcomers and associated pages.
 * You can experiment at Sandbox.
 * Sign talk page entries with ~, which is automatically converted to a name and date.
 * Ask questions on Village pump.
 * Have fun.

-- Infrogmation 00:46, 9 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Proposed deletion of Devil Fruit
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AfD nomination of Devil Fruit
I have nominated Devil Fruit, an article you created, for deletion. I do not feel that this article satisfies Wikipedia's criteria for inclusion, and have explained why at Articles for deletion/Devil Fruit. Your opinions on the matter are welcome at that same discussion page; also, you are welcome to edit the article to address these concerns. Thank you for your time. Do you want to opt out of receiving this notice? -- Collectonian  (talk · contribs) 02:34, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

title: User talk:WolvenOne


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James Douglas

James Douglas may refer to:

Lords of Angus

 * James Douglas, 3rd Earl of Angus (1426–1446), Scottish nobleman
 * James Douglas, Earl of Angus (1671–1692), son of the 2nd Marquess of Douglas

Lords of Douglas

 * James Douglas, Lord of Douglas (1286–1330), ("the Good", "the Black"), Scottish warlord and champion of Robert the Bruce
 * James Douglas, 2nd Earl of Douglas (c. 1358–1388)
 * James Douglas, 7th Earl of Douglas (1371–1443), "the Gross"
 * James Douglas, 9th Earl of Douglas (1426–1488), Scottish nobleman
 * Lord James Douglas (1617–1645), son of the 1st Marquess of Douglas
 * James Douglas, 2nd Marquess of Douglas (1646–1700)

Lords of Morton

 * James Douglas, 1st Earl of Morton (1426–1493)
 * James Douglas, 3rd Earl of Morton (died 1548)
 * James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton (c. 1516–1581)
 * James Douglas, 10th Earl of Morton (died 1686), Earl of Morton
 * James Douglas, 11th Earl of Morton (died 1715), Earl of Morton
 * James Douglas, 14th Earl of Morton (1702–1768), Scottish astronomer and peer

Elsewhere

 * James Douglas, 5th Earl of Buchan (died 1601), Scottish courtier and landowner
 * James Douglas of Parkhead (died 1608), Scottish landowner
 * James Douglas of Spott (died 1615), Scottish landowner and conspirator
 * James Douglas, 2nd Earl of Queensberry (died 1671)
 * James Douglas, 4th Duke of Hamilton (1658–1712)
 * James Douglas, 2nd Duke of Queensberry (1662–1711), also 1st Duke of Dover
 * James Douglas, 3rd Marquess of Queensberry (1697–1715), lunatic and cannibal
 * James Douglas-Hamilton, Baron Selkirk of Douglas (born 1942), former MP and MSP, also briefly 11th Earl of Selkirk
 * James Douglas, 1st Lord Mordington (died 1656)
 * James Douglas, 3rd Lord Mordington (1651–?)
 * James Douglas, 7th of Drumlanrig (died 1578), Scottish nobleman
 * James Douglas, 1st Lord Dalkeith, Scottish nobleman
 * James Douglas, 4th Baron Douglas (1787–1857)

Politicians

 * James Douglas Stoddart Douglas (1793–1875), MP for Rochester
 * James Douglas (died 1751), British member of parliament for Malmesbury and St. Mawes
 * James Douglas (1878–1956), Polish diplomat
 * James Lester Douglas (1881–1950), Canadian member of Parliament for Queen's, Prince Edward Island
 * James McCrie Douglas (1867–1950), politician in Alberta, Canada and former mayor of Edmonton
 * James Moffat Douglas (1839–1920), Canadian member of parliament and senator from Saskatchewan
 * James G. Douglas (1887–1954), supporter of Michael Collins, architect of Irish Free State Constitution, member of Irish Senate
 * Jim Douglas (born 1951), governor of Vermont
 * Sir James Douglas (governor) (1803–1877), governor of Vancouver Island and British Columbia; head of Hudson's Bay Company operations in the Columbia District
 * James Douglas (British Army officer) (1785–1862), British Army officer and Lieutenant Governor of Guernsey
 * James Robson Douglas (1876–1934), lieutenant governor of Nova Scotia
 * James W. Douglas (1851–1883), political figure in British Columbia
 * James Postell Douglas (1836–1901), soldier, politician, and businessman in the state of Texas
 * James Douglas (Australian politician) (died 1905), New South Wales colonial politician
 * James Douglas (plumber) (1872–1957), New Zealand plumber and mayor of Dunedin

Sportspeople

 * Jimmy Douglas (American soccer) (1898–1972), goalkeeper
 * Jimmy Douglas (Canadian soccer) (born 1948), midfielder and coach
 * James Douglas (cricketer) (1870–1958), English cricketer
 * Jimmy Douglas (Scottish footballer) (1859–1919), Scottish international footballer
 * Buster Douglas (James Douglas, born 1960), American boxer
 * James Scott Douglas (1930–1969), British racing driver

Military

 * James Douglas (English Army officer) (died 1691), colonel of the Scots Regiment of Footguards, a regiment on the establishment of the English Army
 * James H. Douglas Jr. (1899–1988), United States secretary of the Air Force and United States deputy secretary of Defense
 * Sir James Douglas, 1st Baronet (1703–1787), commodore for Newfoundland and Labrador

Other

 * James Douglas (antiquary) (1753–1819), English clergyman
 * James Douglas (physician) (1675–1742), Scottish anatomist and physician
 * James Douglas (businessman) (1837–1918), Canadian-born U.S. mining engineer, industrialist, and philanthropist
 * James Douglas Jr. (1868–1949), Canadian-American businessman and mining executive
 * James Douglas (composer) (1932–2022), Scottish composer
 * James Douglas (journalist) (1867–1940), British newspaper editor, author and critic
 * James Douglas (actor) (1929–2016), American soap opera actor
 * James W. B. Douglas (died 1992), social researcher
 * James Douglas (architect), American architect in Wisconsin
 * James Douglas (judge) (born 1950), justice of the Supreme Court of Queensland
 * Jim Douglas (guitarist) (born 1942), Scottish jazz guitarist
 * James Sholto Douglas (1757–1833), Scottish diplomat

title: James Douglas


text:
Mixmaster

Mixmaster may refer to:

Equipment and technology

 * Sunbeam Mixmaster, an electric kitchen mixer that was the flagship product of Sunbeam Products
 * Mix Diskerud, United States professional soccer player nicknamed after the mixer
 * Mixmaster anonymous remailer, a Type II anonymous remailer network software
 * Douglas XB-42 Mixmaster, a prototype American bomber
 * A nickname for the Cessna Skymaster airplane

Music

 * Mixmaster Morris or Morris Gould (born 1965), English ambient DJ and underground musician
 * Mix Master Mike (born 1970), American turntablist and contributing member of the Beastie Boys
 * Mixmaster Spade, an early gangsta rap performer in West Coast hip hop
 * Mixmaster Gee, an artist featured on 1987 album Street Sounds Crucial Electro 3
 * Alternate name of Black Box (band), an italo-house musical act

Other uses

 * Mixmaster (Transformers), a Constructicon
 * Mixmaster universe, a cosmological model proposed by Charles W. Misner
 * Mixmaster dynamics, the sensitivity of particles permitted to collapse under the force of gravity
 * Cicurina mixmaster, a spider in the genus Cicurina
 * A complex stack interchange between divided highways

title: Mixmaster


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Mount Edith Cavell

Mount Edith Cavell is a mountain in the Athabasca River and Astoria River valleys of Jasper National Park, and the most prominent peak entirely within Alberta.

The mountain was named in 1916 for Edith Cavell, a British nurse executed by the Germans during World War I for having helped Allied soldiers escape from occupied Belgium to the Netherlands, in violation of German military law. It was previously known as Mount Fitzhugh.

A close-up view of the north face of Mount Edith Cavell is visible after a short hike to Cavell Meadows. The trailhead is by the parking lot at the end of Mount Edith Cavell Road. The trail to the meadows is 3.8 km one way, rising 370 m to 2135 m. The Canadian Rockies Trail Guide describes the trail in detail.

The hanging Angel Glacier is visible from Cavell Meadows, which spills over a 300 m cliff on the north face.

Access to the Tonquin Valley trails can be found about one kilometre before the end of the Mount Edith Cavell Road. There is a parking area across from the Mount Edith Cavell Hostel. A short walk down the gravel path leads to the north end of Cavell Lake. There is small bridge across the stream that empties the lake. From here there are good views with the lake in the foreground and the Mount Edith Cavell massif in the background.

It is believed that one of the world's largest glacial erratics, called Big Rock, near Okotoks, Alberta, was once part of Mount Edith Cavell. The erratic was formed approximately ten thousand years ago when a large portion of quartzite stone was stripped away from the mountain along with the receding Athabasca River Valley glacier.

Climbing routes
There are several popular climbing routes, including:
 * West Ridge (normal route): Yosemite Decimal System II
 * East Ridge: Yosemite Decimal System III, 5.3
 * North Face, East Summit: Yosemite Decimal System IV, 5.8

The North Face route is included as a classic climb in Steck and Roper's Fifty Classic Climbs of North America.

Notable ascents

 * 1961 North Face, IV 5.7, First ascent by Yvon Chouinard, Fred Beckey and Dan Doody. July 20–21.
 * 1966 North Face, Second ascent by Denny Eberl and Gray Thompson. July 30, 1966.
 * 1967 North Face, First solo ascent by Royal Robbins.
 * 1981 North Face, Second solo ascent by Dane Burns- North Face, via the Chouinard, Becky, Doody. 7hrs from the parking lot to the summit, with a direct line left of the Angle Glacier on the lower slopes and directly up the shale at the summit.

In philately
Mount Edith Cavell was featured on a $1 Canadian stamp issued on December 4, 1930.

Climate
Based on the Köppen climate classification, the mountain is in a subarctic climate zone with cold, snowy winters, and mild summers. Temperatures can drop below −20 °C with wind chill factors below −30 °C. Precipitation runoff from the mountain drains into tributaries of the Athabasca River.

title: Mount Edith Cavell


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Great Basin Desert

The Great Basin Desert is part of the Great Basin between the Sierra Nevada and the Wasatch Range. The desert is a geographical region that largely overlaps the Great Basin shrub steppe defined by the World Wildlife Fund, and the Central Basin and Range ecoregion defined by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and United States Geological Survey. It is a temperate desert with hot, dry summers and snowy winters. The desert spans large portions of Nevada and Utah, and extends into eastern California. The desert is one of the four biologically defined deserts in North America, in addition to the Mojave, Sonoran, and Chihuahuan Deserts.

Basin and range topography characterizes the desert: wide valleys bordered by parallel mountain ranges generally oriented north–south. There are more than 33 peaks within the desert with summits higher than 3,000 m, but valleys in the region are also high, most with elevations above 1,200 m. The biological communities of the Great Basin Desert vary according to altitude: from low salty dry lakes, up through rolling sagebrush valleys, to pinyon-juniper forests. The significant variation between valleys and peaks has created a variety of habitat niches which has in turn led to many small, isolated populations of genetically unique plant and animal species throughout the region. According to Grayson, more than 600 species of vertebrates live in the floristic Great Basin, which has a similar areal footprint to the ecoregion. Sixty-three of these species have been identified as species of conservation concern due to contracting natural habitats (for example, Centrocercus urophasianus, Vulpes macrotis, Dipodomys ordii, and Phrynosoma platyrhinos).

The ecology of the desert varies across geography also. The desert's high elevation and location between mountain ranges influences regional climate: the desert formed by the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada that blocks moisture from the Pacific Ocean, while the Rocky Mountains create a barrier effect that restricts moisture from the Gulf of Mexico. Different locations in the desert have different amounts of precipitation depending on the strength of these rain shadows. The environment is influenced by Pleistocene lakes that dried after the last ice age: Lake Lahontan and Lake Bonneville. Each of these lakes left different amounts of salinity and alkalinity.

Definition and boundaries

The Great Basin Desert is defined by its animals and plants, yet the boundaries are unclear.

Scientists have different definitions of the Great Basin Desert, which are often defined by negatives. J. Robert Macey defines the "Great Basin scrub desert as lacking creosote bush." The Great Basin Desert includes several arid basins lacking Larrea tridentata (chaparral) such as the "Chalfant, Hammil, Benton, and Queen valleys," as well as all but the southeast portion of the Owens Valley. Conversely, the "Panamint, Saline, and Eureka valleys" have creosote bush, unlike the Deep Springs Valley which includes part of the Great Basin scrub desert.

The study and definition of ecoregions can also indicate the boundaries of the Great Basin Desert. In 1987 J.M. Omernik defined a desert ecoregion between the Sierra Nevada and Wasatch Range, naming it the "Northern Basin and Range" ecoregion. In 1999, the U.S. EPA renamed the "Northern Basin and Range" the "Central Basin and Range" and the "(Snake River) High Desert" the "Northern Basin and Range". The World Wildlife Fund adopted the Basin and Range ecoregions from Omernik, but excised a small region of high-altitude areas which contain Holocene refugia, from the former "Northern Basin and Range" ecoregion and renamed it the "Great Basin Shrub Steppe". Although the EPA had refined the boundaries of the Central Basin and Range ecoregion by 2003, when USGS geographer Christopher Soulard wrote his reports on the region, his maps used the 1999 boundary for the "Central Basin and Range", which is essentially the same as the "Great Basin Shrub Steppe". He states that the Great Basin Desert is "encompassed within" that area.

This article describes the general ecology of the region, including the high-elevation areas, and does not rely on minor differences in the definitions of the ecoregion or desert. See Great Basin montane forests for more specific details on the high-elevation ecoregion.

Climate
The climate of the Great Basin desert is characterized by extremes: hot, dry summers and cold, snowy winters; frigid alpine ridges and warm, windy valleys; days over 90 F followed by nights near 40 F. This is the climate of the high desert.

The Great Basin desert climate begins with the Sierra Nevada in eastern California. Rising 14,000 ft above sea level, this mountain range casts a large rain shadow over the desert. Weather coming in from the Pacific Ocean quickly loses its moisture as rain and snow as it is forced up and over the steep mountains. By the time it reaches the east side of the mountains, little moisture is left to bring to the desert. The rain shadow effect is more pronounced closer to the Sierra Nevada, with yearly precipitation in the Great Basin desert averaging 9 in in the west and 12 in inches in the east. Moisture that manages to reach the ecoregion tends to precipitate as rain and snow in higher elevations, primarily over the region's long, parallel mountains. Ultimately, any precipitation that falls within the desert fails to drain either to the Atlantic Ocean or to the Pacific Ocean (thus the term "basin"). Instead, precipitation drains to ephemeral or saline lakes via streams, or disappears via evaporation or absorption into the soil. The desert is the coldest of the deserts in North America.

On any given day, the weather across the Great Basin desert is variable. The region is extremely mountainous, and the temperatures vary depending on the elevation. In general, temperature decreases 3.6 degrees F for every 1000 feet gained in elevation. This translates to as much as a 30 F-change difference between mountaintops and valley floors on the same day at the same time. In the heat of summer this difference can be even more pronounced. With some exceptions wind generally increases with elevation or altitude and thus strong winds are often encountered on mountain tops and ridges.

This dry climate and rugged topography proves too harsh for many plant and animal species; however, genetic adaptations to these conditions have led to reasonably high species richness within the ecoregion.

The Great Basin National Park, located in a central part of the Great Basin desert, provides perhaps the best example of a typical climate for the region.

Fallon's climate is typical of lower elevations in the western part of the Great Basin desert. Located in the Forty Mile Desert, precipitation is rare, and summers are hot, though temperatures are more moderate than those in deserts like the Mojave and Sonoran, due to the region's higher elevation and latitude. Winters in this section of the basin are still cold, however.

The Great Salt Lake Desert, located near the northeast corner of the Great Basin desert, is an excellent example of a cold desert climate. Although still arid, it is worthy to note that this portion of the desert receives more precipitation than the similar playas and salt pans on the western edge of the Great Basin desert.

Biological communities
The pattern of 'basin and range' with adjacent basins and ranges in this region results in incredible biological diversity. Climate, elevation, soil type, and many anthropogenic variables greatly influence the diversity and distribution of shrubland, grassland, and woodland communities in the desert. Across the high desert there are numerous sub-climates correlating to the varied elevations. Heading from the valley bottoms to the mountain peaks one will encounter constantly changing combinations of plant and animal species making up some 200 distinct biological communities. These communities can be generally grouped into six general communities or "life zones".

Shadscale zone
In the lower valley bottoms where mountain run off evaporates to create saline soils is the shadscale zone. Plants in this community are adapted to living with very little precipitation, high heat, and saline conditions. The amount of water and the soil type in any one area will determine exactly which plants will live there. Certain areas of the valley floors may harbor no life. These parched areas that flood periodically are called playas. On the shores of the playas, shadscale is the dominant plant, but is kept company by iodine bush, saltgrass, spiny hopsage, winterfat, four-winged saltbrush, and green rabbitbrush. Trees are not found in this community. Big greasewood is the dominant shrub in more saline areas or where the water table is high. These shrubs and associated grasses typically produce abundant small seeds that are harvested by rodents and insects. The soil salinity and lack of moisture in this zone is not very conducive to most agriculture; however, livestock grazing and grain farming have historically contributed to a decline in the already scattered vegetation.

Sagebrush zone
The drop in soil salinity and increase in moisture as elevation increases leads to a transition to sagebrush (Artemisia) and grasses just above the shadscale zone. This expanse, called the sagebrush zone, constitutes the largest amount of land in the desert (38.7 percent) and is dominated by big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) shrubland. The sagebrush zone occurs on the lower mountain slopes, alluvial fans, and bajadas. Areas in this zone that have wetter and less saline soils are dominated by big sagebrush. Low sagebrush or black sagebrush dominate areas with steep rocky slopes and shallow soils. Introduced annual grasses such as cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) and halogeton (Halogeton glomeratus) also characterize this zone, although native bunchgrasses once thrived amongst sagebrush. Historical fire suppression, adjusted fire frequency following the introduction of annual grasses and widespread livestock grazing have contributed to contraction of the sagebrush zone. According to Noss, 99 percent of the sagebrush-grass zone has been damaged by livestock, with major damage in 30 percent of the zone. Other shrubs commonly found in the sagebrush zone are rabbitbrush, bitterbrush, snowberry, and Mormon tea (ephedra).

Pinyon-Juniper community
The pinyon–juniper community is adjacent and above the sagebrush zone. The main plants in this community are singleleaf pinyon pine and Utah juniper, often with a sagebrush and bitterbrush understory. Other species of junipers also occur in this zone, including Juniperus communis and Juniperus occidentalis.

The elevational range of this zone varies, but it is usually found between 6,000 and 8,000 ft, with lower limits determined by lack of moisture and the upper limits determined by temperature. The pinyon-juniper community consists of short evergreen trees that rarely grow over 20 feet in height. This zone of dense vegetation, made possible by thermal inversions and increased precipitation, is important to a wide variety of isolated animals that rely on this vegetation interface for survival (for example, Eutamias palmeri).

The trees are widely spaced and have an understory of a mixture of shrubs and herbaceous plants, often with nearly bare ground. These characteristics have led this zone to be named the "pygmy forest" by many scientists. The lower end of this zone is dominated by juniper; the middle is a combination of both species, and the upper end is dominated by pinyon.

Montane community
The taller ranges of the Great Basin desert have a montane community. Due to the great distances created by basins between these small forest habitats, various rock substrates, and local climates, montane forests are tremendously varied across the desert.

Isolated from one mountain range to the next, montane communities in the region have long individual histories, each one affected differently by chance factors of migration over vast expanses of desert. Smaller communities are also vulnerable to adverse effects of climate change and to genetic drift.

White fir, Douglas fir, and ponderosa pines are found in the middle elevations of some mountain ranges, while limber pine, subalpine fir, Engelmann spruce, and bristlecone pines occupy the higher elevations, continuing to the upper tree line. Mountain mahogany often dominates drier, warmer south-facing slopes. Pure stands of aspen are also common in this community.

The bristlecone pine is an important species that is indicative of the Great Basin desert. Bristlecones live a long time, some for thousands of years. The harsh areas they occupy are often devoid of other plant life, so there is little competition and reduced risk of fire. The trees grow very slowly, producing very dense, disease-resistant wood. These factors contribute to the bristlecone's long life.

Alpine community
Some mountain ranges in the Great Basin desert are high enough to have an alpine community; a community of low growing plants above the treeline. Treeline is generally found above 10000 ft in the Great Basin desert, moving downslope with higher latitudes. The plants that grow above treeline are separated from other such areas by miles of foothills and valleys. This "island" phenomenon produces many endemic species - species that have evolved while isolated on a particular mountain peak or range and are found only in that one place. Grasses, sedges, low perennial herbs, and wildflowers grow above treeline.

Riparian community
The riparian communities of the Great Basin desert cut across all elevations and life zones. In the Great Basin desert surface water is rapidly lost by evaporation or infiltration. However, areas around streams where plant life is abundant constitute a riparian area. Water-loving plants like willow, narrowleaf cottonwood, choke cherry, wild rose, and aspen are found along these wet areas. The willow has a spreading root network that allows it to reach all around for water and it also helps streams by slowing erosion. These plants provide wood for beavers. In this community, silver buffaloberry often provides shelter for North American porcupines.

Subregions
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency defines its Central Basin and Range ecoregion as Level III: it is at the third level of a tree of ecoregions that cover North America. It further defines sub-ecoregions at Level IV, which describe differences in the ecoregion at different locations. The map shows the Level IV EPA ecoregions in Nevada. The low-elevation ecoregions lie in the Great Basin shrub steppe, while the high-elevation ones lie in the Great Basin montane forests (as defined by the WWF).

Salt deserts
The Salt desert ecoregion is composed of nearly level playas, salt flats, mud flats, and saline lakes. These features are characteristic of the Bonneville Basin: they have a higher salt content than those of the Lahontan and Tonopah playas ecoregion, below. Water levels and salinity varies from year-to-year, during dry periods, salt encrustation and wind erosion occur. Vegetation is mostly absent, although scattered salt-tolerant plants, such as pickleweed, iodinebush, black greasewood, and inland saltgrass occur. Soils are not arable and there is very limited grazing potential. The salt deserts provide wildlife habitat and serve some recreational, military, and industrial uses. A prime example of this ecoregion is the Bonneville Salt Flats.

Shadscale-dominated saline basins
The Shadscale-dominated saline basins ecoregion is arid, internally drained and gently sloping to nearly flat. These basins are in, or are characteristic of, the Bonneville Basin: they are higher in elevation and colder in winter than the Lahontan salt shrub basin ecoregion to the west. Light-colored soils with high salt and alkali content occur and are dry for extended periods. The saltbush vegetation common to this ecoregion has a higher tolerance for extremes in temperature, aridity, and salinity than big sagebrush, which dominates ecoregion 13c at somewhat higher elevation. The basins in Nevada, in contrast to those in Utah, are more constricted in area and are more influenced by nearby mountain ranges with extensive carbonate rock exposures, which provide water by percolation through the limestone substrate to surface as valley springs. Isolated valley drainages support endemic fish, such as the Newark Valley tui chub.

Lahontan and Tonopah playas
The nearly level and often barren Lahontan and Tonopah playas contain mudflats, alkali flats, and intermittent saline lakes, such as the Black Rock Desert, Carson Sink, and Sarcobatus Flat. Marshes, remnant lakes and playas are all that remain of Pleistocene Lake Lahontan, which was once the size of Lake Erie. Playas occur in the lowest elevation of the Lahontan Basin, and represent the terminus or sink of rivers running east of the Sierra Nevada. The playas fill with seasonal runoff from the surrounding mountains, providing habitat for migratory birds. Black greasewood or four-winged saltbush may grow around the perimeter in the transition to the salt shrub community, where they often stabilize areas of low sand dunes. This ecoregion has limited grazing potential. Windblown salt dust from exposed playas may affect upland soils and vegetation. The Lahontan and Tonopah playas are important as wildlife habitat, as well as for recreational and military uses.

Lahontan salt shrub basin
The Lahontan salt shrub basin is an expansive dry plain that was once below Pleistocene Lake Lahontan. The Lahontan Basin, compared to the Bonneville Basin to the east, is lower in elevation and warmer in winter. Although there is a direct connection to the south to the Mojave Desert, winters are cold enough in this ecoregion to discourage the northward dispersal of Mojavean species into the Lahontan Basin. In addition to shadscale, other salt-tolerant shrubs, such as Shockley's desert-thorn and Bailey greasewood, cover the lower basin slopes. These shrubs distinguish the Lahontan salt shrub basin and the Tonopah Basin from other Nevada salt shrub ecoregions. Sand dunes may occur where windblown sand accumulates against a barrier; dune complexes support a specialized plant community and diverse small mammal populations. The Carson and Truckee Rivers, originating in the Sierra Nevada, provide water for irrigated farming. Riparian corridors along these rivers support the only trees found in this ecoregion.

Lahontan sagebrush slopes
Hills, alluvial fans, and low mountains comprise the Lahontan sagebrush slopes ecoregion. These areas are rock controlled and their soils lack the fine lacustrine sediments that are found in lower parts of the Lahontan Basin. Because moisture increases and alkalinity decreases with elevation, the shrub community grades from the greasewood-shadscale community on the basin floor, to a shrub community dominated by Wyoming big sagebrush and the endemic Lahontan sagebrush at higher elevations. Understory grasses increase the productivity towards the northeast, outside the rain shadow influence of the Sierra Nevada. The low hills and mountains of the Lahontan Basin experience frequent summer lightning and fire. The introduced cheatgrass tends to replace the shrub community and provides fuel for recurrent fires.

Lahontan uplands
The Lahontan uplands are restricted to the highest elevations of the mountains ranges within the Lahontan salt shrub basin. Slopes vary in elevation from 6400 to 8800 ft and are covered in sagebrush, grasses, and scattered Utah juniper. Pinyon grows with juniper on the Stillwater Range and on Fairview Peak in the southeast portion of the Lahontan Basin, but it is otherwise absent from this ecoregion. Low sagebrush and black sagebrush grow to the mountaintops above the woodland zone. Cool-season grasses, including bluebunch wheatgrass, dominate the understory in the north, but are replaced by warm-season grasses, such as Indian ricegrass, in the south.

Upper Humboldt Plain
The Upper Humboldt Plains ecoregion is an area of rolling plains punctuated by occasional buttes and low mountains. It is mostly underlain by volcanic ash, rhyolite, and tuffaceous rocks. Low sagebrush is common in extensive areas of shallow, stony soil, as are cool season grasses, such as bluebunch wheatgrass, Idaho fescue, and Sandberg bluegrass. The ecoregion is wetter and cooler than other Nevada ecoregions in its elevation range. The ecoregion is transitional to the Northern Basin and Range ecoregion that spans the Nevada-Oregon border. However, as in the warmer Lahontan Basin to the west, lightning fires are common and a post-fire monoculture of cheatgrass tends to replace the native grasses and shrubs. Grazing is the major land use, though there is some agriculture near the Humboldt River.

Carbonate Sagebrush Valleys
The basins and semi-arid uplands of the Carbonate Sagebrush Valleys surround the carbonate ranges of eastern Nevada. These valleys are underlain by limestone or dolomite. The combination of summer moisture and a limestone or dolomite substrate affects regional vegetation, particularly in terms of species dominance and elevational distribution. The substrate favors shrubs, such as black sagebrush and winterfat, that can tolerate shallow soil. Even in alluvial soils, root growth may be limited by a hardpan or caliche layer formed by carbonates leaching through the soil and accumulating. As a result, shrub cover is sparse in contrast to other sagebrush-covered ecoregions in Nevada. The grass understory grades from a dominance of cool season grasses, such as bluebunch wheatgrass, in the north, to warm season grasses, such as blue grama (an indicator of summer rainfall) in the south.

Central Nevada high valleys
The Central Nevada high valleys ecoregion contains sagebrush-covered rolling valleys that are generally over 5000 ft in elevation. Alluvial fans spilling from the surrounding mountain ranges fill the valleys, often leaving little intervening flat ground. Wyoming big sagebrush and associated grasses are common on the flatter areas, and black sagebrush dominates on the volcanic hills and alluvial fans. This ecoregion tends to have lower species diversity than other sagebrush ecoregions, because of its aridity and isolation from more species-rich areas. Saline playas may occur on available flats. Less shadscale and fewer associated shrubs surround these playas than in other, lower more arid ecoregions in the west, including the Lahontan salt shrub ecoregion and the Tonopah Basin ecoregion. Valleys with permanent water support endemic fish populations, such as the Monitor Valley speckled dace.

Central Nevada mid-slope woodland and brushland
The Central Nevada mid-slope woodland and brushland ecoregion at 6500 to 8000 ft of elevation is analogous in altitudinal range to other woodland areas in Nevada. However, continuous woodland is not as prevalent on the mountains of central Nevada as in other woodland ecoregions, such as ecoregions 13d and 13q. Pinyon-juniper grows only sparsely through the shrub layer due to combined effects of past fire, logging, and local climate factors, including lack of summer rain and the pattern of winter cold air inversions. Where extensive woodlands do exist, understory diversity tends to be very low, especially in closed canopy areas. Areas of black and Wyoming big sagebrush grade upward into mountain big sagebrush and curlleaf mountain-mahogany, which straddles the transition between this mid-elevation brushland and the mountain brush zone of the higher Central Nevada Bald Mountains.

Central Nevada Bald Mountains
The Central Nevada Bald Mountains are dry and mostly treeless. Although they rise only 100 mi east of the Sierra Nevada, they lack Sierra species due to the dry conditions. These barren-looking mountains are covered instead by dense mountain brush that is dominated by mountain big sagebrush, serviceberry, snowberry, and low sagebrush. They contrast with the High-elevation Carbonate Mountains to the east, where the mountain brush zone is too narrow to be mapped as a separate ecoregion. Scattered groves of curlleaf mountain-mahogany and aspen in moister microsites grow above the shrub layer. A few scattered limber or bristlecone pines grow on ranges that exceed 10000 ft. The Toiyabe Range (west of Big Smoky Valley) is high enough to have an alpine zone, but lacks a suitable substrate to retain snowmelt moisture. The isolation of these "sky islands" has led to the development of many rare and endemic plant species.

Tonopah Basin
The Tonopah Basin lies in the transition between the Great Basin Desert and the more southerly Mojave Desert. The basin shows varying characteristics of both deserts. The west side of the Tonopah Basin is a continuation of the Lahontan Basin, while the lower and hotter Pahranagat Valley on the east side is more like the Mojave Desert. Similar to basins further north, shadscale and associated arid land shrubs cover broad rolling valleys, hills, and alluvial fans. However, unlike the Lahontan salt shrub basin and Upper Lahontan basin, the shrubs often co-dominate in highly diverse mosaics. The shrub understory includes warm-season grasses, such as Indian ricegrass and galleta grass. Endemic fish species, including the Railroad Valley tui chub, Pahranagat roundtail chub, Railroad Valley springfish, and the White River springfish are found in valleys with perennial water.

Endangered species
The topography of the Great Basin desert ("island" mountain tops separated from one another by vast expanses of desert valleys) renders it vulnerable to extinctions. Populations that occupy the high peaks are isolated from one another; therefore, they cannot interbreed. Small populations are more vulnerable to the forces of extinction - generally small populations have less genetic diversity and therefore a lesser ability to adapt to changing conditions. Groundwater pumping, road and home construction, grazing, and mining are all activities that alter habitat; as more habitat is affected, the threat of extinction increases. The Great Basin desert is home to many threatened and endangered species:

 * Birds
 * Least tern (Sterna antillarum athalassos)
 * Plants
 * Sodaville milkvetch (Astragalas lentiginosus var. sesquimetralis)
 * Ute lady's tresses (Spiranthes diluvialis)
 * Fish
 * Lahontan cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarki henshawi)
 * Desert dace (Eremichthys acros)
 * White River spinedace (Lepidomeda albivallis)
 * Mammals
 * Utah prairie dog (Cynomys parvidens)

title: Great Basin Desert


text:
Back door

A back door is a door in the rear of a building. Back door may also refer to:

Arts and media

 * Back Door (jazz trio), a British group
 * Porta dos Fundos (literally “Back Door” in Portuguese) Brazilian comedy YouTube channel.
 * Works so titled:
 * The Back Door (fiction), a 1897 work serialised in Hong Kong
 * "Back Door", a 1969 sound single by Rhinoceros (band)
 * Musical albums:
 * Back Door (album), a 1972 by English jazz trio Back Door
 * The Back Door (album), a 1992 album by American band Cherish the Ladies
 * Songs:
 * "Back Door", a 2020 song by South Korean boy group Stray Kids from the album In Life
 * "Backdoor" (song), a 2020 song by American rapper Lil Durk
 * "Back Door", a 2021 song by American rapper Pop Smoke from the album Faith

Other uses

 * Backdoor (computing), a hidden method for bypassing normal computer authentication systems
 * Backdoor (basketball), a play in which a player gets behind the defense and receives a pass for an easy score
 * Backdoor Bay, Ross Island, Antarctica
 * Slang for the human anus

title: Back door


text:
Talk:List of corporate slogans

"I Love New York" is the state song of New York, not an advertising slogan for the New York City.

title: Talk:List of corporate slogans


text:
DJGPP

DJ's GNU Programming Platform (DJGPP) is a software development suite for Intel 80386-level and above, IBM PC compatibles which supports DOS operating systems. It is guided by DJ Delorie, who began the project in 1989. It is a port of the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC), and mostly GNU utilities such as Bash, find, tar, ls, GAWK, sed, and ld to DOS Protected Mode Interface (DPMI). Supported languages include C, C++, Objective-C/C++, Ada, Fortran, and Pascal.

Overview
The compiler generates 32-bit code, which runs natively in 32-bit protected mode while switching back to 16-bit DOS calls for basic OS support. However, unlike the Open Watcom C/C++ compiler, it is not a zero-based flat model due to preferring NULL pointer protection for better stability. It is currently based upon a variant of the COFF format. It can access up to 4 GB of RAM in pure DOS when using a suitable DPMI host (e.g., CWSDPMI r7 or HDPMI32).

, main components of DJGPP 2 include:
 * GNU Compiler Collection 9.3.0 (10.2.0 is also available)
 * Autoconf 2.5.9
 * Automake 1.9.4
 * Binutils 2.34
 * GNU Bash 4.1.17
 * GNU Bison 2.4.1, Flex 2.5.4
 * GNU Emacs 24.5
 * GNU MPC 1.1.0, MPFR 4.1.0

It is also possible to use DJGPP to cross-compile software to DOS, for example on UNIX / Linux. Both the DJGPP libraries and the programs can be compiled this way, linked and then deployed to machines with DOS or DOS emulators.

Compatibility
DJGPP presents the programmer an interface which is compatible with the ANSI C and C99 standards, DOS APIs, and an older POSIX-like environment. Compiled binaries are long filename (LFN) aware and can handle such names under most 32-bit Windows by default, but they cannot use the Win16 or Win32 APIs that graphical programs on Windows need. terminate-and-stay-resident (TSR) programs to support LFNs under plain DOS or Windows NT 4 are available.

While DJGPP runs in 32-bit protected mode, its stub and library heavily rely on many 16-bit DOS and BIOS calls. Because the x86-64 versions of Windows lack support for 16-bit programs, there is no NTVDM, and DJGPP applications cannot be run. Under x86-64 systems these applications function only through emulation (e.g. DOSBox), x86 virtualization (e.g. VirtualBox), or similar (e.g. Linux's DOSEMU). This problem arises because in long mode x86-64 processors do not support the virtual 8086 mode used to run 16-bit code in IA-32 processors. Newer x86 CPUs with VT-x do support paged real mode and unrestricted guest mode execution.

title: DJGPP


text:
Orichalcum

Orichalcum or aurichalcum is a metal mentioned in several ancient writings, including the story of Atlantis in the Critias of Plato. Within the dialogue, Critias (460–403 BC) says that orichalcum had been considered second only to gold in value and had been found and mined in many parts of Atlantis in ancient times, but that by Critias's own time, orichalcum was known only by name.

Orichalcum may have been a noble metal such as platinum, as it was supposed to be mined, but has been identified as pure copper or certain alloys of bronze, and especially brass alloys in the case of antique roman coins, the latter being of "similar appearance to modern brass" according to scientific research.

Overview
The name is derived from the Greek ὀρείχαλκος, oreikhalkos (from ὄρος, oros, mountain and χαλκός, chalkos, copper), literally meaning "mountain copper".

The Romans transliterated "orichalcum" as "aurichalcum", which was thought to mean literally "gold copper". It is known from the writings of Cicero that the metal which they called orichalcum resembled gold in color but had a much lower value. In Virgil's Aeneid, the breastplate of Turnus is described as "stiff with gold and white orichalc".

Orichalcum has been vaguely identified by ancient Greek authors to be either a gold–copper alloy, a form of pure copper or even a copper ore and or various chemicals based on said metal, but also copper–tin and copper–zinc alloys, or even a metal or metallic alloy supposedly no longer known.

In later years "orichalcum" was used to describe the sulfide mineral chalcopyrite and also to describe brass. These usages are difficult to reconcile with the claims of Plato's Critias, who states that the metal was "only a name" by his time, while brass and chalcopyrite were very important in the time of Plato, as they still are today.

Joseph Needham notes that Bishop Richard Watson, an 18th-century professor of chemistry, wrote of an ancient idea that there were "two sorts of brass or orichalcum". Needham also suggests that the Greeks may not have known how orichalcum was made and that they might even have had an imitation of the original.

Ingots found
In 2015, 39 ingots thought by some to be orichalcum were discovered in a sunken vessel on the coast of Gela in Sicily which have tentatively been dated at 2,100 years old. They were analyzed with X-ray fluorescence and found to be an alloy consisting of 75–80% copper, 15–20% zinc, and smaller percentages of nickel, lead, and iron. Another cache of 47 ingots was recovered in February 2016 and found to have similar composition as measured with ICP-OES and ICP-MS: around 65–80% copper, 15–25% zinc, 4–7% lead, 0.5–1% nickel, and trace amounts of silver, antimony, arsenic, bismuth, and other elements.

In ancient literature
Orichalcum is first mentioned in the 7th century BC by Hesiod, and in the Homeric hymn dedicated to Aphrodite, dated to the 630s BC.

According to the Critias of Plato, the inner wall surrounding the citadel of Atlantis with the Temple of Poseidon "flashed with the red light of orichalcum". The interior walls, pillars, and floors of the temple were completely covered in orichalcum, and the roof was variegated with gold, silver, and orichalcum. In the center of the temple stood a pillar of orichalcum, on which the laws of Poseidon and records of the first son princes of Poseidon were inscribed.

Pliny the Elder points out that orichalcum had lost currency due to the mines being exhausted. Pseudo-Aristotle in De mirabilibus auscultationibus (62) describes a type of copper that is "very shiny and white, not because there is tin mixed with it, but because some earth is combined and molten with it." This might be a reference to orichalcum obtained during the smelting of copper with the addition of "cadmia", a kind of earth formerly found on the shores of the Black Sea, which is attributed to be zinc oxide.

Numismatics
In numismatics, the term "orichalcum" is used to refer exclusively to a type of brass alloy used for minting Roman as, sestertius, dupondius, and semis type of coins. It is considered more valuable than copper, of which the as coin was previously made.

title: Orichalcum