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Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization

A company's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (commonly abbreviated EBITDA, pronounced, , or ) is a measure of a company's profitability of the operating business only, thus before any effects of indebtedness, state-mandated payments, and costs required to maintain its asset base. It is derived by subtracting from revenues all costs of the operating business (e.g. wages, costs of raw materials, services ...) but not decline in asset value, cost of borrowing, lease expenses, and obligations to governments.

Though often shown on an income statement, it is not considered part of the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) by the SEC, and hence the SEC requires that companies registering securities with it (and when filing its periodic reports) reconcile EBITDA to net income.

Usage and criticism
EBITDA is widely used when assessing the performance of a company. EBITDA is useful to assess the underlying profitability of the operating businesses alone, i.e. how much profit the business generates by providing the services, selling the goods etc. in the given time period. This type of analysis is useful to get a view of the profitability of the operating business alone, as the cost items ignored in the EBITDA computation are largely independent from the operating business: The interest payments depend on the financing structure of the company, the tax payments in the relevant jurisdictions as well as the interest payments, the depreciation on the asset base (and depreciation policy chosen), and the amortisation on takeover history with its effect on goodwill among others. EBITDA is widely used to measure the valuation of private and public companies (e.g. saying that a certain company trades at x times EBITDA, meaning that the company value as expressed through its stock price equates to x times its EBITDA). In its attempt to display EBITDA as a measure of the underlying profitability of the operating business, EBITDA is often adjusted for extraordinary expenses, i.e. expenses that the company believes do not occur on a regular basis. These adjustments can include bad debt expenses, any legal settlements paid, costs for acquisitions, charitable contributions and salaries of the owner or family members. The resulting metric is called adjusted EBITDA or EBITDA before exceptionals.

A negative EBITDA indicates that a business has fundamental problems with profitability. A positive EBITDA, on the other hand, does not necessarily mean that the business generates cash. This is because the cash generation of a business depends on capital expenditures (needed to replace assets that have broken down), taxes, interest and movements in working capital as well as on EBITDA.

While being a useful metric, one should not rely on EBITDA alone when assessing the performance of a company. The biggest criticism of using EBITDA as a measure to assess company performance is that it ignores the need for capital expenditures in its assessment. However, capital expenditures are needed to maintain the asset base which in turn allows for generating EBITDA. Warren Buffett famously asked, "Does management think the tooth fairy pays for capital expenditures?". A fix often employed is to assess a business on the metric EBITDA - Capital Expenditures.

Margin
EBITDA margin refers to EBITDA divided by total revenue (or "total output", "output" differing from "revenue" according to changes in inventory).

EBITA
Earnings before interest, taxes, and amortization (EBITA) is derived from EBITDA by subtracting Depreciation.

EBITA is used to include effects of the asset base in the assessment of the profitability of a business. In that, it is a better metric than EBITDA, but has not found widespread adoption.

EBITDAR
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization, and rent costs: EBITDAR is derived from EBITDA by adding rent costs to EBITDA. It can be of use when comparing two companies in the same industry with different structure of their assets. For example, consider two nursing home companies: one company rents its nursing homes and the other owns its homes. The first business has rent expenses which are included in EBITDA whereas the second company has capital expenditures instead which are not included in EBITDA. Comparing these business on EBITDA level thus is not the right metric and EBITDAR addresses this problem. Other industries where EBITDAR is employed are e.g. hotel businesses or trucking businesses.

Related to EBITDAR is "EBITDAL", "rent costs" being replaced by "lease costs". Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization, and restructuring costs: Some companies use an EBITDAR where "R" indicates "restructuring costs". While this analysis of profits before restructuring costs is also helpful, such a metric should better be termed "adjusted EBITDA".

EBIDAX
Earnings Before Interest, Depreciation, Amortization and Exploration (EBIDAX) is a non-GAAP metric that can be used to evaluate the financial strength or performance of oil, gas or mineral company.

Costs for exploration are varied by methods and costs. Removal of the exploration portion of the balance sheet allows for a better comparison between the energy companies.

OIBDA
Operating income before depreciation and amortization (OIBDA) refers to an income calculation made by adding depreciation and amortization to operating income.

OIBDA differs from EBITDA because its starting point is operating income, not earnings. It does not, therefore, include non-operating income, which tends not to recur year after year. It includes only income gained from regular operations, ignoring items like FX changes or tax treatments.

Historically, OIBDA was created to exclude the impact of write-downs resulting from one-time charges, and to improve the optics for analysts comparing to previous period EBITDA. An example is the case of Time Warner, who shifted to divisional OIBDA reporting subsequent to write downs and charges resulting from the company's merger into AOL.

EBITDAC
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization, and coronavirus (EBITDAC) is a non-GAAP metric that has been introduced following the global COVID-19 pandemic.

EBITDAC is a special case of adjusted EBITDA.

On 13 May 2020, the Financial Times mentioned that German manufacturing group Schenck Process was the first European company to use the term in their quarterly reporting. The company had added back €5.4m of first-quarter 2020 profits that it said it would have made were it not for the hit caused by 'missing contribution margin and cost absorption reduced by direct financial state support received majorly in China so far'.

Other companies picked up this EBITDAC measure as well, claiming the state-mandated lockdowns and disruptions to the supply chains distort their true profitability, and EBITDAC would show how much these companies believe they would have earned in the absence of the coronavirus.

Like other forms of adjusted EBITDA, this can be a useful tool to analyse companies but should not be used as the only tool.


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Talk:International Boxing Federation

Manny Pacquiao
Hello IBF people, I recently came across one of your websites and I saw that in your rankings Manny Pacquiao is rated # 3 in the featherweigth division, the only problem is that he is classified as a Dominican, even though almost everyone knows that he is a Filipino, born and raised in the Republic of the Philippines. Thank you very much

 * i have checked articles containing Manny Pacquiao and i've never seen any that cites him being Dominican.if you can direct me to the particular article you mentioned, i'll be more than happy to edit.i'm a Filipino myself and a fan of PacMan.peace out!RebSkii 19:09, 23 November 2006 (UTC)

either say how many or remove 'dozens or so'. It's sounds idiotic in an encyclopedia.

Logo
Can someone please include an image of the governing body's logo? They did the same in other articles. FoxLad 22:30, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

Timeline Graph
Gerrie Coetzee should have an old South African flag next to his name, since he was fighting under the old regime; this would be consistent with listing Muhammad Ali's early championships under Cassius Clay. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 198.54.202.242 (talk) 14:13, 9 January 2008 (UTC)

IBF Created Also Because WBC Reduced rounds from 15 to 12
I found this article, when I went to research what happened to the 15 round events. http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/more_sports/2007/11/18/2007-11-18_boom_boom_mancinis_life_changed_after_tr.html?page=3 MPA 16:57, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

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

title: Talk:International Boxing Federation


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Gene Anthony Ray

Gene Anthony Ray (May 24, 1962 – November 14, 2003) was an American actor, dancer, and choreographer. A native of New York City, Ray was best known for his portrayal of dancer Leroy Johnson in both the 1980 film Fame and the Fame television series based upon the film which originally aired from 1982 until 1987.

Early life
Born in New York City, in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan on May 24, 1962, Ray grew up in the area of West 153rd Street and later became involved in street dancing at block parties. He performed in a dance class at the Julia Richman High School. He skipped school one day to audition for Fame choreographer Louis Falco. Ray attended the High School of Performing Arts, the inspiration for the film Fame, but was kicked out after just one year. "It was too disciplined for this wild child of mine," Ray's mother, Jean E. Ray, would later say.

Career
Ray won the part of Leroy Johnson in the film Fame, which was released in 1980. Much like his Fame character, Ray had little professional training, but he possessed a raw talent that won him his role for the film. Reports USA Today: "Alan (Parker, the director) had to approach him very carefully. His mom was dealing drugs during the filming. It was not pretty." In 1981, Ray starred as Friday, alongside Michael York as Robinson Crusoe, in the 1981 TV adventure-comedy  (alternative title: Robinson Crusoe and Man Friday).

Ray also starred in the television series based on the film, Fame. The series was produced by MGM Television from 1982 to 1987, and syndicated from 1983 to 1987. Additionally, he began touring the U.K. with the other members of the Fame cast as The Kids from "Fame"; they performed at 10 venues, including a sell out performance at Royal Albert Hall. In 1984, USA Today reports: "Ray was axed from the show after his mother was jailed for running a drug ring, and he failed to turn up for work 100 times." He struggled with addictions to alcohol and drugs, and worked only intermittently once the TV series ended. In 1985, Ray danced in The Weather Girls' music video for "Well-A-Wiggy".

In 1987, he won the role of Billy Nolan in the ill-fated musical adaptation of Carrie by Stephen King. Ray played the role in the original opening in Stratford-Upon-Avon, which closed after less than a month. He then transferred to Broadway and continued to play the role until the musical closed after only 21 public performances. Ray also appeared in the 1995 film Out-of-Sync, which was directed by his Fame co-star Debbie Allen, in the 1996 Whoopi Goldberg comedy Eddie (for which he was also credited as associate choreographer ), as well as in commercials for Dr Pepper and Diet Coke. His last video appearance was a one-hour BBC Fame reunion documentary, Fame Remember My Name, taped in Los Angeles in April 2003.

Personal life and death
As described in his Telegraph obituary, Ray "remained a 'frantic partygoer' with a self-confessed weakness for drink and drugs. As his life fell apart, he slept on park benches, and during a failed attempt to launch a Fame-style dance school in Milan, shared a flat there with a porn actress. In 1996, he was diagnosed HIV positive. Flamboyantly camp, he brushed aside questions about his sexuality. He never married."

Ray died on November 14, 2003, aged 41, from complications of a stroke he had suffered in June that year and complications from AIDS.

title: Gene Anthony Ray


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Great power

A great power is a sovereign state that is recognized as having the ability and expertise to exert its influence on a global scale. Great powers characteristically possess military and economic strength, as well as diplomatic and soft power influence, which may cause middle or small powers to consider the great powers' opinions before taking actions of their own. International relations theorists have posited that great power status can be characterized into power capabilities, spatial aspects, and status dimensions.

While some nations are widely considered to be great powers, there is considerable debate on the exact criteria of great power status. Historically, the status of great powers has been formally recognized in organizations such as the Congress of Vienna of 1814–1815 or the United Nations Security Council, of which permanent members are: China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The United Nations Security Council, NATO Quint, the G7, the BRICs and the Contact Group have all been described as great power concerts.

The term "great power" was first used to represent the most important powers in Europe during the post-Napoleonic era. The "Great Powers" constituted the "Concert of Europe" and claimed the right to joint enforcement of the postwar treaties. The formalization of the division between small powers and great powers came about with the signing of the Treaty of Chaumont in 1814. Since then, the international balance of power has shifted numerous times, most dramatically during World War I and World War II. In literature, alternative terms for great power are often world power or major power.

Characteristics
There are no set or defined characteristics of a great power. These characteristics have often been treated as empirical, self-evident to the assessor. However, this approach has the disadvantage of subjectivity. As a result, there have been attempts to derive some common criteria and to treat these as essential elements of great power status. Danilovic (2002) highlights three central characteristics, which she terms as "power, spatial, and status dimensions," that distinguish major powers from other states. The following section ("Characteristics") is extracted from her discussion of these three dimensions, including all of the citations.

Early writings on the subject tended to judge states by the realist criterion, as expressed by the historian A. J. P. Taylor when he noted that "The test of a great power is the test of strength for war." Later writers have expanded this test, attempting to define power in terms of overall military, economic, and political capacity. Kenneth Waltz, the founder of the neorealist theory of international relations, uses a set of six criteria to determine great power: population and territory, resource endowment, military strength, economic capability, political stability and competence.

John Mearsheimer defines great powers as those that "have sufficient military assets to put up a serious fight in an all-out conventional war against the most powerful state in the world."

Power dimensions
As noted above, for many, power capabilities were the sole criterion. However, even under the more expansive tests, power retains a vital place.

This aspect has received mixed treatment, with some confusion as to the degree of power required. Writers have approached the concept of great power with differing conceptualizations of the world situation, from multi-polarity to overwhelming hegemony. In his essay, 'French Diplomacy in the Postwar Period', the French historian Jean-Baptiste Duroselle spoke of the concept of multi-polarity: "A Great power is one which is capable of preserving its own independence against any other single power."

This differed from earlier writers, notably from Leopold von Ranke, who clearly had a different idea of the world situation. In his essay 'The Great Powers', written in 1833, von Ranke wrote: "If one could establish as a definition of a Great power that it must be able to maintain itself against all others, even when they are united, then Frederick has raised Prussia to that position." These positions have been the subject of criticism.

In 2011, the U.S. had 10 major strengths according to Chinese scholar Peng Yuan, the director of the Institute of American Studies of the China Institutes for Contemporary International Studies.
 * 1. Population, geographic position, and natural resources.
 * 2. Military muscle.
 * 3. High technology and education.
 * 4. Cultural/soft power.
 * 5. Cyber power.
 * 6. Allies, the United States having more than any other state.
 * 7. Geopolitical strength, as embodied in global projection forces.
 * 8. Intelligence capabilities, as demonstrated by the killing of Osama bin Laden.
 * 9. Intellectual power, fed by a plethora of U.S. think tanks and the “revolving door” between research institutions and government.
 * 10. Strategic power, the United States being the world’s only country with a truly global strategy.

However he also noted where the U.S. had recently slipped:
 * 1. Political power, as manifested by the breakdown of bipartisanship.
 * 2. Economic power, as illustrated by the post-2007 slowdown.
 * 3. Financial power, given intractable deficits and rising debt.
 * 4. Social power, as weakened by societal polarization.
 * 5. Institutional power, since the United States can no longer dominate global institutions

Spatial dimension
All states have a geographic scope of interests, actions, or projected power. This is a crucial factor in distinguishing a great power from a regional power; by definition, the scope of a regional power is restricted to its region. It has been suggested that a great power should be possessed of actual influence throughout the scope of the prevailing international system. Arnold J. Toynbee, for example, observes that "Great power may be defined as a political force exerting an effect co-extensive with the widest range of the society in which it operates. The Great powers of 1914 were 'world-powers' because Western society had recently become 'world-wide'."

Other suggestions have been made that a great power should have the capacity to engage in extra-regional affairs and that a great power ought to be possessed of extra-regional interests, two propositions which are often closely connected.

Status dimension
Formal or informal acknowledgment of a nation's great power status has also been a criterion for being a great power. As political scientist George Modelski notes, "The status of Great power is sometimes confused with the condition of being powerful. The office, as it is known, did in fact evolve from the role played by the great military states in earlier periods... But the Great power system institutionalizes the position of the powerful state in a web of rights and obligations."

This approach restricts analysis to the epoch following the Congress of Vienna at which great powers were first formally recognized. In the absence of such a formal act of recognition it has been suggested that great power status can arise by implication by judging the nature of a state's relations with other great powers.

A further option is to examine a state's willingness to act as a great power. As a nation will seldom declare that it is acting as such, this usually entails a retrospective examination of state conduct. As a result, this is of limited use in establishing the nature of contemporary powers, at least not without the exercise of subjective observation.

Other important criteria throughout history are that great powers should have enough influence to be included in discussions of contemporary political and diplomatic questions, and exercise influence on the outcome and resolution. Historically, when major political questions were addressed, several great powers met to discuss them. Before the era of groups like the United Nations, participants of such meetings were not officially named but rather were decided based on their great power status. These were conferences that settled important questions based on major historical events.

"Full-spectrum" dimension
Historian Phillips P. O'Brien, Head of the School of International Relations and Professor of Strategic Studies at the University of St. Andrews, criticizes the concept of a great power, arguing that it is dated, vaguely defined, and inconsistently applied. He states that the term is used to "describe everything from true superpowers such as the United States and China, which wield the full spectrum of economic, technological, and military might, to better-than-average military powers such as Russia, which have nuclear weapons but little else that would be considered indicators of great power. " O'Brien advocates for the concept of a "full-spectrum power", which takes into account "all the fundamentals on which superior military power is built", including economic resources, domestic politics and political systems (which can restrain or expand dimensions of power), technological capabilities, and social and cultural factors (such as a society's willingness to go to war or invest in military development).

History
Various sets of great, or significant, powers have existed throughout history. An early reference to great powers is from the third century, when the Persian prophet Mani described Rome, China, Aksum, and Persia as the four greatest kingdoms of his time. During the Napoleonic wars in Europe, American diplomat James Monroe observed that, "The respect which one power has for another is in exact proportion of the means which they respectively have of injuring each other." The term "great power" first appears at the Congress of Vienna in 1815. The Congress established the Concert of Europe as an attempt to preserve peace after the years of Napoleonic Wars.

Lord Castlereagh, the British foreign secretary, first used the term in its diplomatic context, writing on 13 February 1814: "there is every prospect of the Congress terminating with a general accord and Guarantee between the Great powers of Europe, with a determination to support the arrangement agreed upon, and to turn the general influence and if necessary the general arms against the Power that shall first attempt to disturb the Continental peace."

The Congress of Vienna consisted of five main powers: the Austrian Empire, France, Prussia, Russia, and Great Britain. These five primary participants constituted the original great powers as we know the term today. Other powers, such as Spain, Portugal, and Sweden, which were great powers during the 17th century and the earlier 18th century, were consulted on certain specific issues, but they were not full participants.

After the Congress of Vienna, Great Britain emerged as the pre-eminent global hegemon, due to it being the first nation to industrialize, possessing the largest navy, and the extent of its overseas empire, which ushered in a century of Pax Britannica. The balance of power between the Great Powers became a major influence in European politics, prompting Otto von Bismarck to say "All politics reduces itself to this formula: try to be one of three, as long as the world is governed by the unstable equilibrium of five great powers."

Over time, the relative power of these five nations fluctuated, which by the dawn of the 20th century had served to create an entirely different balance of power. Great Britain and the new German Empire (from 1871), experienced continued economic growth and political power. Others, such as Russia and Austria-Hungary, stagnated. At the same time, other states were emerging and expanding in power, largely through the process of industrialization. These countries seeking to attain great power status were: Italy after the Risorgimento era, Japan during the Meiji era, and the United States after its civil war. By 1900, the balance of world power had changed substantially since the Congress of Vienna. The Eight-Nation Alliance was an alliance of eight nations created in response to the Boxer Rebellion in China. It formed in 1900 and consisted of the five Congress powers plus Italy, Japan, and the United States, representing the great powers at the beginning of the 20th century.

World Wars
Shifts of international power have most notably occurred through major conflicts. The conclusion of World War I and the resulting treaties of Versailles, St-Germain, Neuilly, Trianon, and Sèvres made Great Britain, France, Italy, Japan, and the United States the chief arbiters of the new world order. The German Empire was defeated, Austria-Hungary was divided into new, less powerful states and the Russian Empire fell to revolution. During the Paris Peace Conference, the "Big Four" – Great Britain, France, Italy, and the United States – controlled the proceedings and outcome of the treaties more than Japan. The Big Four were the architects of the Treaty of Versailles which was signed by Germany; the Treaty of St. Germain, with Austria; the Treaty of Neuilly, with Bulgaria; the Treaty of Trianon, with Hungary; and the Treaty of Sèvres, with the Ottoman Empire. During the decision-making of the Treaty of Versailles, Italy pulled out of the conference because a part of its demands were not met and temporarily left the other three countries as the sole major architects of that treaty, referred to as the "Big Three".

The status of the victorious great powers were recognised by permanent seats at the League of Nations Council, where they acted as a type of executive body directing the Assembly of the League. However, the council began with only four permanent members – Great Britain, France, Italy, and Japan – because the United States, meant to be the fifth permanent member, never joined the League. Germany later joined after the Locarno Treaties, which made it a member of the League of Nations, and later left (and withdrew from the League in 1933); Japan left, and the Soviet Union joined.

When World War II began in 1939, it divided the world into two alliances: the Allies (initially the United Kingdom and France, and Poland, followed in 1941 by the Soviet Union, China, and the United States) and the Axis powers (Germany, Italy, and Japan). During World War II, the U.S., U.K., USSR, and China were referred as a "trusteeship of the powerful" and were recognized as the Allied "Big Four" in Declaration by United Nations in 1942. These four countries were referred as the "Four Policemen" of the Allies and considered as the primary victors of World War II. The importance of France was acknowledged by their inclusion, along with the other four, in the group of countries allotted permanent seats in the United Nations Security Council.

Since the end of the World Wars, the term "great power" has been joined by a number of other power classifications. Foremost among these is the concept of the superpower, used to describe those nations with overwhelming power and influence in the rest of the world. It was first coined in 1944 by William T. R. Fox and according to him, there were three superpowers: Great Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union. But after World War II Britain lost its superpower status. The term middle power has emerged for those nations which exercise a degree of global influence but are insufficient to be decisive on international affairs. Regional powers are those whose influence is generally confined to their region of the world.

Cold War
The Cold War was a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc, which began following World War II. The term "cold" is used because there was no large-scale fighting directly between the two superpowers, but they each supported major regional conflicts known as proxy wars. The conflict was based around the ideological and geopolitical struggle for global influence by these two superpowers, following their temporary alliance and victory against Nazi Germany in 1945.

During the Cold War, Japan, France, the United Kingdom and West Germany rebuilt their economies. France and the United Kingdom maintained technologically advanced armed forces with power projection capabilities and maintain large defense budgets to this day. Yet, as the Cold War continued, authorities began to question if France and the United Kingdom could retain their long-held statuses as great powers. China, with the world's largest population, has slowly risen to great power status, with large growth in economic and military power in the post-war period. After 1949, the Republic of China began to lose its recognition as the sole legitimate government of China by the other great powers, in favour of the People's Republic of China. Subsequently, in 1971, it lost its permanent seat at the UN Security Council to the People's Republic of China.

Aftermath of the Cold War
China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States are often referred to as great powers by academics due to "their political and economic dominance of the global arena". These five nations are the only states to have permanent seats with veto power on the UN Security Council. They are also the only state entities to have met the conditions to be considered "Nuclear Weapons States" under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, and maintain military expenditures which are among the largest in the world. However, there is no unanimous agreement among authorities as to the current status of these powers or what precisely defines a great power. For example, following the Cold War and the two decades after it, some sources referred to China, France, Russia  and the United Kingdom as middle powers. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, its UN Security Council permanent seat was transferred to the Russian Federation in 1991, as its largest successor state. The newly formed Russian Federation emerged on the level of a great power, leaving the United States as the only remaining global superpower (although some support a multipolar world view).

Japan and Germany are great powers too, though due to their large advanced economies (having the third and fourth largest economies respectively) rather than their strategic and hard power capabilities (i.e., the lack of permanent seats and veto power on the UN Security Council or strategic military reach). Germany has been a member together with the five permanent Security Council members in the P5+1 grouping of world powers. Like China, France, Russia, and the United Kingdom; Germany and Japan have also been referred to as middle powers. In his 2014 publication Great Power Peace and American Primacy, Joshua Baron considers China, France, Russia, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States as the current great powers.

Italy has been referred to as a great power by a number of academics and commentators throughout the post WWII era. The American international legal scholar Milena Sterio writes: "The great powers are super-sovereign states: an exclusive club of the most powerful states economically, militarily, politically and strategically. These states include veto-wielding members of the United Nations Security Council (United States, United Kingdom, France, China, and Russia), as well as economic powerhouses such as Germany, Italy and Japan." Sterio also cites Italy's status in the Group of Seven (G7) and the nation's influence in regional and international organizations for its status as a great power. Italy has been a member together with the five permanent Security Council members plus Germany in the International Support Group for Lebanon (ISG)  grouping of world powers. Some analysts assert that Italy is an "intermittent" or the "Least of the Great Powers", while some others believe Italy is a middle or regional power.

In addition to these contemporary great powers mentioned above, Zbigniew Brzezinski considers India to be a great power. However, there is no collective agreement among observers as to the status of India, for example, a number of academics believe that India is emerging as a great power, while some believe that India remains a middle power.

The United Nations Security Council, NATO Quint, the G7, the BRICs and the Contact Group have all been described as great power concerts.

A 2017 study by the Hague Centre for Strategic Studies qualified China, Europe, India, Japan, Russia and the United States as the current great powers.

Emerging powers
With continuing European integration, the European Union is increasingly being seen as a great power in its own right, with representation at the WTO and at G7 and G-20 summits. This is most notable in areas where the European Union has exclusive competence (i.e. economic affairs). It also reflects a non-traditional conception of Europe's world role as a global "civilian power", exercising collective influence in the functional spheres of trade and diplomacy, as an alternative to military dominance. The European Union is a supranational union and not a sovereign state and does not have its own foreign affairs or defence policies; these remain largely with the member states, which include France, Germany and, before Brexit, the United Kingdom (referred to collectively as the "EU three").

Brazil and India are widely regarded as emerging powers with the potential to be great powers. Political scientist Stephen P. Cohen asserts that India is an emerging power, but highlights that some strategists consider India to be already a great power. Some academics such as Zbigniew Brzezinski and David A. Robinson already regard India as a major or great power. Former British Ambassador to Brazil, Peter Collecott identifies that Brazil's recognition as a potential great and superpower largely stems from its own national identity and ambition. Professor Kwang Ho Chun feels that Brazil will emerge as a great power with an important position in some spheres of influence. Others suggest India and Brazil may even have the potential to emerge as a superpower.

Permanent membership of the UN Security Council is widely regarded as being a central tenet of great power status in the modern world; Brazil, Germany, India and Japan form the G4 nations which support one another (and have varying degrees of support from the existing permanent members) in becoming permanent members. The G4 is opposed by the Italian-led Uniting for Consensus group. There are however few signs that reform of the Security Council will happen in the near future.

title: Great power


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Chinese Empire

Chinese Empire (or Empire of China) is a term referring to the realm ruled by the Emperor of China during the era known as Imperial China. It was coined by western scholars and used to describe the Ming and Qing dynasties (or imperial Chinese dynasties in general). Another term was "Celestial Empire", in reference to the status of the emperor as the Son of Heaven. In 221 BC, China was unified under an emperor for the first time, and various dynasties or empires founded by hereditary monarchs ruled China for a total of two millennia since then, including the Qin, Han, Jin, Sui, Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing.

Etymology and usage

The word "China" has been used in English since the 16th century. China was previously known to Europeans as Cathay, as used in Marco Polo's book on his travels in the 13th century (during the Yuan dynasty), and it took a while for most Europeans to be convinced that Cathay referred to China or North China. The term "Chinese Empire" first appeared in the 16th century (late Ming dynasty), and its usage increased during the following Qing dynasty.

Ming dynasty
As European explorers came into direct contact with the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) of China during their voyages in the early 16th century, the European intellectual community began to update its concept of the Chinese political system. Initially however the vast majority of them considered Ming China a kingdom rather than an empire. It appeared that it was Maximilianus Transylvanus who first considered China an empire in his work. In 1585, Juan González de Mendoza pointed out that Ming China was at the imperial level based on the multi-level system of the tribute system. Afterwards, Europeans like Matteo Ricci, Álvaro Semedo, Martino Martini and Philippe Couplet gradually constructed the name "Chinese Empire" by comparing the empire-kingdom level, translating European and Chinese concepts and constructing genealogies. However, popular adoption was a slow process. Even the 1615 book De Christiana expeditione apud Sinas by Matteo Ricci (one of the founding figures of the Jesuit China missions) more often referred to Ming China as a kingdom than an empire. By the last decade of the Ming dynasty though, an increasing number of Europeans began to refer to the Ming dynasty as "Chinese Empire".

Qing dynasty
With the transition from Ming to Qing, Europeans began to apply the name "Chinese Empire" to the Qing dynasty (1644-1912). "Chinese Empire" (or "Empire of China") was commonly used during the Qing period, most notably in the western maps and international treaties. The Tsardom of Russia began official communications with the Qing dynasty in the 1650s, and Russian documents from that period referred to Qing China as "Empire of China", "Chinese state" or the state of Bogda. In the 1689 Treaty of Nerchinsk, the authoritative Latin text used the name "Imperii Sinici" (meaning "Chinese Empire") to refer to the Qing realm. George Macartney, the first envoy of Great Britain to China in 1793, had famously said "the Empire of China is an old, crazy, first-rate Man of War, which a fortunate succession of able and vigilant officers have contrived to keep afloat for these hundred and fifty years past..." shortly after his mission to China. While the Qing dynasty tried to maintain the traditional Chinese tributary system, by the second half of the 19th century it had become part of a European-style community of sovereign states. In the process, Qing dynasty's geographical boundaries were redefined by western powers and Japan through diplomacy and warfare. The Qing administration made an effort to effectively manage its borders while modernizing itself, and its dependencies in Inner Asia (collectively known as Chinese Tartary at that time) were internalized and integrated into China's imperial dominion as accepted by the western countries. Throughout the 19th century, western cartographers commonly included Manchuria, Mongolia, Xinjiang (Chinese Turkestan), and Tibet, along with China proper separated by lines, as part of the "Chinese Empire" in published maps. In the last decade of the Qing dynasty, maps published in China caught up with Western cartography, and China's Inner Asian frontiers were enclosed by fixed international boundaries and not separated from China proper by special demarcations.

Continuous or separate empire(s)
While the term "Chinese Empire" may be used to specifically mean the Ming or the Qing dynasties during the existence of these dynasties, it was often used in a sense to refer to a continuous empire ruled by various dynasties in Chinese history, as the traditional Chinese historiography conceives its history in terms of an unbroken sequence of dynasties (see dynastic cycle). For example, when Juan González de Mendoza talked about ancient China in his work in the late 16th century, he clearly stated in three places that the first (mythical) sovereign of China, the Yellow Emperor, made the Chinese kingdom an empire; since China was already an empire during the time of the Yellow Emperor, all dynasties from then on were regarded as the continuation of the "empire". According to Matteo Ricci's view of "imperial power transfer", the name of the empire had not changed since ancient times, but it often had other names due to different ruling families; for instance, the name of "German Empire" would never change, but when the Austrian family ruled, it could also be called "Austrian Empire". Likewise, according to the newspaper New York Herald published in 1853, "during four thousand and sixty years, twenty-one dynasties have swayed the destines of the Chinese Empire, embracing, besides the present sovereign, two hundred and twenty Emperors, whose average reigns have been nearly nineteen years each". On the other hand, modern scholars usually consider the imperial dynasties separate states or empires rather than a single continuous empire, especially since the end of Imperial China. Meanwhile, the English term "Emperor" nowadays generally corresponds to the Chinese term Huangdi (皇帝), also referred to as Emperor of China. For example, the Qin dynasty, which was the first to use the title Emperor or Huangdi, has been referred to as "the first Chinese Empire" in modern sources. On the other hand, the Qing dynasty is regarded as the last Chinese Empire. The dynasties in between them are similarly regarded as empires instead of a single continuous empire, although some dynasties may be grouped together by some scholars, such as the Qin and the Han dynasty that followed, collectively called the "Qin-Han Empire" by some researchers. Taken together, these two dynasties constitute the "classical" era of Chinese civilization, as did the Greeks and Romans in the West.

General history

The period of Imperial China lasted more than two millennia, connecting ancient and modern history. Although Chinese dynasties or empires rose and fell during those centuries, including during periods of strife and war, Imperial China endured with remarkable constancy. The defining characteristics of all Chinese empires were their large scale and the diversity of their peoples.

Originally emerged as a loose collection of various Han Chinese-speaking entities during the Warring States period, the Qin's wars of unification brought most of the Huaxia realm into one single dynasty, establishing Qin as the first imperial dynasty in 221 BC, the year where the first Chinese empire was established. Imperial China would continue to expand even after the collapse of the Qin dynasty, with the Han dynasty expanding to the north, south and west. During the Tang dynasty four centuries later, China achieved a golden age in terms of its economic, military and political power. Tang's territory spanned Central Asia, Northeast Asia and parts of Southeast Asia, until the dynasty ended following the An Lushan rebellion in the eight century. Imperial China marked its revival under the Mongol-based Yuan dynasty, when Inner Asian territories such as Tibet and Mongolia were incorporated. The Qing dynasty, founded three centuries after the fall of the Yuan dynasty, laid ground to most of China's modern border with its re-expansion into Inner Asia.

One year after the 1911 Revolution, the Qing monarchy was abolished following the abdication of the Xuantong Emperor (Puyi), thus putting an end to the era of Imperial China. Three years later, Yuan Shikai restored imperial rule with himself as the emperor. It lasted only 83 days before his own abdication due to mounting disapproval and revolts as well as Yuan's declining health. In July 1917, Puyi was reinstalled by Zhang Xun but the restoration was reversed in less than two weeks.

title: Chinese Empire


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Writing table

A writing table (French bureau plat) has a series of drawers directly under the surface of the table, to contain writing implements, so that it may serve as a desk. Antique versions have the usual divisions for the inkwell, the blotter and the sand or powder tray in one of the drawers, and a surface covered with leather or some other material less hostile to the quill or the fountain pen than simple hard wood.

In form, a writing table is a pedestal desk without the pedestals, having legs instead to hold it up. This is why such tables are sometimes called leg desks.

The writing table is often called a "bureau plat" when it is done in a French style such as Louis XVI, Art Nouveau, etc. When a writing table is supported by two legs instead of four, it is usually called a trestle desk.

The writing table is also sometimes called a library table, because it was often placed in a home library. This was the room in a house where a gentleman would keep literature and also do his business transactions. The library often housed, in addition, a round desk called a rent table and sometimes a drawing table. The term library table is sometimes applied indiscriminately to a wide variety of desk forms, in addition to being used for writing tables.

Some writing tables have additional drawers built above the surface. In this case they are often called bureau à gradin instead of writing table, unless they have a more specific form, such as that of a Carlton House desk.

A reading and writing table with an easel or double easel for books that was adjustable on a ratchet and a drawer fitted for writing implements was a mid-18th century English invention that lasted as long as the habit endured of reading while standing.

The writing tables are good for maintaining posture and help readers or writers to work longer, nowadays writing tables evolved into desk with desktop systems and other smart devices according to one's need.

title: Writing table


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Sapindaceae

The Sapindaceae are a family of flowering plants in the order Sapindales known as the soapberry family. It contains 138 genera and 1,858 accepted species. Examples include horse chestnut, maples, ackee and lychee.

The Sapindaceae occur in temperate to tropical regions, many in laurel forest habitat, throughout the world. Many are laticiferous, i.e. they contain latex, a milky sap, and many contain mildly toxic saponins with soap-like qualities in either the foliage and/or the seeds, or roots. The largest genera are Serjania, Paullinia, Allophylus and Acer.

Description
Plants of this family have a variety of habits, from trees to herbaceous plants to lianas. The leaves of the tropical genera are usually spirally alternate, while those of the temperate maples (Acer), Aesculus, and a few other genera are opposite. They are most often pinnately compound, but are palmately compound in Aesculus, and simply palmate in Acer. The petiole has a swollen base and lacks stipules. Some genera and species have laurel forest foliage due to convergent evolution.

The flowers are small and unisexual, or functionally unisexual, though plants may be either dioecious or monoecious. They are usually found in cymes grouped in panicles. They most often have four or five petals and sepals (petals are absent in Dodonaea). The stamens range from four to 10, usually on a nectar disc between the petals and stamens, their filaments are often hairy. The most frequent number is eight, in two rings of four. The gynoecium contains two or three carpels, sometimes up to six. The usually single style has a lobed stigma. Most often they are pollinated by birds or insects, with a few species pollinated by wind.

Ripe fruits may be fleshy or dry. They may be nuts, berries, drupes, schizocarps, capsules (Bridgesia), or samaras (Acer). The embryos are bent or coiled, without endosperm in the seed, and frequently with an aril.

Classification
The Sapindaceae are related to the Rutaceae, and both are usually placed in an order Sapindales or Rutales, depending on whether they are kept separate and which name is used for the order. The most basal member appears to be Xanthoceras. Some authors formerly maintained some or all of Hippocastanaceae and Aceraceae, however this resulted in paraphyly. The former Ptaeroxylaceae, now placed in Rutaceae, were sometimes placed in Sapindaceae. The family is divided into four subfamilies, Dodonaeoideae (about 38 genera), Sapindoideae (about 114 genera), Hippocastanoideae (5 genera) and Xanthoceroideae (1 genus). The largest genera are Serjania (about 220 species), Paullinia (about 180 species), and Allophylus (about 200 species) in the tropical Sapindoideae and Acer (about 110 species) in the temperate Hippocastanoideae.

The largely temperate genera formerly separated in the families Aceraceae (Acer, Dipteronia) and Hippocastanaceae (Aesculus, Billia, Handeliodendron) were included within a more broadly circumscribed Sapindaceae by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group. Recent research has confirmed the inclusion of these genera in the Sapindaceae.

Notable species
The Sapindaceae include many species of economically valuable tropical fruit, including the lychee, longan, pitomba, guinip/mamoncillo, korlan, rambutan, pulasan, and ackee. Other products include guaraná, soapberries, and maple syrup.

Some species of maple and buckeye are valued for their wood, while several other genera, such as Koelreuteria, Cardiospermum, and Ungnadia, are popular ornamentals. Schleichera trijuga is the source of Indian macassar oil. Saponins extracted from the drupe of Sapindus species are effective surfactants and are used commercially in cosmetics and detergents.

title: Sapindaceae


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Hokuriku

Hokuriku may refer to:

 * Hokuriku (train), a sleeping car train in Japan
 * Hokuriku Shinkansen, a high-speed railway line connecting Tokyo with Kanazawa
 * The Hokuriku region in Japan
 * ALO's Hokuriku, a Japanese football club based in Toyama, Japan

title: Hokuriku


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Kōshin'etsu region

Kōshin'etsu (甲信越) is a subregion of the Chūbu region in Japan consisting of Yamanashi, Nagano, and Niigata prefectures.

The name Kōshin'etsu is a composite formed from the names of old provinces which are adjacent to each other — Kai (now Yamanashi), Shinano (now Nagano) and Echigo (now Niigata). The region is surrounded by the Sea of Japan to its north west, Hokuriku region to its west, Tōkai region to its south west, Kantō region to its south east, and Tōhoku region to its north east. The name for this geographic area is usually combined with Kantō region (as in "Kantō-Kōshin'etsu" ); and it is sometimes combined with Hokuriku region (as in "Kantō-Kōshin'etsu-Hokuriku" or "Hokuriku-Kōshin'etsu" ).

Corporate usage

 * Nippon Telegraph & Telephone directories categorize phone numbers by region, including the Koshin'etsu area.
 * The Japanese Society of Nuclear Medicine categorizes its membership by region, including the Kanto-Koshinetsu region.
 * In Japan, the Children's Cancer Registry program is administered by seven National Children's Medical Registration Centers, including Kanto-KoShinEtsu.

Economy
The Kōshin'etsu subregion economy is for almost all purposes the same as the Shin'etsu subregion economy. The economy of Kōshin'etsu subregion is large and highly diversified with a strong focus on silverware, electronics, information technology, precision machinery, agriculture and food products, and tourism. It also produces crude oil. Until 1989, the Kōshin'etsu subregion also partook in gold mining, particularly at Sado Island.

Demographics
Per Japanese census data, and, Kōshin'etsu subregion has had negative population growth since 2000

title: Kōshin'etsu region


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Clyde Drexler

Clyde Austin Drexler (born June 22, 1962) is an American former professional basketball player who currently works as the commissioner of the Big3 3-on-3 basketball league. Nicknamed "Clyde the Glide", he played 15 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA), spending a majority of his career with the Portland Trail Blazers before finishing with the Houston Rockets. He was a ten-time NBA All-Star and named to the NBA's 50th and 75th anniversary teams. Drexler won an NBA championship with Houston in 1995, and earned a gold medal on the 1992 United States Olympic team known as "The Dream Team". He was inducted twice into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, in 2004 for his individual career and in 2010 as a member of the "Dream Team". Drexler is widely considered one of the greatest basketball players and greatest shooting guards of all time.

Early years
Drexler was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, and lived in the South Park area in Houston, Texas. He attended Ross Sterling High School in Houston, where he was a classmate of tennis player Zina Garrison. As a sophomore, he made the varsity baseball team, and tried out for the basketball team but failed to make the cut. Drexler played as a 6ft 6in center as a senior. He began receiving attention from college coaches following a 34-point, 27-rebound performance against Sharpstown High School during a 1979 Christmas tournament.

After graduating in 1980, he was recruited by New Mexico State University, Texas Tech University, and the University of Houston, the latter after childhood friend Michael Young told an assistant to head coach Guy Lewis that Drexler was the best player he had faced in high school. Houston was able to recruit them both due to Drexler's friendship with Young and his desire to stay home. Drexler majored in finance and worked at a bank during the summer. Lewis recalled in 2003 that he initially received hate mail from Houston supporters and alumni for recruiting Drexler, as they felt that he was not good enough to play for the school.

College career

Drexler and Young, along with Larry Micheaux and new recruit Hakeem Olajuwon (known then as Akeem), comprised the "Phi Slama Jama" basketball fraternity that gained national attention for its acrobatic, above-the-rim play. New players were "initiated" into the fraternity by having to stand underneath the basket as Drexler drove in from halfcourt and threw down a tomahawk slam over them. Houston made the first of Drexler's two straight Final Four appearances in 1982, where they lost to eventual champions North Carolina. He averaged 15.2 points and 10.5 rebounds (second in the Southwest Conference) per game as a small forward as Houston finished 25–8.

The 1982–83 campaign saw Houston return to the Final Four ranked No. 1. They were matched up against No. 2 Louisville and the "Doctors of Dunk" in the semifinals, which Houston won 94–81 following a brilliant dunking display by both sides, including a double-pump slam by Drexler that Sports Illustrated writer Curry Kirkpatrick called "your basic play of the century". He finished with 21 points, seven rebounds and six assists. In the championship game against North Carolina State, Drexler failed to make an impact after picking up four fouls before halftime, and scored only four points on one-of-five shooting and two free throws in NC State's upset victory.

Drexler declared for the NBA draft as a junior, leaving Houston with career averages of 14.4 points, 3.3 assists and 9.9 rebounds in three seasons. In addition to being named the Southwestern Conference Player of the Year and a first-team All American his final season, he remains the only player in school history with combined totals of at least 1,000 career points, 900 rebounds and 300 assists; he is also Houston's all-time steals leader with 268.

Portland Trail Blazers (1983–1995)
In the 1983 NBA draft, Drexler was selected by the Portland Trail Blazers with the 14th overall pick. He averaged 7.7 points in 17.2 minutes per game in his rookie season. These all improved with more playing time in his second season, to 17.2 points, 6 rebounds, 5.5 assists and 2.2 steals per game. In his third season Drexler made his first All-Star team, averaging 18.5 points, 5.6 rebounds, 8 assists and 2.6 steals. On January 6, 1989, Drexler scored a career-high 50 points during a double-overtime win over the Sacramento Kings.

In the 1989–1990 season, Drexler led the Portland Trail Blazers to the 1990 NBA Finals, averaging 23.3 points, 6.9 rebounds and 5.9 assists during the season. The Blazers (ranked 3rd in the Western Conference) made it to the Conference Finals against the Phoenix Suns. While Drexler only led in scoring in the final two games, the Blazers were bolstered by players such as Terry Porter and Jerome Kersey to a six-game series victory, with Drexler and Porter each scoring 23 in the 112–109 victory that gave Portland its first conference championship since 1977. In the Finals, they played the Detroit Pistons. Drexler led the Blazers with 21 points in Game 1, but they lost 105–99. In Game 2, Drexler scored 33 points and contributed the go-ahead points in overtime by hitting two free throws with 2.1 seconds to beat Detroit 106–105. It was the only win in the series for the Blazers, who lost narrowly in Game 4 by three and lost the final game after Detroit went on a 9–0 run. During the 1990–1991 season, Drexler led Portland to a franchise-best 63–19 record. He played in every game for the first time in four seasons and averaged 21.5 points per game while having 6.7 rebounds and six assists on average. Heavily favored to win the West, the Los Angeles Lakers upset the Trail Blazers by winning the Western Conference Finals.

In the 1991–92 season he made the All-NBA First Team and finished second to Michael Jordan in MVP voting, having averaged 25 points per game to go with 6.6 rebounds and 6.7 assists while playing slightly over 35 minutes a game; the Blazers finished 57–25, best in the Western Conference. The Blazers lost just twice in the first two rounds of the postseason, In the Conference Finals, they faced the Utah Jazz. Teammate Terry Porter cited Drexler decades later as the key guy to get the ball to when it came down to late in a game to make plays. Portland won the first two games at home before Utah responded with two victories in Utah. In Game 5, Portland won in overtime to set up a Game 6 in Utah. Porter and Drexler each scored 18 points in the pivotal Game 6 that the Blazers won 105–97 to clinch their second conference championship in three years. Drexler and the Blazers met Jordan and the Chicago Bulls in the 1992 NBA Finals. In the Finals, Drexler was the leader or tied for the lead in scoring for the Blazers in each of the six games, leading all scorers once in Game 3 with 32 points in a 94–84 loss. Despite forcing a tie series twice, the Bulls pulled a comeback in the fourth quarter to turn a 15-point deficit into a win that clinched the series. In the six-game series against Chicago, Drexler averaged 24.8 points, 7.8 rebounds and 5.3 assists per game. Later that year, he was selected to the U.S. Olympic basketball team, nicknamed "The Dream Team", which won the gold medal in Barcelona.

Drexler left as the all-time scoring leader for the Blazers with 18,040 points, which stood as a franchise record until Damian Lillard passed him in 2022.

Houston Rockets (1995–1998)
On February 14, 1995, with the Blazers out of serious contention for a championship, Portland honored Drexler's request to be traded to a contender. They sent the Blazer great back home to the Houston Rockets, along with Tracy Murray in exchange for Otis Thorpe, the draft rights of Marcelo Nicola, and a 1995 first-round draft pick, right before the trade deadline. Despite finishing the regular season with a record of 47–35, which placed the Rockets 6th out of 8 playoff teams in the Western Conference, Drexler and long-time friend Hakeem Olajuwon helped propel them to an improbable second consecutive championship in 1995. On May 5, during the first round while down two games to one against the Utah Jazz, Drexler led the Rockets in scoring with 41 points while Olajuwon added 40 in a 123–106 win. Houston would go on to win the deciding Game 5, and then also win every remaining elimination game on their postseason run. In the finals, the Rockets swept the Orlando Magic. In his third and final NBA Finals appearance, Drexler averaged 21.5 points, 9.5 rebounds and 6.8 assists per game.

Drexler played his last three full seasons with the Rockets. The 1995–96 season saw him average 19.3 points per game in 52 games played, owing to knee and ankle injuries. The Rockets dispatched their first-round opponent in the Lakers to face the Seattle SuperSonics. Drexler led the team in a variety of categories in the series such as rebounds (twice), points (twice), and assists (once), but the Sonics eliminated the Rockets in four games. The following year, the Rockets, having traded for Charles Barkley before the year started, went 21–2 to begin the year, but injuries would pile on the team, with Drexler having a hamstring injury; he was named to the All-Star Game, but he did not play in what ended up as his final selection. Drexler played a total of 62 games while averaging eighteen points a game with six rebounds and 5.7 assists. The Rockets finished 57-25 and made it all the way to the Conference Finals against the Jazz. The Rockets forced six games after winning Game 3 and 4, but the Jazz won in six to end the season. The 1997–98 season was his final season in the NBA. He played in 70 games and averaged 18.4 points a game with 4.9 rebounds (his lowest since his rookie year) and 5.5 assists. These totals led the team (which had less of Olajuwon due to injury), which staggered to a 41–41 record and a playoff spot. The Rockets played the Jazz in the opening round and held a series lead going into Game 4, but an injury to Barkley spelled the end of their chances, as Utah rallied to send Houston home in five games, the first opening round loss for Houston since 1991. Drexler retired at the age of 35, stating his reason as doing so because of his desire to leave on his own terms while still playing at a "high level". At the time of his retirement, Drexler was one of only three players in history with 20,000 points, 6,000 assists and 6,000 rebounds. In fifteen seasons, he never missed the playoffs.

Awards

 * First-team NCAA All-American (1983)
 * Southwest Conference Player of the Year (1983)
 * 10-time NBA All-Star (1986, 1988–1994, 1996, 1997)
 * All-NBA First Team (1992)
 * All-NBA Second Team (1988, 1991)
 * All-NBA Third Team (1990, 1995)
 * Olympic gold medalist (1992)
 * NBA championship (1995)
 * Named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History (1996)
 * Two-time Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Inductee
 * Oregon Sports Hall of Fame Inducted (2001)
 * Named to the NBA 75th Anniversary Team (2021)

Regular season
Most steals in a half: 8, second half, Houston Rockets vs. Sacramento Kings, 1996-11-1

Most offensive rebounds by a guard in a career: 2,615 Blocks: 4 vs Utah Jazz May 9, 1991 Clyde Drexler | Portland Trail Blazers

Playoffs
Most steals in a 3-game series: 13, Portland Trail Blazers vs. Dallas Mavericks, 1990 Western Conference First round

Most steals in a half: 6, Portland Trail Blazers vs. Phoenix Suns, 1990-5-23

All-Star Game
Highest free throw percentage for a career: 1.000 (12—12)

Player profile
Clyde "The Glide" Drexler, as he was nicknamed at the University of Houston and throughout his professional career, was famed for his speed and athleticism on the court and his easygoing and quiet demeanor off the court. At the University of Houston, Drexler became well known for his exceptional abilities as a finisher, but generally was not considered a great shooter. During his pro career Drexler developed a much more well-rounded game, even becoming an effective post player and more consistent outside shooter. His extraordinary leaping abilities allowed him to be an acrobatic dunker and Drexler participated in numerous NBA All-Star dunk contests during the late eighties.

Drexler was regarded as a versatile player, and he was consistently among the leaders at his position in points, rebounds, assists, and steals. He also posted a considerable number of blocked shots for a player his size, ranking third for his career totals among guards.

Drexler set a Trail Blazer record in 1989 by dunking on an 11' 1" rim.

As of 2008, Drexler leads all guards with his career average of offensive rebounds with 2.4 per game.

In 2021, to commemorate the NBA's 75th Anniversary The Athletic ranked their top 75 players of all time, and named Drexler as the 43rd greatest player in NBA history.

College coaching career
Drexler stayed with the Rockets for three more seasons before retiring from the NBA after the 1997–98 season in order to become head men's basketball coach at his alma mater, the University of Houston.

Drexler coached the Cougars in the 1998–99 and 1999–2000 seasons. After compiling a 19–39 record in his two seasons, Drexler decided to resign to spend more time with his family.

Honors
Drexler's No. 22 jersey has been retired by the Cougars (pictured), Rockets, and Trail Blazers. He was inducted as a player into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on September 10, 2004, in his first year of eligibility. He was named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History in 1996 and named to the league's 75th anniversary team in 2021.

In 2004 Drexler co-authored his biography, Clyde the Glide, with Portland Tribune sports writer Kerry Eggers, and University of Houston classmate and CBS Sports broadcaster Jim Nantz providing the foreword.

Personal life
Drexler married his wife, Gaynell, on December 30, 1988. They divorced in 2011. He has four children: Erica, Austin, Elise, and Adam (the last three with Gaynell). In 2014 Drexler married his second wife, Tonya, whom he had met through fellow NBA star Dominique Wilkins. Drexler has owned homes in the River Oaks–Memorial neighborhood of Houston and in the Dunthorpe suburb of Portland.

His brother James and his two sisters, Denise and Virginia, run the family barbecue restaurants in Houston called Drexler's World Famous BBQ & Grill, which includes the "22 Bar". His mother, Eunice Scott, also works at the downtown restaurant that was started by his uncle in 1967. There are two locations, downtown Houston and Bush Intercontinental Airport. Drexler also started investing in real estate in his rookie NBA season, and although he is now mostly retired, he does do some managing of his Drexler Holdings LLC, based in downtown Houston.

Books
Drexler is the subject of the book Clyde Drexler: Clyde the Glide. He also wrote the introduction to the children's book Shrews Can't Hoop.

TV appearances
Drexler made a guest appearance on Married... with Children, a cameo appearance in an episode of Arliss, and was also a guest star in an episode of The Sentinel. In 2006, he made a cameo appearance in the basketball movie Like Mike 2: Streetball. That same year, Drexler participated in the first season of the Spike TV show Pros vs. Joes, which features three amateur contestants matching themselves against five professional athletes. Drexler was a member of the regular season Green Team and the season finale Orange Team.

On February 21, 2007, it was announced that Drexler would participate in the fourth season of the American version of Dancing with the Stars with partner Elena Grinenko. Drexler was the fourth celebrity to be voted off in round five on April 17, 2007.

On April 11, 2010, Drexler appeared as a guest on NBC's Celebrity Apprentice in which he helped the men's team "Rock Solid" complete a task to create video advertisements for Right Guard.

title: Clyde Drexler


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Charan Singh

Chaudhary Charan Singh (23 December 1902 – 29 May 1987), better known as Charan Singh was an Indian politician and a freedom fighter. Singh was principally known for his land and agricultural reform initiatives. He briefly served as the prime minister of India from July 1979 to August 1979 and was Member of Parliament (MP) for Baghpat. During prime ministership he was a member of the Janata Party (Secular). He served as 5th Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh as a member of Bhartiya Kranti Dal. He also briefly served as deputy prime minister of India from January 1979 to July 1979 as a member of the Janata Party. Singh is widely regarded as the "Champion of farmers", after his life has been dedicated to advocating for the wellbeing and rights of farmers.

Singh was born in Meerut district, United Provinces of Agra and Oudh. He graduated from Agra College in 1923 with a Bachelor of Science degree and then he did Master of Arts in history in 1925. In 1927 he did Bachelor of Laws (LLB) from Meerut College. Then they shifted to Bulandshahr district of present day Uttar Pradesh after their downfall due to Raja Nahar Sigh Ballabhgarh opposition to the British during the Indian Rebellion of 1857.

Singh entered politics as a part of Indian independence movement motivated by Mahatma Gandhi. Singh followed Gandhi in non-violent struggle for independence from the British Government, and was imprisoned several times. In 1930, he was sent to jail for 12 years by the British for contravention of the salt laws. He was jailed again for one year in November 1940 for individual Satyagraha movement. In August 1942 he was jailed again by the British under DIR and released in November 1943. He was a Congress member for most of his life, he later founded his own Lok Dal party. He is the first leader outside the Indian National Congress who formed government in the northern India and became 5th chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. He was awarded with the Bharat Ratna in 2024.

Early life and education
Singh was born on 23 December 1902 to Mir Singh and Netar Kaur in Nurpur village of Meerut district, United Provinces of Agra and Oudh. His father was a farmer belonging to the Tewatia Shivi gotra of Jats. Singh started his primary education in Jani Khurd village in Meerut. He did his Matriculation and Intermediate from the Government High School in 1921 and then he went to Agra College to pursue Bachelor of Science in 1923, Masters of Arts in History (British, European and Indian) in 1925. He then did Bachelor of Laws (LLB) from Meerut College in 1927. Singh have knowledge about European and Indian history as well as civil laws of British India as it affected the lives of village peoples. His clansmen hail from the Haryana's Gurgaon district, where they were revenue collectors during the Mughal period. But they shifted to Bulandshahr district of the present-day Uttar Pradesh after their downfall due to one of their prominent Raja Nahar Singh Ballabhgarh opposition to the British during the Indian Rebellion of 1857. Singh entered politics as part of the Indian Independence Movement motivated by Mahatma Gandhi. He was active from 1931 in the Ghaziabad District Arya Samaj as well as the Meerut district Indian National Congress for which he was jailed twice by the British. Before independence, as a member of Legislative Assembly of the United Provinces elected in 1937, he took a deep interest in the laws that were detrimental to the village economy and he slowly built his ideological and practical stand against the exploitation of tillers of the land by landlords.

Between 1952 and 1968, he was one of "three principal leaders in Congress state politics." He became particularly notable in Uttar Pradesh from the 1950s for drafting and ensuring the passage of what were then the most revolutionary land reform laws in any state in India under the tutelage of the then Chief Minister Govind Ballabh Pant; first as Parliamentary Secretary and then as Revenue Minister responsible for Land Reforms. He became visible on the national stage from 1959 when he publicly opposed the unquestioned leader and Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru's socialistic and collectivist land policies in the Nagpur Congress Session. Though his position in the faction-ridden Uttar Pradesh Congress was weakened, this was a point when the middle peasant communities across castes in North India began looking up to him as their spokesperson and later as their unquestioned leader. Singh stood for tight government spending, enforced consequences for corrupt officers, and advocated a "firm hand in dealing with the demands of government employees for increased wages and dearness allowances." It is also worth noting that within the factional Uttar Pradesh Congress, his ability to articulate his clear policies and values made him stand out from his colleagues. Following this period, Charan Singh defected from the Congress on 1 April 1967, joined the opposition party, and became the first non-Congress chief minister of UP. This was a period when non-Congress governments were a strong force in India from 1967 to 1971.

As leader of the Bharatiya Lok Dal, a major constituent of the Janata coalition, he was disappointed in his ambition to become Prime Minister in 1977 by Jayaprakash Narayan's choice of Morarji Desai.

During 1977 Lok Sabha Elections, the fragmented opposition united a few months before the elections under the Janata Party banner, for which Chaudhary Charan Singh had been struggling almost single-handedly since 1974. It was because of the efforts of Raj Narain that he became Prime Minister in the year 1979 though Raj Narain was Chairman of Janata Party-Secular and assured Charan Singh of elevating him as Prime Minister, the way he helped him to become Chief Minister in the year 1967 in Uttar Pradesh. However, he resigned after just 23 days in office when Indira Gandhi's Congress Party withdrew support to the government. Singh said he resigned because he was not ready to be blackmailed into withdrawing Indira Gandhi's emergency-related court cases. Fresh elections were held six months later. Charan Singh continued to lead the Lok Dal in opposition until his death in 1987.

Early years – pre-Independence India
Charan Singh's ancestor was a prominent leader of the Indian Rebellion of 1857, Raja Nahar Singh of Ballabhgarh (in present-day Haryana). Nahar Singh was sent to the gallows in Chandni Chowk, Delhi. In order to escape the oppression from the British Government following their defeat, the Maharaja's followers, including Charan Singh's grandfather moved eastward to district Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh.

He received a Master of Arts (MA) degree in 1925 and a law degree in 1926 from Agra University. He started practice as a civil lawyer at Ghaziabad in 1928.

In February 1937 he was elected from the constituency of Chhaprauli (Baghpat) to the Legislative Assembly of the United Provinces at the age of 34. In 1938 he introduced an Agricultural Produce Market Bill in the Assembly which was published in the issues of The Hindustan Times of Delhi dated 31 March 1938. The Bill was intended to safeguard the interests of the farmers against the rapacity of traders. The Bill was adopted by most of the States in India, Punjab being the first state to do so in 1940.

Charan Singh followed Mahatma Gandhi in non-violent struggle for independence from the British Government, and was imprisoned several times. In 1930, he was sent to jail for 12 years by the British for contravention of the salt laws. He was jailed again for one year in November 1940 for individual Satyagraha movement. In August 1942 he was jailed again by the British under DIR and released in November 1943.

Independent India
Charan Singh opposed Jawaharlal Nehru on his Soviet-style economic reforms. Charan Singh was of the opinion that cooperative farms would not succeed in India. Being a son of a farmer, Charan Singh opined that the right of ownership was important to the farmer in remaining a cultivator. He wanted to preserve and stabilise a system of peasant proprietorship. Charan Singh's political career suffered due to his open criticism of Nehru's economic policy.

Singh is known for piloting pro-farmer legislation such as the Consolidation of Holdings Act of 1953 and the Uttar Pradesh Zamindari and Land Reforms Act, 1952. The latter led to the abolition of zamindari system in the state.He was also strict in dealing with the 'Patwari strike crisis' in 1953. Land reforms resulted in empowering the tillers and providing the landless with ownership of land. It created a conducive atmosphere for the social and economic upliftment of the farmers. During the drought in 1966-1967, Singh offered the agriculturists a much higher procurement price than the prevailing market rates. The infrastructure he laid down led to the Minimum Support Price mechanism.

Charan Singh left the Congress party in 1967, and formed his own political party, Bharatiya Kranti Dal. With the help and support of Raj Narain and Ram Manohar Lohia, he became Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh in 1967, and later in 1970. In 1975, he was jailed again, but this time by then Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, daughter of his former rival Nehru. She had declared the state of emergency and jailed all her political opponents. In the 1977 general elections, the Indian populace voted her out, and the opposition party, of which Chaudhary Charan Singh was a senior leader came into power. He served as Deputy Prime Minister, Home Minister and Finance minister in the Janata government headed by Morarji Desai.

First term as Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh (1967–1968)
Charan Singh for the first time, became Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh on 3 April 1967 with the help of Samyukta Vidhayak Dal coalition. Samyukta Vidhayak Dal was formed after failure of negotiations between Charan Singh and Chandra Bhanu Gupta on the composition of Gupta's ministry. Singh wanted some of his allies like Jai Ram Varma and Udit Narain Sharma to be included in the cabinet and removal of some of the men from the cabinet. As a result of failure of negotiations, Charan Singh with his 16 MLAs defected from Congress.

Samyukta Vidhayak Dal was coalition formed with the help of non-Congress parties like Bharatiya Jana Sangh, Samyukta Socialist Party, Communist Party of India, Swatantra Party, Praja Socialist Party, Republican Party of India, Communist Party of India (Marxist). Within months of his government formation disputes started to arise in SVD coalition. Samyukta Socialist Party, one of the constituent of this coalition, demanded to completely abolish the land revenue or at least abolish on uneconomic lands but Charan Singh refused to accept this demand as he was worried about the revenue generation and resources. Praja Socialist Party, another constituent in this coalition, demanded for the release of government employees held in preventive detention for their strikes but this demand also Singh refused to accept.

The disputes between Charan Singh and Samyukta Socialist Party became public when SSP decided to launch an agitation of Angrezi Hatao (get rid to English) and during this movement two of its ministers courted arrest. SSP withdrew from coalition on 5 January 1968. On 17 February 1968, Charan Singh submitted his resignation to the governor Bezawada Gopala Reddy and on 25 February 1968, President's rule was imposed on Uttar Pradesh.

Second term as Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh (1970)
After the split in Congress party, Chandra Bhanu Gupta resigned as Chief Minister on 10 February 1970. On 18 February 1970, Charan Singh became Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh for the second time with the help of Indira Gandhi's Congress (R). After three Rajya Sabha members of Bharatiya Kranti Dal voted against the decision of Indira Gandhi to eliminate the Privy Purse, Kamalapati Tripathi announced the withdrawal of the support of Congress (R) for the Singh's government. Charan Singh demanded the resignation of 14 Congress (R) minister but they refused to resign. On 27 September 1970, governor Bezawada Gopala Reddy accepted the resignation of ministers but also asked Charan Singh to resign.

On 1 October 1970, President's rule was imposed on Uttar Pradesh by V. V. Giri from Kiev, who was on tour there. Just two weeks later with the recalling of the Uttar Pradesh assembly, Tribhuvan Narain Singh was elected the leader of the house and became Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh with the support of Congress (O), Bharatiya Jana Sangh, Swatantra Party and Samyukta Socialist Party.

Minister of Home Affairs (1977–1978)
Charan Singh became Cabinet minister in Morarji Desai government and took the office as Minister of Home Affairs on 24 March 1977. As a Home Minister, Charan Singh took the decision to dissolve all the state assemblies which were under Congress rule. He argued that these assemblies no longer represent the will of the electorate of their respective states. Charan Singh wrote the letter to nine Chief Ministers to advise their governors to dissolve their state assemblies. Chief Minister of these states went to Supreme Court against this dissolution but the dismissals were validated by Supreme Court.

On 3 October 1977, Charan Singh got Indira Gandhi arrested from her 12 Willingdon Crescent residence. The charges against her were that during 1977 election, she misused her position to get jeeps for election campaigns and another charge was related to contract between the ONGC and the French oil company CFP. But the magistrate before whom she appeared, released her stating that there was no evidence to back up the arrest. By botching up the arrest, Singh prepared his resignation letter but Morarji Desai did not accept it.

On 1 July 1978, Charan Singh resigned from the cabinet of Morarji Desai because of growing differences between them over trial of Indira Gandhi. In December 1978, Singh wanted to undo Janata Party and wanted coalition government in place of Janata Party government. On 24 January 1979, Singh returned into cabinet and held two portfolios of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance.

Prime Ministership
When the Janata Party won the Lok Sabha elections in 1977, its MPs authorised the elder guiding lights of the movement, Jayaprakash Narayan and Acharya Kripalani to choose candidate for the post of Prime Minister. Morarji Desai was chosen and he named Singh Home Minister. Singh was asked to resign in June 1978 following disagreements with Desai, but was brought back to the cabinet as Deputy Prime Minister in January 1979. In 1979, the Janata government began to unravel over the issue of the dual loyalties of some members to Janata and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)—the Hindu nationalist, paramilitary organisation. Singh, who as the Union home minister during the previous year had ordered the Gandhis' arrests, took advantage of this and started courting Indira Gandhi's Congress (I) party. After a significant exodus from the Janata party to Singh's faction, Morarji Desai resigned as prime minister in July 1979. Singh was appointed prime minister, by President Reddy, after Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi promised Singh that Congress (I) would support his government from outside on certain conditions. Singh was sworn in as Prime Minister on 28 July 1979, with outside support from Indira Gandhi's Congress (I) party and with Yeshwantrao Chavan of the Congress (Socialist) party as his Deputy Prime Minister.

His name got etched in history as he hoisted the tricolour at the coveted Red Fort on Independence Day, 15 August 1979. In his speech on Independence Day, Charan Singh said: "‘To be able to achieve noble objectives, your means should also be equally noble…A country where people are corrupt, will never be able to progress whosoever may be the leader of the party or whatever be the sound programme he might follow.’"

Indira's conditions included dropping all charges against her and Sanjay. Since Singh refused to drop them, Congress withdrew its support just before Singh was to confirm his majority in the Lok Sabha. He resigned as prime minister on 20 August 1979, after just 23 days in office, becoming the only Prime Minister to never face the Parliament. Singh then advised President Neelam Sanjiva Reddy to dissolve the Lok Sabha. Janata Party leader Jagjivan Ram challenged that advice and sought time to cobble support, but the Lok Sabha was dissolved, and Charan Singh continued as caretaker Prime Minister until January 1980.

Later years
On 26 September 1979, he formed Lok Dal by merging Janata Party (Secular), Socialist Party and Orissa Janata Party. He was elected president of Lok Dal and Raj Narain was elected as its working president. In August 1982, a major split occurred in Lok Dal, with one faction of Charan Singh and another consisted of Karpoori Thakur, Madhu Limaye, Biju Patnaik, Devi Lal, George Fernandes and Kumbha Ram Arya.

On 21 October 1984, Charan Singh founded a new party Dalit Mazdoor Kisan Party, by merging Lok Dal, Democratic Socialist Party of Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna, Rashtriya Congress of Ratubhai Adani and some leaders of Janata Party like Devi Lal. Later it changed its name back to the Lok Dal.

Personal life
Singh had six children with wife Gayatri Devi (1905–2002). Gayatri Devi was elected an MLA from Iglas (Aligarh) in 1969, from Gokul in 1974, then elected to Lok Sabha from Kairana in 1980, and lost Lok Sabha election from Mathura in 1984. His son Ajit Singh was the president of a political party Rashtriya Lok Dal and a former Union Minister and a many times Member of Parliament. Ajit Singh's son Jayant Chaudhary was elected to 15th Lok Sabha from Mathura, which he lost to Hema Malini in the election of 2014.

Death
Singh suffered a stroke on 29 November 1985. He could not completely recover from the condition despite being treated at a hospital in the US. At 11:35 p.m. (IST) on 28 May 1987 doctors were called for to his residence in New Delhi, after his respiration was found "unsteady". Efforts to revive him failed and was declared dead at 2:35 a.m. (IST) the following morning after a "cardiovascular collapse".

Legacy

Singh, often hailed as the ‘Champion of Farmers,’ left behind a rich legacy that continues to inspire and shape the agricultural landscape of India. His contributions to the welfare of the farmers and the rural community were profound and multifaceted.

Singh’s journey as a stalwart for farmers’ rights began with his instrumental role in piloting pro-farmer legislation such as the Uttar Pradesh Zamindari Abolition and Land Reforms Act of 1950, which aimed to redistribute land from the zamindars to the tillers, and the Consolidation of Holdings Act of 1953, which sought to prevent the fragmentation of agricultural land.

Singh was the chief architect of land reforms in Uttar Pradesh, where he played a pivotal role in the formulation and finalisation of the Debt Redemption Bill 1939. This legislation brought significant relief to rural debtors, easing the burden of debts that had long plagued the agricultural community.

As Chief Minister of U.P., Singh was instrumental in enacting the Land Holding Act of 1960. This act aimed at lowering the ceiling on land holdings to make it uniform throughout the state, thereby promoting fairer land distribution and addressing the disparities in land ownership.

Singh’s birthday, December 23, was declared as Kisan Diwas or National Farmers’ Day in 2001. This day is celebrated across India to honor his memory and his unwavering dedication to the agrarian community. To commemorate his second death anniversary, the Government of India issued a postage stamp on May 29, 1990. The stamp symbolises the nation’s respect for his contributions as the 5th prime minister of India and a champion of farmers’ rights. His commitment to the agricultural sector were further immortalised with the establishment of Kisan Ghat in 1987 as this memorial in New Delhi serves as a serene place where people pay their respects to the man who was often referred to as the ‘Champion of Farmers.’

Several monuments and institutions have been named after Singh to honour his legacy which includes the Chaudhary Charan Singh University in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, and the Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport, which was renamed in his honour. On December 23, 2023, a 51-foot statue of Singh was unveiled by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in Bilari, Moradabad district coinciding Singh’s birth anniversary.

On 30 March 2024, Singh was posthumously honoured with the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian award by President Droupadi Murmu, for his exceptional service and contributions to the agricultural sector, particularly in Uttar Pradesh. Singh’s multifaceted personality encompassed roles as a patriot, administrator, statesman, and a man of integrity and humanist values.

In popular culture
''Kisan Kranti Ke Praneta – Ch. Charan Singh'' is a 1996 short documentary film directed by Ashok Vazirani and produced by the Films Division of India which covers the life and achievements of the prime minister including his contributions to the Indian agriculture sector. Charan Singh has also been portrayed by Anwar Fatehan in the 2013 television series Pradhanmantri (lit. 'Prime Minister'), which covers the tenures of Indian PMs, by Sundaram in the 2019 film NTR: Mahanayakudu which is based on the life of Indian actor-politician N. T. Rama Rao., and by Govind Namdeo in the 2021 film Main Mulayam Singh Yadav which charts the life of former Uttar Pradesh CM Mulayam Singh Yadav.

Books

 * Agrarian Revolution in Uttar Pradesh (1957)
 * Joint Farming X-rayed (1959)
 * India's Economic Policy – The Gandhian Blueprint (1978)
 * Economic Nightmare of India: Its Cause and Cure (1981)
 * Abolition of Zamindari (1947)
 * Whither Co-operative Farming (1956)
 * Prevention of Division of Holdings Below a Certain Minimum
 * India’s Poverty and Its Solution (1964)
 * Land Reforms in UP and the Kulaks (1986)

title: Charan Singh