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Orange Line (CTA)

The Orange Line is a rapid transit line in Chicago, Illinois, operated by the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) as part of the Chicago "L" system. It is approximately 13 mi long and runs on elevated and at grade tracks and serves the Southwest Side, running from the Loop to Midway International Airport. As of 2022, an average of 15,098 riders board Orange Line trains on weekdays.

Route
The Orange Line begins in an open cut at a station on the east side of Midway International Airport. From here, the line rises to an elevated viaduct at 55th Street and continues northeast towards the city on railroad right-of-way. Near the intersection of 49th Street and Lawndale Avenue, the line turns east along a CSX right-of-way to a point east of Western Boulevard, then curves north and northwest on embankment structure along CSX right-of-way to Western Boulevard and Pershing Road.

From here, the line rises on elevated structure again and makes a curve to cross Archer Avenue, the CSX tracks and Western Boulevard before descending onto Illinois Central Railroad right-of-way immediately east of Western Boulevard. Entering the IC right-of-way, the line again changes from elevated structure to surface level. The line continues on surface level to Ashland Avenue where it crosses a bridge over Bubbly Creek, a fork of the South Branch of the Chicago River. At this point, the line enters the joint Illinois Central and Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad right-of-way continuing on embankment to Canal Street.

There the line again transitions to the elevated structure to bridge Canal Street, Cermak Road and the Chicago & Western Indiana Railroad tracks then curves east to run along the south side of 18th Street, crossing over the Red Line and the Rock Island District tracks near Wentworth Avenue, before joining the South Side Elevated at a flying junction between 16th and 17th Streets. The ballasted track ends and the timber deck begins here. Orange Line trains share the tracks with the Green Line operating from this junction to Tower 12 at the southeast corner of the Loop. Orange Line trains operate clockwise around the inner loop – via Van Buren Street, Wells Street, Lake Street and Wabash Avenue – before returning to Midway.

Along the Orange Line's main route there are seven stations. An eighth station is located at Roosevelt/Wabash on the South Side Elevated which Orange Line trains share with Green Line trains. A passenger tunnel connects this station with the Roosevelt/State subway station on the Red Line.

A downtown superstation was proposed to provide express service from the Loop to O'Hare and Midway airports, but the project was canceled during the excavation process due to significant cost overruns.

Operating hours and headways
The Orange Line operates between Midway and the Loop weekdays from 3:30 a.m. to 1:25 a.m., Saturdays from 4 a.m. to 1:30 a.m. and Sundays from 4:30 a.m. to 1:25 a.m. On weekdays, headways consists of 10 tph (trains per hour) during rush hour, 8 tph during midday and 5 tph at night. Saturday service consists 5–8 tph during the day, then 3–4 tph during late night hours. Sunday service runs 5 tph during the day, then 3–4 tph at night.

Rolling stock
The Orange Line is operated with 2600-series cars. From November 8, 2012, to October 31, 2014, some 2400-series railcars were assigned to the line. From the opening of the route to October 2018, 3200-series railcars were assigned to the line. Trains operate using eight cars during weekday rush hours and four cars during other times on weekdays and all day on weekends except for special events when eight cars may be required.

Beginning in June 2014, CTA began to transfer some 2600-series cars to the line as an interim replacement for its 2400-series cars. The first batch of the Orange Line's 2600-series cars are reassignments from the Blue Line. The lost capacity on the Blue Line was made up from reassignment of newer 2600-series cars from the Red Line, as they were displaced by the new Bombardier-built 5000-series cars on the Red Line. The second batch of 2600-series cars are reassignments from the Red Line as more 5000-series cars were delivered and assigned to the Red Line, replacing the Orange Line's remaining 2400-series cars until the Red Line was fully equipped with the 5000-series cars. The last 2400-series cars were retired from service in October 2014.

After the Red Line was fully equipped with the 5000-series cars, the CTA planned on replacing the Orange Line's 2600-series cars with the 5000-series cars, leaving only the Blue and Brown Lines as the only lines not to operate the 5000-series cars. However, the assignment of 5000-series cars to the Orange Line is now unlikely, since delivery of all 5000-series cars is complete and are completely assigned to all other lines except for the Blue and Brown Lines, thus the assignment of 2600-series cars to the Orange Line is now a permanent assignment until the delivery of the new 7000-series cars.

Beginning September 2018, CTA began to transfer the Orange Line's 3200-series cars to the Blue Line. As of October 2018, the 3200-series cars no longer operate on the Orange Line.

History
The Orange Line opened for service on October 31, 1993, and was the first all-new service in Chicago since the Dan Ryan Line opened in September 1969 and the first extension to the CTA system since the extension of the Blue Line to O'Hare International Airport in September 1984. But its planning dates back to the late 1930s when the City of Chicago proposed a high speed subway extension along Wells-Archer-Cicero between the Loop and 63rd Street and Cicero Avenue near Midway (then called Chicago's Municipal Airport). It would be another four decades before Chicago transit planners became serious about providing rapid transit service to this area of the city.

In 1979, the City began the Southwest Transit Project, which proposed extending the CTA 'L' system to the Southwest Side of Chicago over existing railroad rights-of-way and newer elevated connections along the very busy Archer-49th-Cicero Corridor from the Loop to its originally planned terminus at the Ford City Mall. Funding for the project was made possible from Interstate Highway Transfer monies saved after the city decided to cancel the high priced and controversial Crosstown Expressway and Franklin Street subway projects. Federal funding for the project was secured by U.S. Representative William Lipinski as a favor from then-President Ronald Reagan, who wanted to thank Lipinski for his vote to provide aid to the Nicaraguan contras.

In 1987, construction of the $500 million transit line began and continued until fall 1993. When the Midway Line opened, the CTA decided to adopt a color-coded naming system for the rapid transit network (like Boston, Washington, D.C., and Cleveland) and named it the Orange Line.

Former proposed extension

Destination signs on CTA trains have Ford City. The Ford City Mall is about two miles (3 km) south of Midway Airport, and it was originally planned to be the line's terminal. Because there was no funding available, the city decided to end the line at Midway Airport.

The CTA analyzed the cost of an Orange Line extension to Ford City in 2008 and determined that the project would cost approximately $200 million. Community meetings were held in neighborhoods surrounding Midway and Ford City to judge the level of public support for the extension.

The four corridors being studied for the Orange Line extension include alignments along Cicero Avenue, Pulaski Road, and a combination of the Belt Railway and either Cicero or Kostner Avenues. The corridors selected for further study are Cicero Ave (Bus Rapid Transit) and Belt/Cicero or Belt/Kostner (Heavy Rail Transit). In April 2009, the Cicero Avenue/Belt Railway corridor was chosen as the most viable option and advanced in the Alternatives Analysis process. By December 2009, the CTA had identified the Locally Preferred Alternative (LPA) as the Belt/Cicero route. According to a CTA report,

"The LPA would operate in a trench along the BRC right-of-way between the existing Midway station and approximately 6400 South, where it would begin to transition to an elevated structure above Marquette Road, where it would curve to the southwest over the BRC Clearing Yard and then continue south on elevated structure in the median of Cicero Avenue. The Orange Line extension would end at a new terminal station in the vicinity of Ford City Mall."

The CTA planned to prepare a draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and complete preliminary engineering. However, the extension was canceled.

Station listing
After stopping at Adams/Wabash, Orange Line trains return to Roosevelt, then make all stops back to Midway.

title: Orange Line (CTA)


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Exotoxin

An exotoxin is a toxin secreted by bacteria. An exotoxin can cause damage to the host by destroying cells or disrupting normal cellular metabolism. They are highly potent and can cause major damage to the host. Exotoxins may be secreted, or, similar to endotoxins, may be released during lysis of the cell. Gram negative pathogens may secrete outer membrane vesicles containing lipopolysaccharide endotoxin and some virulence proteins in the bounding membrane along with some other toxins as intra-vesicular contents, thus adding a previously unforeseen dimension to the well-known eukaryote process of membrane vesicle trafficking, which is quite active at the host–pathogen interface.

They may exert their effect locally or produce systemic effects. Well-known exotoxins include: botulinum toxin produced by Clostridium botulinum; Corynebacterium diphtheriae toxin, produced during life-threatening symptoms of diphtheria; tetanospasmin produced by Clostridium tetani. The toxic properties of most exotoxins can be inactivated by heat or chemical treatment to produce a toxoid. These retain their antigenic specificity and can be used to produce antitoxins and, in the case of diphtheria and tetanus toxoids, are used as vaccines.

Exotoxins are susceptible to antibodies produced by the immune system, but some exotoxins are so toxic that they may be fatal to the host before the immune system has a chance to mount defenses against them. In such cases, antitoxin, anti-serum containing antibodies, can sometimes be injected to provide passive immunity.

Types
Many exotoxins have been categorized. This classification, while fairly exhaustive, is not the only system used. Other systems for classifying or identifying toxins include:

 * By organism generating the toxin
 * By organism susceptible to the toxin
 * By secretion system used to release the toxin (for example, toxic effectors of type VI secretion system)
 * By tissue target type susceptible to the toxin (neurotoxins affect the nervous system, cardiotoxins affect the heart, etc.)
 * By structure (for example, AB5 toxin)
 * By domain architecture of the toxin (for example, polymorphic toxins)
 * By the ability of the toxin to endure in hostile environments, such as heat, dryness, radiation, or salinity. In this context, "labile" implies susceptibility, and "stable" implies a lack of susceptibility.
 * By a letter, such as "A", "B", or "C", to communicate the order in which they were identified.

The same exotoxin may have different names, depending on the field of research.

Type I: cell surface-active
Type I toxins bind to a receptor on the cell surface and stimulate intracellular signaling pathways. Two examples are described below.

Superantigens
Superantigens are produced by several bacteria. The best-characterized superantigens are those produced by the strains of Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus pyogenes that cause toxic shock syndrome. Superantigens bridge the MHC class II protein on antigen-presenting cells with the T-cell receptor on the surface of T cells with a particular Vβ chain. As a consequence, up to 50% of all T cells are activated, leading to massive secretion of proinflammatory cytokines, which produce the symptoms of toxic shock.

Heat-stable enterotoxins
Some strains of E. coli produce heat-stable enterotoxins (ST), which are small peptides that are able to withstand heat treatment at 100 °C. Different STs recognize distinct receptors on the cell surface and thereby affect different intracellular signaling pathways. For example, STa enterotoxins bind and activate membrane-bound guanylate cyclase, which leads to the intracellular accumulation of cyclic GMP and downstream effects on several signaling pathways. These events lead to the loss of electrolytes and water from intestinal cells.

Type II: membrane damaging
Membrane-damaging toxins exhibit hemolysin or cytolysin activity in vitro. However, induction of cell lysis may not be the primary function of the toxins during infection. At low concentrations of toxin, more subtle effects such as modulation of host cell signal transduction may be observed in the absence of cell lysis. Membrane-damaging toxins can be divided into two categories, the channel-forming toxins and toxins that function as enzymes that act on the membrane.

Channel-forming toxins
Most channel-forming toxins, which form pores in the target cell membrane, can be classified into two families: the cholesterol-dependent toxins and the RTX toxins.

 * Cholesterol-dependent cytolysins

Formation of pores by cholesterol-dependent cytolysins (CDC) requires the presence of cholesterol in the target cell. The size of the pores formed by members of this family is extremely large: 25-30 nm in diameter. All CDCs are secreted by the type II secretion system; the exception is pneumolysin, which is released from the cytoplasm of Streptococcus pneumoniae when the bacteria lyse.

The CDCs Streptococcus pneumoniae Pneumolysin, Clostridium perfringens perfringolysin O, and Listeria monocytogenes listeriolysin O cause specific modifications of histones in the host cell nucleus, resulting in down-regulation of several genes that encode proteins involved in the inflammatory response. Histone modification does not involve the pore-forming activity of the CDCs.

 * RTX toxins

RTX toxins can be identified by the presence of a specific tandemly repeated nine-amino acid residue sequence in the protein. The prototype member of the RTX toxin family is haemolysin A (HlyA) of E. coli. RTX is also found in Legionella pneumophila.

Enzymatically active toxins
One example is the α toxin of C. perfringens, which causes gas gangrene; α toxin has phospholipase activity.

Type III: intracellular
Type III exotoxins can be classified by their mode of entry into the cell, or by their mechanism once inside.

By mode of entry
Intracellular toxins must be able to gain access to the cytoplasm of the target cell to exert their effects.

 * Some bacteria deliver toxins directly from their cytoplasm to the cytoplasm of the target cell through a needle-like structure. The effector proteins injected by the type III secretion apparatus of Yersinia into target cells are one example.
 * Another group of intracellular toxins is the AB toxins. The 'B'-subunit (binding) attaches to target regions on cell membranes, the 'A'-subunit (active) enters through the membrane and possesses enzymatic function that affects internal cellular bio-mechanisms. A common example of this A-subunit activity is called ADP-ribosylation in which the A-subunit catalyzes the addition of an ADP-ribose group onto specific residues on a protein.  The structure of these toxins allows for the development of specific vaccines and treatments. Certain compounds can be attached to the B unit, which is not, in general, harmful, which the body learns to recognize, and which elicits an immune response. This allows the body to detect the harmful toxin if it is encountered later, and to eliminate it before it can cause harm to the host. Toxins of this type include cholera toxin, pertussis toxin, Shiga toxin and heat-labile enterotoxin from E. coli.

By mechanism
Once in the cell, many of the exotoxins act at the eukaryotic ribosomes (especially 60S), as protein synthesis inhibitors. (Ribosome structure is one of the most important differences between eukaryotes and prokaryotes, and, in a sense, these exotoxins are the bacterial equivalent of antibiotics such as clindamycin.)

 * Some exotoxins act directly at the ribosome to inhibit protein synthesis. An example is Shiga toxin.
 * Other toxins act at elongation factor-2. In the case of the diphtheria toxin, EF2 is ADP-ribosylated and becomes unable to participate in protein elongation, and, so, the cell dies. Pseudomonas exotoxin has a similar action.

Other intracellular toxins do not directly inhibit protein synthesis.
 * For example, Cholera toxin ADP-ribosylates, thereby activating tissue adenylate cyclase to increase the concentration of cAMP, which causes the movement of massive amounts of fluid and electrolytes from the lining of the small intestine and results in life-threatening diarrhea.
 * Another example is Pertussis toxin.

Extracellular matrix damage
These "toxins" allow the further spread of bacteria and, as a consequence, deeper tissue infections. Examples are hyaluronidase and collagenase. These molecules, however, are enzymes that are secreted by a variety of organisms and are not usually considered toxins. They are often referred to as virulence factors, since they allow the organisms to move deeper into the hosts tissues.

Vaccinations
Exotoxins have been used to produce vaccines. This process involves inactivating the toxin, creating a toxoid that does not induce toxin-related illness and is well tolerated. A widely used toxoid vaccine is the DPT vaccine, which is usually administered in multiple doses throughout childhood with adjuvants and boosters for long-term immunity. DPT vaccine protects against pertussis, tetanus and diphtheria infections, caused by the exotoxin-producing Bordetella pertussis, Clostridium tetani and Corynebacterium diphtheriae respectively. Vaccination with the toxoids generates antibodies against the exotoxins, forming immunological memory as protection against subsequent infections. The DPT vaccination may cause adverse side effects, such as swelling, redness and fever, and is contraindicated in some populations. Effective vaccination schedules have reduced rates of mortality linked to pertussis, tetanus and diphtheria but formal controlled trials to test the efficacy of the vaccine have not been conducted. Additionally, pertussis persists endemically and is one of the most common causes of vaccine-preventable deaths.

Cancer treatment
As exotoxins are highly potent, there has been development in their application to cancer treatment. Cancer cells can be eliminated without destroying normal cells like in chemotherapy or radiation by attaching an antibody or receptor ligand to the exotoxin, creating a recombinant toxin that is targeted to certain cells. The cancer cell is killed once the toxin is internalized; for example, Pseudomonas exotoxin disrupts protein synthesis after cellular uptake. Multiple versions of recombinant exotoxin A, secreted by Pseudomonas aeruginosa, have entered clinical trials against tumor growth but have yet to be approved by Food and Drug Administration (FDA). A recombinant diphtheria exotoxin has been approved by the FDA for treatment of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma, an immune system cancer. Further testing to improve clinical efficacy of treatment using recombinant exotoxins continues.

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

title: Exotoxin


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Blue Line (Dallas Area Rapid Transit)

The Blue Line is a light rail line in the system of mass transit in Dallas, Texas (USA), operated by the Dallas Area Rapid Transit system. Along with the, it is one of the original modern rail lines in Dallas.

Route
The southern terminus of the line is currently at UNT Dallas in south Dallas at University Hills Blvd. just south of Camp Wisdom Rd. The line runs north, under the Dallas Convention Center and through downtown Dallas. After leaving Mockingbird, the line diverts to the northeast towards White Rock Lake. The line then goes north and then east into Garland, finally ending in Rowlett.

History
The rail line was part of the initial launch of DART's light rail service in 1996. At the time, the line only ran from Illinois to Pearl in the northeast corner of downtown. In May 1997, the Blue Line was extended south to Ledbetter and was extended along the Red Line to Mockingbird in September 1999, in preparation for the future extension to Garland.

On September 24, 2001, the Blue Line extended to White Rock, just northwest of White Rock Lake. On May 6, 2002, the Blue Line was extended to the LBJ/Skillman, just beyond LBJ Freeway (Interstate 635). It was extended to Downtown Garland on November 18, 2002, and to its current northern terminus, Downtown Rowlett, on December 3, 2012.

DART's 2030 Transit System Plan, approved in October 2006, calls for the Blue Line to be extended south beyond Ledbetter to the University of North Texas at Dallas, as well as a branch along Bonnie View road to Interstate 20 and the SouthPort Intermodal Terminal. The plan also includes a new Lake Highlands station near Skillman Street and Walnut Hill Lane, which opened as DART's second infill station in December 2010.

In October 2014, construction began for a 2.6-mile extension south from Ledbetter station to the University of North Texas at Dallas, adding two new stations to the line: Camp Wisdom and UNT Dallas. The extension opened for service on October 24, 2016.

Future plans
The D2 Subway is planned to be implemented in 2028 and will reroute the Blue Line off of the downtown transit corridor and over the former Green Line's western segment to terminate at North Carrollton/Frankford station.

Daily Service

 * Listed from north to south

Special Event Service

 * Deep Ellum (Also served by )
 * Baylor University Medical Center (Also served by )
 * Fair Park (Also served by )
 * Victory (Also served by, )

Deferred

 * Knox-Henderson Station in Uptown, Dallas
 * Plano Road in Lake Highlands, Dallas

title: Blue Line (Dallas Area Rapid Transit)


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Talk:Saint-Germain

Untitled
Are Saint-Germain-des-Pres and the Quartier Latin really the same neighborhood? I remember them being separate but adjacent sections of the same arrondissement. (Or is SGDP part of the Quartier Latin? I haven't been to Paris in years.) --67.71.78.115 01:41, 4 Mar 2004 (UTC)
 * The students at the University of Paris were communicating in Latin (they came from all over and Latin was their common language). The University was sited on land donated by the church of Saint-Germain des Pres. the heart of the Latin Quarter is where Boul' Mich' crosses the Boulevard Saint-Germain. Wetman 11:35, 4 Mar 2004 (UTC)

title: Talk:Saint-Germain


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King of Tyre

The King of Tyre was the ruler of Tyre, the ancient Phoenician city in what is now Lebanon. The traditional list of 12 kings, with reigns dated to 990–785 BC, is derived from the lost history of Menander of Ephesus as quoted by Josephus in Against Apion I. 116–127. Josephus asserts that Menander had drawn his list from the chronicles of Tyre itself. Menander-Josephus also contains a list of 9 kings and judges, with reigns dated to 591–532 BC in Against Apion I. 154–160.

Kings of the Sidonians (with Tyre as capital), 990–785 BC
The dates for the reconstruction of Menander's Tyrian king list from Abibaal through Pygmalion are established in three places by three independent sources: a Biblical synchronism (Hiram's assistance to Solomon in building the Temple, from 967 BC onwards), an Assyrian record (tribute of Baal-Eser II/Balazeros II to Shalmaneser III in 841 BC), and a Roman historian (Pompeius Trogus, who placed the founding of Carthage or Dido's flight from her brother Pygmalion in the latter's seventh year of reign, in 825 BC, 72 years before the founding of Rome).

Assyrian ascendancy: 8th and 7th centuries BC
The Neo-Assyrian Empire established its control over the area and ruled through vassals who are named in Assyrian records.

Post-Assyrian period
Menander's Tyrian king list also described the period from Ithobaal III through Hiram III. Tyre regained independence with Assyria's demise, although Egypt controlled Tyre during some of the time afterwards. Eventually, Tyre fell under the control of the Neo-Babylonian Empire.

Shoftim of Tyre
In the 560s the monarchy was overthrown, and an oligarchic government established, headed by "judges" or shoftim (cf. Carthage). The monarchy was restored with the ascension of Hiram III to the throne. Josephus mentions these judges in his treatise Against Apion (Book I, §21), and which last judge (Hiram III) is said to have been contemporary with Cyrus the Great. According to Josephus, Hiram's reign extended to the fourteenth year of Cyrus', ascension to power in Babylon. Cyrus took control of Babylon on October 29, 539, therefore Hiram III's rule spanned from 551 to 532 BC.

Under Persian control 539–411 BC

 * Mattan IV fl. c. 490–480
 * Boulomenus fl. c. 450
 * Abdemon c.420–411 BC. He ruled Salamis, in Cyprus.

Under control of Cypriot Salamis 411–374 BC

 * Evagoras of Salamis, Cyprus. He united Cyprus under his rule and achieved independence from the Persian Empire.

Under Persian control 374–332 BC

 * Eugoras fl. 340s
 * Azemilcus c.340–332 BC. He was king during the siege by Alexander the Great.

Under the Greeks and Romans
After Alexander the Great conquered Tyre in 332 BC, the city alternated between Seleucid (Syrian Greek) and Ptolemaic (Egyptian Greek) rule. Phoenicia came under the rule of the Roman Republic in the 1st century BC.

 * Marion (c. 42 BC) was the Roman tyrant of Tyre.

title: King of Tyre


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Algea (company)

Algea is a Norwegian multinational company operating in the chemical industry and manufacturing seaweed-based fertilizer ingredients.

History
Algea Produckter As was founded in 1937 by Haakon Torgersen. The Neptune’s trident logo identified the company until 1987.

Algea was acquired by Protan, when its international level was already evident: it exported 50% of its production of seaweed meal to the Netherlands, United Kingdom, France, and the United States. In 10 years, from 1960 onward, Algea built several plants along the Norwegian coast, including that of Brønnøysund, which still exists today. The commercial results also made it possible for the company to invest in research and develop a new method of production that would revolutionize the market. In the 1980s, supported by proven beneficial properties of its products, Algea diversified production, extending it to animal feed, including fish food, and cosmetics. Protan was in turn acquired by the Securus group. The logo of the latter, a double "S", was used by Algea from 1987 to 1994.

In 2000, the company acquired Maxicrop, an English company specializing in the production of seaweed extracts, as well as Frøytang, a Norwegian company at the time leader in production of seaweed products for human and animal consumption. In 2002 the Valagro group, a manufacturer of biostimulants, acquired Algea and started a process of restructuring and development of its image. Following the restructuring, Algea entered the functional food and food supplement ingredients markets as well as the cosmetic ingredients market.

Algea Businesses

 * Ingredients for Functional Foods and Food Supplements
 * Ingredients for cosmetic products
 * Ingredients for special fertilizers
 * Ingredients for animal feeds

title: Algea (company)


text:
Yoshijirō Umezu

Yoshijirō Umezu (梅津 美治郎) (January 4, 1882 – January 8, 1949) was a Japanese general in World War II and Chief of the Army General Staff during the final years of the conflict. He was convicted of war crimes and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Early life and career
Umezu was born in Nakatsu, Ōita, Japan, where his family ran a bookstore since the 18th century. During his years at the Kumamoto Prefectural Seiseikou High School in Kumamoto, he decided to pursue a military career. He graduated from the 15th class of the Imperial Japanese Army Academy on November 30, 1903, and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the infantry the following February 12, 1904. Promoted to lieutenant on June 30, 1905, he entered the 23rd class of the Army Staff College, graduating first in 1911. Following his promotion to captain on March 25, 1912, he was sent to Europe for further studies in Germany and Denmark. While in Denmark, he was also a military observer from Japan, during the course of World War I, and was promoted to major on June 1, 1918. From 1919 to 1921, he was appointed as a military attaché to Switzerland.

Umezu was promoted to lieutenant colonel on February 8, 1922, and to colonel on December 15, 1925. During the 1920s, he was a member of the Tōseiha, led by General Kazushige Ugaki along with Gen Sugiyama, Koiso Kuniaki, Tetsuzan Nagata and Hideki Tōjō. They represented a politically moderate line within the armed forces, in opposition to the radical Kōdōha movement, guided by Sadao Araki. Umezu served as an instructor at the Army Staff College from 1923 to 1924, and was commander of the IJA 3rd Infantry Regiment from 1924 to 1926.

Umezu was promoted to major general in August 1930 and commander of the IJA 1st Infantry Brigade. He worked at the General Staff from August 1933, and was sent as a military attaché to Switzerland from November 1933. After his return to Japan in March 1934, he was appointed commander of the Japanese China Garrison Army and in November repelled a large-scale Chinese incursion into Rehe Province. In June 1935 he signed the He–Umezu Agreement, which was an attempt to defuse tensions between the Republic of China and Japan, and which gave Japan control over ten provinces of Hebei. Umezu was promoted to lieutenant general in August. In August 1935, he became commander of the Sendai-based IJA 2nd Division. He strongly opposed the February 26 incident attempted coup-de-etat in 1936. Umezu was appointed Vice Minister of War from March 1936 and working under Army Minister Terauchi Hisaichi, purged many of the radical kōdōha members from the Army ranks.

World War II
Umezu returned to China in May 1938 as commander-in-chief of the IJA 1st Army. By this time, the IJA 1st Army had completed its combat operations, and was serving as a garrison force in Japanese-occupied northern China. From September 1939 he was commander-in-chief of the Kwantung Army, which was likewise acting as a garrison force in Manchukuo. He was promoted to full general on August 1, 1940.

In July 1944, Umezu was appointed as the final Chief of the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff, and a member of the Supreme War Council, following the resignation of Hideki Tojo. Along with Army Minister Korechika Anami and Chief of Imperial Japanese Navy General Staff, Soemu Toyoda, Umezu opposed surrender in August 1945; he believed that the military should fight on, and that by forcing the Allies to sustain heavy losses in an invasion, Japan would be able negotiate for peace under better terms. He was aware of the planned coup d'état by junior officers opposed to the surrender, but did nothing to either aid or hinder it. He was personally ordered by Emperor Hirohito to sign the instrument of surrender on behalf of the armed forces on September 2, 1945, and was thus the Army's senior representative during the surrender ceremonies on the battleship USS Missouri (BB-63), officially ending World War II. He entered the reserves on November 30.

After the war, he was arrested by the SCAP authorities and tried as a war criminal at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo. He was found guilty of Counts 1, 27, 29, 31 and 32 of waging a war of aggression and sentenced to life imprisonment on November 12, 1948.

Umezu died from rectal cancer in 1949 while still incarcerated. He converted to Catholicism one day before his death and his last rites were performed at his bedside by a Catholic priest. Although prior to this Umezu had followed the militaristic State Shinto religion, his family favoured Catholicism and his daughter became a Catholic nun.

Decorations

 * 1906 – JPN Kyokujitsu-sho 6Class BAR.svg Order of the Rising Sun, 6th class
 * 1906 – JPN Kinshi-kunsho 5Class BAR.svg Order of the Golden Kite, 5th class
 * 1913 – JPN Zuiho-sho (WW2) 5Class BAR.svg Order of the Sacred Treasure, 5th class
 * 1915 – JPN Kyokujitsu-sho 4Class BAR.svg Order of the Rising Sun, 4th class
 * 1922 – JPN Zuiho-sho (WW2) 3Class BAR.svg Order of the Sacred Treasure, 3rd class
 * 1933 – JPN Zuiho-sho (WW2) 2Class BAR.svg Order of the Sacred Treasure, 2nd class
 * 1936 – JPN Zuiho-sho (WW2) 1Class BAR.svg Grand Cordon of the Order of the Sacred Treasure
 * 1939 – JPN Kyokujitsu-sho 1Class BAR.svg Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun
 * 1940 – JPN Kinshi-kunsho 2Class BAR.svg Order of the Golden Kite, 2nd class

title: Yoshijirō Umezu


text:
User:Mightieristhepen

knol

title: User:Mightieristhepen


text:
Cypress Semiconductor

Cypress Semiconductor was an American semiconductor design and manufacturing company. It offered NOR flash memories, F-RAM and SRAM Traveo microcontrollers, PSoCs, PMICs, capacitive touch-sensing controllers, Wireless BLE Bluetooth Low-Energy and USB connectivity solutions.

Its headquarters were in San Jose, California, with operations in the United States, Ireland, India and the Philippines.

In April 2016, Cypress Semiconductors announced the acquisition of Broadcom’s Wireless Internet of Things Business. The deal was closed in July 2016.

In June 2019, Infineon Technologies announced it would acquire Cypress for $9.4 billion. The deal closed in April 2020, making Infineon one of the world's top 10 semiconductor manufacturers.

Some of its main competitors included Microchip Technology, NXP Semiconductors, Renesas Electronics and Micron Technology.

Founding and early years
It was founded by T. J. Rodgers and others (Fritz Beyerlein, Fred Jenne, Steven H. Kaplan, R. Michael Starnes and Lowell Turriff) from Advanced Micro Devices. It was formed in 1982 with backing by Sevin Rosen and went public in 1986. The company initially focused on the design and development of high speed CMOS SRAMs, EEPROMs, PAL devices, and TTL devices. Two years after going public the company switched from the NASDAQ to the New York Stock Exchange. In October 2009, the company announced it would switch its listing to the NASDAQ on November 12, 2009.

The AgigA Tech, Inc. subsidiary sells non-volatile random-access memory (RAM). It was acquired during the Simtek purchase in August 2008, and marks the second time that Cypress acquired a start-up venture from founder, Ron Sartore, who also co-founded Anchor Chips. The division was sold to the Unigen Corporation in May 2021.

In November 2011, Cypress also backed a packaging firm called Deca Technologies, Inc.

2015
In December 2014, Cypress Semiconductor merged with Spansion in an all-stock deal worth $1.59 billion. The merger represented the combination of two companies that were No. 1 in their respective memory markets and have successfully diversified into embedded processing.

In March 2015, Cypress and Spansion completed of the transactions of the merger in an all-stock, tax-free transaction valued at approximately $5 billion. Cypress shareholders approved the issuance of 2.457 shares of Cypress stock to Spansion shareholders for each Spansion share they own. The merger is expected to achieve more than $135 million in cost synergies on an annualized basis within three years and to be accretive to non-GAAP earnings within the first full year after the transaction closes. At the time of its merger with Spansion in 2015, Cypress Semiconductor had more than 7,000 US and foreign patents. Cypress Semiconductor is a component of the Ocean Tomo 300 Patent Index.

Cypress attempted to acquire Integrated Silicon Solution Inc. in 2015 but was thwarted by a competing bid by Chinese buyer consortium Uphill Investment Co., which included GigaDevice, a major competitor in the NOR flash market. This buyer consortium offered a higher bid than Cypress and successfully acquired ISSI for $731 million.

Also in 2015, Cypress tried to acquire Atmel, but was outbid by Dialog Semiconductor (in the end, Microchip Technology made the deal).

2016
In April 2016, Cypress announced the acquisition of Broadcom’s Wireless Internet of Things (IoT) business and related assets in an all-cash transaction valued at $550 million. Under the terms of the deal, Cypress will acquire Broadcom's Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Zigbee IoT product lines and intellectual property, along with its WICED brand and developer ecosystem.

In April 2016, it was announced that Advanced Semiconductor Engineering, Inc. will invest $60 million in Deca and will license Deca’s M-Series fan-out wafer-level packaging (FOWLP) technologies and processes. As part of the agreement, ASE Group and Deca will jointly develop the M-Series fan-out manufacturing process and will expand production of chip-scale packages using this technology.

Cypress named Hassane El-Khoury its president and chief executive officer, and announced he will join the board of directors on Aug. 11, 2016.

2017 board dispute
In April 2017 Delaware Chancery Court decided Cypress Semiconductor Corp. had to give former CEO Rodgers insight into internal documents related to possible violations of Cypress's Code of Business Conduct and Ethics by executive chairman Ray Bingham.

Bingham, who is a founding member of venture capital firm Canyon Bridge Capital Partners Inc, a China state-backed private equity fund, was criticized for the conflict of interest leading Cypress and Canyon Bridge as both companies possibly focus on the same acquisition targets.

Rodgers ran a proxy contest against the board, aiming for veteran tech industry board directors Daniel McCranie and Camillo Martino to replace Ray Bingham and Cypress director Éric Benhamou.

On June 12, 2017 it was made public that Ray Bingham stepped down from the board. Prior to Bingham’s resignation, shareholder-advisory firms ISS, Glass Lewis and Egan-Jones had recommended McCranie and Martino, Rodgers's nominees, citing "additional - and sharper - questions not only regarding the board's handling of this situation but also regarding the potential for conflicts of interest inherent in Bingham's dual roles."

On June 20, 2017, both of Rodgers's nominees won victories by substantial margins.

2019-2020 merger
In 2019, under CEO Hassane El-Khouri, the company agreed to the offer of Infineon Technologies valued about $9 billions (that represents the all-cash buyout price of $23.85 per share). This purchase price premium of 55% was the 4th highest premium paid for a public semiconductor company with greater than $1 Billion in value since 2014. The price also represented 18.2 times next twelve month average analyst EBITDA estimates, which was the 4th highest EBITDA multiple paid for a public semiconductor company with a value greater than $1 Billion since 2014. The acquisition was announced complete on April 17, 2020, ending the independent history of Cypress Semiconductors.

Locations
Cypress was headquartered in San Jose, CA and had manufacturing plants in Austin, TX and Bloomington, MN, assembly and test operations in the Philippines and Bangkok, Thailand. Cypress had design facilities in the United States (including San Jose, CA; Lynnwood, WA; Colorado Springs, CO; Lexington, KY; San Diego, CA; and Beaverton, OR), Japan (Tokyo), Germany (Langen and Munich), India (Bangalore), China (Shanghai), Ukraine (Lviv), Ireland (Dublin and Cork), Malaysia (Penang) and other locations. Cypress had previously divested a large portion of its San Jose campus to SVTC, SunPower and Second Harvest of Silicon Valley.

List of acquisitions
Since its founding, Cypress has acted as an incubator for wholly owned subsidiaries which are given a degree of autonomy and has acquired other small technology companies. In addition, Cypress has been an active acquirer of smaller technology companies. In addition, Cypress has incorporated some of its technology into subsidiaries, to speed up development of such products as the PSoC Programmable System-on-Chip (SoC) that integrates analog and digital components with a microcontroller on a single chip to form a complete solution for embedded systems. Since the early 1990s, acquisitions have included:
 * Timing Technology
 * IC Design
 * IC Works
 * International Microcircuits Inc.
 * USB Technology
 * Anchor Chips
 * In-System Design
 * ScanLogic
 * SoC Technology
 * Broadcom (WICED)
 * Cypress Microsystems (PSoC)
 * RAM Technology
 * Galvantech, Inc.
 * Cascade Semiconductor Corporation
 * Simtek Corporation
 * Ramtron
 * Radio Frequency Technology
 * Alation
 * RadioCom
 * Solar Cell Technology
 * SunPower (distributed to CY shareholders in 2008 as SPWRB stock)
 * PowerLight
 * Image Sensors
 * Silicon Light Machines
 * FillFactory (sold to ON Semiconductor)
 * SMaL Camera Technologies (Sold to Sensata Technologies in 2007)
 * Datacom/Telecom
 * Arcus
 * Silicon Packets
 * Lara Networks
 * HiBand Semiconductors

title: Cypress Semiconductor


text:
699 BC

The year 699 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. In the Roman Empire, it was known as year 55 Ab urbe condita . The denomination 699 BC for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.

Middle East

 * Hallashu-Inshushinak succeeds Shuttir-Nakhkhunte as king of the Elamite Empire.
 * Manasseh succeeds Hezekiah as king of Judah. The first king who did not have an experience with the Kingdom of Israel, Manasseh ruled with his mother, Hephzibah, as regent.
 * Sennacherib carries out his fifth military campaign in Babylonia, a series of raids against the villages around the foot of Mount Judi, located to the northeast of Nineveh.

title: 699 BC


text:
653 BC

The year 653 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. In the Roman Empire, it was known as year 101 Ab urbe condita . The denomination 653 BC for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.

Middle East

 * Elamite forces attack southern Babylon. A large Assyrian army sent by king Ashurbanipal defeat the Elamites and kill their king, Temti-Humban-Inshushinak I. He is succeeded by his nephew Humban-Nikash II.

Deaths

 * Tantamani, king (pharaoh) of Egypt
 * Temti-Humban-Inshushinak I, king of Elam

title: 653 BC


text:
555th Parachute Infantry Battalion (United States)

The 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion, nicknamed The Triple Nickles, was an all-black airborne unit of the United States Army during World War II.

Activation
The unit was activated as a result of a recommendation made in December 1942 by the Advisory Committee on Negro Troop Policies, chaired by the Assistant Secretary of War, John J. McCloy. In approving the committee's recommendation for a black parachute battalion, Chief of Staff General George C. Marshall decided to start with a company, and on 25 February 1943, the 555th Parachute Infantry Company was constituted.

On 19, 1943, Headquarters, Army Ground Forces, authorized the activation of the company as an all-black unit with black officers as well as black enlisted men. All unit members were to be volunteers, with an enlisted cadre to be selected from personnel of the 92nd Infantry Division at Fort Huachuca, Arizona.

The company was officially activated on 30 December 1943, at Fort Benning, Georgia. After several months of training, the unit moved to Camp Mackall, North Carolina, where it was reorganized and redesignated on 25 November 1944, as Company A of the newly formed 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion.

World War II

The battalion did not serve overseas during World War II, primarily because it never reached full strength for an Airborne Infantry Battalion. In reaction to the German counterattack that began the Battle of Bulge, the Airborne Command considered reorganizing the 555th PIB as a single reinforced Airborne Rifle Company, and sending it to Europe to reinforce the battered Airborne units already there. However, before this could happen the crisis had passed, and the 555th PIB was instead alerted for deployment to the West Coast. The men of the 555th PIB hoped that they would get into the war against the Japanese, but that was not their new mission. According to Sergeant Walter Morris, "It was a secret mission called Operation Firefly. We thought we were going overseas to [Gen. Douglas] MacArthur's theater." It wasn't until they arrived in Oregon, in May 1945, that they learned they would be fighting the Japanese on the fire line in the Western United States.

During the winter of 1944–45, the Japanese sent 9,300 Fu-Go balloon bombs toward North America. It was believed 1,000 succeeded in reaching the United States; 312 balloon bombs have been found. After three days, each balloon dropped an incendiary bomb. The balloon bombs employed a ballast system designed to maintain an average altitude of 30,000 feet. Incendiary bombs would be dropped one at a time (four 11-pounders) and a single high-explosive bomb (33 pounds) would be dropped followed by a self-destruct device. In order to conceal the efficacy of these attacks, the missions of the 555th PIB was kept clandestine in nature. By January 1945, however, both Time and Newsweek reported the mission.

Although there were no significant wildfires, small ones nonetheless developed from some of the balloon bombs being detonated suddenly after landing on the forests undisturbed for weeks or months mainly in California, Oregon, or Idaho. Stationed at Pendleton Field, Oregon (formerly the base of the pilots and aircraft selected for the Doolittle raid on Japan), with a detachment in Chico, California, unit members participated in fire-fighting missions throughout the Pacific Northwest during the summer and fall of 1945. The 555th worked on twenty-eight fires during the 1945 season. Of these, fifteen fires were "jumped" or parachuted to. While some United States Forest Service reports refer to some employees as smokejumpers, the 555th were reported as paratroopers on all fire reports. The only fatality in the unit died while jumping on 6 August 1945.

The 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion was nicknamed the "Triple Nickles" because of its numerical designation and the selection of 17 of the original 20-member "colored test platoon" from the 92nd Infantry (Buffalo) Division. Hence, the origin of the nickname, Buffalo Nickles. Not to be confused with the U.S. 5-cent coin that had a bison (buffalo) on it, which was first minted long before the war, the spelling derives from old English. Three buffalo nickels joined in a triangle or pyramid is the identifying symbol.

Soon after returning to Camp Mackall in October 1945, the 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion was transferred to Fort Bragg, North Carolina, its home for the next two years. During this period the unit was attached to the elite 82d Airborne Division. When the battalion was inactivated on 15 December 1947, its men were all transferred into the 3d Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82d Airborne Division, which had been reduced to cadre strength to prepare for their arrival. Also on that date, the 505PIR was redesignated at the 505th Airborne Infantry Regiment.

Soon afterward, individual black paratroopers were transferred to units throughout the 82d Airborne Division, making it the first integrated division in the US Army. The 555th PIB was formally disbanded 22 August 1950.

Inactivated
After its inactivation, many former 555th PIB members later fought in the Korean War in other units. First Lieutenant Harry Sutton, one of the battalion's former officers, died leading a rearguard action during the Hungnam evacuation and was decorated posthumously with the Silver Star. In 1950, a large number of former 555th PIB members volunteered to form the all-black 2nd Ranger Infantry Company (Airborne). While the 2nd RIC was attached to the 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team, it made the combat jump at Munsan-Ni in March 1951, the first combat jump ever made by a US Army Ranger unit. This was the only combat jump ever made by an all-black unit as the Army was segregated by race at the time. President Harry Truman had ordered the military desegregated on July 26, 1948, but it was slow to comply with the order. The last all-black unit was disbanded in 1954.

Clarence H. Beavers, the first volunteer for the 555th, went on to a career in computer systems with the Veterans Administration and US Defense Department, and served as a volunteer firefighter in retirement. He was the last surviving member of the unit when he died in 2017, at age 96.

Although not specifically named, an all-Black parachute unit is prominently mentioned in the 1948 novel Fire, by George R. Stewart. Jumping into an uncontrolled California forest fire, they fight it for several days alongside people of many ethnic backgrounds.

In John Ringo's Legacy of the Aldenata military science fiction series, the 555 PIR is reactivated as the 555th Mobile Infantry Regiment. The reborn "Triple Nickle" Regiment was one of the most highly decorated units in the Defense of Earth during the Posleen War.

The Triple Nickles is prominently featured in the historical novel, The Last Jump - A Novel of World War II by John E. Nevola.

The Triple Nickles are an important part of the book Jump into the Sky, written by Shelley Pearsall.


text:
Niagara University

Niagara University (NU) is a private Catholic university in the Vincentian tradition in the census-designated place Niagara University, New York, within the town of Lewiston near Niagara Falls. It is run by the Congregation of the Mission and has approximately 3,300 undergraduate students in 50 academic programs. Approximately half of the students are residents while the other half commute from the surrounding area. The campus area was listed as a census-designated place in 2020 with a population of 940.

History
Founded by the Congregation of the Mission on 21 November 1856 as Our Lady of Angels Seminary, the school moved from Buffalo to its current location on May 1, 1857. After 26 years on its new campus as The College and Seminary of Our Lady of Angels, it changed its name to Niagara University on August 7, 1883. In 1887, the university opened a law school in Buffalo, what is now the University at Buffalo Law School after being acquired by the University at Buffalo in 1891.

The university is still run by the Vincentian Fathers. All of Niagara's 26 presidents, including its current president, Rev. James J. Maher, CM, have been Vincentian priests.

Admissions
For 2023, Niagara University had an acceptance rate of 90%. The university requires an official high school transcript, evidence of past performance and character, and recommendations from teachers, counselors, or organizational leaders, but does not require applicants to submit either SAT or ACT scores. Half the applicants admitted to the university who submitted test scores had an SAT score between 1030 and 1240 or an ACT score between 24 and 28. The average high school GPA for admitted students was 3.63.

Areas of study and programs
Undergraduate students are able to choose an area of study in any of Niagara's five academic colleges. In addition to the College of Arts and Sciences, Holzschuh College of Business Administration, College of Education, College of Nursing, and the College of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Niagara's Academic Exploration Program allows first and second-year students to take courses in various departments before deciding on a major.

The university also offers academic programs in Canada which operate under the written consent of the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities of Ontario. The Niagara University in Ontario, located at Expo City in Vaughan, offers a bachelor's degree in Professional Studies in Education program (accredited by the Ontario College of Teachers) and a Master of Science degree in education. In 2019, Niagara University expanded their degree offerings with a Master of Business Administration (MBA), a Master of Science in finance (MSF), and a Master of Science in Information and Security and Digital Forensics (MSISDF). The two Masters programs are now being jointly offered with Seneca Polytechnic. The university also offers Ontario-based Additional Qualifications for the teacher profession.

College of Arts and Sciences
The College of Arts and Sciences forms the foundation of Niagara University's curriculum and serves as the basis for its designation as a liberal arts college. All Niagara students complete a portion of their coursework in the College of Arts and Sciences, as numerous general education courses are housed within this unit.

In 2008, Niagara University announced that a $10 million gift, the largest gift in the university's history, had been made to the College of Arts and Sciences by B. Thomas Golisano, the CEO of Paychex and the former owner of the Buffalo Sabres. The gift funded the construction of the B. Thomas Golisano Center for Integrated Sciences. The school broke ground on the center during the 2011–2012 school year and the 50,000 sqft facility opened in August 2013.

Holzschuh College of Business Administration
The business college includes programs in accounting, economics, finance, management, and marketing. The College of Business is accredited by AACSB International and has maintained accreditation since 2001. The college received a $10 million donation from Jeff and Mary Helen Holzschuh, both graduates of the university. Mr. Holzschuh is a managing director of Morgan Stanley and Mrs. Holzschuh a B.S. in nursing. The university renamed the College of Business to the Holzschuh College of Business Administration in 2022.

Rankings
In 2024, out of 178 ranked universities, Niagara University was ranked tied for 30th overall by U.S. News & World Report in Regional Universities North, ranked #2 in Best Value Schools, and ranked 13th in Best Colleges for Veterans. Taking into account educational quality, affordability, and alumni success, Money Magazine ranked Niagara University as the best college or university in the Buffalo-Niagara region in 2017 when it comes to delivering the most value for a student's educational dollar. Kiplinger's Personal Finance ranked Niagara University 82nd in the magazine's list of the 100 best values among private universities.

Residence life

Niagara University features five traditional residence halls, as well as six community houses called the Varsity Village and on-campus student apartments. Traditional buildings include Clet, Lynch, O’Donoughue, O'Shea, and Seton Halls.

Campus activities
The Campus Activities Office, along with the Niagara University Student Government Association, sponsors numerous opportunities to get involved in campus life, including concerts, comedians, and weekly late-night events. Currently Tau Kappa Epsilon is the only fraternity active on Niagara University's campus. There are also two active national sororities, Alpha Sigma Alpha and Phi Sigma Sigma. In addition to these, there are many clubs which celebrate and support cultural diversity, under the auspices of the Office of Multicultural Affairs.

Castellani Art Museum
The Castellani Art Museum of Niagara University is centrally located on the main campus and is Niagara County's only collecting museum. The museum features exhibitions of contemporary artists and traditional folk arts. The museum owns a permanent collection of over 5,700 artworks, most of which are from the 19th-century, modern and contemporary art movements.

The Niagara University Fine Arts Program has studio and classroom space in the Museum for students. Docent and volunteer programs are offered to any interested member of the community. The bachelor's degree in Art History with Museum Studies has been offered since the fall of 2013, and is now one of the very few places in the country that offer Museum Studies at an undergraduate level.

Athletics
The Niagara University Athletics Department sponsors 18 Division I sports. The Purple Eagles compete in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) in all sports except ice hockey. The men's ice hockey team competes in Atlantic Hockey America. Niagara named Simon Gray as its athletics director on May 16, 2014.

The men's basketball team won the MAAC Championship in 2005 and in 2007, earning automatic bids to the 2005 and 2007's NCAA tournaments, known colloquially as the "Big Dance". Niagara's first appearance in the Dance came in 1970, when All-American Calvin Murphy led the Purple Eagles to the Sweet Sixteen. On March 13, 2007, Niagara defeated Florida A&M 77–69 in the so-called "play-in game". NU was crowned the 2012-2013 MAAC regular season champions. This title earned them an automatic bid into the NIT where they faced the University of Maryland in the first round.

The men's hockey team won the College Hockey America Championship in 2000, 2004 and 2008, appearing in the NCAA Men's Ice Hockey Championship those years. In 2000, the "Purps" pulled an upset against University of New Hampshire to advance to the Elite Eight.

Two years later, the women's hockey team, under head coach Margot Page, shocked the college hockey world by advancing to the Frozen Four, eventually tying the University of Minnesota in the third-place game.

Five other Niagara teams have advanced to the NCAA Tournament in their respective sports: softball (1998); women's soccer (2006); women's tennis (2003 & 2005); Men's soccer (2012); women's volleyball (2009, 2010 & 2011).

Clubs
During the 2019-2020 School Year, NU teams competed in Men's Baseball, Basketball, Ice Hockey, Lacrosse, Rugby, Soccer and Volleyball at the club level. Women teams competed in Basketball, Lacrosse, Rugby, Soccer, Softball, and Volleyball while Co-Ed teams competed in E-Sports, Field Hockey and Golf. Badminton, Roller Hockey, Running, and Tennis clubs have also been active on campus in prior years.

Intramurals
The Athletics Department also operates the Kiernan Center – Niagara's on-campus fitness facility – and sponsors a comprehensive slate of intramural sports, including basketball, broomball, flag football, indoor soccer, softball, street hockey, and rugby union.

Notable alumni
Niagara has approximately 40,000 living alumni worldwide. Niagara alumni are distinguishing themselves in the fields of academics, government, law, religion, and sports

 * In academia, Niagara alumni include: Teresa J. Domzal, former Dean of the George Mason University School of Management; Dennis Holtschneider, President of DePaul University; David M. O'Connell, Bishop of the Diocese of Trenton, NJ; and David Sylvester, President of the University of St. Michael's College
 * In the field of government, Niagara alumni include: William J. Donovan, Former Ambassador to Thailand and Father of Military Intelligence; Alfred F. Beiter, former U.S. Representative from New York; Thomas F. Burchill, former U.S. Representative from New York; Joseph L. Carrigg, former U.S. Representative from Pennsylvania; Leo W. O'Brien, former U.S. Representative from New York; Gilbert Parent, former Speaker of the House of Commons of Canada; and Dan Schaefer, U.S. Representative from Colorado; John Katko, U.S. Representative for the 24th District of New York
 * In the field of law, Niagara alumni include: Frank D. O'Connor, former Judge on the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division; Hugh B. Scott, Magistrate Judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of New York and the first African American to become an Assistant United States Attorney; Frederick J. Scullin, Senior Judge on the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York; before becoming a U.S. Representative, John Katko was an Assistant United States Attorney who led the organized crime division at the U.S. Attorney's Office in Syracuse
 * In the field of religion, Niagara alumni include: Venerable Nelson Baker, Founder of the "City of Charity" and candidate for canonization; Michael J. McGivney, Founder of the Knights of Columbus; Anthony Raymond Ceresko, Old Testament scholar; and several American prelates of the Roman Catholic Church including Octavio Cisneros, Edmund Michael Dunne, Joseph Lennox Federal, Edmund Gibbons, Thomas Francis Lillis, James Johnston Navagh, and Donald Walter Trautman.
 * In the field of sports, Niagara alumni include: Hubie Brown, two-time NBA Coach of the Year and Basketball Hall of Fame member; Larry Costello, six-time NBA All-Star and NBA coach; Frank Layden, NBA Coach of the Year and Executive of the Year; Calvin Murphy, three-time All-American, NBA All-Star and Basketball Hall of Fame member; Sal Maglie, two-time MLB National League All-Star; Joe McCarthy, seven-time MLB World Series Champion and National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum member; Matt Brash, starting pitcher for the Seattle Mariners; and Wynton Bernard, outfielder for the Colorado Rockies.
 * Other notable Niagara alumni include: Bill Press, host of nationally syndicated radio talk show and former co-host of CNN's Crossfire; John O'Hara, best-selling novelist and National Book Award winner; Michael Scheuer, former CIA Chief of the Bin Laden Issue Station and author of Imperial Hubris; and Robert Wegman, founder of Wegmans Food Markets; Michele Ragusa, an american actress known for appearances with Broadway musicals and Symphony Orchestras.

title: Niagara University


text:
649 BC

The year 649 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. In the Roman Empire, it was known as year 105 Ab urbe condita . The denomination 649 BC for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.

Events

 * A revolt led by Shamash-shum-ukin is crushed by the Assyrians.
 * Indabigash succeeds Tammaritu as a king of the Elamite Empire.
 * Traditional date of the foundation of Himera by Zancle.

title: 649 BC


text:
Trinity Railway Express

The Trinity Railway Express (TRE) is a commuter rail service in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, Texas, United States. It was established by an interlocal agreement between Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) and Trinity Metro. Each transit authority owns a 50% stake in the joint rail project and contractor Herzog Transit Services operates the line. The TRE began operating in December 1996.

In, the system had a ridership of , or about per weekday as of , making it the seventeenth most-ridden commuter rail system in the United States.

Before 2006, the TRE was typically shown as a green line on DART maps and therefore was sometimes referred to as the "Green Line," but this was not an official designation. In 2006, DART chose green as the color for its new light rail route, the. Since 2006, the TRE has been shown as a dark blue line on DART maps.

History
Named after the Trinity River, the West Fork of which flows from Fort Worth to Dallas, the TRE was launched on December 30, 1996, shortly after the inaugural service of Dallas' DART Light Rail system, operating from Dallas Union Transit Station to the South Irving Transit Station. It runs along a former Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad line that the cities of Dallas and Fort Worth purchased in 1983 for $34 million.

Service initially operated only in weekday rush hours, but midday and evening service was added in December 1997, and Saturday service was added in December 1998.

On September 18, 2000, the line was extended to the suburb of Richland Hills and, for the first time, there was rail service available between downtown Dallas and Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. On November 13, 2000, the West Irving Transit Station also opened. On December 3, 2001, the TRE was extended to its current terminus at the T&P Station in downtown Fort Worth. On February 17, 2024, Richland Hills station was closed, being replaced by Trinity Lakes station, which opened on February 19, 2024.

Route
The eastern terminus of the TRE route is Dallas Union Station on the west side of downtown Dallas. From there, the line runs northwest parallel to Interstate 35E, passing American Airlines Center and Dallas Market Center before turning west. The line crosses the Elm Fork of the Trinity River into Irving, passing through Irving's historic downtown district. The train continues west to the Dallas County/Tarrant County border, passing under the President George Bush Turnpike.

While crossing into Tarrant County, the line passes about four miles south of Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. The line passes over SH-360 and takes a slight southwest turn along the northern city limits of Arlington. It turns slightly northwest towards Bell before following the southern city limits of Hurst. As it approaches Interstate 820, it takes a sharper southwest turn towards downtown Fort Worth, passing through Richland Hills and Haltom City. The line enters downtown Fort Worth from the northeast, passing under Interstate 35W and curving towards Fort Worth Central Station. Finally, the track curls around downtown Fort Worth towards T&P Station.

According to current TRE schedules, a one-way trip in either direction takes approximately 1 hour and 2 minutes.

Service
TRE provides service six days a week from 4 AM (5 AM on Saturdays) to midnight (1 AM on Fridays). Trains are scheduled to arrive once every hour, or once every half-hour on weekdays during peak periods (4 to 9 AM and 2 to 7 PM). TRE does not provide service on Sundays except during the State Fair of Texas, in which case a Saturday schedule is used.

The TRE service yard is located in Irving between West Irving and CentrePort/DFW. During the start and end of both service time and peak periods, some trains will start or end at one of these stations.

TRE Link
Because TRE passes south of Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, the airport is serviced via a shuttle bus that runs between CentrePort/DFW and the airport's Terminal B. The Terminal B stop provides a connection to TEXRail via a pedestrian path. Branded as TRE Link and operated by Trinity Metro, the shuttle runs every 20-40 minutes during TRE operating hours.

Diesel locomotives
TRE has a fleet of 11 locomotives.

There are seven EMD F59PH IV locomotives that were acquired from GO Transit. The original numbers for these were #525, #527–528 and #565–568. These were overhauled in late 2010 by the Norfolk Southern Railway and RELCO Locomotive to meet EPA standards and renumbered 120–126. There are two EMD F59PHI locomotives that were purchased from EMD. The numbers for these are #569 and #570. TRE acquired 2 ex-Amtrak F40PHs No. 270 and 274 from Progress Rail in Late 2021 and Delivered in January 2022. They are numbered 130 and 131. TRE announced an order for Siemens Charger locomotives in 2024, which are to be delivered in 2026. They are slated to replace the older locomotives in the fleet.
 * EMD F59PH IV (1994)
 * EMD F59PHI (2001)
 * EMD F40PH (2022)
 * Siemens Charger (2026)

Coaches
1000-1001 built 1983 (now coaches 1048-1049) 1002-1003 built 2003 1004-1009 built 2007
 * Bombardier Transportation and Hawker Siddeley bi-level cabs and coaches

Former fleet
Until 2011, the TRE fleet included diesel multiple units, in the form of 13 Budd Rail Diesel Cars (RDCs) built in the 1950s for Canadian Pacific (9), Canadian National (3) and Boston & Maine (1). They were purchased used from Via Rail Canada in 1993. All were remanufactured by GEC-Alsthom in Montreal. They entered service in March and April 1997 after trains leased from Amtrak and the Connecticut Department of Transportation temporarily provided initial TRE service when the RDCs were not ready in time for the inauguration of TRE service in December 1996and thereafter provided all service for the line's first two to three years. They remained in service for about 14 years, the last cars being taken off of TRE service in March 2011. In 2010–2011, 11 of the 13 cars were leased to Denton County Transportation Authority for operation on the A-train. They were returned in 2012 and placed in storage at the TRE shops in Irving, Texas. In spring 2017, 12 RDCs were sold via auction to AllEarth Rail, a Vermont-based private company that intends to use them to operate commuter rail service connecting the Vermont cities of Montpelier and Burlington. AllEarth subsequently resold two of the TRE cars to TriMet, of Portland, Oregon, before they had left Texas, and those two Dallas RDCs (Nos. 2007 and 2011) were moved in August 2017 from Texas to Oregon, where TriMet planned to use them on its WES Commuter Rail service. The other 10 RDCs were moved to Vermont the same month.

Train consist
Each train includes at least one locomotive unit and one bi-level cab car. Typically, one or two additional coach cars are included between the locomotive and cab car. Each cab car (and thus each train) has a restroom and passengers may move between cars during the trip. The trip from Union Station to T&P Station takes just over an hour, with scheduled trip times ranging from one hour, three minutes to one hour, eleven minutes. Track improvements are currently underway which should offer an improvement in travel times by double-tracking certain stations and sections of the route. Currently, portions of the route are single-track, requiring eastbound and westbound trains to meet only at certain points and requiring some eastbound trains to hold for 5–7 minutes to wait for a westbound train to get to the passing area.

title: Trinity Railway Express


text:
Green Line (Dallas Area Rapid Transit)

The Green Line is a 28.6 mi light rail line in Dallas, United States, operated by the Dallas Area Rapid Transit authority (DART). The US$1.7 billion project opened in phases, starting in 2009. It operates in addition to the, , and Orange lines.

Route
The southern terminus of the line is currently at Buckner in southeast Dallas near Buckner Boulevard. The line runs northwest to Fair Park Deep Ellum, before turning west and running through downtown Dallas. After leaving West End station, the line turns north, running parallel to Interstate 35 past the American Airlines Center. The line then heads northwest, providing service to Southwestern Medical Center, Love Field, and the cities of Farmers Branch and Carrollton, terminating at North Carrollton/Frankford station in Carrollton. Much of the northern end of the line runs in the right of way of the former Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad (which was established by the Dallas and Wichita Railroad).

Trinity Mills Station, near the northern terminus, provides a connection with the A-train line run by the Denton County Transportation Authority (DCTA). This line connects Denton to Carrollton, with stops in Lewisville and Highland Village. The commuter train may stop in other Denton County cities, should they choose to join the DCTA.

Proposals
The future Green Line was studied as two separate segments: the Northwest Corridor (from present-day North Carrollton/Frankford to Victory) and the Southeast Corridor (from present-day Deep Ellum to Buckner).

When the Southeast Corridor was originally proposed, two options were considered for the final segment past Lake June Transit Center. One option would utilize an existing Southern Pacific rail corridor paralleling US 175, while the other would create a new corridor along Lake June Road stretching into the Pleasant Grove neighborhood. Both proposals terminated at Buckner Boulevard. The first proposal was ultimately chosen due to higher costs and neighborhood opposition associated with the second.

Construction

 * On February 9, 2007, a trench collapsed during construction on the line killing one construction worker.
 * On March 12, 2007, the City of Dallas officials and DART made an agreement to make Burbank Station (formerly Love Field Station) a surface-level facility after a long debate of whether or not to make it an underground station.
 * Effective June 17, 2007, the Live Oak exit on [[Image:US 75.svg|20px]] (U.S. Route 75) was closed until 2009, as part of the Green Line Rail construction around the Bryan/Hawkins intersection. Two bridges in that area were removed and roads were lowered to street level.
 * On June 8, 2009, full-speed tests of the Green Line were conducted successfully with local officials and members of the media aboard. The route of the test included the four stations, then still under construction, that joined the DART light rail system in September 2009.

Opening
The Green Line began operation on September 14, 2009, with a route from downtown Dallas southeast to Fair Park; this short route was scheduled to open in time to service the 2009 State Fair of Texas. On December 6, 2010 the line extended further to Pleasant Grove, as well as continuing northwest from Victory Station to Farmers Branch and Carrollton; both extensions, completing the Green Line.

Future plans
The D2 Subway is planned to be implemented in 2028 and will reroute the Green Line's western terminus over the former Blue Line's tracks to terminate at UNT Dallas Station.

Daily Service

 * Listed from east to west and south to north

title: Green Line (Dallas Area Rapid Transit)


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18th Golden Raspberry Awards

The 18th Golden Raspberry Awards were held on March 22, 1998, at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel to recognize the worst the movie industry had to offer in 1997. This year, the film with the most nominations was Batman & Robin with 11, followed by Speed 2: Cruise Control with eight nominations, Anaconda with six nominations, The Postman with five nominations and Fire Down Below with four nominations. The film winning the most awards was The Postman, with all five categories for which it was nominated.

Brian Helgeland, co-screenwriter of the Razzie-winning The Postman, also received the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for L.A. Confidential in 1998. Helgeland became the second person, after composer Alan Menken in 1993, to receive a Razzie and Oscar in the same year, a feat not repeated until actress Sandra Bullock in 2010.

Awards and nominations
{{Legend|#B0C4DE|Winner (in bold)}}

Films with multiple nominations
These films received multiple nominations:

title: 18th Golden Raspberry Awards


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Peter Graves

Peter Graves (born Peter Duesler Aurness; March 18, 1926 – March 14, 2010) was an American actor who portrayed Jim Phelps in the television series Mission: Impossible from 1967 to 1973 and in its revival from 1988 to 1990. His elder brother was actor James Arness. Graves also played airline pilot Captain Clarence Oveur in the 1980 comedy film Airplane! and its 1982 sequel Airplane II: The Sequel.

Early life and education
Peter Graves was born Peter Duesler Aurness on March 18, 1926, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the younger son of Rolf Cirkler Aurness (1894–1982), a businessman, and his wife, Ruth (née Duesler, died 1986), a journalist.

Graves's ancestry was Norwegian, German, and English. He used the stage name Graves, a maternal family name, to honor his mother's family, and also so as to not be confused with the stage name of his elder brother James Arness, star of the television series Gunsmoke.

Graves graduated from Southwest High School in 1944. He served in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II from 1944 to 1945, reaching the rank of corporal, and was awarded the American Campaign Medal and the World War II Victory Medal. After demobilization, Graves enrolled at the University of Minnesota on the G.I. Bill, and was a member of Phi Kappa Psi fraternity.

Career
Graves appeared in more than 70 films, television shows, and television movies during his career. He was featured in a key role in the 1953 World War II film, Stalag 17. In 1955, Graves joined the NBC television series Fury, as the rancher and adoptive single father, Jim Newton. From 1960 to 1961, Graves starred as Christopher Cobb in 34 episodes of the British/Australian TV series Whiplash. In the storyline, Cobb is an American who arrives in Australia in the 1850s to establish the country's first stagecoach line, using a bullwhip rather than a gun to fight the crooks he encounters. The series also starred Anthony Wickert. Graves also starred in the British ITC series Court Martial, playing U.S. Army lawyer Major Frank Whittaker (one of the series' two American leads starring opposite Bradford Dillman's Captain David Young), as well as guest roles in such series as Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Cimarron City, Route 66, and The Invaders (episode "Moonshot").

In 1967, Graves was recruited by Desilu Studios to replace Steven Hill as the lead actor on Mission: Impossible. Graves portrayed the iconic character of Jim Phelps, the sometimes-gruff director of the Impossible Missions Force, for the six following seasons of the series. After the series ended in 1973, Graves played a cameo-type support role in the feature film Sidecar Racers in Australia which was released in 1975. Graves also made a guest appearance in the teen soap opera Class of 74 in mid-1974, playing himself.

Graves was cast as Palmer Kirby in the 1983 ABC miniseries The Winds of War. He played opposite Robert Mitchum, Jan Michael Vincent, Deborah Winters and Ali MacGraw in what became in 1983, the second-most watched miniseries of all time (after Roots). He reprised the role for the 1988 sequel miniseries, War and Remembrance. During this time, he became the host of PBS's Discover: The World of Science, based on Discover Magazine.

After playing mainly serious roles in the 1970s, he appeared as Captain Clarence Oveur in the early 1980s comedies Airplane! and Airplane II: The Sequel.

In 1988, a Hollywood writers' strike resulted in a new Mission: Impossible series being commissioned. Graves was the only cast member from the original series to return as a regular, reprising his role as Jim Phelps, though others (most notably Greg Morris, whose son Phil was a regular in this version) made guest appearances. The series was filmed in Australia, and Graves made his third journey there for acting work. The new version of Mission: Impossible lasted for two seasons, ending in 1990. Bookending his work on Mission: Impossible, Graves starred in two pilot films, both called Call to Danger, which were attempts to create a Mission: Impossible–style series. In the first of these (1968), Graves played a government agent (the Bureau of National Resources) who recruited civilians with special talents for secret missions. In the second Call To Danger, he portrayed an investigator for the Justice Department.

The 1960s version of the pilot, according to Patrick White in The Complete Mission: Impossible Dossier (which White reports was actually the second such pilot, but Graves was not involved in the first), is credited with winning Graves the role of Phelps; after Mission: Impossible ended in 1973, Graves filmed a third version of the pilot (this one structured as a made-for-TV movie), but it did not sell as a series. The concept was later used in the brief 1980s adventure series Masquerade.

During the 1990s, he hosted and narrated the documentary series Biography on A&E. He also acted in a number of films featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000, which subsequently featured running jokes about Graves' Biography work and presumed sibling rivalry with Arness. The films that have been featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000 include SST: Death Flight, It Conquered the World, Beginning of the End, and Parts: The Clonus Horror. The film Killers from Space was featured in The Film Crew, Michael J. Nelson's follow-up to MST3K. Graves himself parodied his Biography work in the film Men in Black II, hosting an exposé television show. He also played Colonel John Camden in the television series 7th Heaven. Graves refused to reprise the role of Jim Phelps (played by Jon Voight) in the first 1996 theatrical film of Mission: Impossible, after the character was revealed to be a traitor and the villain of the film. In the film, Phelps murders three fellow IMF agents, and is killed in a helicopter crash at the end, a decision that disappointed Graves and fellow cast members, and upset many fans of the original series.

On October 30, 2009, Graves was honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6667 Hollywood Blvd.

AirTran Airways featured Graves in a series of web-only "Internetiquette" videos in 2009 in which Graves appeared in a pilot's uniform and references classic Airplane! lines. The videos were part of an AirTran Airways campaign to promote their in-flight wireless internet access.

In the summer of 2009, Graves signed on as a spokesman for reverse mortgage lender American Advisors Group. Graves' final project was narrating the computer game epic Darkstar: The Interactive Movie, released November 5, 2010.

Personal life
Graves was a devout Methodist of immigrant German Lutheran descent. He was married to Joan Endress Graves for 60 years from 1950 until his death.

On March 6, 1984, Graves was hospitalized at Tahoe Forest Hospital for a fractured jaw among other injuries sustained from a fall on an icy Lake Tahoe road the previous weekend. He received 100 stitches to his lower lip during his stay.

Graves and his wife Joan had three daughters: Amanda, Kelly, and Claudia.

Graves was a registered Republican.

Controversially, Graves helped organize a Los Angeles city ban on gas-powered leaf blowers.

Death
After returning from brunch on March 14, 2010, with his wife and children, Graves collapsed and died of a heart attack just outside his home, four days before his 84th birthday.

Awards
Graves was awarded a Golden Globe Award in 1971 for his role as Jim Phelps in the series Mission: Impossible. In 1972, he received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement. He also received nominations for an Emmy Award and Golden Globe awards in other seasons of that show. Graves also won a Primetime Emmy Award for outstanding informational series in 1997 as host of Biography.

title: Peter Graves


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R Leporis

R Leporis (R Lep), sometimes called Hind's Crimson Star, is a well-known variable star in the constellation Lepus, near its border with Eridanus. It is designated "R" in the chart to the right.

It is a carbon star which appears distinctly red. It is named after famous British astronomer J. R. Hind, who observed it in 1845. Its apparent magnitude varies from +5.5 to +11.7 with a period of 418–441 days; recent measurements give a period of 427.07 days. There may be a secondary period of 40 years. Guandalini and Cristallo calculated the luminosity of Mira variables based on their periods. Using a period of 427.07 days, they calculated the bolometric luminosity to be.

R Leporis has often been reported as an intense smoky red color, although this is not pronounced when the star is near its maximum brightness. It is reddest when it is dimmest, which occurs every 14.5 months. During these periods it is a candidate for the most-visible reddest star, but this claim is questionable. The red coloration may be caused by carbon in the star's outer atmosphere filtering out the blue part of its visible light spectrum. The star's discoverer, Hind, reported that it appeared "like a drop of blood on a black field."

title: R Leporis


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Saber Marionette J

Saber Marionette J (セイバーマリオネットJ) is a Japanese anime television series produced by Studio Junio. aired on TV Tokyo from October 1, 1996, to March 25, 1997. It is the first installment of the Saber Marionette franchise. The show was localized in North America by Ocean Productions and into six other languages by various companies.

In between production, Saber Marionette J spun off into other media. A manga serialized in Kadokawa Shoten's Dragon Age magazine ran from October 1996 to November 1999, and was collected into five volumes. A concurrent radio drama was broadcast and the show's original soundtrack was published by Kings Records. The show was also the basis for a PlayStation fighting game called Saber Marionette J: Battle Sabers, developed and published by Tom Create.

Plot
Otaru Mamiya is an 18-year-old day laborer living on his own in the fictional city state of Japoness. Employed as a fish peddler and running a morning's catch, he is hit by a car driven by Mitsurugi Hanagata, an acquaintance, spoiling his merchandise and sparking a fight the two agree to take elsewhere.

Traveling to a gully outside of the town, the boys continue their quarrel on a bridge where a skilled Otaru makes quick work of his opponent. In an unfortunate turn of events however, Otaru, balancing himself on a fence post which breaks off, is dumped into the river below where he is helplessly washed away.

Moments later, having drifted ashore in a small pond, Otaru finds himself at a rural athenaeum, the Japoness Pioneer Museum. He curiously explores the decrepit building, falling through a trapdoor and into a secret underground basement where he finds and awakens an encapsulated marionette. She introduces herself as Lime, embracing the dumbfounded boy with a laugh and revealing an unprecedented ability to express emotion.

Setting
The prologue of Saber Marionette J is set sometime into the 22nd century, when Earth's population has grown to such a magnitude that humanity cannot feasibly continue without colonizing space. The initial stages of the project make a promising effort of moving civilization into orbit, however it is during travel to a planet name Terra II that a transport vessel, the Mesopotamia, experiences a catastrophic fate, destroying all but a lone escape pod of people who plunge to the surface below. Of the handful of survivors however, only six males survive the crash, a ratio that both cripples their manpower and leaves them unable to reproduce.

Marooned and without communication, the men turn to genetic engineering as a method to produce clones of themselves, enough to populate the planet and sustain habitation. The effort is critically fruitful, and over a course of three centuries, each of the survivors and their successors establish individual settlements in the form of six city-states.

In spite of the remarkable success however, notwithstanding even advancements in technology, Terra II remains uninhabited by women. An effort to substitute this absence is made with the manufacture of feminine androids name marionettes; creations that, while they serve their purpose, operate without sapience, emotion, or free will.

Themes
Saber Marionette J contains several groups of notable themes, mainly in the names of characters and locations. The focal heroines, Lime, Cherry, and Bloodberry, are named after fruits, while their counterparts, Tiger, Luchs, and Panther are named after animals, specifically of the family Felidae (using the German words and pronunciations for tiger, lynx, and panther due to their Galtland origins). Ieyasu Tokugawa, the fictional shogun of Japoness, derives his name and appearance from Tokugawa Ieyasu, while Gerhardt von Faust, führer of Galtland, is an allusion of Adolf Hitler whose name may be derived from Faust, a character of German folklore.

The city-states established by the male survivors are also based on the political and developmental histories and periods of countries. Japoness is a reminiscence of feudal Japan, Galtland portrays the totalitarian regime of Nazi Germany, Peterburg is structured after Soviet Russia, New Texas is representative of the modern United States, Xi'an paints the image of Imperial China and Romana takes after the Roman Empire. The letters that affix the titles of the franchise have also been explained to represent the city-state in which a particular series is set in. Saber Marionette R, for example, takes place in Romana while Saber Marionette J, occurs in Japoness.

Besides the show's botanic, animal and historic references, as well as its generally comedic overtones, Saber Marionette J briefly explores deeper motifs as well. One such motif, outspoken by Mitsurugi, is the discriminatory notion that marionettes are of no importance to humans beyond their menial labor, and should be disenfranchised to the affection or privileges of people. This idea becomes more recurrent later in the series when Otaru finds himself growing closer to the girls and questions himself for it. Another visited theme is the exploration of life, its senescence, and death. These truths have a major impact on the girls' developmental identity as they come to terms with themselves and humans.

Characters
Saber Marionette J follows the life and adventures of Otaru Mamiya (間宮 小樽), an obstinate young man, who through mishap and predestination, goes from a nondescript street vendor to a national hero and sensation. During the onset of the series, Otaru comes into the inadvertent acquisition of three marionettes; Lime (ライム), a wildly effervescent girl with a knack for mischief; Cherry (チェリー), the gentle and soft-spoken mind with gifted culinary skills; and Bloodberry (ブラッドベリー), a bold and voluptuous woman with vigor matched only by her libido. Warranted by their unique ability to show mood and temperament, it is explained that each of the girls possess a heart-like technology, known as a maiden circuit, that empowers them with emotion. Mitsurugi Hanagata (花形 美剣), the effeminate gay acquaintance who has a crush on Otaru and whose reckless driving more or less sets the premise of the show, also bands together with the group on their travels and as their neighbor when his mansion is burned down.

The show's focal antagonists and their endeavors are fronted by Gailhart von Faust (ゲルハルト・フォン・ファウスト), the megalomaniac dictator of Gartlant who campaigns to conquer his neighboring sovereigns in order to control all of Terra II. Like Otaru, Faust is supported by his own trio of marionettes, collectively known as the Saber Dolls, who are structurally villainous counterparts to Lime, Cherry and Bloodberry: Tiger (ティーゲル), the tenacious and emotionally subservient leader; Luchs (ルクス), an intelligent and accomplished strategist; and Panther (パンター), a loud and vicious blonde. In a complementing fashion, each of these girls also possess maiden circuits.

Localization
Saber Marionette J was reproduced into seven languages through a joint cooperation of different companies. Bandai Entertainment announced on October 12, 2000 that it would be publishing the series on DVD, itself dubbed into English by Ocean Productions. Bandai went on to announce that the series would be released in a chronological fashion, succeeded by Saber Marionette J to X. Scheduled for release in February 2001, in addition to the standard Japanese and English dubs, Bandai announced around August 7, 2000 that the DVD releases would also contain Spanish; dubbed by Alebrije Entertainment, broadcast by Animax Latin America and Locomotion where it was also known by the name Chica Marioneta J.

Anime House, a company situated in Cologne, released the series in German; while Beez, the European off-shot of Bandai Visual, handled distribution in France.

Manga
A few months before the release of the anime, a manga iteration of Saber Marionette J began to circulate in Kadokawa Shoten's Monthly Dragon Age written by series creator Satoru Akahori and illustrated by Yumisuke Kotoyoshi. The series ran from October 1996 to November 1999, being collected in five volumes by the company from January 1997 to December 1999. Besides its native release, Editora JBC, a Tokyo-based Portuguese publisher, announced on March 8, 2010 that it has secured the rights to the series.

In a similar fashion to the animated series, the Saber Marionette J manga was localized into other languages. Notably, Tokyopop announced in 2003 that it had acquired the publishing rights to the series and that the first volume would be released in July of that year. Madman Entertainment, an Australian publisher, additionally published the manga in Oceania from May 19, 2004 to March 5, 2005. Editorial Ivrea, an Argentina-based publishing company, published the series in Spanish.

Light novels
A total of 14 light novels were made about the series, written by Satoru Akahori and illustrated by Tsukasa Kotobuki. The books were printed by Fujimi Shobo between April 1995 and July 1, 1999.

Audio CDs
The complete soundtrack of Saber Marionette J was reproduced for distribution when the anime was still in production. The initial release, titled "Japones ginei shisyu sonoichi" (Japones Recitation Poem Collection 1)", was made on December 21, 1996 and contained 17 tracks by King Records. A sequel release, containing 24 tracks, was made on April 9, 1997.

Two audio dramas were made of the series. The first, released direct to commercial disc, was published from January 24 to May 22, 1995 as a four-disc set by King Records under their StarChild label, each containing 4 tracks with additional bonuses. These tracks would later be broadcast on October 21. The second audio drama was aired on TBS on Thursdays and was based on the aforementioned novels. Broadcasts were made from April 27 to July 3, 1997.

Game
Tom Create, a small Tokyo game developer, produced a fighting game of the series titled Saber Marionette J: Battle Sabers (セイバーマリオネットJ：バトルセイバーズ), published by Bandai Visual on March 28, 1997 for the PlayStation. Featuring Lime, Cherry, Bloodberry, the Saber Dolls, and a new marionette name Apple, the player is able to fight against a CPU or, with another controller, a second player. At the beginning of each round, player's are also allowed to choose two special abilities to buff their characters. The game featured an alternate version of the anime opening and was released in a limited and regular edition, the former bundled with figurines and special edition portraits of the characters.

Reception
Saber Marionette J was met with mostly positive reception. THEM Anime Reviews gave the series a 5 out of 5 stars, calling it "Top-notch animation, involving story and memorable characters make this one of the greats. If there was a flaw to be found here, it was too small to notice." Industry aggregator Mania.com editor Chris Beveridge rated each of the three North American releases a B, averaging a predictable story, an overall solid release, but that "Saber Marionette J was decent if unexceptional in total."

On Anime News Network, the show retains a median "Good" rating, averaging a 7 out of 10; the first VHS was also given a B+. Less favorable reviews criticized the cliche plot, character voices and less than crisp artwork. On Latin America the show turned a cult classic because of its airing on Locomotion and later Animax Latin America.

title: Saber Marionette J


text:
Earl of Wiltshire

The title Earl of Wiltshire is one of the oldest in the Peerage of England, going back to the 12th century. It is currently held by the Marquess of Winchester, and is used as a courtesy title for the eldest son of the marquess.

The earldom was first created for Harvey of Léon, who married Sybilla, an illegitimate daughter of King Stephen. The title lapsed after Harvey lost his English lands during the Anarchy, since at that time one could not be an earl without the territory to support the dignity.

Patrick of Salisbury was created Earl of Wiltshire by the Empress Matilda, probably after July 1143, but he was usually styled Earl of Salisbury. He was the second but eldest surviving son of William of Salisbury and the grandson of Walter of Salisbury, the founder of Bradenstoke Priory, in Wiltshire. He was Sheriff of Wiltshire in October 1152, when he was addressed as "Earl Patrick, sheriff" in a writ of Stephen. Patrick of Salisbury, Earl of Wiltshire, passed the title to his great-granddaughter Margaret Longespée. She married Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, they had a daughter who became suo jure Countess of Lincoln and Wiltshire on her mother's death. She married three times, but the earldom of Wiltshire seems to have reverted to the crown with her death in October 1348.

William le Scrope was created Earl of Wiltshire in 1397. He was executed during the events leading to the deposition of Richard II by Henry IV. The charter which granted his earldom limited its inheritance to heirs male, but did not contain the usual additional limitation of his body. Thus in 1859 a collateral descendant attempted to claim the earldom, but the claim was rejected by the House of Lords.

The next creation was for James Butler, eldest son of the 4th Earl of Ormond. He fought on the Lancastrian side at the Battle of Towton, and afterwards was executed and posthumously attainted.

The earldom was next held by three members of the Stafford family, beginning with John, a younger son of the 1st Duke of Buckingham.

Anne Boleyn's father Thomas was the recipient of the next creation, but after outliving his son and with no other male heirs upon his death the title became vacant. He was the great-nephew of James Butler, the earl of the 1449 creation.

Finally, in 1550 William Paulet was created Earl of Wiltshire. He was made Marquess of Winchester the next year, and his descendants continue to hold both titles.

Earl of Wiltshire, First Creation (1139)

 * Hervey le Breton, Earl of Wiltshire (forfeit 1141)

Earl of Wiltshire, creation by the Empress Matilda (c. 1145)

 * Patrick of Salisbury, 1st Earl of Salisbury (c. 1122–1168)
 * William of Salisbury, 2nd Earl of Salisbury (d. 1196)
 * William Longespée, 3rd Earl of Salisbury (c. 1176–1226), jure uxoris Ela, Countess of Salisbury (1187–1261)
 * Margaret Longespée, Countess of Salisbury (c. 1261 – c. 1311), granddaughter of the 3rd Earl by his son William III Longespée. She married Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln.
 * Alice de Lacy, 4th Countess of Lincoln (1281–1348)

Earl of Wiltshire, Second Creation (1397)

 * William le Scrope, 1st Earl of Wiltshire (1350–1399) (executed 1399)

Earl of Wiltshire, Third Creation (1449)

 * James Butler, Earl of Wiltshire and 5th Earl of Ormond (1420–1461) (forfeit 1461)

Earl of Wiltshire, Fourth Creation (1470)

 * John Stafford, 1st Earl of Wiltshire (d. 1473)
 * Edward Stafford, 2nd Earl of Wiltshire (1469–1499) (extinct)

Earl of Wiltshire, Fifth Creation (1510)

 * Henry Stafford, 1st Earl of Wiltshire (1479–1523) (extinct)

Earl of Wiltshire, Sixth Creation (1529)

 * Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire and 1st Earl of Ormond (1477–1539) (extinct)

Earl of Wiltshire, Seventh Creation (1550)

 * see Marquess of Winchester

The title 'Earl of Wiltshire' is now used as the courtesy title of Lord Winchester's eldest son and heir.

title: Earl of Wiltshire


text:
User:Spintheoretician

Spintheoretician is a mathematician working on Yang-Mills. He lives in Nashville, Cambridgeshire, and Vancouver. His fundamental research is on a model of the theory of everything which explains gravity, strong force, and quantum (as well as the other forces and matter of nature). The latter is found to be a phenomenon arising from the PDF integration of n-brane minkowski space in his model. The model starts at sub-Planck distance. Using data from single eigenvalue tunneling occurring in processes such as neutrino class/generation skipping and gluon symmetry the theory places state spinors in a PDF integrable matrix.

email:spintheoretician@hushmail.com

title: User:Spintheoretician