text:
Mark Harris (author)

Mark Harris (November 19, 1922 – May 30, 2007) was an American novelist, literary biographer, and educator, remembered for his baseball novels featuring Henry Wiggen, particularly Bang the Drum Slowly. Harris's obituary in The Denver Post calls him "one of that legion of under-the-radar writers who for decades consistently turned out excellent novels and went largely unsung as he did...Harris said of his books that 'they are about the one man against his society and trying to come to terms with his society, and trying to succeed within it without losing his own identity or integrity.' He might have said the same thing of himself."

Early life
Harris was born Mark Harris Finkelstein in Mount Vernon, New York, to Carlyle and Ruth (Klausner) Finkelstein. At the age of 11, he began keeping a diary, which he would maintain for every day of his life thereafter.

After graduating in 1940 from Mount Vernon High School, he dropped his surname because "it was a difficult time for kids with Jewish names to get jobs." He subsequently went to work for Paul Winkler's Press Alliance news agency in New York City as a messenger and mimeograph operator.

He was drafted into the United States Army in January 1943. His growing opposition to war and his anger at the prevalence of racial discrimination in the Army led him to go AWOL from Camp Wheeler, Georgia, in February 1944. He was soon arrested and then hospitalized for psychoneurosis. He was honorably discharged in April 1944. His wartime experience formed the basis for two of his novels, Trumpet to the World (1946) and Something About a Soldier (1957).

Journalism career
Harris joined The Daily Item of Port Chester, New York, as a reporter in May 1944. A year later he accepted a position with PM in New York City but was fired after two months. In July 1945 he was hired by the International News Service and moved to St. Louis. While there, he met coworker Josephine Horen, whom he would marry in March 1946. After resigning in July 1946, he spent the next year and a half in a succession of short-lived journalism jobs in Albuquerque, New Mexico (Albuquerque Journal), Chicago (Negro Digest and Ebony), and New York (Park Row News Service).

Academic career
In February 1948, Harris enrolled at the University of Denver, from which he received a Master's degree in English in 1951 as well as obtaining a PhD in American Studies from the University of Minnesota in 1956, writing his doctoral dissertation on the progressive writer and intellectual Randolph Bourne.

After obtaining his doctorate, Harris began a long, productive career as a college educator. In September 1956, he was hired by the English department of San Francisco State College, where he taught until 1967. He went on to teach at several other universities, including Purdue University (1967–1970), California Institute of the Arts (1970–1973), the University of Southern California (1973–1975), and the University of Pittsburgh (1976–1980). In September 1980, he joined the faculty of Arizona State University, where he was a professor of English and taught in the creative writing program until his retirement in 2001.

Writing career
Harris completed his first novel, Trumpet to the World, while employed as a journalist in St. Louis. Published in 1946, Trumpet to the World is the story of a young black soldier married to a white woman who is put on trial for striking back at a white officer. Even while Harris attended school he continued to write fiction, producing three novels by the time he received his Ph.D. He continued to produce novels and contribute to periodicals through the years.

Harris was best known for a quartet of novels about baseball players: The Southpaw (1953), Bang the Drum Slowly (1956), A Ticket for a Seamstitch (1957), and It Looked Like For Ever (1979). Written in the American vernacular, the books are the account of Henry "Author" Wiggen, a pitcher for the fictional New York Mammoths. In 1956, Bang the Drum Slowly was adapted for an installment of the dramatic television anthology series The United States Steel Hour; the production starred Paul Newman as Wiggen and Albert Salmi as doomed catcher Bruce Pearson. The novel also became a major motion picture in 1973, with a screenplay written by Harris, directed by John D. Hancock and featuring Michael Moriarty as Wiggen and Robert De Niro as Pearson. Although Bang the Drum Slowly was Harris's only true popular success, most of his novels have received critical acclaim. These include Something about a Soldier (1957), Wake Up Stupid (1959), The Goy (1970), and Killing Everybody (1973).

In 1960, while in his first college teaching position, at San Francisco State College, Harris promoted his then-most-recent book in a TV appearance as guest contestant in "You Bet Your Life", a game played on The Groucho Show.

In the first chapter of his 1961 book The Rhetoric of Fiction, Wayne C. Booth quotes the "fine young novelist" Harris as saying: "You will no more expect the novelist to tell you precisely how something is said than you will expect him to stand by your chair and hold your book."

In January 1962, Something About a Soldier, a stage version of Harris's novel, played briefly on Broadway. Written by Ernest Kinoy and produced by the Theatre Guild, it featured Sal Mineo in the lead role. Later, the novel Bang the Drum Slowly was adapted into a stage play at the Next Theatre in Evanston, Illinois.

In addition to his work as a novelist, Harris had a productive career in other literary genres. He authored numerous critical essays and articles, and has edited the poems of Vachel Lindsay (Selected Poems of Vachel Lindsay, 1963) and the journals of James Boswell (Heart of Boswell, 1981). Harris also wrote biographies of Lindsay (City of Discontent, 1952) and Saul Bellow (Saul Bellow: Drumlin Woodchuck, 1980). He has also written three autobiographical books: Mark the Glove Boy, or The Last Days of Richard Nixon (1964), an account of Nixon's unsuccessful California gubernatorial campaign; Twentyone Twice: A Journal (1966), an account of his experiences in Sierra Leone as a member of the Peace Corps; and, finally, Best Father Ever Invented (1976), subtitled "An Autobiography of Mark Harris," in which he chronicles his life from late adolescence up to 1973.

Harris died of complications of Alzheimer's disease at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital at age 84. He was survived by his wife, Josephine Horen; his sister, Martha; two sons, one daughter, and three grandchildren. His nephew (the son of Harris's sister Martha Finkelstein) is the writer Saïd Sayrafiezadeh, author of the memoir When Skateboards Will Be Free: A Memoir of a Political Childhood. Harris's papers are held in Special Collections at the University of Delaware.

Legacy
In Baseball: A Literary Anthology, editor Nicholas Dawidoff writes that "The four books in which Wiggen narrates the story of his life in baseball—The Southpaw (1953), Bang the Drum Slowly (1956), A Ticket for a Seamstitch (1957), and It Looked For Ever (1979)—elevate the baseball novel into unmistakable art."

In The Denver Post, Roger K. Miller writes that "Bang the Drum Slowly, by Henry J. Wiggin: Certain of His Enthusiasms Restrained, to give it its full title, is even better than that other much-praised baseball novel, Bernard Malamud's The Natural, with its element of fantasy. (Harris did not like fantasy, especially in baseball.) It is at least as good as Robert Coover's The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop. which is about a fantasy game and, like Harris' and all other good baseball novels, about something more than baseball.""

Novels

 * Trumpet to the World (1946)
 * The Southpaw (1953)
 * Bang the Drum Slowly (1956)
 * Something about a Soldier (1957)
 * A Ticket for a Seamstitch (1957)
 * Wake Up, Stupid (1959)
 * The Goy (1970)
 * Killing Everybody (1973)
 * It Looked Like Forever (1979)
 * Lying in Bed (1984)
 * Speed (1990)
 * The Tale Maker (1994)

Short stories

 * The Self-Made Brain Surgeon and Other Stories (1999)

Nonfiction

 * City of Discontent: An Interpretive Biography of Vachel Lindsay (1952)
 * Mark the Glove Boy, or The Last Days of Richard Nixon (1964)
 * Twentyone Twice: A Journal (1966)
 * Best Father Ever Invented: The Autobiography Of Mark Harris (1976)
 * Short Work of It: Selected Writings (1979)
 * Saul Bellow: Drumlin Woodchuck (1980)
 * Diamond – The Baseball Writings of Mark Harris (collection, 1994)

Plays

 * Friedman & Son (1963)
 * Bang the Drum Slowly (1992)

Television plays

 * Boswell for the Defence (1983)
 * Boswell's London Journal (1984)

Screenplays

 * Bang the Drum Slowly (1973)

As editor

 * Selected Poems of Vachel Lindsay (1963)
 * The Heart of Boswell: Six Journals in One Volume (1981)

title: Mark Harris (author)


text:
Sasha (name)

Sasha is a unisex name which originated among Slavic peoples from Eastern and Southern Europe as the shortened version of Alexander and Alexandra. It is also used as a surname, although very rarely. Alternative spellings include: Саша (Sasha – Belarusian, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, Ukrainian), Сашо (Sasho – Bulgarian), Саше (Sashe – Macedonian), Saša (Slovenian, Serbo-Croatian, Czech, Slovak, Latvian, Lithuanian), Sasza (Polish), Sașa (Romanian), Sacha (French), Sascha (German), Sascia (Italian ), Sasja (Danish and Swedish) and סשה (Sasha –  Hebrew).

Usage
This name is especially common in Europe, where it is used by both females and males as a diminutive of Alexandra and Alexander, respectively. Despite its popularity in informal usage, the name is rarely recorded on birth certificates in countries such as Belarus, the Czech Republic, Russia, Slovakia, and Ukraine, as it is considered a diminutive, not a formal name. Exceptions are Croatia, Germany, Serbia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Switzerland.

In Italy or in French-speaking regions (Belgium, France, and Quebec ), Sacha is more often given to males. In the United States the name is almost exclusively used for girls and ranked number 569 among U.S. baby names in 2014, although it didn't gain popularity until the 1970s.

Codenames, stage personas, and alter egos

 * Sasha (espionage), an alleged Soviet mole in the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency during the Cold War
 * Sasha (DJ) (born 1969), born Alexander Coe
 * Sasha (Jamaican musician) (born 1974), born Christine Chin
 * Sasha (German singer) (born 1972), born Sascha Schmitz
 * Sasha Banks (born 1992), American professional wrestler
 * Sasha Fierce, the alter ego of Beyoncé (born 1981)
 * Sasha Alex Sloan (born 1995), born Alexandra Artourovna Yatchenko
 * Sasha Velour (born 1987), famous drag queen best known for appearing on RuPaul's Drag Race (season 9); born Alexander Hedges Steinberg

Animals

 * Sasha (dog) (2004–2008), a Labrador dog that served in the British Army
 * Galianora sacha (G. sacha), Ecuadorian jumping spider

Legend, myth, and religion

 * Sasha and Zamani, spirits, two stages of time in Central and Eastern African cultures

Fictional animals and creatures

 * Sasha, a character from the movie, Help! I'm a Fish
 * Sasha, bird character from Walt Disney's Peter and the Wolf (1946 film)
 * Sasha, cat from the book series Warriors by Erin Hunter
 * Sacha, desman (water mole) in the animated television program Noah's Island
 * Sasha La Fleur, a character from the movie All Dogs Go to Heaven 2, the television series All Dogs Go to Heaven: The Series, and An All Dogs Christmas Carol
 * Sasha (Vampire), a character from the Twilight book and film series
 * Sasha, a rabbit villager in the video game Animal Crossing: New Horizons

By surname

 * Sasha Antonov, a character from the 2014 Canadian television series Bitten
 * Sasha Barbicon, the owner of an art gallery from the game Titanic: Adventure Out of Time
 * Sasha Belov, character from the TV show Make It or Break It
 * Sasha Bezmel, character from the Australian soap opera Home and Away
 * Sash Bishop, character from the Irish soap opera Fair City
 * Sasha Bordeaux, DC Comics character, former ally of Batman
 * Sasha Braus, character from the anime/manga series Attack on Titan
 * Saša Bůčková, character from Czech sitcom Comeback
 * Sasha Dixon, character in the British soap opera EastEnders
 * Alexander "Sasha" Nikolaevich Hell, the protagonist of The Qwaser of Stigmata
 * Sasha James, a character from the horror podcast "The Magnus Archives"
 * Sascha König, character from the television drama Inspector Rex, episode 8x13
 * Sasha Kreutzev, character from the anime/novel series A Certain Magical Index (Toaru Majutsu no Index)
 * Sacha Levy, AAU Registrar in the British medical drama series Holby City
 * Sasha Nein, powerful Psychonaut and instructor from the game Psychonauts
 * Sasha Perkins, character in the British soap opera EastEnders
 * Sascha Petrosevitch, character from the 2002 film Half Past Dead
 * Sasha Thompson, leader of the Mad Dogs and a target in CHERUB book Mad Dogs
 * Sasha Valentine, character in the British soap opera Hollyoaks
 * Sasha Waybright, from the American animated series Amphibia
 * Sasha Williams (The Walking Dead), Tyreese's sharpshooter sister on The Walking Dead TV series

Surnameless people

 * Sasha, Russian pilot in the 2009 movie 2012 (film)
 * Sasha, Ted Mundy's absolute friend in John le Carré's espionage novel Absolute Friends (2003)
 * Sasha, commanding officer from the game Advance Wars: Dual Strike
 * Sasha, romantic love interest of Ginger in Nickelodeon's As Told by Ginger
 * Sascha, a reaper in the manga Black Butler by Yana Toboso
 * Sasha, character from the Bratz line of fashion dolls, see List of Bratz characters
 * Sascha, the Russian bartender at Rick's Café Américain, played by Leonid Kinskey in Casablanca (1942)
 * Sasha, the enigmatic female hacker from the film Cube 2: Hypercube (2003)
 * Sasha, the leader of The Reapers gang in Infamous (video game)
 * Sasha, the character from the film The Last Station (2009)
 * Sasha, the Muscovite princess in the novel Orlando: A Biography by Virginia Woolf
 * Sasha, the character from the Japanese manga Pita-Ten
 * Sasha, the reincarnation of Athena in the manga Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas
 * Sasha, character from Adult Swim's Titan Maximum
 * Captain Sasha from the Ratchet & Clank series
 * Sweet Sasha, a doll from Ty Girlz
 * Sasha, an adolescent schoolgirl from the 2023 Barbie movie
 * Sascha … ein aufrechter Deutscher, subject and title of a Tote Hosen song

Inanimate objects

 * Sasha is the name Heavy gives to his minigun in the game Team Fortress 2.
 * The singer Lizzo named her flute Sasha.

Similar names
Similar names in various languages include:
 * Albanian: Dasha, Vasha
 * Danish: Sasja
 * Dutch: Saskia
 * English: Sasha
 * French: Sacha
 * Georgian: Lasha
 * German: Sascha
 * Hindi: Asha, Sashi, Shashi, Shikha
 * Macedonian: Sashka, Sasho
 * Nepali: Asha, Aasha, Sashi
 * Persian: Pasha, Rasha
 * Portuguese: Sancha
 * Russian: Саша, Sashka
 * Ukrainian: Sashko
 * Serbo-Croatian: Saša (Safiha / Sabiha in Bosnian)
 * Slovak: Saša, Saška
 * Slovenian: Saša
 * Spanish: Sancha
 * Swedish: Sassa
 * Swiss: Sascha
 * Thai: Sasicha
 * Turkish: Saliha, Sabiha
 * Turkish: Saliha, Sabiha

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

title: Sasha (name)


text:
Talk:Margaret II, Countess of Flanders

Untitled
Moved because there was a Margaret I in the XIIth century Muriel 13:05, 4 May 2004 (UTC)

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deleted ancestry table
For further consideration by me or anyone else interested here is the ancestry of Margaret which was recently deleted in two steps by User:Surtsicna. I am concerned that Margaret is someone whose historical importance is in fact closely linked to her "genealogy".--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 20:08, 29 July 2019 (UTC)

Half of that table is wrong. Margaret's mother was not the daughter of Louis VII or Eleanor. Also, Margaret derives no notability from her descent from William X of Aquitaine or Sibylla of Anjou or many others. Margaret's genealogy is important but not these relationships; the people essential to her story are her sister, uncle, brother-in-law, husbands, sons, and grandson, not the great-great-grandparents who are never discussed in the context of Margaret. Surtsicna (talk) 20:01, 30 July 2019 (UTC)
 * As discussed at the template talk, it is important to keep these two concerns (verification and due weight) separate. It is very difficult for a WP editor to convincingly claim that something has never been mentioned in "the right way" in any source WP:OR, at least if it is verifiable, which does not seem to be the real concern here. The burden of proof thus has to work differently for the two types of concern, at least when working with reference tables, maps etc WP:NPOV. Note that the two policies I cite are core content policies.--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 06:34, 31 July 2019 (UTC)
 * Upon review then, you did not actually believe this was "complete nonsense" when you deleted this table (as per your edsum), because the mistake you found is essentially a daughter being mixed up with her mother, and easily fixed? Do you see any problems with this version?--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 06:55, 31 July 2019 (UTC)

Some more corrections done to the above after posting it. Concerning notability of relationships, the current article contains no monographs specifically about Marguerite, and honestly I therefore do not believe any WP has even attempted to check whether there is no mention of these ancestors (putting aside the question of whether we really need to do that). Here is a book about Marguerite and her sister. There is discussion of her mother's family, including her mother's maternal grandparents (numbers 30 and 31) on p.18.--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 07:10, 31 July 2019 (UTC)
 * It really need not be a monograph. Any comprehensive study of the subject will do. I can certainly see how Louis VII and Eleanor might be discussed in a study of the sisters; if for no other reason, then to explain their connection to Philip II, who played a major part in their childhoods. But Godfrey I of Namur? I think that's a bit of a stretch. Surtsicna (talk) 22:10, 31 July 2019 (UTC)
 * Yes I think we've established that it does not need to be a monograph. My point was that, having seen a note posted that the information is irrelevant, it was easy to find an RS with the topic of this article, mentioning back to 5 generations on the maternal side. These "not relevant" remarks verge on OR, and are not being made based on research into what reliable sources say, so they should be discussed. Not sure why you pick on Godfried in this case, because I think it is an interesting/notable/verifiable fact that Margaret was the conduit of the inheritance of the county of Namur from that specific ancestor to her son Guy de Dampierre. I suppose it could be argued that cutting back to 4 generations does not make it impossible to trace this, because Baldwin V is also in that line of transmission, but we are not showing him as a count of Namur. Anyway, I don't want to be awkward about the choice between 4 and 5 generations, or a custom-made ancestry, I just think the deletion of the whole section was not appropriate in this specific case where inheritances and powerful cousins are such a big issue. All works about Margaret discuss her genealogy and it is one of the hardest things to follow about her without diagrams?--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 06:28, 1 August 2019 (UTC)
 * And BTW I do not want to downplay the good work you do making custom trees sometimes, but of course these are not 5 minute jobs, and so if we do not have one, a direct ancestry table is a good neutral way to provide a map with links so that a reader can trace things themselves.--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 06:47, 1 August 2019 (UTC)
 * I agree, but in that case, four generations are sufficient in nearly every case, don't you think? And thank you for the appreciation. I'll create a custom one for this article in the coming days as well. I think it's especially useful in the cases of collateral and disputed successions such as Margaret II's. Surtsicna (talk) 11:27, 1 August 2019 (UTC)
 * I still don't like the idea of general rules for every type of person or family group who might have an article. My focus right now on a period with lots of family disputes has clearly made me careful about that. But yes 4 generations is often "good enough". On the other hand as we've seen in several examples so far there are typically two or three lines which are important out to 5 or even more generations. I don't want to be telling you or any other Wikipedian to be making trees all the time, so I still tend to see 5 generations as reasonable thing to leave in if we have no other option available, and if the article needs more work in a general way anyway. It seems to me like due weight discussions about something like links to other articles is a bit perfectionist in such cases, and not urgent. Anyway, at the moment this article shows zero generations. 4 would be better.--Andrew Lancaster (talk) 12:08, 1 August 2019 (UTC)

title: Talk:Margaret II, Countess of Flanders


text:
Margaret I, Countess of Flanders

Margaret I (c. 1145 - died 15 November 1194) was the countess of Flanders suo jure from 1191 to her death.

Early life
Margaret was the daughter of Count Thierry of Flanders and Sibylla of Anjou. In 1160 she married Count Ralph II of Vermandois (son of Ralph I). Due to his leprosy, the marriage could not be consummated and remained childless. He died of leprosy in 1167 without issue. In 1169 she married Count Baldwin V of Hainaut, a scion of the House of Flanders.

Countship
In 1191, Margaret's brother Count Philip I of Flanders died childless, and she as his heir claimed the county of Flanders with the support of her husband. Her claim was questioned by the king of France who, with support of Ghent, declared Flanders escheated to the crown due to the lack of male heirs, a problem that was not solved until the Treaty of Arras by the mediation of the archbishop of Reims. They met some unrest among the nobility of the area, foremost by her brother's widow, Theresa of Portugal, who was given extensive dower lands in the coastal and southern Flanders where she provoked considerable unrest by high taxation.

The right of Margaret and her husband to the County of Flanders was not finally acknowledged until 1 March 1192. As countess, she objected to all foreign legal independence in her lands, and accordingly, she prevented the Hanse merchants living in Bruges from acquiring a separate quarter and rights for themselves in the port of Damme.

Margaret died on 15 November 1194; as her husband had become count of Flanders only by marriage, he could not remain sole count, and Margaret was succeeded by their son Baldwin IX.

Issue
Margaret and Baldwin had:
 * Isabella, married Philip II of France
 * Baldwin IX of Flanders (1171–1205), also count of Flanders and Latin Emperor
 * Yolanda (1175–1219), married Peter of Courtenay, Latin Emperor
 * Philip I of Namur (1175–1212)
 * Henry of Flanders (1176–1216), Latin emperor of Constantinople
 * Sybille (1179–9 January 1217), married c. 1197 Guichard IV, Sire de Beaujeu. They had a daughter, Agnes of Beaujeu.
 * Eustace (d. 1219), regent of the Kingdom of Thessalonica
 * Godfrey

title: Margaret I, Countess of Flanders


text: Talk:Margaret I, Countess of Flanders

title: Talk:Margaret I, Countess of Flanders


text:
Talk:Operation Moses

Characterizing as military operation
I am not sure that charecterizing this as a military operation is quite correct. The pages I have read mention agents and El Al but not IDF. Operation Solomon appears to certainly have involved IDF. Does El Al actually fly C-130s though as it is claimed in the linked article? Or just IDF? Rmhermen 13:07, May 4, 2004 (UTC)

 * This was a military operation led by the army. The IDF took the seats out of ElAl jets and played a very large role. --יהושועEric 14:39, 1 October 2006 (UTC)

Dont forget about jewish Americans
This operation had been conducted in the state of secrecy. Most of the funding for the operation came from Jewish-Americans living in the United States of America. And their organizations contributed to to operation moses becoming a success.

Expanded list of participants
I added all of the key players of the operation. It was a triumph of feet-on-the-ground realism for all parties involved. Feco 08:28, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Who spilled the beans?
According to these folks, Shimon Peres called a press conference and announced the ongoing existence of Operation Moses:

The link to the article that author is referring to ("Operation Moses victims honored", Jerusalem Post, May 3 2005) is dead, but the article is in Google's cache here:

evacuation not removal
The jews were evacuated not removed. Typical objectifying racialist kant. I bet white jews are evacuated all over wikipedia. because they're black, "they're removed," as if cargo. -222.68.185.34 (talk) 15:59, 19 November 2010 (UTC)
 * Please note that evacuation was already used in the article - now it is used twice in close proximity in the text, bad style. And also note that removal was chosen as a more neutral term than evacuation which can be seen as carrying an implication of malfeasance by the Sudanese government. Rmhermen (talk) 18:27, 19 November 2010 (UTC)

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text:
Naqada

Naqada (Egyptian Arabic: Naqāda; Coptic language:  Nekatērion; Ancient Greek:  Pampanis, Ancient Egyptian: Nbyt), is a town on the west bank of the Nile in Qena Governorate, Egypt, situated ca. 20 km north of Luxor. It includes the villages of Tukh, Khatara, Danfiq, and Zawayda. According to 1960 census, it is one of the most uninhabited areas and had only 3,000 inhabitants, mostly of Christian faith who preserved elements of the Coptic language up until the 1930s.

The ancient town contained a cemetery that held approximately 2000 graves. The first person to excavate the site was archaeologist Sir Flinders Petrie in 1894. Petrie was working for the Egypt Exploration Fund (now the Egypt Exploration Society) when he excavated the site. Some of the findings during the excavation included artifacts from the Amratian (Naqada I) and the Gerzeh (Naqada II).

Archaeology
Naqada stands near the site of a prehistoric Egyptian necropolis: The town, called Ombos, was the centre of the cult of Set and large tombs were built there c. 3500 BCE.

The large quantity of remains from Naqada has enabled the dating of the entire archeological period throughout Egypt and its environs, hence the town name Naqada is used for the pre-dynastic Naqada culture c. 4400–3000 BCE. Other Naqada culture archeological sites include el Badari, the Gerzeh culture, and Nekhen.

Excavations
Petrie's initial findings during his excavations lead him to incorrectly believe he had found a new race of people who had invaded Egypt during the First Intermediate Period. This would later be disproven by the work of Jacques de Morgan who had conducted his own digs in the Naqada Region. Morgan's findings showed that the artifacts came from an earlier era and this lead Petrie to revise his own findings. The graves that were uncovered contained bodies that were less intact and were placed by streams and in covered pits compared to the Egyptian practice of usually placing the graves on a cliff face or rising ground and having the bodies lie in a hollow or a cave and they lacked the embalming typical of Egyptian burials.

Research into the predynastic sites of the dead in the Naqada region came to show that they had transitioned into a state style of civilization and away from a chiefdom. Many of these graves had contained many items ranging from amulets to hairpins to knives made of flint. Few of these graves had items of value or were of special use which tells us that they had a developing class of people who resided within the upper class including an established group of middle class individuals. This level of monetary stability is thought to have come from the region having an established gold trade as reveled by seals found in cemeteries.

A survey of the area in the years between 1978 and 1981, led by Fekri Hassan, working with the Washington State University in a project titled Predynastic of Naqada was done in an attempt to find more cemetery sites. This project did lead to the discovery of more cemeteries. This survey also lead to the rediscovery of the Royal Tomb that was found by de Morgan which was then later re-evaluated. Through the survey the area of Nubt, in the south town, was found to have been looted and used by the farmers in the area as a form of fertilizer called Sebakh. The objects that were left behind had been moved from their original location or were sold on the black market.

Future Surveys
In August 2018 the Egypt Exploration Society had conducted tests in the area of Nubt to test for its ability to be used for further research. The purpose of this survey is to bring more attention to the usefulness of the site and for protecting it. Later seasons will take looks into how to best preserve the sites. Further work will begin on the surrounding area.

Pop Culture
In the Stargate franchise, alien civilizations make extensive use of a mineral, naquada, named after the archaeological site.

title: Naqada


text:
Renault 19

The Renault 19 is a small family car that was produced by the French car manufacturer Renault between 1988 and 1996. In Turkey and in Argentina, production continued until 2000. The internal development code for the 19 was X53, with the five door receiving the B53 chassis code, the three door being the C53, the Chamade the L53, and the Cabriolet the D53.

Overview
The R19 was presented in June 1988, with sales in the domestic French market beginning in September 1988. It was the replacement for the 9 and 11, both of which were ageing and outdated by the end of the 1980s. The R19 went on sale in right hand drive form for the British market in February 1989.

The R19 was styled by Giorgetto Giugiaro, featuring Renault's new E-type (or "Energy") 1.4 L engine and F type 1.7 L versions. Base models originally used the OHV C-type Cléon 1.2 and 1.4 L engines, depending on the market. While originally only available with an atmospheric diesel engine, a turbocharged version appeared in the beginning of 1992.

Intended to be Renault's last numeric named car, the 19 ushered in a new naming policy, with the saloon versions of the 19 being known as the 19 Chamade, to distinguish them from the hatchbacks. The saloon version was launched in 1989. In many markets, the Chamade badge was dropped following the facelift of 1992, with some replacing it with the "Europa" tag. The 19 Chamade customers were more often men, more often married and more rural and older than R19 hatchback buyers.

In 1991, a convertible bodystyle built by Karmann was first shown; only a small number of these were built with the Phase I design as it was facelifted shortly thereafter. The convertible version went on sale in the beginning of 1992; it was only available with the two most powerful engine options. Although the R19's exterior design (which was relatively conservative, like that of the Renault 9/11) received a muted response, it was praised for its interior comfort and handling.

For the fuel injected top versions, a four-speed automatic transmission became available in the fall of 1990. Lesser versions still made do with four- or five-speed manuals, or a three-speed automatic.

Facelift
In the summer of 1992, a revamped model was introduced with a substantially restyled front and rear, while LHD market versions received a new dashboard and interior — RHD models retained the original design.

With the facelift, smaller "Energy" series units gradually replaced the old pushrod items, and 1.8 litre engines appeared at the top of the lineup, where they replaced the more powerful 1.7 units (the F3N). The R19 was sold in most of Europe until 1996, and was produced for some South American markets in Argentina until 2000 and for the Andean markets in Colombia until 2001. Turkish production lasted a little longer than in the rest of Europe, also until the year 2000. The R19's platform and running gear would continue to be used in its replacement, the first generation Renault Mégane, which lasted for seven years.

The Renault 19 was awarded the 1989 Car of the Year in Spain and Germany, 1990 Car of the Year in Ireland, and 1993 Car of the Year in Argentina. It was sold in limited numbers in Japan through the Yanase Import Dealerships. The name "Chamade" wasn't used on Japanese-market saloons because it was too similar to the Daihatsu Charade, so these were called "Europa" instead. San Fu Motors in Taiwan began building two versions of the R19 locally in early 1990, aiming for a monthly output of 1,000 cars.

The R19 did well in Germany, a market French carmakers always had a hard time cracking. It was the best selling imported car in West Germany in 1990 and then in re-united Germany from 1991 to 1994.

16S
The Renault 19 16S (16V in some countries) was first shown towards the very end of 1988. It was only actually added to the lineup in the autumn of 1990, and was the only Renault 19 with a 16 valve engine. It had a distinctive air inlet on the bonnet (this did not appear on the earliest models), a rear spoiler, 15 inch Speedline SL401 alloy wheels, side skirts, twin headlamps, Recaro bucket seats with optional leather trim, four in one exhaust manifold and Bendix ABS braking system with optional trip computer, aircon and electric sunroof. The "S" is for Soupapes, French for valves.

Its rev happy F7P engine, which, along with the advanced Renix ECU, made it faster and more fuel efficient compared to most competitors. The braking system was upgraded to include 259 mm vented discs on the front and 237 mm discs on the rear as well as an uprated lower suspension setup and front strut bar. Period tests praised the car's handling on curvy roads but criticized its high speed stability and noise levels, in part due to very low gearing.

Phase 1 editions benefited from unique front and rear bumpers with front indicators relocated into the bumpers to allow for the twin headlamps, while the Phase 2 retained the original bumpers found throughout the range but added colour coded tops, rubber inserts, and a discreet lower splitter. All bodystyles were offered with the 16 valve engine at one time or another, but were not available in all markets.

The Phase 2 models gear ratios were also revised, to allow for the extra weight found in the safety equipment the later models carried. The last models (1995 to 1996) were called Executive and came with leather interior as standard.

Renault claimed an acceleration from 0 to 100 km/h of 8.2 seconds for the non-catalysed version with 140 PS. This engine was only available in the Phase 1 model. The catalysed model boasted 137 PS and a top speed of 215 km/h, and a claimed 0 to 100 km/h time of 8.9 seconds.

Motorsport
Renault Sport used the 19 in the British Touring Car Championship in 1993, driven by Alain Menu and Tim Harvey. The car proved uncompetitive except in wet conditions, and was replaced with the Laguna for the 1994 season.

Engines
$1$ Only for South America

Manufacturing factories

 * Douai (France)
 * Maubeuge (France)
 * Haren-Vilvoorde (Belgium)
 * Laguna de Duero, Valladolid (Spain)
 * Villamuriel de Cerrato, Palencia (Spain)
 * Setúbal (Portugal)
 * Santa Isabel, Córdoba (Argentina)
 * Envigado (Colombia)
 * Oyak-Renault, Bursa (Turkey)
 * Sanfu Motor Co., Ltd. (Defunct), Taichung (Taiwan)
 * Avtoframos, Moscou (Russia), from november 1999

title: Renault 19


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Light railway

A light railway is a railway built at lower costs and to lower standards than typical "heavy rail": it uses lighter-weight track, and may have more steep gradients and tight curves to reduce civil engineering costs. These lighter standards allow lower costs of operation, at the price of lower vehicle capacity.

Narrow gauge

The precise meaning of the term "light railway" varies by geography and context.

In countries where a single standard gauge is dominant, the term light railway does not imply a narrow gauge railway. Most narrow gauge railways operate as light railways, but not all light railways need be narrow gauge. After Spooner's development of steam haulage for narrow gauge railways, the prevailing view was that the gauge should be tailored according to the traffic: "The nearer the machine is apportioned to the work it has to do the cheaper will that work be done."

From the 1890s, it was recognised that cost savings could also be made in the construction and operation of a standard gauge railway: "light axle-loads and low speeds, not gauge, are the first condition of cheap construction and economical working. Gauge is quite a secondary factor." Break of gauge now became an important factor, and there was much concern over whether this would become an additional cost for the transshipment of goods, or whether this was over-emphasised compared to the amount of warehousing and handling needed anyway. The Irish railway system in particular became a good example of a broad gauge main line system with many independent narrow gauge,, light railway feeder branch lines.

United States
In the United States, "light railway" generally refers to an urban or interurban rail system, which historically would correspond to a streetcar network. The distinct term light rail was introduced in the 1970s to describe a form of urban rail public transportation that has a lower capacity and lower speed than a heavy rail or metro system, but which generally operates in exclusive rights-of-way, in contrast with streetcar systems which operate in shared road traffic with automobiles. Urban sprawl combined with higher fuel prices has caused an increase in popularity of these light rail systems in recent decades.

United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom "light railway" refers in its strictest sense to a railway built or operated under the 1896 Light Railways Act. That Act, though, gives only a vague description; a better one is found from John Charles MacKay in the same year: "A light railway is one constructed with lighter rails and structures, running at a slower speed, with poorer accommodation for passengers and less facility for freight. It can be worked with less stringent standards of signalling and safety practice. It is a cheap railway and a second class of railway." These terms are not pejorative, they simply recognise that the standards of main-line heavy railways are not needed in all situations. Their great advantage under UK law was that they avoided the need for an expensive act of parliament before each new line; they only required a much simpler Light Railway Order within the terms of the Act.

The term is also used more generally of any lightly built railway with limited traffic, often controlled locally and running unusual and/or older rolling stock. A light railway is properly distinct from a tramway which operates under differing rules and may share a road. The term "light railway" is generally used in a positive manner.

Perhaps the most well-known caricature of a light railway is the film The Titfield Thunderbolt, made in 1953 as many of the light railways and other small branch lines were being closed. Despite the great public affection for these railways, very few were financially successful. Colonel H.F. Stephens was pivotal in the light railway world, and tried many techniques to make light railways pay, introducing some of the earliest railcars and also experimenting with a rail lorry built out of an old Model T Ford. Nevertheless, most light railways never made much money, and by the 1930s they were being driven out of business by the motor car. Although World War II resulted in a brief increase in the importance of these railways, very few lasted beyond the early 1950s. Those that survive today are generally heritage railways.

The Heart of Wales Line has been operated under a Light Railway Order since 1972, and appears to be the only part of the National Rail (that is, non-heritage) system run as a light railway.

Australia
Queensland adopted a narrow gauge of in order to make construction of lines lighter and thus cheaper, though this initiated a break-of-gauge with other states. The cost savings were due to light rails, low axleloads and low speeds as much as due to the gauge.

Tasmania, Western Australia and South Australia followed suit with the narrow gauge to reduce costs, though South Australia ended up with an inefficient two-gauge system which negated some of the supposed cost savings of the narrow gauge. New South Wales resisted calls to introduce narrow gauge, but did adopt pioneer lines with 30 kg/m rails to reduce costs without the need for breaks-of-gauge.

There were a significant number of small and isolated mining and timber railway built to a variety of gauges and improvised standards.

There are still a large number of sugar cane tramways built to a common gauge, and sharing research and development into advanced features such as concrete sleepers, tamping machines, remotely controlled brake vans, and the like. There is little through traffic with mainline railways so that break-of-gauge is not a problem.

The Iron Knob Railway was legally a "tramway", but operated 2,000-ton iron ore trams which were heavier than most railways.

Japan
Also in Japan, originally, "light railway" refers to a railway built or operated under the Light Railways Act enforced in 1909. The act in Japan also though gives only a vague description, the purpose of the act is for building railways easily with less stringent standards and at low cost.

So the circumstance of light railways in Japan was almost similar in UK or other countries. Many light railways had been built for passengers or as military railway, industrial railway and forest railway in Japan, Taiwan, Korea, Manchuria, Sakhalin and Micronesia that had been colonized by Japan. Some light railways were extinct for the destruction of the World War II, especially in Okinawa. After the war, most of the light railways were driven out of business by the motor car by 1970s. Some of the remains survive for passengers, others have been restored generally as heritage railways.

Taiwan
Taiwanese push car railways used handcars on 762mm gauge rails to transport sugarcanes of the Taiwan Sugar Corporation to the mainline railways of the Taiwan Railway Administration or the processing plants of the Taiwan Sugar Cooperation for further production to turn the sugarcanes to fine sugar.

Industrial railways
Many industrial railways were built to light railway standards. These may be of light and small construction, although the wagons carrying molten-steel in a steelworks can be several hundred tonnes in weight.

Panama

 * See also Panama Canal Railway

The Panama Canal construction used a heavy network of temporary railways in its construction to move vast quantities of soil from the excavations to the dams that were constructed.

Military railways
Light railways have been used in several wars, especially before the advent of the combustion engine and motor car. These have often connect depots some distance behind the front line with the front lines themselves. Some armies have Divisions of Engineers trained to operate trains. Sometimes they operate a branch line of their own so that they can practise track and bridge building (and demolition) without disturbing trains on the main line.
 * Trench railways
 * Feldbahn
 * Heeresfeldbahn - German and Austrian military railways
 * War Department Light Railways
 * Longmoor Military Railway - built by the Royal Engineers in order to train on railway operations on it. It closed in 1969.
 * Central Asian Military railway

title: Light railway


text:
Subkey

Subkey can refer to:
 * A hard-coded parameter in a key schedule
 * A key in OpenPGP that is bound by a master key

title: Subkey


text:
Falcon Crest

Falcon Crest is an American prime time television soap opera created by Earl Hamner Jr. that aired for nine seasons on CBS from December 4, 1981, to May 17, 1990. The series revolves around the feuding factions of the wealthy Gioberti/Channing family in the California wine industry set in the fictitious Tuscany Valley, located northeast of San Francisco and modeled after the real Napa Valley.

Jane Wyman stars as Angela Channing, the tyrannical matriarch of the Falcon Crest Winery, opposite Robert Foxworth as Chase Gioberti, Angela's nephew, and later David Selby as Richard Channing, the illegitimate son of Angela's ex-husband. Other notable series regulars include Abby Dalton and Margaret Ladd as Angela's daughters Julia and Emma, Lorenzo Lamas as Angela's grandson Lance, Susan Sullivan as Chase's wife Maggie, William R. Moses as their son Cole, and Ana Alicia as heiress Melissa Agretti.

Jane Wyman won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress for her role as Angela Channing out of two nominations. Lorenzo Lamas and Gina Lollobrigida were also nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor/Actress.

Creation
The show was created by Earl Hamner Jr., who had previously created The Waltons. Hamner wanted to create a family drama involving the wine industry entitled The Vintage Years. He offered Wyman the lead role of Angela Channing. She said, "I told him I'd heard Barbara Stanwyck had turned it down. And he said that was an untrue rumor. It had never been offered to her." Hamner said he was looking for a "sympathetic actress" for the role. He called Wyman "one of the legendary stars ... a great actress", and insisted that though she was the ex-wife of US President Ronald Reagan who was elected as president in 1980, her casting had nothing to do with her connection to Reagan. Hamner said Wyman was chosen to add credibility to the role, and noted "The character is a harsh one. Miss Wyman's nice-lady image gives Angie more dimension and sympathy."

Hamner's concept was "the flip side of The Waltons—this family was infected by wealth, whereas poverty had threatened his Depression story [in The Waltons]". After shooting the original pilot episode of the series, called The Vintage Years in the spring of 1981, featuring Wyman in a silver wig, the actress pushed for changes in Angela. Hamner had warned Wyman that the press would call Angela a female J. R. Ewing, the amoral oil baron from Falcon Crest lead-in series, Dallas, played by Larry Hagman. Not wanting her character to simply be a J.R. clone, Wyman said, "I feel I'm representing all women in business. I may come off as a hard, tough character, but I want Angie to show she's also capable of love."

CBS requested that Hamner make the show more like Dallas, which was the network's biggest hit at that time, and the show was retooled and the pilot reshot. The script was rewritten and several cast members changed for what became Falcon Crest. The series first aired in December 1981, when CBS scheduled Falcon Crest at 10 pm on Friday nights, right after Dallas. The Dallas-Falcon Crest double bill proved lucrative for the network and Falcon Crest was a top-20 show in the Nielsen ratings for several years. Both shows (like The Waltons) were produced for CBS by the same company, Lorimar Productions.

Casting
Opposite to Wyman, Robert Foxworth was cast as Chase Gioberti, Angela's nephew, and later David Selby as Richard Channing, the illegitimate son of Angela's ex-husband. Other notable series regular cast include Abby Dalton and Margaret Ladd as Angela's daughters Julia and Emma, Lorenzo Lamas as Angela's grandson Lance, Susan Sullivan as Chase's wife Maggie, William R. Moses as their son Cole, and Ana Alicia as heiress Melissa Agretti.

The series also frequently cast former Hollywood royalty in guest roles: Lana Turner, Dana Andrews, Celeste Holm, Gina Lollobrigida, Kim Novak, Cliff Robertson, Cesar Romero, and Robert Stack all appeared on Falcon Crest. This aspect to the series seemed to be well-embraced by the producers, who at one stage instituted a rotating guest-star policy. Eddie Albert, Ursula Andress, Eve Arden, Roscoe Lee Browne, Leslie Caron and Lauren Hutton all made appearances during the 1987–1988 season, as did Rod Taylor, who would remain with the series until its end in 1990. After producer Jeff Freilich left the series at the end of the 1988 season, fewer special guest stars appeared to boost ratings, one of them being Susan Blakely in the final year.

Wyman reportedly had had a long-running feud with fellow movie star legend Lana Turner, which dated back years. The two actresses supposedly refused to speak to each other and the producers had to film their confrontational scenes separately and then edit them together. Turner appeared on The Phil Donahue Show in 1982 and emphatically denied the rumors of the reported feud. "It's a bunch of bull. It's all publicity trying to drum up a feud between us. I adore Ms. Wyman. I respect her as a lady and an artist, and there is no feud." A few years after she appeared on the show, Turner stated that she believed Wyman was negative in demeanor because her ex-husband, Ronald Reagan, was elected president during the 1980s, something that Turner believed Wyman could not reconcile within herself.

In 1984, Sophia Loren was set to star in the role of Francesca Gioberti, Angela's secret half-sister, who comes to the valley to threaten Angela's control of Falcon Crest. Loren was to play 13 episodes, and producers promised a fabulous wardrobe and a dynamic character that would rival Dynasty Alexis Carrington. At the last minute, negotiations with Loren fell through and Gina Lollobrigida (a longtime rival of Loren's ) was then cast in the role, but only signed on for five episodes. Lollobrigida earned a Golden Globe nomination for her guest role. Three years earlier, Loren had also been Aaron Spelling's first choice for the role of Alexis Carrington on Dynasty, but was passed over when she demanded too much money and the role instead went to Joan Collins.

According to Dallas creator David Jacobs, before auditioning for Falcon Crest, Robert Foxworth turned down the role of J. R. Ewing on Dallas because he did not want to play such an unsympathetic character. The role ultimately went to Larry Hagman.

Filming and locations
Searching for a location to use as the principal backdrop for the show, Lorimar producers decided upon Spring Mountain Vineyard, a winery located in St. Helena, in California's Napa Valley. This site contained the 1884 Victorian mansion "Villa Miravalle", the exterior of which was used as the Falcon Crest mansion where Angela lived with her daughters and grandson, as well as the winery building which had just been constructed in the mid-1970s. As a tie-in, the Spring Mountain Winery also produced a "Falcon Crest" wine during the show's run.

Theme music
Falcon Crest's theme tune was composed by Bill Conti, who also composed the themes to Dynasty, The Colbys and Cagney & Lacey. Several variations of the main title theme were commissioned throughout the series' run. The most noticeable change to the main title theme was the version for season nine, which was done in a heavily synthetic, new-age style by musician Patrick O'Hearn. Stylistic changes were also made to the incidental music. During seasons 1 to 5, the music was performed by an orchestra in a classical style, composed mainly by Dana Kaproff and Peter Myers. Beginning midway through season 5, the background music became electronic-based and was performed by single artists using a synclavier, a high-tech programmable synthesizer; Mark Snow, who later composed the theme of The X-Files, was the main composer and performing musician from 1986 to 1988. During season 8, the music returned to a more classical style, before the composers returned to the electronic style for the final season with the score provided by new-age composer Patrick O'Hearn.

Pilot episode
A pilot episode for the series entitled The Vintage Years was filmed in the spring of 1981, but never aired. The character of Richard Channing was present in the original pilot, played by Michael Swan; this alternate Richard was Angela's biological son fighting for his domineering mother's favor. Abby Dalton's character, Julia, was called Dorcas, Jane Wyman wore a grey wig as Angela, and Chase and Maggie were played by Clu Gulager and Samantha Eggar, respectively. Emma was not seen, but a subplot concerning a mysterious woman crying for her mother while locked away in one of the upstairs rooms was seen. Lamas, Moses, and Rose appeared in the same roles, and Chao-Li Chi's character was named Lee Fong.

The pilot was written by Hamner and directed by Alexander Singer. Though never broadcast or released on DVD, it was made available for download on the AOL video-on-demand service In2TV in 2007.

Cast and characters
At the center of the action is Angela Channing (Jane Wyman), a corrupt, tyrannical matriarch who rules the Falcon Crest vineyards with an iron fist. When her brother Jason Gioberti (Harry Townes) dies from a fall in the winery, his son Chase Gioberti (Robert Foxworth) arrives to claim his inherited portion of Falcon Crest. The rivalry between Angela and Chase — whom Angela sees as an interloper — sets the tone for much of the series.

Surrounding Angela are her daughters, Julia (Abby Dalton) and Emma (Margaret Ladd), and her lazy playboy grandson, Lance Cumson (Lorenzo Lamas), who aids her in her battles against Chase. Julia is chief winemaker, though often feels oppressed by her domineering mother. Kind-natured Emma does not work in the family business, but is emotionally troubled. Julia's son Lance loves money and yearns for power, but lacks Angela's discipline and determination. Her ever-tightening grip on him eventually sends him to work for his grandfather's newspaper, The San Francisco Globe. Aiding Angela in her quest for more power is her crooked lawyer, Phillip Erikson (Mel Ferrer), who would later become her second husband.

Chase's wife Maggie (Susan Sullivan) is a freelance writer who later works at The New Globe newspaper; their grown son Cole (William R. Moses) works at the winery with Chase, and daughter Vickie (Jamie Rose, later Dana Sparks) is just finishing school. Eventually realizing that she would not gain control over Chase's land anytime soon, Angela hopes to enlarge her empire by forcing Lance into an arranged marriage with Melissa Agretti (briefly played by Delores Cantú, later by Ana Alicia), heiress to the much-coveted Agretti Vineyards. Scheming Melissa becomes embroiled in a love triangle with Lance and Cole, even marrying Lance while pregnant with Cole's child.

In the second season, a true rival for Angela arrives in the form of conniving Richard Channing (David Selby), the illegitimate son of Angela's ex-husband Douglas Channing and Chase's mother. He inherits most of his father's shares in the family newspaper after Douglas dies, and uses his new wealth and power to seek retribution against both Angela and Chase for always treating him like an outcast. Richard crosses them at every turn and makes several attempts to wrest control of Falcon Crest.

Early seasons
Despite its reputation as merely being "Dallas with grapes", Falcon Crest soon found its niche among the primetime soap dramas of the 1980s, occupying the middle ground between the two genre extremes — being more glamorous than Dallas, yet not quite as outrageous as Dynasty. The distinctive location filming in the Napa Valley and the dry, wryly humorous tone of the scripts gave the series a personality of its own.

The rivalry between Angela, Chase, and Richard stayed at the core of the show for several years, as more romantic entanglements spun around them. Lance and Cole found themselves not only caught up in their family battles for control of Falcon Crest, but were also competing for Melissa's affections.

Like its counterparts, Falcon Crest employed memorable end-of-season cliffhangers to boost ratings. The 1982–83 season ended with the resolution of a murder mystery "whodunit" plot (surrounding the death of Melissa's father, Carlo Agretti) that had spanned most of the season. The killer was revealed in front of the entire cast, only to produce a handgun. Shots were fired as the camera panned away from the mansion, fading into the final scene of a rose-draped coffin being lowered into the ground, leaving the audience to wonder who had been killed.

The third-season cliffhanger in 1984 involved a plane crash carrying most of the major characters, resulting in three of their deaths. A bomb explosion which ended the fourth season left Richard and Maggie in peril, and an earthquake that rippled through the valley ended the fifth season. The cliffhanger of the sixth season put Chase, Melissa, Richard, newcomer Dan Fixx and Maggie's baby in danger of drowning in the San Francisco Bay area. At the end of the seventh season, Melissa had finally wrested complete control of Falcon Crest away from Angela, while Richard was apparently murdered by "The Thirteen", a powerful group of shady businessmen whom he had turned against.

Falcon Crest was a top ten series from 1982 to 1985 (peaking at No. 7 in the 1983–84 season), airing after Dallas on Friday nights at 10:00 p.m.

Later seasons
With the departures of many of the core cast, coupled with the shifting tastes of the public in the mid-1980s, ratings began to drop (as had ratings for all of the primetime soaps of that era). By the late 1980s, U.S. ratings were dominated by sitcoms and more realistic legal/crime dramas such as L.A. Law and In the Heat of the Night. During its eighth season, Soap Opera Digest gave Falcon Crest the title of "Most Ruined Show" (that season finished 52nd in the annual ratings). The series attempted to revitalize like Knots Landing had successfully done the previous year, but by the beginning of the ninth and final season in 1989, Angela, Lance, and Emma were the only three characters left from the original cast. Jane Wyman was absent for most of that season due to her own health concerns; storylines had Angela attacked and fall into a coma for several months. The final season then revolved around a battle between Richard and newcomer Michael Sharpe for control of Falcon Crest.

CBS executives made the decision to end Falcon Crest when ratings during the ninth season dropped to 63rd place. Jane Wyman returned to the series for the last three episodes. The show ended happily with a family wedding taking place on the grounds of the mansion. Taking a walk outside, Angela delivered a soliloquy (written by Wyman herself) that brought the series to a conclusion, mentioning past characters and events, but looking forward to the future. The final scene of the series shows her raising her glass to the land: "A toast to you, Falcon Crest, and long may you live."

Home media
The rights to the series are held by Warner Bros., successor-in-interest to the original production company Lorimar. The first season was released on DVD in various European countries in April and May 2009, and the second season was released from October 2009 onwards, again in various European countries.

Warner Bros. has released the first three seasons on DVD in region 1. Season one was released on April 20, 2010, season two on September 24, 2010, and season three on May 28, 2013. Seasons two and three were released by the Warner Archive Collection as Manufacture-on-Demand (MOD) releases. Season four became available digitally on iTunes in 2016.

Planned revival
Following the relaunch of Dallas in 2012, it was reported that stars of Falcon Crest had been approached about appearing in a revival of their show. It was proposed that the series would focus on Cole Gioberti (William Moses) and Richard Channing (David Selby). However, plans for a new series never came to fruition.

Turkish adaptation
In 2018, a remake of the series was made in Turkey called Şahin Tepesi, the same name used when the original Falcon Crest aired in Turkey in the 1980s.

title: Falcon Crest


text:
Atorvastatin

Atorvastatin is a statin medication used to prevent cardiovascular disease in those at high risk and to treat abnormal lipid levels. For the prevention of cardiovascular disease, statins are a first-line treatment. It is taken by mouth.

Common side effects include joint pain, diarrhea, heartburn, nausea, and muscle pains. Serious side effects may include rhabdomyolysis, liver problems, and diabetes. Use during pregnancy may harm the fetus. Like all statins, atorvastatin works by inhibiting HMG-CoA reductase, an enzyme found in the liver that plays a role in producing cholesterol.

Atorvastatin was patented in 1986, and approved for medical use in the United States in 1996. It is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines. It is available as a generic medication. In 2021, it was the most commonly prescribed medication in the United States, with more than 116million prescriptions filled for over 28 million patients.

Medical uses
The primary uses of atorvastatin is for the treatment of dyslipidemia and the prevention of cardiovascular disease:

Dyslipidemia

 * Hypercholesterolemia (heterozygous familial and nonfamilial) and mixed dyslipidemia (Fredrickson types IIa and IIb) to reduce total cholesterol, LDL-C, apo-B, triglycerides levels, and CRP as well as increase HDL levels.
 * Heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia in children
 * Homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia
 * Hypertriglyceridemia (Fredrickson Type IV)
 * Primary dysbetalipoproteinemia (Fredrickson Type III)
 * Combined hyperlipidemia

Cardiovascular disease

 * Primary prevention of heart attack, stroke, and need for revascularization procedures in people who have risk factors such as age, smoking, high blood pressure, low HDL-C, and a family history of early heart disease, but have not yet developed evidence of coronary artery disease.
 * Secondary prevention of all-cause mortality, myocardial infarction, stroke, major coronary events, ischaemic heart disease and revascularization in people with established coronary artery disease. The effect is dose dependent and is amplified at higher doses. Close monitoring of liver function tests is required when high doses is used.
 * Myocardial infarction and stroke prevention in people with type 2 diabetes

A 2014 meta-analysis showed high-dose statin therapy was significantly superior compared to moderate or low-intensity statin therapy in reducing plaque volume in patients with acute coronary syndrome. The SATURN trial, which compared the effects of high-dose atorvastatin and rosuvastatin, also confirmed these findings.

Kidney disease
There is evidence from systematic review and meta-analyses that statins, particularly atorvastatin, reduce both decline in kidney function (eGFR) and the severity of protein excretion in urine,  with higher doses having greater effect. Data are conflicting for whether statins reduce risk of kidney failure. Statins, including atorvastatin, before heart surgery do not prevent acute kidney injury.

Prior to contrast medium (CM) administration, pre-treatment with atorvastatin therapy can reduce the risk of contrast-induced acute kidney injury (CI-AKI) in patients with pre-existing chronic kidney disease (CKD) (eGFR < 60mL/min/1.73m2) who undergo interventional procedures such as cardiac catheterisation, coronary angiography (CAG) or percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). A meta-analysis of 21 RCTs confirmed that high dose (80 mg) atorvastatin therapy is more effective than regular dose or low dose statin therapy at preventing CI-AKI. Atorvastatin therapy can also help to prevent in-hospital dialysis post CM administration, however there is no evidence that it reduces all-cause mortality associated with CI-AKI. Overall, the evidence concludes that statin therapy, irrespective of the dose, is still more effective than no treatment or placebo at reducing the risk of CI-AKI.

Administration
Statins (predominantly simvastatin) have been evaluated in clinical trials in combination with fibrates to manage dyslipidemia in patients who also have type 2 diabetes, and a high cardiovascular disease risk, however, there is limited clinical benefit noted for most cardiovascular outcomes

Statins with shorter half-lives are more effective when taken in the evening, so their peak effect occurs when the body’s natural cholesterol production is at its highest. A recent meta-analysis suggested that statins with longer half-lives, including atorvastatin, may also be more effective at lowering LDL cholesterol if taken in the evening. However, the only study included in the meta-analysis of atorvastatin in patients with heart disease, did not specifically investigate if morning or evening dosing was more effective for reducing LDL cholesterol. Although, the trial did confirm that, irrespective of dosing time, atorvastatin is very effective at reducing total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol and triglycerides and increasing HDL cholesterol levels. Hence, Atorvastatin should be taken at the same time each day, at a time that is most convenient for the patient, so it does not compromise compliance.

Specific populations

 * Geriatric: Plasma concentrations of atorvastatin in healthy elderly subjects are higher than those in young adults. However clinical data suggests there is a similar reduction of LDL cholesterol and cardiovascular events at any dose in this population and adults younger than 65 years of age.
 * Pediatric: Pharmacokinetic data is not available for this population.
 * Gender: Plasma concentrations are generally higher in women than in men, but there is no clinically significant difference in the extent of LDL reduction between men and women.
 * Kidney impairment: Kidney disease has no statistically significant influence on plasma concentrations of atorvastatin and dose adjustment considerations should only be made in context of the patient's overall health.
 * Hemodialysis: Although there has been moderate-to-high quality of evidence to show the lack of clear and significant clinical benefits of statins (including atorvastatin at a dose of 20mg) minimizing non-fatal myocardial infarction, stroke, and cardiovascular mortality in adult patients on haemodialysis (including those with diabetes and/or pre-existing cardiovascular diseases) despite the clinically relevant reduction in total/LDL cholesterol levels,  there is evidence that haemodialysis patients who received moderate intensity statin therapy had a lower risk of all-cause mortality.
 * However, data (post hoc analysis) on atorvastatin has revealed that it may still be beneficial in reducing combined cardiac events, cardiac and all-cause mortality in those with a higher baseline LDL cholesterol >3.75 mmol/L.  While the SHARP study suggested that LDL cholesterol-lowering treatments (e.g. statin/ezetimibe combination) are effective in reducing the risks of major atherosclerotic events in the CKD patients including those on dialysis, the subgroup analysis of the haemodialysis patients had revealed no significant benefits.  Whether or not haemodialysis had any impact on the statin levels was not specifically addressed in these major trials.
 * Hepatic Impairment: Increased drug levels can be seen in patients with advanced cirrhosis; specific precaution should be used in patients with chronic alcoholic liver disease. Despite these concerns, a 2017 systematic review and analysis of available evidence has shown that statins, such as atorvastatin, are relatively safe to use in stable, asymptomatic cirrhosis and may even reduce the risk of liver disease progression and death.

Contraindications

 * Active liver disease: cholestasis, hepatic encephalopathy, hepatitis, and jaundice
 * Pregnancy: Atorvastatin is unlikely to cause fetal anomalies but may be associated with low birth weight and preterm labour.
 * Breastfeeding: Small amounts of other statin medications have been found to pass into breast milk, although atorvastatin has not been studied, specifically. Due to risk of disrupting a breastfeeding infant's metabolism of lipids, atorvastatin is not regarded as compatible with breastfeeding.
 * Markedly elevated CPK levels or if a myopathy is suspected or diagnosed after dosing of atorvastatin has begun. Very rarely, atorvastatin may cause rhabdomyolysis, and it may be very serious leading to acute kidney injury due to myoglobinuria. When rhabdomyolysis is suspected or diagnosed, atorvastatin therapy is discontinued immediately. The likelihood of developing a myopathy is increased by the co-administration of cyclosporine, fibric acid derivatives, erythromycin, niacin, and azole antifungals.

Major

 * Type 2 diabetes is observed in a small number of people, and is an uncommon class effect of all statins.  It appears it may be more likely in people who were already at a higher risk of developing diabetes before starting a statin due to multiple risk factors, for example raised fasting glucose levels. However, the benefits of statin therapy in preventing fatal and non-fatal stroke, fatal coronary heart disease, and non-fatal myocardial infarction are significant. For most people the benefits of statin therapy far outweigh the risk of developing diabetes. A 2010 meta-analysis demonstrated that every 255 people treated with a statin for four years – produced a reduction of 5.4 major coronary events and induced only one new case of diabetes.
 * In some case and clinical studies mild muscle pain or weakness have been reported (around 3%), compared to a placebo. However, this increase was not related to statin therapy in 90% of cases in a large meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. In patients taking higher statin doses, a similarly low increase in muscle pain and weakness was present (5%) with no clear evidence of a dose-response relationship. Duration of treatment with atorvastatin is unlikely to increase the risk of muscle-related side effects as most occur within the first year of treatment, after which the risk is not increased further. The known cardiovascular benefits of atorvastatin over time outweigh the low risk of muscle-related side effects.
 * Statin-induced rhabdomyolysis is rare; occurring in less than 0.1% of people who take statins. Statin induced rhabdomyolysis, as with other statin associated muscle symptoms, occurs most commonly in the first year of treatment however can occur at any time during treatment. Risk factors for statin induced rhabdomyolysis include older age, renal impairment, high dose statins and use of medications that reduce the breakdown of statins (eg CYP3A4 inhibitors) or fibrates.
 * Persistent liver enzyme abnormalities (usually elevated in hepatic transaminases) have been documented. Elevations threefold greater than normal were recorded in 0.5% of people treated with atorvastatin 10 mg-80 mg rather than placebo. Usage instructions in package inserts for this statin define the requirement that hepatic function be assessed with laboratory tests before beginning atorvastatin treatment and repeated periodically as clinically indicated - usually a clinicians' judgement. Package inserts for this statin recommend actions should liver abnormalities be detected, ultimately, this is the judgment of the prescribing physician.

Common
The following have been shown to occur in 1–10% of people taking atorvastatin in clinical trials:
 * Joint pain
 * Loose stools
 * Indigestion
 * Muscle pain
 * Nausea

Increased fasting blood glucose
Atorvastatin has been associated with a small increase in fasting blood glucose levels over a 2-year period, particularly in patients with Type 2 Diabetes, however evidence is conflicting and clinical significance of this increase has not been determined. Regular blood glucose monitoring may be advised in patients with Type 2 Diabetes.

Cognitive
There have been rare reports of reversible memory loss and confusion with all statins, including atorvastatin; however, there has not been enough evidence to associate statin use with cognitive impairment, and the risks for cognition are likely outweighed by the beneficial effects of adherence to statin therapy on cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease.

Pancreatitis
A 2012 meta-analysis found that statin therapy might reduce the risk of pancreatitis in people with normal or mildly elevated blood triglyceride levels.

Erectile dysfunction
Statins seem to have a positive effect on erectile dysfunction.

Interactions
Fibrates are a class of drugs that can be used for severe or refractory mixed hyperlipidaemia in combination with statins or as monotherapy. While studies have suggested that the combined use of statins and the fibrate drug class (such as gemfibrozil, fenofibrate) may increase the risk of myopathy and rhabdomyolysis, there is insufficient evidence to firmly establish this association with atorvastatin.

Co-administration of atorvastatin with one of CYP3A4 inhibitors such as itraconazole, telithromycin, and voriconazole, may increase serum concentrations of atorvastatin, which may lead to adverse reactions. This is less likely to happen with other CYP3A4 inhibitors such as diltiazem, erythromycin, fluconazole, ketoconazole, clarithromycin, cyclosporine, protease inhibitors, or verapamil, and only rarely with other CYP3A4 inhibitors, such as amiodarone and aprepitant. Often, bosentan, fosphenytoin, and phenytoin, which are CYP3A4 inducers, can decrease the plasma concentrations of atorvastatin. Only rarely, though, barbiturates, carbamazepine, efavirenz, nevirapine, oxcarbazepine, rifampin, and rifamycin, which are also CYP3A4 inducers, can decrease the plasma concentrations of atorvastatin. Oral contraceptives increased AUC values for norethisterone and ethinylestradiol; these increases should be considered when selecting an oral contraceptive for a woman taking atorvastatin.

Antacids can rarely decrease the plasma concentrations of statin medications, but do not affect the LDL-C-lowering efficacy.

Niacin also is proved to increase the risk of myopathy or rhabdomyolysis.

Some statins may also alter the concentrations of other medications, such as warfarin or digoxin, leading to alterations in effect or a requirement for clinical monitoring. The increase in digoxin levels due to atorvastatin is a 1.2 fold elevation in the area under the curve (AUC), resulting in a minor drug-drug interaction. The American Heart Association states that the combination of digoxin and atorvastatin is reasonable. In contrast to some other statins, atorvastatin does not interact with warfarin concentrations in a clinically meaningful way (similar to pitavastatin).

Vitamin D supplementation lowers atorvastatin and active metabolite concentrations, yet synergistically reduces LDL and total cholesterol concentrations.

Grapefruit juice components are known inhibitors of intestinal CYP3A4. Drinking grapefruit juice with atorvastatin may cause an increase in Cmax and area under the curve (AUC). This finding initially gave rise to concerns of toxicity, and in 2000, it was recommended that people taking atorvastatin should not consume grapefruit juice "in an unsupervised manner." Small studies (using mostly young participants) examining the effects of grapefruit juice consumption on mainly lower doses of atorvastatin have shown that grapefruit juice increases blood levels of atorvastatin, which could increase the risk of adverse effects. No studies assessing the impact of grapefruit juice consumption have included participants taking the highest dose of atorvastatin (80 mg daily),  which is often prescribed for people with a history of cardiovascular disease (such as heart attack or ischaemic stroke) or in people at high risk of cardiovascular disease. People taking atorvastatin should consult with their doctor or pharmacist before consuming grapefruit juice, as the effects of grapefruit juice consumption on atorvastatin will vary according to factors such as the amount and frequency of juice consumption in addition to differences in juice components, quality and method of juice preparation between different batches or brands.

A few cases of myopathy have been reported when atorvastatin is given with colchicine.

Mechanism of action
As with other statins, atorvastatin is a competitive inhibitor of HMG-CoA reductase. Unlike most others, however, it is a completely synthetic compound. HMG-CoA reductase catalyzes the reduction of 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A (HMG-CoA) to mevalonate, which is the rate-limiting step in hepatic cholesterol biosynthesis. Inhibition of the enzyme decreases de novo cholesterol synthesis, increasing expression of low-density lipoprotein receptors (LDL receptors) on hepatocytes. This increases LDL uptake by the hepatocytes, decreasing the amount of LDL-cholesterol in the blood. Like other statins, atorvastatin also reduces blood levels of triglycerides and slightly increases levels of HDL-cholesterol.

In people with acute coronary syndrome, high-dose atorvastatin treatment may play a plaque-stabilizing role. At high doses, statins have anti-inflammatory effects, incite reduction of the necrotic plaque core, and improve endothelial function, leading to plaque stabilization and, sometimes, plaque regression. There is a similar thought process with using high-dose atorvastatin as a form of secondary thrombotic stroke recurrence prevention.

Pharmacodynamics
The liver is the primary site of action of atorvastatin, as this is the principal site of both cholesterol synthesis and LDL clearance. It is the dosage of atorvastatin, rather than systemic medication concentration, which correlates with extent of LDL-C reduction. In a Cochrane systematic review the dose-related magnitude of atorvastatin on blood lipids was determined. Over the dose range of 10 to 80 mg/day total cholesterol was reduced by 27.0% to 37.9%, LDL cholesterol by 37.1% to 51.7% and triglycerides by 18.0% to 28.3%.

Absorption
Atorvastatin undergoes rapid absorption when taken orally, with an approximate time to maximum plasma concentration (Tmax) of 1–2 h. The absolute bioavailability of the medication is about 14%, but the systemic availability for HMG-CoA reductase activity is approximately 30%. Atorvastatin undergoes high intestinal clearance and first-pass metabolism, which is the main cause for the low systemic availability. Administration of atorvastatin with food produces a 25% reduction in Cmax (rate of absorption) and a 9% reduction in AUC (extent of absorption), although food does not affect the plasma LDL-C-lowering efficacy of atorvastatin. Evening dose administration is known to reduce the Cmax and AUC by 30% each. However, time of administration does not affect the plasma LDL-C-lowering efficacy of atorvastatin.

Distribution
The mean volume of distribution of atorvastatin is approximately 381 L. It is highly protein bound (≥98%), and studies have shown it is likely secreted into human breastmilk.

Metabolism
Atorvastatin metabolism is primarily through cytochrome P450 3A4 hydroxylation to form active ortho- and parahydroxylated metabolites, as well as various beta-oxidation metabolites. The ortho- and parahydroxylated metabolites are responsible for 70% of systemic HMG-CoA reductase activity. The ortho-hydroxy metabolite undergoes further metabolism via glucuronidation. As a substrate for the CYP3A4 isozyme, it has shown susceptibility to inhibitors and inducers of CYP3A4 to produce increased or decreased plasma concentrations, respectively. This interaction was tested in vitro with concurrent administration of erythromycin, a known CYP3A4 isozyme inhibitor, which resulted in increased plasma concentrations of atorvastatin. It is also an inhibitor of cytochrome 3A4.

Excretion
Atorvastatin is primarily eliminated via hepatic biliary excretion, with less than 2% recovered in the urine. Bile elimination follows hepatic and/or extrahepatic metabolism. There does not appear to be any entero-hepatic recirculation. Atorvastatin has an approximate elimination half-life of 14 hours. Noteworthy, the HMG-CoA reductase inhibitory activity appears to have a half-life of 20–30 hours, which is thought to be due to the active metabolites. Atorvastatin is also a substrate of the intestinal P-glycoprotein efflux transporter, which pumps the medication back into the intestinal lumen during medication absorption.

In hepatic insufficiency, plasma concentrations of atorvastatin are significantly affected by concurrent liver disease. People with Child-Pugh Stage A liver disease show a four-fold increase in both Cmax and AUC. People with Child Pugh stage B liver disease show a 16-fold increase in Cmax and an 11-fold increase in AUC.

Geriatric people (>65years old) exhibit altered pharmacokinetics of atorvastatin compared to young adults, with mean AUC and Cmax values that are 40% and 30% higher, respectively. Additionally, healthy elderly people show a greater pharmacodynamic response to atorvastatin at any dose; therefore, this population may have lower effective doses.

Pharmacogenetics
Several genetic polymorphisms may be linked to an increase in statin-related side effects with single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the SLCO1B1 gene showing a 45 fold higher incidence of statin related myopathy than people without the polymorphism.

There are several studies showing genetic variants and variable response to atorvastatin. The polymorphisms that showed genome wide significance in Caucasian population were the SNPs in the apoE region; rs445925, rs7412, rs429358 and rs4420638 which showed variable LDL-c response depending on the genotype when treated with atorvastatin. Another genetic variant that showed genome wide significance in Caucasians was the SNP rs10455872 in the LPA gene that lead to higher Lp(a) levels which cause an apparent lower LDL-c response to atorvastatin. These studies were in Caucasian population, more research with a large cohort need to be conducted in different ethnicities to identify more polymorphisms that can affect atorvastatin pharmacokinetics and treatment response.

Chemical synthesis

The first synthesis of atorvastatin at Parke-Davis that occurred during drug discovery was racemic followed by chiral chromatographic separation of the enantiomers. An early enantioselective route to atorvastatin made use of an ester chiral auxiliary to set the stereochemistry of the first of the two alcohol functional groups via a diastereoselective aldol reaction.

Once the compound entered pre-clinical development, process chemistry developed a cost-effective and scalable synthesis. In atorvastatin's case, a key element of the overall synthesis was ensuring stereochemical purity in the final drug substance, and hence establishing the first stereocenter became a key aspect of the overall design. The final commercial production of atorvastatin relied on a chiral pool approach, where the stereochemistry of the first alcohol functional group was carried into the synthesis—through the choice of isoascorbic acid, an inexpensive and easily sourced plant-derived natural product.

The atorvastatin calcium complex involves two atorvastatin ions, one calcium ion and three water molecules.

History
Bruce Roth, who was hired by Warner-Lambert as a chemist in 1982, had synthesized an "experimental compound" codenamed CI 981 – later called atorvastatin. It was first made in August 1985. Warner-Lambert management was concerned that atorvastatin was a me-too version of rival Merck & Co.'s orphan drug lovastatin (brand name Mevacor). Mevacor, which was first marketed in 1987, was the industry's first statin and Merck's synthetic version – simvastatin – was in the advanced stages of development. Nevertheless, Bruce Roth and his bosses, Roger Newton and Ronald Cresswell, in 1985, convinced company executives to move the compound into expensive clinical trials. Early results comparing atorvastatin to simvastatin demonstrated that atorvastatin appeared more potent and with fewer side effects.

In 1994, the findings of a Merck-funded study were published in The Lancet concluding the efficacy of statins in lowering cholesterol proving for the first time not only that a "statin reduced 'bad' LDL cholesterol but also that it led to a sharp drop in fatal heart attacks among people with heart disease."

In 1996, Warner-Lambert entered into a co-marketing agreement with Pfizer to sell Lipitor, and in 2000, Pfizer acquired Warner-Lambert for $90.2billion. Lipitor was on the market by 1996. By 2003, Lipitor had become the best selling pharmaceutical in the United States. From 1996 to 2012, under the trade name Lipitor, atorvastatin became the world's best-selling medication of all time, with more than $125billion in sales over approximately 14.5years. and $13 billion a year at its peak, Lipitor alone "provided up to a quarter of Pfizer Inc.'s annual revenue for years."

Pfizer's patent on atorvastatin expired in November 2011.

Economics
Atorvastatin is relatively inexpensive. Under provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) in the United States, health plans may cover the costs of atorvastatin 10 mg and 20 mg for adults aged 40–75 years based on United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommendations. Some plans only cover other statins.

Brand names
Atorvastatin calcium tablets are sold under the brand name Lipitor. Pfizer also packages the medication in combination with other medications, such as atorvastatin/amlodipine.

Pfizer's U.S. patent on Lipitor expired on 30 November 2011. Initially, generic atorvastatin was manufactured only by Watson Pharmaceuticals and India's Ranbaxy Laboratories. Prices for the generic version did not drop to the level of other generics—$10 or less for a month's supply—until other manufacturers began to supply the medication in May 2012.

In other countries, atorvastatin calcium is made in tablet form by generic medication makers under various brand names including Atoris, Atorlip, Atorva, Atorvastatin Teva, Atorvastatina Parke-Davis, Avas, Cardyl, Liprimar, Litorva, Mactor, Orbeos, Prevencor, Sortis, Stator, Tahor, Torid, Torvacard, Torvast, Totalip, Tulip, Xarator, and Zarator. Pfizer also makes its own generic version under the name Zarator.

In the US, Lipitor is marketed by Viatris after Upjohn was spun off from Pfizer.

Medication recalls
On 9 November 2012, Indian drugmaker Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd. voluntarily recalled 10-, 20- and 40-mg doses of its generic version of atorvastatin in the United States. The lots of atorvastatin, packaged in bottles of 90 and 500 tablets, were recalled due to possible contamination with very small glass particles similar to the size of a grain of sand (less than 1mm in size). The FDA received no reports of injury from the contamination. Ranbaxy also issued recalls of bottles of 10-milligram tablets in August 2012 and March 2014, due to concerns that the bottles might contain larger, 20-milligram tablets and thus cause potential dosing errors.

authors: حسن علي البط

title: Atorvastatin


text:
Lunar (series)

Lunar (ルナ) is a series of role-playing video games, developed by Game Arts in Japan and published in the United States by Working Designs, Ubisoft, and Xseed Games.

The original releases of The Silver Star and Eternal Blue were published for the Sega CD. The Silver Star was critically acclaimed and was the top selling game in Japanese Mega CD history. Both games were later remade for the Japanese Sega Saturn with considerable story, graphical, and musical changes. These remakes were later ported to the PlayStation in Japan and North America. The first game was also ported to the Microsoft Windows computer platform in Japan and Korea, and was later remade for the Game Boy Advance and PlayStation Portable in Japan and North America.

A side-story game, Lunar: Walking School for the Game Gear, was also remade for the Sega Saturn but has seen no North America release in any form. Backed by publisher Ubisoft, Game Arts created a new Lunar installment for the Nintendo DS, released in September 2005 in North America.

Plot

The Lunar stories take place on an inhabitable moon called Lunar, or "The Silver Star", that orbits a planet known as "The Blue Star". Thousands of years ago, the Blue Star was infected with evil by a dark god named Zophar. His evil corrupted the hearts of people, turning some into monsters to do his bidding. The survivors cried out to the patron-deity of the Blue Star, a Goddess named Althena, for help. She confronted Zophar in an epic battle, and was only able to stop him by using her powers of creation to seal him in another dimension, destroying nearly all life on the planet in the process.

Unable to restore the planet until several millennia had passed, Althena instead chose to transform the planet's moon into an earthlike world, and transported the survivors there. These included not only humans but also a race of "beast-men", and another race of elf-like beings skilled in wielding magic. The only elf-like being depicted in Lunar is Ghaleon, who is a confirmed member of the Vile Tribe in "Lunar: Vane Hikuusen Monogatari", which is mysteriously classified here as a "fourth race", despite there being only three. There was also a fourth race of people who would later come to be known as "The Vile Tribe" after they rejected Althena's teachings. She was forced to banish them to an area of Lunar called "The Frontier", a barren wasteland where even Althena's magical power could not reach. They became enemies of Althena and her followers for thousands of years.

To protect Lunar, Althena created four intelligent Dragons – a white one, a red one, a blue one, and a black one – that each shared a part of her divine power. There are only four Dragons at any given time, though they are replaced over time with younger ones. Strangely, during their infancy, these dragons resemble talking, winged cats, until they claim the power of their predecessor and ascend to adulthood. The Dragons spend most of their time sleeping underground until they are needed.

Althena also decreed that there would be a champion called The Dragonmaster to lead Lunar's heroes. This person would be anyone who managed to make their way to the hidden lairs of the Four Dragons, and pass their harrowing trials. There have been many Dragonmasters across the centuries, and many on Lunar have striven to achieve that title. The people of Lunar became very devoted to Althena, though many remember Lunar's origins as only an old legend. The various Lunar games and manga cover different events in Lunar's history.

Reception
The Lunar series has spawned a variety of other works in the setting, including a manga series, two artbooks, as well as novelizations of The Silver Star, Magic School Lunar! and Eternal Blue. The console titles have generally been received very positively; the two PlayStation versions generally place well in considerations of the best games available for the system. The original two games, and their remakes, have reviewed very well, averaging between 82% and 91%, and with Eternal Blue generally agreed to be the highest-reviewed Sega CD title in the history of the platform. Lunar Dragon Song, however, was panned critically, with an aggregate rating of 58% on GameRankings.

Sales
The series has sold over one million copies, placing it among the best-selling Japanese role-playing game franchises.

Total sales of Lunar franchise – 1,052,011:
 * Lunar: The Silver Star (Sega CD) – 100,000 (Japan)
 * Lunar: Eternal Blue (Sega CD) – 89,480 (Japan)
 * Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete (Sega Saturn) – 200,035 (original release) in Japan; 8,346 (MPEG Version) in Japan
 * Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete (Sega Saturn) – 90,837 (Japan)
 * Mahō Gakuen Lunar! (Sega Saturn) – 15,999 (Japan)
 * Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete (PlayStation) – 44,802 (Japan)
 * Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete (PlayStation) – 53,983 (Japan)
 * PlayStation releases – 393,000 (US)
 * Lunar Legend (Game Boy Advance) – 13,506 (Japan)
 * Lunar Genesis (Nintendo DS) – 24,673 (Japan)
 * Lunar: Silver Star Harmony (PSP) – 17,350 (Japan)

Abandoned sequel
Since the release of the enhanced remakes of Lunar: Silver Star Story and Lunar 2: Eternal Blue, rumors have come and gone concerning the development of a game known only as Lunar 3. In a 1998 interview, Victor Ireland, president of Working Designs, stated that Lunar 3 was in the design phase. However, no such game was ever revealed by Game Arts or Entertainment Software Publishing, the Japanese publisher of the series. At the time Ireland, as part of a feud with Sega of America, repeatedly brought up during interviews that Working Designs held the American publication rights to the Lunar series and would only publish the games for non-Sega consoles, even threatening to port the games to competing consoles themselves if they were released exclusively for Sega consoles in Japan.

title: Lunar (series)