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DeCODE genetics

deCODE genetics (Íslensk erfðagreining) is a biopharmaceutical company based in Reykjavík, Iceland. The company was founded in 1996 by Kári Stefánsson with the aim of using population genetics studies to identify variations in the human genome associated with common diseases, and to apply these discoveries "to develop novel methods to identify, treat and prevent diseases."

As of 2019, more than two-thirds of the adult population of Iceland was participating in the company's research efforts, and this "population approach" serves as a model for large-scale precision medicine and national genome projects around the world. deCODE is probably best known for its discoveries in human genetics, published in major scientific journals and widely reported in the international media. But it has also made pioneering contributions to the realization of precision medicine more broadly, through public engagement in large-scale scientific research; the development of DNA-based disease risk testing for individuals and across health systems; and new models of private sector participation and partnership in basic science and public health.

Since 2012, it has been an independent subsidiary of Amgen and its capabilities and discoveries have been used directly in the discovery and development of novel drugs. This example has helped to spur investment in genomics and precision therapeutics by other pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.

Iceland and the population approach
In 1996, when Stefansson left a tenured position at Harvard Medical School to return to Iceland to found a genomics enterprise, nearly everything in his thinking was unproven or controversial. At the time, the causes of some rare diseases - often variations in single genes that could be found by studying small families - were beginning to be uncovered. Yet it was far from universally accepted that there was any significant genetic component to common/complex diseases like heart disease or type 2 diabetes with well-known behavioral and environmental risk factors; nor, even if there were, whether such variations could be found given the rudimentary technology for reading DNA.

Stefansson was convinced that these existed and could be identified, but only by working at industrial scale. A decade before the term was in common use, deCODE's premise was that this was a big data problem: finding variants impacting risk in dynamic interaction with lifestyle and other factors would require studies not at the family level, but at the scale of public health. As a discovery venture in uncharted territory, the strategy was to assemble and query as much data as possible: DNA contributed by tens of thousands of people; both broad and deep medical and health data; and, crucially, comprehensive genealogies linking all these participants together. In short, this required a population, with people willing to take part in research, a modern healthcare system with meaningful numbers of cases of most common diseases, and much genealogical data. Iceland, Stefansson's native country, with 270,000 people at the time, fit this description better than any other.

In 1996, funded by $12 million in American venture capital, deCODE set up a laboratory and began operations. Within its first few years it recruited and genotyped tens of thousands of participants. It made rapid progress in creating a national genealogy database; developed a novel privacy protection system with government-supervised identity encryption; signed a landmark partnership with Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche; and mapped putative disease genes in a handful of conditions.

At the same time as it was beginning to prove its science, the company ignited a huge controversy with the proposal to create a research database - the Iceland Health Sector Database (or IHD for short) - containing copies of medical records from across the country's national health service. In December 1998, with lobbying from deCODE, the Icelandic Parliament passed the Act on Health Sector Database which permitted public bidding for the right of a company to create this health database and use it for commercial research and to support the national health system. The parliament shortly thereafter granted deCODE the right to create this database after the company made a successful bid to do so. Widely supported by the public and parliament, the IHD's openly commercial aims, and proposed inclusion of medical records data unless individuals opted out, unleashed vehement opposition played out in the local and international media, led by a group of Icelandic activists as well as a number of foreign bioethicists. Although the IHD was never built, the debate underscored the political challenges involved in enlisting an entire society in a scientific enterprise, especially one with the explicit aim of commercializing its discoveries. It also ensured that deCODE and its approach went from being a peripheral curiosity to one of the highest profile enterprises in the global effort to understand the human genome.

Genome of a nation
By the time Bill Clinton and Tony Blair announced the completion of the first rough draft of the human genome sequence in June 2000, deCODE was busily scaling up its gene-hunting in dozens of diseases and publishing its first discoveries. The company used the most scalable DNA-reading technology of the time - microsatellite genotyping - to place and measure highly variable and therefore informative markers at hundreds of points along the genome. Analyzed in tandem with the genealogies, this made it possible to home in on regions of specific chromosomes that people with a given disease tended to have inherited from their common ancestors. Harbored within these regions, the thinking went, were genes or sequence variants associated with disease that could subsequently be found using finer-definition methods and tools.

But the main significance of these early publications was the focus on analytics and the suggestive power of the approach. Much of the field and public attention was focused on the race between the publicly funded Human Genome Project (HGP) and the private company Celera to generate the complete sequence of a single whole genome to use as a reference for future research. This was a technical challenge to generate and assemble raw data. By contrast, deCODE was advancing a strategy for analyzing variation in tens of thousands of genomes through genetics, leveraging the nature of the genome as a means of replicating and transmitting information. The power of the genetics was on full view by 2002, when deCODE published a genetic map of the genome consisting of 5000 microsatellite markers, which the genealogies made it possible to order correctly across all the chromosomes. The map was critical to correcting and completing the public reference genome sequence in 2003, improving the accuracy of the HGP assembly from 93% to 99%.

One key to this approach has been mass participation. From its early days, over 90% of people asked to participate in deCODE's disease research have agreed to do so. Participation is voluntary but not trivial. It requires going to a data collection center to have blood drawn, answer questionnaires, and undergo clinical examinations and tests relevant to a given disease. By 2003, more than 100,000 people had volunteered to take part in one or more of deCODE's three-dozen common diseases research programs. This number rose to 130,000 by 2007, and more than 160,000 by 2018. This represents two-thirds of all adult citizens. The genomes of some 60,000 of these participants had been directly sequenced by 2019, with thousands more being sequenced every month.

A second and unique pillar of deCODE's work is the genealogies. Geneticist Mary Claire King, whose family-based research in the early 1990s led to the discovery of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 breast cancer genes, predicted not long after deCODE's founding that the ability "to trace the genealogy of an entire nation...could become one of the treasures of modern medicine." In 1997, deCODE formed a partnership with local software firm Fridrik Skulason ehf to accelerate the creation of a comprehensive, computerized national genealogy database. It drew on all available sources, from the earliest calfskin records and sagas through the 1703 census and parish records to the contemporary national registry.

By the early 2000s they had created what is still today the most comprehensive genealogy of an entire country. It links together all living citizens through virtually complete records back to 1703 (itself recognized by UNESCO as the world's first nominal national census) and stretches back to before the settlement of the country in the ninth century. In the research version of the database, the identities of individuals are encrypted via the same anonymization system used for DNA and medical data, so that the data can be correlated. And In 2003, deCODE launched a public-facing, online version of the database, called Íslendingabók, or the Book of Icelanders. Anyone with an Icelandic social security number could request a password and then research their family tree and see their nearest family connection to anyone else in the country. Within its first month online, more than one-third of the population had requested a password. By 2020, it had over 200,000 registered users and more than 900,000 linked entries, comprising the majority of Icelanders who have ever lived. On an average day, nearly 6000 people, or close to two percent of all citizens, consult the database.

In a country that is essentially a huge extended family with a correspondingly keen interest in how its members are related, Islendingabok has become a constant in national life and a daily and direct means of social engagement with deCODE's work. But in scientific terms, the ability to understand the precise genealogical relationships of all participants in its research projects has given deCODE an abiding advantage as a discovery enterprise, ensuring that its genomic and medical datasets have remained among the largest and best powered collections anywhere.

At each successive advance in technology for reading DNA the genealogies have amplified both the amount of data that can be generated from them as well as the power to extract information from the data. In the era of microsatellites, it was possible to establish that participants shared certain markers and segments of the genome not by chance but by descent. With the advent in the mid-2000s of genotyping chips, which could measure hundreds of thousands of single-letter variations (SNPs) across the genome, deCODE statisticians were able to accurately phase segments of the genome - to understand the parental source of segments -  and then impute genotypes measured in some people across the entire population.

This effectively multiplies the size and power of any study. When Illumina began selling machines that could economically sequence whole genomes, deCODE was able to directly sequence several thousand Icelanders and then impute whole genome sequence (WGS) data for virtually the entire population. This represents one of the largest single collections of WGS data in the world, and the first results of its analysis were published in 2015 in a special edition of Nature Genetics. The direct sequencing of tens of thousands of more people since then has enabled routine searches for ever rarer variants at an unprecedented scale.

Discoveries and scientific contributions
Genome research in general, and deCODE's global reputation as a discovery organization, took off with the arrival of SNP genotyping chips in the mid-2000s. These tools set off a worldwide boom in genome-wide association studies (GWAS), in which the entire genome is scanned to identify SNPs that those with a given disease tend to have one version of, while unaffected individuals tend to have another. In common diseases, as with many traits or phenotypes such as drug response, the difference is not one of causal certainty but of statistical odds representing increased or decreased risk versus the population average. The ability to conduct large studies and analyze the resulting data - from thousands of patients with a disease and many times more control subjects, ideally unaffected relatives - is therefore at a premium.

deCODE's vast collection of DNA, medical and genealogical data that could be mined together - and enriched through repeated querying and imputation - was almost perfectly suited to this type of study. Since 2003, the company has discovered and published hundreds of variants linked to susceptibility to scores of diseases and conditions, including major ongoing contributions to understanding inherited risk for Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders; a dozen common forms of cancer; coronary artery disease, stroke atrial fibrillation and the other most common cardiovascular diseases; as well as traits and phenotypes ranging from drug response to cognition and hair and eye color. The company publishes its discoveries in peer-reviewed journals, and many, such as the TCF7L2 variants in type 2 diabetes, are used as standard risk markers in polygenic risk modeling and in research.

A review of the GWAS era published in Nature Communications in 2019 quantified deCODE's outsized contribution to the field: Icelanders accounted for 12% of all participants in all published GWAS studies globally between 2007 and 2017, with each citizen participating on average to 19 published findings in that period alone. Stefansson, deCODE's research chief Unnur Thorsteinsdottir, and statistician Gudmar Thorleifsson were respectively ranked the first-, second- and sixth-highest impact GWAS authors in the world.

Adding whole-genome sequencing (WGS) on top of its genotyping data gave a new dimension and power to deCODE's discovery capabilities. By definition, the common SNPs on standard genotyping chips yielded reliable risk markers but not a determinant foothold in the biology of complex diseases. Yet by running the company's growing number of directly sequenced whole genomes through the genotyping data and genealogies as a scaffold, the company's statisticians have been able to impute very high definition WGS on the entire population. The result has been the ability to conduct GWAS studies using from 20 to 50 million variants, and to systematically search for rare variants that either cause or confer very high risk of extreme versions of common phenotypes, and thereby pointing directly to putative drug targets.

The value of this approach is best known from the model of PCSK9, in which the study of families with extremely high cholesterol levels and early-onset heart disease led to an understanding of the key role of this gene and the development of a new class of cholesterol-fighting drugs. deCODE now routinely searches for such rare variants across many phenotypes and the results have provided the basis of drug discovery and development programs. For example, since 2016 its important contributions in cardiovascular disease include demonstrating that it is non-HDL cholesterol rather than merely LDL levels that most accurately reflect risk of heart disease; finding variants in the ASGR1 gene that protect against coronary artery disease; and defining the role of lipoprotein (a) as a major risk factor for heart attack.

As all deCODE's data sits on its servers and can be queried simultaneously, it can also be queried with remarkable speed. In 2014, a group from the Broad Institute stopped by at deCODE on its way back from Finland, where through a major research effort they had found a variant that protected carriers against type 2 diabetes. Over coffee, the deCODE team confirmed that the Finnish variant did not exist in Iceland, but that another did. The Broad group added it to the paper announcing the discovery.

Because of its singular population resources and the questions its scientists can ask and answer, many of deCODE's most remarkable findings have been in basic science. One notable focus has been on elucidating how variation in the sequence of the genome is generated. Following its microsatellite-based genetic map of the genome in 2002, the company created and made available to the scientific community two more: one in 2010 built on 300,000 SNPs, and another in 2019 built on WGS data. Recombination - the reshuffling of chromosomes that takes place in the making of eggs and sperm - is a primary mechanism for generating diversity and to build these maps. Over fifteen years deCODE has published a series of breakthrough papers detailing in a real human population how recombination rate varies according to sex, age and other characteristics, and how these differences impact the generation of genomic diversity and variation of many kinds. The general picture that has emerged is that the genome is generating diversity but within certain bounds, providing a dynamic but generally stable substrate for natural selection and evolution.

To understand the population that it is working in and to address broader questions few can in the same way, deCODE has also from its early days had its own genetic anthropology group. It has published pioneering work on mitochondrial and Y-chromosome mutation to trace the Norwegian and Celtic mix in the early population; sequenced ancient DNA from the settlement period; compared ancient and modern Icelandic genomes to see how genetic drift, epidemics and natural disasters have yielded a modern-day population genetically distinct from its forebears and source populations. and observed variants under positive natural selection in a present-day society. The company has also catalogued human knockouts - people missing certain genes - and reconstructed the genome of the first man of African descent to live in Iceland by analyzing the sequences of hundreds of his living descendants. These studies are avidly followed by foreign and Icelandic media alike, and constitute another type of return that deCODE renders to the society it studies and works within.

Product innovation
deCODE's scientific leadership over more than twenty years has enabled it repeatedly to pioneer new types of partnerships, products and applications for many aspects of precision medicine. Between 1998 and 2004, the company signed high-profile and innovative partnerships with pharmaceutical companies Roche, Merck, Bayer, Wyeth and others. These alliances provided research funding to advance deCODE's work, with goals of finding genetically validated new drug targets in common diseases; to develop DNA-based diagnostics, that could gauge risk of disease or predict drug response and identify patients most likely to benefit from a drug; and to design "information-rich" clinical trials that would enroll participants with particular genetic variants, with the potential to make trials smaller, more informative, and with a greater chance of success.

In 2002, deCODE acquired a Chicago-based medicinal chemistry company in order to discover compounds based on its genetics discoveries and so to begin to develop its own pipeline of new drugs. Over the next few years the company initiated and completed several early-stage clinical trials for potential new treatments for heart attack, peripheral artery disease, and conducted work with partners on asthma and SMA. These were early examples of what would today be called 'precision medicine' programs: using genetics for target discovery and to select trial participants by testing them for disease susceptibility through the same pathway targeted by the drug.

In the mid-2000s, deCODE launched a new kind of risk diagnostic focused largely on prevention and wellness. These DNA-based diagnostic tests detected genetic variants identified by deCODE and others that correlated with significantly increased individual risk of common diseases including heart attack, atrial fibrillation and stroke, type 2 diabetes, common (non-BRCA) breast cancer, prostate cancer and glaucoma. The type 2 diabetes test, for example, was based on published studies that showed that approximately 10% of people carried two copies of deCODE's highest impact risk variant, putting them at twice the average risk of developing diabetes, independent of obesity. The medical purpose of the test was "to identify prediabetics at higher than average risk of progressing to full-blown diabetes, and that these same individuals can effectively counteract this added risk through weight loss and through the use of certain medications."

Another novel characteristic of these tests was the integration of multiple, well-validated genetic risk factors. The overall impact of these different risk factors was combined and calculated into what was called a polygenic risk score, placing the individual on a spectrum of risk with regard to that of the population in general, independent of and in addition to other health or lifestyle risk factors. With each new discovery, deCODE could broaden the risk factors tested. The idea was to make screening and prevention strategies and therapies more specific and more effective for those at higher risk, and hopefully to provide new incentive for individuals to follow through with well understood lifestyle modification such as weight loss, smoking cessation, etc. This was the essence of what was then called personalized medicine, but because these tests were new, their medical usefulness was as yet unproven. As everyone is by definition at risk of common diseases, and doctors generally understood genetic risk only as it referred to rare diseases, the medical community approached these tests with skepticism. In 2018, advocacy for the use of polygenic risk scores for identifying those at significantly increased risk of common diseases, and using whole-genome data and new algorithms to build on many early deCODE markers, began a revival.

To judge by the intense media coverage of deCODE's discoveries, ordinary people were very certainly interested in these genetic risk factors and how they might be relevant to their health. In late 2007, the company effectively launched the field of personal genomics with its deCODEme direct-to-consumer (DTC) scan aimed at enabling people to better understand their risk of common diseases and use this information to stay healthy. deCODEme hit the market a day before the now widely known, Google-funded 23andMe. deCODEme's marketing emphasized its pedigree, seriousness and scientific rigor: "provided by a world leader in the discovery of genetic risk factors for disease...[so that its customers] benefit directly from the knowledge and experience of scientists carrying out internationally renowned research" (its competitors used deCODE's published variants as the basis for many of their results); with the scan processed in the same labs that had found them. By 2012, the deCODEme complete scan measured one million SNPs and calculated risk for 47 common diseases and traits as well as basic information on maternal and paternal ancestry, noting that most ancestry scans of the period were not back by much data.

Despite deCODEme's emphasis that its results were for informational purposes — "a roadmap to improve your health" — and the provision of genetic counseling for users who had questions about their results, US regulators quickly took a critical view of disease risk assessments being put directly in the hands of consumers. In June 2010, the FDA wrote to deCODE and its main competitors to say that they considered such scans to be medical devices requiring FDA approval. Facing regulatory headwinds and then corporate reorganization, deCODE stopped selling deCODEme in late 2012. In 2017, the FDA began to approve certain assessments of genetic risk for disease in consumer tests.

In 2018, deCODE broke new ground with a direct intervention in public health and the first national genetic screening program of its kind. The company launched a website that enables anyone in Iceland to ask the company - free of charge - to search their whole genome sequence data to determine whether they are likely carriers of a SNP in the BRCA2 gene that confers high risk of breast and prostate cancer in Iceland. Within months, ten percent of the population had requested their BRCA2 status, and the National Hospital has built up its counseling and other services to help people follow up on their preliminary results and use the information to protect their health.

Business
Despite its pathbreaking science, or perhaps because it was often far ahead of the field, deCODE had a volatile history as a standalone business. In July 2000, it completed a $200 million IPO on Nasdaq, big for the time and the first listing by an Icelandic company on a US exchange. Its early pharmaceutical alliances, particularly that with Roche, further helped to fund the enrollment of most of the adults in the country in the first decade of its research, and the rapid expansion of both its discovery capabilities and its product development efforts in drugs, diagnostics and personal genomics.

From a scientific perspective, as the Broad Institute's David Altschuler told the MIT Tech Review in 2004, "This is a business in which critical mass is important, and they have achieved critical mass." But the business was also about money. Being an innovation enterprise pioneering new markets, the company had spent more than $500 million on R&D in its first decade and never been profitable. By 2006 it was borrowing more, to fund drug development programs based on completely novel premises; to bring forward diagnostic tests in a market that even supporters termed "still embryonic"; and to market personal genomics, where it was being overshadowed by the Silicon Valley glamour and cash of 23andMe.

By late 2008, the company was "between a rock and a hard place," in Stefansson's own words. Under threat of being delisted from Nasdaq for its flagging stock price, the company needed more capital just as the global markets were going into crisis. Although its scientists kept publishing breakthroughs at a remarkable rate, in late 2009, the company's listed US holding company, deCODE genetics, Inc., declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Its key assets - the heart of which was the Iceland genetics operation - were bought and kept running by a consortium of the company's two main original venture backers: ARCH Venture Partners and Polaris Ventures, along with Illumina, Inc., the dominant maker of genotyping chips and sequencing equipment. It abandoned work on its drug development programs.

As a business, deCODE had in some sense gone back to the future: it was a 13-year-old company with a global reputation, again backed by its original VCs, which Newsweek called "the world's most successful failure." During the following period Stefansson mused publicly that deCODE had been founded between six and ten years too early. The technology for accurately reading DNA with sufficient detail, he reasoned, had not arrived until the mid-2000s, leaving deCODE in debt for years of R&D but based on findings that didn't provide a detailed enough insight into the biology of disease to swiftly create commercially compelling diagnostics and developmental drugs. What might provide that insight was population-scale WGS data. By 2010 Stefansson was outlining how to sequence a few thousand individuals and then use imputation - powered again by the genealogies - to ensure that deCODE would be the first in the world to have anything like it.

In spite of its straitened circumstances, with Illumina as one of its owners the company could still receive the latest sequencing machines and reagents. In 2011, deCODE and Illumina collaborated on a paper that gave an early hint at the power of WGS imputation, turning 500 sequences into 40,000 whole genomes of data. This was enough to begin to discover rare variants, validated through replication in several other populations. Unlike common variants, mutations causing rare diseases tend to be in the regions of genes that encode proteins, providing both a direct window on disease biology and so more direct utility as drug targets. In December 2012, the American pharmaceutical company Amgen acquired deCODE for $415 million.

A key rationale for the acquisition was deCODE's unique ability to use WGS data to discover rare coding variants and cause extreme versions of more common diseases. As Sean Harper, then Amgen's head of R&D told Forbes, "It was really working on targets like PCSK9 [for heart disease]...that really drove home the immense value of having targets that have either been discovered or validated by the kind of human genetic analysis that Decode is a world expert in." More broadly, these capabilities could be applied to evaluate current programs as well, and within month of the acquisition deCODE had reviewed Amgen's entire pipeline. In 2018, Harper estimated that "just [by] having strong genetic support for half your pipeline you can improve your rate of return on R&D investments by approximately 50%." By 2020, Amgen had brought two new cardiovascular drugs into clinical trials based directly on deCODE discoveries, which continue to be published in leading scientific journals.

As global model
Introducing Stefansson for the organizations at the American Society of Human Genetics annual meeting in 2017, the Broad Institute's Mark Daly observed that the meeting and the field were dominated by "a pervasive paradigm involving biobanks recruited with full population engagement, historical medical registry data, investments in large-scale genetic data collection and statistical methodology, and collaborative follow-up across academic and industry boundaries...[and] deCODE provided the template for this discovery engine."

From its early days, deCODE's example gave fresh impetus to others hunting for disease genes in isolated communities and small populations in Sardinia, Quebec, Newfoundland, northern Sweden, Finland, and elsewhere. However deCODE was not touting the Icelandic population's "relative homogeneity" in order to find variants causing rare syndromes, but because the existence of founder mutations would help to power discovery of variants impacting common disease. In terms of its relevance to global medical challenges, Iceland was not an inbred population with a high prevalence of rare syndromes but rather a European society in miniature that could be studied as a whole: not the biggest small population so much as the smallest big one.

The first large country to follow deCODE's example was the UK. Iceland's experience, behind the scientific and medical value of applying the NHS's vast reach and resources to one of the most diverse populations in the world, informed the authorization of the UK Biobank in 2003 and then Genomics England in 2013. Other early, large-scale biobank and genomics efforts linked to major health systems included the Million Veterans Program in the US, launched in 2009; the Research Program on Genes, Environment and Health at California's Kaiser Permanente, begun in 2007; and the China Kadoorie Biobank in mainland China and Hong Kong begun in the mid-2000s.

After 2014, when Illumina announced that its new X-Ten system could sequence whole genomes at scale for $1000 each, national genome projects proliferated, from the US (All of Us,  alongside the MVP) and (alongside CKB) to Australia, Canada, Dubai, Estonia (originally begun in 2000), France, Hong Kong, Japan, Netherlands, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Sweden , and Turkey, and beyond. Although with varying focuses and approaches, all of these programs were at the least implicitly inspired by deCODE's example.

Other large projects led by pharmaceutical companies have closely followed deCODE's model and its work with Amgen. These include Regeneron's with the Geisinger health system in the US, and Astra Zeneca's hybrid public/private/academic partnership with the Wellcome Trust in the UK, Craig Venter's Human Longevity in California, and Finngen in Helsinki. The latter, founded by Broad Institute leaders and Finnish universities, the health ministry, and biobanks to drive drug discovery, is remarkably close to deCODE's original vision in Iceland but with academics and government bodies as equity partners in the business. This public-private partnership model may explain the passage of legislation in Finland in 2019 authorizing the near wholesale use of anonymized medical records, social welfare data and biobank samples for biomedical research, which goes well beyond the ambitions of the 1998 IHD legislation that caused so much controversy in Iceland twenty years earlier.

deCODE's direct involvement and lineage is also evident across the field. deCODE is a founding member and leader of the Nordic Society of Human Genetics and Precision Medicine, which brings together the resources of all the Scandinavian countries and Iceland and Estonia to advance gene discovery and the application of precision medicine across the region. In 2013, a group of deCODE alumni created a spinoff, NextCODE Health (now Genuity Science), that licensed and further developed informatics and sequence data management tools originally developed in Iceland to support clinical diagnostics and population genomics in other countries. Its systems and tools have been used by national genome projects in England, Qatar, Singapore; pediatric rare disease programs in the UK, US and China; and at its subsidiary Genomics Medicine Ireland. In 2019, deCODE and US regional health system Intermountain partnered to conduct a 500,000-person WGS-based research and precision medicine study, and deCODE also began sequencing 225,000 participants in the UK Biobank.

Response to COVID-19 pandemic
In March 2020, as the SARS-CoV-2 virus began to spread widely in Iceland, deCODE temporarily redirected its clinical research, laboratory staff and operations to conduct large-scale testing for COVID-19. This effort marked the company's deepest and most direct ever involvement in public health and constitutes an important component of one of the most intensive and successful containment strategies of any country in the early months of the global pandemic.

The response of Iceland's health authorities to the pandemic was notable for being an early, transparent and effective example of best-practice 'test, trace and isolate' epidemiological control. In late January 2020, the National Directorate of Health began testing people arriving in Iceland from high-risk areas or showing possible symptoms of infection, and, with the Department of Civil Protection and Emergency Management, activated a system to isolate anyone diagnosed with the virus and to trace and quarantine all of their contacts. Iceland's first case was diagnosed on 28 February, a month after targeted testing began, and within days dozens of people were testing positive every day. Little more than two months later, Iceland was virtually free of active infections.

The foundation of this response and the data to guide it was testing. Yet while the official testing effort was prompt and energetic, it was focused on those who were either symptomatic or at high risk due to having likely been in contact with infected people. In early March, deCODE's CEO Kari Stefansson became concerned that without also screening the population at large there was no way to understand the virus' spread or its fatality rate, crucial information for holistically addressing the epidemic. In this "all-hands-on-deck" moment, and with the know-how, people and equipment to rapidly turn the company's genetics research lab into a PCR diagnostic testing facility, he offered to put the company's capabilities to work to screen the general population under the auspices of the Directorate of Health. deCODE staff worked swiftly to put together workflows for everything from sample collection to running the tests to privacy-protected reporting, and to get the swabs and reagents ready to begin large-scale testing. On Thursday 12 March 2020, the company opened its website to book appointments for testing and within hours 12,000 people had signed up. Testing began the following morning, free of charge.

The deCODE effort scaled up quickly to a capacity of over 1000 samples per day. From the beginning of population screening, fewer than 1% of those taking part were found to be infected, indicating that the health authorities' containment strategy was working. From mid-March to the end of May 2020, the company conducted an average of 600 tests a day, complementing the health authorities' 250 tests per day at the National-University Hospital. Those testing positive in deCODE's screening were similarly isolated and their contacts traced and asked to quarantine themselves. In total, by the beginning of June more than 60,000 tests had been conducted in Iceland, equivalent to 18 percent of the population. Powered by this combined testing strategy and tracing and isolation follow up, the number of infections in Iceland peaked in the first week of April and dropped steeply off by the end of the month. By mid-May, there were only a handful of active infections in the country, although deCODE and the health authorities continued to conduct as many as 200 tests per day thereafter to try to detect any fresh outbreaks.

In tandem with its screening work, deCODE used its genetics capabilities to sequence the virus from hundreds of infected individuals, and to draw a kind of genealogy of the different clades of the virus in the country. This showed how during the early weeks of the pandemic the virus had entered the country with people infected in different countries and then spread within Iceland. In April 2020, with colleagues from the Directorate of Health and the national hospital, the company published in the New England Journal of Medicine a paper detailing what the spread of COVID-19 looks like across a population, and how a robust policy of testing, tracing and isolation could effectively contain it. In May, the company began work to develop and carry out antibody testing in the population, and early results showed that around one percent of the general population that had not been diagnosed with infection carried antibodies for the virus. This meant on the one hand that the virus had been swiftly and well contained, but also that nearly three times had been infected as had been officially diagnosed since the end of February and also that the population was still more than 98% naive. That indicated that large-scale testing would need to continue to detect later outbreaks as the country reopened its borders to travel by its own citizens and others coming to Iceland. In June, the company said that it was working with Amgen's unit in British Columbia to use white blood cells from recovered Icelandic COVID patients to begin to manufacture antibodies for the virus, which could be used either prophylactically or therapuetically.

Appearances in popular culture
The work of deCODE is criticised by Arnaldur Indriðason's novel Jar City from 2000, which was adapted into a 2006 film of the same name.

deCODE and Kári Stefánsson are satirised as VikingDNA and Professor Lárus Jóhannsson in Dauðans óvissi tími by Þráinn Bertelsson (Reykjavík: JPV Útgáfu, 2004).

deCODE and specifically Kári Stefánsson is presented as the creator of monstrous genetic hybrids in Óttar M. Norðfjörð's satirical 2007 work Jón Ásgeir & afmælisveislan (Reykjavík: Sögur, 2007), and the history of DeCODE appears both directly and in allegorised form (under the fictional name OriGenes) in the same author's novel Lygarinn: Sönn saga (Reykjavík: Sögur, 2011). deCODE is the model for the company CoDex, in CoDex 1962 by Sjón.

title: DeCODE genetics


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Donohoe

Donohoe or O'Donohoe is an Irish surname, reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Donnchadha ‘descendant of Donnchadh’, a personal name (sometimes Anglicized as Duncan in Scotland), composed of the elements donn = ‘brown-haired man’ or ‘chieftain’ + cath = ‘battle’.

Spelling variations (which may include an initial O' or omit it) include Donoghue, Donaghoe, Donaho, Donahoe, Donough, Donahue, Donahow, Doneghoe, Donehue, Donighue, Donoho, Donahugh, Donohough, Donohow, Donohue, Donaughue, Dunphy, Donaghie, Donaghy and many more.

First found in County Kerry, Ireland, where they held a family seat from very ancient times.

The Scottish Clan Robertson, anciently known as Clann Dhònnchaidh, 'Children of Dònnchadh' or Duncan, is of separate origin.

Notable people with the surname include:
 * Alistair Donohoe
 * Amanda Donohoe, English actress
 * Elinor Donahue, Irish-American actress best known from the television shows Father Knows Best and The Andy Griffith Show
 * John Donahoe, President and CEO of Nike
 * John E. O'Donoghue, Major League Baseball pitcher
 * John P. O'Donoghue, Major League Baseball pitcher
 * Lowitja O'Donoghue, Aboriginal Australian civil rights activist
 * Martin O'Donoghue, Irish economist and Fianna Fáil politician
 * Michael O'Donoghue, Irish-American comedian, writer and occasional performer for Saturday Night Live
 * Patrick O'Donoghue, Irish-born current Roman Catholic Bishop of Lancaster in England
 * Peter Donohoe (disambiguation)
 * Peter O'Donoghue (disambiguation), multiple people
 * Patrick R. Donahoe, the 73rd Postmaster General of the United States
 * Phil Donahue, Irish-American journalist and talk show host
 * Thomas Donohoe, Scottish immigrant, pioneer of football in Brazil
 * Brian Donohoe, Member of Parliament (United Kingdom) for Central Ayrshire (UK Parliament constituency)

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

title: Donohoe


text:
Scott McNeil

Scott McNeil is an Australian-born Canadian actor. McNeil has provided voices to many characters in animated shows, most notably Ace the Bat-Hound in Krypto the Superdog and Voltar from League of Super Evil. He also voiced various roles in shows such as Dragon Ball Z, Transformers: Armada, Beast Wars: Transformers, Beast Machines: Transformers, ReBoot, X-Men: Evolution, Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, Inuyasha and Fullmetal Alchemist, in addition to live action work.

Early life
McNeil was born in Brisbane, Australia, but moved to Vancouver, Canada, when he was 4 years old in 1966.

He first appeared on stage at the age of three.

He first learned that people were paid to do different voices after a trip to Disneyland at the age of 12. That was when he learned that Paul Frees, the person who provided the voice that greeted visitors entering the Haunted Mansion, was the same person who provided the voice of the Pillsbury Doughboy.

Even though he knew about voice acting, McNeil pursued the theatre. He studied at Studio 58. After leaving, he tried to find acting jobs and worked as an Elvis impersonator for a short time. It was in the late eighties when he found himself on his way into the world of voice acting. A casting director at the time told McNeil that he wished that he'd met him a week before when he was casting for the G.I. Joe cartoon.

Professional career
McNeil states his first role was providing voices on The New Adventures of He-Man. His first anime role was for Project A-ko, where he provided the voices for three women.

After appearing in a few films and two episodes of Highlander: The Series, he provided voices for Beast Wars, as Waspinator, Dinobot, Rattrap, and Silverbolt. He has described this as the work he is most proud of. On another fan favourite show, Dragon Ball Z, he was cast as the original voice of Piccolo and various other characters. He then provided the voice of Duo Maxwell on Mobile Suit Gundam Wing and Principal Kuno on Ranma ½.

He eventually got the call stating he was cast as Wolverine on X-Men: Evolution. He continued to play the role of Logan/Wolverine for a total of four seasons from 2000 to 2003. McNeil was then cast in another fan favourite anime, Inuyasha as Kōga. He provided the voice of the Fullmetal Alchemist character Hohenheim of Light, Foghorn Leghorn on Baby Looney Tunes, Grumpy Bear on Care Bears: Adventures in Care-a-Lot, Amergan, Gregor and the lab director on Highlander: The Search for Vengeance, and Stork on Storm Hawks. He still appears in live action shows occasionally and was in Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed and The Green Chain. As of October 2007, he estimates that he has provided voices to 8,500 characters.

McNeil is appreciative of fans because he knows what it is like to see your favourite voice actor talk as the character they provide the voice for. He says that he is inspired by Paul Frees, Maurice LaMarche, and Mel Blanc. If he had a chance to meet the late Mel Blanc, McNeil has said that he would "fan boy all over him."

Japanese and Korean animation dubbing

 * Adieu Galaxy Express 999 — Captain Harlock
 * Beyblade Burst Evolution — Raul Comas (ep. 1-20)
 * Black Lagoon — Verrocchio and Chinese Man
 * Black Lagoon: The Second Barrage - Verrocchio
 * A Chinese Ghost Story: The Tsui Hark Animation — Demon King and Solid Gold
 * Dragon Ball Z — Piccolo, Majin Buu, Old Supreme Kai, Android 16, Dr. Brief, Jeice, Turtle, South Kai, Dabura, Killa, Mercenary Tao, Caroni, Farmer, King Piccolo and Mez (FUNimation-Saban dub and Westwood Media dub produced by Ocean Productions)
 * Dragon Ball Z: Dead Zone — Piccolo (FUNimation-Pioneer dub)
 * Dragon Ball Z: The Tree of Might — Piccolo and Daiz (1997 FUNimation-Saban TV dub)
 * Dragon Ball Z: The Tree of Might — Piccolo, Daiz, Rasin and Oolong (1998 FUNimation-Pioneer video dub)
 * Dragon Ball Z: The World's Strongest — Piccolo and Turtle (FUNimation-Pioneer dub)
 * Dragon Drive — Saizou Toki and Magna
 * Dragon Warrior — General Rudolph
 * Elemental Gelade — Beazon
 * Fullmetal Alchemist — Hohenheim of Light
 * Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa — Hohenheim of Light
 * Galaxy Express 999 — Captain Harlock
 * Hakkenden: Legend of the Dog Warriors — Hachiro T. Kanamari and Motofuji Hikita
 * Hello Carbot — Dandy
 * Hamtaro — Ichiro Yamada and Chairman Inatori
 * Highlander: The Search for Vengeance — Amergan, Gregor and Lab Director
 * Inuyasha — Kōga, Bird of Paradise leader (right), Taigokumaru, Tsukuyomaru (Ep. 74), Panther King, Elderly Wolf, Weasel Demon, Tsubaki's master, Unnamed priest (Kagura's puppet), O-Yakata, Ogres: Sesshomaru's Ogre, Ogre of the Forbidden Tower, Undead ogre
 * Inuyasha: The Final Act — Kōga, Meiōjū
 * Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade
 * Let's Go Quintuplets — Father
 * Master Keaton — Colonel Fox, Walter, Priest, Resistance Member, Morris and Adult Student
 * Master Keaton (OVA version) — Colonel Fox and Morris
 * MegaMan NT Warrior — Guts Man, Cut Man, Tora and King Man
 * MegaMan NT Warrior: Axess — Shade Man, Savage Man and Guts Man
 * Mega Man: Upon a Star — Dr. Wily and Beat
 * Mix Master — Prince Brad, Mayor Charles, Motabi, Pirostar, Ajakdevil and Twistunga
 * Mobile Suit Gundam — Teniente Reed
 * Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack — Londo Bell Technician, Lyle and Shuttle Pilot
 * Mobile Suit Gundam 00 — Ali Al-Saachez, Daryl Dodge, Captain, Kinue's Boss, Kinue's Staff and Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs
 * Mobile Suit Gundam SEED — Captain Koopman, Gerard Garcia and Kojiro Murdoch
 * Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny — Unato Ema Seiran, Glasgow
 * Mobile Suit Gundam Wing — Duo Maxwell and Old Man
 * Monster Rancher — Suezo, Gali, Gray Wolf, Naga and Captain Black Dino
 * Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge — Lord Raptor
 * One Piece — Shiki (Episode 429, Funimation dub)
 * One Piece Film: Strong World — Shiki
 * Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures — Additional Voices
 * Powerpuff Girls Z — Fuzzy Lumpkins, Emo Hendrix and Giant Panda-Mask
 * Project A-ko 2: Plot of the Daitokuji Financial Group — Captain Napolipolita and Kei Yuki
 * Ranma ½ — Principal Kuno, Daitokuji Kimiyasu and Ushinnosuke Oshamanbe
 * Saber Marionette J — Rinzo
 * Sanctuary — Tokai
 * Samurai 7 — Tanomo
 * Shakugan No Shana — Orgon
 * Sleeping Beauty
 * Sword of the Stranger — Luo Lang
 * The Story of Saiunkoku — Official Wa and Seikan Gang Boss
 * Tico of the Seven Seas
 * Transformers: Armada — Jetfire
 * Transformers: Cybertron — Backstop and Snarl
 * Transformers: Energon — Jetfire, Strongarm, Omega Supreme and Autobot Guard
 * Tobot — Tobot W
 * Ultimate Teacher — Ganbachai Chabane and Umekichi
 * The Vision of Escaflowne — Jajuka and King Aston (Ocean/Bandai dub)
 * Zoids: Fuzors — Reynard, Vareth and Male TV Announcer
 * Zoids: New Century Zero — Stigma Stoeller and Major Polta

Western animation roles

 * 1001 Nights — Maymoon
 * 3 Friends and Jerry — Principal
 * Aaagh! It's the Mr. Hell Show! — Carlos, Elf, Jimmy Stewart, Ostrich, Fish Agent, Interviewed Bystander and Dorian Gray
 * Action Man — Additional Voices
 * Action Man: X Mission– The Movie — Gangrene, X-Robot 312 and Commando 1
 * Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog — MacHopper
 * Animated Classic Showcase — Various characters
 * Ark — Quinn
 * Asterix and Obelix: Mansion of the Gods — Goth
 * A Tale of Two Kitties — Chester, Buster, Mouse and Cuckoo Clock Bird
 * Baby Looney Tunes — Baby Foghorn
 * Barbie: Fairytopia — Ruby
 * Barbie and the Diamond Castle — Troll
 * Barbie in A Mermaid Tale — Syrenka's Pet Fish
 * Barbie of Swan Lake — Peddler
 * Beast Machines — Rattrap, Silverbolt and Waspinator
 * Beast Wars — Rattrap, Dinobot, Waspinator, Silverbolt, Dinobot Clone, Cicadacon and Transmetal Dinobot
 * Being Ian — TV Commercial Guy, Announcer (1), Gym Teacher, Ricky, Soldier, Police Officer, Announcer (2), Mr. Begley and Passenger 4
 * Ben Hur — Jesus Christ, Number 59 and Art Instructor
 * Billy the Cat — Blackie's Henchcat #2
 * Bob the Builder (2015)
 * Broken Saints — Mars, Osama
 * Bucky O'Hare and the Toad Wars — Dexter, Frax, Sly Leezard, Deadeye Duck and Digger McSquint
 * Camelot: The Legend — Lancelot and Bruce
 * Capertown Cops — Mayor Kickback
 * Care Bears: Adventures in Care-a-Lot — Grumpy Bear, Grumpy Bear 2 and Grumpy Bear 3
 * Care Bears: The Giving Festival — Grumpy Bear
 * Care Bears: Share Bear Shines — Grumpy Bear
 * Care Bears: To the Rescue — Grumpy Bear
 * Christopher the Christmas Tree - Additional Voices
 * Class of the Titans — Atlas and Antaeus
 * Coconut Fred's Fruit Salad Island — Mr. Eyeball
 * Conan the Adventurer — Wrath-Amon, Zula, Ram-Amon, Misha, Yin Doo
 * D'Myna Leagues — Jackie Mungo, Big Tree Powell and Sheriff Hamhock
 * Dinobabies — Dak and Trip-taking Dinosaur 2
 * Dinotrux — Split the Ankylodump
 * Dog City — Sherlock Bones
 * Donner — Elf DJ, Oiled Elf, Vocal Coach, Tubby and Brock
 * Dragon Booster — Cain
 * Dragon Tales — Captain Scallywag, Speedy, Sid Sycamore, Arlo and Green Hat Mefirst Wizard Head
 * Edgar & Ellen — Grandfather
 * Exchange Student Zero — Lionel, Headmaster and King Karuta
 * Exosquad — Additional Voices
 * Extreme Dinosaurs — T-Bone
 * Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes — Annihilus
 * Fat Dog Mendoza — Bus Driver, Old Man on Sidewalk, Purple Haired Alien, Matthews and Handyman
 * Firehouse Tales — Additional Voices
 * Funky Fables — Misc. Characters
 * Generation O! — Nub
 * George of the Jungle — Beefy Ape
 * Geronimo Stilton — Professor Cheeseweel, William Shortpaws, Franz Ravenrat and Professor Hier O'Glyph
 * G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero — Cobra Commander, Freefall, Lt. Falcon, Skymate, Storm Shadow, Headman, Interrogator and Various Cobra Troopers
 * G.I. Joe Extreme — Cobra Commander
 * G.I. Joe: Sgt. Savage and His Screaming Eagles — Sgt. Savage and Cobra Commander
 * G.I. Joe: Valor vs. Venom — Destro, Gung-Ho and B.A.T
 * Goodtimes Fairy Tales
 * Happy the Littlest Bunny
 * He-Man and the Masters of the Universe — Mer-Man, Beast Man, Stratos, Ram-Man, Clawful, Kobra Khan and Calix
 * Hero: 108 - Hurricane Lee, Twin Masters, Stingray King, Commander of Darkness (Season 2), Bartley and Beetle King
 * Heroes on Hot Wheels — Steve Warson, Bob Cramer, various
 * Hot Wheels Battle Force 5 — Grimian, Master Takeyasu, Tromp and Bruterax
 * Hot Wheels Highway 35 World Race — Rekkas, Dan Dresden
 * Hulk Vs — Additional Voices
 * Hurricanes — Cal Casey and Genghis Khan
 * Johnny Test — Mitchell "Bumper" Randalls, Mr. White, Zizrar, White Rook, Black Bishop, Kirk Kirkland, Bumper's Dad, Bishop, Rook, Mutant Agent 2 and Man
 * Kid vs. Kat — Agent Fudge Ripple
 * King Arthur and the Knights of Justice — Sir Lancelot, Sir Tone, Warlord Blackwing and Warlord Axe
 * Kong: The Animated Series — Tan, Omar and Kong
 * Krypto the Superdog — Ace, Ignatius and various characters
 * Little Red Riding Hood — Wolf
 * League of Super Evil — Voltar, Rock Gothlington, Destrucktor, Mayor, Old Man Jenkins, Fiyero Flambe, Freckled Kid, Trooper, Night Shade, Globulous, Camera Operator, Citizen 1, Neighbor Woman 1, Friendly Pa, Happy Citizen, Man 3, Citizen 3, Kinder Kreep, Henchbot Elite, SWEAT Soldier, Mr. Nelson, Military Scientist, Gynorman Guard, Voltar Clone, Herb Geezler, Mrs. Bandango, Veterinarian, Mal, Commodore, White Knight, Blecch, Bolkar, Evilly Awards Announcer, Shushizilla, Shangri-Lava PA, Queen Ant, Changemorphers Commercial Announcer, Sophisticated Dream Rabbit, Dance-o-rama Announcer, Nanny Bot, Puppy, Skullossus Admiral and Seymour Sweat
 * Lego Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu — Karlof, Overlord, Arcturus, Stone Warrior and Clouse
 * Littlest Pet Shop — Additional Voices
 * Madeline — Additional Voices
 * Martha Speaks — Computer Folder
 * Martin Mystery — You do Voodoo
 * Mary-Kate and Ashley in Action!- Dr Willy
 * Max Steel — Klean Kal
 * Max Steel: Countdown — Elementor
 * Max Steel: Forces of Nature — Elementor
 * Mega Man — Dr. Wily, Proto Man and Eddie
 * Monkey Magic — Lord Refang, Milesight, Guardian and South General
 * Monster Mash — Wolf
 * ¡Mucha Lucha! — Heavy Traffic, Sr. Hasbeena, Francisco of The Forest and Minotoro
 * Mummies Alive! — Rath, Set and Bob
 * My Little Pony: Best Gift Ever — Flam
 * My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic — Flam, Rover, Chief Thunderhooves and Black Stone
 * My Little Pony: Pony Life — Flam
 * My Scene: Jammin' in Jamaica — Russell Bostick and Fortune Star Guy
 * NASCAR Racers — Lyle "The Collector" Owens
 * Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu — Overlord, Nadakhan, Clouse, and Karloff
 * Pirate Express — Hades
 * Pucca — Lazlo Gazlodivich, Ruby's Dad, Texas Lugie, Yuni, Ice Cream Man, Shaman
 * ReBoot — Hack (rest of Season 2 and Season 3), Specky, Mr. Andrew, Roller-blading Binome, Fax Modem, Binome 3, Jean-Luc Binome (some episodes), Viral Binome 1, Saucy Mare Pirate 5, Mainframe CPU Officer 3, Guardian Bob Actor (Glitch Bob Actor), Enzo Actor, Megabyte Actor, Hack Actor, Slash Actor, Captain Capacitor Actor, Mechanic Binome, Dr. Frankenome, Viral Commander, Ash Williams User, Zombie Binome 2, Deer Head, Prospector Binome, Punk Binome, Barry, Praying Mantis Virus, Jury Guy 2, Desert Port CPU Officer 2 and Scientist Binome
 * ReBoot: Daemon Rising — Hack
 * ReBoot: My Two Bobs — Hack
 * Ricky Sprocket: Showbiz Boy — Mr. Fischburger
 * Robin and the Dreamweavers — Sass, Short Goon, Booth and Black-haired Punk
 * RoboCop: Alpha Commando — Additional Voices
 * RollBots — Lance
 * Roswell Conspiracies: Aliens, Myths and Legends — Ruck
 * Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and the Island of Misfit Toys — Hermey, Yukon Cornelius, Coach Comet, Duck and Boomerang
 * Sabrina: The Animated Series — Additional Voices
 * Santa Mouse and the Ratdeer — Loopy
 * Salty's Lighthouse — Zorran, Zak, Zug, Bluenose, Boomer, and Fultan Ferry
 * Shadow Raiders — Pelvus and Blokk
 * Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century — Additional Voices
 * Shezow — Mark Monroe and Wildtiger
 * Sitting Ducks — Arnold the Alligator
 * Slugterra — Mr. Saturday, Howard and André Geyser
 * Spider-Man Unlimited — Vulture and Man-Wolf
 * Stone Protectors
 * Storm Hawks — Stork, Repton, Leugey, Advisor, Harrier, Steward, Blister, Arygyn, King Agar, Project Commander, Walder, Eyeball, Tritonn, Davey Digger and Rinjiin
 * Strawberry Shortcake's Berry Bitty Adventures — Postmaster Bee, Clem Cricket and Berrykin Ed
 * Supernoobs — Mr. Roachmont, General Blorgon, Market Clerk, Wolf Player, Store Clerk and The Cornbury Mayor
 * Sushi Pack — Wasabi Pow and Fugu
 * The Adventures of Corduroy — Stinky Fungus
 * The Adventures of Mowgli — Shere Khan
 * The Adventures of T-Rex — Bubba, Addar and Truck-driving Dinosaur 2
 * The Baby Huey Show — Additional Voices
 * The Christmas Orange — Lenny the Elf Foreman
 * The Condor — Dogg
 * The Cramp Twins — Turnip Shoot, Rawhide Bear, Volcal Voices
 * The Deep — Captain Chadwick and Bruce
 * The Fearless Four — Manager, 2nd Assistant, Hunter #1, The Raccording Director, Guard #1
 * The Princess Twins of Legendale — Cassi, Lettam, Jibber, Henchman
 * The Little Prince — Captain
 * The New Adventures of He-Man — Butthead, Captain Zang, Krex and Flipshot
 * The Ten Commandments — Seti
 * The Twisted Whiskers Show — Goosers, Von Ripper, Yawp, Dine, Gasper, Ird and Sinister Squirrel
 * Underground Ernie - Mr Rails, Bakerloo, additional voices (US dub)
 * The Wacky World of Tex Avery — Amanda Banshee
 * Timothy Tweedle: The First Christmas Elf — Muffin
 * Tom and Jerry Tales — Uncle Pecos
 * Troll Tales — Flobbergob the troll
 * Vor-Tech: Undercover Conversion Squad — Stinger and The Car
 * Weird-Oh's — Daddy-O Chassis, Davey and Killer McBash
 * Where My Dogs At? — Russell Crowe and Joel Madden (uncredited)
 * Wolverine: Weapon X — Deathlok Prime, Deathloks, Agent #1, Civilian #2, The Thing, Matthew K. Edwards
 * X-Men: Evolution — Wolverine
 * Yakkity Yak — Professor Crazyhair
 * Zixx — General Ghost
 * The Zula Patrol — Additional Voices

Live-action roles

 * The Commish — Jeff Surnac
 * Crackerjack — Rex
 * Damage — Chip
 * The Flash — Julius (Season 1, Episode 12)
 * The Green Chain — Ben Holm
 * The Guard — Pony
 * Highlander: The Series — Dennis, Robert McLeod
 * Hope Island — Dee-Dee and Barnabus
 * I Was a Teenage Faust — Temptor
 * Neon Rider — Photographer
 * Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation — Simon Bonesteel
 * Outer Limits — Astronaut and Dino (voice)
 * Psych — Rip
 * The Ranch — Douglas
 * Riverdale — Gerald "Tall Boy" Petite
 * Sanctuary — Birot
 * Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed — Evil Masked Figure
 * The Sentinel — Lane Cassidy
 * Sleeping Dogs — Harry Maxwell
 * Sleeping with Strangers — Todd Warren
 * Stargate SG-1 — Kefflin, Townsperson
 * Strange Frequency — Robbie Laine
 * Street Justice — Crackhouse Junkie
 * Supernatural — Benny Sutton
 * Tasmanian Devils — Whitfield
 * 12 Hours to Live — Victor Kirk
 * Viper — Judd
 * Warriors of Virtue — Yun (Voice)
 * Woody Woodpecker — Nate Grimes

Video games

 * Barbie Horse Adventures: Riding Camp — Jake Lockwood and Fisherman Bob
 * Crypt of the Necrodancer — Eli
 * Def Jam: Fight for NY — Hero (Cocky)
 * Dead Rising 2 — Antoine Thomas, Big Earl Flaherty, Survivor 16 and Merc 4
 * Dead Rising 2: Off the Record — Antoine Thomas, Big Earl Flaherty, Survivor 16 and Merc 4
 * Dungeons and Dragons Online — Dungeon Master and Narrator
 * Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 2 — Soldier and Gym Gingham (English-dubbed version)
 * Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 3 — Gym Gingham and Duo Maxwell (English-dubbed version)
 * Far Cry 5 — Additional Voices
 * Frogger: Ancient Shadow — Finnius and Lumpy
 * Frogger Beyond — Lumpy and Hi-Tech Elder
 * Frogger's Adventures: The Rescue — Lumpy and Dr. Frog
 * George of the Jungle and the Search for the Secret - Slappy
 * The Godfather: The Game — Trojan
 * He-Man: Defender of Grayskull — Beast Man
 * Inuyasha: A Feudal Fairy Tale — Kōga (English-dubbed version)
 * Inuyasha: The Secret of the Cursed Mask — Kōga (English-dubbed version)
 * Inuyasha: Feudal Combat – Kōga (English-dubbed version)
 * Mobile Suit Gundam: Encounters in Space — Luce Kassel (English-dubbed version)
 * Need For Speed: Heat' - Police Officer
 * ReBoot — Hack, Binome 3, Mainframe CPU Officer and Charlton Heston Binome
 * Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed: The Video Game — Evil Masked Figure
 * Tooth and Tail — Archimedes
 * Transformers: Beast Wars Transmetals — Rattrap, Silverbolt and Waspinator
 * Under the Skin — Carlos Oliveira, Young Man, Pickpocket, Karate Champ, Yuppie, Cosmi Sr. and Old Man (English-dubbed version)
 * Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War — Lord Bale, Space Marine Sergeant Mattias, Daemon Prince, Sindri Myr, Matiel and Servitors
 * Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War – Winter Assault — Chaplain Varnus, Imperial Guardsmen, Heavy Weapons Platoons, Kasrkin Squad, Ogryns, Chimeras, Sentinels, Hellhounds, Basilisks and Baneblades
 * Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War – Dark Crusade — Davian Thule, Gregor Vash
 * Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War – Soulstorm — Basically everyone
 * Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II – Chaos Rising — Chaos Sorcerers
 * Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II – Retribution — Neroth and Sergeant Merrick
 * World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor — Durotan
 * Ys: The Ark of Napishtim — Raba, Mannan, Toksa, Ryug, Cloa, Emilio, Mikhail and Naphishtim (English-dubbed version)

Commercials

 * Kids' WB — Sr. Hasbeena, Wolverine

title: Scott McNeil


text:
User talk:Skylax

Welcome!

Hello,, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are a few good links for newcomers: I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your name on talk pages using four tildes (~~); this will automatically produce your name and the date. If you need help, check out Questions, ask me on my talk page, or place  on your talk page and someone will show up shortly to answer your questions. Again, welcome! -- Infrogmation 17:55, 11 Feb 2005 (UTC)
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Hey there. Don't know when you might wander by again, but I just wanted to thank you for all the work you did on the history of ragtime. I was reading through our ragtime articles, and it looks like we wouldn't have much at all if you hadn't come by. Isomorphic 07:58, 29 December 2005 (UTC)

It's been a long time but I more or less answered your question on John Adams (mutineer). James Galloway (talk) 02:16, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

title: User talk:Skylax


text:
User talk:Froggy~enwiki

Welcome!

Requests for adminship/Elonka
Thank you very much for your support in my RfA. Unfortunately consensus was not reached, and the nomination was not successful. However, I do appreciate your comments, am still in support of the Wikipedia project, and will continue to contribute without interruption. Thanks again! --Elonka 10:59, 25 October 2006 (UTC)

Non-free use disputed for Image:Notaconlogo.png
Thanks for uploading Image:Notaconlogo.png. However, there is a concern that the rationale you have provided for using this image under "fair use" may be invalid. Please read the instructions at Non-free content carefully, then go to the image description page and clarify why you think the image qualifies for fair use. Using one of the templates at Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to ensure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

If it is determined that the image does not qualify under fair use, it will be deleted within a couple of days according to our Criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.BetacommandBot 23:39, 1 July 2007 (UTC)

Nomination of Richard Thieme for deletion
A discussion is taking place as to whether the article Richard Thieme is suitable for inclusion in Wikipedia according to Wikipedia's policies and guidelines or whether it should be deleted.

The article will be discussed at Articles for deletion/Richard Thieme until a consensus is reached, and anyone is welcome to contribute to the discussion. The nomination will explain the policies and guidelines which are of concern. The discussion focuses on high-quality evidence and our policies and guidelines.

Users may edit the article during the discussion, including to improve the article to address concerns raised in the discussion. However, do not remove the article-for-deletion notice from the top of the article. Salimfadhley (talk) 00:46, 9 December 2013 (UTC)

Speedy deletion nomination of Laurence Gartel

A tag has been placed on Laurence Gartel, requesting that it be speedily deleted from Wikipedia. This has been done under the criteria for speedy deletion, because the page seems to be unambiguous advertising that only promotes a company, product, group, service or person and would need to be fundamentally rewritten in order to become an acceptable page. Please read the general criteria for speedy deletion, particularly item G11, as well as the guidelines on spam.

If you can indicate why the subject of this page is not blatant advertising,. Clicking that button will take you to the talk page where you will find a pre-formatted place for you to explain why you believe the page should not be deleted. You can also visit |the page's talk page directly to give your reasons, but be aware that once tagged for speedy deletion, if the page meets the criterion, it may be deleted without delay. You are welcome to edit the page to fix this problem, but please do not remove the speedy deletion tag yourself. As well as removing promotional phrasing, it helps to add factual encyclopaedic information to the page, and add citations from independent reliable sources to ensure that the page will be verifiable. Feel free to leave a note on my talk page if you have any questions about this. Hirolovesswords (talk) 19:55, 8 August 2014 (UTC)

Your account will be renamed
Hello,

The developer team at Wikimedia is making some changes to how accounts work, as part of our on-going efforts to provide new and better tools for our users like cross-wiki notifications. These changes will mean you have the same account name everywhere. This will let us give you new features that will help you edit and discuss better, and allow more flexible user permissions for tools. One of the side-effects of this is that user accounts will now have to be unique across all 900 Wikimedia wikis. See the announcement for more information.

Unfortunately, your account clashes with another account also called Froggy. To make sure that both of you can use all Wikimedia projects in future, we have reserved the name Froggy~enwiki that only you will have. If you like it, you don't have to do anything. If you do not like it, you can pick out a different name. If you think you might own all of the accounts with this name and this message is in error, please visit Special:MergeAccount to check and attach all of your accounts to prevent them from being renamed.

Your account will still work as before, and you will be credited for all your edits made so far, but you will have to use the new account name when you log in.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Yours, Keegan Peterzell Community Liaison, Wikimedia Foundation 00:02, 20 March 2015 (UTC)

Renamed
 This account has been renamed as part of single-user login finalisation. If you own this account you can |log in using your previous username and password for more information. If you do not like this account's new name, you can choose your own using this form after logging in: . -- Keegan (WMF) (talk) 13:02, 22 April 2015 (UTC)

ArbCom elections are now open!
MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 12:52, 23 November 2015 (UTC)

title: User talk:Froggy~enwiki


text:
Scrope

Scrope (pronounced "scroop") is the name of an old English family of Norman origin that first came into prominence in the 14th century. The family has held the noble titles of Baron Scrope of Masham, Baron Scrope of Bolton, and for a brief time, the Earl of Wiltshire.

Origin of name
The name (pronounced "Scroop") may be derived from the old Anglo-Norman word for "crab". Whether far-fetched or not, it is fact that at one stage the family crest was a crab (subsequently five feathers) and that the family motto is still Devant si je puis ("forward if I can"), which could have a double meaning as, of course, a crab can only go sideways.

Early Scropes
The first well-documented ancestor of the Yorkshire Scropes appears to be Robert le Scrope (1134 – aft.1198), who is described as the son of the aunt of Alice de Gant, Countess of Northampton by her husband Richard le Scrope. The Scrope family appear to be related and allied to the Gant family in the 12th century, and possibly trace their origins to Lincolnshire or Northamptonshire.

14th-century Scropes
The great-great-great-grandson of Hugh was Sir William le Scrope (c.1259 – c. 1311) of Bolton, in Wensleydale, Yorkshire, who had two sons, Henry le Scrope (died 1336) and Geoffrey le Scrope (died 1340), both of whom were in succession chief justice of the king's bench and prominent supporters of the court in the reign of King Edward II of England.

Richard le Scrope (c. 1327 – 1403)

Henry was father of Richard Scrope, 1st Baron Scrope of Bolton (c. 1327 – 1403), chancellor of England, an active adherent of John of Gaunt.

William le Scrope (c. 1350 – 1399)

His eldest son William le Scrope (c. 1350 – 1399) was created Earl of Wiltshire in 1397 by Richard II, of whose government he was an active supporter. Wiltshire bought the sovereignty of the Isle of Man from the Earl of Salisbury. In 1398 he became Treasurer of England. His execution at Bristol was one of the first acts of Henry IV, and the irregular sentence of an improvised court was confirmed by Henry's first parliament. Wiltshire' father, Lord Scrope, and his other sons were not included in the attainder, but received full pardon from Henry. Scrope, who was the builder of Bolton Castle, his principal residence, died in 1403. He was succeeded in the barony by his second son, Roger, whose descendants held it till 1630.

Geoffrey le Scrope (d. 1340)
Sir Geoffrey le Scrope (died 1340), chief justice of the kings bench as mentioned above, uncle of the first Baron Scrope of Bolton, had a son Henry, who in 1350 was summoned to parliament by writ as Baron Scrope, the designation of Masham being added in the time of his grandson to distinguish the title from that held by the elder branch of the family. Henry's fourth son was Richard le Scrope (c. 1350 – 1405), Archbishop of York, who took part with the Percys in opposition to Henry IV, and was beheaded for treason in June 1405. Despite this, Henry Scrope, 3rd Baron Scrope of Masham (c. 1376 – 1415), became a favourite of Henry V, by whom he was made treasurer in 1410 and employed on diplomatic missions abroad. However, in 1415 he was involved in a conspiracy to assassinate Henry (along with the King's cousin Richard of Conisburgh, 3rd Earl of Cambridge) and was ignominiously executed at Southampton. His title was forfeited. It was, however, restored to his brother John in 1455; and it fell into abeyance on the death, in 1517, of Geoffrey, 11th Baron Scrope of Masham, without male heirs.

16th- and 17th-century Scropes
John Scrope, 8th Baron Scrope of Bolton was a somewhat reluctant supporter of the Pilgrimage of Grace, a northern uprising in protest at the reforms of Henry VIII but incurred the king's displeasure when he allowed sanctuary to Adam Sedbar, Abbot of Jervaulx who was on the run from the King's Commissioners. Scrope was himself obliged to seek refuge in Skipton castle and the King's men fired his Bolton castle residence. Abbot Sedbar was caught and executed.

His son Henry Scrope, 9th Baron Scrope of Bolton (1534–1592), was governor of Carlisle in the time of Elizabeth I, and as such took charge of Mary, Queen of Scots, when she crossed the border in 1568; and he took her to Bolton Castle, where she remained till January 1569.

His son, Sir Thomas Scrope, 10th Baron Scrope of Bolton, was Warden of the West March in the Anglo-Scottish border country and governor of Carlisle in 1596 when Walter Scott, the "Bold Buccleuch", staged his raid on Carlisle to rescue the reiver Kinmont Willie Armstrong.

He was the father of Emanuel Scrope, 11th baron (1584-1630), who was created Earl of Sunderland in 1627; on his death without legitimate issue in 1630 the earldom became extinct, and the immense estates of the Scropes of Bolton were divided among his illegitimate children, the chief portion (including Bolton Castle) passing by marriage to the Marquess of Winchester, who was created Duke of Bolton in 1689; to the Earls Rivers; and to John Grubham Howe, ancestor of the Earls Howe. The barony of Scrope of Bolton seems then to have become dormant; and although the title might, it would appear, have been claimed through the female line by the representative of Charles Jones (d. 1840) of Caton, Lancashire, no such claim was ever made. From Stephen, third son of the 1st Baron Scrope of Bolton, were descended the Scropes of Castle Combe, Wiltshire, the last of whom was William Scrope (1772–1852), an artist, author and fly-fishing enthusiast, who was an intimate friend of Sir Walter Scott. His daughter Emma Phipps Scrope, married George Poulett Thompson (1797–1876), an eminent geologist and prolific political writer, who took the name of Scrope, and who after his wife's death sold Castle Combe, of which he wrote a history. Probably from the same branch of the family was descended Col. Adrian Scrope, or Scroope (1601-1660) the Regicide, who was prominent on the parliamentarian side in the Civil War, and one of the signatories of Charles I's death warrant. Colonel Scrope was grandson of Adrian Scrope of Wormsley, who was (approximately) third son of John Scrope (d. 1547) of Spennithorne, Yorkshire, and Hambleden, Bucks, who was the younger son of the 6th Lord Scrope (c1468-1506) by Lady Eliz. Percy daughter of Henry Percy, 3rd Earl of Northumberland. John Scrope was Adrian Scrope's grandson and the last Scrope of Wormsley and Bristol. The Chiltern estate at Wormsley was inherited by one of John Scrope's nephews; one of the brothers of Thomas Fane, 8th Earl of Westmorland.

Descendants
The male line of the Scrope family still exists but it has for centuries now been known simply as "Scrope of Danby", with no hereditary titles left to its name. Although Bolton Castle is still owned by descendants of the Scrope family, they do not have the name of Scrope, being descendants through the female line of the Duchess of Bolton.

The present senior male of the family, or Head of the House, is Simon Richard Henry ('Harry') Scrope (b. 1974), only son of Simon Egerton Scrope of Danby (1934-2010), by his wife (Jennifer) Jane Parkinson, a granddaughter maternally of the 1st and last Baron Bingley. The next heir male is his father's cousin Henry John Scrope (b. 1941), eldest son of the late Ralph Henry Scrope by his wife Lady Beatrice Savile, 2nd daughter of the 6th Earl of Mexborough. Other Scropes have also married in the 20th century into aristocratic families such as the Cochrane family, the Ward family, the Davies family, the Sykes family of Sledmere and many landed gentry families.

title: Scrope


text:
Turning Stone Resort Casino

Turning Stone Resort Casino is a Native American resort casino owned and operated by the Oneida Indian Nation of New York (OIN) in Verona, New York.

The facility opened on July 20, 1993, and offers golf amenities (on- and off-site golf courses, one of PGA Tour quality, and an indoor golf dome), an RV park, trails for walking, an amusement arcade, many restaurants, spas, Bingo, Keno, table games, and many types of reel and video slot machines. Until the Seneca Niagara Casino opened in 2002, it was the only land-based casino in New York. Adjacent to exit 33 of the New York State Thruway, the resort is a popular tourist destination in central New York State and has received numerous awards in the industry.

Construction and expansion
The casino, and associated hotel for visitors and conventions, was conceived as a revenue-generating enterprise to aid in economic and social development of the OIN. It was developed at a time when Native American sovereignty and the right to establish gaming casinos on reservations had survived court challenges. Development of the casino was opposed from within and outside the OIN. As a fall-back plan, the OIN had the casino designed so that it could be adapted as a small shopping mall, if necessary. Ultimately, the OIN decided not to add a shopping mall because online shopping has diminished patronage to shopping malls.

The land upon which the casino is located was acquired from Ibrahim Batca and his family in two transactions in 1992 and 1993. Construction of an on-site hotel and a bingo hall began in 1994. The Bingo Hall's construction was completed in 1995. Disagreements over the hotel plans delayed its construction for a year. The hotel's original design plans had the hotel and casino separate, connected only by an outdoor walkway. Because of the delay, the hotel plans were re-designed to combine the hotel and casino into one structure. This new design allowed the Oneida Indian Nation to offer more services, including a pool, a spa, and a gym. Additionally, the combination created a larger and more formal lobby to serve both the hotel and casino to be one structure.

In 1997, the OIN paid for construction of a water tower near the casino and donated it to the Town of Verona, as one of their community contributions. The water tower has a capacity to hold 1,000,000 gallons of water. In 2005 the OIN consumed 600,000 gallons per day, which was four times the amount guaranteed to them under an agreement with the Town of Verona. In about July 2005 the Town of Verona notified the OIN that after 5:00 p.m. on August 2, 2005, the water would be shut off after the tribe had used the 150,000 gallons of water that is guaranteed under the agreement. Just hours before this deadline, the OIN began paying for a new water pump to be installed to provide the needed water capacity for the casino and resort.

In 2002, construction of a gaming expansion and showroom were completed to provide the only Ticketmaster-approved venue in the area. The popularity of the casino provided sufficient revenue for the OIN to build second and third hotels at the site to satisfy demand. Construction of the new hotel was finished in late 2004. One of the hotels is the tallest structure between Syracuse and Albany to serve the common guest; the other hotel is a luxury resort that caters to golf customers and fans. DeSimone Consulting Engineers is the structural engineering firm for the project.

Entertainment
The Turning Stone Casino and Resort hosted NESN and YES Network's Boston vs. New York Poker Challenge for two seasons.

The casino hosts several shows throughout the year, featuring musicians (KISS, Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, Fergie, Mariah Carey, Gwen Stefani, No Doubt, Jordin Sparks, Alicia Keys & Wayne Newton), comedians and other entertainment groups (Purrrfect Angels). The Irish Rovers played their two 2014 St Patrick's Day Concerts at the resort.

The resort's Atunyote Golf Club, located on tribal land, hosted the Turning Stone Resort Championship, a PGA Tour event, from 2007 through 2010. It was dropped from the tour schedule over a 2011 scheduling dispute. In 2006, it hosted the B.C. Open on the PGA Tour in July and the PGA Professional National Championship, which returns in 2016.

Legal issues
The casino's early success met opposition from New York State, Oneida County, Madison County, Vernon town government, and a now-defunct citizens' group called Upstate Citizens for Equality (UCE). Several lawsuits were commenced that challenged the casino's legal authority to operate.

The tribal-state gaming compact
Until the November 5, 2013, election that amended the New York State Constitution, state law prohibited gambling, particularly class III gaming. The OIN wanted to take advantage of expanding the original bingo hall into a full casino, which would include Class III gaming. To do so, OIN negotiated a gaming compact with then Governor Mario Cuomo in 1993; a prerequisite to creating an Indian casino pursuant to the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA). UCE challenged the compact's validity because the state legislature failed to approve the compact, pursuant to the New York State Constitution. In Pataki, the New York State Supreme Court held that despite Cuomo's representation and belief that legislative approval was unnecessary, the compact was not valid because the state legislature had not approved the same. The OIN appealed this decision to the Appellate Division, which affirmed the lower court. The Appellate Division granted leave to appeal to the Court of Appeals, which affirmed the Appellate Division's decision. After the Court of Appeals decision, the OIN petitioned the US Supreme Court to review the decision, but the high court denied certiori.

The OIN argued that the US Secretary of the Interior approved the compact and that removed the need for the state legislature's approval. The IGRA incorporates state laws into federal law. Specifically, provides "for purposes of Federal law, all State laws pertaining to the licensing, regulation, or prohibition of gambling, . . . shall apply in Indian country in the same manner and to the same extent as such laws apply elsewhere in the State." The Tenth Circuit held that the Secretary of the Interior's approval of a gaming compact has no impact on its validity because state law controls whether a gaming compact is valid." However, to date, the Second Circuit has not adopted this view in regards to the validity of a compact.  The Pataki case was a state court action, and did not receive review in the Second Circuit.

The OIN then sought relief with the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). After many failed attempts to negotiate a settlement by an April 2007 deadline, the Department of the Interior launched its own investigation into the compact's validity. On June 13, 2007, when the Associate Deputy Secretary of the Interior declined to reconsider its approval of the compact, Mr. Cason stated, "the 1993 Compact continues to be in effect for purposes of the IGRA". In UCE's lawsuit against the DOI, UCE challenged the DOI's decision regarding the compact's validity in addition to its challenge of the DOI's decision to take land into trust for the OIN. The US Interior Department's position was that the June 13, 2007, correspondence was not the end of it reconsidering the validity of the tribal-state compact, but merely a suspension of its reconsideration.

On August 7, 2007, in an action between New York State and the OIN, U.S. District Court Judge Kahn upheld Magistrate Treece's order directing the depositions of high-ranking officials and denying the State's motions. The decision also dismissed the Amended Complaint pleading, which attacked the Board's authority to amend the Compact due to Peterman and Seneca, on subject matter jurisdiction grounds. The fact that the amended complaint was dismissed on jurisdictional grounds deprived the court of the opportunity to address, directly, the compact's validity at the federal level. If the compact was invalid, then the Oneida Indian Nation would be violating federal law (operating a gaming facility without a tribal-state compact). Such a violation of federal law would have provided the requisite subject matter jurisdiction (federal question) to address the amended complaint. Even though the State sought to enjoin the Nation from operating Instant Multi Game ("IMG") based on its failure to adhere to the procedures in the Compact, the state has since dropped this case.

In 2013, the OIN, New York State, and Madison and Oneida Counties reached a landmark agreement that resolved the ongoing issues regarding the tribal-state compact, taxing issues, and the land upon which the resort casino is built. The agreement also ended all litigation pending between the three entities at the time of the agreement.

Casino location site legality
In addition to whether the tribe-state gaming compact was valid, the other issue was whether the location chosen to conduct the gaming was legal. New York State Law forbade Class III gaming on lands within New York State. The casino was located on Indian Territory as defined in the IGRA. However, the issue was compounded in light of the City of Sherrill v Oneida Indian Nation US Supreme Court decision. The DOI stated "compact does not specifically refer to the site where ... the Nation has built a major new facility in anticipation of being able to conduct gaming in the future. Since the compact tracks the [IGRA's definition of 'Indian lands'], we ... take no position with regard to whether this new facility is on 'Indian land' as that term is used in IGRA". Justice Ginsburg opined that although the land was part of the original tribal land grant of the 1796 Treaty of Canadagua, 200+ years in non-Indian control was too long a time for the Oneida Indian Nation to re-establish its immunity over those lands once it re-acquired the ownership of those lands. As directed in the Sherrill decision, the OIN applied to the DOI to have this land taken into trust, which was approved and formalized on September 4, 2014.

Gaming issues resolved
In May 2013, the OIN, New York State, and Madison and Oneida Counties reached a landmark agreement that resolved the gaming compact issue, among other issues needing resolution. As part of the agreement, the state held a referendum to amend the New York State Constitution to allow for full gambling casinos to operate within the state, which passed on November 5, 2013. The agreement paved the way for the OIN to open two more casinos within its 10-county area of exclusivity.

Liquor license
The casino applied for several liquor licenses with the New York State Liquor Authority in 2007 that were denied on October 3, 2007. After delaying a decision for a month, the liquor board told the OIN it cannot issue permits while unsettled sovereignty issues between the OIN and the state (related to land issues) are being litigated in court. "The Liquor Authority said the applications were disapproved without prejudice, and the Nation can reapply for the licenses after the reservation issue is solved." The licenses would have allowed the casino to serve alcohol on the gaming floor and at its several restaurants.

While the applications were pending before the Liquor Authority, the resort did not allow any kind of alcohol on the premises, as part of their application. Since the Liquor Authority's denial on the applications, the OIN lifted the alcohol ban in the resort. In response, the casino reached an agreement with the Beeches Hotel And Catering Service which received multiple one-day permits to sell alcohol at the premises. This generated much controversy because the Beech's owner's wife, Roan Destito sits on the committee governing liquor laws. In May 2010, the casino leased portions of the property to a subsidiary of the Beech's which in turn was awarded a full license to sell liquor and other alcohol. This allowed the casino to offer alcohol to its patrons at all the restaurants and the gaming floor, in addition to the private nightclub.

Smoking
Smoking is allowed around the resort; non-smoking sections have been established and expanded in all areas. In 2016, the casino and resort underwent a $20 million upgrade and renovation project to provide better smoke-free areas on the gambling floor, and improve ventilation facilities to enhance all non-smoking zones within the resort and casino.

Awards and recognitions
Since 2001, Turning Stone has received more than 480 different awards and recognitions.

In 2018, Forbes Travel Guide awarded the resort with three Four Star ratings for The Lodge hotel, Wildflowers restaurant, and Skana spa. The year before, AAA awarded three of its prestigious AAA Four Diamond Awards, to the resort's The Lodge and Tower hotels, as well as Wildflowers restaurant, making Turning Stone the only resort in the Northeastern United States to earn both three AAA and Forbes awards.

In 2017, the resort was named Best Overall Gaming Resort in New York by Casino Player magazine.

All three of Turning Stone's championship-caliber golf courses were included in Golfweek magazine's list of Best Golf Courses you Can Play in New York, and two of the courses were included in Golf Digest's 100 Greatest Public Courses in America.

The Nation's Atunyote Golf Course hosts both the Turning Stone Resort Championship and the annual Notah Begay III Foundation Challenge charity event.

In popular culture

 * American metal band Bible of the Devil recorded a song about the casino, titled "The Turning Stone". It appears on their 2008 album Freedom Metal.

title: Turning Stone Resort Casino


text:
Talk:Labret

I've noticed there's also a (longer) article called lip piercing. Should this article be merged with lip piercing, or are labrets only a specific type of lip piercing, that might have their own article? If the articles should be separate, we might want to move/copy some of the labret-specific material from that article to here. I posted to the discussion page there too. -- Creidieki
 * Moved labret-specific information from lip piercing to this article. --Meredith 00:34, Mar 8, 2005 (UTC)

grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr the above statement is not true. the labret, even though it is latin(labrum) for lip, is a piercing placed between the lower lip and the chin. the jewelry(studs or rings) that is used does not determine the piercing, however the placement does. a lip piercing is anything that is on the lip line or directly below it. -PeaceFullyDejected

Why does the picture have to be of such an ugly woman? Do no attractive people have this?
 * seriously why does it have to be of a fat goth chick —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.15.28.21 (talk) 00:39, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

As a one-time Latin scholar, I would naturally pronounce this la'brett (a' as in tablet), not lay-brett. Was I misinformed?
 * I would agree with your pronunciation. I have also never heard it pronounced "lay-brett" and wonder where this pronunciation is found? --FaerieInGrey 21:27, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

Is there a specific reason why BP (Before Present) is being used to define dates in the article? Unless there is some factor that makes it more appropriate in this context, it would be better to use a less obscure dating system (the present in BP is defined as 1950). Doc Meroe 20:09, 22 April 2007 (UTC)
 * I think that's because it's quoting a source, so we use the dating system as found there. Alternatively, we could remove the quote and integrate the information into the article (which would mean we could change the dating system to something more sensible).
 * Incidentally, I think the lead picture needs to be changed; probably something more representative of a labret piercing (which to my knowledge is usually a bar through the centre of the lower lip rather than a ring). --129.67.162.133 (talk) 11:35, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

Picture definitely needs to be changed. That's a lip ring, not a labret. Also, I also thought it was pronounced Luhbray. As in silent T. That's how most of the people I talk to pronounce it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by TomAbila (talk • contribs) 06:51, 30 August 2008 (UTC)
 * From what I understand that's because of confusion with the pronunciation of more common words with a French pronunciation, such as "ballet". —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.254.31.175 (talk) 02:18, 20 September 2008 (UTC)

Focus
I think the section on the contemperary piercing stuff should be removed. Instead, we should focus on Labretts as more than just lip piercings. I'm thinking of the Maya, and the Pacific Northwest Coast. At least along the PN Coast they are archeologically significant. Stargate70 (talk) 06:37, 28 October 2008 (UTC)

Photo
It helps if the labret photo is actually of a labret piercing rather than a random lip piercing - David Gerard (talk) 17:18, 2 November 2008 (UTC)

Wikiproject Body Modification
I'm trying to start a Wikiproject on Body Modification, if anyone wants to join go here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Council/Proposals/Body_Modification ScarTissueBloodBlister (talk) 02:15, 16 July 2009 (UTC)

"BP"
"After 3,000 BP". Seriously? WTF is that? A joke? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 220.110.146.104 (talk) 00:39, 27 August 2009 (UTC)

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title: Talk:Labret


text:
User talk:STP

Welcome!

Hello, and welcome to Wikipedia. Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are a few good links for newcomers: I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! By the way, you can sign your name on Talk and vote pages using three tildes, like this: ~~~. Four tildes (~~~~) produces your name and the current date. If you have any questions, see the help pages, add a question to the village pump or ask me on my Talk page. Again, welcome! - David Gerard 17:58, 11 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * How to edit a page
 * Editing, policy, conduct, and structure tutorial
 * Picture tutorial
 * How to write a great article
 * Naming conventions
 * Manual of Style

Please stop making ridiculous edits such as putting Anne Frank in the category hoaxes and Judiasm in the list of purported cults. If you continue like this I will ask a request for comment regarding your behavior. Andries 09:44, 19 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Please lay off making provocative edits. All you'll end up achieving is that your edits will be reverted on sight, regardless of content. If you discuss any controversial changes on talk first, they might have a chance of sticking if you can argue your case. SlimVirgin 02:28, Mar 2, 2005 (UTC)

 * Alberuni, I should have known. You were always the first to scream blue murder if anyone tried to use the word "terrorist." But suddenly, you're a big fan . . . SlimVirgin 06:41, Mar 2, 2005 (UTC)

No, it's your edits that constitute vandalism, and if you continue, you will be blocked. The consensus seems to be that you're a sockpuppet of banned User:Alberuni, in which case you may be blocked anyway. SlimVirgin (talk) 03:11, Apr 4, 2005 (UTC)

Maybe I'm poking the bear here, but since you felt the need to comment on my talk page, you should probably go see the response.

--ElTyrant 05:14, 4 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Re: 3RR on Immigration to Israel from Arab lands
You are in danger of violating the three revert rule. Please cease further reverts or you may be blocked from further editing. Carbonite | Talk 19:15, 4 Apr 2005 (UTC)

 * Please provide a source to substantiate your claim that removing NPOV tags is vandalism. The 3RR only excludes self-reverts and simple vandalism. Carbonite | Talk 19:34, 4 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Arbitration
Arbitration has been requested against you. Snowspinner 23:47, Apr 5, 2005 (UTC)

title: User talk:STP


text:
Surrounded by Silence (album)

Surrounded by Silence is the third studio album by Prefuse 73. It was released on Warp on March 21, 2005.

Critical reception
At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, Surrounded by Silence received an average score of 73% based on 21 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

John Bush of AllMusic gave the album 3.5 stars out of 5, calling it "just another underground rap record, with the usual collection of untraceable sound detritus to anchor its productions."

title: Surrounded by Silence (album)