title: United States Electoral College

text: Opponents of the Electoral College claim such outcomes do not logically follow the normative concept of how a democratic system should function. One view is the Electoral College violates the principle of political equality, since presidential elections are not decided by the one-person one-vote principle. Outcomes of this sort are attributable to the federal nature of the system. Supporters of the Electoral College argue candidates must build a popular base that is geographically broader and more diverse in voter interests than either a simple national plurality or majority. Neither is this feature attributable to having intermediate elections of presidents, caused instead by the winner-takes-all method of allocating each state's slate of electors. Allocation of electors in proportion to the state's popular vote could reduce this effect.


title: United States Electoral College

text: Proponents of a national popular vote point out that the combined population of the 50 biggest cities (not including metropolitan areas) amounts to only 15% of the population. They also assert that candidates in popular vote elections for governor and U.S. Senate, and for statewide allocation of electoral votes, do not ignore voters in less populated areas. In addition, it is already possible to win the required 270 electoral votes by winning only the 12 most populous states; what currently prevents such a result is the organic political diversity between those states (three reliably Republican states, four swing states, and five reliably Democratic states), not any inherent quality of the Electoral College itself.


title: United States Electoral College

text: Elections where the winning candidate loses the national popular vote typically result when the winner builds the requisite configuration of states (and thus captures their electoral votes) by small margins, but the losing candidate secures large voter margins in the remaining states. In this case, the very large margins secured by the losing candidate in the other states would aggregate to a plurality of the ballots cast nationally. However, commentators point out that the national popular vote observed under the Electoral College system may not reflect the popular vote observed under a National Popular Vote system, as each electoral institution produces different incentives for, and strategy choices by, presidential campaigns. Because the national popular vote is irrelevant under the electoral college system, it is generally presumed that candidates base their campaign strategies around the existence of the Electoral College; any close race has candidates campaigning to maximize electoral votes by focusing their get-out-the-vote efforts in crucially needed swing states and not attempting to maximize national popular vote totals by using finite campaign resources to run up margins or close up gaps in states considered "safe" for themselves or their opponents, respectively. Conversely, the institutional structure of a national popular vote system would encourage candidates to pursue voter turnout wherever votes could be found, even in safe states they are already expected to win, and in safe states they have no hope of winning.


title: United States Electoral College

text: An argument by critics for eliminating the Electoral College is Donald Trump's attempt to overturn the 2020 election results in swing states. Overturning two or three state's election results in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania or Wisconsin would have been enough. By comparison, overturning the popular vote would have been a much bigger task, requiring him to overcome his 7,052,770 vote deficit.


title: United States Electoral College

text: Critics argue that the Electoral College is less democratic than a national direct popular vote and is subject to manipulation because of faithless electors; that the system is antithetical to a democracy that strives for a standard of "one person, one vote"; and there can be elections where one candidate wins the national popular vote but another wins the electoral vote, as in the 2000 and 2016 elections. Individual citizens in less populated states with 5% of the Electoral College have proportionately more voting power than those in more populous states, and candidates can win by focusing their resources on just a few "swing states".


title: United States Electoral College

text: According to this criticism, the Electoral College encourages political campaigners to focus on a few so-called swing states while ignoring the rest of the country. Populous states in which pre-election poll results show no clear favorite are inundated with campaign visits, saturation television advertising, get-out-the-vote efforts by party organizers, and debates, while four out of five voters in the national election are "absolutely ignored", according to one assessment. Since most states use a winner-takes-all arrangement in which the candidate with the most votes in that state receives all of the state's electoral votes, there is a clear incentive to focus almost exclusively on only a few key undecided states; in recent elections, these states have included Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Florida in 2004 and 2008, and included Colorado in 2012. In contrast, states with large populations such as California, Texas, and New York, have in recent elections been considered safe for a particular party—Democratic for California and New York and Republican for Texas—and therefore campaigns spend less time and money there. Many small states are also considered to be safe for one of the two political parties and are also generally ignored by campaigners: of the 13 smallest states, six are reliably Democratic, six are reliably Republican, and only New Hampshire is considered as a swing state, according to critic George C. Edwards III in 2011. Edwards also asserted that in the 2008 election, the campaigns did not mount nationwide efforts but rather focused on select states.


title: United States Electoral College

text: Except in closely fought swing states, voter turnout does not affect the election results due to entrenched political party domination in most states. The Electoral College decreases the advantage a political party or campaign might gain for encouraging voters to turn out, except in those swing states. If the presidential election were decided by a national popular vote, in contrast, campaigns and parties would have a strong incentive to work to increase turnout everywhere. Individuals would similarly have a stronger incentive to persuade their friends and neighbors to turn out to vote. The differences in turnout between swing states and non-swing states under the current electoral college system suggest that replacing the Electoral College with direct election by popular vote would likely increase turnout and participation significantly.


title: United States Electoral College

text: According to this criticism, the electoral college reduces elections to a mere count of electors for a particular state, and, as a result, it obscures any voting problems "within" a particular state. For example, if a particular state blocks some groups from voting, perhaps by voter suppression methods such as imposing reading tests, poll taxes, registration requirements, or legally disfranchising specific minority groups, then voting inside that state would be reduced, but as the state's electoral count would be the same, disenfranchisement has no effect on the overall electoral tally. Critics contend that such disenfranchisement is partially obscured by the Electoral College. A related argument is the Electoral College may have a dampening effect on voter turnout: there is no incentive for states to reach out to more of its citizens to include them in elections because the state's electoral count remains fixed in any event. According to this view, if elections were by popular vote, then states would be motivated to include more citizens in elections since the state would then have more political clout nationally. Critics contend the electoral college system insulates states from negative publicity as well as possible federal penalties for disenfranching subgroups of citizens.


title: United States Electoral College

text: Legal scholars Akhil Amar and Vikram Amar have argued that the original Electoral College compromise was enacted partially because it enabled Southern states to disenfranchise their slave populations. It permitted Southern states to disfranchise large numbers of slaves while allowing these states to maintain political clout and prevent Northern dominance within the federation by using the Three-Fifths Compromise. They noted that James Madison believed the question of counting slaves had presented a serious challenge, but that "the substitution of electors obviated this difficulty and seemed on the whole to be liable to the fewest objections." Akhil and Vikram Amar added:


title: United States Electoral College

text: After the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery, white voters in Southern states benefited from elimination of the Three-Fifths Compromise because all former slaves were then counted, instead of only 3-out-of-5, increasing Southern states' representation in the House and their associated number of electors in the Electoral College. Southern states also enacted laws that restricted access to voting by former slaves, thereby increasing the electoral weight of votes by southern whites.


title: United States Electoral College

text: U.S. territories are not entitled to electors in presidential elections. Constitutionally, only U.S. states (per ) and Washington, D.C. (per the Twenty-third Amendment) are entitled to electors. As a result of this restriction, roughly four million Americans in Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and Guam, do not have a vote in presidential elections. Various scholars consequently conclude that the U.S. national-electoral process is not fully democratic. Guam has held non-binding straw polls for president since the 1980s to draw attention to this fact. The Democratic and Republican parties, as well as other third parties, have, however, made it possible for people in U.S. territories to vote in party presidential primaries.


title: United States Electoral College

text: Researchers have variously attempted to measure which states' voters have the greatest impact in such an indirect election.


title: United States Electoral College

text: Each state gets a minimum of three electoral votes, regardless of population, which gives low-population states a disproportionate number of electors per capita. For example, an electoral vote represents nearly four times as many people in California as in Wyoming. Sparsely populated states are likely to be increasingly overrepresented in the electoral college over time, because Americans are increasingly moving to big cities and because cities are growing especially in the biggest states. This analysis gives a strong advantage to the smallest states, but ignores any extra influence that comes from larger states' ability to deliver their votes as a single bloc.


title: United States Electoral College

text: Countervailing analyses which do take into consideration the sizes of the electoral voting blocs, such as the Banzhaf power index (BPI) model based on probability theory lead to very different conclusions about voters' relative power. In 1968, John F. Banzhaf III (who developed the Banzhaf power index) determined that a voter in the state of New York had, on average, 3.312 times as much voting power in presidential elections as a voter in any other U.S. state. It was found that based on 1990 census and districting, individual voters in California, the largest state, had 3.3 times more individual power to choose a president than voters of Montana, the largest of the states allocating the minimum of three electors. Because Banzhaf's method ignores the demographic makeup of the states, it has been criticized for treating votes like independent coin-flips. Empirically based models used to analyze the Electoral College have consistently found that sparsely populated states benefit from having their resident’s votes count for more than the votes of those residing in the more populous states.


title: United States Electoral College

text: In practice, the winner-take-all manner of allocating a state's electors generally decreases the importance of minor parties.


title: United States Electoral College

text: The United States of America is a federal republic that consists of component states. Proponents of the current system argue the collective opinion of even a small state merits attention at the federal level greater than that given to a small, though numerically equivalent, portion of a very populous state. The system also allows each state the freedom, within constitutional bounds, to design its own laws on voting and enfranchisement without an undue incentive to maximize the number of votes cast. With voter turnout being a key indicator of the health of democracies, proponents of democratic governance strongly disagree that the ability to selectively minimize the number of citizens voting should be viewed as a positive aspect of current U.S. law. Low voter turnout is broadly viewed as a symptom of an ailing democracy.


title: United States Electoral College

text: For many years early in the nation's history, up until the Jacksonian Era (1830s), many states appointed their electors by a vote of the state legislature, and proponents argue that, in the end, the election of the president must still come down to the decisions of each state, or the federal nature of the United States will give way to a single massive, centralized government, to the detriment of the States.


title: United States Electoral College

text: In his book "A More Perfect Constitution", Professor Larry Sabato elaborated on this advantage of the Electoral College, arguing to "mend it, don't end it," in part because of its usefulness in forcing candidates to pay attention to lightly populated states and reinforcing the role of states in federalism.


title: United States Electoral College

text: Instead of decreasing the power of minority groups by depressing voter turnout, proponents argue that by making the votes of a given state an all-or-nothing affair, minority groups provide the critical edge that allows a candidate to win a close-battle state. This encourages candidates there to court a wide variety of such minorities and advocacy groups. However, minorities are disproportionately located in noncompetitive states, reducing their impact on the overall election. White voters are overrepresented in the swing states that decide the election.


title: United States Electoral College

text: Proponents of the Electoral College see its negative effect on third parties as beneficial. They argue that the two party system has provided stability because it encourages a delayed adjustment during times of rapid political and cultural change. They believe it protects the most powerful office in the country from control by what these proponents view as regional minorities until they can moderate their views to win broad, long-term support across the nation. Advocates of a national popular vote for president suggest that this effect would also be true in popular vote elections. Of 918 elections for governor between 1948 and 2009, for example, more than 90% were won by candidates securing more than 50% of the vote, and none have been won with less than 35% of the vote.


title: United States Electoral College

text: According to this argument, the fact the Electoral College is made up of real people instead of mere numbers allows for human judgment and flexibility to make a decision, if it happens that a candidate dies or becomes legally disabled around the time of the election, though state laws binding electors and the lack of a single assembly of electors complicate coordination of a unified selection.


title: United States Electoral College

text: Advocates of the current system argue that human electors would be in a better position to choose a suitable replacement than the general voting public: according to this view, electors could act decisively during the critical time interval between when ballot choices become fixed in state ballots until mid-December when the electors formally cast their ballots.


title: United States Electoral College

text: In the 1872 election, defeated Liberal Republican candidate Horace Greeley died during this time interval, which resulted in disarray for the Democratic Party, who also supported Greeley, 63 of the 66 Greeley electors split their votes for four alternate presidential candidates. A situation in which the winning candidate died has never happened.


title: United States Electoral College

text: In the 1912 election, Vice President Sherman died six days before the election, when it was far too late for states to remove his name from their ballots; accordingly, Sherman was listed posthumously, with the eight electoral votes he would have received being cast instead for Nicholas Murray Butler.


title: United States Electoral College

text: Some supporters of the Electoral College note that it isolates the impact of any election fraud, or other such problems, to the state where it occurs. It prevents instances where a party dominant in one state may dishonestly inflate the votes for a candidate and thereby affect the election outcome. For instance, recounts occur only on a state-by-state basis, not nationwide. However, results in a single state where the popular vote is very close—such as Florida in 2000—can decide the national election.


title: United States Electoral College

text: Since 1800, over 700 proposals to reform or eliminate the system have been introduced in Congress. Proponents of these proposals argued that the electoral college system does not provide for direct democratic election, affords less-populous states an advantage, and allows a candidate to win the presidency without winning the most votes. None of these proposals have received the approval of two-thirds of Congress and three-fourths of the states required to amend the Constitution.


title: United States Electoral College

text: The closest the United States has come to abolishing the Electoral College occurred during the 91st Congress (1969–1971). The 1968 election resulted in Richard Nixon receiving 301 electoral votes (56% of electors), Hubert Humphrey 191 (35.5%), and George Wallace 46 (8.5%) with 13.5% of the popular vote. However, Nixon had received only 511,944 more popular votes than Humphrey, 43.5% to 42.9%, less than 1% of the national total.


title: United States Electoral College

text: Representative Emanuel Celler (D–New York), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, responded to public concerns over the disparity between the popular vote and electoral vote by introducing House Joint Resolution 681, a proposed Constitutional amendment that would have replaced the Electoral College with a simpler plurality system based on the national popular vote. With this system, the pair of candidates (running for president and vice-president) who had received the highest number of votes would win the presidency and vice presidency provided they won at least 40% of the national popular vote. If no pair received 40% of the popular vote, a runoff election would be held in which the choice of president and vice president would be made from the two pairs of persons who had received the highest number of votes in the first election.


title: United States Electoral College

text: On April 29, 1969, the House Judiciary Committee voted 28 to6 to approve the proposal. Debate on the proposal before the full House of Representatives ended on September 11, 1969 and was eventually passed with bipartisan support on September 18, 1969, by a vote of 339 to 70.


title: United States Electoral College

text: On September 30, 1969, President Nixon gave his endorsement for adoption of the proposal, encouraging the Senate to pass its version of the proposal, which had been sponsored as Senate Joint Resolution1 by Senator Birch Bayh (D–Indiana).


title: United States Electoral College

text: On October 8, 1969, the "New York Times" reported that 30 state legislatures were "either certain or likely to approve a constitutional amendment embodying the direct election plan if it passes its final Congressional test in the Senate." Ratification of 38 state legislatures would have been needed for adoption. The paper also reported that six other states had yet to state a preference, six were leaning toward opposition, and eight were solidly opposed.


title: United States Electoral College

text: On August 14, 1970, the Senate Judiciary Committee sent its report advocating passage of the proposal to the full Senate. The Judiciary Committee had approved the proposal by a vote of 11 to 6. The six members who opposed the plan, Democratic senators James Eastland of Mississippi, John Little McClellan of Arkansas, and Sam Ervin of North Carolina, along with Republican senators Roman Hruska of Nebraska, Hiram Fong of Hawaii, and Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, all argued that although the present system had potential loopholes, it had worked well throughout the years. Senator Bayh indicated that supporters of the measure were about a dozen votes shy from the 67 needed for the proposal to pass the full Senate. He called upon President Nixon to attempt to persuade undecided Republican senators to support the proposal. However, Nixon, while not reneging on his previous endorsement, chose not to make any further personal appeals to back the proposal.


title: United States Electoral College

text: On September 8, 1970, the Senate commenced openly debating the proposal, and the proposal was quickly filibustered. The lead objectors to the proposal were mostly Southern senators and conservatives from small states, both Democrats and Republicans, who argued that abolishing the Electoral College would reduce their states' political influence. On September 17, 1970, a motion for cloture, which would have ended the filibuster, received 54 votes to 36 for cloture, failing to receive the then-required two-thirds majority of senators voting. A second motion for cloture on September 29, 1970, also failed, by 53 to 34. Thereafter, the Senate majority leader, Mike Mansfield of Montana, moved to lay the proposal aside so the Senate could attend to other business. However, the proposal was never considered again and died when the 91st Congress ended on January 3, 1971.


title: United States Electoral College

text: On March 22, 1977, President Jimmy Carter wrote a letter of reform to Congress that also included his expression of abolishing the Electoral College. The letter read in part:


title: United States Electoral College

text: President Carter's proposed program for the reform of the Electoral College was very liberal for a modern president during this time, and in some aspects of the package, it went beyond original expectations.


title: United States Electoral College

text: Newspapers like "The New York Times" saw President Carter's proposal at that time as "a modest surprise" because of the indication of Carter that he would be interested in only eliminating the electors but retaining the electoral vote system in a modified form.


title: United States Electoral College

text: Newspaper reaction to Carter's proposal ranged from some editorials praising the proposal to other editorials, like that in the "Chicago Tribune", criticizing the president for proposing the end of the Electoral College.


title: United States Electoral College

text: In a letter to "The New York Times", Representative Jonathan B. Bingham (D-New York) highlighted the danger of the "flawed, outdated mechanism of the Electoral College" by underscoring how a shift of fewer than 10,000 votes in two key states would have led to President Gerald Ford winning the 1976 election despite Jimmy Carter's nationwide 1.7 million-vote margin.


title: United States Electoral College

text: Since January 3, 2019, joint resolutions have been made proposing constitutional amendments that would replace the Electoral College with the popular election of the president and vice president. Unlike the Bayh–Celler amendment, with its 40% threshold for election, these proposals do not require a candidate to achieve a certain percentage of votes to be elected.


title: United States Electoral College

text: As of April 2021, fifteen states plus the District of Columbia have joined the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. Those joining the compact will, acting together if and when reflecting a majority of electors (at least 270), pledge their electors to the winner of the national popular vote. The compact applies of the Constitution, which gives each state legislature the plenary power to determine how it chooses electors.


title: United States Electoral College

text: Some scholars have suggested that of the Constitution requires congressional consent before the compact could be enforceable; thus, any attempted implementation of the compact without congressional consent could face court challenges to its constitutionality. Others have suggested that the compact's legality was strengthened by "Chiafalo v. Washington", in which the Supreme Court upheld the power of states to enforce electors' pledges.


title: United States Electoral College

text: The sixteen adherents of the compact have 195 electors, which is 72% of the 270 required for it to take effect, or be considered justiciable.


title: United States Electoral College

text: It has been argued that the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution bars the winner-takes-all apportionment of electors by the states; according to this argument, the votes of the losing party are discarded entirely, thereby leading to an unequal position between different voters in the same state. Lawsuits have been filed to this end in California, Massachusetts, Texas and South Carolina, though all have been unsuccessful.


title: Die Hard (film series)

text: Die Hard is an American action film series that originated with Roderick Thorp's novel "Nothing Lasts Forever". All five films revolve around the main character of John McClane, a New York City/Los Angeles police detective who continually finds himself in the middle of a crisis where he is the only hope against disaster. The films have grossed a combined $1.4 billion worldwide.


title: Die Hard (film series)

text: The first film takes place at Nakatomi Plaza in Los Angeles. It begins on Christmas Eve when McClane (Bruce Willis) comes to reunite with separated wife Holly (Bonnie Bedelia) in Los Angeles at her company's Christmas party. Holly abandons her marriage to pursue her career and takes their two children, and uses her maiden name.


title: Die Hard (film series)

text: At the fictional Nakatomi Plaza (portrayed by Fox Plaza), East German terrorists break in and take the celebrants hostage. McClane escapes detection and hides throughout the building. He kills off the gang and learns their real plan, to steal $640 million in bearer bonds from the building's vault. In the finale, McClane shoots the terrorist leader, Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman), out of the window to fall thirty stories.


title: Die Hard (film series)

text: The second film takes place two years after the first, again on Christmas Eve of 1989. In Washington, D.C., McClane waits for his wife at Washington Dulles International Airport. Mercenaries led by former U.S. Army Special Forces Colonel Stuart (William Sadler) take over the airport communication systems, stranding planes in the air, including the one with McClane's wife. Colonel Stuart wants to free a captured Latin American dictator (Franco Nero) en route to the airport. McClane discovers the plan, including a conspiracy between Stuart and an Army counter-terrorist unit sent to stop him. He foils their plans and provides a visual landing signal for the circling aircraft by exploding the villains' getaway plane.


title: Die Hard (film series)

text: In the third film, McClane is back in New York City, separated from his wife, suspended from the police force, and a borderline alcoholic. A terrorist known only as "Simon" (Jeremy Irons) threatens to blow up various locations in the city unless McClane will play his twisted version of Simon Says, riddles and challenges.


title: Die Hard (film series)

text: Zeus Carver (Samuel L. Jackson), a shopkeeper from Harlem, saves McClane after the first challenge, and reluctantly continues to help. The FBI reveal Simon is the brother of Hans Gruber, killed in the first film. McClane learns revenge is a cover story for robbing the New York Federal Reserve. McClane tracks Simon to the Canada–US border. McClane kills Simon by shooting at a power line above Simon's helicopter.


title: Die Hard (film series)

text: The fourth film, which was released as Die Hard 4.0 outside North America, takes place on Independence Day, over a decade after "Die Hard with a Vengeance". McClane is divorced, and estranged from his daughter Lucy (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). Cyber-terrorists hack into computers at the FBI, who had sent McClane to bring in computer hacker Matthew "Matt" Farrell (Justin Long) for questioning. Assassins hired by terrorist mastermind Thomas Gabriel (Timothy Olyphant) attempt to kill McClane and Farrell. Farrell tells McClane that the terrorists are actually in the middle of a "fire sale" — a crippling cyber-warfare attack on the national infrastructure: power, public utilities, traffic, and other computer-controlled systems. Although the terrorists capture Lucy and Farrell, McClane foils the criminals and saves the hostages.


title: Die Hard (film series)

text: The fifth film is set a few years later, mostly in Moscow, Russia and Chernobyl (Pripyat), Ukraine. McClane finds out that his estranged son John "Jack" McClane, Jr. (Jai Courtney) was arrested in Moscow for murder. When he arrives at the Moscow courthouse for Jack, Russian terrorists bomb the building and Jack escapes with imprisoned ex-billionaire Yuri Komarov (Sebastian Koch). In an intense car chase, McClane pursues and saves the pair. Jack, unhappy at the unexpected arrival, reluctantly picks up his father. When they stop at a CIA safe house in Moscow, McClane learns Jack is a deep-cover CIA operative trying to get close to Komarov for his file that incriminates corrupt, high-ranking Russian official Viktor Chagarin (Sergei Kolesnikov). Chagarin's henchmen, led by his main enforcer Alik (Radivoje Bukvic), attack the safe house. McClane holds them off, and escapes with Jack and Komarov. They retrieve a key for the file in Chernobyl, and meet Komarov's daughter Irina (Yuliya Snigir). Irina betrays them to Alik. The McClanes escape, without Komarov. Irina, always on the side of her father Komarov, tries to save him. McClane goes after Irina, while Jack chases her father. Jack throws Komarov off of the roof; he falls on the rotors of the helicopter and gets shredded to bits.


title: Die Hard (film series)

text: When the production was formally announced for the fifth film in the series, Bruce Willis expressed his desire to retire the John McClane character in a sixth and final film, explicitly calling for a 'fleshed out' conclusion.


title: Die Hard (film series)

text: Come 2013, Fox Studios began looking into developing the next installment. The studio took story pitches for a so-called "Die Hardest", including those from the public, at least one of which would have brought the action to Japan. A crossover of its popular television program, "24", with "Die Hard" characters had been previously considered, but contract negotiations with Kiefer Sutherland soured and no pilot was made; "Die Hard" being re-formulated as a gaiden featuring Jack Bauer called "Die Hard 24/7" was optioned and became "A Good Day to Die Hard". The Studio then chose to reincarnate "24" in limited edition as "" (homage to "Live Free or Die Hard"), which premiered in May 2014 and ended that July. By 2015, "Die Hard 4.0" director Len Wiseman's self-penned prequel/sequel origin story idea called "John McClane" gained traction.


title: Die Hard (film series)

text: Writer Evan Katz pitched a follow-up to "Live Another Day" called "" that was greenlit in 2015. The show aired from February through April 2017 and was soon cancelled (not renewed) in June. Following this model, a deal had been made with Lorenzo di Bonaventura to produce another, similar television programme that revolved around the concept of real-time narration, but for twelve hours instead of twenty-four since "Die Hard" stories happen over that time frame, saying, "We want you to get invested in John McClane more than ever before". That summer, Wiseman was in negotiations to direct a standalone mini-series (12 episodes) tentatively titled, "DIE HARD: Year One", based around the BOOM! Studios graphic novel of the . Its plot - rumored to borrow heavily from said comic book issues - follows John McClane as a beat cop in New York City early in his career as narrated by Bruce Willis in the present-day. Wiseman publicly floated that he was casting for a young version of John McClane in September. Six months later, the studio enlisted duo Chad Hayes and Carey W. Hayes to re-write the screenplay after Bruce Willis refused to endorse the previous edition and its actor.


title: Die Hard (film series)

text: In July 2018, di Bonaventura submitted an updated treatment titled "McClane", further confirming that the storyline was similar in stature to "The Godfather Part 2": featuring elements of McClane's and Holly's characters in the 1970s, intermixed with their present-day counterparts. The following month, Wiseman stated that pre-production on the new film should start "...fairly soon, no dates" once the script has been completed. Tobey Maguire (son in-law of then-NBCUniversal Chairman Ronald Meyer) joined the production team in late Summer. By December, di Bonaventura handed in yet another draft, this time without input from Willis. Production designer Carol Uraneck, who was hired that September, later left the project by the close of the year. Between February and April 2019, the production team made revisions to the writing, but insinuated that the project, though supposedly moving forward, is on the studio's backburner. It has been hinted that Samuel L. Jackson could reprise his role as Zeus. Actress Mary Elizabeth Winstead said that she would be interested in returning as Lucy Gennero-McClane, but later intimated doubt that, due to scheduling, the film would ever get made.


title: Die Hard (film series)

text: The acquisition of 20th Century Fox by Disney resulted in the cancellation of a theatrical release in August 2019. Wiseman was then dealt to Lionsgate to direct pictures in the John Wick universe. di Bonaventura stated in a July 2021 interview that the "McClane" project is "not happening" as a further consequence. "Die Hard" was removed from the Fox imprint indefinitely. In lieu of companies-wide reorganization, the media giants (Disney, Comcast) are said to be rebooting the property for streaming on Hulu.


title: Die Hard (film series)

text: Willis had taken roles that featured the "Die Hard scenario" or implied its namefellow in a number of direct-to-video movies since the release of DH5 (filmography). After confirmation of a DH6 cancellation and the wrap of production on his , Willis put his career on hiatus, citing health issues. In July 2022, he was videographed on the lot at Fox headquarters, the very same location of the set of DH1, to mark that film's anniversary. This footage was shared by his wife on her social media, with a caption that suggested he could return to the character if given the right circumstances.<nowiki></nowiki>


title: Die Hard (film series)

text: "Die Hard with a Vengeance" was adapted from a script called "Simon Says" by Jonathan Hensleigh, which was also briefly considered to become the script for "Lethal Weapon 4". The hook in Hensleigh's screenplay that captured the attention of director John McTiernan was the idea of a man being targeted for revenge by someone whose life he had unwittingly destroyed. Once the Simon character became the brother of Hans Gruber and the backstory was established, the project fully came together. It was novelized by Deborah Chiel.


title: Die Hard (film series)

text: "Live Free or Die Hard" was based on the 1997 article "A Farewell to Arms" written for "Wired" magazine by John Carlin. It also drew on a script 20th Century Fox owned called "WW3.com", which dealt with a massive cyberterrorism attack against the U.S. and which was nearly put into production in 2001 but ultimately abandoned because several elements in the story too closely resembled the September 11 attacks.


title: Die Hard (film series)

text: "A Good Day to Die Hard" was the only film in the series to come from an original screenplay, and not be based upon any prior works. The original screenplay was penned by Skip Woods.


title: Die Hard (film series)

text: Although the first "Die Hard" has been credited as one of the greatest action movies of all time, critical reaction to its sequels has varied.


title: Die Hard (film series)

text: The original "Die Hard" received substantial praise. Pete Croatto of FilmCritic.com called the film "a perfect action movie in every detail, the kind of movie that makes your summer memorable". James Berardinelli wrote that the film "represents the class of modern action pictures and the standard by which they must be judged". Critic Desson Howe wrote that "Willis has found the perfect vehicle to careen wildly onto the crowded L.A. freeway of "Lethal Weapons" and "Beverly Hills Cops"". Willis was also called "perfect as the wisecracking John McClane" and "an excellent casting choice as a sardonic action hero". Alan Rickman's portrayal of villain Hans Gruber was described as "marvelous" and "a career-making performance". Gruber also ranked 46 on the villain side of AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains. In 2007, "Entertainment Weekly" ranked "Die Hard" the greatest action film of all time.


title: Die Hard (film series)

text: The first sequel, "Die Hard 2", received positive reviews, although not as many as the original. Despite only giving the original film two stars, critic Roger Ebert gave this film three and a half stars and called it "terrific entertainment". James Berardinelli called the film "somewhat-muddled but still entertaining". Peter Travers wrote that "however impressively made, "Die Hard 2" begins to wear thin".


title: Die Hard (film series)

text: The third film, "Die Hard with a Vengeance", received mixed reviews. Owen Gleiberman of "Entertainment Weekly" stated that while "McTiernan stages individual sequences with great finesse... they don't add up to a taut, dread-ridden whole". James Berardinelli thought that the explosions and fights were "filmed with consummate skill, and were thrilling in their own right". Samuel L. Jackson also received praise for his role in the film. Desson Howe of "The Washington Post" thought that "the best thing about the movie was the relationship between McClane and Zeus," saying that Jackson was "almost as good as he was in "Pulp Fiction"".


title: Die Hard (film series)

text: The fourth film, "Live Free or Die Hard", received highly positive reviews. Mick LaSalle of the "San Francisco Chronicle" claimed that the film "is the best in the series, an invigorating return to the style of blockbuster that dominated summers back in the early 1990s". "USA Today" film critic Claudia Puig said that the film "delivers when it comes to kick-butt, action-packed mayhem," but "as a convincing techno-thriller, it doesn't really work".


title: Die Hard (film series)

text: The fifth film, "A Good Day to Die Hard", received mostly negative reviews from critics. Critics lambasted the installment for "[entering] generic action movie territory", as written by reviewer James Bernardinelli, with a "cliched [and] uninspired script". Peter Rainer of the "Christian Science Monitor" wrote, "John's appeal was always his ordinariness, but director John Moore has him surviving more explosions than Wile E. Coyote, and with hardly a scratch." A. O. Scott of "The New York Times" also commented that the series has taken a downfall with the movie, saying "Everything that made the first "Die Hard" memorable—the nuances of character, the political subtext, the cowboy wit—has been dumbed down or scrubbed away entirely." Willis has however, been cited as the film's redeeming quality, with Chris Vognar of the "Dallas Morning News" saying "Willis' presence at least provides undercurrents of easy jocularity."


title: Die Hard (film series)

text: In CinemaScore polls conducted during the opening weekend, movie audiences gave the series the grades listed below on an A+ to F scale.


title: Die Hard (film series)

text: BOOM! Studios published an ongoing "Die Hard" comic series that serves as a prequel to the first movie, titled "Die Hard: Year One". Its story is set in 1976 and follows John McClane as a rookie cop in the NYPD, and is scripted by Howard Chaykin. The first issue of "" was released on September 30, 2009. Eight issues have been released, with the eighth released on April 12, 2010.


title: Die Hard (film series)

text: In 2018, Insight Comics released the graphic novel "A Million Ways to Die Hard". It was scripted by writer Frank Tieri and artist Mark Texeira.


title: Die Hard (film series)

text: A number of video games based on the successful movie franchise "Die Hard" have been released over the years, ranging from beat 'em ups to first-person shooters. While some of the games are based directly on the movies, a few further detail the adventures of John McClane:


title: Die Hard (film series)

text: In October 2020, Advance Auto Parts released the two-minute commercial short film "DieHard is Back" for the company's DieHard car-battery brand, with Bruce Willis, De'voreaux White and Clarence Gilyard Jr. reprising their roles as John McClane, Argyle, and Theo, respectively, from the first film. The narrative follows Theo, the former tech specialist of Hans Gruber, and others seeking to kill McClane as he tries to get a new car battery and replace the dead one in his car, with limousine-driver Argyle helping him along the way.


title: Mate (drink)

text: ' or maté () also known as ' or , is a traditional South American caffeine-rich infused drink. It is made by soaking dried leaves of the yerba mate ("Ilex paraguariensis"), in hot water and is served with a metal straw in a container typically made from a calabash gourd (the "mate" proper), but also in some areas made from a cattle horn ("guampa").


title: Mate (drink)

text: Yerba mate ("Ilex paraguariensis"), ka'a in the Guarani language, contains (among other compounds) the stimulant caffeine. The leaves are dried and chopped or ground to make the coarse powdery preparation called (meaning 'herb'), which is then soaked in hot water.


title: Mate (drink)

text: The metal straw is known as a or and is traditionally made of silver. Modern straws are typically made of nickel silver, stainless steel, or hollow-stemmed cane. The functions both as a straw and as a sieve. The submerged end is flared, with small holes or slots that allow the brewed liquid in, but block the chunky matter that makes up much of the mixture. A modern design uses a straight tube with holes or a spring sleeve to act as a sieve.


title: Mate (drink)

text: The container the is served in is also known as . It is commonly made from calabash gourd but may also be made out of other materials.


title: Mate (drink)

text: was first consumed by the indigenous Guaraní who live in what is now Paraguay, southeastern Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Uruguay, and was also spread by the Tupí people who lived in neighbouring areas. After, it was commercialised to part of southern Brazil and northeast Argentina, mostly some areas that were Paraguayan territory before the Paraguayan War. Therefore, the scientific name of the yerba-mate is "Ilex paraguariensis". The consumption of yerba-mate became widespread with the European colonization in the Spanish colony of Paraguay in the late 16th century, among both Spanish settlers and indigenous Guaraní, who consumed it before the Spanish arrival. Yerba consumption spread in the 17th century to the Río de la Plata and from there to Peru and Chile. This widespread consumption turned it into Paraguay's main commodity above other wares such as tobacco, cotton and beef. Aboriginal labour was used to harvest wild stands. In the mid-17th century, Jesuits managed to domesticate the plant and establish plantations in their Indian reductions in the Argentine province of Misiones, sparking severe competition with the Paraguayan harvesters of wild strands. After their expulsion in the 1770s, the Jesuit missions — along with the yerba-mate plantations — fell into ruins. The industry continued to be of prime importance for the Paraguayan economy after independence, but development in benefit of the Paraguayan state halted after the Paraguayan War (1864–1870) that devastated the country both economically and demographically.


title: Mate (drink)

text: Brazil then became the largest producer of . In Brazilian and Argentine projects in late 19th and early 20th centuries, the plant was domesticated once again, opening the way for plantation systems. When Brazilian entrepreneurs turned their attention to coffee in the 1930s, Argentina, which had long been the prime consumer, took over as the largest producer, resurrecting the economy of Misiones Province, where the Jesuits had once had most of their plantations. For years, the status of largest producer shifted between Brazil and Argentina.


title: Mate (drink)

text: Today, Argentina is the largest producer with 56–62%, followed by Brazil, 34–36%, and Paraguay, 5%. Uruguay is the largest consumer per capita, consuming around 19 liters per year.


title: Mate (drink)

text: The English word comes from the French and the American Spanish , which means both and the vessel for drinking it, from the Quechua word for the calabash gourd used to make it.


title: Mate (drink)

text: Both the spellings "maté" and "mate" are used in English. The acute accent indicates that the word is pronounced with two syllables, like café (both "maté" and "café" are stressed on the first syllable in the UK), rather than like the one-syllable English word "mate". An acute accent is not used in the Spanish spelling, because the first syllable is stressed. The Yerba Mate Association of the Americas points out that, in Spanish, "" with the stress on the second syllable means "I killed".


title: Mate (drink)

text: In Brazil, traditionally prepared is known as , although the word and the expression "" (bitter mate) are also used in Argentina and Uruguay. The Spanish means "rough", "brute", or "barbarian", but is most widely understood to mean "feral", and is used in almost all of Latin America for domesticated animals that have become wild. The word was then used by the people who colonized the region of the Río de la Plata to describe the natives' rough and sour drink, drunk with no other ingredient to sweeten the taste.


title: Mate (drink)

text: has a strong cultural significance both in terms of national identity as well as in social terms. Yerba is the national drink of Paraguay, where it is also consumed with either hot or ice cold water (see tereré); Argentina; and Uruguay. Drinking is a common social practice in all of the territory of Paraguay and parts of Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, southern Chile, and eastern Bolivia. Throughout the Southern Cone, it is considered to be a tradition taken from the Paraguayan Guaraní and drank by the or , terms commonly used to describe the old residents of the South American , , or Patagonian grasslands, found principally in parts of Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, southeastern Bolivia, southern Chile and southern Brazil. Argentina has celebrated National Mate Day every 30 November since 2015.


title: Mate (drink)

text: Parque Histórico do Mate, funded by the state of Paraná (Brazil), is a park aimed to educate people on the sustainable harvesting methods needed to maintain the integrity and vitality of the oldest wild forests of in the world.


title: Mate (drink)

text: Due to immigrants from Syria and Lebanon, imported Mate is also consumed to a significant extent in Lebanon and especially in Syria. In term of quantity, Syria was the first importing country for several years.


title: Mate (drink)

text: The preparation of is a simple process, consisting of filling a container with yerba, pouring hot, but not boiling, water over the leaves, and drinking with a straw, the , which acts as a filter so as to draw only the liquid and not the yerba leaves. The method of preparing the infusion varies considerably from region to region, and which method yields the finest outcome is debated. However, nearly all methods have some common elements. The beverage is traditionally prepared in a gourd vessel, also called in Spanish and (= gourd) in Portuguese, from which it is drunk. The gourd is nearly filled with , and hot water, typically at , never boiling, is added. The drink is so popular within countries that consume it, that several national electric kettle manufacturers just refer to the range 70 to 85 °C on its thermostat as "mate" temperature.


title: Mate (drink)

text: The most common preparation involves a careful arrangement of the within the gourd before adding hot water. In this method, the gourd is first filled one-half to three-quarters of the way with . Too much will result in a "short" mate; conversely, too little results in a "long" mate, both being considered undesirable. After that, any additional herbs (, in Portuguese ) may be added for either health or flavor benefits, a practice most common in Paraguay, where people acquire herbs from a local (herbalist) and use the as a base for their herbal infusions. When the gourd is adequately filled, the preparer typically grasps it with the full hand, covering and roughly sealing the opening with the palm. Then the is turned upside-down, and shaken vigorously, but briefly and with gradually decreasing force, in this inverted position. This causes the finest, most powdery particles of the to settle toward the preparer's palm and the top of the mate.


title: Mate (drink)

text: Once the has settled, the is carefully brought to a near-sideways angle, with the opening tilted just slightly upward of the base. The is then shaken very gently with a side-to-side motion. This further settles the inside the gourd so that the finest particles move toward the opening and the is layered along one side. The largest stems and other bits create a partition between the empty space on one side of the gourd and the lopsided pile of on the other.


title: Mate (drink)

text: After arranging the along one side of the gourd, the is carefully tilted back onto its base, minimizing further disturbances of the as it is re-oriented to allow consumption. Some settling is normal, but is not desirable. The angled mound of should remain, with its powdery peak still flat and mostly level with the top of the gourd. A layer of stems along its slope will slide downward and accumulate in the space opposite the (though at least a portion should remain in place).


title: Mate (drink)

text: All of this careful settling of the ensures that each sip contains as little particulate matter as possible, creating a smooth-running mate. The finest particles will then be as distant as possible from the filtering end of the straw. With each draw, the smaller particles would inevitably move toward the straw, but the larger particles and stems filter much of this out. A sloped arrangement provides consistent concentration and flavor with each filling of the mate.


title: Mate (drink)

text: Now the is ready to receive the straw. Wetting the by gently pouring cool water into the empty space within the gourd until the water nearly reaches the top, and then allowing it to be absorbed into the before adding the straw, allows the preparer to carefully shape and "pack" the <nowiki>'</nowiki>s slope with the straw's filtering end, which makes the overall form of the within the gourd more resilient and solid. Dry , though, allows a cleaner and easier insertion of the straw, but care must be taken so as not to overly disturb the arrangement of the . Such a decision is entirely a personal or cultural preference. The straw is inserted with one's thumb and index finger on the upper end of the gourd, at an angle roughly perpendicular to the slope of the , so that its filtering end travels into the deepest part of the and comes to rest near or against the opposite wall of the gourd. It is important for the thumb to form a seal over the end of the straw when it is being inserted, or the air current produced in it will draw in undesirable particulates.


title: Mate (drink)

text: After the above process, the may be brewed. If the straw is inserted into dry , the must first be filled once with cool water as above, then be allowed to absorb it completely (which generally takes no more than two or three minutes). Treating the with cool water before the addition of hot water is essential, as it protects the from being scalded and from the chemical breakdown of some of its desirable nutrients. Hot water may then be added by carefully pouring it, as with the cool water before, into the cavity opposite the , until it reaches almost to the top of the gourd when the is fully saturated. Care should be taken to maintain the dryness of the swollen top of the beside the edge of the gourd's opening.


title: Mate (drink)

text: Once the hot water has been added, the is ready for drinking, and it may be refilled many times before becoming (washed out) and losing its flavor. When this occurs, the mound of can be pushed from one side of the gourd to the other, allowing water to be added along its opposite side; this revives the for additional refillings and is called "" (reforming the mate).


title: Mate (drink)

text: is traditionally drunk in a particular social setting, such as family gatherings or with friends. The same gourd ("/mate") and straw () are used by everyone drinking. One person (known in Portuguese as the , , or , and in Spanish as the ) assumes the task of server. Typically, the fills the gourd and drinks the completely to ensure that it is free of particulate matter and of good quality. In some places, passing the first brew of to another drinker is considered bad manners, as it may be too cold or too strong; for this reason, the first brew is often called (). The possibly drinks the second filling as well, if they deem it too cold or bitter. The subsequently refills the gourd and passes it to the drinker to their right, who likewise drinks it all (there is not much; the is full of yerba, with room for little water), and returns it without thanking the server; a final (thank you) implies that the drinker has had enough. The only exception to this order is if a new guest joins the group; in this case the new arrival receives the next mate, and then the cebador resumes the order of serving, and the new arrival will receive theirs depending on their placement in the group. When no more tea remains, the straw makes a loud sucking noise, which is not considered rude. The ritual proceeds around the circle in this way until the becomes (washed out), typically after the gourd has been filled about 10 times or more depending on the used (well-aged is typically more potent, so provides a greater number of refills) and the ability of the . When one has had one's fill of mate, they politely thank the , passing the back at the same time. It is impolite for anyone but the cebador to move the bombilla or otherwise mess with the mate; the cebador may take offense to this and not offer it to the offender again. When someone takes too long, others in the round ( in Portuguese, in Spanish) will likely politely warn them by saying "bring the talking gourd" (); an Argentine equivalent, especially among young people, being ("it's not a microphone"), an allusion to the drinker holding the for too long, as if they were using it as a microphone to deliver a lecture.


title: Mate (drink)

text: Some drinkers like to add sugar or honey, creating or (sweet mate), instead of sugarless (bitter mate), a practice said to be more common in Brazil outside its southernmost state. Some people also like to add lemon or orange peel, some herbs or even coffee, but these are mostly rejected by people who like to stick to the "original" mate.


title: Mate (drink)

text: Traditionally, natural gourds are used, though wood vessels, bamboo tubes, and gourd-shaped , made of ceramic or metal (stainless steel or even silver) are also common, as are vessels made from cattle horns. The gourd is traditionally made out of the porongo or fruit shell. Gourds are commonly decorated with silver, sporting decorative or heraldic designs with floral motifs. Some gourd mates with elaborated silver ornaments and silver bombillas are true pieces of jewelry and very sought after by collectors.


title: Mate (drink)

text: Research found both cold- and hot-water extractions of commercial yerba-mate products contained high levels (8.03 to 53.3 ng/g dry leaves) of carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (i.e. benzo[a]pyrene).


title: Mate (drink)

text: is a rich source of caffeine. On average, tea contains 92 mg of chlorogenic acid per gram of dry leaves, and no catechins, giving it a significantly different polyphenol profile from other teas.


title: Mate (drink)

text: According to Argentine culture in part promoted by marketers, the stimulant in is actually a substance called (named after the drink). However, analysis of the active chemicals in mate has found that does not exist.


title: Mate (drink)

text: The Guaraní people started drinking in a region that currently includes Paraguay, southern Brazil, southeastern Bolivia, northeastern Argentina and Uruguay. They have a legend that the Goddesses of the Moon and the Cloud came to visit the Earth one day. An old man saved them from a (jaguar) that was going to attack them. The goddesses gave him a new kind of plant, from which he could prepare a "drink of friendship" as compensation for his actions.


title: Mate (drink)

text: Another drink can be prepared with specially cut dry leaves, very cold water, and, optionally, lemon or another fruit juice, called . It is very common in Paraguay, northeastern Argentina and in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. After pouring the water, it is considered proper to "wait while the saint has a sip" before the first person takes a drink. In southern Brazil, is sometimes used as a derogatory term for a not hot enough .


title: Mate (drink)

text: In Uruguay and Brazil, the traditional gourd is usually big with a corresponding large hole. In Argentina (especially in the capital Buenos Aires), the gourd is small and has a small hole and people sometimes add sugar for flavor.


title: Mate (drink)

text: In Uruguay, people commonly walk around the streets toting a and a thermos with hot water. In some parts of Argentina, gas stations sponsored by producers provide free hot water to travelers, specifically for the purpose of drinking during the journey. Disposable sets with a plastic and straw and sets with a thermos flask and stacking containers for the yerba and sugar inside a fitted case are available.


title: Mate (drink)

text: In Argentina, (boiled mate), in Brazil, , is made with a teabag or leaves and drunk from a cup or mug, with or without sugar and milk. Companies such as Cabrales from Mar del Plata and Establecimiento Las Marías produce teabags for export to Europe.


title: Mate (drink)

text: Travel narratives, such as Maria Graham's "Journal of a Residence in Chile", show a long history of drinking in central Chile. Many rural Chileans drink mate, in particular in the southern regions, particularly Magallanes, Aysén and Chiloé.


title: Mate (drink)

text: In Peru, is widespread throughout the north and south, first being introduced to Lima in the 17th century. It is widespread in rural zones, and it is prepared with coca (plant) or in a sweetened tea form with small slices of lemon or orange.""


title: Mate (drink)

text: In some parts of Syria, Lebanon and other Eastern Mediterranean countries, drinking is also common. The custom came from Syrians and Lebanese who moved to South America during the late 19th and early parts of the 20th century, adopted the tradition, and kept it after returning to Western Asia. Syria is the biggest importer of yerba-mate in the world, importing 15,000 tons a year. Mostly, the Druze communities in Syria and Lebanon maintain the culture and practice of mate.


title: Mate (drink)

text: According to a major retailer of in San Luis Obispo, California, by 2004, had grown to about 5% of the overall natural tea market in North America. Loose is commercially available in much of North America. Bottled is increasingly available in the United States. Canadian bottlers have introduced a cane sugar-sweetened, carbonated variety, similar to soda pop. One brand, Sol Mate, produces glass bottles available at Canadian and U.S. retailers, making use of the translingual pun (English 'soul mate'; Spanish/Portuguese 'sun mate') for the sake of marketing.


title: Mate (drink)

text: In some parts of the Southern Cone they prefer to drink bitter mate, especially in Paraguay, Uruguay, the south of Brazil, and parts of Argentina and Bolivia. This is referred to in Brazil and a large part of Argentina as – which also an archaic name for wild cattle, especially, to a horse that was very attached to a cowboy—which is understood as unsweetened mate. Many people are of the opinion that should be drunk in this form.


title: Mate (drink)

text: Unlike bitter mate, in every preparation of , or sweet mate, sugar is incorporated according to the taste of the drinker. This form of preparation is very widespread in various regions of Argentina, like in the Santiago del Estero province, Córdoba (Argentina), Cuyo, and the metropolitan region of Buenos Aires, among others. In Chile, this form of preparation is widespread in mostly rural zones. The spoonful of sugar or honey should fall on the edge of the cavity that the straw forms in the yerba, not all over the mate. One variation is to sweeten only the first preparation in order to cut the bitterness of the first sip, thus softening the rest. In Paraguay, a variant of is prepared by first caramelizing refined sugar in a pot then adding milk. The mixture is heated and placed in a thermos and used in place of water. Often, chamomile (, in Spanish) and coconut are added to yerba in the gumpa.


title: Mate (drink)

text: In the sweet version artificial sweeteners are also often added. As an alternative sweetener, natural ("Stevia rebaudiana") is preferred, which is an herb whose leaves are added in order to give a touch of sweetness. This is used principally in Paraguay.


title: Mate (drink)

text: The gourd in which bitter is drunk is not used to consume sweet due to the idea that the taste of the sugar would be detrimental to its later use to prepare and drink bitter mate, as it is said that it ruins the flavor of the .


title: Mate (drink)

text: Materva is a sweet, carbonated soft drink based on yerba mate. Developed in Cuba in 1920, and produced since the 1960s in Miami, Florida, it is a staple of the Cuban culture in Miami.


title: Battalion

text: A battalion is a military unit, typically consisting of 300 to 1,200 soldiers commanded by a lieutenant colonel, and subdivided into a number of companies (usually each commanded by a major or a captain). In some countries, battalions are exclusively infantry, while in others battalions are unit-level organizations.


title: Battalion

text: The word battalion came into the English language in the 16th century from the French language (French: "bataillon" meaning "battle squadron"; Italian: "battaglione" meaning the same thing; derived from the Vulgar Latin word "battalia" meaning "battle" and from the Latin word "bauttere" meaning "to beat" or "to strike"). The first use of the word in English was in the 1580s.


title: Battalion

text: A battalion comprises two or more primary mission companies which are often of a common type (e.g., infantry, tank, or maintenance), although there are exceptions such as combined arms battalions in the U.S. Army. In addition to the primary mission companies, a battalion typically includes a headquarters staff and combat service support which may be combined into a Headquarters and service company. A battalion may also contain a combat support company. With all these components, a battalion is the smallest military unit capable of "limited independent operations".


title: Battalion

text: The battalion must have a source of re-supply to enable it to sustain operations for more than a few days. This is because a battalion's complement of ammunition, expendable weapons (e.g., hand grenades and disposable rocket launchers), water, rations, fuel, lubricants, replacement parts, batteries, and medical supplies normally consists of only what the battalion's soldiers and the battalion's vehicles can carry.


title: Battalion

text: The commander's staff coordinates and plans operations. A battalion's subordinate companies and their platoons are dependent upon the battalion headquarters for command, control, communications, and intelligence, and the battalion's service and support structure. The battalion is usually part of a regiment, group, or brigade depending on the branch of service.


title: Battalion

text: NATO defines a battalion as "larger than a company, but smaller than a regiment" while "consisting of two or more company-, battery-, or troop-sized units and a headquarters." The standard NATO symbol for a battalion consists of a pair of vertical lines placed above a framed unit icon. Member nations have stipulated the different names they will use for organizations of this size.


title: Battalion

text: The term "battalion" is used in the British Army Infantry and some corps including the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, and Intelligence Corps. It was formerly used in the Royal Engineers (before they switched to regiments), and was also used in the now defunct Royal Army Ordnance Corps and Royal Pioneer Corps. Other corps usually use the term "regiment" instead.


title: Battalion

text: An infantry battalion is numbered ordinarily within its regiment (e.g., 1st Battalion, The Rifles, usually referred to as 1 Rifles). It normally has a headquarters company, support company, and three rifle companies (usually, but not always, A, B and C companies). Each company is commanded by a major, the officer commanding (OC), with a captain or senior lieutenant as second-in-command (2IC). The HQ company contains signals, quartermaster, catering, intelligence, administration, pay, training, operations and medical elements. The support company usually contains anti-tank, machine gun, mortar, pioneer and reconnaissance platoons. Mechanised units usually have an attached light aid detachment (LAD) of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME) to perform field repairs on vehicles and equipment. A British battalion in theatre during World War II had around 845 men; as of 2012, a British battalion had around 650 soldiers. With successive rounds of cutbacks after the war, many infantry regiments were reduced to a single battalion (others were amalgamated to form large regiments that maintained multiple battalions, e.g., the Royal Anglian Regiment).


title: Battalion

text: Battalions of other corps are given separate cardinal numbers within their corps (e.g., 101 Battalion REME).


title: Battalion

text: A battle group consists of an infantry battalion or armoured regiment with sub-units detached from other military units acting under the command of the battalion commander.


title: Battalion

text: In the Canadian Army, the battalion is the standard unit organization for infantry and combat service support and each battalion is divided into one or more sub-units referred to as companies.


title: Battalion

text: In the Canadian Forces, most battalions are reserve units of between 100 and 200 soldiers that include an operationally ready, field-deployable component of approximately a half-company apiece. The nine regular force infantry battalions each contain three or four rifle companies and one or two support companies. Canadian battalions are generally commanded by lieutenant-colonels, though smaller reserve battalions may be commanded by majors.


title: Battalion

text: Tactically, the Canadian battalion forms the core of the infantry battle group, which also includes various supporting elements such as armour, artillery, combat engineers and combat service support. An infantry battle group will typically be commanded by the commander of the core infantry battalion around which it is formed and can range in size from 300 to 1,500 or more soldiers, depending on the nature of the mission assigned.


title: Battalion

text: A battalion in the Indian Army consists of four rifle companies. In turn each rifle company consists three platoons. A battalion in the Indian Army is commanded by a colonel. Normally a battalion is attached to a regiment of infantry, which is organized, as a general rule, of a number of battalions and the regimental centre battalion.


title: Battalion

text: In the Royal Netherlands Army, a mechanised infantry battalion usually consists of one command- and medical company, three mechanised infantry companies, and one support company, which has three platoons with heavy mortars and three platoons with anti-tank missiles (TOW). With the Dutch artillery units, the equivalent of a battalion is called an (which translates to "section").


title: Battalion

text: Combat companies consist of (usually mechanised) infantry, combat engineers, or tanks. In the latter case, the unit is called an , which translates roughly to "squadron". There are also support battalions in the Dutch Army, which specialise on a specific task: for example, supplies and transport or communications.


title: Battalion

text: The Netherlands have four battalions that are permanently reserved for the United Nations, for the purpose of peacekeeping duties.


title: Battalion

text: An infantry battalion, logistical battalion, combat battalion, and the Netherlands Marine Corps all have a battalion structure. Each battalion usually consists of the following:


title: Battalion

text: In the Soviet Armed Forces, a motorised rifle battalion could be mounted in either BTR armoured personnel carriers or BMP infantry fighting vehicles, with the former being more numerous into the late 1980s. Both consisted of a battalion headquarters of 12 personnel and three motorised rifle companies of 110 personnel each, along with a number of combat support units: a mortar battery consisting of eight 120mm 120-PM-43 mortars or automatic 82mm 2B9 Vasileks, an air defense platoon with nine MANPADs, either the SA-7 Grail, SA-14 Gremlin or SA-16 Gimlet, and an automatic grenade launcher platoon with six 30mm AGS-17 launchers. The BTR battalion also featured an anti-tank platoon with four AT-3 Sagger or AT-4 Spigot launchers and two 73mm SPG-9 recoilless guns; BTR units on high-readiness status sometimes had six missile launchers and three recoilless guns. Both featured the same support units as well, with a signal platoon, supply platoon, repair workshop and medical aid station. The addition of the antitank platoon meant that a BTR battalion at full strength was 525 personnel and 60 BTRs, including three command variants, while a BMP battalion consisted of 497 personnel and 45 BMPs, including three command variants.


title: Battalion

text: Prior to the late 1980s, Soviet tank battalions consisted of three tank companies of 13 T-64, T-72 or T-80 tanks each, along with a battalion headquarters mounted in a command tank and a headquarters and service platoon, for a total of 165 personnel and 40 tanks; battalions using the older T-54, T-55 or T-62s tanks had 31 or 40 additional enlisted personnel. However, forces in Eastern Europe began to standardize to a smaller formation with 135 personnel and 31 tanks total, with each tank company consisting of 10 tanks total.


title: Battalion

text: A Soviet artillery battalion in the late 1980s consisted of a battalion headquarters, a headquarters platoon, a maintenance and supply platoon and three firing batteries, each with six artillery pieces, whether the self-propelled 2S1 Gvozdikas or the towed D-30 howitzers, and numbering 260 personnel or 240 personnel respectively. Rocket launcher artillery battalions consisted of a headquarters and headquarters platoon, a service battery and three firing batteries equipped with BM-21 Grads for a total of 255 personnel.


title: Battalion

text: With the major reform of its armed forces in 2004, the Swiss Army abandoned the old regimental system and adopted a combat team approach centred on battalions as the building blocks of mission-oriented task forces. Battalion sizes vary between branches.


title: Battalion

text: In the United States Army, a battalion is a unit composed of a headquarters and two to six batteries, companies, or troops. They are normally identified by ordinal numbers (1st Battalion, 2nd Squadron, etc.) and normally have subordinate units that are identified by single letters (Battery A, Company A, Troop A, etc.). Battalions are tactical and administrative organizations with a limited capability to plan and conduct independent operations and are normally organic components of brigades, groups, or regiments.


title: Battalion

text: A U.S. Army battalion includes the battalion commander (lieutenant colonel), executive officer (major), command sergeant major (CSM), headquarters staff, and usually three to five companies, with a total of 300 to 1,000 (but typically 500 to 600) soldiers. A regiment consists of between two and six organic battalions, while a brigade consists of between three and seven separate battalions.


title: Battalion

text: During the American Civil War, an infantry or cavalry battalion was an ad hoc grouping of companies from the parent regiment (which had ten companies, A through K, minus J as described below), except for certain regular infantry regiments, which were formally organized into three battalions of six companies each (numbered 1–6 per battalion vice sequential letter designations). After 1882, cavalry battalions were renamed squadrons and cavalry companies were renamed troops. Artillery battalions typically comprised four or more batteries, although this number fluctuated considerably.


title: Battalion

text: During World War II, most infantry regiments consisted of three battalions (1st, 2nd, and 3rd) with each battalion consisting of three rifle companies and a heavy weapons company. That is, rifle companies A, B, C along with heavy weapons Company D were part of the 1st battalion, rifle companies E, F, G, and heavy weapons Company H constituted the 2nd battalion, and rifle companies I, K, L, and heavy weapons Company M were in the 3rd. There was no J Company: the letter "J" was traditionally not used because in 18th- and 19th-century old-style type, the capital letters "I" and "J" looked alike, and were therefore easily confused with one another. It was common for a battalion to become temporarily attached to a different regiment. For example, during the confusion and high casualty rates of both the Normandy Landings and the Battle of the Bulge, in order to bolster the strength of a depleted infantry regiment, companies and even battalions were moved around as necessary.


title: Battalion

text: The U.S. Army also created independent tank battalions to attach to infantry divisions during World War II in order to give them fire support.


title: Battalion

text: From the 1960s through the early 1980s, a typical maneuver (infantry or tank) battalion had five companies: headquarters and headquarters company (HHC) and A, B, and C Companies, plus a combat support company (CSC), with a scout platoon, 107 mm (4.2 inch) heavy mortar platoon, along with other elements that varied between organizations. These included heavy anti-tank TOW missile platoons, ground surveillance radar sections and man-portable air-defense system sections. Beginning in the early 1980s, some elements of the combat support companies (the mortar and scout platoons) were merged into the headquarters company with the staff and support elements, others were moved to their parent type organization (ground surveillance radar and air defense), and in infantry battalions the heavy anti-tank missile platoon was organized as a separate company (E Company). In the late 1980s, there was a fourth "line" company added (D Company) in most infantry and tank battalions.


title: Battalion

text: In this older structure, U.S. Army mechanized infantry battalions and tank battalions, for tactical purposes, task-organized companies to each other, forming a battalion-sized task force (TF).


title: Battalion

text: Starting in 2005–2006, the U.S. Army's mechanized and tank battalions were reorganized into combined arms battalions (CABs). Tank battalions and mechanized infantry battalions no longer exist. These new combined arms battalions are modular units, each consisting of a headquarters company, two mechanized infantry companies, two tank companies, and a forward support company attached from the battalion's parent brigade support battalion. This new structure eliminated the need to task-organize companies between battalions; each combined arms battalion was organically composed of the requisite companies. At a higher level, each armored brigade (formerly designated 'heavy brigade') is now composed of three CABs (versus the two CABs of a former heavy brigade), one reconnaissance squadron, one artillery battalion, one brigade engineer battalion (BEB), and one brigade support battalion (BSB).


title: Battalion

text: A United States Marine Corps battalion includes the battalion headquarters, consisting of the commanding officer (usually a lieutenant colonel, sometimes a colonel), an executive officer (the second-in-command, usually a major), the sergeant major, and the executive staff (S-1 through S-4 and S-6). The battalion headquarters is supported by a headquarters and service company (battery). A battalion usually contains two to five organic companies (batteries in the artillery), with a total of 500 to 1,200 Marines in the battalion. A regiment consists of a regimental headquarters, a headquarters company (or battery), and two to five organic battalions (Marine infantry regiments – three battalions of infantry; Marine artillery regiments – three to five battalions of artillery; Marine combat logistics regiments – one to three combat logistics battalions). In the U.S. Marine Corps, the brigade designation is used only in "Marine Expeditionary Brigade" (MEB). An MEB is one of the standard Marine Air-Ground Task Forces (MAGTF), is commanded by a brigadier general or major general, and consists of command element, a ground combat element (usually one reinforced Marine infantry regiment), an aviation combat element (a reinforced Marine aircraft group including rotary wing, fixed wing, and tiltrotor aircraft), and a combat logistics element (a Marine combat logistics regiment, which includes naval construction forces [Seabees] and naval medical elements).


title: Battalion

text: In the U.S. Marine Corps, an infantry or "rifle" battalion typically consists of a headquarters and service company, three rifle, or "line", companies (designated alphabetically A through M depending upon which battalion of the parent regiment to which they are attached) and a weapons company. Weapons companies do not receive a letter designation. Marine infantry regiments use battalion and company designations as described above under World War II, with company letters D, H, and M not normally used but rather held in reserve for use in augmenting a fourth rifle company into each battalion as needed.


title: Battalion

text: United States Marine Corps infantry battalions are task organized into Battalion Landing Teams (BLTs) as the ground combat element (GCE) of a Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU). A standard U.S. Marine infantry battalion is typically supported by an artillery battery and a platoon each of tanks, amphibious assault vehicles, light armored reconnaissance vehicles, reconnaissance Marines, and combat engineers. The battalion structure is designed to readily expand to include a fourth rifle company, if required, as described above under battalion organization. Often Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Company (ANGLICO) officers are assigned to the battalion, to coordinate naval gunfire support.


title: Battalion

text: The United States Navy has construction battalions and navy cargo handling battalions. They are structured roughly analogous to an Army or Marine Corps battalion with staff and commanding officers of similar grade and experience.


title: Hepatitis

text: Hepatitis is inflammation of the liver tissue. Some people or animals with hepatitis have no symptoms, whereas others develop yellow discoloration of the skin and whites of the eyes (jaundice), poor appetite, vomiting, tiredness, abdominal pain, and diarrhea. Hepatitis is "acute" if it resolves within six months, and "chronic" if it lasts longer than six months. Acute hepatitis can resolve on its own, progress to chronic hepatitis, or (rarely) result in acute liver failure. Chronic hepatitis may progress to scarring of the liver (cirrhosis), liver failure, and liver cancer.


title: Hepatitis

text: Hepatitis is most commonly caused by the virus "hepatovirus A", "B", "C", "D", and "E". Other viruses can also cause liver inflammation, including cytomegalovirus, Epstein–Barr virus, and yellow fever virus. Other common causes of hepatitis include heavy alcohol use, certain medications, toxins, other infections, autoimmune diseases, and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). Hepatitis A and E are mainly spread by contaminated food and water. Hepatitis B is mainly sexually transmitted, but may also be passed from mother to baby during pregnancy or childbirth and spread through infected blood. Hepatitis C is commonly spread through infected blood such as may occur during needle sharing by intravenous drug users. Hepatitis D can only infect people already infected with hepatitis B.


title: Hepatitis

text: Hepatitis A, B, and D are preventable with immunization. Medications may be used to treat chronic viral hepatitis. Antiviral medications are recommended in all with chronic hepatitis C, except those with conditions that limit their life expectancy. There is no specific treatment for NASH; physical activity, a healthy diet, and weight loss are recommended. Autoimmune hepatitis may be treated with medications to suppress the immune system. A liver transplant may be an option in both acute and chronic liver failure.


title: Hepatitis

text: Worldwide in 2015, hepatitis A occurred in about 114 million people, chronic hepatitis B affected about 343 million people and chronic hepatitis C about 142 million people. In the United States, NASH affects about 11 million people and alcoholic hepatitis affects about 5 million people. Hepatitis results in more than a million deaths a year, most of which occur indirectly from liver scarring or liver cancer. In the United States, hepatitis A is estimated to occur in about 2,500 people a year and results in about 75 deaths. The word is derived from the Greek "hêpar" (), meaning "liver", and "-itis" (), meaning "inflammation".


title: Hepatitis

text: Hepatitis has a broad spectrum of presentations that range from a complete lack of symptoms to severe liver failure. The acute form of hepatitis, generally caused by viral infection, is characterized by constitutional symptoms that are typically self-limiting. Chronic hepatitis presents similarly, but can manifest signs and symptoms specific to liver dysfunction with long-standing inflammation and damage to the organ.


title: Hepatitis

text: Both drug-induced hepatitis and autoimmune hepatitis can present very similarly to acute viral hepatitis, with slight variations in symptoms depending on the cause. Cases of drug-induced hepatitis can manifest with systemic signs of an allergic reaction including rash, fever, serositis (inflammation of membranes lining certain organs), elevated eosinophils (a type of white blood cell), and suppression of bone marrow activity.


title: Hepatitis

text: Fulminant hepatitis, or massive hepatic cell death, is a rare and life-threatening complication of acute hepatitis that can occur in cases of hepatitis B, D, and E, in addition to drug-induced and autoimmune hepatitis. The complication more frequently occurs in instances of hepatitis B and D co-infection at a rate of 2–20% and in pregnant women with hepatitis E at rate of 15–20% of cases. In addition to the signs of acute hepatitis, people can also demonstrate signs of coagulopathy (abnormal coagulation studies with easy bruising and bleeding) and encephalopathy (confusion, disorientation, and sleepiness). Mortality due to fulminant hepatitis is typically the result of various complications including cerebral edema, gastrointestinal bleeding, sepsis, respiratory failure, or kidney failure.


title: Hepatitis

text: Acute cases of hepatitis are seen to be resolved well within a six-month period. When hepatitis is continued for more than six months it is termed chronic hepatitis. Chronic hepatitis is often asymptomatic early in its course and is detected only by liver laboratory studies for screening purposes or to evaluate non-specific symptoms. As the inflammation progresses, patients can develop constitutional symptoms similar to acute hepatitis, including fatigue, nausea, vomiting, poor appetite, and joint pain. Jaundice can occur as well, but much later in the disease process and is typically a sign of advanced disease. Chronic hepatitis interferes with hormonal functions of the liver which can result in acne, hirsutism (abnormal hair growth), and amenorrhea (lack of menstrual period) in women. Extensive damage and scarring of the liver over time defines cirrhosis, a condition in which the liver's ability to function is permanently impeded. This results in jaundice, weight loss, coagulopathy, ascites (abdominal fluid collection), and peripheral edema (leg swelling). Cirrhosis can lead to other life-threatening complications such as hepatic encephalopathy, esophageal varices, hepatorenal syndrome, and liver cancer.


title: Hepatitis

text: Causes of hepatitis can be divided into the following major categories: infectious, metabolic, ischemic, autoimmune, genetic, and other. Infectious agents include viruses, bacteria, and parasites. Metabolic causes include prescription medications, toxins (most notably alcohol), and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Autoimmune and genetic causes of hepatitis involve genetic predispositions and tend to affect characteristic populations.


title: Hepatitis

text: Viral hepatitis is the most common type of hepatitis worldwide, especially in Asia and Africa. Viral hepatitis is caused by five different viruses (hepatitis A, B, C, D, and E). Hepatitis A and hepatitis E behave similarly: they are both transmitted by the fecal–oral route, are more common in developing countries, and are self-limiting illnesses that do not lead to chronic hepatitis.


title: Hepatitis

text: Hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and hepatitis D are transmitted when blood or mucous membranes are exposed to infected blood and body fluids, such as semen and vaginal secretions. Viral particles have also been found in saliva and breastmilk. Kissing, sharing utensils, and breastfeeding do not lead to transmission unless these fluids are introduced into open sores or cuts. Many families who do not have safe drinking water or live in unhygienic homes have contracted hepatitis because saliva and blood droplets are often carried through the water and blood-borne illnesses spread quickly in unsanitary settings.


title: Hepatitis

text: Hepatitis B and C can present either acutely or chronically. Hepatitis D is a defective virus that requires hepatitis B to replicate and is only found with hepatitis B co-infection. In adults, hepatitis B infection is most commonly self-limiting, with less than 5% progressing to chronic state, and 20 to 30% of those chronically infected developing cirrhosis or liver cancer. Infection in infants and children frequently leads to chronic infection.


title: Hepatitis

text: Unlike hepatitis B, most cases of hepatitis C lead to chronic infection. Hepatitis C is the second most common cause of cirrhosis in the US (second to alcoholic hepatitis). In the 1970s and 1980s, blood transfusions were a major factor in spreading hepatitis C virus. Since widespread screening of blood products for hepatitis C began in 1992, the risk of acquiring hepatitis C from a blood transfusion has decreased from approximately 10% in the 1970s to 1 in 2 million currently.


title: Hepatitis

text: Parasites can also infect the liver and activate the immune response, resulting in symptoms of acute hepatitis with increased serum IgE (though chronic hepatitis is possible with chronic infections). Of the protozoans, Trypanosoma cruzi, Leishmania species, and the malaria-causing Plasmodium species all can cause liver inflammation. Another protozoan, Entamoeba histolytica, causes hepatitis with distinct liver abscesses.


title: Hepatitis

text: Of the worms, the cestode Echinococcus granulosus, also known as the dog tapeworm, infects the liver and forms characteristic hepatic hydatid cysts. The liver flukes Fasciola hepatica and Clonorchis sinensis live in the bile ducts and cause progressive hepatitis and liver fibrosis.


title: Hepatitis

text: Bacterial infection of the liver commonly results in pyogenic liver abscesses, acute hepatitis, or granulomatous (or chronic) liver disease. Pyogenic abscesses commonly involve enteric bacteria such as "Escherichia coli" and "Klebsiella pneumoniae" and are composed of multiple bacteria up to 50% of the time. Acute hepatitis is caused by "Neisseria meningitidis", "Neisseria gonorrhoeae", "Bartonella henselae", "Borrelia burgdorferi", salmonella species, brucella species and campylobacter species. Chronic or granulomatous hepatitis is seen with infection from mycobacteria species, "Tropheryma whipplei", "Treponema pallidum", "Coxiella burnetii", and rickettsia species.


title: Hepatitis

text: Excessive alcohol consumption is a significant cause of hepatitis and is the most common cause of cirrhosis in the U.S. Alcoholic hepatitis is within the spectrum of alcoholic liver disease. This ranges in order of severity and reversibility from alcoholic steatosis (least severe, most reversible), alcoholic hepatitis, cirrhosis, and liver cancer (most severe, least reversible). Hepatitis usually develops over years-long exposure to alcohol, occurring in 10 to 20% of alcoholics. The most important risk factors for the development of alcoholic hepatitis are quantity and duration of alcohol intake. Long-term alcohol intake in excess of 80 grams of alcohol a day in men and 40 grams a day in women is associated with development of alcoholic hepatitis (1 beer or 4 ounces of wine is equivalent to 12g of alcohol). Alcoholic hepatitis can vary from asymptomatic hepatomegaly (enlarged liver) to symptoms of acute or chronic hepatitis to liver failure.


title: Hepatitis

text: Many chemical agents, including medications, industrial toxins, and herbal and dietary supplements, can cause hepatitis. The spectrum of drug-induced liver injury varies from acute hepatitis to chronic hepatitis to acute liver failure. Toxins and medications can cause liver injury through a variety of mechanisms, including direct cell damage, disruption of cell metabolism, and causing structural changes. Some drugs such as paracetamol exhibit predictable dose-dependent liver damage while others such as isoniazid cause idiosyncratic and unpredictable reactions that vary by person. There are wide variations in the mechanisms of liver injury and latency period from exposure to development of clinical illness.


title: Hepatitis

text: Many types of drugs can cause liver injury, including the analgesic paracetamol; antibiotics such as isoniazid, nitrofurantoin, amoxicillin-clavulanate, erythromycin, and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole; anticonvulsants such as valproate and phenytoin; cholesterol-lowering statins; steroids such as oral contraceptives and anabolic steroids; and highly active anti-retroviral therapy used in the treatment of HIV/AIDS. Of these, amoxicillin-clavulanate is the most common cause of drug-induced liver injury, and paracetamol toxicity the most common cause of acute liver failure in the United States and Europe.


title: Hepatitis

text: Herbal remedies and dietary supplements are another important cause of hepatitis; these are the most common causes of drug-induced hepatitis in Korea. The United-States-based Drug Induced Liver Injury Network linked more than 16% of cases of hepatotoxicity to herbal and dietary supplements. In the United States, herbal and dietary supplements – unlike pharmaceutical drugs – are unregulated by the Food and Drug Administration. The National Institutes of Health maintains the LiverTox database for consumers to track all known prescription and non-prescription compounds associated with liver injury.


title: Hepatitis

text: Exposure to other hepatotoxins can occur accidentally or intentionally through ingestion, inhalation, and skin absorption. The industrial toxin carbon tetrachloride and the wild mushroom Amanita phalloides are other known hepatotoxins.


title: Hepatitis

text: Non-alcoholic hepatitis is within the spectrum of non-alcoholic liver disease (NALD), which ranges in severity and reversibility from non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) to non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) to cirrhosis to liver cancer, similar to the spectrum of alcoholic liver disease.


title: Hepatitis

text: Non-alcoholic liver disease occurs in people with little or no history of alcohol use, and is instead strongly associated with metabolic syndrome, obesity, insulin resistance and diabetes, and hypertriglyceridemia. Over time, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease can progress to non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, which additionally involves liver cell death, liver inflammation and possible fibrosis. Factors accelerating progression from NAFLD to NASH are obesity, older age, non-African American ethnicity, female gender, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, higher ALT or AST level, higher AST/ALT ratio, low platelet count, and an ultrasound steatosis score.


title: Hepatitis

text: In the early stages (as with NAFLD and early NASH), most patients are asymptomatic or have mild right upper quadrant pain, and diagnosis is suspected on the basis of abnormal liver function tests. As the disease progresses, symptoms typical of chronic hepatitis may develop. While imaging can show fatty liver, only liver biopsy can demonstrate inflammation and fibrosis characteristic of NASH. 9 to 25% of patients with NASH develop cirrhosis. NASH is recognized as the third most common cause of liver disease in the United States.


title: Hepatitis

text: Autoimmune hepatitis is a chronic disease caused by an abnormal immune response against liver cells. The disease is thought to have a genetic predisposition as it is associated with certain human leukocyte antigens involved in the immune response. As in other autoimmune diseases, circulating auto-antibodies may be present and are helpful in diagnosis. Auto-antibodies found in patients with autoimmune hepatitis include the sensitive but less specific anti-nuclear antibody (ANA), smooth muscle antibody (SMA), and atypical perinuclear antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (p-ANCA). Other autoantibodies that are less common but more specific to autoimmune hepatitis are the antibodies against liver kidney microsome 1 (LKM1) and soluble liver antigen (SLA). Autoimmune hepatitis can also be triggered by drugs (such as nitrofurantoin, hydralazine, and methyldopa), after liver transplant, or by viruses (such as hepatitis A, Epstein-Barr virus, or measles).


title: Hepatitis

text: Autoimmune hepatitis can present anywhere within the spectrum from asymptomatic to acute or chronic hepatitis to fulminant liver failure. Patients are asymptomatic 25–34% of the time, and the diagnosis is suspected on the basis of abnormal liver function tests. Some studies show between 25% and 75% of cases present with signs and symptoms of acute hepatitis. As with other autoimmune diseases, autoimmune hepatitis usually affects young females (though it can affect patients of either sex of any age), and patients can exhibit classic signs and symptoms of autoimmunity such as fatigue, anemia, anorexia, amenorrhea, acne, arthritis, pleurisy, thyroiditis, ulcerative colitis, nephritis, and maculopapular rash. Autoimmune hepatitis increases the risk for cirrhosis, and the risk for liver cancer is increased by about 1% for each year of the disease.


title: Hepatitis

text: Many people with autoimmune hepatitis have other autoimmune diseases. Autoimmune hepatitis is distinct from the other autoimmune diseases of the liver, primary biliary cirrhosis and primary sclerosing cholangitis, both of which can also lead to scarring, fibrosis, and cirrhosis of the liver.


title: Hepatitis

text: Genetic causes of hepatitis include alpha-1-antitrypsin deficiency, hemochromatosis, and Wilson's disease. In alpha-1-antitrypsin deficiency, a co-dominant mutation in the gene for alpha-1-antitrypsin results in the abnormal accumulation of the mutant AAT protein within liver cells, leading to liver disease. Hemochromatosis and Wilson's disease are both autosomal recessive diseases involving abnormal storage of minerals. In hemochromatosis, excess amounts of iron accumulate in multiple body sites, including the liver, which can lead to cirrhosis. In Wilson's disease, excess amounts of copper accumulate in the liver and brain, causing cirrhosis and dementia.


title: Hepatitis

text: When the liver is involved, alpha-1-antitrypsin deficiency and Wilson's disease tend to present as hepatitis in the neonatal period or in childhood. Hemochromatosis typically presents in adulthood, with the onset of clinical disease usually after age 50.