title: Paul Castellano

text: In 1978, Castellano allegedly ordered the murder of Gambino associate Nicholas Scibetta. A cocaine and alcohol user, Scibetta participated in several public fights and insulted the daughter of George DeCicco. Since Scibetta was Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano's brother-in-law, Castellano asked Frank DeCicco to first notify Gravano of the impending hit. When advised of Scibetta's fate, a furious Gravano said he would kill Castellano first. However, Gravano was eventually calmed by DeCicco and accepted Scibetta's death as the punishment earned by his behavior.


title: Paul Castellano

text: In 1978, Castellano allegedly ordered the murders of Gambino capo James Eppolito and his son, mobster James Eppolito Jr. Eppolito Sr. had complained to Castellano that Anthony Gaggi was infringing on his territory and asked permission to kill him. Castellano gave Eppolitto a noncommittal answer, but later warned Gaggi about Eppolito's intentions. In response, Gaggi and soldier Roy DeMeo murdered Eppolito senior and junior.


title: Paul Castellano

text: In February 1978, Castellano made an agreement between the Gambino family and the Westies, an Irish-American gang from Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan. Castellano wanted hitmen that law enforcement could not tie directly to the Gambino family. The Westies wanted Gambino protection from the other Cosa Nostra families. The Gambino–Westie alliance was set in a meeting between Westies leader James Coonan and Castellano. According to Westies gangster Mickey Featherstone, Castellano gave them the following directive:


title: Paul Castellano

text: You guys got to stop acting like cowboys – acting wild. You're going to be with us now. If anyone is going to get killed, you have to clear it with us. Castellano also created an alliance with the Cherry Hill Gambinos, a group of Sicilian heroin importers and distributors in New Jersey, also for use as gunmen. With the Westies and the Cherry Hill Gambinos, Castellano commanded a small army of capable killers.


title: Paul Castellano

text: In September 1980, Castellano allegedly ordered the murder of his former son-in-law Frank Amato. A hijacker and minor criminal, Amato had physically abused his wife Connie Castellano (Paul's daughter) when they were married. According to FBI documents, Gambino soldier Roy DeMeo murdered Amato, cut up his body, and disposed of the remains at sea.


title: Paul Castellano

text: In 1981, Castellano met twice with businessman Frank Perdue, the alleged cause of the 1975 Borelli murder. Perdue wanted Castellano's help in thwarting a unionization drive at a Perdue facility in Virginia. However, according to Perdue, the two men talked, but never agreed to anything.


title: Paul Castellano

text: At the height of his power, Castellano built a lavish 17-room mansion on a ridgeline in Todt Hill on Staten Island. Designed to resemble the in Castellano's house featured Carrara marble, an Olympic-size swimming pool, and an English garden. He started a love affair with his Colombian maid, Gloria Olarte. Castellano became a recluse, rarely venturing outside the mansion. Capos such as Daniel Marino, Thomas Gambino, and James Failla visited Castellano at Todt Hill to provide information and receive orders. When not entertaining guests, Castellano wore satin and silk dressing gowns and velvet slippers around


title: Paul Castellano

text: John Gotti, Dellacroce's former protégé, rapidly became dissatisfied with Castellano's leadership, regarding the new boss as being too isolated and greedy. Like other members of the family, Gotti also personally disliked Castellano. The boss lacked street credibility, and those who had paid their dues running street level jobs did not respect him. Gotti also had an economic interest: he had a running argument with Castellano on the split Gotti took from hijackings at Kennedy Airport. Gotti was also rumored to be expanding into drug dealing, a lucrative trade Castellano had banned.


title: Paul Castellano

text: In January 1983, Castellano allegedly ordered the murder of Roy DeMeo, who was found shot to death in the trunk of his Cadillac automobile. In March 1983, the FBI obtained a warrant to install secret listening devices in Castellano's house. Waiting until Castellano went on vacation to Florida, agents drugged his watch dogs, disabled his security system, and planted devices in the dining and living rooms. These devices provided law enforcement with a wealth of incriminating information on Castellano.


title: Paul Castellano

text: In August 1983, Angelo Ruggiero and Gene Gotti were arrested for dealing heroin, based primarily on recordings from a bug in Ruggiero's house. Castellano, who had banned made men from his family from dealing drugs under threat of death, demanded transcripts of the tapes, and, when Ruggiero refused, threatened to demote Gotti.


title: Paul Castellano

text: On March 30, 1984, Castellano was indicted on federal racketeering charges in the Gambino case, including the Eppolitto and DeMeo murders. Other charges were extortion, narcotics trafficking, theft, and prostitution. Castellano was released on $2 million bail.


title: Paul Castellano

text: On February 25, 1985, Castellano was one of many Mafia bosses arrested on charges of racketeering, which was to result in the Mafia Commission Trial; he was released on $3 million bail.


title: Paul Castellano

text: On July 1, 1985, Castellano was indicted on loansharking charges and with tax evasion for not reporting the profits from his illegal racket, and pleaded not guilty.


title: Paul Castellano

text: On November 4, 1985, in a testimony from car thief Vito Arena, Castellano was named the head of the stolen-car ring that employed him, as well as having been connected to five murders.


title: Paul Castellano

text: Dellacroce died of cancer on starting a chain of events that led to Castellano's murder two weeks Several factors contributed to the conspiracy to kill Castellano; his failure to attend Dellacroce's wake was an insult to the Dellacroce family and his followers. Secondly, Castellano named his bodyguard Thomas Bilotti as the new underboss. A Castellano loyalist, Bilotti was a brutish loanshark with little of the diplomatic skill required as underboss. Castellano also hinted that he was breaking up Gotti's crew.


title: Paul Castellano

text: Gravano suggested killing both Castellano and Bilotti while they were eating breakfast at a diner. However, when DeCicco tipped Gotti off that he would be having a meeting with Castellano and several other Gambino mobsters at Sparks Steak House on December 16, Gotti and the other conspirators decided to kill him then.


title: Paul Castellano

text: On Monday, December 16, 1985, Bilotti drove Castellano to the prearranged early evening meeting at Sparks Steak House in Midtown Manhattan, on East 46th Street near Third Avenue. A hit team (consisting of Salvatore Scala, Edward Lino and John Carneglia) waited near the restaurant entrance; positioned down the street were backup shooters Dominick Pizzonia, Angelo Ruggiero, and Tony Rampino. Gotti observed the scene from a car across the street.


title: Paul Castellano

text: As Castellano was exiting the car at the front of the restaurant at around 5:26 pm, the gunmen ran up and shot him several times. Allegedly, John Carneglia was the gunman who shot Castellano in the head. Bilotti was shot as he exited from the driver's door. Before leaving the murder scene, Gotti drove over to view the bodies.


title: Paul Castellano

text: Castellano was buried in the Moravian Cemetery in the New Dorp section of Staten Island. The Archdiocese of New York refused to grant Castellano a Catholic funeral, citing his notorious life and death.


title: Paul Castellano

text: Two weeks after Castellano's murder, a meeting of capos in a Manhattan basement elected Gotti, age 45, as the new Gambino boss. The Castellano murder enraged Vincent Gigante, boss of the Genovese crime family, because Gotti never received permission for the act from the Commission. Gigante solicited the help of Lucchese crime family boss Anthony Corallo to kill Gotti. On April 13, 1986, a car bomb meant for Gotti exploded outside a Bensonhurst social club, but the only casualty was Frank DeCicco.


title: Paul Castellano

text: Gotti was arrested by the FBI in late 1990 on racketeering charges and denied bail 10 days later. On April 2, 1992, with the help of Gravano becoming a government witness, Gotti was convicted of numerous racketeering charges, including the 1985 Castellano murder. On June 23, Gotti was sentenced to life in federal prison, where he died of throat cancer in 2002. No one else was ever charged in the Castellano murder.


title: Joseph Kony

text: Joseph Rao Kony (likely born 1961) is a Ugandan militant who founded the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), a Christian fundamentalist organization, designated as a terrorist group by the United Nations Peacekeepers, the European Union and various other governments.


title: Joseph Kony

text: An Acholi, Kony was born into a middle-class family. Kony's father Luizi Obol and his mother Nora Oting were both farmers. Kony dropped out of school at a young age. In 1987, he formed the Lord's Resistance Army. Kony declared a military offensive in Uganda, aiming to overthrow Yoweri Museveni's Ugandan government and establish a theocratic state based on the dominion theology. After Kony's terror activities, he was banished from Uganda, and shifted to South Sudan. Kony described himself as a freedom fighter, struggling for a Christian Uganda.


title: Joseph Kony

text: Kony has long been one of Africa's most notorious warlords. He is currently one of the most wanted African militants as well. He has been accused by government entities of ordering the abduction of children to become child soldiers and sex slaves. Approximately 66,000 children became soldiers, and 2 million people were displaced internally from 1986 to 2009 by his forces. Kony was indicted in 2005 for war crimes and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, but he has evaded capture. He has been subject to an Interpol Red Notice at the request of the ICC since 2006. Since the Juba peace talks in 2006, the Lord's Resistance Army no longer operates in Uganda. Sources claim that they are in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the Central African Republic (CAR), or South Sudan. In 2013, Kony was reported to be in poor health, and Michel Djotodia, president of the CAR, claimed he was negotiating with Kony to surrender.


title: Joseph Kony

text: , Kony was still at large, but his force was reported to have shrunk to approximately 100 soldiers, down from an estimated high of 3,000. Both the United States and Uganda ended the hunt for Kony and the LRA, believing that the LRA was no longer a significant security risk to Uganda.


title: Joseph Kony

text: Kony was likely born in 1961, in Odek, a village east of Gulu in northern Uganda, to farmers Luizi Obol and Nora Oting. He is a member of the Acholi people. He was either the youngest or second youngest of six children in the family. Kony enjoyed a good relationship with his siblings, but was quick to retaliate in a dispute and when confronted would often resort to physical violence. His father was a lay catechist of the Catholic Church, and his mother was an Anglican. His older sister, Gabriela Lakot, still lives in Odek.


title: Joseph Kony

text: Kony never finished elementary school. He was an altar boy until 1976. He dropped out of school at age 15.


title: Joseph Kony

text: In 1995, Kony rose to prominence in Acholiland after the Holy Spirit Movement of Alice Auma (also known as Lakwena and to whom Kony is believed to be related). The overthrow of Acholi President Tito Okello by Yoweri Museveni and his National Resistance Army (NRA) during the Ugandan Bush War (1981–1986) had culminated in mass looting of livestock, rape, burning of homes, genocide, and murder by Museveni's army.


title: Joseph Kony

text: The acts committed by the Museveni's NRA, now known as the Uganda People's Defence Force, led to the creation of the LRA by Joseph Kony. The insurgencies gave rise to concentration camps in northern Uganda where over 2 million people were confined. The government burned people's properties using helicopter gunships, killing many. There were forced displacements in the northern region. International campaigns called for all camps to be dismantled, and for the people to return to their former villages.


title: Joseph Kony

text: In 2006, in the Juba peace talks with the LRA rebels, Museveni's government gave permission for the local people to return to their villages. This marked the beginning of the rehabilitation of homes, roads, and so on.


title: Joseph Kony

text: Kony has been implicated in abduction and recruitment of child soldiers. The LRA have had battle confrontations with the government's NRA or UPDF within Uganda and in South Sudan for ten years. In 2008 the Ugandan army invaded the DRC in search for the LRA in Operation Lightning Thunder. In November 2013, Kony was reported to be in poor health in the eastern CAR town of Nzoka.


title: Joseph Kony

text: Looking back at the LRA's campaign of violence, "The Guardian" stated in 2015 that Kony's forces had been responsible for the deaths of over 100,000 and the abduction of at least 60,000 children. Various atrocities committed include raping young girls and abducting them for use as sex slaves.


title: Joseph Kony

text: The actual number of LRA militia members has varied significantly over the years, reaching as high as 3000 soldiers. By 2017, the organization's membership had shrunk significantly to an estimated 100 soldiers. In April 2017, both the US and Ugandan governments ended efforts to find Kony and fight the LRA, stating that the LRA no longer posed a significant security risk to Uganda.


title: Joseph Kony

text: While initially purporting to fight against government oppression, the LRA allegedly turned against Kony's own supporters, supposedly to "purify" the Acholi people and turn Uganda into a theocracy. Kony proclaims himself the spokesperson of God and a spirit medium and claims he is visited by a multinational host of 13 spirits, including a Chinese phantom. Ideologically, the group is a syncretic mix of mysticism, Acholi nationalism, and heterodox Christian fundamentalism, and claims to be establishing a theocratic state based on the Ten Commandments and local Acholi tradition.


title: Joseph Kony

text: In October 2006, the ICC announced that arrest warrants had been issued for five members of the Lord's Resistance Army for crimes against humanity following a sealed indictment. On the next day, Ugandan defense minister Amama Mbabazi revealed that the warrants include Kony, his deputy Vincent Otti, and LRA commanders Raska Lukwiya, Okot Odhiambo, and Dominic Ongwen. The Ugandan army killed Lukwiya on 12 August 2006.


title: Joseph Kony

text: The BBC received information that Otti had been killed on 2 October 2007, at Kony's home. In November 2006, Kony met Jan Egeland, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator. Journeyman Pictures released a 2006 interview with Kony in which he proclaims: "I am a freedom fighter, not a terrorist." He told Reuters: "We don't have any children. We only have combatants."


title: Joseph Kony

text: Kony's followers, as well as some detractors, believe he is possessed by spirits. Kony tells his child soldiers that a cross on their chest drawn in oil will protect them from bullets. He is a proponent of polygamy, and is thought to have had 60 wives, and to have fathered 42 children. Kony insists that he and the LRA are fighting for the Ten Commandments, and defended his actions in an interview, saying, "Is it bad? It is not against human rights. And that commandment was not given by Joseph. It was not given by LRA. No, those commandments were given by God."


title: Joseph Kony

text: Ugandan political leader Betty Bigombe recalled that Kony and his followers used oil to ward off bullets and evil spirits. Kony believes himself to be a spirit medium. In 2008, responding to a request by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni to engage in peace talks via telephone, he said, "I will communicate with Museveni through the holy spirits and not through the telephone."


title: Joseph Kony

text: During peace talks in 1994, Kony was preceded by men in robes sprinkling holy water. According to Francis Ongom, a former LRA officer who defected, Kony "has found Bible justifications for killing witches, for killing [those who farm or eat] pigs because of the story of the Gadarene swine, and for killing [other] people because God did the same with Noah's flood and Sodom and Gomorrah."


title: Joseph Kony

text: Before the insurgency, he escaped in 1989 to Uganda. He was later captured by the Ugandan government. He was released in 1992 after the government no longer viewed him as a threat.


title: Joseph Kony

text: The Ugandan military has attempted to kill Kony throughout the insurgency. In Uganda's attempt to track down Kony, former LRA combatants have been enlisted to search remote areas of the CAR, Sudan, and the DRC where he was last seen.


title: Joseph Kony

text: After the September 11 attacks, the United States designated the LRA as a terrorist group. In August 2008, the US Department of State declared Joseph Kony a Specially Designated Global Terrorist pursuant to Executive Order 13224, a designation that carries financial and other penalties. In November 2008, U.S. President George W. Bush signed the directive to the United States Africa Command to provide financial and logistical assistance to the Ugandan government during the unsuccessful 2008–2009 Garamba offensive, code-named "Operation Lightning Thunder".


title: Joseph Kony

text: No U.S. troops were directly involved. 17 U.S. advisers and analysts provided intelligence, equipment, and fuel to Ugandan military counterparts. The offensive pushed Kony from his jungle camp, but he was not captured. One hundred children were rescued.


title: Joseph Kony

text: In May 2010, U.S. President Barack Obama signed into law the Lord's Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act, legislation aimed at stopping Kony and the LRA. The bill passed unanimously in the United States Senate on 11 March. On 12 May 2010, a motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill was agreed to by voice vote (two-thirds being in the affirmative) in the House of Representatives. In November 2010, President Obama delivered a strategy document to Congress asking for more funding to disarm Kony and the LRA.


title: Joseph Kony

text: In October 2011, President Obama authorized the deployment of approximately 100 combat-equipped U.S. troops to central Africa. Their goal is to help regional forces remove Kony and senior LRA leaders from the battlefield. In a letter to Congress, Obama stated: "Although the U.S. forces are combat-equipped, they will only be providing information, advice, and assistance to partner nation forces, and they will not themselves engage LRA forces unless necessary for self-defense". On 3 April 2013, the Obama administration offered rewards of up to US$5 million for information leading to the arrest, transfer, or conviction of Kony, Ongwen, and Odhiambo. On 24 March 2014, the U.S. announced they would deploy at least four CV-22 Ospreys and refuelling planes, and 150 Air Force special forces personnel to assist in the capture of Kony.


title: Joseph Kony

text: On 23 March 2012, the African Union announced its intentions to "send 5,000 soldiers to join the hunt for rebel leader Joseph Kony" and to "neutralize" him while isolating the scattered LRA groups responsible for 2,600 civilian killings since 2008. This international task force was stated to include soldiers "from Uganda, South Sudan, Central African Republic and Congo, countries where Kony's reign of terror has been felt over the years." Prior to this announcement, the hunt for Kony had primarily been carried out by troops from Uganda. The soldiers began their search in South Sudan on 24 March 2012, and the search "will last until Kony is caught".


title: Joseph Kony

text: Joseph Kony and the LRA received a surge of attention in early March 2012, when a 30-minute documentary titled "Kony 2012" by US filmmaker Jason Russell for the campaign group Invisible Children, Inc. was released. The intention of the production was to draw attention to Kony in an effort to increase US involvement in the issue and have Kony arrested by the end of 2012.


title: Joseph Kony

text: A poll suggested that more than half of young adult Americans heard about "Kony 2012" in the days following the video's release. Several weeks after the release of the video, a resolution condemning Kony and supporting US assistance fighting the LRA was introduced in the US Senate, passing several months later. "Kony 2012" has been criticized for simplifying the history of the LRA conflict, and for failing to note that Kony was already pushed out of Uganda six years before the film was made.


title: Joseph Kony

text: Dominic Ongwen served as a key member of the LRA and constituted one of Kony's senior aides in the organization. Kidnapped as a child, he became a soldier in the LRA, then rose through the organization's hierarchy. Ongwen surrendered himself to representatives of the CAR in January 2015, which was a major blow to Kony's group. Ugandan army spokesman Paddy Ankunda stated that the event "puts the LRA in the most vulnerable position" and that it "is only Kony left standing".


title: Joseph Kony

text: Of the five LRA commanders charged by the ICC in 2004, only Kony remained at large at that time. With only a few hundred fighters remaining loyal to him, it was mistakenly thought that he would be unable to evade capture for much longer. In February 2021, Ongwen was convicted by the International Criminal Court of 61 counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes.


title: Joseph Kony

text: In April 2017, Ugandan and US military forces ended their hunt for Kony and his group, with a Ugandan spokesperson stating that "the LRA no longer poses a threat to us as Uganda". At that time, his force was estimated to have shrunk to around 100 soldiers.


title: Roddy McDowall

text: Roderick Andrew Anthony Jude McDowall (17 September 1928 – 4 October 1998) was a British actor, photographer and film director. He began his acting career as a child in England, and then in the United States, in "How Green Was My Valley" (1941), "My Friend Flicka" (1943) and "Lassie Come Home" (1943). As an adult, McDowall appeared most frequently as a character actor on radio, stage, film, and television. For portraying Octavian in the historical drama "Cleopatra" (1963), he was nominated for a Golden Globe Award. He played Cornelius and Caesar in the original "Planet of the Apes" film series, as well as Galen in the spin-off television series.


title: Roddy McDowall

text: Other notable films included "The Longest Day" (1962), "The Greatest Story Ever Told" (1965), "That Darn Cat!" (1965), "Inside Daisy Clover" (1965), "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" (1971), "The Poseidon Adventure" (1972), "Funny Lady" (1975), "The Black Hole" (1979), "Class of 1984" (1982), "Fright Night" (1985), "Overboard" (1987) and "A Bug's Life" (1998). His accolades included a Tony Award, an Emmy Award, a Saturn Award, and a National Board of Review Award.


title: Roddy McDowall

text: McDowall also served in various positions on the Board of Governors for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Selection Committee for the Kennedy Center Honors, further contributing to various charities related to the film industry and film preservation. He was a founding Member of the National Film Preservation Board in 1989, and represented the Screen Actors Guild on this Board until his death. For his contributions to the film and television industry, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.


title: Roddy McDowall

text: McDowall was born at 204 Herne Hill Road, Herne Hill, London, the only son of London-born Thomas Andrew McDowall (1896–1978), a merchant seaman of distant Scottish descent, and his Irish wife Winifred (née Corcoran). Both of his parents were enthusiastic about the theatre. He and his elder sister, Virginia, were raised in their mother's Catholic faith. He attended St Joseph's College, Beulah Hill, Upper Norwood, a Roman Catholic secondary school in London.


title: Roddy McDowall

text: Appearing as a child model as a baby, McDowall appeared in several films as a boy. After winning an acting prize in a school play at age nine, he started appearing in films: "Murder in the Family" (1938), "I See Ice" (1938) with George Formby, "John Halifax" (1938) and "Scruffy" (1938).


title: Roddy McDowall

text: McDowall appeared in "Convict 99" (1938) and "Hey! Hey! USA" (1938) with Will Hay, "Yellow Sands" (1938), "The Outsider" (1939), "Murder Will Out" (1939), "Dead Man's Shoes" (1940), "Just William" (1940), "Saloon Bar" (1940), "You Will Remember" (1941), and "This England" (1941).


title: Roddy McDowall

text: McDowall's family moved to the United States in 1940 after the outbreak of World War II. He became a naturalized United States citizen on 9 December 1949, and lived in the United States for the rest of his life. McDowall served in the 67th Armored Infantry Battalion Division of the U.S. Army Organized Reserve Corps (headquartered in Los Angeles) from 1946 to 1954, spanning the end of World War II to the Korean War. He later served in the 77th Infantry Division between 1960 to 1962.


title: Roddy McDowall

text: McDowall's American career began with a part in the 1941 thriller "Man Hunt", directed by Fritz Lang. It was made by 20th Century Fox who also produced McDowall's next film "How Green Was My Valley" (1941), where he met and became lifelong friends with actress Maureen O'Hara. The film won the Academy Award for Best Picture, and McDowall's role as Huw Morgan made him a household name.


title: Roddy McDowall

text: Fox put him in another war film, "Confirm or Deny" (1941), then he played Tyrone Power as a boy in "" (1942).


title: Roddy McDowall

text: Fox promoted McDowall to top billing for "On the Sunny Side" (1942). He was billed second to Monty Woolley in "The Pied Piper" (1942), playing a war orphan, then he had top billing again for an adaptation of "My Friend Flicka" (1942).


title: Roddy McDowall

text: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer borrowed McDowall for the star role in "Lassie Come Home" (1943), a film that introduced an actress who would become another lifelong friend, Elizabeth Taylor. MGM kept him on to play a leading role in "The White Cliffs of Dover" (1944).


title: Roddy McDowall

text: Back at Fox he played Gregory Peck as a young man in "The Keys of the Kingdom" (1944). In 1944, exhibitors voted McDowall the number four "Star of Tomorrow".


title: Roddy McDowall

text: Fox gave McDowall another starring vehicle, "Thunderhead – Son of Flicka" (1945). They reunited him with Woolley in "Molly and Me" (1945), which was made as an attempt to turn Gracie Fields into a Hollywood star.


title: Roddy McDowall

text: McDowall turned to the theatre, taking the title role of "Young Woodley" in a summer stock production in Westport, Connecticut in July 1946.


title: Roddy McDowall

text: In 1947, he played Malcolm in Orson Welles's stage production of "Macbeth" in Salt Lake City, and played the same role in the actor-director's film version in 1948.


title: Roddy McDowall

text: McDowall then signed a three-year contract with Monogram Pictures, a low-budget studio that welcomed established stars, to make two films a year.


title: Roddy McDowall

text: McDowall starred in seven films for them, for which he also worked as associate producer: "Rocky" (1948), a boy and dog story directed by Phil Karlson; "Kidnapped" (1948), an adaptation of the Robert Louis Stevenson story, where he played David Balfour, directed by William Beaudine; "Tuna Clipper" (1949), a fishing tale, again directed by Beaudine; "Black Midnight" (1949), a horse story directed by Budd Boetticher; "Killer Shark" (1950), a shark hunting tale, again with Boetticher; "Big Timber" (1950), as a logger; "The Steel Fist" (1952), an anti-communist drama.


title: Roddy McDowall

text: McDowall left Hollywood to relocate to New York City. He began appearing on television, notably shows like "Celanese Theatre", "Broadway Television Theatre", "Medallion Theatre", "Campbell Summer Soundstage", "Armstrong Circle Theatre", "Encounter", "Robert Montgomery Presents" (including an adaptation of "Great Expectations" where he played Pip), "The Elgin Hour", "Ponds Theater", "General Electric Theater", "The Kaiser Aluminum Hour", "Lux Video Theatre", "Goodyear Playhouse", "The Alcoa Hour", "Kraft Theatre", "Matinee Theatre", "Suspicion", "Playhouse 90" (in an adaptation of "Heart of Darkness"), "The United States Steel Hour", "The DuPont Show of the Month" (an adaptation of "Billy Budd") and "The Twilight Zone" (the episode "People Are Alike All Over").


title: Roddy McDowall

text: McDowall also had significant success on the Broadway stage. He was in a production of "Misalliance" (1953) that ran for 130 performances and which McDowall said "broke the mould" in how he was judged as an actor.


title: Roddy McDowall

text: He followed it with "Escapade" (1953) with Carroll Baker and Brian Aherne; Ira Levin's "No Time for Sergeants " (1955–57), which was a huge hit; "Diary of a Scoundrel" (1956); and "Good as Gold" (1957).


title: Roddy McDowall

text: He had a big critical success with "Compulsion" (1957–58) based on Leopold and Loeb – although McDowall was not cast in the film version. He followed it with "Handful of Fire" (1958), Noël Coward's "Look After Lulu!" (1959) and Peter Brook's "The Fighting Cock" (1960). The latter earned him a Tony Award.


title: Roddy McDowall

text: McDowall was in another big Broadway hit when he played Mordred in the musical "Camelot" (1960–63) with Julie Andrews and Richard Burton.


title: Roddy McDowall

text: He played Ariel in a TV production of "The Tempest" (1960) with Richard Burton and Maurice Evans, then appeared in his first Hollywood movie in almost a decade, "The Subterraneans" (1960). He followed it with "Midnight Lace" (1960).


title: Roddy McDowall

text: McDowall continued to work on television in shows such as "Sunday Showcase", "Naked City", and "Play of the Week". He was in a TV production of "The Power and the Glory" (1961) with Laurence Olivier, George C. Scott and Julie Harris.


title: Roddy McDowall

text: In 1963, McDowall appeared as Octavian in the film production of "Cleopatra", which starred Elizabeth Taylor. While filming in Europe, he appeared in Fox's war movie "The Longest Day" (1963). He continued to guest on television series such as "Arrest and Trial", "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour", "The Eleventh Hour", "Kraft Suspense Theatre", "Combat!", "Ben Casey", "Twelve O'Clock High", "Run for Your Life", "The Invaders", and appeared as a Special Guest Villain as The Bookworm on "Batman".


title: Roddy McDowall

text: He had supporting roles in Fox's "Shock Treatment" (1964) and United Artists' "The Greatest Story Ever Told" (1965). He was third billed in "The Third Day" (1965) and received billing as a member of the ensemble cast in "The Loved One" (1965). McDowall went to Disney for "That Darn Cat!" (1965) and had a role in "Inside Daisy Clover" (1965).


title: Roddy McDowall

text: McDowall was given a starring role in "Lord Love a Duck" (1966). He also appeared in "The Defector" (1966) and returned briefly to Broadway for "The Astrakhan Coat" (1967).


title: Roddy McDowall

text: Disney gave him the star role in "The Adventures of Bullwhip Griffin" (1967) and he was top billed in "The Cool Ones" (1967) and "It!" (1967). He was in a TV production of "Saint Joan" (1967) and provided the voice for "Cricket on the Hearth" (1967). He guest-starred in the series "The Felony Squad".


title: Roddy McDowall

text: In 1968, McDowall appeared in one of his memorable roles when he was cast in "Planet of the Apes" as the ape Cornelius. He would later go on to appear in three sequels and a TV spin-off from the film.


title: Roddy McDowall

text: He was Prince John in "The Legend of Robin Hood" (1968) for TV, and appeared in "5 Card Stud" (1968), "Journey to the Unknown", "It Takes a Thief", "Midas Run" (1969), "Hello Down There" (1969), "Angel, Angel, Down We Go" (1969), "Night Gallery" (1969), "The Name of the Game" and "Medical Center".


title: Roddy McDowall

text: As an actor he was in "Pretty Maids All in a Row" (1971). McDowall was not in the first "Apes" sequel but was in the second, "Escape from the Planet of the Apes" (1971). He was in the TV movies "Terror in the Sky" (1971), "What's a Nice Girl Like You...?" (1971) and "A Taste of Evil" (1971) and Disney's "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" (1971).


title: Roddy McDowall

text: He guest starred on "Ironside", "The Carol Burnett Show", "Columbo" (1972, "Short Fuse"), "The Delphi Bureau", "The Rookies", "", "Barnaby Jones" and "McCloud".


title: Roddy McDowall

text: McDowall made his third "Apes" film with 1972's "Conquest of the Planet of the Apes". He had supporting roles in "The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean" (1972) and "The Poseidon Adventure" (1972) and starred in a pilot that did not go to series, "Topper Returns" (1973), and "The Legend of Hell House" (1973).


title: Roddy McDowall

text: His final "Apes" movie was "Battle for the Planet of the Apes" (1973). He also appeared in "McMillan & Wife", "Love, American Style", "Arnold" (1973), a remake of "Miracle on 34th Street" (1973), "The Elevator" (1974), and "The Snoop Sisters" also (1974) an uncredited cameo appearance as a grocery store manager in the film "Dirty Mary Crazy Larry".


title: Roddy McDowall

text: He starred in the short lived TV spin-off series of "Planet of the Apes" (1974). During a guest appearance on "The Carol Burnett Show", he came onstage in his "Planet of the Apes" makeup and performed a love duet with Burnett.


title: Roddy McDowall

text: Asked about his career in a 1975 interview, McDowall said "I just hope to keep working and in interesting things."


title: Roddy McDowall

text: For the rest of the 1970s, McDowall alternated between features, TV films and TV series. Features included "Funny Lady" (1975), "Mean Johnny Barrows" (1976), "Embryo" (1976), "Sixth and Main" (1977), "Laserblast" (1978), "Rabbit Test" (1978), "The Cat from Outer Space" (1978) for Disney, "Circle of Iron" (1978), "Scavenger Hunt" (1979), "Nutcracker Fantasy" (1979) (doing voice over for the English language edition), and Disney's "The Black Hole" (1979) in which he voiced one of the robot roles.


title: Roddy McDowall

text: TV series included "Police Woman", "Mowgli's Brothers", "Harry O", "The Feather and Father Gang", "Wonder Woman", "Flying High", "The Love Boat", "$weepstake$", "Supertrain", "Hart to Hart", "A Man Called Sloane", "Trapper John, M.D." (the pilot episode), "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century" ("Planet of the Slave Girls") and "Mork & Mindy". He also had a regular role in the short-lived sci-fi series "The Fantastic Journey" (1977).


title: Roddy McDowall

text: TV movies included "Flood!" (1977), "The Rhinemann Exchange" (1978), "The Immigrants" (1978), and "The Thief of Baghdad" (1978).


title: Roddy McDowall

text: McDowall's TV movie/mini-series work in the 1980s included "The Martian Chronicles" (1980), "The Memory of Eva Ryker" (1980), "The Return of the King" (1980) (on which he did voice over work), "The Million Dollar Face" (1981), "Judgement Day" (1981), "Twilight Theatre" (1982), "Mae West" (1982), "This Girl for Hire" (1983), "The Zany Adventures of Robin Hood" (1984), "London and Davis in New York" (1984), "Hollywood Wives" (1985), and "Alice in Wonderland" (1985).


title: Roddy McDowall

text: TV series included "Boomer and Miss 21st Century", "Fantasy Island" (several times), "Faerie Tale Theatre", "Tales of the Gold Monkey" (a series regular), "Small and Frye", "Hotel", and "George Burns Comedy Week".


title: Roddy McDowall

text: McDowall's features included "Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen" (1981), "Evil Under the Sun" (1982), "Class of 1984" (1984), and the cult classic horror "Fright Night" (1985).


title: Roddy McDowall

text: McDowall began to play many voice over roles, such as "Zoo Ship" (1985), "" (1986), and "The Wind in the Willows" (1987). TV series included "Bridges to Cross" (1986) (in which McDowall was a regular), "The Wizard", "Murder, She Wrote", "Matlock", and "Nightmare Classics", and TV movies included "" and "Around the World in 80 Days" (1989).


title: Roddy McDowall

text: In 1987, he had supporting roles in "Dead of Winter" and "Overboard", on which he also served as executive producer. Other features included "Doin' Time on Planet Earth" (1988), "Fright Night Part 2" (1989), "The Big Picture" (1989), "Cutting Class" (1989), and "Heroes Stand Alone" (1989).


title: Roddy McDowall

text: In 1989, he said "I feel as Henry Fonda did that every job I get may be my last. I'm one of those creatures born to be working. I feel better when I'm working. I don't like it when I'm not working and I've never worked as much as I want to."


title: Roddy McDowall

text: McDowall's 1990s work included "The Color of Evening" (1990), "Shakma" (1990), "Going Under" (1990), "An Inconvenient Woman" (1991), "Earth Angel" (1991), "Deadly Game" (1991), "The Naked Target" (1992), "Double Trouble" (1992), "The New Lassie" (1992), "Quantum Leap" (A Leap for Lisa) (1992), "The Evil Inside Me" (1993), "" (1993 audio book), "Dream On", "Heads" (1994), "" (1994), "" (1994), "Burke's Law", "" (1994), "The Alien Within" (1995), "The Grass Harp" (1995), "Last Summer in the Hamptons" (1995), "Bullet Hearts" (1996), "Star Hunter" (1996), "It's My Party" (1996), "Tracey Takes On...", "Dead Man's Island", "Remember WENN", "Unlikely Angel" (1996), "" (1997), "Something to Believe In" (1998), and "Loss of Faith" (1998).


title: Roddy McDowall

text: He did voices for "The Pirates of Dark Water" (1991–92), "Timmy's Gift: A Precious Moments Christmas" (1992), "Camp Candy", "The Legend of Prince Valiant" (1992), "Darkwing Duck" (1992), "2 Stupid Dogs", "", "", "Red Planet", "The Tick", "Galaxy Beat", "Gargoyles", "", "Pinky and the Brain", "The New Batman Adventures", "Superman", "A Bug's Life" (1998), and "".


title: Roddy McDowall

text: He was the subject of "This Is Your Life" in 1993, when he was surprised by Michael Aspel at the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood.


title: Roddy McDowall

text: McDowall served for several years in various capacities on the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the organisation that presents the Oscar Awards, and on the selection committee for the Kennedy Center Awards. He was Chairman of the Actors' Branch for five terms. He was elected President of the Academy Foundation in 1998, the year that he died. He worked to support the Motion Pictures Retirement Home, where a rose garden named in his honour was officially dedicated on 9 October 2001 and remains a part of the campus.


title: Roddy McDowall

text: McDowall received recognition as a photographer, working with "Look", "Vogue", "Collier's", and "Life". His work includes a cover story on Mae West for "Life" and the cover of the 1964 Barbra Streisand album, "The Third Album". He took the photograph when Streisand performed on "The Judy Garland Show" in October, 1963.


title: Roddy McDowall

text: He published five books of photographs, each featuring photos and profile interviews of his celebrity friends interviewing each other, such as Elizabeth Taylor, Judy Garland, Judy Holliday, Maureen O'Hara, Katharine Hepburn, Lauren Bacall, and others. It started with "Double Exposure" in 1968.


title: Roddy McDowall

text: McDowall was a Democrat and was supportive of Adlai Stevenson's campaign during the 1952 presidential election.


title: Roddy McDowall

text: In 1974, the FBI raided McDowall's home and seized his collection of films and television series in the course of an investigation into film piracy and copyright infringement. His collection consisted of 160 16-mm prints and more than 1,000 video cassettes, at a time before the era of commercial videotapes, when there was no legal aftermarket for films. McDowall had purchased Errol Flynn's home cinema films and transferred them all to tape for longer-lasting archival storage. No charges were filed.


title: Roddy McDowall

text: McDowall never married or had children. In "Full Service: My Adventures in Hollywood and the Secret Sex Lives of the Stars" (2012) by Scotty Bowers, a famous Hollywood procurer, Bowers claims McDowall was one of his homosexual clients.


title: Roddy McDowall

text: McDowall was in a relationship with American actor Montgomery Clift for several years in the early 1950s.


title: Roddy McDowall

text: On 3 October 1998, at age 70, McDowall died of lung cancer at his home in Studio City, California. His body was cremated and his ashes were scattered into the Pacific Ocean on 7 October 1998 off Los Angeles County. Dennis Osborne, a screenwriter, had cared for the actor in his final months. The media quoted Osborne as having said, "It was very peaceful. It was just as he wanted it. It was exactly the way he planned."


title: Torrent file

text: In the BitTorrent file distribution system, a torrent file or meta-info file is a computer file that contains metadata about files and folders to be distributed, and usually also a list of the network locations of trackers, which are computers that help participants in the system find each other and form efficient distribution groups called "swarms". A torrent file does not contain the content to be distributed; it only contains information about those files, such as their names, folder structure, sizes, and cryptographic hash values for verifying file integrity. The term "torrent" may refer either to the metadata file or to the files downloaded, depending on the context.


title: Torrent file

text: A torrent file acts like a table of contents (index) that allows computers to find information through the use of a BitTorrent client. With the help of a torrent file, one can download small parts of the original file from computers that have already downloaded it. These "peers" allow for downloading of the file in addition to, or in place of, the primary server.


title: Torrent file

text: Torrent files themselves and the method of using torrent files have been created to ease the load on central servers, as instead of sending a file to for request, it can crowd-source the bandwidth needed for the file transfer, and reduce the time needed to download large files. Many free/freeware programs and operating systems, such as the various Linux distributions offer a torrent download option for users seeking the aforementioned benefits. Other large downloads, such as media files, are often torrented as well.


title: Torrent file

text: Typically, Internet access is asymmetrical, supporting greater download speeds than upload speeds, limiting the bandwidth of each download, and sometimes enforcing bandwidth caps and periods where systems are not accessible. This creates inefficiency when many people want to obtain the same set of files from a single source; the source must always be online and must have massive outbound bandwidth. The BitTorrent protocol addresses this by decentralizing the distribution, leveraging the ability of people to network "peer-to-peer", among themselves.


title: Torrent file

text: Each file to be distributed is divided into small information chunks called "pieces". Downloading peers achieve high download speeds by requesting multiple pieces from different computers simultaneously in the swarm. Once obtained, these pieces are usually immediately made available for download by others in the swarm. In this way, the burden on the network is spread among the downloaders, rather than concentrating at a central distribution hub or cluster. As long as all the pieces are available, peers (downloaders and uploaders) can come and go; no one peer needs to have all the chunks or to even stay connected to the swarm in order for distribution to continue among the other peers.


title: Torrent file

text: A small torrent file is created to represent a file or folder to be shared. The torrent file acts as the key to initiating downloading of the actual content. Someone interested in receiving the shared file or folder first obtains the corresponding torrent file, either by directly downloading it or by using a magnet link. The user then opens that file in a BitTorrent client, which automates the rest of the process. In order to learn the internet locations of peers who may be sharing pieces, the client connects to the trackers named in the torrent file, and/or achieves a similar result through the use of distributed hash tables. Then the client connects directly to the peers in order to request pieces and otherwise participate in a swarm. The client may also report progress to trackers, to help the tracker with its peer recommendations.


title: Torrent file

text: When the client has all the pieces, the BitTorrent client assembles them into a usable form. They may also continue sharing the pieces, elevating their status to that of "seeder" rather than an ordinary peer.


title: Torrent file

text: A torrent file contains a list of files and integrity metadata about all the pieces, and optionally contains a large list of trackers.


title: Torrent file

text: A torrent file is a bencoded dictionary with the following keys (the keys in any bencoded dictionary are lexicographically ordered):


title: Torrent file

text: A torrent is uniquely identified by an "infohash", a SHA-1 hash calculated over the contents of the dictionary in bencode form. Changes to other portions of the torrent does not affect the hash. This hash is used to identify the torrent to other peers via DHT and to the tracker. It is also used in magnet links.


title: Torrent file

text: A torrent file can also contain additional metadata defined in extensions to the BitTorrent specification. These are known as "BitTorrent Enhancement Proposals." Examples of such proposals include metadata for stating who created the torrent, and when.


title: Torrent file

text: These extensions are under consideration for standardization. Most are already widely adopted as "de facto" standards.


title: Torrent file

text: The specification recommends that "should be set to the K closest nodes in the torrent generating client's routing table. Alternatively, the key could be set to a known good node such as one operated by the person generating the torrent."


title: Torrent file

text: BEP-0017 extends BitTorrent to support HTTP seeds, later more commonly termed "web seeds" to be inclusive of [[HTTPS]].


title: Torrent file

text: A new key, , is placed in the top-most list (i.e., with and ). This key's value is a list of web addresses where torrent data can be retrieved:


title: Torrent file

text: This feature is very commonly used by [[open source]] projects offering software downloads. Web seeds allow smart selection and simultaneous use of [[mirror site]]s, P2P or HTTP(S), by the client. Doing so reducing the load on the project's servers while maximizing download speed. automatically generates torrents with web seeds.


title: Torrent file

text: Private torrents are to be used with a "private tracker". Such a tracker restricts access to torrents it tracks by checking the peer's IP, refusing to provide a peer list if the IP is unknown. The peer itself is usually registered to the tracker via a gated online community; the private tracker typically also keep statistics of data transfer for use in the community.


title: Torrent file

text: Decentralized methods like DHT, PeX, are disabled to maintain the centralized control. A private torrent can be manually edited to remove the private flag, but doing so will change the info-hash (deterministically), forming a separate "swarm" of peers. On the other hand, changing the tracker list will not change the hash. The flag does not offer true privacy, instead operating as a [[gentlemen's agreement]].


title: Torrent file

text: BEP-0030 extends BitTorrent to support [[Merkle trees]]. The purpose is to reduce the [[file size]] of torrent files, which reduces the burden on those that serve torrent files.


title: Torrent file

text: A torrent file using Merkle trees does not have a key in the list. Instead, such a torrent file has a key in the list. This key's value is the root hash of the Merkle hash:


title: Torrent file

text: A de-bencoded torrent file (with 256 KiB = 262,144 bytes) for a file (whose size is 678 301 696 bytes) might look like:


title: MacOS Big Sur

text: macOS Big Sur (version 11) is the seventeenth major release of macOS, Apple Inc.'s operating system for Macintosh computers. It was announced at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) on June 22, 2020, and was released to the public on November 12, 2020.


title: MacOS Big Sur

text: Big Sur is the successor to macOS Catalina, and was succeeded by macOS Monterey, which was released on October 25, 2021.


title: MacOS Big Sur

text: Most notably, macOS Big Sur features a user interface redesign that features new blurs to establish a visual hierarchy and also includes a revamp of the Time Machine backup mechanism, among other changes. It is also the first macOS version to support Macs with ARM-based processors. To mark the transition, the operating system's major version number was incremented, for the first time since 2000, from 10 to 11. The operating system is named after the coastal region of Big Sur in the Central Coast of California, continuing the naming trend of California locations that began with OS X Mavericks.


title: MacOS Big Sur

text: Providing some indication as to how the pre-release operating system may have been viewed internally at Apple during its development cycle, documentation accompanying the initial beta release of macOS Big Sur referred to its version as "10.16", and when upgrading from prior versions of macOS using the Software Update mechanism to early beta releases, the version referred to was "10.16". An exception to this was the Developer Transition Kit, which always reported the system version as "11.0". macOS Big Sur started reporting the system version as "11.0" on all Macs as of the third beta release.


title: MacOS Big Sur

text: To maintain backwards compatibility, macOS Big Sur identified itself as 10.16 to software and in the browser user agent.


title: MacOS Big Sur

text: Unlike macOS Catalina, which supported every standard configuration Mac that Mojave supported, Big Sur drops support for various Macs released in 2012 and 2013. Big Sur runs on the following Macs:


title: MacOS Big Sur

text: By using patch tools, macOS Big Sur can be installed on earlier computers that are officially unsupported, such as the 2012 iMac and the 2012 MacBook Pro. Using these methods, it is possible to install macOS Big Sur on computers as old as a 2008 MacBook Pro and iMac and 2009 Mac Mini.


title: MacOS Big Sur

text: macOS Big Sur refreshes the design of the user interface, described by Apple as the biggest change since the introduction of Mac OS X. Its changes include translucency in various places, a new abstract wallpaper for the first time and a new color palette. All standard apps, as well as the Dock and the Menu Bar, are redesigned and streamlined, and their icons now have rounded-square shapes like iOS and iPadOS apps. Compared to iOS, Big Sur's icons include more shading and highlights to give a three-dimensional appearance. Its aesthetic has been described as "neumorphism", a portmanteau of new and skeuomorphism. System sounds are redone as well.


title: MacOS Big Sur

text: The new OS also brings further integration with Apple's SF Symbols, enabling easier use by third-party developers as UI elements for their applications through AppKit, SwiftUI, and Catalyst, which makes it possible to unify third party applications with the existing Apple-made design language.


title: MacOS Big Sur

text: An interface with quick toggles for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, screen brightness and system volume has been added to the menu bar. This interface is functionally and visually similar to the Control Center on iOS and iPadOS.


title: MacOS Big Sur

text: The Notification Center is redesigned, featuring interactive notifications and a transparent user interface. Notification Center also features a new widget system similar to that in iOS 14, displaying more information with more customization than previously available.


title: MacOS Big Sur

text: macOS Big Sur is the first release of macOS for Macs powered by Apple-designed ARM64-based processors, a key part of the transition from Intel x86-64-based processors. The chip mentioned in demo videos, and used in the Developer Transition Kit, is the A12Z Bionic. On November 10, 2020, Apple announced the first Mac Apple silicon chip, the Apple M1, in the Late 2020 Mac Mini, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro. Apple has said that it will support Intel Macs "for years to come", and most software that has not been ported to run on ARM Macs can use Rosetta 2, an update of a compatibility mechanism originally developed for the PowerPC-to-Intel x86 transition. Likewise, Apple also introduced an updated universal binary format, Universal 2, which allows developers to package their applications so that they can run natively on both ARM64 and x86-64 processors.


title: MacOS Big Sur

text: On Macs based on Apple silicon, macOS Big Sur can run iOS and iPadOS applications natively and without any modifications needed from developers, aside from allowing the app to be available on the Mac App Store. The first Macs with this capability are those that use the Apple M1 SoC (system on a chip).


title: MacOS Big Sur

text: Time Machine, the backup mechanism introduced back in Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, has been overhauled to utilize the APFS file system (introduced in MacOS High Sierra) instead of the outdated HFS+. Specifically, the new version of Time Machine makes use of APFS's snapshot technology. According to Apple, this enables "faster, more compact, and more reliable backups" than were possible previously with HFS+-formatted backup destinations. An independent evaluation of this claim found that Time Machine on macOS 11 in conjunction with APFS was 2.75-fold faster upon initial local backup and 4-fold faster upon subsequent backups relative to macOS 10.15's Time Machine implementation using HFS+. A more modest yet nevertheless significant advantage was noted as well for backups to network-attached disks.


title: MacOS Big Sur

text: New local (i.e. USB- or Thunderbolt-connected) and network-connected Time Machine backup destinations are formatted as APFS by default, though Time Machine can continue backing up to existing HFS+ backup volumes. There is no option to convert existing, HFS+-based backups to APFS; instead, users who want to benefit from the advantages of the new, APFS-based implementation of Time Machine need to start with a fresh volume.


title: MacOS Big Sur

text: In the new version of Time Machine, encryption appears to be required (instead of merely optional) for local disks, but it remains elective for networked volumes.


title: MacOS Big Sur

text: It is no longer possible to restore the whole system using a Time Machine backup, as the signed system volume is not backed up. Non-core applications and user data can be restored in full using Migration Assistant, preceded by a system reinstall if necessary.


title: MacOS Big Sur

text: Spotlight, the file system indexing-and-search mechanism introduced in Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, is faster and the interface has been refined. Spotlight is now the default search mechanism in Safari, Pages, and Keynote.


title: MacOS Big Sur

text: The system volume containing the core operating system is cryptographically signed. Apple indicates this is a security measure to prevent malicious tampering. This includes adding an SHA-256 hash for every file on the system volume, preventing changes from third-party entities and the end user.


title: MacOS Big Sur

text: Software updates can begin in the background before a restart, thus requiring less downtime to complete. Because system files are cryptographically signed, the update software can rely on them being in precise locations, thus permitting them to be effectively updated in place.


title: MacOS Big Sur

text: macOS Big Sur supports encryption at the file level. Earlier versions of macOS (10.15 Catalina and older) supported encryption only at the level of entire volumes. As of June 2020, this capability is known to be compatible with Macs based on Apple silicon; it is unclear whether it is compatible with Intel-based Macs.


title: MacOS Big Sur

text: Big Sur includes Safari 14, which was also released for macOS Catalina and macOS Mojave on September 16, 2020. Safari 14 includes features such as a new home page in which users can customize what features are visible in addition to being able to set a custom wallpaper. It also allows the viewer to preview a page and favicon before visiting it.


title: MacOS Big Sur

text: Safari 14 also includes built-in web page translations in English, Spanish, German, French, Russian, Chinese and Portuguese as well as support for 4K HDR content from Netflix on Macs with an Apple T2 chip, although none of these were made available for macOS Catalina and Mojave.


title: MacOS Big Sur

text: Privacy features such as iCloud Keychain (which notifies users of compromised passwords), extension privacy management and Privacy Report (which monitors privacy trackers and further increases Safari's security) were added for Safari 14. Users were now also able to import password from Google's Chrome browser in addition to being notified of compromised passwords.


title: MacOS Big Sur

text: Safari 14 also supports WebExtensions API, the WebP image format as well as VP9 decoding, the latter of which allows for the playback of 4K and HDR content from YouTube. In addition, it allowed for better performance and power efficiency.


title: MacOS Big Sur

text: Safari 14 ended support for Adobe Flash Player in September, 3 months prior to its end-of-life on December 31, 2020.


title: MacOS Big Sur

text: The Messages app was rewritten to be based upon Apple's Catalyst technology to enable it to have feature parity with its iOS counterpart. The new version of the app included a refined design as well as the ability to pin up to nine conversations that can sync across iOS, iPadOS and macOS. Users were also now allowed to search for messages and share their names and photos. Photo thumbnails could now also be used for group chats on the app.


title: MacOS Big Sur

text: In addition, users could mention contacts by putting the @ symbol in front of their name. They were also able to reply to specific messages. Memojis, 3d avatars were also made available on Messages. On Messages, users could now select photos based on parameters.


title: MacOS Big Sur

text: In India, text message effects were added when users sent certain texts (e.g., texting "Happy Holi" will result in users seeing effects).


title: MacOS Big Sur

text: The rollout of Big Sur came with several problems. Upgrading to the initial public release of Big Sur (version 11.0.1) bricked some computers, rendering them unusable. Many of these were 2013 and 2014 MacBook Pros, though problems were also observed on a 2019 MacBook Pro and an iMac from the same year. The initial rollout also disrupted Apple's app notarization process, causing slowdowns even on devices not running Big Sur. Users also reported that the update was slow or even might fail to install. macOS Catalina and Big Sur apps were taking a long time to load because of Gatekeeper issues.


title: MacOS Big Sur

text: The ongoing issues with the COVID-19 pandemic meant it was hard for users to visit an Apple Store to get their machines fixed. Shortly afterwards, Apple released a series of steps explaining how these Macs could be recovered.


title: MacOS Big Sur

text: Certain Apple applications running on early versions of Big Sur were reported to bypass firewalls, raising privacy and security concerns. This was addressed with the release of macOS Big Sur 11.2, which removed the whitelist for built-in programs. Conversely, security experts have reported that Big Sur will check an application's certificate every time it is run, degrading system performance. There have been reports that the operating system sends a hash back to Apple of every program run and when it was executed. Apple responded that the process is part of efforts to protect users from malware embedded in applications downloaded outside of the Mac App Store.


title: MacOS Big Sur

text: Some users have reported problems connecting external displays to Macs running Big Sur 11.1 and 11.2.


title: MacOS Big Sur

text: When upgrading Macs from 10.13, 10.14 and 10.15 to Big Sur the upgrade process could become stuck for seemingly unclear reasons. Only a full system restore from backup would solve this problem. On 21 October 2021 a solution became known that required removal of up to several hundreds of thousands excess temporary files in the system folders.


title: MacOS Big Sur

text: In 2021, there were reports of two malware codes that infected macOS and include both x86-64 and ARM64 code. The first one was detected in early 2021. The second one, Silver Sparrow, was detected on nearly 30,000 Macs in February 2021.


title: MacOS Big Sur

text: The public release of macOS 11 Big Sur began with 11.0.1 for Intel Macs. Version 11.0 was preinstalled on Apple silicon Macs, and Apple advised those with that version to be updated to 11.0.1.


title: Ertuğrul

text: Ertuğrul or Ertuğrul Gazi (; ; died ) was a 13th century bey, who was the father of Osman I. Little is known about Ertuğrul's life. According to Ottoman tradition, he was the son of Suleyman Shah, the leader of the Kayı tribe (a claim which has come under criticism from many historians) of the Oghuz Turks (known as Turkomans by then). These Turkomans fled from western Central Asia to Anatolia to escape the Mongol conquests, but he may instead have been the son of Gündüz Alp. According to this legend, after the death of his father, Ertuğrul and his followers entered the service of the Sultanate of Rum, for which he was rewarded with dominion over the town of Söğüt on the frontier with the Byzantine Empire. This set off the chain of events that would ultimately lead to the founding of the Ottoman Empire.


title: Ertuğrul

text: Nothing is known with certainty about Ertuğrul's life, other than that he was the father of Osman; historians are thus forced to rely upon stories written about him by the Ottomans more than a century later, which are of questionable accuracy.


title: Ertuğrul

text: According to the sources written 100-150 years after the establishment of the Ottoman state, Ertuğrul's lineage is traced to Noah, through Oghuz Khagan. Ottoman historian and ambassador to the Qara Qoyunlu, Şükrullah states that Ertuğrul's lineage goes to Gökalp, a son of Oghuz Khagan. The author states that the information was shown during a court of Jahan Shah, from a book written in Mongolian script.


title: Ertuğrul

text: An undated coin, from the time of Osman, with the text "Minted by Osman son of Ertuğrul", suggests that Ertuğrul was a historical figure. Another coin reads "Osman bin Ertuğrul bin Gündüz Alp", though Ertuğrul is traditionally considered the son of Suleyman Shah.


title: Ertuğrul

text: In Enveri's "Düsturname" (1465) and Karamani Mehmet Pasha's chronicle (before 1481), Gündüz Alp is Ertugrul's father. After Aşıkpaşazade's chronicle "Tevārīḫ-i Āl-i ʿOsmān" (15th century), the Suleyman Shah version became the official one.


title: Ertuğrul

text: According to many Turkish sources, Ertuğrul had three brothers named; Sungur-tekin, Gündoğdu and Dündar. After the death of their father, Ertuğrul with his mother Hayme Hatun, Dündar and his followers from the Kayı Tribe migrated west into Anatolia and entered the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum, leaving his two brothers who took their clans towards the east. In this way, the Kayı Tribe was divided into two parts.


title: Ertuğrul

text: As a result of his assistance to the Seljuks against the Byzantines, Ertuğrul was granted lands in Karaca Dağ, a mountainous area between Diyarbakır and Urfa, by Kayqubad I, the Seljuk Sultan of Rum. One account indicates that the Seljuk leader's rationale for granting Ertuğrul land was for Ertuğrul to repel any hostile incursion from the Byzantines or other adversary. Later, he received the village of Söğüt which he conquered together with the surrounding lands. That village, where he later died, became the Ottoman capital under his son, Osman I. Osman's mother has been referred to as Halime Hatun in later myths, and there is a grave outside the Ertuğrul Gâzi Tomb which bears the name, but it is disputed.


title: Ertuğrul

text: According to many sources, he had two other sons in addition to Osman I: Saru-Batu (Savci) Bey and Gündüz Bey. Like his son, Osman, and their descendants, Ertuğrul is often referred to as a "Ghazi", a heroic champion fighter for the cause of Islam.


title: Ertuğrul

text: A tomb and mosque dedicated to Ertuğrul is said to have been built by Osman I at Söğüt, but due to several rebuildings nothing certain can be said about the origin of these structures. The current mausoleum was built by sultan Abdul Hamid II (1842 – 1918) in the late 19th century. The town of Söğüt celebrates an annual festival to the memory of the early Osmans.


title: Ertuğrul

text: The Ottoman frigate "Ertuğrul", launched in 1863, was named after him. Abdul Hamid II also had a yacht with the same name. The Ertuğrul Tekke Mosque (late 19th century) in Istanbul, Turkey and the Ertuğrul Gazi Mosque in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan (completed in 1998), are also named in his honor. The mosque in Turkmenistan was established by the Turkish government as a symbol of the link between Turkey and Turkmenistan.


title: Ertuğrul

text: Ertuğrul is one of several statues that surround the Independence Monument in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. The statues depict people praised in the "Ruhnama", a spiritual guide written by Turkmenistan president Saparmurat Niyazov. The Ertuğrul statue has also been depicted on a 2001 commemorative coin.


title: Ertuğrul

text: 2 statues of Ertuğrul on horseback were placed by a private cooperative housing society in Lahore, Pakistan in 2020. They were inspired by "", a 2014 tv-series. A bust of Ertuğrul was erected in Ordu, Turkey in 2020, but was removed by local authorities after it was pointed out that it resembled the Ertuğrul-actor from the same tv-series.


title: Ertuğrul

text: Ertugrul has been portrayed in the Turkish television series "" (1988), adapted from a novel by the same name, "Diriliş: Ertuğrul" (2014-2019) and the sequel "" (2019).


title: Badger

text: Badgers are short-legged omnivores in the family Mustelidae (which also includes the otters, wolverines, martens, minks, polecats, weasels, and ferrets). Badgers are a polyphyletic rather than a natural taxonomic grouping, being united by their squat bodies and adaptions for fossorial activity. All belong to the caniform suborder of carnivoran mammals.


title: Badger

text: The fifteen species of mustelid badgers are grouped in four subfamilies: four species of Melinae (genera "Meles" and "Arctonyx") including the European badger, five species of Helictidinae (genus "Melogale") or ferret-badger, the honey badger or ratel Mellivorinae (genus "Mellivora"), and the American badger Taxideinae (genus "Taxidae"). Badgers include the most basal mustelids; the American badger is the most basal of all, followed successively by the ratel and the Melinae; the estimated split dates are about 17.8, 15.5 and 14.8 million years ago, respectively.


title: Badger

text: The two species of Asiatic stink badgers of the genus "Mydaus" were formerly included within Melinae (and thus Mustelidae), but more recent genetic evidence indicates these are actually members of the skunk family (Mephitidae).


title: Badger

text: Badger mandibular condyles connect to long cavities in their skulls, which gives resistance to jaw dislocation and increases their bite grip strength. This in turn limits jaw movement to hinging open and shut, or sliding from side to side, but it does not hamper the twisting movement possible for the jaws of most mammals.


title: Badger

text: Badgers have rather short, wide bodies, with short legs for digging. They have elongated, weasel-like heads with small ears. Their tails vary in length depending on species; the stink badger has a very short tail, while the ferret-badger's tail can be long, depending on age. They have black faces with distinctive white markings, grey bodies with a light-coloured stripe from head to tail, and dark legs with light-coloured underbellies. They grow to around in length including tail.


title: Badger

text: The European badger is one of the largest; the American badger, the hog badger, and the honey badger are generally a little smaller and lighter. Stink badgers are smaller still, and ferret-badgers are the smallest of all. They weigh around , while some Eurasian badgers weigh around .


title: Badger

text: The word "badger", originally applied to the European badger ("Meles meles"), comes from earlier "bageard" (16th century), presumably referring to the white mark borne like a badge on its forehead. Similarly, a now archaic synonym was "bauson" 'badger' (1375), a variant of "bausond" 'striped, piebald', from Old French "bausant", "baucent" 'id.'.


title: Badger

text: The less common name "brock" (Old English: "brocc"), (Scots: "brock") is a Celtic loanword (cf. Gaelic "broc" and Welsh "broch", from Proto-Celtic "*brokkos") meaning "grey". The Proto-Germanic term was "*þahsuz" (cf. German "Dachs", Dutch "das", Norwegian svin"toks"; Early Modern English "dasse"), probably from the PIE root "*tek'-" "to construct," so the badger would have been named after its digging of setts (tunnels); the Germanic term "*þahsuz" became "taxus" or "taxō", -"ōnis" in Latin glosses, replacing "mēlēs" ("marten" or "badger"), and from these words the common Romance terms for the animal evolved (Italian "tasso", French "taisson"—"blaireau" is now more common—Catalan "toixó", Spanish "tejón", Portuguese "texugo").


title: Badger

text: A male European badger is a boar, a female is a sow, and a young badger is a cub. However, in North America the young are usually called kits, while the terms male and female are generally used for adults. A collective name suggested for a group of colonial badgers is a cete, but badger colonies are more often called clans. A badger's home is called a sett.


title: Badger

text: The following list shows where the various species with the common name of badger are placed in the Mustelidae and Mephitidae classifications. The list is polyphyletic and the species commonly called badgers do not form a valid clade.


title: Badger

text: Badgers are found in much of North America, Great Britain, Ireland and most of the rest of Europe as far north as southern Scandinavia. They live as far east as Japan and China. The Javan ferret-badger lives in Indonesia, and the Bornean ferret-badger lives in Malaysia. The honey badger is found in most of sub-Saharan Africa, the Arabian Desert, southern Levant, Turkmenistan, Pakistan and India.


title: Badger

text: The behaviour of badgers differs by family, but all shelter underground, living in burrows called setts, which may be very extensive. Some are solitary, moving from home to home, while others are known to form clans called cetes. Cete size is variable from two to 15.


title: Badger

text: In North America, coyotes sometimes eat badgers and vice versa, but the majority of their interactions seem to be mutual or neutral. American badgers and coyotes have been seen hunting together in a cooperative fashion.


title: Badger

text: The diet of the Eurasian badger consists largely of earthworms (especially "Lumbricus terrestris"), insects, grubs, and the eggs and young of ground-nesting birds. They also eat small mammals, amphibians, reptiles and birds, as well as roots and fruit. In Britain, they are the main predator of hedgehogs, which have demonstrably lower populations in areas where badgers are numerous, so much so that hedgehog rescue societies do not release hedgehogs into known badger territories. They are occasional predators of domestic chickens, and are able to break into enclosures that a fox cannot. In southern Spain, badgers feed to a significant degree on rabbits.


title: Badger

text: American badgers are fossorial carnivores – i.e. they catch a significant proportion of their food underground, by digging. They can tunnel after ground-dwelling rodents at speed.


title: Badger

text: The honey badger of Africa consumes honey, porcupines, and even venomous snakes (such as the puff adder); they climb trees to gain access to honey from bees' nests.


title: Badger

text: Hunting badgers for sport has been common in many countries. The Dachshund (German for "badger hound") dog breed was bred for this purpose. Badger-baiting was formerly a popular blood sport. Although badgers are normally quite docile, they fight fiercely when cornered. This led people to capture and box badgers and then wager on whether a dog could succeed in removing the badger from its refuge. In England, opposition from naturalists led to its ban under the Cruelty to Animals Act of 1835 and the Protection of Badgers Act of 1992 made it an offence to kill, injure, or take a badger or to interfere with a sett unless under license from a statutory authority. The Hunting Act of 2004 further banned fox hunters from blocking setts during their chases.


title: Badger

text: Badgers have been trapped commercially for their pelts, which have been used for centuries to make shaving brushes, a purpose to which it is particularly suited owing to its high water retention. Virtually all commercially available badger hair now comes from mainland China, though, which has farms for the purpose. The Chinese supply three grades of hair to domestic and foreign brush makers. Village cooperatives are also licensed by the national government to hunt and process badgers to avoid their becoming a crop nuisance in rural northern China. The European badger is also used as trim for some traditional Scottish clothing. The American badger is also used for paintbrushes and as trim for some Native American garments.


title: Badger

text: Controlling the badger population is prohibited in many European countries since badgers are listed in the Berne Convention, but they are not otherwise the subject of any international treaty or legislation. Many badgers in Europe were gassed during the 1960s and 1970s to control rabies.


title: Badger

text: Until the 1980s, badger culling in the United Kingdom was undertaken in the form of gassing, allegedly to control the spread of bovine tuberculosis (bTB). Limited culling resumed in 1998 as part of a 10-year randomised trial cull, which was considered by John Krebs and others to show that culling was ineffective. Some groups called for a selective cull, whilst others favoured a programme of vaccination. Wales and Northern Ireland are currently (2013) conducting field trials of a badger vaccination programme. In 2012 the government authorised a limited cull led by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. However it was later deferred and a wide range of reasons given. In August 2013 a full culling programme began, whereby it was expected that about 5,000 badgers would be killed over six weeks in West Somerset and Gloucestershire using a mixture of controlled shooting and free shooting (some badgers were to be trapped in cages first). The cull caused many protests, with emotional, economic and scientific reasons being cited. The badger is considered an iconic species of the British countryside and it has been claimed by shadow ministers that "The government's own figures show it will cost more than it saves...", and Lord Krebs, who led the Randomised Badger Culling Trial in the 1990s, said the two pilots "will not yield any useful information".


title: Badger

text: Although rarely eaten today in the United States or the United Kingdom, badgers were once a primary meat source for the diets of Native Americans and European colonists. Badgers were also eaten in Britain during World War II and the 1950s. In some areas of Russia, the consumption of badger meat is still widespread. Shish kebabs made from badger, along with dog meat and pork, are a major source of trichinosis outbreaks in the Altai Region of Russia. In Croatia badger meat is rarely eaten, but when it is, it is usually smoked, dried, or served in goulash. In France, badger meat was used in the preparation of several dishes, such as "Blaireau au sang", and it was a relatively common ingredient in countryside cuisine. Badger meat was eaten in some parts of Spain until recently.


title: Badger

text: Badgers are sometimes kept as pets. Keeping a badger as a pet or offering one for sale is an offence in the United Kingdom under the 1992 Protection of Badgers Act.


title: Badger

text: In Europe during the medieval period, accounts of badgers in bestiaries described badgers as working together to dig holes under mountains. They were said to lie down at the entrance of the hole holding a stick in their mouths, while other badgers piled dirt on their bellies. Two badgers would then take hold of the stick in the badger's mouth, and drag the animal loaded with dirt away, almost in the fashion of a wagon. The moralizing component of Bestiaries often took precedence over their function as natural history texts, and this description of badgers most likely reflects an allegorical exemplar rather than what everyday people in the Middle Ages might or might not have believed about how badgers behave in the wild.


title: Badger

text: The 19th-century poem "The Badger" by John Clare describes a badger hunt and badger-baiting. The character Frances in Russell Hoban's children's books, beginning with "Bedtime for Frances" (1948–1970), is depicted as a badger. Trufflehunter is a heroic badger in the "Chronicles of Narnia" book "Prince Caspian" (1951) by C. S. Lewis.


title: Badger

text: Badger characters are featured in author Brian Jacques' "Redwall" series (1986–2011), they are depicted as feared warriors most often falling under the title of Badger Lord or Badger Mother. A badger character is featured in "The Immortals" (1992–1996) by Tamora Pierce and "The Badger" is a comic book hero created by Mike Baron. The badger is the emblem of the Hufflepuff house of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the J. K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" book series (1997–2007), it is chosen as such because the badger is an animal that is often underestimated, because it lives quietly until attacked, but which, when provoked, can fight off animals much larger than itself, which resembles the Hufflepuff house in several ways.


title: Badger

text: Many other stories featuring badgers as characters include Kenneth Grahame's children's novel "The Wind in the Willows" (1908), Beatrix Potter's "The Tale of Mr. Tod" (1912; featuring badger Tommy Brock), the Rupert Bear adventures by Mary Tourtel (appearing since 1920), T. H. White's Arthurian fantasy novels "The Once and Future King" (1958, written 1938–41) and "The Book of Merlyn" (1977), "Fantastic Mr. Fox" (1970) by Roald Dahl, Richard Adams's "Watership Down" (1972), Colin Dann's "The Animals of Farthing Wood" (1979), and Erin Hunter's "Warriors" (appearing since 2003). In the historic novel "Incident at Hawk's Hill" (1971) by Allan W. Eckert a badger is one of the main characters.


title: Badger

text: Badgers are also featured in films and animations: a flash video called "Badgers" shows a cete doing calisthenics. The 1973 Disney animated film "Robin Hood" depicts the character of Friar Tuck as a badger. In the "Doctor Snuggles" series, Dennis the handyman was a badger.


title: Badger

text: The badger is the state animal of the U.S. state of Wisconsin, though this is a reference to the state's early miners rather than the animal itself, and Bucky Badger is the mascot of the athletic teams at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. The badger is also the official mascot of Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada; The University of Sussex, England; and St Aidan's College at the University of Durham.


title: Badger

text: In 2007, the appearance of honey badgers around the British base at Basra, Iraq, fueled rumours among the locals that British forces deliberately released "man-eating" and "bear-like" badgers to spread panic. These allegations were denied by the British army and the director of Basra's veterinary hospital.


title: Badger

text: On 28 August 2013, the PC video game "Shelter" was released by developers Might and Delight in which players control a mother badger protecting her cubs.


title: Badger

text: As a sub-series of the "Sonic the Hedgehog" franchise, Sticks the Badger is one of the main characters of the "Sonic Boom" series.


title: German Army

text: The German Army (, "army") is the land component of the armed forces of Germany. The present-day German Army was founded in 1955 as part of the newly formed West German "Bundeswehr" together with the "Marine" (German Navy) and the "Luftwaffe" (German Air Force). , the German Army had a strength of 62,766 soldiers.


title: German Army

text: A German army equipped, organized, and trained following a single doctrine and permanently unified under one command in 1871 during the unification of Germany under the leadership of Prussia. From 1871 to 1919, the title "Deutsches Heer" (German Army) was the official name of the German land forces. Following the German defeat in World War I and the end of the German Empire, the main army was dissolved. From 1921 to 1935 the name of the German land forces was the "Reichsheer" (Army of the Empire) and from 1935 to 1945 the name "Heer" was used. The "Heer" was one of two ground forces of the Third Reich during World War II but, unlike the "Heer", the "Waffen-SS" was not a branch of the "Wehrmacht" but was a combat force under the Nazi Party's own "Schutzstaffel" forces. The "Heer" was formally disbanded in August 1946.


title: German Army

text: After World War II, Germany was divided into the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) and the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), which both formed their own militaries: on 12 November 1955 the first recruits began their service in the West German "Heer", while on 1 March 1956 the East German "Landstreitkräfte der NVA" (Land Forces of the National People's Army) were founded. During the Cold War, the West German Army was fully integrated into NATO's command structure while the "Landstreitkräfte" were part of the Warsaw Pact. Following the process of German reunification in 1990, the "Landstreitkräfte" were partially integrated into the German Army. Since then, the German Army has been employed in peacekeeping operations worldwide and since 2002 also in combat operations in Afghanistan as part of NATO's International Security Assistance Force.


title: German Army

text: Following World War II the Allies dissolved the "Wehrmacht" with all its branches on 20 August 1946. However already one year after the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany in May 1949 and because of its increasing links with the West under German chancellor Konrad Adenauer, the Consultative Assembly of Europe began to consider the formation of a European Defence Community with German participation on 11 August 1950. Former high-ranking "Wehrmacht" officers outlined in the Himmeroder memorandum a plan for a "German contingent in an international force for the defense of Western Europe." For the German land forces the memorandum envisioned the formation of a 250,000 strong army. The officers saw the need for the formation of twelve Panzer divisions and six corps staffs with accompanying Corps troops, as only armoured divisions could muster a fighting force to throw back the numerically far superior forces of the Warsaw Pact.


title: German Army

text: Theodor Blank was appointed "officer of the Federal Chancellor for the Strengthening of Allied Troops questions". This Defence Ministry forerunner was known somewhat euphemistically as the Blank Office (Amt Blank), but explicitly used to prepare for the rearmament of West Germany ("Wiederbewaffnung"). By March 1954 the Blank Office had finished plans for a new German army. Plans foresaw the formation of six infantry, four armoured, and two mechanised infantry divisions, as the German contribution to the defense of Western Europe in the framework of a European Defence Community. On 8 February 1952 the Bundestag approved a German contribution to the defense of Western Europe and on 26 February 1954 the Basic Law of the Republic was amended with the insertion of an article regarding the defence of the sovereignty of the federal government. Following a decision at the London Nine Power Conference of 28 September to 3 October 1954, Germany's entry into NATO effective from 9 May 1955 was accepted as a replacement for the failed European Defence Community plan. Afterwards the Blank Office was converted to the Defence Ministry and Theodor Blank became the first Defence Minister. The nucleus of army was the so-called "V" Branch of the Department of Defence. Subdivisions included were "VA Leadership and Training," "VB Organisation" and "VC Logistics."


title: German Army

text: The army saw itself explicitly not as a successor to the defeated "Wehrmacht", but as in the traditions of the Prussian military reformers of 1807 to 1814 and the members of the military resistance during National Socialism, such as the officers which undertook the failed 20 July plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler in 1944. Nevertheless, for lack of alternatives the officer corps was made up largely of former "Wehrmacht" officers. The first Chief of the Army was the former "Wehrmacht" "General der Panzertruppe" Hans Rottiger, who had been involved in the drafting of the Himmeroder memorandum.


title: German Army

text: The official date of the founding of the army is 12 November 1955 when the first soldiers began their service in Andernach. In 1956 the first troops set up seven training companies in Andernach and began the formation of schools and training centers. On 1 April 1957, the first conscripts arrived for service in the army. The first military organisations created were instructional battalions, officer schools, and the Army Academy, the forerunner to the "Führungsakademie der Bundeswehr" in Hamburg. In total of twelve armoured and infantry divisions were to be established by 1959, as planned in Army Structure I. To achieve this goal existing units were split approximately every six months. However the creation of all twelve divisions did not take place until 1965. At the end of 1958 the strength of the army was about 20,200 men. The army was equipped at first with American material, such as the M-47 Patton main battle tank. Three corps commands were formed beginning in 1957: the I Corps, II Corps, and the III Corps.


title: German Army

text: Also in 1957 the "Office for Territorial Defence" was established as the highest Territorial Army authority. The Office for Territorial Defence was under the direct command of the Federal Ministry of Defence and commanded the Territorial Army (Germany) ("Territorialheer"), a reserve formation. While the "Heer" along with the "Marine" and "Luftwaffe" were firmly integrated into the NATO Military Command Structure, the "Territorialheer" remained under national command. The main function of the "Territorialheer" was to maintain the operational freedom of NATO forces through providing rear area defence against saboteurs, enemy special forces, and the like. There were three Territorial Commands ("Territorialkommandos"), including North, , and , and up to six (WBKs), military regional commands. By 1985 each of the WBKs had two "Heimatschutzbrigades" (HSBs, home defence brigades).


title: German Army

text: The development of Soviet tactical nuclear weapons required the development of a new Army structure even before Army Structure 1 was fully achieved. To minimize the effects of attacks with tactical nuclear weapons on massed forces, the 28,000 strong divisions of the "Heer" were broken up into smaller and more mobile brigades under Army Structure 2. These smaller units were also to be capable of self-sustainment on a nuclear battlefield for several days, and to be capable of moving quickly from defense and to attack. The new armoured and mechanised brigades were capable of combined arms combat. Each division was composed of three brigades. The armoured brigades consisted of an armoured infantry battalion, two armoured battalions, a self-propelled artillery battalion and a supply battalion. The mechanised brigades consisted of a motorised infantry battalion, two mechanised infantry battalions, an armoured battalion, a field artillery battalion and a supply battalion. The motorised brigades consisted of three motorised infantry battalions, an anti-tank battalion, a field artillery battalion and a supply battalion. The alpine brigades consisted of three alpine battalions, a mountain artillery battalion and a supply battalion. By 1959 the "Heer" consisted of 11 divisions of 27 brigades, four "Panzer" (armoured), four "Panzergrenadier" (mechanised), two "Jäger" (motorised), and one "Gebirgsjäger" (alpine).


title: German Army

text: From roughly 1970 onward, Army Structure 3 saw the targeted number of 36 active brigades raised by 1975 while the 2nd and 4th "Panzergrenadier" divisions were reorganised into "Jäger" formations. The armies "Fallschirmjäger" (paratrooper) brigades were renamed into "Luftlande" (airborne) brigades and a third brigade ("Luftlandebrigade 27") was formed.


title: German Army

text: Under Army Structure 4 from 1980/81 on, the German Army fielded 12 divisions (with 38 active brigades): six "Panzer" (armoured), four "Panzergrenadier" (mechanised), one "Luftlande" (airborne), and one "Gebirgs" (alpine) divisions. Ten active divisions were grouped into three corps: I German Corps as part of NATO's Northern Army Group, II German Corps and III German Corps as part of Central Army Group. The remaining heavy division (6th Panzergrenadier Division) was part of Allied Forces Baltic Approaches. In peacetime the 1st Airborne Division was assigned to II German Corps with its three brigades to be distributed among the three Corps respectively in wartime, forming a quick reaction reserve.


title: German Army

text: The number of active brigades rose compared to Army Structure 3 due to two "Heimatschutz" territorial defense brigades (51 and 56) being assigned to the field army as part of a mechanised and mountain division respectively. The non-NATO assigned territorial army formed 10 further territorial defense brigades for rear area security at varying readiness levels, with most units being partially manned in peacetime and others being entirely non-active units with equipment in storage.


title: German Army

text: Brigades in the field army grew to four combat battalions instead of three. Mechanised brigades typically consisted of one "Panzer" and three "Panzergrenadier" battalions, of which one was a partially active and mixed formation, containing a tank company and two mechanised companies. Armoured brigades similarly consisted of one "Panzergrenadier" and three "Panzer" battalions, with one armoured battalion being mixed and partially active (containing one mechanised and two tank companies).


title: German Army

text: Mechanised infantry battalions in mechanised brigades typically had one of three companies equipped as motorised infantry with M113 APCs instead of Marder IFVs.


title: German Army

text: After 1990, the "Heer" absorbed the "Nationale Volksarmee", the armed forces of East Germany. The former East German forces were initially controlled by the "Bundeswehr" Command East under the command of Lieutenant General Jörg Schönbohm and disbanded on 30 June 1991. In the aftermath of the merger, the German Army consisted of four Corps (including IV Corps at Potsdam in the former DDR) with a manpower of 360,000 men. It was continuously downsized from this point. In 1994 III Corps was reorganised as the German Army Forces Command. In 1996, the 25th Airborne Brigade was converted into a new command leading the Army's special forces, known as the "Kommando Spezialkräfte".


title: German Army

text: Logistics, CBRN defense, territorial defense and military police units were split off into the newly formed Joint Support Service and medical units into the Joint Medical Service in 2000. The transferred units continue to wear army uniforms.


title: German Army

text: The 2001 onwards restructuring of the German Army saw it move to a seven division structure – five mechanised (each with two mechanised brigades), one special forces, and one air assault.


title: German Army

text: In 2003, three Corps still existed, each including various combat formations and a maintenance brigade, as well as the I. German/Dutch Corps, a joint German-Netherlands organization, used to control in peacetime the 1st Panzer and 7th Panzer Divisions as well as Dutch formations. The 1st Panzer would have reported to the corps in wartime while the 7th would be posted to the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps. II Corps was German in peacetime but would have exchanged a division with the V U.S. Corps in time of war (the 5th Panzer). The 5th Panzer Division was formally disbanded as of 30 June 2001. In peacetime it also commanded the 10th Panzer Division, which was allocated to Eurocorps and which parents the German half of the Franco-German Brigade. The 1st Mountain Division at Munich was also subordinate to this headquarters.


title: German Army

text: The IV Corps was headquartered at Potsdam in eastern Germany and controlled two Panzergrenadier Divisions, the 13th and 14th. The 14th Panzergrenadier Division also took control of units in Western Germany re-subordinated from the 6th Panzergrenadier Division when it lost its command function. It would have made up the German contribution to the Multinational Corps Northeast in time of war. IV Corps also used to have under its command the Military District Command I, the 1st Airmobile Brigade, and the Berlin Command ().


title: German Army

text: The current structure was assumed with the most recent German Army reform which also suspended conscription by 1 July 2011 and saw the army move to a purely professional three division structure with a view on creating smaller, more flexible and more deployable units, emphasising global employment against non-state threats such as international terrorism or as part of UN and EU missions.


title: German Army

text: The German Army is commanded by the Inspector of the Army ("Inspekteur des Heeres") based at the Army Command ("Kommando Heer") in Strausberg near Berlin. The training centers are supervised by the Army Training Command in Leipzig.


title: German Army

text: The combat units of the army now include two armoured divisions and the lighter rapid forces division. Unlike other European armies such as neighbouring France, regiments are not a common form of organization and are thus rare in the German army. Battalions and regiments are directly subordinate to brigades or to divisions as divisional troops. German infantry battalions field 1,000 men, considerably larger than most NATO armies, (e.g. twice the size of a US Army battalion). While some brigades are still designated as either "Panzer" (armour) or "Panzergrenadier" (mechanised infantry) formations, these names are by now traditional and no longer imply a different organisation, for example an armoured brigade would not be expected to contain more tanks than a mechanised one.


title: German Army

text: The German Army has eleven different branches of troops, designated as "Truppengattungen". Each "Truppengattung" is responsible for training and readiness of its units and disposes of its own schools and centres of excellence for doing so. Optically this distinction can be made by the branch colour, called "Waffenfarbe" which is displayed by a cord attached to the rank insignia, and the colour of their beret with a specific badge attached to it.


title: German Army

text: The rank structure of the German army is adjusted to the rank structure of NATO. Unlike its predecessors, the modern German Army does not use the rank of Colonel General. The highest rank for an army officer is Lieutenant General, as the rank of Full General is reserved for the Armed Forces chief of staff or officers serving as NATO officers.


title: Tommy Hilfiger

text: Thomas Jacob Hilfiger (; born March 24, 1951) is an American fashion designer and the founder of Tommy Hilfiger Corporation.


title: Tommy Hilfiger

text: After starting his career by co-founding a chain of jeans/fashion stores called People's Place in upstate New York in the 1970s, he began designing preppy clothing for his own eponymous menswear line in the 1980s. The company later expanded into women's clothing and various luxury items such as perfumes and went public in 1992.


title: Tommy Hilfiger

text: Hilfiger's collections are often influenced by the fashion of music subcultures and marketed in connection with the music industry, with celebrities such as American R&B artist Aaliyah in the 1990s. In 2005, contestants in the CBS reality show "The Cut" competed for a design job with Hilfiger in a similar fashion to "The Apprentice". In 2006, Hilfiger sold his company for $1.6 billion to Apax Partners, who next sold it in 2010 to Phillips-Van Heusen for $3 billion. He remains the company's principal designer, leading the design teams and overseeing the entire creative process. In 2012, Hilfiger was awarded the Geoffrey Beene Lifetime Achievement Award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America.


title: Tommy Hilfiger

text: Hilfiger graduated from the Elmira Free Academy high school in 1969. His parents wanted him to get a college education and pursue a traditional career, and for a time he attended GST BOCES Bush Campus in Elmira.