title: Spacetime

text: Years before publication of the general theory in 1916, Einstein used the equivalence principle to predict the existence of gravitational redshift in the following thought experiment: (i) Assume that a tower of height "h" (Fig. 5-3) has been constructed. (ii) Drop a particle of rest mass "m" from the top of the tower. It falls freely with acceleration "g", reaching the ground with velocity , so that its total energy "E", as measured by an observer on the ground, is (iii) A mass-energy converter transforms the total energy of the particle into a single high energy photon, which it directs upward. (iv) At the top of the tower, an energy-mass converter transforms the energy of the photon "E" back into a particle of rest mass "m".


title: Spacetime

text: It must be that , since otherwise one would be able to construct a perpetual motion device. We therefore predict that , so that


title: Spacetime

text: A photon climbing in Earth's gravitational field loses energy and is redshifted. Early attempts to measure this redshift through astronomical observations were somewhat inconclusive, but definitive laboratory observations were performed by Pound & Rebka (1959) and later by Pound & Snider (1964).


title: Spacetime

text: Light has an associated frequency, and this frequency may be used to drive the workings of a clock. The gravitational redshift leads to an important conclusion about time itself: Gravity makes time run slower. Suppose we build two identical clocks whose rates are controlled by some stable atomic transition. Place one clock on top of the tower, while the other clock remains on the ground. An experimenter on top of the tower observes that signals from the ground clock are lower in frequency than those of the clock next to her on the tower. Light going up the tower is just a wave, and it is impossible for wave crests to disappear on the way up. Exactly as many oscillations of light arrive at the top of the tower as were emitted at the bottom. The experimenter concludes that the ground clock is running slow, and can confirm this by bringing the tower clock down to compare side by side with the ground clock. For a 1 km tower, the discrepancy would amount to about 9.4 nanoseconds per day, easily measurable with modern instrumentation.


title: Spacetime

text: Clocks in a gravitational field do not all run at the same rate. Experiments such as the Pound–Rebka experiment have firmly established curvature of the time component of spacetime. The Pound–Rebka experiment says nothing about curvature of the "space" component of spacetime. But the theoretical arguments predicting gravitational time dilation do not depend on the details of general relativity at all. "Any" theory of gravity will predict gravitational time dilation if it respects the principle of equivalence. This includes Newtonian gravitation. A standard demonstration in general relativity is to show how, in the "Newtonian limit" (i.e. the particles are moving slowly, the gravitational field is weak, and the field is static), curvature of time alone is sufficient to derive Newton's law of gravity.


title: Spacetime

text: Newtonian gravitation is a theory of curved time. General relativity is a theory of curved time "and" curved space. Given "G" as the gravitational constant, "M" as the mass of a Newtonian star, and orbiting bodies of insignificant mass at distance "r" from the star, the spacetime interval for Newtonian gravitation is one for which only the time coefficient is variable:


title: Spacetime

text: The formula_155 coefficient in front of formula_156 describes the curvature of time in Newtonian gravitation, and this curvature completely accounts for all Newtonian gravitational effects. As expected, this correction factor is directly proportional to formula_157 and formula_158, and because of the formula_159 in the denominator, the correction factor increases as one approaches the gravitating body, meaning that time is curved.


title: Spacetime

text: But general relativity is a theory of curved space "and" curved time, so if there are terms modifying the spatial components of the spacetime interval presented above, shouldn't their effects be seen on, say, planetary and satellite orbits due to curvature correction factors applied to the spatial terms?


title: Spacetime

text: The answer is that they "are" seen, but the effects are tiny. The reason is that planetary velocities are extremely small compared to the speed of light, so that for planets and satellites of the solar system, the formula_156 term dwarfs the spatial terms.


title: Spacetime

text: Despite the minuteness of the spatial terms, the first indications that something was wrong with Newtonian gravitation were discovered over a century-and-a-half ago. In 1859, Urbain Le Verrier, in an analysis of available timed observations of transits of Mercury over the Sun's disk from 1697 to 1848, reported that known physics could not explain the orbit of Mercury, unless there possibly existed a planet or asteroid belt within the orbit of Mercury. The perihelion of Mercury's orbit exhibited an excess rate of precession over that which could be explained by the tugs of the other planets. The ability to detect and accurately measure the minute value of this anomalous precession (only 43 arc seconds per tropical century) is testimony to the sophistication of 19th century astrometry.


title: Spacetime

text: As the famous astronomer who had earlier discovered the existence of Neptune "at the tip of his pen" by analyzing wobbles in the orbit of Uranus, Le Verrier's announcement triggered a two-decades long period of "Vulcan-mania", as professional and amateur astronomers alike hunted for the hypothetical new planet. This search included several false sightings of Vulcan. It was ultimately established that no such planet or asteroid belt existed.


title: Spacetime

text: In 1916, Einstein was to show that this anomalous precession of Mercury is explained by the spatial terms in the curvature of spacetime. Curvature in the temporal term, being simply an expression of Newtonian gravitation, has no part in explaining this anomalous precession. The success of his calculation was a powerful indication to Einstein's peers that the general theory of relativity could be correct.


title: Spacetime

text: The most spectacular of Einstein's predictions was his calculation that the curvature terms in the spatial components of the spacetime interval could be measured in the bending of light around a massive body. Light has a slope of ±1 on a spacetime diagram. Its movement in space is equal to its movement in time. For the weak field expression of the invariant interval, Einstein calculated an exactly equal but opposite sign curvature in its spatial components.


title: Spacetime

text: In Newton's gravitation, the formula_155 coefficient in front of formula_156 predicts bending of light around a star. In general relativity, the formula_165 coefficient in front of formula_166 predicts a "doubling" of the total bending.


title: Spacetime

text: The story of the 1919 Eddington eclipse expedition and Einstein's rise to fame is well told elsewhere.


title: Spacetime

text: In contrast, general relativity identifies several sources of spacetime curvature in addition to mass. In the Einstein field equations,


title: Spacetime

text: One important conclusion to be derived from the equations is that, colloquially speaking, "gravity itself creates gravity". Energy has mass. Even in Newtonian gravity, the gravitational field is associated with an energy, called the gravitational potential energy. In general relativity, the energy of the gravitational field feeds back into creation of the gravitational field. This makes the equations nonlinear and hard to solve in anything other than weak field cases. Numerical relativity is a branch of general relativity using numerical methods to solve and analyze problems, often employing supercomputers to study black holes, gravitational waves, neutron stars and other phenomena in the strong field regime.


title: Spacetime

text: In special relativity, mass-energy is closely connected to momentum. Just as space and time are different aspects of a more comprehensive entity called spacetime, mass–energy and momentum are merely different aspects of a unified, four-dimensional quantity called four-momentum. In consequence, if mass–energy is a source of gravity, momentum must also be a source. The inclusion of momentum as a source of gravity leads to the prediction that moving or rotating masses can generate fields analogous to the magnetic fields generated by moving charges, a phenomenon known as gravitomagnetism.


title: Spacetime

text: It is well known that the force of magnetism can be deduced by applying the rules of special relativity to moving charges. (An eloquent demonstration of this was presented by Feynman in volume II, of his "Lectures on Physics", available online.) Analogous logic can be used to demonstrate the origin of gravitomagnetism. In Fig. 5-7a, two parallel, infinitely long streams of massive particles have equal and opposite velocities −"v" and +"v" relative to a test particle at rest and centered between the two. Because of the symmetry of the setup, the net force on the


title: Spacetime

text: central particle is zero. Assume so that velocities are simply additive. Fig. 5-7b shows exactly the same setup, but in the frame of the upper stream. The test particle has a velocity of +"v", and the bottom stream has a velocity of +2"v". Since the physical situation has not changed, only the frame in which things are observed, the test particle should not be attracted towards either stream. But it is not at all clear that the forces exerted on the test particle are equal. (1) Since the bottom stream is moving faster than the top, each particle in the bottom stream has a larger mass energy than a particle in the top. (2) Because of Lorentz contraction, there are more particles per unit length in the bottom stream than in the top stream. (3) Another contribution to the active gravitational mass of the bottom stream comes from an additional pressure term which, at this point, we do not have sufficient background to discuss. All of these effects together would seemingly demand that the test particle be drawn towards the bottom stream.


title: Spacetime

text: The test particle is not drawn to the bottom stream because of a velocity-dependent force that serves to repel a particle "that is moving in the same direction as the bottom stream." This velocity-dependent gravitational effect is gravitomagnetism.


title: Spacetime

text: Matter in motion through a gravitomagnetic field is hence subject to so-called "frame-dragging" effects analogous to electromagnetic induction. It has been proposed that such gravitomagnetic forces underlie the generation of the relativistic jets (Fig. 5-8) ejected by some rotating supermassive black holes.


title: Spacetime

text: Quantities that are directly related to energy and momentum should be sources of gravity as well, namely internal pressure and stress. Taken together, , momentum, pressure and stress all serve as sources of gravity: Collectively, they are what tells spacetime how to curve.


title: Spacetime

text: General relativity predicts that pressure acts as a gravitational source with exactly the same strength as mass–energy density. The inclusion of pressure as a source of gravity leads to dramatic differences between the predictions of general relativity versus those of Newtonian gravitation. For example, the pressure term sets a maximum limit to the mass of a neutron star. The more massive a neutron star, the more pressure is required to support its weight against gravity. The increased pressure, however, adds to the gravity acting on the star's mass. Above a certain mass determined by the Tolman–Oppenheimer–Volkoff limit, the process becomes runaway and the neutron star collapses to a black hole.


title: Spacetime

text: The stress terms become highly significant when performing calculations such as hydrodynamic simulations of core-collapse supernovae.


title: Spacetime

text: These predictions for the roles of pressure, momentum and stress as sources of spacetime curvature are elegant and play an important role in theory. In regards to pressure, the early universe was radiation dominated, and it is highly unlikely that any of the relevant cosmological data (e.g. nucleosynthesis abundances, etc.) could be reproduced if pressure did not contribute to gravity, or if it did not have the same strength as a source of gravity as mass–energy. Likewise, the mathematical consistency of the Einstein field equations would be broken if the stress terms did not contribute as a source of gravity.


title: Spacetime

text: Bondi distinguishes between different possible types of mass: (1) is the mass which acts as the source of a gravitational field; (2) is the mass which reacts to a gravitational field; (3) is the mass which reacts to acceleration.


title: Spacetime

text: The classic experiment to measure the strength of a gravitational source (i.e. its active mass) was first conducted in 1797 by Henry Cavendish (Fig. 5-9a). Two small but dense balls are suspended on a fine wire, making a torsion balance. Bringing two large test masses close to the balls introduces a detectable torque. Given the dimensions of the apparatus and the measurable spring constant of the torsion wire, the gravitational constant "G" can be determined.


title: Spacetime

text: To study pressure effects by compressing the test masses is hopeless, because attainable laboratory pressures are insignificant in comparison with the of a metal ball.


title: Spacetime

text: However, the repulsive electromagnetic pressures resulting from protons being tightly squeezed inside atomic nuclei are typically on the order of 10 atm ≈ 10 Pa ≈ 10 kg·sm. This amounts to about 1% of the nuclear mass density of approximately 10kg/m (after factoring in c ≈ 9×10ms).


title: Spacetime

text: If pressure does not act as a gravitational source, then the ratio formula_181 should be lower for nuclei with higher atomic number "Z", in which the electrostatic pressures are higher. (1968) did a Cavendish experiment using a Teflon mass suspended in a mixture of the liquids trichloroethylene and dibromoethane having the same buoyant density as the Teflon (Fig. 5-9b). Fluorine has atomic number , while bromine has . Kreuzer found that repositioning the Teflon mass caused no differential deflection of the torsion bar, hence establishing active mass and passive mass to be equivalent to a precision of 5×10.


title: Spacetime

text: Although Kreuzer originally considered this experiment merely to be a test of the ratio of active mass to passive mass, Clifford Will (1976) reinterpreted the experiment as a fundamental test of the coupling of sources to gravitational fields.


title: Spacetime

text: In 1986, Bartlett and Van Buren noted that lunar laser ranging had detected a 2 km offset between the moon's center of figure and its center of mass. This indicates an asymmetry in the distribution of Fe (abundant in the Moon's core) and Al (abundant in its crust and mantle). If pressure did not contribute equally to spacetime curvature as does mass–energy, the moon would not be in the orbit predicted by classical mechanics. They used their measurements to tighten the limits on any discrepancies between active and passive mass to about 10.


title: Spacetime

text: The existence of gravitomagnetism was proven by Gravity Probe B , a satellite-based mission which launched on 20 April 2004. The spaceflight phase lasted until <time>2005</time>. The mission aim was to measure spacetime curvature near Earth, with particular emphasis on gravitomagnetism.


title: Spacetime

text: Initial results confirmed the relatively large geodetic effect (which is due to simple spacetime curvature, and is also known as de Sitter precession) to an accuracy of about 1%. The much smaller frame-dragging effect (which is due to gravitomagnetism, and is also known as Lense–Thirring precession) was difficult to measure because of unexpected charge effects causing variable drift in the gyroscopes. Nevertheless, by <time datetime="2008-08">August 2008</time>, the frame-dragging effect had been confirmed to within 15% of the expected result, while the geodetic effect was confirmed to better than 0.5%.


title: Spacetime

text: Subsequent measurements of frame dragging by laser-ranging observations of the LARES, and satellites has improved on the measurement, with results (as of 2016) demonstrating the effect to within 5% of its theoretical value, although there has been some disagreement on the accuracy of this result.


title: Spacetime

text: Another effort, the Gyroscopes in General Relativity (GINGER) experiment, seeks to use three 6 m ring lasers mounted at right angles to each other 1400 m below the Earth's surface to measure this effect.


title: Spacetime

text: In Poincaré's conventionalist views, the essential criteria according to which one should select a Euclidean versus non-Euclidean geometry would be economy and simplicity. A realist would say that Einstein discovered spacetime to be non-Euclidean. A conventionalist would say that Einstein merely found it "more convenient" to use non-Euclidean geometry. The conventionalist would maintain that Einstein's analysis said nothing about what the geometry of spacetime "really" is.


title: Spacetime

text: In response to the first question, a number of authors including Deser, Grishchuk, Rosen, Weinberg, etc. have provided various formulations of gravitation as a field in a flat manifold. Those theories are variously called "bimetric gravity", the "field-theoretical approach to general relativity", and so forth. Kip Thorne has provided a popular review of these theories.


title: Spacetime

text: The flat spacetime paradigm posits that matter creates a gravitational field that causes rulers to shrink when they are turned from circumferential orientation to radial, and that causes the ticking rates of clocks to dilate. The flat spacetime paradigm is fully equivalent to the curved spacetime paradigm in that they both represent the same physical phenomena. However, their mathematical formulations are entirely different. Working physicists routinely switch between using curved and flat spacetime techniques depending on the requirements of the problem. The flat spacetime paradigm turns out to be especially convenient when performing approximate calculations in weak fields. Hence, flat spacetime techniques will be used when solving gravitational wave problems, while curved spacetime techniques will be used in the analysis of black holes.


title: Spacetime

text: The spacetime symmetry group for Special Relativity is the Poincaré group, which is a ten-dimensional group of three Lorentz boosts, three rotations, and four spacetime translations. It is logical to ask what symmetries if any might apply in General Relativity. A tractable case might be to consider the symmetries of spacetime as seen by observers located far away from all sources of the gravitational field. The naive expectation for asymptotically flat spacetime symmetries might be simply to extend and reproduce the symmetries of flat spacetime of special relativity, "viz.", the Poincaré group.


title: Spacetime

text: In 1962 Hermann Bondi, M. G. van der Burg, A. W. Metzner and Rainer K. Sachs addressed this asymptotic symmetry problem in order to investigate the flow of energy at infinity due to propagating gravitational waves. Their first step was to decide on some physically sensible boundary conditions to place on the gravitational field at lightlike infinity to characterize what it means to say a metric is asymptotically flat, making no "a priori" assumptions about the nature of the asymptotic symmetry group — not even the assumption that such a group exists. Then after designing what they considered to be the most sensible boundary conditions, they investigated the nature of the resulting asymptotic symmetry transformations that leave invariant the form of the boundary conditions appropriate for asymptotically flat gravitational fields. What they found was that the asymptotic symmetry transformations actually do form a group and the structure of this group does not depend on the particular gravitational field that happens to be present. This means that, as expected, one can separate the kinematics of spacetime from the dynamics of the gravitational field at least at spatial infinity. The puzzling surprise in 1962 was their discovery of a rich infinite-dimensional group (the so-called BMS group) as the asymptotic symmetry group, instead of the finite-dimensional Poincaré group, which is a subgroup of the BMS group. Not only are the Lorentz transformations asymptotic symmetry transformations, there are also additional transformations that are not Lorentz transformations but are asymptotic symmetry transformations. In fact, they found an additional infinity of transformation generators known as "supertranslations". This implies the conclusion that General Relativity (GR) does "not" reduce to special relativity in the case of weak fields at long distances.


title: Spacetime

text: For physical reasons, a spacetime continuum is mathematically defined as a four-dimensional, smooth, connected Lorentzian manifold formula_182. This means the smooth Lorentz metric formula_183 has signature formula_184. The metric determines the "", as well as determining the geodesics of particles and light beams. About each point (event) on this manifold, coordinate charts are used to represent observers in reference frames. Usually, Cartesian coordinates formula_185 are used. Moreover, for simplicity's sake, units of measurement are usually chosen such that the speed of light formula_1 is equal to 1.


title: Spacetime

text: A reference frame (observer) can be identified with one of these coordinate charts; any such observer can describe any event formula_187. Another reference frame may be identified by a second coordinate chart about formula_187. Two observers (one in each reference frame) may describe the same event formula_187 but obtain different descriptions.


title: Spacetime

text: Usually, many overlapping coordinate charts are needed to cover a manifold. Given two coordinate charts, one containing formula_187 (representing an observer) and another containing formula_191 (representing another observer), the intersection of the charts represents the region of spacetime in which both observers can measure physical quantities and hence compare results. The relation between the two sets of measurements is given by a non-singular coordinate transformation on this intersection. The idea of coordinate charts as local observers who can perform measurements in their vicinity also makes good physical sense, as this is how one actually collects physical data—locally.


title: Spacetime

text: For example, two observers, one of whom is on Earth, but the other one who is on a fast rocket to Jupiter, may observe a comet crashing into Jupiter (this is the event formula_187). In general, they will disagree about the exact location and timing of this impact, i.e., they will have different 4-tuples formula_185 (as they are using different coordinate systems). Although their kinematic descriptions will differ, dynamical (physical) laws, such as momentum conservation and the first law of thermodynamics, will still hold. In fact, relativity theory requires more than this in the sense that it stipulates these (and all other physical) laws must take the same form in all coordinate systems. This introduces tensors into relativity, by which all physical quantities are represented.


title: Spacetime

text: Geodesics are said to be timelike, null, or spacelike if the tangent vector to one point of the geodesic is of this nature. Paths of particles and light beams in spacetime are represented by timelike and null (lightlike) geodesics, respectively.


title: Diane Guerrero

text: Diane Guerrero (born July 21, 1986) is an American actress. She is known for her roles as inmate Maritza Ramos on the Netflix series "Orange Is the New Black" and Lina on "Jane the Virgin". Guerrero grew up in Boston and remained there after the rest of her family was deported to Colombia. She is an advocate for immigration reform. Her role on "Orange Is the New Black" has contributed to three consecutive wins for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series. Guerrero is the author of "In the Country We Love: My Family Divided", a memoir about her parents being detained and deported when she was fourteen. She currently stars as Jane in the HBO Max action-drama series "Doom Patrol". She also voiced the character Isabela Madrigal in the 2021 Disney movie "Encanto".


title: Diane Guerrero

text: Guerrero was born in Passaic, New Jersey, to Colombian parents and raised in Boston, Massachusetts. As the only member of her immediate family with American citizenship, she chose to remain in the U.S. at the age of 14 when her parents and older brother were deported back to Colombia after unsuccessfully pursuing legal citizenship. Guerrero has since become a strong advocate for immigration reform.


title: Diane Guerrero

text: Guerrero was raised in the Jamaica Plain and Roxbury neighborhoods of Boston after being taken in by other Colombian families. She attended Boston Arts Academy, a performing arts high school, where she was in the music department. Among her high school activities was singing with a jazz group, but she anticipated pursuing political science and communications in college. Her first job after college was in a law office.


title: Diane Guerrero

text: In 2010, at age 24, Guerrero decided to pursue a career in acting. That same year, she appeared in the music video for Boston-based R&B singer Louie Bello's song "Faces". In 2011, she moved to New York City and studied acting at the Susan Batson Studios, where she met her manager Josh Taylor.


title: Diane Guerrero

text: In 2012, Guerrero was cast in "Orange is the New Black" in the role of Maritza Ramos, a Bronx-bred character with Colombian roots. For season 2, she was part of the cast that earned recognition for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series at the 21st Screen Actors Guild Awards. The cast earned recognition for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series again at the 22nd Screen Actors Guild Awards and 23rd Screen Actors Guild Awards. She remained part of the show through season 5. She returned for the final season in 2019.


title: Diane Guerrero

text: In 2014, Guerrero was cast in a recurring role on The CW series "Jane the Virgin". In February 2015, Guerrero was cast as the female lead in CBS' television pilot for "Super Clyde", but the show was not picked up for series. In 2017, Guerrero was cast in a regular role for season 2 of "Superior Donuts". Guerrero has appeared in the films "Emoticon ;)", "Peter and John", and "Happy Yummy Chicken". In 2018, she appeared in the films "Beyond Control" and "The Godmother".


title: Diane Guerrero

text: In 2016, Guerrero released "In the Country We Love: My Family Divided", a memoir about her parents being detained and deported when she was 14. The book was written with Michelle Burford and published by Henry Holt and Co. A drama based on her memoir was picked up by CBS, to be developed into a drama executive produced by Jennie Snyder Urman, Ben Silverman, and Paul Sciarrotta, with Snyder attached as the showrunner. Guerrero was initially set to play the lead. In 2017, CBS decided to pass on the project, but was picked up by Fox. As of January 2018, no pilot for the series has been ordered.


title: Diane Guerrero

text: Following the release of "In the Country We Love: My Family Divided", Guerrero also released "My Family Divided", a memoir similar to her previous work but for younger children. One of the main reasons she wanted to cater this book to a younger audience is because she felt like kids who were in similar situations as her own had no knowledge on how to deal with it. In an interview with "The Washington Post", she says "I never read anything close to my story. I had no reference point. I felt really alone."


title: Diane Guerrero

text: In July 2018, Guerrero joined the cast of the DC Universe series "Doom Patrol" as Jane. The series debuted in 2019. She is the first actor to play Crazy Jane onscreen


title: Diane Guerrero

text: Guerrero provided the voice of Isabela Madrigal in the Disney animated film "Encanto", which premiered November 24, 2021.


title: Diane Guerrero

text: In 2018, Guerrero was awarded the "Lupe Ontiveros Indomitable Spirit Award" by the National Hispanic Media Coalition for her commitment to advocacy and increasing the visibility of the Latino community’s achievements and contributions in the USA.


title: Diane Guerrero

text: After publicly speaking about her immigrant parents in an article for the "Los Angeles Times", Guerrero became an advocate for the immigrant community. She volunteers and is an ambassador for the "Immigration Legal Resource Center", a nonprofit organization, that aims to educate people about issues in the immigrant community. She also became a board member for "Mi Familia Vote", a national nonprofit organization that seeks to engage communities for social justice.


title: Diane Guerrero

text: In September 2015, she was named one of the Presidential Ambassadors for Citizenship and Naturalization by Barack Obama. On May 24, 2018, she was recognized at the 2018 Phillip Burton Immigration & Civil Rights Awards for the work she continues to do.


title: Government of the United Kingdom

text: The Government of the United Kingdom (commonly referred to as British Government or UK Government), officially His Majesty's Government (abbreviated to HM Government), is the central executive authority of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The government is led by the prime minister (currently Rishi Sunak, ) who selects all the other ministers. The country has had a Conservative-led government since 2010, with successive prime ministers being the then leader of the Conservative Party. The prime minister and their most senior ministers belong to the supreme decision-making committee, known as the Cabinet.


title: Government of the United Kingdom

text: Ministers of the Crown are responsible to the House in which they sit; they make statements in that House and take questions from members of that House. For most senior ministers this is usually the elected House of Commons rather than the House of Lords. The government is dependent on Parliament to make primary legislation, and general elections are held every five years (at most) to elect a new House of Commons, unless the prime minister advises the monarch to dissolve Parliament, in which case an election may be held sooner. After an election, the monarch selects as prime minister the leader of the party most likely to command the confidence of the House of Commons, usually by possessing a majority of MPs.


title: Government of the United Kingdom

text: Under the uncodified British constitution, executive authority lies with the sovereign, although this authority is exercised only after receiving the advice of the Privy Council. The prime minister, the House of Lords, the Leader of the Opposition, and the police and military high command serve as members and advisers of the monarch on the Privy Council. In most cases the cabinet exercise power directly as leaders of the government departments, though some Cabinet positions are sinecures to a greater or lesser degree (for instance Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster or Lord Privy Seal).


title: Government of the United Kingdom

text: The government is sometimes referred to by the metonym "Westminster" or "Whitehall", due to that being where many of its offices are situated. These metonyms are used especially by members of the Scottish Government, Welsh Government and Northern Ireland Executive in order to differentiate their government from His Majesty's Government.


title: Government of the United Kingdom

text: The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy in which the reigning monarch (that is, the king or queen who is the head of state at any given time) does not make any open political decisions. All political decisions are taken by the government and Parliament. This constitutional state of affairs is the result of a long history of constraining and reducing the political power of the monarch, beginning with Magna Carta in 1215.


title: Government of the United Kingdom

text: Since the start of Edward VII's reign in 1901, by convention the prime minister has been an elected Member of Parliament (MP) and thus answerable to the House of Commons, although there were two weeks in 1963 when Alec Douglas-Home was first a member of the House of Lords and then of neither house. A similar convention applies to the position of chancellor of the exchequer, as it would probably now be politically unacceptable for the budget speech to be given in the House of Lords, with members of Parliament unable to question the Chancellor directly. The last chancellor of the exchequer to be a member of the House of Lords was Lord Denman, who served for one month in 1834.


title: Government of the United Kingdom

text: The British monarch is the head of state and the sovereign, but not the head of government. The monarch takes little direct part in governing the country and remains neutral in political affairs. However, the authority of the state that is vested in the sovereign, known as the Crown, remains as the source of executive power exercised by the government.


title: Government of the United Kingdom

text: In addition to explicit statutory authority, the Crown also possesses a body of powers in certain matters collectively known as the royal prerogative. These powers range from the authority to issue or withdraw passports to declarations of war. By long-standing convention, most of these powers are delegated from the sovereign to various ministers or other officers of the Crown, who may use them without having to obtain the consent of Parliament.


title: Government of the United Kingdom

text: The prime minister also has weekly meetings with the monarch, who "has a right and a duty to express [their] views on Government matters... These meetings, as with all communications between the King and his Government, remain strictly confidential. Having expressed his views, the King abides by the advice of his ministers."


title: Government of the United Kingdom

text: Even though the United Kingdom has no single constitutional document, the government published the above list in October 2003 to increase transparency, as some of the powers exercised in the name of the monarch are part of the royal prerogative. However, the complete extent of the royal prerogative powers has never been fully set out, as many of them originated in ancient custom and the period of absolute monarchy, or were modified by later constitutional practice.


title: Government of the United Kingdom

text: As of 2019, there are around 120 government ministers supported by 560,000 civil servants and other staff working in the 25 ministerial departments and their executive agencies. There are also an additional 20 non-ministerial departments with a range of further responsibilities.


title: Government of the United Kingdom

text: In theory a government minister does not have to be a member of either House of Parliament. In practice, however, convention is that ministers must be members of either the House of Commons or House of Lords in order to be accountable to Parliament. From time to time, prime ministers appoint non-parliamentarians as ministers. In recent years such ministers have been appointed to the House of Lords.


title: Government of the United Kingdom

text: Under the British system, the government is required by convention and for practical reasons to maintain the confidence of the House of Commons. It requires the support of the House of Commons for the maintenance of supply (by voting through the government's budgets) and to pass primary legislation. By convention, if a government loses the confidence of the House of Commons it must either resign or a general election is held. The support of the Lords, while useful to the government in getting its legislation passed without delay, is not vital. A government is not required to resign even if it loses the confidence of the Lords and is defeated in key votes in that House. The House of Commons is thus the responsible house.


title: Government of the United Kingdom

text: The prime minister is held to account during Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs) which provides an opportunity for MPs from all parties to question the PM on any subject. There are also departmental questions when ministers answer questions relating to their specific departmental brief. Unlike PMQs both the cabinet ministers for the department and junior ministers within the department may answer on behalf of the government, depending on the topic of the question.


title: Government of the United Kingdom

text: During debates on legislation proposed by the government, ministers—usually with departmental responsibility for the bill—will lead the debate for the government and respond to points made by MPs or Lords.


title: Government of the United Kingdom

text: Committees of both the House of Commons and House of Lords hold the government to account, scrutinise its work and examine in detail proposals for legislation. Ministers appear before committees to give evidence and answer questions.


title: Government of the United Kingdom

text: Government ministers are also required by convention and the Ministerial Code, when Parliament is sitting, to make major statements regarding government policy or issues of national importance to Parliament. This allows MPs or Lords to question the government on the statement. When the government instead chooses to make announcements first outside Parliament, it is often the subject of significant criticism from MPs and the speaker of the House of Commons.


title: Government of the United Kingdom

text: The prime minister is based at 10 Downing Street in Westminster, London. Cabinet meetings also take place here. Most government departments have their headquarters nearby in Whitehall.


title: Government of the United Kingdom

text: The government's powers include general executive and statutory powers, delegated legislation, and numerous powers of appointment and patronage. However, some powerful officials and bodies, (e.g. HM judges, local authorities, and the charity commissions) are legally more or less independent of the government, and government powers are legally limited to those retained by the Crown under common law or granted and limited by act of Parliament. Both substantive and procedural limitations are enforceable in the courts by judicial review.


title: Government of the United Kingdom

text: Nevertheless, magistrates and mayors can still be arrested for and put on trial for corruption, and the government has powers to insert commissioners into a local authority to oversee its work, and to issue directives that must be obeyed by the local authority, if the local authority is not abiding by its statutory obligations.


title: Government of the United Kingdom

text: By contrast, as in European Union (EU) member states, EU officials cannot be prosecuted for any actions carried out in pursuit of their official duties, and foreign country diplomats (though not their employees) and foreign members of the European Parliament are immune from prosecution in EU states under any circumstance. As a consequence, neither EU bodies nor diplomats have to pay taxes, since it would not be possible to prosecute them for tax evasion. When the UK was a member of the EU, this caused a dispute when the US ambassador to the UK claimed that London's congestion charge was a tax, and not a charge (despite the name), and therefore he did not have to pay it—a claim the Greater London Authority disputed.


title: Government of the United Kingdom

text: Similarly, the monarch is totally immune from criminal prosecution and may only be sued with his permission (this is known as sovereign immunity). The sovereign, by law, is not required to pay income tax, but Queen Elizabeth II voluntarily paid it from 1993 until the end of her reign in 2022, and also paid local rates voluntarily. However, the monarchy also receives a substantial grant from the government, the Sovereign Support Grant, and Queen Elizabeth II's inheritance from her mother, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, was exempt from inheritance tax.


title: Government of the United Kingdom

text: In addition to legislative powers, His Majesty's Government has substantial influence over local authorities and other bodies set up by it, by financial powers and grants. Many functions carried out by local authorities, such as paying out housing benefit and council tax benefit, are funded or substantially part-funded by central government.


title: Government of the United Kingdom

text: Neither the central government nor local authorities are permitted to sue anyone for defamation. Individual politicians are allowed to sue people for defamation in a personal capacity and without using government funds, but this is relatively rare (although George Galloway, who was a backbench MP for a quarter of a century, has sued or threatened to sue for defamation a number of times). However, it is a criminal offence to make a false statement about any election candidate during an election, with the purpose of reducing the number of votes they receive (as with libel, opinions do not count).


title: Government of the United Kingdom

text: While the government is the current group of ministers (the British Government frontbench), the government is also sometimes seen more broadly as including people or organisations that work for the ministers. The civil service, while 'independent of government', is sometimes described as being part of the government, due to the closeness of its working with ministers, in advising them, supporting them, and implementing their executive decisions. Some individuals who work for ministers even have the word 'Government' in their title, such as the Government Actuary and the Government Chief Scientific Adviser, as do civil service organisations such as the Government Statistical Service, the Government Legal Profession, and the Government Office for Science. Companies owned by the government can also be seen as parts of the government, such as UK Government Investments and HS2 Ltd.


title: Government of the United Kingdom

text: Similarly, Parliamentary Private Secretaries are not ministers and so not part of the government. However, they are bound by parts of the ministerial code, are part of the payroll vote, and can be seen as being on the 'first rung of the ministerial ladder'. They are sometimes described as being part of the government.


title: Government of the United Kingdom

text: Since 1999, certain areas of central government have been devolved to accountable governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. These are not part of His Majesty's Government, and are directly accountable to their own institutions, with their own authority under the Crown; in contrast, there is no devolved government in England.


title: Government of the United Kingdom

text: Up to three layers of elected local authorities (such as county, district and parish Councils) exist throughout all parts of the United Kingdom, in some places merged into unitary authorities. They have limited local tax-raising powers. Many other authorities and agencies also have statutory powers, generally subject to some central government supervision.


title: Microdata (HTML)

text: Microdata is a WHATWG HTML specification used to nest metadata within existing content on web pages. Search engines, web crawlers, and browsers can extract and process Microdata from a web page and use it to provide a richer browsing experience for users. Search engines benefit greatly from direct access to this structured data because it allows them to understand the information on web pages and provide more relevant results to users. Microdata uses a supporting vocabulary to describe an item and name-value pairs to assign values to its properties. Microdata is an attempt to provide a simpler way of annotating HTML elements with machine-readable tags than the similar approaches of using RDFa and microformats.


title: Microdata (HTML)

text: In 2013, because the W3C HTML Working Group failed to find someone to serve as an editor for the Microdata HTML specification, its development was terminated with a 'Note'. However, since that time, two new editors were selected, and five newer versions of the working draft have been published, the most recent being Working Draft 26 April 2018.


title: Microdata (HTML)

text: Microdata vocabularies do not provide the semantics, or meaning of an Item. Web developers can design a custom vocabulary or use vocabularies available on the web. A collection of commonly used markup vocabularies are provided by Schema.org schemas which include: "Person", ""Place"", "Event", "Organization", "Product", "Review", "Review-aggregate", "Breadcrumb", "Offer", "Offer-aggregate". The website schema.org was established by search engine operators like Google, Microsoft, Yahoo!, and Yandex, which use microdata markup to improve search results.


title: Microdata (HTML)

text: For some purposes, an ad-hoc vocabulary is adequate. For others, a vocabulary will need to be designed. Where possible, authors are encouraged to re-use existing vocabularies, as this makes content re-use easier.


title: Microdata (HTML)

text: In some cases, search engines covering specific regions may provide locally-specific extensions of microdata. For example, Yandex, a major search engine in Russia, supports microformats such as hCard (company contact information), hRecipe (food recipe), hReview (market reviews) and hProduct (product data) and provides its own format for definition of the terms and encyclopedic articles. This extension was made in order to solve transliteration problems between the Cyrillic and Latin alphabets. After the implementation of additional parameters from Schema's vocabulary, indexation of information in Russian-language web-pages became more successful.


title: Microdata (HTML)

text: The following HTML5 markup may be found on a typical “About” page containing information about a person:


title: Microdata (HTML)

text: As the above example shows, Microdata items can be nested. In this case, an item of type http://schema.org/PostalAddress is nested inside an item of type http://schema.org/Person.


title: Microdata (HTML)

text: The following text shows how Google parses the Microdata from the above example code. Developers can test pages containing Microdata using Google's "Rich Snippet Testing Tool".


title: Microdata (HTML)

text: The same machine-readable terms can be used not only in HTML Microdata, but also in other annotations such as RDFa or JSON-LD in the markup, or in an external RDF file in a serialization such as RDF/XML, Notation3, or Turtle.


title: Skylar Astin

text: Skylar Astin Lipstein (born September 23, 1987) is an American actor and singer. He became known for portraying Jesse Swanson in the musical films "Pitch Perfect" (2012) and "Pitch Perfect 2" (2015). He originated the role of Georg in the Broadway musical "Spring Awakening", and has since appeared in films such as "Hamlet 2" (2008), "Taking Woodstock" (2009), "Cavemen" (2013), and "21 & Over" (2013). He played the role of Greg Serrano on the last season of "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend", a role originally played by Santino Fontana, and Max in the musical dramedy "Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist" (2020). He plays the titular role in the 2022 CBS drama "So Help Me Todd".


title: Skylar Astin

text: Astin was born in New York City, the son of Meryl and Barry Lipstein, a garment industry executive. He grew up in New City, New York, in Rockland County. He has a sister, Brielle, and two brothers, Milan and Jace. Astin is Jewish. Having graduated from Clarkstown High School North, he attended Stagedoor Manor performing arts summer camp. He was also a student at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, but he took a leave of absence when cast in "Spring Awakening". Lipstein says that when he was 15, his agent suggested he use his middle name, Astin, instead of his surname as his stage last name to be "less specific to one thing" and that he is not embarrassed or ashamed of his decision.


title: Skylar Astin

text: Astin's first professional role was a minor role in the original Off-Broadway and Broadway cast of "Spring Awakening" as Georg, a male student with a crush on his piano teacher. He had short solos in multiple songs, but the character is noted for his belting in the song "Touch Me""." During his run as Georg, Astin filmed the role Rand Posin in the movie "Hamlet 2". He sang "Raped in the Face" on the soundtrack with Phoebe Strole, a "Spring Awakening" castmate, and his co-star in the film, and the film's star, Steve Coogan. Screenings of the film at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival led to Astin signing on with United Talent Agency.


title: Skylar Astin

text: Astin joined the cast of the 2009 Adam Carolla sitcom "Ace in the Hole" on CBS. However, the show was not picked up by the network.


title: Skylar Astin

text: In 2010, Astin took on the role of Mark Cohen in a production of "Rent", directed by Neil Patrick Harris, at the Hollywood Bowl. The cast included Aaron Tveit and Vanessa Hudgens. Also in 2010, he joined the cast of the Jere Burns sitcom "Strange Brew" on Fox, which like "Ace in the Hole" was not picked up.


title: Skylar Astin

text: Astin guest-starred as Ben in the July 2011 episode of "Love Bites" titled "Boys to Men" and, as Matt Kornstein, in the May 2012 episode of "Girls" entitled "Hannah's Diary". He also played a patient on "House" in season 8, episode 21 in May 2012.


title: Skylar Astin

text: In 2012, Astin found his breakthrough starring in the comedy film "Pitch Perfect" (2012), as Jesse Swanson, and reprised the role in the 2015 sequel "Pitch Perfect 2". Astin also starred in the comedy film "21 and Over" (2013) as Casey.


title: Skylar Astin

text: Astin also starred in the TBS sitcom "Ground Floor" as Brody Moyer, a young ambitious money manager who falls for a girl on the ground floor. He also led an NBA comedy pilot on ABC. He starred in the musical dramedy "Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist" as Zoey's best friend Max. In March 2022, it was announced that he would have a recurring role in the eighteenth season of the ABC medical drama "Grey's Anatomy" as Todd Eames.


title: Skylar Astin

text: In 2006, Astin began dating Lauren Pritchard. He then began dating "Pitch Perfect" co-star Anna Camp in 2013. The couple were reported to be engaged in January 2016. They married on September 10, 2016. On April 19, 2019, the couple announced that they were filing for divorce. In late August 2019, the divorce was finalized.


title: Bhool Bhulaiyaa

text: Bhool Bhulaiyaa () is a 2007 Indian Hindi-language psychological horror film directed by Priyadarshan and produced by Bhushan Kumar and Krishan Kumar under the T-Series Films banner. A remake of the 1993 Malayalam film "Manichitrathazhu", adapted by Neeraj Vora and Manisha Korde, it stars Akshay Kumar, Vidya Balan, Shiney Ahuja, Ameesha Patel, Paresh Rawal, Rajpal Yadav, Manoj Joshi, Asrani and Vikram Gokhale. The film score and soundtrack were composed by Ranjit Barot and Pritam respectively, with lyrics written by Sameer and Sayeed Quadri.


title: Bhool Bhulaiyaa

text: Made on a budget of 25–32 crores, "Bhool Bhulaiyaa" earned 82.8 crores worldwide, thus becoming the 6th eighth-highest grossing Hindi film of 2007. It received positive reviews from critics upon release, with praise for its direction, screenplay, humor and soundtrack, with particular praise directed towards Kumar and Balan's performance. At the 53rd Filmfare Awards, "Bhool Bhulaiyaa" received 1 nomination – Best Actress (Balan).


title: Bhool Bhulaiyaa

text: Over the years, the film has attained a cult status accross the audience owing to Kumar's portrayal of a psychiatrist, Balan's dual portrayal of Avni and Manjulika and the title track composed by Pritam.


title: Bhool Bhulaiyaa

text: A standalone sequel named "Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2" starring Tabu, Kartik Aaryan, Kiara Advani and Rajpal Yadav was released in 2022, with Yadav reprising his role.


title: Bhool Bhulaiyaa

text: Badrinarayan "Badri" Chaturvedi heads a former royal family of Varanasi whose ancestral palace is believed to be haunted by the ghost of Manjulika, a classical dancer from Bengal. Siddharth, son of Badri's elder brother, and his archeologist wife Avni, return to the palace from the United States. Siddharth's childhood love interest and Badri's adopted daughter Radha is heartbroken by this marriage.


title: Bhool Bhulaiyaa

text: Avni develops an interest in the legend of Manjulika. The Chaturvedis' ancestor, Raja Vibhuti Narayan, was infatuated with Manjulika, a dancer in his court. Manjulika loved Shashidhar, another dancer of the court. On the night of Durgashtami, the king, who had learned of their affair, publicly beheads Shashidhar and imprisons Manjulika. Manjulika hangs herself and swears vengeance. Raja Vibhuti Narayan mysteriously dies and rumours of the palace being haunted spread. Priests lock up Manjulika's and Shashidhar's spirits on the third floor room of the palace. Avni opens that room and unnatural events once again start taking place. People suspect Manjulika's spirit has been released.


title: Bhool Bhulaiyaa

text: Siddharth, who does not believe in superstitions, suspects Radha has become mentally unstable after her heartbreak and is behind the strange occurrences. He brings his psychiatrist friend, doctor Aditya Shrivastava, to treat Radha. Aditya's unconventional nature leads the household to think of him as a fool. One night, he hears a ghungroo and a voice singing a Bengali song from the third floor room and later speaks with Manjulika from behind the door. The voice vows revenge on the next Durgashtami.


title: Bhool Bhulaiyaa

text: During the engagement of Siddharth's cousin to poet Sharad Pradhan, it is revealed that Avni has dissociative identity disorder and associates herself with Manjulika. Aditya had begun suspecting her after she showed a little too much enthusiasm in Manjulika's room, and visited Avni's hometown to gather information about her. She associates Siddharth with King Vibhuti Narayan and Sharad with Shashidhar, for he resides in the same house Shashidhar used to live in. Siddharth believes Aditya after personally witnessing Avni transition to Manjulika. Aditya explains that DID is a lifelong condition, but Avni might be cured if they satisfy Manjulika's purpose for existing: killing Raja Vibhuti Narayan.


title: Bhool Bhulaiyaa

text: On Durgashtami, everyone sees Avni assume Manjulika's identity, dressed as her and dancing to Manjulika and Shashidhar's song. Avni tries to kill Siddharth, seeing him as Vibhuti Narayan. Aditya makes Manjulika promise to leave if she gets the opportunity to kill the king. He lays out an intricate plan to trick Manjulika into thinking she is killing the Raja (Siddharth) when she is actually slaying a dummy. After the orchestrated murder, Avni gets cured, thinking Manjulika has taken her revenge, and the ghost is proven to be fake.


title: Bhool Bhulaiyaa

text: The family members, now pleased with Aditya, thank him for his help. Aditya tells Radha that he will send his parents over with a proposal if she is interested in marrying him, and she smiles.


title: Bhool Bhulaiyaa

text: Originally, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Katrina Kaif were the first female choices for "Bhool Bhulaiyaa". They turned down the offer due to working load, and were replaced by Vidya Balan and Ameesha Patel, respectively.


title: Bhool Bhulaiyaa

text: The songs featured in the film composed by Pritam, were released in July 2007. The title song, commonly known as "Hare Ram Hare Krishna Hare Ram", sung by Neeraj Shridhar, was one of the biggest hits of the year starring Akshay Kumar. According to the Indian trade website Box Office India, with around 12,00,000 units sold, this film's soundtrack album was the year's eighth highest-selling.


title: Bhool Bhulaiyaa

text: The title song "Bhool Bhulaiyaa" is lifted from Korean band JtL's song "My Lecon". Songs "Allah Hafiz", "Labon Ko" and "Ami Je Tomar/Mere Dholna" also became chartbusters of the year.


title: Bhool Bhulaiyaa

text: The film was worldwide released on 11 October 2007. The DVD of the movie was released by Eros Home Media. The distribution rights of the movie were acquired to Disney India .The television premiere of the movie was occurred on Star Plus on 15 February 2008. The film was first made streaming available on Netflix on 15the September 2019. Later the film was removed from Netflix on 22 July 2020. On 3 March 2022 the film was made streaming available on Disney+ Hotstar.


title: Bhool Bhulaiyaa

text: "Bhool Bhulaiyaa" was a super-hit at the box office, netting in India. It was the 8th highest-grossing Bollywood film of 2007.


title: Bhool Bhulaiyaa

text: The total overseas gross was $3,910,000. The lifetime overseas breakup was $1,380,000 in UK, $1,130,000 in North America, $820,000 in UAE, $151,000 in Australia and $429,000 in other markets.


title: Bhool Bhulaiyaa

text: A standalone sequel starring, Tabu, Kartik Aaryan and Kiara Advani titled "Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2" was released on 20 May 2022.


title: Bhool Bhulaiyaa

text: On 27 May, the producers Bhushan Kumar & Murad Khetani announced that "Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3" would star Kartik Aaryan, Akshay Kumar and Shraddha Kapoor in lead roles.


title: Die Another Day

text: Die Another Day is a 2002 spy film and the twentieth film in the "James Bond" series produced by Eon Productions. It was produced by Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, and directed by Lee Tamahori. The fourth and final film starring Pierce Brosnan as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond, it was also the only film to feature John Cleese as Q, and the last with Samantha Bond as Miss Moneypenny. It is also the first film since "Live and Let Die" (1973) not to feature Desmond Llewelyn as Q as he died three years earlier. Halle Berry co-stars as NSA agent Giacinta "Jinx" Johnson, the Bond girl. It follows Bond as he attempts to locate a mole in British intelligence who betrayed him and a British billionaire who is later revealed to be connected to a North Korean operative whom Bond seemingly killed. It is an original story, although it takes influence from Bond creator Ian Fleming's novels "Moonraker" (1955) and "The Man with the Golden Gun" (1965), as well as Kingsley Amis's novel, "Colonel Sun".


title: Die Another Day

text: "Die Another Day" marked the "James Bond" franchise's 40th anniversary. The film includes references to each of the preceding films. The film received mixed reviews; some critics praised Tamahori's direction, but others criticized its reliance on CGI, product placement and its unoriginal plot, as well as the villain. Nevertheless, "Die Another Day" was the highest-grossing "James Bond" film up to that time.


title: Die Another Day

text: MI6 agent James Bond infiltrates a North Korean military base where Colonel Tan-Sun Moon is trading weapons for African conflict diamonds. After Moon's right-hand man Zao receives notification of Bond's real identity, Moon attempts to kill Bond and a hovercraft chase ensues, ending with Moon's craft tumbling over a waterfall. Bond is captured by North Korean soldiers and imprisoned by the Colonel's father, General Moon. After fourteen months of captivity and torture at the hands of the Korean People's Army, Bond is traded for Zao in a prisoner exchange across the Bridge of No Return. He is sedated and taken to meet M, who informs him that his status as a 00 Agent has been suspended under suspicion of having leaked information under duress to the North Koreans. Bond is convinced that he has been set up by a double agent in the British government. After escaping MI6 custody, he finds himself in Hong Kong, where he learns from Chang, a Chinese agent and old colleague, that Zao is in Cuba.


title: Die Another Day

text: In Havana, Bond meets with NSA agent Giacinta "Jinx" Johnson, and follows her to a gene therapy clinic, where patients can have their appearances altered through DNA restructuring. Jinx kills Dr. Alvarez, the leader of the therapy, while Bond locates Zao inside the clinic and fights him. Zao escapes, leaving behind a pendant which leads Bond to a cache of conflict diamonds bearing the crest of the company owned by British billionaire Gustav Graves. Bond learns that Graves only appeared a year prior, apparently discovering a vein of diamonds in Iceland leading to his current wealth and celebrity. At Blades Club in London, Bond meets Graves along with his assistant Miranda Frost, who is also an undercover MI6 agent. After a fencing match that escalates into a claymore duel, Graves invites Bond to Iceland for a scientific demonstration. M restores Bond's Double-0 status, and Q issues him an Aston Martin V12 Vanquish with active camouflage.


title: Die Another Day

text: At his ice palace in Iceland, Graves unveils a new orbital mirror satellite, "Icarus", which is able to focus solar energy on a small area and provide year-round sunshine for agriculture. Bond seduces Frost and Jinx infiltrates Graves' command centre, but is captured by Graves and Zao. Bond rescues her and discovers that Graves is Colonel Moon, who has used the gene therapy technology to change his appearance and amassed his fortune from conflict diamonds as a cover. Bond confronts Graves, but Frost arrives to reveal herself as the traitor who betrayed him in North Korea, forcing Bond to escape from Graves' facility. He returns in his Vanquish to rescue Jinx, who has been recaptured in the palace. As Graves uses Icarus to melt the ice palace, Zao pursues Bond into the palace using his Jaguar XKR. Bond kills Zao by causing a giant ice chandelier to fall onto him, and revives Jinx after she has almost drowned.


title: Die Another Day

text: Bond and Jinx pursue Graves and Frost to the Korean peninsula and stow away on Graves' An-124 cargo plane. Graves reveals his identity to his father, and the true purpose of the Icarus satellite: to cut a path through the Korean Demilitarized Zone with concentrated sunlight, allowing North Korean troops to invade South Korea and unite the peninsula. Horrified, General Moon rejects the plan, but Graves murders him. Bond attempts to shoot Graves, but is prevented by a soldier. In their struggle, a gunshot pierces the fuselage, causing the plane to decompress and descend rapidly. Bond and Graves engage in a fistfight, and Jinx attempts to regain control of the plane. Frost attacks Jinx, forcing her to defend herself in a sword duel. After the plane passes through the Icarus beam and is further damaged, Jinx kills Frost. Graves attempts to escape by parachute, but Bond opens the parachute, pulling Graves out of the plane and into one of its engines, disabling the Icarus beam. Bond and Jinx escape from the disintegrating plane in a helicopter from the cargo hold, with Graves' stash of diamonds. Later, they spend a romantic evening at a Buddhist temple.


title: Die Another Day

text: After the success of "The World Is Not Enough", producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson asked the director Michael Apted to return to direct. Although Apted accepted, they rescinded the offer in order to ask Tony Scott and John Woo, who both declined. Scott claims to have suggested Quentin Tarantino as director, although Wilson denies that any formal negotiations were held with him. Pierce Brosnan suggested John McTiernan, Ang Lee, and Martin Scorsese as potential choices, and informally discussed the idea of directing a Bond film with Scorsese on a flight. Brett Ratner, Stephen Hopkins, and Stuart Baird were later in negotiations to direct before Lee Tamahori was hired.


title: Die Another Day

text: Principal photography of "Die Another Day" began on 11 January 2002 at Pinewood Studios. The film was shot primarily in the United Kingdom, Iceland, and Cádiz, Spain. Other locations included Pinewood Studios' 007 Stage and Maui, Hawaii, in December 2001.


title: Die Another Day

text: Laird Hamilton, Dave Kalama, and Darrick Doerner performed the pre-title surfing scene at the surf break known as "Jaws" in Peahi, Maui, while the shore shots were taken near Cádiz and Newquay, Cornwall. Scenes inside Graves' diamond mine were also filmed in Cornwall, at the Eden Project. The scenes involving the Cuban locations of Havana and the fictional Isla de Los Organos were filmed at La Caleta, Spain.


title: Die Another Day

text: The scenes featuring Berry in a bikini (designed to resemble Ursula Andress' swimming costume in "Dr. No") were shot in Cádiz. The location was reportedly cold and windy, and footage has been released of Berry wrapped in thick towels between takes to avoid catching a chill. Berry was injured during filming when debris from a smoke grenade flew into her eye. The debris was removed in a 30-minute operation. Brosnan also sustained a knee injury during the shooting of an action scene in Cornwall.


title: Die Another Day

text: Gadgets and other props from every previous "Bond" film and stored in Eon Productions' archives appear in Q's warehouse in the London Underground. Examples include the jetpack in "Thunderball" and Rosa Klebb's poison-tipped shoe in "From Russia with Love". Q mentions that the watch he issues Bond is "your 20th, I believe", a reference to "Die Another Day" being the 20th Eon-produced Bond film. In London, the Reform Club was used to shoot several places in the film, including the lobby and gallery at the Blades Club, MI6 Headquarters, Buckingham Palace, Green Park, and Westminster. Jökulsárlón, Iceland was used for the car chase on the ice. Four Aston Martins and four Jaguars, all converted to four-wheel drive, were used (and wrecked) filming the sequence. A temporary dam was constructed at the mouth of the narrow inlet to keep the salty ocean water out and thus allow the lagoon to freeze. Additional chase footage was filmed at Svalbard, Norway, Jostedalsbreen National Park, Norway, and RAF Little Rissington, Gloucestershire. Manston Airport in Kent was used for the scenes involving the Antonov cargo plane scenes. The scene in which Bond surfs the wave created by Icarus when Graves was attempting to kill Bond was shot on the blue screen. The waves, along with all the glaciers in the scene are computer-generated.


title: Die Another Day

text: The hangar interior of the "US Air Base in South Korea", shown crowded with Chinook helicopters, was filmed at RAF Odiham in Hampshire, UK, as were the helicopter interior shots during the Switchblade sequence. These latter scenes, though portrayed in the air, were actually filmed entirely on the ground with the sky background being added in post-production using blue screen techniques. Although the base is portrayed in the film as a US base, all the aircraft and personnel in the scene are British in real life. In the film, Switchblades (one-person gliders resembling fighter jets in shape) are flown by Bond and Jinx to stealthily enter North Korea. The Switchblade was based on a workable model called "PHASST" (Programmable High Altitude Single Soldier Transport). Kinetic Aerospace Inc.'s lead designer, Jack McCornack was impressed by director Lee Tamahori's way of conducting the Switchblade scene and commented, "It's brief, but realistic. The good guys get in unobserved, thanks to a fast cruise, good glide performance, and minimal radar signature. It's a wonderful promotion for the PHASST."


title: Die Another Day

text: The satellite attack at the end of the film was at first written to take place in Manhattan, but after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks it was moved to the Korean Demilitarized Zone.


title: Die Another Day

text: The soundtrack was composed by David Arnold and released on Warner Bros. Records. He again made use of electronic rhythm elements in his score, and included two of the new themes created for "The World Is Not Enough". The first, originally used as Renard's theme, is heard during the mammoth "Antonov" cue on the recording, and is written for piano. The second new theme, used in the "Christmas in Turkey" track of "The World Is Not Enough", is reused in the "Going Down Together" track.


title: Die Another Day

text: The title song for "Die Another Day" was co-written and co-produced by Mirwais Ahmadzai and performed by Madonna, who also had a cameo in the film as Verity, a fencing instructor. The concept of the title sequence is to represent Bond trying to survive 14 months of torture at the hands of the North Koreans. Critics' opinions of the song were sharply divided—it was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Original Song and the 2004 Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording, but also for a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Original Song of 2002 (while Madonna herself won the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actress for her cameo). In a MORI poll for the Channel 4 programme ""James Bond's Greatest Hits"", the song was voted 9th out of 22, and also came in as an "overwhelming number one" favourite among those under the age of 24.


title: Die Another Day

text: Reportedly, twenty companies, paying $70 million, had their products featured in the film, a record at the time, although "USA Today" reported that number to be as high as $100 million.


title: Die Another Day

text: The eleventh-generation Ford Thunderbird was featured in the film as Jinx's car, with a coral colour paying homage to a paint option for the original model, and matching her bikini. Ford produced a limited-edition "007"-branded 2003 Thunderbird as a tie-in for the film, featuring a similar paint job.


title: Die Another Day

text: Revlon produced ""007" Colour Collection" makeup inspired by Jinx. "Bond Barbie" dolls inspired by the franchise were also produced, featuring a red shawl and an evening dress designed by Lindy Hemming, and sold in a gift set with Ken posing as Bond in formal wear designed by the Italian fashion house Brioni.


title: Die Another Day

text: "Die Another Day" had its world premiere on 18 November 2002 at the 56th Royal Film Performance, a fundraising event held in aid of The Film and TV Charity. The event took place at the Royal Albert Hall in London and Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip were guests of honour. The Royal Albert Hall had a makeover for the screening and had been transformed into an ice palace. Proceeds from the premiere, about £500,000, were donated to The Film and Television Charity, of which the Queen was patron.


title: Die Another Day

text: "Die Another Day" was controversial in the Korean Peninsula. The North Korean government disliked the portrayal of their state as brutal and war-hungry. The South Koreans boycotted 145 theatres where it was released on 31 December 2002, as they were offended by the scene in which an American officer issues orders to the South Korean army in the defence of their homeland, and by a lovemaking scene near a statue of the Buddha. The Jogye Buddhist Order issued a statement that the film was "disrespectful to our religion and does not reflect our values and ethics". "The Washington Post" reported growing resentment in the nation towards the United States. An official of the South Korean Ministry of Culture and Tourism said that "Die Another Day" was "the wrong film at the wrong time."


title: Die Another Day

text: On the first day of release, ticket sales reached £1.2 million at the UK box office. "Die Another Day" grossed $47 million on its opening weekend in the US and Canada and was ranked number one at the box office. The film would compete against "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" and "The Santa Clause 2" during the Thanksgiving weekend. Moreover, all three films were able to defeat the underperforming animated film "Treasure Planet". Later on, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" and "Die Another Day" would simultaneously reclaim the number one spot at the box office. For six months, they were both the latest films to return to the top spot at the box office until "Finding Nemo" joined the group in June 2003. The film earned $160.9 million in the US and Canada, and $431.9 million worldwide, becoming the sixth highest-grossing film of 2002. Not adjusting for inflation, "Die Another Day" was the highest-grossing James Bond film until the release of "Casino Royale" in 2006.


title: Die Another Day

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the film received an approval rating of 56% based on 220 reviews, with an average rating of 6.1/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Its action may be a bit too over-the-top for some, but "Die Another Day" is lavishly crafted and succeeds in evoking classic Bond themes from the franchise's earlier installments." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 56 out of 100 based on 43 critics, indicating "mixed and average reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "A−" on scale of A to F.


title: Die Another Day

text: Michael Dequina of "Film Threat" praised the film as the best of the series to star Pierce Brosnan and "the most satisfying installment of the franchise in recent memory." Larry Carroll of CountingDown.com praised Lee Tamahori for having "magnificently balanced the film so that it keeps true to the Bond legend, makes reference to the classic films that preceded it, but also injects a new zest to it all." "Entertainment Weekly" magazine also gave a positive reaction, saying that Tamahori, "a true filmmaker", has re-established the series' pop sensuality. A.O. Scott of "The New York Times" called the film the best of the "James Bond" series since "The Spy Who Loved Me." Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times", who gave the film three stars out of four, stated "This movie has the usual impossible stunts ... But it has just as many scenes that are lean and tough enough to fit in any modern action movie". Kyle Bell of Movie Freaks 365 stated in his review that the "first half of "Die Another Day" is classic Bond", but that "Things start to go downhill when the ice palace gets introduced."


title: Die Another Day

text: Several reviewers felt the film relied too heavily on gadgets and special effects, with the plot being neglected. James Berardinelli of Reelviews.net said, "This is a train wreck of an action film – a stupefying attempt by the filmmakers to force-feed James Bond into the mindless "XXX" mold and throw 40 years of cinematic history down the toilet in favor of bright flashes and loud bangs." Of the action sequences, he said, ""Die Another Day" is an exercise in loud explosions and excruciatingly bad special effects. The CGI work in this movie is an order of magnitude worse than anything I have seen in a major motion picture. Coupled with lousy production design, "Die Another Day" looks like it was done on the cheap." Gary Brown of the "Houston Community Newspapers" also described the weak point of the film as "the seemingly non-stop action sequences and loud explosions that appear to take centre stage while the Bond character is almost relegated to second string." Roger Moore, who played Bond in earlier films, said: "I thought it just went too far – and that's from me, the first Bond in space! Invisible cars and dodgy CGI footage? Please!"


title: Die Another Day

text: The amount of product placement in "Die Another Day" had been a contemporaneous point of criticism, with the BBC, "Time" and Reuters referring mockingly to the film using the title “Buy Another Day”. The producers subsequently chose to limit the number of companies involved in product placement to eight for the next Bond film, "Casino Royale," in 2006.


title: Die Another Day

text: Despite favour from fans who prefer Bond's more "camp" films, a comment piece in 2020 stated that it is "considered by many to be the worst entry in James Bond's canon" and compares unfavorably to "The Bourne Identity" (released months earlier), which "ushered in a new era of violent, gritty action-espionage movies" and gave rise to the "stripped-down, no-nonsense" Bond of Daniel Craig.


title: Die Another Day

text: It often occupies a low rank on Bond-related lists. In a 2021 Yahoo! survey consisting of 2200 experts and superfans, "Die Another Day" was ranked as the third-worst instalment after "Quantum of Solace" and "Spectre". The authors of the study did, however, specify that "every Bond film...is always someone's favourite".


title: Die Another Day

text: "Die Another Day" was novelised by the then-official James Bond writer, Raymond Benson, based on the screenplay by Neal Purvis and Robert Wade. An effort is made to depict some of the film's more outlandish elements with more believability, in the style of Fleming's original novels' use of cutting-edge technology. So for example, the non-bodywork elements of the Aston Martin with its 'cloaking' function—the glass windows and rubber tyres—are described as having retractable covers to achieve the invisibility effect. Fan reaction to it was above average. After its publication, Benson retired as the official James Bond novelist; a new series featuring the secret agent's adventures as a teenager, by Charlie Higson, was launched in 2005. As the novelisation was published after Benson's final original 007 novel, "The Man with the Red Tattoo", it was the final literary work featuring Bond as originally conceived by Ian Fleming until the publication of "Devil May Care" by Sebastian Faulks in 2008 to mark the 100th anniversary of Fleming's birth.


title: Die Another Day

text: Speculation arose in 2003 of a spin-off film concentrating on Jinx, which was scheduled for a November/December 2004 release. It was originally reported that MGM was keen to set up a film series that would be a "Winter Olympics" alternative to the main series. In the late 1990s, MGM had originally considered developing a spin-off film based on Michelle Yeoh's character, Wai Lin, in 1997's "Tomorrow Never Dies". The spin-off "Jinx" was announced in December 2002. Lee Tamahori initially wanted to direct, but Stephen Frears was ultimately hired. Berry and Michael Madsen were originally going to reprise their roles as Jinx and Falco, while Jinx's lover was going to be played by Javier Bardem. Bardem would later play villain Raoul Silva in "Skyfall" (2012). The film would have revolved around Jinx's entry into the NSA, revealing that she had been adopted by Falco after being orphaned in a bombing and being hired by him from the RAND Corporation to do a job at the NSA as a favour. Wade described the film as "a very atmospheric, Euro thriller, a Bourne-type movie." However, despite much speculation of an imminent movie, on 26 October 2003, "Variety" reported that MGM had cancelled the project. MGM instead decided to reboot the James Bond franchise with the next film, "Casino Royale", with Daniel Craig portraying the role of the titular character. In 2020 Berry revealed that the film was cancelled over its $80 million budget, saying "Nobody was ready to sink that kind of money into a black female action star." Purvis and Wade said that this decision was influenced by the failure of several action films with female stars, including "" and "", in 2003.


title: Vincent Kartheiser

text: Vincent Paul Kartheiser (born May 5, 1979) is an American actor. He played Pete Campbell on the AMC television series "Mad Men", for which he received six Screen Actors Guild Award nominations for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series and won twice along with the cast. He had starring roles in the films "Alaska", "Masterminds", and "Another Day in Paradise".


title: Vincent Kartheiser

text: Kartheiser also played Connor on The WB television series "Angel" and Dr. Jonathan Crane in the third season of the HBO series "Titans".


title: Vincent Kartheiser

text: Kartheiser was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the son of Janet Marie (née Gruyé), who ran a nursery, and James Ralph Kartheiser, who sold construction equipment.


title: Vincent Kartheiser

text: The youngest of six children, he has four sisters, Andrea, Colette, Elise and Theresa, and a brother, Nathan. He is of Luxembourgish, German, and to an extent Polish, Finnish, and Swedish ancestry. Kartheiser attended Apple Valley High School in Apple Valley, Minnesota, but dropped out at age 15 because he "wanted to make money."


title: Vincent Kartheiser

text: Some of Kartheiser's first acting experiences were on stage of Children's Theatre Company in Minneapolis, including roles in "Pippi Longstocking", "Our Town", "Dr. Seuss' The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins", and "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm".


title: Vincent Kartheiser

text: He made his screen debut with a bit role in the 1993 film "Untamed Heart". Kartheiser found himself cast in mostly family fare, including "The Indian in the Cupboard" (1995) and a starring role in the film "Alaska" (1996). The film led to Kartheiser getting the lead role in "Masterminds" the following year.


title: Vincent Kartheiser

text: He was next cast as Bobby, a drug-addicted, homeless street urchin in Larry Clark's "Another Day in Paradise". He had two explicit sex scenes with Natasha Gregson, one of which was cut from the film in order to avoid an NC-17 rating. The film earned the young actor significant accolades, and he went on to appear in "Strike!" (later retitled "All I Wanna Do") and "Crime and Punishment in Suburbia".


title: Vincent Kartheiser

text: Screened at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival, "Crime and Punishment in Suburbia" was a moody, updated take on Dostoyevsky's "Crime and Punishment", set in a modern high school. Kartheiser co-starred on the supernatural drama series "Angel" in 2002, playing Connor, the son of the title character Angel, appearing in a total of 28 episodes. Returning to film work, Kartheiser starred in the well-received coming-of-age drama "Dandelion", which was shown at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival.


title: Vincent Kartheiser

text: Kartheiser played the role of ambitious young ad man Pete Campbell in the AMC television series "Mad Men" (2007–2015). Along with the rest of the show's cast, Kartheiser won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series in 2009 and 2010.


title: Vincent Kartheiser

text: Kartheiser filmed his role as Fielding in the BBC's two-part adaptation of Martin Amis' novel "Money" in the winter of 2009. The adaptation began airing on BBC Two on May 23, 2010. In 2011, he appeared in "In Time" and provided a voice for "Rango".


title: Vincent Kartheiser

text: Kartheiser's short film, "Fruit of Labor", made its Orange County debut at the Newport Beach Film Festival in April 2013. In the summer of 2013, he returned to his theatrical roots in Minneapolis to portray Mr. Darcy in an adaptation of "Pride and Prejudice" at the Guthrie Theater.


title: Vincent Kartheiser

text: In 2021, Kartheiser appeared in season three of "Titans" as Jonathan Crane. Kartheiser was the subject of at least two complaints and two internal investigations by Warner Bros Television over allegations of disruptive, juvenile behavior and inappropriate comments on set. The first investigation concluded that Kartheiser's behavior warranted corrective action. The second complaint was received several weeks later and resulted in the studio assigning a representative to monitor Kartheiser on set. There were reportedly other complaints of alleged misconduct which were investigated but not corroborated. Kartheiser denied the allegations, with his spokesperson stating, "Warner Bros investigated this matter and made clear to Mr. Kartheiser its expectations for behavior on the set, and he agreed to comply with their directives."


title: Vincent Kartheiser

text: Kartheiser dated "The Hairy Bird" co-star Rachael Leigh Cook for four months in 1998. He began dating actress Alexis Bledel in mid-2012. He and Bledel announced their engagement in March 2013, and were married in California in June 2014. They have one son, born in 2015. The couple sold their Brooklyn duplex penthouse for $1.32 million in May 2016. On August 10, 2022, Kartheiser filed for divorce from Bledel; the divorce was finalized on August 26.


title: Vincent Kartheiser

text: In a 2010 interview with "The Observer", Kartheiser revealed that he eschewed the extravagant lifestyle of a Hollywood celebrity in favor of simple living.


title: Oligarchy

text: Oligarchy (; ) is a conceptual form of power structure in which power rests with a small number of people. These people may or may not be distinguished by one or several characteristics, such as nobility, fame, wealth, education, or corporate, religious, political, or military control.


title: Oligarchy

text: Throughout history, power structures considered to be oligarchies have often been viewed as tyrannical, relying on public obedience or oppression to exist. Aristotle pioneered the use of the term as meaning rule by the rich, for which another term commonly used today is plutocracy. In the early 20th century Robert Michels developed the theory that democracies, like all large organizations, tend to turn into oligarchies. In his "Iron law of oligarchy" he suggests that the necessary division of labor in large organizations leads to the establishment of a ruling class mostly concerned with protecting their own power.


title: Oligarchy

text: The exclusive consolidation of power by a dominant religious or ethnic minority has also been described as a form of oligarchy. Examples of this system include South Africa under "apartheid", Liberia under Americo-Liberians, the Sultanate of Zanzibar, and Rhodesia, where the installation of oligarchic rule by the descendants of foreign settlers was primarily regarded as a legacy of various forms of colonialism.


title: Oligarchy

text: George Bernard Shaw defined in his play "Major Barbara", premiered in 1905 and first published in 1907, a new type of Oligarchy namely the intellectual oligarchy that acts against the interests of the common people: "I now want to give the common man weapons against the intellectual man. I love the common people. I want to arm them against the lawyer, the doctor, the priest, the literary man, the professor, the artist, and the politician, who, once in authority, is the most dangerous, disastrous, and tyrannical of all the fools, rascals, and impostors. I want a democratic power strong enough to force the intellectual oligarchy to use its genius for the general good or else perish."


title: Oligarchy

text: Jeffrey A. Winters and Benjamin I. Page have described Colombia, Indonesia, Russia, Singapore, and the United States as oligarchies.


title: Oligarchy

text: During the presidency of Ferdinand Marcos from 1965 to 1986, several monopolies arose in the Philippines, particularly centred around the family and close associates of the president. This period, as well as subsequent decades, have led some analysts to describe the country as an oligarchy. President Rodrigo Duterte, who was elected in 2016, spoke of dismantling oligarchy during his presidency.


title: Oligarchy

text: Since the collapse of the Soviet Union and privatization of the economy in December 1991, privately owned Russia-based multinational corporations, including producers of petroleum, natural gas, and metal have, in the view of many analysts, led to the rise of Russian oligarchs. Most of these are connected directly to the highest-ranked government officials, such as the president.


title: Oligarchy

text: The Ukrainian oligarchs are a group of business oligarchs that quickly appeared on the economic and political scene of Ukraine after its independence in 1991. Overall there are 35 oligarchic groups.


title: Oligarchy

text: On September 23 2021 Ukrainian government released the Law (№ 1780-ІХ) which is primarily focused on protecting national interest and limiting oligarchs impact on democracy in Ukraine.


title: Oligarchy

text: Some contemporary authors have characterized conditions in the United States in the 21st century as oligarchic in nature. Simon Johnson wrote in 2009 that "the reemergence of an American financial oligarchy is quite recent", a structure which he delineated as being the "most advanced" in the world. Jeffrey A. Winters wrote that "oligarchy and democracy operate within a single system, and American politics is a daily display of their interplay."<ref name="TAI 11-12/2011"> </ref> The top 1% of the U.S. population by wealth in 2007 had a larger share of total income than at any time since 1928. In 2011, according to PolitiFact and others, the top 400 wealthiest Americans "have more wealth than half of all Americans combined."


title: Oligarchy

text: In 1998, Bob Herbert of "The New York Times" referred to modern American plutocrats as "The Donor Class" (list of top donors) and defined the class, for the first time, as "a tiny group—just one-quarter of 1 percent of the population—and it is not representative of the rest of the nation. But its money buys plenty of access."


title: Oligarchy

text: French economist Thomas Piketty states in his 2013 book, "Capital in the Twenty-First Century," that "the risk of a drift towards oligarchy is real and gives little reason for optimism about where the United States is headed."


title: Oligarchy

text: A 2014 study by political scientists Martin Gilens of Princeton University and Benjamin Page of Northwestern University stated that "majorities of the American public actually have little influence over the policies our government adopts." The study analyzed nearly 1,800 policies enacted by the US government between 1981 and 2002 and compared them to the expressed preferences of the American public as opposed to wealthy Americans and large special interest groups. It found that wealthy individuals and organizations representing business interests have substantial political influence, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little to none. The study did concede that "Americans do enjoy many features central to democratic governance, such as regular elections, freedom of speech and association, and a widespread (if still contested) franchise." Gilens and Page do not characterize the US as an "oligarchy" per se; however, they do apply the concept of "civil oligarchy" as used by Jeffrey Winters with respect to the US. Winters has posited a comparative theory of "oligarchy" in which the wealthiest citizens – even in a "civil oligarchy" like the United States – dominate policy concerning crucial issues of wealth- and income protection.


title: Oligarchy

text: Gilens says that average citizens only get what they want if wealthy Americans and business-oriented interest groups also want it; and that when a policy favored by the majority of the American public is implemented, it is usually because the economic elites did not oppose it. Other studies have criticized the Page and Gilens study. Page and Gilens have defended their study from criticism.


title: Oligarchy

text: In a 2015 interview, former President Jimmy Carter stated that the United States is now "an oligarchy with unlimited political bribery" due to the "Citizens United v. FEC" ruling which effectively removed limits on donations to political candidates. Wall Street spent a record $2 billion trying to influence the 2016 United States presidential election.


title: 2022 New York gubernatorial election

text: The 2022 New York gubernatorial election took place on November 8, 2022, to elect the governor and lieutenant governor of New York. Incumbent Democratic governor Kathy Hochul won a full term in office, defeating Republican Congressman Lee Zeldin in the closest New York gubernatorial election since 1994 and the closest Democratic victory since 1982. Hochul's election marked the first time that a woman was elected to the state's governorship.


title: 2022 New York gubernatorial election

text: Hochul ascended to the governorship in August 2021, upon Andrew Cuomo's resignation following allegations of sexual harassment. She sought a full term as governor. She appointed Brian Benjamin to the position of lieutenant governor and planned to run alongside him until he too resigned in April 2022. Congressman Antonio Delgado was appointed to replace Benjamin as lieutenant governor. Hochul defeated Jumaane Williams and Thomas Suozzi in the Democratic primary for governor, while Delgado defeated Ana Maria Archila and Diana Reyna in the Democratic primary for lieutenant governor.


title: 2022 New York gubernatorial election

text: Zeldin ran as the Republican nominee, having defeated Rob Astorino, Andrew Giuliani, and Harry Wilson in the Republican primary. Zeldin selected Alison Esposito, an NYPD officer, as his running mate, and she won unopposed in the primary. Esposito was the first openly gay major party nominee for statewide office in New York.


title: 2022 New York gubernatorial election

text: In the general election, Hochul defeated Zeldin, but by a closer margin than what is typical of New York, a solidly Democratic state in statewide elections, with Hochul's margin of victory of 5.7% being significantly worse than Cuomo's margin of 23.4% that he achieved in 2018. While Hochul was able to flip the counties of Schenectady and Columbia in Upstate New York, Zeldin made gains in the New York City metropolitan area, flipping the counties of Rockland, Richmond (Staten Island), Nassau, and Suffolk.


title: 2022 New York gubernatorial election

text: This was the first New York gubernatorial election in over 80 years not featuring any third-party candidates after the New York State Board of Elections rejected the petitions of all the minor parties that put forward candidates. Hochul became the first elected New York governor from outside New York City and its immediate suburbs since 1932 when Franklin Delano Roosevelt left office. Hochul also became the first governor from north of Hyde Park since Nathan L. Miller in 1922, in addition to being the first governor from Western New York since Horace White in 1910 and the first governor from Buffalo since Grover Cleveland in 1885.


title: 2022 New York gubernatorial election

text: Zeldin received the highest percentage of the vote for a Republican gubernatorial nominee since 2002 and the highest raw vote total for a Republican gubernatorial nominee since 1970. This election was also the first time since 2002 in which neighboring Pennsylvania voted to the left of New York for a gubernatorial election.


title: 2022 New York gubernatorial election

text: In August 2021, after New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced his resignation, then-Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul announced that she would run for governor in 2022. Hochul was sworn in as governor of New York on August 24, 2021. Hochul was elected to the position of lieutenant governor in 2014, and was re-elected in 2018; in both elections, she was Cuomo's running mate.


title: 2022 New York gubernatorial election

text: New York Attorney General Letitia James garnered attention for releasing a report on her office's investigation into alleged sexual harassment by Cuomo; the release of this report helped lead to Cuomo's resignation in August 2021. James announced her gubernatorial campaign in October 2021 and was considered a formidable challenger to Hochul.


title: 2022 New York gubernatorial election

text: On November 12, 2021, "Newsday" reported that Hochul had raised $10 million in campaign donations since taking office as governor. On November 16, 2021, New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, described by CNN as "a progressive favorite from Brooklyn", announced his 2022 gubernatorial bid. Williams ran for lieutenant governor against Hochul in 2018, losing a close race. On November 29, 2021, U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi of Long Island announced that he was running for governor. According to "The New York Times" Suozzi is known as a "vocal centrist" and announced an intent to bill himself as a "'common-sense Democrat'". Suozzi was considered to have the potential to siphon votes away from Hochul.


title: 2022 New York gubernatorial election

text: In early December, James withdrew her candidacy and chose to seek re-election as attorney general instead. James' withdrawal from the race was seen as a positive development for Hochul, as James had been considered the second-strongest candidate in the race. The exit of James boosted the campaign of Williams, who became the only major candidate from New York City and the clear choice for the left wing of the Democratic Party.


title: 2022 New York gubernatorial election

text: On February 17, 2022, at the New York State Democratic Convention, Hochul was selected as the preferred Democratic candidate for governor of New York in 2022. At the convention, Hochul received 85.6% of the weighted vote, while Williams received 12.5%. Neither Williams nor Suozzi received sufficient support to obtain automatic ballot access and force a primary election; however, both candidates were "expected to work the alternate method of gathering the 15,000 signatures to get on the ballot for the June primary".


title: 2022 New York gubernatorial election

text: Although the candidates for governor and lieutenant governor are nominated separately, those running for governor may choose to endorse a candidate for lieutenant governor as their unofficial running mate; currently, all three have done so (Hochul had previously chosen Brian Benjamin, but switched to Antonio Delgado after Benjamin's arrest).


title: 2022 New York gubernatorial election

text: On April 12, 2022, incumbent lieutenant governor Brian Benjamin resigned from office after being arrested for campaign finance violations. Despite this, he did not officially withdraw from the race, so under the laws of the time, he could only be removed if he moved out of New York, ran for a different office, or died. On May 3, 2022, Hochul announced her intent to appoint Representative Antonio Delgado to the position of lieutenant governor after a bill passed the New York General Assembly allowing Benjamin to be removed from the ticket. Delgado won the primary by a large margin.