title: The Tonight Show

text: "The Tonight Show" is also seen around the world. It is broadcast on CNBC Europe, usually three nights after it has been shown in the U.S. The show is screened at 10:30 p.m. AEDST weeknights on The Comedy Channel in Australia, where new episodes are shown hours after its American broadcast. In Sweden, Kanal 5 has shown "The Tonight Show" (as "Jay Leno Show") since the late 1990s with one week's delay. Since October 2006, it is also being aired in India on Zee Cafe 12 hours after the show is shown in the USA. For the Jimmy Fallon edition of the show, Comedy Central has aired the show 12 hours after the US broadcast since October 27, 2014.


title: The Tonight Show

text: In addition to its broadcast on CNBC Europe, "The Tonight Show" airs on "One" in Germany, with German subtitles, weekdays at 11:00 p.m., one day after its American broadcast.


title: The Tonight Show

text: In India and Sri Lanka "The Tonight Show" airs on Comedy Central India on Weeknights at 11pm IST/SLST – within 24 hours of the U.S Broadcast.


title: The Tonight Show

text: An early attempt at airing the show by London Weekend Television in the United Kingdom during the early 1980s was unsuccessful, sparking jokes by Carson. On the October 23, 1984, broadcast, guest Paul McCartney had this to say of the show's British run:


title: Jordan Clarkson

text: Jordan Taylor Clarkson (born June 7, 1992) is a Filipino-American professional basketball player for the Utah Jazz of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for two seasons with Tulsa before transferring to Missouri, where he earned second-team all-conference honors in the Southeastern Conference (SEC). After foregoing his senior year in college to enter the 2014 NBA draft, Clarkson was selected by the Washington Wizards in the second round with the 46th overall pick and was immediately traded to the Los Angeles Lakers. In his first year, he was named to the NBA All-Rookie First Team, a rarity for a second-round pick. Clarkson was traded to the Cavaliers in 2018. In December 2019 he was traded to the Jazz. On March 24, 2015, Clarkson along with Jeremy Lin, became the first Asian-American starting back court in NBA history. In 2021, Clarkson was named the NBA Sixth Man of the Year.


title: Jordan Clarkson

text: Clarkson was born in Tampa, Florida, to African-American Mike Clarkson and Filipina American Annette Tullao Davis. Davis' mother, Marcelina Tullao Kingsolver, was from Bacolor, Pampanga, Philippines. Both his parents served in the United States Air Force and divorced when Clarkson was young, with Clarkson's father later remarrying Janie Clarkson. He moved to San Antonio, Texas around the age of six.


title: Jordan Clarkson

text: He attended Karen Wagner High School in San Antonio. As a sophomore, he averaged 10 points per game while earning honorable mention all-district accolades. As a junior, he averaged 20 points, six rebounds and four assists per game, leading his team to a 32–8 record and the Class 5A state semi-finals.


title: Jordan Clarkson

text: On November 11, 2009, Clarkson signed a National Letter of Intent to play college basketball at the University of Tulsa.


title: Jordan Clarkson

text: As a senior, he averaged 18.9 points, 6.1 rebounds, 3.4 assists, and 2.1 steals, leading his team to a 38–2 record and a semi-final loss in the state championship. He was also named San Antonio High School Player of the Year.


title: Jordan Clarkson

text: In his freshman season at Tulsa, Clarkson was named to the 2011 Conference USA All-Freshman team after being named the Conference USA Freshman of the Week four times in 2010–11. In 27 games (nine starts), he averaged 11.5 points, 2.1 rebounds, and 1.9 assists in 24.9 minutes per game.


title: Jordan Clarkson

text: In his sophomore season, he was named to the All-Conference USA first team and the NABC All-District 11 team. In 31 games (all starts), he averaged 16.5 points, 3.9 rebounds and 2.5 assists in 33.9 minutes per game.


title: Jordan Clarkson

text: In May 2012, Clarkson transferred to Missouri and subsequently sat out the 2012–13 season due to NCAA transfer rules.


title: Jordan Clarkson

text: In his redshirted junior season, he was named to the 2014 All-SEC second team. He was also named to the Wooden Award Midseason Top 25 list in January 2014 and won three Southeastern Conference Player of the Week honors. In 35 games (all starts), he averaged 17.5 points, 3.8 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 1.1 steals in 35.1 minutes per game.


title: Jordan Clarkson

text: On March 31, 2014, Clarkson declared for the NBA draft, foregoing his final year of college eligibility.


title: Jordan Clarkson

text: On June 26, 2014, Clarkson was selected with the 46th overall pick in the 2014 NBA draft by the Washington Wizards. He was later traded to the Los Angeles Lakers on draft night for cash considerations, and joined the team for the 2014 NBA Summer League. On August 25, 2014, he signed with the Lakers. During his rookie season, he received multiple assignments to the Los Angeles D-Fenders of the NBA Development League, and did not play for the Lakers for most of the first half of the season. However, he ended up starting 38 games for the Lakers, primarily at point guard, and averaged 15.8 points, 5.0 assists, and 4.2 rebounds as a starter. On March 24, 2015, he had a season-best game with 30 points and 7 assists in a loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder. Starting alongside Jeremy Lin, the pair became the first Asian-American starting backcourt in league history. On March 30 and April 1, Clarkson recorded back-to-back double-doubles. For the season, he was named to the NBA All-Rookie First Team. In the prior 30 years, there had been only four other second-round picks that were named to the first team. Clarkson after joining the Lakers garnered a huge following in the Philippines owing to his Filipino heritage and the existing fanbase of the NBA team in the country.


title: Jordan Clarkson

text: On November 3, 2015, Clarkson scored a career high-tying 30 points in a 120–109 loss to the Denver Nuggets. On February 12, 2016, Clarkson played for Team USA in the Rising Stars Challenge, where he recorded 25 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 steals in a win over Team World.


title: Jordan Clarkson

text: On July 7, 2016, Clarkson re-signed with the Lakers on a four-year, $50 million contract. In the Lakers' season opener on October 26, 2016, Clarkson scored a team-high 25 points off the bench in a 120–114 win over the Houston Rockets. On November 15, 2016, he recorded a career-high five steals in a 125–118 win over the Brooklyn Nets. On March 12, 2017, he tied his career high with 30 points off the bench in a 118–116 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers. On March 24, 2017, he had career highs of 35 points and eight 3-pointers in a 130–119 overtime win over the Minnesota Timberwolves.


title: Jordan Clarkson

text: On November 13, 2017, Clarkson scored a season-high 25 points in 26 minutes off the bench in a 100–93 win over the Phoenix Suns. On January 19, 2018, he set a new season high with 33 points in a 99–86 win over the Indiana Pacers.


title: Jordan Clarkson

text: On February 8, 2018, Clarkson was traded, along with Larry Nance Jr., to the Cleveland Cavaliers in exchange for Isaiah Thomas, Channing Frye and a 2018 first-round draft pick. In his debut for the Cavaliers three days later, Clarkson scored 17 points in a 121–99 win over the Boston Celtics. The Cavaliers reached the 2018 NBA Finals, where they were defeated in four games by the Golden State Warriors.


title: Jordan Clarkson

text: On December 12, 2018, Clarkson scored 28 points in a 113–106 win over the New York Knicks. On February 13, 2019, Clarkson scored a career-high 42 points in a 148–139 triple-overtime loss to the Brooklyn Nets.


title: Jordan Clarkson

text: On December 24, 2019, Clarkson was traded to the Utah Jazz in exchange for Dante Exum and two future second-round draft picks. On January 30, 2020, Clarkson scored a season-high 37 points in a 100–106 loss to the Denver Nuggets.


title: Jordan Clarkson

text: On February 15, 2021, Clarkson scored a season-high 40 points in a 134–123 win over the Philadelphia 76ers. He ended the 2020–21 season averaging a career-high 18.4 points per game and led the NBA with 203 three-pointers off the bench. He won the NBA Sixth Man of the Year Award over Jazz teammate Joe Ingles, who was the runner-up. Clarkson was the first Utah player to win the award.


title: Jordan Clarkson

text: On March 12, 2022, Clarkson scored a career-high 45 points on 15-for-21 shooting from the field in a 134–125 win against the Sacramento Kings.


title: Jordan Clarkson

text: In 2011, talks were initiated for Clarkson to play for the Philippine national team. However, Clarkson did not meet the FIBA eligibility requirements to be considered a Filipino citizen as he acquired his Philippine passport after age 16. He is eligible, though, to play as a "naturalized" player.


title: Jordan Clarkson

text: Clarkson visited the Philippines in August 2015 on the invitation of Manuel V. Pangilinan to observe the training of Gilas Pilipinas, aside from fulfilling his commitments as an endorser of Smart Communications. In an interview, SBP Executive Director Sonny Barrios confirmed that Clarkson has carried a Philippine passport since he was 12 and so he will not need to undergo the naturalization process to represent the Philippines in international competitions. Clarkson did not make the final cut due to scheduling conflicts with the Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers agreed to let Clarkson play, but the NBA collective bargaining agreement requires that national team play should not interfere with the Lakers' team requirements, which expected players to report on September 28; however, the tournament ran until October 3. Clarkson expressed his disappointment that he could not represent the Philippines in the 2015 FIBA Asia Championship. Clarkson was initially included in the 17-man pool for the Philippines lineup for the final Olympic Qualifying Tournament for the 2016 Rio Olympics. However, due to time constraints and a complicated eligibility process, the team instead opted for Andray Blatche as its naturalized player due to lack of size.


title: Jordan Clarkson

text: In August 2018, the NBA cleared Clarkson to play for the Philippine national team in the 2018 Asian Games that was held from August 18 to September 2, 2018 with a one-time exception. Clarkson was able to play for the Philippines for the first time. His first game with the national team was against China in which Clarkson led all scorers with 28 points but fell short of the match 82–80. In his second game with the national team, Clarkson once again led his team with a 25-point performance but could not overcome Korea. The team bowed out of a podium finish. Clarkson managed to get his first win with the national team, defeating Japan 113–80, in which he recorded 22 points, six rebounds and nine assists. Clarkson ended the tournament with a win, beating Syria 109–55 with a 29-point performance earning the Philippines a fifth-place finish, its best in 16 years.


title: Jordan Clarkson

text: On August 25, 2022, Clarkson made his FIBA debut when he scored 27 points in a loss against Lebanon in the 2023 World Cup qualifiers.


title: Jordan Clarkson

text: Clarkson has dual citizenship with the Philippines and the United States. His Filipino citizenship is by virtue of ancestral descent.


title: Spinal cord

text: The spinal cord is a long, thin, tubular structure made up of nervous tissue, which extends from the medulla oblongata in the brainstem to the lumbar region of the vertebral column (backbone). The backbone encloses the central canal of the spinal cord, which contains cerebrospinal fluid. The brain and spinal cord together make up the central nervous system (CNS). In humans, the spinal cord begins at the occipital bone, passing through the foramen magnum and then enters the spinal canal at the beginning of the cervical vertebrae. The spinal cord extends down to between the first and second lumbar vertebrae, where it ends. The enclosing bony vertebral column protects the relatively shorter spinal cord. It is around long in adult men and around long in adult women. The diameter of the spinal cord ranges from in the cervical and lumbar regions to in the thoracic area.


title: Spinal cord

text: The spinal cord functions primarily in the transmission of nerve signals from the motor cortex to the body, and from the afferent fibers of the sensory neurons to the sensory cortex. It is also a center for coordinating many reflexes and contains reflex arcs that can independently control reflexes. It is also the location of groups of spinal interneurons that make up the neural circuits known as central pattern generators. These circuits are responsible for controlling motor instructions for rhythmic movements such as walking.


title: Spinal cord

text: The spinal cord is the main pathway for information connecting the brain and peripheral nervous system. Much shorter than its protecting spinal column, the human spinal cord originates in the brainstem, passes through the foramen magnum, and continues through to the conus medullaris near the second lumbar vertebra before terminating in a fibrous extension known as the filum terminale.


title: Spinal cord

text: It is about long in males and about in females, ovoid-shaped, and is enlarged in the cervical and lumbar regions. The cervical enlargement, stretching from the C5 to T1 vertebrae, is where sensory input comes from and motor output goes to the arms and trunk. The lumbar enlargement, located between L1 and S3, handles sensory input and motor output coming from and going to the legs.


title: Spinal cord

text: The spinal cord is continuous with the caudal portion of the medulla, running from the base of the skull to the body of the first lumbar vertebra. It does not run the full length of the vertebral column in adults. It is made of 31 segments from which branch one pair of sensory nerve roots and one pair of motor nerve roots. The nerve roots then merge into bilaterally symmetrical pairs of spinal nerves. The peripheral nervous system is made up of these spinal roots, nerves, and ganglia.


title: Spinal cord

text: The dorsal roots are afferent fascicles, receiving sensory information from the skin, muscles, and visceral organs to be relayed to the brain. The roots terminate in dorsal root ganglia, which are composed of the cell bodies of the corresponding neurons. Ventral roots consist of efferent fibers that arise from motor neurons whose cell bodies are found in the ventral (or anterior) gray horns of the spinal cord.


title: Spinal cord

text: The spinal cord (and brain) are protected by three layers of tissue or membranes called meninges, that surround the canal. The dura mater is the outermost layer, and it forms a tough protective coating. Between the dura mater and the surrounding bone of the vertebrae is a space called the epidural space. The epidural space is filled with adipose tissue, and it contains a network of blood vessels. The arachnoid mater, the middle protective layer, is named for its open, spiderweb-like appearance. The space between the arachnoid and the underlying pia mater is called the subarachnoid space. The subarachnoid space contains cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), which can be sampled with a lumbar puncture, or "spinal tap" procedure. The delicate pia mater, the innermost protective layer, is tightly associated with the surface of the spinal cord. The cord is stabilized within the dura mater by the connecting denticulate ligaments, which extend from the enveloping pia mater laterally between the dorsal and ventral roots. The dural sac ends at the vertebral level of the second sacral vertebra.


title: Spinal cord

text: In cross-section, the peripheral region of the cord contains neuronal white matter tracts containing sensory and motor axons. Internal to this peripheral region is the grey matter, which contains the nerve cell bodies arranged in the three grey columns that give the region its butterfly-shape. This central region surrounds the central canal, which is an extension of the fourth ventricle and contains cerebrospinal fluid.


title: Spinal cord

text: The spinal cord is elliptical in cross section, being compressed dorsolaterally. Two prominent grooves, or sulci, run along its length. The posterior median sulcus is the groove in the dorsal side, and the anterior median fissure is the groove in the ventral side.


title: Spinal cord

text: The human spinal cord is divided into segments where pairs of spinal nerves (mixed; sensory and motor) form. Six to eight motor nerve rootlets branch out of right and left ventralateral sulci in a very orderly manner. Nerve rootlets combine to form nerve roots. Likewise, sensory nerve rootlets form off right and left dorsal lateral sulci and form sensory nerve roots. The ventral (motor) and dorsal (sensory) roots combine to form spinal nerves (mixed; motor and sensory), one on each side of the spinal cord. Spinal nerves, with the exception of C1 and C2, form inside the intervertebral foramen (IVF). These rootlets form the demarcation between the central and peripheral nervous systems.


title: Spinal cord

text: The grey column, (as three regions of grey columns) in the center of the cord, is shaped like a butterfly and consists of cell bodies of interneurons, motor neurons, neuroglia cells and unmyelinated axons. The anterior and posterior grey column present as projections of the grey matter and are also known as the horns of the spinal cord. Together, the grey columns and the gray commissure form the "grey H."


title: Spinal cord

text: The white matter is located outside of the grey matter and consists almost totally of myelinated motor and sensory axons. "Columns" of white matter carry information either up or down the spinal cord.


title: Spinal cord

text: The spinal cord proper terminates in a region called the conus medullaris, while the pia mater continues as an extension called the filum terminale, which anchors the spinal cord to the coccyx. The cauda equina ("horse's tail") is a collection of nerves inferior to the conus medullaris that continue to travel through the vertebral column to the coccyx. The cauda equina forms because the spinal cord stops growing in length at about age four, even though the vertebral column continues to lengthen until adulthood. This results in sacral spinal nerves originating in the upper lumbar region. For that reason, the spinal cord occupies only two-thirds of the vertebral canal. The inferior part of the vertebral canal is filled with cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and the space is called the lumbar cistern.


title: Spinal cord

text: Within the Central Nervous System (CNS), nerve cell bodies are generally organized into functional clusters, called nuclei. Axons within the CNS are grouped into tracts.


title: Spinal cord

text: In the fetus, vertebral segments correspond with spinal cord segments. However, because the vertebral column grows longer than the spinal cord, spinal cord segments do not correspond to vertebral segments in the adult, particularly in the lower spinal cord. For example, lumbar and sacral spinal cord segments are found between vertebral levels T9 and L2, and the spinal cord ends around the L1/L2 vertebral level, forming a structure known as the conus medullaris.


title: Spinal cord

text: Although the spinal cord cell bodies end around the L1/L2 vertebral level, the spinal nerves for each segment exit at the level of the corresponding vertebra. For the nerves of the lower spinal cord, this means that they exit the vertebral column much lower (more caudally) than their roots. As these nerves travel from their respective roots to their point of exit from the vertebral column, the nerves of the lower spinal segments form a bundle called the cauda equina.


title: Spinal cord

text: The spinal cord is made from part of the neural tube during development. There are four stages of the spinal cord that arises from the neural tube: The neural plate, neural fold, neural tube, and the spinal cord. Neural differentiation occurs within the spinal cord portion of the tube. As the neural tube begins to develop, the notochord begins to secrete a factor known as Sonic hedgehog (SHH). As a result, the floor plate then also begins to secrete SHH, and this will induce the basal plate to develop motor neurons. During the maturation of the neural tube, its lateral walls thicken and form a longitudinal groove called the sulcus limitans. This extends the length of the spinal cord into dorsal and ventral portions as well. Meanwhile, the overlying ectoderm secretes bone morphogenetic protein (BMP). This induces the roof plate to begin to secrete BMP, which will induce the alar plate to develop sensory neurons. Opposing gradients of such morphogens as BMP and SHH form different domains of dividing cells along the dorsal ventral axis. Dorsal root ganglion neurons differentiate from neural crest progenitors. As the dorsal and ventral column cells proliferate, the lumen of the neural tube narrows to form the small central canal of the spinal cord. The alar plate and the basal plate are separated by the sulcus limitans.


title: Spinal cord

text: Additionally, the floor plate also secretes netrins. The netrins act as chemoattractants to decussation of pain and temperature sensory neurons in the alar plate across the anterior white commissure, where they then ascend towards the thalamus. Following the closure of the caudal neuropore and formation of the brain's ventricles that contain the choroid plexus tissue, the central canal of the caudal spinal cord is filled with cerebrospinal fluid.


title: Spinal cord

text: Earlier findings by Viktor Hamburger and Rita Levi-Montalcini in the chick embryo have been confirmed by more recent studies which have demonstrated that the elimination of neuronal cells by programmed cell death (PCD) is necessary for the correct assembly of the nervous system.


title: Spinal cord

text: Overall, spontaneous embryonic activity has been shown to play a role in neuron and muscle development but is probably not involved in the initial formation of connections between spinal neurons.


title: Spinal cord

text: The spinal cord is supplied with blood by three arteries that run along its length starting in the brain, and many arteries that approach it through the sides of the spinal column. The three longitudinal arteries are the anterior spinal artery, and the right and left posterior spinal arteries. These travel in the subarachnoid space and send branches into the spinal cord. They form anastomoses (connections) via the anterior and posterior segmental medullary arteries, which enter the spinal cord at various points along its length. The actual blood flow caudally through these arteries, derived from the posterior cerebral circulation, is inadequate to maintain the spinal cord beyond the cervical segments.


title: Spinal cord

text: The major contribution to the arterial blood supply of the spinal cord below the cervical region comes from the radially arranged posterior and anterior radicular arteries, which run into the spinal cord alongside the dorsal and ventral nerve roots, but with one exception do not connect directly with any of the three longitudinal arteries. These intercostal and lumbar radicular arteries arise from the aorta, provide major anastomoses and supplement the blood flow to the spinal cord. In humans the largest of the anterior radicular arteries is known as the artery of Adamkiewicz, or anterior radicularis magna (ARM) artery, which usually arises between L1 and L2, but can arise anywhere from T9 to L5. Impaired blood flow through these critical radicular arteries, especially during surgical procedures that involve abrupt disruption of blood flow through the aorta for example during aortic aneurysm repair, can result in spinal cord infarction and paraplegia.


title: Spinal cord

text: In the dorsal column-medial lemniscus tract, a primary neuron's axon enters the spinal cord and then enters the dorsal column. Here the dorsal column connects to the axon of the nerve cell. If the primary axon enters below spinal level T6, the axon travels in the gracile fasciculus, the medial part of the column. If the axon enters above level T6, then it travels in the cuneate fasciculus, which is lateral to the fasciculus gracilis. Either way, the primary axon ascends to the lower medulla, where it leaves its fasciculus and synapses with a secondary neuron in one of the dorsal column nuclei: either the nucleus gracilis or the nucleus cuneatus, depending on the pathway it took. At this point, the secondary axon leaves its nucleus and passes anteriorly and medially. The collection of secondary axons that do this are known as internal arcuate fibers. The internal arcuate fibers decussate and continue ascending as the contralateral medial lemniscus. Secondary axons from the medial lemniscus finally terminate in the ventral posterolateral nucleus (VPLN) of the thalamus, where they synapse with tertiary neurons. From there, tertiary neurons ascend via the posterior limb of the internal capsule and end in the primary sensory cortex.


title: Spinal cord

text: The proprioception of the lower limbs differs from the upper limbs and upper trunk. There is a four-neuron pathway for lower limb proprioception. This pathway initially follows the dorsal spino-cerebellar pathway. It is arranged as follows: proprioceptive receptors of lower limb → peripheral process → dorsal root ganglion → central process → Clarke's column → 2nd order neuron → spinocerebellar tract →cerebellum.


title: Spinal cord

text: The anterolateral system works somewhat differently. Its primary neurons axons enter the spinal cord and then ascend one to two levels before synapsing in the substantia gelatinosa. The tract that ascends before synapsing is known as Lissauer's tract. After synapsing, secondary axons decussate and ascend in the anterior lateral portion of the spinal cord as the spinothalamic tract. This tract ascends all the way to the VPLN, where it synapses on tertiary neurons. Tertiary neuronal axons then travel to the primary sensory cortex via the posterior limb of the internal capsule.


title: Spinal cord

text: Some of the "pain fibers" in the ALS deviate from their pathway towards the VPLN. In one such deviation, axons travel towards the reticular formation in the midbrain. The reticular formation then projects to a number of places including the hippocampus (to create memories about the pain), the centromedian nucleus (to cause diffuse, non-specific pain) and various parts of the cortex. Additionally, some ALS axons project to the periaqueductal gray in the pons, and the axons forming the periaqueductal gray then project to the nucleus raphes magnus, which projects back down to where the pain signal is coming from and inhibits it. This helps control the sensation of pain to some degree.


title: Spinal cord

text: The corticospinal tract serves as the motor pathway for upper motor neuronal signals coming from the cerebral cortex and from primitive brainstem motor nuclei.


title: Spinal cord

text: Cortical upper motor neurons originate from Brodmann areas 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6 and then descend in the posterior limb of the internal capsule, through the crus cerebri, down through the pons, and to the medullary pyramids, where about 90% of the axons cross to the contralateral side at the decussation of the pyramids. They then descend as the lateral corticospinal tract. These axons synapse with lower motor neurons in the ventral horns of all levels of the spinal cord. The remaining 10% of axons descend on the ipsilateral side as the ventral corticospinal tract. These axons also synapse with lower motor neurons in the ventral horns. Most of them will cross to the contralateral side of the cord (via the anterior white commissure) right before synapsing.


title: Spinal cord

text: The midbrain nuclei include four motor tracts that send upper motor neuronal axons down the spinal cord to lower motor neurons. These are the rubrospinal tract, the vestibulospinal tract, the tectospinal tract and the reticulospinal tract. The rubrospinal tract descends with the lateral corticospinal tract, and the remaining three descend with the anterior corticospinal tract.


title: Spinal cord

text: The function of lower motor neurons can be divided into two different groups: the lateral corticospinal tract and the anterior cortical spinal tract. The lateral tract contains upper motor neuronal axons which synapse on dorsal lateral (DL) lower motor neurons. The DL neurons are involved in distal limb control. Therefore, these DL neurons are found specifically only in the cervical and lumbosacral enlargements within the spinal cord. There is no decussation in the lateral corticospinal tract after the decussation at the medullary pyramids.


title: Spinal cord

text: The anterior corticospinal tract descends ipsilaterally in the anterior column, where the axons emerge and either synapse on lower ventromedial (VM) motor neurons in the ventral horn ipsilaterally or descussate at the anterior white commissure where they synapse on VM lower motor neurons contralaterally . The tectospinal, vestibulospinal and reticulospinal descend ipsilaterally in the anterior column but do not synapse across the anterior white commissure. Rather, they only synapse on VM lower motor neurons ipsilaterally. The VM lower motor neurons control the large, postural muscles of the axial skeleton. These lower motor neurons, unlike those of the DL, are located in the ventral horn all the way throughout the spinal cord.


title: Spinal cord

text: Proprioceptive information in the body travels up the spinal cord via three tracks. Below L2, the proprioceptive information travels up the spinal cord in the ventral spinocerebellar tract. Also known as the anterior spinocerebellar tract, sensory receptors take in the information and travel into the spinal cord. The cell bodies of these primary neurons are located in the dorsal root ganglia. In the spinal cord, the axons synapse and the secondary neuronal axons decussates and then travel up to the superior cerebellar peduncle where they decussate again. From here, the information is brought to deep nuclei of the cerebellum including the fastigial and interposed nuclei.


title: Spinal cord

text: From the levels of L2 to T1, proprioceptive information enters the spinal cord and ascends ipsilaterally, where it synapses in Clarke's nucleus. The secondary neuronal axons continue to ascend ipsilaterally and then pass into the cerebellum via the inferior cerebellar peduncle. This tract is known as the dorsal spinocerebellar tract.


title: Spinal cord

text: From above T1, proprioceptive primary axons enter the spinal cord and ascend ipsilaterally until reaching the accessory cuneate nucleus, where they synapse. The secondary axons pass into the cerebellum via the inferior cerebellar peduncle where again, these axons synapse on cerebellar deep nuclei. This tract is known as the cuneocerebellar tract.


title: Spinal cord

text: Motor information travels from the brain down the spinal cord via descending spinal cord tracts. Descending tracts involve two neurons: the upper motor neuron (UMN) and lower motor neuron (LMN). A nerve signal travels down the upper motor neuron until it synapses with the lower motor neuron in the spinal cord. Then, the lower motor neuron conducts the nerve signal to the spinal root where efferent nerve fibers carry the motor signal toward the target muscle. The descending tracts are composed of white matter. There are several descending tracts serving different functions. The corticospinal tracts (lateral and anterior) are responsible for coordinated limb movements.


title: Spinal cord

text: A congenital disorder is diastematomyelia in which part of the spinal cord is split usually at the level of the upper lumbar vertebrae. Sometimes the split can be along the length of the spinal cord.


title: Spinal cord

text: Spinal cord injuries can be caused by trauma to the spinal column (stretching, bruising, applying pressure, severing, laceration, etc.). The vertebral bones or intervertebral disks can shatter, causing the spinal cord to be punctured by a sharp fragment of bone. Usually, victims of spinal cord injuries will suffer loss of feeling in certain parts of their body. In milder cases, a victim might only suffer loss of hand or foot function. More severe injuries may result in paraplegia, tetraplegia (also known as quadriplegia), or full body paralysis below the site of injury to the spinal cord.


title: Spinal cord

text: Damage to upper motor neuron axons in the spinal cord results in a characteristic pattern of ipsilateral deficits. These include hyperreflexia, hypertonia and muscle weakness. Lower motor neuronal damage results in its own characteristic pattern of deficits. Rather than an entire side of deficits, there is a pattern relating to the myotome affected by the damage. Additionally, lower motor neurons are characterized by muscle weakness, hypotonia, hyporeflexia and muscle atrophy.


title: Spinal cord

text: Spinal shock and neurogenic shock can occur from a spinal injury. Spinal shock is usually temporary, lasting only for 24–48 hours, and is a temporary absence of sensory and motor functions. Neurogenic shock lasts for weeks and can lead to a loss of muscle tone due to disuse of the muscles below the injured site.


title: Spinal cord

text: The two areas of the spinal cord most commonly injured are the cervical spine (C1–C7) and the lumbar spine (L1–L5). (The notation C1, C7, L1, L5 refer to the location of a specific vertebra in either the cervical, thoracic, or lumbar region of the spine.) Spinal cord injury can also be non-traumatic and caused by disease (transverse myelitis, polio, spina bifida, Friedreich's ataxia, spinal cord tumor, spinal stenosis etc.)


title: Spinal cord

text: Globally, it is expected there are around 40 to 80 cases of spinal cord injury per million population, and approximately 90% of these cases result from traumatic events.


title: Spinal cord

text: Real or suspected spinal cord injuries need immediate immobilisation including that of the head. Scans will be needed to assess the injury. A steroid, methylprednisolone, can be of help as can physical therapy and possibly antioxidants. Treatments need to focus on limiting post-injury cell death, promoting cell regeneration, and replacing lost cells. Regeneration is facilitated by maintaining electric transmission in neural elements.


title: Spinal cord

text: Spinal stenosis at the lumbar region are usually due to disc herniation, hypertrophy of the facet joint and ligamentum flavum, osteophyte, and spondylolisthesis. Uncommon cause of lumbar spinal stenosis is due to spinal epidural lipomatosis, a condition where there is excessive deposit of fat in the epidural space, causing compression of nerve root and spinal cord. The epidural fat can be seen as low density on CT scan and high intensity on T2-weighted fast spin echo MRI images.


title: Spinal cord

text: Spinal tumours can occur in the spinal cord and these can be either inside (intradural) or outside (extradural) the dura mater.


title: Spinal cord

text: The spinal cord ends at the level of vertebrae L1–L2, while the subarachnoid space —the compartment that contains cerebrospinal fluid— extends down to the lower border of S2. Lumbar punctures in adults are usually performed between L3–L5 (cauda equina level) in order to avoid damage to the spinal cord. In the fetus, the spinal cord extends the full length of the spine and regresses as the body grows.


title: FIFA Confederations Cup

text: The FIFA Confederations Cup was an international association football tournament for men's national teams, held every four years by FIFA. It was contested by the holders of each of the six continental championships (AFC, CAF, CONCACAF, CONMEBOL, OFC, and UEFA), along with the current FIFA World Cup holder and the host nation, to bring the number of teams up to eight.


title: FIFA Confederations Cup

text: Between 2001 and 2017 (with an exception in 2003), the tournament was held in the country that would host the World Cup the following year, acting as a test event for the larger tournament.


title: FIFA Confederations Cup

text: The last champions were Germany, who won the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup by defeating Chile 1–0 in the final to win their first title.


title: FIFA Confederations Cup

text: In March 2019, FIFA confirmed that the tournament would no longer be staged, with its slot replaced by an expansion of the FIFA Club World Cup, as well as the 2021 FIFA Arab Cup, as a prelude to the 2022 FIFA World Cup.


title: FIFA Confederations Cup

text: The tournament was originally organized by and held in Saudi Arabia, contested in 1992 and 1995 by the Saudi national side and some continental champions. Disputed as the King Fahd Cup ("Confederations Winners Cup" or "Intercontinental Championship"), in honor of the then Saudi ruler who organized the tournament with his country's federation.


title: FIFA Confederations Cup

text: In 1997, FIFA took over the organization of the tournament, named it the "FIFA Confederations Cup" and staged the competition every two years and recognized the first two editions in 1997.


title: FIFA Confederations Cup

text: After 2005, it was held every four years, in the year prior to each World Cup in the host country of the forthcoming World Cup (the 2001 edition was hosted in South Korea and Japan, before the quadrennial pattern was established). Considered a dress rehearsal for the World Cup it precedes, it used around half of the stadiums intended for use at the following year's competition and gave the host nation, which qualified for that tournament automatically, experience at a high level of competition during the two years. At the same time, participation was made optional for the South American and European champions.


title: FIFA Confederations Cup

text: Generally, the host nation, the World Cup holders, and the six continental champions qualified for the competition. In those cases where a team meets more than one of the qualification criteria (such as the 2001 tournament where France qualified as the World Cup champions and European champions), another team was invited to participate, often the runner-up in a competition that the extra-qualified team won.


title: FIFA Confederations Cup

text: On four occasions teams have chosen not to participate in the tournament. Germany did so twice, in 1997 (replaced by Euro 1996 runners-up Czech Republic) and in 2003 when Germany were awarded a place as the 2002 World Cup runners-up, replaced by the third-placed team Turkey. World champions France declined a place in the 1999 Confederations Cup, replaced by Brazil, the 1998 World Cup runners-up. Italy, UEFA Euro 2000 runners up, declined their place in the 2003 FIFA Confederations Cup.


title: FIFA Confederations Cup

text: An earlier tournament that invited former World Cup winners, the 1980 Mundialito, celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the first World Cup. The Artemio Franchi Trophy, contested in 1985 and 1993 between the winners of the Copa América and UEFA European Football Championship, was another example of an earlier contest between football confederations. Both of these are considered by some to be a form of unofficial precursor to the Confederations Cup, although FIFA recognised only the 1992 tournaments onwards to be Confederations Cup winners.


title: FIFA Confederations Cup

text: The 2021 tournament was originally to be held in Qatar, the host country of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, as announced on 2 December 2010 after the country was awarded the hosting rights of the 2022 FIFA World Cup. However, concerns arose surrounding Qatar's high temperatures during the summer period (which also led to calls for the World Cup to be moved from its traditional June–July scheduling to November–December).


title: FIFA Confederations Cup

text: On 25 February 2015, this resulted in FIFA officially announcing that it would move the 2021 Confederations Cup to another country of the Asian Football Confederation, so it could still be held during the traditional window of June/July 2021, without interrupting domestic leagues. As compensation, another FIFA tournament, potentially the 2021 FIFA Club World Cup, could be held in Qatar in November–December 2021, as the test event for the 2022 World Cup.


title: FIFA Confederations Cup

text: In October 2017, FIFA divulged plans to abolish the Confederations Cup by 2021 and replace it with a quadrennial, 24-team FIFA Club World Cup and move the latter tournament from December to June. On 15 March 2019, FIFA announced that the Confederations Cup would be abolished, with an expanded FIFA Club World Cup taking place instead.


title: FIFA Confederations Cup

text: In July 2021, UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin and CONMEBOL president Alejandro Dominguez began efforts to launch a competition competed by the winners of the Copa America and the European Championship. The idea is to have the European Championship and Copa America to both be played two years ahead of World Cups, with the new tournament to then be played a year before a World Cup in the nation that will host the World Cup. An edition of the tournament was being considered for 2022 and on 1 June 2022, Argentina beat Italy in the 2022 Finalissima, a relaunch of the CONMEBOL–UEFA Cup of Champions.


title: FIFA Confederations Cup

text: The eight qualified teams were drawn into two round-robin groups: two teams from the same confederation could not be drawn in a group, except if there were three teams from the same confederation (something that only happened in the 2017 edition when hosts Russia were joined by World Cup champions Germany and European champions Portugal). Every team played all other teams in their group once, for three matches.


title: FIFA Confederations Cup

text: The top two teams of each group advanced to the semi-finals, with the winners of each group playing the runners-up of the other group. The rankings of teams in each group were determined as follows (regulations Article 19.6):


title: FIFA Confederations Cup

text: If two or more teams were equal on the basis of the above three criteria, their rankings were determined as follows:


title: FIFA Confederations Cup

text: The winners of the semi-finals advanced to the final, while the losers played in the third-place game. For the knockout stage, if the score was drawn at the end of regular time, extra time was played (two periods of 15 minutes each) and followed, if necessary, by a penalty shoot-out to determine the winner.


title: FIFA Confederations Cup

text: The first two editions were in fact the defunct "King Fahd Cup". FIFA later recognized them retroactively as Confederations Cup editions.


title: Piet Mondrian

text: Pieter Cornelis Mondriaan (), after 1906 known as Piet Mondrian (, , ; 7 March 1872 – 1 February 1944), was a Dutch painter and art theoretician who is regarded as one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. He is known for being one of the pioneers of 20th-century abstract art, as he changed his artistic direction from figurative painting to an increasingly abstract style, until he reached a point where his artistic vocabulary was reduced to simple geometric elements.


title: Piet Mondrian

text: Mondrian's art was highly utopian and was concerned with a search for universal values and aesthetics. He proclaimed in 1914: "Art is higher than reality and has no direct relation to reality. To approach the spiritual in art, one will make as little use as possible of reality, because reality is opposed to the spiritual. We find ourselves in the presence of an abstract art. Art should be above reality, otherwise it would have no value for man." His art, however, always remained rooted in nature.


title: Piet Mondrian

text: He was a contributor to the "De Stijl" art movement and group, which he co-founded with Theo van Doesburg. He evolved a non-representational form which he termed "Neoplasticism". This was the new 'pure plastic art' which he believed was necessary in order to create 'universal beauty'. To express this, Mondrian eventually decided to limit his formal vocabulary to the three primary colors (red, blue and yellow), the three primary values (black, white and gray) and the two primary directions (horizontal and vertical). Mondrian's arrival in Paris from the Netherlands in 1911 marked the beginning of a period of profound change. He encountered experiments in Cubism and with the intent of integrating himself within the Parisian avant-garde removed an 'a' from the Dutch spelling of his name (Mondriaan).


title: Piet Mondrian

text: Mondrian's work had an enormous influence on 20th century art, influencing not only the course of abstract painting and numerous major styles and art movements (e.g. Color Field painting, Abstract Expressionism and Minimalism), but also fields outside the domain of painting, such as design, architecture and fashion. Design historian Stephen Bayley said: "Mondrian has come to mean Modernism. His name and his work sum up the High Modernist ideal. I don't like the word 'iconic', so let's say that he's become totemic – a totem for everything Modernism set out to be."


title: Piet Mondrian

text: Mondrian was born in Amersfoort, province of Utrecht in the Netherlands, the second of his parents' children. He was descended from Christian Dirkzoon Monderyan who lived in The Hague as early as 1670. The family moved to Winterswijk when his father, Pieter Cornelius Mondrian, was appointed head teacher at a local primary school. Mondrian was introduced to art from an early age. His father was a qualified drawing teacher, and, with his uncle, Fritz Mondrian (a pupil of Willem Maris of the Hague School of artists), the younger Piet often painted and drew along the river Gein.


title: Piet Mondrian

text: After a strict Protestant upbringing, in 1892, Mondrian entered the Academy for Fine Art in Amsterdam. He was already qualified as a teacher. He began his career as a teacher in primary education, but he also practiced painting. Most of his work from this period is naturalistic or Impressionistic, consisting largely of landscapes. These pastoral images of his native country depict windmills, fields, and rivers, initially in the Dutch Impressionist manner of the Hague School and then in a variety of styles and techniques that attest to his search for a personal style. These paintings are representational, and they illustrate the influence that various artistic movements had on Mondrian, including pointillism and the vivid colors of Fauvism. In 1893 he had his first exhibition.


title: Piet Mondrian

text: On display in the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag are a number of paintings from this period, including such Post-Impressionist works as "The Red Mill" and "Trees in Moonrise". Another painting, "Evening" ("Avond") (1908), depicting a tree in a field at dusk, even augurs future developments by using a palette consisting almost entirely of red, yellow, and blue. Although "Avond" is only limitedly abstract, it is the earliest Mondrian painting to emphasize primary colors.


title: Piet Mondrian

text: Mondrian's earliest paintings showing a degree of abstraction are a series of canvases from 1905 to 1908 that depict dim scenes of indistinct trees and houses reflected in still water. Although the result leads the viewer to begin focusing on the forms over the content, these paintings are still firmly rooted in nature, and it is only the knowledge of Mondrian's later achievements that leads one to search in these works for the roots of his future abstraction.


title: Piet Mondrian

text: Mondrian's art was intimately related to his spiritual and philosophical studies. In 1908, he became interested in the theosophical movement launched by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky in the late 19th century, and in 1909 he joined the Dutch branch of the Theosophical Society. The work of Blavatsky and a parallel spiritual movement, Rudolf Steiner's Anthroposophy, significantly affected the further development of his aesthetic. Blavatsky believed that it was possible to attain a more profound knowledge of nature than that provided by empirical means, and much of Mondrian's work for the rest of his life was inspired by his search for that spiritual knowledge. In 1918, he wrote "I got everything from the Secret Doctrine", referring to a book written by Blavatsky. In 1921, in a letter to Steiner, Mondrian argued that his neoplasticism was "the art of the foreseeable future for all true Anthroposophists and Theosophists". He remained a committed Theosophist in subsequent years, although he also believed that his own artistic current, neoplasticism, would eventually become part of a larger, ecumenical spirituality.


title: Piet Mondrian

text: Mondrian and his later work were deeply influenced by the 1911 "Moderne Kunstkring" exhibition of Cubism in Amsterdam. His search for simplification is shown in two versions of "Still Life with Ginger Pot" ("Stilleven met Gemberpot"). The 1911 version, is Cubist; in the 1912 version, the objects are reduced to a round shape with triangles and rectangles.


title: Piet Mondrian

text: In 1911, Mondrian moved to Paris and changed his name, dropping an "a" from "Mondriaan", to emphasize his departure from the Netherlands, and his integration within the Parisian avant-garde. While in Paris, the influence of the Cubist style of Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque appeared almost immediately in Mondrian's work. Paintings such as "The Sea" (1912) and his various studies of trees from that year still contain a measure of representation, but, increasingly, they are dominated by geometric shapes and interlocking planes. While Mondrian was eager to absorb the Cubist influence into his work, it seems clear that he saw Cubism as a "port of call" on his artistic journey, rather than as a destination. Piet Mondrian’s Cubist period lasted from 1912 to 1917.


title: Piet Mondrian

text: Unlike the Cubists, Mondrian still attempted to reconcile his painting with his spiritual pursuits, and in 1913 he began to fuse his art and his theosophical studies into a theory that signaled his final break from representational painting. While Mondrian was visiting the Netherlands in 1914, World War I began, forcing him to remain there for the duration of the conflict. During this period, he stayed at the Laren artists' colony, where he met Bart van der Leck and Theo van Doesburg, who were both undergoing their own personal journeys toward abstraction. Van der Leck's use of only primary colors in his art greatly influenced Mondrian. After a meeting with Van der Leck in 1916, Mondrian wrote, "My technique which was more or less Cubist, and therefore more or less pictorial, came under the influence of his precise method." With Van Doesburg, Mondrian founded "De Stijl" ("The Style"), a journal of the De Stijl Group, in which he first published essays defining his theory, which he called neoplasticism.


title: Piet Mondrian

text: Mondrian published ""De Nieuwe Beelding in de schilderkunst"" ("The New Plastic in Painting"), in twelve installments during 1917 and 1918. This was his first major attempt to express his artistic theory in writing. Mondrian's best and most-often quoted expression of this theory, however, comes from a letter he wrote to H. P. Bremmer in 1914:


title: Piet Mondrian

text: Over the next two decades, Mondrian methodically developed his signature style embracing the Classical, Platonic, Euclidean worldview where he simply focused on his, now iconic, horizontal and vertical black lines forming squares and rectangles filled with primary hues.


title: Piet Mondrian

text: When World War I ended in 1918, Mondrian returned to France, where he would remain until 1938. Immersed in post-war Paris culture of artistic innovation, he flourished and fully embraced the art of pure abstraction for the rest of his life. Mondrian began producing grid-based paintings in late 1919, and in 1920, the style for which he came to be renowned began to appear.


title: Piet Mondrian

text: In the early paintings of this style, the lines delineating the rectangular forms are relatively thin, and they are gray, not black. The lines also tend to fade as they approach the edge of the painting, rather than stopping abruptly. The forms themselves, smaller and more numerous than in later paintings, are filled with primary colors, black, or gray, and nearly all of them are colored; only a few are left white.


title: Piet Mondrian

text: During late 1920 and 1921, Mondrian's paintings arrive at what is to casual observers their definitive and mature form. Thick black lines now separate the forms, which are larger and fewer in number, and more of the forms are left white. This was not the culmination of his artistic evolution, however. Although the refinements became subtler, Mondrian's work continued to evolve during his years in Paris.


title: Piet Mondrian

text: In the 1921 paintings, many, though not all, of the black lines stop short at a seemingly arbitrary distance from the edge of the canvas, although the divisions between the rectangular forms remain intact. Here, too, the rectangular forms remain mostly colored. As the years passed and Mondrian's work evolved further, he began extending all of the lines to the edges of the canvas, and he began to use fewer and fewer colored forms, favoring white instead.


title: Piet Mondrian

text: These tendencies are particularly obvious in the "lozenge" works that Mondrian began producing with regularity in the mid-1920s. The "lozenge" paintings are square canvases tilted 45 degrees, so that they have a diamond shape. Typical of these is "Schilderij No. 1: Lozenge With Two Lines and Blue" (1926). One of the most minimal of Mondrian's canvases, this painting consists only of two black, perpendicular lines and a small blue triangular form. The lines extend all the way to the edges of the canvas, almost giving the impression that the painting is a fragment of a larger work.


title: Piet Mondrian

text: Although one's view of the painting is hampered by the glass protecting it, and by the toll that age and handling have obviously taken on the canvas, a close examination of this painting begins to reveal something of the artist's method. The painting is not composed of perfectly flat planes of color, as one might expect. Subtle brush strokes are evident throughout. The artist appears to have used different techniques for the various elements. The black lines are the flattest elements, with the least depth. The colored forms have the most obvious brush strokes, all running in one direction. Most interesting, however, are the white forms, which clearly have been painted in layers, using brush strokes running in different directions. This generates a greater sense of depth in the white forms so that they appear to overwhelm the lines and the colors, which indeed they were doing, as Mondrian's paintings of this period came to be increasingly dominated by white space.


title: Piet Mondrian

text: In 1926, Katherine Dreier, co-founder of New York City's Society of Independent Artists (along with Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray), visited Piet Mondrian's studio in Paris and acquired one of his diamond compositions, Painting I. This was then shown during an exhibition organized by the Society of Independent Artists in the Brooklyn Museum--the first major exhibition of modern art in America since the Armory Show. She stated in the catalog that "Holland has produced three great painters who, though a logical expression of their own country, rose above it through the vigor of their personality – the first was Rembrandt, the second was Van Gogh, and the third is Mondrian."


title: Piet Mondrian

text: As the years progressed, lines began to take precedence over forms in Mondrian's paintings. In the 1930s, he began to use thinner lines and double lines more frequently, punctuated with a few small colored forms, if any at all. Double lines particularly excited Mondrian, for he believed they offered his paintings a new dynamism which he was eager to explore. The introduction of the double line in his work was influenced by the work of his friend and contemporary Marlow Moss.


title: Piet Mondrian

text: From 1934 to 1935, three of Mondrian's paintings were exhibited as part of the "Abstract and Concrete" exhibitions in the UK at Oxford, London, and Liverpool.


title: Piet Mondrian

text: In September 1938, Mondrian left Paris in the face of advancing fascism and moved to London. After the Netherlands was invaded and Paris fell in 1940, he left London for Manhattan in New York City, where he would remain until his death. Some of Mondrian's later works are difficult to place in terms of his artistic development because there were quite a few canvases that he began in Paris or London and only completed months or years later in Manhattan. The finished works from this later period are visually busy, with more lines than any of his work since the 1920s, placed in an overlapping arrangement that is almost cartographical in appearance. He spent many long hours painting on his own until his hands blistered, and he sometimes cried or made himself sick.


title: Piet Mondrian

text: Mondrian produced "Lozenge Composition With Four Yellow Lines" (1933), a simple painting that innovated thick, colored lines instead of black ones. After that one painting, this practice remained dormant in Mondrian's work until he arrived in Manhattan, at which time he began to embrace it with abandon. In some examples of this new direction, such as "Composition" (1938) / "Place de la Concorde" (1943), he appears to have taken unfinished black-line paintings from Paris and completed them in New York by adding short perpendicular lines of different colors, running between the longer black lines, or from a black line to the edge of the canvas. The newly colored areas are thick, almost bridging the gap between lines and forms, and it is startling to see color in a Mondrian painting that is unbounded by black. Other works mix long lines of red amidst the familiar black lines, creating a new sense of depth by the addition of a colored layer on top of the black one. His painting "Composition No. 10", 1939–1942, characterized by primary colors, white ground and black grid lines clearly defined Mondrian's radical but classical approach to the rectangle.


title: Piet Mondrian

text: On 23 September 1940 Mondrian left Europe for New York aboard the Cunard White Star Line ship , departing from Liverpool. The new canvases that Mondrian began in Manhattan are even more startling, and indicate the beginning of a new idiom that was cut short by the artist's death. "New York City" (1942) is a complex lattice of red, blue, and yellow lines, occasionally interlacing to create a greater sense of depth than his previous works. An unfinished 1941 version of this work, titled "New York City I", uses strips of painted paper tape, which the artist could rearrange at will to experiment with different designs. In October 2022 it was revealed that the work, which was first displayed at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York in 1945, had been displayed upside down, since at least 1980, at the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen in Germany, where it is now held. The gallery explained that it would continue to display it the wrong way up to avoid damaging it.


title: Piet Mondrian

text: His painting "Broadway Boogie-Woogie" (1942–43) at the Museum of Modern Art was highly influential in the school of abstract geometric painting. The piece is made up of a number of shimmering squares of bright color that leap from the canvas, then appear to shimmer, drawing the viewer into those neon lights. In this painting and the unfinished "Victory Boogie Woogie" (1942–1944), Mondrian replaced former solid lines with lines created from small adjoining rectangles of color, created in part by using small pieces of paper tape in various colors. Larger unbounded rectangles of color punctuate the design, some with smaller concentric rectangles inside them. While Mondrian's works of the 1920s and 1930s tend to have an almost scientific austerity about them, these are bright, lively paintings, reflecting the upbeat music that inspired them and the city in which they were made.


title: Piet Mondrian

text: In these final works, the forms have indeed usurped the role of the lines, opening another new door for Mondrian's development as an abstractionist. The "Boogie-Woogie" paintings were clearly more of a revolutionary change than an evolutionary one, representing the most profound development in Mondrian's work since his abandonment of representational art in 1913.


title: Piet Mondrian

text: In 2008 the Dutch television program "Andere Tijden" found the only known movie footage with Mondrian. The discovery of the film footage was announced at the end of a two-year research program on the "Victory Boogie Woogie". The research found that the painting was in very good condition and that Mondrian painted the composition in one session. It also was found that the composition was changed radically by Mondrian shortly before his death by using small pieces of colored tape.


title: Piet Mondrian

text: When the 47-year-old Piet Mondrian left the Netherlands for unfettered Paris for the second and last time in 1919, he set about at once to make his studio a nurturing environment for paintings he had in mind that would increasingly express the principles of neoplasticism about which he had been writing for two years. To hide the studio's structural flaws quickly and inexpensively, he tacked up large rectangular placards, each in a single color or neutral hue. Smaller colored paper squares and rectangles, composed together, accented the walls. Then came an intense period of painting. Again he addressed the walls, repositioning the colored cutouts, adding to their number, altering the dynamics of color and space, producing new tensions and equilibrium. Before long, he had established a creative schedule in which a period of painting took turns with a period of experimentally regrouping the smaller papers on the walls, a process that directly fed the next period of painting. It was a pattern he followed for the rest of his life, through wartime moves from Paris to London's Hampstead in 1938 and 1940, across the Atlantic to Manhattan.


title: Piet Mondrian

text: At the age of 71 in the fall of 1943, Mondrian moved into his second and final Manhattan studio at 15 East 59th Street, and set about to recreate the environment he had learned over the years was most congenial to his modest way of life and most stimulating to his art. He painted the high walls the same off-white he used on his easel and on the seats, tables and storage cases he designed and fashioned meticulously from discarded orange and apple-crates. He glossed the top of a white metal stool in the same brilliant primary red he applied to the cardboard sheath he made for the radio-phonograph that spilled forth his beloved jazz from well-traveled records. Visitors to this last studio seldom saw more than one or two new canvases, but found, often to their astonishment, that eight large compositions of colored bits of paper he had tacked and re-tacked to the walls in ever-changing relationships constituted together an environment that, paradoxically and simultaneously, was both kinetic and serene, stimulating and restful. It was the best space, Mondrian said, that he had inhabited. He was there for only a few months, as he died in February 1944.


title: Piet Mondrian

text: After his death, Mondrian's friend and sponsor in Manhattan, artist Harry Holtzman, and another painter friend, Fritz Glarner, carefully documented the studio on film and in still photographs before opening it to the public for a six-week exhibition. Before dismantling the studio, Holtzman (who was also Mondrian's heir) traced the wall compositions precisely, prepared exact portable facsimiles of the space each had occupied, and affixed to each the original surviving cut-out components. These portable Mondrian compositions have become known as "The Wall Works". Since Mondrian's death, they have been exhibited twice at Manhattan's Museum of Modern Art (1983 and 1995–96), once in SoHo at the Carpenter + Hochman Gallery (1984), once each at the Galerie Tokoro in Tokyo, Japan (1993), the XXII Biennial of Sao Paulo (1994), the University of Michigan (1995), and – the first time shown in Europe – at the Akademie der Künste (Academy of The Arts), in Berlin (22 February – 22 April 2007). His work was also shown in a retrospective exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery in London, which ran from August – September 1955.


title: Piet Mondrian

text: Piet Mondrian died of pneumonia on 1 February 1944 and was interred at the Cypress Hills Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.


title: Piet Mondrian

text: On 3 February 1944 a memorial was held for Mondrian at the Universal Chapel on Lexington Avenue and 52nd Street in Manhattan. The service was attended by nearly 200 people including Alexander Archipenko, Marc Chagall, Marcel Duchamp, Fernand Léger, Alexander Calder and Robert Motherwell.


title: Piet Mondrian

text: The Mondrian / Holtzman Trust functions as Mondrian's official estate, and "aims to promote awareness of Mondrian's artwork and to ensure the integrity of his work".


title: Piet Mondrian

text: Mondrian was described by critic Robert Hughes, in his 1980 book "The Shock of the New", as "one of the supreme artists of the 20th century." Likewise in his television documentaries of "The Shock of the New", Hughes referred to Mondrian considered again as "one of the greatest artists of the 20th century (...) who was one of the last painters who believed that the conditions of human life could be changed by making pictures". Dutch art historian Carel Blotkamp, an authority on De Stijl, reaffirmed the same belief that he was "one of the great artists of the twentieth century".


title: Piet Mondrian

text: On November 14 2022, Mondrian's "Composition No. II" was sold at Sotheby's Auction for US $51 million, which beat a previous record of US $50.6 million for his work. "Composition No. II" features a 20-inch by 20-inch canvas with a large red square in the upper right corner, a small blue square in the bottom left corner, and a yellow block with all outlined by black.


title: Piet Mondrian

text: In October 2020, Mondrian's heirs filed a lawsuit in a U.S. court against the Kaiser Wilhelm Museum in Krefeld, Germany for the return of four paintings by Mondrian.


title: Piet Mondrian

text: In December 2021, Mondrian's heirs sued the Philadelphia Museum of Art for the return of Mondrian's "Composition with Blue" (1928) which had been seized by the Nazis, and passed through the art dealers Karl Buchholz and Curt Valentin before being gifted to the museum by Albert E. Gallatin.


title: Piet Mondrian

text: From 6 June to 5 October 2014, the Tate Liverpool displayed the largest UK collection of Mondrian's works, in commemoration of the 70th anniversary of his death. "Mondrian and his Studios" included a life-size reconstruction of his Paris studio. Charles Darwent, in "The Guardian", wrote: "With its black floor and white walls hung with moveable panels of red, yellow and blue, the studio at Rue du Départ was not just a place for making Mondrians. It was a Mondrian – and a generator of Mondrians." He has been described as "the world’s greatest abstract geometrist".


title: Percy Jackson

text: Perseus "Percy" Jackson is a fictional character, the title character and narrator of Rick Riordan's "Percy Jackson & the Olympians" series. He is also one of seven main protagonists of the sequel series "The Heroes of Olympus", appearing in every book except "The Lost Hero," and appears in the "Trials of Apollo" series, making him one of the few characters to appear in all three series of the Camp Half-Blood chronicles. He has also been a narrator and protagonist in Riordan's Greco-Roman/Egyptian crossover stories, part of the "Demigods and Magicians" collection. The character serves as the narrator in "Percy Jackson's Greek Gods" and "Percy Jackson's Greek Heroes", also by Rick Riordan.


title: Percy Jackson

text: Percy Jackson is played by Logan Lerman in the film adaptations and by Chris McCarrell in the . Walker Scobell is set to portray the character in the upcoming TV adaptation for Disney+.


title: Percy Jackson

text: Development of the character Percy Jackson began when Rick Riordan started inventing stories for his son Haley Riordan, who was diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia in the spring of 2002. When Haley was in second grade and he was studying Greek mythology, he asked his father to tell him bedtime stories based on those myths. When his father ran out of ideas, Haley suggested that he make up new stories that combined existing mythological characters with new ones. This led Riordan to create the fictional character of Percy Jackson and the story of his travels across the United States to recover Zeus's lightning-bolt. Haley then suggested it be written as a novel. Riordan received input on the manuscript from some of his middle school students before taking the idea of Percy Jackson to a publisher.


title: Percy Jackson

text: Riordan has said that Percy Jackson's original character was "inspired by my son's own struggle" at school. Haley and Percy have been cited as the "same age" and share several character traits, though they are by no means the same person. Riordan has also stated that Percy has "[his] sense of humor" and is also "based on many of the students [he has] had in the past."


title: Percy Jackson

text: In the story, Percy Jackson is portrayed as a demigod, the son of the mortal Sally Jackson and the Greek god Poseidon. He has ADHD and dyslexia, allegedly because he is hardwired to read Ancient Greek and has inborn "battlefield reflexes". Percy's birthday is August 18. In the first novel of the series, "The Lightning Thief", he is twelve years old.


title: Percy Jackson

text: His personality is described as "changeable like the sea" and hard to predict — with the important exception that he is dangerously loyal to his friends and family. The goddess Athena describes this as his fatal flaw. Percy's "powers", which start small and develop as the books proceed, include controlling water, making hurricanes, breathing underwater, and talking to horse-like animals and fish. He also becomes an accomplished sword-fighter and leader. Throughout "Percy Jackson & the Olympians", Percy grows more confident and brave. He serves as the first head counselor of the Poseidon cabin at his demigod summer camp – Camp Half-Blood.


title: Percy Jackson

text: After "The Last Olympian", the next time Percy is seen is in "The Son of Neptune", the second book in the sequel series "The Heroes of Olympus". He has amnesia and slowly struggles to regain his memory over the course of the novel. For a while in the book he cannot remember anything other than Annabeth Chase, his long-time friend. He arrives at a Roman establishment called Camp Jupiter, and is elected praetor as a result of the help he offers them on a quest. During the remaining three books in the third person his character develops significantly. He develops an irrational fear of drowning; is humbled by weakening sword-fighting skills; and expresses a new tendency to make ambiguous moral choices in defense of his friends and family. One of the character's darkest moments comes in "The House of Hades", when Percy discovers that he can control the water in a person's body, and uses it to torture the goddess Akhlys. Percy's girlfriend Annabeth Chase is present and brings him to his senses, but remains haunted by his readiness to use that new power.


title: Percy Jackson

text: At the end of "The Blood of Olympus", Percy and Annabeth reveal plans to finish their senior year of high school together in New York, and then attend college in New Rome (a demigod-only city located in California, guarded by Camp Jupiter). In "The Hidden Oracle", Percy has been accepted to the college with a full scholarship, provided he can pass his SATs and graduate on time despite the semester he spent away (while missing during "The Lost Hero"). Percy's concern for his future and family leads him to uncharacteristically turn down Lester Papadopoulous's request for help on a quest to regain his godhood (Papadopoulous being the mortal form of the god Apollo).


title: Percy Jackson

text: Percy is the son of Poseidon; his mother, Sally Jackson, married a man named Gabe Ugliano when Percy was young. Ugliano was abusive towards Percy and Sally, the latter of whom leaves him in "The Lightning Thief". It is later known that Sally married Ugliano as the latter was so mortal and human and gave off such a stench that no monster would roam anywhere near his surroundings. As Percy was a strong demigod (a son of Poseidon, one of the "Big Three") and such demigods attract monsters more than usual, she had to marry him to protect Percy from danger.


title: Percy Jackson

text: Between the time of "The Battle of the Labyrinth" and "The Last Olympian", Sally marries Paul Blofis, a man she met in a writing seminar. Percy likes and respects his new step-father and eventually reveals to him that he is a demigod. Though understandably shocked, Blofis still stays with the Jackson family and accepts Percy's complicated life. In "The Hidden Oracle", Sally is seven months pregnant with Paul's child, and later gives birth to Estelle in "The Tower of Nero", making her Percy's half-sister.


title: Percy Jackson

text: Percy has a half-brother named Tyson, who is a cyclops. Though Percy is related to virtually every character and creature in Greek mythology through his father Poseidon, Tyson is one of the only beings whom he acknowledges as family. Percy first met Tyson at a school called Meriwether Prep, and did not learn of their relationship until much later. Percy is also distantly related to horses, pegasi, some other monsters, and numerous gods and demigods through his father. Significant examples of this would be that he is technically a grandson of Kronos, nephew to Hades, Zeus, and numerous other Olympians, as well as the half-nephew of Chiron.


title: Percy Jackson

text: Percy's oldest friend is Grover Underwood, a satyr originally tasked with protecting him and bringing him safely to Camp Half-Blood. His next-oldest friend is Annabeth Chase, whom he meets when she helps nurse him back to health after his first fight with the Minotaur. The two accompany him on his first, and most of his subsequent, quests.


title: Percy Jackson

text: Percy is also close to many other characters in the book series. His closest friends include Thalia Grace, daughter of Zeus and leader of the Hunters of Artemis; Luke Castellan, son of Hermes (at first Percy's friend, then his enemy, and finally Percy's friend at the time of his death); Nico di Angelo, son of Hades; Rachel Elizabeth Dare, a mortal Pythia, or host of a prophetic spirit; Hazel Levesque, daughter of Pluto; Leo Valdez, son of Hephaestus; Jason Grace, son of Jupiter; Piper McLean, daughter of Aphrodite; and Frank Zhang, son of Mars. Frank Zhang is also a descendant of Periclymenus, descendant of Poseidon, and so distantly related to Percy. Percy also has a unique relationship with Clarisse La Rue, daughter of Ares and Camp Half-Blood's resident bully, whom he allegedly dislikes but often helps.


title: Percy Jackson

text: Percy's oldest romantic relationship is with Annabeth Chase. Their relationship gradually changes throughout the first series, with the goddess Aphrodite first insinuating that it was romantic in "The Titan's Curse", when Percy undertakes a quest to free Annabeth from the Titan Atlas. However, Percy's first move towards a serious relationship does not occur until the final pages of "The Last Olympian".


title: Percy Jackson

text: Other romantic relationships are shown to have been possibilities before this however. As the final battle with the Titans approaches after "The Battle of the Labyrinth", Percy spends time with his mortal friend Rachel Dare. Their relationship causes Chase to become jealous and helps enact the events of "The Last Olympian". Towards the end of the book, Rachel realizes that her attraction is not to Percy, but to the mythological world he is in, because of her destiny as the next Oracle of Delphi.


title: Percy Jackson

text: Three other characters in the novels are romantically interested in Percy, though he remains mostly oblivious. Nico di Angelo's hero worship of Percy turns into an ever-worsening crush on him; at the same time, Nico resents Percy because he believes that Percy had allowed his sister Bianca to die in battle. The second is Calypso, who was banished to the island of Ogygia. The third is Reyna Ramírez-Arellano, who, while is silently attracted to her comrade Jason Grace, finds herself attracted to many of Percy's similar traits.


title: Percy Jackson

text: Percy has several animal companions. The first is Blackjack, a black pegasus that Percy liberates from the "Princess Andromeda" in "The Sea of Monsters". Blackjack is referred to as a "mare" in "The Sea of Monsters", but is called a stallion in all later books. Blackjack becomes Percy's personal steed and companion. Blackjack is unfailingly loyal to Percy, and on several occasions manages to save Percy's life. Blackjack always calls Percy "boss" and is quite fond of sugar cubes and doughnuts.


title: Percy Jackson

text: Percy's second magical companion is Mrs. O'Leary, who is introduced in the fourth novel, "Battle of the Labyrinth". She is a hellhound whom he receives from Daedalus before the inventor dies. Though Mrs. O'Leary is described as "the size of a tank", the magical veil known as the Mist causes her to appear as a poodle to mortals. Percy often refers to her as "his dog". Percy sometimes uses Mrs. O'Leary's ability to "shadow travel" to cross large distances almost instantaneously. His brother Tyson and friend Charles Beckendorf are Mrs. O'Leary's other caretakers, though she is also fond of Nico di Angelo.


title: Percy Jackson

text: Percy also knows a hippocampus named Rainbow, who likes Tyson. It first appears in "The Sea of Monsters", where it helps Percy and his friends enter Luke Castellan's boat "Princess Andromeda". It later saves Tyson's life and returns to help the two brothers on several occasions.


title: Percy Jackson

text: Percy has also traveled with a small calico kitten called Small Bob by Bob the Titan. Small Bob was accidentally created by one of Atlas's servants who was attempting to summon a group of spartoi. When Percy is trapped in Tartarus during "The House of Hades", Annabeth, Bob, and he find and travel with the kitten. He is fond of Bob and protective of the traveling group, leading Bob to call him "a good monster". Small Bob can transform into a full sized saber-toothed tiger at will and occasionally appears as a skeleton for a few seconds at a time. His purr is disproportionately loud for an animal of his size. Small Bob remains in Tartarus with Iapetus to help hold open the Doors of Death. It is unclear if he lives or dies, but he is not mentioned again.


title: Percy Jackson

text: Percy is described as handsome, with messy jet black hair, a Mediterranean complexion, and sea-green eyes like his father Poseidon. His mother notes that Percy looked just like his father, and his friend Hazel says that he has the looks of a Roman god.


title: Percy Jackson

text: Like most demigods, Percy has ADHD and dyslexia, the former because of his godly battle instincts, and the latter because his brain takes more naturally to Ancient Greek than to English. After being trained at Camp Half-Blood, he has developed a Greek fighting style (described as unpredictable by New Romans) and is an expert swordsman. After bathing in the River Styx, Percy was given the curse of Achilles, making him invulnerable except for the small of his back. He loses this power when it is washed away in the Little Tiber surrounding New Rome, as part of his acceptance there. In addition, he has an "empathy link" with his first friend from Camp Half-Blood, Grover.


title: Percy Jackson

text: As a son of Poseidon, one of the "Big Three" (the others being Zeus and Hades), Percy is more powerful than most of the gods' other children. He also has a degree of authority over his father's subjects. Percy is gifted with several semi-divine abilities: the ability to manipulate water and currents; enhanced strength/energy and senses while near the water; the ability to breathe underwater; the ability to operate old sailing ships with his mind; mental communication with marine animals, equine animals, water nymphs, and some of his relatives; and the creation of small earthquakes and hurricanes. All of Percy's abilities correspond to the myths about and abilities of his father.


title: Percy Jackson

text: Percy's main weapon is "Anaklusmos" ("Riptide"), a sword made of celestial bronze given to him by Chiron the centaur, on the instructions of Poseidon; the sword's history goes back to Heracles, who was gifted that sword by the nymph Zoë Nightshade, a daughter of Atlas. Riptide can change shape; when it is not a sword, it appears as a ballpoint pen engraved with its name. It reappears in the character's pocket when lost. Since it is made of celestial bronze it will harm gods, demigods, and monsters, but simply passes through mortals. Percy has also used magic javelins made by his brother Tyson, magically camouflaging armor made by Charles Beckendorf, and the wand of Carter Kane. In "The Sea of Monsters", his half-brother Tyson gives him a wristwatch that changes into a shield covered with designs, but the watch is damaged in "The Titan's Curse" and lost in "The Battle of the Labyrinth".


title: Percy Jackson

text: Percy has several magical items obtained from battles against monsters. The first of these is the horn of the Minotaur, which he obtains after killing the beast on Half-Blood Hill. Another is the head of Medusa, which he cuts off after killing the gorgon. He gives the head away several times, finally leaving it with his mother, who "disposes of it". He also obtains a bullet- and sword-proof lion skin coat when he killed the Nemean lion, which he later sacrifices as an offering to Poseidon in order to save Annabeth.


title: Summer Glau

text: Summer Lyn Glau (; born July 24, 1981) is an American actress best known for her roles in science fiction and fantasy television series: as River Tam in "Firefly" (2002) and its continuation film "Serenity" (2005), as Tess Doerner in "The 4400" (2005–2007), as Cameron in "" (2008–2009), and as Isabel Rochev/Ravager in "Arrow" (2013–2014).


title: Summer Glau

text: Glau was born in San Antonio, Texas, where she grew up with her two younger sisters Kaitlin and Christie. She is of Scots-Irish and German ancestry. Her mother is a schoolteacher, and her father a general contractor.


title: Summer Glau

text: Glau received a scholarship to a ballet company and was homeschooled from grades 3 to 12 to accommodate her ballet training. In addition to her classical ballet training, she studied tango and flamenco. After a broken toe ended her dancing career, Glau moved to Los Angeles in 2002 to pursue acting.


title: Summer Glau

text: Glau's first television credit was a guest role as a ballerina on a 2002 episode of the television series "Angel". There she caught the eye of director Joss Whedon who later cast her in his critically acclaimed but short-lived TV series "Firefly" as River Tam, a role she reprised for the show's feature film sequel "Serenity". Glau previously auditioned for the role of a Power Ranger (White Wild Force Ranger Alyssa Enrilé) in "Power Rangers Wild Force" but lost to actress Jessica Rey before meeting Whedon.


title: Summer Glau

text: Glau appeared on the episode "Love Conquers Al" of the TV series "Cold Case". She had a small role in the film "Sleepover", in which she played the high school senior Shelly. She also appeared in the "" episode "What's Eating Gilbert Grissom?", and season two of "The Unit" as Crystal Burns (the girlfriend of Jeremy Erhart). In 2006, Glau played Tess Doerner, a paranoid schizophrenic returnee in season two's premiere of "The 4400", and became a recurring character from season three onwards. She also starred in the horror comedy film "Mammoth". Glau was cast in the ABC Family TV movie "The Initiation of Sarah".


title: Summer Glau

text: In "", a series that debuted January 13, 2008, Glau played the role of Cameron Phillips, a Terminator infiltration unit sent back to protect John Connor and Sarah Connor from Skynet. The series' seventh episode, "The Demon Hand", included several scenes in which Glau (in character as Cameron) dances ballet and, Glau also played (Cameron's human doppelgänger) in the second season episodes "Allison from Palmdale" and "". Glau also guest starred as herself in a 2009 episode of the CBS situation comedy "The Big Bang Theory".


title: Summer Glau

text: On August 26, 2009, it was confirmed after much speculation that Glau would be joining the cast of Joss Whedon's "Dollhouse" for at least two episodes in season two's early part. She portrayed Bennett, the programmer for a rival Dollhouse. On March 12, 2010, it was announced that she would be joining the cast of NBC's "The Cape" in a leading role. In June 2010, she was confirmed as the female lead in the horror comedy film "Knights of Badassdom". On July 11, 2011, Glau was cast on "Alphas" as Skylar Adams, a recurring alpha and mother to Zoe Adams, and a former acquaintance of Dr. Rosen and Nina. Glau voiced Kara Zor-El in the DC Comics original animated movie "".


title: Summer Glau

text: Glau has been married to Val Morrison since 2014. In January 2015, Glau gave birth to her first daughter. She gave birth to her second daughter in October 2017.


title: Affirmative action

text: Affirmative action, also known as positive discrimination, involves sets of policies and practices within a government or organization seeking to include particular groups based on their gender, race, sexuality, creed or nationality in areas in which such groups are underrepresented - such as education and employment. Historically and internationally, support for affirmative action has sought to achieve goals such as bridging inequalities in employment and pay, increasing access to education, promoting diversity, and redressing apparent past wrongs, harms, or hindrances.


title: Affirmative action

text: The nature of affirmative-action policies varies from region to region and exists on a spectrum from a hard quota to merely targeting encouragement for increased participation. Some countries use a quota system, reserving a certain percentage of government jobs, political positions, and school vacancies for members of a certain group; an example of this is the reservation system in India.


title: Affirmative action

text: In some other jurisdictions where quotas are not used, minority-group members are given preference or special consideration in selection processes. In the United States, affirmative action in employment and education has been the subject of legal and political controversy. In 2003, the Supreme Court of the United States, in "Grutter v. Bollinger", held that the University of Michigan Law School could consider race as a plus-factor when evaluating applicants holistically and maintained the prohibition on the use of quotas.


title: Affirmative action

text: In the United Kingdom, hiring someone simply because of their protected-group status, without regard to their performance, is illegal. However, the law in the United Kingdom does allow for membership in a protected and disadvantaged group to be considered in hiring and promotion when the group is under-represented in a given area and if the candidates are of equal merit (in which case membership in a disadvantaged group can become a "tie-breaker"). An alternative approach, common in the United Kingdom and elsewhere in Europe, is positive action. Under this approach, the focus tends to be on ensuring equal opportunity and, for example, targeted advertising campaigns to encourage ethnic minority candidates to join police forces. This is often described as being "color blind", although the social viability of that concept is heavily contested by certain elements in the United States.


title: Affirmative action

text: In the United States, affirmative action is controversial and public opinion on the subject is divided. Supporters of affirmative action argue that it promotes equality and representation for groups which are socio-economically disadvantaged or have faced historical discrimination or oppression. Opponents of affirmative action have argued that it is a form of reverse discrimination, that it tends to benefit the most privileged within minority groups at the expense of the least fortunate within majority groups, or that - when applied to universities - it can hinder minority students by placing them in courses too difficult for them.


title: Affirmative action

text: The term "affirmative action" was first used in the United States in "Executive Order No. 10925", signed by President John F. Kennedy on 6 March 1961, which included a provision that government contractors "take "affirmative action" to ensure that applicants are employed, and employees are treated [fairly] during employment, without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin". It was used to promote actions that achieve non-discrimination. In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson issued Executive Order 11246 which required government employers to "hire without regard to race, religion and national origin" and "take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed and that employees are treated during employment, without regard to their race, color, religion, sex or national origin."


title: Affirmative action

text: Affirmative action is intended to promote the opportunities of defined minority groups within a society to give them equal access to that of the majority population.


title: Affirmative action

text: It is often instituted for government and educational settings to ensure that certain designated groups within a society are able to participate in all provided opportunities including promotional, educational, and training opportunities.


title: Affirmative action

text: The stated justification for affirmative action by its proponents is to help compensate for past discrimination, persecution or exploitation by the ruling class of a culture, and to address existing discrimination.


title: Affirmative action

text: Several different studies investigated the effect of affirmative action on women. Kurtulus (2012) in her review of affirmative action and the occupational advancement of minorities and women during 1973–2003 showed that the effect of affirmative action on advancing black, Hispanic, and white women into management, professional, and technical occupations occurred primarily during the 1970s and early 1980s. During this period, contractors grew their shares of these groups more rapidly than non-contractors because of the implementation of affirmative action. But the positive effect of affirmative action vanished entirely in the late 1980s, which Kurtulus says may be due to the slowdown into advanced occupation for women and minorities because of the political shift of affirmative action that started by President Reagan. Becoming a federal contractor increased white women's share of professional occupations by 0.183 percentage points, or 9.3 percent, on average during these three decades, and increased black women's share by 0.052 percentage points (or by 3.9 percent). Becoming a federal contractor also increased Hispanic women's and black men's share of technical occupations on average by 0.058 percent and 0.109 percentage points respectively (or by 7.7 and 4.2 percent). These represent a substantial contribution of affirmative action to overall trends in the occupational advancement of women and minorities over the three decades under the study. A reanalysis of multiple scholarly studies, especially in Asia, considered the impact of four primary factors on support for affirmative action programs for women: gender; political factors; psychological factors; and social structure. Kim and Kim (2014) found that, "Affirmative action both corrects existing unfair treatment and gives women equal opportunity in the future."


title: Affirmative action

text: In 2012, the European Union Commission approved a plan for women to constitute 40% of non-executive board directorships in large listed companies in Europe by 2020.


title: Affirmative action

text: In Sweden, the Supreme Court has ruled that "affirmative action" ethnic quotas in universities are discrimination and hence unlawful. It said that the requirements for the intake should be the same for all. The justice minister said that the decision left no room for uncertainty.


title: Affirmative action

text: In some countries that have laws on racial equality, affirmative action is rendered illegal because it does not treat all races equally. This approach of equal treatment is sometimes described as being "color blind", in hopes that it is effective against discrimination without engaging in reverse discrimination.


title: Affirmative action

text: In such countries, the focus tends to be on ensuring equal opportunity and, for example, targeted advertising campaigns to encourage ethnic minority candidates to join the police force. This is sometimes called positive action.


title: Affirmative action

text: The apartheid government, as a matter of state policy, favoured white-owned, especially Afrikaner-owned companies. The aforementioned policies achieved the desired results, but in the process, they marginalised and excluded black people. Skilled jobs were also reserved for white people, and blacks were largely used as unskilled labour, enforced by legislation including the Mines and Works Act, the Job Reservations Act, the Native Building Workers Act, the Apprenticeship Act and the Bantu Education Act, creating and extending the "colour bar" in South African labour. Then the whites successfully persuaded the government to enact laws that highly restricted the blacks' employment opportunities.


title: Affirmative action

text: Since the 1960s the apartheid laws had been weakened. Consequently, from 1975 to 1990 the real wages of black manufacturing workers rose by 50%, while those of whites rose by 1%.


title: Affirmative action

text: The variation in skills and productivity between groups of people ultimately caused disparities in employment, occupation and income within labour markets, which provided advantages to certain groups and characteristics of people. This in due course was the motivation to introduce affirmative action in South Africa, following the end of apartheid.


title: Affirmative action

text: Following the transition to democracy in 1994, the African National Congress-led government chose to implement affirmative action legislation to correct previous imbalances (a policy known as employment equity). As such, all employers were compelled by law to employ previously disenfranchised groups (blacks, Indians, and Coloureds). A related, but distinct concept is Black Economic Empowerment.


title: Affirmative action

text: The Employment Equity Act and the Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment Act aim to promote and achieve equality in the workplace (in South Africa termed "equity"), by advancing people from designated groups. The designated groups who are to be advanced include all people of colour, women (including white women) and people with disabilities (including white people). Employment Equity legislation requires companies employing more than 50 people to design and implement plans to improve the representativity of workforce demographics, and report them to the Department of Labour.


title: Affirmative action

text: Employment Equity also forms part of a company's Black Economic Empowerment scorecard: in a relatively complex scoring system, which allows for some flexibility in the manner in which each company meets its legal commitments, each company is required to meet minimum requirements in terms of representation by previously disadvantaged groups. The matters covered include equity ownership, representation at employee and management level (up to the board of director level), procurement from black-owned businesses and social investment programs, amongst others.


title: Affirmative action

text: The policies of Employment Equity and, particularly, Black Economic empowerment have been criticised both by those who view them as discriminatory against white people, and by those who view them as ineffectual.


title: Affirmative action

text: These laws cause disproportionally high costs for small companies and reduce economic growth and employment. The laws may give the black middle-class some advantage but can make the worse-off blacks even poorer. Moreover, the Supreme Court has ruled that in principle blacks may be favored, but in practice this should not lead to unfair discrimination against the others.


title: Affirmative action

text: Affirmative action was introduced through the Employment Equality Act, 55 in 1998, 4 years after the end of apartheid. This act was passed to promote the constitutional right of equality and exercise true democracy. This idea was to eliminate unfair discrimination in employment, to ensure the implementation of employment equity to redress the effects of discrimination, to achieve a diverse workforce broadly representative of our people, to promote economic development and efficiency in the workforce and to give effects to the obligations of the Republic as a member of the International Labour Organisation.


title: Affirmative action

text: Many embraced the act; however some concluded that the act contradicted itself. The act eliminates unfair discrimination in certain sectors of the national labour market by imposing similar constraints on another.