title: Raven (DC Comics)

text: Raven spent time in the under-realms where time flows faster or was compressed. Trigon thought he only needed to liberate her and not control her to make Raven have her own image. Apparently impressed, Trigon handed her the Throne of the Under-realms to rule the place as Queen.


title: Raven (DC Comics)

text: Back in New York, Trigon's three sons, Belial, Ruskoff, and Suge, assault the Teen Titans to take Raven back. Raven, Beast Boy, and the Titans defeat them, but Trigon himself appears again and takes control of the Titans save for Red Robin, Raven and Beast Boy. The manipulated Titans attack, and while Raven and Beast Boy distract them and Trigon, Tim cuts through Trigon's eyes with his inertrite wings. Trigon, pulling out the wings from his eyes, compliments Tim before suddenly disappearing. Soon after, a woman and a group of suited men come through a portal, informing that they will take Psimon into custody and make the incident appear as if it had never happened. When questioned about the police officers Psimon has killed, the woman reveals it has been a hallucination by Trigon, so therefore it has never happened.


title: Raven (DC Comics)

text: Raven and Beast Boy are re-accepted into the Teen Titans. Raven brings controversy to the team by revealing the flirtatious relationships Tim had when under Trigon's control. Raven goes into her room, leaving the awkward situation behind. There, she summons her father, saying, "Father, I am one of them. Your plan worked perfectly", leaving questions on what side she is really playing for.


title: Raven (DC Comics)

text: Meanwhile, Tim calls Raven aside, telling that if something happens to him, the team will look up to her to lead them.


title: Raven (DC Comics)

text: After the events of "Trinity War", the Earth's greatest heroes are gone and the Crime Syndicate of America has taken over the world. The Teen Titans challenge the Crime Syndicate, but are easily overpowered by Johnny Quick and Atomica and then flung into the time stream. While the Titans are constantly flung through time, Raven is sent a few thousand years back in time. There, she is challenged by Etrigan the Demon, who recognizes her as Trigon's daughter and tries to kill her. Raven is saved by Wonder Girl, who suggests that the way to stop Raven's powers, since she was born and raised in a world between worlds, is to manipulate the energy within the time stream. Raven succeeds in anchoring the Titans with her soul-self, teleporting them through time.


title: Raven (DC Comics)

text: The Titans arrive 20 years into the future, where the son of Superman, Jon Lane Kent, has massacred most of Earth's superheroes, leaving only a few, including Beast Boy (Garfield Logan), now calling himself Beast Man, and Rose Wilson. Superboy Kon-El and Jon battle, and Kon triumphs. But Kon is sent elsewhere by an unknown power, and a severely injured Jon is swapped unknowingly as Superboy by Logan and Wilson. The Titans depart again, now to an alien planet in the 30th century, where Kid Flash is actually a rebel leader and war criminal, Bar Torr. While the Titans stay to witness the Trial of Kid Flash, Raven deduces Superboy is actually Jon, and helps send him back to the present time so that he can find a cure for his deteriorating body condition.


title: Raven (DC Comics)

text: Leaving Kid Flash and Solstice in the future, the Titans return to their original time and are united with Bunker, Beast Boy, and Skitter. Raven finds out that their journey has severed Trigon's control over her. Followed by an attack by the villain Grimm, the Titans plan a final attack on Harvest's new colony. Raven is reluctant to join because of her past actions, but Bunker tells her that everybody deserves a second chance, and Raven changes her mind. In the colony, they are surprised to find that everyone is returned to normal, and even the victims of the Culling have been restored to life. Raven plays a crucial role by finding out Harvest's scheme to extract all the metagenes to create a massive DNA strand for his usage. This is destroyed by Raven's soul-self and Harvest is finally defeated.


title: Raven (DC Comics)

text: Some time after leaving the Teen Titans, Raven set out to learn more about her human relatives in San Francisco. Raven attempted to conceal her powers before having a misadventure and then later abducted by Damian Wayne who recruited her to be part of the new Teen Titans team he was establishing to take down his grandfather Ra's al Ghul. It is then revealed that the Demon's Fist, a team initially led by Damian before he decided to follow Batman, were hunting each of the assembled Titans that Damian had abducted for their initiation into the League of Assassins. Raven turns out to be the target of the assassin by the name of Plague, whose hands can rot, decay and take the life out of anything she touches.


title: Raven (DC Comics)

text: The daughter of the cosmic demon, Trigon, Raven inherited her power, making her an extremely powerful demon in her own right and is granted both immense magical and psychic powers. In her earlier appearance, her powers are said to be strong enough to destroy a universe if left unchecked. In more recent stories, she is seemingly the most powerful of Trigon's offsprings and her powers was compared to demon lord, Neron, in which she stated to be superior too and the latter character portrayed as accepting this as fact.


title: Raven (DC Comics)

text: Primarily an empath, Raven can sense both pain and disease and remove them in her earlier appearances, assimilating them to her own body and expunge them but at a cost of great physical pain. She can also read the emotions of others and control them, also granting her telepathic-like insight into their minds. She can also induce calmness, suppress negativity, and even make someone fall in love with her. By absorbing the pain of the wounded into herself, she can induce rapid healing for the affected person.


title: Raven (DC Comics)

text: In addition to her psychic-related powers, she is considered highly adept in the mystical arts, which partly is connected to her soul-self. She is capable of a plethora of abilities through magic including: teleportation, time travel, manipulation of shadows and darkness, hypnosis, telekinesis, and chaos magic through her soul-self (a variant of magic in DC Comics capable of performing magical acts without following a system [i.e incantations, chants, etc.]).


title: Raven (DC Comics)

text: Like her brothers, Raven can induce and amplify one of the seven deadly sins (in her case, pride) or all seven of them, in any living being, however doing so will cause her to suffer spells of nausea and vomiting for several days afterward as side effects. Raven also has limited precognition, which allows her to predict future events that are about to happen, although this happens involuntarily and infrequently. She has also been shown to be an excellent hand-to-hand combatant, despite the fact that she rarely uses these abilities.


title: Raven (DC Comics)

text: Raven can also astral project a solid black energy form that takes the shape of a bird, called her soul-self. Her soul-self can travel long distances, become intangible, and is able to telepathically communicate. It can act as a shield as it can absorb a limited amount of energy and solid matter, regurgitating them before reintegrating with Raven. Using her soul-self, she can convert her physical body into her soul-self and carry or teleport herself and others over a limited distance. Her soul-self can mentally subdue at least one person by enveloping them inside of itself. Raven's soul-self could initially stay outside her body for exactly five minutes; failure to reintegrate in time would cause mental torment for her, though she eventually overcame this limitation.


title: Raven (DC Comics)

text: Raven possess a few weakness to her abilities: as an empath, she is unable to completely disconnect herself from other's emotions, being around too many people with heighten emotions can pose a risk to her. Raven is also subseptible to overwhelming mystical forces.


title: BioShock Infinite

text: BioShock Infinite is a first-person shooter video game developed by Irrational Games and published by 2K Games. The third installment in the "BioShock" series, "Infinite" was released worldwide for the Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and OS X platforms in 2013. The game is set in the year 1912 and follows its protagonist, Booker DeWitt, who is sent to the airborne city of Columbia to retrieve a young woman held captive, named Elizabeth. Booker rescues Elizabeth and the two become involved in a class war between the nativist Founders that rule Columbia and the rebel Vox Populi representing the city's underclass. Elizabeth possesses the ability to manipulate "Tears" in the space-time continuum that ravage Columbia, and Booker and Elizabeth discover she is central to the city's dark secrets. The player controls Booker Dewitt throughout the game, fighting enemies and scavenging supplies, while the AI-controlled Elizabeth provides assistance.


title: BioShock Infinite

text: Irrational Games and creative director Ken Levine based the game's setting on historical events at the turn of the 20th century, such as the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, and based the story on the concept of American exceptionalism, while also incorporating influences from more recent events at the time such as the 2011 Occupy movement. Development was troubled, and the game underwent significant changes from its originally-demonstrated forms at trade shows. The game was supported post-launch with downloadable content, including the story expansion "", which links "Infinite"s story to that of the original "BioShock" game.


title: BioShock Infinite

text: "BioShock Infinite" received critical acclaim, with praise particularly directed at its story, setting, and visual art design. It is often regarded as one of the best video games of the year, of the seventh generation of consoles, and one of the greatest video games ever made. It has sold more than 11 million copies worldwide. "Infinite" was re-released on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch as part of the remaster compilation "".


title: BioShock Infinite

text: "BioShock Infinite" is set in 1912 and takes place in a floating steampunk city-state in the sky called "Columbia", named for the female personification of the United States. The city of Columbia was founded by self-proclaimed prophet Zachary Hale Comstock, and funded by the American government as a floating world's fair and display of American exceptionalism. Tensions rose between Columbia and the US government after the city intervened in the Boxer Rebellion, and Columbia ultimately seceded from the United States and disappeared into the clouds. Comstock transforms the city into a theocratic police state, with Comstock worshipped as a prophet, and the Founding Fathers of the United States venerated as religious icons. Institutional racism and elitism are widespread in the city, with minorities serving as a labor underclass of Columbia.


title: BioShock Infinite

text: By the time of the game's events, racial tensions have risen to the point where Columbia is on the verge of civil war between the Founders and leaders of Columbia and the Vox Populi (Latin for "Voice of the People"), a resistance group led by Daisy Fitzroy who fight for the rights of the marginalized.


title: BioShock Infinite

text: Columbia is also home to "Tears" in the fabric of space-time. These Tears reveal alternate universes, and allow for interaction with them. Some individuals have exploited the insight offered by them to create radically new weapons and technologies, while several others have replicated futuristic music and songs heard from the Tears, bringing anachronistic elements into Columbia.


title: BioShock Infinite

text: The player controls protagonist Booker DeWitt, a disgraced member of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency emotionally scarred from the acts of violence he committed at the Battle of Wounded Knee. Faced with mounting gambling debts to sinister forces, he is sent to Columbia to find Elizabeth, a young woman imprisoned there since childhood, who has the ability to open Tears. Her confinement has been maintained by Songbird, a large, robotic bird-like creature who has been both her friend and her warden. Two mysterious individuals, Robert and Rosalind Lutece, direct Booker to Columbia and appear throughout his travels. Though they appear as twins, they are revealed to be the same person from two different realities, having managed to figure out how to communicate and subsequently cross realities.


title: BioShock Infinite

text: In July 1912, Booker DeWitt arrives in Columbia. In the city, he is pursued by Columbia's authorities, who recognize him as a prophesied "False Shepherd" who will corrupt Elizabeth and overthrow Columbia. Freeing Elizabeth from her tower, Booker narrowly evades her captor, The Songbird. Commandeering an airship, Booker promises to take Elizabeth to Paris; when she realizes they are going to New York City to fulfill Booker's debts, Elizabeth knocks him out and flees. Booker awakens to find the airship under the control of Daisy Fitzroy, who offers to return the ship if Booker helps her arm the Vox Populi.


title: BioShock Infinite

text: Booker and Elizabeth join forces to secure weapons from a local gunsmith. Traveling through Tears, they arrive in a world where Booker is a Vox Populi martyr and open warfare has erupted in Columbia. Elizabeth kills Fitzroy to prevent her from executing a Founder boy. Songbird attacks the duo as they try to flee Columbia, and their airship crashes back to the city. Elizabeth and Booker discover a conspiracy behind the city's founding: Elizabeth is Comstock's adopted daughter, whom he plans to groom into Columbia's leader after his death. Comstock killed his wife and the Luteces to hide the truth, and installed a siphon in Elizabeth's tower to limit her power.


title: BioShock Infinite

text: Elizabeth is recaptured by the Songbird. Pursuing her, Booker is brought forward in time to 1984 by an elderly Elizabeth as Columbia attacks New York City. This Elizabeth returns Booker to 1912 with information on controlling the Songbird, in hopes he can save her younger self and erase the torture and brainwashing she suffered. Booker rescues Elizabeth, and the pair pursue Comstock to his airship. Comstock demands that Booker explain Elizabeth's past to her, and the two begin to argue; an enraged Booker drowns Comstock in a baptismal font. Booker denies knowledge of Elizabeth's past, but she asserts that he has simply forgotten. Booker and Elizabeth direct the Songbird to destroy the Siphon, awakening Elizabeth's full powers.


title: BioShock Infinite

text: Elizabeth opens a Tear and transports them to the underwater city of Rapture. The newly-aware Elizabeth explains there are countless alternate lighthouses and versions of Booker and Elizabeth; their reality is one of an infinite number depending on their choices. She shows that Robert Lutece approached Booker on behalf of Comstock to acquire Booker's infant daughter, Anna DeWitt, in exchange for erasing his debts, as Comstock was rendered aged and sterile as a result of exposure to Tears. Booker attempted to take Anna back from Comstock, but the closing Tear severed Anna's finger. Comstock raised Anna as his own daughter, Elizabeth; her severed finger, which caused her to exist in two realities simultaneously, is the source of her ability to create Tears. Robert Lutece, angry at Comstock's actions, convinced Rosalind to help him bring Booker to the reality where Columbia exists to rescue Elizabeth.


title: BioShock Infinite

text: Elizabeth explains that Comstock will always remain alive in alternate universes, as the Luteces have enlisted the Bookers of numerous different universes to try to end the cycle. As stopping Comstock requires intervening in his birth, Elizabeth takes Booker back in time to a baptism he attended, in the hope of atoning for the sins he committed at Wounded Knee; she explains that, while Booker changed his mind, some Bookers in alternate universes accepted the baptism and were reborn as Zachary Comstock. Booker, joined by other universes' Elizabeths at the baptism, allows them to drown him at the moment of his choice, preventing Comstock's existence. One by one, the Elizabeths begin to disappear, the screen cutting to black on the last.


title: BioShock Infinite

text: In a post-credits scene, a Booker awakens in his apartment on October 8, 1893. He calls out for Anna and opens the door to her room before the screen cuts to black.


title: BioShock Infinite

text: "BioShock Infinite" is a first-person shooter with role-playing elements. "Infinite" adapts the gameplay formula of "BioShock", with weapons, powers, and upgrades often functioning similar as those in the earlier game, albeit named differently. The player may carry only two weapons at a time, and can collect other weapons and ammunition from defeated enemies or the environment. In addition to guns and melee attacks, the player can use superpower-bestowing Vigors; these include the ability to shoot lightning, disable enemies by launching them into the air, or controlling enemies or machines. Vigors can also be laid on the ground as traps. Vigors require Salt, the equivalent of magic points, to power the abilities.


title: BioShock Infinite

text: Booker has health and a damage-absorbing shield; the shield automatically regenerates out of combat, while health must be replenished with medical kits or food. If Booker dies, the player revives in a safe area at the cost of money, while local enemies are also partially healed. Items called Gear grant passive abilities that can improve the player's strength or damage resistance. A piece of Gear attaches to one of four slots; only one piece of Gear can be affixed to a slot at a time, with extras stored in the player's inventory. Player stats can also be improved by finding Infusions, which upgrade the players' shield, health, or Salt meters.


title: BioShock Infinite

text: The player is opposed by enemies representing the Founders and the Vox Populi. These foes range from normal infantry to Heavy Hitters, more formidable enemies that act as mini-bosses throughout the game. Armed automatons scattered throughout Columbia act as a security defense system for the city. Columbia is filled with large, open spaces that offer players freedom in how to approach enemy encounters. The city is traversed on foot or via the Sky-Line, a rail system that Booker and enemies ride via special hooks. Booker can jump on, off, and between Sky-Line tracks at any time, and fire one-handed weapons while riding them. The hook also serves as a melee weapon, capable of performing executions on weakened foes.


title: BioShock Infinite

text: Booker is aided throughout the game by Elizabeth, a computer-controlled non-player character. Elizabeth requires no protection and assists during combat by tossing helpful items to Booker as needed. She can also be directed to open Tears, bringing in items or pieces of the environment, such as medical kits or a ledge for higher ground. Elizabeth can pick locks using her hairpin to open doors or find useful items. Cash, food, medical kits, ammunition and Salts can be found scattered throughout the game's environments. Vending machines can be used to buy supplies and powerful upgrades for weapons and Vigors. Optional side-missions are also available, where the player must unlock safes or decode hidden ciphers; completing them rewards Booker with supplies and upgrades. Audio logs (Voxophones) and film projectors (Kinetoscopes) scattered through Columbia expand on the characters and events of the game.


title: BioShock Infinite

text: "Infinite" has four difficulty levels: Easy, Normal, and Hard difficulties are available to start. After beating the game on a lower difficulty level or inputting the Konami Code in the main menu, the hardest "1999 Mode" is unlocked. Enemies are much tougher, the player's navigational aid and aim assist is removed, resource management is much more crucial to survival, and death is more punishing.


title: BioShock Infinite

text: Developer Irrational Games (then 2K Boston) and publisher 2K Games released "BioShock" in 2007 to critical and commercial acclaim. In late 2007, 2K Games approached Irrational Games about a sequel. Exhausted from shipping "BioShock" and wary of repeating themselves by returning to the same property, staff and studio head and creative director Ken Levine were uninterested in immediately returning to another "BioShock" game. Instead, Irrational and 2K struck an agreement that saw select personnel from Irrational form a new studio, 2K Marin, to start work on a sequel. Levine and Irrational would instead join development of a game in the "XCOM" franchise. By contract renewal negotiations in the middle of 2008, however, Levine had reportedly lost interest in the "XCOM" project and wanted to return to "BioShock". Levine's lack of interest was matched by disappointment within the studio's ranks that another company was making the next "BioShock", not Irrational. While 2K Marin continued working on "BioShock 2" and Irrational's Australia office (later 2K Australia) continued work on "XCOM", the main Irrational team would draw up concepts for the next "BioShock" game.


title: BioShock Infinite

text: Concept work on "Infinite" began in February 2008; 2K granted Irrational a great degree of creative and financial freedom to develop the next game. Irrational considered several settings for the game, including reusing Rapture or setting the story in the Renaissance period, before deciding on the floating city of Columbia. While the setting of a floating city would remain consistent, the time period, characters, and the story itself remained undefined as the team churned through different ideas. Designers and artists would sometimes spend months developing ideas that would be scuttled within minutes after priorities shifted or Levine changed his mind. Levine's creative process was described as brilliant but time-consuming, as he focused on very small details; one department within Irrational ran dress rehearsals for any meetings with Levine. At the same time as the story mode was undergoing constant revisions, a set of multiplayer modes was also being designed. The first mode, Border Control, was a tower defense game intended to be set within the game's world. The other multiplayer offering, code-named Spec-Ops, would have been a cooperative mode with up to four players. Matches would take place on maps that would evolve after release, using environmental storytelling to depict Columbia's evolving civil war.


title: BioShock Infinite

text: Irrational began hiring and expanding its team. One notable missing person from the original "BioShock" team was Jon Chey, who had worked with Levine since their days at Looking Glass Studios in the 1990s, and who headed the Australian branch of Irrational. The two developers' differing aptitudes meant that the two teams had what Chey called a "synergy", with Chey's team emphasizing technical ability while Levine's team was more creative-minded. Dissatisfied with the questions of what Irrational's next project would be and disatisfied with the dynamics of a large company, Chey left 2K in 2009. Chey's departure meant Levine had to shoulder more production-focused work in opposition to his creative focus, and the staff buildup in Levine's estimation "shattered" the company culture in the process. "Managing 30 or 40 people where you know everybody's name is a very different process than managing 150 people. You walk by people in the studio and you don't know who they are," he recalled.


title: BioShock Infinite

text: Irrational artists had been reading Erik Larson's 2003 book "The Devil in the White City", which prominently featured the 1893 Chicago World's Columbian Exposition, and they turned Levine onto the book as inspiration. The setting was inspired by turn of the century American culture and propaganda, with some of the artwork around Columbia adapted from historical posters. By selecting the hypothetical date of Fourth of July, 1912, the team identified films to draw imagery from, like "The Music Man", "Meet Me in St. Louis", and "Hello, Dolly" which exhibited ideal views of Americana at the turn of the 20th century. The bright, open-air environments of Columbia presented a challenge to the team to keep aspects of the horror genre within the game; Levine stated they took some inspiration from Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining" and David Lynch's "Blue Velvet", transforming bright, sterile environments into something frightening.


title: BioShock Infinite

text: While initial designs of the flying city were darker and closer to Art Nouveau, Irrational felt this made the game world too claustrophobic and too similar to Rapture. Instead, they decided on a brighter, expansive architecture and color scheme. Irrational designed the vertical and open-air spaces of Columbia to provide more opportunities to include various types of combat compared to the close-ranged limits of Rapture.


title: BioShock Infinite

text: The concept of American exceptionalism, which the World's Columbian Exposition was considered to have symbolized, later inspired the game's story and setup. The game also incorporated influences from more recent events at the time such as the Occupy movement in 2011,


title: BioShock Infinite

text: Central to the game was the relationship between the player character Booker and the AI companion Elizabeth. Unlike "BioShock"s Jack and "BioShock 2"s Subject Delta, both of whom were silent protagonists, "BioShock Infinite"s protagonist Booker was given his own voice and identity. Elizabeth, a crucial element of the game, was designed as a character which could not only be a useful AI companion to the player but a real partner with a significant emotional bond as well. Elizabeth's development was inspired by the character Alyx Vance, who was described by Levine as a central element and an "emotional driver" of "Half-Life 2". For the story, Levine took a novel approach by bringing the voice actors for Booker and Elizabeth, Troy Baker and Courtnee Draper, respectively, into the studio to develop their characters and help refine the story. Levine, however, did not provide the actors with full knowledge of the story in order to help them develop their characters' relationship in a much more natural manner.


title: BioShock Infinite

text: "BioShock Infinite" runs on a heavily modified Unreal Engine 3, with additions and replacements on the core engine. Irrational had initially considered using the heavily modified Unreal Engine 2.5 used for the original "BioShock", but it was deemed inadequate for their vision. According to Levine, "Infinite" was designed and developed from scratch, with no assets reused from previous "BioShock" games.


title: BioShock Infinite

text: Irrational worked in secrecy on "Infinite" for two-and-a-half years prior to its announcement, teasing the game with the moniker "Project Icarus". The game was announced at a press event on August 12, 2010 in New York City, where journalists were shown a teaser trailer and Levine outlined the basic story of the game; these were followed by several demos and showcases of the game at events in 2011. Within the studio, however, the game was still undergoing a troubled development. While the big picture elements of the story were now locked, Levine continued to make changes to large parts of the game at a whim. Despite the expanding cost of development and additional staff, the game was not getting closer to completion.


title: BioShock Infinite

text: Within Irrational, there was concern that the game would never be finished. The game's ship date repeatedly slipped and staff left the company. Jordan Thomas, a former "BioShock" level designer who had been creative director for "BioShock 2", was hired in January 2012 to get the project back on track. Levine and Thomas created a roadmap for the game, deciding on cuts to reduce the scope of remaining work; this included the entirety of the multiplayer feature, with the staff reallocated to the single-player portion of the game. Thomas was followed in March 2012 by game producer Don Roy. Experienced with closing out games at publishers like Sony and Microsoft, Roy said that there was no playable game available for him to try when he asked. Roy created a new workflow to bring order to "Infinite"s disorganized and inefficient project management. Irrational hired Rod Fergusson as vice president of development in August 2012. Fergusson had a reputation as someone who made tough decisions to ship difficult games, and reined in Levine's worst tendencies; Irrational staff recalled Levine worked best when under constraints, and that without Fergusson the game might not have shipped. Thomas left Irrational in November, with the game on track to release.


title: BioShock Infinite

text: To finish the game, Irrational entered into a period of sustained crunch; one staffer estimated he spent most of the final year of development putting in 12-hour workdays. Content such as Vigors, Tear mechanics, weapons, locations, characters, and other enemies, were cut from the game—enough material for five or six whole games, according to one developer. After the game was released to manufacturing, more than a dozen staff voluntarily left Irrational, with the number accelerating as the game's post-launch content began development. The game ultimately took roughly five years to make, and involved a team of around 200 from Irrational in addition to support from outside studios.


title: BioShock Infinite

text: The original score for "BioShock Infinite" was composed by Garry Schyman, who had previously composed both the scores for "BioShock" and "BioShock 2". Ken Levine stated that "Infinite"s score was different compared to those of the previous games in the series, in that it was "sparer" in "instrumentation and the style." He felt that the game had "much more of an American feel to it", and added that the team wanted "a bit more of a frontier feel to it, slightly." Levine went on to comment that the score was partly inspired by Jonny Greenwood's score for "There Will Be Blood", which served as a "good" starting point, and Paul Buckmaster's score for "12 Monkeys".


title: BioShock Infinite

text: From the very beginning during development, Schyman opted for a completely fresh approach to the score for "Infinite" due to its differences with previous "BioShock" games. He said that compared to the previous games, "Infinite"s world and time period were "completely different and unique in nearly every respect", and that it was "much more fleshed out in terms of the characters" with story being driven by the two main protagonists. Schyman noted that he worked on the score over an extended period of time, and due to the game's long and evolving development cycle, it took longer to find the right approach to the score. After much experimentation, Schyman found that using a simpler musical score was best for the game as he felt that it was consistent with the simpler time of 1912. However, Schyman stated that he did not limit himself to the music of the period, and added that while the game's setting of 1912 was very influential, it was not determinative. He said, "I did not wish to imitate the popular music of 1912 which is not particularly emotional to our ears in 2013." Originally working with a more orchestral approach, Schyman later used very intimate small string ensembles with anywhere from three to ten players to compose the game's relatively simpler score. Schyman also called Elizabeth a critical element to the music, explaining that "a lot of the music relates to her and some of the emotional things that she's going through." He went on to describe "Infinite"s music as "more of an emotional score" as it was about the relationship between the two key characters in the game, Booker and Elizabeth.


title: BioShock Infinite

text: Levine stated that choosing the licensed music for "Infinite" was much more challenging compared to the original "BioShock". He commented that with the original "BioShock", set in 1960 in the mid 20th century, it was easy to acquire musical pieces representative of the era, with him saying that the team "had this huge slate of great music to choose from." Levine stated that with "Infinite", however, it was set in 1912 in the early 20th century, which had music he described to be "awful" and "not very listenable" to the "modern ear". Consequently, the development team had to "dig really deep" and research extensively for more satisfactory music in "Infinite"s time period. Levine noted that he was not strict with selecting the music and songs that was accurate to the game's time period, as he felt that the most important thing with regards to the music was "that you get people to feel things." He added that the game's fictional nature justified him and the team "play[ing] a little fast and loose" and "[doing] things a little differently" with the music. Levine also stated that "Infinite"s music would play a "strange role" in the game; he explained that the music would "tie into the macro story, to some degree", and that the team had "a lot of little stories" to tell about it.


title: BioShock Infinite

text: "BioShock Infinite" was released worldwide for the Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 platforms on March 26, 2013. Aspyr later published and ported "Infinite" to the MacOS platform on August 29, 2013. Two special editions were released alongside the game, for each release platform – Windows, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3. The Special Edition includes an art book, a propaganda poster, a mini-figurine of the Handyman, a keychain, and the game's soundtrack, along with in-game codes for special powers and, for consoles, additional themes. The Ultimate Songbird edition, in addition to the above, includes a 9.5" statue of the Songbird, designed by Irrational's Robb Waters. The game's release was accompanied by various tie-in merchandise, including replicas and figurines, a board game based on the game called "BioShock Infinite: The Siege of Columbia", and a prequel novella, "Bioshock Infinite: Mind in Revolt".


title: BioShock Infinite

text: Two major pieces of downloadable content were released by Irrational for the game. The first piece is "Clash in the Clouds", a non-story arena-based combat mode where the player is faced with increasingly difficult waves of enemies on various maps based on in-game settings. It was released on July 30, 2013. The second piece is "", a story-based expansion set in Rapture that links "Infinite"s story to that of the original "BioShock" game. It consists of two episodes, with the first one released on November 12, 2013, and the second one on March 25, 2014. "BioShock Infinite: The Complete Edition", bundling "BioShock Infinite" with "Clash in the Clouds" and "Burial at Sea", was released on November 4, 2014. A Linux port was announced on December 6, 2014.


title: BioShock Infinite

text: "BioShock Infinite" along with "Burial At Sea" was remastered and released for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One as part of "" in September 2016; the Windows version of "Infinite", at this time, was considered already at par with the console version and did not receive any additional updates. A standalone version of "BioShock Infinite" (including "Burial at Sea") as well as "The Collection" was released on the Nintendo Switch on May 29, 2020.


title: BioShock Infinite

text: On September 3, 2022, "Bioshock Infinite" along with its predecessors was updated with the "Quality of Life Update" which added a launcher developed by 2K Games. This update was met with heavy criticism from fans of the game, citing that the game is now unplayable for both Linux and Steam Deck users. The update was also criticized for serving no purpose except for adding telemetry, and impacting the games performance.


title: BioShock Infinite

text: In its first week of release, "BioShock Infinite" was the best-selling game on Steam's digital Top 10 PC Charts. In the United States, "BioShock Infinite" was the top-selling console game for March 2013, with more than 878,000 units sold; these figures do not include digital sales such as through Steam. Take-Two Interactive reported that the game had shipped 3.7 million copies to retail by their May 2013 financial report, and surpassed 4 million in late July. According to Take-Two Interactive, the game has sold more than 6 million copies as of May 2014, and 11 million a year later.


title: BioShock Infinite

text: During the first week of sales in the United Kingdom, "BioShock Infinite" debuted as the number one selling PC game, and the best-selling game on all available formats, topping the UK PC Retail Sales and the UK All Formats video games charts. In the game's opening week in the UK, its Xbox 360 version ranked No. 1, PlayStation 3 version ranked No. 2, and the PC version ranked No. 9 in the UK Individual Formats video games charts, due to 64 percent of its sales being on the Xbox 360, 31 percent on the PlayStation 3, and 5 percent on PC. As of April 2, 2013, it is currently the second biggest launch of 2013 in the UK after "Tomb Raider", and is the biggest UK game launch in the "BioShock" franchise's history with approximately 9000 more sales than "BioShock 2". During the game's second week in the UK, despite a 75 percent drop in sales, "BioShock Infinite" maintained its lead in the UK All Formats charts. In its third week, "Infinite" became the first 2013 game to top the UK charts for three weeks in a row.


title: BioShock Infinite

text: "BioShock Infinite" received critical acclaim upon release, with reviewers particularly praising the story, setting and visual art design. Aggregating review website Metacritic summarized critical consensus as "universal acclaim", with the game netting score of 93–94/100 across its released platforms. "BioShock Infinite" was the third-highest rated video game of 2013 across all platforms on the site, behind "Grand Theft Auto V" and "The Last of Us". Consensus among several critics was that "BioShock Infinite" was one of the best games of the seventh generation era of video game consoles, with IGN's Ryan McCaffery praising the game as "a brilliant shooter that nudges the entire genre forward with innovations in both storytelling and gameplay." Joe Juba of "Game Informer" stated that "Infinite" was among the best games he had ever played, while PlayStation Universe's Adam Dolge called it "one of the best first-person shooters ever made." Identifying it as a "masterpiece that will be discussed for years to come", Joel Gregory of "PlayStation Official Magazine" concluded that "Infinite" was the latest game to join the hallowed ranks of "Half-Life", "Deus Ex" and "BioShock" as "the apotheosis of the narrative-driven shooter."


title: BioShock Infinite

text: Many critics favorably compared "BioShock Infinite" to the original "BioShock", with some even believing that "Infinite" had surpassed it. "Entertainment Weekly"s Darren Franich stated that "if "BioShock" was "The Godfather", then "BioShock Infinite" is "Apocalypse Now"", with Adam Kovic of Machinima.com calling them "two similar-yet-separate games that can co-exist and remain equal in quality."


title: BioShock Infinite

text: Wide acclaim was directed to the story, with several critics calling it among the best in video gaming. The story's exploration of mature themes was well received, with "Time"s Jared Newman praising its ability to prompt commentary and critiques from players as the game's true value. Several critics, including Adam Sessler of Rev3Games, also praised "BioShock Infinite"s storytelling, noting that its ability to finesse player agency and interaction resulted in a narrative that could only work in a game. The story's twist ending was mostly praised, with several critics predicting that it would provoke debate, and that it would leave a deep impression on players, prompting them to replay the game. It was also generally agreed that "Infinite"s ending was an improvement over the original "BioShock"s, with Gregory explaining that, unlike its predecessor, "Infinite" never lost momentum after revealing its twist. Some critics who overall praised the ending did concede that it suffered from plot holes and leaps in logic, with "Edge" calling it "a finality that doesn't make sense within the universe the game has created." Several articles have since been released attempting to explain the game's ending.


title: BioShock Infinite

text: Critics particularly acclaimed the city of Columbia as the setting of the game, with Arthur Gies of Polygon stating that it was "one of "BioShock Infinite"s greatest assets." Columbia was praised by some critics as one of video games' best settings, with Destructoid's Jim Sterling explaining that, unlike "BioShock 2", "Infinite" made a wise decision in abandoning Rapture "for an all new story in an all new setting, introducing us to the cloud city of Columbia." The setting's visual art design drew praise, with Columbia being described as beautiful and gorgeous. Lucas Sullivan of GamesRadar went on to describe "Infinite" as "one of the most visually captivating games ever made." The setting's attention to detail was also well received, with critics impressed at how diverse the game's environments were, and how no two of Columbia's many different areas ever felt alike. Critics also enjoyed how the game encouraged them to explore more of Columbia, with Juba explaining "whether you’re looking at a piece of propaganda, listening to an audio log, or participating in a horrifying raffle, almost everything you encounter contributes to your understanding of the floating world."


title: BioShock Infinite

text: Elizabeth's role in the gameplay and narrative received wide praise. Her implementation as an AI partner for the player-controlled Booker was described by Sullivan to be "downright ingenious", and was stated by some critics to be the main aspect that separated "Infinite" from its predecessors. Special praise was given not only to Elizabeth's ability to take care of herself in combat, but also for actively assisting the player by finding ammo and health, and opening Tears. Critics also acknowledged Elizabeth as not just a combat partner, but a companion that invoked an emotional response from the player. Eurogamer's Tom Bramwell felt that the game "creates a familial bond" between Elizabeth and the player, with Sullivan stating that she felt like "a friend." McCaffrey explained that Elizabeth's presence in the game provided motivation and emotional depth, something he believed the original "BioShock" lacked. "Edge" called Elizabeth "a technical triumph, the most human-seeming AI companion since "Half-Life 2"s Alyx Vance", with Sullivan stating that her "behavior makes you forget she's a video game character." Several critics also praised Elizabeth's relationship and interactions with Booker, believing that they formed the core of the game's story. Mikel Reparaz of "Official Xbox Magazine" explained that "the evolving interplay between [Elizabeth] and Booker is the heart and soul of what makes "BioShock Infinite" such an involving, memorable experience."


title: BioShock Infinite

text: The voice cast was well received, with Troy Baker and Courtnee Draper being particularly praised for their performances as Booker and Elizabeth, respectively. The audio and soundtrack also received positive responses, with Cheat Code Central's Josh Wirtanen stating, "from the absurdly talented voice actors to the so-happy-it's-actually-creepy music selection to set the mood, this game sounds fantastic from start to finish."


title: BioShock Infinite

text: Although the gameplay's combat was mostly well received and praised, it was the most polarizing aspect of the game, with "The Daily Telegraph"s Tom Hoggins noting "the gunplay is far from "Infinite"s most satisfying component." Nevertheless, critics opined that the game's gunplay and shooting was an improvement over its predecessors. The game's expanded environments were well received, with "Edge" noting they encouraged the player to think more tactically and improvise. Tom Francis of "PC Gamer" and Hoggins felt that "Infinite"s overall combat was an improvement over the previous "BioShock" games largely due to the dynamism of the expanded environments. The addition of the Sky-Line received special praise from critics. Sullivan felt that the Sky-Line "delivers a new FPS experience entirely", while Gregory hailed it as a "real game-changer". Critics also enjoyed the Vigors, weapons, and upgrades, with McCaffrey praising the game's "myriad combat options".


title: BioShock Infinite

text: In contrast, the gameplay was criticized by some as monotonous and repetitive, with "VideoGamer.com" Steven Burns explaining the game's lack of real sense of escalation in either abilities or enemies made combat very tiresome and grating. Some also noted that "Infinite" had regressed into a simple shooter compared to the role-playing "System Shock" games, with Newman stating that "combat feels too constrained as a result." There were also complaints that the middle portion of the game was padded by gameplay flaws. Critics expressed disappointment that the game limited the player to only two weapons, with Reparaz feeling that this, along with the lack of outlandish upgrades, made "Infinite"s "less inventive" combat "not quite up to "BioShock"s high standards." Criticism was also directed at the combat's "meager" death penalty, with complaints that this resulted in a less challenging game.


title: BioShock Infinite

text: "BioShock Infinite" was nominated for or won multiple awards during its pre-release period. It was a nominee for Most Anticipated Game at the 2010 through 2012 Spike Video Game Awards, and won over 85 editorial awards at the 2011 Electronic Entertainment Expo 2011, 39 of which were Game of Show. The game also received two consecutive Golden Joystick Award nominations for One to Watch in 2011 and 2012. After release, "Infinite" won the Game of the Year award from multiple publications, including the Associated Press, CNN, "Electronic Gaming Monthly", "Entertainment Weekly", "Forbes", and "Games". The game also won Best Shooter of the Year awards from several publications, including "The Escapist", "Game Informer", GameTrailers, "Hardcore Gamer", IGN, and "Official Xbox Magazine".


title: BioShock Infinite

text: Levine claimed that the core messages in "Infinite" were neither personal nor political, insisting instead that they were historical. Levine stated that players are supposed to draw their own conclusions from the game, with many parts of "Infinite" open to interpretation and speculation; to this end, Levine avoided providing an authoritative final answer regarding the game's ending, saying, "what actually matters is what people think. Why does my interpretation matter more than yours?" Acknowledging that "Infinite"s themes left fans debating and frustrated, Levine was nevertheless satisfied by the game's opacity, stating that it was his intent, and compared the game's interpretation of quantum mechanics to some of his favorite films: "", "Fight Club", "The Master", "Miller's Crossing", and "There Will Be Blood". Rob Crossley of CVG stated that "To [Levine], the [game's] Many Worlds Theory is a storytelling device; one that gives his narrative something unique in games yet celebrated in film: interpretability."


title: BioShock Infinite

text: The game's plot point of "constants and variables" received attention, primarily drawn towards the Lutece twins, who are shown to be key figures behind Columbia and the drivers for the game's events. Commentators discussed the associated themes of sameness, fatalism, choice, and unintended consequences within the context of the Luteces' backstory and appearances. The story's theme of alternate universes and Elizabeth's explanation that "There's always a lighthouse, there's always a man, there's always a city" has been cited as reinforcement to this. The story's theme of multiple realities in particular was also commented as drawing parallels with the fact that, in contrast to previous "BioShock" games, "Infinite" only had a single ending despite the in-game morality decisions it offered. "Wired"s Chris Kohler explained that, similar to how the alternate universes within the story all had their similar "constants" and different "variables", the game could be played through in an infinite number of ways, but that certain things would always be the same. Tom Phillips of Eurogamer agreed, interpreting Elizabeth's line ("We swim in different oceans, but land on the same shore") as meaning that, just like Booker's journey in different worlds, different players would have different experiences throughout the game but would nevertheless all reach the same ending. This has led some to identify "BioShock Infinite" as a metagame and meta-commentary on the whole process of players making different choices in games.


title: BioShock Infinite

text: In response to people discussing Columbia "as a particularly racist society", Levine said that the game was making no particular point about the theme of racism and that the game's depiction of it was merely "more a factor of the time." The racism portrayed in Columbia was seen by Levine "more as a reflection of what race relations in the U.S. were like in 1912;" Levine explained that the game was "less about exploring the good and bad sides of racism and more just a reflection of the time and how it impacted that era." He noted that several historic American figures such as the Founding Fathers, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt were "men of their times", great men who were nevertheless racist because of the times they lived in. Consequently, Levine reasoned that the depictions of nationalism and racism were warranted in the game, saying that to not do so would be "dishonest" and "strange" to the time period. Many reviewers praised the game for its treatment of race.


title: BioShock Infinite

text: In addition to overt depictions of racism, the possibility of multiple realities, and the themes explored by the concept of constants and variables, the game was interpreted as tackling political and social problems. Other themes discussed by commentators within the context of "Infinite" setting and story include American exceptionalism, extremism, fundamentalism, nationalism, fanaticism, cultism, populism, religion, dichotomy, free will, hope, self-loathing, denial, rebirth, and redemption.


title: BioShock Infinite

text: "Infinite"s themes of racism, religion and an ideological society caused controversy. In the various reveals of the Founders and Vox Populi before release, Levine and Irrational Games were criticized by various groups; upon demonstrating the Founders, people that favored the ideals of the Tea Party including Levine's relatives felt the game was attacking that movement; on the announcement of the Vox Populi, Levine found some websites claiming the game was an attack on the labor movement, and one white supremacist website claimed that "The Jew Ken Levine is making a white-person-killing simulator." Levine considered that "Infinite", like "BioShock" before it, was a Rorschach test for most people, though it would be taken negatively in nature and upset them, as his vision in crafting the stories was "about not buying into a single point of view". Some of the game's imagery has been used by conservative groups. In 2013, the National Liberty Federation, a group in the Tea Party movement, used a propaganda mural from the game espousing the Founders' racism and xenophobia on their Facebook page before its source was recognized and later taken down. Fox News created a logo extremely similar to the "BioShock Infinite" logo for a segment titled "Defending the Homeland" relating to immigration control.


title: BioShock Infinite

text: Comstock was altered after Levine spoke with a developer who threatened to quit over the game's presentation of the character and religion; the developer helped Levine to reconsider the notion of forgiveness in the New Testament and set to figure out why people came to follow Comstock and to understand the ecstatic religious experience they would be seeking. Levine did not consider this reinvention of the character to be censorship but rather a means to present the story better to a broad audience. In another case, a player that considered himself a "devout believer" of Christianity was offended by the forced baptism that Booker receives prior to entering Columbia proper, prompting him to request a refund due to being unaware of this content in the game. Patricia Hernandez of Kotaku considered that the baptism scene was "admirable" in the context of video games as an art form, and the scene elicited numerous responses on social media. The baptism scenes throughout the game were also interpreted by some not as a critique of Christianity or religion, but as a representation of themes such as free will, evil, rebirth and redemption.


title: BioShock Infinite

text: "Infinite"s graphic depiction of violence generated substantial discussion. Polygon's Chris Plante considered that the degree of violence in the game could detract it to players who are more interested in the game's themes and narrative. He believed that unlike films that are based on violence as part of their themes, "Infinite" does not attempt to rationalize its violence, claiming the "magnitude of lives taken" and the "cold efficiency in doing so" was "unfamiliar to even the most exploitative films." Kotaku's Kirk Hamilton agreed, stating that while violence is a common theme across video games, "[the] ridiculous violence stands out in such sharp relief when placed against the game's thoughtful story and lovely world." Hamilton acknowledged that "Infinite" likely would have been difficult to sell at the mass market if it lacked the first-person shooter elements, but still said that the violent kills felt "indulgent and leering" and unnecessary for the game. Cliff Bleszinski, the creative lead of "Gears of War", a series Bleszinski acknowledges as being purposely violent, agreed with these sentiments, saying he "felt the violence actually detracted from the experience". Dean Takahashi of VentureBeat felt that the game's nature as a first-person shooter limited its audience appeal due to the extreme violence inherent in the genre.


title: BioShock Infinite

text: Rus McLaughlin of VentureBeat stated that the sudden onset of violence at the carnival at the start of the game was a necessary element to show that "Columbia is not perfect. It's ugly, xenophobic, and ready to explode." McLaughlin also considered the message carried by "Infinite" about the extreme nature of the violent acts Booker commits to be tied to his redemption by the end of the game, that "there can be no morality in an extreme". Jim Sterling from Destructoid said that the violence in the game is justified because ""BioShock Infinite" is a game about violence." They claimed that "Though [Booker] feels guilt for what he did, he's a violent man at heart, who inescapably resorts to butchery to solve his problems" and "His entire story is one of denial." Similarly, Sterling also pointed out that "Columbia is a fake, a sham, with an atmosphere of horror under its manufactured surface." They believed that having a non-violent option would go against everything natural to the game itself and "Those asking for a non-violent "BioShock Infinite" are asking for a different game entirely." They claimed that those asking for a non-violent "BioShock" were asking for "yet more homogenization in games" and ""BioShock Infinite" is not your game if you want a non-violent exploration of its themes, because "Infinite"s themes revolve around violence as a core concept".


title: BioShock Infinite

text: Levine defended the game's depiction of violence, stating that using violence as a narrative device was as old as storytelling itself and that it was "a part of the storyteller's toolkit". He went on to say that art had a responsibility to authentically replicate and depict violence. He later explained that he felt "the reaction to the violence [in "BioShock Infinite"] is more an expression of people building confidence in the industry's ability to express itself in more diverse fashions".


title: BioShock Infinite

text: In February 2014, Levine said "BioShock Infinite" would be the last game Irrational would make in the series, leaving the intellectual property to 2K Games. Levine eventually let go of most of Irrational Game's staff and rebranded the studio as Ghost Story Games to work on smaller narrative projects; Levine said pressure and stress of managing a large team as he had to for "Infinite" had impacted his health and personal relationships. 2K Games affirmed in December 2019 that another "BioShock" game was in development, headed by a new internal studio Cloud Chamber.


title: Nuclear and radiation accidents and incidents

text: A nuclear and radiation accident is defined by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as "an event that has led to significant consequences to people, the environment or the facility. Examples include lethal effects to individuals, large radioactivity release to the environment, reactor core melt." The prime example of a "major nuclear accident" is one in which a reactor core is damaged and significant amounts of radioactive isotopes are released, such as in the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 and Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011.


text: The impact of nuclear accidents has been a topic of debate since the first nuclear reactors were constructed in 1954 and has been a key factor in public concern about nuclear facilities. Technical measures to reduce the risk of accidents or to minimize the amount of radioactivity released to the environment have been adopted, however human error remains, and "there have been many accidents with varying impacts as well near misses and incidents". As of 2014, there have been more than 100 serious nuclear accidents and incidents from the use of nuclear power. Fifty-seven accidents or severe incidents have occurred since the Chernobyl disaster, and about 60% of all nuclear-related accidents/severe incidents have occurred in the USA. Serious nuclear power plant accidents include the Fukushima nuclear disaster (2011), the Chernobyl disaster (1986), the Three Mile Island accident (1979), and the SL-1 accident (1961). Nuclear power accidents can involve loss of life and large monetary costs for remediation work.


text: Nuclear submarine accidents include the K-19 (1961), K-11 (1965), K-27 (1968), K-140 (1968), K-429 (1970), K-222 (1980), and K-431 (1985) accidents. Serious radiation incidents/accidents include the Kyshtym disaster, the Windscale fire, the radiotherapy accident in Costa Rica, the radiotherapy accident in Zaragoza, the radiation accident in Morocco, the Goiania accident, the radiation accident in Mexico City, the Samut Prakan radiation accident, and the Mayapuri radiological accident in India.


text: The worst nuclear accident to date is the Chernobyl disaster which occurred in 1986 in Ukraine. The accident killed approximately 30 people directly and damaged approximately $7 billion of property. A study published in 2005 by the World Health Organization estimates that there may eventually be up to 4,000 additional cancer deaths related to the accident among those exposed to significant radiation levels. Radioactive fallout from the accident was concentrated in areas of Belarus, Ukraine and Russia. Other studies have estimated as many as over a million eventual cancer deaths from Chernobyl. Estimates of eventual deaths from cancer are highly contested. Industry, UN and DOE agencies claim low numbers of legally provable cancer deaths will be traceable to the disaster. The UN, DOE and industry agencies all use the limits of the epidemiological resolvable deaths as the cutoff below which they cannot be legally proven to come from the disaster. Independent studies statistically calculate fatal cancers from dose and population, even though the number of additional cancers will be below the epidemiological threshold of measurement of around 1%. These are two very different concepts and lead to the huge variations in estimates. Both are reasonable projections with different meanings. Approximately 350,000 people were forcibly resettled away from these areas soon after the accident. 6,000 people were involved in cleaning Chernobyl and 10,800 square miles were contaminated.


text: Social scientist and energy policy expert, Benjamin K. Sovacool has reported that worldwide there have been 99 accidents at nuclear power plants from 1952 to 2009 (defined as incidents that either resulted in the loss of human life or more than US$50,000 of property damage, the amount the US federal government uses to define major energy accidents that must be reported), totaling US$20.5 billion in property damages. There have been comparatively few fatalities associated with nuclear power plant accidents. An academic review of many reactor accident and the phenomena of these events was published by Mark Foreman.


text: The vulnerability of nuclear plants to deliberate attack is of concern in the area of nuclear safety and security. Nuclear power plants, civilian research reactors, certain naval fuel facilities, uranium enrichment plants, fuel fabrication plants, and even potentially uranium mines are vulnerable to attacks which could lead to widespread radioactive contamination. The attack threat is of several general types: commando-like ground-based attacks on equipment which if disabled could lead to a reactor core meltdown or widespread dispersal of radioactivity; and external attacks such as an aircraft crash into a reactor complex, or cyber attacks.


text: The United States 9/11 Commission found that nuclear power plants were potential targets originally considered for the September 11, 2001 attacks. If terrorist groups could sufficiently damage safety systems to cause a core meltdown at a nuclear power plant, and/or sufficiently damage spent fuel pools, such an attack could lead to widespread radioactive contamination. The Federation of American Scientists have said that if nuclear power use is to expand significantly, nuclear facilities will have to be made extremely safe from attacks that could release radioactivity into the environment. New reactor designs have features of passive nuclear safety, which may help. In the United States, the NRC carries out "Force on Force" (FOF) exercises at all Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) sites at least once every three years.


text: Nuclear reactors become preferred targets during military conflict and have been repeatedly attacked during military air strikes, occupations, invasions and campaigns over the period 1980–2007. Various acts of civil disobedience since 1980 by the peace group Plowshares have shown how nuclear weapons facilities can be penetrated, and the group's actions represent extraordinary breaches of security at nuclear weapons plants in the United States. The National Nuclear Security Administration has acknowledged the seriousness of the 2012 Plowshares action. Non-proliferation policy experts have questioned "the use of private contractors to provide security at facilities that manufacture and store the government's most dangerous military material". Nuclear weapons materials on the black market are a global concern,<ref name="A Nuclear 9/11">Brian Michael Jenkins. A Nuclear 9/11? "CNN.com", September 11, 2008.</ref> and there is concern about the possible detonation of a small, crude nuclear weapon or dirty bomb by a militant group in a major city, causing significant loss of life and property.


text: The number and sophistication of cyber attacks is on the rise. "Stuxnet" is a computer worm discovered in June 2010 that is believed to have been created by the United States and Israel to attack Iran's nuclear facilities. It switched off safety devices, causing centrifuges to spin out of control. The computers of South Korea's nuclear plant operator (KHNP) were hacked in December 2014. The cyber attacks involved thousands of phishing emails containing malicious codes, and information was stolen.


text: In March 2022, the Battle of Enerhodar caused damage to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant and a fire at its training complex as Russian forces took control, heightening concerns of nuclear contamination. On September 6, 2022, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi addressed the UN Security Council, calling for a nuclear safety and security protection zone around the plant and reiterating his findings that "the Seven Pillars [for nuclear safety and security] have all been compromised at the site."


text: Between 16 July 1945 and 23 September 1992, the United States maintained a program of vigorous nuclear weapons testing, with the exception of a moratorium between November 1958 and September 1961. By official count, a total of 1,054 nuclear tests and two nuclear attacks were conducted, with over 100 of them taking place at sites in the Pacific Ocean, over 900 of them at the Nevada Test Site, and ten on miscellaneous sites in the United States (Alaska, Colorado, Mississippi, and New Mexico). Until November 1962, the vast majority of the U.S. tests were atmospheric (that is, above-ground); after the acceptance of the Partial Test Ban Treaty all testing was regulated underground, in order to prevent the dispersion of nuclear fallout.


text: The U.S. program of atmospheric nuclear testing exposed a number of the population to the hazards of fallout. Estimating exact numbers, and the exact consequences, of people exposed has been medically very difficult, with the exception of the high exposures of Marshall Islanders and Japanese fishers in the case of the Castle Bravo incident in 1954. A number of groups of U.S. citizens — especially farmers and inhabitants of cities downwind of the Nevada Test Site and U.S. military workers at various tests — have sued for compensation and recognition of their exposure, many successfully. The passage of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act of 1990 allowed for a systematic filing of compensation claims in relation to testing as well as those employed at nuclear weapons facilities. As of June 2009 over $1.4 billion total has been given in compensation, with over $660 million going to "downwinders".


text: For intentional or attempted theft of radioactive material, See Crimes involving radioactive substances#Intentional or attempted theft of radioactive material


text: The International Atomic Energy Agency says there is "a persistent problem with the illicit trafficking in nuclear and other radioactive materials, thefts, losses and other unauthorized activities". The IAEA Illicit Nuclear Trafficking Database notes 1,266 incidents reported by 99 countries over the last 12 years, including 18 incidents involving HEU or plutonium trafficking:


text: A nuclear meltdown is a severe nuclear reactor accident that results in reactor core damage from overheating. It has been defined as the accidental melting of the core of a nuclear reactor, and refers to the core's either complete or partial collapse. A core melt accident occurs when the heat generated by a nuclear reactor exceeds the heat removed by the cooling systems to the point where at least one nuclear fuel element exceeds its melting point. This differs from a fuel element failure, which is not caused by high temperatures. A meltdown may be caused by a loss of coolant, loss of coolant pressure, or low coolant flow rate or be the result of a criticality excursion in which the reactor is operated at a power level that exceeds its design limits. Alternately, in a reactor plant such as the RBMK-1000, an external fire may endanger the core, leading to a meltdown.


text: A criticality accident (also sometimes referred to as an "excursion" or "power excursion") occurs when a nuclear chain reaction is accidentally allowed to occur in fissile material, such as enriched uranium or plutonium. The Chernobyl accident is not universally regarded an example of a criticality accident, because it occurred in an operating reactor at a power plant. The reactor was supposed to be in a controlled critical state, but control of the chain reaction was lost. The accident destroyed the reactor and left a large geographic area uninhabitable. In a smaller scale accident at Sarov a technician working with highly enriched uranium was irradiated while preparing an experiment involving a sphere of fissile material. The Sarov accident is interesting because the system remained critical for many days before it could be stopped, though safely located in a shielded experimental hall. This is an example of a limited scope accident where only a few people can be harmed, while no release of radioactivity into the environment occurred. A criticality accident with limited off site release of both radiation (gamma and neutron) and a very small release of radioactivity occurred at Tokaimura in 1999 during the production of enriched uranium fuel. Two workers died, a third was permanently injured, and 350 citizens were exposed to radiation. In 2016, a criticality accident was reported at the Afrikantov OKBM Critical Test Facility in Russia.


text: Decay heat accidents are where the heat generated by radioactive decay causes harm. In a large nuclear reactor, a loss of coolant accident can damage the core: for example, at Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station a recent shutdown (SCRAMed) PWR reactor was left for a length of time without cooling water. As a result, the nuclear fuel was damaged, and the core partially melted. The removal of the decay heat is a significant reactor safety concern, especially shortly after shutdown. Failure to remove decay heat may cause the reactor core temperature to rise to dangerous levels and has caused nuclear accidents. The heat removal is usually achieved through several redundant and diverse systems, and the heat is often dissipated to an 'ultimate heat sink' which has a large capacity and requires no active power, though this method is typically used after decay heat has reduced to a very small value. The main cause of the release of radioactivity in the Three Mile Island accident was a pilot-operated relief valve on the primary loop which stuck in the open position. This caused the overflow tank into which it drained to rupture and release large amounts of radioactive cooling water into the containment building.


text: For the most part, nuclear facilities receive their power from offsite electrical systems. They also have a grid of emergency backup generators to provide power in the event of an outage. An event that could prevent both offsite power, as well as emergency power is known as a "station blackout". In 2011, an earthquake and tsunami caused a loss of electric power at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan. The decay heat could not be removed, and the reactor cores of units 1, 2 and 3 overheated, the nuclear fuel melted, and the containments were breached. Radioactive materials were released from the plant to the atmosphere and to the ocean.


text: Transport accidents can cause a release of radioactivity resulting in contamination or shielding to be damaged resulting in direct irradiation. In Cochabamba a defective gamma radiography set was transported in a passenger bus as cargo. The gamma source was outside the shielding, and it irradiated some bus passengers.


text: In the United Kingdom, it was revealed in a court case that in March 2002 a radiotherapy source was transported from Leeds to Sellafield with defective shielding. The shielding had a gap on the underside. It is thought that no human has been seriously harmed by the escaping radiation.


text: On 17 January 1966, a fatal collision occurred between a B-52G and a KC-135 Stratotanker over Palomares, Spain (see 1966 Palomares B-52 crash). The accident was designated a "Broken Arrow", meaning an accident involving a nuclear weapon that does not present a risk of war.


text: Equipment failure is one possible type of accident. In Białystok, Poland, in 2001 the electronics associated with a particle accelerator used for the treatment of cancer suffered a malfunction. This then led to the overexposure of at least one patient. While the initial failure was the simple failure of a semiconductor diode, it set in motion a series of events which led to a radiation injury.


text: A related cause of accidents is failure of control software, as in the cases involving the Therac-25 medical radiotherapy equipment: the elimination of a hardware safety interlock in a new design model exposed a previously undetected bug in the control software, which could have led to patients receiving massive overdoses under a specific set of conditions.


text: Some the major nuclear accidents have attributable in part to operator or human error. At Chernobyl, operators deviated from test procedure and allowed certain reactor parameters to exceed design limits. At TMI-2, operators permitted thousands of gallons of water to escape from the reactor plant before observing that the coolant pumps were behaving abnormally. The coolant pumps were thus turned off to protect the pumps, which in turn led to the destruction of the reactor itself as cooling was completely lost within the core.


text: A detailed investigation into SL-1 determined that one operator (perhaps inadvertently) manually pulled the central control rod out about 26 inches rather than the maintenance procedure's intention of about 4 inches.


text: An assessment conducted by the Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique (CEA) in France concluded that no amount of technical innovation can eliminate the risk of human-induced errors associated with the operation of nuclear power plants. Two types of mistakes were deemed most serious: errors committed during field operations, such as maintenance and testing, that can cause an accident; and human errors made during small accidents that cascade to complete failure.


text: In 1946 Canadian Manhattan Project physicist Louis Slotin performed a risky experiment known as "tickling the dragon's tail" which involved two hemispheres of neutron-reflective beryllium being brought together around a plutonium core to bring it to criticality. Against operating procedures, the hemispheres were separated only by a screwdriver. The screwdriver slipped and set off a chain reaction criticality accident filling the room with harmful radiation and a flash of blue light (caused by excited, ionized air particles returning to their unexcited states). Slotin reflexively separated the hemispheres in reaction to the heat flash and blue light, preventing further irradiation of several co-workers present in the room. However, Slotin absorbed a lethal dose of the radiation and died nine days later. The infamous plutonium mass used in the experiment was referred to as the demon core.


text: Lost source accidents, also referred to as orphan sources, are incidents in which a radioactive source is lost, stolen or abandoned. The source then might cause harm to humans. The best known example of this type of event is the 1987 Goiânia accident in Brazil, when a radiotherapy source was forgotten and abandoned in a hospital, to be later stolen and opened by scavengers. A similar case occurred in 2000 in Samut Prakan, Thailand when the radiation source of an expired teletherapy unit was sold unregistered, and stored in an unguarded car park from which it was stolen. Other cases occurred at Yanango, Peru where a radiography source was lost, and Gilan, Iran where a radiography source harmed a welder.


text: The International Atomic Energy Agency has provided guides for scrap metal collectors on what a sealed source might look like. The scrap metal industry is the one where lost sources are most likely to be found.


text: Comparing the historical safety record of civilian nuclear energy with other forms of electrical generation, Ball, Roberts, and Simpson, the IAEA, and the Paul Scherrer Institute found in separate studies that during the period from 1970 to 1992, there were just 39 on-the-job deaths of nuclear power plant workers worldwide, while during the same time period, there were 6,400 on-the-job deaths of coal power plant workers, 1,200 on-the-job deaths of natural gas power plant workers and members of the general public caused by natural gas power plants, and 4,000 deaths of members of the general public caused by hydroelectric power plants with failure of Banqiao dam in 1975 resulting in 170,000-230,000 fatalities alone.


text: As other common sources of energy, coal power plants are estimated to kill 24,000 Americans per year due to lung disease as well as causing 40,000 heart attacks per year in the United States. According to "Scientific American", the average coal power plant emits 100 times more radiation per year than a comparatively sized nuclear power plant in the form of toxic coal waste known as fly ash.


text: In terms of energy accidents, hydroelectric plants were responsible for the most fatalities, but nuclear power plant accidents rank first in terms of their economic cost, accounting for 41 percent of all property damage. Oil and hydroelectric follow at around 25 percent each, followed by natural gas at 9 percent and coal at 2 percent. Excluding Chernobyl and the Shimantan Dam, the three other most expensive accidents involved the Exxon Valdez oil spill (Alaska), the Prestige oil spill (Spain), and the Three Mile Island nuclear accident (Pennsylvania).


text: Nuclear safety covers the actions taken to prevent nuclear and radiation accidents or to limit their consequences and damage to the environment. This covers nuclear power plants as well as all other nuclear facilities, the transportation of nuclear materials, and the use and storage of nuclear materials for medical, power, industry, and military uses.


text: The nuclear power industry has improved the safety and performance of reactors, and has proposed new safer (but generally untested) reactor designs but there is no guarantee that the reactors will be designed, built and operated correctly. Mistakes do occur and the designers of reactors at Fukushima in Japan did not anticipate that a tsunami generated by an earthquake would disable the backup systems that were supposed to stabilize the reactor after the earthquake. According to UBS AG, the Fukushima I nuclear accidents have cast doubt on whether even an advanced economy like Japan can master nuclear safety. Catastrophic scenarios involving terrorist attacks are also conceivable.


text: In his book "Normal Accidents", Charles Perrow says that unexpected failures are built into society's complex and tightly coupled nuclear reactor systems. Nuclear power plants cannot be operated without some major accidents. Such accidents are unavoidable and cannot be designed around. An interdisciplinary team from MIT have estimated that given the expected growth of nuclear power from 2005 – 2055, at least four serious nuclear accidents would be expected in that period. To date, there have been five serious accidents (core damage) in the world since 1970 (one at Three Mile Island in 1979; one at Chernobyl in 1986; and three at Fukushima-Daiichi in 2011), corresponding to the beginning of the operation of generation II reactors. This leads to on average one serious accident happening every eight years worldwide.


text: When nuclear reactors begin to age, they require more exhaustive monitoring and preventive maintenance and tests to operate safely and prevent accidents. However, these measures can be costly, and some reactor owners have not followed these recommendations. Most of the existing nuclear infrastructure in use is old due to these reasons.


text: To combat accidents associated with aging nuclear power plants, it may be advantageous to build new nuclear power reactors and retire the old nuclear plants. In the United States alone, more than 50 start-up companies are working to create innovative designs for nuclear power plants while ensuring the plants are more affordable and cost-effective.


text: Isotopes released during a meltdown or related event are typically dispersed into the atmosphere and then settle on the surface through natural occurrences and deposition. Isotopes settling on the top soil layer can remain there for many years, due to their slow decay (long half-life). The long-term detrimental effects on agriculture, farming, and livestock, can potentially affect human health and safety long after the actual event.


text: After the Fukushima Daiichi accident in 2011, surrounding agricultural areas were contaminated with more than 100,000 MBq km in cesium concentrations. As a result, eastern Fukushima food production was severely limited. Due to Japan's topography and the local weather patterns, cesium deposits as well as other isotopes reside in top layer of soils all over eastern and northeastern Japan. Luckily, mountain ranges have shielded western Japan.


text: The Chernobyl disaster in 1986 exposed to radiation about 125,000 mi (320,000 km) of land across Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia. The amount of focused radiation caused severe damage to plant reproduction: most plants could not reproduce for at least three years. Many of these occurrences on land can be a result of the distribution of radioactive isotopes through water systems.


text: In 2013, contaminated groundwater was found in between some of the affected turbine buildings in the Fukushima Daiichi facility, including locations at bordering seaports on the Pacific Ocean. In both locations, the facility typically releases clean water to feed into further groundwater systems. The Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the entity that manages and operates the facility, further investigated the contamination in areas that would be deemed safe to conduct operations. They found that a significant amount of the contamination originated from underground cable trenches that connected to circulation pumps within the facility. Both the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and TEPCO confirmed that this contamination was a result of the 2011 earthquake. Due to damage like this, the Fukushima plant released nuclear material into the Pacific Ocean and has continued to do so. After 5 years of leaking, the contaminates reached all corners of the Pacific Ocean, from North America and Australia to Patagonia. Along the same coastline, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) found trace amounts of Fukushima contaminates 100 miles (150 km) off the coast of Eureka, California in November 2014. Despite the relatively dramatic increases in radiation, the contamination levels still satisfy the World Health Organization's (WHO's) standard for clean drinking water.


text: In 2019, the Japanese government announced that it was considering the possibility of dumping contaminated water from the Fukushima reactor into the Pacific Ocean. Japanese Environmental Minister Yoshiaki Harada reported that TEPCO had collected over a million tons of contaminated water, and by 2022 they would be out of space to safely store the radioactive water.


text: Multiple private agencies as well as various North American governments monitor the spread of radiation throughout the Pacific to track the potential hazards it can introduce to food systems, groundwater supplies, and ecosystems. In 2014, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a report stating that radionuclides, traced from the Fukushima facility, were present in the United States food supply, but not to levels deemed to be a threat to public health – as well as any food and agricultural products imported from Japanese sources. It is commonly believed that, with the rate of the current radionuclide leakage, the dispersal into the water would prove beneficial, as most of the isotopes would be diluted by the water as well as become less radioactive over time, due to radioactive decay. Cesium (Cs-137) is the primary isotope released from the Fukushima Daiichi facility. Cs-137 has a long half-life, meaning it could potentially have long-term harmful effects, but as of now, its levels from 200 km outside of Fukushima show close to pre-accident levels, with little spread to North American coasts.


text: Evidence can be seen from the 1986 Chernobyl event. Due to the violent nature of the accident there, a sizable portion of the resulting radioactive contamination of the atmosphere consisted of particles that were dispersed during the explosion. Many of these contaminates settled in groundwater systems in immediate surrounding areas, but also in Russia and Belarus. The ecological efects of the resulting radiation in groundwater can be seen in various aspects in the area affected by the sequence of environmental consequences. Radionuclides carried by groundwater systems have resulted in the uptake of radioactive material in plants and then up the food chains into animals, and eventually humans. One of the most important mechanisms of exposure to radiation was through agriculture contaminated by radioactive groundwater. Again, one of the greatest concerns for the population within the 30 km exclusion zone is the intake of Cs-137 by consuming agricultural products contaminated with groundwater. Thanks to the environmental and soil conditions outside the exclusion zone, the recorded levels are below those that require remediation, based on a survey in 1996. During this event, radioactive material was transported by groundwater across borders into neighboring countries. In Belarus, just north of Chernobyl, about 250,000 hectares of previously usable farmland were held by state officials until deemed safe.


text: Off-site radiological risk may be found in the form of flooding. Many citizens in the surrounding areas have been deemed at risk of exposure to radiation due to the Chernobyl reactor's proximity to floodplains. A study was conducted in 1996 to see how far the radioactive effects were felt across eastern Europe. Lake Kojanovskoe in Russia, 250 km from the Chernobyl accident site, was found to be one of the most impacted lakes. Fish collected from the lake were found to be 60 times more radioactive than the European Union Standard. Further investigation found that the water source feeding the lake provided drinking water for about 9 million Ukrainians, as well as providing agricultural irrigation and food for 23 million more.


text: A cover was constructed around the damage reactor of the Chernobyl nuclear plant. This helps in the remediation of radioactive material leaking from the site of the accident, but does little to protect the local area from radioactive isotopes that were dispersed in its soils and waterways more than 30 years ago. Partially due to the already abandoned urban areas, as well as international relations currently affecting the country, remediation efforts have minimized compared to the initial clean up actions and more recent accidents such as the Fukushima incident. On-site laboratories, monitoring wells, and meteorological stations can be found in a monitoring role at key locations affected by the accident.


title: Stanley Johnson (writer)

text: Stanley Patrick Johnson (born 18 August 1940) is a French-English author and former Conservative Party politician who served as Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Wight and Hampshire East from 1979 to 1984. A former employee of the World Bank and the European Commission, he has written books on environmental and population issues. His six children include former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, life peer and former minister Jo Johnson, and journalist Rachel Johnson.


title: Stanley Johnson (writer)

text: Stanley Johnson was born in 1940 in Penzance, Cornwall, the son of Osman Kemal (later known as Wilfred Johnson) and Irene Williams (daughter of Stanley Fred Williams of Bromley, Kent, who was the grandson of Sir George Williams, and Marie Louise de Pfeffel). His paternal grandfather, Ali Kemal Bey, one of the last interior ministers of the Ottoman government, was assassinated in 1922 during the Turkish War of Independence. Stanley's father was born in 1909 in Bournemouth, and his birth was registered as Osman Ali Wilfred Kemal. Osman's Anglo-Swiss mother Winifred Brun died shortly after giving birth. Ali Kemal returned to the Ottoman Empire in 1912, whereafter Osman Wilfred and his sister Selma were brought up by their English grandmother, Margaret Brun, and took her maiden name, Johnson, Stanley's father thus becoming Wilfred Johnson.


title: Stanley Johnson (writer)

text: Johnson's maternal grandmother's parents were Hubert Freiherr von Pfeffel (born in Munich in the Kingdom of Bavaria on 8 December 1843) and his wife Hélène Arnous-Rivière (born on 14 January 1862). Hubert von Pfeffel was the son of Karl Freiherr von Pfeffel (born in Dresden in the Kingdom of Saxony on 22 November 1811; died in Munich on 25 January 1890) by his marriage in Augsburg on 16 February 1836 to Karolina von Rothenburg (born in the Free City of Frankfurt on 28 November 1805; died in Frankfurt on 13 February 1872), herself said to be the illegitimate daughter of Prince Paul of Württemberg by Friederike Porth.


title: Stanley Johnson (writer)

text: Stanley Johnson attended Sherborne School, Dorset. While still an undergraduate reading English at Exeter College, Oxford, he took part in the Marco Polo Expedition with Tim Severin and Michael de Larrabeiti, travelling on a motorcycle and sidecar from Oxford to Venice and on to India and Afghanistan. The adventure led to the publication of Severin's 1964 book "Tracking Marco Polo", with photographs by de Larrabeiti.


title: Stanley Johnson (writer)

text: While studying at Columbia University in 1963, Johnson married the painter Charlotte Fawcett in Marylebone, with whom he had four children: Boris, former Leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom; Rachel, journalist and former editor-in-chief of "The Lady"; Jo, former Conservative MP for Orpington, former Minister of State for Universities, and former Head of the Lex Column at the "Financial Times"; and Leo, film-maker and entrepreneur. He dropped out of Columbia after a year. Johnson and Fawcett divorced in 1979. He married Jennifer Kidd in Westminster in 1981 and they had two children, Julia and Maximilian.


title: Stanley Johnson (writer)

text: In July 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Johnson posted pictures on Instagram of himself travelling to Athens, Greece. He was criticised by Liberal Democrat MP Jamie Stone for travelling at a time when guidance under lockdown was to avoid "all but essential international travel". At the time, Greece had reopened its borders but banned direct travel from the United Kingdom; Johnson had circumvented Greece's rules by travelling via Bulgaria.


title: Stanley Johnson (writer)

text: In December 2020, Johnson stated that he was applying for a French passport to retain mobility and residence rights in the European Union, saying: "It's not a question of becoming French. If I understand correctly I am French! My mother was born in France, her mother was completely French as was her grandfather."


title: Stanley Johnson (writer)

text: Johnson has previously worked at the World Bank and was the Head of Prevention of Pollution Division at the European Commission from 1973 to 1979. He has a great interest in the environment. In 2010 he became chairman of the Gorilla Organisation, a body dedicated to saving the world's last remaining gorillas from extinction. He was previously a board member of Plantlife International.


title: Stanley Johnson (writer)

text: At the 2005 general election, Johnson stood for the Conservative Party in the constituency of Teignbridge, where he came second behind Richard Younger-Ross of the Liberal Democrats.


title: Stanley Johnson (writer)

text: In May 2008, Johnson hoped to be selected to contest his son Boris's parliamentary seat of Henley for the Conservative Party. However, the local Conservative party had chosen three local people as possible candidates and on 30 May, local councillor John Howell was selected to fight the by-election.


title: Stanley Johnson (writer)

text: Having supported the Remain campaign during the 2016 European Union membership referendum, in October 2017 he came out in support of the United Kingdom leaving the European Union, stating that "the time has come to bail out" and cited the approach and attitude of the European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker as a major factor in his change of mind. He added that argument and debate over the length or detail of any transition or implementation period is expected but the ultimate "end-state" of the UK leaving the European Union is decided.


title: Stanley Johnson (writer)

text: He has published a number of books dealing with environmental issues and nine novels, including "The Commissioner", which was made into a 1998 film starring John Hurt. In 1962 he won the Newdigate Prize for Poetry.


title: Stanley Johnson (writer)

text: His 2015 novel "The Virus" is a thriller about the rise of a mysterious virus and the fight to stop a deadly pandemic


title: Stanley Johnson (writer)

text: For a time, starting on 26 May 2005, he wrote a weekly column for the "G2" section of "The Guardian", and continues to write for various newspapers and magazines, often on environmental topics.


title: Stanley Johnson (writer)

text: He was one of the first regular hosts of the late night discussion programme "The Last Word" on Channel 4's More4 channel, and made an appearance on "Have I Got News For You" on 7 May 2004.


title: Stanley Johnson (writer)

text: In November 2017, Johnson was confirmed as a contestant for the seventeenth series of "I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!". He was the fifth person to be eliminated from the show, finishing in seventh place. In 2018, alongside eight other celebrities, he appeared on the BBC programme "The Real Marigold Hotel".


title: Stanley Johnson (writer)

text: In 1983 he received the RSPCA Richard Martin Award for Outstanding Services to animal welfare. He was for many years an ambassador for the UNEP Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals based in Bonn, Germany.


title: Stanley Johnson (writer)

text: In October 2015 Johnson was awarded the RSPB Medal by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds for his role in the creation of one of the cornerstones of Europe's nature conservation policy – the Habitats Directive (1992).


title: Stanley Johnson (writer)

text: Biographer Tom Bower records in an interview with his first wife Charlotte Fawcett that 'he hit me many times, over many years'. On one occasion in the 1970s he allegedly broke her nose, with Fawcett stating: "He broke my nose. He made me feel like I deserved it. I want the truth to be told."


title: Stanley Johnson (writer)

text: On 15 November 2021, Caroline Nokes accused Johnson of spanking her at the Conservative Party conference in Blackpool in 2003. Johnson said that he had "no recollection of Caroline Nokes at all". Following this, journalist Ailbhe Rea accused Johnson of groping her at the 2019 Conservative Party conference.


title: Stanley Johnson (writer)

text: In August 2018 Johnson said his son Boris Johnson's comments that Muslim women who wear burkas look like "letterboxes" and "bank robbers" did not go far enough, and that criticism of the comments had been "synthetic indignation" created by political opponents.


title: Stanley Johnson (writer)

text: In October 2018 Johnson said that, irrespective of the solution for the border on the island of Ireland after Brexit, if the Irish people "want to shoot each other, they will shoot each other".


title: Stanley Johnson (writer)

text: In November 2019 Johnson appeared on BBC's "Victoria Derbyshire" show and was told that one viewer had called his son Boris "Pinocchio". Johnson replied, "Pinocchio? That requires a degree of literacy which I think the Great British public doesn't necessarily have." Johnson defended his statement by arguing that he was being humorous, but argued that it was "utterly absurd and wrong that you can read out on air a tweet coming in from one of your readers which calls the prime minister a liar. I think it is amazing you can do that".


title: Stanley Johnson (writer)

text: In June 2022, Johnson was accused of lobbying on behalf of China. He has campaigned for lifting the ban of the Chinese ambassador to the UK on entering Parliament.


title: Tiger shark

text: The tiger shark (Galeocerdo cuvier) is a species of requiem shark and the last extant member of the family Galeocerdonidae. It is a large macropredator, capable of attaining a length over . Populations are found in many tropical and temperate waters, especially around central Pacific islands. Its name derives from the dark stripes down its body, which resemble a tiger's pattern, but fade as the shark matures.


title: Tiger shark

text: The tiger shark is a solitary, mostly nocturnal hunter. It is notable for having the widest food spectrum of all sharks, with a range of prey that includes crustaceans, fish, seals, birds, squid, turtles, sea snakes, dolphins, and even other smaller sharks. It also has a reputation as a "garbage eater", consuming a variety of inedible, man-made objects that linger in its stomach. Though apex predators, tiger sharks are sometimes taken as prey by groups of killer whales. It is considered a near threatened species because of finning and fishing by humans.


title: Tiger shark

text: The tiger shark is second only to the great white in recorded fatal attacks on humans, but these events are still exceedingly rare.


title: Tiger shark

text: The shark was first described by Peron and Lesueur in 1822, and was given the name "Squalus cuvier". Müller and Henle in 1837 renamed it "Galeocerdo tigrinus". The genus, "Galeocerdo", is derived from the Greek "galeos", which means shark, and "kerdo", the word for fox. It is often colloquially called the man-eater shark.


title: Tiger shark

text: The tiger shark is a member of the order Carcharhiniformes, the most species-rich order of sharks, with more than 270 species also including the small catsharks and hammerhead sharks. Members of this order are characterized by the presence of a nictitating membrane over the eyes, two dorsal fins, an anal fin, and five gill slits. It is the largest member of the order, commonly referred to as requiem sharks. This order consists of mostly slender but powerful mid- to large-sized sharks and includes some other well-known sharks, such as the blue shark ("Prionace glauca"), lemon shark ("Negaprion brevirostris"), and bull shark ("Carcharhinus leucas").