title: Second American Civil War

text: Political scientist Julie Novkov notes that, while a similar political climate existed prior to the American Civil War, "the compromise that ended Reconstruction may begin to look like a plausible way out: leaving states to develop and implement policies based on the world views of those who control their dominant parties, with all that that could mean for those living there," often resulting in a constitutional crisis and minority rule, but not a "shooting war." Meanwhile, Boston College professor Heather Cox Richardson suggested that Biden could find an out by rallying the divided country by declaring "war on the authoritarians threatening our democracy, much the same as Abraham Lincoln did." Some interpreted these remarks as unfairly comparing modern Republicans to slaveowners prior to the Civil War.


title: Second American Civil War

text: Notably, there has also been some discussion of a civil war among financial investors on Wall Street. In 2021, billionaire hedge fund manager Ray Dalio began warning of "some form" of future civil war. Dalio placed the chance of a civil war in America in the next 5 to 10 years at 30%, citing "bad financial conditions and intense conflict." Dalio says there is a "dangerously high risk" of government breakdown between the state and federal levels that won't go through the "rulebook" of The Constitution, creating a "power conflict that could take it's various forms." Dalio added that "history has taught is that when the causes that people are behind are more important to them than the system, the system is in jeopardy." In 2022, Dalio authored an article on Linkedin, echoing his prior concerns, stating: "The current financial conditions and irreconcilable differences in desires and values are consistent with the ingredients leading to some form of civil war." Dalio blames bad financial conditions caused by increasing federal debt, high taxes, inflation, and wealth inequality, which has created discontentment among Americans that is being further aggravated by misinformation, propaganda, and populist movements on the left and right. Dalio warns the 2022 midterms will worsen the political environment because "extremist-populists will win because each side wants fighters, not compromisers, and moderates will also choose not to run."


title: Second American Civil War

text: There has been some backlash from some political scientists and commentators regarding discussion of a second civil war. Observers claim the incendiary nature of the topic in the mainstream could demonize conservatives, or act as a "self-fulfilling prophecy." Other critics claim the term "civil war" is being misused.


title: Second American Civil War

text: Several conservative thinkers have criticized mainstream discussion about a civil war, generally claiming that it serves as a form of fearmongering which is intended to demonize conservatives. Some of them have claimed that the discussion about a civil war is an intentional conspiracy which is designed to instill fear and help the federal government justify its suspension of the American people's civil rights.


title: Second American Civil War

text: Writing for the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, a conservative think tank in New York, Lee Seigel argues that the discussion about a second civil war is "hyperbolic" and essentially impossible given current conditions, claiming that America is facing an epistemological crisis rather than an existential one. Seigel argues that in order for a civil war to occur, two separate armies would need to be ready to wage war against each other, and he also argues that no true existential threat actually exists against any group of Americans, but he warns: "We should be careful how we use such a term, lest fears of political catastrophe become self-fulfilling prophecies."


title: Second American Civil War

text: Ross Douthat, a Political analyst for "The New York Times," recognized the fact that political polarization is increasing, but he blamed liberals for exaggerating the fear of a civil war, especially in the aftermath of the Gretchen Whitmer kidnapping plot. Conservative author Steven F. Hayward echoed this sentiment, stating that the Democratic Party is exaggerating the fear of a civil war as a political attack against conservatives, claiming: "If a new civil war does come, it will be on account of the intransigence of the same party that started the first one."


title: Second American Civil War

text: Meanwhile, conservative columnist John Feehery claims that left-wing politicians are exaggerating the fear of a "phony" civil war in order to enact "self-serving" voting laws that would make it easier for them to win elections. Essayist Michael Anton, a senior fellow at the Claremont Institute and former Trump official, went further, claiming a manufactured fear of civil war is being promoted by the mainstream media as a means of psychological manipulation to help the deep state "crush opposition" from conservatives. Anton claims such lies serve as a pretext for the federal government to clampdown on political opponents and impose "censorship, surveillance, no-knock raids, computer and records seizures, asset confiscation, frivolous (but deadly serious) criminal charges, endless pretrial detention, and draconian sentences for misdemeanors and noncrimes."


title: Second American Civil War

text: Fintan O'Toole, recalling discussion of an Irish Civil War during The Troubles, states that characterizing modern political turbulence in the U.S. as an emerging civil war is a "failure of historical perspective," while historian Gary W. Gallagher states that such characterization "represents a spectacular lack of understanding about American history" and that the country will "almost certainly will emerge from current controversies intact." Nikhil Pal Singh of New York University claims "the spectre of civil war" is a mislabeling of "endemic" violence and illiberal fatalism, adding that the "politics of anticipatory fear has served up a long, dismal record of misdiagnosing fundamental problems."


title: Second American Civil War

text: O'Toole points to historical events, such as the American Indian Wars, the Tulsa race massacre, the Martin Luther King, Jr. assassination riots, and the 1992 Los Angeles riots as examples of heightened political tension that did not spark a civil war in America. O'Toole says modern violence is similar to these events and unlikely to trigger civil war, stating: "The comforting fiction that the U.S. used to be a glorious and settled democracy prevents any reckoning with the fact that its current crisis is not a terrible departure from the past but rather a product of the unresolved contradictions of its history." Marche disagrees, maintaining that the legitimacy of U.S. institutions, including the courts, press and Congress, is "in freefall" and can't be compared to prior social upheaval because an "incipient illegitimacy crisis" is being pushed by the political right, which is causing conservatives to "abandoned faith in government." Marche concludes: "The United States today is, once again, headed for civil war, and, once again, it cannot bear to face it."


title: Second American Civil War

text: Political analyst Lincoln Mitchell argues that "casual talk" of a second civil war is unhelpful because most Americans "may miss its arrival," stating there won't be a clear moment such as the shooting at Fort Sumter, but rather a "chaotic" escalation of violence similar to what occurred during the George Floyd protests and the 2021 Capitol attack. Mitchell also adds that "casual talk of a national divorce" or peaceful secession is "absurd," adding: "the cost of breaking up America would be extremely high for all of us."


title: Second American Civil War

text: American University associate professor Thomas Zeitzoff also objects to the conversation because it "could be self-fulfilling," noting that "paying acute attention to the danger might make the danger more likely." He also notes that statistical analysis is likely overstating the tolerance for violence by everyday American citizens, triggering unnecessary panic. Ron Elving for NPR summarizes this by stating: "too much thinking about the unthinkable can become acceptance of the unacceptable."


title: Second American Civil War

text: Zeitzoff also notes that "civil war" has a scholarly definition as "a high-intensity conflict, often involving regular armed forces, that is sustained, organized and large-scale" and is an "extreme manifestation of political violence" beyond anything exhibited in the modern United States, and includes measurable benchmarks such as total battle deaths and duration of conflict. Therefore, the accepted definition of a civil war undermines any conversation of "civil war" being used in the mainstream. Others note that most civil wars are based on a certain threshold of combatant deaths, often 1,000 or more.


title: Second American Civil War

text: Dartmouth political science professor Brendan Nyhan agrees, arguing the term "civil war" is being used interchangeably with "threat to democracy" and distracts from actual political crises such as a rise in authoritarianism. Politico co-founder John F. Harris argues that the misuse of civil war in the national dialogue should give "solace" for the future, claiming that everyday Americans are contemptuous of each other but with "no one really knowing what the conflict is about." Without a real unifying cause to fight for or against (such as slavery), Harris concludes that the political environment is akin to a "national crack-up," adding: "it's hard to have a real civil war without a real cause." Gallagher agrees, stating: "No political issue in 2022 approaches slavery in terms of potential explosiveness."


title: Second American Civil War

text: Musa al-Gharbi, a fellow at the Sociology at Columbia University, said the fear of civil war is "overblown" and is "almost purely an artifact of people taking poll and survey data at face value despite overwhelming evidence that we probably shouldn't." Al-Gharbi noted a decrease in political violence in 2021, stating: "In fact, rather than January 6 serving as a prelude to a civil war, the US saw lower levels of death from political violence in 2021 than in any other year since the turn of the century. Even as violent crime approached record highs across much of the country, fatalities from "political" violence dropped. This is not an outcome that seems consistent with large and growing shares of the population supposedly leaning towards settling the culture wars with bullets instead of ballots."


title: Second American Civil War

text: Writing in socialist magazine Jacobin, journalist Ryan Zickgraf was critical of Marche and Walter for stoking civil war anxiety, which he claimed "isn't just overblown — it's also politically useless," stating: "Ultimately, we don't need the threat of a civil war to stay vigilant. It's possible to be alarmed by Trump's behind-the-scenes attempts to overturn the election and right-wing authoritarian movements whose increasingly violent antigovernmental arguments are becoming more mainstream in the Republican Party without hitting the panic button. Not every act of rebellion, even one as cinematic as a horned barbarian at the gates of Congress, signals The End of the Republic."


title: Second American Civil War

text: Barbara F. Walter is critical of civil war skeptics, stating: "What everybody said, whether they were in Baghdad or Sarajevo or Kiev, was we didn't see it coming. In fact, we weren't willing to accept that anything was wrong until we heard machine gun fire in the hillside. And by that time, it was too late."


title: Second American Civil War

text: In June 2022, Deutsche Welle, the German state-owned international broadcaster, aired a 42 min. segment titled "Abortion, guns, racism: Is America a worn-out role model?" ["Abtreibung, Waffen, Rassismus: Haben die USA als Vorbild ausgedient?"]. Hosted by Tina Gerhäusser, the guests were (French political scientist, founder of the Center for Intersectional Justice in Berlin), (political scientist, USA expert), and Nicole Renvert (analyst, non-resident fellow at the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies). The first 22 min. were about the overturning of Roe v. Wade and the growing conservatism of the Supreme Court; mins. 22-30 were about gun violence and how the ownership of guns is seen by the American people; mins. 30-38 were about the events of January 6, 2021 and the possibility of Trump or the Republicans returning to power in an electoral structure in which someone who does not have a popular majority can win. In the final minutes, the host asked the guests about whether the USA is still a role model of democracy. Ms. Roig said that given its historical record of human rights violations it had never been one. Mr. Braml said that considering one-third of Republican lawmakers and voters don't recognize Biden as a legitimate president, they think guns can be used to defend what they view as a democracy, and they have many guns, something alike or worse than January 6 could happen, including drifting into a civil war ["Amerika in einem Bürgerkrieg abdriften könnte," min.41:06]. Ms. Renvert said that the USA's innovation, universities and educated people are still attracting the young from around the world.


title: RuPaul's Drag Race (season 5)

text: The fifth season of "RuPaul's Drag Race" began airing on January 28, 2013, with a 90-minute premiere episode. The winner of season five headlined Logo's Drag Race Tour featuring Absolut Vodka, won a one-of-a-kind trip, a lifetime supply of Colorevolution Cosmetics, and a cash prize of $100,000.


title: RuPaul's Drag Race (season 5)

text: The theme song playing during the runway every episode is "I Bring the Beat", while the song playing during the credits is "The Beginning". Both songs are from RuPaul's album "Glamazon".


title: RuPaul's Drag Race (season 5)

text: This is the first-ever series in the show's history to feature a double elimination or a double sashay between two contestants, Honey Mahogany and Vivienne Pinay. It is also the first series to feature a queen, Coco Montrese, lip-sync for their life four times and send 3 people home. This is also the first series where RuPaul allowed fans to vote for a winner.


title: RuPaul's Drag Race (season 5)

text: The winner of the fifth season of "RuPaul's Drag Race" was Jinkx Monsoon, with Alaska and Roxxxy Andrews being the runners-up, and Ivy Winters being crowned season 5's Miss Congeniality by fans.


title: RuPaul's Drag Race (season 5)

text: The overnight ratings for the fifth-season premiere of "Rupaul's Drag Race" reinforced the show's position as Logo's juggernaut. "Monday night's 9PM season five premiere of "RuPaul's Drag Race" worked the ratings runway, averaging a .8 rating in the P18-49 demo. This number represents a 33% increase over Logo's previous top-rated season premiere (fourth-season premiere of "RuPaul's Drag Race") and clocks in as the highest-rated season premiere in Logo history.


title: RuPaul's Drag Race (season 5)

text: Additionally, the 90-minute premiere tallied 565,000 total viewers tuning in to meet the new cast of 14 drag queen hopefuls who will fight it out to be crowned "America's Next Drag Superstar". The fifth-season premiere night of "RuPaul's Drag Race" and companion series "RuPaul's Drag Race: Untucked" delivered over 1.3 million viewers.


title: RuPaul's Drag Race (season 5)

text: Furthermore, "RuPaul's Drag Race: Untucked" was the most-watched premiere ever averaging 291,000 total viewers and a .5 rating P18-49. On social media platforms for premiere night, "RuPaul's Drag Race" and "Untucked" showed a 136% increase in social activity versus the fourth-season premiere – this includes tweets, Facebook posts and Get Glue check-ins.


title: Hindustan Unilever

text: Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) is a consumer goods company headquartered in Mumbai, India. It is a subsidiary of Unilever, a British company. Its products include foods, beverages, cleaning agents, personal care products, water purifiers and other fast-moving consumer goods.


title: Hindustan Unilever

text: HUL was established in 1931 as Hindustan Vanaspati Manufacturing Co. and following a merger of constituent groups in 1956, it was renamed Hindustan Lever Limited. The company was renamed in June 2007 as Hindustan Unilever Limited.


title: Hindustan Unilever

text: As of 2019, Hindustan Unilever's portfolio had 50+ product brands in 14 categories. The company has 21,000 employees and clocked sales of ₹34,619 crores in FY2017–18.


title: Hindustan Unilever

text: In December 2018, HUL announced its acquisition of GlaxoSmithKline's India's consumer business for $3.8 billion in an all equity merger deal with a 1:4.39 ratio. However the integration of GSK's 3,800 employees remained uncertain as HUL stated there was no clause for retention of employees in the deal. In April 2020, HUL completed its merger with GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare (GSKCH India) after completing all legal procedures. In December 2022, HUL's market cap was Rs. 638548.42 crore.


title: Hindustan Unilever

text: Hindustan Unilever's corporate headquarters are located in Andheri, Mumbai. The campus is spread over 12.5 acres of land and houses over 1,600 employees. Some of the facilities available for the employees include a convenience store, a food court, an occupational health centre, a gym, a sports & recreation centre and a day care centre. The Campus is designed by Mumbai-based architecture firm Kapadia Associates.


title: Hindustan Unilever

text: The campus received a certification from LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold in the 'New Construction' category, by Indian Green Building Council (IGBC), Hyderabad, under licence from the United States Green Building Council (USGBC)


title: Hindustan Unilever

text: The company's previous headquarters was located in Backbay Reclamation, Mumbai at the Lever House, where it was housed for more than 46 years.


title: Hindustan Unilever

text: The Hindustan Unilever Research Centre (HURC) was set up in 1966 in Mumbai, and Unilever Research India in Bangalore in 1997. In 2006, the company's research facilities were brought together at a single site in Bangalore.


title: Hindustan Unilever

text: Unilever launched Sustainable Living Plan on 15 November 2010 in London, Rotterdam, New York and New Delhi simultaneously.


title: Hindustan Unilever

text: HUL is the market leader in Indian consumer products with presence in over 20 consumer categories such as soaps, tea, detergents and shampoos amongst others with over 700 million Indian consumers using its products. Sixteen of HUL's brands featured in the ACNielsen Brand Equity list of 100 Most Trusted Brands Annual Survey (2014), carried out by Brand Equity, a supplement of "The Economic Times".


title: Hindustan Unilever

text: In 2001 a thermometer factory in Kodaikanal run by Hindustan Unilever was accused of dumping glass contaminated with mercury in municipal dumps, and selling it on to scrap merchants unable to deal with it appropriately. Protests by local NGOs and Greenpeace lead to the shutting of the factory in March 2001. After protest by activists led by Deepak Malghan of the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore Hindustan Unilever admitted before court to being guilty in the case in 2010.


title: Hindustan Unilever

text: Hindustan Unilever's "Glow & Lovely" is the leading skin-lightening cream for women in India. The company had to cease television advertisements for the product in 2007. Advertisements depicted depressed, dark-complexioned women, who had been ignored by employers and men, suddenly finding new boyfriends and glamorous careers after the cream had lightened their skin. In 2008, Hindustan Unilever made former Miss World Priyanka Chopra a brand ambassador for Pond's, and she then appeared in a mini-series of television commercials for another skin lightening product, 'White Beauty', alongside Saif Ali Khan and Neha Dhupia; these advertisements, showing Priyanka's face with a clearly darker complexion against the visibly fairer Neha Dhupia, were widely criticised for perpetuating racism and lowering the self-esteem of women and girls throughout India who were misled by HUL to believe that they needed to be white to be beautiful. The company rebranded the cream from "Fair and Lovely" to "Glow and Lovely", removing the word "Fair" from the brand.


title: Hindustan Unilever

text: Several academic papers have pointed out the firm's continued use of the antibacterial agent Triclosan ('Active B') in India because it is under review by the American Food and Drug Administration (US FDA).


title: Hindustan Unilever

text: In March 2019, HUL's advertisement for its beverage Brooke Bond Red Label tea was criticised on social media. A company tweet referred to the Kumbh Mela as a place where elderly people get abandoned by their family members. This resulted in a severe backlash in the form of an adverse hashtag trending on Twitter '#BoycottHindustanUnilever'.


title: Hindustan Unilever

text: The Institute of Competitiveness, India, has recognized Hindustan Unilever Limited's Project Shakti for ‘Creating Shared Value’ and bestowed upon the company the Porter Prize for 2014. It ranked number one on the Forbes list of ‘Most Innovative Companies’ across the globe for 2014 and was ranked number three on Fortune India's list of India's most admired companies in a list compiled with the help of a global management consultancy Hay Group. It received an award from Dun & Bradstreet Corporate Awards in 2014. and was Client of the Year at Effies 2013 – 2014. It also received an award as a 'Conscious Capitalist of the Year' at the 2013 Forbes India Leadership Awards. HUL won 12 awards overall with 4 Golds, 4 Silvers and 4 Bronzes at the 2013 Emvies Awards. In 2013, HUL ranked number two on the on Fortune India's 2013 '50 Most Admired Companies list'. and was declared the fourth most Respected Company in India in a survey conducted by Business World in 2013.


title: Hindustan Unilever

text: As per a 2015 Nielsen Campus Track-business school survey, Hindustan Unilever emerged among the top employers of choice for B-school students graduating that year. It has often been called a 'Dream Employer' for application by B-School students in India.


title: Hindustan Unilever

text: In 2012, HUL was recognised as one of the world's most innovative companies by Forbes. With a ranking of number 6, it was the highest ranked FMCG company. Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) won the first prize at FICCI Water Awards 2012 under the category of 'community initiatives by industry' for Gundar Basin Project, a water conservationist initiative. Hindustan Unilever Limited won 13 awards at the Emvies 2012 Media Awards organised by the Advertising Club Bombay in September 2012.


title: Hindustan Unilever

text: The company received four awards at the Spikes Asia Awards 2012, held in September. The awards included one Grand Prix one Gold Award and two Silver Awards.


title: Hindustan Unilever

text: HUL's Chhindwara Unit won the National Safety Award for outstanding performance in Industrial Safety. These awards were instituted by the Union Ministry of Labour and Employment in 1965.


title: Hindustan Unilever

text: HUL was one of the eight Indian companies to be featured on the Forbes list of World's Most Reputed companies in 2007.


title: Hindustan Unilever

text: In July 2012, Hindustan Unilever Limited won the Golden Peacock Occupational Health and Safety Award for 2012 in the FMCG category for its safety and health initiatives and continuous improvement on key metrics.


title: Hindustan Unilever

text: Hindustan Unilever Limited is rated as best 3Ci Company which is registered with National Industrial Classification Code 15140.


title: Hindustan Unilever

text: Pond's Talcum Powder's packaging innovation has secured a Silver Award at the prestigious 24th DuPont Global Packaging Award, in May 2012. The brand was recognized for cost and waste reduction.


title: Hindustan Unilever

text: In May 2012, HUL & Star Bazaar received the silver award for 'Creating Consumer Value through Joint Promotional and Event Forecasting' at the 13th ECR Efficient Consumer Response Asia Pacific Conference.


title: Hindustan Unilever

text: In 2011, HUL was named the most innovative company in India by Forbes and ranked 6th in the top 10 list of most innovative companies in the world.


title: Hindustan Unilever

text: Hindustan Unilever Ltd received the National Award for Excellence in Corporate Governance 2011 of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) for excellence in corporate governance.


title: Hindustan Unilever

text: In 2012, Hindustan Unilever emerged as the No. 1 employer of choice for B-School students who will graduate in 2012. In addition, HUL also retained the 'Dream Employer' status for the 3rd year running.


title: Hindustan Unilever

text: Hindustan Unilever ranked No. 2 in Fortune India's Most Admired Companies list, which was released by Fortune India in partnership with the Hay Group. The company received the highest scores for endurance and financial soundness.


title: Hindustan Unilever

text: HUL was ranked 47th in The Brand Trust Report 2014 published by Trust Research Advisory. 36 HUL brands also featured in the list including Lux, Dove, Lipton, Vim, Kissan, Bru, Rexona, Close Up, Clinic Plus, Pond's, Knorr, and Pepsodent among others.


title: Hindustan Unilever

text: HUL emerged as the top 'Dream Employer' as well as the top company considered for application in the annual B-School Survey conducted by Nielsen in November 2010. This was the second successive year that HUL has been rated as the top 'Dream Employer' in India. HUL has also emerged as the top employer of choice among the top six Indian Institutes of Management (IIMA, B, C, L, K and I).


title: Hindustan Unilever

text: HUL won three awards at the 'CNBC Awaaz Storyboard Consumer Awards' in 2011 – Most Recommended FMCG Company of the Year; Most Consumer Conscious Company of the Year and Digital Marketer of the Year.


title: Hindustan Unilever

text: The company was felicitated in April 2010 for receiving the highest number of patents in the year 2009 at Annual Intellectual Property Awards 2010.


title: Hindustan Unilever

text: In 2007, Hindustan Unilever was rated as the most respected company in India for the past 25 years by "Businessworld", one of India's leading business magazines. The rating was based on a compilation of the magazine's annual survey of India's most reputed companies over the past 25 years.


title: Hindustan Unilever

text: HUL is one of the country's largest exporters; it has been recognised as a Golden Super Star Trading House by the Government of India.


title: Once Upon a Time in Mexico

text: Once Upon a Time in Mexico (also known as Desperado 2) is a 2003 American neo-Western action film written, directed, produced, photographed, scored, and edited by Robert Rodriguez. It is the third and final film in Rodriguez's "Mexico Trilogy", and it is a sequel to 1992's "El Mariachi" and 1995's "Desperado". The film features Antonio Banderas in his second and final performance as El Mariachi. In the film, El Mariachi is recruited by CIA agent Sheldon Sands (Johnny Depp) to kill a corrupt general responsible for the death of his wife, Carolina (Salma Hayek).


title: Once Upon a Time in Mexico

text: It was the first 'big budget' film to be shot in digital HD. "Once Upon a Time in Mexico" received mixed reviews from critics, with praise for Depp's performance, but criticism for reducing its protagonist to an almost secondary character in his own trilogy and a convoluted plot. In the special features of the film's DVD, Rodriguez explained this was intentional, as he wanted this to be his "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" of the trilogy. "Once Upon a Time in Mexico" grossed $98 million.


title: Once Upon a Time in Mexico

text: El Mariachi is recruited by CIA officer Sheldon Jeffrey Sands to kill General Emiliano Marquez, a corrupt Mexican Army officer who has been hired by Mexican drug lord Armando Barillo to assassinate the President of Mexico and overthrow the government during a period of unrest in Culiacán (the capital of Sinaloa) which is testing the presidency. Many years before, El Mariachi and his wife Carolina confronted Marquez in a shootout and wounded the general; in retaliation, Marquez took the lives of Carolina and their daughter in an ambush. In addition to El Mariachi, Sands persuades former FBI agent Jorge Ramírez to come out of retirement and kill Barillo, who had murdered his partner Archuleta in the past. Furthermore, AFN operative Ajedrez is assigned by Sands to tail Barillo.


title: Once Upon a Time in Mexico

text: While monitoring Barillo's activities, Ramírez meets Billy Chambers, an American fugitive who has been living under the protection of Barillo, but can no longer stomach the horrible tasks he's been forced to carry out for him. Ramírez convinces Chambers he will provide him protection in exchange for getting closer to Barillo by tagging Chambers' pet chihuahua with a hidden microphone, and Chambers agrees to complete the deal by surrendering to U.S. authorities once Barillo has been taken down. Sands' agent, Cucuy, originally hired to keep an eye on El Mariachi, instead turns and tranquilizes El Mariachi and turns him over to Barillo, also offering to reveal the details of Sands's plan. Cucuy, however, is promptly killed by Chambers while El Mariachi escapes from captivity and calls his friends Lorenzo and Fideo to assist him in his mission.


title: Once Upon a Time in Mexico

text: While monitoring Barillo's activity outside a hospital, Ramírez notices armed men storming the building and follows suit. He discovers that a group of doctors have been gunned down and Barillo has bled to death as a result of a botched facial reconstruction, but realizes that the corpse on the operating table is a body double before he is knocked out and kidnapped by the real Barillo and Ajedrez, who reveals herself to be Barillo's daughter. Sands realizes that his mission has been compromised, but is too late, as he is captured by Barillo and Ajedrez — who drill out his eyes before sending him out. Despite his blindness, he manages to gun down a hitman tailing him with the aid of a "chicle" boy.


title: Once Upon a Time in Mexico

text: As Culiacán celebrates the Day of the Dead during the President's visit, Marquez and his army storm in and attack the presidential palace. Marquez's troops, however, are met with resistance from not only the President's bodyguards, but also the citizens of Culiacán and the Mariachis. Sands had instructed El Mariachi to allow the President to be killed before attacking Marquez, but the Mariachis, concluding that the President is a good man, intervene early and protect him. Marquez enters the presidential palace, only to once again confront El Mariachi, who shoots out his kneecaps before killing him with a headshot. Ramírez, who was released from captivity by Chambers, faces Barillo. After Barillo guns down Chambers, Ramírez and El Mariachi kill the drug lord. Sands manages to shoot the sadistic Ajedrez dead outside the presidential palace. Ultimately, Lorenzo and Fideo walk away with the cash that Barillo was using to pay Marquez, and help the president safely escape the attempted coup. Ramírez says goodbye to Sands and walks away, having avenged his partner's death. El Mariachi then gives his share of the cash to his home village before walking into the sunset.


title: Once Upon a Time in Mexico

text: In a 2003 issue of "Rolling Stone", Depp was named as one of its "People of the Year", and gave an interview in which he briefly discussed his role as Sands:


title: Once Upon a Time in Mexico

text: The idea behind him is there was this guy I used to know in Hollywood, in the business, who on the outside was very charming – soft-spoken and almost hypnotic in the rhythm he used to speak. He refused to call me Johnny – always called me John. You knew this guy was aiming to fuck you over, but somehow you stuck around because he was just so fascinating to watch.


title: Once Upon a Time in Mexico

text: Depp also said in an "Entertainment Weekly" article that he "imagine[d] this guy wore really cheesy tourist shirts", that he had a "sideline obsession with Broadway", and that he favored strange, obvious disguises; all three qualities can be observed in the film. It was also revealed in the director's commentary on the DVD that Depp himself came up with the character's first and middle names.


title: Once Upon a Time in Mexico

text: Made on a US$29 million budget, the film was shot in May 2001 before "" (2002) and "" (2003) in order to avoid a potential Screen Actors Guild strike. Shooting took place over seven weeks in Querétaro, San Miguel de Allende and Guanajuato, Mexico. It was the first big budget film to be shot in high definition digital video. Rodriguez chose to shoot on digital after George Lucas, who was shooting "", showed him early footage shot digitally. Impressed, Rodriguez chose to shoot digitally, but he knew he did not have enough time to shoot "Spy Kids 2". Instead, he pitched a sequel to "Desperado" to Miramax and wrote a script in six days. The initial draft was 65 pages long, which he padded with a subplot borrowed from an unproduced short film. When Miramax expressed hesitation over the added subplot, he readily removed it. His primary influence was Sergio Leone's "Dollars Trilogy", specifically "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly". Rodriguez said shooting digitally saved time and money, simplified the filming process, and rendered 35 mm film obsolete for him.


title: Once Upon a Time in Mexico

text: The film's score includes songs composed by director Robert Rodriguez and performed by a group of musicians gathered specifically for the soundtrack recording. Tracks performed by the group includes "Malagueña" with guitar by Brian Setzer and "Siente Mi Amor", with singing by Salma Hayek. Track 9, "Sands' Theme", credited to "Tonto's Giant Nuts", was written by Johnny Depp. Additional music includes Juno Reactor's "Pistolero", "Me Gustas Tú" by Manu Chao, and "Cuka Rocka" by Rodriguez' own rock band, Chingon. On the DVD director commentary, Robert Rodriguez states that he requested that each of the main actors give him four or eight notes of a melody for their character, but Depp presented him with the entire track.


title: Once Upon a Time in Mexico

text: Sony's AXN channel confirmed that it will be airing a TV series adaptation of "El Mariachi" franchise. The series was to have premiered on March 20, 2014.


title: Once Upon a Time in Mexico

text: "Once Upon a Time in Mexico" was released on September 12, 2003, in 3,282 theaters with an opening weekend gross of US$23.4 million. It went on to make $56.4 million in North America and $41.8 in the rest of the world for a combined total of $98.2 million on a $29 million budget.


title: Once Upon a Time in Mexico

text: On Rotten Tomatoes "Once Upon a Time in Mexico" holds an approval rating of 66% based on 168 reviews, with an average rating of 6.20/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "Violent, pulpy, loopy fun, with Depp stealing the show." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 56 out of 100 based on 34 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews"


title: Once Upon a Time in Mexico

text: "Chicago Sun-Times" film critic Roger Ebert gave the film three out of four stars and wrote, "Like Leone's movie, the Rodriguez epic is more interested in the moment, in great shots, in surprises and ironic reversals and closeups of sweaty faces, than in a coherent story." A. O. Scott wrote in his review for "The New York Times", "But in the end, the punched-up editing and vibrant color schemes start to grow tiresome, and Mr. Rodriguez, bored with his own gimmickry and completely out of ideas, responds by pushing the violence to needlessly grotesque extremes."


title: Once Upon a Time in Mexico

text: In her review for "USA Today", Claudia Puig wrote, "In "Mexico", Rodriguez has fashioned a swaggering fantasy that pays homage to spaghetti Westerns such as Sergio Leone's "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly". Plenty of blood is shed, much powerful artillery is fired, and action sequences provide astounding car crashes and fiery explosions." Writing for "Entertainment Weekly", Owen Gleiberman gave the film a "B" rating and praised Depp's performance with its "winking grace notes of Brandoesque flakery ... is as minimal and laid-back as his "Pirates of the Caribbean" turn was deep-dish theatrical".


title: En Vogue

text: En Vogue is an American vocal girl group whose original lineup consisted of singers Terry Ellis, Dawn Robinson, Cindy Herron, and Maxine Jones. Formed in Oakland, California, in 1989, En Vogue reached No. 2 on the US Hot 100 with the single "Hold On", taken from their 1990 debut album "Born to Sing". The group's 1992 follow-up album "Funky Divas" reached the top 10 in both the US and UK, and included their second US number two hit "My Lovin' (You're Never Gonna Get It)" as well as the US top 10 hits "Giving Him Something He Can Feel" and "Free Your Mind".


title: En Vogue

text: In 1996, "Don't Let Go (Love)" became the group's third, and most successful single, to reach number two in the US, and became their sixth number one on the US R&B chart. Robinson left the group in 1997 shortly before the release of their third album "EV3", which reached the US and UK top 10. Jones left the group in 2001, Amanda Cole joined shortly thereafter. However, in 2003, Cole left the group, and Rhona Bennett joined the group during the recording of their album "Soul Flower". In 2005, the original members briefly united before disassembling again. In 2009, the original members once again reunited for their "En Vogue: 20th Anniversary". Shortly after the tour, Robinson and Jones again departed from En Vogue, with Bennett rejoining the group as a trio.


title: En Vogue

text: En Vogue has sold more than 30 million records worldwide to date, and are often considered one of the best female vocal groups of all time. The group has won seven MTV Video Music Awards, three Soul Train Awards, two American Music Awards, and received seven Grammy nominations. In December 1999, Billboard magazine ranked the band as the 19th most successful recording artist of the 1990s. They ranked as the second most successful female group of the 1990s. In March 2015, "Billboard" magazine named the group the ninth most-successful girl group of all-time. Two of the group's singles ranks in "Billboard's" most successful girl group songs of all-time list, "Don't Let Go (Love)" (#12) and "Hold On" (#23).


title: En Vogue

text: In the late-1980s, when they were assembling their 1988 compilation project "FM2" for Atlantic Records, Oakland-based production and songwriting duo Denzil Foster and Thomas McElroy first conceived the idea of a modern-day girl group in the tradition of commercially successful female bands that flourished in the late 1950s and early 1960s . Foster and McElroy envisioned an entertainment unit with interchangeable but not identical parts in which every member would qualify to take the lead vocals on any given number. Thus, their plan was to recruit singers who possessed strong voices, noticeably good looks, and intelligence. Approximately 3,000 women attended the auditions held in 1988, with Dawn Robinson, Cindy Herron, and Maxine Jones making the final cut. Originally conceived as a trio, Foster and McElroy decided to create a quartet after hearing the audition of Terry Ellis whose plane had been late from Houston, Texas. At first, they selected the band name 4-U but soon shifted to Vogue, ultimately settling on En Vogue, upon learning that another group had already claimed the Vogue name.


title: En Vogue

text: After forming, the group began working with their producers on their debut album. Recording began in August 1989 and wrapped up in December of the same year.


title: En Vogue

text: "Born to Sing" was released on April 3, 1990. The album peaked at No. 21 on the Billboard 200 chart and No. 3 on Billboard's R&B Albums Chart. The first single, "Hold On," was released to radio in late February 1990 and became a crossover pop hit, reaching No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, and No. 1 on both the R&B singles and Hot Dance Music/Club Play charts. It later went to No. 5 in the UK and became a hit in Europe. The next two singles, "Lies" and "You Don't Have to Worry," each went to No. 1 on the "Billboard" R&B charts, while the fourth and final single, "Don't Go," charted at No. 3 on the Billboard R&B. The album was later certified triple platinum by the RIAA.


title: En Vogue

text: "Hold On" was awarded a Billboard Music Award for "#1 R&B Single of the Year," a Soul Train Award for R&B/Urban Contemporary Single of the Year, Group, Band or Duo and have been nominated for a Grammy Award for Best R&B Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group. In 1990, En Vogue signed an endorsement deal to appear in a Diet Coke commercial directed by Spike Lee.


title: En Vogue

text: En Vogue's second album, "Funky Divas", was released in the spring of 1992. The album debuted at No. 8 on the Billboard 200 and No. 1 on the Billboard R&B and ultimately doubled the take of its predecessor, going multi-platinum. The album's first two singles: "My Lovin' (You're Never Gonna Get It)" and "Giving Him Something He Can Feel" both went top 10 and peaked at No. 1 on the R&B charts. The next single, "Free Your Mind" also went top 10. The final two singles "Give It Up Turn It Loose" and "Love Don't Love You" both were top 40 hits.


title: En Vogue

text: The album went on to sell more than five million copies, won an American Music Award for "Favorite Soul/R&B Album," and was nominated for five Grammy Awards. The music video for "Free Your Mind" earned the group three MTV Video Music Awards for Best Choreography, Best Dance Video, and Best R&B Video. They were honored with Soul Train's Entertainer of the Year Award. In addition to this, the group was featured in "Rolling Stone", "Entertainment Weekly", and "Essence", and other major publications.


title: En Vogue

text: Riding high on the success of "Funky Divas", a six-song EP titled "Runaway Love" was released in the fall of 1993, spawning the hit "Runaway Love."


title: En Vogue

text: The group was signed to an endorsement deal with Converse, and was featured as an opening act on Luther Vandross' 1993 "Never Let Me Go" Tour. England, Germany, the Netherlands, and France were among the numerous countries toured. However, according to an article in "Vibe" magazine, Vandross (by his own admission in interviews) and his entourage clashed with the members of En Vogue during the tour, and he vowed never to work with them again.


title: En Vogue

text: En Vogue made numerous television appearances on such series as "In Living Color", "A Different World", "Roc" and "Hangin' With Mr. Cooper" (the latter two in which they also sang the shows' theme songs).


title: En Vogue

text: In 1993, En Vogue was featured on Salt-N-Pepa's top 10 hit "Whatta Man", from Salt-N-Pepa's album "Very Necessary". The track appeared (slightly edited) on En Vogue's "Runaway Love" EP.


title: En Vogue

text: In 1995, En Vogue was among numerous African American female vocalists featured on the song "Freedom" for the soundtrack to Mario Van Peebles's film "Panther" (1995). Also in 1995, while band members Cindy Herron and Maxine Jones went on maternity leave, Ellis recorded and released a solo album titled "Southern Gal", which spun off the top 10 R&B single "Where Ever You Are." The same year, the band made a cameo appearance in Joel Schumacher's superhero film "Batman Forever". In 1996, En Vogue recorded "Don't Let Go (Love)" for the soundtrack to the motion picture "Set It Off". Released as the soundtrack's lead single in the fall 1996, it became the group's biggest hit yet, selling over 1.8 million copies worldwide and becoming certified platinum by the RIAA. In response to the large commercial success of "Don't Let Go (Love)," the group worked on their third studio album. As the album was nearing completion, Robinson chose to leave the group in March 1997 after contractual negotiations reached a stalemate. Despite Robinson's abrupt departure, Ellis, Herron, and Jones continued on as a trio.


title: En Vogue

text: Robinson's abrupt departure from En Vogue forced the remaining trio to re-record several of her original lead vocals on their forthcoming album "EV3", released in June 1997. A breakaway from previous projects, it marked En Vogue's first project to include a diverse roster of collaborators including credits from Babyface, David Foster, Diane Warren, Andrea Martin, and Ivan Matias along with regular contributors Foster and McElroy. Upon its release, "EV3" received mixed reviews from critics, many of whom praised the band's vocal performances but were critical with overall production of the album. In the U.S., it debuted at number eight on both "Billboard"s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and the "Billboard" 200 with sales of 76,500 units, the band's highest first-week numbers. Two further singles released from the album, "Whatever" and "Too Gone, Too Long", entered the top 20 and top 40 the "Billboard" Hot 100, respectively.


title: En Vogue

text: In 1998, En Vogue recorded the song "No Fool No More" for the soundtrack to the film "Why Do Fools Fall in Love" (1998). A top 40 entry on the New Zealand Singles Chart, it was later included on the band's first compilation album "Best of En Vogue", released in June 1999. A moderate success, the album reached the top 40 in Austria and the United Kingdom.


title: En Vogue

text: "Masterpiece Theatre", the group's fourth studio album, was released in May 2000. Their first project with Elektra Records, the trio worked exclusively with their founders on the album who made heavy use of samples from classical music and traditional pop music to construct songs for recording. Preceded by leading single "Riddle", the album received a mixed reception from critics upon its release, who were divided by its overall sound, and became a commercial disappointment, reaching number 33 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and number 67 on the US "Billboard" 200 only. While "Masterpiece Theatre" and "Riddle" fared better in international territories, its poor performance resulted in the release of no further singles from the album and the band was soon dropped from the Elektra company.


title: En Vogue

text: In 2001, Jones had announced her desire to spend more time with her daughter and departed the group. With Ellis and Herron wanting to continue performing En Vogue, singer-songwriter Amanda Cole joined as a performing member after submitting a demo. The following year, Ellis, Herron, and Cole collaborated with Timothy Eaton on the holiday album "The Gift of Christmas", featuring four original songs and eight cover versions of Christmas standards and carols. Released in fall 2002 through Discretion Records, it failed to chart. In December 2002, the trio gave a concert at the Alabama State Fairgrounds in Birmingham, Alabama which was recorded and released, along with bonus footage, on a DVD and live album through Charly Records in 2004. Cole, who felt increasingly limited vocally and creatively, decided to leave the band in favor of a solo career soon after, with singer and actress Rhona Bennett joining after being recommended to Denzel Foster through a mutual friend and songwriting partner.


title: En Vogue

text: With Bennett, the trio began work on their sixth album "Soul Flower". Produced by Ellis and Herron, it was made independently through their own label Funkigirl Records as well as Foster and McElory's 33rd Street Records, and distribution was handled through an outside deal with Bayside Entertainment. Released to mixed reviews from critics, who noted its mellower tone, the album failed to chart on the "Billboard" 200, but reached number 47 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and number 15 on the Independent Albums charts. Its two singles, "Losin' My Mind" and "Ooh Boy", reached the top 40 on "Billboard"s Adult R&B Songs chart. During the latter part of 2004, En Vogue traveled three months in Europe as part of the Night of the Proms concerts series, with Jones rejoining the group to fill the place of Herron, who went on maternity leave. The Ellis/Bennett/Jones performing incarnation of the group headlined Lifetime's fifth annual "WomenRock!" alongside Blondie, Angie Stone, and several others. Performing several of their hits, co-headliner Kelly Clarkson joined them for a rendition of "Free Your Mind."


title: En Vogue

text: In 2005, Herron and Robinson rejoined En Vogue, and Bennett withdrew from the group. The original four signed with one of the industry's largest management firms, the Firm Management Group, and began soliciting material for a new studio album which was expected to be released through Los Angeles-based Movemakers and Funkigirl Records. That September, the band joined Salt-N-Pepa for their first joint public performance of their 1994 single "Whatta Man" at "VH1 Hip Hop Honors", and briefly toured together. The quartet also collaborated with Stevie Wonder and Prince on the backing vocals and music video for "So What the Fuss" from Wonder's 2005 "A Time to Love" album, which received a Grammy nomination at the 48th award ceremony in 2006.


title: En Vogue

text: After failing to agree on business terms, Robinson once again chose to defect from En Vogue, and Bennett returned to complete the quartet. As a result, En Vogue was let go from the Firm and an album full of new original material did not materialize. En Vogue continued to perform with Ellis, Herron, Jones, and Bennett on selected spot dates in North America, Europe, and Japan. During this time, they teamed with Flemish singer Natalia Druyts on a remix version of her song "Glamorous" which featured lead vocals by Bennett. Released as the second single from Druyts's third studio-album "Everything and More" (2007), it reached number two on the Ultratop 50 of the Flemish region of Belgium and launched the six-part "Natalia Meets En Vogue feat. Shaggy" concert series at the Antwerps Sportpaleis in January 2008.


title: En Vogue

text: On June 24, 2008, the original lineup of En Vogue appeared on the BET Awards, where they performed a medley with Alicia Keys, SWV and TLC as a tribute to girl groups of the 1990s. Complimented by the media, who declared their performance one of the evening's highlights, and with people buzzing about the industry return of the original band, the quartet talked about being united on a permanent basis. In August, after performing during selected spot dates, the original members announced their reformation for their 20th Anniversary World Tour which coincided with the release of their debut album "Born to Sing" (1990) and led them to tour North America, Europe and Japan. In 2009, En Vogue along with singers Beyoncé, John Legend, and Ne-Yo, performed at the Essence Music Festival, held at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans.


title: En Vogue

text: Again, new material with Robinson failed to materialize, and in 2010, Herron, Ellis, and Jones signed with René Moore's Rufftown Records in a deal that was to include two albums and touring. While the trio finished several songs for a new album, including promotional single "I'll Cry Later" which was sent to select urban adult contemporary radio stations on September 26, 2011, the comeback stalled and Jones left the band once more. In August 2012, Jones and Robinson announced that they would potentially record a group album together under the name Heirs to the Throne. While Herron and Ellis continued to tour as En Vogue along with a rejoined Bennett,


title: En Vogue

text: Jones and Robinson added singer Shaunté Usual to their lineup. However, in 2013, Robinson chose not to begin a new group with her former band member and instead joined the cast of the TV One reality show "". Meanwhile, Jones began touring with singers Alison Carney and Maria Freeman as her new lineup of En Vogue, titled En Vogue to the Max. Jones later lost the right to use the En Vogue name after Herron and Ellis had filed suit against her for unauthorized use of the name, and a judge ruled that Herron and Ellis, as holders of the group's LLC, had exclusive rights to the group's name. Jones went solo and began recording her own original material, releasing her debut single ‘Didn’t I’ and a new ballad version of the En Vogue hit ‘Don’t Let Go (Love)’ with Australian singer Greg Gould.


title: En Vogue

text: In July 2014, Bennett, Ellis, and Herron signed a new contract with Pyramid Records and began work on the album "Electric Café" with mentors Denzil Foster and Thomas McElroy. In November, the trio appeared on the Lifetime holiday film "An En Vogue Christmas" in which they played fictional versions of themselves, reuniting to perform a benefit concert to save the nightclub where they got their start. The original movie featured En Vogue's hit singles as well as two new tracks and a rendition of "O Holy Night", later released digitally through En Vogue Records. In February 2015, Rufftown sued Ellis and Herron for over US $300 million, claiming the duo violated an exclusive recording contract by signing with Pyramid, alleging breach of contract, negligence, interference and fraud. Settled out of court, it resulted in the release of the extended play "Rufftown Presents En Vogue" in April 2015, which contained four songs recorded during their time with Rufftown, including "I'll Cry Later".


title: En Vogue

text: In 2016, En Vogue released "Deja Vu," the first promotional single from "Electric Café", through their own label En Vogue Records after signing with Entertainment One Music. The following year, they embarked on the For the Love of Music Tour. The European tour launched on April 6, 2017 in Dublin, Ireland and concluded in Bremen, Germany on April 25. Also in 2017, the trio released three further singles from their forthcoming effort, including buzz singles "I'm Good" and "Have a Seat" featuring Snoop Dogg as well as Ne-Yo-penned lead single "Rocket", the latter of which became their first top 10 hit on "Billboard"s Adult R&B Songs chart in over 20 years.


title: En Vogue

text: In April 2018, En Vogue began the second leg of their European Tour in support of their seventh full-length studio album "Electric Café". The same month, the album, their first studio project in 14 years, was released. A blend of neo soul, pop, and contemporary R&B with electronic dance music, the trio worked with Raphael Saadiq, Dem Jointz, Curtis "Sauce" Wilson as well as regular contributors Foster & McElroy on most of the album. "Electric Café" received mixed reviews from critics, many of whom praised the band for their vocal performances but found the material too generic and uneven. In the United States, the album debuted at number 14 on "Billboard"s Independent Albums and reached the Top Album Sales chart. A second and final single from the album, "Reach 4 Me" became a top 20 hit on US Adult R&B Songs Chart in August 2018.


title: En Vogue

text: In July 2019, the group performed on the song "I Got You (Always and Forever)" alongside Chance the Rapper, Kierra Sheard, and Ari Lennox on the rapper's album "The Big Day". In October 2019, original members Robinson and Jones reunited with Ellis, Herron, and Bennett for an on-stage performance to salute music industry executive Sylvia Rhone at the City of Hope Gala 2019, marking the first time all five members performed together. Plans to reunite permanently for another concert tour in support of their 30th anniversary in 2020, failed to materialize when the four original members could not agree on whether Bennett should once again step down as a non-original member.


title: En Vogue

text: In 2021, the group made a cameo in the romantic comedy sequel "Coming 2 America" alongside Salt-N-Pepa.


title: En Vogue

text: In 2022, En Vogue competed in season seven of "The Masked Singer" as the "Queen Cobras" of Team Bad. The trio narrowly missed out on a spot in the finale of the singing competition as they were eliminated on the week of May 4 alongside Shaggy as "Space Bunny" of Team Cuddly. The same year, the band embarked on the Mixtape Tour alongside New Kids on the Block, Salt-N-Pepa, and Rick Astley.


title: Phenomenon

text: A phenomenon (: phenomena) is an observable event. The term came into its modern philosophical usage through Immanuel Kant, who contrasted it with the noumenon, which "cannot" be directly observed. Kant was heavily influenced by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz in this part of his philosophy, in which phenomenon and noumenon serve as interrelated technical terms. Far predating this, the ancient Greek Pyrrhonist philosopher Sextus Empiricus also used "phenomenon" and "noumenon" as interrelated technical terms.


title: Phenomenon

text: In popular usage, a "phenomenon" often refers to an extraordinary event. The term is most commonly used to refer to occurrences that at first defy explanation or baffle the observer. According to the "Dictionary of Visual Discourse":In ordinary language 'phenomenon/phenomena' refer to any occurrence worthy of note and investigation, typically an untoward or unusual event, person or fact that is of special significance or otherwise notable.


title: Phenomenon

text: In modern philosophical use, the term "phenomena" has come to mean things as they are experienced through the senses and processed by the mind as distinct from things in and of themselves ("noumena"). In his inaugural dissertation, titled "On the Form and Principles of the Sensible and Intelligible World", Immanuel Kant (1770) theorizes that the human mind is restricted to the logical world and thus can only interpret and understand occurrences according to their physical appearances. He wrote that humans could infer only as much as their senses allowed, but not experience the actual object itself. This may make sense in terms of a communications-channel (epistemology) feeding from an ensemble of inputs (ontology) yet not in the sense of applying wise imagination (a-la Albert Einstein, to partial success). Thus, the term "phenomenon" refers to any incident deserving of inquiry and investigation, especially processes and events which are particularly unusual or of distinctive importance.


title: Phenomenon

text: In scientific usage, a phenomenon is any event that is observable, including the use of instrumentation to observe, record, or compile data. Especially in physics, the study of a phenomenon may be described as measurements related to matter, energy, or time, such as Isaac Newton's observations of the moon's orbit and of gravity; or Galileo Galilei's observations of the motion of a pendulum.


title: Phenomenon

text: In natural sciences, a phenomenon is an observable happening or event. Often, this term is used without considering the causes of a particular event. Example of a physical phenomenon is an observable phenomenon of the lunar orbit or the phenomenon of oscillations of a pendulum.


title: Phenomenon

text: A mechanical phenomenon is a physical phenomenon associated with the equilibrium or motion of objects. Some examples are Newton's cradle, engines, and double pendulums.


title: Phenomenon

text: Group phenomena concern the behavior of a particular group of individual entities, usually organisms and most especially people. The behavior of individuals often changes in a group setting in various ways, and a group may have its own behaviors not possible for an individual because of the herd mentality.


title: Phenomenon

text: Social phenomena apply especially to organisms and people in that subjective states are implicit in the term. Attitudes and events particular to a group may have effects beyond the group, and either be adapted by the larger society, or seen as aberrant, being punished or shunned.


title: Herbert Mullin

text: Herbert William Mullin (April 18, 1947 – August 18, 2022) was an American serial killer who killed 13 people in California in the early 1970s. He confessed to the killings, which he claimed prevented earthquakes. In 1973, after a trial to determine whether he was insane or culpable, he was convicted of two murders in the first-degree and nine in the second-degree, and sentenced to life imprisonment. During his imprisonment, he was denied parole eight times.


title: Herbert Mullin

text: In a terrible coincidence for the people of the greater Santa Cruz region, Mullin and Edmund Kemper overlapped in their 1972 to 1973 murder sprees, adding confusion to the police investigations and ending with both being arrested, within a few weeks of each other, after the deaths of 21 people.


title: Herbert Mullin

text: Herbert William Mullin was born on April 18, 1947, in Salinas, California. His father was reportedly stern but not abusive. Not long before Mullin's fifth birthday, the family had moved to San Francisco.


title: Herbert Mullin

text: Mullin had numerous friends at school and was voted "Most Likely to Succeed" when he was 16 by his classmates at San Lorenzo Valley High School. He experienced difficulty in life at this time, largely due to paranoid schizophrenic disorder. Shortly after graduating from San Lorenzo Valley High School, one of Mullin's friends, Dean Richardson, was killed in a car accident the summer after graduation in June 1965, and Mullin was devastated. He built shrines to his friend in his room and became obsessed with reincarnation.


title: Herbert Mullin

text: In 1969, Mullin was admitted to Mendocino State Hospital. Over the next few years, he entered various mental hospitals, but was discharged after spells as being no harm to himself or others. In total, he had been committed to five mental hospitals. By the time he was in his mid-twenties, he had a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia which was accelerated by his usage of LSD and marijuana.


title: Herbert Mullin

text: By 1972, Mullin was 25 and had moved back in with his parents in Felton, California, in the Santa Cruz Mountains. His birthday, April 18, was the anniversary of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, which he thought was very significant.


title: Herbert Mullin

text: Mullin believed that the Vietnam War had produced enough American deaths to forestall earthquakes as a blood sacrifice to nature, but that with the war winding down by late 1972 (from an American perspective) he would need to start killing people in order to have enough deaths to keep a calamitous earthquake away. It was for this reason, he later said, that his father, through telepathy, had ordered him to take some lives.


title: Herbert Mullin

text: On October 13, 1972, Mullin beat 55-year-old vagrant Lawrence "Whitey" White's head with a baseball bat when the transient looked at the engine of his 1958 Chevy station wagon after Mullin had pretended to have car trouble and pulled over, opening the hood. White had offered to help fix his car in exchange for a ride. Mullin dragged White's body into the woods, where it was found the next day. He later claimed his victim looked like Jonah from the Bible, and sent him telepathic messages "Hey, man, pick me up and throw me over the boat. Kill me so that others will be saved."


title: Herbert Mullin

text: Mullin killed his next victim after his father "directed" him to kill his second victim as a sacrifice and also to test the hypothesis that the environment was being rapidly polluted and an earthquake was nigh. The victim was a female hitchhiker named Mary Margaret Guilfoyle (aged 24), whom he picked up on a highway. Mullin stabbed her through the chest while driving. He cut her abdomen open in order to test his hypothesis of pollution, took her organs out, examined them, and draped them on nearby branches so he could see them better. Her skeletonized body was only found after several months.


title: Herbert Mullin

text: On November 2, 1972, Mullin had doubts about the appropriateness of his father's instructions and went to see a Catholic priest in a confessional booth at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Los Gatos. He recounted that the priest, Father Henri Tomei (who had been a member of the French Resistance during World War II and a music director at the Archdiocese of Marseille) wanted to volunteer to be his next sacrifice. He opened the confessional box and hit, kicked, and stabbed Tomei, who lay bleeding to death in the confessional while a parishioner watched Mullin run away. The parishioner ran to get help, but the witness description of a tall and thin man did not help the investigation much.


title: Herbert Mullin

text: Mullin attempted to join the United States Marine Corps around January 1973, looking for a way to conduct his mission legally, but refused to sign a copy of his criminal record, and the Marines withdrew their offer. By January 1973, he had stopped using drugs and blamed them for his problems.


title: Herbert Mullin

text: In early January 1973, Mullin drove to a remote area of cabins where he thought a former teammate who had first given him marijuana to smoke might live. The woman who answered the door was called Kathy Francis. Francis said the man he wanted to see lived down the road. In Mullin's memory, she also insisted that she and her children (David Hughes, aged 9 and Daemon Francis, aged 4) would like to volunteer to be blood sacrifices. He killed them all with a pistol. Mullin then knocked on the door of his teammate's home. The teammate was unable to answer why he had ruined Mullin's life with an early toke of pot, so Mullin shot him. Dying, the man crawled to his bathroom in an attempt to tell his wife to lock the bathroom door, but Mullin broke down the door and fatally shot her too. The police thought that the deaths in both homes were drug-related and did not suspect they were in any way connected with the priest's death or the previous murders of hitchhikers.


title: Herbert Mullin

text: About a month later, on February 10, 1973, Mullin was hiking in the state park in Santa Cruz where he encountered four teenage boys (Robert Spector, aged 18, Brian Scott Card, 19, David Oliker, 18, and Mark Dreibelbeis, 15) camping illegally. He walked over to them, engaged them in a brief conversation and claimed to be a park ranger. He told them to leave because they were, according to Mullin, "polluting" the forest. However, they shooed him away and stayed in the tent. The next day, Mullin returned and shot all four of them in the head with his .22 caliber pistol, killing them. When he had finished, he took their .22 caliber rifle and 20 dollars.


title: Herbert Mullin

text: The next killing happened before the bodies of his previous victims were found later that week. It occurred as Mullin was driving firewood in his station wagon. He noticed his victim, a 72-year-old retired prizefighter and fishmonger named Fred Abbie Perez, working in his garden in Santa Cruz. Mullin did a U-turn, came back down the street, stopped, put the rifle across the hood of his car, and shot him once in the heart. He committed this killing in full sight of the dead man's neighbor, who got Mullin's license plate. A few minutes after the description was broadcast on the police radio, a "docile" Mullin was ordered to pull over and was arrested by a patrolman. In his car was the .22 caliber pistol used to kill the people in the cabins. He did not attempt to use the recently fired .22 caliber rifle on the seat next to him.


title: Herbert Mullin

text: The police failed to recognize a pattern at the time of Mullin's murders due to several factors: firstly, the murders did not appear to be connected by a similar weapon or modus operandi; secondly, the victims differed from each other in terms of age, race, and sex; and finally, Edmund Kemper, who would kill the last of his own eight victims just a few weeks later, was operating in approximately the same area at the same time.


title: Herbert Mullin

text: The Santa Cruz County District Attorney's office charged Mullin with ten murders, and Mullin's trial opened on July 30, 1973. Mullin had admitted to all the crimes and therefore the trial focused on whether he was legally sane (which, under U.S law, means that he understood the nature and quality of his actions, and understood right from wrong). The fact that he had covered his tracks and shown premeditation in some of his crimes was highlighted by prosecutor Chris Cottle, while the defense (public defender Jim Jackson) argued that Mullin's delusions made him kill. On August 19, 1973, after fourteen hours of deliberation, Mullin was found guilty of first-degree murder in the killings of Jim Gianera and Kathy Francis because they were deemed premeditated and eight counts of second degree murder in the other killings because they were considered "impulse" by the jury. Mullin was convicted of the ten murders at the age of 26.


title: Herbert Mullin

text: The Santa Clara County District Attorney's office charged Mullin for the murder of Henri Tomei. On December 11, 1973, the day his trial was to begin, he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder after originally pleading not guilty by reason of insanity to first-degree murder. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in the Santa Cruz County trial and was denied parole eight times from 1980 on. He was incarcerated at Mule Creek State Prison, in Ione, California.


title: Herbert Mullin

text: While in custody, Mullin said he committed his crimes only in an attempt to save the environment. He was diagnosed by Dr. David Marlowe from the University of California at Santa Cruz with schizophrenic reaction, paranoid type.


title: Herbert Mullin

text: Mullin had interactions with Edmund Kemper, another serial killer active in the same area and at the same time as he was. The two shared adjoining cells at one point. Kemper disliked Mullin, saying he killed for no good reason. Kemper recalled “Well, [Mullin] had a habit of singing and bothering people when somebody tried to watch TV. So I threw water on him to shut him up. Then, when he was a good boy, I’d give him some peanuts. Herbie liked peanuts. That was effective because pretty soon he asked permission to sing. That’s called behavior modification treatment.”


title: Herbert Mullin

text: Kemper would describe Mullin as having a "lot of pain inside, he had a lot of anguish inside, he had a lot of hate inside, and it was addressed to people he didn't even know because he didn't dare do anything to the people he knew." In that same interview, Kemper called Mullin "a kindred spirit there" due to their similar past of being institutionalized. Kemper said he told Mullin "Herbie, I know what happened. Don't give me that bullshit about earthquakes and don't give me that crap about God was telling you. I says you couldn't even be talking to me now if God talking to you because of the pressure I'm putting on you right now, these little shocking insights into what you did, God would start talking to you right now if you were that kind of ill. Because I grew up with people like that."


title: Herbert Mullin

text: On August 18, 2022, Mullin died at age 75 from natural causes while housed at the California Health Care Facility.


title: Yasmine Al-Bustami

text: Yasmine Al-Bustami () is an American actress. She is most known for her roles on "The Originals" and "".


title: Yasmine Al-Bustami

text: Yasmine Al-Bustami was born in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, to a Palestinian-Jordanian father and Filipina mother, but moved with her family to Texas at the age of three. After receiving a degree in Finance, she decided to enter the world of entertainment, and improved her studies in Chicago, Illinois.


title: Yasmine Al-Bustami

text: In 2013, Al-Bustami made her television debut in "The Originals" as the recurring role of Monique Deveraux, a season one villain.


title: Yasmine Al-Bustami

text: In 2016-2017, she had a recurring role on season 2 of "The Inspectors". In 2017 she appeared in the music video of John Legend's single, "Surefire." Al-Bustami also had a role in the feature film "You Get Me". She was a series regular in the CW Seed series "I Ship It" playing Sasha.


title: Yasmine Al-Bustami

text: In 2018, Al-Bustami was cast as a series regular in the Alpha streaming service live interactive sci-fi series "Orbital Redux" playing the role of Tommie.


title: Yasmine Al-Bustami

text: In 2019, season 2 of "I Ship It" was released with Al-Bustami back as Sasha. The season premiered again on CW Seed, but also premiered this time on The CW.


title: Yasmine Al-Bustami

text: In 2021, she reprised the role of Ramah in multiple episodes of "The Chosen"s second season, after appearing in a season one episode in 2019. She was also cast as a series regular in "NCIS" spin-off "" playing the role of Special Agent Lucy Tara.


title: Honorary degree

text: An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases "honoris causa" ("for the sake of the honour") or "ad honorem " ("to the honour"). The degree is typically a doctorate or, less commonly, a master's degree, and may be awarded to someone who has no prior connection with the academic institution or no previous postsecondary education. An example of identifying a recipient of this award is as follows: Doctorate in Business Administration ("Hon. Causa").


title: Honorary degree

text: The degree is often conferred as a way of honouring a distinguished visitor's contributions to a specific field or to society in general.


title: Honorary degree

text: It is sometimes recommended that such degrees be listed in one's curriculum vitae (CV) as an award, and not in the education section. With regard to the use of this honorific, the policies of institutions of higher education generally ask that recipients "refrain from adopting the misleading title" and that a recipient of an honorary doctorate should restrict the use of the title "Dr" before their name to any engagement with the institution of higher education in question and not within the broader community. Daisaku Ikeda holds the record for most honorary degrees, currently awarded 401.


title: Honorary degree

text: The practice dates back to the Middle Ages, when for various reasons a university might be persuaded, or otherwise see fit, to grant exemption from some or all of the usual statutory requirements for the award of a degree. The earliest honorary degree on record was awarded to Lionel Woodville in the late 1470s by the University of Oxford. He later became Bishop of Salisbury.


title: Honorary degree

text: In the late 16th century, the granting of honorary degrees became quite common, especially on the occasion of royal visits to Oxford or Cambridge. On the visit of James I to Oxford in 1605, for example, forty-three members of his retinue (fifteen of whom were earls or barons) received the degree of Master of Arts, and the Register of Convocation explicitly states that these were full degrees, carrying the usual privileges (such as voting rights in Convocation and Congregation).


title: Honorary degree

text: There were also some special cases: for example the critic John Ruskin suffered some kind of physical or mental breakdown in 1840 and dropped out of the University of Oxford. He returned to Oxford in 1842, and sat a single exam, and was awarded an honorary fourth-class degree.


title: Honorary degree

text: Honorary degrees are usually awarded at regular graduation ceremonies, at which the recipients are often invited to make a speech of acceptance before the assembled faculty and graduates – an event which often forms the highlight of the ceremony. Generally, universities nominate several persons each year for honorary degrees; these nominations usually go through several committees before receiving approval. Nominees are generally not told until a formal approval and invitation are made; often it is perceived that the system is shrouded in secrecy, and occasionally seen as political and controversial. On occasion, organisations have been awarded honorary doctorates.


title: Honorary degree

text: The term "honorary degree" is a slight misnomer: "honoris causa" degrees are not considered of the same standing as substantive degrees earned by the standard academic processes of courses and original research, except perhaps where the recipient has demonstrated an appropriate level of academic scholarship that would ordinarily qualify him or her for the award of a substantive degree. Recipients of honorary degrees typically wear the same academic dress as recipients of substantive degrees, although there are a few exceptions: honorary graduates at the University of Cambridge wear the appropriate full-dress gown but not the hood, and those at the University of St Andrews wear a black cassock instead of the usual full-dress gown.


title: Honorary degree

text: An "ad eundem" or "jure officii" degree is sometimes considered honorary, although these are only conferred on an individual who has already achieved a comparable qualification at another university or attained an office requiring the appropriate level of scholarship. Under certain circumstances, a degree may be conferred on an individual for both the nature of the office they hold and the completion of a dissertation. The "dissertation et jure dignitatis" is considered to be a full academic degree. See below.


title: Honorary degree

text: Although higher doctorates such as Doctor of Science, Doctor of Letters, etc. are often awarded "honoris causa", in many countries (notably England and Scotland, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand) it is formally possible to earn such a degree as a substantive one. This typically involves the submission of a portfolio of peer-refereed research, usually undertaken over a number of years, which has made a substantial contribution to the academic field in question. The university will appoint a panel of examiners who will consider the case and prepare a report recommending whether or not the degree be awarded. Usually, the applicant must have some strong formal connection with the university in question, for example full-time academic staff, or graduates of several years' standing.


title: Honorary degree

text: Some universities, seeking to differentiate between substantive and honorary doctorates, have a degree (often DUniv, or Doctor of the University) which is used for these purposes, with the other higher doctorates reserved for formally examined academic scholarship.


title: Honorary degree

text: The Archbishop of Canterbury has the authority to award degrees. These "Lambeth degrees" are sometimes, erroneously, thought to be honorary; however the archbishops have for many centuries had the legal authority (originally as the representatives of the Pope, later confirmed by a 1533 Act of Henry VIII), to award degrees and regularly do so to people who have either passed an examination or are deemed to have satisfied the appropriate requirements.


title: Honorary degree

text: Between the two extremes of honoring celebrities and formally assessing a portfolio of research, some universities use honorary degrees to recognize achievements of intellectual rigor. Some institutes of higher education do not confer honorary degrees as a matter of policy—see below. Some learned societies award honorary fellowships in the same way as honorary degrees are awarded by universities, for similar reasons.


title: Honorary degree

text: A typical example of university regulations is, "Honorary graduates may use the approved post-nominal letters. It is not customary, however, for recipients of an honorary doctorate to adopt the prefix 'Dr. In some universities, it is however a matter of personal preference for an honorary doctor to use the formal title of "Doctor", regardless of the background circumstances for the award. Written communications where an honorary doctorate has been awarded may include the letters "h.c." after the award to indicate that status.


title: Honorary degree

text: The recipient of an honorary degree may add the degree title postnominally, but it should always be made clear that the degree is honorary by adding "honorary" or "honoris causa" or "h.c." in parentheses after the degree title. In some countries, a person who holds an honorary doctorate may use the title "Doctor" prenominally, abbreviated "Dr.h.c." or "Dr.(h.c.)". Sometimes, they use "Hon" before the degree letters, for example, "Hon DMus".


title: Honorary degree

text: In recent years, some universities have adopted entirely separate postnominal titles for honorary degrees. This is in part due to the confusion that honorary degrees have caused. For example, an honorary doctorate from the Auckland University of Technology takes the special title "HonD" since it is now common in certain countries to use certain degrees, such as LLD or HonD, as purely honorary. Some universities, including the Open University, grant Doctor of the University (DUniv) degrees to selected nominees, while awarding PhD or EdD degrees to those who have fulfilled the academic requirements.


title: Honorary degree

text: Most American universities award the degrees of LLD (Doctor of Laws), LittD (Doctor of Letters), LHD (Doctor of Humane Letters), ScD (Doctor of Science), PedD (Doctor of Pedagogy) and DD (Doctor of Divinity) only as honorary degrees. American universities do not have the system of "higher doctorates" used in the UK and some other universities around the world.


title: Honorary degree

text: Some universities and colleges have the custom of awarding a master's degree to every scholar appointed as a full professor, who had never earned a degree there. At the universities of Oxford, Dublin and Cambridge, many senior staff are granted the degree of Master of Arts after three years of service, and at Amherst College all tenured professors are awarded a Master of Arts degree at an academic convocation in the autumn, even though the school only offers an earned Bachelor of Arts degree (Amherst awards honorary doctorates at commencement in the spring to notable scholars and other special invitees). Schools such as Brown University, the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University also award tenured faculty, who do not have a degree from their respective schools, the AM "ad eundem".


title: Honorary degree

text: These "ad eundem" or "jure officii" degrees are earned degrees, not honorary, because they recognize formal learning.


title: Honorary degree

text: Similarly, a "jure dignitatis" degree is awarded to someone who has demonstrated eminence and scholarship by being appointed to a particular office. Thus, for example, a DD (Doctor of Divinity) might be conferred upon a bishop on the occasion of his consecration, or a judge created LLD (Legum Doctor) or DCL (Doctor of Civil Law) upon his or her appointment to the judicial bench. These, also, are properly considered substantive rather than honorary degrees.


title: Honorary degree

text: Some US universities such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cornell University, Stanford University, and Rice University, do not award honorary degrees as a matter of policy. The University of Virginia (founded in 1819) was probably the first US university to explicitly have a policy of not awarding honorary degrees at the behest of its founder, Thomas Jefferson. In 1845, William Barton Rogers, then chairman of the faculty, vigorously defended this policy; in 1861, he founded MIT in Boston and continued this practice. The University of Virginia does annually award Thomas Jefferson Medals in Architecture and in Law, as the highest honors accorded by that institution.


title: Honorary degree

text: The Stanford Alumni Association occasionally awards the "Degree of Uncommon Man/Woman" to individuals who have given "rare and exceptional service" to the university. Though UCLA has imposed a moratorium on awarding honorary degrees, it honors notable people with the UCLA Medal instead. St. John's College has not granted honorary degrees since 1936, but its alumni association occasionally offers honorary membership to retiring faculty, staff, and other close associates of the college.


title: Honorary degree

text: Some universities and colleges have been accused of granting honorary degrees in exchange for large donations. Honorary degree recipients, particularly those who have no prior academic qualifications, have sometimes been criticized if they insist on being called "Doctor" as a result of their award, as the honorific may mislead the general public about their qualifications.


title: Honorary degree

text: In 1985, as a deliberate snub, the University of Oxford voted to refuse Margaret Thatcher an honorary degree in protest against her cuts in funding for higher education. This award had previously been given to all prime ministers who had been educated at Oxford.


title: Honorary degree

text: The Philosophy Faculty at Cambridge courted controversy among the academic community in March 1992, when three of its members posed a temporary veto against the awarding of an honorary doctorate to Jacques Derrida; they and other non-Cambridge proponents of analytic philosophy protested against the granting on the grounds that Derrida's work "did not conform with accepted measures of academic rigor." Although the university eventually passed the motion, the episode did more to draw attention to the continuing antipathy between the analytic (of which Cambridge's faculty is a leading exponent) and the post-Hegelian continental philosophical traditions (with which Derrida's work is more closely associated).


title: Honorary degree

text: In 1996, Southampton College at Long Island University (now a campus of Stony Brook University) awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Amphibious Letters to Muppet Kermit the Frog. Although some students objected to awarding a degree to a Muppet, Kermit delivered an enjoyable commencement address and the small college received considerable press coverage. The degree was conferred in recognition of efforts in the area of environmentalism. Said the university: "His theme song, 'It's Not Easy Bein' Green,' has become a rallying cry of the environmental movement. Kermit has used his celebrity to spread positive messages in public service announcements for the National Wildlife Federation, National Park Service, the Better World Society, and others."


title: Honorary degree

text: The awarding of an honorary degree to political figures can prompt protests from faculty or students. In 2001, George W. Bush received an honorary degree from Yale University, where he had earned his bachelor's degree in history in 1968. Some students and faculty chose to boycott the university's 300th commencement. Andrew Card, who served as Bush's Chief of Staff from 2001 to 2006, ultimately chose not to speak when the University of Massachusetts Amherst awarded him an honorary degree in 2007, in response to protests from students and faculty at the commencement ceremonies.


title: Honorary degree

text: Few people object when an honorary degree is awarded in a field for which the honorand is noted. McGill University's decision to grant musician Joni Mitchell an honorary Doctor of Music in 2004 was unopposed, although it was timed to coincide with a symposium about Mitchell's career.


title: Honorary degree

text: In 2005 at the University of Western Ontario, Henry Morgentaler, a gynecologist involved in a legal case decriminalizing abortion in Canada ("R. v. Morgentaler"), was made an honorary Doctor of Laws. Over 12,000 signatures were acquired asking the UWO to reverse its decision to honor Morgentaler. Several protest rallies were held, including one on the day the honorary degree was bestowed (a counter petition to support Morgentaler's degree gained 10,000 signatures).


title: Honorary degree

text: In 2007, protesters demanded that the University of Edinburgh revoke an honorary degree awarded to Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe in 1984. The university subsequently revealed plans to review its honorary degree policy and strip certain figures of their honorary degrees who did not deserve them. When considering revoking the honorary degree of a political figure, such reasons as human rights abuse or political corruption would be considered. As a result, it was announced that Mugabe had been stripped of his honorary degree. The university also planned to have a more rigorous selection procedure regarding potential recipients of honorary degrees, in an attempt to rectify the trend of awarding degrees to celebrities. Students at the University of Massachusetts Amherst also


title: Honorary degree

text: asked the university to revoke the honorary degree that was awarded to Mugabe over twenty years ago, and on 12 June 2008 the trustees unanimously rescinded Robert Mugabe's honorary degree. Michigan State University has also rescinded its honorary degree.


title: Honorary degree

text: In April 2009, Arizona State University's president, Michael M. Crow, refused to give an honorary degree to US President Barack Obama for his lack of adequate qualifying achievements thus far. Also, controversy was ignited about Notre Dame awarding Obama an honorary degree, as the institution is Roman Catholic and Obama holds pro-choice views on abortion and supports embryonic stem cell research.


title: Honorary degree

text: In February 2012, Rosmah Mansor, the wife of the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Najib Razak was controversially awarded an honorary doctorate by the Curtin University for "services to childhood education". The university honored Rosmah for founding and driving the Permata early childhood centres in Malaysia although some alumni and students contended that the government-funded centres are "an abuse of taxpayers' money".


title: Honorary degree

text: Over 50 honorary degrees awarded to Bill Cosby have been rescinded due to allegations and lawsuits of sexual assault.


title: Honorary degree

text: By convention, recipients of honorary doctorates do not use the title "Dr" in general correspondence, although in formal correspondence from the university issuing the honorary degree it is normal to address the recipient by the title, at least in the United States. However, this social convention is not always scrupulously observed. Notable people who have used the honorary prefix include:


title: Battle of Kherson

text: The Battle of Kherson was a military engagement between Russian and Ukrainian forces that began on 24 February 2022 as part of the southern Ukraine offensive of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. The battle ended on 2 March 2022 with the capture of the city of Kherson and a pocket of land on the right bank of the Dnieper river by Russian forces. It was the first major city, and the only regional capital, to be captured by Russian forces during the 2022 invasion. The Russian occupation of Kherson Oblast followed thereafter.


title: Battle of Kherson

text: On 29 August 2022, a Ukrainian counteroffensive in the oblast began. Russian forces were ordered to withdraw from Kherson and pullout across the Dnieper on 9 November 2022. Two days later, Ukrainian forces resumed control of the area.


title: Battle of Kherson

text: Russian forces invaded Kherson Oblast from the south through Crimea on 24 February, with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy saying "Our troops are fighting fierce battles near the outskirts of Kherson, the enemy is pressing from the occupied Crimea, trying to advance towards Melitopol." By the evening of 24 February, Russian forces reached the city of Kherson and had secured the Antonovskiy Bridge, which provides a strategic crossing over the Dnieper River and towards the important junction city of Mykolaiv.


title: Battle of Kherson

text: By the early hours of 25 February, Ukrainian forces recaptured the bridge in a battle that was described as fierce and left dead soldiers and several destroyed military vehicles lying on the bridge. The counterattack forced the Russians to push north and capture the next closest crossing of the Dnieper, the city of Nova Kakhovka. Russian troops once again seized the Antonovskiy Bridge later in the day.


title: Battle of Kherson

text: On 26 February, Ihor Kolykhaiev, the mayor of Kherson, stated that Russian forces pulled back from Kherson after a Ukrainian air strike on Russian armored vehicles, allowing the city to remain under Ukrainian control. A Ukrainian official, Anton Herashchenko, later claimed that a Russian army column was defeated by Ukrainian forces near the town of Oleshky, located just south of Kherson. Later, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General, Iryna Venediktova, claimed that Russian forces killed a journalist and an ambulance driver near Kherson. Venediktova stated that Ukrainian law enforcement had opened criminal proceedings into the shootings.


title: Battle of Kherson

text: On the morning of 27 February, the Russian Ministry of Defence stated that Russian forces had encircled Kherson and, according to Ukrainian officials, captured a part of the city, including Kherson International Airport. Later in the morning, the Ukrainian Air Force allegedly conducted a successful drone strike against Russian forces in the town of Chornobaivka, just to the north of Kherson.


title: Battle of Kherson

text: Ukrainian officials alleged that beginning on 27 February, Russian forces began moving civilians from nearby villages towards Kherson, attempting to use civilians as human shields.


title: Battle of Kherson

text: In the early morning of 1 March, Ukrainian officials stated that Russian forces had launched a renewed assault on Kherson and were advancing from Kherson International Airport to the highway between Kherson and Mykolaiv. While conducting heavy shelling, Russian forces surrounded the city and reached the highway, advancing to the village of Komyshany before establishing a checkpoint. Russian forces entered Kherson later in the day. Kolykhayev described the impact on citizens in the city, stating that many remained in their homes and in bomb shelters. He also claimed that schools and high rise buildings were damaged by the fighting, while residential buildings were being fired upon by Russian forces. Kolykhayev also claimed that on 1 March, Russian soldiers shot citizens armed with Molotov cocktails.


title: Battle of Kherson

text: In the early morning of 2 March, Kolykhayev reported that Russian forces captured a railway station and a river port. Later in the morning, Russian forces were seen at Svobody Square in central Kherson, where the Kherson Regional Administration building is located. The Russian Ministry of Defense later claimed to have captured the city, while Ukrainian and American officials denied the claim and stated that fighting continued.


title: Battle of Kherson

text: Later on 2 March, a group of around ten Russian soldiers, including a commander, entered the city council building and began negotiations with Kolykhaiev. That evening, Kolykhaiev announced that he had surrendered the city and that the Russian commander intended to set up a military administration. Kolykhaiev acknowledged the Ukrainian military was no longer present in Kherson, and another official stated the Russian military was in all parts of the city. According to Kolykhaiev, the battle led to the deaths of around 300 Ukrainian soldiers and civilians and severe destruction of the city's infrastructure. He also said that bodies were being buried in mass graves, and that many remains were unrecognizable.


title: Battle of Kherson

text: On 23 March, Ukrainian forces launched counterattacks against Russian forces in Kherson Oblast. A senior US defense official claimed that the Russian forces no longer had full control of Kherson as the Ukrainians fought "fiercely" to recover the city, however, CNN reported the situation in the city remained unchanged, citing residents confirming Kherson was under full Russian control. Ukrainians in Kherson also "questioned the Pentagon’s assessment, saying that the city remained in Russian hands".


title: Battle of Kherson

text: On 23 April, Ukraine claimed to have struck a Russian command post in Kherson. Two Russian generals were killed and one seriously injured. Some 50 officers were present, in total, during the strike.


title: Battle of Kherson

text: On 6 May 2022, Secretary of the United Russia General Council Andrey Turchak visited Kherson city while it was under Russian control and stated, "Russia is here forever. There should be no doubt about this. There will be no return to the past. We will live together, develop this rich region, rich in historical heritage, rich in the people who live here." He stated that a humanitarian aid centre would be opened in Kherson.


title: Battle of Kherson

text: According to Mykolaiv Oblast governor, Vitaliy Kim, Russian forces began demolishing bridges near Kherson in late May-early June in preparation for a future Ukrainian counterattack.


title: Battle of Kherson

text: On 3 November 2022, eight months after the battle ended, Russian forces removed their flag from the city administrative building and advised remaining people to leave the city and cross the river to the southern bank.


title: Battle of Kherson

text: As part of the 2022 Ukrainian southern counteroffensive, Russian troops retreated across the river Dnipro. Ukrainian troops went further into Kherson Oblast and surrounding areas. On 9 November 2022 General of the Army Sergey Surovikin announced that Russian forces would abandon the city and move to the eastern or left bank. On 11 November 5 a.m. Moscow time (2 a.m. UTC) the Russian Ministry of Defence claimed on that all soldiers (approximately 30,000) and all military equipment had been successfully moved across the river in an orderly withdrawal. Some analysts doubted that such an exercise could be conducted in a matter of three days. The Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov told Reuters: 'It's not that easy to withdraw these troops from Kherson in one day or two days. As a minimum, [it will take] one week' to move them all (40,000 by his estimate).