title: Panama City

text: Throughout the 20th century, Panama City has excelled in boxing, baseball, basketball, and soccer. These sports have produced famous athletes such as Roberto Durán, Rommel Fernández, Rolando Blackman, Julio Dely Valdés, Mariano Rivera, and Rod Carew. Today, these sports have clubs and associations that manage their development in the city. Panama Metro is the city's baseball team. There are boxing training centers in different gyms throughout the city's neighborhoods. There are also many football clubs, such as:


title: Panama City

text: There are two main stadiums in Panama City, the National Baseball Stadium (also known as Rod Carew Stadium) and the Rommel Fernández Stadium, with capacities of 27,000 and 32,000 respectively. Additionally, the Roberto Durán Arena has a capacity of 18,000.


title: Panama City

text: The city has both public and private schools. Most private schools are bilingual (English and Spanish). Higher education is headed by two major public universities: the University of Panama and the Technological University of Panama. There are private universities, such as the Universidad Católica Santa María La Antigua, the Universidad Latina de Panama, the Universidad Latinoamericana de Ciencia y Tecnología (ULACIT), the Distance and Open University of Panama (UNADP), Universidad del Istmo Panama, the Universidad Maritima Internacional de Panama, and the Universidad Especializada de las Americas. Also, there are Panama Branches of the Nova Southeastern University (its main campus is in Ft. Lauderdale in Broward County, Florida); the University of Oklahoma; the Central Texas University; the University of Louisville which runs a sister campus in the city, and the Florida State University, which operates a broad curriculum program in an academic and technological park known as Ciudad del Saber.


title: Panama City

text: Panama City is home to at least 14 hospitals and an extensive network of public and private clinics, including the Hospital Santo Tomás, Hospital del Niño, Complejo Hospitalario Arnulfo Arias Madrid, Centro Médico Paitilla, Hospital Santa Fé, Hospital Nacional, Clinica Hospital San Fernando, and Hospital Punta Pacifica.


title: Panama City

text: Panama's international airport, Tocumen International Airport is located on the eastern outskirts of the city's metropolitan area. Two other airports serve Panama City: Panamá Pacífico, previously the Howard Air Force Base, and Marcos A. Gelabert, previously the Albrook Air Force Base. Pacífico serves Wingo, while Marcos A. Gelabert Airport is the main hub for AirPanama. Most other flights are served by Tocumen.


title: Panama City

text: The Panama Metro is a rapid transit system in Panama City, which links the north and east sides of the metropolitan area to the city center. The Panama Metro currently has two operating lines. There is a third line currently under construction.


title: Panama City

text: There are frequent traffic jams in Panama City due to the high levels of private transport ownership per kilometer of traffic lane. In an attempt to curb traffic jams, the Panama Metro, initially long and funded an increase in taxes, began operation in 2014.


title: Panama City

text: The bus terminal located in Ancon offers buses in and out of the city. Bus service is one of the most widely used forms of transportation in Panama. The terminal receives thousands of passengers daily from locations like David, Chiriqui, and the central provinces of Herrera and Los Santos. The terminal also receives international passengers from Central America via the Pan-American Highway.


title: Panama City

text: Panama City offers transportation services through yellow taxis. Taxis do not use a meter to measure fares, instead using a zone system for fares that is published by the Autoridad de Transito y Transporte Terrestre, Panama's transit authority. Taxis used to be red. Taxi drivers that charge more than usual are not uncommon. Many also participate in InDriver and Cabify. Uber has been the subject of controversy, with many taxi drivers demanding its cessation of operations in Panama City.


title: Vera Miles

text: Vera June Miles (née Ralston, born August 23, 1929) is an American retired actress who worked closely with Alfred Hitchcock, most notably as Lila Crane in the classic 1960 film "Psycho", reprising the role in the 1983 sequel "Psycho II". Other films in which she appeared include "Tarzan's Hidden Jungle" (1955), "The Searchers" (1956), Alfred Hitchcock's "The Wrong Man" (1956), "A Touch of Larceny" (1959), "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" (1962), "Follow Me, Boys!" (1966), "Sergeant Ryker" (1968), and "Molly and Lawless John" (1972).


title: Vera Miles

text: Vera June Ralston was born in Boise City, Oklahoma, on August 23, 1929, to Thomas and Bernice (née Wyrick) Ralston. She had two older brothers.


title: Vera Miles

text: She grew up first in Pratt, Kansas, and later lived in Wichita, where she worked nights as a Western Union operator-typist and graduated from Wichita North High School in 1947. She was crowned Miss Kansas in 1948 and was the third runner-up in the Miss America contest.


title: Vera Miles

text: Miles moved to Los Angeles in 1949 and landed small roles in television and film, including a minor role as a chorus girl in "Two Tickets to Broadway" (1951), a musical starring Janet Leigh, with whom Miles co-starred nine years later in the classic Alfred Hitchcock film "Psycho". She used her first husband's name, Miles, because an active film actress already went by the name Vera Ralston. Miles eventually was put under contract at various studios. She once recalled, "I was dropped by the best studios in town."


title: Vera Miles

text: Miles's first credited film appearance was in "The Rose Bowl Story" (1952), a romantic comedy in which she played a Tournament of Roses queen.


title: Vera Miles

text: While under contract to Warner Bros., Miles was cast alongside her future husband Gordon Scott in the 1955 film "Tarzan's Hidden Jungle" as Tarzan's love interest. The following year, she was cast by director John Ford as Jeffrey Hunter's love interest in the John Wayne Western "The Searchers" (1956), and appeared in the movies "Wichita", directed by Jacques Tourneur and "23 Paces to Baker Street" with Van Johnson. Also in 1956, Miles starred as Rose Balestrero, the fragile wife of Manny Balestrero, a musician falsely accused of a crime and played by Henry Fonda, in the film "The Wrong Man". The movie was directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and is one of only a few Hitchcock films based on real-life events.


title: Vera Miles

text: Signing a five-year personal contract with Hitchcock in 1957, Miles was widely publicized as the director's potential successor to Grace Kelly. Two years prior, Hitchcock had directed Miles in the role of Ralph Meeker's emotionally troubled new bride in "Revenge", the pilot episode of his television series "Alfred Hitchcock Presents".


title: Vera Miles

text: "Vertigo" (1958), a project Hitchcock designed as a showcase for his new star, was met with production delays. Miles's subsequent pregnancy would cost her the lead role which eventually went to Kim Novak with whom Hitchcock reportedly clashed, although Ms. Novak has stated in interviews that she did not have trouble working with Hitchcock on the film. "Vertigo" (which also starred James Stewart) was not a financial or critical success at the time, with Hitchcock claiming that Novak was miscast. Despite Hitchcock's disappointment regarding "Vertigo", he continued to work with Miles, eventually casting her in what is arguably the role for which she is most remembered, that of Lila Crane in "Psycho". In the film, she portrayed the determined sister of the doomed motel guest Marion Crane (Janet Leigh), who teams up with Marion's boyfriend and a private investigator to find her. Miles later appeared in two episodes of "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour" (in 1962 and 1965).


title: Vera Miles

text: In 1962, Miles reunited with director John Ford for the film "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance". Starring alongside her former co-star from "The Searchers", John Wayne, she is pursued by both Wayne and James Stewart, two very different men competing for her hand in marriage.


title: Vera Miles

text: In addition to her film appearances, Miles was featured in many popular television shows throughout her career, including "Gunsmoke", "Wagon Train", "Laramie", "The Twilight Zone", and the western series "Riverboat", starring Darren McGavin and Burt Reynolds. She also co-starred in the first episode of ABC's "The Fugitive" (titled "Fear in a Desert City") and guest-starred in episodes of "The Outer Limits", "Burke's Law", "The Eleventh Hour", "The Man from U.N.C.L.E.", and "Ironside".


title: Vera Miles

text: In 1965, Miles had a supporting role in three episodes of the CBS series "My Three Sons". The same year, she co-starred with lead actors Robert Culp and Bill Cosby in the pilot episode of the TV series "I Spy" entitled "Affair in T'Sien Cha" (although the pilot was not actually broadcast until midway through the series’ first season).


title: Vera Miles

text: Other notable films in which Miles appeared included the Walt Disney film "Follow Me, Boys!" (1966) with Fred MacMurray, and "Hellfighters" (1968), reuniting again with John Wayne. Miles had also filmed scenes with Wayne for the movie "The Green Berets" (also 1968), playing Wayne's character's wife. However, with Warner Bros. wanting more action in the film, her scenes were cut.


title: Vera Miles

text: Miles continued to appear in numerous TV films and TV series during the 1970s, including the pilot for the TV series "Cannon" (broadcast in March 1971) as the wife of a deceased war comrade of private investigator Frank Cannon, played by William Conrad. She guest-starred in a further two episodes of the series in different roles during its run. In 1973, she appeared alongside Peter Falk in "Lovely But Lethal", an episode of NBC's "Columbo", playing a cosmetics queen who commits murder. She also made guest appearances in episodes of "Hawaii Five-O", "The Streets of San Francisco", and "Fantasy Island".


title: Vera Miles

text: In 1983, more than 20 years after "Psycho", Miles reprised the role of Lila Crane in "Psycho II", joining Anthony Perkins in the sequel. Miles and Perkins were the only stars of the original film to appear in this second installment. Miles continued to appear in a number of TV and film productions during the 1980s, with appearances in the movies "The Initiation" (1984) and "Into the Night" (1985), and guest-starring in episodes of the TV series "The Love Boat" (1982 and 1984) and "Hotel" (1984 and 1987). She also appeared alongside Angela Lansbury in the TV series "Murder, She Wrote", guest-starring in three episodes broadcast in 1985, 1990, and 1991. The 1991 episode, titled "Thursday's Child", was her final television role. Miles acted just once more, appearing alongside James Belushi in the film "Separate Lives" (1995), before retiring from the industry.


title: Vera Miles

text: Miles has been married four times. Her first husband was Bob Miles. They were married from 1948 to 1954, and had two daughters, Debra and Kelley. Her second husband was Gordon Scott, her co-star in "Tarzan's Hidden Jungle". They were married from 1956 to 1960 and had one son, Michael. Her third husband was actor Keith Larsen (né Keith Larsen Burt). They were married from 1960 to 1971 and had one son, Erik.


title: Vera Miles

text: Miles's first three former husbands died within a short time of each other. Her third husband, Keith Larsen, died on December 13, 2006; first husband, stuntman and small-part actor Bob Miles died on April 12, 2007; and second husband, retired actor and bodybuilder Gordon Scott, died 18 days later on April 30, 2007. Miles was married to her fourth husband, director Robert Jones, from 1973 until their divorce in 1975.


title: Vera Miles

text: One of her grandsons, actor Jordan Essoe, met with actress Jessica Biel in 2012 in preparation for Biel's portrayal of Miles in the film "Hitchcock".


title: Vera Miles

text: Miles is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. She also had been a frequent visitor to Salt Lake City, Utah, was greatly involved in the Boy Scouts of America, and is a member of the Hollywood California Stake.


title: Vera Miles

text: A Republican, Miles supported the re-election of Dwight Eisenhower during the 1956 presidential election.


title: Body of Lies (film)

text: Body of Lies is a 2008 American spy thriller film directed and produced by Ridley Scott, written by William Monahan, and starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe in the lead roles. Set in the Middle East, it follows the attempts of the CIA and the GID of Jordan to catch "al-Saleem", a terrorist. Frustrated by their target's elusiveness, differences in their approaches strain relations between a CIA operative, his superior, and the head of Jordanian Intelligence. The supporting cast features Mark Strong, Oscar Isaac, and Golshifteh Farahani.


title: Body of Lies (film)

text: The screenplay, based on the 2007 novel of the same name by David Ignatius, examines contemporary tension between Western and Arab societies, and the comparative effectiveness of technological and human counter-intelligence methods. Principal photography for the film began on September 5, 2007 and concluded in December 2007. The film was shot largely on location in the United States and Morocco, after authorities in Dubai refused permission to film there because of the script's political themes.


title: Body of Lies (film)

text: Critics praised Scott's direction and visual style, as well as the performances of its two leads, but criticized his formulaic handling of the story and use of conventions from the spy genre, such as surveillance shots from high-altitude spy planes. The film was released in the United States on October 10, 2008 and grossed $118 million worldwide.


title: Body of Lies (film)

text: Central Intelligence Agency case officer Roger Ferris is tracking a high-ranking terrorist leader called Al-Saleem in Iraq. He meets Nizar, a member of the terrorist organization who is prepared to offer information in return for asylum in North America.


title: Body of Lies (film)

text: Despite the objections of his boss, Ed Hoffman, Ferris agrees to shelter Nizar. Nizar is used as a pawn to draw out the rest of his cell; when Nizar is captured, Ferris is forced to shoot him to prevent his exposing the identities of Ferris and his associate, Bassam. However, furious at Hoffman's refusal to act on the information Nizar provided, Ferris and Bassam go to search the safe house in Balad, Iraq, Nizar had told them about. Ferris observes men burning records and attempts to bluff his way in but is exposed. In the ensuing shootout and chase, Ferris and Bassam's vehicle is hit by an RPG. Ferris and some salvaged discs are rescued by helicopter, but Bassam is killed in the explosion.


title: Body of Lies (film)

text: Meanwhile, unknown terrorists in the UK plan to follow up on bus bombings in Sheffield with more attacks in Manchester, but they blow themselves up when the police arrive at their house. Having recovered from his injuries, Ferris is assigned to Jordan to continue searching for Al-Saleem. There, Ferris meets with and negotiates a collaboration with Hani Salaam, head of the Jordanian General Intelligence Directorate. From the intelligence Ferris harvested from the Balad safe house, Hoffman locates an Al-Saleem safe house in Jordan and orders Ferris to watch it. Unbeknownst to Ferris, Hoffman organizes a simultaneous side operation via a local agency. Ferris' CIA subordinate, Skip, identifies the local agency asset as Ziyad Abishi.


title: Body of Lies (film)

text: Abishi blows his cover with a terrorist from the safe house. The terrorist flees to inform his colleagues of their exposure, and Ferris chases and kills him in such a place and manner that implies the death is a random robbery. Using back channels, Salaam corroborates this interpretation of killing with those who remain at the safe house. Ferris lambastes Hoffman for running side operations which he feels are interfering with and undermining the operational integrity of the primary operation and tells Hoffman to stop. While going to the hospital to receive rabies shots for dog bites he suffered while eliminating the terrorist, Ferris meets a nurse named Aisha and begins developing romantic feelings for her. In Europe the bombers strike again at an Amsterdam flower market, killing 75 people and wounding hundreds more.


title: Body of Lies (film)

text: Having recognized one of the men living in the safe house as former small-time criminal Mustaffa Karami, Salaam takes Karami into the desert and coerces him into working for Jordanian intelligence, threatening to set him up as a collaborator if he does not co-operate. Hoffman asks Salaam to use Karami, but he refuses, believing a greater return will come later. Unbeknownst to Ferris and Salaam, Hoffman tells Skip to follow Karami and kidnap him. Karami escapes and notifies the terrorists in the safe house that it is being watched, and they abandon it. Salaam


title: Body of Lies (film)

text: catches Ferris' associate Skip, accuses Ferris of having had knowledge of the move on Karami, blames Ferris' duplicity with him for the destruction of the safe house, and exiles Ferris from Jordan.


title: Body of Lies (film)

text: Ferris returns to Hoffman in Washington, and they devise a new plan to find Al-Saleem. Suspecting he is motivated more by pride than ideology, they stage a fake terrorist attack and set up Omar Sadiki, an innocent Jordanian architect, as its instigator, hoping Al-Saleem will come out of hiding and attempt to contact him. Al-Saleem sees TV news coverage of the attack and takes the bait. Salaam invites Ferris back to Jordan and shares his suspicions that Omar Sadiki is a terrorist, although Ferris feigns ignorance. Ferris later tries to save Sadiki from being kidnapped by Al-Saleem's henchmen but fails and sees his partner nearly killed in the subsequent car crash. Under interrogation, Sadiki denies any knowledge of the attack. He is later found beaten and killed.


title: Body of Lies (film)

text: Ferris goes back to his apartment and discovers that Aisha has been kidnapped. He desperately asks Salaam for help, admitting he fabricated Omar Sadiki's terrorist cell and the attack. Salaam refuses to help because of Ferris' lies. Ferris offers himself in exchange to Aisha's kidnappers and is brought to the middle of the desert, with Hoffman watching everything via a surveillance drone. At the exchange location, Ferris is surrounded by a group of SUVs, which circle him to create an obscuring dust cloud before picking him up. The dust cloud blocks Hoffman's view, so that he cannot determine which of the SUVs, now headed in different directions, is carrying Ferris.


title: Body of Lies (film)

text: Ferris is taken across the border to Syria, where he is to be interrogated by Al-Saleem. When Ferris asks Al-Saleem about Aisha, he is told that someone has lied to him and that he has been double-crossed. Ferris tells Al-Saleem that there is an infiltrator (Karami) in his organization who works for Ferris, and that, by association, Al-Saleem works for Ferris. Al-Saleem does not believe Ferris, breaks two of his fingers, turns on a video camera, and orders his execution. Salaam and his agents arrive at the last moment, saving Ferris' life. Al-Saleem is shown arrested in his own SUV by Marwan Se-Kia, Salaam's security officer.


title: Body of Lies (film)

text: Salaam visits Ferris in the hospital, and reveals that he had faked Aisha's abduction and orchestrated Ferris' capture by Al-Saleem using Karami as a go-between. Having lost the will to fight in this particular war, Ferris goes off the grid and goes to see Aisha again.


title: Body of Lies (film)

text: Carice van Houten was cast as Roger's wife Gretchen Ferris, but all her scenes were deleted and she does not appear in the final cut.


title: Body of Lies (film)

text: Ridley Scott has made a previous film about the conflict between the Western and Arab civilizations, "Kingdom of Heaven" (2005), set during the Crusades. "Body of Lies" resumes this theme in the context of modern intelligence operations and terrorism.


title: Body of Lies (film)

text: The film puts two contrasting characters on the same side. Ferris, the CIA man on the ground, is a dedicated Arabist fluent in the language; he relies on trust, local knowledge and HUMINT. Hoffman, his superior, who is detached at home in Washington, D.C., and at the CIA in Virginia, is more Machiavellian: he authorizes deceit, double-crossing, and violence by telephone and without scruple. "The New Yorker" interpreted him as "a greedy, American domestic animal—an advanced-media freak, always eating".


title: Body of Lies (film)

text: Early in the film, Hoffman explains to his superiors that the terrorists' retreat to pre-tech age communication methods renders useless the high specification tools the CIA uses, which increases the worth of Ferris's human intelligence methods. The terrorists avoid mobile telephones and computers, preferring face-to-face communication and encoded written messages. By contrast, the Americans use sophisticated communication (Hoffman and Ferris regularly speak on the phone) and surveillance technology (high altitude spy planes offer a different point of view throughout). David Denby of "The New Yorker" said that this was Scott's suggestion that the CIA has the technology but not the human intelligence to properly fight terrorism in the Middle East.


title: Body of Lies (film)

text: Despite Hoffman's distance, the force and unintended consequences of his schemes are often borne by Ferris. The difference is underlined when Ferris, suffering weakened credibility, injured colleagues and personal risk, is reminded by Hoffman that "we are a results-driven organization".


title: Body of Lies (film)

text: In March 2006, Warner Bros. hired screenwriter William Monahan to adapt the novel "Penetration" by David Ignatius into a feature film, which would be directed by Ridley Scott. In April 2007, with the novel re-titled "Body of Lies" and the film similarly re-titled, actor Leonardo DiCaprio was cast in the lead role. DiCaprio chose to pursue the role because he considered it a throwback to political films in the 1970s such as "The Parallax View" (1974) and "Three Days of the Condor" (1975). DiCaprio dyed his hair brown, and wore brown contacts for the role. After DiCaprio was cast, Russell Crowe was courted for a supporting role, to which he formally committed after Monahan's script was revised by Steve Zaillian, who wrote Scott and Crowe's "American Gangster". Crowe gained 63 pounds to suit his role. The actor said as a result of the film's exploration of the American government and foreign policy, "I don't think it will be very popular, but that’s never been part of my project choice process." Mark Strong, who plays Hani Salaam, the head of the Jordanian General Intelligence Directorate (GID) ascribed his casting to his performances in the 2005 films "Syriana" and "Oliver Twist". The character Haani Salaam was modelled after the 2000–2005 GID chief Saad Kheir (1953–2009), whose involvement, according to the original author David Ignatius, in sharply handled interrogations without the use of torture, an encounter with a jihadist with his mother on the phone and being called the 'fingernail boss' were near accurately featured in the film.


title: Body of Lies (film)

text: Scott sought to film in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, but the federation's National Media Council denied the director permission due to the script's politically sensitive nature. As a result, scenes set in Jordan were instead filmed in Morocco. The shoot took place over sixty-five days from September to December 2007. It was filmed in the United States and Morocco, where scenes set in ten different countries were filmed. Filming began on September 5, 2007 at the Eastern Market, Washington, D.C. Practical locations were used throughout; part of the Capitol Hill neighborhood was converted to resemble a wintry Amsterdam to film a ten- to fifteen-second car bomb explosion. Scenes set in the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia were filmed at the "National Geographic" offices in Gaithersburg, Maryland; both buildings were set in woodland and "It was eerily similar in terms of architectural style...", said Arthur Max, the production designer, "We were given several empty floors." Locations in Baltimore also stood in for Manchester, England and Munich, Germany, although the final cut of the movie did not have any scenes that took place in Munich.


title: Body of Lies (film)

text: Production moved to Morocco, where Scott, Max and Alexander Witt, the cinematographer had filmed several times before. Their previous experience meant they "knew every stone in the desert" and they were allowed access to many locations, including the Ministry of Finance, which was dressed as Jordan's secret service headquarters, Casablanca airport and a military airfield. The basketball stadium in Rabat was used as the U.S. embassy in Jordan: a CIA office set was built inside the stadium, favoured because its design allowed the cameras to shoot both interior and exterior vistas, thus showing the characters looking out on people and tanks passing in the streets. A nine-week shoot also took place at CLA Studios and in the desert around the city of Ouarzazate.


title: Body of Lies (film)

text: "Body of Lies" was Alexander Witt's first credit as a director of photography; he had collaborated with Ridley Scott on six feature films previously, beginning as a second unit camera operator on "Black Rain" (1989). He shot the film in the Super 35 format with spherical lenses, and explained that these lenses offer more flexibility for interior and night pictures than the anamorphic alternative. They used Kodak Vision2 500T 5218 instead of Technicolor's OZ process, which did not perform well in tests in the Moroccan desert.


title: Body of Lies (film)

text: Scott is known for his skill at filming with multiple camera set-ups and "Body of Lies" used a minimum of three simultaneously. Witt explained the benefits, "Actors like multiple cameras because they’re always on-camera, so they’re always in character and not wasting time off-camera." One shot of DiCaprio alone in the desert, for example, still used three cameras: one hand-held above the actor, a second capturing a three-quarter back profile, and the third photographing a close-up through the first cameraman's legs. Richard Cronn, the gaffer, attributed the success of this difficult approach to Scott's filmmaking intelligence, "Ridley will stand at the monitors and tell you what's he's looking for – he'll look at four monitors and say, 'I'm cutting from this to this to this.' He knows exactly how he will cut it."


title: Body of Lies (film)

text: In line with the film's use of practical locations, the photography and design departments worked together to incorporate practical light sources such as "lots of bare bulbs, lots of primitive fixtures". In the climactic torture scene, filmed in an ancient, windowless prison cell outside of Rabat, they used only diegetic light: two strong torches carried by the actors playing the torturers. It was filmed with three cameras and bounce cards were used to reflect light onto the actors' faces. Just a little smoke was sprayed in to augment the atmosphere but not dull the contrast.


title: Body of Lies (film)

text: Scott has used many gradations of lens filter in the past, but declined to do so on "Body of Lies". One obtains better finesse using the digital intermediate during post-production and does not risk losing light while selecting filters during expensive on-set time. The filmmakers strove for authenticity and realism in the images, and as such little colouration was added after, and the natural contrast of colours between the locations in Washington and Morocco were allowed to show through.


title: Body of Lies (film)

text: In the film, images from unmanned aerial drones show the viewer the point of view of CIA commanders in Washington. These were filmed by John Marzano (Aerial Director Of Photography) using a helicopter mounted with a Wescam 35 on the nose of a helicopter, and Cineflex's V14 surveillance system, hanging from the side. Its 1–40 zoom allowed the filmmakers to fly very high and then zoom out of Ferris strolling through a market-place, creating the film's final shot.


title: Body of Lies (film)

text: The film score was composed by Marc Streitenfeld, who has now composed music for Ridley Scott for three features. He recorded the orchestral portions of his score at the Eastwood Scoring Stage at Warner Brothers Studios. Of note is the presence of a song in the film named "If the World", performed by Guns N' Roses, and taken from their long-delayed "Chinese Democracy" album. The track plays over the beginning of the end credits, but is not included on the official film soundtrack. Streitenfeld also collaborated with Mike Patton and Serj Tankian on the song "Bird's Eye", which was written specially for the musical score of the film. It was not included on the soundtrack album but was released separately as a single.


title: Body of Lies (film)

text: The film was commercially released in the United States on October 10, 2008. The film has also been purchased by Turner Broadcasting System to screen on the television networks TBS and Turner Network Television.


title: Body of Lies (film)

text: The film was screened on September 30, 2008 at Michigan Technological University, and October 2, 2008 at Duke University, New York Film Academy, University of Maryland and University of Virginia. It was also pre-screened on October 3 at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, at Michigan State University, at the University of Michigan, the University of Kansas, East Carolina University, and the University of Chicago on October 7 and at Carnegie Mellon University, Cornell University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, The University at Buffalo, Columbia University, James Madison University, Syracuse University, the University of Colorado, the University of Washington, and Georgia Southern University on October 9.


title: Body of Lies (film)

text: Warner Home Video released "Body of Lies" on DVD on February 17, 2009. The single-disc region one release included surround sound and subtitles in English, French, and Spanish; the two-disc special edition included commentaries by the director, screenwright and original novel author, and a behind the scenes documentary; the Blu-ray edition also included additional commentary on the film's themes.


title: Body of Lies (film)

text: "Body of Lies" received mixed reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes the film has a rating of 55%, based on 216 reviews, with an average rating of 5.90/10. The critical consensus reads, ""Body of Lies" relies too heavily on the performances of DiCaprio and Crowe to lift it above a conventional espionage thriller." On Metacritic the film has a score of 57 out of 100, based on 37 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".


title: Body of Lies (film)

text: Roger Ebert, writing in the "Chicago Sun-Times", awarded the film three out of four stars. He praised the "convincing" acting and "realistic locations and terse dialogue" but questioned the verisimilitude of the story and concluded, ""Body of Lies" contains enough you can believe, or almost believe, that you wish so much of it weren't sensationally implausible." Kenneth Turan reached the same conclusion in the "Los Angeles Times", "The skill of top-flight director Ridley Scott and his veteran production team, not to mention the ability of stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe, ensure that this story of spies and terrorism in the Middle East is always crisp and watchable," he wrote, "but as the film's episodic story gradually reveals itself, it ends up too unconvincing and conventional to consistently hold our attention."


title: Body of Lies (film)

text: Lou Lumenick in the "New York Post" wrote that, "There's nothing here we haven't seen in many other movies" and Lisa Kennedy in "The Denver Post" summarised: ""Body of Lies" is an A-list project with B-game results. The movie might be set in the Age of Jihad. But the rules of trust and mistrust are wholly familiar."


title: Body of Lies (film)

text: Critics observed the film's adherence to conventions of the spy thriller genre; Ebert called it "a James Bond plot" and David Denby in "The New Yorker" pointed out the "usual tropes of the genre—surveillance shots from drones, S.U.V.s tearing across the desert, explosions, scenes of torture" but praised Scott's superior management of space and timing. While Todd McCarthy in "Variety" praised the initial set-up and conceit of the plot device, he criticised the formulaic approach leading to a "cornball denouement".


title: Body of Lies (film)

text: A. O. Scott in "The New York Times" wrote that director Scott's "professionalism is, as ever, present in every frame and scene, but this time it seems singularly untethered from anything like zeal, conviction or even curiosity." He added that he would have preferred the psychological tensions linking the three leading men to be developed further. Joe Neumaier wrote in the "New York Daily News" that the film "aims to be up-to-the-moment – yet feels same-old, same-old."


title: Body of Lies (film)

text: Kennedy called the love story between DiCaprio and Farahani contrived, saying that while DiCaprio seemed more at home in those scenes, it made the film seem "foolish". Ebert thought the cultural context of their relationship was well established, but that it essentially existed as a convenience of the plot, to set up the unlikely conclusion.


title: Body of Lies (film)

text: Mark Strong's performance was mentioned by several critics, with Scott calling it "a marvel of exotic suavity and cool insinuation" while Ebert "particularly admired" his aura of suave control.


title: Body of Lies (film)

text: "Body of Lies" earned $12.9 million on its first weekend in theatres in the United States and Canada, 40% less than expected. This placed it as the third highest earning film that weekend, behind Disney's "Beverly Hills Chihuahua", which turned out to be No. 1 with a take of $17.5 million in its second week, and Sony/Screen Gems's "Quarantine", which earned $14.2 million—about $2 million more than it cost to make. A Warner Bros. executive said he was disappointed with the film's opening and attributed it to its controversial storyline, although "Body of Lies" fared better than previous pictures about the "war on terrorism" such as "Rendition", "In the Valley of Elah", and "Lions for Lambs", which all performed well below studios' expectations. In a fourteen-week theatrical run in the United States and Canada, the film earned $39 million.


title: Body of Lies (film)

text: Outside North America it opened reasonably well. In Australia it was the highest-earning film in its opening weekend of October 9–12, 2008 with $2,104,319, ahead of Pixar Animation's "WALL-E", which fell to second place, while "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" held third. In the United Kingdom, the film's earnings were the second-highest behind "Quantum of Solace" during November 21–23, its opening weekend. It earned £991,939 from 393 screens. Overall, while the film grossed only $40 million at the North American box office, it has grossed $115,097,286 worldwide. In the United States, contemporary war films have performed relatively poorly. Warner Bros. had hoped the large budget and Scott's direction could better them, but the film performed relatively poorly compared to his others; analysts attributed this to the film's Middle East setting and exploration of terrorism. Brandon Gray pointed out that people read these themes in the news media already, and there is a perception that Hollywood films are biased.


title: Body of Lies (film)

text: Golshifteh Farahani's performance in the film resulted in trouble for Farahani from the Iranian government, being accused of being shown without a hijab.


title: Judith Love Cohen

text: Judith Love Cohen (August 16, 1933 – July 25, 2016) was an American aerospace engineer. Cohen worked as an electrical engineer on the Minuteman missile, the science ground station for the Hubble Space Telescope, the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite, and the Apollo Space Program. After her retirement as an engineer, she founded a children's multimedia publishing company, eventually publishing more than 20 titles before her death in 2016. Cohen was the mother of computer scientist and engineer Neil Siegel and actor/musician Jack Black.


title: Judith Love Cohen

text: Cohen was born into a Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York, the daughter of Sarah Cohen (née Roisman) and Morris Bernard Cohen. By fifth grade, her classmates were paying her to do their math homework. She was often the only girl in her math classes, and decided she wanted to become a math teacher. By age 19, she was both studying engineering in college, and dancing ballet in the Metropolitan Opera Ballet company in New York.


title: Judith Love Cohen

text: She received a scholarship to Brooklyn College to major in math, but realized she preferred engineering. After two years at Brooklyn College, Cohen married and moved to California, working as a junior engineer for North American Aviation, attending the


title: Judith Love Cohen

text: University of Southern California (USC) at night; she said that she went through both her BS and MS programs at USC without ever meeting another female engineering student. She received both her bachelor's and master's degrees from USC Viterbi School of Engineering, in 1957 and 1962 respectively, and continued her association with the university, serving as an Astronautical Engineering Advisory board member.


title: Judith Love Cohen

text: Cohen's engineering career began in 1952, when she worked as a junior engineer at North American Aviation. After graduation from USC Viterbi School of Engineering in 1957, she went on to work at Space Technology Laboratories. Space Technology Laboratories eventually became TRW (acquired by Northrop Grumman in 2002). She stayed with the company until her retirement in 1990. Her engineering work included work on the guidance computer for the Minuteman missile and the Abort-Guidance System (AGS) in the Apollo Lunar Module. The AGS played an important role in the safe return of Apollo 13 after an oxygen tank explosion left the Service Module crippled and forced the astronauts to use the Lunar Module as a "lifeboat." Supplies of electrical power and water on the LM were limited and the Primary Guidance and Navigation System used too much water for cooling. As a result, after a major LM descent engine burn two hours past its closest approach to the Moon to shorten the trip home, the AGS was used for most of the return, including two mid-course corrections. According to her son Neil, "My mother usually considered her work on the Apollo program to be the highlight of her career. When disaster struck the Apollo 13 mission, it was the Abort-Guidance System that brought the astronauts home safely. Judy was there when the Apollo 13 astronauts paid a 'thank you' to the TRW facility in Redondo Beach."


title: Judith Love Cohen

text: In 1990, after retiring from practice as an engineer, she began a publishing company called Cascade Pass with her third husband, David Katz. They published two series of books:


title: Judith Love Cohen

text: Cascade Pass also published a book called "The Women of Apollo" (written by Robyn Friend, Cohen's daughter-in-law), which features short biographies of four women who helped put the first man on the moon, Cohen among them.


title: Judith Love Cohen

text: In the mid-1950s, Cohen married fellow engineer Bernard Siegel, whom she had met while she was a freshman in engineering school at Brooklyn College in Brooklyn, New York. They had three children: engineer/scientist Neil Siegel, Howard Siegel, and Rachel Siegel. The couple divorced in the mid-1960s.


title: Judith Love Cohen

text: In the mid-1960s, Cohen married Thomas "Tom" William Black, who converted to Judaism for her. In 1969, they had a son, Hollywood actor Jack Black. In a memorial tribute, her son Neil notes that she was troubleshooting problems with schematics on the day she went into labor, called her boss to let him know she had fixed the problem and then delivered Jack. The couple divorced in the late 1970s.


title: Judith Love Cohen

text: In the early 1980s, Cohen married David A. Katz. They had been married for 35 years at the time of Cohen's death, after a short battle with cancer in 2016.


title: Angles

text: The Angles (, ; ) were one of the main Germanic peoples who settled in Great Britain in the post-Roman period. They founded several kingdoms of the Heptarchy in Anglo-Saxon England. Their name is the root of the name "England" ("land of Ængle"). According to Tacitus, writing around 100 AD, a people known as Angles (Anglii) lived east of the Langobards and Semnones, who lived near the Elbe river.


title: Angles

text: The name of the Angles may have been first recorded in Latinised form, as "Anglii", in the "Germania" of Tacitus. It is thought to derive from the name of the area they originally inhabited, the Anglia Peninsula ("Angeln" in modern German, "Angel" in modern Danish).


title: Angles

text: During the fifth century, all Germanic tribes who invaded Britain were referred to as either "Englisc", "Ængle" or "Engle", who were all speakers of Old English (which was known as "Englisc", "Ænglisc", or "Anglisc"). "Englisc" and its descendant, "English", also goes back to Proto-Indo-European "*h₂enǵʰ-", meaning narrow.


title: Angles

text: Pope Gregory I, in an epistle, simplified the Latinised name "Anglii" to "Angli", the latter form developing into the preferred form of the word. The country remained "Anglia" in Latin. Alfred the Great's translation of Orosius's history of the world uses "Angelcynn" (-kin) to describe the English people; Bede uses "Angelfolc" (-folk); also such forms as "Engel", "Englan" (the people), "Englaland", and "Englisc" occur, all showing i-mutation.


title: Angles

text: The earliest known mention of the Angles may be in chapter 40 of Tacitus's "Germania" written around AD 98. Tacitus describes the "Anglii" as one of the more remote Suebic tribes compared to the Semnones and Langobardi, who lived on the Elbe and were better known to the Romans. He grouped the Angles with several other tribes in that region, the Reudigni, Aviones, Varini, Eudoses, Suarines, and Nuithones. These were all living behind ramparts of rivers and woods, and therefore inaccessible to attack.


title: Angles

text: He gives no precise indication of their geographical situation but states that, together with the six other tribes, they worshipped Nerthus, or Mother Earth, whose sanctuary was located on "an island in the Ocean". The Eudoses are the Jutes; these names probably refer to localities in Jutland or on the Baltic coast. The coast contains sufficient estuaries, inlets, rivers, islands, swamps, and marshes to have been then inaccessible to those not familiar with the terrain, such as the Romans, who considered it unknown, inaccessible, with a small population and of little economic interest.


title: Angles

text: The majority of scholars believe that the Anglii lived on the coasts of the Baltic Sea, probably in the southern part of the Jutland peninsula. This view is based partly on Old English and Danish traditions regarding persons and events of the fourth century, and partly because striking affinities to the cult of Nerthus as described by Tacitus are to be found in pre-Christian Scandinavian religion.


title: Angles

text: Ptolemy, writing in around AD 150, in his atlas "Geography" (2.10), describes them in a confusing manner. In one passage, the "Sueboi Angeilloi" (in Greek equivalent to Latin spelling "Suevi Angili"), are living in a stretch of land between the northern Rhine and central Elbe, but apparently not touching either river, with the Suebic Langobardi on the Rhine to their west, and the Suebic Semnones on the Elbe stretching to their east. This is unexpected. However, as pointed out by Gudmund Schütte, the Langobards also appear as the "Laccobardi" in another position near the Elbe and the Saxons, which is considered more likely to be correct, and the Angles probably lived in that region also. Owing to the uncertainty of this passage, much speculation existed regarding the original home of the Anglii.


title: Angles

text: One theory is that they or part of them dwelt or moved among other coastal people, perhaps confederated up to the basin of the Saale (in the neighbourhood of the ancient canton of Engilin) on the Unstrut valleys below the Kyffhäuserkreis, from which region the "Lex Anglorum et Werinorum hoc est Thuringorum" is believed by many to have come. The ethnic names of Frisians and Warines are also attested in these Saxon districts.


title: Angles

text: A second possible solution is that these Angles of Ptolemy are not those of Schleswig at all. According to Julius Pokorny, the Angri- in Angrivarii, the -angr in Hardanger and the Angl- in Anglii all come from the same root meaning "bend", but in different senses. In other words, the similarity of the names is strictly coincidental and does not reflect any ethnic unity beyond Germanic. Gudmund Schütte, in his analysis of Ptolemy, believes that the Angles have simply been moved by an error coming from Ptolemy's use of imperfect sources. He points out that Angles are placed correctly just to the northeast of the Langobardi, but that these have been duplicated, so that they appear once, correctly, on the lower Elbe, and a second time, incorrectly, at the northern Rhine.


title: Angles

text: Bede states that the Anglii, before coming to Great Britain, dwelt in a land called Angulus, "which lies between the province of the Jutes and the Saxons, and remains unpopulated to this day." Similar evidence is given by the "Historia Brittonum". King Alfred the Great and the chronicler Æthelweard identified this place with Anglia, in the province of Schleswig (Slesvig; though it may then have been of greater extent), and this identification agrees with the indications given by Bede.


title: Angles

text: In the Norwegian seafarer Ohthere of Hålogaland's account of a two-day voyage from the Oslo fjord to Schleswig, he reported the lands on his starboard bow, and Alfred appended the note "on these islands dwelt the "Engle" before they came hither". Confirmation is afforded by English and Danish traditions relating to two kings named Wermund and Offa of Angel, from whom the Mercian royal family claimed descent and whose exploits are connected with Anglia, Schleswig, and Rendsburg.


title: Angles

text: Danish tradition has preserved record of two governors of Schleswig, father and son, in their service, Frowinus (Freawine) and Wigo (Wig), from whom the royal family of Wessex claimed descent. During the fifth century, the Anglii invaded Great Britain, after which time their name does not recur on the continent except in the title of the legal code issued to the Thuringians: "Lex Anglorum et Werinorum hoc est Thuringorum".


title: Angles

text: The Angles are the subject of a legend about Pope Gregory I, who happened to see a group of Angle children from Deira for sale as slaves in the Roman market. As the story was told by Bede, Gregory was struck by the unusual appearance of the slaves and asked about their background. When told they were called "Anglii" (Angles), he replied with a Latin pun that translates well into English: "Bene, nam et angelicam habent faciem, et tales angelorum in caelis decet esse coheredes" (It is well, for they have an angelic face, and such people ought to be co-heirs of the angels in heaven). Supposedly, this encounter inspired the pope to launch a mission to bring Christianity to their countrymen.


title: Angles

text: The province of Schleswig has proved rich in prehistoric antiquities that date apparently from the fourth and fifth centuries. A large cremation cemetery has been found at Borgstedt, between Rendsburg and Eckernförde, and it has yielded many urns and brooches closely resembling those found in pagan graves in England. Of still greater importance are the great deposits at Thorsberg moor (in Anglia) and Nydam, which contained large quantities of arms, ornaments, articles of clothing, agricultural implements, etc., and in Nydam, even ships. By the help of these discoveries, Angle culture in the age preceding the invasion of Britannia can be pieced together.


title: Angles

text: According to sources such as the "History" of Bede, after the invasion of Britannia, the Angles split up and founded the kingdoms of Northumbria, East Anglia, and Mercia. H. R. Loyn has observed in this context that "a sea voyage is perilous to tribal institutions", and the apparently tribe-based kingdoms were formed in England. Early times had two northern kingdoms (Bernicia and Deira) and two midland ones (Middle Anglia and Mercia), which had by the seventh century resolved themselves into two Angle kingdoms, viz., Northumbria and Mercia.


title: Angles

text: Northumbria held suzerainty amidst the Teutonic presence in the British Isles in the 7th century, but was eclipsed by the rise of Mercia in the 8th century. Both kingdoms fell in the great assaults of the Danish Viking armies in the 9th century. Their royal houses were effectively destroyed in the fighting, and their Angle populations came under the Danelaw. Further south, the Saxon kings of Wessex withstood the Danish assaults. Then in the late 9th and early 10th centuries, the kings of Wessex defeated the Danes and liberated the Angles from the Danelaw.


title: Angles

text: They united their house in marriage with the surviving Angle royalty, and were accepted by the Angles as their kings. This marked the passing of the old Anglo-Saxon world and the dawn of the "English" as a new people. The regions of East Anglia and Northumbria are still known by their original titles. Northumbria once stretched as far north as what is now southeast Scotland, including Edinburgh, and as far south as the Humber estuary.


title: Angles

text: The rest of that people stayed at the centre of the Angle homeland in the northeastern portion of the modern German "Bundesland" of Schleswig-Holstein, on the Jutland Peninsula. There, a small peninsular area is still called Anglia today and is formed as a triangle drawn roughly from modern Flensburg on the Flensburger Fjord to the City of Schleswig and then to Maasholm, on the Schlei inlet.


title: President of Germany

text: The president of Germany, officially the Federal President of the Federal Republic of Germany (), is the head of state of Germany.


title: President of Germany

text: Under the 1949 constitution (Basic Law) Germany has a parliamentary system of government in which the chancellor (similar to a prime minister or minister-president in other parliamentary democracies) is the head of government. The president has far-reaching ceremonial obligations, but also the right and duty to act politically. They can give direction to general political and societal debates and have some important "reserve powers" in case of political instability (such as those provided for by Article 81 of the Basic Law). The president also holds the prerogative to grant pardons on behalf of the federation. The German presidents, who can be elected to two consecutive five-year terms, have wide discretion about how they exercise their official duties.


title: President of Germany

text: Under Article 59 (1) of the Basic Law (German Constitution), the president represents the Federal Republic of Germany in matters of international law, concludes treaties with foreign states on its behalf and accredits diplomats. Furthermore, all federal laws must be signed by the president before they can come into effect; presidents may veto a law if they believe it to violate the constitution.


title: President of Germany

text: The president's actions and public appearances represent the state itself, its existence, legitimacy, and unity. The president enjoys a higher ranking at official functions than the chancellor. The president's role is integrative and includes the control function of upholding the law and the constitution. It is a matter of political tradition – not legal restrictions – that the president generally does not comment routinely on issues in the news, particularly when there is some controversy among the political parties. This distance from day-to-day politics and daily governmental issues allows the president to be a source of clarification, to influence public debate, voice criticism, offer suggestions and make proposals. In order to exercise this power, they traditionally act above party politics.


title: President of Germany

text: The current officeholder is Frank-Walter Steinmeier who was elected on 12 February 2017 and re-elected on 13 February 2022. He is currently serving his second five-year-term, which began on 19 March 2022.


title: President of Germany

text: The president is elected for a term of five years by secret ballot, without debate, by a specially convened Federal Convention which mirrors the aggregated majority position in the Bundestag (the federal parliament) and in the parliaments of the 16 German states. The convention consists of all Bundestag members, as well as an equal number of electors elected by the state legislatures in proportion to their respective populations. Since reunification, all Federal Conventions have had more than 1200 members, as the Bundestag has always had more than 600 parliamentarians since then. It is not required that state electors are chosen from the members of the state legislature; often some prominent citizens are chosen.


title: President of Germany

text: The German constitution, the Basic Law, requires that the convention be convened no later than 30 days before the scheduled expiry of the sitting president's term or 30 days after a premature expiry of a president's term. The body is convened and chaired by the President of the Bundestag. From 1979 to 2009, all these conventions were held on 23 May, the anniversary of the foundation of the Federal Republic in 1949. The resignation of Horst Köhler in 2010, which necessitated an early meeting of the Federal Convention, brought this tradition to an end.


title: President of Germany

text: In the first two rounds of the election, the candidate who achieves an absolute majority is elected. If, after two votes, no single candidate has received this level of support, in the third and final vote the candidate who wins a plurality of votes cast is elected.


title: President of Germany

text: The result of the election is often determined by party politics. In most cases, the candidate of the majority party or coalition in the Bundestag is considered to be the likely winner. However, as the members of the Federal Convention vote by secret ballot and are free to vote against their party's candidate, some presidential elections were considered open or too close to call beforehand because of relatively balanced majority positions or because the governing coalition's parties could not agree on one candidate and endorsed different people, as they did in 1969, when Gustav Heinemann won by only six votes on the third ballot. In other cases, elections have turned out to be much closer than expected. For example, in 2010, Wulff was expected to win on the first ballot, as the parties supporting him (CDU, CSU and FDP) had a stable absolute majority in the Federal Convention. Nevertheless, he failed to win a majority in the first and second ballots, while his main opponent Joachim Gauck had an unexpectedly strong showing. In the end, Wulff obtained a majority in the third ballot. If the opposition has turned in a strong showing in state elections, it can potentially have enough support to defeat the chancellor's party's candidate; this happened in the elections in 1979 and 2004. For this reason, presidential elections can indicate the result of an upcoming general election. According to a long-standing adage in German politics, "if you can create a President, you can form a government."


title: President of Germany

text: The office of president is open to all Germans who are entitled to vote in Bundestag elections and have reached the age of 40, but no one may serve more than two consecutive five-year terms. As yet (2022), only five presidents (Heuss, Lübke, von Weizsäcker, Köhler and Steinmeier (in office)) have been elected for a second term and only two of them (Heuss and von Weizsäcker) completed those terms, while Lübke and Köhler resigned during their second term. The president must not be a member of the federal government or of a legislature at either the federal or state level.


title: President of Germany

text: After taking office the president must take the following oath, stipulated by Article 56 of the Basic Law, in a joint session of the Bundestag and the Bundesrat (it is the only event that demands such a joint session constitutionally). The religious references may optionally be omitted.


title: President of Germany

text: I swear that I will dedicate my efforts to the well-being of the German people, enhance their benefits, avert harm from them, uphold and defend the Constitution and the statutes of the Federation, fulfil my duties conscientiously, and do justice to all. (So help me God.)


title: President of Germany

text: German constitutional law does not consider oaths of office as "constitutive" but only as "affirmative". This means that the president does not have to take the oath at the moment of entering office in order to be able to exercise its constitutional powers. In practice, the oath is usually administered during the first days or weeks of a president's term on a date convenient for a joint session of the Bundestag and the Bundesrat. Nevertheless, in theory a persistent refusal to take the oath is considered to be an impeachable offence by legal scholars. If a president is re-elected for a second consecutive term, they do not take the oath again.


title: President of Germany

text: The president is involved in the formation of the Federal Government and remains in close cooperation with it. Basically, the president is free to act on his own discretion. However, according to Article 58 of the German constitution, the decrees, and directives of the president require the countersignature of the chancellor or the corresponding federal minister in charge of the respective field of politics. This rule ensures the coherence of government action, similar to the system of checks and balances in the United States. There is no need for a countersignature if the president proposes, appoints or dismisses the chancellor, convenes or dissolves the Bundestag according to Article 63, declares a legislative state of emergency, calls on a chancellor and ministers to remain in office after the end of a chancellor's term until a successor is elected or exercises his right to pardon on behalf of the federation, as these are exclusive powers of the president.


title: President of Germany

text: Therefore, the president also receives the chancellor regularly for talks on current policy issues. German presidents also hold talks with individual federal ministers and other senior officials at their own discretion. The "Head of the Office of the President" represents the will and views of the president in the meetings of the Federal Cabinet and reports back to the president.


title: President of Germany

text: After the constitution of every new elected Bundestag, which automatically ends the term of the chancellor, and in every other case in which the office of chancellor has fallen vacant (death or resignation), the president will propose an individual as chancellor and must then, provided the individual is subsequently elected by a majority of the members of the current Bundestag (the so-called "Chancellor-majority)" on the first ballot, appoint the elected candidate to office. However, the Bundestag is also free to disregard the president's proposal (which has, as of 2022, never happened), in which case the parliament must within 14 days elect another individual, whom the parties in the Bundestag now choose themselves, to the post with the same so-called "Chancellor-majority", whom the president is then obliged to appoint. If the Bundestag does not manage to do so, on the 15th day after the first ballot the Bundestag must hold one last ballot: if an individual is elected with the "Chancellor-majority", the president is also obliged to appoint the elected candidate. If no clear consensus was reached, the president can either appoint as chancellor the individual who received a plurality of votes on this last ballot or dissolve the Bundestag. The president can dismiss the chancellor, but only if and when the Bundestag passes a constructive vote of no confidence, electing a new chancellor with the "Chancellor-majority" at the same time. If this occurs, the president must dismiss the chancellor and appoint the successor elected by the Bundestag.


title: President of Germany

text: The president also appoints and dismisses the remaining members of the federal government upon proposal of the chancellor. This theoretically means that the president can appoint only those candidates presented by the chancellor. It is unclear whether the president could refuse to dismiss or appoint a federal minister proposed, as no president has ever done so.


title: President of Germany

text: In practice, the president only proposes a person as chancellor who has previously garnered a majority support in prior coalition talks and traditionally does not interfere in those talks. However, after the "Jamaica coalition" talks failed in the wake of the 2017 election, President Steinmeier invited several Bundestag party leaders to try to still bring them together to form a working government.


title: President of Germany

text: In case the Bundestag elects an individual for the office of chancellor by a plurality of votes, rather than a majority, on the 15th day of the election process, the president can, at his discretion, either appoint that individual as chancellor or dissolve the Bundestag, triggering a new election. If a vote of confidence is defeated in the Bundestag, and the incumbent chancellor proposes a dissolution, then the president may, at his discretion, dissolve the body within 21 days. As of 2022, this power has only been applied three times in the history of the Federal Republic. In all three occurrences, it is doubtful whether the motives for that dissolution were in accordance with the constitution's intentions. Each time the incumbent chancellor called for the vote of confidence with the stated intention of being defeated, in order to be able to call for new elections before the end of his regular term, as the Basic Law does not give the Bundestag a right to dissolve itself. The most recent occurrence was on 1 July 2005, when Chancellor Gerhard Schröder asked for a vote of confidence, which was defeated.


title: President of Germany

text: All federal laws must be signed by the president before they can come into effect. The president may refuse to sign the law, thus effectively vetoing it. In principle, the president has the full veto authority on any bill, but this, however, is not how past presidents handled their power. Usually, the president checks if the law was passed according to the order mandated by the Constitution and/or if the content of the law is constitutional. Only in cases in which the incumbent president had serious doubts about the constitutionality of a bill laid before him, he has refused to sign it. It also has to be stated that the president may at his own discretion sign such a "vetoed" bill at any later time, if for example the Basic Law has been changed in the relevant aspect or if the bill in question has been amended according to his concerns, because his initial refusal to sign a bill is not technically a final veto.


title: President of Germany

text: As yet (2022), this has happened only nine times and no president has done it more often than two times during his term:


title: President of Germany

text: Karl Carstens, Roman Herzog, Johannes Rau, Christian Wulff and Joachim Gauck have signed and promulgated all bills during their respective terms.


title: President of Germany

text: The president represents Germany in the world (Art. 59 Basic Law), undertakes foreign visits and receives foreign dignitaries. They also conclude treaties with foreign nations (which do not come into effect until affirmed by the Bundestag), accredit German diplomats and receive the letters of accreditation of foreign diplomats.


title: President of Germany

text: According to Article 60 (2) of the German Constitution, the president has the power to pardon. This means the president "has the authority to revoke or commute penal or disciplinary sentences in individual cases. The federal president cannot, however, issue an amnesty waiving or commuting sentences for a whole category of offenses. That requires a law enacted by the Bundestag in conjunction with the Bundesrat. Due to the federal structure of Germany the federal president is only responsible for dealing with certain criminal matters (e.g. espionage and terrorism) and disciplinary proceedings against federal civil servants, federal judges, and soldiers".


title: President of Germany

text: It is customary that the federal president becomes the honorary godfather of the seventh child in a family if the parents wish it. He also sends letters of congratulations to centenarians and long-time married couples.


title: President of Germany

text: Article 81 makes it possible to enact a law without the approval of the Bundestag: if the Bundestag rejects a motion of confidence, but a new chancellor is not elected nor is the Bundestag dissolved, the chancellor can declare a draft law to be "urgent". If the Bundestag refuses to approve the draft, the cabinet can ask the federal president to declare a "legislative state of emergency" ("Gesetzgebungsnotstand") with regard to that specific law proposal.


title: President of Germany

text: After the declaration of the president, the Bundestag has four weeks to discuss the draft law. If it does not approve it the cabinet can ask the Federal Council for approval. After the consent of the Federal Council is secured, the draft law becomes law.


title: President of Germany

text: There are some constraints on the "legislative state of emergency". After a president has declared the state of emergency for the first time, the government has only six months to use the procedure for other law proposals. Given the terms provided by the constitution, it is unlikely that the government can enact more than one other draft law in this way.


title: President of Germany

text: Also, the emergency has to be declared afresh for every proposal. This means that the six months are not a period in which the government together with the president and the Federal Council simply replaces the Bundestag as lawgiver. The Bundestag remains fully competent to pass laws during these six months. The state of emergency also ends if the office of the chancellor ends. During the same term and after the six months, the chancellor cannot use the procedure of Article 81 again.


title: President of Germany

text: A "legislative state of emergency" has never been declared. In case of serious disagreement between the chancellor and the Bundestag, the chancellor resigns or the Bundestag faces new elections. The provision of Article 81 is intended to assist the government for a short time, but not to use it in crisis for a longer period. According to constitutional commentator Bryde, Article 81 provides the executive (government) with the power to "enable decrees in a state of emergency" ("exekutives Notverordnungsrecht"), but for historical reasons the constitution avoided this expression.


title: President of Germany

text: Though candidates are usually selected by a political party or parties, the president nonetheless is traditionally expected to refrain from being an active member of any party after assuming office. Every president to date, except Joachim Gauck (who was an independent), has suspended his party membership for the duration of his term. Presidents have, however, spoken publicly about their personal views on political matters. The very fact that a president is expected to remain above politics usually means that when he does speak out on an issue, it is considered to be of great importance. In some cases, a presidential speech has dominated German political debate for a year or more.


title: President of Germany

text: According to article 81 of the German constitution, the president can declare a "Legislation Emergency" and allow the federal government and the Bundesrat to enact laws without the approval of the Bundestag. He also has important decisive power regarding the appointment of a chancellor who was elected by plurality only, or the dissolution of the Bundestag under certain circumstances.


title: President of Germany

text: It is also theoretically possible, albeit a drastic step which has not happened since 1949, that the president refuses to sign legislation merely because he disagrees with its content, thus vetoing it, or refuse to approve a cabinet appointment. In all cases in which a bill was not signed by the federal president, all presidents have claimed that the bill in question was manifestly unconstitutional. For example, in the autumn of 2006, President Horst Köhler did so twice within three months. Also, in some cases, a president has signed a law while asking that the political parties refer the case to the Federal Constitutional Court in order to test the law's constitutionality.


title: President of Germany

text: The Basic Law did not create an office of Vice President, but designated the President of the Bundesrat (by constitutional custom the head of government of one of the sixteen German states, elected by the Bundesrat in a predetermined order of annual alternation) as deputy of the president of Germany (Basic Law, Article 57). If the office of president falls vacant, they assume the powers of the president on an acting basis until a successor is elected. While doing so, they do not continue to exercise the role of chair of the Bundesrat. If the president is temporarily unable to perform his duties (this happens frequently, for example if the president is abroad on a state visit), he can at his own discretion delegate his powers or parts of them to the president of the Bundesrat. For example, current President of the Bundesrat Peter Tschentscher deputised President Steinmeier when the latter was on a trip to Asia in early November 2022.


title: President of Germany

text: If the president dies, resigns or is otherwise removed from office, a successor is to be elected within thirty days. Horst Köhler, upon his resignation on May 31, 2010, became the first president to trigger this re-election process. Jens Böhrnsen, President of the Senate and Mayor of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen and at the time President of the Bundesrat, became Acting President. Similarly, when Christian Wulff resigned in 2012, it was Horst Seehofer, Minister-President of Bavaria, as President of the Bundesrat, who became Acting President. When Heinrich Lübke, on the other hand, announced his resignation in 1968, it only came into effect the following year, a mere three months before the scheduled end of his term and after the expedited election of his successor. Back in 1949, Karl Arnold, at the time Minister-President of North Rhine-Westphalia and President of the Bundesrat, also acted as head of state for a few days: after the Basic Law had come into effect and he himself was elected as President of the Bundesrat, the first President of Germany was not yet elected and the office therefore vacant.


title: President of Germany

text: None of these three presidents of the Bundesrat acting as President, has used any of the more important powers of the president, as for example vetoing a law or dissolving the Bundestag, although they would have been entitled to do so under the same conditions as the president.


title: President of Germany

text: While in office, the president enjoys immunity from prosecution and cannot be voted out of office or recalled. The only mechanism for removing the president is impeachment by the Bundestag "or" Bundesrat for willfully violating German law. In either of the two bodies a two-thirds majority is required. Once the Bundestag or the Bundesrat impeaches the president, the Federal Constitutional Court is charged with determining if they are guilty of the offence. If the charge is sustained, the court has the authority to remove the president from office.


title: President of Germany

text: The official residence of the president is Bellevue Palace in Berlin. The president's second official residence is the Hammerschmidt Villa in Bonn, the former capital city of West Germany.


title: President of Germany

text: Although these are the president's official residences, he does not live in Bellevue palace. Instead, it is only used as a ceremonial office. The president and his wife live in a villa in Dahlem which is part of the Berlin borough of Steglitz-Zehlendorf.


title: President of Germany

text: The Office of the President ("Bundespräsidialamt") is a supreme federal authority. It organises the president's work, supports the president in the performance of his duties as head of state and coordinates his working relationships with other parts of the German government and administration. Its top official, who takes precedence over all other German state secretaries, is the Head of the Office of the President ("Chef des Bundespräsidialamts").


title: President of Germany

text: The office and its staff advise the president, informs them of all developments in domestic and foreign affairs and carries out the instructions of the president or forwards these to the corresponding ministry or authority.


title: President of Germany

text: The president's car is usually black, made in Germany and has the numberplate "0 – 1" with the presidential standard on the right wing of the car. The president also uses a VIP helicopter operated by the Federal Police and VIP aircraft (Bombardier Global 5000, Airbus A319CJ, Airbus A310 or A340) operated by the Executive Transport Wing of the German Air Force. When the president is on board, the flight's callsign is "German Airforce 001".


title: President of Germany

text: The standard of the president of Germany was adopted on 11 April 1921, and used in this design until 1933. A slightly modified version also existed from 1926, that was used in addition to the 1921 version. In 1933, these versions were both replaced by another modified version, that was used until 1935.


title: President of Germany

text: The Weimar-era presidential standard from 1921 was adopted again as presidential standard by a decision by President Theodor Heuss on 20 January 1950, when he also formally adopted other Weimar-era state symbols including the coat of arms. The eagle ("Reichsadler", now called "Bundesadler") in the design that was used in the coat of arms and presidential standard in the Weimar Republic and today was originally introduced by a decision by President Friedrich Ebert on 11 November 1919.


title: President of Germany

text: The standard is flown on Bellevue palace when the president is in the official residence in Berlin or travelling in another part of Germany. It is taken down only when the president resides at Villa Hammerschmidt in Bonn, if they have designated another place in Germany as their official residence, or when they're abroad.


title: President of Germany

text: The modern-day position of German president is significantly different from the Reich President of the Weimar Republic – a position which held considerable power and was regarded as an important figure in political life.


title: President of Germany

text: The position of President of Germany was first established by the Weimar Constitution, which was drafted in the aftermath of World War I and the abdication of Emperor Wilhelm II in 1918. In Germany the new head of state was called the "Reichspräsident".


title: President of Germany

text: Friedrich Ebert (SPD) served as Germany's first president, followed by Paul von Hindenburg. The office effectively came to an end upon Hindenburg's death in 1934 and its powers merged with those of the chancellor. Adolf Hitler now ruled Germany as "Führer und Reichskanzler", combining his previous positions in party and government. However, he did officially become president; the office was not abolished (though the constitutionally mandated presidential elections every seven years did not take place in the Nazi era) and briefly revived at the end of the Second World War when Hitler appointed Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz as his successor as "President of Germany". Dönitz agreed to the surrender to the Allies and was arrested a few days later.


title: President of Germany

text: The Weimar Constitution created a semi-presidential system in which power was divided between the president, a cabinet and a parliament. The president enjoyed far greater power than the current president and had an active political role, rather than a largely ceremonial one. The influence of the president also increased greatly as a result of the instability of the Weimar period. The president had authority to appoint the chancellor and could dismiss the entire cabinet at any time. However, it was also necessary for the cabinet to enjoy the confidence of the Reichstag (parliament) because it could be removed by a vote of no confidence. All bills had to receive the signature of the president to become law and, although he did not have an absolute veto on legislation, he could insist that a law be submitted for the approval of voters in a referendum. The president also had authority to dissolve the Reichstag, conduct foreign affairs, and command the armed forces. Article 48 of the constitution also provided the president sweeping powers in case of a crisis. If there was a threat to "public order and security" he could legislate by decree and suspend civil rights.


title: President of Germany

text: The Weimar constitution provided that the president be directly elected and serve a seven-year term. The election involved a form of the two-round system. However the first president was elected by the National Assembly and subsequently only two direct presidential elections actually occurred. These were the election of Paul von Hindenburg in 1925 and his re-election in 1932.


title: President of Germany

text: The system created by the Weimar constitution led to a number of problems. In particular, the fact that the president could appoint the cabinet, while the Reichstag had only a power of dismissal, created a high cabinet turn-over as ministers were appointed by the president only to be dismissed by the Reichstag shortly afterwards. Eventually Hindenburg stopped trying to appoint cabinets that enjoyed the confidence of the Reichstag and ruled by means of three "presidential cabinets" ("Präsidialkabinette"). Hindenburg was also able to use his power of dissolution to by-pass the Reichstag. If the Reichstag threatened to censure his ministers or revoke one of his decrees he could simply dissolve the body and be able to govern without its interference until elections had been held. This led to eight Reichstag elections taking place in the 14 years of the Republic's existence; only one parliamentary term, that of 1920–1924, was completed without elections being held early.


title: President of Germany

text: The German Democratic Republic established the office of a head of state with the title of President of the Republic (German: "Präsident der Republik") in 1949, but abandoned the office with the death of the first president, Wilhelm Pieck, in 1960 in favour of a collective head of state closely modeled on its Soviet counterpart. All government positions of the country, including the presidency, were appointed by the ruling Socialist Unity Party of Germany on the approval of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.


title: President of Germany

text: Following the end of communist rule due to the Peaceful Revolution, the head of state became the parliamentary speaker with new, fair elections. Later that year, a draft constitution was written that would have restored the presidency, but ultimately this never materialized.


title: President of Germany

text: With the promulgation of the "Grundgesetz" in 1949, the office of President of the Federal Republic (in German: "Bundespräsident") was created in West Germany. Partly due to the misuse of presidential powers in the Weimar Republic, the office's powers were significantly reduced. Not only is he indirectly elected, but most of the real power was transferred to the chancellor.


title: President of Germany

text: Because the reunification of Germany in 1990 was accomplished by the five East German states joining the Federal Republic, the president became the president of all German states without the establishment of a new presidential office.


title: President of Germany

text: Twelve persons have served as President of the Federal Republic of Germany. Six of them were members of the CDU (Lübke, Carstens, von Weizsäcker, Herzog, Köhler, Wulff), three were members of the SPD (Heinemann, Rau, Steinmeier), two were members of the FDP (Heuss, Scheel) and one was an Independent (Gauck). Four presidents were ministers in the federal government before entering office (Lübke "Agriculture", Heinemann "Justice", Scheel, Steinmeier "Foreign Affairs"), two of them (Scheel, Steinmeier) having been Vice-Chancellor of Germany. Three were head of a state government (von Weizsäcker "West Berlin", Rau "North Rhine-Westphalia", Wulff "Lower Saxony"), Rau having been President of the Bundesrat. Two were members of the Bundestag (Heuss, Carstens), Carstens having been President of the Bundestag. One was president of the Federal Constitutional Court (Herzog), director of the IMF (Köhler) and Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Records (Gauck). Only five presidents (Heuss, Lübke, von Weizsäcker, Köhler, Steinmeier) have been re-elected for a second five-year-term and only two of those (Heuss, von Weizsäcker) served the full ten years. Christian Wulff served the shortest tenure (1 year, 7 months and 18 days) of all presidents.


title: President of Germany

text: The president is (according to Art. 57 GG) deputised by the president of the Bundesrat who can perform any of the president's duties, if the president is temporarily unable to do so and delegates these duties to them (this frequently happens during state visits), or if the Presidency falls vacant, in which case he becomes acting President until a successor is elected, which has to happen within thirty days. This has happened three times:


title: President of Germany

text: In Germany, former presidents are usually referred to as "Altbundespräsidenten" (presidents emeritus). As of , there are three living former German presidents. The most recent death of a former president was that of Roman Herzog (1994–1999), on 10 January 2017.


title: Erika Christensen

text: Erika Jane Christensen (born August 19, 1982) is an American actress and singer whose filmography includes roles in "Traffic" (2000), "Swimfan" (2002), "The Banger Sisters" (2002), "The Perfect Score" (2004), "Flightplan" (2005), "How to Rob a Bank" (2007), "The Tortured" (2010), and "The Case for Christ" (2017). For her performance in "Traffic", she won the MTV Movie Award for Breakthrough Female Performance and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture along with her co-stars.


title: Erika Christensen

text: In 2006, she starred on the short-lived drama series "Six Degrees" on ABC. From 2010 until its ending in 2015, Christensen starred as Julia Braverman-Graham on the NBC family drama series "Parenthood". In 2014, she won a Gracie Award for her performance in the role. Christensen portrayed Betty Beaumontaine on ABC's short-lived crime drama series "Wicked City".


title: Erika Christensen

text: Christensen was born in Seattle, Washington, the daughter of Kathy (née Hendricks), a construction manager, and Steven Christensen, an insurance worker and human resources executive. She has an older half-brother, Nick, and two younger twin brothers, Dane (who appeared in the 2005 film "The Upside of Anger") and Brando. She has Danish, Icelandic, Swedish, Norwegian, Welsh, and Irish ancestry.


title: Erika Christensen

text: Christensen lived in Seattle until age four, when her family relocated to suburban Los Angeles, California. She started out acting on television in commercials for McDonald's and Volvo. Christensen is a member of the Church of Scientology. Her parents became Scientologists in their 20s while living in Seattle, and raised her as a Scientologist. Her parents also decided to home school her.


title: Erika Christensen

text: Christensen began her professional career with a supporting role in the comedy film "Leave It to Beaver", and a one-episode guest appearance on the drama series "Nothing Sacred", both of which were released/aired in 1997. She went on to guest star in numerous other television series in the late 1990s, including "Frasier", "The Practice", "3rd Rock from the Sun", and "Touched by an Angel". She also starred in the Disney Channel original movie "Can of Worms" in 1999. Also in 1999, she starred as Abigail Winthrop on the short-lived CBS sitcom "Thanks". That same year, she featured in Michael Jackson's music video for his song "Childhood", alongside actress Jena Malone.


title: Erika Christensen

text: For her performance as cocaine user Caroline Wakefield in Steven Soderbergh's crime drama film "Traffic" (2000), she received the awards for Breakthrough Female Performance at the MTV Movie Awards, Standout Performance – Female at the Young Hollywood Awards, and Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture at the Screen Actors Guild Awards. Also in 2000, Christensen guest starred in single episodes of "Time of Your Life", "Movie Stars", "FreakyLinks", and "The Pretender". In 2001, she had a recurring role on the sitcom "The Geena Davis Show". She also appeared in an episode of the Fox sitcom "That '70s Show", reuniting her with her "Traffic" co-star Topher Grace. She was named one of "People" "Breakthrough Stars of 2001". The following year, Christensen starred in three feature films: the teen thriller "Swimfan", the crime drama "Home Room", and the comedy "The Banger Sisters".


title: Erika Christensen

text: In 2003, Christensen starred in MTV's television film adaptation of "Wuthering Heights", based on the Emily Brontë novel of the same name. She also recorded multiple songs for the film's soundtrack. In 2004, she starred in the teen heist film "The Perfect Score", and the horror film "Riding the Bullet". In 2005, Christensen recorded a version of "Let's Fall in Love" with John Stevens for his debut album "Red". Also in 2005, Christensen co-starred in the films "The Upside of Anger" as Andy Wolfmeyer, co-starring Kevin Costner and Joan Allen; "The Sisters" as Irene Prior, with Maria Bello and Elizabeth Banks; and "Flightplan" as Fiona, starring Jodie Foster. The following year, she starred in the series "Six Degrees", which debuted on the ABC fall schedule on September 21, 2006. Low ratings caused its cancellation after one season, leaving five episodes unaired.


title: Erika Christensen

text: In 2007, she appeared in the comedy-drama film "Gardener of Eden", and the independent crime comedy "How to Rob a Bank". In 2008 and 2009, she guest starred as a special agent on "", a college student with dissociative identity disorder on "Lie to Me", and a victim of domestic abuse on "Mercy". Christensen made a cameo in the Joaquin Phoenix-directed music video "Tired of Being Sorry" for Balthazar Getty's band Ringside. In 2009, she was part of the cast of the film adaptation of "Veronika Decides to Die", and starred in the romantic drama "Mercy" alongside James Caan and Dylan McDermott. In 2010, Christensen co-starred with Jesse Metcalfe in the horror-thriller film "The Tortured".


title: Erika Christensen

text: Christensen was a regular cast member on the NBC drama television series "Parenthood", which debuted on March 2, 2010, and concluded on January 29, 2015. She portrayed the role of Julia Braverman-Graham, the youngest daughter of the Braverman family. She won the 2014 Gracie Award for Outstanding Female Actor in a Supporting Role in a Drama Series for her performance in the series. In 2013, she starred in the musical film "How Sweet It Is", directed by Brian Herzlinger, and was a guest judge on 2 episodes of the cooking competition series "Knife Fight". The following year, she appeared on the celebrity game show "Hollywood Game Night", and lead the cast of the Hallmark Channel television film "My Boyfriends' Dogs", based on the Dandi Daley Mackall novel of the same name.


title: Erika Christensen

text: In February 2015, she was cast in the short-lived ABC crime drama series "Wicked City" as Betty Beaumontaine, a single mother who becomes romantically involved with a serial killer. Also in 2015, she partnered with food company Lean Cuisine to launch their brand overhaul. In September 2015, Christensen was among several celebrities to appear in the music video "Love" for Dash Mihok's band Diz and the Fam.


title: Erika Christensen

text: Christensen led the cast of the Hallmark Channel television film "Anything for Love" co-starring with Paul Greene. The film was released on February 14, 2016. The following month, she starred in the music video "All Is Forgiven" for Sal Masekela's band Alekesam. Christensen next appeared as part of the all-star cast of HBO's courtroom drama film "Confirmation", directed by Rick Famuyiwa and co-starring Kerry Washington, Wendell Pierce, and Greg Kinnear. The same year, Christensen starred in Jon Abrahams' directorial debut film "Two for One", which had its world premiere at the Napa Valley Film Festival.


title: Erika Christensen

text: In 2017, she co-starred with Mike Vogel and Robert Forster in the Lee Strobel biopic "The Case for Christ", in the role of Strobel's wife Leslie. That same year, Christensen began starring as Ali Petrovich in the ABC drama series "Ten Days in the Valley", alongside Kyra Sedgwick. She starred in Jon Abrahams' second film, the comedy mob thriller "Clover", alongside Mark Webber, Julia Jones, and Ron Perlman.


title: Erika Christensen

text: In November 2014, Christensen became engaged to cyclist Cole Maness. They married on September 5, 2015, in Palm Springs, California, and reside in Los Feliz, Los Angeles. The couple have two daughters, born in June 2016 and August 2018.


title: Van der Waals force

text: In molecular physics, the van der Waals force is a distance-dependent interaction between atoms or molecules. Unlike ionic or covalent bonds, these attractions do not result from a chemical electronic bond; they are comparatively weak and therefore more susceptible to disturbance. The van der Waals force quickly vanishes at longer distances between interacting molecules.


title: Van der Waals force

text: Named after Dutch physicist Johannes Diderik van der Waals, the van der Waals force plays a fundamental role in fields as diverse as supramolecular chemistry, structural biology, polymer science, nanotechnology, surface science, and condensed matter physics. It also underlies many properties of organic compounds and molecular solids, including their solubility in polar and non-polar media.


title: Van der Waals force

text: If no other force is present, the distance between atoms at which the force becomes repulsive rather than attractive as the atoms approach one another is called the van der Waals contact distance; this phenomenon results from the mutual repulsion between the atoms' electron clouds.


title: Van der Waals force

text: The van der Waals forces are usually described as a combination of the London dispersion forces between "instantaneously induced dipoles", Debye forces between permanent dipoles and induced dipoles, and the Keesom force between permanent molecular dipoles whose rotational orientations are dynamically averaged over time.


title: Van der Waals force

text: Van der Waals forces include attraction and repulsions between atoms, molecules, and surfaces, as well as other intermolecular forces. They differ from covalent and ionic bonding in that they are caused by correlations in the fluctuating polarizations of nearby particles (a consequence of quantum dynamics).


title: Van der Waals force

text: The force results from a transient shift in electron density. Specifically, the electron density may temporarily shift more greatly to one side of the nucleus. This shift generates a transient charge which a nearby atom can be attracted to or repelled by. The force is repulsive at very short distances, reaches zero at an equilibrium distance characteristic for each atom, or molecule, and becomes attractive for distances larger than the equilibrium distance. For individual atoms, the equilibrium distance is between 0.3 nm and 0.5 nm, depending on the atomic-specific diameter. When the interatomic distance is greater than 1.0 nm the force is not strong enough to be easily observed as it decreases as a function of distance "r" approximately with the 7th power (~"r").


title: Van der Waals force

text: Van der Waals forces are often among the weakest chemical forces. For example, the pairwise attractive van der Waals interaction energy between H atoms in different H molecules equals 0.06 kJ/mol (0.6 meV) and the pairwise attractive interaction energy between O atoms in different O molecules equals 0.44 kJ/mol (4.6 meV). The corresponding vaporization energies of H and O molecular liquids, which result as a sum of all van der Waals interactions per molecule in the molecular liquids, amount to 0.90 kJ/mol (9.3 meV) and 6.82 kJ/mol (70.7 meV), respectively, and thus approximately to ~15 times the value of the individual pairwise interatomic interactions (excluding covalent bonds).


title: Van der Waals force

text: The strength of van-der-Waals bonds increases with higher polarizability of the participating atoms. For example, the pairwise van der Waals interaction energy for more polarizable atoms such as S atoms in HS and sulfides exceeds 1 kJ/mol (10 meV), and the pairwise interaction energy between even larger, more polarizable Xe atoms is 2.35 kJ/mol (24.3 meV). These van der Waals interactions are up to 40 times stronger than in H, which has only one valence electron, and they are still not strong enough to achieve an aggregate state other than gas for Xe under standard conditions. The interactions betweeen atoms in metals can also be effectively described as van-der-Waals interactions and account for the observed solid aggregate state with bonding strengths comparable to covalent and ionic interactions. The strength of pairwise van-der-Waals type interactions is on the order of 12 kJ/mol (120 meV) for low-melting Pb and on the order of 32 kJ/mol (330 meV) for high-melting Pt, which is about one order of magnitude stronger than in Xe due to the presence of a highly polarizable free electron gas. Accordingly, van der Waals forces can range from weak to strong interactions, and support integral structural loads when multitudes of such interactions are present.


title: Van der Waals force

text: Hereby, different texts may refer to a different spectrum of interactions using the term "van der Waals force". Typically, contributions (1) and (4) are considered as van-der-Waals forces, excluding effects from permanent multipoles as described in (2) and from permanent polarization in (3). However, some texts describe the van der Waals force as the totality of forces, including repulsion; others mean all the attractive forces (and then sometimes distinguish van der Waals–Keesom, van der Waals–Debye, and van der Waals–London).


title: Van der Waals force

text: All intermolecular/van der Waals forces are anisotropic (except those between two noble gas atoms), which means that they depend on the relative orientation of the molecules. The induction and dispersion interactions are always attractive, irrespective of orientation, but the electrostatic interaction changes sign upon rotation of the molecules. That is, the electrostatic force can be attractive or repulsive, depending on the mutual orientation of the molecules. When molecules are in thermal motion, as they are in the gas and liquid phase, the electrostatic force is averaged out to a large extent, because the molecules thermally rotate and thus probe both repulsive and attractive parts of the electrostatic force. Sometimes this effect is expressed by the statement that "random thermal motion around room temperature can usually overcome or disrupt them" (which refers to the electrostatic component of the van der Waals force). Clearly, the thermal averaging effect is much less pronounced for the attractive induction and dispersion forces.


title: Van der Waals force

text: The Lennard-Jones potential is often used as an approximate model for the isotropic part of a total (repulsion plus attraction) van der Waals force as a function of distance.


title: Van der Waals force

text: Van der Waals forces are responsible for certain cases of pressure broadening (van der Waals broadening) of spectral lines and the formation of van der Waals molecules. The London–van der Waals forces are related to the Casimir effect for dielectric media, the former being the microscopic description of the latter bulk property. The first detailed calculations of this were done in 1955 by E. M. Lifshitz. A more general theory of van der Waals forces has also been developed.


title: Van der Waals force

text: In low molecular weight alcohols, the hydrogen-bonding properties of their polar hydroxyl group dominate other weaker van der Waals interactions. In higher molecular weight alcohols, the properties of the nonpolar hydrocarbon chain(s) dominate and determine their solubility.