title: Mass (2021 film)

text: The performances in the film also received praise. While "Entertainment Weekly" said it was "an exceptional opportunity to watch four great character actors," "Salon.com" said the film "gives each member of the ensemble cast a big speech to emote and express what their characters are feeling. The conversation is certainly compelling as it builds." In his review for "The Hollywood Reporter", David Rooney said the film was "a harrowing watch, but a cathartic one, with each of the four superb principal actors delivering scenes of wrenching release." Furthermore, "Vox" journalist Alissa Wilkinson said "Mass" "leaves plenty of breathing room for characters to have authentic moments of emotion and puts a gentle, grace-filled frame around an almost unspeakable tragedy. It's a showcase for its performers, but it's also a valuable experience for its audience."


title: Poultry

text: Poultry () are domesticated birds kept by humans for their eggs, their meat or their feathers. These birds are most typically members of the superorder Galloanserae (fowl), especially the order Galliformes (which includes chickens, quails, and turkeys). The term also includes birds that are killed for their meat, such as the young of pigeons (known as squabs) but does not include similar wild birds hunted for sport or food and known as game. The word "poultry" comes from the French/Norman word "poule", itself derived from the Latin word "pullus", which means "small animal".


title: Poultry

text: Recent genomic study involving the four extant Junglefowl species reveals that the domestication of chicken, the most populous poultry species, occurred around 8,000 years ago in Southeast Asia - although this was previously believed to have occurred later - around 5,400 years ago - in Southeast Asia. The process may have originally occurred as a result of people hatching and rearing young birds from eggs collected from the wild, but later involved keeping the birds permanently in captivity. Domesticated chickens may have been used for cockfighting at first and quail kept for their songs, but people soon realised the advantages of having a captive-bred source of food. Selective breeding for fast growth, egg-laying ability, conformation, plumage and docility took place over the centuries, and modern breeds often look very different from their wild ancestors. Although some birds are still kept in small flocks in extensive systems, most birds available in the market today are reared in intensive commercial enterprises.


title: Poultry

text: Together with pork, poultry is one of the two most widely-eaten types of meat globally, with over 70% of the meat supply in 2012 between them; poultry provides nutritionally beneficial food containing high-quality protein accompanied by a low proportion of fat. All poultry meat should be properly handled and sufficiently cooked in order to reduce the risk of food poisoning. Semi-vegetarians who consume poultry as the only source of meat are said to adhere to pollotarianism.


title: Poultry

text: The collective word "poultry" comes from the West & English "pultrie", from Old French , from "pouletier", poultry dealer, from "poulet", pullet. The word "pullet" itself (like its doublet "poult") comes from Middle English "pulet", from Old French "polet", both from Latin "pullus", a young fowl, young animal or chicken. The word "fowl" is of Germanic origin (cf. Old English "Fugol", German "Vogel", Danish "Fugl").


title: Poultry

text: "Poultry" is a term used for any kind of domesticated bird, captive-raised for its utility, and traditionally the word has been used to refer to wildfowl (Galliformes) and waterfowl (Anseriformes) but not to cagebirds such as songbirds and parrots. "Poultry" can be defined as domestic fowls, including chickens, turkeys, geese and ducks, raised for the production of meat or eggs and the word is also used for the flesh of these birds used as food.


title: Poultry

text: The Encyclopaedia Britannica lists the same bird groups but also includes guinea fowl and squabs (young pigeons). In R. D. Crawford's "Poultry breeding and genetics", squabs are omitted but Japanese quail and common pheasant are added to the list, the latter frequently being bred in captivity and released into the wild. In his 1848 classic book on poultry, "Ornamental and Domestic Poultry: Their History, and Management", Edmund Dixon included chapters on the peafowl, guinea fowl, mute swan, turkey, various types of geese, the muscovy duck, other ducks and all types of chickens including bantams.


title: Poultry

text: In colloquial speech, the term "fowl" is often used near-synonymously with "domesticated chicken" ("Gallus gallus"), or with "poultry" or even just "bird", and many languages do not distinguish between "poultry" and "fowl". Both words are also used for the flesh of these birds. Poultry can be distinguished from "game", defined as wild birds or mammals hunted for food or sport, a word also used to describe the meat of these when eaten.


title: Poultry

text: Chickens are medium-sized, chunky birds with an upright stance and characterised by fleshy red combs and wattles on their heads. Males, known as cocks, are usually larger, more boldly coloured, and have more exaggerated plumage than females (hens). Chickens are gregarious, omnivorous, ground-dwelling birds that in their natural surroundings search among the leaf litter for seeds, invertebrates, and other small animals. They seldom fly except as a result of perceived danger, preferring to run into the undergrowth if approached. Today's domestic chicken ("Gallus gallus domesticus") is mainly descended from the wild red junglefowl of Asia, with some additional input from grey junglefowl, Sri Lankan junglefowl, and green junglefowl.


title: Poultry

text: Genomic studies estimate that the chicken was domesticated 8,000 years ago in Southeast Asia and spread to China and India 2000–3000 years later. Archaeological evidence supports domestic chickens in Southeast Asia well before 6000 BC, China by 6000 BC and India by 2000 BC. A landmark 2020 Nature study that fully sequenced 863 chickens across the world suggests that all domestic chickens originate from a single domestication event of red junglefowl whose present-day distribution is predominantly in southwestern China, northern Thailand and Myanmar. These domesticated chickens spread across Southeast and South Asia where they interbred with local wild species of junglefowl, forming genetically and geographically distinct groups. Analysis of the most popular commercial breed shows that the White Leghorn breed possesses a mosaic of divergent ancestries inherited from subspecies of red junglefowl.


title: Poultry

text: Chickens were one of the domesticated animals carried with the sea-borne Austronesian migrations into Taiwan, Island Southeast Asia, Island Melanesia, Madagascar, and the Pacific Islands; starting from around 3500 to 2500 BC.


title: Poultry

text: By 2000 BC, chickens seem to have reached the Indus Valley and 250 years later, they arrived in Egypt. They were still used for fighting and were regarded as symbols of fertility. The Romans used them in divination, and the Egyptians made a breakthrough when they learned the difficult technique of artificial incubation. Since then, the keeping of chickens has spread around the world for the production of food with the domestic fowl being a valuable source of both eggs and meat.


title: Poultry

text: Since their domestication, a large number of breeds of chickens have been established, but with the exception of the white Leghorn, most commercial birds are of hybrid origin. In about 1800, chickens began to be kept on a larger scale, and modern high-output poultry farms were present in the United Kingdom from around 1920 and became established in the United States soon after the Second World War. By the mid-20th century, the poultry meat-producing industry was of greater importance than the egg-laying industry. Poultry breeding has produced breeds and strains to fulfil different needs; light-framed, egg-laying birds that can produce 300 eggs a year; fast-growing, fleshy birds destined for consumption at a young age, and utility birds which produce both an acceptable number of eggs and a well-fleshed carcase. Male birds are unwanted in the egg-laying industry and can often be identified as soon as they are hatch for subsequent culling. In meat breeds, these birds are sometimes castrated (often chemically) to prevent aggression. The resulting bird, called a capon, has more tender and flavorful meat, as well.


title: Poultry

text: A bantam is a small variety of domestic chicken, either a miniature version of a member of a standard breed, or a "true bantam" with no larger counterpart. The name derives from the town of Bantam in Java where European sailors bought the local small chickens for their shipboard supplies. Bantams may be a quarter to a third of the size of standard birds and lay similarly small eggs. They are kept by small-holders and hobbyists for egg production, use as broody hens, ornamental purposes, and showing.


title: Poultry

text: Cockfighting is said to be the world's oldest spectator sport. Two mature males (cocks or roosters) are set to fight each other, and will do so with great vigour until one is critically injured or killed. Cockfighting is extremely widespread in Island Southeast Asia, and often had ritual significance in addition to being a gambling sport. They also formed part of the cultures of ancient India, China, Persia, Greece, Rome, and large sums were won or lost depending on the outcome of an encounter. Breeds such as the Aseel were developed in the Indian subcontinent for their aggressive behaviour. Cockfighting has been banned in many countries during the last century on the grounds of cruelty to animals.


title: Poultry

text: Ducks are medium-sized aquatic birds with broad bills, eyes on the side of the head, fairly long necks, short legs set far back on the body, and webbed feet. Males, known as drakes, are often larger than females (known as hens) and are differently coloured in some breeds. Domestic ducks are omnivores,eating a variety of animal and plant materials such as aquatic insects, molluscs, worms, small amphibians, waterweeds, and grasses. They feed in shallow water by dabbling, with their heads underwater and their tails upended. Most domestic ducks are too heavy to fly, and they are social birds, preferring to live and move around together in groups. They keep their plumage waterproof by preening, a process that spreads the secretions of the preen gland over their feathers.


title: Poultry

text: Clay models of ducks found in China dating back to 4000 BC may indicate the domestication of ducks took place there during the Yangshao culture. Even if this is not the case, domestication of the duck took place in the Far East at least 1500 years earlier than in the West. Lucius Columella, writing in the first century BC, advised those who sought to rear ducks to collect wildfowl eggs and put them under a broody hen, because when raised in this way, the ducks "lay aside their wild nature and without hesitation breed when shut up in the bird pen". Despite this, ducks did not appear in agricultural texts in Western Europe until about 810 AD, when they began to be mentioned alongside geese, chickens, and peafowl as being used for rental payments made by tenants to landowners.


title: Poultry

text: It is widely agreed that the mallard ("Anas platyrhynchos") is the ancestor of all breeds of domestic duck (with the exception of the Muscovy duck ("Cairina moschata"), which is not closely related to other ducks). Ducks are farmed mainly for their meat, eggs, and down. As is the case with chickens, various breeds have been developed, selected for egg-laying ability, fast growth, and a well-covered carcase. The most common commercial breed in the United Kingdom and the United States is the Pekin duck, which can lay 200 eggs a year and can reach a weight of in 44 days. In the Western world, ducks are not as popular as chickens, because the latter produce larger quantities of white, lean meat and are easier to keep intensively, making the price of chicken meat lower than that of duck meat. While popular in "haute cuisine", duck appears less frequently in the mass-market food industry. However, things are different in the East. Ducks are more popular there than chickens and are mostly still herded in the traditional way and selected for their ability to find sufficient food in harvested rice fields and other wet environments.


title: Poultry

text: The greylag goose ("Anser anser") was domesticated by the Egyptians at least 3000 years ago, and a different wild species, the swan goose ("Anser cygnoides"), domesticated in Siberia about a thousand years later, is known as a Chinese goose. The two hybridise with each other and the large knob at the base of the beak, a noticeable feature of the Chinese goose, is present to a varying extent in these hybrids. The hybrids are fertile and have resulted in several of the modern breeds. Despite their early domestication, geese have never gained the commercial importance of chickens and ducks.


title: Poultry

text: Domestic geese are much larger than their wild counterparts and tend to have thick necks, an upright posture, and large bodies with broad rear ends. The greylag-derived birds are large and fleshy and used for meat, while the Chinese geese have smaller frames and are mainly used for egg production. The fine down of both is valued for use in pillows and padded garments. They forage on grass and weeds, supplementing this with small invertebrates, and one of the attractions of rearing geese is their ability to grow and thrive on a grass-based system. They are very gregarious and have good memories and can be allowed to roam widely in the knowledge that they will return home by dusk. The Chinese goose is more aggressive and noisy than other geese and can be used as a guard animal to warn of intruders. The flesh of meat geese is dark-coloured and high in protein, but they deposit fat subcutaneously, although this fat contains mostly monounsaturated fatty acids. The birds are killed either around 10 or about 24 weeks. Between these ages, problems with dressing the carcase occur because of the presence of developing pin feathers.


title: Poultry

text: In some countries, geese and ducks are force-fed to produce livers with an exceptionally high fat content for the production of "foie gras". Over 75% of world production of this product occurs in France, with lesser industries in Hungary and Bulgaria and a growing production in China. "Foie gras" is considered a luxury in many parts of the world, but the process of feeding the birds in this way is banned in many countries on animal welfare grounds.


title: Poultry

text: Turkeys are large birds, their nearest relatives being the pheasant and the guineafowl. Males are larger than females and have spreading, fan-shaped tails and distinctive, fleshy wattles, called a snood, that hang from the top of the beak and are used in courtship display. Wild turkeys can fly, but seldom do so, preferring to run with a long, straddling gait. They roost in trees and forage on the ground, feeding on seeds, nuts, berries, grass, foliage, invertebrates, lizards, and small snakes.


title: Poultry

text: The modern domesticated turkey is descended from one of six subspecies of wild turkey ("Meleagris gallopavo") found in the present Mexican states of Jalisco, Guerrero and Veracruz. Pre-Aztec tribes in south-central Mexico first domesticated the bird around 800 BC, and Pueblo Indians inhabiting the Colorado Plateau in the United States did likewise around 200 BC. They used the feathers for robes, blankets, and ceremonial purposes. More than 1,000 years later, they became an important food source. The first Europeans to encounter the bird misidentified it as a guineafowl, a bird known as a "turkey fowl" at that time because it had been introduced into Europe via Turkey.


title: Poultry

text: Commercial turkeys are usually reared indoors under controlled conditions. These are often large buildings, purpose-built to provide ventilation and low light intensities (this reduces the birds' activity and thereby increases the rate of weight gain). The lights can be switched on for 24 h/day, or a range of step-wise light regimens to encourage the birds to feed often and therefore grow rapidly. Females achieve slaughter weight at about 15 weeks of age and males at about 19. Mature commercial birds may be twice as heavy as their wild counterparts. Many different breeds have been developed, but the majority of commercial birds are white, as this improves the appearance of the dressed carcass, the pin feathers being less visible. Turkeys were at one time mainly consumed on special occasions such as Christmas (10 million birds in the United Kingdom) or Thanksgiving (60 million birds in the United States). However, they are increasingly becoming part of the everyday diet in many parts of the world.


title: Poultry

text: Guineafowl originated in southern Africa, and the species most often kept as poultry is the helmeted guineafowl ("Numida meleagris"). It is a medium-sized grey or speckled bird with a small naked head with colorful wattles and a knob on top, and was domesticated by the time of the ancient Greeks and Romans. Guineafowl are hardy, sociable birds that subsist mainly on insects, but also consume grasses and seeds. They will keep a vegetable garden clear of pests and will eat the ticks that carry Lyme disease. They happily roost in trees and give a loud vocal warning of the approach of predators. Their flesh and eggs can be eaten in the same way as chickens, young birds being ready for the table at the age of about four months.


title: Poultry

text: A squab is the name given to the young of domestic pigeons that are destined for the table. Like other domesticated pigeons, birds used for this purpose are descended from the rock dove ("Columba livia"). Special utility breeds with desirable characteristics are used. Two eggs are laid and incubated for about 17 days. When they hatch, the squabs are fed by both parents on "pigeon's milk", a thick secretion high in protein produced by the crop. Squabs grow rapidly, but are slow to fledge and are ready to leave the nest at 26 to 30 days weighing about . By this time, the adult pigeons will have laid and be incubating another pair of eggs and a prolific pair should produce two squabs every four weeks during a breeding season lasting several months.


title: Poultry

text: Worldwide, more chickens are kept than any other type of poultry, with over 50 billion birds being raised each year as a source of meat and eggs. Traditionally, such birds would have been kept extensively in small flocks, foraging during the day and housed at night. This is still the case in developing countries, where the women often make important contributions to family livelihoods through keeping poultry. However, rising world populations and urbanization have led to the bulk of production being in larger, more intensive specialist units. These are often situated close to where the feed is grown or near to where the meat is needed, and result in cheap, safe food being made available for urban communities. Profitability of production depends very much on the price of feed, which has been rising. High feed costs could limit further development of poultry production.


title: Poultry

text: In free-range husbandry, the birds can roam freely outdoors for at least part of the day. Often, this is in large enclosures, but the birds have access to natural conditions and can exhibit their normal behaviours. A more intensive system is yarding, in which the birds have access to a fenced yard and poultry house at a higher stocking rate. Poultry can also be kept in a barn system, with no access to the open air, but with the ability to move around freely inside the building. The most intensive system for egg-laying chickens is battery cages, often set in multiple tiers. In these, several birds share a small cage which restricts their ability to move around and behave in a normal manner. The eggs are laid on the floor of the cage and roll into troughs outside for ease of collection. Battery cages for hens have been illegal in the EU since January 1, 2012.


title: Poultry

text: Chickens raised intensively for their meat are known as "broilers". Breeds have been developed that can grow to an acceptable carcass size () in six weeks or less. Broilers grow so fast, their legs cannot always support their weight and their hearts and respiratory systems may not be able to supply enough oxygen to their developing muscles. Mortality rates at 1% are much higher than for less-intensively reared laying birds which take 18 weeks to reach similar weights. Processing the birds is done automatically with conveyor-belt efficiency. They are hung by their feet, stunned, killed, bled, scalded, plucked, have their heads and feet removed, eviscerated, washed, chilled, drained, weighed, and packed, all within the course of little over two hours.


title: Poultry

text: Both intensive and free-range farming have animal welfare concerns. In intensive systems, cannibalism, feather pecking and vent pecking can be common, with some farmers using beak trimming as a preventative measure. Diseases can also be common and spread rapidly through the flock. In extensive systems, the birds are exposed to adverse weather conditions and are vulnerable to predators and disease-carrying wild birds. Barn systems have been found to have the worst bird welfare. In Southeast Asia, a lack of disease control in free-range farming has been associated with outbreaks of avian influenza.


title: Poultry

text: In many countries, national and regional poultry shows are held where enthusiasts exhibit their birds which are judged on certain phenotypical breed traits as specified by their respective breed standards. The idea of poultry exhibition may have originated after cockfighting was made illegal, as a way of maintaining a competitive element in poultry husbandry. Breed standards were drawn up for egg-laying, meat-type, and purely ornamental birds, aiming for uniformity. Sometimes, poultry shows are part of general livestock shows, and sometimes they are separate events such as the annual "National Championship Show" in the United Kingdom organised by the Poultry Club of Great Britain.


title: Poultry

text: Poultry is the second most widely eaten type of meat in the world, accounting for about 30% of total meat production worldwide compared to pork at 38%. Sixteen billion birds are raised annually for consumption, more than half of these in industrialised, factory-like production units. Global broiler meat production rose to 84.6 million tonnes in 2013. The largest producers were the United States (20%), China (16.6%), Brazil (15.1%) and the European Union (11.3%). There are two distinct models of production; the European Union supply chain model seeks to supply products which can be traced back to the farm of origin. This model faces the increasing costs of implementing additional food safety requirements, welfare issues and environmental regulations. In contrast, the United States model turns the product into a commodity.


title: Poultry

text: World production of duck meat was about 4.2 million tonnes in 2011 with China producing two thirds of the total, some 1.7 billion birds. Other notable duck-producing countries in the Far East include Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Myanmar, Indonesia and South Korea (12% in total). France (3.5%) is the largest producer in the West, followed by other EU nations (3%) and North America (1.7%). China was also by far the largest producer of goose and guinea fowl meat, with a 94% share of the 2.6 million tonne global market.


title: Poultry

text: Global egg production was expected to reach 65.5 million tonnes in 2013, surpassing all previous years. Between 2000 and 2010, egg production was growing globally at around 2% per year, but since then growth has slowed down to nearer 1%.


title: Poultry

text: Poultry is available fresh or frozen, as whole birds or as joints (cuts), bone-in or deboned, seasoned in various ways, raw or ready cooked. The meatiest parts of a bird are the flight muscles on its chest, called "breast" meat, and the walking muscles on the legs, called the "thigh" and "drumstick". The wings are also eaten (Buffalo wings are a popular example in the United States) and may be split into three segments, the meatier "drumette", the "wingette" (also called the "flat"), and the wing tip (also called the "flapper"). In Japan, the wing is frequently separated, and these parts are referred to as 手羽元 ("teba-moto" "wing base") and 手羽先 ("teba-saki" "wing tip").


title: Poultry

text: Dark meat, which avian myologists refer to as "red muscle", is used for sustained activity—chiefly walking, in the case of a chicken. The dark color comes from the protein myoglobin, which plays a key role in oxygen uptake and storage within cells. White muscle, in contrast, is suitable only for short bursts of activity such as, for chickens, flying. Thus, the chicken's leg and thigh meat are dark, while its breast meat (which makes up the primary flight muscles) is white. Other birds with breast muscle more suitable for sustained flight, such as ducks and geese, have red muscle (and therefore dark meat) throughout. Some cuts of meat including poultry expose the microscopic regular structure of intracellular muscle fibrils which can diffract light and produce iridescent colors, an optical phenomenon sometimes called structural coloration.


title: Poultry

text: Poultry meat and eggs provide nutritionally beneficial food containing protein of high quality. This is accompanied by low levels of fat which have a favourable mix of fatty acids. Chicken meat contains about two to three times as much polyunsaturated fat as most types of red meat when measured by weight. However, for boneless, skinless chicken breast, the amount is much lower. A 100-g serving of baked chicken breast contains 4 g of fat and 31 g of protein, compared to 10 g of fat and 27 g of protein for the same portion of broiled, lean skirt steak.


title: Poultry

text: A 2011 study by the Translational Genomics Research Institute showed that 47% of the meat and poultry sold in United States grocery stores was contaminated with "Staphylococcus aureus", and 52% of the bacteria concerned showed resistance to at least three groups of antibiotics. Thorough cooking of the product would kill these bacteria, but a risk of cross-contamination from improper handling of the raw product is still present. Also, some risk is present for consumers of poultry meat and eggs to bacterial infections such as "Salmonella" and "Campylobacter". Poultry products may become contaminated by these bacteria during handling, processing, marketing, or storage, resulting in food-borne illness if the product is improperly cooked or handled.


title: Poultry

text: In general, avian influenza is a disease of birds caused by bird-specific influenza A virus that is not normally transferred to people; however, people in contact with live poultry are at the greatest risk of becoming infected with the virus and this is of particular concern in areas such as Southeast Asia, where the disease is endemic in the wild bird population and domestic poultry can become infected. The virus possibly could mutate to become highly virulent and infectious in humans and cause an influenza pandemic.


title: Poultry

text: Bacteria can be grown in the laboratory on nutrient culture media, but viruses need living cells in which to replicate. Many vaccines to infectious diseases can be grown in fertilised chicken eggs. Millions of eggs are used each year to generate the annual flu vaccine requirements, a complex process that takes about six months after the decision is made as to what strains of virus to include in the new vaccine. A problem with using eggs for this purpose is that people with egg allergies are unable to be immunised, but this disadvantage may be overcome as new techniques for cell-based rather than egg-based culture become available. Cell-based culture will also be useful in a pandemic when it may be difficult to acquire a sufficiently large quantity of suitable sterile, fertile eggs.


title: Ingvar Kamprad

text: Feodor Ingvar Kamprad (; 30 March 1926 – 27 January 2018) was a Swedish billionaire best known for founding IKEA, a multinational retail company specialising in furniture. He lived in Switzerland from 1976 to 2014.


title: Ingvar Kamprad

text: Kamprad was born in Pjätteryd (now part of Älmhult Municipality), Kronobergs län, in Småland, Sweden, to Feodor Kamprad (1893–1984) and Berta Linnea Matilda Nilsson (1903–1956). His mother was of Swedish origin, while his father was born in Germany and came to Sweden at age one with his parents. Kamprad's paternal grandfather Achim Erdmann Kamprad was originally from Altenburger Land in Thuringia, and his paternal grandmother Franzisca ("Fanny") Glatz was born in Radonitz (Radonice) in Bohemia in then-Austria-Hungary; they left Germany for Sweden in 1896.


title: Ingvar Kamprad

text: The surname Kamprad is a variant of "Kamerade" ("Comrade") and dates back to the 14th century; in the 19th century the Kamprad family had become wealthy estate owners in Thuringia. Achim Kamprad's mother was a distant relative of Paul von Hindenburg. Achim was the younger son of an estate owner and had bought the farm Elmtaryd (presently standardized "Älmtaryd") near the small village of Agunnaryd (now part of Ljungby Municipality) in the province of Småland; with 449 hectares of land it was the largest farm in the area. He committed suicide a few years after Frans Feodor was born, leaving the farm to Franzisca and with time Franz Feodor. Ingvar Kamprad lived on the farm with his parents, sister and grandmother from the age of 6.


title: Ingvar Kamprad

text: Kamprad began to develop a business as a young boy. He started selling matches at the age of five. When he was seven he began travelling further afield on his bicycle to peddle to neighbours. He found he could buy matches in bulk very cheaply in Stockholm, sell them individually at a low price, and still make a good profit. From matches he expanded to selling fish, Christmas tree decorations, seeds, and later ballpoint pens and pencils. When Kamprad was 17, his father gave him a cash reward for succeeding in his studies.


title: Ingvar Kamprad

text: Ingvar attended Gothenburg's Handelsinstitut, now part of Hvitfeldtska Gymnasiet, from 1943 to 1945. In 1943, when he was 17 Kamprad founded IKEA at his uncle Ernst's kitchen table. In 1948, Kamprad diversified his portfolio, adding furniture. His business was mostly mail order. The acronym IKEA is made up of the initials of his name (Ingvar Kamprad) plus those of Elmtaryd, the family farm where he was born, and the nearby village Agunnaryd where he was raised.


title: Ingvar Kamprad

text: In June 2013, Kamprad resigned from the board of Inter IKEA Holding SA and his youngest son Mathias Kamprad replaced Per Ludvigsson as the chairman of the holding company. Following his decision to step down the then-87-year-old founder explained, "I see this as a good time for me to leave the board of Inter IKEA Group. By that we are also taking another step in the generation shift that has been ongoing for some years." Mathias and his two older brothers, who also have leadership roles at IKEA, work on the corporation's overall vision and long-term strategy.


title: Ingvar Kamprad

text: The Dutch-registered Stichting INGKA Foundation is named after Ingvar Kamprad (i.e., ING + KA) which owns INGKA Holding, the parent company for all IKEA stores. In May 2006 the charitable foundation was reported by "The Economist" to be the world's wealthiest charity, however the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has since become larger. Despite its large endowment its primary purpose is corporate tax-minimisation and anti-takeover protection for IKEA. Kamprad was chairman of the foundation.


title: Ingvar Kamprad

text: According to an article in the Swedish business weekly "Veckans Affärer" in 2004, Kamprad was one of the world's wealthiest people. This report was based on the assumption that he owned the entire company, an approach both IKEA and the Kamprad family rejected. Kamprad retained little direct ownership in the company, having transferred his interest to Stichting INGKA Foundation and INGKA Holding as part of a complex tax sheltering scheme that leaves his actual degree of control vague.


title: Ingvar Kamprad

text: In March 2010, "Forbes" magazine estimated Kamprad's fortune at US$23 billion, making him the eleventh richest person in the world. A year later, he fell to 162nd after his lawyers produced documents proving that the foundation he established and heads in Liechtenstein owns IKEA, and that its bylaws bar him and his family from benefiting from its funds. In June 2015, Kamprad was listed as the eighth wealthiest person in the world in the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, with an estimated net worth of $58.7 billion. Forbes reported Kamprad's net worth as of March 2015 to be $3.5 billion.


title: Ingvar Kamprad

text: While generally a private person, Kamprad had published a few notable works. He first detailed his philosophies of frugality and simplicity in a manifesto entitled "A Testament of a Furniture Dealer" in 1976.


title: Ingvar Kamprad

text: Kamprad also worked with Swedish journalist Bertil Torekull on "Leading by Design: The IKEA Story". In the autobiographical book, Kamprad further describes his philosophies and the trials and triumphs of the founding of IKEA.


title: Ingvar Kamprad

text: In 1994, the personal letters of the Swedish fascist Per Engdahl were made public, posthumously revealing that Kamprad had joined Engdahl's pro-fascist New Swedish Movement ("Nysvenska Rörelsen") in 1942, at age 16. Kamprad had raised funds and recruited members for the group, at least as late as September 1945. When he quit the group is unknown, but he remained a friend of Engdahl until the early 1950s.


title: Ingvar Kamprad

text: Kamprad devoted two chapters to his time in "Nysvenska Rörelsen" in his book "Leading by Design: The IKEA Story" and, in a 1994 letter to IKEA employees, called his affiliation with the organization the "greatest mistake of my life". Kamprad explained his teenage engagement in New Swedish Movement as being politically influenced by his father and grandmother in Sudet-Germany. In 2011, journalist Elisabeth Åsbrink published a book "Made in Sweden: How the Swedes Are Not Nearly So Egalitarian, Tolerant, Hospitable or Cozy As They Would Like to (Have You) Think" in which she revealed that, by 1943, the Swedish Security Service had created a file on Kamprad entitled "Nazi", and that Kamprad had told her, during a 2010 interview, that "Per Engdahl is a great man, and I will maintain that as long as I live."


title: Ingvar Kamprad

text: Writing in "The Daily Telegraph", in August 2011, Richard Orange noted that the 1943 file proved for the first time that Kamprad "was an active member of Svensk Socialistisk Samling – successor to the Swedish Nationalist Socialist Workers Party – citing his membership number: 4013. It quotes letters intercepted from Mr Kamprad, then 17, in which he enthuses about recruiting new members and says that he "misses no opportunity to work for the movement." Orange added, "The secret service concluded that, as Mr Kamprad received the party's youth newspaper, he must have held "some sort of official position within the organisation." The following day, the BBC reported: "A Swedish expert on far-right extremism, Anna-Lena Lodenius, told Radio Sweden that Mr Kamprad's Nazi involvement could no longer be dismissed as the by-product of an accidental friendship with Per Engdahl. His involvement in another fascist organisation, she said, showed he must have been 'perfectly aware' of what it stood for." The "BBC" report also noted that a spokesman said that Kamprad "had long admitted flirting with fascism, but that now, "there are no Nazi-sympathising thoughts in Ingvar's head whatsoever."


title: Ingvar Kamprad

text: Kamprad and his first wife Kerstin Wadling adopted a daughter, Annika. In the 1960s, Kamprad married his second wife, Margaretha Kamprad-Stennert (1940–2011), whom he met when she was twenty years old. They had three sons: Peter, Jonas and Mathias.


title: Ingvar Kamprad

text: He lived in Épalinges, Switzerland, from 1976 to 2014. Kamprad moved back to Småland in Sweden in March 2014 after nearly forty years away. While working with furniture manufacturers in Poland earlier in his career, Kamprad became an alcoholic. In 2004, he said that his drinking was under control, and according to "The New York Times", Kamprad "controlled it by drying out three times a year".


title: Ingvar Kamprad

text: According to a 2006 interview, Kamprad was then driving a 1993 Volvo 240, flew economy class, and encouraged IKEA employees to use both sides of a page when writing or printing. He reportedly recycled tea bags and was known to keep the salt and pepper packets in restaurants. Kamprad had also been known to visit IKEA for a "cheap meal", and was known for his frugal behaviour; purchasing wrapping paper and presents in post-Christmas sales. The company he created is still known for the attention it gives to cost control, operational details and continuous product development; allowing it to lower its prices by an average of 2–3% over the decade to 2010, whilst continuing its global expansion. Kamprad explains his social philosophy in his "Testament of a Furniture Dealer": "It is not only for cost reasons that we avoid the luxury hotels. We don't need flashy cars, impressive titles, uniforms or other status symbols. We rely on our strength and our will!" Kamprad owned a villa in Switzerland, a large country estate in Sweden and a vineyard in Provence, France. Kamprad drove a Porsche for several years.


title: Ingvar Kamprad

text: Kamprad had named his sons as the sole heirs of an entity called the Ikano Group, which holds a substantial minority stake in IKEA estimated at US$1.5 billion. His adopted daughter Annika was planned to receive about $300,000.


title: Ingvar Kamprad

text: Kamprad died in his sleep of pneumonia at his home in Småland, Sweden, on 27 January 2018 at the age of 91. According to his will, half of Kamprad's estate would go to projects in Norrland, a sparsely populated part of Sweden. Kamprad reportedly wanted to develop Norrland and make it possible for young people to live there.


title: Buzz Lightyear of Star Command

text: Buzz Lightyear of Star Command is an American animated science fiction action-adventure comedy television series produced by Walt Disney Television Animation and co-produced by Pixar Animation Studios. It serves as a spin-off of the "Toy Story" franchise and presents a fictionalized account of the in-universe character Buzz Lightyear. The series was preceded by the direct-to-video film "". and aired on UPN and ABC from October 2, 2000, to January 13, 2001, as part of Disney's One Saturday Morning and Disney's One Too programming blocks. While the series is 2D animated, Pixar animated the CGI opening title sequence at the beginning of each episode.


title: Buzz Lightyear of Star Command

text: Developed by Bob Schooley and Mark McCorkle, who would later create "Kim Possible" for Disney Channel, the series follows the adventures of Space Ranger Buzz Lightyear. The character first appeared as an action figure in the 1995 American computer-animated comedy film "Toy Story", which features original voice actor Tim Allen in the role; Allen's friend Patrick Warburton voices the character in the television series. A video game of the same name based on the series was released in 2000. An unrelated CGI-animated feature film fully produced by Pixar, "Lightyear", was released in 2022, serving as an origin story for the character, voiced by Chris Evans.


title: Buzz Lightyear of Star Command

text: This was the last "Toy Story" production for nearly a decade until the release of "Toy Story 3" in 2010.


title: Buzz Lightyear of Star Command

text: "Buzz Lightyear of Star Command" is set in the far future. Capital Planet is the forefront of the Galactic Alliance, a peaceful union of various planets, home to various alien species that coexist in harmony. Star Command is a peacekeeping organization consisting of Space Rangers, who investigate threats to galactic peace. The primary enemy of Star Command, as well as Buzz’s archenemy is the Evil Emperor Zurg, an intergalactic crime boss and warlord that rules Planet Z, with an empire of heavily armed robots and slave races forced to work in opposition to the Galactic Alliance.


title: Buzz Lightyear of Star Command

text: The series features Buzz Lightyear, a famous and experienced Space Ranger who takes a crew of rookies under his wing as he investigates criminal activity across the galaxy and attempts to bring down Zurg’s evil plots to rule the universe.


title: Buzz Lightyear of Star Command

text: The series was aired during UPN's Disney's One Too programming block from October 2000 to August 2003. One episode, "Super Nova", only aired twice during its original run. It also aired on Disney Channel from June 5, 2006, to May 16, 2008, when it was taken off the air in the U.S.. Two episodes, "Conspiracy" and "Inside Job", were rarely seen after 2001. The show also aired on Toon Disney from 2003 to 2007 as well as on the network's Jetix block for a brief time in 2004. As of 2022, Disney doesn’t plan on releasing the show on Disney+ for unknown reasons.


title: Buzz Lightyear of Star Command

text: A video game titled "Buzz Lightyear of Star Command" was developed by Traveller's Tales and published by Activision, and released for PlayStation, Game Boy Color, Microsoft Windows, and Dreamcast in 2000. The gameplay revolves around Buzz chasing down the various villains from the show, and defeating them using different color coded weapons.


title: Ministry of Education (India)

text: The Ministry of Education ( MoE; formerly the Ministry of Human Resource Development from 1985 to 2020) is a ministry of the Government of India, responsible for the implementation of the National Policy on Education. The Ministry is further divided into two departments: the Department of School Education and Literacy, which deals with primary, secondary and higher secondary education, adult education and literacy, and the Department of Higher Education, which deals with university level education, technical education, scholarships, etc.


title: Ministry of Education (India)

text: The current education minister is Dharmendra Pradhan, a member of the Council of Ministers. India had the Ministry of Education since 1947. In 1985, Rajiv Gandhi government changed its name to Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) and with the public announcement of newly drafted "National Education Policy 2020" by the Narendra Modi government, Ministry of Human Resource Development was renamed back to Ministry of Education.


title: Ministry of Education (India)

text: The new National Education Policy 2020 was passed on 29 July 2020 by the Union Council of Ministers. The NEP 2020 replaced the existing National Policy on Education, 1986. Under the NEP 2020, the name of the Ministry of Human Resource and Development (MHRD) was changed to Ministry of Education (MoE). Numerous new educational institutes, bodies and concepts were legislated under NEP 2020.


title: Ministry of Education (India)

text: The Department of School Education and Literacy is responsible for the development of school education and literacy in the country.


title: Ministry of Education (India)

text: The Department of Higher Education is in charge of secondary and post-secondary education. The department is empowered to grant deemed university status to educational institutions on the advice of the University Grants Commission (UGC) of India, under Section 3 of the University Grants Commission (UGC) Act, 1956. The Department of Higher Education takes care of one of the largest higher education systems of the world, just after the United States and China. The department is engaged in bringing world-class opportunities of higher education and research to the country so that Indian students are not found lacking when facing an international platform. For this, the government has launched joint ventures and signed MoUs to help the Indian students benefit from world opinion. The technical education system in the country can be broadly classified into three categories – Central Government funded institutions, State Government/State-funded institutions & Self-financed institutions. The 122 Centrally funded institution of technical and science education are as under: List of centrally funded technical institutions: IIITs (25), IITs (23), IIMs (20), IISc Bangalore, IISERs (7 - Berhampur, Bhopal, Kolkata, Mohali, Pune, Thiruvananthapuram, Tirupati), NITs (31), NITTTRs (4), and 9 others (SPA, ISMU, NERIST, SLIET, IIEST, NITIE & NIFFT, CIT)


title: Ministry of Education (India)

text: The department is divided into eight bureaus, and most of the work of the department is handled through over 100 autonomous organisations under these bureaus.


title: Ministry of Education (India)

text: MHRD’s Innovation Cell, now renamed as MoE's Innovation Cell, was established in Aug 2018 by Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) at All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) to systematically foster the culture of innovation, entrepreneurship and startups in all major Higher Education Institutions in India. Abhay Jere was appointed as first Chief Innovation Officer.


title: Ministry of Education (India)

text: In April 2016, Ministry of Human Resource Development published the first list of rankings of Indian colleges under National Institutional Ranking Framework. The entire ranking exercise involved NBA, All India Council for Technical Education, UGC, Thomson Reuters, Elsevier and INFLIBNET (Information & Library Network) centre. The ranking framework was launched in September 2015. All 122 centrally-funded institutions – including all central universities, IITs and IIMs – participated in the first round of ranking.


title: Ministry of Education (India)

text: The Minister of Education, formerly the Minister of Human Resources Development (1985-2020), is the head of the Ministry of Education and one of the cabinet ministers of the Government of India.


title: Melamine

text: Melamine is an organic compound with the formula CHN. This white solid is a trimer of cyanamide, with a 1,3,5-triazine skeleton. Like cyanamide, it contains 67% nitrogen by mass, and its derivatives have fire retardant properties due to its release of nitrogen gas when burned or charred. Melamine can be combined with formaldehyde and other agents to produce melamine resins. Such resins are characteristically durable thermosetting plastic used in high pressure decorative laminates such as Formica, melamine dinnerware, laminate flooring, and dry erase boards. Melamine foam is used as insulation, soundproofing material and in polymeric cleaning products, such as Magic Eraser.


title: Melamine

text: Melamine was once illegally added to baby formula in China, in order to increase the apparent protein content. Ingestion of melamine may lead to reproductive damage, or bladder or kidney stones, and bladder cancer. It is also an irritant when inhaled or in contact with the skin or eyes. The United Nations' food standards body, the "Codex Alimentarius" Commission, has set the maximum amount of melamine allowed in powdered infant formula to 1 mg/kg and the amount of the chemical allowed in other foods and animal feed to 2.5 mg/kg. While not legally binding, the levels allow countries to ban importation of products with excessive levels of melamine.


title: Melamine

text: The German word "" was coined by combining the words melam (a derivative of ammonium thiocyanate) and amine. Melamine is, therefore, unrelated etymologically to the root (, meaning 'black' in Greek), from which the words melanin, a pigment, and melatonin, a hormone, are formed.


title: Melamine

text: In one large-scale application, melamine is combined with formaldehyde and other agents to produce melamine resins. Such resins are characteristically durable thermosetting plastic used in high-pressure decorative laminates such as Formica, melamine dinnerware, laminate flooring, and dry erase boards.


title: Melamine

text: Melamine foam is used as insulation, soundproofing material and in polymeric cleaning products, such as Magic Eraser.


title: Melamine

text: Melamine also enters the fabrication of melamine polysulfonate, used as a superplasticizer for making high-resistance concrete. Sulfonated melamine formaldehyde (SMF) is a polymer used as a cement admixture to reduce the water content in concrete while increasing the fluidity and the workability of the mix during handling and pouring. It results in concrete with a lower porosity and a higher mechanical strength, exhibiting an improved resistance to aggressive environments and a longer lifetime.


title: Melamine

text: The use of melamine as fertilizer for crops had been envisioned during the 1950s and 1960s because of its high nitrogen content (2/3). However, melamine is much more expensive to produce than other common nitrogen fertilizers, such as urea. The mineralization (degradation to ammonia) for melamine is slow, making this product both economically and scientifically impractical for use as a fertilizer.


title: Melamine

text: Melamine and its salts are used as fire-retardant additives in paints, plastics, and paper. A melamine fibre, Basofil, has low thermal conductivity, excellent flame resistance and is self-extinguishing; this makes it useful for flame-resistant protective clothing, either alone or as a blend with other fibres.


title: Melamine

text: Melamine derivatives of arsenical drugs are potentially important in the treatment of African trypanosomiasis.


title: Melamine

text: Melamine use as non-protein nitrogen (NPN) for cattle was described in a 1958 patent. In 1978, however, a study concluded that melamine "may not be an acceptable non-protein N source for ruminants" because its hydrolysis in cattle is slower and less complete than other nitrogen sources such as cottonseed meal and urea.


title: Melamine

text: Melamine is sometimes illegally added to food products in order to increase the apparent protein content. Standard tests, such as the Kjeldahl and Dumas tests, estimate protein levels by measuring the nitrogen content, so they can be misled by adding nitrogen-rich compounds such as melamine. There are instruments available today which can differentiate melamine nitrogen from protein nitrogen.


title: Melamine

text: The short-term lethal dose of melamine is on a par with common table salt, with an LD of more than 3 grams per kilogram of bodyweight. U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) scientists explained that when melamine and cyanuric acid are absorbed into the bloodstream, they concentrate and interact in the urine-filled renal tubules, then crystallize and form large numbers of round, yellow crystals, which in turn block and damage the renal cells that line the tubes, causing the kidneys to malfunction.


title: Melamine

text: The European Union set a standard for acceptable human consumption (tolerable daily intake or TDI) of melamine at 0.2 mg per kilogram of body mass, (previously 0.5 mg/kg), Canada declared a limit of 0.35 mg/kg, and the US FDA's limit was put at 0.063 mg/kg (previously 0.63 mg/kg). The World Health Organization's food safety director estimated that the amount of melamine a person could stand per day without incurring a bigger health risk, the TDI, was 0.2 mg per kilogram of body mass.


title: Melamine

text: Toxicity of melamine can be mediated by intestinal microbiota. In culture, "Klebsiella terrigena", which rarely colonizes mammalian intestines, was shown to convert melamine to cyanuric acid directly. Rats colonized by "K. terrigena" showed greater melamine-induced kidney damage compared to those not colonized.


title: Melamine

text: Melamine is reported to have an oral median lethal dose (LD) of 3248 mg/kg based on rat data. It is also an irritant when inhaled or in contact with the skin or eyes. The reported dermal LD is >1000 mg/kg for rabbits. A study by Soviet researchers in the 1980s suggested that melamine cyanurate, commonly used as a fire retardant, could be more toxic than either melamine or cyanuric acid alone. For rats and mice, the reported LD for melamine cyanurate was 4.1 g/kg (given inside the stomach) and 3.5 g/kg (via inhalation), compared to 6.0 and 4.3 g/kg for melamine and 7.7 and 3.4 g/kg for cyanuric acid respectively.


title: Melamine

text: A toxicology study in animals conducted after recalls of contaminated pet food concluded that the combination of melamine and cyanuric acid in diet does lead to acute kidney injury in cats. A 2008 study produced similar experimental results in rats and characterized the melamine and cyanuric acid in contaminated pet food from the 2007 outbreak. A 2010 study from Lanzhou University attributed kidney failure in humans to uric acid stone accumulation after ingestion of melamine resulting in a rapid aggregation of metabolites such as cyanuric acid diamide (ammeline) and cyanuric acid. A 2013 study demonstrated that melamine can be metabolized to cyanuric acid by gut bacteria. In particular, "Klebsiella terrigena" was determined to be a factor in melamine toxicity. In culture, "K. terrigena" was shown to convert melamine to cyanuric acid directly. Cyanuric acid was detected in the kidneys of rats administered melamine alone, and the concentration after Klebsiella colonization was increased.


title: Melamine

text: Ingestion of melamine may lead to reproductive damage, or bladder or kidney stones, which can lead to bladder cancer.


title: Melamine

text: A study in 1953 reported that dogs fed 3% melamine for a year had the following changes in their urine: (1) reduced specific gravity, (2) increased output, (3) melamine crystalluria, and (4) protein and occult blood.


title: Melamine

text: A survey commissioned by the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians suggested that crystals formed in the kidneys when melamine combined with cyanuric acid, "don't dissolve easily. They go away slowly, if at all, so there is the potential for chronic toxicity."


title: Melamine

text: Melamine is a metabolite of cyromazine, a pesticide. It has been reported that cyromazine can also be converted to melamine in plants.


title: Melamine

text: Fast diagnosis and treatment of acute obstructive urolithiasis may prevent the development of acute kidney failure. Urine alkalinization and stone liberalization have been reported to be the most effective treatments in humans.


title: Melamine

text: The United Nations' food standards body, Codex Alimentarius Commission, has set the maximum amount of melamine allowed in powdered infant formula to 1 mg/kg and the amount of the chemical allowed in other foods and animal feed to 2.5 mg/kg. While not legally binding, the levels allow countries to ban importation of products with excessive levels of melamine.


title: Melamine

text: Melamine was first synthesized by the German chemist Justus von Liebig in 1834. In early production, first calcium cyanamide was converted into dicyandiamide, which was heated above its melting temperature to produce melamine. Today most industrial manufacturers use urea in the following reaction to produce melamine:


title: Melamine

text: Cyanic acid polymerizes to cyanuric acid, which condenses with the liberated ammonia forming melamine. The released water reacts with cyanic acid, which helps to drive the reaction:


title: Melamine

text: The above reaction can be carried out by either of two methods: catalyzed gas-phase production or high pressure liquid-phase production. In one method, molten urea is introduced onto a fluidized bed with catalyst for reaction. Hot ammonia gas is also present to fluidize the bed and inhibit deammonization. The effluent then is cooled. Ammonia and carbon dioxide in the off-gas are separated from the melamine-containing slurry. The slurry is further concentrated and crystallized to yield melamine. Major manufacturers and licensors such as Orascom Construction Industries, BASF, and Eurotecnica have developed some proprietary methods.


title: Melamine

text: The off-gas contains large amounts of ammonia. Therefore, melamine production is often integrated into urea production, which uses ammonia as feedstock.


title: Melamine

text: Crystallization and washing of melamine generates a considerable amount of waste water, which may be concentrated into a solid (1.5–5% of the weight) for easier disposal. The solid may contain approximately 70% melamine, 23% oxytriazines (ammeline, ammelide, and cyanuric acid), 0.7% polycondensates (melem, melam, and melon). In the Eurotecnica process, however, there is no solid waste and the contaminants are decomposed to ammonia and carbon dioxide and sent as off gas to the upstream urea plant; accordingly, the waste water can be recycled to the melamine plant itself or used as clean cooling water make-up.


title: Melamine

text: Melamine reacts with acid and related compounds to form melamine cyanurate and related crystal structures, which have been implicated as contaminants or biomarkers in Chinese protein adulterations.


title: Melamine

text: Melamine is part of the core structure for a number of drugs including almitrine, altretamine, cyromazine, ethylhexyl triazone, iscotrizinol, meladrazine, melarsomine, melarsoprol, tretamine, trinitrotriazine, and others.


title: Melamine

text: Between the late 1990s and early 2000s, both consumption and production of melamine grew considerably in mainland China. By early 2006, melamine production in mainland China is reported to be in "serious surplus".


title: Melamine

text: Between 2002 and 2007, while the global melamine price remained stable, a steep increase in the price of urea (feedstock for melamine) has reduced the profitability of melamine manufacturing. Currently, China is the world's largest exporter of melamine, while its domestic consumption still grows by 10% per year. However, reduced profit has already caused other joint melamine ventures to be postponed there.


title: Melamine

text: Surplus melamine has been an adulterant for feedstock and milk in mainland China for several years now because it can make diluted or poor quality material appear to be higher in protein content by elevating the total nitrogen content detected by some simple protein tests. Actions taken in 2008 by the Government of China have reduced the practice of adulteration, with the goal of eliminating it. As a result of the Chinese milk scandal, court trials began in December 2008 for six people involved in adding melamine in food products, ending in January 2009 with two of the convicts being sentenced to death and executed.


title: Melamine

text: Melamine has been involved in several food recalls after the discovery of severe kidney damage to children and pets poisoned by melamine-adulterated food.


title: Melamine

text: In 2007, a pet food recall was initiated by Menu Foods and other pet food manufacturers who had found their products had been contaminated and caused serious illnesses or deaths in some of the animals that had eaten them. In March 2007, the US Food and Drug Administration reported finding white granular melamine in the pet food, in samples of white granular wheat gluten imported from a single source in China, Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology as well as in crystalline form in the kidneys and in urine of affected animals. Further vegetable protein imported from China was later implicated.


title: Melamine

text: In April 2007, "The New York Times" reported that the addition of "melamine scrap" into fish and livestock feed to give the false appearance of a higher level of protein was an "open secret" in many parts of mainland China, reporting that this melamine scrap was being produced by at least one plant processing coal into melamine. Four days later, the New York Times reported that, despite the widely reported ban on melamine use in vegetable proteins in mainland China, at least some chemical manufacturers continued to report selling it for use in animal feed and in products for human consumption. Li Xiuping, a manager at Henan Xinxiang Huaxing Chemical in Henan Province, stated, "Our chemical products are mostly used for additives, not for animal feed. Melamine is mainly used in the chemical industry, but it can also be used in making cakes." Shandong Mingshui Great Chemical Group, the company reported by the New York Times as producing melamine from coal, produces and sells both urea and melamine but does not list melamine resin as a product.


title: Melamine

text: Another recall incident in 2007 involved melamine which had been purposely added as a binder to fish and livestock feed manufactured in the United States. This was traced to suppliers in Ohio and Colorado.


title: Melamine

text: In September 2008, several companies, including Nestlé, were implicated in a scandal involving milk and infant formula which had been adulterated with melamine, leading to kidney stones and other kidney failure, especially among young children. By December 2008, nearly 300,000 people had become ill, with more than 50,000 infant hospitalizations and six infant deaths. In a study published in the "New England Journal of Medicine", it was reported that melamine exposure increased the incidence of urinary tract stones by seven times in children. Melamine may have been added to fool government protein content tests after water was added to fraudulently dilute the milk. Because of melamine's high nitrogen content (66% by mass versus approximately 10–12% for typical protein), it can cause the protein content of food to appear higher than the true value. Officials estimate that about 20% of the dairy companies tested in China sell products tainted with melamine. On January 22, 2009, three of those involved in the scandal (including one conditional sentence) were sentenced to death in a Chinese court.


title: Melamine

text: In October 2008, "Select Fresh Brown Eggs" exported to Hong Kong from the Hanwei Group in Dalian in northeastern China were found to be contaminated with nearly twice the legal limit of melamine. York Chow, the health secretary of Hong Kong, said he thought animal feeds might be the source of the contamination and announced that the Hong Kong Centre for Food Safety would henceforward be testing all mainland Chinese pork, farmed fish, animal feed, chicken meat, eggs, and offal products for melamine.


title: Melamine

text: As of July 2010, Chinese authorities were still reporting some seizures of melamine-contaminated dairy product in some provinces, though it was unclear whether these new contaminations constituted wholly new adulterations or were the result of illegal reuse of material from the 2008 adulterations.


title: Melamine

text: On characterization and treatment of urinary stones in affected infants, "The New England Journal of Medicine" printed an editorial in March 2009, along with reports on cases from Beijing, Hong Kong and Taipei.


title: Melamine

text: Urinary calculi specimens were collected from 15 cases treated in Beijing and were analyzed as unknown objects for their components at Beijing Institute of Microchemistry using infrared spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance, and high performance liquid chromatography. The result of the analysis showed that the calculus was composed of melamine and uric acid, and the molecular ratio of uric acid to melamine was around 2:1.


title: Melamine

text: In a 2009 study of 683 children diagnosed in Beijing in 2008 with nephrolithiasis and 6,498 children without nephrolithiasis aged < 3 years, investigators found that in children exposed to melamine levels < 0.2 mg/kg per day, the risk for nephrolithiasis was 1.7 times higher than in those without melamine exposure, suggesting that the risk of melamine-induced nephrolithiasis in young children starts at a lower intake level than the levels recommended by the World Health Organization.


title: Melamine

text: In a study published in 2010, researchers from Beijing University studying ultrasound images of infants who fell ill in the 2008 contamination found that while most children in a rural Chinese area recovered, 12 per cent still showed kidney abnormalities six months later. "The potential for long-term complications after exposure to melamine remains a serious concern," the report said. "Our results suggest a need for further follow-up of affected children to evaluate the possible long-term impact on health, including renal function." Another 2010 follow-up study from Lanzhou University attributed the uric acid stone accumulation after ingestion of melamine to a rapid aggradation of metabolites such as cyanuric acid diamide (ammeline) and cyanuric acid and reported that urine alkalinization and stone liberalization were the most effective treatments.


title: Melamine

text: Until the 2007 pet food recalls, melamine had not routinely been monitored in food, except in the context of plastic safety or insecticide residue.


title: Melamine

text: Following the deaths of children in China from powdered milk in 2008, the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission in Belgium set up a website about methods to detect melamine. In May 2009, the JRC published the results of a study that benchmarked the ability of labs around the world to accurately measure melamine in food. The study concluded that the majority of labs can effectively detect melamine in food.


title: Melamine

text: In October 2008, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued new methods for the analysis of melamine and cyanuric acid in infant formulations in the Laboratory Information Bulletin No 4421. Similar recommendations have been issued by other authorities, like the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, both based on liquid chromatography – mass spectrometry (LC/MS) detection after hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC) separation.


title: Melamine

text: The existing methods for melamine determination using a triple quadrupole liquid chromatography – mass spectrometry (LC/MS) after solid phase extraction (SPE) are often complex and time-consuming. However, electrospray ionization methods coupled with mass spectrometry allow a rapid and direct analysis of samples with complex matrices: the native liquid samples are directly ionized under ambient conditions in their original solution. In December 2008, two new fast and inexpensive methods for detecting melamine in liquids have been published.


title: Melamine

text: Ultrasound-assisted extractive electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (EESI-MS) has been developed at ETH Zurich (Switzerland) by Zhu, Chingin et al., (2008) for a rapid detection of melamine in untreated food samples. Ultrasounds are used to nebulize the melamine-containing liquids into a fine spray. The spray is then ionised by extractive electrospray ionisation (EESI) and analysed using tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS). An analysis requires 30 seconds per sample. The limit of detection of melamine is a few nanograms of melamine per gram of milk.


title: Melamine

text: Huang et al. (2008) have also developed at Purdue University (US) a simpler instrumentation and a faster method by using a low-temperature plasma probe to ionize the samples. The major obstacles being solved, the ESI-MS technique allows now high-throughput analysis of melamine traces in complex mixtures.


title: Melamine

text: was a hypothetical design for a synthetic biology circuit, to be used for detecting melamine and related chemical analogues such as cyanuric acid. The conceptual project is hosted at OpenWetWare as open source biology in collaboration with DIYbio and has been discussed in various newspapers in the context of homebrew biotechnology. As of October 2009, the design has not been verified.


title: Melamine

text: Because melamine resin is often used in food packaging and tableware, melamine at ppm level (1 part per million) in food and beverage has been reported due to migration from melamine-containing resins. Small amounts of melamine have also been reported in foodstuff as a metabolite product of cyromazine, an insecticide used on animals and crops.


title: Melamine

text: The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) provides a test method for analyzing cyromazine and melamine in animal tissues. In 2007, the FDA began using a high performance liquid chromatography test to determine the melamine, ammeline, ammelide, and cyanuric acid contamination in food. Another procedure is based on surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS).


title: Melamine

text: Member states of the European Union are required under Commission Decision 2008/757/EC to ensure that all composite products containing at least 15% of milk product, originating from China, are systematically tested before import into the Community and that all such products which are shown to contain melamine in excess of 2.5 mg/kg are immediately destroyed.


title: Melamine

text: The presence of melamine in urine specimens from children who consumed adulterated milk products has been determined by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry.


title: Melamine

text: It is reported that melamine molecules adsorbed on gold or silver surface tend to arrange into honeycomb or closed-packed structures. Such a self-assembly occurs due to the inter-molecular hydrogen bond interaction. This ordering was further investigated using classical Monte Carlo and DFT methods.


title: Baijiu

text: Baijiu (), also known as shaojiu (/), is a colorless Chinese liquor typically coming in between 35% and 60% alcohol by volume (ABV). Each type of baijiu uses its own type of "qū" for fermentation to create a distinct and characteristic flavor profile.


title: Baijiu

text: Baijiu is a clear liquid usually distilled from fermented sorghum, although other grains may be used; some southeastern Chinese styles may employ rice or glutinous rice, while other Chinese varieties may use wheat, barley, millet, or Job's tears () in their mash bills. The "qū" starter culture used in the production of "baijiu" is usually made from pulverized wheat grain or steamed rice.


title: Baijiu

text: Because of its clarity, "baijiu" can appear similar to several other East Asian liquors, e.g. Japanese "shōchū" (25%) or Korean "soju" (20–45%), but it often has a significantly higher alcohol content (35-60%).


title: Baijiu

text: No exact dates are known for the invention of the modern form baijiu as it likely emerged gradually with the development of distillery technology over a long period of time through history.


title: Baijiu

text: Baijiu is characterized by solid-state fermentation and distillation using a grain culture called "qū", which allows for simultaneous saccharification and fermentation. This is a typical feature of liquors produced in East Asia. Chinese "baijiu" is always distilled from grain, produced in batches and blended.


title: Baijiu

text: Outside of East Asia, baijiu is widely regarded as an acquired taste. In response to one 2015 article in "The New York Times", third-party commenters compared baijiu's aroma and taste profile to "jet fuel, kerosene, poison, nail polish remover, drain cleaner, Burgundy cheeses, and salty garbage water", and the tenor of these remarks was "representative of most English-language writing about baijiu at the time". Such descriptions have been harshly criticized by Western experts on baijiu as reflecting an uninformed Eurocentric perspective in which Chinese cuisine is regarded as inferior and vodka's blandness is the only acceptable profile for clear distilled liquor. It is more reasonable to compare baijiu to Western liquor famous for strong flavors and aromas such as peaty whisky or Scotch whisky.


title: Baijiu

text: The Chinese traditionally serve "baijiu" neat at room temperature, in small cups or glasses, though drinkware varies by region. It is traditional to drink "baijiu" with food rather than on its own, though it is often infused with fruit or medicinal herbs and spices.


title: Baijiu

text: In modern days, ceremonial parts of the etiquettes are ignored. Commonly with a group of friends or family, the host would initiate with "Cheers for...!" (为...干杯!), and then guests would finish their cups after clinking the glasses. Tasting is also appreciated.


title: Baijiu

text: Modern bar culture has grown in popularity in China, so has a craving for a twist on the traditional baijiu. In 2007, a report in "Time" magazine mentioned integrating baijiu into cocktails, and in the years since several bars around the world have added baijiu to their cocktail programs.


title: Baijiu

text: Peking Tavern in downtown Los Angeles opened its doors in 2013 as one of the first in the US to serve a variety of baijiu cocktails. Owners Andrew Chiu and Andrew Wong felt that it's an important part of Chinese dining culture. Their goal is for America to develop an appreciation through cocktails first and gradually transition to enjoying the liquor on its own.


title: Baijiu

text: Chinese business culture is known to be intense. It is believed that one's true self is shown when intoxicated. Therefore, when negotiating a business partnership, there is a tradition of serving high-degree Baijiu on the dinner table, in order to judge one's trustworthiness. There are also folk beliefs, especially in rural China, that consuming alcohol excessively equates to manliness and that one should not reject a serving offered by an elderly or higher-up. Many inexperienced Chinese drinkers are persuaded to overdrink on such occasions. These experiences are commonly referred to as the reason for Baijiu's unpopularity among some. This negative association of Baijiu with extreme drinking culture can sometimes lead to fear of Baijiu in the younger generation or people who have yet to try the drink.


title: Baijiu

text: Although most baijiu are priced similarly to other liquors with similar alcohol percentage, some high-end baijiu can be highly collectible due to the intricate skills and traditional artisanship involved in the making of baijiu, the age of the baijiu, or the rarity of the bottle etc. With the gifting tradition in some areas of China, sometimes expensive baijiu could also be gifted instead of being consumed. There is a sizable market for high-end baijiu collection for the above reasons. For example, the highest grade of Wuliangye retails for (US$3,375). Top-tier baijiu are likely to be from traditional baijiu distillery such as Kweichow Maotai, Wuliangye, Luzhou Laojiao, Shuijing Fang etc.


title: Baijiu

text: On the opposite side of the spectrum. Low-end "baijiu" can be as inexpensive as a can of beer per volume. For example, Erguotou and Jiang Xiaobai. Although some deride the low ends for their taste, they are more casually consumed with meals, or just when drinkers want to simply get drunk.


title: Baijiu

text: "Baijiu" is the world's bestselling liquor, with sold as of 2016, and 10.8 billion liters sold in 2018, more than whisky, vodka, gin, rum and tequila combined. As well as the most consumed liquor, with 1.2 billion nine-liter cases consumed in 2018, mostly in China - three times the global consumption of vodka. Outside of China it is gaining popularity, as seen with the sale of Ming River Baijiu in US and EU markets from late 2010s, a strong-aroma (nongxiang) type baijiu sourced from the Luzhou Laojiao distillery.


title: Baijiu

text: In 2019, Australian sorghum exported to China accounted for approximately 78.3 percent of Australia's total sorghum export market, which was valued at 29.9 million U.S. dollars. Exports of Australian sorghum to China are largely driven by demand for baijiu manufacture.


title: Baijiu

text: Throughout the evolutionary history of baijiu, numerous regional variations in alcohol production technique across the country have been incorporated into baijiu making. The practice of infusing alcohol with herbs, spices, fruits and other ingredients has its roots in traditional Chinese medicine, but is also done purely for flavor. The practice of infusing spirits is a common practice.


title: Baijiu

text: Baijiu has a distinctive smell and taste that is highly valued in Chinese culinary culture, and connoisseurs focus especially on its fragrance. This classification system began in 1952 and was updated in August 1979 at the third nationwide baijiu competition held in Dalian. Even so, during the competition, experts rated various baijiu based on their taste rather than aroma.


title: Baijiu

text: Other than by aroma, Baijiu can also differ by styles, production methods, ingredients etc. Regional varieties of Baijiu are often somewhat unique in flavor profile and production method.


title: Baijiu

text: Throughout the evolutionary history of baijiu, numerous regional variations in alcohol production technique across the country have been incorporated into baijiu making. The practice of infusing alcohol with herbs, spices, fruits and other ingredients has its roots in traditional Chinese medicine and herbology, but is also done purely for flavor. Infusing spirits is a common practice.


title: Baijiu

text: Baijiu are often distinguishable by distillery. The distinct aroma and taste profile is likely to be the specialty of that region. Therefore, often the name of the brand is the same as the name of the baijiu and the distillery. However, bigger brands tend to have a series of different types of baijiu as well as their signature baijiu. Beginner is recommended to try the signature baijiu of the brand first, to learn about their style of baijiu making.


title: Baijiu

text: Due to its long history, almost every province in China has at least one regional specialty baijiu. However, Guizhou and Sichuan are the two biggest, particularly famous baijiu-making provinces, where numerous distilleries can be found. Below is a non-exhaustive list of relatively well-known Baijiu brands, grouped by place of origin, in descending order of popularity (semi-arbitrary and subjective).


title: Baijiu

text: "*Many other brands exist, but usually only produced, sold and consumed locally and therefore lesser-known and not included in the list."


title: Sassafras

text: Sassafras is a genus of three extant and one extinct species of deciduous trees in the family Lauraceae, native to eastern North America and eastern Asia. The genus is distinguished by its aromatic properties, which have made the tree useful to humans.


title: Sassafras

text: Sassafras trees grow from tall with many slender sympodial branches and smooth, orange-brown bark or yellow bark. All parts of the plants are fragrant. The species are unusual in having three distinct leaf patterns on the same plant: unlobed oval, bilobed (mitten-shaped), and trilobed (three-pronged); the leaves are hardly ever five-lobed. Three-lobed leaves are more common in "Sassafras tzumu" and "S. randaiense" than in their North American counterparts, although three-lobed leaves sometimes occur on "S. albidum". The young leaves and twigs are quite mucilaginous and produce a citrus-like scent when crushed. The tiny, yellow flowers are generally six-petaled; "S. albidum" and (the extinct) "S. hesperia" are dioecious, with male and female flowers on separate trees, while "S. tzumu" and "S. randaiense" have male and female flowers occurring on the same trees. The fruit is a drupe, blue-black when ripe.


title: Sassafras

text: The largest known sassafras tree in the world is in Owensboro, Kentucky, and is over high and in circumference.


title: Sassafras

text: The genus "Sassafras" was first described by the Bohemian botanist Jan Presl in 1825. The name "sassafras", applied by the botanist Nicolas Monardes in 1569, comes from the French . Some sources claim it originates from the Latin or : "stone-breaking"; "rock" + "to break"). Sassafras trees are not within the family Saxifragaceae.


title: Sassafras

text: Early European colonists reported that the plant was called "winauk" by Native Americans in Delaware and Virginia and "pauane" by the Timucua. Native Americans distinguished between white sassafras and red sassafras, terms which referred to different parts of the same plant but with distinct colors and uses. Sassafras was known as fennel wood (German ) due to its distinctive aroma.


title: Sassafras

text: The genus "Sassafras" includes four species, three extant and one extinct. Sassafras plants are endemic to North America and East Asia, with two species in each region that are distinguished by some important characteristics, including the frequency of three-lobed leaves (more frequent in East Asian species) and aspects of their sexual reproduction (North American species being dioecious).


title: Sassafras

text: Taiwanese sassafras, Taiwan, is treated by some botanists in a distinct genus as "Yushunia randaiensis" (Hayata) Kamikoti, though this is not supported by recent genetic evidence, which shows "Sassafras" to be monophyletic.


title: Sassafras

text: Many Lauraceae are aromatic, evergreen trees or shrubs adapted to high rainfall and humidity, but the genus "Sassafras" is deciduous. Deciduous sassafras trees lose all of their leaves for part of the year, depending on variations in rainfall. In deciduous tropical Lauraceae, leaf loss coincides with the dry season in tropical, subtropical and arid regions.


title: Sassafras

text: Sassafras is commonly found in open woods, along fences, or in fields. It grows well in moist, well-drained, or sandy loam soils and tolerates a variety of soil types, attaining a maximum in southern and wetter areas of distribution.


title: Sassafras

text: "Sassafras albidum" ranges from southern Maine and southern Ontario west to Iowa, and south to central Florida and eastern Texas, in North America. "S. tzumu" may be found in Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Sichuan, Yunnan, and Zhejiang, China. "S. randaiense" is native to Taiwan.


title: Sassafras

text: The leaves, bark, twigs, stems, and fruits are eaten by birds and mammals in small quantities. For most animals, sassafras is not consumed in large enough quantities to be important, although it is an important deer food in some areas. Carey and Gill rate its value to wildlife as fair, their lowest rating. Sassafras leaves and twigs are consumed by white-tailed deer and porcupines. Other sassafras leaf browsers include groundhogs, marsh rabbits, and American black bears. Rabbits eat sassafras bark in winter. American beavers will cut sassafras stems. Sassafras fruits are eaten by many species of birds, including bobwhite quail, eastern kingbirds, great crested flycatchers, phoebes, wild turkeys, gray catbirds, northern flickers, pileated woodpeckers, downy woodpeckers, thrushes, vireos, and northern mockingbirds. Some small mammals also consume sassafras fruits.


title: Sassafras

text: All parts of sassafras plants, including roots, stems, twig leaves, bark, flowers, and fruit, have been used for culinary, medicinal, and aromatic purposes, both in areas where they are endemic and in areas where they were imported, such as Europe. The wood of sassafras trees has been used as a material for building ships and furniture in China, Europe, and the United States, and sassafras played an important role in the history of the European colonization of the Americas in the 16th and 17th centuries. Sassafras twigs have been used as toothbrushes and fire starters.


title: Sassafras

text: "Sassafras albidum" is an important ingredient in some distinct foods of the US. It is the main ingredient in traditional root beer and sassafras root tea, and ground leaves of sassafras are a distinctive additive in Louisiana Creole cuisine. It is used in filé powder, a common thickening and flavoring agent in gumbo. Methods of cooking with sassafras combine this ingredient native to America with traditional North American, as well as European, culinary techniques, to create a unique blend of Creole cuisine, and are thought by some to be heavily influenced by a blend of cultures. Sassafras is no longer used in commercially produced root beer since sassafras oil was banned for use in commercially mass-produced foods and drugs by the US Food and Drug Administration in 1960 due to health concerns about the carcinogenicity of safrole, a major constituent of sassafras oil, in animal studies.


title: Sassafras

text: Sassafras leaves and flowers have also been used in salads, and to flavor fats or cure meats. The young twigs can also be eaten fresh or dried. Additionally, the subterranean portion of the plant can be peeled, dried and boiled to make tea.


title: Sassafras

text: Numerous Native American tribes used the leaves of sassafras to treat wounds by rubbing the leaves directly into a wound and used different parts of the plant for many medicinal purposes such as treating acne, urinary disorders, and sicknesses that increased body temperature, such as high fevers. East Asian types of sassafras such as "S. tzumu" (chu mu) and "S. randaiense" (chu shu) are used in Chinese medicine to treat rheumatism and trauma. Some modern researchers conclude that the oil, roots and bark of sassafras have analgesic and antiseptic properties. Different parts of the sassafras plant (including the leaves and stems, the bark, and the roots) have been used to treat scurvy, skin sores, kidney problems, toothaches, rheumatism, swelling, menstrual disorders, sexually transmitted diseases, bronchitis, hypertension, and dysentery. It is also used as a fungicide, dentifrice, rubefacient, diaphoretic, perfume, carminative and sudorific. Before the twentieth century, Sassafras enjoyed a great reputation in the medical literature, but became valued for its power to improve the flavor of other medicines.


title: Sassafras

text: Sassafras wood and oil were both used in dentistry. Early toothbrushes were crafted from sassafras twigs or wood because of its aromatic properties. Sassafras was also used as an early dental anesthetic and disinfectant.


title: Sassafras

text: "Sassafras albidum" is often grown as an ornamental tree for its unusual leaves and aromatic scent. Outside of its native area, it is occasionally cultivated in Europe and elsewhere. The durable and beautiful wood of sassafras plants has been used in shipbuilding and furniture-making in North America, in Asia, and in Europe (once Europeans were introduced to the plant). Sassafras wood was also used by Native Americans in the southeastern United States as a fire-starter because of the flammability of its natural oils found within the wood and the leaves.


title: Sassafras

text: Steam distillation of dried root bark produces an essential oil which has a high safrole content, as well as significant amounts of varying other chemicals such as camphor, eugenol (including 5-methoxyeugenol), asarone, and various sesquiterpenes. Many other trees contain similarly high percentages and their extracted oils are sometimes referred to as sassafras oil, which once was extensively used as a fragrance in perfumes and soaps, food and for aromatherapy. Safrole is a precursor for the clandestine manufacture of the drugs MDA and MDMA, and as such, sales and import of sassafras oil (as a safrole-containing mixture of above-threshold concentration) are heavily restricted in the US.


title: Sassafras

text: Sassafras oil has also been used as a natural insect or pest deterrent, and in liqueurs (such as the opium-based Godfrey's), and in homemade liquor to mask strong or unpleasant smells. Sassafras oil has also been added to soap and other toiletries. It is banned in the United States for use in commercially mass-produced foods and drugs by the FDA as a potential carcinogen.


title: Sassafras

text: For a more detailed description of uses by indigenous peoples of North America, and a history of the commercial use of "Sassafras albidum" by Europeans in the United States in the 16th and 17th centuries, see the article on the extant North American species of sassafras, "Sassafras albidum".


title: Sassafras

text: In modern times, the sassafras plant has been grown and harvested for the extraction of sassafras oil. It is used in a variety of commercial products or their syntheses, such as the insecticide synergistic compound piperonyl butoxide. These plants are primarily harvested for commercial purposes in Asia and Brazil.


title: Kengan Ashura

text: Since the Edo period of Japan, gladiator arenas have existed in various forms around the world. In these arenas, wealthy business owners and merchants hire gladiators to fight in unarmed combat where the winner takes all, called Kengan matches. Yamashita Kazuo, an average Japanese salaryman for Nogi Group witnesses a street fight in an alley between two mysterious fighters. One of the fighters, Tokita "Ashura" Ohma is scouted out by the Nogi Group CEO, Nogi Hideki, due to defeating their previous fighter in the street fight. Kazuo is roped into managing Ohma who joins these arenas only to devastate his opponents. His spectacular ability to crush his enemies catches the attention of big business owners, leading to his inclusion in the Kengan Annihilation Tournament under the invitation of Hideki. This tournament is held by the biggest CEOs in Japan and the winner gets the seat of Kengan Association chairman, a position which holds immense power and prestige. As the tournament unfolds Ohma tests his strength while struggling with his mysterious past coming back to haunt him as Kazuo struggles with managing Ohma and figuring out the true intentions as to why he was invited to this tournament.


title: Kengan Ashura

text: "Kengan Ashura" is written by Yabako Sandrovich and illustrated by Daromeon. It was serialized in Shogakukan's online platform "Ura Sunday" and in the "MangaONE" app from April 18, 2012 to August 9, 2018. Shogakukan collected its chapters in twenty-seven "tankōbon" volumes, released from December 18, 2012 to February 19, 2019.


title: Kengan Ashura

text: A sequel, titled , began its serialization on "Ura Sunday" and "MangaONE" on January 17, 2019. The sequel is set two years after the events of the original series. Shogakukan has collected its chapters into individual "tankōbon" volumes. The first volume was released on February 19, 2019. As of September 16, 2021, ten volumes have been released.


title: Kengan Ashura

text: "Ura Sunday" opened a fan poll in January 2015 to let fans decide which of their series should receive an anime adaptation. In May 2015, it was announced that "Kengan Ashura" had won the poll with 2.3 million out of 9 million total votes, and would be adapted into an anime. Two years later, on December 7, 2017, it was announced that the anime was still being planned, with the 23rd volume revealing on December 12, 2017 that the anime would be a television series. The staff and release window for the series were announced on March 22, 2018. The series was directed by Seiji Kishi and written by Makoto Uezu, with animation by Larx Entertainment. Kazuaki Morita provided character designs for the anime, while Yasuharu Takanashi composed the series' music. The world premiere of the series took place at Anime Expo on July 7, 2018. The series premiered in Japan at Toho Cinemas Roppongi Hills on January 27, 2019. The series premiered on July 31, 2019. The opening theme is "King & Ashley" by My First Story, while the ending theme is "Born This Way" by BAD HOP. Netflix streamed the anime. The second part of the series, also consisting of 12 episodes, premiered on Netflix on October 31, 2019.


title: Kengan Ashura

text: On March 24, 2022, it was announced that the anime is receiving a sequel. The editor of "Kengan Omega" manga has confirmed on Twitter that the anime continuation will adapt the original manga’s story “until the end of the original (the end of the tournament)!” It was later revealed to be a second season that is set to premiere in 2023.


title: Kengan Ashura

text: In July 2020, a crossover art by Daromeon and Keisuke Itagaki, featuring Ohma Tokita and Baki Hanma from "Baki the Grappler", was drawn to promote both series availability on Netflix.


title: Kengan Ashura

text: Sandrovich launched another manga series, titled "How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Lift?", which is set in the same universe as "Kengan Ashura".


title: Staying Alive (1983 film)

text: Staying Alive is a 1983 American dance musical film and the sequel to "Saturday Night Fever" (1977). Directed by Sylvester Stallone, who also co-produced and co-wrote the film with original "Fever" producer and writer, Robert Stigwood and Norman Wexler, respectively, the film stars John Travolta, reprising his role as Tony Manero, with Cynthia Rhodes, Finola Hughes, Joyce Hyser, Julie Bovasso, and dancers Viktor Manoel and Kevyn Morrow.


title: Staying Alive (1983 film)

text: The title comes from the Bee Gees song of the same name, which was used as the theme song to "Saturday Night Fever" and is also played during the final scene of "Staying Alive". The title also reflects Tony's circumstances at the film's beginning, in which he is barely surviving as he pursues his dream of making his dancing career.


title: Staying Alive (1983 film)

text: "Staying Alive" was theatrically released on July 15, 1983, to universally negative critical reviews, and, released in 1983, is the oldest film to hold a score of 0% on Rotten Tomatoes. Despite this, "Staying Alive" was successful at the box office, earning $127 million worldwide on a $22 million budget. The film also featured the song "Far from Over" by Frank Stallone, the younger brother of Sylvester Stallone. "Far from Over" peaked at #10 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 and the "Cashbox" charts. Along with "Homefront" (2013), this is one of only two films that Stallone wrote without starring (although he has an uncredited cameo appearance).


title: Staying Alive (1983 film)

text: Anthony "Tony" Manero, a former disco king, acts on his brother's advice and his own dreams of dancing professionally. He is now living in a Manhattan flophouse (dosshouse), working as a dance instructor and waiter at a dance club, searching for a big break in the modern dance productions on Broadway. The break from his Brooklyn life, family, and friends seem to have somewhat matured Tony and refined his personality, including his diminished Brooklyn accent, an avoidance of alcohol, and less use of profanity. Other attitudes remain unchanged, such as his disregard for his girlfriend, the forgiving Jackie, who is a dancer and rock singer. Still acting immature, Tony maintains some of his other macho and childish double standards, such as seeing other women but being offended if he sees Jackie with other men.


title: Staying Alive (1983 film)

text: Tony watches a show, which features Jackie as a dancer in the chorus, but focuses on the lead, a seemingly wealthy English dancer, Laura. Tony pursues her with seduction in mind, and spends the night with her. He is annoyed when she dismisses him afterward, not understanding that she intended their encounter to be a one-night stand. Laura coldly justifies her treatment of him by saying that "Everybody uses everybody", and implies that Tony used her in order to get a dance role in her upcoming show.


title: Staying Alive (1983 film)

text: Unable to trust Tony, Jackie breaks up with him. Jackie, Tony and Laura then all audition for the Broadway production, "Satan's Alley". Jackie and Tony land small roles, and Laura is cast as the lead female dancer.


title: Staying Alive (1983 film)

text: Tony begins to realize how callous he has been to Jackie, and walks all the way from Manhattan to his old Bay Ridge neighborhood in Brooklyn in the middle of the night. He takes stock of how much his life has changed since he left Brooklyn when walks past 2001 Odyssey, which was his hangout six years before, and is now a gay nightclub. When Tony goes to visit his mother, and apologizes for his selfishness and the troublemaking ways of his youth, she points out that his selfish behavior as a teen was what helped him escape a dead-end life in Bay Ridge. Tony feels better after this and heads back to Manhattan to repair his relationship with Jackie. His hostility and distance from the arrogant Laura increase as the production progresses.


title: Staying Alive (1983 film)

text: Tony decides to take a shot at replacing the male lead of "Satan's Alley", and requests Jackie to help him practice the number. Laura is disgusted when Tony succeeds and openly displays her resentment at having to partner him in the show. They cannot hide their chemistry on stage despite her animosity, which pleases the show's director Jesse.


title: Staying Alive (1983 film)

text: "Satan's Alley" sells out, and the cast takes the stage to a standing-room-only crowd. The first act is a success despite Tony's brash disregard for the script when he kisses Laura at the end of their number. Laura furiously retaliates by clawing Tony's face. Jesse blasts Tony backstage, telling him to take his personal war away from the production. Laura seems to offer a truce when she asks to see him after the show to "clear things up". Now fully aware of her manipulative ways, Tony coldly tells her that he has other commitments, and Laura snidely responds that he lacks star quality.


title: Staying Alive (1983 film)

text: The second act is a dazzling display of dance and special effects, and Tony suddenly abandons the script near the end of the show. He hurls Laura away and gives way to his frustration in a solo dance. He finishes and holds out his hand to Laura with a command to jump. She halts amid Jackie's and Jesse's commands, but finally leaps in his arms for a climactic finish to the show. The thrilled audience gives a standing ovation.


title: Staying Alive (1983 film)

text: Tony celebrates with his jubilant castmates and reconciles with Jackie. He says that what he really must do is "strut" in celebration. He leaves the theater and struts through Times Square, beaming with his newfound success.


title: Staying Alive (1983 film)

text: Richie Sambora appeared in an uncredited role as a guitarist of the local band, in which Jackie and Carl also perform. Sylvester Stallone makes an uncredited cameo appearance as a man on the street, whom Tony bumps into.