title: Human leg

text: Three of the anterior muscles are extensors. From its origin on the lateral surface of the tibia and the interosseus membrane, the three-sided belly of the tibialis anterior extends down below the superior and inferior extensor retinacula to its insertion on the plantar side of the medial cuneiform bone and the first metatarsal bone. In the non-weight-bearing leg, the anterior tibialis dorsal flexes the foot and lifts the medial edge of the foot. In the weight-bearing leg, it pulls the leg towards the foot. The extensor digitorum longus has a wide origin stretching from the lateral condyle of the tibia down along the anterior side of the fibula, and the interosseus membrane. At the ankle, the tendon divides into four that stretch across the foot to the dorsal aponeuroses of the last phalanges of the four lateral toes. In the non-weight-bearing leg, the muscle extends the digits and dorsiflexes the foot, and in the weight-bearing leg acts similar to the tibialis anterior. The extensor hallucis longus has its origin on the fibula and the interosseus membrane between the two other extensors and is, similarly to the extensor digitorum, is inserted on the last phalanx of big toe ("hallux"). The muscle dorsiflexes the hallux, and acts similar to the tibialis anterior in the weight-bearing leg. Two muscles on the lateral side of the leg form the fibular (peroneal) group. The fibularis (peroneus) longus and fibularis (peroneus) brevis both have their origins on the fibula, and they both pass behind the lateral malleolus where their tendons pass under the fibular retinacula. Under the foot, the fibularis longus stretches from the lateral to the medial side in a groove, thus bracing the transverse arch of the foot. The fibularis brevis is attached on the lateral side to the tuberosity of the fifth metatarsal. Together, these two fibularis muscles form the strongest pronators of the foot. The fibularis muscles are highly variable, and several variants can occasionally be present.


title: Human leg

text: Of the posterior muscles three are in the superficial layer. The major plantar flexors, commonly referred to as the triceps surae, are the soleus, which arises on the proximal side of both leg bones, and the gastrocnemius, the two heads of which arises on the distal end of the femur. These muscles unite in a large terminal tendon, the Achilles tendon, which is attached to the posterior tubercle of the calcaneus. The plantaris closely follows the lateral head of the gastrocnemius. Its tendon runs between those of the soleus and gastrocnemius and is embedded in the medial end of the calcaneus tendon.


title: Human leg

text: In the deep layer, the tibialis posterior has its origin on the interosseus membrane and the neighbouring bone areas and runs down behind the medial malleolus. Under the foot it splits into a thick medial part attached to the navicular bone and a slightly weaker lateral part inserted to the three cuneiform bones. The muscle produces simultaneous plantar flexion and supination in the non-weight-bearing leg, and approximates the heel to the calf of the leg. The flexor hallucis longus arises distally on the fibula and on the interosseus membrane from where its relatively thick muscle belly extends far distally. Its tendon extends beneath the flexor retinaculum to the sole of the foot and finally attaches on the base of the last phalanx of the hallux. It plantarflexes the hallux and assists in supination. The flexor digitorum longus, finally, has its origin on the upper part of the tibia. Its tendon runs to the sole of the foot where it forks into four terminal tendon attached to the last phalanges of the four lateral toes. It crosses the tendon of the tibialis posterior distally on the tibia, and the tendon of the flexor hallucis longus in the sole. Distally to its division, the quadratus plantae radiates into it and near the middle phalanges its tendons penetrate the tendons of the flexor digitorum brevis. In the non-weight-bearing leg, it plantar flexes the toes and foot and supinates. In the weight-bearing leg it supports the plantar arch. (For the popliteus, see above.)


title: Human leg

text: The intrinsic muscles of the foot, muscles whose bellies are located in the foot proper, are either dorsal (top) or plantar (sole).


title: Human leg

text: On the dorsal side, two long extrinsic extensor muscles are superficial to the intrinsic muscles, and their tendons form the dorsal aponeurosis of the toes. The short intrinsic extensors and the plantar and dorsal interossei radiates into these aponeuroses. The extensor digitorum brevis and extensor hallucis brevis have a common origin on the anterior side of the calcaneus, from where their tendons extend into the dorsal aponeuroses of digits 1–4. They act to dorsiflex these digits.


title: Human leg

text: The plantar muscles can be subdivided into three groups associated with three regions: those of the big digit, the little digit, and the region between these two. All these muscles are covered by the thick and dense plantar aponeurosis, which, together with two tough septa, form the spaces of the three groups. These muscles and their fatty tissue function as cushions that transmit the weight of the body downward. As a whole, the foot is a functional entity.


title: Human leg

text: The abductor hallucis stretches along the medial edge of the foot, from the calcaneus to the base of the first phalanx of the first digit and the medial sesamoid bone. It is an abductor and a weak flexor, and also helps maintain the arch of the foot. Lateral to the abductor hallucis is the flexor hallucis brevis, which originates from the medial cuneiform bone and from the tendon of the tibialis posterior. The flexor hallucis has a medial and a lateral head inserted laterally to the abductor hallucis. It is an important plantar flexor which comes into prominent use in classical ballet (i.e. for pointe work). The adductor hallucis has two heads; a stronger oblique head which arises from the cuboid and lateral cuneiform bones and the bases of the second and third metatarsals; and a transverse head which arises from the distal ends of the third-fifth metatarsals. Both heads are inserted on the lateral sesamoid bone of the first digit. The muscle acts as a tensor to the arches of the foot, but can also adduct the first digit and plantar flex its first phalanx.


title: Human leg

text: The opponens digiti minimi originates from the long plantar ligament and the plantar tendinous sheath of the fibularis (peroneus) longus and is inserted on the fifth metatarsal. When present, it acts to plantar flex the fifth digit and supports the plantar arch. The flexor digiti minimi arises from the region of base of the fifth metatarsal and is inserted onto the base of the first phalanx of the fifth digit where it is usually merged with the abductor of the first digit. It acts to plantar flex the last digit. The largest and longest muscles of the little toe is the abductor digiti minimi. Stretching from the lateral process of the calcaneus, with a second attachment on the base of the fifth metatarsal, to the base of the fifth digit's first phalanx, the muscle forms the lateral edge of the sole. Except for supporting the arch, it plantar flexes the little toe and also acts as an abductor.


title: Human leg

text: The four lumbricales have their origin on the tendons of the flexor digitorum longus, from where they extend to the medial side of the bases of the first phalanx of digits two-five. Except for reinforcing the plantar arch, they contribute to plantar flexion and move the four digits toward the big toe. They are, in contrast to the lumbricales of the hand, rather variable, sometimes absent and sometimes more than four are present. The quadratus plantae arises with two slips from margins of the plantar surface of the calcaneus and is inserted into the tendon(s) of the flexor digitorum longus, and is known as the "plantar head" of this latter muscle. The three plantar interossei arise with their single heads on the medial side of the third-fifth metatarsals and are inserted on the bases of the first phalanges of these digits. The two heads of the four dorsal interossei arise on two adjacent metatarsals and merge in the intermediary spaces. Their distal attachment is on the bases of the proximal phalanges of the second-fourth digits. The interossei are organized with the second digit as a longitudinal axis; the plantars act as adductors and pull digits 3–5 towards the second digit; while the dorsals act as abductors. Additionally, the interossei act as plantar flexors at the metatarsophalangeal joints. Lastly, the flexor digitorum brevis arises from underneath the calcaneus to insert its tendons on the middle phalanges of digit 2–4. Because the tendons of the flexor digitorum longus run between these tendons, the brevis is sometimes called "perforatus". The tendons of these two muscles are surrounded by a tendinous sheath. The brevis acts to plantar flex the middle phalanges.


title: Human leg

text: Flexibility can be simply defined as the available range of motion (ROM) provided by a specific joint or group of joints. For the most part, exercises that increase flexibility are performed with intentions to boost overall muscle length, reduce the risks of injury and to potentially improve muscular performance in physical activity. Stretching muscles after engagement in any physical activity can improve muscular strength, increase flexibility, and reduce muscle soreness. If limited movement is present within a joint, the "insufficient extensibility" of the muscle, or muscle group, could be restricting the activity of the affected joint.


title: Human leg

text: Stretching prior to strenuous physical activity has been thought to increase muscular performance by extending the soft tissue past its attainable length in order to increase range of motion. Many physically active individuals practice these techniques as a “warm-up” in order to achieve a certain level of muscular preparation for specific exercise movements. When stretching, muscles should feel somewhat uncomfortable but not physically agonizing.


title: Human leg

text: In the pelvis area, at the level of the last lumbar vertebra, the abdominal aorta, a continuation the descending aorta, splits into a pair of common iliac arteries. These immediately split into the internal and external iliac arteries, the latter of which descends along the medial border of the psoas major to exits the pelvis area through the vascular lacuna under the inguinal ligament.


title: Human leg

text: The artery enters the thigh as the femoral artery which descends the medial side of the thigh to the adductor canal. The canal passes from the anterior to the posterior side of the limb where the artery leaves through the adductor hiatus and becomes the popliteal artery. On the back of the knee the popliteal artery runs through the popliteal fossa to the popliteal muscle where it divides into anterior and posterior tibial arteries.


title: Human leg

text: In the lower leg, the anterior tibial enters the extensor compartment near the upper border of the interosseus membrane to descend between the tibialis anterior and the extensor hallucis longus. Distal to the superior and extensor retinacula of the foot it becomes the dorsal artery of the foot. The posterior tibial forms a direct continuation of the popliteal artery which enters the flexor compartment of the lower leg to descend behind the medial malleolus where it divides into the medial and lateral plantar arteries, of which the posterior branch gives rise to the fibular artery.


title: Human leg

text: For practical reasons the lower limb is subdivided into somewhat arbitrary regions: The regions of the hip are all located in the thigh: anteriorly, the subinguinal region is bounded by the inguinal ligament, the sartorius, and the pectineus and forms part of the femoral triangle which extends distally to the adductor longus. Posteriorly, the gluteal region corresponds to the gluteus maximus. The anterior region of the thigh extends distally from the femoral triangle to the region of the knee and laterally to the tensor fasciae latae. The posterior region ends distally before the popliteal fossa. The anterior and posterior regions of the knee extend from the proximal regions down to the level of the tuberosity of the tibia. In the lower leg the anterior and posterior regions extend down to the malleoli. Behind the malleoli are the lateral and medial retromalleolar regions and behind these is the region of the heel. Finally, the foot is subdivided into a dorsal region superiorly and a plantar region inferiorly.


title: Human leg

text: The veins are subdivided into three systems. The deep veins return approximately 85 percent of the blood and the superficial veins approximately 15 percent. A series of perforator veins interconnect the superficial and deep systems. In the standing posture, the veins of the leg have to handle an exceptional load as they act against gravity when they return the blood to the heart. The venous valves assist in maintaining the superficial to deep direction of the blood flow.


title: Human leg

text: The sensory and motor innervation to the lower limb is supplied by the lumbosacral plexus, which is formed by the ventral rami of the lumbar and sacral spinal nerves with additional contributions from the subcostal nerve (T12) and coccygeal nerve (Co1). Based on distribution and topography, the lumbosacral plexus is subdivided into the lumbar plexus (T12-L4) and the Sacral plexus (L5-S4); the latter is often further subdivided into the sciatic and pudendal plexuses:


title: Human leg

text: The lumbar plexus is formed lateral to the intervertebral foramina by the ventral rami of the first four lumbar spinal nerves (L1-L4), which all pass through psoas major. The larger branches of the plexus exit the muscle to pass sharply downward to reach the abdominal wall and the thigh (under the inguinal ligament); with the exception of the obturator nerve which pass through the lesser pelvis to reach the medial part of the thigh through the obturator foramen. The nerves of the lumbar plexus pass in front of the hip joint and mainly support the anterior part of the thigh.


title: Human leg

text: The iliohypogastric (T12-L1) and ilioinguinal nerves (L1) emerge from the psoas major near the muscle's origin, from where they run laterally downward to pass anteriorly above the iliac crest between the transversus abdominis and abdominal internal oblique, and then run above the inguinal ligament. Both nerves give off muscular branches to both these muscles. Iliohypogastric supplies sensory branches to the skin of the lateral hip region, and its terminal branch finally pierces the aponeurosis of the abdominal external oblique above the inguinal ring to supply sensory branches to the skin there. Ilioinguinalis exits through the inguinal ring and supplies sensory branches to the skin above the pubic symphysis and the lateral portion of the scrotum.


title: Human leg

text: The genitofemoral nerve (L1, L2) leaves psoas major below the two former nerves, immediately divides into two branches that descends along the muscle's anterior side. The sensory femoral branch supplies the skin below the inguinal ligament, while the mixed genital branch supplies the skin and muscles around the sex organ. The lateral femoral cutaneous nerve (L2, L3) leaves psoas major laterally below the previous nerve, runs obliquely and laterally downward above the iliacus, exits the pelvic area near the iliac spine, and supplies the skin of the anterior thigh.


title: Human leg

text: The obturator nerve (L2-L4) passes medially behind psoas major to exit the pelvis through the obturator canal, after which it gives off branches to obturator externus and divides into two branches passing behind and in front of adductor brevis to supply motor innervation to all the other adductor muscles. The anterior branch also supplies sensory nerves to the skin on a small area on the distal medial aspect of the thigh. The femoral nerve (L2-L4) is the largest and longest of the nerves of the lumbar plexus. It supplies motor innervation to iliopsoas, pectineus, sartorius, and quadriceps; and sensory branches to the anterior thigh, medial lower leg, and posterior foot.


title: Human leg

text: The nerves of the sacral plexus pass behind the hip joint to innervate the posterior part of the thigh, most of the lower leg, and the foot. The superior (L4-S1) and inferior gluteal nerves (L5-S2) innervate the gluteus muscles and the tensor fasciae latae. The posterior femoral cutaneous nerve (S1-S3) contributes sensory branches to the skin on the posterior thigh. The sciatic nerve (L4-S3), the largest and longest nerve in the human body, leaves the pelvis through the greater sciatic foramen. In the posterior thigh it first gives off branches to the short head of the biceps femoris and then divides into the tibial (L4-S3) and common fibular nerves (L4-S2). The fibular nerve continues down on the medial side of biceps femoris, winds around the fibular neck and enters the front of the lower leg. There it divides into a deep and a superficial terminal branch. The superficial branch supplies the fibularis muscles and the deep branch enters the extensor compartment; both branches reaches into the dorsal foot. In the thigh, the tibial nerve gives off branches to semitendinosus, semimembranosus, adductor magnus, and the long head of the biceps femoris. The nerve then runs straight down the back of the leg, through the popliteal fossa to supply the ankle flexors on the back of the lower leg and then continues down to supply all the muscles in the sole of the foot. The pudendal (S2-S4) and coccygeal nerves (S5-Co2) supply the muscles of the pelvic floor and the surrounding skin.


title: Human leg

text: The lumbosacral trunk is a communicating branch passing between the sacral and lumbar plexuses containing ventral fibers from L4. The coccygeal nerve, the last spinal nerve, emerges from the sacral hiatus, unites with the ventral rami of the two last sacral nerves, and forms the coccygeal plexus.


title: Human leg

text: The lower leg and ankle need to keep exercised and moving well as they are the base of the whole body. The lower extremities must be strong in order to balance the weight of the rest of the body, and the gastrocnemius muscles take part in much of the blood circulation.


title: Human leg

text: There are a number of exercises that can be done to strengthen the lower leg. For example, in order to activate plantar flexors in the deep plantar flexors one can sit on the floor with the hips flexed, the ankle neutral with knees fully extended as they alternate pushing their foot against a wall or platform. This kind of exercise is beneficial as it hardly causes any fatigue. Another form of isometric exercise for the gastrocnemius would be seated calf raises which can be done with or without equipment. One can be seated at a table with their feet flat on the ground, and then plantar flex both ankles so that the heels are raised off the floor and the gastrocnemius flexed. An alternate movement could be heel drop exercises with the toes being propped on an elevated surface—as an opposing movement this would improve the range of motion. One-legged toe raises for the gastrocnemius muscle can be performed by holding one dumbbell in one hand while using the other for balance, and then standing with one foot on a plate. The next step would be to plantar flex and keep the knee joint straight or flexed slightly. The triceps surae is contracted during this exercise. Stabilization exercises like the BOSU ball squat are also important especially as they assist in the ankles having to adjust to the ball's form in order to balance.


title: Human leg

text: Lower leg injuries are common while running or playing sports. About 10% of all injuries in athletes involve the lower extremities. The majority of athletes sprain their ankles; this is mainly caused by the increased loads onto the feet when they move into the foot down or in an outer ankle position. All areas of the foot, which are the forefoot, midfoot, and rearfoot, absorb various forces while running and this can also lead to injuries. Running and various activities can cause stress fractures, tendinitis, musculotendinous injuries, or any chronic pain to our lower extremities such as the tibia.


title: Human leg

text: Injuries to quadriceps or hamstrings are caused by the constant impact loads to the legs during activities, such as kicking a ball. While doing this type of motion, 85% of that shock is absorbed to the hamstrings; this can cause strain to those muscles.


title: Human leg

text: The most common injuries in running involve the knees and the feet. Various studies have focused on the initial cause of these running related injuries and found that there are many factors that correlate to these injuries. Female distance runners who had a history of stress fracture injuries had higher vertical impact forces than non-injured subjects. The large forces onto the lower legs were associated with gravitational forces, and this correlated with patellofemoral pain or potential knee injuries. Researchers have also found that these running-related injuries affect the feet as well, because runners with previous injuries showed more foot eversion and over-pronation while running than non-injured runners. This causes more loads and forces on the medial side of the foot, causing more stress on the tendons of the foot and ankle. Most of these running injuries are caused by overuse: running longer distances weekly for a long duration is a risk for injuring the lower legs.


title: Human leg

text: Voluntary stretches to the legs, such as the wall stretch, condition the hamstrings and the calf muscle to various movements before vigorously working them. The environment and surroundings, such as uneven terrain, can cause the feet to position in an unnatural way, so wearing shoes that can absorb forces from the ground's impact and allow for stabilizing the feet can prevent some injuries while running as well. Shoes should be structured to allow friction-traction at the shoe surface, space for different foot-strike stresses, and for comfortable, regular arches for the feet.


title: Human leg

text: The chance of damaging our lower extremities will be reduced by having knowledge about some activities associated with lower leg injury and developing a correct form of running, such as not over-pronating the foot or overusing the legs. Preventative measures, such as various stretches, and wearing appropriate footwear, will also reduce injuries.


title: Human leg

text: Lower leg and foot pain management is critical in reducing the progression of further injuries, uncomfortable sensations and limiting alterations while walking and running. Most individuals suffer from various pains in their lower leg and foot due to different factors. Muscle inflammation, strain, tenderness, swelling and muscle tear from muscle overuse or incorrect movement are several conditions often experienced by athletes and the common public during and after high impact physical activities. Therefore, suggested pain management mechanisms are provided to reduce pain and prevent the progression of injury.


title: Human leg

text: A plantar fasciitis foot stretch is one of the recommended methods to reduce pain caused by plantar fasciitis (Figure 1). To do the plantar fascia stretch, while sitting in a chair place the ankle on the opposite knee and hold the toes of the impaired foot, slowly pulling back. The stretch should be held for approximately ten seconds, three times per day.


title: Human leg

text: Several methods can be utilized to help control pain caused by shin splints. Placing ice on the affected area prior to and after running will aid in reducing pain. In addition, wearing orthotic devices including a neoprene sleeve (Figure 2) and wearing appropriate footwear such as a foot arch can help to eliminate the condition. Stretching and strengthening of the anterior tibia or medial tibia by performing exercises of plantar and dorsi flexors such as calf stretch can also help in easing the pain.


title: Human leg

text: There are numerous appropriate approaches to handling pain resulting from Achilles tendinitis. The primary action is to rest. Activities that do not provide additional stress to the affected tendon are also recommended. Wearing orthothics or prostheses will provide cushion and will prevent the affected Achilles tendon from experiencing further stress when walking and performing therapeutic stretches. A few stretch modalities or eccentric exercises such as toe extension and flexion and calf and heel stretch are beneficial in lowering pain with Achilles tendinopathy patients (Figure 4)


title: Human leg

text: Adolescent and adult women in many Western cultures often remove the hair from their legs. Toned, tanned, shaved legs are sometimes perceived as a sign of youthfulness and are often considered attractive in these cultures.


title: Human leg

text: Men generally do not shave their legs in any culture. However, leg-shaving is a generally accepted practice in modeling. It is also fairly common in sports where the hair removal makes the athlete appreciably faster by reducing drag; the most common case of this is competitive swimming.


title: European Council

text: The European Council (informally EUCO) is a collegiate body that defines the overall political direction and priorities of the European Union. It is composed of the heads of state or government of the EU member states, the President of the European Council, and the President of the European Commission. The High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy also takes part in its meetings.


title: European Council

text: Established as an informal summit in 1975, the European Council was formalised as an institution in 2009 upon the commencement of the Treaty of Lisbon. Its current president is Charles Michel, former Prime Minister of Belgium.


title: European Council

text: While the European Council has no legislative power, it is a strategic (and crisis-solving) body that provides the union with general political directions and priorities, and acts as a collective presidency. The European Commission remains the sole initiator of legislation, but the European Council is able to provide an impetus to guide legislative policy.


title: European Council

text: The meetings of the European Council, still commonly referred to as EU summits, are chaired by its president and take place at least twice every six months; usually in the Europa building in Brussels. Decisions of the European Council are taken by consensus, except where the Treaties provide otherwise.


title: European Council

text: The European Council officially gained the status of an EU institution after the Treaty of Lisbon in 2007, distinct from the Council of the European Union (Council of Ministers). Before that, the first summits of EU heads of state or government were held in February and July 1961 (in Paris and Bonn respectively). They were informal summits of the leaders of the European Community, and were started due to then-French President Charles de Gaulle's resentment at the domination of supranational institutions (notably the European Commission) over the integration process, but petered out. The first influential summit held, after the departure of de Gaulle, was the Hague summit of 1969, which reached an agreement on the admittance of the United Kingdom into the Community and initiated foreign policy cooperation (the European Political Cooperation) taking integration beyond economics.


title: European Council

text: The summits were only formalised in the period between 1974 and 1988. At the December summit in Paris in 1974, following a proposal from then-French president Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, it was agreed that more high level, political input was needed following the "empty chair crisis" and economic problems. The inaugural "European Council", as it became known, was held in Dublin on 10 and 11 March 1975 during Ireland's first Presidency of the Council of Ministers. In 1987, it was included in the treaties for the first time (the Single European Act) and had a defined role for the first time in the Maastricht Treaty. At first only a minimum of two meetings per year were required, which resulted in an average of three meetings per year being held for the 1975–1995 period. Since 1996, the number of meetings were required to be minimum four per year. For the latest 2008–2014 period, this minimum was well exceeded, by an average of seven meetings being held per year. The seat of the Council was formalised in 2002, basing it in Brussels. Three types of European Councils exist: Informal, Scheduled and Extraordinary. While the informal meetings are also scheduled 1½ years in advance, they differ from the scheduled ordinary meetings by not ending with official "Council conclusions", as they instead end by more broad political "Statements" on some cherry picked policy matters. The extraordinary meetings always end with official "Council conclusions"—but differs from the scheduled meetings by not being scheduled more than a year in advance, as for example in 2001 when the European Council gathered to lead the European Union's response to the 11 September attacks.


title: European Council

text: Some meetings of the European Council—and, before the European Council was formalised, meetings of the heads of government—are seen by some as turning points in the history of the European Union. For example:


title: European Council

text: As such, the European Council had already existed before it gained the status as an institution of the European Union with the entering into force of the Treaty of Lisbon, but even after it had been mentioned in the treaties (since the Single European Act) it could only take political decisions, not formal legal acts. However, when necessary, the Heads of State or Government could also meet as the Council of Ministers and take formal decisions in that role. Sometimes, this was even compulsory, e.g. Article 214(2) of the Treaty establishing the European Community provided (before it was amended by the Treaty of Lisbon) that ‘the Council, meeting "in the composition of Heads of State or Government" and acting by a qualified majority, shall nominate the person it intends to appoint as President of the Commission’ (emphasis added); the same rule applied in some monetary policy provisions introduced by the Maastricht Treaty (e.g. Article 109j TEC). In that case, what was politically part of a European Council meeting was legally a meeting of the Council of Ministers. When the European Council, already introduced into the treaties by the Single European Act, became an institution by virtue of the Treaty of Lisbon, this was no longer necessary, and the "Council [of the European Union] meeting in the composition of the Heads of State or Government", was replaced in these instances by the European Council now taking formal legally binding decisions in these cases ().


title: European Council

text: The Treaty of Lisbon made the European Council a formal institution distinct from the (ordinary) Council of the EU, and created the present longer term and full-time presidency. As an outgrowth of the Council of the EU, the European Council had previously followed the same Presidency, rotating between each member state. While the Council of the EU retains that system, the European Council established, with no change in powers, a system of appointing an individual (without them being a national leader) for a two-and-a-half-year term—which can be renewed for the same person only once. Following the ratification of the treaty in December 2009, the European Council elected the then-Prime Minister of Belgium Herman Van Rompuy as its first permanent president (resigning from Belgian Prime Minister).


title: European Council

text: The European Council is an official institution of the EU, described in the Lisbon Treaty as a body which ""shall provide the Union with the necessary impetus for its development"". Essentially it defines the EU's policy agenda and has thus been considered to be the motor of European integration. Beyond the need to provide "impetus", the council has developed further roles: to "settle issues outstanding from discussions at a lower level", to lead in foreign policy — acting externally as a "collective Head of State", "formal ratification of important documents" and "involvement in the negotiation of the treaty changes".


title: European Council

text: Since the institution is composed of national leaders, it gathers the executive power of the member states and has thus a great influence in high-profile policy areas as for example foreign policy. It also exercises powers of appointment, such as appointment of its own President, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, and the President of the European Central Bank. It proposes, to the European Parliament, a candidate for President of the European Commission. Moreover, the European Council influences police and justice planning, the composition of the commission, matters relating to the organisation of the rotating Council presidency, the suspension of membership rights, and changing the voting systems through the Passerelle Clause. Although the European Council has no direct legislative power, under the "emergency brake" procedure, a state outvoted in the Council of Ministers may refer contentious legislation to the European Council. However, the state may still be outvoted in the European Council. Hence with powers over the supranational executive of the EU, in addition to its other powers, the European Council has been described by some as the Union's "supreme political authority".


title: European Council

text: The European Council consists of the heads of state or government of the member states, alongside its own President and the Commission President (both non-voting). The meetings used to be regularly attended by the national foreign minister as well, and the Commission President likewise accompanied by another member of the commission. However, since the Treaty of Lisbon, this has been discontinued, as the size of the body had become somewhat large following successive accessions of new Member States to the Union.


title: European Council

text: Meetings can also include other invitees, such as the President of the European Central Bank, as required. The Secretary-General of the Council attends, and is responsible for organisational matters, including minutes. The President of the European Parliament also attends to give an opening speech outlining the European Parliament's position before talks begin.


title: European Council

text: Additionally, the negotiations involve a large number of other people working behind the scenes. Most of those people, however, are not allowed to the conference room, except for two delegates per state to relay messages. At the push of a button members can also call for advice from a Permanent Representative via the "Antici Group" in an adjacent room. The group is composed of diplomats and assistants who convey information and requests. Interpreters are also required for meetings as members are permitted to speak in their own languages.


title: European Council

text: As the composition is not precisely defined, some states which have a considerable division of executive power can find it difficult to decide who should attend the meetings. While an MEP, Alexander Stubb argued that there was no need for the President of Finland to attend Council meetings with or instead of the Prime Minister of Finland (who was head of European foreign policy). In 2008, having become Finnish Foreign Minister, Stubb was forced out of the Finnish delegation to the emergency council meeting on the Georgian crisis because the President wanted to attend the high-profile summit as well as the Prime Minister (only two people from each country could attend the meetings). This was despite Stubb being Chair-in-Office of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe at the time which was heavily involved in the crisis. Problems also occurred in Poland where the President of Poland and the Prime Minister of Poland were of different parties and had a different foreign policy response to the crisis. A similar situation arose in Romania between President Traian Băsescu and Prime Minister Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu in 2007–2008 and again in 2012 with Prime Minister Victor Ponta, who both opposed the president.


title: European Council

text: A number of ad hoc meetings of Heads of State or Government of the Euro area countries were held in 2010 and 2011 to discuss the Sovereign Debt crisis. It was agreed in October 2011 that they should meet regularly twice a year (with extra meetings if needed). This will normally be at the end of a European Council meeting and according to the same format (chaired by the President of the European Council and including the President of the commission), but usually restricted to the (currently 19) Heads of State or Government of countries whose currency is the euro.


title: European Council

text: The President of the European Council is elected by the European Council by a qualified majority for a once-renewable term of two and a half years. The President must report to the European Parliament after each European Council meeting. The post was created by the Treaty of Lisbon and was subject to a debate over its exact role. Prior to Lisbon, the Presidency rotated in accordance with the Presidency of the Council of the European Union. The role of that President-in-Office was in no sense (other than protocol) equivalent to an office of a head of state, merely a "primus inter pares" (first among equals) role among other European heads of government. The President-in-Office was primarily responsible for preparing and chairing the Council meetings, and had no executive powers other than the task of representing the Union externally. Now the leader of the Council Presidency country can still act as president when the permanent president is absent.


title: European Council

text: Almost all members of the European Council are members of a political party at national level, and most of these are also members of a political party at European level or other alliances such as Renew Europe. These frequently hold pre-meetings of their European Council members, prior to its meetings. However, the European Council is composed to represent the EU's states rather than political alliances and decisions are generally made on these lines, though ideological alignment can colour their political agreements and their choice of appointments (such as their president).


title: European Council

text: The charts below outline the number of leaders affiliated to each alliance and their total voting weight. The map indicates the alignment of each individual country.


title: European Council

text: The European Council is required by Article 15.3 TEU to meet at least twice every six months, but convenes more frequently in practice. Despite efforts to contain business, meetings typically last for at least two days, and run long into the night.


title: European Council

text: Until 2002, the venue for European Council summits was the member state that held the rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union. However, European leaders agreed during ratification of the Nice Treaty to forego this arrangement at such a time as the total membership of the European Union surpassed 18 member states. An advanced implementation of this agreement occurred in 2002, with certain states agreeing to waive their right to host meetings, favouring Brussels as the location. Following the growth of the EU to 25 member states, with the 2004 enlargement, all subsequent official summits of the European Council have been in Brussels, with the exception of punctuated ad hoc meetings, such as the 2017 informal European Council in Malta. The logistical, environmental, financial and security arrangements of hosting large summits are usually cited as the primary factors in the decision by EU leaders to move towards a permanent seat for the European Council. Additionally, some scholars argue that the move, when coupled with the formalisation of the European Council in the Lisbon Treaty, represents an institutionalisation of an ad hoc EU organ that had its origins in Luxembourg compromise, with national leaders reasserting their dominance as the EU's "supreme political authority".


title: European Council

text: Originally, both the European Council and the Council of the European Union utilised the Justus Lipsius building as their Brussels venue. In order to make room for additional meeting space a number of renovations were made, including the conversion of an underground carpark into additional press briefing rooms. However, in 2004 leaders decided the logistical problems created by the outdated facilities warranted the construction of a new purpose built seat able to cope with the nearly 6,000 meetings, working groups, and summits per year. This resulted in the Europa building, which opened its doors in 2017. The focal point of the new building, the distinctive multi-storey "lantern-shaped" structure in which the main meeting room is located, is utilised in both the European Council's and Council of the European Union's official logos.


title: Toyota GR Yaris

text: The is a performance-oriented variant of the XP210 series Yaris supermini/subcompact hatchback, in a segment commonly called the hot hatch. The vehicle is manufactured by Toyota with assistance from the company's Gazoo Racing (GR) division and being produced to meet World Rally Championship (WRC) homologation rules.


title: Toyota GR Yaris

text: When the XP210 Yaris hatchback was developed, Toyota decided to only offer it in a five-door bodywork, as three-door hatchbacks had been diminishing in popularity. While the decision made financial sense, it posed a problem for Toyota's WRC team, which felt only a three-door hatch was suitable for competition.


title: Toyota GR Yaris

text: Despite the expense of developing a limited-production performance model, Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda felt strongly that it was important for the company to still be represented at the WRC, so he authorised the development of the GR Yaris. Toyoda would later say that he saw the GR Yaris as a passion project of his, stemming from a desire for the automaker to develop and build a sports car purely of its own design, unlike the 86 (jointly developed with and built by Subaru) or the GR Supra (jointly developed with BMW and built by Magna Steyr).


title: Toyota GR Yaris

text: To meet the WRC's homologation rules Toyota would need to produce at least 2,500 units of the GR Yaris in a continuous 12-month period, although this is claimed to be 25,000 by Toyota. Rally cars homologated for the WRC are required to use the same basic bodyshell as a production car and the standard XP210 series Yaris is only available with a five-door body which Toyota and Toyoda felt wasn't appropriate. The Gazoo Racing WRT team, led by team principal and 4-time WRC champion Tommi Mäkinen, was heavily involved in the design. The challenge was to build a car that was capable of being equipped to race at WRC events, but also suitable for daily driving.


title: Toyota GR Yaris

text: Working together with the rally team, the Gazoo Racing division built prototypes and development mules by heavily modifying production Yaris vehicles that were then reverse-engineered into a car that would work for the average customer. Both Toyoda and Mäkinen spent time test driving these development mules and pre-production cars in the snow, on gravel and on the street.


title: Toyota GR Yaris

text: One of the major changes came when the team decided they wanted the three-door hatchback to have four-wheel drive, a wider rear track and a double wishbone suspension layout to handle significantly increased torque. The design changes required that the GR Yaris be built on a combination between the front end of the standard Yaris' GA-B architecture with the rear of the GA-C platform used by the Corolla, among other Toyota products. To save weight, the GR Yaris also uses aluminium for the front bonnet (hood), boot (trunk) lid and door panels. It also uses carbon fibre-reinforced plastic for its roof panel which was formed using the sheet molding compound method. Ultimately, chief engineer Naohiko Saito said he was able to accommodate 90 percent of design requests made by Mäkinen and the WRC team.


title: Toyota GR Yaris

text: The production car is powered by a Gazoo Racing-built, turbocharged and direct/port-injected 1.6-litre "G16E-GTS" three-cylinder engine that produces and of torque, varying due to emissions regulations in certain markets. The engine is mated to a 6-speed "V16"-series intelligent manual transmission ("iMT") and "GR-Four" permanent four-wheel drive system. It has a claimed acceleration in 5.2–5.5 seconds and an electronically limited top speed of .


title: Toyota GR Yaris

text: The GR Yaris was unveiled at the 2020 Tokyo Auto Salon, and is sold in Japan, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, the Philippines, Mexico, Argentina and Taiwan. The GR Yaris has not been offered in the United States or Canada; analysts attribute this to its low probable sales volume, the discontinuation of the standard Yaris in these markets, and a lack of commonality with the most recent Yaris sold in the region, which was a rebadged and slightly restyled Mazda2. Both regions received the larger, five-door GR Corolla instead.


title: Toyota GR Yaris

text: Exclusive for the Japanese market, Toyota offers an entry-level, front-wheel drive GR Yaris RS. As it lacks the four-wheel drive system, the "GR-Four" emblem is eliminated, but otherwise the exterior bodywork of the RS is identical to the standard RZ trim level. Under the bonnet, the GR-built engine is replaced with a more regular Dynamic Force engine, the three-cylinder, naturally-aspirated, 1.5-litre, "M15A-FKS", which is mated to the "K120" "Direct Shift" continuously variable transmission (CVT). The Direct Shift CVT includes a physical first gear (known as a "launch gear") and nine additional simulated gears, for a total of ten. The RS also uses the braking system found in the regular Yaris models. However, the rear double wishbone suspension system is retained. Weighing , it is lighter than the RZ trim and the international GR Yaris model, which weighs .


title: Toyota GR Yaris

text: The GRMN Yaris ("GRMN" for "Gazoo Racing, tuned by the Meister of the Nürburgring") is a limited-production (500 units) variant based on the GR Yaris RZ with:


title: Toyota GR Yaris

text: Apart from the regular GRMN Yaris, "Circuit Package" and "Rally Package" options were also available. The Circuit Package includes BBS GRMN bespoke 18-inch wheels, 18-inch brakes, Bilstein shock absorbers with adjustable damping force, carbon (twill weave CFRP) rear spoiler, side skirt and lip spoiler, while the Rally Package includes GR shock absorbers and short stabilizer link set, GR under guard set and GR roll bar (with side bar). Rally Package parts could be chosen separately.


title: Toyota GR Yaris

text: The vehicle was unveiled at the 2022 Tokyo Auto Salon. Sales will begin in the first quarter of 2022, with preorder beginning on 14 January 2022.


title: Toyota GR Yaris

text: The GR Yaris served as the basis for the GR Yaris Rally1 car that made its debut in 2022 World Rally Championship season. It will also made its Rally2 debut in 2024.


title: Toyota GR Yaris

text: In January 2021, the GR Yaris was named Hot Hatch of the Year by "What Car?" magazine. "What Car?" awarded the GR Yaris five stars out of five in its review of the car.


title: Toyota GR Yaris

text: The GR Yaris went into production in September 2020 on a dedicated assembly line in the Motomachi plant, that Toyota calls the "GR Factory" and is staffed by master craftsman team members.


title: Toyota GR Yaris

text: On 30 July 2021, the production of GR Yaris would be extended for two years due to strong demand for the vehicle.


title: Joanna Angel

text: Joanna Mostov (born 1980), known professionally as Joanna Angel, is an American pornographic and mainstream actress, director, and writer of adult films. She founded the website "BurningAngel.com" in April 2002 with her roommate Mitch Fontaine, and has been credited with helping the growth of the alt porn genre. Launched as a response to websites such as "SuicideGirls", the website featured alternative performers acting in exclusively hardcore scenes with a stronger focus on a punk aesthetic.


title: Joanna Angel

text: Angel was born in Brooklyn, New York, to an Israeli mother and an American father. She was raised in River Edge in Bergen County, New Jersey, where she attended Cherry Hill Elementary School and graduated from River Dell Regional High School in 1998. After graduating, she enrolled in Rutgers University, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature with a minor in Film Studies.


title: Joanna Angel

text: According to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Angel is believed to be the first person in the pornography industry to have been raised in Orthodox Judaism.


title: Joanna Angel

text: She worked in a kosher fast food restaurant in Teaneck during high school, then at an Applebee's and another restaurant called Happy's Health Grille during college.


title: Joanna Angel

text: She eventually relocated to the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, New York, and with Mitch Fontaine created the website "BurningAngel.com".


title: Joanna Angel

text: Angel is a former model for "Suicide Girls", a softcore pornography website. In her early 20s she founded the "indie-punk-porn" site "BurningAngel.com", featuring interviews and stories of sex with band members, along with nude photographs. Drawing inspiration from a live sex performance by porn actress Nina Hartley, Angel later began making hardcore movies for the site.


title: Joanna Angel

text: According to "Encyclopedia of the Zombie", Angel is "regarded as a major influence in the mainstreaming of alt porn", and is credited with making the genre financially viable. She has produced and performed in several zombie-themed hardcore films: "Re-Penetrator" (2005), "Dong of the Dead" (2009), "Evil Head" (2012), and "" (2013). She said in a 2006 interview, "I think [alt porn is] a movement. I think I've started something."


title: Joanna Angel

text: Angel has written, produced, directed and starred in films available exclusively through "BurningAngel", as well as appearing in more traditionally distributed adult films. She was under an exclusive contract with VCA Pictures, which expired in March 2007, and was, at one time, represented by the adult talent agency Bad Ass Models.


title: Joanna Angel

text: Following the success of "BurningAngel", Angel has been featured in numerous magazines and newspapers, including "The New York Times".


title: Joanna Angel

text: Angel briefly wrote a monthly sex advice column for "Spin". She also contributed a chapter to the book "Naked Ambition", edited by Carly Milne.


title: Joanna Angel

text: In 2010, Angel appeared in a public service announcement for the Free Speech Coalition on the topic of Internet copyright infringement of adult content, directed by Michael Whiteacre. The spot, entitled the "FSC All-Star Anti-Piracy PSA", found her in the company of adult performers such as Lisa Ann, Julie Meadows, Kimberly Kane, Ron Jeremy and Wicked Pictures contract stars, Alektra Blue and Kaylani Lei.


title: Joanna Angel

text: In 2011, Angel was named by CNBC as one of the 12 most popular stars in porn. CNBC noted that she owns her own studio and that the "punk look" that she and her other actors share has created a new genre in the porn industry, called alt porn. Also, in 2011, Angel made a cameo on the Adult Swim show "Childrens Hospital", in the season three episode "Night Shift." She played herself as a porn star and family friend of Rob Corddry's character Dr. Blake.


title: Joanna Angel

text: Angel sometimes appears on Cracked.com as a friend of the columnists and appears in the music video for "Sound Wave Superior" by Emmure.


title: Joanna Angel

text: In 2013, Angel appeared in the independent film "Scrapper", starring Michael Beach and Aidan Gillen, along with the ensemble cast musical comedy "Skum Rocks!" In 2014, she had roles in the crime drama "The Owl in Echo Park" and the Kevin Nealon comedy series "Racquetball". She also appeared in the documentary film "Doc of the Dead", which features Interviews with Max Brooks, Stuart Gordon, Jacqui Holland, Robert Kirkman, Greg Nicotero and Judith O'Dea.


title: Joanna Angel

text: Angel dated fellow porn star James Deen for six years, between 2005 and 2011. On December 2, 2015, she appeared on "The Jason Ellis Show" to give more details about her "violent and scary" six-year relationship with Deen.


title: Joanna Angel

text: Angel is a Democrat. In 2015, she endorsed Bernie Sanders for President of the United States in the Democratic primaries for 2016 U.S. presidential election.


title: Joanna Angel

text: Angel was nominated in 2006 for the AVN Awards for both Best New Starlet and Best Actress, and although she won neither, she did take home the award for "Most Outrageous Sex Scene" for her appearance in "Re-Penetrator". She was nominated for the 2009 AVN Award for "The Jenna Jameson Crossover Star of the Year".


title: Hibiscus rosa-sinensis

text: Hibiscus rosa-sinensis, known colloquially as Chinese hibiscus, China rose, Hawaiian hibiscus, rose mallow and shoeblack plant, is a species of tropical hibiscus, a flowering plant in the Hibisceae tribe of the family Malvaceae. It is widely cultivated as an ornamental plant in the tropics and subtropics, but its native range is Vanuatu.


title: Hibiscus rosa-sinensis

text: "Hibiscus rosa-sinensis" is a bushy, evergreen shrub or small tree growing tall and wide. The plant has a branched taproot. Its stem is aerial, erect, green, cylindrical, and branched.


title: Hibiscus rosa-sinensis

text: Its leaves are simple and petiolate, with alternate "phyllotaxy". The leaf shape is ovate, the tip is acute, and the margin is serrated. "Venation" is unicostate reticulate, meaning the leaves' veins are branched or divergent. Its surface is glossy. Free lateral stipules are present.


title: Hibiscus rosa-sinensis

text: Its flowers bloom in summer and autumn. They are solitary (axillary) and symmetrical. They are typically red, with five petals in diameter, with prominent orange-tipped red anthers. Cultivars and hybrids have flowers in a variety of colors as well as red: white, pink, orange, peach, yellow, blue, and purple. Some plants have double flowers.


title: Hibiscus rosa-sinensis

text: At the bottom of every hibiscus bud is the calyx, which is green in color. The pointed ends of the calyx are called the sepals. When the hibiscus begins to bloom, the flower's petals begin to grow.


title: Hibiscus rosa-sinensis

text: Each hibiscus flower has both male and female parts. The ovary and other female parts of the flower lie in the main structure of the hibiscus: the pistil, which is long and tubular. The five "hairy" spots at the top of the pistil make up the stigma, which is where pollen is collected. In the middle of the pistil is the style, which is the tube down which pollen travels to the ovary. The ovary lies at the bottom of the blossom, and each hibiscus has only one superior ovary. The male part of the flower, called the stamen, consists of stem-like filaments and anthers. Each filament ends with the pollen-producing anther.


title: Hibiscus rosa-sinensis

text: "Hibiscus rosa-sinensis" was first described in 1753 by Carl Linnaeus in "Species Plantarum". The specific epithet "rosa-sinensis" literally means "rose of China", although the plant is not closely related to true roses, nor is it from China. The genus "Hibiscus" is in the tribe Hibisceae and the subfamily Malvoideae of the family Malvaceae.


title: Hibiscus rosa-sinensis

text: Despite its size and colorful hues which are typically attractive to nectarivore birds, the flowers of "Hibiscus rosa-sinensis" are not visited regularly by hummingbirds when grown in the Neotropics. Generalist species, like the sapphire-spangled emerald ("Amazilia lactea)," or long-billed species, like the stripe-breasted starthroat ("Heliomaster squamosus") are occasionally seen to visit the flowers. In the subtropical and temperate Americas, hummingbirds are regularly attracted to hibiscus.


title: Hibiscus rosa-sinensis

text: The endangered "Papilio homerus" butterfly, the largest in the western hemisphere, is known to feed on the nectar of the "Hibiscus rosa-sinensis".


title: Hibiscus rosa-sinensis

text: "Hibiscus rosa-sinensis" is one of many plant species with a genetic characteristic known as polyploidy, a condition in which the species has more than two complete sets of chromosomes. A result of polyploidy is that the phenotype of a plant's offspring may be quite different from the parent plant, or indeed any ancestor, essentially allowing possibly random expression of any (or all) of the characteristics of previous generations. Because of this characteristic, "H. rosa-sinensis" has become popular with hobbyists who cross and recross varieties, creating new varieties. Competitions are held to exhibit and judge the many resulting new seedlings and often strikingly unique flowers.


title: Hibiscus rosa-sinensis

text: The flowers of "Hibiscus rosa-sinensis" are edible and are used in salads in the Pacific Islands. The flower is used as an accessory, particularly as a hairpiece. It is also used to shine shoes in certain parts of India, hence the common name "shoeblack plant". In Indonesia and Malaysia, these flowers are called "kembang sepatu" or "bunga sepatu", which literally means "shoe flower". The flower can also be used as a pH indicator; when used, the flower turns acidic solutions to a dark pink or magenta color and turns basic solutions to green. Red hibiscus flowers are also used for worship; in Hinduism, they are used for the worship of Devi, and in the Bengal area of eastern India, they are used to worship Kali. The hibiscus also has an important part in tantra. In several countries the flowers are dried to use in a beverage, usually tea.


title: Hibiscus rosa-sinensis

text: "Hibiscus rosa-sinensis" is considered to have a number of medical uses in Chinese herbology. Traditional uses in China have been to make a black shoe-polish from its flower petals, or to make a woman's black hair dye. The flowers are also used in parts of China to color various intoxicating liquors. The plant may have some potential in cosmetic skin care; for example, an extract from the flowers of "Hibiscus rosa-sinensis" has been shown to function as an anti-solar agent by absorbing ultraviolet radiation.


title: Hibiscus rosa-sinensis

text: "Hibiscus rosa-sinensis" is widely grown as an ornamental plant throughout the tropics and subtropics. As it does not tolerate temperatures below , in temperate regions it is best grown under glass. Plants grown in containers may be placed outside during the summer months and moved into shelter during the winter months.


title: Hibiscus rosa-sinensis

text: Numerous cultivars exist, with flower colors ranging from white through yellow and orange to scarlet and shades of pink, with both single and double sets of petals. The cultivar 'Cooperi' has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.


title: Hibiscus rosa-sinensis

text: "Hibiscus rosa-sinensis" is the national flower of Malaysia, called "bunga raya" in Malay. This can be translated in a number of ways, including "great flower" or "celebratory flower." Introduced into the Malay Peninsula in the 12th century, it was nominated as the national flower in the year 1958 by the Ministry of Agriculture amongst a few other flowers, namely ylang ylang, jasmine, lotus, rose, magnolia, and medlar. On July 28, 1960, it was declared by the government of Malaysia that "Hibiscus rosa-sinensis" would be the national flower. The red of the petals symbolizes the courage, life, and rapid growth of the Malaysian people, and the five petals represent the five "Rukun Negara" of Malaysia. The flower can be found imprinted on the notes and coins of the Malaysian ringgit.


title: Hibiscus rosa-sinensis

text: "Hibiscus rosa-sinensis" is an unofficial national flower in Haiti, where it has been used as a symbol for the promotion of tourism. The flower is also the symbol of the Fusion of Haitian Social Democrats political party. It is known in Haitian Creole language as "choeblack" or "rose kayenn".


title: Hibiscus rosa-sinensis

text: The yellow variety of the hibiscus is the official flower of Hawaiʻi, where it is often hybridized and is worn ornamentally in the hair and in lei. In Hawaiian, hibiscus is called "aloalo."


title: Hibiscus rosa-sinensis

text: Cultivars with flowers of many colours are used as ornamental plants. Some have double petals or have differently shaped petals.


title: Shadow banning

text: Shadow banning, also called stealth banning, hellbanning, ghost banning and comment ghosting, is the practice of blocking or partially blocking a user or the user's content from some areas of an online community in such a way that the ban is not readily apparent to the user, regardless of whether the action is taken by an individual or an algorithm. For example, shadow-banned comments posted to a blog or media website will not be visible to other users accessing the site.


title: Shadow banning

text: The phrase "shadow banning" has a colloquial history and has undergone some usage evolution. It originally applied to a deceptive sort of account suspension on web forums, where a person would appear to be able to post while actually having all of their content hidden from other users. More recently, the term has come to apply to alternative measures, particularly visibility measures like delisting and downranking.


title: Shadow banning

text: By partly concealing, or making a user's contributions invisible or less prominent to other members of the service, the hope may be that in the absence of reactions to their comments, the problematic or otherwise out-of-favour user will become bored or frustrated and leave the site, and that spammers and trolls will be discouraged to continue their unwanted behavior or create new accounts.


title: Shadow banning

text: The term "shadow ban" is believed to have originated with moderators on the website Something Awful, although the feature was only used briefly and sparsely.


title: Shadow banning

text: In the mid-1980s, BBS forums including "Citadel" BBS software had a "twit bit" for problematic users which, when enabled, would limit the user's access while still allowing them to read public discussions; however, any messages posted by that "twit" would not be visible to the other members of that group.


title: Shadow banning

text: Michael Pryor of Fog Creek Software described stealth banning for online forums in 2006, saying how such a system was in place in the project management system FogBugz, "to solve the problem of how do you get the person to go away and leave you alone". As well as preventing problem users from engaging in flame wars, the system also discouraged spammers, who if they returned to the site would be under the false impression that their spam was still in place. "The Verge" describes it as "one of the oldest moderation tricks in the book", noting that early versions of vBulletin had a global ignore list known as "Tachy goes to Coventry", as in the British expression "to send someone to Coventry", meaning to ignore them and pretend they do not exist.


title: Shadow banning

text: Early on, Reddit implemented a similar feature, initially designed to address spam accounts. In 2015, Reddit added an account suspension feature.


title: Shadow banning

text: WeChat was found in 2016 to have banned, without notice, posts and messages that contain certain keywords.


title: Shadow banning

text: A study of tweets written in a one-year period during 2014 and 2015 found that over a quarter million tweets had been censored in Turkey via shadow banning. Twitter was also found, in 2015, to have shadowbanned tweets containing leaked documents in the US.


title: Shadow banning

text: In 2017 the phenomenon was noticed on Instagram, with posts which included specific hashtags not showing up when those hashtags were used in searches.


title: Shadow banning

text: By 2021, Twitch implemented a shadow ban system where in the event that an account is directly banned from a channel, any alternate accounts created in the same IP would be able to send messages in the stream, although they would not be visible for any other users.


title: Shadow banning

text: "Shadow banning" became popularized in 2018 as a conspiracy theory when Twitter shadow-banned Republicans. In late July 2018, "Vice News" found that several supporters of the US Republican Party no longer appeared in the auto-populated drop-down search menu on Twitter, thus limiting their visibility when being searched for; "Vice News" alleged that this was a case of shadow-banning. After the story, some conservatives accused Twitter of enacting a shadowban on Republican accounts, a claim which Twitter denied. However, some accounts that were not overtly political or conservative apparently had the same algorithm applied to them. Numerous news outlets, including "The New York Times", "The Guardian", "Buzzfeed News", Engadget and "New York" magazine, disputed the "Vice News" story. In a blog post, Twitter said that the use of the phrase "shadow banning" was inaccurate, as the tweets were still visible by navigating to the home page of the relevant account. In the blog post, Twitter claims it doesn't shadow ban by using "the old, narrow, and classical" definition of shadow banning. Later, Twitter appeared to have adjusted its platform to no longer limit the visibility of some accounts. In a research study that examined more than 2.5 million Twitter profiles, it was discovered that almost one in 40 had been shadowbanned by having their replies hidden or having their handles hidden in searches.


title: Shadow banning

text: On December 8, 2022, the second thread of the Twitter Files—a series of Twitter threads based on internal Twitter, Inc. documents shared by owner Elon Musk with independent journalists Matt Taibbi and Bari Weiss—addressed a practice referred to as "visibility filtering" by previous Twitter management. The functionality included tools allowing accounts to tagged as "Do not amplify", and under "blacklists" that reduce their prominence in search results and trending topics. It was also revealed that certain accounts, such as the far-right Libs of TikTok, had been given a warning stating that decisions regarding them should only be made by Twitter's Site Integrity Policy, Policy Escalation Support (SIP–PES) team—which consists primarily of high-ranking officials. The functions were given as examples of alleged "shadow banning" by Musk and other critics, although these actions do not result in the content of the affected accounts being completely inaccessible to other users.


title: Shadow banning

text: Craigslist has also been known to "ghost" a user's individual ads, whereby the poster gets a confirmation email and may view the ad in their account, but the ad fails to show up in the appropriate category page.


title: Shadow banning

text: A form of conspiracy theory has become popular in which a social media content creator suggests that their content has been intentionally suppressed by a platform which claims not to engage in shadow


title: Shadow banning

text: banning. Platforms frequently targeted by these accusations include Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram.


title: Shadow banning

text: To explain why users may come to believe they are subject to "shadow bans" even when they are not, Elaine Moore of the "Financial Times" writes:


title: Hat-trick

text: A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three.


title: Hat-trick

text: The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wickets with three consecutive deliveries. Fans held a collection for Stephenson, and presented him with a hat bought with the proceeds. The term was used in print for the first time in 1865 in the "Chelmsford Chronicle". The term was eventually adopted by many other sports including hockey, association football, Formula 1 racing, rugby, and water polo.


title: Hat-trick

text: A hat-trick occurs in association football when a player scores three goals (not necessarily consecutive) in a single game; whereas scoring two goals (in a single match) is called a brace. In common with other official record-keeping rules, all goals scored during the regulation 90 minutes, plus extra time if required, are counted but goals in a penalty shootout are excluded from the tally. The fastest recorded time to score a hat-trick is 70 seconds, a record set by Alex Torr in a Sunday league game in 2013. The previous record of 90 seconds was held by Tommy Ross playing for Ross County against Nairn County on 28 November 1964. The record of the youngest player ever to score a hat-trick was set by Ntinos Pontikas in 1996, while Pelé in 1958 became the youngest to achieve a treble in the World Cup.


title: Hat-trick

text: The first hat-trick achieved in an international game was by Scottish player John McDougall, against England on 2 March 1878. American player Bert Patenaude scored the first hat-trick in the FIFA World Cup, against Paraguay in the inaugural event in 1930. Three hat-tricks have been scored in a World Cup final: by Geoff Hurst for England in the 1966 final against West Germany, by Kylian Mbappé for France in the 2022 final against Argentina, and by Carli Lloyd for the USA against Japan in the 2015 Women's World Cup final. Lloyd's was, at 16 minutes, the fastest from kickoff in any World Cup match. However, the fastest World Cup hat-trick, as measured by time between goals, belongs to Fabienne Humm of Switzerland, who scored in the 47th, 49th and 52nd minutes against Ecuador in the 2015 group stage.


title: Hat-trick

text: Football has also extended the term, with a perfect hat-trick being when a player scores one right-footed goal, one left-footed goal and one headed goal within one match. In Germany and Austria, the term "() Hattrick" (flawless hat-trick) refers to when a player scores three goals in a row in one half without the half-time break or a goal scored by another player interrupting the performance.


title: Hat-trick

text: In the past, the term was occasionally used to describe when a player struck out three times in a baseball game, and the term "golden sombrero" was more commonly used when a player struck out four times in a game.


title: Hat-trick

text: In recent years, hat trick has been more often used to describe when a player hits three home runs in a game.


title: Hat-trick

text: For example, on 29 August 2015, Toronto Blue Jays fans celebrated Edwin Encarnación's third home run of the game by throwing hats onto the field, similar to the tradition in ice hockey.


title: Hat-trick

text: Eoin Liston scored a second-half hat-trick in the 1978 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final.


title: Hat-trick

text: Michael Quinlivan scored a second-half hat-trick against Armagh in the final game of the 2017 National Football League to secure promotion to Division 2 for Tipperary.


title: Hat-trick

text: Jack McCaffrey's total of 1–3 in the 2019 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final (drawn game) involved a "classic hat-trick" of points, sent over the bar with fist and both feet.


title: Hat-trick

text: Cillian O'Connor's four goals (accompanied by nine points) in the 2020 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship semi-final at Croke Park broke the 5–3 record set by Johnny Joyce of Dublin in 1960 and matched with 3–9 by Rory Gallagher of Fermanagh in 2002 for the highest individual scorer in any championship football match.


title: Hat-trick

text: David Clifford scored a hat-trick against Galway in the opening round of the 2021 National Football League.


title: Hat-trick

text: In field hockey and ice hockey, a hat trick occurs when a player scores three goals in a single game. A hat trick in ice hockey, as it is known in its current form, culminates with fans throwing hats onto the ice from the stands. The tradition is said to have begun among fans in the National Hockey League around the 1950s,


title: Hat-trick

text: with several conflicting legends from the Canadian cities of Toronto, Montreal, and Guelph of various hatmakers offering a free hat to players who scored a hat trick.


title: Hat-trick

text: In 1944 the "Winnipeg Free Press" (29 November 1944, p. 14) reported that "hockey's traditional ‘hat-trick’ – the feat of scoring three goals in a single game – will receive official recognition from the Amateur Hockey Association" of the US by awarding a small silver derby hat to players to mark the accomplishment.


title: Hat-trick

text: Wayne Gretzky holds the NHL record for the most hat tricks in a career with 50. Harry Hyland scored the league's first hat trick, in the league's first game on 18 December 1917, in which Hyland's Montreal Wanderers defeated the Toronto Arenas 10–9.


title: Hat-trick

text: In ice hockey a "natural hat trick" occurs when a player scores three consecutive goals, uninterrupted by any other player scoring for either team. The NHL record for the fastest natural hat trick is 21 seconds, set by Bill Mosienko in 1952 for the Chicago Blackhawks.


title: Hat-trick

text: A Gordie Howe hat trick is a tongue-in-cheek play on the feat. It is achieved by scoring a goal, getting an assist, and getting into a fight, all in the same game. Namesake Gordie Howe himself only recorded two in his NHL career. Rick Tocchet accomplished the feat 18 times in his career, the most in NHL history.


title: Hat-trick

text: In October 1995, Florida Panthers captain Scott Mellanby scored a rat trick, the term coined by teammate John Vanbiesbrouck. Prior to the game, Mellanby killed a rat in the Panthers' locker room with his hockey stick, and proceeded to score a pair of goals later that night. When Mellanby scored a hat trick in a later game, some Florida fans threw plastic rats onto the ice, a tradition that continued for all Panthers' goals throughout the 1996 playoffs. Due to the resulting game delays caused by the necessary clean-up of the plastic rats, the league eventually banned the activity and modified Rule 63 to impose a minor penalty against the home team for a violation. The more traditional practice of fans throwing hats onto the ice following genuine hat tricks remains exempt from this penalty.


title: Hat-trick

text: In lacrosse, like other sports with goal scoring, hat tricks occur when a player scores three goals in one game. Fans rarely throw hats onto the playing surface to acknowledge them due to their frequent occurrences in a game. When a player scores six goals in one game, it is referred to as a sock trick.


title: Hat-trick

text: In motor racing, three successive race wins, winning the same event three times in a row, or securing pole position, fastest lap and race victory in one event may all be referred to as a hat-trick.


title: Hat-trick

text: In both codes of rugby football (rugby union and rugby league) a hat-trick is when a player scores three or more tries in a game. In rugby union, a related concept is that of a "full house" (scoring a try, conversion, penalty goal, and drop goal) in a single game. When a player scored two tries, this is often referred to as a "brace". As with association football, it is common to award the match ball to a player who scores a hat-trick.


title: Hat-trick

text: Shaun Johnson scored a hat-trick in under 6 minutes against the Canberra Raiders in 2013, and in the 2017 Rugby League World Cup, Valentine Holmes scored a double hat-trick (6 tries) against Fiji.


title: Ferencvárosi TC

text: Ferencvárosi Torna Club, known as Ferencváros (), Fradi, or simply FTC, is a professional football club based in Ferencváros, Budapest, Hungary, that competes in the Nemzeti Bajnokság I, the top flight of Hungarian football. Ferencváros was founded in 1899 by Ferenc Springer and a group of local residents of Budapest's ninth district, Ferencváros. Ferencváros is best known internationally for winning the 1964–65 edition of the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup after defeating Juventus 1–0 in Turin in the final. Ferencváros also reached the final in the same competition in 1968, when they lost to Leeds United, as well as the final in the 1974–75 season of the European Cup Winners' Cup, losing to Dynamo Kyiv.


title: Ferencvárosi TC

text: The best-known part of the club is the well-supported men's football team – the most popular team in the country. The parent multisport club Ferencvárosi TC divisions include women's football, women's handball, men's futsal, men's ice hockey, men's handball, men's water polo, cycling, gymnastics, athletics, wrestling, curling and swimming teams, some of which are highly successful.


title: Ferencvárosi TC

text: The club colours are green and white, and the club's mascot is a green eagle, hence another of the club's nicknames, "The Green Eagles".


title: Ferencvárosi TC

text: On 3 May 1899, Ferencvárosi TC was founded by citizens of the 9th district of Budapest. Ferencváros have played in the Nemzeti Bajnokság I since its inception in 1901, except for three seasons between 2006 and 2009. The club had financial problems therefore in 2006 the Hungarian Football Federation (MLSZ) withdrew the club's licence but this withdrawal was eventual deemed unauthorized. Following this, Fradi were promoted back to the first division in 2009.


title: Ferencvárosi TC

text: Ferencváros are the most successful Hungarian team both domestically and internationally. They won the 1964–65 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup and have also won the Nemzeti Bajnokság I 33 times and the Magyar Kupa 24 times.


title: Ferencvárosi TC

text: They qualified for the renewed Champions League, the first Hungarian Club to do so, in the 1995–1996 season. Since then, the club have also taken part in the 2004–05 UEFA Cup, 2019–20 Europa League, 2020–21 Champions League, and 2021–22 Europa League group stages.


title: Ferencvárosi TC

text: The first stadium of the club started being built in the autumn of 1910. On 12 February 1911, Ferencváros played their first match against Budapest rival MTK Budapest which was won by the club. The starting line-up consisted of Fritz, Rumbold, Magnlitz, Weinber, Bródy, Payer, Szeitler, Weisz, Koródy, Schlosser, Borbás. The first stadium could host 40,000 spectators.


title: Ferencvárosi TC

text: In 1971 the stands were demolished and a new stadium began to be built. The new stadium was inaugurated on the 75th anniversary of the club. On 19 May 1974, the first match was played against Vasas. The new stadium could host 29,505 spectators (including 10,771 seats and 18,734 standing). In the 1990s the stadium was redesigned to meet the UEFA requirements therefore its capacity was reduced to 18,100. When Ferencváros qualified for the 1995–96 UEFA Champions League group stage, a new journalist stand was built over the main stand.


title: Ferencvárosi TC

text: On 21 December 2007, the stadium's name was changed from Üllői úti Stadion to Stadion Albert Flórián. Flórián Albert, the former Ferencváros icon, was present at the inauguration ceremony.


title: Ferencvárosi TC

text: There were many plans on how to increase the capacity of the stadium in case the Hungarian Football Federation won the bid for the UEFA Euro 2008 or the Euro 2012. However, the Federation did not win any bids therefore the reconstruction of the stadium was delayed.


title: Ferencvárosi TC

text: When Kevin McCabe became the owner of the club the reconstruction was on schedule again. Later, McCabe sold his team to the Hungarian state and the reconstruction did not take place.


title: Ferencvárosi TC

text: Ferencváros Stadion, multi-purpose stadium, is the third home of the club. It has a capacity of 20,000 spectators in UEFA matches and 23,700 in Hungarian League matches.


title: Ferencvárosi TC

text: When Gábor Kubatov was elected as president of the club, he and Pál Orosz managed to raise enough funds for the construction of a new stadium. The new stadium was rotated by 90 degrees in order to meet UEFA requirements. Therefore, the main stand which was parallel to the Üllői út became parallel to the Hungária körút. As part of the national stadium reconstruction programme the new stadium was built between 2013 and 2014.


title: Ferencvárosi TC

text: The stadium was designed by Ágnes Streit and Szabolcs Kormos and was built by Market Építő Zrt from 2013 to 2014. In the arena there can be found the Ferencváros Museum and a fan shop too. The stadium is cutting edge in its vein matching entrance system. On 10 August 2014, Ferencváros played the opening match against Chelsea.


title: Ferencvárosi TC

text: Since the demolition of the Puskás Ferenc Stadion, Hungary play their home matches at the new arena because the new Puskás Ferenc Stadion will be opened around 2019. The national team celebrated the victory against Norway after a 2–1 win at the UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying play-off.


title: Ferencvárosi TC

text: On 14 February 2008, Sheffield United public limited company chairman Kevin McCabe successfully acquired a tender to purchase Ferencváros. McCabe's Hungarian company, Esplanade Limited liability company bought Ferencváros' real estate for £8.45 million with a view to start paying off the £5 million debt. In April 2008, Ferencváros Torna Club officially agreed to sell the football club, Ferencváros Labdarúgó ZRt. to Esplanade Kft., McCabe's company in Hungary.


title: Ferencvárosi TC

text: In 2011, McCabe relinquished his ownership of the club after describing a "strained relationship" with some minority shareholders.


title: Ferencvárosi TC

text: On 28 October 2014, Gábor Kubatov was re-elected to serve another four-year term as the president of the club.


title: Ferencvárosi TC

text: Supporters of Ferencváros are mainly from the capital city of Hungary, Budapest. However, the club is popular all over Hungary.


title: Ferencvárosi TC

text: Since the opening of the newly built Groupama Aréna, the spectators are scanned at the entrance. As a consequence, the main supporter group of the club, called B-közép, announced a boycott in 2014. Club chairman Kubatov said that he had wanted peace in the new stadium and the club had already paid a lot of fines and punishments due to the unacceptable behaviour of the B-közép. Kubatov had expected that the spectators could have been changed due to the new regulations. However, the number of spectators had not increased in the 2014–15 and 2015–16 seasons.


title: Ferencvárosi TC

text: On 13 March 2016, 10,125 spectators watched the match between Ferencváros' second team against Csepel SC in the 2015–16 Nemzeti Bajnokság III season. The match was a protest by the B-közép to show how many spectators were missing from the Groupama Aréna.


title: Ferencvárosi TC

text: On 24 March 2016, the representatives the B-közép started negotiations with club leader, Gabor Kubatov. As a results of negotiations they were allowed back to the stadium.


title: Ferencvárosi TC

text: The fans have friendships with fans of Rapid Wien and Panathinaikos, and as all three play in Green the alliance is nicknamed the "Green Brothers". They also have friendly relations in Hungary with fans of Zalaegerszeg and in Poland with Śląsk Wrocław and Bałtyk Gdynia.


title: Ferencvárosi TC

text: Ferencváros have rivalry with several teams from Budapest including MTK Budapest, Újpest, Honvéd, Vasas SC, and several provincial clubs such as Debrecen and Diósgyőr. Since Ferencváros has been the most successful club in Hungarian Football history by winning 31 Hungarian League titles, 21 Hungarian Cup titles and 2 Hungarian League Cup titles and the most successful Hungarian club in the European football competitions by winning the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup 1964–65 season every club in the Hungarian League wants to defeat them.


title: Ferencvárosi TC

text: The biggest rivalry is with Újpest, which dates back to the 1930s when Újpest won their first Hungarian League title. Since then, the fixture between the two teams attracts the most spectators in the domestic league. The matches between the two teams often end in violence which causes big trouble for the Hungarian football. The proposal of personal registration was refused by both clubs.


title: Ferencvárosi TC

text: The fixture between Ferencváros and MTK Budapest FC is called the Örökrangadó or Eternal derby. It is the oldest football rivalry in Hungary, which dates back as early as the 1903 season when Ferencváros first won the Hungarian League. In the following three decades either Ferencváros or MTK Budapest won the domestic league.


title: Ferencvárosi TC

text: Honvéd are also considered fierce rivals as the clubs are in very close proximity to each other and in the past frequently competed for honours.


title: Ferencvárosi TC

text: On 26 November 2002, the UEFA Control and Disciplinary Committee fined Ferencváros €18,300 for fireworks and hooliganism-related offences committed by the fans of Ferencváros before and after the 2002-03 UEFA Cup second tie against VfB Stuttgart on 12 November 2002.


title: Ferencvárosi TC

text: In 2004, Ferencváros were charged by UEFA with crowd trouble and racist abuse after playing Millwall in the 2004-05 UEFA Cup tie in Budapest, Hungary. Four fans of Millwall suffered stab wounds. The racist abuse was directed at Millwall's players of African origin, including Paul Ifill.


title: Ferencvárosi TC

text: On 17 July 2013, Ferencváros fans fought with police after a friendly match against Leeds United, which ended in a 1–0 victory over the Championship club, in Murska Sobota, Slovenia.


title: Ferencvárosi TC

text: On 19 July 2014, UEFA issued sanctions against Ferencváros and Diósgyőr and Slovakia’s Spartak Trnava, following racist behaviour by their fans during 2014–15 UEFA Europa League qualifying matches against Maltese sides Sliema Wanderers, Birkirkara and Hibernians respectively. Ferencvaros were the hardest hit by the UEFA measures as club were fined by €20,000 and the partial closure of their stadium following monkey chants and racist banners displayed in both legs in Malta and Hungary.


title: Ferencvárosi TC

text: On 27 January 2015, Gábor Kubatov, president of the club, said that he would have the fines paid by the supporters. Kubatov aims to cease the racism and violence at the stadium.


title: Ferencvárosi TC

text: On 9 February 2015, UEFA refused the appeal of Ferencváros in connection with the incidents before and after the 2014–15 UEFA Europa League qualifying match between NK Rijeka and Ferencváros. According to the verdict, Ferencváros supporters were not allowed to attend the following UEFA match at home.


title: Metamizole

text: Metamizole, or dipyrone, is a painkiller, spasm reliever, and fever reliever that also has anti-inflammatory effects. It is most commonly given by mouth or by intravenous infusion.


title: Metamizole

text: Although it is available over-the-counter in some countries, it is banned in others, due to its potential for adverse events, including agranulocytosis. A study by one of the manufacturers of the drug found the risk of agranulocytosis within the first week of treatment to be a mere 1.1 in a million, versus 5.92 in a million for diclofenac.


title: Metamizole

text: It was patented in 1922 and was first used medically in Germany under the brandname "Novalgin". For many years, it was available over-the-counter in most countries, before its withdrawal due to severe adverse effects. Metamizole is marketed under various trade names.


title: Metamizole

text: It is primarily used for perioperative pain, acute injury, colic, cancer pain, other acute/chronic forms of pain and high fever unresponsive to other agents.


title: Metamizole

text: Its use in pregnancy is advised against, although animal studies are reassuring in that they show minimal risk of birth defects. Its use in the elderly and those with liver or kidney impairment is advised against, but if these groups of people must be treated, a lower dose and caution is usually advised. Its use during lactation is advised against, as it is excreted in breast milk.


title: Metamizole

text: Metamizole has a potential of blood-related toxicity (blood dyscrasias), but causes less kidney, cardiovascular, and gastrointestinal toxicity than non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). Like NSAIDs, it can trigger bronchospasm or anaphylaxis, especially in those with asthma.


title: Metamizole

text: Serious side effects include agranulocytosis, aplastic anaemia, hypersensitivity reactions (like anaphylaxis and bronchospasm), toxic epidermal necrolysis and it may provoke acute attacks of porphyria, as it is chemically related to the sulfonamides. The relative risk for agranulocytosis appears to greatly vary according to the country of estimates on said rate and opinion on the risk is strongly divided. Genetics may play a significant role in metamizole sensitivity. It is suggested that some populations are more prone to suffer from metamizole induced agranulocytosis than others. As an example, metamizole-related agranulocytosis seems to be an adverse effect more frequent in British population as opposed to Spaniards.


title: Metamizole

text: According to a systematic review from 2016 Metamizole significantly increased the risk of upper gastrointestinal bleeding by a factor ranging from 1.4 to 2.7 (relative risk).


title: Metamizole

text: Previous hypersensitivity (such as agranulocytosis or anaphylaxis) to metamizole or any of the excipients (e.g. lactose) in the preparation used, acute porphyria, impaired haematopoiesis (such as due to treatment with chemotherapy agents), third trimester of pregnancy (potential for adverse effects in the newborn), lactation, children with a body weight below 16 kg, history of aspirin-induced asthma and other hypersensitivity reactions to analgesics.


title: Metamizole

text: Oral anticoagulants (blood thinners), lithium, captopril, triamterene and antihypertensives may also interact with metamizole, as other pyrazolones are known to interact adversely with these substances.


title: Metamizole

text: It is considered fairly safe on overdose, but in these cases supportive measures are usually advised as well as measures to limit absorption (such as activated charcoal) and accelerate excretion (such as haemodialysis).


title: Metamizole

text: It is a sulfonic acid and comes in calcium, sodium and magnesium salt forms. Its sodium salt monohydrate form is a white/almost crystalline powder that is unstable in the presence of light, highly soluble in water and ethanol but practically insoluble in dichloromethane.


title: Metamizole

text: Its precise mechanism of action is unknown, although it is believed that inhibiting brain and spinal cord prostaglandin (fat-like molecules that are involved in inflammation, pain and fever) synthesis might be involved. Recently, researchers uncovered another mechanism involving metamizole being a prodrug. In this proposal, not yet verified by other researchers, the metamizole itself breaks down into other chemicals that are the actual active agents. The result is a pair of cannabinoid and NSAID arachidonic acid conjugates (although not in the strict chemical meaning of the word) of metamizole's breakdown products. Despite this, studies in animals have found that the CB1 cannabinoid receptor is not involved in the analgesia induced by metamizole. Although it seems to inhibit fevers caused by prostaglandins, especially prostaglandin E2, metamizole appears to produce its therapeutic effects by means of its metabolites, especially "N"-methyl-4-aminoantipyrine (MAA) and 4-Aminoantipyrine (AA).


title: Metamizole

text: Ludwig Knorr was a student of Emil Fischer who won the Nobel Prize for his work on purines and sugars, which included the discovery of phenylhydrazine. In the 1880s, Knorr was trying to make quinine derivatives from phenylhydrazine, and instead made a pyrazole derivative, which after a methylation, he made into phenazone, also called antipyrine, which has been called "the 'mother' of all modern antipyretic analgesics." Sales of that drug exploded, and in the 1890s chemists at Teerfarbenfabrik Meister, Lucius & Co. (a precursor of Hoechst AG which is now Sanofi), made another derivative called pyramidon which was three times more active than antipyrine.


title: Metamizole

text: In 1893, a derivative of antipyrine, aminopyrine, was made by Friedrich Stolz at Hoechst. Yet later, chemists at Hoechst made a derivative, melubrine (sodium antipyrine aminomethanesulfonate), which was introduced in 1913; finally in 1920, metamizole was synthesized. Metamizole is a methyl derivative of melubrine and is also a more soluble prodrug of pyramidon. Metamizole was first marketed in Germany as "Novalgin" in 1922.


title: Metamizole

text: Metamizole is banned in several countries, available by prescription in others (sometimes with strong warnings, sometimes without), and available over the counter in yet others. For example, approval was withdrawn in Sweden (1974), the USA (1977), and India (2013, ban lifted in 2014).


title: Metamizole

text: Although metamizole is banned in the USA, it was reported by small surveys that 28% of Hispanics in Miami have possession of it, and 38% of Hispanics in San Diego, CA reported some usage.


title: Metamizole

text: Amid the opioid crisis, a study pointed the legal status of metamizole have a relation to the consumption of oxycodone, showing the use of those drugs were inversely correlated. Its use could be beneficial when adjusted for the addictive-risk of opioids, specially on limited and controlled use of metamizole. A 2019 Israeli conference also justified the approved status as a preventive to opioid dependence, and metamizole being safer than most analgesics for renal impaired patients.


title: Metamizole

text: In 2018, investigators in Spain looked into Nolotil (as metamizole is known in Spain) after the death of several British people in Spain. A possible factor in these deaths might have been a side effect of metamizole that can cause agranulocytosis (a lowering of white blood cell count).


title: Metamizole

text: Metamizole is generic, and in countries where it is marketed, it is available under many brand names. In Russia, it is commonly sold under the "Analgin" () trade name.


title: Metamizole

text: In Romania metamizole is available as the original marketed pharmaceutical product by Zentiva as Algocalmin, as 500 mg immediate release tablets. It's also available as an injection with 1 g of metamizole sodium dissolved in 2 ml of solvent.


title: Heptarchy

text: The Heptarchy were the seven petty kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England that flourished from the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain in the 5th century until they were consolidated in the 8th century into the four kingdoms of Mercia, Northumbria, Wessex and East Anglia.


title: Heptarchy

text: The term 'Heptarchy' (from the Greek , ; from , : "seven"; , : "reign, rule" and the suffix , ) is used because of the traditional belief that there had been seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, usually described as East Anglia, Essex, Kent, Mercia, Northumbria, Sussex, and Wessex.


title: Heptarchy

text: The first known written reference to the historiographical traditional belief that there were these 'seven kingdoms' was in Henry of Huntingdon’s 12th century work, "Historia Anglorum"; the term "Heptarchy" is not known to have been used to describe them until the 16th century.


title: Heptarchy

text: By convention, the Heptarchy period lasted from the end of Roman rule in Britain in the 5th century, until most of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms came under the overlordship of Egbert of Wessex in 829. This approximately 400-year period of European history is often referred to as the Early Middle Ages or, more controversially, as the Dark Ages.


title: Heptarchy

text: Although "heptarchy" suggests the existence of seven kingdoms, the term is just used as a label of convenience and does not imply the existence of a clear-cut or stable group of seven kingdoms. The number of kingdoms and sub-kingdoms fluctuated rapidly during this period as competing kings contended for supremacy.


title: Heptarchy

text: In the late 6th century, the king of Kent was a prominent lord in the south. In the 7th century, the rulers of Northumbria and Wessex were powerful. In the 8th century, Mercia achieved hegemony over the other surviving kingdoms, particularly during the reign of Offa the Great. Yet, as late as the reigns of Eadwig and Edgar (955–75), it was still possible to speak of separate kingdoms within the English population.


title: Heptarchy

text: Alongside the seven kingdoms, a number of other political divisions also existed, such as the kingdoms (or sub-kingdoms) of: Bernicia and Deira within Northumbria; Lindsey in present-day Lincolnshire; the Hwicce in the southwest Midlands; the Magonsæte or Magonset, a sub-kingdom of Mercia in what is now Herefordshire; the Wihtwara, a Jutish kingdom on the Isle of Wight, originally as important as the Cantwara of Kent; the Middle Angles, a group of tribes based around modern Leicestershire, later conquered by the Mercians; the Hæstingas (around the town of Hastings in Sussex); and the Gewisse, a Saxon tribe in what is now southern Hampshire that later developed into the kingdom of Wessex.


title: Heptarchy

text: The decline of the Heptarchy and the eventual emergence of the kingdom of England was a drawn-out process, taking place over the course of the 9th to 10th centuries. In the 9th century, the Danish enclave at York expanded into the Danelaw, with about half of England under Danish rule.


title: Heptarchy

text: English unification under Alfred the Great was a reaction to the threat from this common enemy. In 886, Alfred retook London, and the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" says that "all of the English people ("all Angelcyn") not subject to the Danes submitted themselves to King Alfred."


title: Heptarchy

text: The unification of the kingdom of England was complete only in the 10th century, following the expulsion of Eric Bloodaxe as king of Northumbria. Æthelstan is credited as the first to be King of all England.