title: Munchkin cat

text: The Munchkin cat was first introduced to the general public in 1991 via a national network televised cat show held by The International Cat Association (TICA) in Davis Oklahoma. However, the breed would not be officially recognized at that time. Critics predicted that the breed would develop back, hip and leg problems similar to those that plague some Dachshunds. For many years, the Munchkin breed was not accepted in feline competitions due to the controversial breeding. Dr. Solveig Pflueger, a show judge, geneticist, and Chairperson of TICA's Genetics Committee was a strong advocate for the official recognition of the breed. Pflueger was also a breeder of Munchkin cats herself, having been initially sent two cats from Hochenedel. Amidst much controversy, the Munchkin was proposed as a new breed by foundation breeders Laurie Bobskill and Robert Bobskill of Massachusetts and accepted by TICA into its New Breed development program in September 1994. One veteran show judge Katherine Crawford resigned in protest, calling the breed an affront to breeders with ethics. The Munchkin breed achieved TICA Championship status in May 2003.


title: Munchkin cat

text: Currently, the only registries that fully recognize the breed are TICA and the Southern Africa Cat Council.


title: Munchkin cat

text: TICA Standards describe the Munchkin as "outgoing, intelligent, and responds well to being handled". Some sources state that the shortness of their legs does not interfere with their running and leaping abilities, while others state their ability to jump is limited by their condition.


title: Munchkin cat

text: The Munchkin has similar characteristics to normal domestic cats, due to their frequent use as outcrosses. It is a small to medium-sized cat with a moderate body type and medium-plush coat. Male Munchkins typically weigh between and are usually larger than female Munchkins, which typically weigh between . The hind legs can be slightly longer than the front which creates a slight rise from the shoulder to the rump. The legs of the Munchkin may be slightly bowed, although excessive bowing is a disqualification in the show ring. Cow-hocked legs are also penalized.


title: Munchkin cat

text: The Munchkin comes in all coat colors and patterns. It also comes in a long-haired variety, which is shown in a separate Munchkin Longhair category. The short-haired variety has a medium-plush coat while the long-haired has a semi-long silky coat. TICA rules for outcrossing allows the use of any domestic cat that does not already belong to a recognized breed. Similarity to other breeds is grounds for disqualification. Non-standard Munchkins are not allowed to be shown.


title: Munchkin cat

text: In 2014, Lilieput, a Munchkin cat from Napa, California, was named the shortest statured living cat in the world by Guinness World Records. She stands tall.


title: Munchkin cat

text: It is not fully known how the mutation impacts the health of the breed. Having only been officially introduced in 1991, the breed is still considered young. There were early speculations that the Munchkin would develop spinal problems commonly seen in short-legged dog breeds; however, in 1995 several breeders had their oldest Munchkins X-rayed and examined for signs of joint or bone problems and found none.


title: Munchkin cat

text: The genetic mutation causing the short-legged trait in Munchkins is referred to as achondroplasia, the genetic disorder that results in dwarfism and is typically associated with an enlarged head as well as short legs but can also involve symptoms that include undersized jaw, thick-looking joints, curved spine, and a bow-legged or knock knee posture. The condition has sometimes been referred to as hypochondroplasia or pseudoachondroplasia.


title: Munchkin cat

text: However, there appear to be two conditions with increased incidence in the Munchkin breed: lordosis (excessive curvature of the spine) and pectus excavatum (hollowed chest). Both conditions are commonly seen in humans with pseudoachondroplasia.


title: Munchkin cat

text: Munchkin cats are known to be at a higher risk (than other feline breeds) for severe osteoarthritis because the shorter limbs affect their activity levels and behavior. Diagnosis of osteoarthritis and the assessment of its severity for a cat may require radiography.


title: Munchkin cat

text: Many pedigree cat associations around the world have refused to recognize the Munchkin cat due to the welfare of the breed and severity of the health issues.


title: Munchkin cat

text: The munchkin gene is autosomal dominant. Homozygous embryos for the munchkin gene, with two copies of the gene, are not viable and do not develop in the womb. Only kittens that are heterozygous for the munchkin gene, with only one copy, develop into viable short legged munchkin kittens. Because only heterozygous munchkin cats are able to pass on the gene, all litters with at least one standard (short legged) Munchkin parent have the possibility of containing kittens with the phenotypes: short-legged or normal-legged (referred to as non-standard munchkin), with the genotypes of Mm or mm, where M is the trait for short legs and m is the trait for long legs. The mating of two munchkin parents, Mm x Mm, have the chance of producing these offspring: 25% MM- a nonviable kitten, 50% Mm-short-legged, 25% mm- normal. The resulting litter will be 2/3 Mm-short-legged and 1/3 mm-normal.


title: Munchkin cat

text: Punnett squares, in which the M represents the dominant munchkin gene and the m represents the recessive normal gene, may be used to illustrate the chances of a particular mating resulting in a short-legged cat.


title: Munchkin cat

text: Kittens bearing two copies of the munchkin gene (MM) will not develop in the womb. Kittens bearing one munchkin gene and one normal gene (Mm) will be short-legged munchkins. Kittens bearing two normal genes (mm) will be normal. Mm munchkin kittens will be able to pass on the munchkin gene to their own offspring. Normal mm kittens will not, as they do not have a copy of the munchkin gene.


title: Munchkin cat

text: When two munchkin cats are crossed and small litter sizes occur, this indicates that embryos that are homozygous for the munchkin gene are non-viable.


title: Munchkin cat

text: For each kitten conceived from this mating, there is a 25% chance it will fail to gestate, a 25% chance it will be normal, and a 50% chance it will be short-legged.


title: Munchkin cat

text: For each kitten conceived from this mating, there is a 0% chance it will be homozygous for the munchkin gene, a 50% chance it will be normal non-standard (long legged) Munchkin, and a 50% chance it will be a standard (short legged) munchkin.


title: Munchkin cat

text: The Munchkin has been crossed with the curly-coated LaPerm to create the Skookum, the hairless Sphynx to create the Minskin and Bambino, another curly-coated Selkirk Rex to create the Lambkin, the Persian breed group (which includes Himalayans and Exotic Shorthair) to create the Napoleon (renamed the Minuet), the curled-eared American Curl to create the Kinkalow, the folded-eared Scottish Fold to create the Scottish Kilts, and also with the Bengal to create the Genetta.


title: Rust

text: Rust is an iron oxide, a usually reddish-brown oxide formed by the reaction of iron and oxygen in the catalytic presence of water or air moisture. Rust consists of hydrous iron(III) oxides (FeO·nHO) and iron(III) oxide-hydroxide (FeO(OH), Fe(OH)), and is typically associated with the corrosion of refined iron.


title: Rust

text: Given sufficient time, any iron mass, in the presence of water and oxygen, could eventually convert entirely to rust. Surface rust is commonly flaky and friable, and provides no passivational protection to the underlying iron, unlike the formation of patina on copper surfaces. "Rusting" is the common term for corrosion of elemental iron and its alloys such as steel. Many other metals undergo similar corrosion, but the resulting oxides are not commonly called "rust".


title: Rust

text: Several forms of rust are distinguishable both visually and by spectroscopy, and form under different circumstances. Other forms of rust include the result of reactions between iron and chloride in an environment deprived of oxygen. Rebar used in underwater concrete pillars, which generates green rust, is an example. Although rusting is generally a negative aspect of iron, a particular form of rusting, known as "stable rust", causes the object to have a thin coating of rust over the top. If kept in low relative humidity, it makes the "stable" layer protective to the iron below, but not to the extent of other oxides such as aluminium oxide on aluminium.


title: Rust

text: Rust is a general name for a complex of oxides and hydroxides of iron, which occur when iron or some alloys that contain iron are exposed to oxygen and moisture for a long period of time. Over time, the oxygen combines with the metal forming new compounds collectively called rust. Although rust may generally be termed as "oxidation", that term is much more general and describes a vast number of processes involving the loss of electrons or increased oxidation state, as part of a reaction. The best-known of these reactions involve oxygen, hence the name "oxidation". The terms "rust" and "rusting" only mean oxidation of iron and its resulting products. Many other oxidation reactions exist which do not involve iron or produce rust. But only iron or alloys that contain iron can rust. However, other metals can corrode in similar ways.


title: Rust

text: The main catalyst for the rusting process is water. Iron or steel structures might appear to be solid, but water molecules can penetrate the microscopic pits and cracks in any exposed metal. The hydrogen atoms present in water molecules can combine with other elements to form acids, which will eventually cause more metal to be exposed. If chloride ions are present, as is the case with saltwater, the corrosion is likely to occur more quickly. Meanwhile, the oxygen atoms combine with metallic atoms to form the destructive oxide compound. As the atoms combine, they weaken the metal, making the structure brittle and crumbly.


title: Rust

text: When iron is in contact with water and oxygen, it rusts. If salt is present, for example in seawater or salt spray, the iron tends to rust more quickly, as a result of chemical reactions. Iron metal is relatively unaffected by pure water or by dry oxygen. As with other metals, like aluminium, a tightly adhering oxide coating, a passivation layer, protects the bulk iron from further oxidation. The conversion of the passivating ferrous oxide layer to rust results from the combined action of two agents, usually oxygen and water.


title: Rust

text: Other degrading solutions are sulfur dioxide in water and carbon dioxide in water. Under these corrosive conditions, iron hydroxide species are formed. Unlike ferrous oxides, the hydroxides do not adhere to the bulk metal. As they form and flake off from the surface, fresh iron is exposed, and the corrosion process continues until either all of the iron is consumed or all of the oxygen, water, carbon dioxide or sulfur dioxide in the system are removed or consumed.


title: Rust

text: When iron rusts, the oxides take up more volume than the original metal; this expansion can generate enormous forces, damaging structures made with iron. See "economic effect" for more details.


title: Rust

text: The rusting of iron is an electrochemical process that begins with the transfer of electrons from iron to oxygen. The iron is the reducing agent (gives up electrons) while the oxygen is the oxidizing agent (gains electrons). The rate of corrosion is affected by water and accelerated by electrolytes, as illustrated by the effects of road salt on the corrosion of automobiles. The key reaction is the reduction of oxygen:


title: Rust

text: Because it forms hydroxide ions, this process is strongly affected by the presence of acid. Likewise, the corrosion of most metals by oxygen is accelerated at low pH. Providing the electrons for the above reaction is the oxidation of iron that may be described as follows:


title: Rust

text: The following redox reaction also occurs in the presence of water and is crucial to the formation of rust:


title: Rust

text: From the above equations, it is also seen that the corrosion products are dictated by the availability of water and oxygen. With limited dissolved oxygen, iron(II)-containing materials are favoured, including FeO and black lodestone or magnetite (FeO). High oxygen concentrations favour ferric materials with the nominal formulae Fe(OH)O. The nature of rust changes with time, reflecting the slow rates of the reactions of solids.


title: Rust

text: Furthermore, these complex processes are affected by the presence of other ions, such as Ca, which serve as electrolytes which accelerate rust formation, or combine with the hydroxides and oxides of iron to precipitate a variety of Ca, Fe, O, OH species.


title: Rust

text: The onset of rusting can also be detected in the laboratory with the use of ferroxyl indicator solution. The solution detects both Fe ions and hydroxyl ions. Formation of Fe ions and hydroxyl ions are indicated by blue and pink patches respectively.


title: Rust

text: Because of the widespread use and importance of iron and steel products, the prevention or slowing of rust is the basis of major economic activities in a number of specialized technologies. A brief overview of methods is presented here; for detailed coverage, see the cross-referenced articles.


title: Rust

text: Rust is permeable to air and water, therefore the interior metallic iron beneath a rust layer continues to corrode. Rust prevention thus requires coatings that preclude rust formation.


title: Rust

text: Stainless steel forms a passivation layer of chromium(III) oxide. Similar passivation behavior occurs with magnesium, titanium, zinc, zinc oxides, aluminium, polyaniline, and other electroactive conductive polymers.


title: Rust

text: Special "weathering steel" alloys such as Cor-Ten rust at a much slower rate than normal, because the rust adheres to the surface of the metal in a protective layer. Designs using this material must include measures that avoid worst-case exposures since the material still continues to rust slowly even under near-ideal conditions.


title: Rust

text: Galvanization consists of an application on the object to be protected of a layer of metallic zinc by either hot-dip galvanizing or electroplating. Zinc is traditionally used because it is cheap, adheres well to steel, and provides cathodic protection to the steel surface in case of damage of the zinc layer. In more corrosive environments (such as salt water), cadmium plating is preferred. Galvanization often fails at seams, holes, and joints where there are gaps in the coating. In these cases, the coating still provides some partial cathodic protection to iron, by acting as a galvanic anode and corroding itself instead of the underlying protected metal. The protective zinc layer is consumed by this action, and thus galvanization provides protection only for a limited period of time.


title: Rust

text: More modern coatings add aluminium to the coating as "zinc-alume"; aluminium will migrate to cover scratches and thus provide protection for a longer period. These approaches rely on the aluminium and zinc oxides protecting a once-scratched surface, rather than oxidizing as a sacrificial anode as in traditional galvanized coatings. In some cases, such as very aggressive environments or long design life, both zinc and a coating are applied to provide enhanced corrosion protection.


title: Rust

text: Typical galvanization of steel products that are to be subjected to normal day-to-day weathering in an outside environment consists of a hot-dipped 85 µm zinc coating. Under normal weather conditions, this will deteriorate at a rate of 1 µm per year, giving approximately 85 years of protection.


title: Rust

text: Cathodic protection is a technique used to inhibit corrosion on buried or immersed structures by supplying an electrical charge that suppresses the electrochemical reaction. If correctly applied, corrosion can be stopped completely. In its simplest form, it is achieved by attaching a sacrificial anode, thereby making the iron or steel the cathode in the cell formed. The sacrificial anode must be made from something with a more negative electrode potential than the iron or steel, commonly zinc, aluminium, or magnesium. The sacrificial anode will eventually corrode away, ceasing its protective action unless it is replaced in a timely manner.


title: Rust

text: Cathodic protection can also be provided by using an applied electrical current. This would then be known as ICCP Impressed Current Cathodic Protection.


title: Rust

text: Rust formation can be controlled with coatings, such as paint, lacquer, varnish, or wax tapes that isolate the iron from the environment. Large structures with enclosed box sections, such as ships and modern automobiles, often have a wax-based product (technically a "slushing oil") injected into these sections. Such treatments usually also contain rust inhibitors. Covering steel with concrete can provide some protection to steel because of the alkaline pH environment at the steel–concrete interface. However, rusting of steel in concrete can still be a problem, as expanding rust can fracture concrete from within.


title: Rust

text: As a closely related example, iron clamps were used to join marble blocks during a restoration attempt of the Parthenon in Athens, Greece, in 1898, but caused extensive damage to the marble by the rusting and swelling of unprotected iron. The ancient Greek builders had used a similar fastening system for the marble blocks during construction, however, they also poured molten lead over the iron joints for protection from seismic shocks as well as from corrosion. This method was successful for the 2500-year-old structure, but in less than a century the crude repairs were in imminent danger of collapse.


title: Rust

text: When only temporary protection is needed for storage or transport, a thin layer of oil, grease or a special mixture such as Cosmoline can be applied to an iron surface. Such treatments are extensively used when "mothballing" a steel ship, automobile, or other equipment for long-term storage.


title: Rust

text: Special anti-seize lubricant mixtures are available and are applied to metallic threads and other precision machined surfaces to protect them from rust. These compounds usually contain grease mixed with copper, zinc, or aluminium powder, and other proprietary ingredients.


title: Rust

text: Bluing is a technique that can provide limited resistance to rusting for small steel items, such as firearms; for it to be successful, a water-displacing oil is rubbed onto the blued steel and other steel.


title: Rust

text: Corrosion inhibitors, such as gas-phase or volatile inhibitors, can be used to prevent corrosion inside sealed systems. They are not effective when air circulation disperses them, and brings in fresh oxygen and moisture.


title: Rust

text: Rust can be avoided by controlling the moisture in the atmosphere. An example of this is the use of silica gel packets to control humidity in equipment shipped by sea.


title: Rust

text: Rust removal from small iron or steel objects by electrolysis can be done in a home workshop using simple materials such as a plastic bucket filled with an electrolyte consisting of washing soda dissolved in tap water, a length of rebar suspended vertically in the solution to act as an anode, another laid across the top of the bucket to act as a support for suspending the object, baling wire to suspend the object in the solution from the horizontal rebar, and a battery charger as a power source in which the positive terminal is clamped to the anode and the negative terminal is clamped to the object to be treated which becomes the cathode.


title: Rust

text: Rust may be treated with commercial products known as rust converter which contain tannic acid or phosphoric acid which combines with rust; removed with organic acids like citric acid and vinegar or the stronger hydrochloric acid; or removed with chelating agents as in some commercial formulations or even a solution of molasses.


title: Rust

text: Rust is associated with the degradation of iron-based tools and structures. As rust has a much higher volume than the originating mass of iron, its buildup can also cause failure by forcing apart adjacent parts — a phenomenon sometimes known as "rust packing". It was the cause of the collapse of the Mianus river bridge in 1983, when the bearings rusted internally and pushed one corner of the road slab off its support.


title: Rust

text: Rust was an important factor in the Silver Bridge disaster of 1967 in West Virginia, when a steel suspension bridge collapsed in less than a minute, killing 46 drivers and passengers on the bridge at the time. The Kinzua Bridge in Pennsylvania was blown down by a tornado in 2003, largely because the central base bolts holding the structure to the ground had rusted away, leaving the bridge anchored by gravity alone.


title: Rust

text: Reinforced concrete is also vulnerable to rust damage. Internal pressure caused by expanding corrosion of concrete-covered steel and iron can cause the concrete to spall, creating severe structural problems. It is one of the most common failure modes of reinforced concrete bridges and buildings.


title: Rust

text: Rust is a commonly used metaphor for slow decay due to neglect, since it gradually converts robust iron and steel metal into a soft crumbling powder. A wide section of the industrialized American Midwest and American Northeast, once dominated by steel foundries, the automotive industry, and other manufacturers, has experienced harsh economic cutbacks that have caused the region to be dubbed the "Rust Belt".


title: Rust

text: In music, literature, and art, rust is associated with images of faded glory, neglect, decay, and ruin.


title: Contemporary art

text: Contemporary art is the art of today, produced in the second half of the 20th century or in the 21st century. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art is a dynamic combination of materials, methods, concepts, and subjects that continue the challenging of boundaries that was already well underway in the 20th century. Diverse and eclectic, contemporary art as a whole is distinguished by the very lack of a uniform, organising principle, ideology, or "-ism". Contemporary art is part of a cultural dialogue that concerns larger contextual frameworks such as personal and cultural identity, family, community, and nationality.


title: Contemporary art

text: In vernacular English, "modern" and "contemporary" are synonyms, resulting in some conflation and confusion of the terms "modern art" and "contemporary art" by non-specialists.


title: Contemporary art

text: Some define contemporary art as art produced within "our lifetime," recognising that lifetimes and life spans vary. However, there is a recognition that this generic definition is subject to specialized limitations.


title: Contemporary art

text: The classification of "contemporary art" as a special type of art, rather than a general adjectival phrase, goes back to the beginnings of Modernism in the English-speaking world. In London, the Contemporary Art Society was founded in 1910 by the critic Roger Fry and others, as a private society for buying works of art to place in public museums. A number of other institutions using the term were founded in the 1930s, such as in 1938 the Contemporary Art Society of Adelaide, Australia, and an increasing number after 1945. Many, like the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston changed their names from ones using "Modern art" in this period, as Modernism became defined as a historical art movement, and much "modern" art ceased to be "contemporary". The definition of what is contemporary is naturally always on the move, anchored in the present with a start date that moves forward, and the works the Contemporary Art Society bought in 1910 could no longer be described as contemporary.


title: Contemporary art

text: Particular points that have been seen as marking a change in art styles include the end of World War II and the 1960s. There has perhaps been a lack of natural break points since the 1960s, and definitions of what constitutes "contemporary art" in the 2010s vary, and are mostly imprecise. Art from the past 20 years is very likely to be included, and definitions often include art going back to about 1970; "the art of the late 20th and early 21st century"; "both an outgrowth and a rejection of modern art"; "Strictly speaking, the term "contemporary art" refers to art made and produced by artists living today"; "Art from the 1960s or [19]70s up until this very minute"; and sometimes further, especially in museum contexts, as museums which form a permanent collection of contemporary art inevitably find this aging. Many use the formulation "Modern and Contemporary Art", which avoids this problem. Smaller commercial galleries, magazines and other sources may use stricter definitions, perhaps restricting the "contemporary" to work from 2000 onwards. Artists who are still productive after a long career, and ongoing art movements, may present a particular issue; galleries and critics are often reluctant to divide their work between the contemporary and non-contemporary.


title: Contemporary art

text: Sociologist Nathalie Heinich draws a distinction between modern and contemporary art, describing them as two different paradigms which partially overlap historically. She found that while "modern art" challenges the conventions of representation, "contemporary art" challenges the very notion of an artwork. She regards Duchamp's "Fountain" (which was made in the 1910s in the midst of the triumph of modern art) as the starting point of contemporary art, which gained momentum after World War II with Gutai's performances, Yves Klein's monochromes and Rauschenberg's "Erased de Kooning Drawing".


title: Contemporary art

text: Contemporary artwork is characterised by diversity: diversity of material, of form, of subject matter, and even time periods. It is "distinguished by the very lack of a uniform organizing principle, ideology, or - ism" that is seen in many other art periods and movements. The focus of Modernism is self-referential. Impressionism looks at our perception of a moment through light and color, as opposed to the attempt to reflect stark reality in Realism. Contemporary art, on the other hand, does not have one, single objective or point of view, so it can be contradictory and open-ended. There are nonetheless several common themes that have appeared in contemporary works, such as identity politics, the body, globalization and migration, technology, contemporary society and culture, time and memory, and institutional and political critique.


title: Contemporary art

text: The functioning of the art world is dependent on art institutions, ranging from major museums to private galleries, non-profit spaces, art schools and publishers, and the practices of individual artists, curators, writers, collectors, and philanthropists. A major division in the art world is between the for-profit and non-profit sectors, although in recent years the boundaries between for-profit private and non-profit public institutions have become increasingly blurred. Most well-known contemporary art is exhibited by professional artists at commercial contemporary art galleries, by private collectors, art auctions, corporations, publicly funded arts organizations, contemporary art museums or by artists themselves in artist-run spaces. Contemporary artists are supported by grants, awards, and prizes as well as by direct sales of their work. Career artists train at art school or emerge from other fields.


title: Contemporary art

text: There are close relationships between publicly funded contemporary art organizations and the commercial sector. For instance, in 2005 the book "Understanding International Art Markets and Management" reported that in Britain a handful of dealers represented the artists featured in leading publicly funded contemporary art museums. Commercial organizations include galleries and art fairs.


title: Contemporary art

text: Corporations have also integrated themselves into the contemporary art world, exhibiting contemporary art within their premises, organizing and sponsoring contemporary art awards, and building up extensive corporate collections. Corporate advertisers frequently use the prestige associated with contemporary art and coolhunting to draw the attention of consumers to luxury goods.


title: Contemporary art

text: The institutions of art have been criticized for regulating what is designated as contemporary art. Outsider art, for instance, is literally contemporary art, in that it is produced in the present day. However, one critic has argued it is not considered so because the artists are self-taught and are thus assumed to be working outside of an art historical context. Craft activities, such as textile design, are also excluded from the realm of contemporary art, despite large audiences for exhibitions. Art critic Peter Timms has said that attention is drawn to the way that craft objects must subscribe to particular values in order to be admitted to the realm of contemporary art. "A ceramic object that is intended as a subversive comment on the nature of beauty is more likely to fit the definition of contemporary art than one that is simply beautiful."


title: Contemporary art

text: At any one time a particular place or group of artists can have a strong influence on subsequent contemporary art. For instance, The Ferus Gallery was a commercial gallery in Los Angeles and re-invigorated the Californian contemporary art scene in the late fifties and the sixties.


title: Contemporary art

text: Contemporary art can sometimes seem at odds with a public that does not feel that art and its institutions share its values. In Britain, in the 1990s, contemporary art became a part of popular culture, with artists becoming stars, but this did not lead to a hoped-for "cultural utopia". Some critics like Julian Spalding and Donald Kuspit have suggested that skepticism, even rejection, is a legitimate and reasonable response to much contemporary art. Brian Ashbee in an essay called "Art Bollocks" criticizes "much installation art, photography, conceptual art, video and other practices generally called post-modern" as being too dependent on verbal explanations in the form of theoretical discourse. However, the acceptance of non traditional art in museums has increased due to changing perspectives on what constitutes an art piece.


title: Contemporary art

text: A common concern since the early part of the 20th century has been the question of what constitutes art. In the contemporary period (1950 to now), the concept of avant-garde may come into play in determining what art is noticed by galleries, museums, and collectors.


title: Contemporary art

text: The concerns of contemporary art come in for criticism too. Andrea Rosen has said that some contemporary painters "have absolutely no idea of what it means to be a contemporary artist" and that they "are in it for all the wrong reasons."


title: Oracle

text: An oracle is a person or agency considered to provide wise and insightful counsel or prophetic predictions, most notably including precognition of the future, inspired by deities. As such, it is a form of divination.


title: Oracle

text: The word "oracle" comes from the Latin verb "ōrāre", "to speak" and properly refers to the priest or priestess uttering the prediction. In extended use, "oracle" may also refer to the "site of the oracle", and to the oracular utterances themselves, called "khrēsmē" 'tresme' (χρησμοί) in Greek.


title: Oracle

text: Oracles were thought to be portals through which the gods spoke directly to people. In this sense, they were different from seers ("manteis", μάντεις) who interpreted signs sent by the gods through bird signs, animal entrails, and other various methods.


title: Oracle

text: The most important oracles of Greek antiquity were Pythia (priestess to Apollo at Delphi), and the oracle of Dione and Zeus at Dodona in Epirus. Other oracles of Apollo were located at Didyma and Mallus on the coast of Anatolia, at Corinth and Bassae in the Peloponnese, and at the islands of Delos and Aegina in the Aegean Sea.


title: Oracle

text: The Sibylline Oracles are a collection of oracular utterances written in Greek hexameters, ascribed to the Sibyls, prophetesses who uttered divine revelations in frenzied states.


title: Oracle

text: Walter Burkert observes that "Frenzied women from whose lips the God speaks" are recorded in the Near East as in Mari in the second millennium BC and in Assyria in the first millennium BC. In Egypt, the goddess Wadjet (eye of the moon) was depicted as a snake-headed woman or a woman with two snake-heads. Her oracle was in the renowned temple in Per-Wadjet (Greek name Buto). The oracle of Wadjet may have been the source for the oracular tradition which spread from Egypt to Greece. Evans linked Wadjet with the "Minoan Snake Goddess".


title: Oracle

text: At the oracle of Dodona she is called Diōnē (the feminine form of "Diós", genitive of "Zeus"; or of "dīos", "godly", literally "heavenly"), who represents the earth-fertile soil, probably the chief female goddess of the proto-Indo-European pantheon. Python, daughter (or son) of Gaia was the earth dragon of Delphi represented as a serpent and became the chthonic deity, enemy of Apollo, who slew her and possessed the oracle.


title: Oracle

text: The Pythia was the mouthpiece of the oracles of the god Apollo, and was also known as the Oracle of Delphi.


title: Oracle

text: The Delphic Oracle exerted considerable influence throughout Hellenic culture. Distinctively, this woman was essentially the highest authority both civilly and religiously in male-dominated ancient Greece. She responded to the questions of citizens, foreigners, kings, and philosophers on issues of political impact, war, duty, crime, family, laws—even personal issues. The semi-Hellenic countries around the Greek world, such as Lydia, Caria, and even Egypt also respected her and came to Delphi as supplicants.


title: Oracle

text: Croesus, king of Lydia beginning in 560 BC, tested the oracles of the world to discover which gave the most accurate prophecies. He sent out emissaries to seven sites who were all to ask the oracles on the same day what the king was doing at that very moment. Croesus proclaimed the oracle at Delphi to be the most accurate, who correctly reported that the king was making a lamb-and-tortoise stew, and so he graced her with a magnitude of precious gifts. He then consulted Delphi before attacking Persia, and according to Herodotus was advised: "If you cross the river, a great empire will be destroyed". Believing the response favourable, Croesus attacked, but it was his own empire that ultimately was destroyed by the Persians.


title: Oracle

text: She allegedly also proclaimed that there was no man wiser than Socrates, to which Socrates said that, if so, this was because he alone was aware of his own ignorance. After this confrontation, Socrates dedicated his life to a search for knowledge that was one of the founding events of western philosophy. He claimed that she was "an essential guide to personal and state development." This oracle's last recorded response was given in 362 AD, to Julian the Apostate.


title: Oracle

text: The oracle's powers were highly sought after and never doubted. Any inconsistencies between prophecies and events were dismissed as failure to correctly interpret the responses, not an error of the oracle. Very often prophecies were worded ambiguously, so as to cover all contingencies – especially so "ex post facto". One famous such response to a query about participation in a military campaign was "You will go you will return never in war will you perish". This gives the recipient liberty to place a comma before or after the word "never", thus covering both possible outcomes. Another was the response to the Athenians when the vast army of king Xerxes I was approaching Athens with the intent of razing the city to the ground. "Only the wooden palisades may save you", answered the oracle, probably aware that there was sentiment for sailing to the safety of southern Italy and re-establishing Athens there. Some thought that it was a recommendation to fortify the Acropolis with a wooden fence and make a stand there. Others, Themistocles among them, said the oracle was clearly for fighting at sea, the metaphor intended to mean war ships. Others still insisted that their case was so hopeless that they should board every ship available and flee to Italy, where they would be safe beyond any doubt. In the event, variations of all three interpretations were attempted: some barricaded the Acropolis, the civilian population was evacuated over sea to nearby Salamis Island and to Troizen, and the war fleet fought victoriously at Salamis Bay. Should utter destruction have happened, it could always be claimed that the oracle had called for fleeing to Italy after all.


title: Oracle

text: Cumae was the first Greek colony on the mainland of Italy, near Naples, dating back to the 8th century BC. The "sibylla" or prophetess at Cumae became famous because of her proximity to Rome and the Sibylline Books acquired and consulted in emergencies by Rome wherein her prophecies were transcribed. The Cumaean Sibyl was called "Herophile" by Pausanias and Lactantius, "Deiphobe, daughter of Glaucus" by Virgil, as well as "Amaltheia", "Demophile", or "Taraxandra" by others. Sibyl's prophecies became popular with Christians as they were thought to predict the birth of Jesus Christ.


title: Oracle

text: Dodona in northwestern Greece was another oracle devoted to the Mother Goddess identified at other sites with Rhea or Gaia, but here called Dione. The shrine of Dodona, set in a grove of oak trees, was the oldest Hellenic oracle, according to the fifth-century historian Herodotus, and dated from pre-Hellenic times, perhaps as early as the second millennium BC, when the tradition may have spread from Egypt. By the time of Herodotus, Zeus had displaced the Mother Goddess, who had been assimilated to Aphrodite, and the worship of the deified hero Heracles had been added. Dodona became the second most important oracle in ancient Greece, after Delphi. At Dodona, Zeus was worshipped as Zeus Naios or Naos (god of springs Naiads, from a spring under the oaks), or as Zeus Bouleos (chancellor). Priestesses and priests interpreted the rustling of the leaves of the oak trees by the wind to determine the correct actions to be taken.


title: Oracle

text: The oracle of Abae was one of the most important oracles. It was almost completely destroyed by the Persians during the Second Persian invasion of Greece.


title: Oracle

text: Trophonius was an oracle at Lebadea of Boeotia devoted to the chthonian Zeus Trophonius. Trophonius is derived from the Greek word "trepho" (nourish) and he was a Greek hero, or demon or god. Demeter-Europa was his nurse. Europa (in Greek: broad-eyes) was a Phoenician princess whom Zeus, having transformed himself into a white bull, abducted and carried to Creta, and is equated with Astarte as a moon goddess by ancient sources. Some scholars connect Astarte with the Minoan snake goddess, whose cult as Aphrodite spread from Creta to Greece.


title: Oracle

text: Near the Menestheus's port or "Menesthei Portus" (), modern El Puerto de Santa María, Spain, was the Oracle of Menestheus (), to whom also the inhabitants of Gades offered sacrifices.


title: Oracle

text: At the Ikaros island in the Persian Gulf (modern Failaka Island in Kuwait), there was an oracle of Artemis Tauropolus.


title: Oracle

text: The oracle of Zeus Ammon at Siwa Oasis was so famous that Alexander the Great visited it when he conquered Egypt.


title: Oracle

text: In the city of Anariace (Ἀναριάκη) at the Caspian Sea, there was an oracle for sleepers. Persons should sleep in the temple in order to learn the divine will.


title: Oracle

text: There were many "oracles of the dead", such as in Argolis, Cumae, Herakleia in Pontos, in the Temple of Poseidon in Taenaron, but the most important was the Necromanteion of Acheron.


title: Oracle

text: The term "oracle" is also applied in modern English to parallel institutions of divination in other cultures. Specifically, it is used in the context of Christianity for the concept of divine revelation, and in the context of Judaism for the Urim and Thummim breastplate, and in general any utterance considered prophetic.


title: Oracle

text: In Celtic polytheism, divination was performed by the priestly caste, either the druids or the vates. This is reflected in the role of "seers" in Dark Age Wales ("dryw") and Ireland ("fáith").


title: Oracle

text: In China, oracle bones were used for divination in the late Shang dynasty, (c. 1600–1046 BC). Diviners applied heat to these bones, usually ox scapulae or tortoise plastrons, and interpreted the resulting cracks.


title: Oracle

text: A different divining method, using the stalks of the yarrow plant, was practiced in the subsequent Zhou dynasty (1046–256 BC). Around the late 9th century BC, the divination system was recorded in the "I Ching", or "Book of Changes", a collection of linear signs used as oracles. In addition to its oracular power, the "I Ching" has had a major influence on the philosophy, literature and statecraft of China since the Zhou period.


title: Oracle

text: In Hawaii, oracles were found at certain "heiau", Hawaiian temples. These oracles were found in towers covered in white "kapa" cloth made from plant fibres. In here, priests received the will of gods. These towers were called " 'Anu'u". An example of this can be found at Ahu'ena heiau in Kona.


title: Oracle

text: In ancient India, the oracle was known as "akashawani" or "Ashareera vani" (a voice without body or unseen) or "asariri" (Tamil), literally meaning "voice from the sky" and was related to the message of a god. Oracles played key roles in many of the major incidents of the epics Mahabharata and Ramayana. An example is that Kamsa (or Kansa), the evil uncle of Krishna, was informed by an oracle that the eighth son of his sister Devaki would kill him. The opening verse of the "Tiruvalluva Maalai", a medieval Tamil anthology usually dated by modern scholars to between c. 7th and 10th centuries CE, is attributed to an "asariri" or oracle. However, there are no references in any Indian literature of the oracle being a specific person.


title: Oracle

text: Contemporarily, Theyyam or "theiyam" in Malayalam - a south Indian language - the process by which a devotee invites a Hindu god or goddess to use his or her body as a medium or channel and answer other devotees' questions, still happens. The same is called "arulvaakku" or "arulvaak" in Tamil, another south Indian language - Adhiparasakthi Siddhar Peetam is famous for arulvakku in Tamil Nadu. The people in and around Mangalore in Karnataka call the same, Buta Kola, "paathri" or "darshin"; in other parts of Karnataka, it is known by various names such as, "prashnaavali", "vaagdaana", "asei", "aashirvachana" and so on. In Nepal it is known as, "Devta ka dhaamee" or "jhaakri".


title: Oracle

text: The Igbo people of southeastern Nigeria in Africa have a long tradition of using oracles. In Igbo villages, oracles were usually female priestesses to a particular deity, usually dwelling in a cave or other secluded location away from urban areas, and, much as the oracles of ancient Greece, would deliver prophecies in an ecstatic state to visitors seeking advice. Two of their ancient oracles became especially famous during the pre-colonial period: the Agbala oracle at Awka and the Chukwu oracle at Arochukwu. Although the vast majority of Igbos today are Christian, many of them still use oracles.


title: Oracle

text: Among the related Yoruba peoples of the same country, the Babalawos (and their female counterparts, the Iyanifas) serve collectively as the principal aspects of the tribe's world-famous Ifa divination system. Due to this, they customarily officiate at a great many of its traditional and religious ceremonies.


title: Oracle

text: In Norse mythology, Odin took the severed head of the god Mimir to Asgard for consultation as an oracle. The "Havamal" and other sources relate the sacrifice of Odin for the oracular runes whereby he lost an eye (external sight) and won wisdom (internal sight; insight).


title: Oracle

text: In the migration myth of the Mexitin, i.e., the early Aztecs, a mummy-bundle (perhaps an effigy) carried by four priests directed the trek away from the cave of origins by giving oracles. An oracle led to the foundation of Mexico-Tenochtitlan. The Yucatec Mayas knew oracle priests or "chilanes", literally 'mouthpieces' of the deity. Their written repositories of traditional knowledge, the Books of Chilam Balam, were all ascribed to one famous oracle priest who had correctly predicted the coming of the Spaniards and its associated disasters.


title: Oracle

text: In Tibet, oracles (Chinese: 护法) have played, and continue to play, an important part in religion and government. The word "oracle" is used by Tibetans to refer to the spirit that enters those men and women who act as media between the natural and the spiritual realms. The media are, therefore, known as "kuten", which literally means, "the physical basis". In the 29-Article Ordinance for the More Effective Governing of Tibet (), an imperial decree published in 1793 by the Qianlong Emperor, article 1 states that the creation of Golden Urn is to ensure prosperity of Gelug, and to eliminate cheating and corruption in the selection process performed by oracles.


title: Oracle

text: The Dalai Lama, who lives in exile in northern India, still consults an oracle known as the "Nechung Oracle", which is considered the official state oracle of the government of Tibet. The Dalai Lama has, according to centuries-old custom, consulted the Nechung Oracle during the new year festivities of Losar. Nechung and Gadhong are the primary oracles currently consulted; former oracles such as Karmashar and Darpoling are no longer active in exile. The Gadhong oracle has died leaving Nechung to be the only primary oracle. Another oracle the Dalai Lama consults is the "Tenma Oracle", for which a young Tibetan woman by the name of Khandro La is the medium for the mountain goddesses Tseringma along with the other 11 goddesses. The Dalai Lama gives a complete description of the process of trance and spirit possession in his book "Freedom in Exile".


title: Oracle

text: Dorje Shugden oracles were once consulted by the Dalai Lamas until the 14th Dalai Lama banned the practice, even though he consulted Dorje Shugden for advice to escape and was successful in it. Due to the ban, many of the abbots that were worshippers of Dorje Shugden have been forced to go against the Dalai Lama.


title: Turning Point USA

text: Turning Point USA (TPUSA), or Turning Point, is an American nonprofit organization that advocates for conservative politics on high school, college, and university campuses. It was founded in 2012 by Charlie Kirk and Bill Montgomery. TPUSA's sister organizations include Turning Point Endowment, Turning Point Action, Students for Trump, and Turning Point Faith. TPUSA has been described as the fastest growing organization of campus chapters in America, and according to "The Chronicle of Higher Education", TPUSA "is now the dominant force in campus conservatism".


title: Turning Point USA

text: The organization is known for its Professor Watchlist, a site that claims to expose professors that TPUSA says "discriminate against conservative students and advance leftist propaganda in the classroom". According to "The Chronicle of Higher Education", TPUSA has attempted to influence student government elections in an effort to "combat liberalism on college and university campuses." In 2021, TPUSA started the School Board Watchlist website. It publishes the names and photos of school board members who have adopted mask mandates or anti-racist curricula.


title: Turning Point USA

text: TPUSA annually hosts several conferences on various topics throughout the year, such as the Student Action Summit, Young Women's Leadership Summit, Young Black Leadership Summit, AmericaFest, and Young Latino Leadership Summit. The organization is funded by conservative donors and foundations, including Republican Party politicians.


title: Turning Point USA

text: At Youth Government Day in 2012, 18-year old Charlie Kirk gave a speech at Benedictine University. Impressed by the teenager, seasoned political operative Bill Montgomery encouraged Kirk to postpone college and engage full-time in political activism. In June 2012, the day after Charlie Kirk graduated from high school, he founded Turning Point USA, a section 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Montgomery became Kirk's mentor, and worked behind the scenes handling the paperwork for the organization. Montgomery often described himself as the group's co-founder, although it was not an official recognition by the group or Kirk.


title: Turning Point USA

text: At the 2012 Republican National Convention, Kirk met Foster Friess, a Republican donor, and persuaded him to finance the organization. Friess also serves on the organization's advisory council, alongside Ginni Thomas, wife of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Barry Russell, president and CEO of the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA), is a key advisor.


title: Turning Point USA

text: Between July 2016 and June 2017, the organization raised in excess of US$8.2 million. The same year, leaked records found that the group had funnelled "thousands of dollars" into student governments to elect conservatives. Donors include Home Depot co-founder Bernard Marcus, former Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner, Richard Uihlein, and the Donors Trust on behalf of private donors.


title: Turning Point USA

text: In February 2018, the University of South Florida chapter of TPUSA was dissolved when it was discovered that its president, Aida Vazquez-Soto, was working with a pro-Palestinian group. Vazquez-Soto said, "Something is clearly wrong with an organization that felt that somehow by silencing me they could deal with the problem at hand."


title: Turning Point USA

text: TPUSA says its mission is "to identify, educate, train, and organize students to promote the principles of freedom, free markets, and limited government".


title: Turning Point USA

text: In a 2015 speech at the Liberty Forum of Silicon Valley, Kirk said that he had applied to the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York, and was not accepted. He said that "the slot he considered his went to 'a far less-qualified candidate of a different gender and a different persuasion'" whose test scores he claimed he knew. In 2017 he told "The New Yorker" that he was being sarcastic when he said it, and at a New Hampshire Turning Point event featuring Senator Rand Paul in October 2019 he claimed that he never said it.


title: Turning Point USA

text: Kirk addressed the 2016 Republican National Convention. In an interview with "Wired" magazine during the convention, Kirk said that while he "was not the world's biggest Donald Trump fan," he would vote for him, and that Trump's candidacy made Turning Point's mission more difficult. He spent the rest of the 2016 presidential campaign assisting with travel and media arrangements and running errands for Donald Trump Jr.


title: Turning Point USA

text: Several former employees and student volunteers for Turning Point claimed they had witnessed collusion between high-ranking Turning Point employees – including Kirk himself and top advisor Ginni Thomas – and the presidential campaigns of both Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio. The interactions included Kirk coordinating via email with two officials at a pro-Cruz super PAC to send student volunteers to work for the PAC in South Carolina, as well as two students being requested by Thomas herself, via voicemail, to distribute over 200 Cruz placards in Wisconsin. A former employee for Turning Point, who had been based in Florida, alleged that Turning Point had given the personal information of over 700 student supporters to an employee with Rubio's presidential campaign.


title: Turning Point USA

text: In October 2016, Kirk participated in a Fox News event along with Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, and Lara Trump that had a pro-Donald Trump tone. A Turning Point staff member wrote on Facebook that students who attended the event would have their expenses covered. The event led tax experts to say the organization's conduct may have violated its tax-exempt status, a charge disputed by Turning Point.


title: Turning Point USA

text: In 2019, Charlie Kirk became CEO of Students for Trump. In 2020, he was a keynote speaker on the first day of the Republican National Convention, calling President Donald Trump the "bodyguard of western civilization."


title: Turning Point USA

text: Montgomery (1940–2020) was a marketing entrepreneur and onetime participant in the Tea Party movement. He launched Turning Point with Kirk in 2012 and served as the organization's secretary and treasurer until April 2020.


title: Turning Point USA

text: Bowyer became the organizations's chief operating officer (COO) in 2017. He graduated from Arizona State University in 2012 with a bachelor's degree. He was chairman of the Republican Party of Maricopa County, AZ, for two years before joining TPU as regional manager in 2015. Bowyer also oversees Students for Trump. He is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and part of an effort in August 2020 to launch a "Latter-day Saints for Trump" coalition.


title: Turning Point USA

text: In February 2019, Turning Point hired Benny Johnson as chief creative officer. Johnson had been fired by BuzzFeed for plagiarism in 2014 and suspended by the Independent Journal Review in 2017 for publishing a conspiracy theory about Barack Obama.


title: Turning Point USA

text: In May 2019, communications director Candace Owens resigned after controversial remarks she made in December 2018 were publicized and some Turning Point campus chapters called for her resignation. She had said in a speech at a conservative event in London that "if Hitler just wanted to make Germany great and have things run well, okay fine. The problem is ... he had dreams outside of Germany. He wanted to globalize." She later stated that "leftist journalists" had mischaracterized her statement.


title: Turning Point USA

text: In May 2019, it was reported that TPUSA's director for high school outreach, Kyle Kashuv, had previously used racially inflammatory language in a Google Document. Kashuv resigned from TPUSA hours after his former classmates threatened to make the screenshots from the document public. Almost a week after the screenshots were published, Kashuv acknowledged that his comments were "callous and inflammatory".


title: Turning Point USA

text: Turning Point USA receives funding from a cohort of conservative and right-wing donors and foundations, including several Republican politicians. According to the Center for Media and Democracy, donors include:


title: Turning Point USA

text: Turning Point USA also contributes money to its affiliated operational organizations, including Turning Point Endowment.


title: Turning Point USA

text: In the 201617 financial year, Turning Point reported US$8.2 million in donations to the IRS, an increase from $4.3 million the previous year. The same year, expenses for the group doubled, reaching $8.3 million, most of which were employment related costs ($4.3 million). In 2017, leaked records found that the group had funnelled "thousands of dollars" into student governments to elect conservative candidates.


title: Turning Point USA

text: In 2019, TPUSA's reported revenues from donors were $28.5 million, and CEO Charlie Kirk's compensation was $292,423.


title: Turning Point USA

text: Turning Point USA's revenues have grown from $78,000 in 2013 to $39.8 million in 2020. In 2020, Turning Point Endowment had revenues of $16,576,350.


title: Turning Point USA

text: In August 2021, Turning Point USA distributed a "2021 Investor Prospectus" that sought to raise $43 million for its national field program, events, media, productions, special projects, Turning Point Academy, and Turning Point Faith. According to David Armiak of the Center for Media and Democracy, the document employs white nationalist rhetoric, stating that "'The Left's plan is a path of destruction, a turning back of the clock 500 years to a past that’s deficient of Western influence'" and that "[s]chools in this country have become intolerant and nihilistic dens of anti-American hate as Leftist professors slander our country with impunity and radical mobs shut down conservative speech entirely."


title: Turning Point USA

text: In late 2017, the organization claimed to have representation on 1,000 campuses. Journalist Joseph Guinto could not verify the number in 2018, finding that Turning Point had 400 officially registered chapters, many of whom showed no activity on their Facebook pages. Each of Turning Point's paid workers is supposed to meet a quota to make at least 1,500 student contacts per semester. Student volunteers have several different themes for promoting conservative ideas, including "The Healthcare Games", "Game of Loans", and "iCapitalism". According to "The Washington Post", TPUSA centers "group membership on making provocative claims and publicly inciting outrage".


title: Turning Point USA

text: Turning Point USA supports the NRA and the use of fossil fuels, and opposes groups such as Black Lives Matter. Turning Point USA and Turning Point UK promote the Cultural Marxism conspiracy theory and said they are working to "combat it" in universities. Kirk described universities as "islands of totalitarianism".


title: Turning Point USA

text: Turning Point holds several annual national conferences, including the Student Action Summit and the Young Women's Leadership Summit (YWLS). The National Rifle Association (NRA) was the headline sponsor of the YWLS in 2017 and 2018. According to "The New York Times", YWLS "styles itself as an alternative to a liberal culture of feminism that many Republicans characterize as oppressive" and had by 2018 "evolved into an ultra-Trumpian event complete with 'lock her up' chants and vulgar T-shirts disparaging Hillary Clinton." Candace Owens, who days prior to the 2018 conference stirred controversy by saying "the entire premise of #metoo is that women are stupid, weak, and inconsequential", was greeted with a standing ovation at the conference. Turning Point also hosts the Young Black Leadership Summit and the Young Latino Leadership Summit. Turning Point provided lodging and some meals for the attendees who could also apply for travel stipends. Turning Point USA also launched est, a four-day conference that featured Republican speakers such as Donald Trump, Jr., and Sarah Palin interspersed with country music acts in December 2021.


title: Turning Point USA

text: On August 11, 2022, Alejandro Richard Velasquez Gomez, a 19-year-old man from San Antonio, Texas, was arrested after making "credible threats" on Instagram against attendees of the Student Action Summit, an annual conference hosted by Turning Point USA for young conservatives in Tampa, Florida. Velasquez bought a plane ticket from Austin to Tampa, but cancelled his flight the night before the summit. The threat, made on Instagram under the username "LatinoZoomer", mirrored the language used by Elliot Rodger in his statements made before going on a deadly spree in Isla Vista, California, in 2014.


title: Turning Point USA

text: The 2022 summit, a conference to promote women's leadership, encouraged women to get married, have children, and become homemakers. Kyle Rittenhouse, a young man who gained notoriety for murder charges in a Kenosha , was brought on stage as the "kind of man they "should want to be attracted to".


title: Turning Point USA

text: First appearing on November 21, 2016, Turning Point USA also operates a website called Professor Watchlist. Kirk has said the site is "dedicated to documenting and exposing college professors who discriminate against conservative students, promote anti-American values, and advance leftist propaganda in the classroom." , more than 250 professors have been added to the site. Reporting from "Politico" has described that the list contains many inaccuracies, and includes professors listed for things they did not exactly say or do and others listed for being rude to students or for making "clever remarks" about Trump. Talking to "New York Times", "Mr. Lamb", a director of constitutional enforcement and transparency at TPUSA admitted that the list was “simply aggregating” academics who had been subject to news reports, and that anyone could report a staff member without evidence.


title: Turning Point USA

text: The website has been criticized for using surveillance type propaganda to manipulate ideas of truth, equality, and freedom. Critics have compared Professor Watchlist to the actions of U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy, who tried to publicly identify American citizens as Communists and Communist sympathizers in the 1950s. "The New York Times" wrote that it was "a threat to academic freedom," while "Salon" commented that it was "a sign of the stupidity of the post truth era."


title: Turning Point USA

text: In May 2017, Northern Arizona University criminology professor Luis Fernandez said Turning Point surveillance of him had led to multiple threats. In "The Harvard Crimson", Harvard University Professor Danielle Allen also said she had been threatened after being targeted by Charlie Kirk and Turning Point.


title: Turning Point USA

text: Hans-Joerg Tiede, a staff member of the American Association of University Professors said of a professor who was named for writing a book chapter on teaching mathematics to minority ethnic children: "She was inundated with death threats. She was Jewish and received antisemitic threats and threats of sexual assault. Instances like that are happening with some regularity". The American Association of University Professors has also called for university administrators, governing bodies, faculty and individuals to "speak out clearly and forcefully to defend academic freedom and to condemn targeted harassment and intimidation of faculty members", with the "New York Times" describing the site as a threat to academic freedoms.


title: Turning Point USA

text: The Professor Watchlist currently includes Al Sharpton, Angela Y. Davis, Michael Eric Dyson, Ibram X. Kendi, Robin D.G. Kelley, Nikole Hannah-Jones, Joy Reid, Noam Chomsky, James Comey, John Brennan, Hunter Biden, and Peter Strzok.


title: Turning Point USA

text: Turning Point USA has been involved in influencing student government elections at a number of colleges and universities. Universities that have been targeted by this effort have included Ohio State University, the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and the University of Maryland. These claims led to conservative candidates at the University of Maryland withdrawing from student elections after failing to report assistance from Turning Point.


title: Turning Point USA

text: A private brochure, handed out only to Turning Point donors, highlighted the organization's alleged strategy to take over student governments at universities across the country, and included a list of every Turning Point-supported student who was elected to student government positions in the year 2017. Turning Point said that it had helped more than 50 conservatives win elections to become student-body presidents. When "Politico" looked into Turning Point's claims, it found the "success rate to be considerably overstated. Some of the students that Turning Point USA claimed to have backed flatly condemned the organization and said they'd never spoken to anyone who works for it."


title: Turning Point USA

text: In 2021, TPUSA launched the School Board Watchlist, a site Kirk said would "hold district leaders accountable for 'dangerous agendas'." The website publishes names and photos of members of school boards that have adopted or supported mask mandates, mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations, and the way history, race, and conceptions of gender and sex are taught in schools.


title: Turning Point USA

text: In 2016, Turning Point at Grand Valley State University filed a lawsuit against the trustees of the school. The complainants asked the court to prohibit enforcement of GVSU's Speech Zone policy and declare it a violation of the students' 1st and 14th Amendment freedoms. They have since reached a settlement.


title: Turning Point USA

text: In September 2017, a University of Nebraska lecturer, Courtney Lawton was reassigned after a video was posted online showing her confronting a student recruiting for TPUSA.


title: Turning Point USA

text: In October 2017, several Turning Point student members at Kent State University conducted a protest against campus "safe space" culture, which involved members dressing up in diapers as babies. Following widespread ridicule on social media, the president of the chapter, Kaitlin Bennett, resigned, and the student-run publication "KentWired.com" reported that the Turning Point chapter at Kent State had disbanded.


title: Turning Point USA

text: In October 2020, Kirk began hosting a daily three-hour radio talk show on Salem Media's "The Answer" radio channel.


title: Turning Point USA

text: In September 2021, TPUSA launched TPUSA LIVE, a three-hour streaming talk show featuring host John Root and selling "Save America" merchandize.


title: Turning Point USA

text: Turning Point USA’s online audience grew from an average of 83,000 to 111,000 in 2020. A dozen social media accounts on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram combined have more than 10 million followers online.


title: Turning Point USA

text: In 2021, the TPUSA Productions film "A Long Walk in Socialism" was the Rocky Mountain Emmy Award recipient in the category Cultural/Topical documentary.


title: Turning Point USA

text: In 2022, Turning Point USA in partnership with Salem Media Group released "Border Battle", a docuseries about America's southern border.


title: Turning Point USA

text: Several former employees and student volunteers for Turning Point claimed they had witnessed collusion between high-ranking Turning Point employees – including Kirk himself and top advisor Ginni Thomas – and the presidential campaigns of both Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio. The interactions included Kirk coordinating via email with two officials at a pro-Cruz super PAC to send student volunteers to work for the PAC in South Carolina, as well as two students being requested by Thomas herself, via voicemail, to distribute over 200 Cruz placards in Wisconsin. A former employee for Turning Point, who had been based in Florida, alleged that Turning Point had given the personal information of over 700 student supporters to an employee with Rubio's presidential campaign.


title: Turning Point USA

text: A Turning Point staff member wrote on Facebook that students who attended the event would have their expenses covered. The event led tax experts to say the organization's conduct may have violated its tax-exempt status, a charge disputed by Turning Point.


title: Turning Point USA

text: In September 2020, Turning Point USA's affiliate Turning Point Action was reported by "The Washington Post" to have paid young people in Arizona, some of them minors, to produce thousands of posts with Turning Point content on their own social media accounts and on fake accounts without disclosing their relationship with Turning Point. According to an examination by the newspaper and an independent data science specialist, the campaign was highly coordinated and included similar messaging under the instruction of Turning Point to prevent detection.


title: Turning Point USA

text: In September 2020, Facebook removed 200 accounts and 55 pages as well as 76 Instagram accounts linked to Turning Point USA's marketing agency Rally Forge. The agency had paid teenagers in Phoenix, Arizona, on Turning Point's behalf to use their own and fake accounts and pages for thousands of posts boosting Trump and disparaging Democratic candidate Joe Biden during the 2020 United States presidential election. In October 2020, Facebook banned Rally Forge permanently while Twitter suspended 262 accounts from its platform. Neither organization penalized Turning Point USA or its affiliates, stating that they "could not determine the extent to which the group's leaders were aware of the specific violations carried out on their behalf, such as the use of fake accounts."


title: Turning Point USA

text: Turning Point hosted Trump reelection rallies, some of them featuring Trump surrogates and some of them Trump himself.


title: Turning Point USA

text: After the 2020 election, Kirk disputed the results and denied that Trump had lost. On January 4, 2021, Kirk announced that Turning Point would be sending more than 80 buses to a January 6, 2021, Trump rally near the White House in Washington, D.C, to protest the outcome of the election. They sent seven buses with approximately 350 participants. The rally, which was attended by several thousand Trump supporters, ended in a riot and the attack at the U.S. Capitol, where Biden's win was about to be certified. Kirk later deleted the tweet and said on his podcast that it was "bad judgment" and "not wise" to enter the Capitol but not necessarily insurrectionist.


title: Turning Point USA

text: At Drake University, Turning Point was denied recognition as an official student organization based on student senate concerns that the organization has "a hateful record," "aggressive marketing" and "an unethical privacy concern."


title: Turning Point USA

text: At Hagerstown Community College, a student's attempt to start a Turning Point group was initially blocked when the school said the organization duplicated an existing group. The student's lawsuit led to the school revising its policy on student organizations, clarifying that school funded groups will be denied if they duplicate existing groups while unfunded groups face no such restriction.


title: Turning Point USA

text: In February 2017, Santa Clara University's student government voted to deny recognition for Turning Point as a campus organization. As of March 2017, this decision was overturned by the Vice Provost for Student Life, and Turning Point has been recognized as a registered student organization.


title: Turning Point USA

text: Wartburg College's student senate voted to deny Turning Point USA recognition in late November. The chapter was forced to make changes to its constitution after initially being denied approval.


title: Turning Point USA

text: The Executive Board of the student union of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute also voted on January 18, 2018 to deny the Turning Point USA chapter status as an officially recognized student organization.


title: Turning Point USA

text: Wichita State University's student court overturned a decision by the student senate denying a Turning Point Chapter recognition on Campus. The student court vote was unanimous that the denial of recognition was unconstitutional.


title: Turning Point USA

text: In December 2017, "The New Yorker" published an article by Jane Mayer showcasing interviews with former minority members of TPUSA. Former staff members said they witnessed widespread discrimination against minorities in the group, and stated "the organization was a difficult workplace and rife with tension, some of it racial." One former employee, an African-American woman, said she was the only person of color working for the organization at the time she was hired in 2014; she then said that she was fired on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The article also revealed text messages sent by Crystal Clanton – who was a leading figure in the organization and served as the group's national field director for five years – to another Turning Point employee saying "i hate black people. Like fuck them all ... I hate blacks. End of story." Kirk responded to the revelations by saying that "Turning Point assessed the situation and took decisive action within 72 hours of being made aware of the issue." The article also noted that Kirk had explicitly praised Clanton in his book "Time for a Turning Point", saying that she had been "the best hire we ever could have made", and that "Turning Point needs more Crystals; so does America."


title: Turning Point USA

text: In an April 2018 article titled "Turning Point USA Keeps Accidentally Hiring Racists", "HuffPost" reported that the woman hired to replace Crystal Clanton had a history of using racial slurs, particularly against African-Americans, on Twitter before deleting her account. In response to the reports, Kirk referred to the individual in question as "a former employee" in his official statement (without clarifying when she had been fired), and Turning Point issued an internal memo announcing that all current and new staff would face social media background checks.


title: Turning Point USA

text: In the Hillsdale College "Collegian", opinions editor Kaylee McGhee wrote an article titled "Charlie Kirk and TPUSA aren't conservative, as real conservatives already knew". In the article, McGhee referred to TPUSA as a "reactionary cancer" rather than a group supporting real conservatism that is "supposed to preserve the timeless principles of liberty and equality for all". In June 2018, conservative radio talk show host Joe Walsh resigned from the TPUSA board because Kirk was too closely tied to Donald Trump. Walsh said: "It's so important to not be beholden to politicians, but to be beholden to the issues ... When Charlie went to work for Trump, that crossed that line. You can't advance Trump and advance these issues."


title: Turning Point USA

text: During October and November 2019, Kirk launched the Culture War college tour of speaking events with appearances from many conservatives such as Donald Trump Jr., Lara Trump and Kimberly Guilfoyle. These events were frequently targeted by homophobic and antisemitic members of the alt-right and far-right who consider TPUSA to be too mainstream and not sufficiently conservative. Concerted efforts were made by this group to ask leading questions during the Q&A sections on controversial topics such as Israel and LGBTQ issues in order to challenge the extent of the speakers' views.


title: Turning Point USA

text: In November 2019, the Dartmouth Review called TPUSA an organization that promoted Charlie Kirk and Donald Trump first, rather than conservative values. The article added "True conservatives must eventually outgrow TPUSA and devote their efforts elsewhere. We must challenge ourselves by pursuing an environment of rigorous inquiry, instead of being coddled by the intellectually devoid echo chamber of TPUSA, compromising our values for recognition."


title: Turning Point USA

text: In July 2022, neo-Nazis appeared outside of TPUSA's Student Action Summit in Tampa; they were subsequently not let in. Joy Behar of "The View" falsely stated that TPUSA invited and embraced neo-Nazi protesters and compared the summit to the Third Reich. "The View" later issued a retraction, clarifying that "Turning Point USA condemned the Neo-Nazi protesters who had 'nothing to do' with the organization." Host Whoopi Goldberg would later say, "But you let them in, and you knew what they were," and "My point was metaphorical." Following these comments, TPUSA issued a cease and desist request and a deadline of July 27, asking for "The View" to apologize. In a later episode meeting the deadline, members of "The View" fully retracted the statements and apologized for making the comparisons.


title: Turning Point USA

text: TPUSA has been called an alt-lite organization by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), and has been criticized by both the ADL and the Southern Poverty Law Center for affiliating with activists from the alt-right and the far-right. The Anti-Defamation League has also reported that the group's leadership and activists "have made multiple racist or bigoted comments" and have links to extremism.


title: Turning Point USA

text: In May 2018, an internal memo written by Young America's Foundation (YAF) was leaked, in which YAF leadership warned its members to not associate with TPUSA. The memo accused the organization of various improprieties, such as exaggerating the number of TPUSA chapters and activities around the country, taking credit for other organizations' events, increasing attendance at its own events by "boosting numbers with racists & Nazi sympathizers", and sponsoring "humiliating" campus activism events, in reference to the Kent State diaper incident. In addition, the YAF memo included another memo on the subject circulated internally by Young Americans for Liberty, which accused TPUSA of illegally obtaining YAL's email list and soliciting its students without their permission, which Turning Point only stopped doing after being issued a cease-and-desist order.


title: Turning Point USA

text: After the memo was leaked in June 2018, a representative for TPUSA criticized YAF in a statement to "The Chronicle of Higher Education", accusing the group of "abandoning the 'Reagan Rule, known as "Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican". Although Kirk did not directly respond to the memo, he posted on Twitter that he wished "some conservatives fought the left as hard as they fight people who support President Trump". TPUSA's communications director Candace Owens directly responded to the memo, saying she was "truly speechless" over the memo criticizing Kirk for his lack of college experience. A former employee stated on Twitter that "TPUSA activists do some incredible work. It's a shame the face for their work has become constant, EXTREME inflation of numbers to mislead donors. They have an opportunity to turn this around, and they should."


title: Turning Point USA

text: After TPUSA's annual "Student Action Summit" in late December 2018, dissidents within the organization, headed by conservative activist Kevin Martin, formed "Heal Our Voice", a group critical of Kirk's leadership of Turning Point USA. One member of the group told "The Daily Beast" that "Charlie Kirk can be a little bit of a snowflake — or a lot a bit of a snowflake." Other complaints concerned sexual harassment and assault at TPUSA events.


title: Turning Point USA

text: In 2017, Jane Mayer of "The New Yorker" described two separate actions by Turning Point staff in the 2016 election that appear to have violated campaign finance regulations. Charlie Kirk denied any wrongdoing and said it was "completely ludicrous and ridiculous that there's some sort of secret plan." TPUSA attorney Sally Wagenmaker refuted allegations of campaign finance irregularities in an article published by ProPublica in July 2020, stating that "payments to businesses belonging to organization officials 'provided a compelling operational benefit in Turning Point's best and other interests,' and that they were 'in full compliance with TPUSA's IRS-compliant conflict of interest policy.'"


title: Turning Point USA

text: In 2021, TPUSA and Turning Point Action made misleading claims about planned vaccination policies, as well as the dangers of catching COVID-19.


title: Turning Point USA

text: Turning Point Action is a 501(c)(4) organization representing right-wing and conservative perspectives. While the group claims to be a "completely separate organization" from Turning Point USA, "Forbes" noted that both were founded by Kirk and use common marketing and branding styles. Donors to Turning Point Action received a bumper sticker prominently featuring the URL of Turning Point USA's website; the bumper sticker was also available for purchase from Turning Point USA's web store.


title: Turning Point USA

text: In May 2019, it was reported that Kirk was "preparing to unveil" Turning Point Action, a 501(c)(4) entity allowed to target Democrats.


title: Turning Point USA

text: During the 2020 presidential election campaign Turning Point Action paid teenagers in Arizona, some of them minors, to produce thousands of posts with Turning Point USA content on their own social media accounts without disclosing their relationship with the organization.


title: Turning Point USA

text: In 2021, Charlie Kirk founded Turning Point Faith, an organization that says it is dedicated to "recruit pastors and other church leaders to be active in local and national political issues." The organization promotes a culture war agenda and is intended to attract supporters among religious conservatives. Its activities include faith-based voter drives "and educating members on TPUSA's core values." According to TPUSA's 2021 Investor Prospectus, the program—with a budget of $6.4 million—"will 'address America’s crumbling religious foundation by engaging thousands of pastors nationwide' in order to 'breathe renewed civic engagement into our churches'." Its activities include faith-based voter drives "and educating members on TPUSA's core values."


title: Turning Point USA

text: Turning Point Endowment Inc. is a self-described "supporting organization" whose "mission is to support and benefit Turning Point USA's charitable purposes and long-term vitality."


title: Turning Point USA

text: In 2021, TPUSA announced Turning Point Academy as an online academy for "families seeking an 'America-first education.'" Plans to develop a curriculum with "StrongMind", the firm that owns Arizona charter school Primavera Online High School, were abandoned when StrongMind's key subcontractor, the "Freedom Learning Group", an education company run by military spouses and veterans, terminated the contract after finding out that the client was TPUSA.


title: Baekhyun

text: Byun Baek-hyun (; born May 6, 1992), better known mononymously as Baekhyun, is a South Korean singer, songwriter and actor. Baekhyun began training under SM Entertainment in 2011. A few months later, he made his debut in 2012 as a member of the South Korean-Chinese boy group Exo, its sub-group Exo-K and later on its sub-unit Exo-CBX. He is also the leader of South Korean supergroup SuperM.


title: Baekhyun

text: Following the release of several albums and extended plays with Exo, Baekhyun began pursuing a solo career in 2019 by releasing his debut extended play, "City Lights", which sold more than half-a-million copies in 2019 and is the best-selling album by a solo artist of the 2010s in South Korea. "City Lights" was followed by two million-selling EPs, "Delight" (2020), the first album by a solo artist in South Korea to have sold over 1 million copies in 19 years, and "Bambi" (2021). He has been labeled as the "Genius Idol", and won three consecutive Mnet Asian Music Awards for Best Male Artist from 2019 to 2021.


title: Baekhyun

text: Baekhyun was born on May 6, 1992, in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea. He has a brother named Baek-beom who is seven years older than him. Baekhyun began training to be a singer when he was 11 years old, influenced by South Korean singer Rain. He attended Jungwon High School in Bucheon, where he was the lead singer in a band called "Honsusangtae" (lit. "coma") and won a local music festival. He received piano lessons from Kim Hyun-woo, member of South Korean rock band DickPunks. In addition to musical activities, Baekhyun trained as a martial artist in his youth and has a dan 3 black belt in Hapkido.


title: Baekhyun

text: Baekhyun was spotted by an SM Entertainment agent while he was studying for the entrance exams to the Seoul Institute of the Arts. He later joined SM Entertainment in 2011 through the S.M. Casting System.


title: Baekhyun

text: Baekhyun was officially revealed to be Exo's ninth member on January 30, 2012, as a main vocalist of Exo. The group officially debuted in April 2012 and has since gained significant popularity and commercial success.


title: Baekhyun

text: In February 2014, Baekhyun and fellow Exo member Suho became regular hosts for the SBS music television show "Inkigayo". They left the position in November 2014 to focus on Exo's upcoming comeback. In July 2014, Baekhyun made his musical theatre debut, playing the main role of Don Lockwood in the South Korean production of the musical "Singin' in the Rain" by SM C&C .


title: Baekhyun

text: In April 2015, Baekhyun released his first solo song since debut titled "Beautiful" as the soundtrack for Exo's web-drama "Exo Next Door". The song became the first soundtrack single from a web drama to top digital charts. In May 2015, Baekhyun was announced to be starring in action film "Dokgo" alongside actor Yeo Jin-goo. However, production of the film was announced to have been cancelled in January 2016. In December 2015, Baekhyun paid tribute to the late South Korean singer Kim Hyun-sik by performing his song "Like Rain Like Music" at SBS' year-end music program "Gayo Daejeon". The studio recording of his rendition was later released digitally.


title: Baekhyun

text: In January 2016, Baekhyun and Miss A member Suzy released a duet titled "Dream". The song quickly reached the top on online real-time music charts and later debuted at number one on Gaon's weekly digital chart. "Dream" also won first place five times in total on music television programs "Music Bank" and "Inkigayo". In April 2016, Baekhyun received a YinYueTai V-Chart Award for Most Popular Singer in South Korea. In May 2016, Baekhyun and South Korean singer K.Will released a folk-ballad duet titled "The Day" as part of SM Entertainment's music project SM Station.


title: Baekhyun

text: In August 2016, Baekhyun made his small screen debut in the SBS historical drama "", a South Korean adaptation of the Chinese novel "Bu Bu Jing Xin". For his performance in the drama he received a New Star Award at the 2016 SBS Drama Awards. He also collaborated with fellow Exo members Chen and Xiumin on an original soundtrack for the series titled "For You". In October 2016, together with Chen and Xiumin, Baekhyun became a member of Exo's first official sub unit Exo-CBX. Their debut extended play, "Hey Mama!", was released on October 31. In November 2016, Baekhyun began participating in SM Entertainment's "League of Legends" tournament "2016 S.M. Super Celeb League", where he and labelmate Heechul played the game with both professional players and fans from South Korea and China.


title: Baekhyun

text: In February 2017, Baekhyun and Sistar member Soyou released a duet titled "Rain". The song reached number one on every South Korean online music chart, an achievement known as "all-kill", making him the first SM Entertainment artist to achieve "all-kill" in both 2016 and 2017 with "Dream" and "Rain" respectively. In April 2017, Baekhyun released a single titled "Take You Home" for the second season of the Station project. The song peaked at number twelve on Gaon's weekly digital chart.


title: Baekhyun

text: On February 5, 2018, Baekhyun performed the South Korean national anthem at the opening ceremony of the 132nd International Olympic Committee (IOC) session in front of Moon Jae-in, the president of South Korea, and Lee Hee-beom, the president of the Organizing Committee for the 2018 Winter Olympics. In August 2018, Baekhyun and rapper Loco released a collaboration track titled "Young" for the Station project. The song charted at number four on the Billboard World Digital Song Sales chart.


title: Baekhyun

text: In July 2019, Baekhyun debuted as a solo artist, the third soloist among Exo members, by releasing the EP "City Lights". The EP went on to sell over 550,000 copies in 2019, breaking the record for the best-selling album by a solo artist in the history of South Korea's Gaon Music Chart. It topped the Gaon weekly and monthly chart and placed sixth on the year-end chart, as well as first among albums released by solo artists. It eventually became the best-selling solo album of South Korea in the 2010s. In August, Baekhyun was confirmed as a member of SuperM, a "K-pop supergroup" created by SM Entertainment in collaboration with Capitol Records that would be aimed at the American market. SuperM debuted with a self-titled EP and began promotions in October. In December, Baekhyun was awarded Best Male Artist at the 2019 Mnet Asian Music Awards following the success of his debut EP "City Lights", and its lead single "UN Village".


title: Baekhyun

text: Early in 2020, Baekhyun released two soundtrack singles, "My Love" and "On the Road", for the television series "Dr. Romantic 2" and "Hyena" respectively. In May, Baekhyun collaborated with Bolbbalgan4, featuring on her single "Leo". The song peaked at number two on Gaon's weekly digital chart. In the same month, Baekhyun released his second EP "Delight", featuring the lead single "Candy". The EP garnered over 732,000 pre-orders, making it the most pre-ordered album by a soloist in South Korean history. By July, "Delight" had sold more than 1,000,000 copies, becoming the first album by a solo artist in South Korea to do so since "Another Days" (2001) by Kim Gun-mo. Also in July, Baekhyun released a remake of BoA's track "Garden in the Air" from her album "Girls on Top" (2005) through SM Station as the first release from a project dedicated to BoA's 20th debut anniversary. Later in 2020, he released two more soundtrack singles, "Every Second" for "Record of Youth", and "Happy" for "Do You Like Brahms?". On December 6, Baekhyun won the Mnet Asian Music Award for Best Male Artist for a second consecutive year. Later in December, he released a digital single titled "Amusement Park".


title: Baekhyun

text: On January 3, 2021, Baekhyun held his first solo concert, , in a digital format as in-person concerts were not possible due to restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Broadcast through Beyond Live, the concert drew 110,000 viewers from 120 countries. A day later, he released "Get You Alone," the lead single from his self-titled debut Japanese EP, which was released on January 21. The EP has been certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of Japan. On March 30, Baekhyun released his third Korean-language EP (fourth overall) "Bambi" and its lead single of the same name, his last release before enlisting for South Korea's mandatory military service. The album replaced "Delight" as the most pre-ordered album by a solo artist in South Korea at over 833.000 copies. It debuted atop the Gaon Album Chart and is Baekyun's second consecutive Korean-language album to have sold over 1 million copies. In December, he won his third consecutive Mnet Asian Music Award for Best Male Artist.


title: Baekhyun

text: Baekhyun's tenor voice, described as "soaring" by "Refinery29" and "standout" by "Billboard", has been one of the focal points of his discography.


title: Baekhyun

text: In May 2017, Baekhyun collaborated with Montblanc for the brand's digital watch and released the advertisement video on social media.


title: Baekhyun

text: In May 2018, "Vogue" magazine revealed that Baekhyun collaborated with Privé, and would be launching his own brand, "Privé by BBH", a unisex street-wear brand, on July 1. Baekhyun is now the co-creative director of the brand. In an interview with "Forbes", Baekhyun explained that he wants to "encourage people to embody being fearless" when they wear clothes from his brand.


title: Baekhyun

text: In September 2020, Baekhyun was announced as the brand ambassador of Burberry. He was featured on the cover of Harper's Bazaar Korea October issue, making him the first K-Pop male artist to be featured solo on the magazine's cover


title: Baekhyun

text: Along with fellow Exo members Chanyeol and Suho, Baekhyun attended Kyung Hee Cyber University and took online classes for Culture and Arts Department of Business Administration.


title: Baekhyun

text: Since May 6, 2021, Baekhyun has been enlisted in South Korea's mandatory military service. Having been diagnosed with hypothyroidism, he is serving as a public service worker instead of an active-duty soldier.


title: Daihatsu

text: , commonly known as Daihatsu, is a Japanese automobile manufacturer and one of the oldest surviving Japanese internal combustion engine manufacturers. The company's headquarters are located in Ikeda, Osaka Prefecture.


title: Daihatsu

text: Historically, Daihatsu was well known for building three-wheeled vehicles and off-road vehicles, while currently the company offers a range of kei car models, along with kei trucks, kei vans and other larger small cars in Japan. The company also produces entry-level compact cars in Japan and Southeast Asia, which are also supplied to global emerging markets under the Toyota brand.


title: Daihatsu

text: , Daihatsu's presence has been limited to Japan, Indonesia, and Malaysia (as Perodua), where the company has significant research and development resources, manufacturing facilities and sales operations.


title: Daihatsu

text: The company has been a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Toyota Motor Corporation since August 2016. , Daihatsu sales account for 4 per cent of the Toyota Group's vehicle sales' total.


title: Daihatsu

text: The name "Daihatsu" is a combination of the first symbol (kanji) of Ōsaka (大) and the first of the word . In the new combination the reading of the "大" is changed from "ō" to "dai", giving "dai hatsu".


title: Daihatsu

text: Daihatsu was formed in March 1951 as a successor to Hatsudoki Seizo Co. Ltd, founded in 1907, as part of Hatsudoki's major restructure. Hatsudoki's formation was largely influenced by the Engineering Department's faculty of Osaka University, to develop a gasoline-powered engine for small, stationary power plants. From the beginning of the company until 1930, when a prototype three-wheeler truck was considered and proposed, Hatsudoki's focus was largely steam engines for Japanese National Railways and included rail carriages for passenger transportation. The company then focused on railroad diesel engines, working with Niigata Engineering, and Shinko Engineering Co., Ltd. Before the company began to manufacture automobiles, their primary Japanese competitor was Yanmar for diesel engines that weren't installed in a commercial truck to provide motivation.


title: Daihatsu

text: The company's decision to focus on automobile production and related technologies was influenced by the early days of automobile manufacturing in Japan during the late 1920s and 1930s, when both Ford and General Motors had opened factories in Japan and enjoyed a considerable market share. Ford opened a factory at Yokohama in March 1925 and in 1927 GM opened Osaka Assembly until both factories were appropriated by the Imperial Japanese Government before World War II.


title: Daihatsu

text: During the 1960s, Daihatsu began exporting its range to Europe, where it did not have major sales success until well into the 1980s. In Japan, the majority of Daihatsu models occupies the kei jidōsha (or kei car) segment.


title: Daihatsu

text: Daihatsu was an independent automaker until Toyota became a major shareholder in 1967 as the Japanese government intended to open up the domestic market. According to Toyota, it was first approached by Sanwa Bank, banker of Daihatsu. In 1995, Toyota increased its shareholding in the company from 16.8 percent to 33.4 percent by acquiring shares from other shareholders: banks and insurance companies. At the time, the company was producing mini-vehicles and some small cars under contract for Toyota. Toyota, by owning more than a one-third stake, would be able to veto shareholder resolutions at the annual meeting. In 1998, Toyota increased its holding in the company to 51.2 percent by purchasing shares from its major shareholders including financial institutions.


title: Daihatsu

text: Daihatsu pulled out of the European market by 2013, citing the persistently strong yen, which makes it difficult for the company to make a profit from its export business. Following the financial crisis of 2007–2008 Daihatsu's sales in Europe plummeted, from 58,000 in 2007 to 12,000 in 2011.


title: Daihatsu

text: In August 2011, Daihatsu invested 20 billion yen ($238.9 million) in Indonesia to build a factory that produces low-cost cars under the Low Cost Green Car scheme. The construction had been initialized on 70,000 square meters on May 27, 2011 and started operations at the end of 2012, producing up to 100,000 cars per year.


title: Daihatsu

text: In August 2016, Daihatsu became a wholly owned subsidiary of Toyota Motor Corporation. In January 2017, Daihatsu and Toyota jointly established an internal company to develop compact vehicles for emerging markets called the 'Emerging-market Compact Car Company'. Under the internal company, Daihatsu is responsible of product planning and quality planning of the vehicles, while both Toyota and Daihatsu are jointly responsible of product and business planning. To support the company, Toyota Motor Asia Pacific Engineering and Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (TMAP-EM) in Thailand was renamed to Toyota Daihatsu Engineering and Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (TDEM).


title: Daihatsu

text: In October 2016, Daihatsu and Toyota announced a new vehicle architecture called the Daihatsu New Global Architecture (DNGA) was being developed. The second-generation was revealed as the first DNGA model in 2017, although the company later revised the definition of DNGA and launched the fourth-generation Tanto claiming it as the first DNGA model instead.


title: Daihatsu

text: Daihatsu's first export was in 1953, and by 1980 half a million Daihatsu vehicles had been exported. In 1979 a European main office was established in Brussels, tasked with controlling and expanding Western European exports. Since the late 1990s, its exports have been steadily contracting. This has been partially offset by the sale of Daihatsu vehicles through the Toyota channel, and the sale of technology to Malaysia's Perodua. Daihatsu has also supplied cars under different badges to various automakers in the past. The company currently provides engines and transmissions to Malaysia's Perodua, which manufactures and markets rebadged Daihatsu cars locally, and sold a small number of Perodua cars in the United Kingdom and Ireland until 2012.