title: Vestal Virgin

text: In more than a thousand years of Roman history, Vestal executions were very rare. Most took place at times of crisis for the Roman state. The end of Roman monarchy and the beginnings of the Republic involved extreme social tensions between aristocrats and commoners plebeians, competing for power and influence. In 483 BC, the Vestal Oppia was executed for "incestum" on the basis of various portents, and allegations that she neglected her Vestal duties. In 337 BC, Minucia, possibly the first plebeian Vestal, was tried, found guilty of unchastity and buried alive on the strength of her excessive and inappropriate love of dress, and the evidence of a slave. Cornell counts just two Vestal executions between the first Punic War and the end of the Republic, one in 216 BC and One in 113-14 BC each during a period of crisis. Each was followed by the living burial of a Greek and Gaul, male and female, in the "Forum Boarium", a rare and nameless form of "bloodless" human sacrifice or expiation that seem to have been reserved for times of extreme crisis. Some Vestals were probably used as scapegoats, whose political alliances and alleged failure to observe oaths and duties were held to account for civil disturbances, wars, famines, plagues and other signs of divine displeasure.


title: Vestal Virgin

text: In 123 BC the gift of an altar, shrine and couch to the Bona Dea's Aventine temple by the Vestal Licinia "without the people's approval" was refused by the Roman Senate. In 114 Licinia and two of her colleagues, Vestals Aemilia and Marcia, were accused of multiple acts of . Aemilia, who had supposedly incited the two others to follow her example, was condemned outright and put to death. Marcia, who was accused of only one offence, and Licinia, who was accused of many, were at first acquitted by the pontifices, but were retried by Lucius Cassius Longinus Ravilla (consul 127), and condemned to death in 113. The prosecution offered two Sibylline prophecies in support of the final verdicts. The charges were almost certainly trumped up, and may have been politically motivated.


title: Vestal Virgin

text: Pliny the Younger believed that Cornelia, a buried alive on the orders of emperor Domitian, was an innocent victim. He describes how she sought to keep her dignity intact when she descended into the chamber:


title: Vestal Virgin

text: Dionysius of Halicarnassus claims that at Alba Longa Vestals were whipped and "put to death" for breaking their vows of celibacy, and that their offspring were to be thrown into the river. According to Livy, Rhea Silvia, mother of Romulus and Remus, had been forced to become a Vestal Virgin, and was chained and imprisoned when she gave birth. Dionysius writes that the Roman king Tarquinius Priscus instituted live burial as a punishment for Vestals, and inflicted it on the Vestal Pinaria. The 11th-century Byzantine historian George Kedrenos claims that prior to this, King Numa Pompilius introduced death by stoning as punishment for unchaste Vestal Virgins. Dionysus claims that whipping with rods sometimes preceded the immuration as was done to Urbinia in 471 BCE.


title: Vestal Virgin

text: Posumia, though innocent according to Livy, was suspected and tried for unchastity on grounds of her immodest attire and over-familiar manner. Some Vestals were acquitted. Some cleared themselves through ordeals or miraculous deeds; in a celebrated case during the mid-Republic, the Vestal Tuccia, accused of inchastity, carried water in a sieve to prove her innocence; Livy's epitomator (Per. 20) claims that she was condemned neverteless but in all other sources she was aquitted. x. The paramour of a guilty Vestal was beaten to death by the "pontifex maximus" in person, in the Forum Boarium or on the Comitium.


title: Vestal Virgin

text: The House of the Vestals was the residence of the vestal priestesses in Rome. Located behind the Temple of Vesta (which housed the sacred fire), the was a three-storey building at the foot of the Palatine Hill, "very large and exceptionally magnificent both in decoration and material".


title: Vestal Virgin

text: Vestal costume had some elements in common with high-status Roman bridal dress, and some with the formal dress of high status Roman matrons (married citizen-women). Vestals and matrons wore a long linen over a white woolen , a rectangular female citizen's wrap, equivalent to the male citizen's semi-circular toga. The most important and distinctive part of Vestal attire was the head-covering. A Vestal's hair was bound into a white, priestly (head-covering or fillet) with red and white ribbons, usually tied together behind the head and hanging loosely over the shoulders.


title: Vestal Virgin

text: Vestal Virgins wore the same priestly hairstyle daily. High status brides were veiled in the same saffron-yellow as the , priestess of Jupiter and wife to his high priest. Vestals wore a white, purple-bordered (veil) when travelling outdoors, performing public rites or offering sacrifices. Respectable matrons were also expected to wear veils in public. One who appeared in public without her veil could be thought to have repudiated her marriage, making herself "available".


title: Vestal Virgin

text: The red ribbons of the Vestal were said to represent Vesta's fire; and the white, virginity, or sexual purity. The stola is associated with Roman citizen-matrons and Vestals, not with brides. This covering of the body by way of the gown and veils "signals the prohibitions that governed [the Vestals] sexuality". The communicates the message of "hands off" and asserts their virginity. The prescribed hairstyle for Vestals and for brides on their wedding day comprised six or seven braids; this was thought to date back to the most ancient of times. In 2013 Janet Stephens recreated the hairstyle of the vestals on a modern person.


title: Vestal Virgin

text: From the institution of the Vestal priesthood to its abolition, an unknown number of Vestals held office. Some are named in Roman myth and history and some are of unknown date.


title: Vestal Virgin

text: The 1st-century BC author Varro, names the first four, probably legendary Vestals as Gegania, Veneneia, Canuleia, and Tarpeia. Roman legend portrayed Tarpeia, daughter of Spurius Tarpeius, as treasonous..


title: Vestal Virgin

text: The Vestals were used as models of female virtue in allegorizing portraiture of the later West. Elizabeth I of England was portrayed holding a sieve to evoke Tuccia, the Vestal who proved her virtue by carrying water in a sieve. Tuccia herself had been a subject for artists such as Jacopo del Sellaio ( 1493) and Joannes Stradanus, and women who were arts patrons started having themselves painted as Vestals. In the libertine environment of 18th century France, portraits of women as Vestals seem intended as fantasies of virtue infused with ironic eroticism. Later vestals became an image of republican virtue, as in Jacques-Louis David's "The Vestal Virgin". The discovery of a "House of the Vestals" in Pompeii made the Vestals a popular subject in the 18th century and the 19th century.


title: Gallon

text: The gallon is a unit of volume in imperial units and United States customary units. Three different versions are in current use:


title: Gallon

text: There are two pints in a quart and four quarts in a gallon. Different sizes of pints account for the different sizes of the imperial and US gallons.


title: Gallon

text: The IEEE standard symbol for both US (liquid) and imperial gallon is gal, not to be confused with the gal (symbol: Gal), a CGS unit of acceleration.


title: Gallon

text: The gallon currently has one definition in the imperial system, and two definitions (liquid and dry) in the US customary system. Historically, there were many definitions and redefinitions.


title: Gallon

text: There were a number of systems of liquid measurements in the United Kingdom prior to the 19th century.


title: Gallon

text: The British imperial gallon is defined as exactly 4.54609 dm. It is used in some Commonwealth countries, and until 1976 was defined as the volume of 10 pounds (4.5359237 kg) of water at . There are four quarts in a gallon, the imperial pint is defined as 0.56826125 litres ( gallon) and there are 20 imperial fluid ounces in an imperial pint, yielding 160 fluid ounces in an imperial gallon.


title: Gallon

text: The US liquid gallon (frequently called simply "gallon") is legally defined as 231 cubic inches, which is exactly . A US liquid gallon can contain about of water at , and is about 16.7% less than the imperial gallon. There are four quarts in a gallon, two pints in a quart and 16 US fluid ounces in a US pint, which makes the US fluid ounce equal to of a US gallon. In order to overcome the effects of expansion and contraction with temperature when using a gallon to specify a quantity of material for purposes of trade, it is common to define the temperature at which the material will occupy the specified volume. For example, the volume of petroleum products and alcoholic beverages are both referenced to in government regulations.


title: Gallon

text: Since the dry measure is one-eighth of a US "Winchester" bushel of cubic inches, it is equal to exactly 268.8025 cubic inches, which is . The US dry gallon is not used in commerce, and is also not listed in the relevant statute, which jumps from the dry pint to the bushel.


title: Gallon

text: As of 2021, the imperial gallon continues to be used as the standard petrol unit in four British Overseas Territories (Anguilla, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, and Montserrat) and six countries (Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Christopher and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines).


title: Gallon

text: All of the countries and territories which use the imperial gallon as their petrol unit also use miles per hour for speed limits, and drive on the left side of the road.


title: Gallon

text: The United Arab Emirates ceased selling petrol by the imperial gallon in 2010 and switched to the litre, with Guyana following suit in 2013.


title: Gallon

text: The gallon was removed from the list of legally defined primary units of measure catalogued in the EU directive 80/181/EEC for trading and official purposes, with effect from 31 December 1994. Under the directive the gallon could still be used, but only as a supplementary or secondary unit. One of the effects of this directive was that the United Kingdom amended its own legislation to replace the gallon with the litre as a primary unit of measure in trade and in the conduct of public business, effective from 30 September 1995. However within the United Kingdom and Ireland, barrels and large containers of beer, oil and other fluids are commonly in multiples of an imperial gallon.


title: Gallon

text: Ireland also passed legislation in response to the EU directive, with the effective date being 31 December 1993. Though the gallon has ceased to be a primary unit of trade, it can still be legally used in both the UK and Ireland as a supplementary unit.


title: Gallon

text: Miles per imperial gallon is used as the primary fuel economy unit in the United Kingdom and as a supplementary unit in Canada on official documentation.


title: Gallon

text: Other than the United States, petrol is sold by the US gallon in Belize, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Peru, as well as in the Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, and Palau, which are associated with the United States, and Liberia, a former protectorate of the United States.


title: Gallon

text: Despite its status as a US territory, and unlike American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, and the US Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico ceased selling petrol by the US gallon in 1980.


title: Gallon

text: Panama ceased selling petrol in US gallons in 2013 and now uses litres, while El Salvador followed suit in June 2021.


title: Gallon

text: In the Turks and Caicos Islands, both the US gallon and imperial gallon are used due to an increase in tax duties which was disguised by levying the same duty on the US gallon (3.79 L) as was previously levied on the Imperial gallon (4.55 L).


title: Gallon

text: Both the US liquid and imperial gallon are divided into four quarts ("quart"er gallons), which in turn are divided into two pints, which in turn are divided into two cups, (not in customary use outside the US), which in turn are further divided into two gills. Thus, both gallons are equal to four quarts, eight pints, sixteen cups, or thirty-two gills.


title: Gallon

text: The imperial gill is further divided into five fluid ounces, whereas the US gill is divided into four fluid ounces, meaning an imperial fluid ounce is of an imperial pint, or of an imperial gallon, while a US fluid ounce is of a US pint, or of a US gallon. Thus, the imperial gallon, quart, pint, cup and gill are approximately 20% larger than their US counterparts, meaning these are not interchangeable, but the imperial fluid ounce is only approximately 4% smaller than the US fluid ounce, meaning these are often used interchangeably.


title: Gallon

text: Historically, a common bottle size for liquor in the US was the "fifth", i.e. one-fifth of a US gallon (or one-sixth of an imperial gallon). While spirit sales in the US were switched to metric measures in 1976, a 750 mL bottle is still sometimes known as a "fifth".


title: Gallon

text: The term derives most immediately from "galun", "galon" in Old Norman French, but the usage was common in several languages, for example in Old French and (bowl) in Old English. This suggests a common origin in Romance Latin, but the ultimate source of the word is unknown.


title: Gallon

text: The gallon originated as the base of systems for measuring wine and beer in England. The sizes of gallon used in these two systems were different from each other: the first was based on the wine gallon (equal in size to the US gallon), and the second one either the ale gallon or the larger imperial gallon.


title: Gallon

text: The "corn" or "dry gallon" is used (along with the dry quart and pint) in the United States for grain and other dry commodities. It is one-eighth of the (Winchester) bushel, originally defined as a cylindrical measure of inches in diameter and 8 inches in depth, which made the dry gallon ) × ≈ 2150.42017 cubic inches. The bushel was later defined to be 2150.42 cubic inches exactly, thus making its gallon exactly (); in previous centuries, there had been a corn gallon of between 271 and 272 cubic inches.


title: Gallon

text: The "wine", "fluid", or "liquid gallon" has been the standard US gallon since the early 19th century. The wine gallon, which some sources relate to the volume occupied by eight medieval merchant pounds of wine, was at one time defined as the volume of a cylinder 6 inches deep and 7 inches in diameter, i.e. . It was redefined during the reign of Queen Anne in 1706 as 231 cubic inches exactly, the earlier definition with approximated to .


title: Gallon

text: Although the wine gallon had been used for centuries for import duty purposes, there was no legal standard of it in the Exchequer, while a smaller gallon was actually in use, requiring this statute; it remains the US definition today.


title: Gallon

text: In 1824, Britain adopted a close approximation to the "ale gallon" known as the "imperial gallon", and abolished all other gallons in favour of it. Inspired by the kilogram-litre relationship, the imperial gallon was based on the volume of 10 pounds of distilled water weighed in air with brass weights with the barometer standing at 30 inches of mercury and at a temperature of .


title: Gallon

text: In 1963, this definition was refined as the space occupied by 10 pounds of distilled water of density weighed in air of density against weights of density (the original "brass" was refined as the densities of brass alloys vary depending on metallurgical composition), which was calculated as to ten significant figures.


title: Gallon

text: The precise definition of exactly cubic decimetres (also , ≈ ) came after the litre was redefined in 1964. This was adopted shortly afterwards in Canada, and adopted in 1976 in the United Kingdom.


title: Gallon

text: Historically, gallons of various sizes were used in many parts of Western Europe. In these localities, it has been replaced as the unit of capacity by the litre.


title: Kingdom of Bulgaria

text: The Tsardom of Bulgaria (), also referred to as the Third Bulgarian Tsardom (), sometimes translated in English as Kingdom of Bulgaria (), was a constitutional monarchy in Southeastern Europe, which was established on 5 October (O.S. 22 September) 1908, when the Bulgarian state was raised from a principality to a Tsardom.


title: Kingdom of Bulgaria

text: Ferdinand, founder of the royal family, was crowned a Tsar at the Declaration of Independence, mainly because of his military plans and for seeking options for unification of all lands in the Balkans region with an ethnic Bulgarian majority (lands that had been seized from Bulgaria and given to the Ottoman Empire in the Treaty of Berlin).


title: Kingdom of Bulgaria

text: The state was almost constantly at war throughout its existence, lending to its nickname as "the Balkan Prussia". For several years Bulgaria mobilized an army of more than 1 million people from its population of about 5 million, and in the 1910s, it engaged in three wars – the First and Second Balkan Wars, and the First World War. Following the First World War, the Bulgarian army was disbanded and forbidden to exist by the Allied Powers, and all plans for national unification of the Bulgarian lands failed.


title: Kingdom of Bulgaria

text: Less than two decades later, Bulgaria entered the Second World War on the side of the Axis Powers and once again found itself on the losing side, until it switched sides to the Allies in September 1944. In 1946, the monarchy was abolished, its final Tsar was sent into exile, and the Kingdom was replaced by the People's Republic of Bulgaria.


title: Kingdom of Bulgaria

text: Despite the establishment of the Principality of Bulgaria (subject to Ottoman suzerainty) in 1878, and the subsequent Bulgarian control over Eastern Rumelia after 1885, there was still a substantial Bulgarian population in the Balkans living under Ottoman rule, particularly in Macedonia. To complicate matters, Serbia and Greece too made claims over parts of Macedonia, while Serbia, as a Slavic nation, also considered Macedonian Slavs as belonging to the Serbian nation. Thus began a three-sided struggle for control of these areas which lasted until World War I. In 1903, there was a Bulgarian insurrection in Ottoman Macedonia, war seemed likely.


title: Kingdom of Bulgaria

text: In 1908, Ferdinand used the struggles among the Great Powers to declare Bulgaria an independent kingdom with himself as Tsar. He did this on 5 October (though celebrated on 22 September, as Bulgaria remained officially on the Julian Calendar until 1916) in the St Forty Martyrs Church in Veliko Tarnovo. Even before then, however, Bulgaria had only acknowledged the overlordship of the sultan formally. Since 1878, Bulgaria had had its constitution, flag, and anthem, and conducted a separate foreign policy.


title: Kingdom of Bulgaria

text: Ferdinand took the Bulgarian title "Tsar" in honor of the rulers of the First and Second Bulgarian Empires. However, while previous Bulgarian "tsars" were reckoned as emperors, Ferdinand and his successors were called "kings" outside Bulgaria. The Tarnovo Constitution was retained, with the word "tsar" replacing the word "prince."


title: Kingdom of Bulgaria

text: In 1911, the Nationalist Prime Minister Ivan Geshov set about allying with Greece and Serbia, and the three allies agreed to put aside their rivalries to plan a joint attack on the Ottomans.


title: Kingdom of Bulgaria

text: In February 1912 a secret treaty was signed between Bulgaria and Serbia, and in May 1912 a similar treaty was signed with Greece. Montenegro was also brought into the pact. The treaties provided for the partition of Macedonia and Thrace between the allies, although the lines of partition were left dangerously vague. After the Ottomans refused to implement reforms in the disputed areas, the First Balkan War broke out in October 1912. (See Balkan Wars for details.)


title: Kingdom of Bulgaria

text: The allies had astonishing success. The Bulgarian army inflicted several crushing defeats on the Ottoman forces and advanced threateningly against Constantinople, while the Serbs and the Greeks took control of Macedonia. The Ottomans sued for peace in December. Negotiations broke down, and fighting resumed in February 1913. The Ottomans lost Adrianople to a Bulgarian task force. A second armistice followed in March, with the Ottomans losing all their European possessions west of the Midia-Enos line, not far from Istanbul. Bulgaria gained possession of most of Thrace, including Adrianople and the Aegean port of Dedeagach (today Alexandroupoli). Bulgaria also gained a slice of Macedonia, north and east of Thessaloniki, but only some small areas along her western borders.


title: Kingdom of Bulgaria

text: Bulgaria sustained the heaviest casualties of any of the allies, and on this basis felt entitled to the largest share of the spoils. The Serbs, in particular, did not see things this way and refused to vacate any of the territories they had seized in northern Macedonia (that is, the territory roughly corresponding to the modern Republic of North Macedonia), stating that the Bulgarian army had failed to accomplish its pre-war goals at Adrianople (i.e., failing to capture it without Serbian help) and that the pre-war agreements on the division of Macedonia had to be revised. Some circles in Bulgaria inclined toward going to war with Serbia and Greece on this issue. In June 1913 Serbia and Greece formed a new alliance, against Bulgaria. The Serbian Prime Minister, Nikola Pasic, told Greece it could have Thrace if Greece helped Serbia keep Bulgaria out of the Serbian part of Macedonia, and the Greek Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos agreed. Seeing this as a violation of the pre-war agreements, and discreetly encouraged by Germany and Austria-Hungary, Tsar Ferdinand declared war on Serbia and Greece and the Bulgarian army attacked on June 29. The Serbian and the Greek forces were initially on the retreat on the western border, but they soon took the upper hand and forced Bulgaria into retreat. The fighting was very harsh, with many casualties, especially during the key Battle of Bregalnica. Soon Romania entered the war and attacked Bulgaria from the north. The Ottoman Empire also attacked from the southeast. The war was now definitely lost for Bulgaria, which had to abandon most of her claims of Macedonia to Serbia and Greece, while the revived Ottomans retook Adrianople. Romania took possession of southern Dobruja.


title: Kingdom of Bulgaria

text: In the aftermath of the Balkan Wars, Bulgarian opinion turned against Russia and the western powers, whom the Bulgarians felt had done nothing to help them. Bulgaria, Romania, and Greece were content to sit on the fence and observe the fortunes of war before deciding whether to declare their sympathies.


title: Kingdom of Bulgaria

text: The government of Vasil Radoslavov aligned Bulgaria with Germany and Austria-Hungary, even though this meant also becoming an ally of the Ottomans, Bulgaria's traditional enemy. But Bulgaria now had no claims against the Ottomans, whereas Serbia, Greece, and Romania (allies of the UK and France) were all in possession of lands perceived in Bulgaria as Bulgarian. Bulgaria, recuperating from the Balkan Wars, sat out the first year of World War I, but when Germany promised to restore the boundaries of the Treaty of San Stefano, Bulgaria, which had the largest army in the Balkans, declared war on Serbia in October 1915. The UK, France, Italy, and Russia then declared war on Bulgaria.


title: Kingdom of Bulgaria

text: Bulgaria, in alliance with Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottomans, won military victories against Serbia and Romania, taking much of Macedonia (taking Skopje in October), advancing into Greek Macedonia, and taking Dobruja from the Romanians in September 1916. However, the war soon became unpopular with the majority of Bulgarian people, who suffered great economic hardship and also disliked fighting their fellow Orthodox Christians in alliance with the Muslim Ottomans. The Agrarian Party leader, Aleksandar Stamboliyski, was imprisoned for his opposition to the war. The Russian Revolution of February 1917 had a great effect in Bulgaria, spreading antiwar and anti-monarchist sentiment among the troops and in the cities. In June Radoslavov's government resigned. Mutinies broke out in the army, Stamboliyski was released and a republic was proclaimed.


title: Kingdom of Bulgaria

text: In September 1918, the French, Serbs, British, Italians, and Greeks broke through on the Macedonian front and Tsar Ferdinand was forced to sue for peace. Stamboliyski favored democratic reforms, not a revolution. To head off the revolutionaries, he persuaded Ferdinand to abdicate in favor of his son Boris III. The revolutionaries were suppressed and the army disbanded. Under the Treaty of Neuilly (November 1919), Bulgaria lost its Aegean coastline to Greece and part of its Macedonian territory to the new state of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, and had to give Dobruja back to the Kingdom of Romania (see also Dobruja, Western Outlands, Western Thrace). Elections in March 1920 gave the Agrarians a large majority, and Stamboliyski formed Bulgaria's first genuinely democratic government.


title: Kingdom of Bulgaria

text: Although it had not lost large amounts of territory, the nation had again struggled hard for nothing. The lost territories, especially the Dobroujea and Macedonia, were considered integral parts of Bulgaria, and the pressure to retake them became a key factor in their later alliance with Nazi Germany. However, unlike the other defeated Eastern European states, Hungary, and Bulgaria continued with essentially the same government as before.


title: Kingdom of Bulgaria

text: Stamboliyski faced huge social problems in what was still a poor country, inhabited mostly by peasant smallholders. Bulgaria was saddled with huge war reparations to Yugoslavia and Romania and had to deal with the problem of refugees as pro-Bulgarian Macedonians had to leave Yugoslav Macedonia. Nevertheless, Stamboliyski was able to carry through many social reforms, although opposition from the Tsar, the landlords, and the officers of the much-reduced but still influential army was powerful. Another bitter enemy was the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (VMRO), which favored war to regain independence for Macedonia. Faced with this array of enemies, Stamboliyski allied himself with the Bulgarian Communist Party and opened relations with the Soviet Union.


title: Kingdom of Bulgaria

text: The Bulgarian government had the same handicap as most constitutional monarchies, which was not drawing a clear line between what powers were granted to the king and what was granted to Parliament. The 1879 constitution was intended to put power in the hands of the latter but still allowed a clever enough monarch to gain control of the machinery of government. Such was the case with the wily Tsar Ferdinand, who however had been forced to abdicate after the back-to-back losses of the Balkan Wars and World War I. His son Boris then succeeded him on the throne, but the young king could not replace the power his father had built through decades of intrigue. As such, Parliament came to dominate after Boris appointed Alexander Stamboliyski as prime minister. Stamboliyski's Agrarian Party soon dominated Parliament with over half the seats. The rest of the seats were taken by the Bulgarian Communist Party, which was the country's second-largest political party and the only other one of any significance (there were a dozen or so minor parties, but they had no representation in Parliament or any real significance). The Agrarian Party chiefly represented peasants, especially those who were disgruntled with the government in Sofia since Ferdinand's reign saw extensive corruption and theft of money from the peasantry. Also while most of the lower classes in Bulgaria supported the annexation of Macedonia, they were disgruntled about the heavy bloodshed incurred in two unsuccessful wars to retake it. Indeed, Stamboliyski spent the war years in jail due to his vociferous criticism of it. As for the BCP, it was mainly staffed by the intelligentsia and urban professionals, but its chief constituents were the poorest peasants and other minorities. The AP by comparison represented better-off peasants. Under this climate, Stamboliyski hastily enacted a land reform in 1920, which was designed to break up some state properties, church lands, and the holdings of wealthier peasants. Predictably, it gave him widespread support and forced the BCP into an alliance with the AP mainly to gain a voice in Parliament.


title: Kingdom of Bulgaria

text: However, Stamboliyski was a convinced anti-communist and sought to create an international movement to combat Marxism. This was his so-called "Green International", a counter to the communist "Red International". He traveled to Eastern European capitals promoting his view of a peasant alliance. But trouble began when he tried to spread it in Yugoslavia, a country that had very similar conditions to Bulgaria (i.e. very little industry and a large communist presence). Stamboliyski was well-liked in Belgrade because of supporting a peaceful solution to the Macedonia problem. He also advocated uniting all the Slavic-speaking nations in Eastern Europe into one large Yugoslav confederation. But he got into trouble because of the militant IMRO faction at home. Many Macedonian leaders had lived in Sofia since the failed 1903 revolt against the Ottoman Empire, and now they were joined by others who fled the Yugoslavian government (which maintained as its official position that Macedonians were ethnic Serbs). Since Bulgaria had been forced to limit the size of its armed forces after World War I, IMRO chieftains gained control of much of the border area with Yugoslavia.


title: Kingdom of Bulgaria

text: In March 1923, Stamboliyski signed an agreement with Yugoslavia recognizing the new border and agreeing to suppress IMRO. This triggered a nationalist reaction, and on 9 June there was a coup organized by the armed forces under General Ivan Valkov's Military Union with support from the Tsar and other right-wing elements of the Tsardom after the AP controlled 87% of Parliament in the elections that year. The Bulgarian government could only muster a handful of troops to resist and even worse was a peasant mob with no guns rallied by Stamboliyski. Despite this, the streets of Sofia erupted in chaos and the hapless prime minister was lynched in addition to attacks on unarmed peasants. The whole affair seriously tar brushed Bulgaria's international image. A right-wing government under Aleksandar Tsankov took power, backed by the Tsar, the army, and the VMRO, who waged a White terror against the Agrarians and the Communists. The Communist leader Georgi Dimitrov fled to the Soviet Union. There was savage repression in 1925 following the second of two failed attempts on the Tsar's life in the bomb attack on Sofia Cathedral (the first attempt took place in the mountain pass of Arabakonak). But in 1926 the Tsar persuaded Tsankov to resign and a more moderate government under Andrey Lyapchev took office. An amnesty was proclaimed, although the Communists remained banned. The Agrarians reorganized and won elections in 1931 under the leadership of Nikola Mushanov.


title: Kingdom of Bulgaria

text: Just when political stability had been restored, the full effects of the Great Depression hit Bulgaria, and social tensions rose again. In May 1934 there was another coup by the military organization Zveno, an authoritarian regime headed by Colonel Kimon Georgiev was established. They dissolved all parties and trade unions and suppressed the IMRO. Their government introduced a corporatist economy, similar to that of Benito Mussolini's Italy. After participating in the Bulgarian coup d'état of 1934, Zveno supporters declared their intention to immediately form an alliance with France and to seek the unification of Bulgaria into an Integral Yugoslavia.


title: Kingdom of Bulgaria

text: In April 1935 Boris III staged a counter-coup with the help of monarchist Zveno member General Pencho Zlatev and took power himself. The political process was controlled by the Tsar, but a form of parliamentary rule was re-introduced, without the restoration of the political parties, prime ministers were appointed by the monarch. With the rise of the "King's government" in 1935, Bulgaria entered an era of prosperity and astounding growth, which deservedly qualifies it as the Golden Age of the Third Bulgarian Kingdom. It lasted nearly five years, governed by prime minister Georgi Kyoseivanov. Kyoseivanov's Premiership oversaw the trials of the instigators of the 1934 military coup and also concluded pacts with Yugoslavia and Greece as Nazi Germany undertook a policy of economic isolation of the Balkans. His government also oversaw a policy of rearmament after a treaty concluded with Ioannis Metaxas overturned the military clauses of the Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine and the Treaty of Lausanne. Although the signing of the Salonika Agreement of 1938 restored good relations with Yugoslavia and Greece, the territorial issue continued to simmer.


title: Kingdom of Bulgaria

text: Interwar Bulgaria was highly backward from an economic standpoint. Heavy industry was almost nonexistent due to a lack of major natural resources, and whatever manufacturing did exist consisted almost exclusively of textiles and handicrafts. Even these required extensive tariff protection to survive. Some natural resources did exist, but bad internal communications made it impossible to exploit them and nearly all important manufactured implements were imported. Farm machinery and chemical fertilizers were nearly unheard of. Agricultural products were almost the only thing Bulgaria could export; after 1929 it became very hard to do this.


title: Kingdom of Bulgaria

text: Bulgarian agriculture was almost entirely one of small farmers and peasants. Plots were small and almost exclusively under , but they were worked intensively and even the tiniest farms often produced crops for market sale. As elsewhere in Eastern Europe, Bulgarian peasants traditionally grew grains for their landowners. After the war, they could not be effectively marketed due to competition from the United States and Western Europe. However, they were able to switch with little difficulty to garden crops and tobacco in contrast to other countries where the peasantry suffered harder due to continued reliance on maize and wheat.


title: Kingdom of Bulgaria

text: While more successful than the rest of Eastern Europe, Bulgarian agriculture still suffered from the handicaps of backward technology and especially rural overpopulation and scattered plots (due to the traditional practice of a peasant dividing his land equally among all surviving sons). And all agricultural exports were harmed by the onset of the Great Depression. On the other hand, an underdeveloped economy meant that Bulgaria had little trouble with debt and inflation. Just under half of the industry was owned by foreign companies in contrast to the nearly 80% of Romanian industry.


title: Kingdom of Bulgaria

text: Since the population was 85% ethnic Bulgarian, there was relatively little social strife aside from the conflict between the haves and have-nots. Most inhabitants of Sofia maintained close ties to the countryside, but this did not prevent a rift between the peasants and urban class (i.e. Sofia versus everyone else), although some were the result of deliberate manipulation by politicians seeking to take advantage of traditional peasant distrust of the "effeminate city slicker". Mostly, however, it was due to a quarrel between the rulers and the ruled. Around 14% of the population were Muslims, mostly Turks (i.e. the remnant of the landowning class), but also a handful of so-called "Pomaks" (ethnic Bulgarians who practiced Islam). The Muslim population was alienated from the dominant Orthodox Christians both due to religious and historical reasons. They neither pressed for minority rights nor tried to set up their schools, and instead asked nothing more than to be left alone to mind their own business. The Bulgarian government obliged except with a great willingness to assist them in emigrating back to Turkey.


title: Kingdom of Bulgaria

text: In comparison to economics, Bulgaria's educational system was more successful, and less than half the population was illiterate. Eight years of schooling were required and over 80% of children attended. For the few special students who went past elementary school, the high schools were based on the German gymnasium. Competitive examinations were used to judge college applicants, and Bulgaria had several technical and specialized schools in addition to the University of Sofia. Many Bulgarian students also went abroad, primarily to Germany and Austria after educational ties with Russia ended in 1917. Overall, education reached more of the lower classes than anywhere else in Eastern Europe, but on the downside all too many students obtained degrees in the liberal arts and other abstract subjects and could not find work anywhere except in the government bureaucracy. Many of them gravitated towards the Bulgarian Communist Party.


title: Kingdom of Bulgaria

text: The government of the Kingdom of Bulgaria under Prime Minister Georgi Kyoseivanov declared a position of neutrality upon the outbreak of World War II. Bulgaria was determined to observe it until the end of the war, but it hoped for bloodless territorial gains to recover the territories lost in the Second Balkan War and World War I, as well as gain other lands with a significant Bulgarian population occupied by neighboring countries. However, it was clear that the central geopolitical position of Bulgaria in the Balkans would inevitably lead to strong external pressure from both World War II factions. On 15 February 1940, following the resignation of Georgi Kyoseivanov, Bogdan Filov was appointed Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Bulgaria. On 7 September 1940, Bulgaria succeeded in negotiating the recovery of Southern Dobruja in the Axis-sponsored Treaty of Craiova.


title: Kingdom of Bulgaria

text: On 1 March 1941, Bulgaria formally signed the Tripartite Pact, becoming an ally of Nazi Germany, the Empire of Japan, and the Kingdom of Italy. German troops entered the country in preparation for the German invasions of the Kingdom of Greece and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. When Yugoslavia and Greece were defeated, Bulgaria was allowed to occupy all of Greek Thrace and most of Macedonia. Bulgaria declared war on Britain and the United States but resisted German pressure to declare war on the Soviet Union, fearful of pro-Russian sentiment in the country.


title: Kingdom of Bulgaria

text: In August 1943, Tsar Boris died suddenly after returning from Germany (possibly poisoned, although this has never been proven) and was succeeded by his six-year-old son Simeon II. Power was held by a council of regents headed by the young Tsar's uncle, Prince Kirill. The new prime minister, Dobri Bozhilov, was in most respects a German puppet. Resistance to the Germans and the Bulgarian regime was widespread by 1943, coordinated mainly by the communists. Together with the Agrarians, now led by Nikola Petkov, the Social Democrats, and even many army officers they founded the Fatherland Front. Partisans operated in the mountainous west and south. By 1944, it was obvious that Germany was losing the war and the regime began to look for a way out. Bozhilov resigned in May, and his successor Ivan Bagryanov tried to arrange negotiations with the western Allies.


title: Kingdom of Bulgaria

text: Meanwhile, the capital Sofia was bombed by Allied aircraft in late 1943 and early 1944, with raids on other major cities following later. But it was the Red Army which was rapidly advancing towards Bulgaria. In August 1944 Bulgaria unilaterally announced its withdrawal from the war and asked the German troops to leave: Bulgarian troops were hastily withdrawn from Greece and Yugoslavia. In September, the Soviets crossed the northern border. The government, desperate to avoid a Soviet occupation, declared war on Germany, but the Soviets could not be put off, and on September 8, they declared war on Bulgaria – which thus found itself for a few days at war with both Germany and the Soviet Union. On September 16, the Red Army entered Sofia.


title: Kingdom of Bulgaria

text: The Fatherland Front took office in Sofia following a coup d'état, setting up a broad coalition under the former ruler Kimon Georgiev and including the Social Democrats and the Agrarians. Under the terms of the peace settlement, Bulgaria was allowed to keep Southern Dobruja, but formally renounced all claims to Greek and Yugoslav territory. 150,000 Bulgarians were expelled from Greek Thrace. The Communists deliberately took a minor role in the new government at first, but the Soviet representatives were the real power in the country. A Communist-controlled People's Militia was set up, which harassed and intimidated non-Communist parties.


title: Kingdom of Bulgaria

text: The new realities of power in Bulgaria were shown when the former regents and hundreds of other officials of the old regime who were arrested on charges of war crimes were executed on 1 February 1945. In September 1946, the monarchy was abolished by plebiscite, and young Tsar Simeon was sent into exile. The Communists now openly took power, with Vasil Kolarov becoming President and Dimitrov becoming Prime Minister. Free elections promised for 1946 were blatantly rigged and were boycotted by the opposition. The Agrarians refused to co-operate with the new regime, and in June 1947 their leader Nikola Petkov was arrested. Despite strong international protests, he was executed in September. This marked the final establishment of a Communist regime in Bulgaria.


title: Spin City

text: Spin City is an American sitcom television series that aired from September 17, 1996 to April 30, 2002, on ABC. Created by Gary David Goldberg and Bill Lawrence, the show is set in a semi-fictionalized version of the New York City mayor's office, and originally starred Michael J. Fox as Mike Flaherty, the Deputy Mayor of New York. Fox departed in 2000 at the conclusion of Season 4 due to symptoms of Parkinson's disease, and Charlie Sheen became the new lead as Charlie Crawford for the final two seasons. The series was cancelled after six seasons in May 2002.


title: Spin City

text: The series presents a fictionalized version of the local government of New York City, and follows its mayor Randall Winston (Barry Bostwick) and his staff as they run the city, although the main person in charge is Deputy mayor Mike Flaherty (Fox). Mike is talented at his job, dealing with political spin and office chaos, but not so good managing his personal life, which he neglects. Other members of staff at City Hall include press secretary Paul Lassiter (Richard Kind), the office snitch and a manipulative coward, who has a habit of being a troublemaker and is often kept in the dark about things; chief of staff Stuart Bondek (Alan Ruck), who thinks of himself as a lothario and is highly sexist; and head of minority affairs Carter Heywood (Michael Boatman), a gay black man with a suicidal dog named Rags.


title: Spin City

text: Carter Heywood was seen as a revolution in modern television. As the writer Orville Lloyd Douglas noted on his blog GayBlackCanadianman, "Far too often whenever a character is gay on television it's always a white person. In North America gayness equals whiteness and gay black men are displaced due to race, gender, and sexual orientation. Finally, the writers and producers of "Spin City" got it right. Carter was a well adjusted young black man he wasn't on the down low, he also wasn't confused or conflicted about his homosexuality." Despite their overwhelming personal differences, Stuart and Carter actually become roommates and best friends.


title: Spin City

text: Also on the staff are speech writer James Hobert (Alexander Chaplin), who is weak-willed and gullible; Mike's secretary Janelle Cooper (Victoria Dillard); and accountant Nikki Faber (Connie Britton). Janelle later becomes the mayor's secretary and Stacey Paterno (Jennifer Esposito) joins the show as Mike's secretary and Paul's nemesis. Together, this group helps run City Hall, improves the Mayor's image, and covers for his frequent mistakes—while sorting out their own personal issues.


title: Spin City

text: At one point in development, the show was simply called "Spin", which was changed when ABC was unable to secure rights to the name from the magazine of the same name. At the start of the series, Mike is dating reporter Ashley Schaeffer (Carla Gugino). In early promos for the series, the relationship is shown to be the main premise of the show. After just a few episodes, however, Ashley and Mike separated and the character was written out.


title: Spin City

text: The nature of Carter and Stuart's relationship became a running gag during the series. The two ended up becoming so close, their friendship was mocked by others, and their arguments sounded so much like husband and wife, a whole episode was dedicated to the notion that the two argued like a married couple. The two ended up meeting an older duo of best friends (one black and one white) who were virtual twins of Carter and Stuart in terms of personality; when it was discovered that the two older versions had become a couple, it ended up scaring Stuart quite a bit. For his part, Stuart tends to be very protective of his time with Carter, going so far as to be genuinely jealous when Carter spends more time with new campaign manager Caitlin (Heather Locklear). In spite of all the jokes and flirtations, they prove to be best friends willing to do anything for each other. This, too, was considered an important moment in television history, with Douglas noting, "I love the fact that the writers of "Spin City" explored the fact that gay men and heterosexual men can be friends. The straight man doesn't have to worry that the gay man might hit on him."


title: Spin City

text: In 1998, Michael J. Fox announced he had Parkinson's disease. As a result, a new character, Caitlin Moore (Locklear) was introduced at the start of the 1999–2000 season to help lessen Fox's workload. Caitlin was Mayor Winston's campaign manager as he decided to run for Senator, and much conflict occurred between Mike and Caitlin about who was in charge of the mayor. Their relationship was more complex than a simple feud, and hints were dropped that it would become romantic.


title: Spin City

text: In 2000, as his symptoms got more severe, Fox announced he was leaving the show at the end of the season to spend more time with his family and to raise awareness of Parkinson's. His character left City Hall at the end of the show's fourth season, taking the blame for an alleged Mafia link the mayor unknowingly had. A brief coda to the fourth-season finale revealed that the character moved to Washington, D.C., becoming an environmental lobbyist and there meeting a young senator named Alex P. Keaton, the character Fox played on "Family Ties". Executive producer and co-creator Bill Lawrence also left the show, along with a few cast members and writers/producers.


title: Spin City

text: The remaining producers decided to carry on the series with a new lead. For the show's fifth season, Charlie Sheen, as new Deputy Mayor Charlie Crawford, joined Caitlin, Paul, Stuart, Carter, and the mayor. The characters of Nikki, James, and Janelle were written out, to be replaced by assistant Angie Ordonez (Lana Parrilla), although she left without explanation for the sixth and final season. With the change of the lead character, also came a change in its production location, from Fox's home in New York City area to Los Angeles.


title: Spin City

text: Michael J. Fox won one Primetime Emmy, out of four nominations. The show won four Golden Globes (three for Fox and one for Charlie Sheen), out of its nine nominations.


title: Spin City

text: Initially distributed by the original Paramount Television, Spin City entered off-network syndication on UPN, Fox and The WB affiliates from fall 2000 until fall 2005 and aired on FX from fall 2005 until fall 2010. As of 2019, Spin City has not aired on cable channels since then. In August 2015, the series started airing on digital multicast television network Laff. In July 2020, every episode was added to Australian streaming service Stan. In February 2021, the entire series was added to Pluto TV (which is owned by Paramount Global, the current entity distributing the series) in the United States.


title: Spin City

text: Shout! Factory and DreamWorks Home Entertainment has released all six seasons of "Spin City" on DVD in Region 1.


title: Spin City

text: DreamWorks Home Entertainment released two best-of sets entitled "Michael J. Fox – His All Time Favorites" Vols. 1 and 2 in 2003, each containing 11 episodes. All 22 episodes are taken from the four seasons containing Fox, each starting with a brief interview in which he describes what he likes about the episode. In the 2003 interviews, Fox shows symptoms of his ongoing illness. Both DVD boxes contain bonus material with fund-raising TV commercials for Parkinson's disease research, starring the "Spin City" cast.


title: Nicole Alexander

text: Nicole "Hoopz" Alexander is an American reality television show contestant best known for winning the VH1 reality TV shows "Flavor of Love" and "I Love Money".


title: Nicole Alexander

text: Prior to "Flavor of Love", Alexander worked as a Transportation Security Administration agent at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport.


title: Nicole Alexander

text: In 2006, Alexander was the winner of the first season of the VH1 reality show, "Flavor of Love", where she received the nickname "Hoopz".


title: Nicole Alexander

text: In 2008, Alexander also was a contestant another VH1 reality show, "I Love Money". After defeating Joshua "Whiteboy" Gallander at the final challenge, she was named the $250,000 winner. She also starred as Kayla in the November 2010 release, "".


title: Nicole Alexander

text: In 2006, Alexander and rapper Flavor Flav revealed that they had broken up during the reunion of "Flavor of Love". She was also formerly engaged to retired basketball player Shaquille O'Neal.


title: Voltron

text: Voltron is an animated television series franchise that features a team of space explorers who pilot a giant Super Robot known as "Voltron". Produced by Peter Keefe (Executive Producer) and Ted Koplar through his production company World Events Productions, Voltron was an adaptation of several Japanese anime television series from Toei Animation. The original television series aired in syndication from September 10, 1984, to November 18, 1985. The first season of "Voltron", featuring the "Lion Force Voltron", was adapted from the series "Beast King GoLion". The second season, featuring the "Vehicle Team Voltron", was adapted from the unrelated series "Armored Fleet Dairugger XV".


title: Voltron

text: "Voltron: Defender of the Universe" was the top-rated syndicated children's show for two years during its original run, and it spawned three follow-up series, several comic books, and a line of toys.


title: Voltron

text: The second series was primarily edited from "Armored Fleet Dairugger XV" (), with the storyline considerably changed. In this iteration of "Voltron", the Galaxy Alliance's home planets are now overcrowded, and a fleet of explorers is sent to search for new planets to colonize. Along the way, they attract the attention of the evil Drule Empire, long engaged in an ongoing war against the Alliance, and the Drules proceed to interfere with the mission of the explorers and the colonists. Since the Arusian Voltron is too far away to help these explorers, a totally new Voltron has to be constructed to battle the Drule threat.


title: Voltron

text: This Voltron Force consists of fifteen members, divided into three teams of five, known respectively as the Land, Sea, and Air Teams.


title: Voltron

text: Each team is specialized in gathering data or fighting in their area of expertise. Each team can combine their vehicles into a bigger machine, with each combined vehicle differing among the three teams. These fighters are:


title: Voltron

text: When necessary, all fifteen vehicles combine to form the mighty Voltron. However, the Vehicle Team Voltron only had enough stored solar energy to operate for five minutes.


title: Voltron

text: The proposed third season was to have been based on . Although Matchbox did produce and market toy versions of the three robots (Black Alpha, Blue Beta, Red Gamma) under the ""Voltron II"" name, the series never actually aired. Due to the extreme popularity of the Lion Force Voltron and the lack of popularity of the Vehicle Team Voltron series, World Events Productions eventually elected against another alternate Voltron, and plans to adapt "Albegas" were aborted.


title: Voltron

text: In 1986, World Events hired Toei Animation to produce the one-off crossover television special "Voltron: Fleet of Doom", which mixed in "GoLion" and "Dairugger XV" footage with new animation. The special was made for the international market and, as of the middle of September 2016, it had not been released in Japan.


title: Voltron

text: The computer-generated series "Voltron: The Third Dimension" was released in 1998, set five years after the end of the original Lion Voltron series. The series was met with a mixed response, due to various changes, such as the revamped looks of the Lion Voltron, King Zarkon, and Prince Lotor. The series served as a sequel to the Lion Force Voltron series; among the tools used to bridge the gap between the two series was an official starmap as designed by Shannon Muir and finalized in partnership with World Events Productions. After "Voltron: The Third Dimension", World Events Productions went back to the drawing board to develop a more traditionally animated series in an attempt to recapture the spirit of the original.


title: Voltron

text: The animated series "Voltron Force" premiered on Nicktoons in June 2011. The series follows the exploits of a group of three young cadets brought together by the original members of the Voltron Force to defend the galaxy against a resurrected Lotor, now ruling the planet Drule after a military "coup d'état". "Voltron Force" is a World Events Production in conjunction with Kick Start Productions and Classic Media.


title: Voltron

text: The Netflix exclusive series "Voltron: Legendary Defender", produced by DreamWorks Animation, is a reboot of the Voltron story. The series premiered on June 10, 2016, with Joaquim Dos Santos and Lauren Montgomery serving as showrunners. On January 5, 2016, Netflix announced that "Voltron" would debut in 2016 as an original animated Netflix series in partnership with DreamWorks Animation (DWA), part of an expanded multi-year agreement between the two groups. In February, teasers revealed the title of the new series to be "Voltron: Legendary Defender". On March 25, 2016, a teaser trailer was released, announcing that the first season, consisting of 13 episodes, would premiere June 10, 2016. A second season premiered on Netflix on January 20, 2017. The third season premiered on Netflix on August 4, 2017, and consisted of 7 episodes while the fourth season premiered on October 13, 2017, and consisted of 6 episodes. The fifth season premiered on March 2, 2018, and consists of six episodes. The sixth season premiered on June 15, 2018, and consists of seven episodes. The seventh season premiered August 10, 2018 and consists of 13 episodes. The eighth and final season premiered on December 14, 2018, and consists of 13 episodes. The series' success has spawned several comics, action figures, and other toys.


title: Voltron

text: In July 2005, producer Mark Gordon ("Grey's Anatomy", "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen") announced plans to create a live-action film adaptation of the "Voltron" franchise in collaboration with producers Pharrell Williams, Mark Costa, and Frank Oelman. Pharrell Williams was also reported to compose the musical score for the film. The project's development was funded by Jim Young's Animus Films. In December 2006, screenwriter Enzo Marra was announced to have completed a script for Gordon. In August 2007, the production entity New Regency entered negotiations with The Mark Gordon Company to adapt "Voltron". Interest in the property heightened after the box office success of "Transformers", another film involving shape-changing robots. Mark's script was described as "a post-apocalyptic tale set in New York City...[in which] five ragtag survivors of an alien attack band together and end up piloting the five lion-shaped robots that combine and form the massive sword-wielding Voltron that helps battle Earth's invaders." On August 18, 2008, Relativity Media entered negotiations with New Regency to finance and produce the film, though on a more moderate budget, utilizing cost-saving CGI techniques such as those used in "300". Max Makowski was slated to direct. As of the end of August 2008, the title had been set for "Voltron: Defender of the Universe". Relativity would have released the film in North America while New Regency's distribution partner, 20th Century Fox, would handle international distribution. But at that time, Ted Koplar, through his World Events Production Company (Koplar took over the company as the health of Peter Keefe declined; Keefe died in 2010 at age 57), was fighting a legal battle with Toei Company Ltd. over the movie rights as of November of that year. On September 16, 2010, concept art for the movie was released. On March 8, 2011, it was announced that Relativity Media and World Events had entered a bidding war on who would make the film. Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer entered into collaboration on writing the script. On July 21, 2011, Atlas Entertainment & Relativity Media announced they would bring "Voltron: Defender of the Universe" to the big screen. Relativity Media would distribute. On July 30, 2015, Relativity filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York after lawsuits and missing loan payments, and the film rights reverted to Classic Media. On November 4, 2016, three months after the completion of NBCUniversal's acquisition of Classic Media's parent company, DreamWorks Animation for $3.8 billion, it was announced that Universal Pictures and DreamWorks Animation will make the film with David Hayter writing the script.


title: Voltron

text: In March 2022, it was announced that the live-action film was officially back in development with Rawson Marshall Thurber directing and co-writing the screenplay with Ellen Shanman, and produced by Todd Lieberman, David Hoberman, and Bob Koplar. The film also incited a bidding war between Warner Bros. Pictures, Universal Pictures, and Amazon Prime Video. Amazon is leading the bid.


title: Voltron

text: In Australia, DVDs of all episodes of "Voltron" were released by Madman Entertainment as the 20th Anniversary Edition, Lion Force Voltron Collection. The original series was released in five volumes between August 2004 and July 2005, under the name "Voltron: Defender of the Universe". Each box was in the color and style of one of the lions with a metallic glossy inner DVD-case. Another three volumes of ""Vehicle Team Voltron"" were released between August and December 2005. In addition, a "Best of" 2-DVD set released in November 2006 featured five episodes from each series. Finally, a 24-disc boxset subtitled The Lion and Vehicle Force Complete Collection was released on June 24, 2009. Madman Entertainment has since relinquished the rights to the Voltron series and has since been re-released by Beyond Home Entertainment. Previous licensees of Voltron in Australia have been CBS/Fox Video and Manga Entertainment.


title: Voltron

text: Prior to the release of the boxed sets, a promotional DVD was released for "Voltron". It was packed in a threefold glossy cardboard folder. The folder featured full-color artwork and text about the then-upcoming release of "Voltron" on DVD. The disk had an image of Voltron, and was labeled for promotional use only. It featured the first episode, "Space Explorers Captured", and several promos for other series.


title: Voltron

text: In Region 1, "Voltron" was released on DVD in its original broadcast form and remastered, restored, and remixed by New York-based distributor Media Blasters (via their "AnimeWorks" unit) in eight volumes between September 2006 and July 2009. The volumes contain approximately fifteen episodes each, along with special features such as interviews with producer and director Franklin Cofod, and various others involved in the original and current productions. The first five volumes together contain all the Lion Force episodes, which were broadcast as seasons 1 and 3, while the next three contain the Vehicle Team episodes, broadcast as season 2.


title: Voltron

text: The "" special was released on DVD early in 2007, as an online Voltron.com exclusive. Media Blasters released "Fleet of Doom" on July 28, 2009, as a full retail release. A Blu-ray version was planned, but it was delayed many times and was finally officially canceled.


title: Voltron

text: According to TVShowsOnDVD.com, "Voltron: The Third Dimension" was to be released on DVD at some point, but no release date has been announced currently.


title: Voltron

text: Media Blasters/AnimeWorks also released the two Japanese shows that made up "Voltron" — "Beast King GoLion" and "Armored Fleet Dairugger XV" — each in their original, unedited Japanese form, with English subtitles. Volume 1 of "GoLion" was released on May 27, 2008, Volume 2 on August 12, 2008, and Volume 3 on November 25, 2008. "GoLion" was re-released as a complete chronology set with all 52 episodes on April 13, 2010. The first "Dairugger XV" DVD collection was released on February 23, 2010, the second "Dairugger XV" collection was released on May 25, 2010. The third and final collection was originally scheduled to be released in September 2010, but was repeatedly delayed and finally released on January 4, 2011.


title: Voltron

text: On September 24, 2019, Universal Pictures Home Entertainment released "Voltron: Defender of the Universe: The Complete Collection" on DVD and Blu-ray in Region 1, which includes the 3-disc set as well as all 72 episodes from "Voltron 84" on DVD for the first time. The series is also scheduled for DVD releases in the UK, France, Italy, Spain, and Germany.


title: Voltron

text: As of July 2011 all Lion Force episodes have been released on Hulu. Minisodes of the first twenty episodes of the first season can be streamed for free online on Crackle.


title: Voltron

text: Following the success of "", Netflix released 12 episodes of "Defender of the Universe" as "Voltron '84" on March 24, 2017. Each episode is introduced by members of the cast and crew of "Legendary Defender".


title: Voltron

text: The Voltron television franchise has produced soundtracks for three of its series which have been released exclusively on the iTunes and the Google Play stores. The first soundtrack release was on September 27, 2012, for the original Lions series with music composed by John Petersen. The second soundtrack release was on October 1, 2012, for the Third Dimension series with music composed by Stephen Martson and the third release on July 21, 2016, for the first season of the Legendary Defender series with music composed by Brad Breeck, Brian Parkhurst, and Alex Geringas. Currently, there are no plans to release any of the soundtrack to a non-digital version such as a physical album or CD.


title: Voltron

text: In 1985, Modern Comics, an imprint of Charlton Comics, produced a three-issue mini-series based on the Lion Voltron television show.


title: Voltron

text: In 2002, comic book publisher Devil's Due announced that it had acquired the rights to publish "Voltron" comic books. Devil's Due, through Image Comics, published a five issue mini-series (preceded by a #0 issue from Dreamwave) which featured the Lion Voltron incarnation of the character and rebooted the property. This was then followed by an ongoing series self-published by Devil's Due, which was placed on hiatus in 2005 after the eleventh issue, due to poor sales.


title: Voltron

text: Devil's Due announced in January 2008 that the five-issue mini-series, the eleven issues of the ongoing series, and the #0 issue would be collected into a Voltron Omnibus trade paperback that would also include the unpublished twelfth issue of the ongoing series that would wrap up all the storylines.


title: Voltron

text: In July 2008, a new five issue mini-series was released by Devil's Due, which picked up where the ongoing series left off. This series further explored the origins of Lion Voltron's creation, from 12,000 years in the past to the present day. The mini-series showed Voltron existing as a single construct created by sorcerers and scientists, resembling a knight. During its battle with the first Drule Empire, Voltron was tricked by Haggar into landing on a black comet with the gravitational attraction of a singularity. Voltron was then attacked by Haggar, and blown into five pieces. However, the intervention of a sorcerer resulted in the five pieces becoming the five lions as they descended onto Arus.


title: Voltron

text: The original five issue mini-series was adapted as the 2007 motion comic "Voltron: Defenders of the Universe - Revelations". Its sequel, "Voltron: Defenders of the Universe - Paradise Lost", adapted the first story arc of the ongoing series, introducing the V-15 and its pilots. The Devil's Due run is now collected digitally exclusively through Devil's Due Digital.


title: Voltron

text: In 2011, Dynamite Entertainment announced plans to publish "Voltron" comics, while Viz Media's young readers imprint, Viz Kids, announced plans to publish a series of graphic novels called "Voltron Force", on which Bian Smith would serve as head writer, and Jacob Chabot and Dario Brizuela would serve as lead artists.


title: Voltron

text: In September 2015, Dynamite released "Voltron: From The Ashes", written by Cullen Bunn with art by Blacky Shepherd.


title: Voltron

text: Matchbox imported the Lion Force Voltron, Gladiator Voltron, and Vehicle Force Voltron diecast toys from Popy of Japan in 1984. The company also released 6-inch figures of the Voltron robots that were more affordable, but lacked the detail level of their larger counterparts and could not separate into their component forms.


title: Voltron

text: At the peak of the series' popularity, Panosh Place released new "Voltron" toys, including action figures of the characters and a larger Voltron toy that could fit them.


title: Voltron

text: To coincide with the 1998 broadcast of "Voltron: The Third Dimension", the now-defunct Trendmasters reissued the Matchbox diecast Lion Force Voltron, with a few changes to the mold and a total of 17 weapons in comparison to the original's sword and shield. Trendmasters also released the newer Stealth Voltron variant, as well as character action figures and the robots Voltrex and Dracotron.


title: Voltron

text: Shortly after the demise of Trendmasters, Toynami acquired the "Voltron" license and released their Masterpiece Voltron toy in 2005. Boasting more detail and articulation than the previous toys, the Masterpiece Voltron sold for US$139 to US$149.99 at the time of its release. In 2007, Toynami sold an all-plastic version of the Masterpiece Voltron for up to one-third of the first release's price (ranging from US$49 to US$60). For the 25th anniversary of the cartoon franchise in 2009, the plastic Masterpiece Voltron was reissued in a metallic repaint.


title: Voltron

text: In late 2011, Mattel released toys for the new "Voltron Force" series, while its online collectors' site MattyCollector.com sold brand new toys for the classic series - including a 23-inch Voltron that fits 4-inch pilot figures in each lion.


title: Voltron

text: In early 2017 Bandai Japan, who produced the toys of Beast King GoLion and Armored Fleet Dairugger XV back in their initial releases, released a Soul of Chogokin version of the GoLion robot. The box was repackaged as "Voltron" for its American release. A Dairugger XV version was later produced in 2019, similarly branded as "Vehicle Voltron" in the US release.


title: Voltron

text: In August 2017, Lego announced that a forthcoming Lego Ideas set based upon classic Voltron will be placed into production. The set was released on August 1, 2018, coinciding with the final seasons of "Voltron: Legendary Defender".


title: Voltron

text: Privateer Press released a "Voltron: Defender of the Universe" expansion set for their Monsterpocalypse battle miniatures game series in 2010.


title: Voltron

text: In December 2009, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment announced the first ever "Voltron" video game would be released on mobile phones in the US, including the iPhone. The game would have 30 levels and 6 acts, isometric gameplay and gamers will command robot lions to traverse the galaxy and take on King Zarkon's evil droid armies. In 2011, "", produced by THQ and Behaviour Interactive, was developed for home console play. A 1-5 player co-op game, it was released on November 29, 2011, for the PlayStation Network and November 30, 2011, for the Xbox Live Arcade. The First Trailer has been announced on IGN.com and tentatively priced at $10. Players will be able fight as the individual lions in an overhead shooter style gameplay to then form Voltron to take on Robeasts in a fighter style combat.


title: Voltron

text: In 2018, NBCUniversal announced the video game "Voltron: Cubes of Olkarion", the winner of their developer competition "Universal GameDev Challenge" that had offered game developers the opportunity to use some of Universal's IP. In 2019, "Voltron: Cubes of Olkarion", produced by indie game studio Gbanga, was made published on the Steam store in Early Access, the platform's experimental game program. In the game, players compete in real-time player vs player (PvP) game battles by placing own and destroying opponent blocks with different features in a game board with a grid.


title: Lobar pneumonia

text: Lobar pneumonia is a form of pneumonia characterized by inflammatory exudate within the intra-alveolar space resulting in consolidation that affects a large and continuous area of the lobe of a lung.


title: Lobar pneumonia

text: It is one of three anatomic classifications of pneumonia (the other being bronchopneumonia and atypical pneumonia). In children round pneumonia develops instead because the pores of Kohn which allow the lobar spread of infection are underdeveloped.


title: Lobar pneumonia

text: The invading organism starts multiplying, thereby releasing toxins that cause inflammation and edema of the lung parenchyma. This leads to the accumulation of cellular debris within the lungs. This leads to consolidation or solidification, which is a term that is used for macroscopic or radiologic appearance of the lungs affected by pneumonia.


title: Lobar pneumonia

text: Bacterial pneumonia is mainly classified into lobar and diffuse depending on the degree of lung irritation or damage.


title: Lobar pneumonia

text: The openings between the alveoli known as the pores of Kohn, and the collateral airways of the canals of Lambert, are undeveloped in children. Spread of infection that would otherwise occur is prevented and can result in round pneumonia, most commonly caused by "S. pneumoniae". This clinically presents with an initial mild respiratory infection, followed by fever. On imaging it presents an opaque pulmonary consolidation which is unusually round, and can resemble a lung mass. However it quickly resolves with antibiotics.


title: Lobar pneumonia

text: The most common organisms which cause lobar pneumonia are "Streptococcus pneumoniae", also called pneumococcus, "Haemophilus influenzae" and "Moraxella catarrhalis". "Mycobacterium tuberculosis", the tubercle bacillus, may also cause lobar pneumonia if pulmonary tuberculosis is not treated promptly. Other organisms that cause lobar pneumonia are Legionella pneumophila and Klebsiella pneumoniae.


title: Lobar pneumonia

text: Like other types of pneumonia, lobar pneumonia can present as community acquired, in immune suppressed patients or as nosocomial infection. However, most causative organisms are of the community acquired type.


title: Lobar pneumonia

text: On a posteroanterior and lateral chest radiograph, an entire lobe will be radiopaque, which is indicative of lobar pneumonia.


title: Lobar pneumonia

text: The identification of the infectious organism (or other cause) is an important part of modern treatment of pneumonia. The anatomical patterns of distribution can be associated with certain organisms, and can help in selection of an antibiotic while waiting for the pathogen to be cultured.


title: Reload (Metallica album)

text: Reload is the seventh studio album by American heavy metal band Metallica, released on November 18, 1997 via Elektra Records. The album is a follow-up to "Load", released the previous year, and Metallica's last studio album to feature the "...And Justice for All"-era lineup, with bassist Jason Newsted leaving the band in January 2001, though it was not his last release with the band. "Reload" debuted at number one on the "Billboard" 200, selling 436,000 copies in its first week. It was certified 3× platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for shipping three million copies in the United States.


title: Reload (Metallica album)

text: "Reload" was recorded at The Plant, a wood-panelled studio in Sausalito, California. The session was produced by Bob Rock, who also produced Metallica's previous two albums. The original idea was to release "Load" and "Reload" as a double album. However, with problems recording so many songs at one time, the band decided that half of the songs were to be released and the band would continue to work on the remaining songs and release them the following year.


title: Reload (Metallica album)

text: Speaking about the recording sessions in an interview for "Guitar World", guitarist Kirk Hammett stated that "We were gonna do them both as a double album, but we didn't want to spend that long in the studio. Also, if we did a double album, it would have been a lot more material for people to digest, and some of it might have gotten lost in the shuffle." It was the final Metallica studio album to feature the ...And Justice for All-era lineup with bassist Jason Newsted leaving the band in January 2001, though it was not his last release with the band.


title: Reload (Metallica album)

text: "Reload" marks the first album to feature a guest singer (Marianne Faithfull in "The Memory Remains").


title: Reload (Metallica album)

text: This was the second album to feature most songs in E♭ tuning, with "Bad Seed" being played in D♭ tuning and "Devil's Dance" in D tuning. D tuning was earlier used for "The Thing That Should Not Be" on "Master of Puppets", "Sad but True" on "Metallica" and later used for "Sabbra Cadabra", and "Whiskey in the Jar" from "Garage Inc". Seven songs from the album have been played live, "Fuel", "The Memory Remains", "Devil's Dance", "The Unforgiven II", "Carpe Diem Baby", "Low Man's Lyric" and "Fixxxer".


title: Reload (Metallica album)

text: There were occasional jam sessions of songs such as "Better Than You", "Bad Seed", "Where the Wild Things Are", and "Fixxxer". "Carpe Diem Baby" premiered at Metallica's 30th anniversary concert in 2011.


title: Reload (Metallica album)

text: 'Fixxxer' premiered at Metallica's first 40th anniversary concert at the Chase Center in San Francisco, on December 17, 2021.


title: Reload (Metallica album)

text: Songs that have not been played live in their entirety are "Better than You", "Slither", "Bad Seed", "Where the Wild Things Are", "Prince Charming" and "Attitude".


title: Reload (Metallica album)

text: Like "Load", the album artwork was again created by Andres Serrano, which is a mix of bovine blood and his own urine. Hence, the artwork is titled ""Piss and Blood XXVI"". All the photos in the liner notes were taken from the 1997 "Cunning Stunts" concert.


title: Reload (Metallica album)

text: AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine thought the record was worthwhile and noted it was heavily influenced by Southern rock. He did not approve of the idea of doing the sequel "The Unforgiven II", but praised the collaboration with Marianne Faithfull on "The Memory Remains". Dan Snierson from "Entertainment Weekly" said "Reload" "continues Metallica's journey into stripped-down maturity while toying with fresh melodic textures" and "also forsakes some of the punchy hooks and gut-clenching heft that elevated recent Metallica CDs".


title: Reload (Metallica album)

text: "Rolling Stone"s Lorraine Ali opined the album was rooted in heavy metal despite some songs being influenced by "bluesy rock & roll". She said "Reload" was not Metallica's best, but named it a steppingstone in Metallica's legacy. On the other hand, "Musician" described the album as "greasy, driving, full of fat grooves, lyric and rhythmic hooks, and sonic curveballs". The magazine felt it "captures one of rock's greatest bands at its peak".


title: Reload (Metallica album)

text: Canadian journalist Martin Popoff lamented the "dull, unfinished, unrealized" songwriting in many songs, but praised the production and groove of the album.


title: Reload (Metallica album)

text: British author Paul Stenning said Metallica were "at their best on the likes of opener 'Fuel', the inspired follow up to an old favourite in 'The Unforgiven II' and the closing 'Fixxxer' which had a fantastic lead riff."


title: Reload (Metallica album)

text: "Reload" sold 436,000 units in first week and debuted at number one on the "Billboard" 200. The album remained on the chart for 75 weeks, and sold just over four million copies in the United States by December 2009. It was certified 3× platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for shipping three million copies in the United States. "Reload" peaked at number two on the Canadian Albums Chart, and was certified double platinum by Music Canada.


title: Uncontrolled decompression

text: Uncontrolled decompression is an unplanned drop in the pressure of a sealed system, such as an aircraft cabin or hyperbaric chamber, and typically results from human error, material fatigue, engineering failure, or impact, causing a pressure vessel to vent into its lower-pressure surroundings or fail to pressurize at all.


title: Uncontrolled decompression

text: The term "uncontrolled decompression" here refers to the unplanned depressurisation of vessels that are occupied by people; for example, a pressurised aircraft cabin at high altitude, a spacecraft, or a hyperbaric chamber. For the catastrophic failure of other pressure vessels used to contain gas, liquids, or reactants under pressure, the term explosion is more commonly used, or other specialised terms such as BLEVE may apply to particular situations.


title: Uncontrolled decompression

text: Decompression can occur due to structural failure of the pressure vessel, or failure of the compression system itself. The speed and violence of the decompression is affected by the size of the pressure vessel, the differential pressure between the inside and outside of the vessel, and the size of the leak hole.


title: Uncontrolled decompression

text: The US Federal Aviation Administration recognizes three distinct types of decompression events in aircraft:


title: Uncontrolled decompression

text: Explosive decompression occurs at a rate swifter than that at which air can escape from the lungs, typically in less than 0.1 to 0.5 seconds. The risk of lung trauma is very high, as is the danger from any unsecured objects that can become projectiles because of the explosive force, which may be likened to a bomb detonation.


title: Uncontrolled decompression

text: Immediately after an explosive decompression, a heavy fog may fill the aircraft cabin as the air cools, raising the relative humidity and causing sudden condensation. Military pilots with oxygen masks must pressure-breathe, whereby the lungs fill with air when relaxed, and effort has to be exerted to expel the air again.


title: Uncontrolled decompression

text: Rapid decompression typically takes more than 0.1 to 0.5 seconds, allowing the lungs to decompress more quickly than the cabin. The risk of lung damage is still present, but significantly reduced compared with explosive decompression.


title: Uncontrolled decompression

text: Slow, or gradual, decompression occurs slowly enough to go unnoticed and might only be detected by instruments. This type of decompression may also come about from a failure to cabin pressurization as an aircraft climbs to altitude. An example of this is the 2005 Helios Airways Flight 522 crash, in which the maintenance service left the pressurization system in manual mode and the pilots did not check the pressurization system. As a result, they suffered a loss of consciousness (as well as most of the passengers and crew) due to hypoxia (lack of oxygen). The plane continued to fly due to the autopilot system and eventually crashed due to fuel exhaustion after leaving its flight path.


title: Uncontrolled decompression

text: At least two confirmed cases have been documented of a person being blown through an airplane passenger window. The first occurred in 1973 when debris from an engine failure struck a window roughly midway in the fuselage. Despite efforts to pull the passenger back into the airplane, the occupant was forced entirely through the cabin window. The passenger's skeletal remains were eventually found by a construction crew, and were positively identified two years later. The second incident occurred on April 17, 2018 when a woman on Southwest Airlines Flight 1380 was partially blown through an airplane passenger window that had broken from a similar engine failure. Although the other passengers were able to pull her back inside, she later died from her injuries. In both incidents, the plane landed safely with the sole fatality being the person seated next to the window involved.


title: Uncontrolled decompression

text: According to NASA scientist Geoffrey A. Landis, the effect depends on the size of the hole, which can be expanded by debris that is blown through it; "it would take about 100 seconds for pressure to equalise through a roughly hole in the fuselage of a Boeing 747." Anyone sitting next to the hole would have half a ton of force pulling them in the direction of it.


title: Uncontrolled decompression

text: Modern aircraft are specifically designed with longitudinal and circumferential reinforcing ribs in order to prevent localised damage from tearing the whole fuselage open during a decompression incident. However, decompression events have nevertheless proved fatal for aircraft in other ways. In 1974, explosive decompression onboard Turkish Airlines Flight 981 caused the floor to collapse, severing vital flight control cables in the process. The FAA issued an Airworthiness Directive the following year requiring manufacturers of wide-body aircraft to strengthen floors so that they could withstand the effects of in-flight decompression caused by an opening of up to in the lower deck cargo compartment. Manufacturers were able to comply with the Directive either by strengthening the floors and/or installing relief vents called "dado panels" between the passenger cabin and the cargo compartment.


title: Uncontrolled decompression

text: Cabin doors are designed to make it nearly impossible to lose pressurization through opening a cabin door in flight, either accidentally or intentionally. The plug door design ensures that when the pressure inside the cabin exceeds the pressure outside, the doors are forced shut and will not open until the pressure is equalized. Cabin doors, including the emergency exits, but not all cargo doors, open inwards, or must first be pulled inwards and then rotated before they can be pushed out through the door frame because at least one dimension of the door is larger than the door frame. Pressurization prevented the doors of Saudia Flight 163 from being opened on the ground after the aircraft made a successful emergency landing, resulting in the deaths of all 287 passengers and 14 crew members from fire and smoke.


title: Uncontrolled decompression

text: Prior to 1996, approximately 6,000 large commercial transport airplanes were type certified to fly up to , without being required to meet special conditions related to flight at high altitude. In 1996, the FAA adopted Amendment 25–87, which imposed additional high-altitude cabin-pressure specifications, for new designs of aircraft types. For aircraft certified to operate above 25,000 feet (FL 250; 7,600 m), it "must be designed so that occupants will not be exposed to cabin pressure altitudes in excess of after any probable failure condition in the pressurization system." In the event of a decompression which results from "any failure condition not shown to be extremely improbable," the aircraft must be designed so that occupants will not be exposed to a cabin altitude exceeding for more than 2 minutes, nor exceeding an altitude of at any time. In practice, that new FAR amendment imposes an operational ceiling of 40,000 feet on the majority of newly designed commercial aircraft.


title: Uncontrolled decompression

text: In 2004, Airbus successfully petitioned the FAA to allow cabin pressure of the A380 to reach in the event of a decompression incident and to exceed for one minute. This special exemption allows the A380 to operate at a higher altitude than other newly designed civilian aircraft, which have not yet been granted a similar exemption.


title: Uncontrolled decompression

text: The Depressurization Exposure Integral (DEI) is a quantitative model that is used by the FAA to enforce compliance with decompression-related design directives. The model relies on the fact that the pressure that the subject is exposed to and the duration of that exposure are the two most important variables at play in a decompression event.


title: Uncontrolled decompression

text: Decompression incidents are not uncommon on military and civilian aircraft, with approximately 40–50 rapid decompression events occurring worldwide annually. However, in most cases the problem is manageable, injuries or structural damage rare and the incident not considered notable. One notable, recent case was Southwest Airlines Flight 1380 in 2018, where an uncontained engine failure ruptured a window, causing a passenger to be partially blown out.


title: Uncontrolled decompression

text: Decompression incidents do not occur solely in aircraft; the Byford Dolphin accident is an example of violent explosive decompression of a saturation diving system on an oil rig. A decompression event is an effect of a failure caused by another problem (such as an explosion or mid-air collision), but the decompression event may worsen the initial issue.


title: Uncontrolled decompression

text: In 2004, the TV show "MythBusters" examined whether explosive decompression occurs when a bullet is fired through the fuselage of an airplane informally by way of several tests using a decommissioned pressurised DC-9. A single shot through the side or the window did not have any effect – it took actual explosives to cause explosive decompression – suggesting that the fuselage is designed to prevent people from being blown out. Professional pilot David Lombardo states that a bullet hole would have no perceived effect on cabin pressure as the hole would be smaller than the opening of the aircraft's outflow valve.


title: Uncontrolled decompression

text: NASA scientist Geoffrey A. Landis points out though that the impact depends on the size of the hole, which can be expanded by debris that is blown through it. Landis went on to say that "it would take about 100 seconds for pressure to equalise through a roughly hole in the fuselage of a Boeing 747." He then stated that anyone sitting next to the hole would have half a ton of force pulling them in the direction of it. At least two confirmed cases have been documented of a person being blown through an airplane passenger window. The first occurred in 1973 when debris from an engine failure struck a window roughly midway in the fuselage. Despite efforts to pull the passenger back into the airplane, the occupant was forced entirely through the cabin window. The passenger's skeletal remains were eventually found by a construction crew, and were positively identified two years later. The second incident occurred on April 17, 2018 when a woman on Southwest Airlines Flight 1380 was partially blown through an airplane passenger window that had broken from a similar engine failure. Although the other passengers were able to pull her back inside, she later died from her injuries. In both incidents, the plane landed safely with the sole fatality being the person seated next to the window involved. Fictional accounts of this include a scene in "Goldfinger", when James Bond kills the eponymous villain by blowing him out a passenger window and "Die Another Day", when an errant gunshot shatters a window on a cargo plane and rapidly expands, causing multiple North Korean Military Officials and henchmen of the main villain, Colonel Moon (aka Gustav Graves) to be sucked out to their deaths. Bond even cheekily remarks "Looks like your friends have bailed."


title: Uncontrolled decompression

text: This persistent myth is based on a failure to distinguish between two types of decompression and their exaggerated portrayal in some fictional works. The first type of decompression deals with changing from normal atmospheric pressure (one atmosphere) to a vacuum (zero atmosphere) which is usually centered around space exploration. The second type of decompression changes from exceptionally high pressure (many atmospheres) to normal atmospheric pressure (one atmosphere) as may occur in deep-sea diving.


title: Uncontrolled decompression

text: The first type is more common as pressure reduction from normal atmospheric pressure to a vacuum can be found in both space exploration and high-altitude aviation. Research and experience have shown that while exposure to a vacuum causes swelling, human skin is tough enough to withstand the drop of one atmosphere. The most serious risk from vacuum exposure is hypoxia, in which the body is starved of oxygen, leading to unconsciousness within a few seconds. Rapid uncontrolled decompression can be much more dangerous than vacuum exposure itself. Even if the victim does not hold their breath, venting through the windpipe may be too slow to prevent the fatal rupture of the delicate alveoli of the lungs. Eardrums and sinuses may also be ruptured by rapid decompression, and soft tissues may be affected by bruises seeping blood. If the victim somehow survives, the stress and shock would accelerate oxygen consumption, leading to hypoxia at a rapid rate. At the extremely low pressures encountered at altitudes above about , the boiling point of water becomes less than normal body temperature. This measure of altitude is known as the Armstrong limit, which is the practical limit to survivable altitude without pressurization. Fictional accounts of bodies exploding due to exposure from a vacuum include, among others, several incidents in the movie "Outland", while in the movie "Total Recall", characters appear to suffer effects of ebullism and blood boiling when exposed to the atmosphere of Mars.


title: Uncontrolled decompression

text: The second type is rare since it involves a pressure drop over several atmospheres, which would require the person to have been placed in a pressure vessel. The only likely situation in which this might occur is during decompression after deep-sea diving. A pressure drop as small as 100 Torr (13 kPa), which produces no symptoms if it is gradual, may be fatal if it occurs suddenly. One such incident occurred in 1983 in the North Sea, where violent explosive decompression from nine atmospheres to one caused four divers to die instantly from massive and lethal barotrauma. Dramatized fictional accounts of this include a scene from the film "Licence to Kill", when a character's head explodes after his hyperbaric chamber is rapidly depressurized, and another in the film "DeepStar Six", wherein rapid depressurization causes a character to hemorrhage profusely before exploding in a similar fashion.


title: Bren light machine gun

text: The Bren gun was a series of light machine guns (LMG) made by Britain in the 1930s and used in various roles until 1992. While best known for its role as the British and Commonwealth forces' primary infantry LMG in World War II, it was also used in the Korean War and saw service throughout the latter half of the 20th century, including the 1982 Falklands War. Although fitted with a bipod, it could also be mounted on a tripod or be vehicle-mounted.


title: Bren light machine gun

text: The Bren gun was a licensed version of the Czechoslovak ZGB 33 light machine gun which, in turn, was a modified version of the ZB vz. 26, which British Army officials had tested during a firearms service competition in the 1930s. The later Bren gun featured a distinctive top-mounted curved box magazine, conical flash hider, and quick change barrel.


title: Bren light machine gun

text: The name "Bren" was derived from Brno, the Czechoslovak city in Moravia, where the Zb vz. 26 was designed (in the Zbrojovka Brno Factory) and Enfield, site of the British Royal Small Arms Factory. The designer was Václav Holek, a gun inventor and design engineer.


title: Bren light machine gun

text: In the 1950s, many Bren guns were re-barrelled to accept the 7.62×51mm NATO cartridge and modified to feed from the magazine for the L1 (Commonwealth version of the FN FAL) rifle as the L4 light machine gun. It was replaced in the British Army as the section LMG by the L7 general-purpose machine gun (GPMG), a heavier belt-fed weapon. This was supplemented in the 1980s by the L86 Light Support Weapon firing the 5.56×45mm NATO round, leaving the Bren gun in use only as a pintle mount on some vehicles. The Bren gun was manufactured by Indian Ordnance Factories as the "Gun Machine 7.62mm 1B" before it was discontinued in 2012.


title: Bren light machine gun

text: At the close of the First World War in 1918, the British Army was equipped with two main automatic weapons; the Vickers medium machine gun (MMG) and the Lewis light machine gun. The Vickers was heavy and required a supply of water to keep it in operation, which tended to relegate it to static defence and indirect fire support. The Lewis, although lighter, was still heavy and was prone to frequent stoppages; its barrel could not be changed in the field, which meant that sustained firing resulted in overheating until it stopped altogether.


title: Bren light machine gun

text: In 1922, to find a replacement for the Lewis, the Small Arms Committee of the British Army ran competitive trials between the Madsen machine gun, the M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR), the Hotchkiss M1909 machine gun, the Beardmore-Farquhar rifle, and the Lewis itself. Although the BAR was recommended, the sheer number of Lewis guns available and the difficult financial conditions meant that nothing was done. Various new models of light machine gun were tested as they became available, and in 1930, a further set of extensive trials commenced, overseen by Frederick Hubert Vinden. This time the weapons tested included the SIG Neuhausen KE7, the Vickers-Berthier and the Czechoslovak ZB vz. 27. The latter didn't meet high requirements for durability and reliability, mainly because gunpowder residue from British cordite was obstructing the gas tube (ZB vz. 27 was also sent in 7.92 Mauser instead of .303 British, but ZB already held a patent for a staggered magazine for rimmed rounds). The Vickers-Berthier was later adopted by the Indian Army because it could be manufactured at once, rather than wait for the British Lewis production run to finish; it too saw extensive service in World War II.


title: Bren light machine gun

text: A modified variant with a shortened gas tube was tested again in June 1932, and then newly developed ZB-30 in .303 yet again tested in November. Receiving more feedback and incorporating it into the design by January 1933, yet two other modifications were tested by British representatives in Brno in July. One of the variants was selected, designated ZGB 33 (for Zbrojovka, Great Britain, 33), and 10 its samples were sent to England in autumn 1933. After additional trials in early 1934, more samples were ordered during the summer of 1934, and on May 24, 1935 the license for British manufacture was finally acquired, and the design was adopted under the Bren name.


title: Bren light machine gun

text: The major changes were in the magazine and barrel and the lower pistol grip assembly which went from a swivelling grip frame pivoted on the front of the trigger guard to a sliding grip frame which included the forward tripod mount and sliding ejection port cover. The magazine was curved in order to feed the rimmed .303 inch SAA ("Small Arms Ammunition") cartridge, a change from the various rimless Mauser-design cartridges such as the 7.9-mm Mauser round previously used by Czech designs. These modifications were categorised in various numbered designations, ZB vz. 27, ZB vz. 30, ZB vz. 32, and finally the ZGB 33, which was licensed for manufacture under the Bren name.