title: Zardoz

text: The film was shot entirely on location in County Wicklow in the Republic of Ireland. Some interior shots were filmed at Ardmore Studios in Bray, County Wicklow. Connery lived in Bray while shooting; his house went on the market in 2020, some months before his death. Boorman used the location for several films, including "Excalibur" (1981).


title: Zardoz

text: In the audio commentary, Boorman related how political and cultural conditions in Ireland at the time affected the production, saying that it was "very difficult to get women to bare their breasts" as nudity was a prominent feature in several sequences. He added that a ban on importing rifles which had been imposed because of the Irish Republican Army that had nearly prevented the movie from being made.


title: Zardoz

text: Boorman commissioned David Munrow, director of the Early Music Consort, to compose the score. While the film is set in the distant future (the 23rd century approximately), Boorman believed futuristic music would contain a variety of old-world instruments. Boorman instructed Munrow to use a variety of medieval instruments including notch flutes, medieval bells and gemshorns. These instruments, plus snatches of Beethoven's Seventh, gave the movie a truly unusual soundtrack. As stated by British conductor Sir Anthony Lewis in 1976 "David Munrow did not just emerge into the field of medieval and renaissance music...he exploded into it. He established a standard that can now never be ignored, and the stimulating shock-waves from his explosion will carry far into the future..."


title: Zardoz

text: Along with David Munrow's medieval ensemble, the "Zardoz" soundtrack features Beethoven's "Symphony No.7" in A, 2nd movement, played by the "Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra" and Conducted by Eugen Jochum.


title: Zardoz

text: "Zardoz" was released in theaters on February 6, 1974, in Los Angeles and New York. When the film was released, it was immediately met with terrible reviews. Along with the scathing reviews, the public reacted very poorly to the confusing world of "Zardoz". According to a "Starlog Magazine" article on the film, "these reviewers (and the general public) failed to understand many of Boorman's analogies and philosophical statements". The confusion caused word of mouth to spread very quickly that "Zardoz" was not worth watching and soon theaters showcasing the bizarre sci-fi were left practically empty. Moviegoers reported that "when dissatisfied patrons from the previous showing exited the lobby, they would encourage those waiting to leave. Many times they did". This bad reaction caused ticket sales to drop immensely. "Zardoz" ultimately earned $1.8 million in box office rentals in the United States and Canada.


title: Zardoz

text: Nora Sayre of "The New York Times" wrote "Zardoz" "is science fiction that rarely succeeds in fulfilling its ambitious promises... Despite its pseudo-scientific gimcracks and a plethora of didactic dialogue, "Zardoz" is more confusing than exciting even with a frenetic, shoot-em-up climax". Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" gave it two-and-a-half stars out of four and called it a "genuinely quirky movie, a trip into a future that seems ruled by perpetually stoned set decorators... The movie is an exercise in self-indulgence (if often an interesting one) by Boorman, who more or less had "carte blanche" to do a personal project after his immensely successful "Deliverance"". Gene Siskel of the "Chicago Tribune" gave it one star out of four and called it "a message movie all right, and the message is that social commentary in the cinema is best restrained inside of a carefully-crafted story, not trumpeted with character labels, special effects, and a dose of despair that celebrates the director's humanity while chastising the profligacy of the audience". "Variety" reported the "direction, good; script, a brilliant premise which unfortunately washes out in climactic sound and fury; and production, outstanding, particularly special visual effects which are among the best in recent years and belie the film's modest cost".


title: Zardoz

text: Jay Cocks of "Time" magazine called the film "visually bounteous", with "bright intervals of self-deprecatory humor that lighten the occasional pomposity of the material". Charles Champlin of the "Los Angeles Times" was generally positive and wrote that its $1.5 million budget was "an unbelievably low price for the dazzle on the screen and a tribute to creative ingenuity and personal dedication. It is a film which buffs and would-be filmmakers are likely to be examining with interest for years to come". Pauline Kael of "The New Yorker" wrote that the script "lacks the human dimensions that would make us care about the big visual sequences" and burdened the actors with "unspeakable dialogue", and also remarked that Connery "acts like a man who agreed to do something before he grasped what it was".


title: Zardoz

text: It has been noted that "Zardoz" has developed a cult following. In 1992, Geoff Boucher, writing in the "Los Angeles Times", felt that Boorman achieved his vision to a degree, and that "for fans of wild science fiction, the film is a trippy examination of what happens when intellect overpowers humanity and humans taste immortality". Jonathan Rosenbaum, reviewing in the "Chicago Reader", called it "John Boorman's most underrated filman impossibly ambitious and pretentious but also highly inventive, provocative, and visually striking SF adventure with metaphysical trimmings".


title: Zardoz

text: In 2007, Will Thomas of "Empire Magazine" wrote of "Zardoz": "You have to hand it to John Boorman. When he's brilliant, he's brilliant ("Point Blank", "Deliverance") but when he's terrible, he's "really terrible". A fascinating reminder of what cinematic science fiction used to be like before "Star Wars", this risible hodge-podge of literary allusions, highbrow porn, sci-fi staples, half-baked intellectualism and a real desire to do something revelatory misses the mark by a hundred miles but has elementsits badness being one of themthat make it strangely compelling". Channel 4 called it "Boorman's finest film" and a "wonderfully eccentric and visually exciting sci-fi quest" that "deserves reappraisal". In his audio commentary to the DVD/Blu-ray (first released in 2000, and included in subsequent releases), Boorman claimed it "was a very indulgent and personal film" but one he admits he may not have had the budget to properly achieve. It has since been the subject of re-appraisal and become a cult classic, recognised as "one of the wildest, most ambitious films of the 1970s."


title: Zardoz

text: The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of , with an average score of , based on reviews. Its consensus reads, ""Zardoz" is ambitious and epic in scope, but its philosophical musings are rendered ineffective by its supreme weirdness and rickety execution".


Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers is a 1988 American slasher film directed by Dwight H. Little, written by Alan B. McElroy, and starring Donald Pleasence, Ellie Cornell, and Danielle Harris in her film debut.


title: Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers

text: As its title suggests, the film attempted to bring back Michael Myers after his absence in "" (1982). Initially, John Carpenter and co-producer Debra Hill intended to create an anthology series, with only the first two films being connected. "Halloween 4" was originally intended to be a ghost story, but after the poor reception of "Halloween III," the idea was abandoned.


text: Released in the United States on October 21, 1988, "Halloween 4" grossed $17.8 million domestically on a budget of $5 million, and received mostly negative reviews from critics. However, the film, much like the series in general, has developed a strong cult following since its release. The film begins the "Thorn Trilogy" story arc which would be continued in "" (1989) and "" (1995).


text: On October 30, 1988, Michael Myers, who has been comatose for ten years since the explosion at Haddonfield Memorial Hospital, is transferred to Smith's Grove Sanitarium by ambulance from his current residence in the Ridgemont Federal Sanitarium. Upon hearing that he has a niece, Michael awakens and kills the ambulance personnel, causing the vehicle to crash into a river. Michael escapes and makes his way to Haddonfield. Michael's former psychiatrist, Samuel Loomis, learns of Michael's escape and gives chase. He follows Michael to a gas station and eatery, where Michael has killed a mechanic for his clothes, along with a female clerk. Michael escapes in a tow truck and causes the gas pumps to explode in the process, destroying Loomis's car and disabling the phone lines. Loomis catches a ride to Haddonfield to continue pursuing Michael.


text: Meanwhile, Jamie Lloyd, Laurie Strode's daughter and Michael's niece, is living in Haddonfield with her foster family, Richard and Darlene Carruthers, and their teenage daughter, Rachel. Jamie has nightmares about Michael; though she knows of her uncle, she does not realize he is the figure in said nightmares. On Halloween night, Richard and Darlene go to a party and leave Rachel to babysit, forcing her to cancel a date with her boyfriend Brady. After school, Rachel takes Jamie to buy ice cream and a Halloween costume. Michael arrives in Haddonfield and steals a mask from the same store that Jamie and Rachel are visiting; he almost attacks the former but flees when she screams.


text: That night, as Rachel takes Jamie trick-or-treating, Michael breaks into the house and finds photos of Laurie in Jamie's bedroom. Loomis arrives in Haddonfield and warns the new Sheriff Ben Meeker that Michael has returned. Michael heads to the power station and kills a worker by throwing him into a transformer, plunging the town into darkness. Michael then attacks the police station, killing every officer inside. A lynch mob is formed by the townspeople to kill Michael. Rachel discovers Brady cheating on her with Sheriff Meeker's daughter Kelly, and loses track of Jamie. After being chased by Michael, Rachel finds Jamie.


text: Sheriff Meeker and Loomis arrive and take the girls to the sheriff's house, where Brady is with Kelly, along with a deputy. They barricade the house, and Loomis departs to look for Michael. Brady tries to talk to Rachel, but she refuses to speak with him. Michael sneaks into the house and kills the deputy and Kelly. Rachel and Jamie flee to the attic while Brady stays to fend off Michael, and is killed when Michael snaps his neck. The girls climb through a window onto the roof and Jamie is lowered down safely, but Michael attacks Rachel and knocks her off the roof, rendering her unconscious.


text: Pursued by Michael, Jamie runs and finds Loomis. They take shelter in the school, but Michael appears and throws Loomis through a glass door, then chases Jamie through the building. Jamie trips and falls down a flight of stairs. Rachel reappears and subdues Michael with a fire extinguisher, and he escapes. The lynch mob arrives, and four of the men agree to drive the girls to the next town. Along the way, they meet up with the state police en route to Haddonfield. Michael, who hid underneath the truck, climbs aboard and kills the four men. Rachel takes the wheel, throws Michael off the truck and then rams into him, casting him into a ditch near an abandoned mine. Sheriff Meeker, Loomis, the remaining lynch mob, and the state police arrive. Jamie approaches Michael and touches his hand, and he rises. Meeker, the state police, and the lynch mob shoot Michael until he falls down into the mine.


text: Loomis and Meeker take Jamie and Rachel back home. As Darlene goes upstairs to run a bath for Jamie, she is suddenly attacked. When Loomis investigates, he finds an emotionless Jamie holding a pair of bloody scissors at the top of the stairs, reminiscent of Michael when he killed his own sister. Loomis screams "No!" repeatedly and attempts to shoot Jamie, but Meeker stops him. Loomis sinks to the floor and begins sobbing, as Rachel, Richard, and Meeker stare in horror.


text: After "", executive producer Moustapha Akkad wanted to move further with the series, and bring back Michael Myers. Producer Paul Freeman, a friend of Akkad with a long list of credits to his name, explained to "Fangoria" magazine in 1988 that everybody came out of "Halloween III" saying, "Where's Michael?" John Carpenter was approached by Cannon Films, who had just finished 1986's release of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2", to write and direct "Halloween 4". Debra Hill planned to produce the film, while Carpenter teamed up with Dennis Etchison who, under the pseudonym Jack Martin, had written novelizations of both "Halloween II" (1981) and "Halloween III: Season of the Witch" (1982) to write a script to "Halloween 4". Originally, Joe Dante was Carpenter's choice in mind of director for the project.


text: However, Akkad rejected the Etchison script, calling it "too cerebral" and insisting that any new "Halloween" sequel must feature Myers as a flesh and blood killer. In an interview, Etchison explained how he received the phone call informing him of the rejection of his script. Etchison said, "I received a call from Debra Hill and she said, 'Dennis, I just wanted you to know that John and I have sold our interest in the title 'Halloween' and unfortunately, your script was not part of the deal."


text: Carpenter and Hill had signed all of their rights away to Akkad, who gained ownership. Akkad said, "I just went back to the basics of "Halloween" on "Halloween 4" and it was the most


text: successful." As Carpenter refused to continue his involvement with the series, a new director was sought out. Dwight H. Little, a native of Ohio, replaced Carpenter. Little had previously directed episodes for "Freddy's Nightmares" and the film "Getting Even".


text: On February 25, 1988, writer Alan B. McElroy, a native of a Cleveland, Ohio, was brought in to write the script for "Halloween 4". The writer's strike was to begin on March 7 that year. This forced McElroy to develop a concept, pitch the story, and send in the final draft in under eleven days. McElroy came up with the idea of Brittany "Britti" Lloyd, Laurie Strode's daughter, to be chased by her uncle, who has escaped from Ridgemont after being in a coma for ten years. Dr. Samuel Loomis goes looking for Michael with Sheriff Meeker. The setting of the place was once again Haddonfield, Illinois. The character of Laurie Strode was revealed to have died, leaving Britti with the Carruthers family, which included Rachel, the family's seventeen-year-old daughter. Britti's name was later changed to Jamie, a homage to Laurie Strode actress Jamie Lee Curtis.


text: In the original draft, Sheriff Ben Meeker was to be killed during the Shape's attack on the Meeker house. A fire would have started in the basement and burnt down the entire house. The scene on top of the roof with the Shape, Rachel, and Jamie was supposed to be engulfed in flames. This idea was scrapped due to budget issues. Instead, a more "soap opera" feel was incorporated, which included a love triangle subplot between Rachel, Brady, and Kelly Meeker, the sheriff's daughter.


text: Director Dwight H. Little stated in 2006 that his interpretation of McElroy's screenplay had the Michael Myers character played as a literal escaped mental patient, not a supernatural figure. Little approached the screenplay as though Myers was pursuing Jamie as a means of "connecting with her", but that he had no social capacity to interact with her, and thus resorted to violence. The screenplay references the events of "Halloween II" (1981), in which a fire breaks out in Haddonfield Hospital, by having both Myers and Loomis display burn scars on their respective hands and faces.


text: The cast of "Halloween 4" included only one actor from the first two films, Donald Pleasence, who reprised his role as Samuel Loomis, Michael Myers' psychiatrist. According to Little, Pleasence was "committed conceptually" to the role, but did not sign on to the project until having read a finished screenplay. Before McElroy's script was chosen, the producers asked Jamie Lee Curtis, another original cast member, to reprise her role as Laurie Strode, the original's heroine. Curtis had become a success in the film industry and had established a career with her roles in films like "Trading Places" (1983) and "A Fish Called Wanda" (1988). Curtis declined and did not want to continue her participation in the film, although she did return for the . As a result, her character was written out and died, which is briefly explained in the film.


text: The script introduced Laurie Strode's seven-year-old daughter, Jamie Lloyd. Melissa Joan Hart had auditioned for the role, among various other girls. Up against her was Danielle Harris, who had previously starred in "One Life to Live" as Samantha Garretson; Harris was ultimately cast in the role after auditioning in New York. Rebecca Schaeffer had auditioned for the role of Rachel Carruthers, but had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts. Twenty-three-year-old Ellie Cornell had also auditioned. Cornell had chosen to audition for "Halloween 4" and "" (1988) as the role of Kristen Parker. Cornell chose "Halloween 4" and successfully landed the role of Rachel. Beau Starr was cast as the new Sheriff, Ben Meeker, replacing Sheriff Lee Brackett (Charles Cyphers), and Kathleen Kinmont was cast as the Sheriff's daughter, Kelly. George P. Wilbur was cast to play Michael Myers.


text: Principal photography began on April 11, 1988. Instead of filming in Pasadena, California (the original filming location and stand in for Haddonfield) due to high-rising costs, filming took place in and around Salt Lake City, Utah. As filming was taking place in March, during springtime, the producers were forced to import leaves and big squash, which they would use to create pumpkins by painting them orange. "One of the obvious challenges in making a part four of anything is to interest a contemporary audience in old characters and themes," said director Dwight H. Little. "What I'm trying to do is capture the mood of the original "Halloween" and yet take a lot of new chances. What we're attempting to do is walk a fine line between horror and mystery. "Halloween 4" will not be an ax-in-the-forehead kind of movie." Paul Freeman agreed. "This film does contain some humorous moments, but it's not of the spoof or send-up variety. It's humor that rises out of the film's situations and quickly turns back into terror."


text: George P. Wilbur, who was cast as Michael Myers, wore hockey pads under the costume to make himself look more physically imposing, and he was often filmed in mirror reflections or off-center so that the audience could witness him "in pieces" rather than have an encompassing view. During filming, the cast and crew made it a point to take it easy on Danielle Harris, as she was only a young child at the time, and made sure that she was not scared too badly and knew that none of it was real; to this end, Wilbur regularly removed the mask in front of her in order to remind her that it was just a movie and he was not going to hurt her.


text: The late night scenes caused issues with the cast. Garlan Wilde, a gaffer for the film, was injured during the scene between Brady and the Shape when he dropped a light and accidentally slit his wrists. He was rushed to the hospital. In addition, while filming the rooftop scene, Ellie Cornell cut her stomach open on a large nail while sliding down the roof, though she continued filming the scene despite losing a sizable amount of blood. During most of the night scenes, Donald Pleasence became so cold that he wore a hat for most of the scenes, unbeknownst to the crew. This caused over six hours of footage to be re-shot. The shoot lasted about 41 days and Ellie Cornell and Danielle Harris were required to be on set for 36 of those days.


text: During filming, it was considered that the customized 1975 Captain Kirk mask be reused for this film. However, the mask was long gone and a new one was purchased from a local costume shop. The producers wanted to test and see what it would look like without the edits. The school scene was filmed and when reviewing the producers did not like how the mask turned out. It was allegedly customized again but did not live up to the original, and the producers felt it was too old and went for a new mask. Some scenes had to be re-shot with the new mask. The only scene left in is when Loomis is thrown through a glass door; as Michael comes up behind him, the unaltered face and blonde hair is visible.


text: After viewing the film's rough cut, director Dwight H. Little and producer Moustapha Akkad decided that the film's violence was too soft, and so an extra day of "blood filming" commenced. Special effects make-up artist John Carl Buechler (director of "") was brought in to create the thumb in the forehead kill and neck-twisting of the redneck seen in the film's final cut.


text: The score was performed by Alan Howarth, who had assisted John Carpenter on "Halloween II" and "Halloween III". Howarth gained approval from Dwight H. Little before he could accept the offer, creating a new score that referenced the original's but with a synthesizer twist. Howarth also included new tracks such as "Jamie's Nightmare", "Return of the Shape", and "Police Station". The soundtrack was released to Compact Disc, LP Vinyl Record, and Cassette Tape on September 28, 1988.


text: "Halloween 4" opened in 1,679 theaters on October 21, 1988 and grossed $6,831,250 in its opening weekend, ranking number one at the box office. It held the top spot in its second weekend, and achieved a total domestic gross of $17,768,757 in the United States, becoming the sixth best performing film in the "Halloween" series.


text: The film garnered a negative critical reception upon release. It currently has a 33% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 30 reviews, with an average rating of 4.1 out of 10. The site's critical consensus reads, ""Halloween 4: The Return Of Michael Myers" may bring the series' masked killer back into the fold, but fails to offer the visceral scares and inventiveness of the original." On Metacritic it has a score of 34 out of 100 based on reviews from 10 critics, which indicates "generally unfavorable reviews".


text: Caryn James of "The New York Times" criticized the film for abandoning the original film's strengths saying "suspense and psychological horror have given way to superhuman strength and resilience." "Variety" found the film to be "a no-frills, workmanlike picture." Richard Harrington of "The Washington Post" declared the film "very much the cheap knockoff of its prototype, but not half as visceral." Kim Newman for "Empire" said "It's incredible that a film could be so closely patterned on Carpenter's still-thrilling original movie and yet be so stupid, unscary and plodding as "Halloween 4" is."


text: However, the film received a more positive reception from later reviews. "JoBlo.com" said, "The movie is tight, has good murders and a kicked my butt ending. The Shape is back and in good form; this is my favorite "Halloween" next to the first one." "IGN" declared ""Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers" stands out as the second best film in the entire series." "Dread Central" said, ""Halloween 4" is a strong sequel, horror film and "Halloween" movie." "DVD Talk" said "Despite its flaws, "Halloween 4" is one of the best slashers from the late 1980s, standing out in an era when the subgenre was in steep decline."


text: The film was first released on VHS in May 1989 as a rental title by CBS/FOX home entertainment. It was made available for sell-through in October 1989 to coincide with the theatrical release of "". In 2006, Anchor Bay Entertainment released special editions of this film and its sequel on DVD. Supplements include the "Halloween 4"/"5" panel at the "Return to Haddonfield" convention in 2003, a documentary titled ""Halloween 4" Final Cut", a commentary with Danielle Harris and Ellie Cornell, another commentary by Alan B. McElroy and Anthony Masi and the film's theatrical trailer. "Halloween 4", "Halloween 5", a Blu-ray, standard DVD and extended edition of "Halloween" and the documentary "Halloween: 25 Years of Terror" were released together with a replica Michael Myers mask in a limited edition 30th anniversary box set of the first film. The film was released on Blu-ray in Germany on May 4, 2012, and in the US on August 21, 2012.


text: In the United Kingdom, "Halloween 4" was originally released on VHS format by Braveworld in the early 1990s, and then, Legend distribution. On June 17, 2002, Digital Entertainment released the film on VHS, while a second version from the company containing a "Widescreen Presentation" was released on September 5, 2002. Anchor Bay Entertainment released the film for the first time on DVD in a "Special Edition" on January 28, 2002, while Digital Entertainment released the film several months later on September 5, 2002 to coincide with their newest VHS release. Hollywood released the film individually on October 27, 2003, and released a set containing the film with Ulli Lommel's "The Boogeyman", "Boogeyman II", and "Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers". Hollywood also released a double feature containing the film alongside Mario Bava's "A Bay of Blood". Anchor Bay then acquired rights to all subsequent home video releases, and released "Halloween 4" with the 1986 film "House" in another double feature on February 6, 2006. Anchor Bay re-issued the DVD on October 11, 2010, which features the theatrical trailer and the featurette, "Inside Halloween 4". Anchor Bay released the film again as part of a DVD set, which contains the first five films in the franchise, on October 15, 2012. This release contains new special features: audio commentary with actors Ellie Cornell and Danielle Harris, audio commentary with director Dwight H. Little and author Justin Beahm, "Halloween 4"/"5" discussion panel, and theatrical trailer. Shout! Factory also released the first ten films on Blu-ray in a limited edition box set in addition to "Halloween 4" on Ultra HD Blu-ray under the Scream Factory label.


text: To tie in with the film's release, a novelization by Nicholas Grabowsky was published, containing 224 pages. The novel closely follows the film's events, with a few alterations. In 2003, the novel was re-issued with new material and cover art, titled "Halloween IV: The Special Limited Edition".


title: Central bank digital currency

text: A central bank digital currency (CBDC) (also called digital fiat currency or digital base money) is a digital currency issued by a central bank, rather than by a commercial bank.


title: Central bank digital currency

text: A report by the Bank for International Settlements states that, although the term "central bank digital currency" is not well-defined, "it is envisioned by most to be a new form of central bank money [...] that is different from balances in traditional reserve or settlement accounts."


title: Central bank digital currency

text: The present concept of CBDCs was inspired by Bitcoin and similar blockchain-based cryptocurrencies, but differs from such a virtual currency and cryptocurrency in that a CBDC is or would be issued by a state. Most CBDC implementations will likely not use or need any sort of distributed ledger such as a blockchain.


title: Central bank digital currency

text: CBDCs are presently mostly in the hypothetical stage, with some in proof-of-concept programmes. According to ECB's chief Christine Lagarde, more than 80 central banks are looking at digital currencies. China's digital RMB was the first digital currency to be issued by a major economy. As of July 2022, four central banks have launched a CBDC: the Central Bank of The Bahamas (Sand Dollar), the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (DCash), the Central Bank of Nigeria (e-Naira) and the Bank of Jamaica (JamDex).


title: Central bank digital currency

text: Some states have also issued, or have considered issuing, cryptocurrencies: these include Venezuela (Petro) and the Marshall Islands (Sovereign). These cryptocurrencies are often considered with the intent of increasing a state's independence from global financial systems, such as by reducing dependence on a foreign currency or by evading international sanctions.


title: Central bank digital currency

text: Central banks have directly implemented e-money previously, such as Finland's Avant stored value e-money card in the 1990s. In 2000, the project was launched in Czechia, enabling the implementation of so-called micropayments on the Internet. For payments, users used the virtual currency Q, the fair value of which is tied to a fixed exchange rate against the Czech koruna in the ratio of 100 Q = CZK 1. The two currencies are fully convertible. The author of the project was . Project I LIKE Q was terminated in 2003 due to an amendment to Czech law, which at that time did not provide for this form of payment. In 2021, the same group introduced project which is a type of digital currency enriched with smart contracts aka drone money.


title: Central bank digital currency

text: The present concept of "central bank digital currency" may have been partially inspired by Bitcoin and similar blockchain-based cryptocurrencies. It is also a known concept in the field of economics, whereby the central bank enables citizens to hold accounts with it, providing a reliable and safe public savings or payments medium ("retail" or "general-purpose" CBDC).


title: Central bank digital currency

text: The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) published a report in December 2020 listing the known CBDC wholesale and retail projects at that time. By April 2021, there would be "at least 80 central banks around the world that are looking at digital currencies."


title: Central bank digital currency

text: Another 2020 BIS survey found that 86% of central banks were examining the advantages and disadvantages of launching CBDCs, although only 14% were in advanced stages of development (such as pilot programs).


title: Central bank digital currency

text: A central bank digital currency would likely be implemented using a database run by the central bank, government, or approved private-sector entities. The database would keep a record (with appropriate privacy and cryptographic protections) of the amount of money held by every entity, such as people and corporations.


title: Central bank digital currency

text: In contrast to cryptocurrencies, a central bank digital currency would be centrally controlled (even if it was on a distributed database), and so a blockchain or other distributed ledger would likely not be required or useful - even as they were the original inspiration for the concept.


title: Central bank digital currency

text: A CBDC is a high-security digital instrument; like paper banknotes, it is a means of payment, a unit of account, and a store of value. And like paper currency, each unit is uniquely identifiable to prevent counterfeiting. CBDC will have implications for commercial banks, probably in the field of lowering banks' commissions, no big customer data-selling ability, accumulating the deposits and deposit policies and credit policies due to higher funding costs for banks.


title: Central bank digital currency

text: Digital fiat currency is part of the base money supply, together with other forms of the currency. As such, DFC is a liability of the central bank just as physical currency is. It is a digital bearer instrument that can be stored, transferred and transmitted by all kinds of digital payment systems and services. The validity of the digital fiat currency is independent of the digital payment systems storing and transferring the digital fiat currency.


title: Central bank digital currency

text: Proposals for CBDC implementation often involve the provision of universal bank accounts at the central banks for all citizens.


title: Central bank digital currency

text: Digital fiat currency is currently being studied and tested by governments and central banks in order to realize the many positive implications it contributes to financial inclusion, economic growth, technology innovation and increased transaction efficiencies. Here is a list of potential advantages:


title: Central bank digital currency

text: Despite having potential advantages, CBDCs remain a controversial topic, and there are risks associated with their implementation.


title: Central bank digital currency

text: Indeed, in the last century, commercial banks have created money thanks to deposits in addition to a number of other ways. Formally they have used 2 methods: fractional reserve banking and zero reserve.


title: Central bank digital currency

text: Zero reserve: Today, commercial banks in some countries (US, UK, EU, etc) don't need a reserve requirement anymore. Indeed, every time a subject (a person, a corporation, etc) asks for a loan, and that subject offers a loan guarantee (a private property like a car, a building, etc), the bank temporarily creates a new deposit (money), lends this money to them, and when the borrower pays off the loan plus the interest the initial deposit is deleted, and the bank keeps the interest.


title: Central bank digital currency

text: In the real world, zero reserve and fractional reserve are the same, because the banks are able to avoid the reserve requirements.


title: Central bank digital currency

text: CBDCs are fully reserved, so if a person wants this form of money, they just buy it from the central bank. In this case commercial banks don't create debt or new money, and they don't earn any interest.


title: Central bank digital currency

text: Customers may deem the safety, liquidity, solvibility, and publicity of CBDCs to be more attractive, weakening the balance sheet position of commercial banks. In the extreme, this could precipitate potential bank runs and thus make banks' funding positions weaker. However, the Bank of England found that if the introduction of CBDC follows a set of core principles, the risk of a system-wide run from bank deposits to CBDC is addressed. A central bank could also limit the demand of CBDCs by setting a ceiling on the amount of holdings.


title: Derek Muller

text: Doctor Derek Alexander Muller (born 9 November 1982) is an Australian-Canadian science communicator, filmmaker, and television personality, who is best known for his YouTube channel Veritasium. Muller has also appeared as a correspondent on the Netflix web series "Bill Nye Saves the World" since 2017.


title: Derek Muller

text: Muller was born to South African parents in Traralgon, Victoria, Australia, and moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, when he was 18 months old. In 2000, Muller graduated from West Vancouver Secondary School. In 2004, Muller graduated from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, with a Bachelor of Applied Science in Engineering Physics.


title: Derek Muller

text: Muller moved to Australia to study film-making, but instead enrolled for a Ph.D. in physics education research from the University of Sydney, which he completed in 2008 with a thesis: "Designing Effective Multimedia for Physics Education". He was still looking for a creative career but did not find a direct path.


title: Derek Muller

text: During his Ph.D. course, he was also teaching in a tutoring company, where he took a full-time job as science head after he completed the course in 2008. He quit the job at the end of 2010.


title: Derek Muller

text: In 2011 Muller created his YouTube channel "Veritasium" (see section below), which became his main source of livelihood in a few years.


title: Derek Muller

text: Since 2011, Muller has continued to appear on "Catalyst", reporting scientific stories from around the globe, and on Australian television network Ten as the 'Why Guy' on the "Breakfast" program. In May 2012, he gave a TEDxSydney talk using the subject of his thesis. He presented the documentary "Uranium – Twisting the Dragon's Tail", which aired in July–August 2015 on several public television stations around the world and won the Eureka Prize for Science Journalism.


title: Derek Muller

text: Muller has also won the Australian Department of Innovation Nanotechnology Film Competition and the 2013 Australian Webstream Award for "Best Educational & Lifestyle Series".


title: Derek Muller

text: Starting in April 2017, he appeared as a correspondent on the Netflix series "Bill Nye Saves the World".


title: Derek Muller

text: Muller presented in film "Vitamania: The Sense and Nonsense of Vitamins", a documentary by Genepool Productions, released in August 2018. The film answers questions about vitamins and the use of dietary vitamin supplements.


title: Derek Muller

text: In January 2011, Muller created the educational science channel "Veritasium" on YouTube, the focus of which is "addressing counter-intuitive concepts in science, usually beginning by discussing ideas with members of the public". The videos range in style from interviews with experts, such as 2011 Physics Nobel Laureate Brian Schmidt, to science experiments, dramatisations, songs, anda hallmark of the channelinterviews with the public to uncover misconceptions about science. The name "Veritasium" is a combination of the Latin word for truth, "Veritas", and the suffix common to many elements, "-ium". This creates "Veritasium", an "element of truth", a play on the popular phrase and a reference to chemical elements. In its logo, which has been a registered trade mark since 2016, the number "42.0" resembles an element on the periodic table. The number was chosen as it is "The Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, The Universe, and Everything" in Douglas Adams' famous novel.


title: Derek Muller

text: In July 2012, Muller created a second YouTube channel, "2veritasium". Muller uses the new platform to produce editorial videos that discuss such topics as film making, showcasing behind-the-scenes footage, and for viewer reactions to popular "Veritasium" videos.


title: Derek Muller

text: In 2017, Muller began uploading videos on his newest channel, "Sciencium", which is dedicated to videos on recent and historical discoveries in science.


title: Derek Muller

text: At 2012 Science Online, the video "Mission Possible: Graphene" won the Cyberscreen Science Film Festival and was therefore featured on "Scientific American" as the video of the week. A video debunking the common misconception that the moon is closer than it is, was picked-up by "CBS News".


title: Derek Muller

text: After a video was posted in which Muller is shown driving a wind-powered car, equipped with a huge spinning propeller, faster than the wind, UCLA physics professor Alexander Kusenko disagreed with the claim that sailing downwind faster than wind was possible within the laws of physics, and made a scientific wager with Muller $10,000 that he could not demonstrate that the apparent greater speed was not due to other, incidental factors. Muller took up the bet, and the signing of a wager agreement by the parties was witnessed by Bill Nye and Neil deGrasse Tyson. In a subsequent video, Muller demonstrated the effect with a model cart under conditions ruling out extraneous effects. Kusenko conceded the bet.


title: Derek Muller

text: After Derek Muller's parents, Anthony and Shirley, married in South Africa, they moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, where his two sisters were born (Kirstie and Marilouise). The family moved to Australia, where he was born, after his father got a job in Traralgon at a pulp and paper mill. When he was 18 months old, the family moved back to Vancouver.


title: Derek Muller

text: After Muller moved to Los Angeles he met Raquel Nuno, a planetary scientist whom he married. They have three children (2021).


title: Killing of Cecil the lion

text: Cecil ( 2002 – 2 July 2015) was a male African lion who lived primarily in the Hwange National Park in Matabeleland North, Zimbabwe. He was being studied and tracked by a research team of the University of Oxford as part of a long-term study.


title: Killing of Cecil the lion

text: On the night of July 1, 2015, Cecil was lured out of the protected area and wounded with an arrow by Walter Palmer, an American recreational big-game trophy hunter, then tracked and killed with a compound bow the following morning, between 10 and 12 hours later. Cecil was 13 years old when killed. Palmer had purchased a hunting permit and was not charged legally with any crime; authorities in Zimbabwe have said he is still free to visit the country as a tourist, but not as a hunter. Two Zimbabweans (the hunting guide and the owner of the farm where the hunt took place) were briefly arrested but the charges were eventually dismissed by courts.


title: Killing of Cecil the lion

text: The killing resulted in international media attention, caused outrage among animal conservationists, criticism by politicians and celebrities and a strong negative response against Palmer. Five months after the killing of Cecil, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service added lions in India and West and Central Africa to the endangered species list, making it more difficult for United States citizens to legally kill lions on safaris. According to Wayne Pacelle, then President of the Humane Society, Cecil had "changed the atmospherics on the issue of trophy hunting around the world", adding, "I think it gave less wiggle room to regulators."


title: Killing of Cecil the lion

text: Due to the high level of media attention and the negative reporting about the killing of Cecil, significantly fewer hunters came to Zimbabwe in the months that followed. This led to the country suffering high financial losses and a lion overpopulation.


title: Killing of Cecil the lion

text: Cecil was named after the British businessman, politician and mining magnate Cecil Rhodes, as was the namesake country of Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe. Another lion thought to be Cecil's brother was noticed in Hwange National Park in 2008. During 2009, the two lions encountered an established pride, which resulted in a fight in which Cecil's brother was killed, and both Cecil and the pride leader were seriously wounded; the previous leader was subsequently mercy-killed by park rangers because of the wounds sustained during the fight with Cecil. Cecil retreated to another part of the park where he eventually established his own pride with as many as 22 members. During 2013, Cecil was forced out from the area by two young male lions and into the eastern border of the park. There, he created a coalition with another male lion named Jericho to establish two prides that consisted of Cecil, Jericho, half a dozen females and up to a dozen cubs sired by either Cecil or Jericho.


title: Killing of Cecil the lion

text: The lions in the park, including Cecil, have been studied by scientists from the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit at the University of Oxford as part of a scientific project that has run since 1999, and his movements had been followed since 2008. Of the 62 lions tagged during the study period, 34 have died, including 24 through sport hunting. Of adult male lions that were tagged inside the park, 72% were killed through sport hunting on areas near the park. During 2013, 49 hunted lion carcasses were exported from Zimbabwe as trophies; the 2005–2008 Zimbabwe hunt "off-take" (licensed kills) average was 42 lions per year.


title: Killing of Cecil the lion

text: Cecil was identifiable by his black-fringed mane and a GPS tracking collar, and was Hwange Park's main attraction. One of the researchers on the project suggested that Cecil had become so popular because he was accustomed to people, allowing vehicles to approach sometimes as close as , making it easy for tourists and researchers to photograph and observe him. According to Alex Magaisa, an advisor to Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, Cecil was known to "a segment of society, a privileged segment — both local and international", and some sources claim "99.99 percent of Zimbabweans" had never heard of Cecil.


title: Killing of Cecil the lion

text: During June 2015, Walter J. Palmer, an American dentist and recreational game hunter, reportedly paid to a Zimbabwean professional hunter-guide, Theo Bronkhorst, to enable him to kill a lion. In the late afternoon of 1 July, Bronkhorst and wildlife tracker Cornelius Ncube built a hunting blind in Atoinette Farm, a private property owned by Honest Ndlovu just across a railway track from the park. Between 9 pm and 11 pm, Palmer shot from concealment and critically wounded Cecil with an arrow from his compound bow. The hunters tracked the wounded lion and killed him with a second arrow the next morning (about 10 to 12 hours later) at a location less than from the initial shot. Cecil's body was then skinned and his head was removed. When the lion's headless skeleton, already scavenged by vultures, was eventually found by park investigators, his tracking collar was also missing and later found dumped kilometers away. The hunt took place outside the protected Hwange National Park, but within the lion's normal home range. Biologist Andrew Loveridge alleged that Palmer's companions (Bronkhorst and Ncube) dragged the carcass of an African elephant killed earlier in the week to roughly from the park to bait Cecil out of the protected area.


title: Killing of Cecil the lion

text: The lion was equipped with a satellite tracking device from which locational data were recorded every 2 hours. Subsequently, location data was pieced together (depicted in the map herein on the right). This interpretation of events was corroborated by the subsequent investigation by Zimbabwe National Parks and wildlife management and is consistent with the satellite data.


title: Killing of Cecil the lion

text: Two Zimbabweans (Bronkhorst and Ndlovu) were later arrested by Zimbabwe police. Bronkhorst said during July, 2015, "We had obtained the permit for bowhunting, we had obtained the permit for the lion from the council." Palmer had already returned to the United States, where he issued a statement that he had "relied on the expertise of my local professional guides to ensure a legal hunt" and "deeply regret that my pursuit of an activity I love and practice responsibly and legally resulted in the taking of this lion".


title: Killing of Cecil the lion

text: Cecil's killing went largely unnoticed in the animal's native Zimbabwe. The country's "The Chronicle" newspaper wrote: "It is not an overstatement that almost 99.99 percent of Zimbabweans didn’t know about this animal until Monday. Now we have just learnt, thanks to the British media, that we had Africa’s most famous lion all along, an icon!" The BBC's Farai Sevenzo wrote: "The lion's death has not registered much with the locals".


title: Killing of Cecil the lion

text: On the other hand, Zimbabwean officials stated that the killing of Cecil had already caused a decrease in tourism revenues. A significant decrease was noted in Hwange, where the lion had lived. Many international tourists, who had planned to see the lion, had cancelled their trips. "This killing is a huge loss to our tourism sector that was contributing immensely to the national wealth", said Emanuel Fundira, the president of the Safari Operators Association of Zimbabwe. "We had a lot of people, in terms of visitors, coming in to the country to enjoy and view Cecil, so really this was a great loss," Fundira said, and that Cecil's presence was "a draw card," and compared his death to "the demise of an icon". The director of the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority, Karikoga Kaseke, said that tourism had been booming, but that Zimbabwe was now perceived as a country which was not interested in protecting and promoting animal rights, and this had also had a negative effect on the tourism sector.


title: Killing of Cecil the lion

text: Bryan Orford, a professional wildlife guide who worked in Hwange, calculates that with tourists from a single nearby lodge collectively paying per day, the revenue generated by having Cecil's photograph taken during five days would have been greater than someone paying a one-off fee of to hunt and kill the lion, with no hope of future revenue.


title: Killing of Cecil the lion

text: On 1 August 2015, in response to Cecil's killing, the hunting of lions, leopards and elephants along with all bow-hunting was immediately suspended in areas outside of Hwange National Park by Zimbabwe's environment minister, Opa Muchinguri, who said, "All such hunts will only be conducted if confirmed and authorized in writing by the Director-general of the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority, and only if accompanied by parks staff whose costs will be met by the landowner". The moratorium was lifted after 10 days.


title: Killing of Cecil the lion

text: Zimbabwe's acting information minister, Prisca Mupfumira, when questioned about Cecil's killing, asked, "What lion?"


title: Killing of Cecil the lion

text: At a press conference on 31 July 2015, Zimbabwe's environment minister, Opa Muchinguri, said the hunter violated Zimbabwean law and needs to be held accountable. "We are appealing to the responsible authorities for his extradition to Zimbabwe". Muchinguri said in a press release that Palmer's actions had tarnished the image of Zimbabwe and placed further strain on the relationship between Zimbabwe and the U.S. She suggested conservationists and animal lovers provide resources to help decrease poaching and other environmental concerns in Zimbabwe.


title: Killing of Cecil the lion

text: Under the premise that profits from trophy hunts help animal conservation efforts, Pohamba Shifeta, the Namibian environment and tourism minister, said that these measures by foreigners to curtail prize hunting would "be the end of conservation in Namibia."


title: Killing of Cecil the lion

text: Jacob Zuma, the president of South Africa at the time, declared on 11 August 2015: "What it sounds like from a distance [is] that the hunter did not know that Cecil was so popular, just saw a lion, and killed a lion, and it's Cecil, and Cecil is very well loved and it caused a problem, because everyone wants to go and see Cecil. I think it's just an incident."


title: Killing of Cecil the lion

text: Jean Kapata, Zambia's minister of tourism, said "the West seemed more concerned with the welfare of a lion in Zimbabwe than of Africans themselves", and added that "In Africa, a human being is more important than an animal. I don't know about the Western world."


title: Killing of Cecil the lion

text: Cecil's killing created an outrage among animal conservationists, and prompted responses from politicians and many other people. A number of celebrities publicly condemned Cecil's killing. Palmer received a large number of death threats and hate messages, and activists posted his private details online. The words "Lion Killer" were also spray-painted on the garage door at Palmer's Florida vacation home. In addition, at least seven pickled pigs feet were left at the residence. Artists from around the world dedicated art to Cecil, including Aaron Blaise, a former artist of Walt Disney Feature Animation. Musicians composed original works to honor Cecil. After Mia Farrow received criticism for tweeting Palmer's office address, Bob Barker defended her action, saying, "The animal rights movement has just made humongous strides. Why? Awareness. That is what it takes, we have to make people aware," he told ET. "They don't realize how much suffering is going on in the animal world."


title: Killing of Cecil the lion

text: Not all overseas reactions were sympathetic to Cecil. Goodwell Nzou, an African PhD student in the U.S., wrote in "The New York Times": "In my village in Zimbabwe, surrounded by wildlife conservation areas, no lion has ever been beloved, or granted an affectionate nickname. They are objects of terror [...] Americans care more about African animals than about African people."


title: Killing of Cecil the lion

text: The killing of Cecil sparked a discussion among conservation organisations about the ethics and business of big-game hunting and a proposal for bills banning imports of lion trophies to the U.S. and European Union. These discussions convinced three of the largest airlines in the U.S., American, Delta and United, to voluntarily ban the transport of hunting trophies. Activists also asked African countries to ban bow hunting, lion baiting, and hunting from hunting blinds. Global media and social media reaction resulted in close to 1.2 million people signing the online petition "Justice for Cecil", which asked Zimbabwe's government to stop issuing hunting permits for endangered animals.


title: Killing of Cecil the lion

text: Safari Club International responded by suspending both Palmer's and Bronkhorst's memberships, stating: "those who intentionally take wildlife illegally should be prosecuted and punished to the maximum extent allowed by law." Late-night talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel, choking up as he described the incident, helped raise in donations in less than 24 hours for Oxford's Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, which had long been "responsible for tracking Cecil's activity and location".


title: Killing of Cecil the lion

text: Some government officials publicly condemned the killing of Cecil. David Cameron, then Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, told reporters that the United Kingdom plays "a leading role in preventing illegal wildlife trade", when he was asked about Cecil's death. Grant Shapps, his Minister of State at the Department for International Development, described the incident as "barbaric hunting".


title: Killing of Cecil the lion

text: U.S. Congresswoman Betty McCollum of Minnesota, co-chair of the United States Congressional International Conservation Caucus, suggested an investigation of Palmer and the killing.


title: Killing of Cecil the lion

text: U.S. Senator Bob Menendez introduced the Conserving Ecosystems by Ceasing the Importation of Large (CECIL) Animal Trophies Act, which "extend[s] the import and export protections for a species listed under the Endangered Species Act to those that have been proposed for listing, thereby prohibiting the import of any trophies gleaned from Cecil's killing without explicitly obtaining a permit from the Secretary of the Interior." The bill was cosponsored by Senators Cory Booker, Richard Blumenthal, and Ben Cardin.


title: Killing of Cecil the lion

text: On 30 July 2015, the United Nations General Assembly in New York adopted a non-binding resolution to strengthen the efforts to address illicit wildlife poaching and trafficking. Germany and Gabon were the sponsors of the resolution. Harald Braun, Germany's U.N. Ambassador, and Gabon's Foreign Minister Emmanuel Issoze-Ngondet associated the resolution with the killing. Said Braun: "Like most people in the world we are outraged at what happened to this poor lion;" Issoze-Ngondet added that Cecil's killing was "a matter of deep concern for all countries in Africa".


title: Killing of Cecil the lion

text: On 7 July 2015, law enforcement officers of the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority commenced an investigation after receiving information that a lion had been killed illegally on a farm near Hwange National Park. The Authority charged that a lion had been killed illegally on the farm on 1 July 2015.


title: Killing of Cecil the lion

text: On 29 July 2015, Bronkhorst appeared in court at Victoria Falls and pleaded not guilty to a charge of "failing to prevent an unlawful hunt". He was granted bail at and was ordered to appear back in court on 5 August. Bronkhorst stated: "Palmer is a totally innocent party to this whole thing, and he has conducted and bought a hunt from me that was legitimate." Zimbabwe National Parks said in a statement that quotas are assigned to given areas and that Cecil was shot in an area without a quota for lion kills. On 5 August 2015, the case was adjourned until 28 September, when Bronkhorst's barrister was next available. On 11 November 2016, the High Court in the city of Bulawayo threw out the charges against Bronkhorst, agreeing with the defense that it could not have been a crime under the country's wildlife laws if Palmer had a legal permit to hunt.


title: Killing of Cecil the lion

text: While one account said Honest Ndlovu, who occupies the land on which Cecil was killed, was charged on 29 July 2015 with allowing an illegal hunt on his land, his attorney said two days later that Ndlovu had not been, with parks officials saying days afterward that he would be charged after first testifying for the state. On 18 August 2015, prosecutors brought an illegal-hunting charge against Ndlovu. The charges against Ndlovu were dismissed.


title: Killing of Cecil the lion

text: Palmer left Zimbabwe for the United States after the hunt. He indicated that he would cooperate with authorities in the investigation. On 30 July 2015, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was searching for Palmer as part of its investigation. He contacted them voluntarily through a representative on the same day.


title: Killing of Cecil the lion

text: On 6 September 2015, Palmer said he would return to his dentist practice on 9 September, and that he had not been charged in the United States nor Zimbabwe with any crime related to Cecil's killing nor had he been contacted by authorities. However, he had previously been convicted of fish and game violations in Minnesota. On 12 October, Zimbabwe government officials said Palmer's papers were in order and Palmer would not be charged with any crime. They said he was free to return to Zimbabwe as a tourist but not as a hunter.


title: Killing of Cecil the lion

text: When one or more new male lions oust or replace a previous male(s) associated with a pride, they often kill any existing young cubs, a form of infanticide. Initially, both the University of Oxford study and Johnny Rodrigues, head of the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force, indicated that they believed Cecil's six cubs could be killed by the new dominant male in the pride. In a later interview, however, Rodrigues said Jericho had assumed control of the pride but had not killed Cecil's cubs, and that he was also keeping the cubs safe from any rivals.


title: Killing of Cecil the lion

text: Xanda, a son of Cecil's, was legally shot by trophy hunters in Zimbabwe on 20 July 2017. He was six years old and the father of several young cubs. Despite this being termed a "legal" act of killing, it provoked reactions, not just amongst advocates of animal rights. The BBC termed it a "sad" inheritance from Cecil. Andrew Loveridge, from the Department of Zoology at Oxford University, said the hunter was "one of the ‘good’ guys. He is ethical", adding that Xanda's hunt "was legal and Xanda was over 6 years old so it is all within the stipulated regulations". University of Oxford's Department of Zoology called for a "no-hunting zone" around Hwange Park, spanning .


title: Killing of Cecil the lion

text: Five months after the killing of Cecil, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service added the Panthera leo leo subspecies of lions, in India and western and central Africa, to the endangered species list. The listings would make it more difficult (though not impossible) for US citizen hunters to legally kill these protected lions. According to Wayne Pacelle, president of the Humane Society of the United States and who petitioned for the new listing, Cecil had "changed the atmospherics on the issue of trophy hunting around the world," adding "I think it gave less wiggle room to regulators." Wayne added that he thought the killing of Cecil was "a defining moment" resulting in the new protections. Jeff Flocken, regional director of the International Fund for Animal Welfare, said that while the U.S.F.W.S. decision was not the direct result of the death of Cecil, "it would be impossible to ignore the public outcry" and its effect on worldwide opinion. "The New York Times", writing about the new regulations, said "the killing of Cecil .. seemed to galvanize public attention."


title: Killing of Cecil the lion

text: Other countries and companies have also taken action. After Cecil's killing, France banned the importation of lion trophies. The Netherlands did so in 2016. A British ban was still stalled in 2020, with more than 150 trophies imported since 2015.


title: Killing of Cecil the lion

text: The investigative journalist George Knapp noted Cecil's case on the approach of the incident's one-year anniversary during an annual animal-welfare broadcast concerning issues, the development of law, animal cruelty, and remediation efforts in June 2016. The 2016 broadcast covered various issues, including horses and trophy hunting, noting Cecil and the effect the incident was still causing at the date of the show. Money raised in response to Cecil's death has been used by researchers to reduce conflicts between people and lions by paying for lion protectors and other methods.


title: Killing of Cecil the lion

text: The "Cecil effect" is a term used by some to express the belief that after the killing of Cecil, there was a reduction in the number of hunters coming to Zimbabwe and a subsequent increase in lion populations in certain areas. Byron du Preez, project leader at the Bubye Valley Conservancy, believes the effect does not exist, saying, "Hunters are not coming because there is a massive recession [in the U.S.]." Those who believe in the effect say hunters are staying away from Zimbabwe due to fear of negative publicity. About a month after Cecil was killed, when international uproar was at its peak, Zimbabwean hunting guide Quinn Swales was killed by a lion on a hunt. Some of his fellow guides speculated that he was afraid of shooting the animal out of fear of the possible backlash due to Cecil. According to guide Steve Taylor, "This guy was a really successful guide, and he died by a lion. And I think that's the Cecil Effect. Guides in Zimbabwe are petrified of having the world turn on them."


title: Killing of Cecil the lion

text: Some attribute the Cecil effect as being responsible for an unsustainably high lion population in the Bubye Valley Conservancy, which negatively affects the conservancy's population of the park's wildlife such as antelopes, giraffes, cheetahs, rhinos, leopards, and painted dogs; and possibly requiring a lion cull of up to 200 felines. Others noted that 2015 was the driest summer on record, which kept grass low and made game animals easy targets for lions.


title: Killing of Cecil the lion

text: In the children's book "Cecil's Pride" (2016), author Craig Hatkoff and his daughters sought to shed light on Cecil's life and how he lived prior to his death. He reached out to those who studied Cecil's pride at Zimbabwe's Hwange National Park and got into contact with Cecil's 'biographer', researcher Brent Stapelkamp. Stapelkamp had studied Cecil for over 9 years and had accumulated photographs that were used as illustrations in the book that capture the complexities of the pride. The book highlights the relationship of Cecil and an unrelated male named Jericho who becomes co-leader with Cecil and then leader after Cecil's death.


title: Killing of Cecil the lion

text: Andrew Loveridge, in his book "Lion Hearted: The Life and Death of Cecil & the Future of Africa's Iconic Cats" (2018), suggests that the hunters allowed Cecil to suffer for more than 10 hours, without hastening his death with a firearm, possibly to allow Palmer to submit the game to a hunting record book as an archery-hunted animal. Loveridge further suggests that Bronkhost, knowing that he had no quota to hunt in the area, attempted to deliberately conceal the hunt by removing Cecil's skinned carcass and disabling his collar. However, the High Court set aside the charges against Bronkhorst.


title: Killing of Cecil the lion

text: In 2021, National Geographic Channels aired the documentary produced by wildlife filmmaker Peter Lamberti from Lion Mountain Media, "Cecil: The Legacy of a King".


title: Doublethink

text: Doublethink is a process of indoctrination in which subjects are expected to simultaneously accept two conflicting beliefs as truth, often at odds with their own memory or sense of reality. Doublethink is related to, but differs from, hypocrisy.


title: Doublethink

text: George Orwell coined the term "doublethink" (as part of the fictional language of Newspeak) in his 1949 dystopian novel "Nineteen Eighty-Four". In the novel, its origins within the citizenry is unclear; while it could be partly a product of Big Brother's formal brainwashing programs, the novel explicitly shows people learning doublethink and Newspeak due to peer pressure and a desire to "fit in," or gain status within the Party—to be seen as a loyal Party Member. In the novel, for someone to even recognize—let alone mention—any contradiction within the context of the Party line is akin to blasphemy, and could subject that person to disciplinary action and the instant social disapproval of fellow Party Members.


title: Doublethink

text: Like many aspects of the dystopian societies reflected in Orwell's writings, Orwell considered doublethink to be a feature of Soviet-style totalitarianism.


title: Doublethink

text: To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it, to believe that democracy was impossible and that the Party was the guardian of democracy, to forget whatever it was necessary to forget, then to draw it back into memory again at the moment when it was needed, and then promptly to forget it again, and above all, to apply the same process to the process itself—that was the ultimate subtlety: consciously to induce unconsciousness, and then, once again, to become unconscious of the act of hypnosis you had just performed. Even to understand the word—doublethink—involved the use of doublethink.


title: Doublethink

text: Orwell explains that the Party could not protect its near-absolute power without degrading its people with constant propaganda. Yet knowledge of this brutal deception, even within the Inner Party itself, could lead to the implosion of the State. Although "Nineteen Eighty-Four" is most famous for the Party's pervasive surveillance of everyday life, this control means that the population of Oceania—"all of it" and including the ruling elite, but in practice largely excluding the proles—could be controlled and manipulated merely through the alteration of everyday thought and language. Newspeak is the method for controlling thought through language; doublethink is the method of directly controlling thought.


title: Doublethink

text: Earlier in the book, doublethink is explained as being able to control your memories, to be able to manually forget something, then to forget about forgetting. This is demonstrated by O'Brien, during the time when Winston Smith is being tortured toward the end of the book.


title: Doublethink

text: Newspeak incorporates doublethink, as it contains many words that create assumed associations between contradictory meanings, especially true of fundamentally important words such as "good" and "evil", "right" and "wrong", "truth" and "falsehood", and "justice" and "injustice".


title: Doublethink

text: The demand for doublethink was especially difficult on employees of the Records Department in the Ministry of Truth. The department's responsibility was to falsify historic records, even recent ones, by means of rewrite and deletion, all so that the Party could maintain the illusion that everything it had ever said and done was perfect and consistent. Yet, despite their direct role in this systematic deception, these same workers were still expected to believe the most recently created version of history, or face severe penalty if they failed. As revealed in Goldstein's Book, the Ministry's name is itself an example of doublethink: the Ministry of Truth is really concerned with lies. The other ministries of Airstrip One are similarly named: the Ministry of Peace is concerned with war, the Ministry of Love is concerned with torture, and the Ministry of Plenty is concerned with starvation. The three slogans of the Party—"War is Peace", "Freedom is Slavery", and "Ignorance is Strength"—are also examples.


title: Doublethink

text: Moreover, the self-deception of doublethink allows the Party to maintain huge goals and realistic expectations:


title: Doublethink

text: Thus each Party member could be a credulous pawn but would never lack relevant information, the Party being both fanatical and well informed and thus unlikely either to "ossify" or "grow soft" and collapse. Doublethink would avoid a "killing the messenger" attitude that could disturb the Command structure. Thus doublethink is the key tool of self-discipline for the Party, complementing the state-imposed discipline of propaganda and the police state. These tools together hide the government's evil not just from the people but from the government itself—but without the confusion and misinformation associated with primitive totalitarian regimes.


title: Doublethink

text: Doublethink is critical in allowing the Party to know what its true goals are without recoiling from them, avoiding the conflation of a regime's egalitarian propaganda with its true purpose.


title: Doublethink

text: Paradoxically, during the long and harrowing process in which the protagonist Winston Smith is systematically tortured and broken, he contemplates using doublethink as the ultimate recourse in his rebellion—to let himself become consciously a loyal party member while letting his hatred of the party remain an unconscious presence deep in his mind and let it surface again at the very moment of his execution so that "the bullet would enter a free mind" with which the Thought Police would not have a chance to tamper again.


title: Doublethink

text: Since 1949 (when "Nineteen Eighty-Four" was published), the word "doublethink" has become synonymous with relieving cognitive dissonance by ignoring the contradiction between two world views—or even of deliberately seeking to relieve cognitive dissonance. Some schools of psychotherapy such as cognitive therapy encourage people to alter their own thoughts as a way of treating different psychological maladies (see cognitive distortions).


title: Doublethink

text: Orwell's "doublethink" is also credited with having inspired the commonly-used term "doublespeak", which itself does not appear in the book. Comparisons have been made between "doublespeak" and Orwell's descriptions on political speech from his essay "Politics and the English Language", in which "unscrupulous politicians, advertisers, religionists, and other 'doublespeakers' of whatever stripe, continue to abuse language for manipulative purposes."


title: Françoise Gilot

text: Marie Françoise Gilot (born 26 November 1921) is a French painter, best known for her relationship with Pablo Picasso, with whom she had two children. Gilot was already launched as an accomplished artist, notably in watercolours and ceramics, but her professional career was eclipsed by her social celebrity, and when she split from Picasso, he discouraged galleries from buying her work, as well as unsuccessfully trying to block her memoir, "Life with Picasso".


title: Françoise Gilot

text: Gilot was born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, to Émile Gilot and Madeleine Gilot (née Renoult). Her father was a businessman and agronomist, and her mother was a watercolor artist. Her father was a strict, well-educated man. Gilot began writing with her left hand as a young child, but at the age of four, her father forced her to write with her right hand. As a result, Gilot became ambidextrous. She decided at the age of five to become a painter. The following year her mother tutored her in art, beginning with watercolors and India ink. Gilot was then taught by her mother's art teacher, a Mademoiselle Meuge, for six years. She studied English literature at Cambridge University and the British Institute in Paris (now University of London Institute in Paris). While training to be a lawyer, Gilot was known to skip morning law classes to pursue her true passion: art. She graduated from the Sorbonne with a B.A. in Philosophy in 1938 and from Cambridge University with a degree in English in 1939. Gilot had her first exhibition of paintings in Paris in 1943.


title: Françoise Gilot

text: Gilot's father Emile wanted his daughter to be just as educated as he, and as a result, oversaw his daughter's education very closely. Gilot was tutored at home, beginning at a young age, and by the time she was six years old, she had a good knowledge of Greek mythology. By the age of fourteen, she was reading books by Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Baudelaire, and Alfred Jarry. While her father had hoped she would go to school to become a scientist or lawyer, Gilot was frequenting museums in Europe to understand and gain an appreciation for the masters. When Gilot was seventeen, she attended the Sorbonne and the British Institute in Paris and had a baccalaureate degree in Philosophy. She received her English Literature degree from Cambridge University. During 1939, Gilot's father still wanted her to complete a degree in international law, and out of fear that Paris would be bombed during the war, Gilot was sent to Rennes, France, to begin law school. At the age of 19, she abandoned her studies in law to devote her life to art. She was mentored by the artist Endre Rozsda. In 1942, after abandoning law several times, and returning on the insistence of her father, Gilot studied law for a second year and passed her written exams, but failed her oral exams.


title: Françoise Gilot

text: At 21, Gilot met Pablo Picasso, then 61. Picasso first saw Gilot in a restaurant in the spring of 1943. Dora Maar, the photographer who was his muse and lover at the time, was devastated to learn that Picasso was replacing her with the much younger artist. After Picasso's and Gilot's meeting, she moved in with him in 1946. They spent almost ten years together, and those years revolved around art. He painted "La femme-fleur", then his old friend Matisse, who liked Gilot, announced that he would create a portrait of her, in which her body would be pale blue and her hair leaf green.


title: Françoise Gilot

text: It was believed by some art historians that Gilot's relationship with Picasso is what cut short her artistic career. When Gilot left Picasso, he told all art dealers he knew not to purchase her art, whereas Gilot herself has noted that continuing to identify her in relation to Picasso "does her a great disservice as an artist."


title: Françoise Gilot

text: Picasso and Gilot never married, but they did have two children together because he promised to love and care for them. Their son, Claude, was born in 1947, and their daughter, Paloma, was born in 1949. During their ten years together, Gilot was often harassed on the streets of Paris by Picasso's legal wife, Olga Khokhlova, a former Russian ballet dancer, and Picasso himself physically abused her as well. In 1964, eleven years after their separation, Gilot wrote "Life with Picasso" (with the art critic Carlton Lake), a book that sold over one million copies in dozens of languages, despite an unsuccessful legal challenge from Picasso attempting to stop its publication. From then on, Picasso refused to see Claude or Paloma ever again. All the profits from the book were used to help Claude and Paloma mount a case to become Picasso's legal heirs.


title: Françoise Gilot

text: Françoise Gilot was introduced to art at a young age by her mother and grandmother. Her grandmother had held a party when Françoise was about five years old. A certain man caught Gilot's eye as being interesting, and she asked her grandmother who the man was. He turned out to be a painter, Emile Mairet. Gilot's father became close friends with the painter, and Françoise would often tag along to visit his studio. At age six, Françoise's mother began teaching her art, with the exception of drawing. Her mother believed artists become too dependent on erasers, and instead taught Françoise in watercolor and India ink. If she made a mistake, she would have to make it intentional to her work. By the age of thirteen, she began to study with Mlle. Meuge, which continued for six years. At the age of fourteen, she was introduced to ceramics, and a year later, she studied with the Post-Impressionist painter Jacques Beurdeley. At the age of 21, she met Picasso. Although Picasso had influenced Françoise Gilot's work as a cubist painter, she developed her own style. She avoided the sharp edges and angular forms that Picasso sometimes used. Instead, she used organic figures. During the war, Gilot's father attempted to save the most valuable household belongings by moving them, but the truck was bombed by the Germans, leading to the loss of Gilot's drawings and watercolors.


title: Françoise Gilot

text: Her stature as an artist and the value of her work have increased over the years. In 2021 her painting "Paloma à la Guitare," a 1965 portrait of her daughter, sold for $1.3 million at Sotheby's in London. As of January 2022 her work is on exhibit in multiple leading museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Centre Pompidou in Paris.


title: Françoise Gilot

text: From 1943 to 1953, Gilot was the lover and artistic muse of Pablo Picasso, with whom she had two children, Claude and Paloma.


title: Françoise Gilot

text: Gilot married artist Luc Simon in 1955. Their daughter Aurélia was born the following year. The couple divorced in 1962.


title: Françoise Gilot

text: In 1969, Gilot was introduced to American polio vaccine pioneer Jonas Salk at the home of mutual friends in La Jolla, California. Their shared appreciation of architecture led to a brief courtship and a 1970 wedding in Paris. During their marriage, which lasted until Salk's death in 1995, the couple lived apart for half of every year as Gilot continued to paint in New York City, La Jolla, and Paris.


title: Françoise Gilot

text: Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Gilot designed costumes, stage sets, and masks for productions at the Guggenheim in New York City. She was awarded a Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur in 1990.


title: Françoise Gilot

text: In 1973, Gilot was appointed art director of the scholarly journal "Virginia Woolf Quarterly". In 1976, she joined the board of the Department of Fine Arts at the University of Southern California, where she taught summer courses and took on organizational responsibilities until 1983.


title: Françoise Gilot

text: Gilot splits her time between New York and Paris, working on behalf of the Salk Institute, and continues to exhibit her work internationally.


title: Françoise Gilot

text: In 2010, Gilot was awarded the Officer of the Légion d'honneur, the French government’s highest honour the arts.


title: Françoise Gilot

text: In August 2018, Gilot released three sketchbooks, these documented the journey she went on in Venice, India and Senegal.


title: Françoise Gilot

text: Gilot is played by Natascha McElhone in the 1996 film "Surviving Picasso", and by Clémence Poésy in the 2018 season of "Genius", which focuses on the life and art of Picasso.


title: David Silveria

text: David Randall Silveria (born September 21, 1972) is an American drummer, best known as the original drummer for nu metal band Korn from 1993 until leaving the band in 2006. He then became the drummer for Infinika, which was formed in 2012 and disbanded in 2015.


title: David Silveria

text: Born in San Leandro, California, Silveria was raised in Bakersfield. He was one of the original five members of the nu metal band Korn, alongside Brian "Head" Welch, James "Munky" Shaffer, Reginald "Fieldy" Arvizu, and Jonathan Davis. Korn proceeded to popularize the nu metal subgenre in the music industry, selling over 40 million albums worldwide. Silveria sat out a part of the "Sick and Twisted 2000" and "Summer Sanitarium" tours due to injury, with Mike Bordin from Faith No More filling in on drums. Silveria then returned for the album recording of "Untouchables", Silveria's own explanation for the issue was that he "hits too fucking hard".


title: David Silveria

text: On December 13, 2006, after the tour in support of "See You on the Other Side", it was announced that Silveria would be going on hiatus, and Jonathan Davis later said Silveria would "probably not" appear on their next album. In 2009, after working with several different temporary drummers, Ray Luzier was announced as the official replacement.


title: David Silveria

text: For the first time in three years Silveria appeared promoting Lil' Kim in "Dancing with the Stars", he also introduced himself as "David Silveria from Korn". In May 2010, he appeared as a model for Remetee clothing.


title: David Silveria

text: Since January 2012, Silveria has become vocal about his time in Korn, and has often spoken negatively about the band, its members and in some cases its outspoken fans, during conversations on Korn fansite Kornspace.com. Although he maintains no relationship with his former bandmates, he has stated that he has no hard feelings towards guitarist James Shaffer. However, Silveria has spoken less fondly of singer Jonathan Davis and bassist Reginald Arvizu, such as calling Arvizu a "cowardly little bitch". Silveria states that his relationship with Korn was flawed due to them not letting him back in the band after his long absence from music. Silveria mentioned during his conversation with fans on Kornspace that he had contacted then-former band member Brian Welch about a Korn reunion tour but Welch refused the offer. Silveria also confirmed his comments that he left Korn due to "negative attitudes" and that he "couldn't take it anymore". He mentioned at that point that he had not spoken with Davis since November 2006. However, after it was announced that original guitarist Welch would be returning to Korn for two shows at Rock am Ring and Rock im Park in 2013, Silveria commented on his Facebook page that he would be open to a reunion if all five original members were involved.


title: David Silveria

text: On January 7, 2013, Silveria updated his status on his official Facebook page stating, 'Korn fans need to flood the Korn site telling them Korn isn't Korn without the original five!!!' He then went on to say in a later status that fans should 'Flood Jd's and Munkys twitter to bring the original 5 back together" and later commenting that he had 'made contact', after which fans began predicting that a full reunion would happen. On January 7, 2013, Welch stated in an interview that "David has really said some crazy things online about personal things and he's not in a place where people would really want him around. That happened before I talked with them but I guess the things he said were really crazy. Those guys were in a band together for so long so I don't know, but for now it's just not going to happen."


title: David Silveria

text: On August 11, 2013, Silveria took to his personal Facebook account to state that "[t]here are a lot of things I did for the band that they don't like to admit I did." He then went on to say in a later post that he blamed the band's "cookie cutter" musical direction after "Follow the Leader" for his lack of interest from that point. On August 17, 2013, Silveria responded to the repeated misquoting of his post on Ray Luzier and Korn with "To be clear I am NOT talking bad about Ray. My posts have been about my work with Korn during our early years specifically during our first three records." Silveria has claimed that he could restore Korn's original sound, and says that he would like to have a discussion with the band about their early days, the future of the band and Korn's original sound. However, Davis stated on Twitter that "I will never never play with him again" (which appears to be a reference to the title of Korn's first single "Never Never" from the album "The Paradigm Shift").


title: David Silveria

text: In February 2015, Silveria stated that he was suing his former bandmates in Korn for money owed after the band declined to allow him back in the group following a lengthy break. According to TMZ, Silveria is suing the other four original bandmembers in an effort to reclaim the money owed to him and his "ownership interest" in the band since his departure. If Silveria is paid what he believes he is owed from the past 9 years, he will dissolve his partnership with the group.


title: David Silveria

text: On January 24, it was announced on YouTube that Silveria was playing drums for the experimental rock band Infinika alongside the founding member of ANYONE (and filmmaker) Riz Story. On January 27, it was confirmed with an article on Blabbermouth.net. Silveria stated that he wished to expand his musical scope with Infinika adding that it was technically the most advanced drumming of his career. On January 30, fan site Kornspace.com confirmed that Silveria had in fact joined the site, with a picture of Silveria holding a Kornspace banner. This confirmed previous comments that had supposedly been made by the drummer on the site earlier that week. Silveria stated that he would be touring with Infinika and that he was looking forward to the release of the first full-length album by the band, "Echoes and Traces".


title: David Silveria

text: On April 2, Infinika released a single and music video via YouTube called "Beautiful World". The video features footage of Silveria recorded for the Infinika – Promotional Clip.


title: David Silveria

text: The album "Echoes and Traces" was released worldwide in September 2014. It features 14 tracks which vary widely from acoustic to psychedelic metal. Silveria stated that "the direction of the band would be defined by its rich mixture of sounds and unpredictable direction". Noting the mixed reviews from some Korn fans Silveria stated, "I have no interest in repeating myself. I want to keep expanding my drumming and Infinika allows me to explore the wide range of my drumming".


title: David Silveria

text: Silveria stated he would be joining a band by the name of Core10 on his Facebook page. On May 22, 2018, it was announced that Silveria and everyone else in the band, aside from their two frontmen, had quit the band due to mixed reviews and creative differences.


title: David Silveria

text: Silveria then helped form a new band called Breaking in a Sequence (B.I.A.S) with singer Rich Nguyen, guitarist and vocalist Joe Taback, guitarist Mike Martin, and bassist Chris Dorame.


title: David Silveria

text: Silveria married Shannon Bellino in 1997 but the couple divorced a few years later; they have two children together, born in 1997 and 1999. Silveria later married Victoria Silveria.


title: Gnat

text: A gnat () is any of many species of tiny flying insects in the dipterid suborder Nematocera, especially those in the families Mycetophilidae, Anisopodidae and Sciaridae. They can be both biting and non-biting. Most often they fly in large numbers, called clouds. "Gnat" is a loose descriptive category rather than a phylogenetic or other technical term, so there is no scientific consensus on what constitutes a gnat. Some entomologists consider only non-biting flies to be gnats. Certain universities and institutes also distinguish eye gnats: the Smithsonian Institution describes them as "non-biting flies, no bigger than a few grains of salt, ... attracted to fluids secreted by your eyes".


title: Gnat

text: As nematoceran flies, adult gnats have antennae with at least six segments that are often long and slender. They are generally slender-bodied with long and narrow wings.


title: Gnat

text: Black fly (Simuliidae) and biting midges (Ceratopogonidae), also belonging to the gnat category, are small, sometimes barely visible, blood-sucking flies commonly known in many areas as biting gnats, sand flies, punkies or "no-see-ums", among other names.


title: Gnat

text: In general, gnats go through the four life stages of egg, larva, pupa and adult, similar to other flies.


title: Gnat

text: The fungus gnats lay their eggs in moist organic debris or soil, which hatch into larvae. The larvae feed on organic matter such as leaf mold, mulch, compost, grass clippings, root hairs and fungi. They eventually become pupae and then adults emerge from the pupae. At a temperature of 75 ºF (23.9 ºC), the cycle takes approximately 17 days: 3 days as eggs, 10 days as larvae and 4 days as pupae. Warmer temperatures allow more rapid development. Some species of fungus gnats (e.g. those in genus "Bradysia") are pests of mushrooms and roots of plants in greenhouses.


title: Gnat

text: Other gnats begin their lives as eggs laid in masses in water, or laid on aquatic plants. The aquatic larvae dwell in ponds, pools, water-filled containers, clogged rain gutters or wet soil, which generally feed on plant matter (living or dead). The larvae develop into pupae and then into adults. Adults live only long enough to reproduce and they may form large mating swarms, often around dusk. The life cycle generally takes 4-5 weeks.


title: Gnat

text: The larvae of most gall gnats (Cecidomyiidae), such as the Hessian fly larva, form galls in flowers, leaves, stems, roots or other plant parts.


title: Gnat

text: Some South American pleurothallid orchids are pollinated by tiny gnats and have correspondingly small flowers.


title: Gnat

text: Adult non-biting gnats do not damage plants but are considered a nuisance. Usually, larvae do not cause serious plant damage, but when present in large numbers can stunt the plant growth and damage its roots. To prevent gnats from spreading, measures have to be taken to target immature stages of development of the species. Physical tactics include eliminating favorable living conditions: reduction of excess moisture, drainage of pools with standing water, and removal of decaying organic matter. Commercially available control agents and insecticides can be used as a control measure, but are not recommended for use in a household. To control adult gnats in smaller areas, pressurized aerosol sprays with pyrethrins can be used. Other control measures in the household can include turning off unnecessary lights at dusk and sealing vents and other openings.


title: Avianca Flight 203

text: Avianca Flight 203 was a Colombian domestic passenger flight from El Dorado International Airport in Bogotá to Alfonso Bonilla Aragón International Airport in Cali, Colombia. It was destroyed by a bomb over the municipality of Soacha on November 27, 1989. All 107 people on board as well as 3 people on the ground were killed. The bombing had been ordered by the Medellín drug cartel.


title: Avianca Flight 203

text: The aircraft was a Boeing 727-21 with registration number HK-1803, serial number 19035, and manufacturing serial number 272. It had been purchased from Pan Am. The aircraft was built in 1966, and had its maiden flight on May 19 of the same year. The aircraft was powered by three Pratt & Whitney JT8D-7 turbofan engines capable of developing up to of thrust each. The aircraft was delivered to Pan Am on May 28, and was registered as N326PA. Avianca purchased the aircraft on November 15, 1975, when it was re-registered as HK-1803.


title: Avianca Flight 203

text: The captain was José Ignacio Ossa Aristizábal, the first officer was Fernando Pizarro Esguerra, and the flight engineer was Luis Jairo Castiblanco Vargas. There were three flight attendants on board.


title: Avianca Flight 203

text: Flight 203 took off as scheduled at 7:13 a.m. Five minutes into the flight, at a speed of and an altitude of , an explosive charge detonated, causing fuel vapors in the empty central fuel tank to ignite. Eyewitnesses on the ground reported seeing fire erupt out of the right side of the aircraft's fuselage. A second blast ripped the airliner apart; the nose section separated from the tail section, which went down in flames. The wreckage was scattered in a three-mile radius around the town of Soacha. All 107 people on board were killed, as well as three people on the ground who were killed by falling debris.


title: Avianca Flight 203

text: An investigation determined that plastic explosives were used to destroy the plane. Drug king Pablo Escobar, of the Medellín drug cartel, planned the bombing in the lead-up to the 1990 elections, hoping the bomb plot would kill presidential candidate César Gaviria Trujillo. One account states that two unidentified men dressed in suits who worked for Escobar carried the bomb on board. The men sat in seats 18A and 18K, located above the main fuel tank. At the last moment, one of the men left the aircraft, while his partner stayed on board and was killed in the bombing. A young Colombian man named Alberto Prieto was duped into staying on the flight and activating the bomb once the aircraft had become airborne thus unknowingly killing himself; he had been told the device was just a recorder he had to turn on to record the conversation of a nearby couple of passengers; because of this, the man had been nicknamed "El Suizo", or "The Swiss", in reference to his role as a "suicide" bomber.


title: Avianca Flight 203

text: Gaviria was not on the aircraft, despite Escobar's expectations, and went on to become President of Colombia. Two Americans were among the dead, prompting the Bush Administration to begin Intelligence Support Activity operations to find Escobar.


title: Avianca Flight 203

text: Nine days after the bombing of the plane, the DAS Building bombing, presumably also ordered by the Medellín Cartel, killed 63 people in Bogotá.


title: Avianca Flight 203

text: Dandeny Muñoz Mosquera, the chief assassin for the Medellín Cartel, was convicted in 1994 in United States District Court of having been involved in the bombing and various other crimes, and was sentenced to 10 consecutive life sentences.


title: Avianca Flight 203

text: Avianca has not retired the flight number. Avianca 203 is, as of 2022, a flight from Orlando to Medellin.


title: Avianca Flight 203

text: On November 28, 2016, the Colombian newspaper "El Espectador" started publishing an investigative report, consisting of 8 chapters, on Flight 203. It argues that the explosion was caused by a malfunctioning fuel pump inside a tank which had been reported several times before. The report was heavily criticized by Avianca and family members of the victims.


title: Demography of the Netherlands

text: This article is about the demographic features of the population of the Netherlands, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the population, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.


title: Demography of the Netherlands

text: The Netherlands is the 67th most populated country in the world, and as of March 21, 2016, it has a population of 17,000,000. As of December 31, 2020 the Netherlands has a population of 17,474,677.


title: Demography of the Netherlands

text: Between 1900 and 1950 the population doubled from 5.1 to 10.2 million people. From 1951 to 2000 the population increased from 10.0 to 15.9 million people, increasing by a smaller proportion.


title: Demography of the Netherlands

text: The Netherlands is the 16th most densely populated country in the world, and the 5th most densely populated country in Europe; the first four are mini states. The 17.4 million Dutch inhabitants are concentrated on an area of including water surface, the land surface being . This means that the country has a population density of . The density of 500 inhabitants/km was reached in the first half of 2014.


title: Demography of the Netherlands

text: As a result of these demographic characteristics, the Netherlands has had to plan its land use strictly. Since 1946 the Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment has been occupied with the national coordination of land use. Because of its high population density the Netherlands has also reclaimed land from the sea by poldering. Between 1927 and 1968 an entire province, Flevoland was created. It currently (2015) houses more than 400,000 people. Because of these policies, the Dutch have been able to combine high levels of population density with extremely high levels of agricultural production.


title: Demography of the Netherlands

text: Even though the Netherlands is so densely populated, it has no municipalities with a population over one million, although the two largest municipalities of the country do score well over a million if the complete city region is counted, including the neighbouring satellite towns that often are physically connected to the main municipality. Moreover, the "four big cities" (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht) can in many ways be regarded as a single metropolitan area, the Randstad ("rim city" or "edge city") with over 7.5 million inhabitants around an agricultural "green heart" ("het Groene Hart").


title: Demography of the Netherlands

text: The Dutch population is ageing. Furthermore, life expectancy has increased because of developments in medicine, and in addition to this, the Netherlands has seen increasing immigration. Despite these developments combined with the population boom after the Second World War, the low birth rate has caused extremely low population growth: 2005 saw the lowest absolute population growth since 1900.


title: Demography of the Netherlands

text: This demographic development has consequences for health care and social security policy. As the Dutch population ages, the proportion of people of working age, as a percentage of the entire population, decreases. Important policy advisors like the CBS (Statistical Office) and the CPB (Planning Office) have pointed out that this will cause problems with the current system of old age pensions: fewer people will work to pay for old age pensions, while there will be more people receiving those pensions. Furthermore, the costs of health care are also projected to increase. These developments have caused several cabinets, notably the second Balkenende cabinet to reform the system of health care and social security to increase participation in the labour market and make people more conscious of the money they spend on health care.


title: Demography of the Netherlands

text: In 2003, the annual birth rate per thousand was highest in the province of Flevoland (15.9). The overall lifelong Total fertility rate (TFR), was highest in the province of Flevoland (2.0) and lowest in the province of Limburg (1.6). The municipality with the highest TFR was Urk (3.23) followed by Valkenburg (2.83), Graafstroom (2.79) and Staphorst (2.76). The lowest TFRs were recorded in Vaals (1.11) and Thorn (1.21).