title: Smithereens (Black Mirror)

text: Reviewers gave differing descriptions of Chris's motives and behaviour. Olly Richards of "NME" said that Chris "holds Smithereen responsible" for his ex-fiancée's death, an easier choice "than accepting that he was at fault"; however, Longo said that when Chris talks to Billy, the audience learns that he "doesn't scapegoat Smithereen". Vorel said that Chris may be "at war with himself" over his choices, leading to "a spastic, explosive sort of nervous energy". Sims saw the episode as "a tale of two totally adrift people"—Chris and Billy—"unable to continue living in an interconnected world". Dwilson saw their conversation as exhibiting "the power of a simple one-on-one exchange in a world dominated by terse social exchanges". Guadagno hoped that after their call, Billy could "make his social media platform about maximizing positive human connection by making people the customer, not the commodity".


title: Smithereens (Black Mirror)

text: Easter egg references to previous episodes are made through frames of a character scrolling through contacts in their phone, many of whom share names with previous "Black Mirror" characters, and trending topics on Smithereen include SaitoGemu, a video game company from "Playtest", and Tucker, the company behind simulated reality in "San Junipero".


title: Smithereens (Black Mirror)

text: The episode received mixed reception, with most critics finding the storyline and subject matter lacking in complexity, but Scott's performance accomplished. On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the episode holds an approval rating of 68% based on 25 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "A slippery moral dilemma and a superb turn from Andrew Scott make 'Smithereens' watchable, even if its familiar story feels more like an early episode of "Black Mirror" than a fresh futuristic horror story." Out of five stars, the episode garnered four stars in "The Telegraph", three in the BBC and "The Independent" and two in "Vulture". It received a rating of 7.8 out of 10 in the magazine "Paste". "Complex"s Frazier Tharpe thought the episode was the best of series five, but "The Guardian"s Lucy Mangan found it "perhaps least successful". Sims said it was the "only definite flop" of the series as it "suffers from many of the flaws" of the fourth one.


title: Smithereens (Black Mirror)

text: Critics identified self-parody, drama and cliché as aspects of the episode, and mostly reviewed its tone negatively. Mellor said that it "feels like an imitation" of the "uniquely identifiable personality" of "Black Mirror". Romano and Richards criticised the episode as reliant on clichés. Cumming summarised it as "muted rather than subtle" and Hugh Montgomery reviewed it for the BBC as "a rather inert and under-characterised drama". Longridge suggested that the episode may be "winking at the audience", given that it relates to a well-known parody of the show's message: "what if phones, but too much". Similarly, Mellor and Tharpe highlighted potential self-parody in Chris's rant upon discovering Jaden is an intern, though Tharpe found this nevertheless "emotionally affecting". Tharpe also praised the episode as tense and "well-paced" yet "casually hilarious".


title: Smithereens (Black Mirror)

text: The storyline and central theme were mostly criticised. As the longest episode of the series, "Smithereens" was criticised for length by Cumming and Sims, who both described the plot as "thin", as did Turk. Mellor said that it "lacks this show's usual depth", Turk found "the scope a bit narrow" and Richards viewed it as having "little to say that isn't already common opinion". Sims wrote that it was "hampered by... how long it takes for the action to get going". The exploration of social media was reviewed by Turk to be "a bit two-dimensional" and Longo saw the episode as "too self-contained to fully realize the potential of the ideas". Montgomery wrote that the characters are "being held ransom to a plotline which is a vehicle for some rather clunky point-making" and Romano saw the message as "both redundant and a little weak". Bramesco critiqued the episode as having a "strong concept with lots of avenues for deeper exploration" which was averted in favour of "the same old conclusion about smartphones exacerbating our worst qualities", while both Longo and Turk saw concerns about data privacy to be unsatisfactorily explored.


title: Smithereens (Black Mirror)

text: Some critics were disappointed by a lack of twists in the episode, while Chris's recounting of the car crash and the ending received mixed reception. Mangan and Reynolds both said that the episode did not "twist and turn" as much as it should have and Sims "kept waiting for a twist that never really arrived". Reynolds found the storyline predictable from the 15 minute mark onwards, though Dwilson was "never quite sure where the episode was heading" and mostly guessed incorrectly. Longo saw Chris's "big reveal" about the cause of the car crash to be "devastating", but Romano said it "simply doesn't land with much impact". Mellor saw the ending as a "more subtle and effective point about social media", but Richards said it "falls flat" and Bramesco called it a "contrived non-ending".


title: Smithereens (Black Mirror)

text: Andrew Scott's role as Chris received critical acclaim. Several critics found that his performance was the highlight of an otherwise poor episode, such as Sims, who said that Scott's "committed lead performance" made him "at least interested throughout", and Reynolds, who said that Scott "just about held [the episode] all together". Benji Wilson of "The Telegraph" found that his "astonishing control and range... elevated a too-tidy plot". Montgomery called the character "a compellingly twitchy, ambiguous presence", while Mangan said Scott had "uniquely potent and peculiar energy" which is "perfectly channelled" into Chris. Longo said that the acting is "unnerving throughout", but that Scott "dials it up to a 10" in the phone call with Billy. Bramesco viewed it differently, saying that Scott "feels like he's starting at a ten and leaving himself nowhere to go" and finding Scott unconvincing in the phone call, "seemingly uncertain whether the moment should be played hysterically or for genuine pathos". While Cumming found Chris to be "the only developed character", Longo said that the episode "missed key chances to add depth" to Chris.


title: Smithereens (Black Mirror)

text: Other actors and characters received more mixed reception. Montgomery found Grace "an amusing Jack Dorsey parody", and Dwilson "appreciated how his character surprised [her]" in his relatability. Vorel, in contrast, found it "rather difficult" to empathise with Billy. Idris received praise for his role from Dwilson and Romano. The storyline involving Hayley was criticised as "undercooked" by Cumming and "extraneous frippery" by Bramesco, but Vorel found the nature of her attempting to log into her daughter's Persona account every day a "powerful, Sisyphean piece of imagery".


title: Smithereens (Black Mirror)

text: Hawes received praise from Romano as he "keeps the pace taut", while Longo analysed that he "deliberately shot Chris' reactions to the use of phones in a cafe to cast a shadow of isolation around him" and used "flashback", "foreshadowing" and "purposeful misdirection". "Pitchfork" rated the soundtrack 6.8 out of 10, for being effective but lacking "iconic melodies". The reviewer, Martin-McCormick, found that the track "Meditation App" would fit in "the lobby of a high-end spa", but did not recommend the other tracks as standalone music.


title: Smithereens (Black Mirror)

text: "Smithereens" ranked poorly on critics' lists of the 23 instalments of "Black Mirror", from best to worst:


title: Smithereens (Black Mirror)

text: "IndieWire" authors ranked the 22 "Black Mirror" instalments excluding "Bandersnatch" by quality, giving "Smithereens" a position of 11th. Instead of by quality, Proma Khosla of "Mashable" ranked the episodes by tone, concluding that "Smithereens" was the 10th-most pessimistic episode of the show.


title: Smithereens (Black Mirror)

text: As the fifth series of "Black Mirror" consisted of three episodes that do not tell a complete story, it was not initially clear whether it would compete in TV Movie or Limited Series or Drama Series categories of the Emmy Awards. After Netflix petitioned to allow "Smithereens" as a TV Movie, despite a new rule that entries must be 75 minutes or longer, it was initially reported that it would be nominated in this category. Later, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences announced that the episode would instead be competing as a Drama Series, where performers who appear in less than 50% of a series have the choice to compete in leading, supporting, or guest awards. Scott was nominated for the Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series category. The winner was Ron Cephas Jones for "This Is Us".


California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (California Polytechnic State University, Cal Poly or Cal Poly San Luis Obispo,) is a public university in San Luis Obispo County, located directly adjacent to the City of San Luis Obispo. It is the oldest of three polytechnics in the California State University system.


title: California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo

text: The university is organized into six colleges offering 65 bachelor's and 39 master's degrees. Cal Poly San Luis Obispo primarily focuses on undergraduate education and as of fall 2020, Cal Poly had 21,447 undergraduate and 840 graduate students. The academic focus is on combining technical and professional curriculums with the arts and humanities. Most of the university's athletic teams participate in the Big West Conference. Cal Poly is eligible to be designated as an Asian American Native American Pacific Islander serving institution (AANAPISI).


text: Cal Poly San Luis Obispo was established as the California Polytechnic School in 1901 when Governor Henry T. Gage signed the California Polytechnic School Bill after a campaign by a journalist Myron Angel. The polytechnic school held its first classes on October 1, 1903, to 20 students, offering secondary level courses of study, which took three years to complete. The school continued to grow steadily, except during a period from the mid-1910s to the early 1920s when World War I led to drops in enrollment and drastic budget cuts forced fewer class offerings.


text: In 1924, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo was placed under the control of the California State Board of Education. At the height of the Great Depression, the cash-strapped state government discussed the prospect of converting Cal Poly into a state prison. In 1933, the Board of Education changed Cal Poly San Luis Obispo into a two-year technical and vocational school. The institution began to offer Bachelor of Arts degrees in 1940, with the first baccalaureate exercises held in 1942. The school was renamed the California State Polytechnic College in 1947 to better reflect its higher education offerings, and in 1949, a Master of Arts degree in education was added. In 1954, long after deciding to "not" turn Cal Poly into a state prison, the state government finally opened that prison at a separate site one mile (1.6 km) northwest of Cal Poly's campus. In 1960, control of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and all other state colleges was transferred from the State Board of Education to an independent Board of Trustees, which later became the California State University system.


text: The college was authorized to offer Master of Science degrees in 1967, and from then to 1970, the school's curriculum was reorganized into different units, such as the School of Science and Math, the School of Agriculture and Natural Resources, and the School of Architecture. Cal Poly San Luis Obispo's FM radio station, KCPR, began as a senior project in 1968. The California State Legislature changed the school's official name again in 1971 to California Polytechnic State University, and since the 1970s the university has seen steady enrollment growth and building construction.


text: Cal Poly San Luis Obispo celebrated its centennial in 2001 and kicked off a $225 million fundraising campaign, the largest fund-raising effort undertaken in CSU history. The Centennial Campaign raised over $264 million from over 81,000 donors, more than tripling the university's endowment from $43 million to over $140 million.


text: On May 3, 2017, Cal Poly received one of the largest gifts towards public education to be received in California from Cal Poly alumnus William L. and Linda Frost in the amount of $110 million.


text: Cal Poly Pomona began as a satellite campus of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in 1938 when a completely equipped school and farm were donated by Charles Voorhis and his son Jerry Voorhis of Pasadena, California, and was initially called the Voorhis Unit. The W.K. Kellogg Foundation then donated an horse ranch in Pomona, California to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in 1949. Located about one mile (1.6 km) from the Voorhis campus, the two became known as Cal Poly Kellogg-Voorhis. Cal Poly Kellogg-Voorhis broke off from Cal Poly in 1966, becoming the fully independent university, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Cal Poly Pomona). Since 1949, the two campuses have cooperated on creating a float for the Rose Parade. Today, the long-running float program still boasts floats designed and constructed entirely by students year-round on both campuses.


text: On October 29, 1960, a chartered plane carrying the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo football team, hours after a loss to Bowling Green State University, crashed on takeoff at the Toledo Express Airport in Toledo, Ohio. Twenty-two of the 48 people on board were killed, including 16 players.


text: In 1903, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo opened as a coeducational school with 20 students enrolled, 16 new male students and 4 new female students. In 1929, California Governor C. C. Young banned women from studying at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo starting from 1930. It wasn't until 1956 when the institution once again began admitting female students. The university remains coeducational today, with women constituting 48.4% of the Fall 2018 total student population.


text: The school is typically referred to as "Cal Poly", or simply "Poly". The university's style guide indicates its official names are "California Polytechnic State University" and "Cal Poly." When necessary to distinguish between Cal Poly and its former satellite campus, Cal Poly Pomona, the lengthier "Cal Poly at San Luis Obispo" is occasionally used. The California State University system's style guide identifies the university as "California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo" and the elided "Cal Poly San Luis Obispo." Although Cal Poly San Luis Obispo is part of the California State University, its naming convention does not follow that of most campuses within the system (for example, the CSU campus in San Diego bears the full official name "San Diego State University" and the CSU campus in Fullerton uses the name "California State University, Fullerton"). Thus, "San Luis Obispo State University" or "California State University, San Luis Obispo" are not alternate names for the University.


text: Cal Poly has one of the largest college campuses in the United States. It owns 9,178 acres and is the second largest land-holding university in California. The lands are used for student education and include the main campus, two nearby agricultural lands, and two properties in Santa Cruz County. Part of the Cal Poly property is the Swanton Pacific Ranch, a ranch located in Santa Cruz County, California, outside the town of Davenport. The ranch provides educational and research opportunities, encompasses rangeland, livestock, and forestry operations for the College of Agriculture, Food, and Environmental sciences, and fosters Cal Poly's Learn by Doing teaching philosophy of with emphasis on sustainable management of agricultural practices with a mix of laboratory experiments.


text: The Cal Poly Master Plan calls to increase student population from approximately 17,000 students to 20,900 students by 2020–2021. To maintain the university's Learn by Doing philosophy and low class sizes, the master plan calls for an increase in classrooms, laboratories, and professors.


text: A dormitory style student community was completed in the summer of 2018. Located at the corner of Slack Street and Grand Avenue, it consists of seven 3- to 5-story concrete framed freshman residence hall buildings with 1,475 beds and an adjacent four-level parking structure. Additional community space for the housing complex and the campus wrap the parking structure on three sides. These spaces include a small café, community room, game room, mail room, welcome center, offices, and maintenance shop. Site improvements include a large open space in the center of the project for activities and group events, volleyball and basketball courts, and outdoor gathering spaces at each building.


text: The Warren J. Baker Center for Science and Mathematics was dedicated November 1, 2013. It replaced the aging "spider" Science Building 52, built in the 1950s, with a new structure. The $119 million, six-story building was made possible by voter-approved state education bonds and $18 million in private donations. The Center adds new laboratories, classrooms, and offices for the physics, chemistry and soil science programs, as well as an open area and terraces for student study and meeting places. The top floor of the Center houses labs and offices for the school's Western Coatings Technologies Center and the Environmental Biotechnology Institute. It is the second largest and most technologically advanced structure on campus. In the space between the remaining wings of the old "Spider Building" and the new Center is Centennial Park, a landscaped central green.


text: A $20 million wine and viticulture center is projected to open in 2020. The new $123 million Science and Agriculture Teaching and Research Complex is scheduled to open fall 2021; a renovation of The Robert E. Kennedy Library is expected to begin no sooner than January 2022 and cost $65 million. In addition, the William and Linda Frost Center for Research and Innovation, a $124 million interdisciplinary research center, broke ground in May 2019.


text: Campus parking is limited. In its most recent survey of available parking spaces on campus, the Cal Poly University Police reported 2,892 general purpose parking spaces, 3,492 dorm resident spaces, and 8,648 total spaces. In its facilities Master Plan, the university admits that while more parking spots will be added, the actual ratio of parking to students will decrease since enrollment is expected to increase sharply. To resolve the disparity, the Master Plan calls on the university to reduce the demand for individual vehicle parking. As part of that plan, the university has constructed additional dorms and has tried to make campus life more desirable. In addition, Cal Poly Commuter and Access Services has successfully promoted alternatives to commuting in single occupancy vehicles: in the past 10 years, bus use has more than doubled, and the use of bicycles has close to quadrupled.


text: Currently, there are over 6,500 bike rack spaces and 224 secure bike lockers available on campus; 57% of students and 33% of faculty/staff live within 5 miles of the Cal Poly campus, an easy bike commute. The city's SLO Transit bus system provides service to and from campus. Cal Poly financially supports SLO Transit with funding from parking citation revenue (not from state general funds nor from student tuition), so faculty, staff, and students ride for free. Bus service throughout the county is provided by SLO Regional Transit Authority. Discounted passes are available to the Cal Poly community.


text: The university currently offers 65 bachelor's degrees, 39 master's degrees, 84 minors and 13 credentials in six colleges:


text: All undergraduate students at Cal Poly are required to complete a senior project. This requirement has been in place since the 1980s, and has set Cal Poly apart from other Cal State campuses. The senior project is intended to be a capstone experience for students receiving a baccalaureate degree by integrating theory and application from across a student's undergraduate educational experiences. The senior project consists of one or more of the following: a design or construction experience, an experiment, a self-guided study or research project, a presentation, a report based on an internship, co-op, or service learning experience, and/or a public portfolio display or performance. Senior projects have often led to students obtaining jobs or recognition for their work. In July 2011, a company created from a Senior Project, Punchd, was acquired by Google. Jamba Juice, founded as "Juice Club", was inspired by the Senior Project idea but was founded after the founders had graduated. On campus towards Poly Canyon, a popular area known as 'Architecture Graveyard' has many architecture Senior Projects, including experimental structures and unconventional architecture.


text: For the class entering Fall 2019, 15,366 freshmen were accepted out of 54,072 applicants, a 28.4% acceptance rate, and 4,613 enrolled. Fall 2019 entering students had an average GPA of 3.99; the middle 50% range of SAT scores was 620–700 for reading and writing, and 620–740 for math, while the ACT Composite range was 26–32. Women constituted 50.5% of the incoming freshmen class, men 49.5%.


text: For Fall 2019 admitted transfer students, Cal Poly accepted 1,622 of 11,109 applicants, a 14.6% acceptance rate.


text: Cal Poly requires students to declare a major when applying for admission, and the university then admits the most competitive applicants within each major based on GPA and SAT or ACT scores. As a result, changing majors at the university is not guaranteed. Each major has a specific change of major plan which includes required classes to be taken while maintaining a certain GPA (usually between 2.5 and 2.75) in order to be considered as a candidate. In some cases, students wishing to change majors transfer to other universities.


text: According to "U.S. News & World Report"'s 2023 "Best Regional Universities West Rankings," Cal Poly is ranked second overall in the western United States out of 127 regional schools whose highest degree is a Master's, first in "Top Public Schools", first in "Best Colleges for Veterans", first in "Most Innovative Schools", 2 for "Best Undergraduate Teaching", 18 best value school, 46 in Undergraduate Research/Creative Projects and tied for 97th in "Top Performers on Social Mobility." The same report ranked the College of Engineering seventh out of 220 public and private undergraduate engineering schools in the U.S. where doctorates are not offered with national program rankings of:


text: According to "U.S. News & World Report"'s 2022 "Best Regional Universities West Rankings," Cal Poly is ranked second overall in the western United States out of 127 regional schools whose highest degree is a Master's, first in "Top Public Schools", first in "Best Colleges for Veterans", first in "Most Innovative Schools", third for "Best Undergraduate Teaching", 32 best value school, 46 in Undergraduate Research/Creative Projects and tied for 94th in "Top Performers on Social Mobility." The same report ranked the College of Engineering seventh out of 220 public and private undergraduate engineering schools in the U.S. where doctorates are not offered with national program rankings of:


text: According to "U.S. News & World Report"'s 2021 "Best Regional Universities West Rankings," Cal Poly is ranked 3rd overall in the western United States out of 127 regional schools whose highest degree is a Master's, first in "Top Public Schools", first in "Best Colleges for Veterans", tied for first in "Most Innovative Schools", second for "Best Undergraduate Teaching", and tied for 96th in "Top Performers on Social Mobility". The same report ranked the College of Engineering eighth out of 220 public and private undergraduate engineering schools in the U.S. where doctorates are not offered with national program rankings of:


text: "Washington Monthly" ranked Cal Poly 26th out of 614 schools in the U.S. "National Universities - Masters" category in 2020 based on its contribution to the public good in three broad categories: social mobility, research, and service.


text: "Money" magazine ranked Cal Poly 51st in the country out of 739 schools evaluated for its 2020 "Best Colleges for Your Money" edition and 33rd in its list of the 50 best public schools in the U.S.


text: Cal Poly ranked 40th in the U.S. for in-state students in "PayScale" 2019 "Best Value Colleges", which ranked 2,006 colleges and universities for return on investment (ROI). According to "PayScale"'s projections, Cal Poly has a 20-year net return on investment of $716,000. This ROI is the 2nd highest in the California State University system and is higher than all of the University of California schools except UC Berkeley.


text: In 2019, "Forbes" magazine rated Cal Poly No. 115 out of the 650 best private and public colleges, universities and service academies in America. In 2008, the first year of the list, Cal Poly was ranked No. 369 out of 569.


text: For 2019, "Kiplinger" ranked Cal Poly 19th out of the top 174 best-value public colleges and universities in the nation, and 3rd in California.


text: In the 2019 edition of "America's Best Architecture & Design Schools" published by the architecture and design journal "DesignIntelligence", Cal Poly was ranked the No. 3 most admired undergraduate architecture program in the nation. The landscape architecture program was ranked 6th most admired in the country and 1st in the Western region.


text: Cal Poly's Orfalea College of Business was ranked 59th among U.S. undergraduate business colleges in "Bloomberg Businessweek"'s 2016 list (the latest).


text: Due to continued reductions in state funding, Fall 2011 fees for the average student reached approximately $2,600 per quarter. For comparison, the Spring 2002 fees for the average student were $760 per quarter. While total yearly fees for an in-state student were just $2,976 in 2002, students entering in fall 2011 faced an annual fee of over $7,900.


text: Of the students enrolled in fall 2014, 61.6% of undergraduates and 70.0% of first-time freshmen received some form of financial aid in 2014–15. The amount of financial aid awarded in 2014–15 totaled $151.5 million, of which 64.3% came from federal funds, 11.9% came from state funds and 17.5% came from institutional funds. Loans comprised 55.6% of the financial aid, 31.2% came in the form of grants, and 10.2% in scholarships.


text: Cal Poly's endowment more than tripled during its Centennial Campaign from $43.1 million to $140.1 million. Growth is attributed to gifts and prudent stewardship. However, since 2007, the university's endowment has fluctuated dramatically, going from $181.7 million in 2007 to $130.9 million in 2009, before rebounding to $227.7 million in 2019, the 301st largest of 785 colleges and universities in the United States and Canada.


text: Cal Poly's on-campus student housing of 6,239 spaces is the largest student housing program in the California State University system. Cal Poly housed 35.9% of fall 2015 undergraduates in 28 dorms on campus, and 98.7% of first-time freshmen lived on campus. In addition, 28.7% of Cal Poly sophomores lived on campus in fall 2015.


text: There are five distinct groups of residence halls on the Cal Poly campus. The five North Mountain halls, constructed in the 1950s, are the oldest on campus still used for residential purposes. The six "red-brick" halls were completed shortly afterward in 1959. The Sierra Madre and Yosemite halls were finished by 1968, and the Cerro Vista Apartments were completed in 2003. The Poly Canyon Village housing complex, with a similar style as the Cerro Vista apartments, was completed in 2009 at a cost of $300 million, making it the California State University system's largest construction project to date. In 2018, Cal Poly opened the seven-building complex yakʔitʸutʸu dorms on the site of the old Grand Avenue surface parking lot. In addition to being state-of-the-art living spaces, the yakʔitʸutʸu residence halls serve to honor the heritage and culture of the Indigenous People of San Luis Obispo County, the yak titʸu titʸu yak tiłhini, Northern Chumash tribe.


text: Each of the residence halls represent a different living community on campus. The six red-brick halls are the Living-Learning Program halls for the different colleges of Cal Poly. The five North Mountain halls are organizationally a part of the engineering Living-Learning Program. The Sierra Madre and Yosemite halls are the First-Year Connection Program halls and focus on freshman-oriented transition programs. All buildings house students of all majors. The Cerro Vista Apartments is the Transitions community for first-year and second-year students. Poly Canyon Village is the Sophomore Success Program community, which is open to primarily to sophomores, but also juniors and seniors, and helps students transition into independent living.


text: Greek organizations have been at Cal Poly since 1949. The Greek community consists of three governing councils at Cal Poly: United Sorority and Fraternity Council (USFC), Interfraternity Council (IFC), and Panhellenic Association (PHA). Cal Poly also offers Greek organizations based on academic fields of study.


text: The Week of Welcome program, more commonly known as "WOW", serves as a volunteer-based orientation program for new students during the first week after move-in during the beginning of the school year in September. Its purpose is to introduce students to the campus and the community and prepare them for a successful college career. Freshmen are placed in a group with 10–12 other new students while transfer students are in groups of 40–60; each group is led by two current Cal Poly student orientation leaders. The "WOW" groups participate in an array of orientation events in addition to activities both on and off campus. In 2010, the awareness section of the program won the 2010 National Orientation Directors Association (NODAC) Media & Publications Showcase Award in the Emerging Technologies. The awareness section was entirely developed by student volunteers. The program started in 1956 and is now the largest volunteer orientation program in the nation.


text: Cal Poly has many recognized clubs and independent student organizations operating on campus. Included (a full list available on the Associated Students, Incorporated website) are over 150 groups, including, among many others, cultural clubs and exchanges, mathematics and science clubs, improv and sketch comedy clubs, religious and atheistic groups, service organizations, engineering research and development clubs, professional development organizations, a perennial Rose Parade Float design program, LGBTQ+ and Multicultural groups, competitive and social athletic teams, and academic honors clubs. Especially impressive are the engineering clubs and independent student organizations on campus such as Prove Lab, PolySat, CubeSat, and QL+.


text: , Cal Poly San Luis Obispo has the least racially diverse student population of all California State University and University of California campuses. On a national scale, however, Cal Poly is ranked 240 out of 2,475 colleges and is considered "highly diverse" by collegefactual.com. President Armstrong has been working to increase the percentage of non-white students on campus, with the share of white students in the university student body decreasing from 63% to 55%. The City of San Luis Obispo is 84.5% white. About 84.2% of the students attending California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo come from within California.


text: The "Los Angeles Times" reported that the university "was ranked one of the nation’s worst serving institutions for Latino student success."


text: The "Education Trust" lists the university as an "Engine of Inequality" because "very few students come from working-class and low-income families." It's one among 20 public institutions in the U.S. with this negative distinction.


text: Though generally regarded as a positive for the area due to the economic impact, Cal Poly has received criticism for both the behavior of students upsetting the community, and the effects on local housing market. Parties and gatherings have gotten wilder due to an increased student body size and social media presence, leading to the university being named the #9 party school in California by Niche. In 2017, the median home price in San Luis Obispo was $530,000. In May 2018, Zillow estimated that the median home value has increased to $694,027. While the city has been building hundreds of single family housing on the south end of town, large areas of the north end in older neighborhoods have been converted to rental student housing because of a major increase in the number of students admitted to and attending the university and the lack of university supplied housing. The university is currently building housing on campus to attempt to house up to 65% of students and plans to cap enrollment at 25,000, meaning that 11,250 students must find off-campus housing. This has created an affordability crisis for the city itself, as most apartments that would generally be occupied by lower income families and individuals are now occupied solely by Cal Poly students, reducing supply and pushing low-income residents outside of the city. Approximately 27% of the residents live below the poverty line, a similar percentage to Cleveland, Ohio.


text: Cal Poly fields 21 varsity sports (10 for men and 11 for women) and participates in the NCAA's Division I.


text: Cal Poly is a member of the Big West Conference, except for football, wrestling, women's indoor track & field and both swimming and diving teams (none of which are sponsored by the Big West). Cal Poly's football team competes in the Big Sky Conference; the wrestling team is a member of the Pac-12 Conference; indoor track & field is independent; and swimming and diving competes in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation.


text: Prior to joining Division I in 1994, the school won 35 NCAA Division II national team championships and competed in the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA). Cal Poly has two mascots. The character represented in costume or cartoon is named Musty the Mustang. The live mascot, a living mustang, is named Chase, after Margaret Chase, the university's second president.


text: Cal Poly also offers various non-varsity (club) sports. The Mustangs play college rugby in the California Conference of Division 1-A. The Mustangs are often ranked in the Top 25 nationwide, and their rugby sevens team has been ranked as high as No. 7. The Mustangs finished No. 8 in the nation at the 2011 USA Rugby Sevens Collegiate National Championships, and 12th at the 2012 competition.


text: The Battle for the Golden Horseshoe is an annual rivalry college football game played between the UC Davis Aggies and the Cal Poly Mustangs. Cal Poly has The Mustang Marching Band of over 200 students who play at football, basketball and volleyball games.


text: On April 29, 1990, San Luis Obispo police responded to a call of a bicyclist down at around 11pm. The activity drew heavily intoxicated crowds that began to get unruly. After unsuccessfully attempting to disperse the crowd, a mob began looting the nearby Campus Bottle Shoppe. The next day, dumpsters were set on fire during more rioting and 127 people were arrested.


text: On May 25, 1996, Cal Poly student Kristin Smart disappeared without a trace after a birthday party. The university and sheriff's department have been investigating leads, including excavating the land around the Cal Poly "P" on an adjoining hill. In 2017, the excavation of the area surrounding has been completed with articles found, however the sheriff's department has not yet released what the findings are. On April 13, 2021, Paul Flores and his father, Ruben Flores, were arrested and taken into custody in suspicion of Smart's disappearance. Their homes were searched, and investigators found numerous "items of interest".


text: On October 18, 2022, a jury found Paul Flores guilty of murder, and his father, Ruben Flores, not guilty.


text: In 2008, a university-owned house (known as Crops House) where agriculture students were given subsidized lodging in exchange for work on the school's farms hosted a Halloween party with decorations including a noose. A sign was also posted which read: “No niggers,” along with a similar slur against gays. At a later date, the house displayed a Confederate flag tacked above the entrance to the house while a large Confederate flag laid painted on a table in front of the house.


text: This became a First Amendment free speech issue, with the university initially not evicting the students.


text: In 2018, the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity was suspended following a photo surfacing that showed a student wearing blackface. In response to further protests, President Armstrong suspended all Greek Life on campus indefinitely. This was followed with protests during Open House events for incoming freshmen. On May 4, 2018, President Armstrong announced yet another blackface incident that was mocking the prior incident. The incident is being investigated by the state.


text: The university is organized administratively into four divisions: Academic Affairs, Student Affairs, Administration and Finance, and University Advancement. The academic division is organized into six colleges, each with its own dean. Academic Affairs also includes the Library, Research and Graduate Programs, and Information Technology Services.


text: The Cal Poly Corporation is a public-benefit, nonprofit corporation and university auxiliary. It provides commercial services, fiscal services, and key support services to assist and promote the educational mission of Cal Poly and the California State University System (CSU). The Corporation engages only in those activities ancillary to state operation that are requested by Cal Poly's president and approved by the CSU. The corporation was founded in 1940 and was known as the Cal Poly Foundation until February 1, 2006.


text: The Cal Poly Foundation is an auxiliary organization and IRC 501(c)(3) public charity that accepts and administers tax deductible gifts to the university. The Cal Poly Foundation leads campus philanthropic activity by supporting fundraising activities and investing and managing the campus endowments.


text: The Cal Poly Extended Education provides access to degree, certificate, and professional development programs and services of the university to the citizens of San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Monterey Counties and through distance learning technologies to students across the country.


text: The Associated Students Inc. (ASI) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation owned and operated by Cal Poly student leaders. ASI has an annual operating budget in excess of $12 million. ASI provides co-curricular experiences for students, faculty, and staff, including events, speakers, concerts, intramural sports, fitness programs, aquatics, outdoor adventure trips, craft center enrichment courses, club services, and child development. ASI manages the University Union, Recreation Center, Sports Complex, and Children's Center, totaling more than of campus facilities.


text: The Cal Poly Alumni Association seeks to engage and serve alumni, to foster a lifelong connection between the university and its alumni, and to foster goodwill and support for the university. The association includes 15 regional and special interest chapters.


text: Cal Poly has more than 150,000 alumni with the majority located in San Luis Obispo, Santa Clara and Los Angeles counties.


text: The United States Census Bureau has designated the campus as a separate census-designated place (CDP) for statistical purposes, under the name "California Polytechnic State University". It first appeared as a CDP in the 2020 Census with a population of 8,583.


text: "Note: the US Census treats Hispanic/Latino as an ethnic category. This table excludes Latinos from the racial categories and assigns them to a separate category. Hispanics/Latinos can be of any race."


title: Terraforming

text: Terraforming or terraformation ("Earth-shaping") is the hypothetical process of deliberately modifying the atmosphere, temperature, surface topography or ecology of a planet, moon, or other body to be similar to the environment of Earth to make it habitable for humans to live on.


title: Terraforming

text: The concept of terraforming developed from both science fiction and actual science. Carl Sagan, an astronomer, proposed the planetary engineering of Venus in 1961, which is considered one of the first accounts of the concept. The term was coined by Jack Williamson in a science-fiction short story ("Collision Orbit") published in 1942 in "Astounding Science Fiction", although terraforming in popular culture may predate this work.


title: Terraforming

text: Even if the environment of a planet could be altered deliberately, the feasibility of creating an unconstrained planetary environment that mimics Earth on another planet has yet to be verified. While Venus, Earth, Mars, and even the Moon have been studied in relation to the subject, Mars is usually considered to be the most likely candidate for terraforming. Much study has been done concerning the possibility of heating the planet and altering its atmosphere, and NASA has even hosted debates on the subject. Several potential methods for the terraforming of Mars may be within humanity's technological capabilities, but according to Martin Beech, the economic attitude of preferring short-term profits over long-term investments will not support a terraforming project.


title: Terraforming

text: The long timescales and practicality of terraforming are also the subject of debate. As the subject has gained traction, research has expanded to other possibilities including biological terraforming, para-terraforming, and modifying humans to better suit the environments of planets and moons. Despite this, questions still remain in areas relating to the ethics, logistics, economics, politics, and methodology of altering the environment of an extraterrestrial world, presenting issues to the implementation of the concept.


title: Terraforming

text: The astronomer Carl Sagan proposed the planetary engineering of Venus in an article published in the journal "Science" in 1961. Sagan imagined seeding the atmosphere of Venus with algae, which would convert water, nitrogen and carbon dioxide into organic compounds. As this process removed carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, the greenhouse effect would be reduced until surface temperatures dropped to "comfortable" levels. The resulting carbon, Sagan supposed, would be incinerated by the high surface temperatures of Venus, and thus be sequestered in the form of "graphite or some involatile form of carbon" on the planet's surface. However, later discoveries about the conditions on Venus made this particular approach impossible. One problem is that the clouds of Venus are composed of a highly concentrated sulfuric acid solution. Even if atmospheric algae could thrive in the hostile environment of Venus's upper atmosphere, an even more insurmountable problem is that its atmosphere is simply far too thick—the high atmospheric pressure would result in an "atmosphere of nearly pure molecular oxygen" and cause the planet's surface to be thickly covered in fine graphite powder. This volatile combination could not be sustained through time. Any carbon that was fixed in organic form would be liberated as carbon dioxide again through combustion, "short-circuiting" the terraforming process.


title: Terraforming

text: Sagan also visualized making Mars habitable for human life in "Planetary Engineering on Mars" (1973), an article published in the journal "Icarus". Three years later, NASA addressed the issue of planetary engineering officially in a study, but used the term "planetary ecosynthesis" instead. The study concluded that it was possible for Mars to support life and be made into a habitable planet. The first conference session on terraforming, then referred to as "Planetary Modeling", was organized that same year.


title: Terraforming

text: In March 1979, NASA engineer and author James Oberg organized the First Terraforming Colloquium, a special session at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Houston. Oberg popularized the terraforming concepts discussed at the colloquium to the general public in his book "New Earths" (1981). Not until 1982 was the word "terraforming" used in the title of a published journal article. Planetologist Christopher McKay wrote "Terraforming Mars", a paper for the "Journal of the British Interplanetary Society". The paper discussed the prospects of a self-regulating Martian biosphere, and the word "terraforming" has since become the preferred term.


title: Terraforming

text: In 1984, James Lovelock and Michael Allaby published "The Greening of Mars". Lovelock's book was one of the first to describe a novel method of warming Mars, where chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) are added to the atmosphere.


title: Terraforming

text: Motivated by Lovelock's book, biophysicist Robert Haynes worked behind the scenes to promote terraforming, and contributed the neologism Ecopoiesis, forming the word from the Greek , "oikos", "house", and , "poiesis", "production". Ecopoiesis refers to the "origin of an ecosystem". In the context of space exploration, Haynes describes ecopoiesis as the "fabrication of a sustainable ecosystem on a currently lifeless, sterile planet". Fogg defines ecopoiesis as a type of planetary engineering and is one of the first stages of terraformation. This primary stage of ecosystem creation is usually restricted to the initial seeding of microbial life. A 2019 opinion piece by Lopez, Peixoto and Rosado has reintroduced microbiology as a necessary component of any possible colonization strategy based on the principles of microbial symbiosis and their beneficial ecosystem services. As conditions approach that of Earth, plant life could be brought in, and this will accelerate the production of oxygen, theoretically making the planet eventually able to support animal life.


title: Terraforming

text: In 1985, Martyn J. Fogg started publishing several articles on terraforming. He also served as editor for a full issue on terraforming for the "Journal of the British Interplanetary Society" in 1992. In his book "Terraforming: Engineering Planetary Environments" (1995), Fogg proposed the following definitions for different aspects related to terraforming:


title: Terraforming

text: Fogg suggests that Mars was a biologically compatible planet in its youth, but is not now in any of these three categories, because it can only be terraformed with greater difficulty.


title: Terraforming

text: An absolute requirement for life is an energy source, but the notion of planetary habitability implies that many other geophysical, geochemical, and astrophysical criteria must be met before the surface of an astronomical body is able to support life. Of particular interest is the set of factors that has sustained complex, multicellular animals in addition to simpler organisms on Earth. Research and theory in this regard is a component of planetary science and the emerging discipline of astrobiology.


title: Terraforming

text: In its astrobiology roadmap, NASA has defined the principal habitability criteria as "extended regions of liquid water, conditions favorable for the assembly of complex organic molecules, and energy sources to sustain metabolism."


title: Terraforming

text: Once conditions become more suitable for life of the introduced species, the importation of microbial life could begin. As conditions approach that of Earth, plant life could also be brought in. This would accelerate the production of oxygen, which theoretically would make the planet eventually able to support animal life.


title: Terraforming

text: In many respects, Mars is the most Earth-like planet in the Solar System. It is thought that Mars once had a more Earth-like environment early in its history, with a thicker atmosphere and abundant water that was lost over the course of hundreds of millions of years.


title: Terraforming

text: The exact mechanism of this loss is still unclear, though three mechanisms, in particular, seem likely: First, whenever surface water is present, carbon dioxide () reacts with rocks to form carbonates, thus drawing atmosphere off and binding it to the planetary surface. On Earth, this process is counteracted when plate tectonics works to cause volcanic eruptions that vent carbon dioxide back to the atmosphere. On Mars, the lack of such tectonic activity worked to prevent the recycling of gases locked up in sediments.


title: Terraforming

text: Second, the lack of a magnetosphere around Mars may have allowed the solar wind to gradually erode the atmosphere. Convection within the core of Mars, which is made mostly of iron, originally generated a magnetic field. However the dynamo ceased to function long ago, and the magnetic field of Mars has largely disappeared, probably due to "loss of core heat, solidification of most of the core, and/or changes in the mantle convection regime." Results from the NASA MAVEN mission show that the atmosphere is removed primarily due to Coronal Mass Ejection events, where outbursts of high-velocity protons from the Sun impact the atmosphere. Mars does still retain a limited magnetosphere that covers approximately 40% of its surface. Rather than uniformly covering and protecting the atmosphere from solar wind, however, the magnetic field takes the form of a collection of smaller, umbrella-shaped fields, mainly clustered together around the planet's southern hemisphere.


title: Terraforming

text: Finally, between approximately 4.1 and 3.8 billion years ago, asteroid impacts during the Late Heavy Bombardment caused significant changes to the surface environment of objects in the Solar System. The low gravity of Mars suggests that these impacts could have ejected much of the Martian atmosphere into deep space.


title: Terraforming

text: Terraforming Mars would entail two major interlaced changes: building the atmosphere and heating it. A thicker atmosphere of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide would trap incoming solar radiation. Because the raised temperature would add greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, the two processes would augment each other. Carbon dioxide alone would not suffice to sustain a temperature above the freezing point of water, so a mixture of specialized greenhouse molecules might be manufactured.


title: Terraforming

text: Terraforming Venus requires two major changes: removing most of the planet's dense carbon dioxide atmosphere, and reducing the planet's surface temperature. These goals are closely interrelated because Venus's extreme temperature may result from the greenhouse effect caused by its dense atmosphere.


title: Terraforming

text: Although usually disregarded as being too hot, Mercury may in fact be one of the easiest bodies in the solar system to terraform. Mercury's magnetic field is only 1.1% that of Earth's but it is thought that Mercury's magnetic field should be much stronger, up to 30% of Earth's, if it weren't being suppressed by certain solar wind effects. It is thought that Mercury's magnetic field was suppressed after "stalling" at some point in the past (possibly caused by the Caloris basin impact) and, if given a temporary "helping hand" by shielding Mercury from solar wind by placing an artificial magnetic shield at Mercury-Sun L (similar to the proposal for Mars), then Mercury's magnetic field would "inflate" and grow in intensity 30 times stronger at which point Mercury's magnetic field would be self sustaining provided the field wasn't made to "stall" by another celestial event.


title: Terraforming

text: Despite being much smaller than Mars, Mercury has a gravity nearly identical in strength to Mars due to its increased density and could, with a now augmented magnetosphere, hold a nitrogen/oxygen atmosphere for millions of years.


title: Terraforming

text: To provide this atmosphere, 3.5×10 kilograms of water could be delivered by a similar process as proposed for Venus by launching a stream of kinetic impactors at Hyperion (the moon of Saturn) causing it to be ejected and flung into the inner solar system. Once this water has been delivered, Mercury could be covered in a thin layer of doped titanium dioxide photo-catalyst dust which would split the water into its constituent oxygen and hydrogen molecules, with the hydrogen rapidly being lost to space and a 0.2-0.3 bar atmosphere of pure oxygen being left behind in less than 70 years (assuming an efficiency of 30-40%). At this point the atmosphere would be breathable and nitrogen may be added as required to allow for plant growth in the presence of nitrates.


title: Terraforming

text: Temperature management may not be required, despite an equilibrium average temperature of ~159 Celsius. Millions of square kilometers at the poles have an average temperature of 0-50 Celsius, or 32-122 Fahrenheit (an area the size of Mexico at each pole with habitable temperatures). The total habitable area is likely to be even larger given that the previously mentioned photo-catalyst dust would raise the albedo from 0.12 to ~0.6, lowering the global average temperature to tens of degrees and potentially increasing the habitable area. The temperature could be further managed with the usage of solar shades.


title: Terraforming

text: Mercury has the potential to be the fastest celestial body to terraform at least partially, giving it a thin but breathable atmosphere with human-survivable pressures, a strong magnetic field, with at least a small percentage of its land at survivable temperatures at closer to the north and south poles provided water content could be constrained to avoid a runaway greenhouse effect.


title: Terraforming

text: Although the gravity on Earth's moon is too low to hold an atmosphere for geological spans of time, if given one, it would retain it for spans of time that are long compared to human lifespans. Landis and others have thus proposed that it could be feasible to terraform the moon, although not all agree with that proposal. Landis estimates that a 1 PSI atmosphere of pure oxygen on the moon would require on the order of two hundred trillion tons of oxygen, and suggests it could be produced by reducing the oxygen from an amount of lunar rock equivalent to a cube about fifty kilometers on an edge. Alternatively, he suggests that the water content of "fifty to a hundred comets" the size of Halley's comet would do the job, "assuming that the water doesn't splash away when the comets hit the moon." Likewise, Benford calculates that terraforming the moon would require "about 100 comets the size of Halley's."


title: Terraforming

text: It has been recently proposed that due to the effects of climate change, an interventionist program might be designed to return Earth to pre-industrial climate parameters. In order to achieve this, multiple solutions have been proposed, such as the management of solar radiation, the sequestration of carbon dioxide using geoengineering methods, and the design and release of climate altering genetically engineered organisms.


title: Terraforming

text: Other possible candidates for terraforming (possibly only partial or paraterraforming) include large moons of Jupiter or Saturn (Titan, Callisto, Ganymede, Europa, Enceladus), and the dwarf planet Ceres.


title: Terraforming

text: As synthetic biology matures over the coming decades it may become possible to build designer organisms from scratch that directly manufacture desired products efficiently. Lisa Nip, Ph.D. candidate at the MIT Media Lab's Molecular Machines group, said that by synthetic biology, scientists could genetically engineer humans, plants and bacteria to create Earth-like conditions on another planet.


title: Terraforming

text: Gary King, microbiologist at Louisiana State University studying the most extreme organisms on Earth, notes that "synthetic biology has given us a remarkable toolkit that can be used to manufacture new kinds of organisms specially suited for the systems we want to plan for" and outlines the prospects for terraforming, saying "we'll want to investigate our chosen microbes, find the genes that code for the survival and terraforming properties that we want (like radiation and drought resistance), and then use that knowledge to genetically engineer specifically Martian-designed microbes". He sees the project's biggest bottleneck in the ability to genetically tweak and tailor the right microbes, estimating that this hurdle could take "a decade or more" to be solved. He also notes that it would be best to develop "not a single kind of microbe but a suite of several that work together".


title: Terraforming

text: DARPA is researching the use of photosynthesizing plants, bacteria, and algae grown directly on the Mars surface that could warm up and thicken its atmosphere. In 2015 the agency and some of its research partners created an software called DTA GView − a 'Google Maps of genomes', in which genomes of several organisms can be pulled up on the program to immediately show a list of known genes and where they are located in the genome. According to Alicia Jackson, deputy director of DARPA's Biological Technologies Office, they have developed a "technological toolkit to transform not just hostile places here on Earth, but to go into space not just to visit, but to stay".


title: Terraforming

text: Also known as the "world house" concept, para-terraforming involves the construction of a habitable enclosure on a planet that encompasses most of the planet's usable area. The enclosure would consist of a transparent roof held one or more kilometers above the surface, pressurized with a breathable atmosphere, and anchored with tension towers and cables at regular intervals. The world house concept is similar to the concept of a domed habitat, but one which covers all (or most) of the planet.


title: Terraforming

text: It has also been suggested that instead of or in addition to terraforming a hostile environment humans might adapt to these places by the use of genetic engineering, biotechnology and cybernetic enhancements.


title: Terraforming

text: There is a philosophical debate within biology and ecology as to whether terraforming other worlds is an ethical endeavor. From the point of view of a cosmocentric ethic, this involves balancing the need for the preservation of human life against the intrinsic value of existing planetary ecologies.


title: Terraforming

text: On the pro-terraforming side of the argument, there are those like Robert Zubrin, Martyn J. Fogg, Richard L. S. Taylor, and the late Carl Sagan who believe that it is humanity's moral obligation to make other worlds suitable for human life, as a continuation of the history of life-transforming the environments around it on Earth. They also point out that Earth would eventually be destroyed if nature takes its course, so that humanity faces a very long-term choice between terraforming other worlds or allowing all terrestrial life to become extinct. Terraforming totally barren planets, it is asserted, is not morally wrong as it does not affect any other life.


title: Terraforming

text: The opposing argument posits that terraforming would be an unethical interference in nature, and that given humanity's past treatment of Earth, other planets may be better off without human interference. Still others strike a middle ground, such as Christopher McKay, who argues that terraforming is ethically sound only once we have completely assured that an alien planet does not harbor life of its own; but that if it does, we should not try to reshape it to our own use, but we should engineer its environment to artificially nurture the alien life and help it thrive and co-evolve, or even co-exist with humans. Even this would be seen as a type of terraforming to the strictest of ecocentrists, who would say that all life has the right, in its home biosphere, to evolve without outside interference.


title: Terraforming

text: The initial cost of such projects as planetary terraforming would be massive, and the infrastructure of such an enterprise would have to be built from scratch. Such technology has not yet been developed, let alone financially feasible at the moment. John Hickman has pointed out that almost none of the current schemes for terraforming incorporate economic strategies, and most of their models and expectations seem highly optimistic.


title: Terraforming

text: National pride, rivalries between nations, and the politics of public relations have in the past been the primary motivations for shaping space projects. It is reasonable to assume that these factors would also be present in planetary terraforming efforts.


title: Terraforming

text: Terraforming is a common concept in science fiction, ranging from television, movies and novels to video games.


title: Terraforming

text: A related concept from science fiction is xenoforming – a process in which aliens change the Earth or other planets to suit their own needs, already suggested in the classic "The War of the Worlds" (1898) of H.G. Wells.


title: Jo Nesbø

text: Jo Nesbø (; born Jon Nesbø; 29 March 1960) is a Norwegian writer, musician, economist, and former football player and reporter. More than 3 million copies of his novels had been sold in Norway as of March 2014; his work has been translated into over 50 languages, and by 2021 had sold some 50 million copies worldwide, making him the most successful Norwegian author of all time.


title: Jo Nesbø

text: Known primarily for his crime novels featuring Inspector Harry Hole, Nesbø is also the main vocalist and songwriter for the Norwegian rock band Di Derre. In 2007 he released his first children's book, "Doktor Proktors Prompepulver" (English translation: "Doctor Proctor's Fart Powder"). The 2011 film "Headhunters" is based on Nesbø's novel "Hodejegerne (The Headhunters)".


title: Jo Nesbø

text: Nesbø was born in 1960 in Oslo and grew up in Molde. He graduated from the Norwegian School of Economics with a degree in Economics and Business Administration. He worked as a freelance journalist and a stockbroker before he began his writing career.


title: Jo Nesbø

text: The series follows Harry Hole, a tough detective working for Crime Squad and later with the National Criminal Investigation Service (Kripos), whose investigations may take him from Oslo to Australia, Thailand, West Congo, Switzerland or Brazil. Hole takes on seemingly unconnected cases, sometimes found to involve serial killers, bank robbers, gangsters or the establishment, but spends a significant amount of time battling alcoholism and his own demons.


title: Jo Nesbø

text: The Harry Hole novels are multi-layered, violent and often feature women in peril, as typified by "The Snowman". On the return of Harry Hole in "The Thirst", Nesbø said: "I was always coming back to Harry; he is my soul mate. But it is a dark soul, so it is – as always – both a thrill and a chilling, emotionally exhausting experience. But Harry and the story make it worth the sleepless nights."


title: Jo Nesbø

text: A film adaptation of "The Snowman", with Tomas Alfredson directing (replacing Martin Scorsese, who executive produced), and starring Michael Fassbender, Rebecca Ferguson, and Charlotte Gainsbourg, premiered in October 2017.


title: Jo Nesbø

text: "Doctor Proctor's Fart Powder", originally published in 2007, was Nesbø's first children's book. They are illustrated by Mike Lowery. The series is set in Oslo, Norway and follows the story of Doctor Proctor, a crazy professor waiting for his big break, his next-door neighbor Lisa and her peculiar friend Nilly, a short redheaded boy. The ruthless twins Truls and Trym Thrane sometimes lurk in the background. Doctor Proctor's first major inventions are a powder that makes the user fart (and the farts don't smell) and the "Fartonaut Powder," which makes the user fart so powerfully that they blast into space. In book 2 he invents a bathtub that allows the user to travel through time. As of 2018 there are 5 books in the series.


title: Jo Nesbø

text: In 2014 a live action film adaptation of the first book was made, and is only available in Norwegian. A sequel, "Doktor Proktors Tidsbadekar", was released in 2015 with German involvement. Both films received mixed reviews.


title: Jo Nesbø

text: It was announced in October 2013 that, writing under the pen-name of Tom Johansen, Nesbø had written at least two novels provisionally entitled "Blood on Snow" and "More Blood on the Water", scheduled to be published in autumn 2014 and spring 2015. The books "Blood on Snow" and its sequel "Midnight Sun: Blood on Snow 2" were published in 2015, but under Jo Nesbø's name.


title: Jo Nesbø

text: It was also announced in October 2013 that Warner Brothers had bought the rights to "Blood on Snow" and planned to make a screen adaptation, to be produced by and possibly starring Leonardo DiCaprio. However, on 4 April 2017, it was reported that the screen rights had been purchased by Tobey Maguire's Material Pictures and Lawrence Grey's Grey Matter Productions, and that Maguire would make his directorial debut on the projected film adaptation.


title: Jo Nesbø

text: This series follows Olav Johansen, a fixer for Oslo crime boss Daniel Hoffman. In "Blood on Snow", Olav has just found the woman of his dreams. The only problem is that she's his boss's wife and that his boss has hired him to kill her.


title: Jo Nesbø

text: A film adaptation of "Midnight Sun", titled "The Hanging Sun", directed by Francesco Carrozzini directing and starring Alessandro Borghi, Jessica Brown Findlay, Sam Spruell, Peter Mullan and Charles Dance, premiered at the 79th Venice International Film Festival in September 2022.


title: Jo Nesbø

text: In 2011, the Nesbø story "Twelve" was adapted by Magnus Martens into the film "Jackpot" (), a black comedy crime mystery film.


title: Jo Nesbø

text: In 2014 it was announced that Nesbø would contribute a re-telling of the story of "Macbeth" as part of the Hogarth Shakespeare project, described as a 'crime noir' version of the tragedy. His "Macbeth" is set in 1970 in an unspecified location that combines aspects of Scandinavia and Scotland, and involves an Inspector Macbeth of a paramilitary SWAT team targeting bikers, drug dealers, and his police colleagues. It was published in April 2018.


title: Jo Nesbø

text: In 2016, it was announced that there are also plans to adapt his stand-alone novel, "Sønnen" ("The Son"), as a film, to be directed by Denis Villeneuve, with Jake Gyllenhaal as producer and Channing Tatum in the lead role.


title: Jo Nesbø

text: On 5 April 2017, it was announced that Icelandic director Baltasar Kormakur was working on a new adaptation of "I Am Victor", a short story by Nesbø previously planned as an NBC television series but not completed.


title: Jo Nesbø

text: Nesbø played top-flight football for Molde FK until he tore the cruciate ligaments in his knee, and had to concentrate on other aspects of his life. Nesbø is a dedicated rock climber and has climbed sport routes up to French grade 7c+.


title: Jo Nesbø

text: In addition to his career as an author, Nesbø was also the main vocalist and songwriter for the Norwegian rock band Di Derre. He lives close to his former wife and their daughter in Oslo.


title: Jo Nesbø

text: "Okkupert" ("Occupied"), based on a concept by Jo Nesbø, is a television series produced by TV 2 and Yellow Bird, the Swedish production house responsible for the "Wallander" TV series, and the films "Headhunters" and "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo". The series is a political thriller which envisages what would happen if Norway were to be invaded by Russia to seize the nation's oil resources. The first season premiered in October 2015, the second in September 2017, and the third in January 2020.


title: Boris Brejcha

text: Boris Brejcha (; born November 26, 1981 in Ludwigshafen am Rhein) is a German DJ and record producer. He describes his music style as "High-Tech Minimal." Brejcha frequently wears a joker mask based on a Carnival of Venice design. He has performed at clubs and festivals around the world, including Tomorrowland, Timewarp and Exit festival. Boris founded the label "Fckng Serious" in 2015 with Ann Clue and Deniz Bul. He performed for the first time in Ibiza in August 2019, at Hï Ibiza club.


title: Boris Brejcha

text: He was injured in the Ramstein air show disaster when aged 6, becoming badly burnt. He states in an interview; "this was a special incident in my life. I was alone, I was a little boy and I was in an extreme situation"..


title: Boris Brejcha

text: On 24 January 2020, Brejcha released his 6th album "Space Diver" as his first album for Ultra Records.


title: Kafala system

text: The kafala system (also spelled "kefala system"; ; meaning "sponsorship system") is a system used to monitor migrant laborers, working primarily in the construction and domestic sectors in Gulf Cooperation Council member states and a few neighboring countries, namely Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.


title: Kafala system

text: The system requires all migrant workers to have an in-country sponsor, usually their employer, who is responsible for their visa and legal status. This practice has been criticized by human rights organizations for creating easy opportunities for the exploitation of workers, as many employers take away passports and abuse their workers with little chance of legal repercussions.


title: Kafala system

text: According to "The Economist", "The migrant workers' lot is unlikely to improve until the reform of the kafala system, whereby workers are beholden to the employers who sponsored their visas. The system blocks domestic competition for overseas workers in the Gulf countries."


title: Kafala system

text: In Islamic adoptional jurisprudence, "kafala" refers to the adoption of children. The original Islamic law of kafala was expanded to include a system of fixed-term sponsorship of migrant workers in several countries in the late twentieth century. In the first decades of the twenty-first century, the migrant worker system became widely referred to in English as the ""kafala" system".


title: Kafala system

text: The roots of the kafala system have been ascribed to the colonial era, when the British Empire brought workers from the Indian subcontinent to the Middle East, by writers such as Omar Hesham AlShehabi and Shirleen Anushika Datt.


title: Kafala system

text: In 2009, Bahrain was the first country in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to claim to repeal the kafala system. In a public statement the Labor Minister likened the system to slavery. Changes to the "Labour Market Regulatory Suggestion" were made in April 2009 and implemented starting 1 August 2009. Under the new law, migrants are sponsored by the "Labour Market Regulation Authority" and can change from one employer to another without their employer's agreement. Three months' notice is required to quit from an employer.


title: Kafala system

text: However, in November 2009 Human Rights Watch (HRW) stated that "authorities do little to enforce compliance" with "employers who withhold wages and passports from migrant employees ... practices [which] are illegal under Bahraini law."


title: Kafala system

text: The kafala system is practiced in Kuwait. In 2018, Kuwait became involved in a diplomatic crisis with the Philippines, which ended in a May 2018 labor deal which prohibited common practices under the kafala against Filipino migrant workers, including the confiscation of passports and guaranteeing one-day off a week from work.


title: Kafala system

text: According to a 2008 HRW report, under the kafala system in Saudi Arabia, "an employer assumes responsibility for a hired migrant worker and must grant explicit permission before the worker can enter Saudi Arabia, transfer employment, or leave the country. The kafala system gives the employer immense control over the worker." HRW stated that "some abusive employers exploit the kafala system and force domestic workers to continue working against their will and forbid them from returning to their countries of origin" and that this is "incompatible with Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights".


title: Kafala system

text: HRW stated that "the combination of the high recruitment fees paid by Saudi employers and the power granted them by the kafala system to control whether a worker can change employers or exit the country made some employers feel entitled to exert 'ownership' over a domestic worker" and that the "sense of ownership ... creates slavery-like conditions". In 2018, France 24 and ALQST reported on the use of Twitter and other online social networks by kafala system employers, "kafils", to "sell" domestic workers to other kafils, in violation of Saudi law. ALQST described the online trading as "slavery 2.0".


title: Kafala system

text: Several Indonesian domestic workers were executed in Saudi Arabia during 2015–2018. Siti Zaeneb and Karni were beheaded in April 2015. Muhammad Zaini Misin was executed in March 2018 for having killed his employer. On 29 October 2018, Tuti Tursilawati, also an Indonesian domestic worker in Saudi Arabia, was executed for having killed her employer, an action which she claimed had been in self-defense in relation to sexual abuse. Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi lodged an official complaint concerning the execution, which was carried out without warning and despite an appeal against the sentence.


title: Kafala system

text: From 1991 to 2019, Bangladeshi women went to Saudi Arabia under the kafala system. In early November 2019, protests took place in Dhaka in response to the case of Sumi Akter, who claimed "merciless sexual assaults", being locked up for 15 days, and having her hands burnt by hot oil by her Saudi employers. The case of another Bangladeshi, Nazma Begum, who claimed being tortured, also attracted media attention. Both had been promised jobs as hospital cleaning staff but were tricked into becoming household servants. Begum died in Saudi Arabia of an untreated illness.


title: Kafala system

text: On 4 November 2020, as part of its 2030 vision, Saudi Arabia announced a reformation plan for its labor law. Effective on 14 March 2021, the new measures are meant to curb the kafala system through:


title: Kafala system

text: The changes are to be implemented in the Absher and Qiwa portals, both being part of the e-government in Saudi Arabia.


title: Kafala system

text: In March 2021, Saudi Arabia introduced new labour reforms, allowing some migrant workers to change jobs without their employer's consent. Human Rights Watch claimed that the reforms didn't dismantle the abuses of the kafala system, "leaving migrant workers at high risk of abuse". Many domestic workers and farmers who are not covered by the labour law are still vulnerable to multifold abuses, including passport confiscation, delayed wages and even forced labour. Although migrant workers are allowed to request an exit permit without their employer's permission, the need to have an exit permit in order to leave the country is a human rights violation.


title: Kafala system

text: An investigation by France 24 in April 2021 documented abuses of female migrant workers in Saudi Arabia. A 22-year-old woman migrant worker from Madagascar was murdered by the underground prostitution mafia she used to work for after running away from her employer's home and buried without a coffin in al-Jubail. Due to the practice of some sponsors who confiscate the passports of migrant workers, young women from East Africa find it difficult to return home after perceived mistreatment by their employers. The women often end up falling into prostitution.


title: Kafala system

text: About 1.2 million foreign workers in Qatar, mostly from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and the Philippines, make up 94 percent of the labor force. There are nearly five foreign workers for each Qatari citizen, mostly housemaids and low-skilled workers.


title: Kafala system

text: Most of the workers live under conditions that Human Rights Watch has likened to "forced labor". Sharan Burrow, General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation, stated "In late 2010 we conducted a risk assessment looking at basic fundamental labor rights. The Gulf region stood out like a red light. They were absolutely at the bottom end for rights for workers. They were fundamentally slave states." An exit visa system prevents workers from leaving the country without the sponsor's permission. Employer consent is required to change jobs, leave the country, get a driver's license, rent a home or open a checking account. Amnesty International witnessed workers signing false statements that they had received their wages in order to have their passports returned. The organization called for an overhaul of the 'sponsorship' system. Arab-American businessman Nasser Beydoun described their situation as: "Foreign workers in Qatar are modern-day slaves to their local employers. The local Qatari owns you." International media attention increased after Qatar was named the host of the 2022 FIFA World Cup. In March 2022, FIFA President Gianni Infantino met with the Qatar Minister of Labour Dr. Ali bin Samikh Al Marri to discuss about the progress achieved in the area of workers welfare and labour rights. The meeting also revealed the Law No. 18 of 2022 of Qatar's labour reforms that mandated the removal of employer's permission to change jobs while establishing a non-discriminatory minimum wage for all.


title: Kafala system

text: The kafala or sponsorship system practised by GCC nations has been stated as the main reason for abuse of the rights of low-income migrant workers.


title: Kafala system

text: Little discussed is the fact that high-income professional expatriate workers are also deeply affected by the abuse of the system by companies. A confounding issue is that many of the companies are based out of western nations from the EU, and the US.


title: Kafala system

text: The most typical form of abuse by these companies is the refusal to release employees once their employment has ended with the company. This lack of release (typically through a No Objection Certificate or NOC) restricts employees from moving to another company in Qatar after employment has ended with the present employer.


title: Kafala system

text: This prohibition executed by the company will keep the typical employee from working in Qatar for two years beyond the time their employment ended. In worse cases, the company holds the employee indefinitely in an effort to extort money from the employee when business opportunities fail. From the highest executives to the lowest secretaries, this policy is damaging and serves as a constant threat over the employee.


title: Kafala system

text: On 13 December 2016, the Qatari government introduced a new labour law which it said would bring "tangible benefits" to workers in the country by abolishing the Kafala system. The new regulations, aimed at making it easier for migrant workers to change jobs and leave the country, came into effect immediately. Amnesty International characterized the reforms as inadequate and continuing to "leave migrant workers at the hands of exploitative bosses".


title: Kafala system

text: In January 2020, Qatar issued a ministerial decree that abolished the exit visa requirement that was part of the Kafala system. With the exit visa requirement removed, migrants working in Qatar no longer need to obtain employer permission to leave Qatar. The International Labour Organization described the decree as an "important milestone in the ... labour reform agenda". Human Rights Watch considered the change as insufficient, since the requirement for employer consent for changing jobs and discrimination in permanent minimum wage levels remained, and migrant workers "still [faced] arrest and deportation [for leaving] their employer without permission".


title: Kafala system

text: In August 2020, the Qatari government announced a monthly minimum wage for all workers of 1,000 riyals (US$266), an increase from the previous temporary minimum wage of 750 riyals (US$200) a month. The No Objection Certificate was also removed so that employees can change jobs without consent of the current employer. A Minimum Wage Committee was also formed to check on the implementation.


title: Kafala system

text: The issue of migrant workers' rights in Qatar attracted greater attention since the 2022 FIFA World Cup was awarded to Qatar, with a 2013 investigation by "The Guardian" newspaper claiming that many workers were denied food and water, had their identity papers taken away from them, compelled to forced labor, and that they were not paid on time or at all, making some of them effectively slaves. "The Guardian" estimated that, by the time the competition would be held, without reforms of the kafala system, out of the 2 million-strong migrant workforce up to 4,000 workers could die due to lax safety and other causes. These claims were based upon the fact that 522 Nepalese workers and over 700 Indian workers had died since 2010, when Qatar's bid as World Cup's host had been won, about 250 Indian workers dying each year. Given that there were half a million Indian workers in Qatar, the Indian government said that was quite a normal number of deaths.


title: Kafala system

text: In 2015, a crew of four journalists from the BBC were arrested and held for two days after they attempted to report on the condition of workers in the country. The reporters had been invited to visit the country as guests of the Government of Qatar. "The Wall Street Journal" reported in June 2015 the International Trade Union Confederation's claim that over 1,200 workers had died while working on infrastructure and real-estate projects related to the World Cup, and the Qatar Government's counter-claim that none had. The BBC later reported that this often-cited figure of 1,200 workers having died in World Cup construction in Qatar between 2011 and 2013 is not correct, and that the 1,200 number is instead representing deaths from all Indians and Nepalese working in Qatar, not just of those workers involved in the preparation for the World Cup, and not just of construction workers.


title: Kafala system

text: Most Qatari nationals avoid doing manual work or low-skilled jobs. They are given preference in the workplace. Michael van Praag, president of the Royal Dutch Football Association, requested the FIFA Executive Committee to pressure Qatar over those allegations to ensure better workers' conditions. He also stated that a new vote on the attribution of the World Cup to Qatar would have to take place if the corruption allegations were to be proved.


title: Kafala system

text: In March 2016, Amnesty International accused Qatar of using forced labour, forcing the employees to live in poor conditions, and withholding their wages and passports. It also accused FIFA of failing to stop the stadium from being built on "human right abuses." Migrant workers told Amnesty about verbal abuse and threats they received after complaining about not being paid for up to several months. Nepali workers were even denied leave to visit their family after the 2015 Nepal earthquake.


title: Kafala system

text: In October 2017, the International Trade Union Confederation said that Qatar had signed an agreement to improve the situation of more than 2 million migrant workers in the country. According to the ITUC, the agreement provided for establishing substantial reforms in labour system, including ending the Kafala system. The ITUC also stated that the agreement would positively affect the general situation of workers, especially those who work on the 2022 FIFA World Cup infrastructure projects. The workers will no longer need their employer's permission to leave the country or change their jobs. Amnesty International have questioned whether Qatar would complete the promised labour reforms before the start of the World Cup, a sentiment that FIFA backed. Amnesty International found that abuses were still occurring despite the nation taking some steps to improve labour rights.


title: Kafala system

text: In May 2019, an investigation by the UK's "Daily Mirror" newspaper discovered some of the 28,000 workers on the stadiums are being paid 750 Qatari Riyal per month, which is equivalent to £190 per month or 99 pence an hour for a typical 48-hour week. Hendriks Graszoden, the turf supplier for the 2006 World Cup and for the European Championships in 2008 and 2016, refused to supply Qatar with World Cup turf. According to company spokesperson Gerdien Vloet, one reason for this decision was the accusations of human rights abuses.


title: Kafala system

text: In April 2020, the government of Qatar provided $824 million to pay the wages of migrant workers in quarantine or undergoing treatment for COVID-19. Later that year, the Qatari government announced a monthly minimum wage for all workers of 1,000 riyals (US$275), an increase from the previous temporary minimum wage of 750 riyals a month. The new laws went into effect in March 2021. The International Labour Organization said "Qatar is the first country in the region to introduce a non-discriminatory minimum wage, which is a part of a series of historical reforms of the country's labour laws," while the campaign group Migrant Rights said the new minimum wage was too low to meet migrant workers' need with Qatar's high cost of living.


title: Kafala system

text: Employers are obligated to pay 300 riyals for food and 500 riyals for accommodation, if they do not provide employees with these directly. The No Objection Certificate was removed so that employees can change jobs without consent of the current employer. A Minimum Wage Committee was also formed to check on the implementation. These reforms removed the kafala system and a contractual system was introduced.


title: Kafala system

text: An investigative report published by "The Guardian" used data from embassies and national foreign employment offices to estimate migrant worker death toll since World Cup was awarded to Qatar. Between 2010 and late 2020 over 6,500 migrant workers from India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka have died in Qatar. At the 2022 FIFA Congress in Doha, Lise Klaveness—head of the Norwegian Football Federation—criticised the organisation for having awarded the World Cup to Qatar, citing the various controversies surrounding the tournament. She argued that "in 2010 World Cups were awarded by FIFA in unacceptable ways with unacceptable consequences. Human rights, equality, democracy: the core interests of football were not in the starting XI until many years later. These basic rights were pressured onto the field as substitutes by outside voices. FIFA has addressed these issues but there's still a long way to go." Hassan al-Thawadi, secretary general of Qatar 2022, criticised her remarks for ignoring the country's recent labour reforms. The European Union's "Annual Report on Human Rights and Democracy in the World 2021" noted Qatar's labour law reforms had incorporated non-discriminatory minimum wage systems and removal of the Kafala system in 2021.


title: Kafala system

text: In March 2022, FIFA president Gianni Infantino claimed in an interview that the Gulf nation is being progressive in terms of the labour rights and migrant rights issues that prevailed previously, adding "I am pleased to see the strong commitment from the Qatari authorities to ensure the reforms are fully implemented across the labour market, leaving a lasting legacy of the FIFA World Cup long after the event, and benefiting migrant workers in the host country in the long term." Shortly before the tournament, France 24 broadcast a report titled "The plight of migrant workers in Qatar", adding more details to the controversy and how many reform laws have not been followed.


title: Kafala system

text: On 20 October 2022, Amnesty International published an article in which it criticized the reforms done by Qatar for migrant workers and stated that these reforms are unfinished and compensation still owed as World Cup looms. And also stated that although Qatar has made important strides on labor rights over the past five years, it is abundantly clear that there is a great distance still to go. However the reforms have taken place in the run-up to Qatar's hosting of the 2022 FIFA World cup, an event that has put the country in the spotlight. The Qatari government has always affirmed that the world cup is not the finish line, the reforms will continue to implement even after the event is over. The government has strengthened its wage protection system and also added a new complaints platform that has increased access, and because the Wage protection system (WPS) monitors payments electronically, most cases (84 percent in 2021–2022) decided in favor of workers. There has been an increase in the amount paid out to the Workers’ Support and Insurance Fund between 2021 and 2022. A social dialogue structure was also established by the Qatari government in various enterprises. The MOL and the ILO have worked closely on the development of law and policy, systems, enhanced the capacity of inspectors and Communications campaigns, including measures to keep workers and workplaces safe during the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Kafala system

text: The United Arab Emirates has a work visa sponsorship system to issue work permits for foreign nationals who wish to migrate for work in the UAE. Most of the visas are sponsored by institutions and companies. A person looking to enter the UAE for work obtains a work permit, valid for two months, from the Ministry of Human Resources. The sponsor is responsible for medical testing and obtaining identity cards, documents and stamps. The employee can then sponsor his or her family members and bring them into the UAE. Per Article 1 of Ministerial Decree No. 766 of 2015, an employee whose contract expires can obtain a new permit and may remain in the UAE on a 6-month job seeker visa. A new work permit is also issued if the employer fails legal and contractual obligations such as not paying wages for 60 days. A worker may request his contract to be terminated after at least 6 months of employment. A worker whose employment is terminated unfairly has the right to receive a new work permit without the six-month condition.


title: Kafala system

text: The right of alien residence and work permit is protected by the UAE Federal law No. 6 of 1973 on the Entry and Residence of aliens. Per UAE law, an employer may not deny an employee on a work visa right to an annual leave, regular paid wage, 45 days maternity leave, right to resign, resign gratuity, and a 30-day grace period to find a new job. An employer is also prohibited by law from confiscating an employee's passport, forcing the employee to pay for his or her residency visa fees, or forcing the employee to work more than eight hours a day or 45 hours a week without compensation. An employee who wishes to leave needs to complete his or her legal notice period, which is usually 30 days or less, before leaving their job or risk being banned to work in UAE for up to one year. Alien widows or divorced women whose legal presence in the country was sponsored by their husband's work status are given a 1-year visa to stay in the country without the need for a work permit or a sponsor.


title: Kafala system

text: In October 2014, Human Rights Watch estimated that there were 146,000 female migrant domestic workers in the UAE whose work visa was sponsored by employers in the UAE. In an interview with 99 female domestic workers, HRW listed abuses claimed by their interviewees: most had their passports confiscated by their employers; in many cases, wages were not fully paid, overtime (up to 21 hours per day) was required, or food, living conditions or medical treatment was insufficient. 24 had been physically or sexually abused. HRW criticized the UAE government for failing to adequately protect domestic workers from exploitation and abuse and made many recommendations to the UAE, including repeal or amendment of Federal Law No. 6 of 1973 on the Entry and Residence of Foreigners, so that domestic workers can decide on their own to change between employers without losing their immigration status. The UAE introduced Ministerial Decree No. 766 of 2015, which allows a worker to terminate his contract without losing their immigration status if the employer has treated him or her unfairly and be issued a new work permit, or to request the contract to be terminated without losing immigration status and receive a new work permit after at least 6 months of employment provided they have found a new employer.


title: Kafala system

text: In June 2017, the UAE adopted a new bill to bring its labour law into consistency with the International Labour Organization's (ILO) Domestic Workers Convention, providing migrant domestic workers with the same labour protections as other UAE employees. The bill requires employers to provide domestic workers with accommodation and food, and annual minima of 30 days of paid leave, 15 days of paid sick leave, 15 days of unpaid sick leave, compensation for work-related injuries or illnesses, and 12 hours' daily rest.


title: Claire McCaskill

text: Claire Conner McCaskill (; born July 24, 1953) is an American politician who served as a United States Senator from Missouri from 2007 to 2019 and as State Auditor of Missouri from 1999 to 2007.


title: Claire McCaskill

text: McCaskill is a native of Rolla, Missouri. She graduated from the University of Missouri and the University of Missouri School of Law. A member of the Democratic Party, McCaskill served as a member of the Missouri House of Representatives from 1983 to 1989, as Jackson County Prosecutor from 1993 to 1998, and as the 34th State Auditor of Missouri from 1999 to 2007. She ran for Governor of Missouri in the 2004 election, defeating Democratic incumbent Bob Holden in the Democratic primary and losing to Republican Matt Blunt in a close general election.


title: Claire McCaskill

text: McCaskill was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 2006. While the second female senator to have represented Missouri, she is the first female candidate to actually have been elected to the Senate from Missouri. (Jean Carnahan was appointed upon the death of her husband.) Re-elected in 2012, McCaskill was defeated in 2018 by Republican challenger Josh Hawley. , McCaskill is a political analyst for MSNBC and NBC and a visiting fellow at the University of Chicago Institute of Politics.


title: Claire McCaskill

text: McCaskill was born in Rolla, Missouri. Her father, William Young McCaskill (1925–1993), served as a state Insurance Commissioner during the administration of Governor Warren E. Hearnes. Her mother, Betty Anne (née Ward; 1928–2012), was the first woman elected to the city council of Columbia, Missouri. Betty Anne McCaskill lost a race for a seat in the state House of Representatives to Leroy Blunt, the father of U.S. Senator Roy Blunt and grandfather of former Missouri Governor Matt Blunt.


title: Claire McCaskill

text: McCaskill spent her early childhood in the small Missouri town of Houston, later moving to Lebanon, and eventually Columbia. She attended David H. Hickman High School in Columbia, where she was a cheerleader, Pep Club president, a member of the debate club, a musical cast member, and homecoming queen. While attending the University of Missouri, McCaskill joined Kappa Alpha Theta sorority, graduating in 1975 with a B.A. in political science. She received her Juris Doctor (J.D.) from the University of Missouri School of Law in 1978. In the summer of 1974, before graduating from the University of Missouri, McCaskill studied at the Institute on Comparative Political and Economic Systems at Georgetown University.


title: Claire McCaskill

text: From the time she graduated from law school in 1978 until her exit from the U.S. Senate in January 2019, McCaskill spent all but three years of her professional career in the public sector. The exception is the three years she spent in private practice as an attorney in a Kansas City law firm (1989 to 1991). Following her graduation from law school, she spent one year as a law clerk on the Missouri Court of Appeals for the Western District, which sits in Kansas City. Thereafter, McCaskill joined the Jackson County prosecutor's office, where she specialized in arson cases.


title: Claire McCaskill

text: In 1982, McCaskill was elected to represent the Brookside neighborhood of Kansas City in the Missouri House of Representatives. She left the State House and contemplated running for Jackson County Prosecutor in 1988, but did not pursue the position when her mentor, fellow Democrat and incumbent Prosecutor Albert Riederer decided to seek another term.


title: Claire McCaskill

text: In 1990, McCaskill was elected to the Jackson County Legislature (the equivalent of a county commission or county council).


title: Claire McCaskill

text: In February 1991, she testified in favor of a Missouri Senate bill that would prohibit a man accused of raping his wife from using marriage as a defense. "This is simply an issue of fundamental justice. It's embarrassing that we live in a state where it's okay to rape your wife", McCaskill said.


title: Claire McCaskill

text: In December 1991, McCaskill announced her intention to run for county prosecutor. At the time of the announcement, Riederer had not announced whether he was going to seek reelection. McCaskill said that crime had "run amok" during Riederer's eleven years as county prosecutor. McCaskill won the Democratic primary, and she went on to win the 1992 general election with 53 percent of the vote. McCaskill was the first woman to serve as prosecutor for Jackson County. She was reelected in 1996 with 71 percent of the vote.


title: Claire McCaskill

text: In 1998, McCaskill was elected as State Auditor with 50.3 percent of the vote in the general election. She was the second female to hold the post, the first having been her immediate predecessor, Margaret B. Kelly.