title: Davao Region

text: In 1942, during World War II, as the Japanese occupation of the Philippines began, the region was one of the first among the Philippine regions to be subjected by Japanese occupation. The Japanese immigrants in Davao acted as a fifth column, welcoming the Japanese invaders during World War II. These Japanese were hated by the Moro Muslims and disliked by the Chinese. The Moros were judged as "fully capable of dealing with Japanese fifth columnists and invaders alike." The Moros were to fight the Japanese invaders when they landed at Davao on Mindanao. The Japanese went back to their ships at night to sleep since the Moros struck so much fear into them, even though the Moros were outnumbered by the Japanese. The longest battle of the Allied liberation campaign, the Battle of Davao, took place in 1945. After the war, the region eventually passed to the American hands again for at least almost one year before the formal Philippine independence on July 4, 1946, most of the Japanese living in the region were now integrated in the Filipino population.


title: Davao Region

text: Prior to Philippine independence in 1946, the entire region was a single province called Davao Province, with Davao City serving as its capital. The province was one of the largest provinces in the Philippines during that time, spanning more than . It lasted from 1920 until 1967, when the province was split into three provinces in May 1967: Davao del Norte, Davao del Sur and Davao Oriental. After the division, Davao City was officially named its regional center.


title: Davao Region

text: Region XI, then known as "Southern Mindanao", originally covered 6 provinces (Compostela Valley, Davao del Norte, Davao del Sur, Davao Oriental, South Cotabato and Sarangani), and the cities of Davao, Digos, Panabo, Tagum, Samal, General Santos and Koronadal. Surigao del Sur was moved to the newly created region Caraga on February 23, 1995.


title: Davao Region

text: In September 2001, "Executive Order No. 36" was enacted which reorganized the regions in Mindanao. , then known as "Southern Mindanao", was renamed "Davao Region", and the provinces of South Cotabato and Sarangani, and the cities of General Santos and Koronadal were moved to .


title: Davao Region

text: On October 12, 2022, the Regional Peace and Order Council declared the entire region "insurgency-free" after decades of being a stronghold for the communist insurgency, barring some scattered members of the New People's Army that are left in the region.


title: Davao Region

text: Davao Region is subdivided into 5 provinces, 1 "highly urbanized" city, 5 "component" cities, 43 municipalities and 1,162 barangays.


title: Davao Region

text: The region has a generally uniform distribution of rainfall through the year. It lies outside the typhoon belt.


title: Davao Region

text: Davao Region is the most populous region in Mindanao and the 7th most populous in the country, with a total of 5,243,536 inhabitants in 2020. Davao City, its regional capital, is also the largest city in Mindanao, with an area of 2,444 km, the largest in the country and one of the largest in the world, and has 1,632,991 inhabitants in 2015, making it the third most populous city in the country and the most populous city proper in the entire Visayas-Mindanao region. Davao Metropolitan Area, the primary economic and urban build-up area in the region, is also the most populous in the island and the third most populous in the country, with about 2,274,913 inhabitants in that year.


title: Davao Region

text: Most of the region's inhabitants speak Cebuano. Filipino and English are also spoken and widely used in schools, businesses, commerce, and industry. In the Davao City Metro Area, a linguistic phenomenon has developed whereby locals have either shifted to Filipino or significantly mix Filipino terms and grammar into their Cebuano speech. Minority indigenous groups of the region speak their own languages as well.


title: Davao Region

text: Chinese immigrants are widespread in the region, with a considerable population based in Davao City. Davao Chinatown is one of the two defined Chinatowns in the Philippines, alongside Binondo in Manila. A considerable population of Japanese are also found in the region, most of them also located in Davao City. Before World War II, Davao was and still is heavily populated by Japanese immigrants and their descendants, with Davao City being touted at one point in its history as the Little Tokyo of the Philippines.


title: Davao Region

text: The majority of the region's population are Christians, mostly Catholics; however, there are also Muslims, Buddhists, and Shintoists living in the region.


title: Davao Region

text: While the region's economy is predominantly agri-based, it is now developing into a center for agro-industrial business, trade and tourism. Its competitive advantage is in agri-industry as its products, papayas, mangoes, bananas, pineapples, fresh asparagus, flowers, and fish products are exported internationally. The region can be a vital link to markets in other parts of Mindanao, Brunei Darussalam and parts of Malaysia and Indonesia. There is also a growing call center sector in the region, mostly centered in Davao City.


title: Davao Region

text: There is a gradual shift to industrialization as shown with industry's growth rate of 8.1% in 1996. Other economic activities are mining, fishery, forestry and agriculture. Due to the region's rise as the main commercial and industrial hub of Mindanao, many of its workers are oriented to urban services such as putting small-scale businesses and working in commercial industries in thriving urban areas like Davao, Tagum, and Digos. Both private and foreign investors and businessmen are putting up huge business centers in the region, fueling up its commercial growth rate.


title: Davao Region

text: The region's principal ports are the Sasa International Seaport in Sasa and Santa Ana Pier in the Chinatown District, both in Davao City; Panabo Seaport in Davao del Norte; and Mati Seaport in Davao Oriental. The former two, both of which are located in Port of Davao in Davao City, can service both interisland and international shipments. Sasa International Container Port, also located in the Port of Davao, is the busiest in Mindanao.


title: Davao Region

text: The international airport in Davao City, Francisco Bangoy International Airport, is the largest and most developed in Mindanao, has the first longest runway in the island, and the third busiest in the country, after Ninoy Aquino International Airport and Mactan–Cebu International Airport. Being the only airport in the island that is currently catering for international destinations, it can handle both domestic and international flights, serving several domestic flights to Manila, Cebu, Bacolod, Iloilo, Zamboanga and other major Philippine cities, and international flights to Doha, Hong Kong, Manado, Quanzhou, and Singapore. Its ATC Tower is the most advanced in the country.


title: Davao Region

text: The region is accessible by land, air and sea. The region has adequate communications facilities, reliable power, and an abundant water supply.


title: Davao Region

text: In December 2016, President Duterte helped enter a contract with Chinese investors to create a new port in the region of Isla Verde in Davao. This involves the creation of three artificial islands by a set of Chinese companies including CCCC Dredging Group Co. Ltd for $200 million.


title: Davao Region

text: The government provides free education at the primary (grade school) and secondary (high school) levels. Some state-run universities in the region are the University of the Philippines Mindanao and the University of Southeastern Philippines. Private colleges / universities in Davao include Ateneo de Davao University, Assumption College of Davao, Holy Cross of Davao College, Holy Child College of Davao, and University of the Immaculate Conception. The literacy rate of the country is 93.9%; Davao City has a literacy rate of 98.05%.


The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable is a 2007 book by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, who is a former options trader. The book focuses on the extreme impact of rare and unpredictable outlier events—and the human tendency to find simplistic explanations for these events, retrospectively. Taleb calls this the Black Swan theory.


title: The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable

text: The book covers subjects relating to knowledge, aesthetics, as well as ways of life, and uses elements of fiction and anecdotes from the author's life to elaborate his theories. It spent 36 weeks on the "New York Times" best-seller list.


text: The book is part of Taleb's five-volume series, titled the "Incerto", including "Fooled by Randomness" (2001), "The Black Swan" (2007–2010), "The Bed of Procrustes" (2010–2016), "Antifragile" (2012), and "Skin in the Game" (2018).


text: A central idea in Taleb's book is not to attempt to predict Black Swan events, but to build robustness to negative events and an ability to exploit positive events. "Robustness" reflects an attitude where nothing is permitted to fail under conditions of change. Taleb contends that banks and trading firms are vulnerable to hazardous Black Swan events and are exposed to losses beyond those predicted by their defective financial models.


text: The book asserts that a "Black Swan" event depends on the observer: for example, what may be a Black Swan surprise for a turkey is not a Black Swan surprise for its butcher. Hence the objective should be to "avoid being the turkey", by identifying areas of vulnerability in order to "turn the Black Swans white".


text: Taleb has referred to the book as an essay or a narrative with one single idea: "our blindness with respect to randomness, particularly large deviations." The book moves from literary subjects in the beginning to scientific and mathematical subjects in the later portions. Part One and the beginning of Part Two delve into psychology. Taleb addresses science and business in the latter half of Part Two and Part Three. Part Four contains advice on how to approach the world in the face of uncertainty and still enjoy life.


text: Taleb acknowledges a contradiction in the book. He uses an exact metaphor, the Black Swan idea to argue against the "unknown, the abstract, and imprecise uncertain—white ravens, pink elephants, or evaporating denizens of a remote planet orbiting Tau Ceti."


text: In the first chapter, the Black Swan theory is first discussed in relation to Taleb's coming of age in the Levant. The author then elucidates his approach to historical analysis. He describes history as opaque, essentially a black box of cause and effect. One sees events go in and events go out, but one has no way of determining which produced what effect. Taleb argues this is due to "The Triplet of Opacity" (an illusion of understanding in which we think we understand a complicated world).


text: The second chapter discusses a neuroscientist named Yevgenia Nikolayevna Krasnova, who rejects the distinction between fiction and nonfiction, and her book "A Story of Recursion". She published her book on the web and was discovered by a small publishing company; they published her unedited work and the book became an international bestseller. The small publishing firm became a big corporation, and Krasnova became famous. But her next book fails. So, she experienced two black swans. The book goes on to reveal that the so-called author is a work of fiction, based in part on Taleb.


text: The third chapter introduces the concepts of "Extremistan" and "Mediocristan". He uses them as guides to define the predictability of the environment one is studying. "Mediocristan" environments can safely use Gaussian distribution. In "Extremistan" environments, a Gaussian distribution should be used at one's own peril. In this part he quotes Benoit Mandelbrot and his critique of the Gaussian distribution.


text: Chapter four brings together the topics discussed earlier into a narrative about a turkey before Thanksgiving who is fed and treated well for many consecutive days, only to be slaughtered and served as a meal. Taleb uses it to illustrate the philosophical problem of induction and how past performance is no indicator of future performance. He then takes the reader into the history of skepticism.


text: In chapter nine, Taleb outlines the multiple topics he previously has described and connects them as a single basic idea. In chapter thirteen, the book discusses what can be done regarding “epistemic arrogance”, which occurs whenever people begin to think they know more than they actually do. He recommends avoiding unnecessary dependence on large-scale harmful predictions, while being less cautious with smaller matters, such as going to a picnic. He makes a distinction between the American cultural perception of failure versus European and Asian stigma and embarrassment regarding failure: the latter is more tolerable for people taking small risks. He also describes the "barbell strategy" for investment that he used as a trader, which consists in avoiding medium risk investments and putting 85–90% of money in the safest instruments available and the remaining 10–15% on extremely speculative bets.


text: The term "black swan" was a Latin expression: its oldest reference is in the poet Juvenal's expression that "a good person is as rare as a black swan" ("""", 6.165). It was a common expression in 16th century London, as a statement that describes impossibility, deriving from the old world presumption that 'all swans must be white', because all historical records of swans reported that they had white feathers. Thus, the black swan is an oft cited reference in philosophical discussions of the improbable. Aristotle's "Prior Analytics" is the most likely original reference that makes use of example syllogisms involving the predicates "white", "black", and "swan." More specifically, Aristotle uses the white swan as an example of necessary relations and the black swan as improbable. This example may be used to demonstrate either deductive or inductive reasoning; however, neither form of reasoning is infallible, since in inductive reasoning, the premises of an argument may support a conclusion, but do not ensure it, and similarly, in deductive reasoning, an argument is dependent on the truth of its premises. That is, a false premise may lead to a false result and inconclusive premises also will yield an inconclusive conclusion. The limits of the argument behind "all swans are white" is exposed—it merely is based on the limits of experience (e.g., that every swan one has seen, heard, or read about is white). The point of this metaphor is that all known swans were white until the discovery of black swans in Australia. Hume's attack against induction and causation is based primarily on the limits of everyday experience and so too, the limitations of scientific knowledge.


text: The book has been described by "The Sunday Times" as one of the twelve most influential books since World War II. As of December 2020, it has been cited approximately 10,633 times, 9,000 of which are for the English-language edition. The book spent 36 weeks on the "New York Times" Best Seller List; 17 as hardcover and 19 weeks as paperback. It was published in 32 languages.


text: Mathematics professor David Aldous argued that "Taleb is sensible (going on prescient) in his discussion of financial markets and in some of his general philosophical thought, but tends toward irrelevance or ridiculous exaggeration otherwise." Gregg Easterbrook wrote a critical review of "The Black Swan" in the "New York Times" to which Taleb replied with a list of logical errors, blaming Easterbrook for not having read the book. Giles Foden, writing for "The Guardian" in 2007, described the book as insightful, but facetiously written, saying that Taleb's "dumbed-down" style was a central problem, especially in comparison to his earlier book, "Fooled by Randomness". The Nobel Prize–winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman wrote ""The Black Swan" changed my view of how the world works" and explains the influence in his own 2011 book "Thinking, Fast and Slow".


title: Konkan

text: The Konkan () or Kokan () is a stretch of land by the western coast of India, running from Damaon in the north to Karwar in the south; with the Arabian Sea to the west and the Deccan plateau in the east. The hinterland east of the coast has numerous river valleys and riverine islands among the hilly slopes leading up into the tablelands of the Deccan. The region has been recognised by name, since at least the time of Strabo in the third century C.E., and was a thriving mercantile port with Arab tradesmen from the 10th century. The best-known islands of Konkan are Ilhas de Goa, the site of the Goa state's capital at Panjim, and the seven islands of Bombay, on which lies the capital of the State of Maharashtra.


title: Konkan

text: Historically, the limits of Konkan have been flexible, and it has been known by additional names like "Aparanta" and "Gomanchal", the latter being defined as the coastal area between the Daman Ganga River in the north and the Gangavalli River in the south.


title: Konkan

text: The ancient "Sapta Konkan" was a larger geographical area that extended from Gujarat to Kerala and included the whole region of coastal Maharashtra and coastal Karnataka. However, this segment overlaps the Konkan and Malabar coast continuum; and usually corresponds to the southernmost and northernmost stretches of these locales respectively.


title: Konkan

text: According to the "Sahyadrikhanda" of the "Skanda Purana", Parashurama threw his axe into the sea and commanded the Sea God to recede up to the point where his axe landed. The new piece of land thus recovered came to be known as "Saptah-Konkana", meaning "piece of earth", "corner of earth", or "piece of corner", derived from Sanskrit words: "koṇa" (कोण, corner) + "kaṇa" (कण, piece). Xuanzang, the noted Chinese Buddhist monk, mentioned this region in his book as "Konkana Desha"; Varahamihira's Brihat-Samhita described Konkan as a region of India; and 15th century author Ratnakosh mentioned the word Konkandesha.


title: Konkan

text: Konkan extends throughout the western coasts of Maharashtra, Goa and Karnataka. It is bounded by the Western Ghats mountain range (also known as Sahyadri) in the east, the Arabian Sea in the west, the Daman Ganga River in the north and the River Aghanashini in the south.


title: Konkan

text: The Gangavalli flows in the district of Uttara Kannada in present-day Karnataka. Its northern bank constitutes the southernmost portion of Konkan. The towns of Karwar, Ankola, Kumta, Honavar and Bhatkal fall within the Konkan coast.


title: Konkan

text: The largest city on the Konkan coast is Mumbai, the state capital of Maharashtra. The others are, from north to south:


title: Konkan

text: The main ethnolinguistic group of the Konkan region is the Konkani people. Specific caste and communities found in the region are the Aagri, Koli, Bhandari, Kunbi, Maratha, Gabit, Mangela, Karadi, Phudagi, Vaiti, Kharvi, Teli, Kumbhar, Nhavi, Dhobi, Kasar, Sutar, Lohar, Chambhar, Mahar, Dhangar, Gaud Saraswat Brahmin (also includes Rajapur Saraswats and Chitrapur Saraswats), Daivajna Brahmin, Kudaldeshkar, Pathare Prabhu, Gomantak Maratha, Chitpawan, Karhade, Kayastha Prabhu, Panchkalshi, Vani, Komarpant, Vadval, Gavli, Ghorpi, Nath Jogi, Gurav, Pagi, Kalan, Ghadi, Padti, Vanjari, Namdev Shimpi and others. Billava, Bunt, Mogaveera and Linghayat communities found in the parts of Karnataka which are near to Konkan.


title: Konkan

text: Tribal communities include the Katkari, Thakar, Konkana, Warli and Mahadev Koli, mainly found in the northern and central parts of Konkan. The Dubla and Dhodia tribes in southern Gujarat, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, and Palghar district of Maharashtra are also part if Konkan. Palghar district has the largest percentage of tribal population in Konkan. A small nomadic tribe called the Vanarmare is found in southern parts of Konkan, which was originally associated with the hunting of monkeys. The Gauda and Velip tribes are found in Goa.


title: Konkan

text: The Jewish community called Bene Israel is mainly found in Raigad district. The Christians included East Indians in North Konkan and Mumbai, Goan Catholics in Goa, Karwari Catholics in Uttara Kannada as well as Mangalorean Catholics in Udupi and Dakshina Kannada.


title: Konkan

text: Major Muslim communities like Konkani Muslims and Nawayaths are scattered throughout the whole region. They are reportedly descendants of people who came from Hadhramaut (in Yemen or South Arabia), and other parts of Arabia and the Middle East. The Siddis have their roots in Africa.


title: Depressant

text: A depressant, or central depressant, is a drug that lowers neurotransmission levels, which is to depress or reduce arousal or stimulation, in various areas of the brain. Depressants are also colloquially referred to as downers as they lower the level of arousal when taken. Stimulants or "uppers" increase mental or physical function, hence the opposite drug class of depressants is stimulants, not antidepressants.


title: Depressant

text: Depressants are widely used throughout the world as prescription medicines and as illicit substances. Alcohol is a very prominent depressant. Alcohol can be and is more likely to be a large problem among teenagers and young adults. When depressants are used, effects often include ataxia, anxiolysis, pain relief, sedation or somnolence, and cognitive or memory impairment, as well as in some instances, euphoria, dissociation, muscle relaxation, lowered blood pressure or heart rate, respiratory depression, and anticonvulsant effects. Depressants also act to produce anesthesia. Cannabis may sometimes be considered a depressant due to one of its components, cannabidiol. The latter is known to treat insomnia, anxiety and muscle spasms similar to other depressive drugs. However, tetrahydrocannabinol, another component, may slow brain function to a small degree while reducing reaction to stimuli, it is generally considered to be a stimulant and main psychoactive agent to sometimes cause anxiety, panic and psychosis instead. Other depressants can include drugs like Xanax (a benzodiazepine) and a number of opioids. Gabapentinoids like gabapentin and baclofen are depressants and have anticonvulsant and anxiolytic effects. Most anticonvulsants like Lamotrigine and Phenytoin are depressants. Carbamates (Felbamate Carisoprodol) are depressants that are similar to barbiturates.


title: Depressant

text: Depressants exert their effects through a number of different pharmacological mechanisms, the most prominent of which include facilitation of GABA, and inhibition of glutamatergic or monoaminergic activity. Other examples are chemicals that modify the electrical signaling inside the body, the most prominent of these being bromides and channel blockers.


title: Depressant

text: An alcoholic beverage is a drink that contains alcohol (also known formally as ethanol), an anesthetic that has been used as a psychoactive drug for several millennia. Ethanol is the oldest recreational drug still used by humans. Ethanol can cause alcohol intoxication when consumed. Alcoholic beverages are divided into three general classes for taxation and regulation of production: beers, wines, and spirits (distilled beverages). They are legally consumed in most countries around the world. More than 100 countries have laws regulating their production, sale, and consumption.


title: Depressant

text: The most common way to measure intoxication for legal or medical purposes is through blood alcohol content (also called blood alcohol concentration or blood alcohol level). It is usually expressed as a percentage of alcohol in the blood in units of mass of alcohol per volume of blood, or mass of alcohol per mass of blood, depending on the country. For instance, in North America a blood alcohol content of "0.10" or more correctly 0.10 g/dL means that there are 0.10 g of alcohol for every dL of blood (i.e., mass per volume is used there).


title: Depressant

text: Barbiturates are effective in relieving the conditions that they are designed to address (insomnia, seizures). They are also commonly used for unapproved purposes, are physically addictive, and have serious potential for overdose. In the late 1950s, when many thought that the social cost of barbiturates was beginning to outweigh the medical benefits, a serious search began for a replacement drug. Most people still using barbiturates today do so in the prevention of seizures or in mild form for relief from the symptoms of migraines.


title: Depressant

text: A benzodiazepine (sometimes colloquially "benzo"; often abbreviated "BZD") is a drug whose core chemical structure is the fusion of a benzene ring and a diazepine ring. The first such drug, chlordiazepoxide (Librium), was discovered accidentally by Leo Sternbach in 1955, and made available in 1960 by Hoffmann–La Roche, which has also marketed the benzodiazepine diazepam (Valium) since 1963.


title: Depressant

text: Benzodiazepines enhance the effect of the neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) at the GABA receptor, resulting in sedative, hypnotic (sleep-inducing), anxiolytic (anti-anxiety), anticonvulsant, and muscle relaxant properties; also seen in the applied pharmacology of high doses of many shorter-acting benzodiazepines are amnesic-dissociative actions. These properties make benzodiazepines useful in treating anxiety, insomnia, agitation, seizures, muscle spasms, alcohol withdrawal and as a premedication for medical or dental procedures. Benzodiazepines are categorized as either short-, intermediate-, or long-acting. Short- and intermediate-acting benzodiazepines are preferred for the treatment of insomnia; longer-acting benzodiazepines are recommended for the treatment of anxiety.


title: Depressant

text: In general, benzodiazepines are safe and effective in the short term, although cognitive impairments and paradoxical effects such as aggression or behavioral disinhibition occasionally occur. A minority react reverse and contrary to what would normally be expected. For example, a state of panic may worsen considerably following intake of a benzodiazepine. Long-term use is controversial due to concerns about adverse psychological and physical effects, increased questioning of effectiveness, and, because benzodiazepines are prone to cause tolerance, physical dependence, and, upon cessation of use after long-term use, benzodiazepine withdrawal syndrome. Due to adverse effects associated with the long-term use of benzodiazepines, withdrawal from benzodiazepines, in general, leads to improved physical and mental health. The elderly are at an increased risk of experiencing both short- and long-term adverse effects.


title: Depressant

text: There is controversy concerning the safety of benzodiazepines in pregnancy. While they are not major teratogens, uncertainty remains as to whether they cause cleft palate in a small number of babies and whether neurobehavioural effects occur as a result of prenatal exposure; they are known to cause withdrawal symptoms in the newborn. Benzodiazepines can be taken in overdoses and can cause dangerous deep unconsciousness. However, they are much less toxic than their predecessors, the barbiturates, and death rarely results when a benzodiazepine is the only drug taken; however, when combined with other central nervous system depressants such as alcohol and opiates, the potential for toxicity and fatal overdose increases. Benzodiazepines are commonly misused and taken in combination with other addictive drugs. In addition, all benzodiazepines are listed in Beers List, which is significant in clinical practice.


title: Depressant

text: Cannabis is often considered either in its own unique category or as a mild psychedelic. The chemical compound tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which is found in cannabis, has many depressant effects such as muscle relaxation, sedation, decreased alertness, and less tiredness. Contrary to the previous statement, activation of the CB1 receptor by cannabinoids causes an inhibition of GABA, the exact opposite of what central nervous system depressants do.


title: Depressant

text: Carbamates are a class of depressants or "tranquilizers" that are synthesized from urea. Carbamates have anxiolytic, muscle relaxant, anticonvulsant, hypnotic, antihypertensive, and analgesic effects. It has other uses like muscle tremors, agitation, and alcohol withdrawal. It's muscle relaxant effects are useful for strains, sprains, and muscle injuries together with rest, physical therapy, and other measures. The effects, synthesis and mechanism of action of Carbamates are very similar to barbiturates. There are many different types of Carbamates, some only produce anxiolytic effects and hypnotic effects while some only have anticonvulsant effects.


title: Depressant

text: Side effects of Carbamates include drowsiness, dizziness, headache, diarreha, nausea, flatulence, liver failure, poor coordination, nystagmus, abuse, dizziness, weakness, nervousness, euphoria, overstimulation and dependence. Uncommon but potentially severe adverse reactions include hyper sensivity reactions including Stevens Johnson syndrome, embryo-fetal toxicity, stupor, and coma. Carbamates are fatal in overdose, which is why a lot of them have been replaced with benzodiazepines. It is not recommended to use most Carbamates like Carisoprodol for a long time as physical and psychological dependence does occur.


title: Depressant

text: Meprobamate which metabolizes to "Carisoprodol" was launched in 1955. It quickly become the first blockbuster psychotropic drug in America becoming popular in Hollywood and gaining fame for its seemingly miraculous effects. It has since been marketed under more than 100 trade names, from Amepromat through Quivet to Zirpon. Carisoprodol, which is still used today mainly for it's muscle relaxant effects has high abuse potential. It's mechanism of action is very similar to barbiturates, alcohol, methaqualone and benzodiazepines. Carsidoprodol allosterically modulates and directly activates the human α1β2γ2 GABAAR (GABA) in the central nervous system in a barbiturate-like manner. This causes chloride channels to open, allowing chloride to flood into the neuron, slowing down communication betwen neurons; thus slowing down the nervous system. Unlike benzodiazpines which increase the frequency of the chloride channel opening, Carisoprodol increase the duration of channel opening when GABA is bound. GABA is the main inhibitory neurotransmitter in the nervous system, which causes its depressant effects.


title: Depressant

text: Carbamates are fatal in overdose. Symptoms are similar to a barbiturate overdose. Symptoms typically include difficulty thinking, poor coordination, decreased level of consciousness, and a decreased effort to breathe (respiratory depression). An overdose is more likely to be fatal when it is mixed with another depressant that suppresses breathing. Death occurs this is typically due to a lack of breathing.


title: Depressant

text: Physical and psychological dependence does happen with long term use of Carbamates; particularly Carisoprodol. Today Carisoprodol is only used short term for muscle pain, particularly back pain. Discontuation after long term use could be very intense and even possibly fatal. Withdrawal can resemble barbiturate, alcohol, or benzodiazepine withdrawal, as they all have a similar mechanism of action. Discontinuation symptoms include, confusion, disorientation, delirium, hallucinations (auditory & visual), insomnia, decreased appetite, anxiety, psychomotor agitation, pressured speech, tremor, tachycardia, seizures which could be fatal.


title: Depressant

text: Carbamates we're popular in the 1950's along with barbiturates. Although they have been slowly phased out; mainly due to the overdose and dependence risks, new derivates still exist. Felbamate is an anticonvulsant that was approved in 1993 that is commonly used today. It is a GABA positive allosteric modulator and blocks the NR2B subunit of the NMDA receptor. Some carbamates block sodium channels. Phenprobamate was used as an anxiolytic and is still sometimes used in Europe for general anesthesia and for treating muscle cramps and spasticity. Methocarbamol is a popular drug that is commonly known as Robaxin, that is over the counter in some countries.. It is a carbamate with muscle relaxant effects. Tetrabamate; a is a controversial drug which is a combination of febarbamate, difebarbamate, and phenobarbital which is marketed in Europe was largely but not completely discontinued. April 4, 1997 after over 30 years of use due to reports of hepatitis and acute liver failure. The decision to restrict the use of the drug had been long-awaited. Carisoprodol; known as, "Soma" is still commonly used today for it's muscle relaxant effects. It is also very commonly abused around the world. It is a Schedule IV substance in the United States. Famous martial artist and actor Bruce Lee died due to an allergic reaction to meprobamate.


title: Depressant

text: Gabapentinoids are a unique and relatively novel class of depressants that selectively bind to the auxiliary αδ subunit (CACNA2D1) and (CACNA2D2), site of certain VDCCs, and thereby act as inhibitors of αδ subunit-containing Voltage-gated calcium channels. αδ is nicknamed the "Gabapentin receptor". At physiologic or resting membrane potential, VDCCs are normally closed. They are activated (opened) at depolarized membrane potentials and this is the source of the "voltage-gated" epithet. Gabapentinoids bind to the α1 and α2 sites of the αδ subunit family. Gabapentin is the prototypical gabapentinoid. The αδ is found on L-type calcium channels, N-type calcium channels, P/Q-type calcium channels, and R-type calcium channels throughout the central and peripheral nervous systems. αδ is located on presynaptic neurons and affects calcium channel trafficking and kinetics, initiates extracellular signaling cascades, gene expression and promotes excitatory synaptogenesis through thrombospondin 1 . Gabapentinoids are not direct channel blockers, instead they disrupt the regulatory function of αδ and its interactions with other proteins. Most of the effects of gabapentinoids are mediated by the high voltage activated N and P/Q-type calcium channels. P/Q-type calcium channels are mainly found in the cerebellum (Purkinje neurons) which made be responsible for the ataxic adverse effect of gabapentinoids, while N-type calcium channels are located throughout the central and peripheral nervous systems. N-type calcium channels are mainly responsible for the analgesic effects of gabapentinoids. Ziconotide, a non-gabapentinoid ω-conotoxin peptide binds to the N-type calcium channels and has analgesic effects 1000 times stronger than morphine. Gabapentinoids are selective for the αδ site, but non-selective when they bind to the calcium channels complex. They act on the αδ site to lower the release of many excitatory and pro-nociceptive neurochemicals including glutamate, substance P, calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) and more.


title: Depressant

text: Gabapentinoids are absorbed from the intestines mainly by the Large neutral amino acid transporter 1 (LAT1, SLC7A5) and the Excitatory amino acid transporter 3 (EAAT3). They are one of the few drugs that use these amino acid transporters. Gabapentinoids are structurally similar to the Branched-chained amino acids L-leucine, and L-isoleucine, both of which also bind to the αδ site. Branched-chained amino acids like l-leucine, l-isoleucine, and l-valine have many functions in the central nervous system. They modify large neutral amino acid (LNAA) transport at the blood–brain barrier, and reduce the synthesis neurotransmitter of neurotransmitters derived from aromatic-amino acids notably serotonin from tryptophan, and catecholamines from tyrosine and phenylalanine. This may be relevant to the pharmacology of gabapentinoids.


title: Depressant

text: Gabapentin was designed by researchers at Parke-Davis to be an analogue of the neurotransmitter GABA that could more easily cross the blood–brain barrier and was first described in 1975 by Satzinger and Hartenstein. Gabapentin was first approved for epilepsy, mainly as an add-on treatment to partial seizures. Gabapentinoids are GABA analogues, but they do not bind to the GABA receptors, do not convert into or another GABA receptor agonist "in vivo", and do not directly modulate GABA transport or metabolism. Phenibut and baclofen, two structurally related compounds are exceptions as they mainly act on the GABA B receptor. Also, gabapentin, but not pregabalin, has been found to activate Kvoltage-gated potassium channels (KCNQ). Despite this, gabapentinoids mimic GABA activity by inhibiting neurotransmission. Gabapentinoids prevent delivery of the calcium channels to the cell membrane, and disrupt interactions of αδ with NMDA receptors, AMPA receptors, neurexins, and thrombospondins. Some calcium channel blockers of the dihydropyridine class used for hypertension weakly block αδ.


title: Depressant

text: Gabapentinoids have anxiolytic, anticonvulsant, antiallodynic, and antinociceptive properties. Pregabalin and gabapentin are used in epilepsy, mainly partial seizures (focal). Gabapentinoids are not effective for generalized seizures. They are also used for postherpetic neuralgia, neuropathic pain associated with diabetic neuropathy, fibromyalgia, generalized anxiety disorder, and restless legs syndrome. Pregabalin and gabapentin have many off-label uses including insomnia, Alcohol and opioid withdrawal, smoking cessation, social anxiety disorder, bipolar disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, chronic pain, hot flashes, migraines and more. Baclofen is primarily used for the treatment of spastic movement disorders, especially in instances of spinal cord injury, cerebral palsy, and multiple sclerosis. Phenibut is used in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Latvia to treat anxiety and to improve sleep, as in the treatment of insomnia. It is also used for various other indications, including the treatment of asthenia, depression, alcoholism, alcohol withdrawal syndrome, post-traumatic stress disorder, stuttering, tics, vestibular disorders, Ménière's disease, dizziness, for the prevention of motion sickness, and for the prevention of anxiety before or after surgical procedures or painful diagnostic tests. Phenibut, like other GABA B agonists, is also sometimes used by body builders to increase human growth hormone.


title: Depressant

text: Reuters reported on 25 March 2010, that "Pfizer Inc violated a United States racketeering law by improperly promoting the epilepsy drug Neurontin (gabapentin). Under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act the penalty is automatically tripled, so the finding will cost Pfizer $141 million." The case stems from a claim from Kaiser Foundation Health Plan Inc. that "it was misled into believing Neurontin was effective for off-label treatment of migraines, bipolar disorder and other conditions. Pfizer argued that Kaiser physicians still recommend the drug for those uses", and that "the insurer's website also still lists Neurontin as a drug for neuropathic pain."


title: Depressant

text: In some cases, gabapentinoids are abused and provide similar effects to alcohol, benzodiazepines and gamma-hydroxybutyric acid (GHB). The FDA placed a black box warning on Neurontin (gabapentin), and Lyrica (pregabalin), for serious breathing problems. Mixing gabapentinoids with opioids, benzodiazepines, barbiturates, GHB, alcohol, or any other depressant is potentially deadly.


title: Depressant

text: Common side effects of gabapentinoids include drowsiness, dizziness, weakness, increased appetite, urinary retention, shortness of breath, involuntary eye movements (nystagmus), uncontrollable jerking motions, auditory hallucinations, erectile dysfunction, and myoclonic seizures.


title: Depressant

text: An overdose of gabapentinoids usually consists of severe drowsiness, severe ataxia, blurred vision, slurred speech, severe uncontrollable jerking motions, and anxiety. Like most anticonvulsants, pregabalin and gabapentin have an increased risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Gabapentinoids, like all calcium channel blockers are known to cause angioedema. Taking them with an ACE inhibitor can increase the toxic effects of Gabapentinoids. They may also enhance the fluid-retaining effect of certain anti-diabetic agents (thiazolidinediones). It is not known if they cause gingival enlargement like other calcium channel blockers. It is unclear if it is safe to use Gabapentinoids during pregnancy with some studies showing potential harm.


title: Depressant

text: Physical or physiological dependence does occur during long-term use of gabapentinoids. Following abrupt or rapid discontinuation of pregabalin and gabapentin people report withdrawal symptoms like insomnia, headache, nausea, diarrhea, flu-like symptoms, anxiety, depression, pain, hyperhidrosis, seizures, psychomotor agitation, confusion, disorientation, and gastrointestinal complaints. Acute withdrawal from baclofen and phenibut may also cause auditory and visual hallucinations, and acute psychosis. Baclofen withdrawal can be more intense if it is administered intrathecally or for long periods of time. If Baclofen or Phenibut is used for long periods of time it can resemble intense benzodiazepine, GHB or alcohol withdrawal. To minimize withdrawal symptoms Baclofen or Phenibut should be tapered down slowly. Abrupt withdrawal from Phenibut or Baclofen could be possibly be life-threatening, because of it’s mechanism of action. Abrupt withdrawal can cause rebound seizures and severe agitation.


title: Depressant

text: Contrary to popular misconception, opioids are not depressants in the classical sense. They do produce central nervous system depression, however, they also excite certain areas of the central nervous system. To remain true to the term 'depressant' – opioids cannot be classified as such. For opioid agonists and opium derivatives, these are classified differently. Analgesic or narcotic correctly identifies these drugs. However, they do have depressant actions nonetheless.


title: Depressant

text: Piperidinediones are a class of depressants that are not used anymore. There are Piperidinediones that are used for other purposes like breast cancer. . The Piperidinedione class is very structurally similar to barbiturates. Piperidinediones inclide Glutethimide, Methyprylon, Pyrithyldione, Glutarimide, and Aminoglutethimide. The first 3, (Glutethimide, Methyprylon, Pyrithyldione) are central nervous depressants. The Piperidinedione depressants, specifcally Glutethimide is a positive modulator of the GABA anion channel. The drug increases inhibitory GABAergic tone and causes neuro-inhibition of the cortical and limbic systems, observed clinically as a sedative-hypnotic effect. Glutethimide is also a potent inhibitor of the CYP 2D6 enzyme in the liver. This enzyme is responsible for converting many drugs from beta blockers to antidepressants to opioids and opiates. Due to its effects on the conversion of opioids, it was highly abused and mixed with opioids like codeine. Codeine needs to get metabolized to morphine in the liver to have its psychoactive and analgesic effects. Mixing codeine with the Piperidinedione Glutethimide allowed more codeine to be converted into morphine in the body; this increasing its effect. This was known as "hits", "cibas and codeine", "Dors and 4s". Glutethimide was believed to be safer than barbiturates, but many people died from the drug. Demand was high in the United States at one point. Production of glutethimide was discontinued in the US in 1993 and in several eastern European countries, most notably Hungary, in 2006.


title: Depressant

text: Glutethimide withdrawal is intense and resembles barbiturate withdrawal. It features hallucinations and delirium; typical of a depressant withdrawal. In the 1970s, there were reports of neonatal withdrawal from glutethimide. Infants born to mothers addicted to glutethimide responded well initially, then had recurrence of symptoms about 5 days later, including overactivity, restlessness, tremors, hyperreflexia, hypotonus, vasomotor instability, incessant crying, and general irritability.


title: Depressant

text: Quinazolinones are a class of depressants that are rarely used anymore. Quinazolinone have powerful sedative, hypnotic, and anxiolytic effects. Quinazolinones structures are very similar to some antibiotics. Quinazolines main mechanism of action is binding to the GABA receptor. It does not bind to the ethanol, barbiturate, neurosteroid, or benzodiazepine site. Instead it binds on a site right betwen the GABRB2 (β2) and (α1) GABRA1 proteins on the GABA receptor. The anesthetic etomidate and Anticonvulsant loreclezole may also bind to this site.


title: Depressant

text: Overdose on Quinazolinone sometimes causes effects that are the opposite of Quinazolinone like sedation. Overdose consists of hyperreflexia, vomiting, kidney failure, delirium, hypertonia, coma, myoclonic twitches, somnolence, euphoria, muscular hyperactivity, agitated delirium, tachycardia, and tonic-clonic seizures. In 1982 2,764 people visited US emergency rooms from overdosing on Quinazolinones, specifically Methaqualone. Mixing Quinazolines with another depressant is possibly fatal. Death from a Quinazolinone overdose is usually caused by death through cardiac or respiratory arrest. Overdose resembles barbiturate/carbamate overdose.


title: Depressant

text: Quinazolinones withdrawal occurs when someone has become dependent on a quinazolinone substance and stops using them. Quinazolinone withdrawal resembles ethanol, barbiturate, benzodiazepine and carbamate withdrawal. It usually consists of restlessness, nausea and vomiting, decreased appetite, tachycardia, insomnia, tremor, hallucinations, delirium, confusion, seizures; which could cause death, EEG photoparoxysmal response, myoclonic twitches, fever, muscle spasms, and irritability.


title: Depressant

text: Methaqualone hydrochloride, a Quinazolinone anxiolytic and hypnotic is referred to as "quaaludes" "ludes" and "disco biscuits". Methaqualone was very commonly abused in the western world during the 1960s and 1970s. Methaqualone was mainly prescribed for insomnia as it was thought to be safer than barbiturates and carbamates. Methaqualone became highly abused by people and celebrities after it's introduction in 1965. Methaqualone was first synthesized in India in 1951 by Indra Kishore Kacker and Syed Husain Zaheer, who were conducting research on finding new antimalarial medications. The drug name "Quaalude" (Methaqualone) is a portmanteau, combining the words "quiet interlude". Methaqualone was discontinued in the United States in 1985, mainly due to its psychological addictiveness, widespread abuse, and illegal recreational use. Non-benzodiazepines, and benzodiazepines are now uses to treat insomnia instead. Methaqualone is now a schedule I substance. Some quinazolinone analogues are still sold online. They come with risks of seizures.


title: Depressant

text: Large doses of Methaqualone cause euphoria, disinhibition, increased sexuality, sociability, muscle relaxation, anxiolysis, and sedation. Today Methaqualone is widely abused in South Africa. Many celebrities have used Quinazolinone; specifically Methaqualone. Bill Cosby admitted to casual sex involving recreational use of Methaqualone (Quaaludes). 18 year old actor Anissa Jones died at 18 from an overdose of cocaine, PCP, Methaqualone, and the barbiturate Seconal. Billy Murcia a drummer for the rock band New York Dolls died at 21 when he drowned in a bathtub while overdosing on heroin and Methaqualone.


title: Depressant

text: Cloroqualone was a Quinazolinone that binded to the GABA and sigma-1 receptor. It had useful cough suppressant effects and weaker sedative effects than Methaqualone. But it was withdrawan due to its potential for abuse and overdose.


title: Depressant

text: Diproqualone is a Quinazolinone that is still used today. Diproqualone has sedative, anxiolytic, antihistamine and analgesic properties, resulting from its agonist activity at the β subtype of the GABA receptor, antagonist activity at all histamine receptors, inhibition of the cyclooxygenase-1 enzyme, and possibly its agonist activity at both the sigma-1 receptor and sigma-2 receptor. Diproqualone is used primarily for the treatment of inflammatory pain associated with osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis, and more rarely for treating insomnia, anxiety and neuralgia. Diproqualone is the only analogue of methaqualone that is still in widespread clinical use, due to its useful anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects in addition to the sedative and anxiolytic actions common to other drugs of this class. There are still some concerns about the potential of diproqualone for abuse and overdose, and so it is not sold as a pure drug but only as the camphosulfonate salt in combination mixtures with other medicines such as ethenzamide.


title: Depressant

text: Etaqualone is a quinazolinone-class depressant. It has sedative, hypnotic, muscle relaxant and central nervous system depressant properties. It was highly abused, and had high risk for overdose. Users would snort or smoke the free base Etaqualone hydrochloride salt.


title: Depressant

text: Methylmethaqualone is an analogue of Methaqualone with similar hypnotic and sedative effects. Methylmethaqualone differs from methaqualone by 4-methylation on the phenyl ring. It produces convulsions at only slightly above the effective sedative dose. It would appear that this compound was sold on the black market in Germany as a designer drug analogue of methaqualone.


title: Depressant

text: Nitromethaqualone is a quinazolinone depressant with 10x more powerful hypnotic and sedative effects than Methaqualone.


title: Depressant

text: Combining multiple depressants can be very dangerous because the central nervous system's depressive properties have been proposed to increase exponentially instead of linearly. This characteristic makes depressants a common choice for deliberate overdoses in the case of suicide. The use of alcohol or benzodiazepines along with the usual dose of heroin is often the cause of overdose deaths in opiate addicts.


title: Dean Devlin

text: Dean Devlin (born August 27, 1962) is an American screenwriter, producer, director, and actor of film and television. He is best known for his collaborations with director Roland Emmerich, and for his work on the "Librarian" and "Leverage" television franchises. He is a co-founder of the production companies Centropolis Entertainment and Electric Entertainment.


title: Dean Devlin

text: Devlin was born in New York City, the son of actress Pilar Seurat and Don Devlin, a writer, actor, and producer. His father was Jewish and his mother was Filipino. He attended the University of Southern California.


title: Dean Devlin

text: Devlin appeared as an actor on numerous television shows throughout the 1980s. He also appeared in films including "My Bodyguard", "The Wild Life", "Real Genius" and "Martians Go Home". Due to his youthful appearance, Devlin often played teenage characters despite being in his 20s.


title: Dean Devlin

text: Devlin gradually began writing scripts. His first produced screenplay was for "Universal Soldier". He reached prominence as a writer/producer working alongside director Roland Emmerich, with whom he teamed after appearing in Emmerich's film "Moon 44". Together they cowrote and produced "Stargate," the first movie to have a web site. The team then produced "Independence Day" and "Godzilla". They split following the 2000 Mel Gibson film "The Patriot", but re-teamed to film "" in 2016. Devlin has also produced "Cellular", "Who Killed the Electric Car?", and "Flyboys".


title: Dean Devlin

text: Devlin's directorial debut was the action sci-fi film "Geostorm" for Warner Bros. The film was set for a March 2016 release, later rescheduled for October 2017. It starred Gerard Butler as the lead with Jim Sturgess, Abbie Cornish, Ed Harris and Andy García. The film made $221 million on a $120 million budget.


title: Dean Devlin

text: Devlin's second film as director was the 2018 thriller "Bad Samaritan", starring Robert Sheehan and David Tennant.


title: Dean Devlin

text: Devlin produced: "The Triangle" miniseries; "Leverage", of which he has directed twelve episodes; "The Librarian" franchise; and is currently producing "The Outpost". He also co-created "The Visitor" series.


title: Dean Devlin

text: In 2019 Devlin began working with the Philippine media conglomerate ABS-CBN to produce a new series called "Almost Paradise" (originally titled "Off Tropic.") The series premiered in the United States, on May 30, 2020, on WGN America, and will be premiered on Kapamilya Channel in 2021. It is filmed entirely in the Philippines and the majority of the cast members are Filipino, aside from the lead—played by Christian Kane whom Devlin also worked with on the television shows "Leverage" and "The Librarians".


title: Dean Devlin

text: Devlin was an advisor to the video game company ZeniMax Media from 1999 to 2004. Additionally Devlin was involved in video game projects The 10th Planet and Godzilla Online.


title: Snorlax

text: Snorlax (), known in Japan as , is a Pokémon species, a type of "Pocket Monster", in Nintendo and Game Freak's "Pokémon" franchise. Created by Ken Sugimori, Snorlax first appeared in the Game Boy video game "Pokémon Red" and "Blue", and subsequent sequels, later appearing in various merchandise, spin-off titles, and animated and printed adaptations of the franchise. Snorlax is a large, blueish creature with closed slit eyes and a closed mouth that features two upwardly protruding teeth.


title: Snorlax

text: Snorlax is voiced by Katsuyuki Konishi in the Japanese versions of the "Pokémon" anime and the "Super Smash Bros." series of video games, and by Hitoshi Takagi and Mitsuru Ogata in the animated shorts "Pikachu's Rescue Adventure" and "Pikachu & Pichu", respectively. In its English-language appearances, it was originally voiced by Michael Haigney, and later Eric Stuart.


title: Snorlax

text: Known as the "Sleeping Pokémon", Snorlax has been said to weigh over and, until "Pokémon Ruby" and "Sapphire", was considered the heaviest known Pokémon ever discovered. Since its debut, Snorlax has received a generally positive reception, and is one of the most popular Pokémon, especially in the Kanto region due to its cuteness.


title: Snorlax

text: Snorlax was one of several different designs conceived by Game Freak's character development team and finalized by Ken Sugimori for the first generation of "Pocket Monsters" games "Red" and "Green", which were localized outside Japan as "Pokémon Red" and "Blue" and "Yellow". Snorlax is #143 in the Pokédex. It weighs 1,014.1 lbs. (460 kg), and is 6'11" (2.1 m) tall.


title: Snorlax

text: In appearance and behavior, Snorlax is inspired by veteran Pokémon game designer Kōji Nishino. Snorlax's Japanese name of "Kabigon" is derived from Kōji Nishino's nickname of "Kirby" (Japanese: カービィ "Kābī"), which in turn is inspired by the video game character of the same name. According to Game Freak co-founder Junichi Masuda, Nishino was nicknamed "Kirby" because of his large appetite, which directly inspired Snorlax's habit of constantly eating and sleeping.


title: Snorlax

text: When translating the "Pokémon" games for western audiences, Nintendo decided to give the various Pokémon species "clever and descriptive names" related to their appearance or features as a means to make the characters more relatable to American children. Basing the name off its constant sleeping spells, the species was renamed Snorlax, a portmanteau of the words "snore" and "relax".


title: Snorlax

text: Snorlax is a noseless ursid-like Pokémon that has a cream-colored face, hands and feet, while the rest of its body is teal in color. Its head is also large, and it has two small canine teeth visibly protruding from its lower jaw. Its feet are large compared to most Pokémon, which assist its balance when it chooses to stand. Although Snorlax's arms are short in relation to its size, they are long enough to enable it to both grab food and eat. Snorlax has been said to weigh over 1,000 pounds, and for a time was considered the heaviest known Pokémon. Due to having an enormous appetite, Snorlax will devour almost anything, even moldy and rotten food. Thanks to its extremely strong digestive juices, Snorlax's stomach can dissolve any kind of poison. As a result, it can eat tainted food without worry.


title: Snorlax

text: Despite its size, Snorlax is such a docile Pokémon that children use its large belly as a place to play. Snorlax has hidden potential to unleash tremendous power when holding the Snorlium Z item, however, which gives access to its signature Z-Move Pulverizing Pancake. Snorlax has a pre-evolution, Munchlax, which is obtainable via breeding a Snorlax that is holding Full Incense. Munchlax also sports a voracious appetite, and evolves into a Snorlax when it has a sufficiently high level of friendship with its Trainer.


title: Snorlax

text: "Pokémon Sword" and "Shield" saw the introduction of Snorlax's Gigantamax form. When Gigantamaxed, various trees and plants will appear on its belly, having grown from seeds that fell from the plants it had eaten, and it can learn the G-Max Move G-Max Replenish.


title: Snorlax

text: Snorlax's most notable role in the "Pokémon" games has been that of an inadvertent roadblock. In "Pokémon Red", "Blue", their "upper version" and their remakes, the player must obtain the Poké Flute in order to wake up either of the two Snorlax that block Routes 12 and 16. Snorlax reprises this role in "Pokémon Gold", "Silver", their "upper version" and remakes. In these games, the player must restore power to Kanto radio tower and then play the radio's Poké Flute channel in front of Snorlax in order to awaken it. Although there is only one Snorlax available to catch, another is used by Red, the protagonist of "Red" and "Blue" who acts as these games' final boss.


title: Snorlax

text: In "", a pre-evolution of Snorlax named Munchlax was introduced; however, Munchlax remained unobtainable until the release of "Pokémon Diamond" and "Pearl". In "Pokémon X" and "Y", Snorlax is once again a roadblock, this time wandering to a bridge near Camphrier Town and sleeping there. One of Camphrier Town's locals mentions that it does this at least once a year. The Poké Flute must once again be obtained, but this time the player must give it to the owner of Shabboneau Castle so he can wake it up.


title: Snorlax

text: In "Pokémon Sun", "Moon" and their "upper versions", Snorlax is among the handful of Pokemon to possess a unique Z-Move. In Snorlax's case, it can use Pulverizing Pancake as long as it is holding Snorlium Z and knows Giga Impact. In "Pokémon Sword" and "Shield", Snorlax received a Gigantamax form with access to the unique G-Max move G-Max Replenish.


title: Snorlax

text: In "Pokémon Snap", when using the Poké Flute, Snorlax stands up and dances to the music, which is a very high-scoring picture. In "Pokémon Ranger", Snorlax is seen sleeping throughout the game, effectively cutting off certain areas until later on. It eventually remains in a cave until the player completes the Ranger Browser. Snorlax is an NPC in "" and its sequel, "". Snorlax appears from a Poké Ball in the "Super Smash Bros." series, one of the few Pokémon to appear in every installment of the series. Using Body Slam, it jumps up when it appears and slams into whomever it hits. In "Melee", Snorlax is seen as a Poké Float that allows players to fight upon on its head and belly. It also appeared in "Pokémon Go", "Pokémon UNITE" and "New Pokémon Snap".


title: Snorlax

text: In the "Pokémon" anime, a number of Snorlax play various supporting roles in certain episodes. The first appearance of a Snorlax was in Episode 41 — "Wake Up Snorlax!" — in which it becomes a roadblock to the next town Ash is traveling to. Ash Ketchum also captures one in "Snack Attack!" that was eating the grapefruits of the Grapefruit Islands. He uses it sporadically, mostly opting to use other Pokémon due to it constantly sleeping. Ash called upon it for the Sumo Conference in "Ring Masters", and later used it to defeat Clair's Kingdra in their rematch. He also used Snorlax during the Johto League competition, first against Gary Oak where it quickly defeated Gary's Nidoqueen and Arcanine, but lost to Scizor. Snorlax then fought during Ash's following match against Harrison, defeating his Steelix and Hypno, though in the end it was defeated by his Houndoom. Snorlax later meets and gets to be friends with May's younger Munchlax. Most recently, Snorlax helped Ash earn the Guts Symbol from Greta in "Wheel of Frontier" by defeating her Hariyama with an Ice Punch and flattening her Medicham with Body Slam. In the "Pokémon Adventures" manga, Red catches a Snorlax, which he nicknames "Lax". Red caught Lax because he was blocking the road during a bicycle race. He is very gluttonous and is driven into a frenzy by the smell of honey. Later, after extensive training, Lax becomes one of the most physically powerful members of Red's team.


title: Snorlax

text: Snorlax has received generally positive reception from the media. "IGN" editor "Pokémon of the Day Chick" called Snorlax the "single most popular non-evolver that isn't also a legendary out there". In 2015, "IGN" ranked Snorlax as the 28th best Pokémon, with editor Lucas calling it "one of the most recognizable Pokémon". "GamesRadar" called the character a fan favorite, further describing it as "perhaps the most American of ". Another "GamesRadar" editor also praised Snorlax, stating it "may be (and is) the greatest Pokemon of all time". Kevin Slackie of "Paste" listed Snorlax as 30th of the best Pokemon. Michael Derosa of "Screen Rant" listed Snorlax as one of Ash Ketchum's strongest companions. Andrew Webster of "The Verge" claimed Snorlax is a best Pokemon of all time. Steven Bogos of "The Escapist" listed Snorlax as 13th of their favorite Pokemon.


title: Snorlax

text: "Media and the Make-believe Worlds of Children" found that children could relate to Snorlax and interpret aspects of themselves in a positive light, describing it as an icon for a state of regression, but also symbolizing powerful characteristics for children. Snorlax was ranked 8th in "Complex"s "The 50 Best Pokemon Up to "Pokemon Crystal"", with Elijah Watson saying Snorlax is "lazy as hell but surprisingly awesome". "GameSpy" has described it as "downright silly". During the International Pokémon Tournament, Snorlax won by eating a ton to heal itself after being toxicated.


title: Snorlax

text: A variety of merchandise depicting Snorlax has been produced such as cushions, beds, bean bag chairs, toys, and lounge chairs.


title: Jalsa

text: Jalsa () is a 2008 Indian Telugu-language action comedy film written and directed by Trivikram Srinivas and produced by Allu Aravind, under the Geetha Arts banner starring Pawan Kalyan, Ileana, Parvati Melton, Kamalinee Mukerji, Mukesh Rishi and Prakash Raj. The soundtrack of the film composed by Devi Sri Prasad, was launched on 29 February 2008. The film was released on 2 April 2008.


title: Jalsa

text: Sanjay Sahu aka Sanju is a post-graduate and works as a aerobics instructor. He is in love with Indu, who wishes to marry him. She makes him meet her father, who is a police officer and also happens to be his old acquaintance. Her father declines to approve of their love, and she is forced to marry according to her father's choice. Meanwhile, Indu's sister Bhagyamathi aka Bhagi and her friend Jyothsna aka Jo are chased by hoodlums before being rescued by Sanju. Furthermore, Jo and Bhagi are ragged in the college before being again rescued by Sanju. Both begin to like Sanju and even decide to propose their love to him without their knowledge of the other. However, it is Jo who proposes first to Sanju, who rejects her. Careful after seeing her friend's love rejected, Bhagi, with the help of Sreenu, begins wooing Sanju.


title: Jalsa

text: Bhagi keeps wooing Sanju in different ways under Sreenu's supervision. Sreenu keeps advising Bhagi with new ideas, so that she impresses Sanju. With his idea, Bhagi vacates the previous tenants in Sanjus' house and gets into that house to woo Sanju. She keeps trying in many ways to impress him, which evokes comedy. Bhagi keeps meeting Sanju, tries to know more about him. After many comical situations coming their way, love blossoms between them, but unfortunately at a party where Jo is also one of the attendees, she spills all the beans about Bhagi and Sanju is infuriated and ends their relationship. But later that party night in conversation with Bhagi, drunken Sanju begins to showcase that he isn't a correct fit to her, yet the unending love of Bhagi towards Sanju, makes him fall for her and both again get into a relationship marking it with a kiss.


title: Jalsa

text: Meanwhile, Damodar Reddy, a powerful land grabber who takes care of all the settlements while still in jail, is out on parole. He is in search of Sanju for spoiling his land deals in the past and thrashing his son, who was one of the goons who chased Bhagi. He makes an attempt on Sanju's life but in vain. However, Sanju's friend Abhi is taken hostage during the attack. Sanju rescues Abhi but is enraged when his friends stop him from assaulting the kidnapper by questioning his authority to take the law into his hands and bringing them troubles. Sanju then reveals his flashback, in which he hailed from a poor rural family. His brother dies of heart disease as a child. His father Janardhan Sahu kills himself as crops fail, and his mother too passes away. While going to the burial ground, he repeatedly slips and swoons at a stone pillar. He plucks it out, which enrages the henchmen of Damodar Reddy . When they attack him, Sanju beats them up, disappears into a forest, and joins the Naxalites. During a combing operation, he joins hands with the father of Indu and Bhagi - a police officer - and his team to eliminate the team in an encounter. Sanju is then rehabilitated as a college student in Hyderabad.


title: Jalsa

text: Bhagi confesses to her father about her intention to marry Sanju, but her father rejects it by revealing to her about Sanju being an ex-lover of her sister Indu, and an ex-naxal. Shocked, Bhagi agrees to get married as per her father's choice. Her father arranges the engagement of Bhagi with Raghu Ram. Sanju is disgusted that Bhagi has given her assent to the engagement and decides to break it. Meanwhile, Sanju learns that the man who attempted on his life is none other than Damodar Reddy and that Raghu Ram is the elder son of Damodar Reddy. Sanju confronts Damodar Reddy in jail and challenges him. Damodar Reddy leaves jail and forcibly arranges the marriage of Raghuram with Bhagi. Sanju, meanwhile, kidnaps the younger son of Damodar Reddy, takes Damodar Reddy head-on, and defeats him. The film ends with Bhagi marrying Sanju.


title: Jalsa

text: The movie ends with a paralyzed Damodar Reddy dying of heart attack on the same road that Sanju defeated him on.


title: Jalsa

text: The soundtrack of the film was launched on 29 February 2008. The audio rights were sold to Aditya Music for 9 million, the highest for a Telugu film of its released month. The music got very good reviews from websites and an excellent response from the public itself. The music has been topping the charts since its release. Devi Sri Prasad received the 2008 Santosham Best Music Director Award for his work on the film's music.


title: Jalsa

text: "Jalsa" was released on 2 April 2008 in theaters worldwide. The film was originally scheduled to be released on 27 March 2008, but because of delays in the digital intermediate (DI) process. "Jalsa" was later released with 400 prints in 800 theaters worldwide across 1000 screens.


title: Jalsa

text: "Jalsa" was re-released in theaters worldwide on 1 September 2022, coinciding with Kalyan's birthday, with remastered picture and sound.Jalsa grossed over ₹3.25 crore in its 2022 re-release.


title: Evelyn Glennie

text: Dame Evelyn Elizabeth Ann Glennie, (born 19 July 1965) is a Scottish percussionist. She was selected as one of the two laureates for the Polar Music Prize of 2015.


title: Evelyn Glennie

text: Glennie was born in Methlick, Aberdeenshire in Scotland. The indigenous musical traditions of north-east Scotland were important in her development as a musician. Her first instruments were the piano and the clarinet. Other influences were Glenn Gould, Jacqueline du Pré and Trilok Gurtu. She studied at Ellon Academy, Aberdeenshire and the Royal Academy of Music, London. She was a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland and the Cults Percussion Ensemble which was formed in 1976 by her school percussion peripatetic teacher Ron Forbes. They toured and recorded one album, which was re-released on Trunk Records in 2012.


title: Evelyn Glennie

text: Glennie tours all over the world performing as a soloist with a wide variety of orchestras and eclectic musicians. She conducts master classes, consultations and engages in motivational speaking. She is a leading commissioner of new works for solo percussion.


title: Evelyn Glennie

text: Glennie also plays the Great Highland Bagpipes and has her own registered tartan known as "The Rhythms of Evelyn Glennie".


title: Evelyn Glennie

text: Glennie performed at the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games in London 2012, leading a thousand drummers in the opening piece of music "And I Will Kis"s, and also playing the Glennie Concert Aluphone in "Caliban's Dream" during the ceremony for lighting the Olympic cauldron.


title: Evelyn Glennie

text: On 7 April 2021, Glennie was named as Chancellor of Robert Gordon University, succeeding Sir Ian Wood in July 2021.


title: Evelyn Glennie

text: Glennie has been profoundly deaf since the age of 12, having started to lose her hearing at the age of 8. This does not inhibit her ability to perform. She regularly plays barefoot during live performances and studio recordings to feel the music.


title: Evelyn Glennie

text: Glennie contends that deafness is largely misunderstood by the public. She explains that she taught herself to hear with parts of her body other than her ears. On her website Glennie published "Hearing Essay" in which she discusses her condition. Glennie also discusses how she feels music in different parts of her body in her TED talk "How To Truly Listen", published in 2003, and a collection of her speeches and writings are published in her book "Listen World!".


title: Evelyn Glennie

text: Glennie was featured on Icelandic singer Björk's album "Telegram", performing the duet "My Spine". She also co-composed "Oxygen". She has collaborated with many other musicians including former Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett, Bela Fleck, Bobby McFerrin, Fred Frith, Mark Knopfler, The King's Singers and Kodō.


title: Evelyn Glennie

text: In 2012, she collaborated with Underworld and Danny Boyle on the to the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games performing live in the stadium.


title: Evelyn Glennie

text: In 2018, Glennie worked with Gregory Doran and the Royal Shakespeare Company composing the music for a production of "Troilus and Cressida". In the same year she began a collaboration with experimental jazz musicians Trio HLK, touring with them and appearing on their debut album Standard Time.


title: Evelyn Glennie

text: In 2020, Glennie collaborated with the music charity Sound World, composing a new piece "The Grace of Silence" for their Coronavirus Fund for Freelance Musicians. It was recorded by members of the Bristol Ensemble and released by Sound World in January 2021. It is the opening track on the album "Reflections." Glennie also composed some of the music for the film "Sound of Metal" directed by Darius Marder. She is a prolific composer for the library music company Audio Network. Her works are published by Faber Music.


title: Evelyn Glennie

text: On 21 November 2007, the UK government announced an infusion of £332 million for music education. This resulted from successful lobbying spearheaded by Glennie, Sir James Galway, Julian Lloyd Webber, and the late Michael Kamen who (in 2002–03) together formed the Music in Education Consortium.


title: Evelyn Glennie

text: She has been awarded 28 honorary doctorates from universities in the United Kingdom, the Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1993 and was promoted to Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2007 New Year Honours. She was appointed to the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) in the 2017 New Year Honours.


title: Evelyn Glennie

text: She owns in excess of 3500 percussion instruments from all over the world and is continually adding to her collection. Glennie is an Ambassador of Sistema Scotland and is President of Help Musicians. She was appointed Music Rights Champion by the International Music Council in October 2016.


title: Human sacrifice in Maya culture

text: During the pre-Columbian era, human sacrifice in Maya culture was the ritual offering of nourishment to the gods. Blood was viewed as a potent source of nourishment for the Maya deities, and the sacrifice of a living creature was a powerful blood offering. By extension, the sacrifice of human life was the ultimate offering of blood to the gods, and the most important Maya rituals culminated in human sacrifice. Generally, only high-status prisoners of war were sacrificed, with lower status captives being used for labor.


title: Human sacrifice in Maya culture

text: Human sacrifice among the Maya is evident from at least the Classic period (c. AD 250–900) right through to the final stages of the Spanish conquest in the 17th century. Human sacrifice is depicted in Classic Maya art, is mentioned in Classic period hieroglyphic texts and has been verified archaeologically by analysis of skeletal remains from the Classic and Postclassic (c. AD 900–1524) periods. Additionally, human sacrifice is described in a number of late Maya and early Spanish colonial texts, including the "Madrid Codex", the Kʼicheʼ epic "Popol Vuh", the Kʼicheʼ "Título de Totonicapán", the Kʼicheʼ language "Rabinal Achi", the "Annals of the Kaqchikels", the Yucatec "Songs of Dzitbalche" and Diego de Landa's "Relación de las cosas de Yucatán".


title: Human sacrifice in Maya culture

text: Important rituals such as the dedication of major building projects or the enthronement of a new ruler required a human sacrificial offering. The sacrifice of an enemy king was the most prized offering, and such a sacrifice involved the decapitation of the captive ruler in a ritual reenactment of the decapitation of the Maya maize god by the Maya death gods. In AD 738, the vassal king Kʼakʼ Tiliw Chan Yopaat of Quiriguá captured his overlord, Uaxaclajuun Ubʼaah Kʼawiil of Copán and a few days later he ritually decapitated him; such royal sacrifices were often recorded in Maya script with the "ax event" glyph. The decapitation of an enemy king may have been performed as part of a ritual ballgame reenacting the victory of the Maya Hero Twins over the gods of the underworld.


title: Human sacrifice in Maya culture

text: Sacrifice by decapitation is depicted in Classic period Maya art, and sometimes took place after the victim was tortured, being variously beaten, scalped, burnt or disembowelled. Sacrifice by decapitation is depicted on reliefs at Chichen Itza in two of the ballcourts (the Great Ballcourt and the Monjas Ballcourt). The Hero Twins myth recounted in the Popol Vuh relates how one of each pair of twins (the Hero Twins themselves and their father and uncle) was decapitated by their ballgame opponents.


title: Human sacrifice in Maya culture

text: Heart extractions and sacrifice have been viewed as a “supreme religious expression among the ancient Maya". The removal of the still-beating heart was considered a great offering and meal for the gods. Like any modern religious ritual, it is believed the extraction had multiple steps for preparation and proper respect for the gods. It began with a dispersal of blood extracted from the mouth, nose, ears, fingers, or penis, typically with a sharp tool made from animal bone, such as a stingray spine. They then positioned the victim on a stone or wooden altar. Next, access to the heart would be achieved with a variety of procedures and techniques. Most of these techniques were proved by examination of the post-mortem injuries on bones surrounding the heart, such as the sternum, and ribs. Methods include vertical axial sternotomy, left transverse thoracotomy, transverse bilateral sternothoracotamy, or transdiaphragmatic access. Most probably access would be accessible from below the diaphragm, as this allowed for easy access and not much blockage from bones. Nicks, segmenting, and fracturing of the sternum and ribs all defended this. Following access, the heart was exposed to retrieval. If accessed through the sternum, the ribs would be pulled apart, or tissue would be cut through if accessed through the diaphragm. The actual removal of the heart would then be continued by cutting any attaching ligaments with a bifacial tool. Finally, offering of the heart would take place with either special positioning or through burning. At this time, blood would also be collected from the victim. The ritual will end with mutilation of the body, usually through dismemberment, or burned. They would then dispose of the body or reutilize it for other purposes.


title: Human sacrifice in Maya culture

text: During the Postclassic period (c. 900–1524), the most common form of human sacrifice was heart extraction, influenced by the method used by the Aztecs in the Valley of Mexico; this usually took place in the courtyard of a temple, or upon the summit of the pyramid-temple. The sacrifice was stripped and painted blue, which was the colour representing sacrifice, and was made to wear a peaked headdress.


title: Human sacrifice in Maya culture

text: Four blue-painted attendants representing the four Chaacs of the cardinal directions stretched the sacrifice out over a convex stone that pushed the victim's chest upwards; An official referred to as a "nacom" in Landa's "Relación de las cosas de Yucatán" used a sacrificial knife made from flint to cut into the ribs just below the victim's left breast and pull out the still-beating heart. The "nacom" then passed the heart to the officiating priest, or "chilan", who smeared blood upon the image of the temple's deity.


title: Human sacrifice in Maya culture

text: Depending upon the exact ritual, sometimes the four Chaacs would throw the corpse down the pyramid steps to the courtyard below, where it would be skinned by assistant priests, except for the hands and feet. The "chilan" would then remove his ritual attire and dress in the skin of the sacrificial victim before performing a ritual dance that symbolised the rebirth of life. If it was a notably courageous warrior who had been sacrificed, then the corpse would be cut into portions and parts would be eaten by attending warriors and other bystanders. The hands and feet were given to the "chilan" who, if they had belonged to a war captive, wore the bones as a trophy. Archaeological investigations indicate that heart sacrifice was practised as early as the Classic period.


title: Human sacrifice in Maya culture

text: Some rituals involved the sacrifice being killed with bow and arrows. The sacrificial victim was stripped and painted blue and made to wear a peaked cap, in a similar manner to the preparation for heart sacrifice. The victim was bound to a stake during a ritual dance and blood was drawn from the genitals and smeared onto the image of the presiding deity. A white symbol was painted over the victim's heart, which served as a target for the archers. The dancers then passed in front of the sacrificial victim, shooting arrows in turn at the target until the whole chest was filled with arrows.


title: Human sacrifice in Maya culture

text: Sacrifice with bow and arrow is recorded as far back as the Classic Period (c. 250 – 900) and was depicted with graffiti upon the walls of Tikal Temple II. The "Songs of Dzitbalche" are a collection of Yucatec Maya poems written down in the mid-18th century; two poems deal with arrow sacrifice and they are believed to be copies of poems dating to the 15th century, during the Postclassic period. The first, called "Little Arrow", is a song calling upon the sacrifice to be brave and take comfort. The second is entitled "Dance of the Archer" and is a ritual dedicated to the rising sun; it includes instructions to the archer; the archer is instructed upon how to prepare his arrows and to dance three times around the sacrifice. The archer is instructed not to shoot until the second circuit, and to be careful to make sure that the sacrifice dies slowly. On the third circuit, whilst still dancing, the archer is instructed to shoot twice. A similar scene is described in the Annals of the Kaqchikels, where an important prisoner is bound to a scaffold; the Kaqchikel warriors begin a ritual "blood dance" and proceed to shoot him full of arrows. In the Late Postclassic Kʼicheʼ language drama "Rabinal Achi", an important war captive is tied to a stake representing the mythological Maize Tree and is sacrificed by being shot with arrows; the text compares the archers to hunters and the sacrifice to game.


title: Human sacrifice in Maya culture

text: Blood served a very important purpose in Maya culture. It was believed to contain a “life-force” or chu ‘lel that was required by supernatural forces. Blood was offered to the gods or deities by auto-sacrificial bloodletting. Practitioners would cut or pierce themselves with a variety of tools such as bone awls and needles, obsidian blades, or maguey thorns. Blood would be obtained from areas such as ears, cheeks, lips, nostrils, tongue, arms, legs, and the penis. Taking blood from areas such as the penis was symbolic of reproduction and fertility. Once bleeding, the blood would be caught on an item such as bark paper, cotton, animal feathers, and then burned as to deliver it to the gods.


title: Human sacrifice in Maya culture

text: Animals were also frequently sacrificed. Animals such as quail, turkeys, deer, and dogs were commonly used. Quail were considered “clean and pure” to the Zapotec, because they drank water from dew drops, and not “dirty water” sources. Species used include the Montezuma quail (Cyrtonyx montezumae) and the Bob-white quail (Colinus virginianus). There is also evidence of jaguar sacrifice at Copán and Teotihuacan. Their remains have led researchers to believe they were used for funerary rites of great leaders or other occasions. They were seen as the “alter ego” to their powerful shaman kings.


title: Human sacrifice in Maya culture

text: Late Classic graffiti from a structure buried under Group G in Tikal depicts a sacrifice bound to a stake with his hands tied behind his head; the victim was disembowelled. At the Classic period city of Palenque, a woman in her twenties was entombed alive to accompany a deceased nobleman as a funerary offering.


title: Human sacrifice in Maya culture

text: At the Sacred Cenote in Chichen Itza, people were hurled into the cenote during times of drought, famine or disease. The Sacred Cenote is a naturally occurring sinkhole eroded from the local limestone; it is approximately wide and drops to the water surface, with the water another deep. The sides of the cenote are sheer. Human sacrifice was practiced right up until the Spanish conquest of Yucatán, well after the decline of the city.


title: Human sacrifice in Maya culture

text: At times sacrifices were tightly bound into a ball and were bounced in a ritual reenactment of the ballgame.


title: Human sacrifice in Maya culture

text: Some other sacrifice related practices include burning victims alive, dancing in the skin of a skinned victim, taking head trophies, cannibalism, drinking a deceased relative's bathwater, and sprinkling sacrificial blood around sanctuaries.


title: Human sacrifice in Maya culture

text: Human sacrifice is depicted in Late Classic artwork and sometimes involved torture; sacrifice was generally via decapitation. At times the sacrificial victim was dressed as a deer. The intended sacrifice may have been publicly displayed and paraded before the act of sacrifice itself. Images of human sacrifice were often sculpted into the steps of Maya architecture and such stairways may have been the site of periodic sacrifice. Ritual decapitation is well attested from Maya hieroglyphic texts throughout the Classic period. Evidence of mass sacrifice during the Classic period has not been recovered archaeologically. Archaeological excavations at a number of sites, including Palenque, Calakmul and Becan, have uncovered skeletons that bear marks to the vertebrae and ribs consistent with heart extraction at the time of death using a long-bladed flint knife. During the Classic period, the sacrifice of companions to accompany high-ranking burials is likely to have been widespread and performed using the heart extraction method, leaving little evidence on skeletal remains. Analysis of those remains that do bear marks suggestive of heart sacrifice indicates that during the Classic period the Maya used a method involving cutting across the diaphragm immediately below the ribcage and cutting the heart free.


title: Human sacrifice in Maya culture

text: During the Late Classic period (600-900), a feature of ritualistic practices that rose into prevalence were skull racks, or tzompantli. The skulls placed here were typically from sacrificial rituals and victims. Chichen Itza had one of the largest, most elaborate skull racks during the Late Classical period. It was four levels high, and featured representational skulls carved into stone. These skull racks were strongly associated with ballgames, and sacrificial decapitations. In El Tajin, there is a rise in ball-court associated rituals. This site had dozens of ballcourts, and many were associated with ritualistic decapitations due to paraphernalia used in ritual practices. These large ball courts were sites of not only the ballgame, but also for ritualistic practices related to fertility. Many religious and political aspects were incorporated into ballcourts and games, making them have diverse purposes. These ballcourts were a major part in Maya dramatic display, and were used by rulers to demonstrate power and impress societies and followers.


title: Human sacrifice in Maya culture

text: A Postclassic mass burial in Champotón in Campeche, Mexico, included skeletons bearing evidence of violent blows to the sternum that have been interpreted as evidence of heart sacrifice. The Madrid Codex, a Postclassic hieroglyphic Maya book, has an illustration of sacrifice by heart extraction, with the victim stretched over an arched stone.


title: Human sacrifice in Maya culture

text: Among the Kʼicheʼ of highland Guatemala, human sacrifice was performed to the Kʼicheʼ gods. Writing at the end of the 17th century, Francisco Ximénez described the tradition that upon the temple of Tohil, human sacrifices were tied before the representation of the deity, where the priest would open the victim's chest and cut out his heart. After sacrifice, the victim's body was probably hurled down the front stairway of the temple where his head would be severed to be placed on a skull rack that was located in front of the temple. In the Kʼicheʼ epic Popol Vuh, the god Tohil demands his right to suckle from his people, as an infant to its mother, but Tohil suckled upon human blood from the chest of the sacrificial victim. The "Popol Vuh" also describes how the Hero Twin Hunahpu was sacrificed with both the removal of his heart and his head. Human sacrifice was probably also performed to the Kʼicheʼ mountain god Jacawitz. Human sacrifice is also mentioned in the Kʼicheʼ document "Título de Totonicapán" ("Title of Totonicapán"). A long passage describing human sacrifice is difficult to interpret but features heart and arrow sacrifice, the flaying of the victim and wearing of his skin in a manner similar to the Aztec rituals associated with their god Xipe Totec, and mention of the sacrificial knife of Tohil.


title: Human sacrifice in Maya culture

text: The Kaqchikel Maya, neighbours of the Kʼicheʼ, also practised human sacrifice. Ample evidence of human sacrifice has been excavated at Iximche, their capital. Human sacrifice is evidenced at the site by the altar upon Structure 2, of a type used in heart sacrifice, and by a cylindrical cache of skulls taken from decapitated victims accompanied by obsidian knives. A pentatonic flute crafted from a child's femur was recovered from one of the temples and is also indicative of human sacrifice. A sacrificial flint knife was also recovered from Structure 3, and a circular altar at the site is very similar to those used for so-called "gladiatorial sacrifice" by the Aztecs and it may have served this purpose. The "Annals of the Kaqchikels" record that around 1491 the rulers of Iximche captured the rulers of the Kʼicheʼ, as well as the image of Tohil. The captured king and his co-ruler were sacrificed together with the son and grandson of the king, other noblemen and high-ranking warriors. The same text describes how the Kaqchikel captured a powerful lord, called Tolkʼom, who was tied to a scaffold and was shot with arrows during a ritual dance.


title: Human sacrifice in Maya culture

text: In 1511 the Spanish caravel "Santa María de la Barca" set sail along the Central American coast to Santo Domingo from Darien under the command of Pedro de Valdivia. The ship was wrecked upon a reef somewhere off Jamaica. There were just twenty survivors from the wreck, including Captain Valdivia, Gerónimo de Aguilar and Gonzalo Guerrero. The survivors set themselves adrift in one of the ship's boats, with bad oars and no sail; after thirteen days during which half of the survivors died, they made landfall upon the coast of Yucatán. There they were seized by the Maya Lord Halach Uinik. Captain Valdivia was sacrificed with four of his companions, and their flesh was served at a feast. The other prisoners were fattened for killing, although Aguilar and Guerrero managed to escape.


title: Human sacrifice in Maya culture

text: After the disastrous Spanish-led assault on Uspantán in 1529, captives taken by the Uspanteks were sacrificed to Exbalamquen, one of the Hero Twins. In 1555 the Acala and their Lacandon allies killed the Spanish friar Domingo de Vico. De Vico, who had established a small missionary church in San Marcos (in Alta Verapaz, Guatemala), had offended a local Maya ruler; the indigenous leader shot the friar through the throat with an arrow; the angry natives then sacrificed him by cutting open his chest and extracting his heart. His corpse was then decapitated; the natives carried off his head as a trophy, which was never recovered by the Spanish. In the early 1620s a Spanish party received permission to visit the still independent Itza capital at Nojpetén, headed by friar Diego Delgado who was accompanied by 13 Spanish soldiers and 80 Christianised Maya guides from Tipu, now in Belize. The party was seized when they arrived at Nojpetén and sacrificed with their hearts cut out. They were then decapitated and their heads displayed on stakes around the city; Delgado was dismembered. The main Spanish party was ambushed at Sakalum in January 1624 and slaughtered. The Spanish Captain Francisco de Mirones and a Franciscan priest were sacrificed using the heart extraction method after being bound to the forked posts of the church. The rest of the Spanish party were also sacrificed, and their bodies impaled on stakes at the village entrance.


title: Human sacrifice in Maya culture

text: In 1684 three Franciscan friars were killed, probably by heart sacrifice, at the Manche Chʼol settlement of Paliac on the Caribbean coast of Belize. They included Francisco Custodio, Marcos de Muros, and an unnamed lay brother.


title: Human sacrifice in Maya culture

text: A number of additional Spanish missionaries were sacrificed at Nojpetén. In February 1696 Franciscan friar Juan de San Buenaventura and an unspecified Franciscan companion were taken to Nojpetén during a skirmish between the Yucatec Spanish and the Itza on the west shore of Lake Petén Itzá. The Itza high priest AjKin Kan Ekʼ later related that he had the Franciscans bound in the form of crosses and then cut out their hearts. About a month later a Guatemalan Spanish expedition was ambushed and slaughtered; Dominican friars Cristóbal de Prada and Jacinto de Vargas were taken across to the island of Nojpetén and were similarly bound to X-shaped crosses before having their hearts cut out.


title: Human sacrifice in Maya culture

text: Much of the evidence of Maya sacrificial rituals is taken from images on their codices. A codex is an ancient manuscript made on sheets of paper, or paper-like materials. These records usually contain information pertinent to that era and people and detail many cultural and ritualistic aspects of life. Much of what is known from Maya culture is gathered from these books. Maya codices contain glyph like imagery that is related to deities, sacrifices, rituals, moon phases, planet movements, and calendars. Three codices that are considered legitimate are the Dresden, Madrid, and Paris Codices. These codices all feature depictions of human sacrificial rituals such as heart extractions and decapitations.


title: Alpha-2 adrenergic receptor

text: The alpha-2 (α) adrenergic receptor (or adrenoceptor) is a G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) associated with the G heterotrimeric G-protein. It consists of three highly homologous subtypes, including α-, α-, and α-adrenergic. Some species other than humans express a fourth α-adrenergic receptor as well. Catecholamines like norepinephrine (noradrenaline) and epinephrine (adrenaline) signal through the α-adrenergic receptor in the central and peripheral nervous systems.


title: Alpha-2 adrenergic receptor

text: The α-adrenergic receptor is classically located on vascular prejunctional terminals where it inhibits the release of norepinephrine (noradrenaline) in a form of negative feedback. It is also located on the vascular smooth muscle cells of certain blood vessels, such as those found in skin arterioles or on veins, where it sits alongside the more plentiful α-adrenergic receptor. The α-adrenergic receptor binds both norepinephrine released by sympathetic postganglionic fibers and epinephrine (adrenaline) released by the adrenal medulla, binding norepinephrine with slightly higher affinity. It has several general functions in common with the α-adrenergic receptor, but also has specific effects of its own. Agonists (activators) of the α-adrenergic receptor are frequently used in anaesthesia where they affect sedation, muscle relaxation and analgesia through effects on the central nervous system (CNS).


title: Alpha-2 adrenergic receptor

text: The α subunit of an inhibitory G protein - G dissociates from the G protein, and associates with adenylyl cyclase. This causes the inactivation of adenylyl cyclase, resulting in a decrease of cAMP produced from ATP, which leads to a decrease of intracellular cAMP. PKA is not able to be activated by cAMP, so proteins such as phosphorylase kinase cannot be phosphorylated by PKA. In particular, phosphorylase kinase is responsible for the phosphorylation and activation of glycogen phosphorylase, an enzyme necessary for glycogen breakdown. Thus in this pathway, the downstream effect of adenylyl cyclase inactivation is decreased breakdown of glycogen.


title: Alpha-2 adrenergic receptor

text: The relaxation of gastrointestinal tract motility is by presynaptic inhibition, where transmitters inhibit further release by homotropic effects.


title: Alpha-2 adrenergic receptor

text: Norepinephrine has higher affinity for the α receptor than has epinephrine, and therefore relates less to the latter's functions. Nonselective α agonists include the antihypertensive drug clonidine, which can be used to lower blood pressure and to reduce hot flashes associated with menopause. Clonidine has also been successfully used in indications that exceed what would be expected from a simple blood-pressure lowering drug: it has recently shown positive results in children with ADHD who have tics resulting from the treatment with a CNS stimulant drug, such as Adderall XR or methylphenidate; clonidine also helps alleviate symptoms of opioid withdrawal. The hypotensive effect of clonidine was initially attributed through its agonist action on presynaptic α receptors, which act as a down-regulator on the amount of norepinephrine released in the synaptic cleft, an example of autoreceptor. However, it is now known that clonidine binds to imidazoline receptors with a much greater affinity than α receptors, which would account for its applications outside the field of hypertension alone. Imidazoline receptors occur in the nucleus tractus solitarii and also the centrolateral medulla. Clonidine is now thought to decrease blood pressure via this central mechanism. Other nonselective agonists include dexmedetomidine, lofexidine (another antihypertensive), TDIQ (partial agonist), tizanidine (in spasms, cramping) and xylazine. Xylazine has veterinary use.


title: Alpha-2 adrenergic receptor

text: In the European Union, dexmedetomidine received a marketing authorization from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) on August 10, 2012, under the brand name of Dexdor. It is indicated for sedation in the ICU for patients needing mechanical ventilation.


title: Alpha-2 adrenergic receptor

text: In non-human species this is an immobilizing and anesthetic drug, presumptively also mediated by α adrenergic receptors because it is reversed by yohimbine, an α antagonist.


title: Alpha-2 adrenergic receptor

text: ("R")-3-nitrobiphenyline is an α selective agonist as well as being a weak antagonist at the α and α subtypes.


title: Alpha-2 adrenergic receptor

text: Nonselective α blockers include, A-80426, atipamezole, phenoxybenzamine, efaroxan, idazoxan*(experimental), and SB-269,970.


title: Alpha-2 adrenergic receptor

text: Yohimbine* is a relatively selective alpha-2 blocker that has been investigated as a treatment for erectile dysfunction.


title: Alpha-2 adrenergic receptor

text: Tetracyclic antidepressants mirtazapine and mianserin are also potent α antagonists with mirtazapine being more selective for α subtype (~30-fold selective over α) than mianserin (~17-fold).