title: Sherwin-Williams

text: In 1875, Sherwin-Williams started selling ready-mixed paint. Previously, consumers bought paint ingredients that they themselves would mix together.


title: Sherwin-Williams

text: In the 1940s, Sherwin-Williams introduced Kem-Tone, a water-based fast-drying interior paint. In 1996, the American Chemical Society named the product a National Historic Chemical Landmark.


title: Sherwin-Williams

text: In 2016, the first paint registered as microbicidal with the United States Environmental Protection Agency was brought to market by Sherwin-Williams.


title: Sherwin-Williams

text: In 2004, Sherwin-Williams acquired Paint Sundry Brands for $295 million and Duron Inc. for $253 million.


title: Sherwin-Williams

text: In June 2007, Sherwin-Williams announced that it had completed an acquisition of M.A. Bruder & Sons, a manufacturer and distributor of paints and coatings.


title: Sherwin-Williams

text: On June 4, 2012, Sherwin-Williams acquired Geocel Holdings Corp for an undisclosed amount. Sherwin-Williams acquired the Valspar Corporation on March 20, 2016, for $11.3billion.


title: Sherwin-Williams

text: In April 2022, the company announced that it had completed an acquisition of the European industrial coatings business of Sika AG. In June 2022, the company agreed to acquire Gross & Perthun GmbH, a Germany-based distributor that primarily manufactures and distributes coatings for the heavy equipment and transportation industries.


title: Sherwin-Williams

text: Founded by Henry Sherwin and Edward Williams in Cleveland in 1866, the company operates through three segments: The Americas Group, Consumer Brands Group, and Performance Coatings Group.


title: Sherwin-Williams

text: Americas Group was the first section of the company to be established, in 1866. These stores market and sell Sherwin-Williams branded architectural paints and coatings, industrial and marine products, floorcovering, and related equipment and supplies. As of the end of 2019, the Americas Group had expanded to 4,758 stores, including more than 135 floorcovering centers.


title: Sherwin-Williams

text: The Consumer Brands Group develops, manufactures, and distributes various paints, coatings, and related products, under the brand names of Anthony Angelillo, Bestt Liebco, Cabot, Dupli-Color, Duron, Dutch Boy, Frazee, Geocel, Guangdong Huarun Paints, H&C, HGTV Home, Kool Seal, Krylon, MAB, Martin-Senour, Mautz, Minwax, Pratt & Lambert, , Ronseal, Thompson's WaterSeal, Uniflex, Valspar, Wattyl, and White Lightning to third party customers in addition to overseeing the operations maintained by The Americas Group.


title: Sherwin-Williams

text: On August 28, 2007, Sherwin Williams purchased Columbia Paint & Coatings. On July 6, 2011, Sherwin-Williams acquired Leighs Paints, based in Bolton UK, manufacturers of intumescent and high performance industrial coatings. In late 2012, Sherwin Williams began the process of purchasing the Comex Group. Comex was the 4th largest paint manufacturer in North America. After Mexican antitrust regulators voted against the deal twice, Sherwin-Williams bought Comex's US and Canadian divisions for $165 million on September 16, 2013. PPG, US-based paint and coating company, acquired Comex's Mexican division for $2.3 billion. In March 2016, it was announced that Valspar would be acquired for $9.3 billion U.S. dollars. The merger was finalized 1 June 2017.


title: Sherwin-Williams

text: The Performance Coatings Group sells coatings and finishes to industrial, wood furniture manufacturing, marine, packaging, and automotive markets in more than 110 countries. The Group also contains Valspar's automotive refinishes business.


title: Sherwin-Williams

text: In January 2014, the Santa Clara County Superior Court ruled that Sherwin-Williams, NL Industries and ConAgra were jointly and severally liable for $1.15 billion, to be paid into a lead paint abatement fund to be used to remove lead paint from older housing. The judge ruled that the paint companies manufactured, marketed, and sold lead paint without disclosing the health risks to the consumers in spite of "actual and constructive knowledge that it was harmful." In March 2014 Sherwin-Williams was denied a new trial.


title: Sherwin-Williams

text: As per their 2013 annual report, Sherwin-Williams indicated that it considered the case without merit, would appeal the decision, and that the process might take another two years. The disposition of "The People v. ConAgra Grocery Products Company et al." in the California 6th Appellate District Court on November 14, 2017 was that


title: Sherwin-Williams

text: In 2018, multiple counties in Pennsylvania sued Sherwin-Williams over lead paint matters. Sherwin-Williams attempted to counter-sue, but that attempt was denied in October 2019, and the denial was upheld in July 2020.


title: Sherwin-Williams

text: Starting in 2008, businessman John Tyczki entered into an agreement with Sherwin-Williams on the basis of assurances provided by Sherwin-Williams about its water-based paint products. When the products failed to live up to these assurances, causing ongoing problems for his business, Tyczki sued Sherwin-Williams and was awarded $2.88M.


title: Sherwin-Williams

text: On April 9, 2018, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and representing attorneys uncovered that Sherwin-Williams tried to "shift the blame to contaminated water in an effort" to avoid having to pay tens of millions of dollars in settlements. Almost 170 children had been affected by the potentially fatal lead poisoning.


title: Sherwin-Williams

text: A billboard near the center-field fence of Angel Stadium in Anaheim, California featured a giant paint can. In 2014, the owner of the billboard offered to donate $1 million to the Angels Baseball Foundation if a home run ball landed in the can on the fly, though that condition was not noted on the billboard. On September 19, 2017, a home run ball landed in the can after bouncing. Some commentators were upset that a donation wasn't made "due to a lame technicality", causing a public relations embarrassment.


title: Sherwin-Williams

text: In December 2019, Sherwin-Williams was sued by the State of New Jersey for discharging industrial waste from three sites and failing to disclose the pollution to the state's Department of Environmental Protection.


title: Sherwin-Williams

text: In May 2020, Sherwin-Williams agreed to pay $3.6M to settle a lawsuit brought by workers in California alleging underpayment of wages and failure to provide obligatory meal or rest breaks.


title: Sherwin-Williams

text: In July 2020, Sherwin-Williams was sued in Ohio for breaching the Fair Labor Standards Act by underpaying staff. Though the case was dismissed in December 2020 by Ohio Northern District Court.


title: Sherwin-Williams

text: In November 2020, the company fired employee Tony Piloseno, who'd amassed over 1.4 million viewers on his TikTok paint mixing channel, "Tonesterpaints", for alleged misconduct. The company was criticized for their perceived mishandling of the situation with critics believing the company failed to realize the marketing opportunity they'd just lost. Piloseno received multiple offers of employment from Sherwin-Williams' industry rivals and took up a position with Florida Paints where he will have his own art studio and develop his own custom range of paints. Commentators pointed out the differing reaction the company had after going viral when compared to other companies such as Ocean Spray, who had positively reacted to going viral on the TikTok platform.


title: Sherwin-Williams

text: Sherwin-Williams Co reported Total e emissions (Direct + Indirect) for the twelve months ending 31 December 2021 at 621 Kt (-14 /-2.1% y-o-y) and plans to reduce emissions by 30% by 2030 from a 2019 base year.


title: Sherwin-Williams

text: On June 20, 2011, "Computerworld" named The Sherwin-Williams Company the #58 Best Place to Work in IT.


title: Sherwin-Williams

text: In 2015, Sherwin-Williams was recognized as the most used brand as well as the winner for brand familiarity and quality rating in the Paints category by "Builder" magazine.


title: Sherwin-Williams

text: As of 2018, Sherwin-Williams was ranked 190th on the Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by revenue.


title: Adreno

text: Adreno is a series of graphics processing unit (GPU) semiconductor intellectual property cores developed by Qualcomm and used in many of their SoCs.


title: Adreno

text: Adreno (an anagram of AMD's graphic card brand "Radeon"), was originally developed by ATI Technologies and sold to Qualcomm in 2009 for $65M, and was used in their mobile chipset products. Early Adreno models included the Adreno 100 and 110, which had 2D graphics acceleration and limited multimedia capabilities. At the time, 3D graphics on mobile platforms were commonly handled using software-based rendering engines, which limited their performance. With growing demand for more advanced multimedia and 3D graphics capabilities, Qualcomm licensed the Imageon IP from AMD, in order to add hardware-accelerated 3D capabilities to their mobile products. Further collaboration with AMD resulted in the development of the Adreno 200, originally named the AMD Z430, based on the R400 architecture used in the Xenos GPU of the Xbox 360 video game console and released in 2008, which was integrated into the first Snapdragon SoC. In January 2009, AMD sold their entire Imageon handheld device graphics division to Qualcomm.


title: Adreno

text: There are proprietary drivers for the Linux-based mobile operating system Android available from Qualcomm themselves.


title: Adreno

text: Linux and Mesa supports the Adreno 200/300/400/500 series of GPUs with a driver called "codice_1." Freedreno allows fully open-source graphics on devices like the 96Boards Dragonboard 410c and Nexus 7 (2013).


title: Palisade

text: A palisade, sometimes called a stakewall or a paling, is typically a fence or defensive wall made from iron or wooden stakes, or tree trunks, and used as a defensive structure or enclosure. Palisades can form a stockade.


title: Palisade

text: "Palisade" derives from "pale", from the Latin word "", meaning stake, specifically when used side by side to create a wood defensive wall.


title: Palisade

text: Typical construction consisted of small or mid-sized tree trunks aligned vertically, with as little free space in between as possible. The trunks were sharpened or pointed at the top, and were driven into the ground and sometimes reinforced with additional construction. The height of a palisade ranged from around a metre to as high as 3–4 m. As a defensive structure, palisades were often used in conjunction with earthworks.


title: Palisade

text: Palisades were an excellent option for small forts or other hastily constructed fortifications. Since they were made of wood, they could often be quickly and easily built from readily available materials. They proved to be effective protection for short-term conflicts and were an effective deterrent against small forces. However, because they were wooden constructions they were also vulnerable to fire and siege weapons.


title: Palisade

text: Often, a palisade would be constructed around a castle as a temporary wall until a permanent stone wall could be erected.


title: Palisade

text: Both the Greeks and Romans created palisades to protect their military camps. The Roman historian Livy describes the Greek method as being inferior to that of the Romans during the Second Macedonian War. The Greek stakes were too large to be easily carried and were spaced too far apart. This made it easy for enemies to uproot them and create a large enough gap in which to enter. In contrast, the Romans used smaller and easier to carry stakes which were placed closer together, making them more difficult to uproot.


title: Palisade

text: The Iroquoian peoples, who coalesced as tribes around the Great Lakes, often defended their settlements with palisades. Within the palisades the peoples lived in communal groups in numerous longhouses, sometimes in communities as large as 2,000 people. Archeological evidence of such palisades has been found at numerous 15th and 16th-century sites in both Ontario, Canada, and in New York, United States.


title: Palisade

text: Many settlements of the native Mississippian culture of the Midwestern United States used palisades. A prominent example is the Cahokia Mounds site in Collinsville, Illinois. A wooden stockade with a series of watchtowers or bastions at regular intervals formed a enclosure around Monk's Mound and the Grand Plaza. Archaeologists found evidence of the stockade during excavation of the area and indications that it was rebuilt several times, in slightly different locations. The stockade seems to have separated Cahokia's main ceremonial precinct from other parts of the city, as well as being a defensive structure.


title: Palisade

text: Other examples include the Angel Mounds site in southern Indiana, Aztalan State Park in Wisconsin, the Kincaid site in Illinois, the Parkin site and the Nodena sites in northeastern Arkansas, and the Etowah site in Georgia.


title: Palisade

text: Palisaded settlements were common in Colonial North America, for protection against indigenous peoples and wild animals. The English settlements in Jamestown, Virginia (1607), [[Cupids, Newfoundland] (1610) and [[Plymouth, Massachusetts]] (1620) were all originally fortified surrounded by palisades.


title: Palisade

text: Such defensive palisades were also frequently used in [[New France]]. In addition, colonial architecture used vertical palings as the walls of houses, in what was called "[[poteaux en terre]]" construction. Some 18th-century houses in this style survive in [[Ste. Genevieve, Missouri]], initially settled by French colonists from the [[Illinois Country]] to the east of the [[Mississippi River]].


title: Palisade

text: A "palanka" was a type of wooden fort constructed of palisades, built by the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans during the 16th and 17th centuries. They could be erected for a variety of reasons such as protecting a strategically valuable area or a town Some palankas evolved into larger settlements.


title: Palisade

text: [[Image:Big Moose Lake NY USA Architecture.jpg|left|thumb|upright|Vertical, half-timber palisade architecture at Covewood Lodge in [[Big Moose Lake]] in New York's [[Adirondack Mountains]]]]


title: Palisade

text: In the late nineteenth century, when milled lumber was not available or practical, many [[Adirondack Mountains|Adirondack]] buildings were built using a palisade architecture. The walls were made of vertical half timbers; the outside, rounded half with its bark still on faced Adirondack weather, while the inside half was sanded and varnished for a finished wood look. Typically, the cracks between the vertical logs were filled with moss and sometimes covered with small sticks. Inside, the cracks were covered with narrow wooden battens. This palisade style was much more efficient to build than the traditional horizontal log cabin, since two half logs provided more surface area than one whole log and the vertical alignment meant a stronger structure for supporting loads like upper stories and roofs. It also presented a more finished look inside. Examples of this architectural style can still be found in the Adirondacks, such as around [[Big Moose Lake]].


title: Palisade

text: In countries with extremely high rates of violent crime and property theft, such as [[South Africa]], a common means to prevent crime is for residential houses to be protected by perimeter defences such as brick walls, steel palisade fences, wooden palisade fences and electrified palisade fences ([[guard rail|railings]]). The [[City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality|City of Johannesburg]] promotes the use of palisade fencing over opaque, usually brick, walls, as criminals cannot hide as easily behind the fence. Its manual on safety includes guidance, such as avoiding having vegetation alongside the fence, as this allows criminals to make an unseen breach.


title: Gunpowder (TV series)

text: Gunpowder is a British historical drama television miniseries produced by Kudos and Kit Harington’s Thriker Films for BBC One. The three-part drama series premiered on BBC One in the United Kingdom on 21 October 2017 and on HBO in the United States on 18 December 2017.


title: Gunpowder (TV series)

text: The series was developed by Ronan Bennett, Kit Harington, and Daniel West and is based on the Gunpowder Plot in London in 1605. It stars Harington, who is a direct descendant of his character Robert Catesby. J Blakeson directed the series.


title: Gunpowder (TV series)

text: In February 2017, the BBC ordered "Gunpowder", then announced the three-part drama series was to be developed by Ronan Bennett, Kit Harington, and Daniel West; written by Ronan Bennett; and produced by Kudos. The series stars Kit Harington, Peter Mullan, Mark Gatiss, and Liv Tyler, and is directed by J Blakeson. Filming started in late February 2017.


title: Gunpowder (TV series)

text: Filming locations included the National Trust's East Riddlesden Hall and Fountains Abbey, alongside popular visitor attractions such as Oakwell Hall; Ripley Castle; Haddon Hall; Kirkstall Abbey; Bolton Abbey; Lendal Bridge in York City Centre; and the famous Ilkley Moor. Beverley Minster depicted the regal splendour of the Palace of Westminster.


title: Gunpowder (TV series)

text: All three episodes were available on the BBC iPlayer following the terrestrial broadcast of the first episode.


title: Gunpowder (TV series)

text: On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the series has an approval rating of 72% based on 25 reviews, with an average rating of 7.25/10. On Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating, the series has a score 63 out of 100, based on 10 critics, indicating "generally favourable reviews".


title: Gunpowder (TV series)

text: The initial reaction to the first episode was mired with complaints from viewers about the depicted scenes of torture, nudity, and disembowelment despite the broadcast time being 10 minutes after the watershed of 9pm. In response to complaints, the BBC said: "The scenes aired after 9.30pm with a clear warning given to viewers before the episode started. The methods depicted are grounded in historical fact and reflect what took place during the time of the Gunpowder Plot." It was described as 'a very good drama' by other viewers.


The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds is an action-adventure game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 3DS. The game is an installment in "The Legend of Zelda" series and a spiritual successor to the 1991 Super Nintendo Entertainment System game "". Officially announced in April 2013, "A Link Between Worlds" was released in Australia, Europe, and North America in November, and in Japan a month later.


title: The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds

text: The story is set many years after the events of "A Link to the Past". Players assume the role of a young adventurer named Link, who sets out to restore peace to the kingdom of Hyrule after the evil sorcerer Yuga captures Princess Zelda and escapes through a rift into the parallel world of Lorule. Yuga desires to kidnap the Seven Sages and use their power to resurrect the demon king Ganon. Shortly into his adventure, Link is granted the ability to merge into walls as a 2D painting after obtaining a magic bracelet from the eccentric merchant Ravio, which allows him to reach previously inaccessible areas and travel between the worlds of Hyrule and Lorule.


text: Concept development began with a small team in 2009, shortly following the completion of "". During this phase, the game mechanic of Link merging onto walls was prototyped. However, development suffered several setbacks and ceased entirely in late 2010 as core team members were reassigned to different projects. A year later, development restarted and, after several failed pitches to series creator Shigeru Miyamoto, the game entered full production in 2012. At Miyamoto's request, the game's world and setting were based on "A Link to the Past", though with many of the areas significantly reworked. Rethinking the established conventions of the series became a goal for the game's designers. This led to two key changes in the game's structure: allowing players to clear the majority of dungeons in any order they choose, and the introduction of the item rental system.


text: "A Link Between Worlds" received critical acclaim and sold over 2.5 million copies worldwide in its first five months and by 2020, the game had sold over 4.21 million copies worldwide. It receives praise for its soundtrack, engaging gameplay and new features, and nostalgic feeling, though the art style received mixed reviews. The game also received multiple awards and nominations.


text: "The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds" is an action-adventure game presented in stereoscopic 3D polygonal graphics, with gameplay predominantly experienced from a top-down perspective. Players control a young boy named Link, who embarks on an adventure to rescue the Seven Sages and defeat Yuga, the game's primary antagonist. The game is set in two kingdoms—Hyrule and Lorule—both of which bear a nonlinear structure and similar layout, but contrast in style and tone. "A Link Between Worlds" is a successor to the 1991 Super Nintendo Entertainment System title "", and is similar in many aspects. The worlds of Hyrule and Lorule in "A Link Between Worlds" are analogous to "A Link to the Past"s depiction of Hyrule and the Dark World. A number of items, enemies, and audio tracks featured in "A Link to the Past" return in "A Link Between Worlds".


text: The top screen of the Nintendo 3DS displays hearts, an energy gauge, and an action icon. Link's life energy decreases when he is hit by an enemy and can be replenished by collecting hearts that can be found in a variety of ways, such as defeating enemies breaking pots, or cutting shrubbery. The energy gauge governs item and ability usage; it depletes on use and replenishes over time. The action icon notifies the player of interactive objects. A map of the kingdoms is displayed on the bottom screen of the 3DS, showing Link's current position and marked locations. The bottom screen is also used to view and select Link's gear and items.


text: Friendly and enemy non-player characters inhabit the two worlds. Friendly characters can provide Link with assistance or side quests to complete. Link wields a sword and shield, which can be used to defeat enemies and deflects their attacks. Other combat items from past "Zelda" games return, such as the bow, the fire rod, and bombs. Unlike previous games, the methods for obtaining and using these items is different. Rather than finding them in dungeons, they are rented or purchased from the merchant Ravio. If Link dies, his rented items will be returned to Ravio. They also do not require ammunition; instead, their use is limited by a shared energy gauge. Link's total life energy can be increased by collecting heart pieces. His weapons can be upgraded by completing a long term side quest that involves searching for small hidden creatures and returning them to their parent. Link can also participate in several minigames to earn rupees, Hyrule's primary currency.


text: As with many previous "The Legend of Zelda" games, solving puzzles and clearing dungeons is a fundamental part of gameplay. Progression through "A Link Between Worlds" is more open-ended than previous titles, with the possibility of tackling many of the game's dungeons in any order. Certain dungeon obstacles will require the use of the rented or purchased items. Towards the end of each dungeon, Link will encounter a boss that must be defeated. A unique mechanic is Link's ability to merge onto walls and move horizontally along them. Link is presented as a mural when he is merged on a wall, and the game's perspective shifts to a side view to follow Link around corners. While merged to a wall, Link's energy gauge will deplete. The mechanic can be used to traverse the environment, solve puzzles, avoid hazards, reach previously inaccessible areas, and travel between Hyrule and Lorule via fissures that connect the two kingdoms.


text: The game uses the 3DS's Play Coin and StreetPass systems. Play Coins can be used to request a tip from Hint Ghosts that are located at points of interest. If another system that has played the game is passed by via StreetPass, a shadow version of their Link will appear somewhere on the field. Players can fight against these Links, which are AI-controlled opponents based on their game's data. Winning against Shadow Link earns a rupee bounty based on their difficulty, and achievements can be earned for fulfilling certain conditions. A more challenging "Hero Mode" is unlocked upon completing the main adventure, wherein the player takes four times the damage and no hearts spawn from defeated enemies.


text: "The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds" takes place in a fictional fantasy setting. Within the series's chronology, "A Link Between Worlds" falls in the "Defeated Hero" timeline, taking place some time after the events of "A Link to the Past" and falling between and the original "The Legend of Zelda". The game is set in Hyrule, a location used in many past "Zelda" games, and Lorule, a new kingdom that acts as Hyrule's dark twin. An ancient Hyrulean legend tells of the events prior to "A Link Between Worlds". Ganon sought to dominate the kingdom using the power of the sacred Triforce, but he was defeated by a legendary hero and sealed away by the Seven Sages. The Triforce was divided into three pieces to prevent evil from rising again. One part stayed with the royal family, one part was returned to Ganon, and the third part took its rightful place in the heart of the hero and his descendants. Lorule is a kingdom that once possessed a Triforce, which was destroyed to stop Lorule's people from fighting for its power. Without a Triforce, Lorule decayed and became a ruined land. In "A Link Between Worlds", Princess Zelda rules Hyrule, while her counterpart Hilda rules Lorule.


text: Link, the apprentice of a blacksmith, goes to deliver a sword to a captain at Hyrule Castle, only to encounter a mysterious figure named Yuga, who transforms a descendant of one of the Seven Sages, Seres, into a painting. Link underestimates Yuga and is defeated. A merchant, Ravio, proposes help to Link and gives him a bracelet and his items. To Ravio's advice, Link reports the events to Princess Zelda. She gives him the Pendant of Courage; in Hyrule exists three Pendants that once found gives the power to wield the Master Sword. During his search, Link defeats Yuga but is transformed into a painting, letting the latter flee. Yuga's curse is contained into Ravio's bracelet, giving Link the ability to merge at his will.


text: Link uses his new power to find the other Pendants; successful, Link wields the Master Sword and visits Zelda, only to witness Yuga capturing her into a painting and confronts him once more. Yuga flees into a dimensional crack leading to Hyrule. The captured sages are used to resurrect Ganon, which Yuga merges with. Lorule's princess Hilda assists Link by trapping Yuga.


text: To Hilda's orders, Link treks through Lorule to rescue the Seven Sages across the kingdom's dungeon. Each rescued Sage is kept into the Chamber of Sage. The Seven Sages rescued, their combined powers create the Triforce of Courage for Link, worthy of wielding it. Link returns to Lorule' Castle, confronting Yuga. However, before doing so, Hilda steals Zelda's Triforce of Wisdom. Hilda reveals her goal: long ago, Lorule was once a peaceful kingdom until her ancestors destroyed its Triforce, falling Lorule into the present ruin. Deciding to use Hyrule's Triforce, she sent Yuga to steal the Triforce of Courage from Link, to no avail; she tricked Link into finding it himself for her. With the three Triforce together, Yuga betrays Hilda to get the Triforce for himself. Link confronts Yuga and finally defeats him. He restores the two princesses. During Hilda's apology, Ravio suddenly appears, revealing himself as Link's counterpart. He and Hilda makes amends and decide to help each other rebuilding Lorule.


text: Link and Zelda returns to Hyrule, and use its Triforce to grant their wish; Lorule's Triforce is restored and the kingdom returns to its former glory. Link disposes of the Master Sword in its pedestal and leaves with both the returned Sages and Zelda.


text: In late 2009, following the completion of "" for the Nintendo DS, the majority of its development team were assigned to work on "" for the Wii. Three members of the "Spirit Tracks" team began working on a new handheld title in the "Zelda" series for the upcoming Nintendo 3DS console. Two of the three members working on the new game were Hiromasa Shikata and Shiro Mouri. During this early phase, they had not considered developing a sequel to "The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past"; instead they were building a game around the theme of "communication". Around six months into the project, they presented their concept for the game to series creator Shigeru Miyamoto, who called the idea outdated. The three then decided to rethink the concept.


text: Shikata proposed the idea of Link having the ability to enter and merge onto walls; this feature would eventually become one of the title's unique gameplay aspects. Within a day, Mouri had created an initial prototype to demonstrate the feature, and seeing it in action led to an influx of ideas. Link was able to transform from a 3D character to a 2D character by entering walls, and then move smoothly around corners to reach places he previously could not. This ability opened up possibilities for creating new puzzles and using new mechanics. At this stage in the project, they still considered the game an extension of the DS "Zelda" games and used the same viewpoint and design of Link from "Spirit Tracks". Around October 2010, the prototype was presented to Miyamoto, who approved of the new concept. However, within two weeks of entering production, core members of the development team were reassigned to work on launch games for Nintendo's Wii U console which was scheduled for release in 2012. With the team disbanded, development ceased.


text: In November 2011, "Skyward Sword" was released for the Wii, and "Zelda" series producer Eiji Aonuma began thinking about the next project in the series. While Nintendo had released a for the 3DS, demand for an original "Zelda" title to be released on the 3DS was growing. Aonuma chose to revisit the idea of Link entering walls. With Shikata and Mouri still engaged in the development of Wii U launch games, Aonuma decided to revive the project without its core members, 13 months after it was shelved. Kentaro Tominaga was brought onto the team to continue where Shikata had left off. He refined the system of entering walls and designed some small dungeons, which he presented to Miyamoto in May 2012. Tominaga planned to create 50 more small dungeons that would use the wall-entering mechanic, but Miyamoto criticised this approach and suggested basing the new game on "A Link to the Past". Aonuma proposed combining the wall-entering mechanic with the top-down perspective and landforms of "A Link to the Past". He felt that the shift in perspective when entering a wall would be complemented by the stereoscopic 3D capabilities of the 3DS. Aonuma converted the two-dimensional landforms of "A Link to the Past" into three-dimensional space and the team placed Link into the setting with the wall-entering mechanic to test the feature. After several more presentations to Miyamoto, development of the project was allowed to progress in July. The development team began expanding before the end of 2012, with people joining from finished projects; Shikata rejoined as director and Mouri returned as assistant director and lead programmer. Development was completed in October 2013.


text: The development team encountered challenges in the creation of the game. Implementing the top-down perspective became a particular issue and resulted in a lot of trial and error. With a true top-down view, players would be unable to see characters' faces and bodies. To circumvent this issue, objects in the world were slanted at an angle so they were more visible. Mouri requested that the game run at 60 frames per second instead of 30 to stabilize the stereoscopic 3D and smoothen movement animations. While doubling the frame rate increased the processing load, it allowed the developers to implement a feature where players could select items by dragging and dropping them from their inventory using the Nintendo 3DS's touchscreen and stylus; at 30 frames per second this feature felt too sluggish for the stylus's movement.


text: Rethinking the conventions of "Zelda" became an important theme as development progressed. In previous "Zelda" games, the player would go into a dungeon, obtain a new item, and then move onto the next dungeon in a specific order. The development team felt that this formula was flawed as a player could get stuck on a dungeon and be unable to progress. They wanted to give the player more freedom in the ways they could advance through the game, allowing them to tackle dungeons in any order and clear multiple dungeons in parallel, but this meant that the method for acquiring items had to be changed. They opted for a system where players could rent or purchase items using the game's currency, rupees. In the final game, rented items are returned to the merchant when the player is defeated, but the team had considered other ideas for returning rented items, such as setting a timer on the rental period and imposing fees if they were returned late. The development team found out about the Nintendo 2DS during the game's production. As the Nintendo 2DS lacked 3D capabilities, the team decided to revise some of the game's dungeon designs to be certain that they could be completed without the 3D effect.


text: The designers thought that Link's appearance should change when Link entered a wall and the perspective switched from a top-down view to side view. They chose to make Link a mural while he was on a wall; this led to the creation of the antagonist Yuga, a sorcerer that can transform himself and others into paintings. Aonuma mentioned that the idea of Link turning into a mural was inspired by Phantom Ganon jumping into paintings during his encounter in "Ocarina of Time". As the game's story takes place long after the events of a "A Link to the Past" and the player travels between the two worlds of Hyrule and Lorule, the development team chose "A Link Between Worlds" instead of "A Link to the Past 2" for the game's English-language title.


text: "A Link Between Worlds" features original music along with tracks from "A Link to the Past". Ryo Nagamatsu composed and orchestrated new music for "A Link Between Worlds", and played the flute music featured in the game's milk bar. He also composed arrangements and adapted Koji Kondo's original music from "A Link to the Past". Nagamatsu wanted to balance arrangements of past music with new music to please both old and new players. He began by revisiting old tracks and thinking how he could best adapt them for "A Link Between Worlds". He was eager to include choral performances as a way to add tension to the eerie and unpleasant scenes in the game. Nagamatsu performed the vocals and made use of multitrack recording to layer the different vocals tracks. The audio team decided not to use a live orchestra for recording the game's music—the primary reason for this was to create optimal sound for the 3DS. The reverberations and low-pitch sounds created by a live orchestra were not suitable for the 3DS speakers. The majority of the string music was created using a synthesizer, with Toru Minegishi playing guitar on one track.


text: In April 2013, during a Nintendo Direct presentation, a new "The Legend of Zelda" game was announced for the 3DS with a late 2013 release date. The game was described by Nintendo as a successor to "A Link to the Past", set within the same world but featuring new mechanics, new dungeons, and an original story. Shortly after the presentation, Nintendo released a gameplay video on the Nintendo eShop. Later in June, at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2013, the English title for the game was revealed as "The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds". In Japan, the game was titled "The Legend of Zelda: Triforce of the Gods 2". At the Seattle showing of concert tour the same year, "A Link Between Worlds" was playable along with "".


text: "A Link Between Worlds" was released in Europe and North America on November 22, 2013, in Australia the following day, and later in Japan on December 26. The European version of the game contained a reversible cover sleeve; the inside cover featuring multicoloured art and the outside cover featuring the golden-hued version. Alongside the game's launch, Nintendo released a bundle including a copy of the game and a themed Nintendo 3DS XL with the Triforce logo. In 2015, "A Link Between Worlds" was rereleased under the Nintendo Selects label in Europe, along with five other Nintendo 3DS titles. Earlier that year, Nintendo released the original soundtrack for "A Link Between Worlds" on CD in Europe via Club Nintendo. Music from the soundtrack was included in the concert tour .


text: "The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds" received "universal acclaim" according to the review aggregator Metacritic, and it was 2013's second highest scoring 3DS game behind "Fire Emblem Awakening". It is also the fourth highest scoring 3DS game of all time on Metacritic. Sales tracker Media Create reported that "A Link Between Worlds" was the top selling video game during its first week of launch in Japan, surpassing 224,000 sales. , "A Link Between Worlds" has sold 4.21 million copies worldwide.


text: Many critics saw "A Link Between Worlds" as a worthy successor to "A Link to the Past", but also remarked that the game was outstanding in its own right. It was commended for making enhancements to core and traditional elements of the series. New additions and changes to the established formula were also welcomed. "Polygon" called it the best "Zelda" game in 20 years, and "GamesRadar" said it was an essential title for every 3DS owner. "Kotaku" felt the story was one of the best and darkest in the series, showing Link in a very different light from previous games. Reception towards the game's puzzles was positive; praise was directed towards how well the wall-merging mechanic had been incorporated into dungeon puzzles and integrated into every area of the game. "IGN" thought "A Link Between Worlds" was Nintendo's best puzzle game. "Game Informer" wrote some of the game's dungeons and boss encounters were among the best in the franchise's history. The level of difficulty present in the puzzles and dungeons was met with approval; the challenge was described as a perplexing experience rather than a frustrating one by "GameSpot".


text: Discussing the usage of "A Link to the Past"s version of Hyrule in "A Link Between Worlds", "GamesRadar" thought that while revisiting familiar places was a nostalgic experience, the mystery of exploring new areas was absent and having to retread the same game world again was "somewhat unsatisfying". "GameSpot" called the loose structure and openness of the game a "revelatory change", and was glad to see that some restrictions in previous "Zelda" titles were not present in "A Link Between Worlds". The introduction of the item rental system was well received, with many reviewers pointing out that the system granted players with more freedom. "Game Informer" enjoyed having items available from the beginning, saying that it allowed them to experiment in combat. "IGN" and "Polygon" agreed that losing rented items upon defeat added another layer of challenge and consequence to the game. "Nintendo Life" found streamlining the item system allowed a greater emphasis on aspects such as exploration, solving puzzles and boss fights. However, "GamesRadar" expressed that the missing excitement of finding key items in dungeons was a drawback of the system.


text: While reviewers agreed that "A Link Between Worlds" excelled at using the console's 3D capabilities, the art direction was divisive among critics. Some writers disliked the graphics, and others called them gorgeous. The game's music composition was complimented; "Game Informer" called the game's soundtrack one of the best in gaming, and "GamesRadar" thought it was some of the best in the series, praising both the new compositions and the adapted renditions music from "A Link to the Past".


text: "A Link Between Worlds" has been prominently represented in other Zelda-related media since its original release. In 2016, Ravio and Yuga appeared as downloadable playable characters in the 2014 game "Hyrule Warriors". Several music tracks from the game feature in the "Super Smash Bros." series on stages based on "The Legend of Zelda". In addition, Princess Zelda's design in "Super Smash Bros. Ultimate" is partially based on her incarnation from "A Link Between Worlds", replacing her previous incarnations from "" and "" in the previous games. Ravio's hood has been added to "" with the DLC "The Champion's Ballad". It can be found in an EX treasure chest in the Deja Village ruins after Link leaves the Great Plateau. Wearing Ravio's Hood in the game increases Link's sideways climbing speed.


title: Endless Love (song)

text: "Endless Love" is a song written by Lionel Richie and originally recorded as a duet between Richie and pop icon singer/actress Diana Ross. In this ballad, the singers declare their "endless love" for one another. It was covered by Luther Vandross with fellow R&B singer Mariah Carey and also by country music singer Shania Twain. Richie's friend (and sometimes co-worker) Kenny Rogers has also recorded the song. "Billboard" has named the original version as the greatest song duet of all time.


title: Endless Love (song)

text: Ross and Richie recorded the song for Motown, and it was used as the theme for Franco Zeffirelli's film adaptation of Scott Spencer's novel "Endless Love". (Jamie Bernstein, as the character Susan, sings the song during the course of the movie.) Produced by Richie and arranged by Gene Page, it was released as a single from the film's soundtrack in 1981. While the film "Endless Love" was a modest box-office success, the song became the second-biggest selling single of the year (first was "Bette Davis Eyes" by Kim Carnes) in the United States and reached number one on the Hot 100, where it stayed for nine weeks from August 15 to October 10, 1981. It also topped the "Billboard" R&B chart and the Adult Contemporary chart, and reached number seven in the United Kingdom. It also became the most successful duet of the rock era, surpassing the Everly Brothers' 1957 hit "Wake Up Little Susie", which spent four weeks at number one. Both songs spent six months on the chart, with "Endless Love" eclipsing the Everlys' hit by one week.


title: Endless Love (song)

text: The soulful composition became the biggest-selling single of Ross' career, and her 18th and final career number-one single in the USA (including her work with the Supremes). It is also Richie's best-charting single, and the first of several hits for him during the 1980s. The song was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song for Richie, and was the second song with which Ross was involved that was nominated for an Oscar. It also won a 1982 American Music Award for Favorite Pop/Rock Single. Ross recorded a solo version of the song for her first RCA Records album, "Why Do Fools Fall in Love", the duet version being her last hit on Motown. Richie's solo version was released as track 10 on the 2003 remastered bonus edition of his 1982 album.


title: Endless Love (song)

text: Walter Afanasieff produced Luther Vandross and Mariah Carey's cover of the song for Vandross' Epic Records-released album "Songs" (1994), and it is known for being Carey's first "high-profile" duet (an earlier duet, "I'll Be There", was with the then-unknown background singer Trey Lorenz). At the 1995 Grammy Awards, the song was nominated in the new category of Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals, losing to "Funny How Time Slips Away" by Al Green and Lyle Lovett. Columbia Records later included the song on Carey's compilation album "Greatest Hits" (2001) and then again on her next compilation album, "The Ballads" (2008). It was released as the second single on August 29, 1994, from "Songs".


title: Endless Love (song)

text: Sony Music Entertainment President Tommy Mottola suggested that Vandross record "Songs", an album of cover versions. Featuring Vandross' versions of songs like Stephen Stills' "Love the One You're With", Heatwave's "Always and Forever", and Roberta Flack's "Killing Me Softly", the album was shaping up to be a major career accomplishment. To give the album a bigger boost, Mottola's then-wife, Mariah Carey, came up with the idea to remake "Endless Love" as a duet with her. Lionel Richie and Diana Ross had originally recorded "Endless Love" in 1981, and the song spent nine weeks at number 1. Although Luther's album was already set to contain one Lionel Richie composition, "Hello", it was obvious that having the most-popular female artist on the Sony label singing on the album would be a benefit.


title: Endless Love (song)

text: AllMusic senior editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine highlighted the track. Larry Flick from "Billboard" noted that it is "framed with beautiful, swelling strings (how 'bout those harps and rolling drums at the song's climax!)." He added, "Carey is at her most colorful and effective here, fluttering around Vandross' distinctive phrasing with ease and agility." Steve Baltin from "Cash Box" deemed it "a guaranteed smash." He explained further, "The passionate song is the perfect vehicle for their emotive singing styles. In addition, they know not to argue with success, staying true to the original." "Entertainment Weekly"s Jeremy Helligar wrote that the album might very will give Vandross a number one hit with "Endless Love" but still called the song "drippy." A reviewer from "Music & Media" commented, "A compliment should go out to the casting director, who brought together two partners of equal magnitude to render the plush duet Diana Ross & Lionel Richie made famous." Alan Jones from "Music Week" gave it four out of five, adding that the song "finds Vandross and Carey singing around each other, rather than with each other". He noted further, "They do so against a backing track that is almost identical to the original, and the result will be identical too – a Top 10 hit."


title: Endless Love (song)

text: On the US Billboard Hot 100, "Endless Love" debuted on September 10, 1994, at number 31 and peaked at number 2, held back from the top position by Boyz II Men's "I'll Make Love to You". The song became Luther Vandross' highest-charting pop hit ever and gave Lionel Richie his first top ten as a songwriter in seven years. It became Vandross's fifth top-ten single and Carey's twelfth. It remained in the top forty for thirteen weeks, and was ranked number 56 on the Hot 100 1994 year-end charts. It was also an improvement over Carey's previous single, "Anytime You Need a Friend", which had missed the top ten. It was certified Platinum by the RIAA.


title: Endless Love (song)

text: The song was a success outside the United States, reaching the top of the chart in New Zealand (for five weeks) and the top five in the United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland, and the Netherlands. It also reached the top 20 in most of the countries. It was certified Platinum in Australia by ARIA and in New Zealand by RIANZ.


title: Endless Love (song)

text: Two music videos were released for the single; one features Carey and Vandross recording the song in a studio, and the other shows the two performing the song live at Royal Albert Hall. The latter performance is included on the Luther Vandross: From Luther with Love music video collection in DVD format.


title: Endless Love (song)

text: Lionel Richie re-recorded the song in 2011 as a duet with Canadian country pop singer Shania Twain. It was released as the lead single from his album "Tuskegee" on February 7, 2012. The recording process of the song was documented in the final episode of Twain's reality docudrama series, "Why Not? with Shania Twain", which aired on June 12, 2011.


title: Endless Love (song)

text: A music video for the song was recorded in The Bahamas in February 2012. Directed by Paul Boyd, the video was released to country music channels CMT and GAC on March 23, 2012.


title: Sarah Kyolaba

text: Sarah Kyolaba Tatu Namutebi Amin (1955 – 11 June 2015), also known by her stage name "Suicide Sarah", was a Ugandan dancer who was dictator Idi Amin's fifth and last-surviving wife. She met Amin when she was a 19-year-old go-go dancer and they married in 1975. The couple had three children but Kyolaba left Amin after he went into exile in 1979. She moved to England where she ran a restaurant and later a hair salon. She died from cancer in 2015.


title: Sarah Kyolaba

text: Sarah Kyolaba was born in Mulago Hospital, Kampala, Uganda, in 1955 to Haji Kamadi and Aisha Nsubuga.


title: Sarah Kyolaba

text: Kyolaba met Idi Amin when she was a 19-year-old go-go dancer in the so-called Revolutionary Suicide Mechanised Regiment Band of the Uganda Army. That led to her nickname, "Suicide Sarah". The couple married in Kampala in 1975 in a ceremony where Yasser Arafat was the best man. The wedding banquet was reported to have cost the equivalent of £2 million. Kyolaba was said to have been Amin's "favourite" wife.


title: Sarah Kyolaba

text: Kyolaba had been pregnant and in a relationship with the child's father in Masaka when she met Amin. On 25 December 1974 she gave birth, and Amin had the child's birth announced on television as his own, and the real father soon disappeared.


title: Sarah Kyolaba

text: Kyolaba went with Amin when he was forced to leave Uganda in 1979, first to Libya and then to Saudi Arabia, where they eventually settled in Jeddah. Kyolaba separated from Amin in 1982. She travelled to Germany with Faisal Wangita, Amin's son, leaving her other three children behind. Once in Germany she claimed asylum and worked as a lingerie model, before moving to London.


title: Sarah Kyolaba

text: Kyolaba ran Krishna's Restaurant in Upton Road, West Ham, London, from 1997 until at least 1998. The restaurant served dishes such as stewed goat, muchomo (barbecued meat with salad) and ekigere (cow hoof in gravy). It was closed down for a time in November 1997 after environmental health inspectors found cockroaches and mice in the kitchen. Kyolaba avoided prison by pleading guilty at Snaresbrook Crown Court, where she received a two-year conditional discharge, and had to pay £1,000 towards the prosecution's costs.


title: Sarah Kyolaba

text: After Amin's death in Jeddah in 2003, Kyolaba called him a "true African hero" and a "wonderful father", adding, "He was just a normal person, not a monster. He was a jolly person, very entertaining and kind". At the time of her death, she was running a hair salon in Tottenham, north London and living nearby in Palmers Green.


title: Erin Cahill

text: Erin Jessica Cahill (born January 4, 1980) is an American actress. She is best known for her roles as Jen Scotts in "Power Rangers Time Force", Ted Mosby's sister Heather in "How I Met Your Mother", and Kendra Burke in "Saving Grace". She had a recurring role as Felicity in the ABC series "Red Widow". She is also noted to be the first lead female character for the "Call of Duty" franchise, as Chloe 'Karma' Lynch in "" and Rebecca Chambers in "". Since 2016, Cahill has worked primarily in television movies for Lifetime and Hallmark.


title: Erin Cahill

text: Cahill was born in Stafford, Virginia. She began acting in her mother's local high school productions at age four, and started singing and dancing lessons at age eight. She was Miss Pre-Teen Virginia in 1991 and the first runner-up for Miss Junior America. She continued to act into her high school years at Brooke Point High School, where she served as the president of many clubs, including the Honor Thespians group. As a junior, Cahill was the only one of her year to garner perfect scores in all phases of her audition to the Governor's School for the Arts in drama. At age 16, she also won Overall Actor in the Actors, Models, Talent for Christ competition. She was further selected into the Barton and Williams Dance Company, winning both company and individual awards. Following high school graduation in 1998, she attended Marymount Manhattan College in New York on an academic and performing arts scholarship. She left college at age 19 to pursue a full-time acting career in Los Angeles.


title: Erin Cahill

text: Cahill was cast as Jen Scotts, the Pink Time Force Ranger, in "Power Rangers Time Force". She started her guest starring roles in 2003 with "Crossing Jordan" and "General Hospital". In 2006, she starred in the short-lived Fox series "Free Ride". Her first big guest star came the following year in 2007 as a 20th-century suffragette in the "Cold Case" episode "Torn". Since then, she has worked in numerous films and television shows such as "Supernatural", "", "The Mentalist", "Castle", "Ghost Whisperer", "Grey's Anatomy", and "House". She has appeared in commercials for Bank of America, TJ Maxx, Hyundai, Applebee's, Redfin, Tampax, Lean Cuisine, Honda, and Land Rover Discovery Sport.


title: Erin Cahill

text: In 2013, Cahill's projects included the short film "The Ventriloquist", voice and motion-capture credits as Chloe "Karma" Lynch in "", and a guest role as Lena Gilbert in FOX's "Sleepy Hollow".


title: Erin Cahill

text: Cahill's international commercial for Land Rover Discovery Sport ran in 2015. She has also appeared in commercials for Redfin.


title: Erin Cahill

text: Cahill co-founded Charitable Living, which services the local community with fundraisers and days of volunteering. In May 2015, Cahill joined non-profit group BuildOn and traveled to Malawi to promote education and build schools.


title: Erin Cahill

text: In September 2016, Cahill married Welsh musician Paul Freeman in a ceremony on the Cote d'Azur, France.


title: Parkash Singh Badal

text: Parkash Singh Badal (; born 8 December 1927) is an Indian politician who was Chief Minister of Punjab state from 1970 to 1971, from 1977 to 1980, from 1997 to 2002, and from 2007 to 2017. He is also the patron of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), a Sikh-centered regional political party. He was the president of the party from 1995 to 2008, when he was replaced by his son Sukhbir Singh Badal. As the patron of SAD he exercises a strong influence on the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee and Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee. The Government of India awarded him the second-highest civilian award, Padma Vibhushan, in 2015.


title: Parkash Singh Badal

text: Parkash Badal was born on 8 December 1927 in Abul Khurana, near Malout. He belongs to a Jat Sikh family. He graduated from the Forman Christian College in Lahore.


title: Parkash Singh Badal

text: He started his political career in 1947. He was Sarpanch of the Village Badal and later Chairman of Block Samiti, Lambi before rising into Punjab politics. He was elected to Punjab Vidhan Sabha in 1957 for the first time from the Shiromani Akali Dal political party . He was re-elected in 1969, serving as Minister for Community Development, Panchayati Raj, Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries. He was Leader of Opposition in 1972, 1980 and 2002. He has been elected in Vidhan Sabha for a total of 10 times, in 1957 and in each election since 1969, except for the February 1992 election, in which he led a boycott of state elections by the Akalis. In 1997 elections he won from Lambi Assembly constituency and has been a consecutive winner in four terms. He was a union minister in Prime Minister Morarji Desai's government in 1977, serving as Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation.


title: Parkash Singh Badal

text: He has served as Punjab Chief Minister for four terms, the first time in 1970 when he became the youngest chief minister of an Indian state. He completed his most recent term in March 2017.


title: Parkash Singh Badal

text: Badal first became Chief Minister of Punjab in March 1970 and headed a coalition government of Akali Dal - Sant Fateh Singh and Jana Sangh. In June 1970 Jana Sangh withdrew support from the Badal government over their difference about the place of Hindi in Punjab. Later, in early July, seven of Akali Dal (Sant) defected to rival Akali Dal headed by ex-CM Gurnam Singh. An early session of the assembly was called on 24 July to prove the majority of Badal's government. However, the motion of no confidence was not admitted due to lack of requisite support of one-fifth of MLAs. Congress decided to stay neutral and did not support the no-confidence motion.


title: Parkash Singh Badal

text: In the 2007 Punjab state election Shiromani Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party coalition government won 67 out of 117 seats and Parkash Singh Badal was sworn in as Chief Minister for the fourth time. He held 10 portfolios, which included the ministries for Home, Housing & Urban Development, Excise & Taxation, Power, Personnel, General Administration, Vigilance, Employment, Legal & Legislative Affairs and NRIs Affairs. Badal launched many schemes such as free ambulance service, Talwandi Sabo thermal plant, etc. Through a new transportation policy, he reduced taxes on air-conditioned buses, making it less expensive for companies to operate luxury buses. This also increased profits of a bus company owned by his son, Sukhbir Singh Badal, which soared to 1.7 million U.S. dollars.


title: Parkash Singh Badal

text: In the 2012 election, Shiromani Akali Dal and Bharatiya Janata Party combined won 68 seats out of 117, despite a tradition of anti-incumbency in Punjab. Badal again became the Chief Minister of Punjab on 14 March 2012 after being sworn in by the Governor of Punjab, Shivraj Patil. He is also the oldest chief minister ever and is the only person who has been both the youngest and the oldest chief minister of his state. In the 2012–2017 government he held the portfolios of Personnel, General Administration, Power, Cooperation, Science Technology, and Environment, Vigilance and Employment Generation.


title: Parkash Singh Badal

text: He was first detained in the Karnal jail in connection with Civil Liberties Agitation later under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act during the Indian Emergency. He was President of the Akali Dal from 1996 to 2008.


title: Parkash Singh Badal

text: On 11 December 2011, Badal was bestowed upon the title of Panth Rattan Fakhr-e-Qaum (literally "Jewel of the religion, pride of the community") by the Akal Takht. He was awarded this title at Golden Temple complex in the presence of Jathedars of all five Takhts in the form of a “siropa” (robe of honour), a sword and a silver plaque with inscription of the citation of "Panth Rattan Fakhr-e-Qaum". Badal was awarded this title for his service towards the Sikh Panth by creating many memorials pertaining to Sikhism such as Virasat-e-Khalsa, besides being imprisoned for long time and having faced atrocities during various Akali movements.


title: Parkash Singh Badal

text: This award was retracted by the Sikh Panth at Sarbat Khalsa on 10 November 2015 due to allegations of Civil Rights Violations and failure to recognize the oppression faced by the Sikhs of Punjab.


title: Parkash Singh Badal

text: Many political Sikh organizations such as Dal Khalsa, Khalra Mission Organization, Punjab Human Rights Organization, Khalsa Panchayat and Niarye Khalsa Organization. Former SGPC secretary general Manjit Singh Calcutta argued that this award is given posthumously. In response, Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Gurbachan Singh cited the example of Master Tara Singh, who was given this award during his lifetime. Dal Khalsa leader Kanwar Pal Singh termed it sycophancy, as Badal indirectly controls SGPC.


title: Parkash Singh Badal

text: Parkash Singh Badal (left) receiving Padma Vibhushan award from President of India Pranab Mukherjee (right) on 30 March 2015.


title: Parkash Singh Badal

text: Ever since the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) issue came up in 1982, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has been vocal in disapproving it and leading from the front in safeguarding the rights of Punjab's farmers. He has played a key role in ensuring that SYL should never become a reality and even got arrested for leading the ‘Nehar Roko Morcha’ in April 1982. He believes that successive Congress governments at the Centre have been doing "grave injustice" to the state forcing Punjab to share the water in the name of SYL Canal. Recently, under his leadership, Punjab government took a path-breaking decision of adopting the Punjab Sutlej Yamuna Link Canal (Transfer of Proprietary Rights) Bill, 2016 in the assembly. With this decision taken on 14 March 2016, the process of denotifying (and dismantling) the 121-km long Sutlej Yamuna Link Canal that was constructed in Punjab to carry water to Haryana has begun. Parkash Singh Badal has expressed candidly many times that Punjab doesn't have a single drop of spare water for anybody and Akali Dal is opposed to the agreement which it believed would rob the water of the state. Chief Minister Badal, in his latest move, has sent a cheque of Rs.390 crore back to Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar received from Haryana nearly four decades back.


title: Parkash Singh Badal

text: Parkash Singh Badal along with his wife Surinder Kaur, son Sukhbir Singh and seven others were booked under various provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act in 2003. After a seven-year-long case all accused were acquitted by a local court in Mohali in 2010 due to a lack of incriminating evidence. In 2007, 11 key witnesses retracted their statements before the Special Court set up in Ropar district.


title: Parkash Singh Badal

text: On 10 November 2015, along with Avtar Makkar, Badal was branded as Ghadar-e-Qaum (meaning traitor to the faith) by a gathering of the Sikh community known as the "Sarbat Khalsa." This was due to his alleged role in the 1984 anti Sikh riots.


title: Parkash Singh Badal

text: In 1959, he married Surinder Kaur. The couple had two children, Sukhbir Singh Badal and Parneet Kaur, who is married to Adesh Pratap Singh Kairon. Surinder Kaur died in 2011 after a long illness due to cancer.


title: Parkash Singh Badal

text: His younger brother Gurdas Singh Badal had also been in politics. His nephew Manpreet Singh Badal served as Finance Minister of Punjab.


title: Island of stability

text: In nuclear physics, the island of stability is a predicted set of isotopes of superheavy elements that may have considerably longer half-lives than known isotopes of these elements. It is predicted to appear as an "island" in the chart of nuclides, separated from known stable and long-lived primordial radionuclides. Its theoretical existence is attributed to stabilizing effects of predicted


title: Island of stability

text: Several predictions have been made regarding the exact location of the island of stability, though it is generally thought to center near copernicium and flerovium isotopes in the vicinity of the predicted closed neutron shell at "N" = 184. These models strongly suggest that the closed shell will confer further stability towards fission and alpha decay. While these effects are expected to be greatest near atomic number "Z" = 114 and "N" = 184, the region of increased stability is expected to encompass several neighboring elements, and there may also be additional islands of stability around heavier nuclei that are doubly magic (having magic numbers of both protons and neutrons). Estimates of the stability of the nuclides within the island are usually around a half-life of minutes or days; some estimates predict half-lives of millions of years.


title: Island of stability

text: Although the nuclear shell model predicting magic numbers has existed since the 1940s, the existence of long-lived superheavy nuclides has not been definitively demonstrated. Like the rest of the superheavy elements, the nuclides within the island of stability have never been found in nature; thus, they must be created artificially in a nuclear reaction to be studied. Scientists have not found a way to carry out such a reaction, for it is likely that new types of reactions will be needed to populate nuclei near the center of the island. Nevertheless, the successful synthesis of superheavy elements up to "Z" = 118 (oganesson) with up to 177 neutrons demonstrates a slight stabilizing effect around elements 110 to 114 that may continue in unknown isotopes, supporting the existence of the island of stability.


title: Island of stability

text: The composition of a nuclide (atomic nucleus) is defined by the number of protons "Z" and the number of neutrons "N", which sum to mass number "A". Proton number "Z", also named the atomic number, determines the position of an element in the periodic table. The approximately 3300 known nuclides are commonly represented in a chart with "Z" and "N" for its axes and the half-life for radioactive decay indicated for each unstable nuclide (see figure). , 251 nuclides are observed to be stable (having never been observed to decay); generally, as the number of protons increases, stable nuclei have a higher neutron–proton ratio (more neutrons per proton). The last element in the periodic table that has a stable isotope is lead ("Z" = 82), with stability (i.e., half-lives of the longest-lived isotopes) generally decreasing in heavier elements, especially beyond curium ("Z" = 96). The half-lives of nuclei also decrease when there is a lopsided neutron–proton ratio, such that the resulting nuclei have too few or too many neutrons to be stable.


title: Island of stability

text: The stability of a nucleus is determined by its binding energy, higher binding energy conferring greater stability. The binding energy per nucleon increases with atomic number to a broad plateau around "A" = 60, then declines. If a nucleus can be split into two parts that have a lower total energy (a consequence of the mass defect resulting from greater binding energy), it is unstable. The nucleus can hold together for a finite time because there is a potential barrier opposing the split, but this barrier can be crossed by quantum tunneling. The lower the barrier and the masses of the fragments, the greater the probability per unit time of a split.


title: Island of stability

text: Protons in a nucleus are bound together by the strong force, which counterbalances the Coulomb repulsion between positively charged protons. In heavier nuclei, larger numbers of uncharged neutrons are needed to reduce repulsion and confer additional stability. Even so, as physicists started to synthesize elements that are not found in nature, they found the stability decreased as the nuclei became heavier. Thus, they speculated that the periodic table might come to an end. The discoverers of plutonium (element 94) considered naming it "ultimium", thinking it was the last. Following the discoveries of heavier elements, of which some decayed in microseconds, it then seemed that instability with respect to spontaneous fission would limit the existence of heavier elements. In 1939, an upper limit of potential element synthesis was estimated around element 104, and following the first discoveries of transactinide elements in the early 1960s, this upper limit prediction was extended to element 108.


title: Island of stability

text: As early as 1914, the possible existence of superheavy elements with atomic numbers well beyond that of uranium—then the heaviest known element—was suggested, when German physicist Richard Swinne proposed that superheavy elements around "Z" = 108 were a source of radiation in cosmic rays. Although he did not make any definitive observations, he hypothesized in 1931 that transuranium elements around "Z" = 100 or "Z" = 108 may be relatively long-lived and possibly exist in nature. In 1955, American physicist John Archibald Wheeler also proposed the existence of these elements; he is credited with the first usage of the term "superheavy element" in a 1958 paper published with Frederick Werner. This idea did not attract wide interest until a decade later, after improvements in the nuclear shell model. In this model, the atomic nucleus is built up in "shells", analogous to electron shells in atoms. Independently of each other, neutrons and protons have energy levels that are normally close together, but after a given shell is filled, it takes substantially more energy to start filling the next. Thus, the binding energy per nucleon reaches a local maximum and nuclei with filled shells are more stable than those without. This theory of a nuclear shell model originates in the 1930s, but it was not until 1949 that German physicists Maria Goeppert Mayer and Johannes Hans Daniel Jensen et al. independently devised the correct formulation.


title: Island of stability

text: The numbers of nucleons for which shells are filled are called magic numbers. Magic numbers of 2, 8, 20, 28, 50, 82 and 126 have been observed for neutrons, and the next number is predicted to be 184. Protons share the first six of these magic numbers, and 126 has been predicted as a magic proton number since the 1940s. Nuclides with a magic number of each—such as O ("Z" = 8, "N" = 8), Sn ("Z" = 50, "N" = 82), and Pb ("Z" = 82, "N" = 126)—are referred to as "doubly magic" and are more stable than nearby nuclides as a result of greater binding energies.


title: Island of stability

text: In the late 1960s, more sophisticated shell models were formulated by American physicist William Myers and Polish physicist Władysław Świątecki, and independently by German physicist Heiner Meldner (1939–2019). With these models, taking into account Coulomb repulsion, Meldner predicted that the next proton magic number may be 114 instead of 126. Myers and Świątecki appear to have coined the term "island of stability", and American chemist Glenn Seaborg, later a discoverer of many of the superheavy elements, quickly adopted the term and promoted it. Myers and Świątecki also proposed that some superheavy nuclei would be longer-lived as a consequence of higher fission barriers. Further improvements in the nuclear shell model by Soviet physicist Vilen Strutinsky led to the emergence of the macroscopic–microscopic method, a nuclear mass model that takes into consideration both smooth trends characteristic of the liquid drop model and local fluctuations such as shell effects. This approach enabled Swedish physicist Sven Nilsson et al., as well as other groups, to make the first detailed calculations of the stability of nuclei within the island. With the emergence of this model, Strutinsky, Nilsson, and other groups argued for the existence of the doubly magic nuclide Fl ("Z" = 114, "N" = 184), rather than Ubh ("Z" = 126, "N" = 184) which was predicted to be doubly magic as early as 1957. Subsequently, estimates of the proton magic number have ranged from 114 to 126, and there is still no consensus.


title: Island of stability

text: Interest in a possible island of stability grew throughout the 1960s, as some calculations suggested that it might contain nuclides with half-lives of billions of years. They were also predicted to be especially stable against spontaneous fission in spite of their high atomic mass. It was thought that if such elements exist and are sufficiently long-lived, there may be several novel applications as a consequence of their nuclear and chemical properties. These include use in particle accelerators as neutron sources, in nuclear weapons as a consequence of their predicted low critical masses and high number of neutrons emitted per fission, and as nuclear fuel to power space missions. These speculations led many researchers to conduct searches for superheavy elements in the 1960s and 1970s, both in nature and through nucleosynthesis in particle accelerators.


title: Island of stability

text: During the 1970s, many searches for long-lived superheavy nuclei were conducted. Experiments aimed at synthesizing elements ranging in atomic number from 110 to 127 were conducted at laboratories around the world. These elements were sought in fusion-evaporation reactions, in which a heavy target made of one nuclide is irradiated by accelerated ions of another in a cyclotron, and new nuclides are produced after these nuclei fuse and the resulting excited system releases energy by evaporating several particles (usually protons, neutrons, or alpha particles). These reactions are divided into "cold" and "hot" fusion, which respectively create systems with lower and higher excitation energies; this affects the yield of the reaction. For example, the reaction between Cm and Ar was expected to yield isotopes of element 114, and that between Th and Kr was expected to yield isotopes of element 126. None of these attempts were successful, indicating that such experiments may have been insufficiently sensitive if reaction cross sections were low—resulting in lower yields—or that any nuclei reachable via such fusion-evaporation reactions might be too short-lived for detection. Subsequent successful experiments reveal that half-lives and cross sections indeed decrease with increasing atomic number, resulting in the synthesis of only a few short-lived atoms of the heaviest elements in each experiment; , the highest reported cross section for a superheavy nuclide near the island of stability is for Mc in the reaction between Am and Ca.


title: Island of stability

text: Similar searches in nature were also unsuccessful, suggesting that if superheavy elements do exist in nature, their abundance is less than 10 moles of superheavy elements per mole of ore. Despite these unsuccessful attempts to observe long-lived superheavy nuclei, new superheavy elements were synthesized every few years in laboratories through light-ion bombardment and cold fusion reactions; rutherfordium, the first transactinide, was discovered in 1969, and copernicium, eight protons closer to the island of stability predicted at "Z" = 114, was reached by 1996. Even though the half-lives of these nuclei are very short (on the order of seconds), the very existence of elements heavier than rutherfordium is indicative of stabilizing effects thought to be caused by closed shells; a model not considering such effects would forbid the existence of these elements due to rapid spontaneous fission.


title: Island of stability

text: Flerovium, with the expected magic 114 protons, was first synthesized in 1998 at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia, by a group of physicists led by Yuri Oganessian. A single atom of element 114 was detected, with a lifetime of 30.4 seconds, and its decay products had half-lives measurable in minutes. Because the produced nuclei underwent alpha decay rather than fission, and the half-lives were several orders of magnitude longer than those previously predicted or observed for superheavy elements, this event was seen as a "textbook example" of a decay chain characteristic of the island of stability, providing strong evidence for the existence of the island of stability in this region. Even though the original 1998 chain was not observed again, and its assignment remains uncertain, further successful experiments in the next two decades led to the discovery of all elements up to oganesson, whose half-lives were found to exceed initially predicted values; these decay properties further support the presence of the island of stability. However, a 2021 study on the decay chains of flerovium isotopes suggests that there is no strong stabilizing effect from "Z" = 114 in the region of known nuclei ("N" = 174), and that extra stability would be predominantly a consequence of the neutron shell closure. Although known nuclei still fall several neutrons short of "N" = 184 where maximum stability is expected (the most neutron-rich confirmed nuclei, Lv and Ts, only reach "N" = 177), and the exact location of the center of the island remains unknown, the trend of increasing stability closer to "N" = 184 has been demonstrated. For example, the isotope Cn, with eight more neutrons than Cn, has a half-life almost five orders of magnitude longer. This trend is expected to continue into unknown heavier isotopes in the vicinity of the shell closure.


title: Island of stability

text: Though nuclei within the island of stability around "N" = 184 are predicted to be spherical, studies from the early 1990s—beginning with Polish physicists Zygmunt Patyk and Adam Sobiczewski in 1991—suggest that some superheavy elements do not have perfectly spherical nuclei. A change in the shape of the nucleus changes the position of neutrons and protons in the shell. Research indicates that large nuclei farther from spherical magic numbers are deformed, causing magic numbers to shift or new magic numbers to appear. Current theoretical investigation indicates that in the region "Z" = 106–108 and "N" ≈ 160–164, nuclei may be more resistant to fission as a consequence of shell effects for deformed nuclei; thus, such superheavy nuclei would only undergo alpha decay. Hassium-270 is now believed to be a doubly magic deformed nucleus, with deformed magic numbers "Z" = 108 and "N" = 162. It has a half-life of 9 seconds. This is consistent with models that take into account the deformed nature of nuclei intermediate between the actinides and island of stability near "N" = 184, in which a stability "peninsula" emerges at deformed magic numbers "Z" = 108 and "N" = 162. Determination of the decay properties of neighboring hassium and seaborgium isotopes near "N" = 162 provides further strong evidence for this region of relative stability in deformed nuclei. This also strongly suggests that the island of stability (for spherical nuclei) is not completely isolated from the region of stable nuclei, but rather that both regions are instead linked through an isthmus of relatively stable deformed nuclei.


title: Island of stability

text: The half-lives of nuclei in the island of stability itself are unknown since none of the nuclides that would be "on the island" have been observed. Many physicists believe that the half-lives of these nuclei are relatively short, on the order of minutes or days. Some theoretical calculations indicate that their half-lives may be long, on the order of 100 years, or possibly as long as 10 years.


title: Island of stability

text: The shell closure at "N" = 184 is predicted to result in longer partial half-lives for alpha decay and spontaneous fission. It is believed that the shell closure will result in higher fission barriers for nuclei around Fl, strongly hindering fission and perhaps resulting in fission half-lives 30 orders of magnitude greater than those of nuclei unaffected by the shell closure. For example, the neutron-deficient isotope Fl (with "N" = 170) undergoes fission with a half-life of 2.5 milliseconds, and is thought to be one of the most neutron-deficient nuclides with increased stability in the vicinity of the "N" = 184 shell closure. Beyond this point, some undiscovered isotopes are predicted to undergo fission with still shorter half-lives, limiting the existence and possible observation of superheavy nuclei far from the island of stability (namely for "N" < 170 as well as for "Z" > 120 and "N" > 184). These nuclei may undergo alpha decay or spontaneous fission in microseconds or less, with some fission half-lives estimated on the order of 10 seconds in the absence of fission barriers. In contrast, Fl (predicted to lie within the region of maximum shell effects) may have a much longer spontaneous fission half-life, possibly on the order of 10 years.


title: Island of stability

text: In the center of the island, there may be competition between alpha decay and spontaneous fission, though the exact ratio is model-dependent. The alpha decay half-lives of 1700 nuclei with 100 ≤ "Z" ≤ 130 have been calculated in a quantum tunneling model with both experimental and theoretical alpha decay Q-values, and are in agreement with observed half-lives for some of the heaviest isotopes.


title: Island of stability

text: The longest-lived nuclides are also predicted to lie on the beta-stability line, for beta decay is predicted to compete with the other decay modes near the predicted center of the island, especially for isotopes of elements 111–115. Unlike other decay modes predicted for these nuclides, beta decay does not change the mass number. Instead, a neutron is converted into a proton or vice versa, producing an adjacent isobar closer to the center of stability (the isobar with the lowest mass excess). For example, significant beta decay branches may exist in nuclides such as Fl and Nh; these nuclides have only a few more neutrons than known nuclides, and might decay via a "narrow pathway" towards the center of the island of stability. The possible role of beta decay is highly uncertain, as some isotopes of these elements (such as Fl and Mc) are predicted to have shorter partial half-lives for alpha decay. Beta decay would reduce competition and would result in alpha decay remaining the dominant decay channel, unless additional stability towards alpha decay exists in superdeformed isomers of these nuclides.


title: Island of stability

text: Considering all decay modes, various models indicate a shift of the center of the island (i.e., the longest-living nuclide) from Fl to a lower atomic number, and competition between alpha decay and spontaneous fission in these nuclides; these include 100-year half-lives for Cn and Cn, a 1000-year half-life for Cn, a 300-year half-life for Ds, and a 3500-year half-life for Ds, with Ds and Cn exactly at the "N" = 184 shell closure. It has also been posited that this region of enhanced stability for elements with 112 ≤ "Z" ≤ 118 may instead be a consequence of nuclear deformation, and that the true center of the island of stability for spherical superheavy nuclei lies around Ubb ("Z" = 122, "N" = 184). This model defines the island of stability as the region with the greatest resistance to fission rather than the longest total half-lives; the nuclide Ubb is still predicted to have a short half-life with respect to alpha decay. The island of stability for spherical nuclei may also be a "coral reef" (i.e., a broad region of increased stability without a clear "peak") around "N" = 184 and 114 ≤ "Z" ≤ 120, with half-lives rapidly decreasing at higher atomic number, due to combined effects from proton and neutron shell closures.


title: Island of stability

text: Another potentially significant decay mode for the heaviest superheavy elements was proposed to be cluster decay by Romanian physicists Dorin N. Poenaru and Radu A. Gherghescu and German physicist Walter Greiner. Its branching ratio relative to alpha decay is expected to increase with atomic number such that it may compete with alpha decay around "Z" = 120, and perhaps become the dominant decay mode for heavier nuclides around "Z" = 124. As such, it is expected to play a larger role beyond the center of the island of stability (though still influenced by shell effects), unless the center of the island lies at a higher atomic number than predicted.


title: Island of stability

text: Even though half-lives of hundreds or thousands of years would be relatively long for superheavy elements, they are far too short for any such nuclides to exist primordially on Earth. Additionally, instability of nuclei intermediate between primordial actinides (Th, U, and U) and the island of stability may inhibit production of nuclei within the island in "r"-process nucleosynthesis. Various models suggest that spontaneous fission will be the dominant decay mode of nuclei with "A" > 280, and that neutron-induced or beta-delayed fission—respectively neutron capture and beta decay immediately followed by fission—will become the primary reaction channels. As a result, beta decay towards the island of stability may only occur within a very narrow path or may be entirely blocked by fission, thus precluding the synthesis of nuclides within the island. The non-observation of superheavy nuclides such as Hs and Fl in nature is thought to be a consequence of a low yield in the "r"-process resulting from this mechanism, as well as half-lives too short to allow measurable quantities to persist in nature. Various studies utilizing accelerator mass spectroscopy and crystal scintillators have reported upper limits of the natural abundance of such long-lived superheavy nuclei on the order of relative to their stable homologs.


title: Island of stability

text: Despite these obstacles to their synthesis, a 2013 study published by a group of Russian physicists led by Valeriy Zagrebaev proposes that the longest-lived copernicium isotopes may occur at an abundance of 10 relative to lead, whereby they may be detectable in cosmic rays. Similarly, in a 2013 experiment, a group of Russian physicists led by Aleksandr Bagulya reported the possible observation of three cosmogenic superheavy nuclei in olivine crystals in meteorites. The atomic number of these nuclei was estimated to be between 105 and 130, with one nucleus likely constrained between 113 and 129, and their lifetimes were estimated to be at least 3,000 years. Although this observation has yet to be confirmed in independent studies, it strongly suggests the existence of the island of stability, and is consistent with theoretical calculations of half-lives of these nuclides.


title: Island of stability

text: The manufacture of nuclei on the island of stability proves to be very difficult because the nuclei available as starting materials do not deliver the necessary sum of neutrons. Radioactive ion beams (such as S) in combination with actinide targets (such as Cm) may allow the production of more neutron rich nuclei nearer to the center of the island of stability, though such beams are not currently available in the required intensities to conduct such experiments. Several heavier isotopes such as Cm and Es may still be usable as targets, allowing the production of isotopes with one or two more neutrons than known isotopes, though the production of several milligrams of these rare isotopes to create a target is difficult. It may also be possible to probe alternative reaction channels in the same Ca-induced fusion-evaporation reactions that populate the most neutron-rich known isotopes, namely the "pxn" and "αxn" (emission of a proton or alpha particle, respectively, followed by several neutrons) channels. This may allow the synthesis of neutron-enriched isotopes of elements 111–117. Although the predicted cross sections are on the order of 1–900 fb, smaller than those in the "xn" (emission of neutrons only) channels, it may still be possible to generate otherwise unreachable isotopes of superheavy elements in these reactions. Some of these heavier isotopes (such as Mc, Fl, and Nh) may also undergo electron capture (converting a proton into a neutron) in addition to alpha decay with relatively long half-lives, decaying to nuclei such as Cn that are predicted to lie near the center of the island of stability. However, this remains largely hypothetical as no superheavy nuclei near the beta-stability line have yet been synthesized and predictions of their properties vary considerably across different models.


title: Island of stability

text: The process of slow neutron capture used to produce nuclides as heavy as Fm is blocked by short-lived isotopes of fermium that undergo spontaneous fission (for example, Fm has a half-life of 370 µs); this is known as the "fermium gap" and prevents the synthesis of heavier elements in such a reaction. It might be possible to bypass this gap, as well as another predicted region of instability around "A" = 275 and "Z" = 104–108, in a series of controlled nuclear explosions with a higher neutron flux (about a thousand times greater than fluxes in existing reactors) that mimics the astrophysical "r"-process. First proposed in 1972 by Meldner, such a reaction might enable the production of macroscopic quantities of superheavy elements within the island of stability; the role of fission in intermediate superheavy nuclides is highly uncertain, and may strongly influence the yield of such a reaction.


title: Island of stability

text: It may also be possible to generate isotopes in the island of stability such as Fl in multi-nucleon transfer reactions in low-energy collisions of actinide nuclei (such as U and Cm). This inverse quasifission (partial fusion followed by fission, with a shift away from mass equilibrium that results in more asymmetric products) mechanism may provide a path to the island of stability if shell effects around "Z" = 114 are sufficiently strong, though lighter elements such as nobelium and seaborgium ("Z" = 102–106) are predicted to have higher yields. Preliminary studies of the U + U and U + Cm transfer reactions have failed to produce elements heavier than mendelevium ("Z" = 101), though the increased yield in the latter reaction suggests that the use of even heavier targets such as Es (if available) may enable production of superheavy elements. This result is supported by a later calculation suggesting that the yield of superheavy nuclides (with "Z" ≤ 109) will likely be higher in transfer reactions using heavier targets. A 2018 study of the U + Th reaction at the Texas A&M Cyclotron Institute by Sara Wuenschel et al. found several unknown alpha decays that may possibly be attributed to new, neutron-rich isotopes of superheavy elements with 104 < "Z" < 116, though further research is required to unambiguously determine the atomic number of the products. This result strongly suggests that shell effects have a significant influence on cross sections, and that the island of stability could possibly be reached in future experiments with transfer reactions.


title: Island of stability

text: Further shell closures beyond the main island of stability in the vicinity of "Z" = 112–114 may give rise to additional islands of stability. Although predictions for the location of the next magic numbers vary considerably, two significant islands are thought to exist around heavier doubly magic nuclei; the first near 126 (with 228 neutrons) and the second near 164 or 164 (with 308 or 318 neutrons). Nuclides within these two islands of stability might be especially resistant to spontaneous fission and have alpha decay half-lives measurable in years, thus having comparable stability to elements in the vicinity of flerovium. Other regions of relative stability may also appear with weaker proton shell closures in beta-stable nuclides; such possibilities include regions near 126 and 154. Substantially greater electromagnetic repulsion between protons in such heavy nuclei may greatly reduce their stability, and possibly restrict their existence to localized islands in the vicinity of shell effects. This may have the consequence of isolating these islands from the main chart of nuclides, as intermediate nuclides and perhaps elements in a "sea of instability" would rapidly undergo fission and essentially be nonexistent. It is also possible that beyond a region of relative stability around element 126, heavier nuclei would lie beyond a fission threshold given by the liquid drop model and thus undergo fission with very short lifetimes, rendering them essentially nonexistent even in the vicinity of greater magic numbers.


title: Island of stability

text: It has also been posited that in the region beyond "A" > 300, an entire "continent of stability" consisting of a hypothetical phase of stable quark matter, comprising freely flowing up and down quarks rather than quarks bound into protons and neutrons, may exist. Such a form of matter is theorized to be a ground state of baryonic matter with a greater binding energy per baryon than nuclear matter, favoring the decay of nuclear matter beyond this mass threshold into quark matter. If this state of matter exists, it could possibly be synthesized in the same fusion reactions leading to normal superheavy nuclei, and would be stabilized against fission as a consequence of its stronger binding that is enough to overcome Coulomb repulsion.


title: Shakun Batra

text: Shakun Batra (born 1 January 1983) is an Indian film director and screenwriter. His first film was the romantic comedy "Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu" (2012). He followed this with "Kapoor & Sons" (2016) and Gehraiyaan (2022).


title: Shakun Batra

text: Batra entered the film industry working as a side actor in the movie “”, and then moved on to become an assistant director on films like "Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Na" (2008) and "Rock On!!" (2008), while starring in the former as Nilesh, a minor character.


title: Shakun Batra

text: He made his directorial and screenwriting debut with the romantic comedy "Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu" (2012), which was produced by Karan Johar's Dharma Productions. Rachel Saltz of "The New York Times" commented, "The happy surprise of "Ek Main aur Ekk Tu" is that it's not crude, sniggering or vindictive. Instead it's rather sweet and sometimes even a little unexpected."


title: Shakun Batra

text: Batra's next film was the family drama "Kapoor & Sons" (2016). Writing for "The Hindu", Namrata Joshi said that the film "keeps you riveted as you move from one family fight to another" and praised Batra for giving "a refreshing new voice to an old, tried and tested trope."


title: Shakun Batra

text: Batra's next movie was a romantic drama that revolves around two couples. Two of the characters were played by Deepika Padukone and Siddhant Chaturvedi. The movie was expected to go on floors in March 2020. He also turns producer with this movie. Titled as "Gehraiyaan" it was initially slated to premiere directly on Amazon Prime Video on 25 January 2021. The movie finally released on Amazon Prime on 11 February 2022.


title: History of astrology

text: Astrological beliefs in correspondences between celestial observations and terrestrial events have influenced various aspects of human history, including world-views, language and many elements of social culture.


title: History of astrology

text: Among West Eurasian peoples, the earliest evidence for astrology dates from the 3rd millennium BC, with roots in calendrical systems used to predict seasonal shifts and to interpret celestial cycles as signs of divine communications. Until the 17th century, astrology was considered a scholarly tradition, and it helped drive the development of astronomy. It was commonly accepted in political and cultural circles, and some of its concepts were used in other traditional studies, such as alchemy, meteorology and medicine. By the end of the 17th century, emerging scientific concepts in astronomy, such as heliocentrism, undermined the theoretical basis of astrology, which subsequently lost its academic standing and became regarded as a pseudoscience. Empirical scientific investigation has shown that predictions based on these systems are not accurate.


title: History of astrology

text: In the 20th century, astrology gained broader consumer popularity through the influence of regular mass media products, such as newspaper horoscopes.


title: History of astrology

text: Astrology, in its broadest sense, is the search for human meaning in the sky; it seeks to understand general and specific human behavior through the influence of planets and other celestial objects. It has been argued that astrology began as a study as soon as human beings made conscious attempts to measure, record, and predict seasonal changes by reference to astronomical cycles.


title: History of astrology

text: Early evidence of such practices appears as markings on bones and cave walls, which show that lunar cycles were being noted as early as 25,000 years ago; the first step towards recording the Moon's influence upon tides and rivers, and towards organizing a communal calendar. With the Neolithic agricultural revolution new needs were also met by increasing knowledge of constellations, whose appearances in the night-time sky change with the seasons, allowing the rising of particular star-groups to herald annual floods or seasonal activities. By the 3rd millennium BC, widespread civilisations had developed sophisticated awareness of celestial cycles, and are believed to have consciously oriented their temples to create alignment with the heliacal risings of the stars.


title: History of astrology

text: There is scattered evidence to suggest that the oldest known astrological references are copies of texts made during this period, particularly in Mesopotamia (Sumer, Akkad, Assyria and Babylonia). Two, from the Venus tablet of Ammisaduqa (compiled in Babylon round 1700 BC) are reported to have been made during the reign of king Sargon of Akkad (2334–2279 BC). Another, showing an early use of electional astrology, is ascribed to the reign of the Sumerian ruler Gudea of Lagash (c. 2144–2124 BC). This describes how the gods revealed to him in a dream the constellations that would be most favourable for the planned construction of a temple. However, controversy attends the question of whether they were genuinely recorded at the time or merely ascribed to ancient rulers by posterity. The oldest undisputed evidence of the use of astrology as an integrated system of knowledge is therefore attributed to the records that emerge from the first dynasty of Mesopotamia (1950–1651 BC).


title: History of astrology

text: Babylonian astrology is the earliest recorded organized system of astrology, arising in the 2nd millennium BC. There is speculation that astrology of some form appeared in the Sumerian period in the 3rd millennium BC, but the isolated references to ancient celestial omens dated to this period are not considered sufficient evidence to demonstrate an integrated theory of astrology. The history of scholarly celestial divination is therefore generally reported to begin with late Old Babylonian texts ( 1800 BC), continuing through the Middle Babylonian and Middle Assyrian periods ( 1200 BC).