title: Buick LaCrosse

text: The 2010 Buick LaCrosse CXS is the first North American car to incorporate a front suspension design, marketed as "HiPer Strut", designed to improve ride and handling and reduces torque steer. The Buick LaCrosse CXS includes a system marketed as "Real Time Damping" that adjusts the damping forces of the shocks and struts for improved ride and handling.


title: Buick LaCrosse

text: The 2010, 2012, and 2013 models lacked an interior trunk release mechanism. The trunk was only accessible using the key fob (remote keyless entry) or a touch sensor between the trunk lid and the license plate. The 2011 year model added a remote release button at the left of the steering wheel on the instrument panel. The 2014 model refresh returned the trunk release button to LaCrosse but placed it on the driver door.


title: Buick LaCrosse

text: For 2016, the LaCrosse added a new Sport Touring Edition which included unique 18" aluminum black pocket wheels and a rear lip spoiler.


title: Buick LaCrosse

text: The 2012 LaCrosse features a new mild hybrid as its base model. Dubbed eAssist, the 2012 LaCrosse introduced GM's second generation belted-alternator starter system. The non-hybrid 4-cylinder is no longer offered. The system consists of a 115-volt lithium-ion battery pack, a 15 kW electric motor capable of adding 15 horsepower of assist while accelerating, and the next generation 6T40 GM Hydramatic transmission with reduced friction components over the previous generation. The eAssist LaCrosse delivers a class leading fuel economy of 25 mpg city and 36 mpg highway. In addition to providing additional power to the 182 hp 2.4-liter 4-cylinder, the BAS-II system allows for engine start/stop operation when the vehicle isn't moving and allows for complete fuel cut off to the engine during deceleration.


title: Buick LaCrosse

text: The LaCrosse was sold in Mexico starting in 2010, as the Buick brand returned to the country after 13 years of absence.


title: Buick LaCrosse

text: The 2nd generation LaCrosse debuted to the Canadian market at the 2009 Montreal International Auto Show as the Buick Allure, and soon after production began, General Motors Canada renamed the Allure to LaCrosse, to correspond with the car's global marketing. GM Canada has offered existing Allure owners the option to change nameplates to LaCrosse.


title: Buick LaCrosse

text: The Alpheon was a localized version of the Buick LaCrosse for the South Korean market. "Alpheon" was a standalone brand from GM Korea. The cars were additionally fitted with amenities such as controls in the rear armrest, mood lights and more. A version of the vehicle (with 3.0-liter V-6 engine, six-speed automatic transmission) was unveiled at the 2010 Busan International Motor Show.


title: Buick LaCrosse

text: Production began on August 9, 2010 at GM Daewoo's factory in Bupyeong, Incheon. Market launch began in September 2010. Early model includes a model with 3.0-liter engine (from 2010 Buick LaCrosse) in mid-September, followed by two models each with 2.4-liter engine in October.


title: Buick LaCrosse

text: The Alpheon was discontinued in 2015, after monthly sales fell below 500 cars. GM Korea replaced it with the Chevrolet Impala.


title: Buick LaCrosse

text: The Roewe 950 is a licensed restyled Chinese version of the Buick LaCrosse produced by Roewe of SAIC. It is sold alongside the Buick LaCrosse in China, and has a price range similar to that of the LaCrosse. The sheet metal, while similar in appearance, is unique to the Roewe.


title: Buick LaCrosse

text: In late February 2012, the Chinese government took the Buick LaCrosse (along with all other foreign vehicles) off of the list of vehicles approved for government procurement. Though popular among government officials the LaCrosse also thrives via private purchases. Effects on sales remains to be seen.


title: Buick LaCrosse

text: Buick unveiled a revised 2014 LaCrosse at the 2013 New York Auto Show. Redesigned front and rear fascias, new wheel designs, a reconfigurable 8 inch TFT instrument cluster, semi-aniline leather seating, and radar- and camera-based safety features such as forward collision alert and side blind zone alert highlight the changes for this mid-cycle refresh.


title: Buick LaCrosse

text: Production of North American models moved from Oshawa to the Fairfax Assembly plant in Kansas City, Kansas, where it runs down the same production line as the Chevrolet Malibu. Delivery of 2010 year models was delayed a few weeks in order to assure quality control. Production for China started a month later.


title: Buick LaCrosse

text: The third generation LaCrosse debuted at the 2015 LA Auto Show as a 2017 model using E2XX platform shared with the 2016–present Chevrolet Impala. The platform switch reduced its weight by about , despite slightly growing in length and width. The weight reduction was achieved by use of high-strength steels and better sound-absorbing material. The car is powered by a GM Small Gasoline Engine and GM Ecotec engine in China for tax credit purposes and by a Fourth Generation GM High Feature engine in North America. Starting 2018, the LaCrosse comes standard with an eAssist drivetrain, consisting of a mild hybrid electric and 2.5-liter Ecotec gasoline engine sending power to the front wheels through a 6-speed automatic transmission. In order to make room for an upcoming new product in the Kansas City, KS facility, the production of the LaCrosse was moved from GM Fairfax Assembly to Detroit/Hamtramck Assembly.


title: Buick LaCrosse

text: The main difference between the North American and Chinese models sold is the drive system. Models sold in the Chinese market are front wheel drive vehicles compared to their American counterparts which are available in front wheel drive or all wheel drive.


title: Buick LaCrosse

text: The 2017 LaCrosse received a "Top Safety Pick" in the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's Crashworthiness test and a "Poor" rating for headlights, which prevented a "Top Safety Pick Plus". The LaCrosse comes standard with 10 air bags including front air bags, roof rail-mounted head-curtain air bags, seat-mounted side-impact air bags for both front and rear outboard seat passengers, and knee air bags for front seat passengers. Additional standard safety features include Ultra-sonic rear parking assist, and backup camera. Optional safety features include a following distance indicator, forward collision alert, forward collision braking, front pedestrian detection, blind spot detection, lane keeping assist, and rear-cross traffic alert.


title: Buick LaCrosse

text: The receptions by car critics was generally positive, but not without flaws. Car and Driver stated, "Elegant exterior, much-improved interior materials, impressive ride and handling with up level suspension," while "U.S. News & World Report" listed the 2017 LaCrosse as a Finalist for Best Large Car for Families. Motor Trend stated, "The car drops about 300 pounds and rides on a new platform, which contributes to a better driving experience and a much quieter ride. Buick also separates the LaCrosse from most competitors by offering all-wheel drive on the highest trim level," and listed the Kia Cadenza, Nissan Maxima, Chrysler 300, and Lexus ES as competitors.


title: Buick LaCrosse

text: Reviewers were critical of the gear selector, however, with Consumer Reports stating, "Our biggest gripe about the controls is the new electronic gear selector. Drivers used to a traditional PRNDL configuration—in other words, those drivers who kept the lights on for Buick for many years—will be puzzled, if not angered." In addition, reviewers were critical of the sticker price on top trim, heavily optioned models with Bloomberg stating, "by the time you spend the $48,395 it costs to get the LaCrosse to this level, you're creeping into Audi/BMW/Mercedes territory."


title: Buick LaCrosse

text: The Buick LaCrosse is one of six vehicles GM discontinued after the 2019 model year amid a global restructuring effort by the company. The discontinuation of the LaCrosse only affects the North American market and Buick will continue to build the LaCrosse in China, where the sedan is a best seller. Production of the Buick LaCrosse for North America ceased on February 15, 2019.


title: Buick LaCrosse

text: A facelift was introduced for the 2019 model year in the Chinese market, with the facelifted LaCrosse featuring a new 2.0-liter turbo engine to the powertrain options. The new 2.0-liter turbo engine is one of GM’s eighth-generation Ecotec engines and delivers a maximum output of 237 hp and 350 N-m of torque. The 2019 LaCrosse is available with a nine-speed Hydra-Matic automatic transmission with an average fuel consumption of 6.9 liters per 100 kilometers (34 miles per gallon).


title: The Fat Boys

text: The Fat Boys were an American hip hop trio from Brooklyn, New York, who emerged in the early 1980s. The group was briefly known originally as the Disco 3, originally composed of Mark "Prince Markie Dee" Morales, Damon "Kool Rock-Ski" Wimbley, and Darren "Buff Love" Robinson.


title: The Fat Boys

text: The trio is widely known for using beatbox in their songs. The group opened doors for beatboxers like Biz Markie and Doug E. Fresh. The Fat Boys were one of the first rap groups to release full-length rap albums, along with Run-D.M.C., Whodini and Kurtis Blow. Beloved for their comedic, self-deprecating rhymes, the group released seven studio albums, four of which went Gold by RIAA.


title: The Fat Boys

text: The first two albums of the group were produced by Kurtis Blow. Successful singles included "Jail House Rap", "Can You Feel It?", "Fat Boys", "Stick 'Em", "Don't You Dog Me", "All You Can Eat", "The Fat Boys Are Back", and "Pump It Up".


title: The Fat Boys

text: The album "Crushin'" received a Platinum status due to their single "Wipeout", which was recorded together with the American rock group The Beach Boys. The next album, "Coming Back Hard Again", repeated the formula of the previous one and received a Gold status due to the successful single "The Twist (Yo, Twist)", recorded together with American rock 'n roll singer Chubby Checker. The album also included the theme song for the movie "", which featured Robert Englund performing as Freddy Krueger.


title: The Fat Boys

text: The group starred in three feature films in the 1980s: "Krush Groove", "Knights of the City" and "Disorderlies".


title: The Fat Boys

text: In 1983, a Swiss-born promoter named Charles Stettler, the owner of his own label Tin Pan Apple, decided to hold a hip-hop talent contest. To find a sponsor, Stettler went to the WBLS radio station, which recommended him to a couple of sponsors. In the end, he persuaded the company Coca-Cola to finance the contest. For the next three months, contests were held to identify a winner in each borough of New York City every Saturday afternoon.


title: The Fat Boys

text: On May 23, 1983, the final contest entitled "Coca-Cola and WBLS present: The Tin Pan Apple After Dark Dance & Rap Contest!" was held. The event was held at Radio City Music Hall. The host that evening was Mr. Magic from the radio program "Rap Attack". According to the terms of the competition, the winner signed a contract for a recording contract. The Fat Boys members, then calling themselves The Disco 3, were unexpected winners with their song "Stick' Em".


title: The Fat Boys

text: In 1983, The Disco 3 released their debut single "Reality". It was produced by James Mason, jazz guitarist and keyboardist of Roy Ayers' jazz-funk band.


title: The Fat Boys

text: Since the group did not have a manager, Stettler took over this position. Stettler took the group on a European bus tour, where he told them to gain more weight. The concerts ended at 12 o'clock in the evening, and they could not get to the hotel until two o'clock in the morning. Only places like McDonald's and Burger King were open, so the group members gained weight from this. Since so much was happening, the group members did not even notice this on the tour and did not consider themselves overweight. A party was later held for the renaming of the group at the Roseland Ballroom in New York.


title: The Fat Boys

text: Charlie Stettler introduced the group to rapper and producer Kurtis Blow, who helped them find their signature sound. To work on the album, Kurtis Blow recruited the drum machine programmers of Run-D.M.C., Larry Smith and Davy "DMX" Reeves, who were considered two of the best at making songs at the time. "Stick' Em" was the first song they recorded with Kurtis Blow.


title: The Fat Boys

text: The group's 1984 self-titled debut album, "Fat Boys", is considered by many to be the first hip-hop album to feature the element of hip hop known as beatboxing. Darren "The Human Beat Box" Robinson was a pioneer in beatboxing.


title: The Fat Boys

text: One day in 1984, Russell Simmons stormed into Stettler's office and told him that he was going to have a festival titled Fresh Fest Tour '84, in which his groups and breakdancers would take part. Since Stettler raised $300,000 from Coca-Cola to finance his 1983 contest, Simmons wanted Stettler to do it again. The young promoter could not get the beverage company to return, so he called a friend of his and asked him if there was anything the Swiss were trying to sell. The Swatch wristwatch turned out to be such a product. Stettler persuaded the company to finance a tour of $360,000, while the festival was renamed The Swatch Watch New York City Fresh Fest.


title: The Fat Boys

text: Russell Simmons did not want to take the Fat Boys on the tour, because nobody had heard of them at that point. Stettler went to an old Tower Records store on 4th Street and Broadway, and handed out 5,000 flyers that read: "Guess the weight of the Fat Boys and the person who does wins 800 cans of Diet Pepsi and one dollar." Thousands of children lined up at the Tower Records store to participate. Stettler put the group members on the scale; at that time they weighed together. In the end, a boy from Harlem won. Channel 2 News filmed this event, including the delivery of the soft drink, but police did not respond when it was stolen a short time later.


title: The Fat Boys

text: The next day, Stettler saw in the newspaper that The Jackson 5 was going to be reuniting at a concert in October 1984. He called his wife and part-time partner, asking her to write a press release saying that the Jackson 5 have picked the then-still-unknown group the Fat Boys as their opening act. Stettler distributed this press release across the city. The next morning, Stettler and The Fat Boys appeared on the TV show "Good Morning America". When the host turned around to The Fat Boys, they did not know what to say. They simply said: "Brrr, Stick' Em! Ha-ha-ha, Stick 'Em!", due to it being the group's popular song at the time.


title: The Fat Boys

text: Russell Simmons agreed to add The Fat Boys to the lineup of the festival, which included Run-D.M.C., Kurtis Blow, Whodini, Newcleus, and The Dynamic Breakers. The first concert of the tour took place on Labor Day, September 3, 1984. For 27 concerts in the United States, the organizers raised $3.5 million. The festival was accompanied by advertising on television.


title: The Fat Boys

text: In 1985, this was followed by Fresh Fest II, which included the same acts, with Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five replacing Newcleus.


title: The Fat Boys

text: At the time, the American office of the company Swatch was tasked with trying to advertise its product to American audiences. The company was known for using offbeat campaigns, and agreed to feature the Fat Boys in a commercial for the watches on MTV. The video "Brrr, Swatch ’Em!" was aired in December 1984. Swatch again featured The Fat Boys in a 1985 Christmas advertisement created by former MTV creative heads Alan Goodman and Fred Seibert. This commercial, "Swatch Watch Presents A Merry Christmas" was first broadcast in December 1985. These commercials were notable, because when they aired in December 1984, MTV did not feature many hip-hop artists in their programming, having only started airing music videos from rap artists earlier that year with Run-D.M.C.’s crossover hit, “Rock Box.” Due to the success of these commercials, they would become frequent guests on MTV, pioneering a space for hip-hop artists to appear on the network and ultimately increasing hip hop's popularity and legitimacy with MTV's audience.


title: The Fat Boys

text: Also because of these commercials, the group developed a reputation for their sense of humor. They starred in several feature films. Their first starring role came in the movie "Krush Groove" (1985), followed by a second, "Disorderlies" (1987), which also featured Ralph Bellamy as a millionaire invalid cared for by his good-natured yet inept orderlies (played by the Fat Boys), with a cameo by manager Stettler.


title: The Fat Boys

text: Hoping to repeat the success of Run-D.M.C. and Aerosmith with the single "Walk This Way" The Fat Boys made a cover version of the song "Wipeout" together with rock group The Beach Boys. The single peaked at number 12 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 and number 10 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. The song "Wipeout" reached #2 on UK Top 100 in September 1987 during a 13-week chart run. "Wipeout" was the last song the group members recorded for the album "Crushin'".


title: The Fat Boys

text: The music video for the song begins with an announcement of a boxing match, The Fat Boys and The Beach Boys are attending the match. The match is interrupted by a fight. In the following scene, The Fat Boys load up a car with swimsuits and then drive off. The Beach Boys are driving in a dune buggy through the city. Both bands go around the city in the direction of a beach, while they perform the song and invite the inhabitants of the city to come to the beach. Meanwhile, at the beach one of The Fat Boys tries to lift a heavy weight and is laughed at by two women because of failure, another playing volleyball and another surfing. The Beach Boys on the other hand are DJing in the street. At the end of the video they all celebrate at a beach party.


title: The Fat Boys

text: The group was later approached to record the theme song for "" (1988), called "Are You Ready for Freddy", which featured Robert Englund performing as Freddy Krueger.


title: The Fat Boys

text: Their next album called "Coming Back Hard Again" repeated the formula of the previous one. This time, The Fat Boys recorded a cover version of the song "The Twist" with Chubby Checker, who performed it originally in 1960. The single peaked at number 16 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 and number 40 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. The song "The Twist (Yo, Twist)" reached number two on UK Top 100 in July 1988 during a 11-week chart run. Another song from the album, "Louie Louie", is a cover version of a 1957 song by American singer Richard Berry. The song peaked at number 46 on UK Top 100 on November 5, 1988 for 4 weeks.


title: The Fat Boys

text: However, the tastes of the listeners at that time had already changed. By taking part in the rash rap opera "On And On", the group tried to regain its fame, but this only accelerated the breakup of the group. Prince Markie Dee left the group in 1990 to pursue solo interests, which included producing many early tracks for Mariah Carey and Mary J. Blige which included her debut single, "Real Love". In 1991, the remaining two members, Kool Rock-Ski and Buff Love, carried on as a duo and released "Mack Daddy" (1991), but shortly thereafter, the group disbanded (until 2008). In the 1992 feature film "Boomerang", Chris Rock's character laments the breakup of the Fat Boys. He was later quoted by Jay-Z in his 2001 song the "Heart of the City (Ain't No Love)".


title: The Fat Boys

text: On December 10, 1995, Buff Love died of a heart attack during a bout with respiratory flu in Rosedale, Queens, New York. He was 28 years old and reportedly weighed .


title: The Fat Boys

text: The surviving members of the Fat Boys launched its first official homepage, OriginalFatBoys.com, on November 5, 2008. According to the website, the Fat Boys recorded their first track in nearly two decades and had plans of doing a reality TV show in search of a new member.


title: The Fat Boys

text: In March 2009, Kool Rock-Ski announced the launch of his official website, KoolRockSki.com. His first solo project, the EP "Party Time", was released on April 14, 2009.


title: The Fat Boys

text: On October 18, 2010, the cable network TV One's aired "Unsung: The Story of The Fat Boys". It mentioned that the two surviving members reunited and were touring with Doug E. Fresh who was providing the beatboxing. There has been no confirmation as to whether he is the new third permanent member. The special was produced by the group's manager, Louis Gregory, publicly known as Uncle Louie.


title: The Fat Boys

text: In August 2012, The Fat Boys were scheduled to perform at the 13th annual Gathering of the Juggalos in Cave-In-Rock, Illinois but ultimately failed to appear.


title: The Fat Boys

text: Prince Markie Dee died of a suspected heart attack on February 18, 2021, the day before his 53rd birthday; according to TMZ, Morales had gone to the hospital complaining of chest pains. It was determined a stent was needed to clear blockage in his heart, but Morales died before the stent could be inserted.


title: The Fat Boys

text: Prince Markie Dee was a radio host for WEDR 99 Jamz in Miami, Florida working weekends while Kool Rock-Ski is last known to have been residing in New York, and is the last surviving Fat Boy.


title: Byung-Chul Han

text: Byung-Chul Han (born 1959) is a South Korean-born philosopher and cultural theorist living in Germany. He was a professor at the Berlin University of the Arts and still occasionally gives courses there.


title: Byung-Chul Han

text: Byung-Chul Han studied metallurgy at Korea University in Seoul before he moved to Germany in the 1980s to study philosophy, German literature and Catholic theology in Freiburg im Breisgau and Munich. He received his doctoral degree at Freiburg with a dissertation on Martin Heidegger in 1994.


title: Byung-Chul Han

text: In 2000, he joined the Department of Philosophy at the University of Basel, where he completed his "habilitation". In 2010 he became a faculty member at the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design, where his areas of interest were philosophy of the 18th, 19th and 20th century, ethics, social philosophy, phenomenology, cultural theory, aesthetics, religion, media theory, and intercultural philosophy. From 2012 to 2017 he taught philosophy and cultural studies at the Universität der Künste Berlin (UdK), where he directed the newly established "Studium Generale" general-studies program.


title: Byung-Chul Han

text: Han is the author of twenty books, the most recent of which are treatises on what he terms a "society of tiredness" (), a "society of transparency" (), and the concept of shanzhai (山寨), a style of imitative variation, whose roots are, he argued, intrinsic to Chinese culture, undermine the distinction often drawn between original and fake, and pre-exist, he argues, practices which in Western philosophy are called deconstructive.


title: Byung-Chul Han

text: Han's current work focuses on transparency as a cultural norm created by neoliberal market forces, which he understands as the insatiable drive toward voluntary disclosure bordering on the pornographic. According to Han, the dictates of transparency enforce a totalitarian system of openness at the expense of other social values such as shame, secrecy, and trust.


title: Byung-Chul Han

text: Until recently, he refused to give radio and television interviews and rarely divulges any biographical or personal details, including his date of birth, in public.


title: Byung-Chul Han

text: Much of Han's writing is characterised by an underlying concern with the situation encountered by human subjects in the fast-paced, technologically-driven state of late capitalism. The situation is explored in its various facets through his books: sexuality, mental health (particularly burnout, depression, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), violence, freedom, technology, and popular culture.


title: Byung-Chul Han

text: In "The Burnout Society" (original German title: ), Han characterizes today's society as a pathological landscape of neuronal disorders such as depression, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, borderline personality and burnout. He claims that they are not "infections" but "infarcts", which are not caused by the negativity of people's immunology, but by an excess of positivity. According to Han, driven by the demand to persevere and not to fail, as well as by the ambition of efficiency, we become committers and sacrificers at the same time and enter a swirl of demarcation, self-exploitation and collapse. "When production is immaterial, everyone already owns the means of production, him- or herself. The neoliberal system is no longer a class system in the proper sense. It does not consist of classes that display mutual antagonism. This is what accounts for the system's stability."


title: Byung-Chul Han

text: Han argues that subjects become self-exploiters: "Today, everyone is an "auto-exploiting labourer in his or her own enterprise." People are now master and slave in one. Even class struggle has transformed into an "inner struggle against oneself"." The individual has become what Han calls "the achievement-subject"; the individual does not believe they are subjugated "subjects" but rather "projects: Always refashioning and reinventing ourselves" which "amounts to a form of compulsion and constraint—indeed, to a "more efficient kind of subjectivation and subjugation." As a project deeming itself free of external and alien limitations, the "I" subjugates itself to internal limitations and self-constraints, which are taking the form of compulsive achievement and optimization.


title: Byung-Chul Han

text: In "Agonie des Eros" ('Agony of the Eros') Han carries forward thoughts developed in his earlier books "The Burnout Society" () and "Transparency Society" (). Beginning with an analysis of the "Other" Han develops an interrogation of desire and love between human beings. Partly based on Lars von Trier's film "Melancholia", where Han sees depression and overcoming depicted, Han further develops his thesis of a contemporary society that is increasingly dominated by narcissism and self-reference. Han's diagnosis extends even to the point of the loss of desire, the disappearance of the ability to devote to the "Other", the stranger, the non-self. At this point, subjects come to revolve exclusively around themselves, unable to build relationships. Even love and sexuality are permeated by this social change: sex and pornography, exhibition/voyeurism and re/presentation, are displacing love, eroticism, and desire from the public eye. The abundance of positivity and self-reference leads to a loss of confrontation. Thinking, Han states, is based on the "untreaded", on the desire for something that one does not yet understand. It is connected to a high degree with Eros, so the "agony of the Eros" is also an "agony of thought". Not everything must be understood and "liked", not everything must be made available.


title: Byung-Chul Han

text: In "Topologie der Gewalt" ('Topology of Violence'), Han continues his analysis of a society on the edge of collapse that he started with "The Burnout Society". Focusing on the relation between violence and individuality, he shows that, against the widespread thesis about its disappearance, violence has only changed its form of appearance and now operates more subtly. The material form of violence gives way to a more anonymous, desubjectified, systemic one, that does not reveal itself, as it is merging with its antagonist – freedom. This theme is further explored in "Psychopolitics", where through Sigmund Freud, Walter Benjamin, Carl Schmitt, Richard Sennett, René Girard, Giorgio Agamben, Deleuze/Guattari, Michel Foucault, Michel Serres, Pierre Bourdieu and Martin Heidegger, Han develops an original conception of violence. Central to Han's thesis is the idea that violence finds expression in 'negative' and 'positive' forms (note: these are not normative judgements about the expressions themselves): negative violence is an overtly physical manifestation of violence, finding expression in war, torture, terrorism, etc; positive violence "manifests itself as over-achievement, over-production, over-communication, hyper-attention, and hyperactivity." The violence of positivity, Han warns, could be even more disastrous than that of negativity. "Infection, invasion, and infiltration have given way to infarction."


title: Byung-Chul Han

text: Han has written on topics such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, borderline personality disorder, burnout, depression, exhaustion, internet, love, multitasking, pop culture, power, rationality, religion, social media, subjectivity, tiredness, transparency and violence.


title: Byung-Chul Han

text: "Müdigkeitsgesellschaft" will soon be available in 19 languages. Several South Korean newspapers voted it to be the most important book in 2012. "The Guardian" wrote a positive review of his 2017 book "Psychopolitics: Neoliberalism and New Technologies of Power", while the "Hong Kong Review of Books" praised his writing as "concise almost to the point of being aphoristic, Han's writing style manages to distill complex ideas into highly readable and persuasive prose" while noting that "on other occasions, Han veers uncomfortably close to billboard-sized statements ("Neoliberalism is the 'capitalism of' "Like"), which highlights the fine line between cleverness and self-indulgent sloganeering." The "Los Angeles Review of Books" described him as "as good a candidate as any for philosopher of the moment."


title: Byung-Chul Han

text: Der Freitag writer Steffen Kraft criticized him for drawing on anti-democratic and anti-technology Carl Schmitt, and alleged that he "confuses cause and effect: it is not the hope for more transparency that has turned democracy into technocracy, but the refusal of even progressives to consider the consequences of information technology on the political process." (original quote in German: ""Ursache und Wirkung: Nicht die Hoffnung auf mehr Transparenz hat die Demokratie zur Technokratie gemacht, sondern die Weigerung selbst Progressiver, die Folgen der Informationstechnik auf den politischen Prozess zu bedenken. "")


title: Nadira Babbar

text: Nadira Babbar (born 20 January 1948) is an Indian theatre actress, director and an actress in Hindi cinema, who is the recipient of Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 2001. Nadira founded a Mumbai-based theatre group called Ekjute, a known name in Hindi theatre in 1981.


title: Nadira Babbar

text: Nadira Babbar was seen playing mother to Aishwarya Rai in Gurinder Chadha's film "Bride and Prejudice" (2004), and M. F. Hussain's "" (2004). She was also portrayed as the mother of Salman Khan in Sohail Khan's "Jai Ho" and as the mother of Raj Bansal (main villain) in Sunny Deol's 2016 movie named "Ghayal Once Again".


title: Nadira Babbar

text: She graduated from National School of Drama (NSD), New Delhi in 1971. Nadira was a Gold Medallist at NSD and went to Germany on a scholarship, and later got a chance to work with renowned directors like Grotovisky and Peter Brooks.


title: Nadira Babbar

text: She started her theatre group in "Ekjute" (Together) in 1981 in Delhi, which came out with its first production "Yahudi Ki Ladki" in 1981, which revived the Parsi theatre style, and is considered one of its finest. The group has also been performing the Bhavai-based musical, "Jasma Odhan", written by Shanta Gandhi for several years now. Nadira moved to Mumbai in 1988, and reestablished her theatre group.


title: Nadira Babbar

text: Over the last 30 years, Ekjute has given Indian theatre over sixty plays including "Sandhya Chhaya", "Look Back in Anger", "Ballabpur Ki Roop Katha", "Baat Laat Ki Halaat Ki", "Bharam Ke Bhoot", "Shabash Anarkali" and "Begum Jaan"; apart from directing plays written by herself: "Dayashankar Ki Diary" (1997), "Sakku Bai" (1999), "Suman Aur Sana" and "Ji Jaisi Aapki Marzi". It has worked with actors like Raj Babbar, Satish Kaushik and Kirron Kher.


title: Nadira Babbar

text: In 1990, Ekjute started the 'Ekjute Young People's Theatre Group', which has given productions like "Aao Picnic Challen" and "Azdak Ka Insaaf". The groups celebrated 30 years of its foundation in 2011, with a week-long theatre festival, "30 Years Caravan 2011", at Prithvi Theatres, Mumbai which began on 14 April 2011. She also appeared in Salman Khan-starrer Hindi movie "Jai Ho" (2014).


title: Nadira Babbar

text: Nadira Babbar was recently seen in the web series, The Married Woman, directed by Sahir Raza. The star cast also includes Ridhi Dogra and Monica Dogra.


title: Eurocentrism

text: Eurocentrism (also Eurocentricity or Western-centrism) is a worldview that is centered on Western civilization or a biased view that favors it over non-Western civilizations. The exact scope of Eurocentrism varies from the entire Western world to just the continent of Europe or even more narrowly, to Western Europe (especially during the Cold War). When the term is applied historically, it may be used in reference to an apologetic stance toward European colonialism and other forms of imperialism.


title: Eurocentrism

text: The term "Eurocentrism" dates back to the late 1970s but it did not become prevalent until the 1990s, when it was frequently applied in the context of decolonisation and development and humanitarian aid that industrialised countries offered to developing countries. The term has since been used to critique Western narratives of progress, Western scholars who have downplayed and ignored non-Western contributions, and to contrast Western epistemologies with Indigenous ways of knowing.


title: Eurocentrism

text: The adjective "Eurocentric", or "Europe-centric", has been in use in various contexts since at least the 1920s. The term was popularised (in French as "européocentrique") in the context of decolonisation and internationalism in the mid-20th century. English usage of "Eurocentric" as an ideological term in identity politics was current by the mid-1980s.


title: Eurocentrism

text: The abstract noun "Eurocentrism" (French "eurocentrisme", earlier "europocentrisme") as the term for an ideology was coined in the 1970s by the Egyptian Marxian economist Samir Amin, then director of the African Institute for Economic Development and Planning of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. Amin used the term in the context of a global, core-periphery or dependency model of capitalist development. English usage of "Eurocentrism" is recorded by 1979.


title: Eurocentrism

text: During the European colonial era, encyclopaedias often sought to give a rationale for the predominance of European rule during the colonial period by referring to a special position taken by Europe compared to the other continents.


title: Eurocentrism

text: Thus Johann Heinrich Zedler, in 1741, wrote that "even though Europe is the smallest of the world's four continents, it has for various reasons a position that places it before all others... Its inhabitants have excellent customs, they are courteous and erudite in both sciences and crafts".


title: Eurocentrism

text: The "Brockhaus Enzyklopädie" ("Conversations-Lexicon") of 1847 still expressed an ostensibly Eurocentric approach and claimed about Europe that "its geographical situation and its cultural and political significance is clearly the most important of the five continents, over which it has gained a most influential government both in material and even more so in cultural aspects".


title: Eurocentrism

text: European exceptionalism thus grew out of the Great Divergence of the Early Modern period, due to the combined effects of the Scientific Revolution, the Commercial Revolution, and the rise of colonial empires, the Industrial Revolution and a Second European colonisation wave.


title: Eurocentrism

text: European exceptionalism is widely reflected in popular genres of literature, especially in literature for young adults (for example, Rudyard Kipling's 1901 novel "Kim") and in adventure-literature in general. Portrayal of European colonialism in such literature has been analysed in terms of Eurocentrism in retrospect, such as presenting idealised and often exaggeratedly masculine Western heroes, who conquered "savage" peoples in the remaining "dark spaces" of the globe.


title: Eurocentrism

text: The European miracle, a term coined by Eric Jones in 1981, refers to the surprising rise of Europe during the Early Modern period. During the 15th to 18th centuries, a great divergence took place, comprising the European Renaissance, the European age of discovery, the formation of European colonial empires, the Age of Reason, and the associated leap forward in technology and the development of capitalism and early industrialisation. As a result, by the 19th century European powers dominated world trade and world politics.


title: Eurocentrism

text: In "Lectures on the Philosophy of History", published in 1837, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel saw world history as starting in Asia but shifting to Greece and Italy, and then north of the Alps to France, Germany and England. Hegel interpreted India and China as stationary countries, lacking inner momentum. Hegel's China replaced the real historical development with a fixed, stable scenario, which made it the outsider of world history. Both India and China were waiting and anticipating a combination of certain factors from outside until they could acquire real progress in human civilisation. Hegel's ideas had a profound impact on western historiography and attitudes. Some scholars disagree with his ideas that the Oriental countries were outside of world history.


title: Eurocentrism

text: Max Weber (1864-1920) suggested that capitalism is the speciality of Europe, because Oriental countries such as India and China do not contain the factors which would enable them to develop capitalism in a sufficient manner. Weber wrote and published many treatises in which he emphasized the distinctiveness of Europe. In "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism" (1905), he wrote that the "rational" capitalism, manifested by its enterprises and mechanisms, only appeared in the Protestant western countries, and a series of generalised and universal cultural phenomena only appear in the west.


title: Eurocentrism

text: Even the state, with a written constitution and a government organised by trained administrators and constrained by rational law, only appears in the West, even though other regimes can also comprise states. ("Rationality" is a multi-layered term whose connotations are developed and escalated as with the social progress. Weber regarded rationality as a proprietary article for western capitalist society.)


title: Eurocentrism

text: Journalists detected Eurocentrism in reactions to Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, when the depth and scope of coverage and concern contrasted with (for example) that devoted to longer-running, bloodier and more vicious contemporary wars outside Europe in Syria and in Yemen.


title: Eurocentrism

text: Even in the 19th century, anticolonial movements had developed claims about national traditions and values that were set against those of Europe in Africa and India. In some cases, as China, where local ideology was even more exclusionist than the Eurocentric one, Westernisation did not overwhelm longstanding Chinese attitudes to its own cultural centrality.


title: Eurocentrism

text: Orientalism developed in the late 18th century as a disproportionate Western interest in and idealisation of Eastern (i.e. Asian) cultures.


title: Eurocentrism

text: By the early 20th century, some historians, such as Arnold J. Toynbee, were attempting to construct multifocal models of world civilisations. Toynbee also drew attention in Europe to non-European historians, such as the medieval Tunisian scholar Ibn Khaldun. He also established links with Asian thinkers, such as through his dialogues with Daisaku Ikeda of Soka Gakkai International.


title: Eurocentrism

text: The explicit concept of Eurocentrism is a product of the period of decolonisation in the 1960s to 1970s. Its original context is the core-periphery or dependency model of capitalist development of Marxian economics.


title: Eurocentrism

text: Brohman (1995) argued that Eurocentrism "perpetuated intellectual dependence on a restricted group of prestigious Western academic institutions that determine the subject matter and methods of research".


title: Eurocentrism

text: In treatises on historical or contemporary Eurocentrism that appeared since the 1990s, Eurocentrism is mostly cast in terms of dualisms such as civilised/barbaric or advanced/backward, developed/undeveloped, core/periphery, implying "evolutionary schemas through which societies inevitably progress", with a remnant of an "underlying presumption of a superior white Western self as referent of analysis" (640). Eurocentrism and the dualistic properties that it labels on non-European countries, cultures and persons have often been criticised in the political discourse of the 1990s and 2000s, particularly in the greater context of political correctness, race in the United States and affirmative action.


title: Eurocentrism

text: In the 1990s, there was a trend of criticising various geographic terms current in the English language as Eurocentric, such as the traditional division of Eurasia into Europe and Asia or the term Middle East.


title: Eurocentrism

text: Eric Sheppard, in 2005, argued that contemporary Marxism itself has Eurocentric traits (in spite of "Eurocentrism" originating in the vocabulary of Marxian economics), because it supposes that the third world must go through a stage of capitalism before "progressive social formations can be envisioned".


title: Eurocentrism

text: Andre Gunder Frank harshly criticised Eurocentrism. He believed that most scholars were the disciples of the social sciences and history guided by Eurocentrism. He criticised some Western scholars for their ideas that non-Western areas lack outstanding contributions in history, economy, ideology, politics and culture compared with the West. These scholars believed that the same contribution made by the West gives Westerners an advantage of endo-genetic momentum which is pushed towards the rest of the world, but Frank believed that the Oriental countries also contributed to the human civilisation in their own perspectives.


title: Eurocentrism

text: Arnold Toynbee in his "A Study of History", gave a critical remark on Eurocentrism. He believed that although western capitalism shrouded the world and achieved a political unity based on its economy, the Western countries cannot "westernize" other countries. Toynbee concluded that Eurocentrism is characteristic of three misconceptions manifested by self-centerment, the fixed development of Oriental countries and linear progress.


title: Eurocentrism

text: There has been some debate on whether historical Eurocentrism qualifies as "just another ethnocentrism", as it is found in most of the world's cultures, especially in cultures with imperial aspirations, as in the Sinocentrism in China; in the Empire of Japan (c. 1868–1945), or during the American Century. James M. Blaut (2000) argued that Eurocentrism indeed went beyond other ethnocentrisms, as the scale of European colonial expansion was historically unprecedented and resulted in the formation of a "colonizer's model of the world".


title: Eurocentrism

text: Indigenous philosophies have been noted to greatly contrast with Eurocentric thought. Indigenous scholar James (Sákéj) Youngblood Henderson states that Eurocentricism contrasts greatly with Indigenous worldviews: "the discord between Aboriginal and Eurocentric worldviews is dramatic. It is a conflict between natural and artificial contexts." Indigenous scholars Norman K. Denzin and Yvonna S. Linco state that "in some ways, the epistemological critique initiated by Indigenous knowledge is more radical than other sociopolitical critiques of the West, for the Indigenous critique questions the very foundations of Western ways of knowing and being."


title: Eurocentrism

text: The terms Afrocentrism vs. Eurocentrism have come to play a role in the 2000s to 2010s in the context of the academic discourse on race in the United States and critical whiteness studies, aiming to expose white supremacism and white privilege. Afrocentrist scholars, such as Molefi Asante, have argued that there is a prevalence of Eurocentric thought in the processing of much of academia on African affairs.


title: Eurocentrism

text: In contrast, in an article, 'Eurocentrism and Academic Imperialism' by Professor Seyed Mohammad Marandi, from the University of Tehran, states that Eurocentric thought exists in almost all aspects of academia in many parts of the world, especially in the humanities. Edgar Alfred Bowring states that in the West, self-regard, self-congratulation and denigration of the 'Other' run more deeply and those tendencies have infected more aspects of their thinking, laws and policy than anywhere else. Luke Clossey and Nicholas Guyatt have measured the degree of Eurocentrism in the research programs of top history departments.


title: Eurocentrism

text: Some authors have focused on how scholars who denounce Eurocentrism often inadvertently reproduce Eurocentrism. The methodologist Audrey Alejandro refers to this process as a "recursive paradox": "It is a methodo-epistemological recursive paradox that [International Relations] critical scholars experience, producing a discourse that is implicitly counter-productive to the anti-Eurocentric values they advocate."


title: Eurocentrism

text: Eurocentrism affected Latin America through colonial domination and expansion. This occurred through the application of new criteria meant to "impose a new social classification of the world population on a global scale". Based on this occurrence, a new social-historic identities were newly produced, although already produced in America. Some of these names include; 'Whites', 'Negroes', 'Blacks', 'Yellows', 'Olives', 'Indians', and 'Mestizos'. With the advantage of being located in the Atlantic basin, 'Whites' were in a privileged to control gold and silver production. The work which created the product was by 'Indians' and 'Negroes'. With the control of commercial capital from 'White' workers. And therefore, Europe or Western Europe emerged as the central place of new patterns and capitalist power.


title: Eurocentrism

text: According to Alexander Edmond's book "Pretty Modern: Beauty, Sex, and Plastic Surgery in Brazil", whiteness plays a role in Latin American, specifically Brazilian, beauty standards, but it is not necessarily distinguished based on skin colour. Edmonds said the main ways to define whiteness in people in Brazil is by looking at their hair, nose, then mouth before considering skin colour. Edmonds focuses on the popularity of plastic surgery in Brazilian culture. Plastic surgeons usually applaud and flatter mixtures when emulating aesthetics for performing surgery, and the more popular mixture is African and European. This shapes beauty standards by racialising biological and popular beauty ideals to suggest that mixture with whiteness is better. Donna Goldstein's book "Laughter Out of Place: Race, Class, Violence, and Sexuality in a Rio Shantytown" also addresses how whiteness influences beauty in Brazil"." Goldstein notes that in Brazil, there is a hierarchy for beauty that places being white at the top and black characteristics at the bottom, calling them ugly.


title: Eurocentrism

text: Challenging these standards of beauty in Brazil would require society to "question the romantic and sexual appeal of whiteness." Goldstein said as a result, black bodies would have to be decommodified, and black women in particular have had to commodify their bodies to survive.


title: Eurocentrism

text: In Erica Lorraine William's "Sex Tourism in Bahia: Ambiguous Entanglements", Williams addresses how European and white beauty standards have more privileges than darker skinned and black women in Brazil. Black women in Brazil have to strategise ways to receive more respect in spaces popular for sex tourism. Williams cites Alma Gulliermoprieto when she explains that there is a superiority given to light-skinned black women over darker-skinned black women as light-skinned women were considered more beautiful because they were "improved with white blood."


title: Eurocentrism

text: Eurocentrism's effect on the Islamic world has predominantly come from a fundamental statement of preventing the account of lower-level explanation and account of Islamic cultures and their social evolution, mainly through eurocentrism's idealist construct. This construct has gained power from the historians revolving their conclusions around the idea of a central point that favours the notion that the evolution of societies and their progress are dictated by general tendencies, leading to the Islamic world's evolution becoming more of a philosophical topic of history instead of historical fact. Along with this, eurocentrism extends to trivialise and marginalise the philosophies, scientific contributions, cultures, and other additional facets of the Islamic world.


title: Eurocentrism

text: Stemming from Eurocentrism's innate bias towards Western civilisation came the creation of the concept of the "European Society," which favoured the components (mainly Christianity) of European civilisation and allowed eurocentrists to brand diverging societies and cultures as "uncivilized." Prevalent during the nineteenth century, the labelling of uncivilised in the eyes of eurocentrists enabled Western countries to classify non-European and non-white countries as inferior, and limit their inclusion and contribution in actions like international law. This exclusion was seen as acceptable by individuals like John Westlake, a professor of international law at the University of Cambridge at the time, who commented that countries with European civilisations should be who comprises the international society, and that countries like Turkey and Persia should only be allowed a part of international law. The figurative superiority resulting from the rise of "European Civilization" and the labels of "civilized" and "uncivilized" are partly responsible for eurocentrism's denial of Islamic social evolution, giving westerners the advantage of an early dismissal of such ideas regarding Oriental civilisations through comparisons to the West. Along with that, the rooted belief of the inferiority of non-white and non-Europeans has given justification for racial discrimination and discredit to the Islamic world, with much of these feelings still present today.


title: Eurocentrism

text: Eurocentrism's reach has not only affected the perception of the cultures and civilisations of the Islamic world, but also the aspects and ideas of Orientalism, a cultural idea that distinguished the "Orient" of the East from the "Occidental" Western societies of Europe and North America, and which was originally created so that the social and cultural milestones of the Islamic and Oriental world would be recognised. This effect began to take place during the nineteenth century when the Orientalist ideals were distilled and shifted from topics of sensuality and deviating mentalities to what is described by Edward Said as "unchallenged coherence." Along with this shift came the creation of two types of orientalism: latent, which covered the Orient's constant durability through history, and manifest, a more dynamic orientalism that changes with the new discovery of information. The eurocentric influence is shown in the latter, as the nature of manifest Orientalism is to be altered with new findings, which leaves it vulnerable to the warping of its refiner's ideals and principles. In this state, eurocentrism has used orientalism to portray the Orient as "backwards" and bolster the superiority of the Western world and continue the undermining of their cultures to further the agenda of racial inequality.


title: Eurocentrism

text: With those wanting to represent the eurocentric ideals better by way of orientalism, there came a barrier of languages, being Arabic, Persian, and other similar languages. With more researchers wanting to study more of Orientalism, there was an assumption made about the languages of the Islamic world: that having the ability to transcribe the texts of the past Islamic world would give great knowledge and insight on oriental studies. In order to do this, many researchers underwent training in philology, believing that an understanding of the languages would be the only necessary training. This reasoning came as the belief at the time was that other studies like anthropology and sociology were deemed irrelevant as they did not believe it misleading to this portion of mankind. Through this action, eurocentric researchers' understanding of Oriental and Islamic culture was intentionally left undermined, foregoing the reasoning behind the actions and reasoning for the changes in culture documented by Islamic and Oriental texts and allowing for further possible Western influence on orientalism, and increasing the difficulty of identifying what is truly Oriental and what is considered Oriental by the West.


title: Eurocentrism

text: Eurocentrism has affected the beauty realm globally. The beauty standard has become Westernized and has influenced people throughout the globe. Many have altered their natural self to reflect this image. Many beauty and advertising companies have redirected their products to support the idea of Eurocentrism.


title: Eurocentrism

text: Kathy Deliovsky argues that "normative femininity is never signified outside a process of racial domination and negation" when looking at a society built on "European imperialism and colonialism." White femininity, like whiteness in general, is perceived as normative because it isn't viewed as "white", but simply as "femininity."


title: Eurocentrism

text: A 1986 study by Pierre van den Berghe and Peter Frost found a widespread cultural preference for lighter skin in females. However, they argue that the preference for lightness often antedates European contact such as in the case of the Aztecs, the Japanese and the Ancient Egyptians, a strong preference for lightness is found even in societies that were never colonised by the West, and, even in areas colonised by Europe, preference for skin lightness is often accompanied by explicit rejection of European phenotypes. Instead they suggest evolutionary explanations for the preference, noting neotenous traits may induce male investment and light skin signals fertility.


title: Eurocentrism

text: In the 1940s, psychologists Kenneth and Mamie Clark conducted experiments called "the doll tests" to examine the psychological effects of segregation on African-American children. They tested children by presenting them four dolls, identical but different skin tone. They had to choose which doll they preferred and were asked the race of the doll. Most of the children chose the white doll. The Clark's stated in their results that the perception of the African-American children were altered by the discrimination they faced. The tested children also labelled positive descriptions to the white dolls.


title: Eurocentrism

text: One of the criticisms of this experiment is presented by Robin Bernstein, a professor of African and African American studies and women, gender, and sexuality. Her argument is that "the Clarks' tests were scientifically flawed. But she said that the tests did reflect a negative portrayal of black dolls in American theater and media that dates back to the Civil War era..." Thus, Bernstein said, the choices made by the subjects of the Clark doll tests was not necessarily an indication of black self-hatred. Instead, it was a cultural choice between two different toys—one that was to be loved and one that was to be physically harassed, as exemplified in performance and popular media. According to Bernstein, this argument "redeems the Clarks' child subjects by offering a new understanding of them not as psychologically damaged dupes, but instead as agential experts in children's culture."


title: Eurocentrism

text: In 2012, Mexicans recreated the doll test. Mexico's National Council to Prevent Discrimination presented a video where children had to pick the "good doll," and the doll that looks like them. By doing this experiment, the researchers wanted to analyse the degree to which Mexican children are influenced by modern-day media accessible to them. Most of the children chose the white doll; they also stated that it looked like them. The people who carried out the study noted that Eurocentrism is deeply rooted in different cultures, including Latin cultures.


title: Eurocentrism

text: Advertisements shown throughout the world are Eurocentric and emphasise western characteristics. European models are the primary choice of models to be hired by globally popular brands such as Estee Lauder and L’Oreal. Regional models in Korea, Hong Kong and Japan have barely made it to global brands' ads, compared to European models, who appear in forty-four per cent of Korean and fifty-four per cent of Japanese ads. By appearing in these ads, they are emphasising that the ideal skin is bright, transparent, white, full, and fine. On the other hand, dark African skin is looked down upon.


title: Eurocentrism

text: Skin lightening has become a common practice throughout different areas of the globe. One motivation for the use of skin lightening products is to look more 'European'. In other cases, the practice began long before exposure to European beauty standards – tan skin was associated with lower-class field work, and thus constant exposure to sun, while having pale skin signified belonging to the upper-class. Many women risk their health using these products to obtain the skintone they desire. A study conducted by Dr Lamine Cissé observed the female population in some African countries. They found that 26% of women were using skin lightening creams at the time and 36% had used them at some time. The common products used were hydroquinone and corticosteroids. 75% of women who used these creams showed cutaneous adverse effects. Whitening products have also become popular in many areas in Asia like South Korea. With the rise of these products, research has been done to study the long term damage. Some complications experienced are exogenous ochronosis, impaired wound healing and wound dehiscence, the fish odour syndrome, nephropathy, steroid addiction syndrome, predisposition to infections, a broad spectrum of cutaneous and endocrinologic complications of corticosteroids, and suppression of hypothalamic‐pituitary‐adrenal axis.


title: Eurocentrism

text: Cosmetic surgery is popular in South Korea, often called "plastic surgery capital of the world". Prevalence of cosmetic surgery in South Korea is not rooted in Western beauty standards, but is instead primarily due to other factors, such as more general dissatisfaction with appearance and better chances on the job market. According to the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, South Korea has the highest rates of plastic surgery procedures per capita in 2014. The most requested procedures are the blepharoplasty and rhinoplasty. Another procedure done in Korea is having the muscle under the tongue that connects to the bottom of the mouth surgically snipped. Parents have their children to undergo this surgery in order to pronounce English better.


title: Yoo Jae-myung

text: Yoo Jae-myung (; born June 3, 1973) is a South Korean actor. He is best known for his roles in the series "Reply 1988" (2015), "Stranger" (2017), "Life" (2018), "Itaewon Class" (2020) and "Voice of Silence" (2020). He won Best Supporting Actor at the 6th APAN Star Awards.


title: Yoo Jae-myung

text: Making his debut through the film "The Last Witness" in 2001, Yoo Jae-myung mainly took the supporting roles in movies and dramas. He was also a theater director in Busan and taught acting for four years in Seoul.


title: Yoo Jae-myung

text: Yoo's popularity raised through one of the highest rated dramas in Korean cable television history, "Reply 1988", in 2015, and later gained the main roles in films and TV series. From 2016 to 2018, he appeared in critically acclaimed shows such as "The Good Wife", "Stranger" ("Secret Forest"), and "Prison Playbook".


title: Yoo Jae-myung

text: Yoo then appeared in two television series "Life" and "Confession" in 2018 and 2019 respectively, in which he received positive reviews from audiences. For his performance in "Life", he won Best Supporting Actor award at the 6th APAN Star Awards.


title: Yoo Jae-myung

text: Yoo next co-starred with Lee Sung-min in crime film "The Beast", a remake of the French thriller "36 Quai des Orfèvres", premiered in June 2019. He also starred alongside Lee Young-ae in "Bring Me Home", which was premiered in November 2019.


title: Yoo Jae-myung

text: In 2020, Yoo co-starred with Park Seo-joon and Kim Da-mi in the series "Itaewon Class", He next starred opposite Yoo Ah-in in a film "Voice of Silence", written and directed by a female director Hong Eui-jeong, based on her script which was selected as one of top 12 projects at Venice Biennale College-Cinema 2016/2017.


title: Yoo Jae-myung

text: Yoo married on October 21, 2018 after dating for five years. He had met his wife who is reportedly twelve years younger while directing a stage play. The couple has one child together.


title: Completing the square

text: In elementary algebra, completing the square is a technique for converting a quadratic polynomial of the form


title: Completing the square

text: In other words, completing the square places a perfect square trinomial inside of a quadratic expression.


title: Completing the square

text: In mathematics, completing the square is often applied in any computation involving quadratic polynomials.


title: Completing the square

text: Muhammad ibn Musa Al-Khwarizmi, a famed polymath who wrote the early algebraic treatise Al-Jabr, used the technique of completing the square to solve quadratic equations.


title: Completing the square

text: In any perfect square, the coefficient of "x" is twice the number "p", and the constant term is equal to "p".


title: Completing the square

text: it is possible to factor out the coefficient "a", and then complete the square for the resulting monic polynomial.


title: Completing the square

text: This process of factoring out the coefficient "a" can further be simplified by only factorising it out of the first 2 terms. The integer at the end of the polynomial does not have to be included.


title: Completing the square

text: By solving the equation formula_21 in terms of formula_22 and reorganizing the resulting expression, one gets the quadratic formula for the roots of the quadratic equation:


title: Completing the square

text: In analytic geometry, the graph of any quadratic function is a parabola in the "xy"-plane. Given a quadratic polynomial of the form


title: Completing the square

text: the numbers "h" and "k" may be interpreted as the Cartesian coordinates of the vertex (or stationary point) of the parabola. That is, "h" is the "x"-coordinate of the axis of symmetry (i.e. the axis of symmetry has equation "x = h"), and "k" is the minimum value (or maximum value, if "a" < 0) of the quadratic function.


title: Completing the square

text: One way to see this is to note that the graph of the function "ƒ"("x") = "x" is a parabola whose vertex is at the origin (0, 0). Therefore, the graph of the function "ƒ"("x" − "h") = ("x" − "h") is a parabola shifted to the right by "h" whose vertex is at ("h", 0), as shown in the top figure. In contrast, the graph of the function "ƒ"("x") + "k" = "x" + "k" is a parabola shifted upward by "k" whose vertex is at (0, "k"), as shown in the center figure. Combining both horizontal and vertical shifts yields "ƒ"("x" − "h") + "k" = ("x" − "h") + "k" is a parabola shifted to the right by "h" and upward by "k" whose vertex is at ("h", "k"), as shown in the bottom figure.


title: Completing the square

text: This can be applied to any quadratic equation. When the "x" has a coefficient other than 1, the first step is to divide out the equation by this coefficient: for an example see the non-monic case below.


title: Completing the square

text: Unlike methods involving factoring the equation, which is reliable only if the roots are rational, completing the square will find the roots of a quadratic equation even when those roots are irrational or complex. For example, consider the equation


title: Completing the square

text: For an equation involving a non-monic quadratic, the first step to solving them is to divide through by the coefficient of "x". For example:


title: Completing the square

text: where "z" and "b" are complex numbers, "z" and "b" are the complex conjugates of "z" and "b", respectively, and "c" is a real number. Using the identity |"u"| = "uu" we can rewrite this as


title: Completing the square

text: where "a", "b", "c", "x", and "y" are real numbers, with "a" > 0 and "b" > 0, may be expressed in terms of the square of the absolute value of a complex number. Define


title: Completing the square

text: A matrix "M" is idempotent when "M" = "M". Idempotent matrices generalize the idempotent properties of 0 and 1. The completion of the square method of addressing the equation


title: Completing the square

text: The matrix formula_57 will be idempotent provided formula_56 which, upon completing the square, becomes


title: Completing the square

text: Since "x" represents the area of a square with side of length "x", and "bx" represents the area of a rectangle with sides "b" and "x", the process of completing the square can be viewed as visual manipulation of rectangles.


title: Completing the square

text: Simple attempts to combine the "x" and the "bx" rectangles into a larger square result in a missing corner. The term ("b"/2) added to each side of the above equation is precisely the area of the missing corner, whence derives the terminology "completing the square".


title: Completing the square

text: to get a square. There are also cases in which one can add the middle term, either 2"uv" or −2"uv", to


title: Completing the square

text: we show that the sum of a positive number "x" and its reciprocal is always greater than or equal to 2. The square of a real expression is always greater than or equal to zero, which gives the stated bound; and here we achieve 2 just when "x" is 1, causing the square to vanish.


title: Mansoor Khan

text: He is the son of film-maker Nasir Hussain. Khan attended IIT Bombay, Cornell University, and MIT before making his foray into Hindi cinema.


title: Mansoor Khan

text: Khan is settled in Coonoor, Tamil Nadu with his wife Tina, where he indulges in farming. Their children are daughter Zayn and son Pablo.


title: Mansoor Khan

text: Khan made his directorial debut with the super-hit "Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak" (1988), for which Khan received the National Film Award for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment, and the Filmfare Award for Best Director for that year. Mansoor Khan's directorial debut paved the way back for the musical romantic genre in Hindi Cinema.


title: Mansoor Khan

text: He followed this success four years later with "Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander" (1992). Mansoor Khan's last two films; "Akele Hum Akele Tum" (1995) and "Josh" (2000) were moderately successful. In 2008, he made a comeback, albeit as a producer, and has co-produced the movie "Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Na" along with Aamir Khan, which marked the debut of his nephew Imran Khan.


title: Mansoor Khan

text: He has launched a book, "The Third Curve" (2013), which talks about the world economy. He talks about unsustainable cities and society's false understanding of money in his book.


title: Gus Malzahn

text: Arthur Gustavo Malzahn III (; born October 28, 1965) is an American football coach. He is currently the head coach at the University of Central Florida (UCF). He was the head football coach at Auburn University from 2013 to 2020. During the 2012 season he was the head football coach at Arkansas State University, after being the offensive coordinator at Auburn (2009 to 2011). In 2010, the Auburn Tigers won the national championship, Malzahn received the Broyles Award, which recognizes the top assistant coach in college football. Prior to his stints at Arkansas State and Auburn, Malzahn was offensive coordinator at the University of Arkansas and the University of Tulsa.


title: Gus Malzahn

text: In his first year as head coach at Auburn, Malzahn received national attention for coaching one of the biggest turnarounds in college football history at Auburn. Malzahn inherited an Auburn Tigers football team that did not win a single Southeastern Conference game in the 2012 season, then led them to an SEC Championship and an appearance in the 2014 BCS Championship Game. The Tigers won their eighth SEC title and tallied a record of 12–2 (7–1 in SEC play) only a year after what was considered by many to be their worst season in 60 years. For his accomplishments, Malzahn received several "coach of the year" awards including the 2013 SEC Coach of the Year, Home Depot Coach of the Year, Sporting News Coach of the Year, Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year, Bobby Bowden Coach of the Year Award, Paul "Bear" Bryant Award, and the AP College Football Coach of the Year Award.


title: Gus Malzahn

text: Malzahn graduated from Fort Smith Christian High School in Fort Smith, Arkansas in 1984 and was a walk-on receiver at Arkansas under then-head coach Ken Hatfield in 1984 and 1985 before transferring to Henderson State University located in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, where he was a two-year letterman (1988, 1989) and earned his bachelor's degree in physical education in 1990.


title: Gus Malzahn

text: Malzahn got his start as the defensive coordinator at Hughes High School in Hughes, Arkansas in 1991. He became head coach in 1992 and in 1994 Hughes reached the state championship game with an upset of Pine Bluff Dollarway. Hughes fell just short in the title game, losing to Lonoke High School on an interception in the final minute.


title: Gus Malzahn

text: Malzahn's success at Hughes and his wide-open attack landed him a head coaching position at Shiloh Christian School in 1996. From 1996 to 2000, he transformed Shiloh Christian into one of the most dynamic offensive prep squads in the nation. In 1998, Shiloh Christian set a national record with 66 passing touchdowns for the season, while quarterback Josh Floyd nearly set an individual national record with 5,878 total yards (5,221 passing, 657 rushing). Malzahn guided the Saints to back-to-back state championships in 1998 and 1999.


title: Gus Malzahn

text: In 2001, Malzahn took over for long-time coach Jarrell Williams at Springdale High School. Malzahn continued the rich tradition of the Bulldogs’ program. He led the program to two state championship game appearances in his last four years, winning the title in 2005.


title: Gus Malzahn

text: Malzahn led his squad to the state title game in only his second season in 2002. The Bulldogs lost 17–10 to Fort Smith Southside.


title: Gus Malzahn

text: Springdale was on track for another state title game appearance in 2004 before Little Rock Central sidetracked the Bulldogs’ title hopes in the state semifinals. Springdale was upset by the eventual state champion, 31–20. The Bulldogs finished the season at 12–1.


title: Gus Malzahn

text: Malzahn's 2005 squad at Springdale went 14–0, easily won the state’s Class AAAAA championship, outscored its opponents 664–118, including a 54–20 victory over West Memphis in the state championship game, and was consistently ranked among the top 10 teams in the nation.


title: Gus Malzahn

text: Included on the championship team were prize recruits Mitch Mustain, Ben Cleveland, Andrew Norman, and Damian Williams who all eventually joined Malzahn at the University of Arkansas. Offensive tackle Bartley Webb decided to leave the state to play for the University of Notre Dame.


title: Gus Malzahn

text: Malzahn joined Houston Nutt's staff on December 9, 2005, as offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach, following an impressive five-year run at Springdale High School capped by one of the most dominant seasons by any high school in 2005. Given that much of Springdale High's football talent decided to follow Malzahn to Arkansas and the fact that Malzahn had never coached in college, many questioned what Houston Nutt's motives were. Malzahn was part of the Razorbacks 2006 season in which they won the SEC Western Division championship. However, their season ended with three straight losses to LSU, Florida in the SEC Championship Game, and Wisconsin in the Capital One Bowl to finish with a 10–4 record.


title: Gus Malzahn

text: There was a widely reported tension between Houston Nutt's reliance on the ground game (which turned out to be one of the best running games in the nation in 2006) and Malzahn's philosophy of spreading the field with a no-huddle offense. The poor ending of the season only added stress to the already tense coaching relationship. Malzahn was named the National Offensive Coordinator of the Year by "Rivals.com".


title: Gus Malzahn

text: Despite this tension, the 2006 season served as a breakout for running backs Darren McFadden (1,647 yards with 14 TD) and Felix Jones (1,168 yards with 6 TD). Wide receiver Marcus Monk had 962 yards receiving with 11 touchdowns despite catching passes from two quarterbacks.


title: Gus Malzahn

text: In January 2007, Malzahn received an offer from the University of Tulsa and his friend, new head coach Todd Graham. He took the Tulsa job to be offensive coordinator and assistant head coach. Shortly after, both Mustain and Williams decided to transfer to the University of Southern California.


title: Gus Malzahn

text: During the 2007 season, Malzahn emerged as one of the premier offensive coordinators in the nation, as Tulsa ranked first in the nation in total yards per game, ahead of Texas Tech and Hawaii, and with a more balanced attack than both teams. The Golden Hurricane also ranked 3rd in the nation in passing and led their conference in scoring. Tulsa became the first team in NCAA history to have a 5,000-yard passer, a 1,000-yard rusher and three 1,000-yard receivers in a single season.


title: Gus Malzahn

text: After the regular season, Malzahn interviewed for the open position at Arkansas once Nutt resigned in November 2007.


title: Gus Malzahn

text: In 2008, Tulsa was once again the nation's most prolific attack, leading with nearly 7,980 total yards of offense averaging 570 yards per game. The Golden Hurricane were ranked second in the nation in scoring behind Oklahoma, scoring over 47 points per game. Tulsa not only ranked second in the nation in scoring that year, but finished with the second highest scoring offense in the history of major college football. The offense was also the nation's most balanced attack, ranking fifth in the nation in rushing and 9th in passing. The Tulsa quarterbacks finished third in the nation in passing efficiency, behind only Oklahoma and Texas.


title: Gus Malzahn

text: Malzahn was named the offensive coordinator at Auburn University by first year head coach Gene Chizik on December 28, 2008. Under Malzahn, Auburn made significant improvements over the previous season's offensive production; the Tigers finished the season ranked 16th in total offense (2nd in the SEC against all opponents) with just under 432 yards per game and 17th in scoring with over 33 points per game after being tied for 110th in the nation in scoring the previous season. Although he still made significant improvements in his first year, against SEC competition Auburn managed 377.1 total yards a game which placed them 4th in the SEC (behind Alabama, Arkansas, and Ole Miss). His first season broke the Auburn single season total offense record previously set by the undefeated 2004 team. Head coach Gene Chizik had stressed prior to the season that he intended to focus on the run game which showed great improvement as well; the rushing offense finished the season ranked 13th in the nation with 212 yards per game after being ranked 69th prior to the new coaching staff's arrival. Passing numbers also improved under the new offensive scheme, with the passing efficiency ranking ending up 22nd nationally after being ranked 106th in 2008. Senior quarterback Chris Todd set a single-season touchdown record at Auburn and finished the season with a passer rating of 145.73, ranking him 18th in the nation. During the 2009 season, Auburn's offense under Malzahn, produced 120 plays of 15 yards or more, nearly doubling the 62 compiled in 2008.


title: Gus Malzahn

text: In 2010, Malzahn's offense, led by Heisman Trophy winner Cam Newton at quarterback, helped Auburn achieve an undefeated record, a No. 1 national ranking after the regular season and a berth in the BCS Championship game, played on January 10, 2011. Auburn led the SEC in scoring offense, total offense, rushing offense, pass efficiency, first downs and third down conversions on its way to a 13–0 record and a 56–17 victory over South Carolina in the SEC Championship Game. Malzahn was awarded the 2010 Broyles Award, recognizing him as the top assistant coach in the nation. Auburn went on to win the 2011 BCS National Championship Game against Oregon.


title: Gus Malzahn

text: On December 13, 2011, Malzahn left Auburn to accept the position of head football coach at Arkansas State University. In his first and only year at Arkansas State, Malzahn led the team to a 9–3 record (not including the Bowl Game) and a Conference Championship with a win over Middle Tennessee State, 45–0. One of Malzahn's players, Don Jones, was selected by the Miami Dolphins in the seventh round of the 2013 draft and made the team as a safety.


title: Gus Malzahn

text: Quarterback Ryan Aplin showcased Malzahn's evolving spread dual attack by throwing for 3,342 yards with 24 TD and running for 438 yards with 6 more TD. RB David Oku would add 1,061 yards with 16 TD and WR J. D. McKissic had 103 catches for 1,022 yards with five touchdowns.


title: Gus Malzahn

text: As the previous head coach, Gene Chizik gets fired, head coach Gus Malzahn is chosen to be the new head coach at Auburn. In the 2013 Iron Bowl, Malzahn's Auburn Tigers defeat the Alabama Crimson Tide2013 Alabama Crimson Tide football team with a blocked field goal returned all the way for a touchdown.Kick Six Auburn won 34-28. Three years later, in 2016, Auburn starts off 1-2. Somehow, in the following week, Auburn


title: Gus Malzahn

text: beat LSU2016 LSU Tigers football team18-13 due to not snapping the ball in time before the game clock ran out. In 2018, Auburn starts off undefeated but then loses to LSU.2018 LSU Tigers football team


title: Gus Malzahn

text: In 2019, Malzahn and Auburn start undefeated, but got upset by the #10 Florida Gators.2019 Florida Gators football teamAuburn is 6-1 but loses 23-20 to the LSU Tigers.2019 LSU Tigers football team Auburn loses to the


title: Gus Malzahn

text: On February 15, 2021, Malzahn was named the head coach at UCF, reuniting him with former Arkansas State athletic director Terry Mohajir. On September 2, Malzahn won his first game with the Knights, defeating Boise State, 36–31. Malzahn concluded the regular season going 8–4. He led the Knights to a 29–17 victory over in state rival Florida in the Gasparilla Bowl, going for a 9–4 overall in his first season with UCF.


title: Gus Malzahn

text: Malzahn's is known for his hurry-up, no-huddle offensive philosophy. In January 2003, he published a book and instructional video titled "Hurry Up No Huddle – An Offensive Philosophy" (). Several National Football League teams adopted some of Malzahn's offensive strategies.


title: Gus Malzahn

text: Malzahn is from the Houston Nutt coaching tree. It was a huge risk for Coach Nutt, as Malzahn, although one of the most dominant high school coaches, had never coached at the college level. However, Malzahn quickly became one of the winningest coaches and most known for his uptempo offenses. Malzahn's coaching career also encompasses working alongside Gene Chizik, having worked as his offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Auburn when they won the 2011 BCS National Championship.


title: Karolina Kowalkiewicz

text: Karolina Kowalkiewicz (born 15 October 1985) is a Polish mixed martial artist. She currently fights for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). She is the former KSW Women's Flyweight Champion.


title: Karolina Kowalkiewicz

text: Kowalkiewicz began her mixed martial arts career at the age of sixteen when she began training in Krav Maga. She later trained in Muay Thai and decided to make it a career. She fought two amateur fights before turning pro.


title: Karolina Kowalkiewicz

text: Kowalkiewicz made her professional debut in her native Poland in May 2012. Over the next three-and-a-half years she amassed an undefeated record of seven wins against no losses. She fought primarily for the Poland-based KSW promotion - where she was the Flyweight champion - and also made her U.S. debut for Invicta FC in November 2014.


title: Karolina Kowalkiewicz

text: In late October 2015, it was announced that Kowalkiewicz had signed with the UFC. She faced Randa Markos on December 19, 2015 at . She was successful in her debut, winning the fight by unanimous decision.


title: Karolina Kowalkiewicz

text: Kowalkiewicz next faced Heather Jo Clark on May 8, 2016 at in Rotterdam, Netherlands. She won the fight via unanimous decision.


title: Karolina Kowalkiewicz

text: Kowalkiewicz defeated Rose Namajunas by split decision on July 30, 2016 at UFC 201 to earn the next title shot at then-champion Joanna Jędrzejczyk. This performance earned her a Fight of the Night bonus


title: Karolina Kowalkiewicz

text: Kowalkiewicz fought for the Strawweight title and lost to champion Joanna Jędrzejczyk by unanimous decision on November 12, 2016 at UFC 205.


title: Karolina Kowalkiewicz

text: Kowalkiewicz faced Cláudia Gadelha on June 3, 2017 in the co-main event at UFC 212. She lost the fight via submission due to a rear-naked choke in the first round.


title: Karolina Kowalkiewicz

text: Kowalkiewicz fought Jéssica Andrade on September 8, 2018 at UFC 228. She lost the fight by knockout in the first round.


title: Karolina Kowalkiewicz

text: Kowalkiewicz faced Michelle Waterson at UFC on ESPN 2 on March 30, 2019. She lost the fight via unanimous decision.


title: Karolina Kowalkiewicz

text: Kowalkiewicz faced Alexa Grasso on June 8, 2019 at UFC 238. She lost the fight via unanimous decision.


title: Karolina Kowalkiewicz

text: Kowalkiewicz faced Yan Xiaonan on February 23, 2020 at UFC Fight Night 168. She lost the fight by unanimous decision.


title: Karolina Kowalkiewicz

text: Kowalkiewicz faced Jessica Penne on August 7, 2021 at UFC 265. She lost the fight via an armbar in round one.


title: Karolina Kowalkiewicz

text: After a one-year hiatus, Kowalkiewicz faced Felice Herrig on June 4, 2022, at UFC Fight Night 207. Kowalkiewicz snapped a 5 bout losing streak, submitting Herrig via rear-naked choke in the second round.


title: Karolina Kowalkiewicz

text: Kowalkiewicz faced Silvana Gómez Juárez on November 12, 2022, at UFC 281. She won the fight via unanimous decision.


title: Karolina Kowalkiewicz

text: In 2019, Kowalkiewicz was diagnosed with Hashimoto's disease. To cope with the symptoms Kowalkiewicz now works with an endocrinologist and has adopted a vegan diet.


title: 2021 Tour de France

text: The 2021 Tour de France was the 108th edition of the Tour de France, one of cycling's three grand tours. Originally planned for the Danish capital of Copenhagen, the start of the 2021 Tour (known as the ) was transferred to Brest because of the COVID-19 pandemic, with Copenhagen hosting four matches in the UEFA Euro 2020, which had also been rescheduled to 2021 because of the pandemic. Originally scheduled for 2 to 25 July 2021, the Tour was moved to 26 June to 18 July 2021 to avoid the rescheduled 2020 Summer Olympics. This would have been the first occasion on which the Tour de France had visited Denmark. Denmark instead hosted the in 2022.


title: 2021 Tour de France

text: The race was won for the second consecutive year by Tadej Pogačar of , becoming the youngest rider to win the Tour twice. Pogačar began to build his advantage with his win in the stage 5 time trial. He first took the "maillot jaune" on stage 8, when he gained almost three and a half minutes on the other contenders after attacking on the penultimate climb of the Col de Romme. He gained another half minute the next day on the summit finish to Tignes. Pogačar rode defensively in the second week before winning both mountaintop finishes at Col de Portet and Luz Ardiden in the third week. He won by 5' 20" over Jonas Vingegaard of . Vingegaard was originally supposed to be a domestique for his team's original leader, Primož Roglič. After Roglič's crash and eventual abandon, Vingegaard became the team's leader and rode into form in the second week. He managed to finish second on both mountaintop finishes in the third week before finishing third in the final time trial. Third place went to Richard Carapaz of , becoming the first Ecuadorian to finish on the podium in the Tour. He emerged as one of the three strongest climbers in the race, along with Pogačar and Vingegaard, before eventually finishing third on both summit finishes in the final week.


title: 2021 Tour de France

text: In the race's other classifications, Mark Cavendish of won the points classification for the second time in his career. Cavendish took the green jersey after winning his first Tour stage since 2016 on stage 4. He proceeded to win three more stages to equal Eddy Merckx's record for the most career Tour stage wins. Aside from winning the "maillot jaune", Pogačar also won the mountains and young rider classifications for the second successive year. He clinched the win in the mountains classification after his back-to-back wins in the third week, adding 80 points to his tally as both stages' final climbs offered double points. He took the lead in the young rider classification after the first stage and held on to the lead until the end of the race. won the team classification while Franck Bonnamour of won the race's overall combativity award after being involved in several breakaways.


title: 2021 Tour de France

text: The route for the 2021 Tour de France was announced by Christian Prudhomme on 1 November 2020, during France Télévisions' programme. The race covered a distance of , and saw its longest stage since the 2000 Tour de France, with on stage seven.


title: 2021 Tour de France

text: 23 teams took part in the 2021 Tour de France. All 19 UCI WorldTeams were entitled and obliged to enter the race, and they were joined by four second-tier UCI ProTeams. , the best performing UCI ProTeam in 2020, received an automatic invitation, while the other three teams were selected by Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO), the organisers of the Tour. The teams were announced on 4 February 2021. Usually, only twenty-two teams would participate in the race, but for the 2021 season, the Union Cycliste Internationale is allowing the total number of riders to increase from the normal 176 to 184. With team sizes still set at eight riders, the decision allows grand tour organizers to invite one extra wildcard team.


title: 2021 Tour de France

text: In the lead up to the 2021 Tour de France, Tadej Pogačar () and Primož Roglič () were seen by many pundits as the top pre-race favourites for the general classification. Their closest rivals were considered to be the trio of Geraint Thomas, Richard Carapaz and Richie Porte from .


title: 2021 Tour de France

text: Pogačar was the defending champion and came into the 2021 edition with a successful start to the season, winning the overall classification at Tirreno–Adriatico and the Tour of Slovenia, finishing third at the Tour of the Basque Country, and winning his first Monument at Liège–Bastogne–Liège. After finishing as the Tour runner-up to Pogačar in 2020, Roglič went on to defend his overall title at the 2020 Vuelta a España. In 2021, Roglič finished fifteenth at Paris–Nice before claiming the overall classification at the Tour of the Basque Country. Thomas, the 2018 Tour champion, won the Tour de Romandie before finishing third overall in the lead-up Critérium du Dauphiné which was won by his teammate Porte. Their teammate Carapaz, the 2019 Giro d'Italia champion, won the other lead-up race, the Tour de Suisse.


title: 2021 Tour de France

text: The other riders considered contenders for the general classification were Rigoberto Urán (), duo Enric Mas and Miguel Ángel López, French riders Julian Alaphilippe (), Guillaume Martin () and David Gaudu (), 2020 Giro d'Italia champion Tao Geoghegan Hart () and fellow podium finisher Wilco Kelderman ().


title: 2021 Tour de France

text: The sprinters considered favourites for the points classification and wins on the flat or hilly bunch sprint finishes were seven-time green jersey winner Peter Sagan (), Caleb Ewan (), Arnaud Démare (), Tim Merlier and Mathieu van der Poel (), Wout van Aert (), Sonny Colbrelli (), Michael Matthews () and Mark Cavendish, who was a late replacement for the injured defending champion Sam Bennett at .


title: 2021 Tour de France

text: The first stage featured a hilly course from Brest to Landerneau, with the finish situated atop the climb of Côte de la Fosse aux Loups. A group of six broke away from the peloton, taking a lead of four minutes before Ide Schelling () attacked on the fourth climb of the day, the Côte de Stang ar Garront. The rest of the break were caught before the intermediate sprint, where Schelling took maximum points before Caleb Ewan () outsprinted Peter Sagan () for second. With to go, time trial ace Tony Martin () was brought down by a spectator who was holding a sign greeting her grandparents for TV cameras facing forward, and therefore unaware of the incoming peloton. Triggered by the fall of Tony Martin, over 50 cyclists (most of the entire Stage 1 lineup) tripped over each other and crashed over the road, forming a massive pile-up that completely blocked the path for the ones at the back who didn't fall down. Of the remaining ones that finished Schelling was caught with left, but the KOM points he gained ensured that he wore the polka-dot jersey at the end of the day. With to go, a touch of wheels caused another massive crash, delaying some GC contenders and causing them to lose minutes. On the final climb, Julian Alaphilippe () attacked and immediately created a gap over the rest of the peloton. He kept his advantage all the way to the line, winning the stage and taking the "maillot jaune" and the green jersey.


title: 2021 Tour de France

text: The second stage featured another uphill finish as the riders climbed the Mûr-de-Bretagne twice. Six riders broke away from the peloton, building an advantage of four minutes before began to chase the break. On the third climb of the day, Edward Theuns () attacked from the break, with Jérémy Cabot () the only other rider to respond to his attack. Both riders were eventually caught ahead of the first passage of the Mûr-de-Bretagne. Mathieu van der Poel () attacked from the peloton, allowing him to gain eight bonus seconds before being caught on the descent. On the second ascent of Mûr-de-Bretagne, van der Poel attacked again just inside the "flamme rouge". He maintained his advantage to the line, winning the stage by six seconds over Tadej Pogačar () and Primož Roglič (). Geraint Thomas () was gapped on the climb, finishing 17 seconds behind the two Slovenians. As a result of his gap and bonus seconds, van der Poel took the "maillot jaune" as well as the polka-dot jersey.


title: 2021 Tour de France

text: The third stage featured the first opportunity for the sprinters to come to the fore. The break included five riders, leading by as much as three minutes before being chased. into the stage, a crash in the peloton brought down Geraint Thomas () and Robert Gesink (), with the latter eventually having to abandon the race. Thomas suffered a dislocated shoulder but he managed to continue and eventually made it back to the peloton. With to go, Roglič crashed in the peloton, suffering from road rashes on the left side of his body. Another crash took place with to go, causing Jack Haig (), who sat in sixth place on the GC, to abandon the race. The crash also held up some contenders, including Pogačar. On the final sprint to the line, Ewan went down following a touch of wheels, also taking down Peter Sagan () in the process. Ewan had to abandon the race while Sagan was able to finish the stage. In the aftermath, Tim Merlier () won the sprint ahead of his teammate, Jasper Philipsen. Van der Poel escaped the crashes to retain the "maillot jaune" while Richard Carapaz () also finished in the front group. Pogačar's group lost 26 seconds while Roglič lost almost a minute and a half. The crashes led to the peloton staging a brief protest before the start of the next stage. The fourth stage featured another sprint stage, with the break featuring Brent Van Moer () and Pierre-Luc Périchon (). Van Moer dropped Périchon with left and still led by a minute with to go. Van Moer would be caught near the finish, where Mark Cavendish () outsprinted Nacer Bouhanni () to win his first Tour stage since 2016. Cavendish took the green jersey while the GC remained unchanged ahead of the first time trial.


title: 2021 Tour de France

text: The fifth stage featured a individual time trial. Mikkel Bjerg () set the early benchmark time of 33' 01" before being beaten by Mattia Cattaneo (), who was six seconds faster than Bjerg. Cattaneo was immediately beaten by Stefan Küng (), who set a time of 32' 19". His time stood at the top until Pogačar set the quickest time at both time checks before beating Küng's time by 19 seconds. Pogačar kept the lead to win the stage and taking significant time from the other contenders. The "maillot jaune", van der Poel, took fifth place, 31 seconds behind Pogačar, to keep the race lead by eight seconds over the Slovenian. The sixth stage featured another chance for the sprinters, where Cavendish outsprinted Philipsen to win his second stage of the race and his 32nd overall Tour stage win.


title: 2021 Tour de France

text: The seventh stage featured the longest stage of the race with a course from Vierzon to Le Creusot. A large 29-man break, including van der Poel and Wout van Aert (), went away with to go. tried to chase down the break but gap continued to gradually increase to more than six minutes. With around to go, Matej Mohorič () attacked from the break together with Van Moer. They would be joined by other riders before Mohorič soloed off the front on the steepest climb of the day, the Signal d'Uchon. He managed to keep his lead to win the stage by 1' 20" over Jasper Stuyven () as well as taking the polka-dot jersey. Van der Poel and van Aert finished in the third group at 20 seconds further in arrears as van der Poel kept the "maillot jaune". In the peloton, Roglič began to struggle on the climb of Signal d'Uchon, eventually losing more than three minutes to the other contenders. Near the top, Carapaz attacked while Pogačar did not respond to the move. He led by as much as 40 seconds before chased him down, eventually catching him at the finish.


title: 2021 Tour de France

text: The race went into the Alps on the eighth stage, with the riders tackling three first-category climbs before a descent into Le Grand-Bornand. At the start of the stage, Roglič and Thomas were unable to follow the pace, eventually conceding more than 35 minutes and ending their chances for Tour victory. A break was soon established with to go. Just before the second category-one climb of Col de Romme, the duo of Søren Kragh Andersen and Tiesj Benoot attacked from the break. They were soon passed by Michael Woods (), who led by a minute over the chase group. In the peloton, van der Poel began to struggle on the Col de Romme as started to set a furious pace. to the top of the Romme, Pogačar launched an attack and only Carapaz could follow. Pogačar launched another acceleration a few seconds later, dropping Carapaz and gradually building his gap over the other contenders. Up front, on the final climb of Col de la Colombière, Woods started to fade and he was soon caught and dropped by Dylan Teuns (). From behind, Pogačar passed the remnants of the breakaway and he came to within 15 seconds of catching Teuns at the top of the Colombière. Pogačar avoided taking risks on the descent, allowing Teuns to increase his advantage. Teuns held on to win the stage while Pogačar gained almost three and a half minutes on the other contenders. As a result, Pogačar took the "maillot jaune", almost two minutes ahead of van Aert and almost five minutes ahead of the other contenders.


title: 2021 Tour de France

text: Stage nine featured the race's first mountaintop finish as the riders headed to Tignes. Before the start of the stage, Roglič and van der Poel announced their abandonment from the race. A large 41-man break attacked while the peloton allowed them an advantage of more than eight minutes. Three riders eventually emerged as the strongest in the break, with Ben O'Connor (), Sergio Higuita (), and Nairo Quintana () were left at the front of the race as they began the final climb of Monteé de Tignes. O'Connor soon dropped both Quintana and Higuita, who both faded on the rest of the climb. O'Connor eventually soloed to the stage win by more than five minutes ahead. In the peloton, controlled for much of the day before took over on the final climb. With around to the top of the climb, Carapaz attacked, with Pogačar immediately responding. Shortly afterwards, Pogačar accelerated himself, dropping all his rivals and gaining 32 seconds over a group containing Carapaz, Jonas Vingegaard (), Enric Mas (), and Rigoberto Urán (). In the GC, Pogačar held a lead of more than two minutes over O'Connor while the rest of the contenders were more than five minutes behind. Van Aert, who sat in second at the start of the day, lost more than 31 minutes on the stage.