title: Slim Thug

text: Slim Thug's big debut album with Star Trak Entertainment & Interscope Records, "Already Platinum", was released in July 2005 after many delays. It premiered on #2 on the "Billboard" 200 albums chart and sold 130,000 copies in its first week. Singles included "3 Kings" (featuring T.I. and Bun B), and "I Ain't Heard of That" (featuring Pharrell and Bun B). Slim Thug appeared on Still Tippin' with Mike Jones and Paul Wall, Beyoncé Knowles's #1 single "Check on It" and Gwen Stefani's "Luxurious". With the Boss Hogg Outlawz, Slim Thug released three albums, "Boyz N Blue" (2004), "Serve & Collect" (2007) and "Back by Blockular Demand: Serve & Collect II" (2008). He left Star Trak & Interscope Records in 2008.


title: Slim Thug

text: Slim Thug's second solo album "Boss of All Bosses" was released in 2009. Although not as successful as his debut album, "Boss of All Bosses" debuted at #15 on the "Billboard" 200 with 32,000 copies sold in the first week released. It included the single "I Run".


title: Slim Thug

text: Slim Thug's third studio album "Tha Thug Show". His first single was ""Gangsta"" which featured Z-Ro. His second single featured rapper/singer B.o.B entitled ""So High"". It was released November 30, 2010. On April 23, 2013 he released a new EP titled "Welcome to Texas EP" featuring guest appearances from Rick Ross, Pimp C and Ludacris among others.


title: Slim Thug

text: In March 2020, Slim Thug released his album "Thug Life", and he announced that he had tested positive for COVID-19.


title: Slim Thug

text: According to MTV News, Lupe Fiasco's video for "Hip Hop Saved My Life" was based on Slim Thug's life story. "It is based on Slim Thug," Fiasco revealed.


title: Slim Thug

text: On June 7, 2010, Vibe released controversial statements Slim Thug had made regarding treatment of black men by black and white women saying "it’s hard to find [a successful black man] so Black women have to bow down and let it be known that they gotta start working hard; they gotta start cooking and being down for they man more. ...White women treat they man like a king." The article elicited varied reactions from bloggers and online commentators. Cultural critic and Columbia University professor Marc Lamont Hill and singers Aubrey O'Day, D. Woods, and rapper Talib Kweli have all responded publicly to his comments.


title: Dolly zoom

text: The effect is achieved by zooming a zoom lens to adjust the angle of view (often referred to as field of view, or FOV) while the camera dollies (moves) toward or away from the subject in such a way as to keep the subject the same size in the frame throughout. In its classic form, the camera angle is pulled away from a subject while the lens zooms in, or vice versa. Thus, during the zoom, there is a continuous perspective distortion, the most directly noticeable feature being that the background appears to change size relative to the subject.


title: Dolly zoom

text: The visual appearance for the viewer is that either the background suddenly grows in size and detail and overwhelms the foreground, or the foreground becomes immense and dominates its previous setting, depending on which way the dolly zoom is executed. As the human visual system uses both size and perspective cues to judge the relative sizes of objects, seeing a perspective change without a size change is a highly unsettling effect, often with strong emotional impact.


title: Dolly zoom

text: The effect was first conceived by Alfred Hitchcock during the filming of 1940's "Rebecca", but he was unable to achieve the desired results. Some 18 years later, success came through Irmin Roberts, a Paramount second-unit cameraman, who devised the proper method for Hitchcock's film "Vertigo". The shot has since been used in many other films, including "Goodfellas", "Jaws", and the "Lord of the Rings" films. Rainer Werner Fassbinder uses the effect twice in one shot in "Chinese Roulette" (1976). Director Joe Dante referred to it as the "Jaws Shot" since the scene in Jaws, when Roy Scheider sees the shark attack of the little boy Alex, is the most famous use of this shot.


title: Dolly zoom

text: The dolly zoom is commonly used by filmmakers to represent the sensation of vertigo, a "falling-away-from-oneself feeling" or a feeling of unreality, or to suggest that a character is undergoing a realization that causes them to reassess everything they had previously believed.


title: Dolly zoom

text: For most purposes, it can be assumed that the image space and the object space are in the same medium. Thus, for an object in focus, the distance between the lens and image plane formula_1, the distance between lens and the object formula_2, and the focal length formula_3 are related by


title: Dolly zoom

text: The "axial magnification" formula_6 of an object at formula_2 is the rate of change of the lens–image distance formula_1 as the lens–object distance formula_2 changes. For an object of finite depth, one can conceive of the "average" axial magnification as the ratio of the depth of the image and the depth of the object:


title: Dolly zoom

text: One can see that if magnification remains constant, a longer focal length results in a smaller axial magnification, and a smaller focal length in a larger axial magnification. That is, when using a longer focal length while moving the camera/lens away from the object to maintain the same magnification "M", objects seem shallower, and the axial distances between objects seem shorter. The opposite—increased axial magnification—happens with shorter focal lengths while moving the camera/lens towards the object.


title: Dolly zoom

text: To achieve the effect, the camera needs to be positioned at a certain distance from the object that is supposed to remain still during the dolly zoom. The distance depends on how wide the scene is to be filmed and on the field of view (FOV) of the camera lens. Before calculating the distances needed at the different fields of view, the constant width of the scene has to be calculated:


title: Dolly zoom

text: For example, a FOV of 90° and a distance of 2 meters yield a constant width of 4 meters, allowing a 4-meter-wide object to remain still inside the frame during the effect.


title: Lee Yu-bi

text: Yu-bi is the daughter of the actors Kyeon Mi-ri and Im Young-gyu. Her parents divorced in 1993. When her mother remarried in 1998 their stepfather, Lee Hong-heon legally adopted her and her sister, Lee Da-in who is also an actress.


title: Lee Yu-bi

text: She began her career in the 2011 sitcom "Vampire Idol", then played supporting roles in television dramas "The Innocent Man" (2012), "Gu Family Book" (2013), and "Pinocchio" (2014), as well as the films "The Royal Tailor" (2014) and "Twenty" (2015).


title: Lee Yu-bi

text: Lee plays her first leading role in "Scholar Who Walks the Night", adapted from the webtoon about a Joseon vampire scholar and a cross-dressing bookseller.


title: Lee Yu-bi

text: In 2017, Lee starred alongside Choi Min-ho in the JTBC web drama "Somehow 18". In October 2017, Lee signed with new management agency 935 Entertainment.


title: Kassandra Clementi

text: Kassandra Carolyn Clementi (born 10 October 1990) is an Australian actress. She is known for her role as Maddy Osborne on the Seven Network soap opera "Home and Away", a role she played for over three years before leaving in May 2016.


title: Kassandra Clementi

text: Clementi was born in Adelaide, South Australia and dreamed of becoming a vet when she was a child. She took acting classes as a teenager and decided to pursue that career direction after high school, moving away from Adelaide to study it further. As a child, Clementi would spend time on family holidays in the coastal town of Middleton in South Australia.


title: Kassandra Clementi

text: In 2009, Clementi appeared in a minor role in Australian/UK feature film "The Boys Are Back", with Clive Owen. Clementi successfully began to receive roles in television series'. The first roles she received was that of 'Cara' in "Offspring" and 'Chelsea' in the television film "". Following her part in the film, she relocated to Atlanta, Georgia when she received yet another role in the American television series "Single Ladies", with Queen Latifah, in which she played 'Christina' for six months.


title: Kassandra Clementi

text: In early 2012, Clementi travelled to Los Angeles to film the television film "Christmas Twister" ("F6 Twister"), which starred Casper Van Dien. Clementi also starred in the feature film "Hatfields and McCoys: Bad Blood" in 2012 alongside Christian Slater.


title: Kassandra Clementi

text: In 2012, Clementi received the role of Madeleine "Maddy" Osborne on the Seven Network soap opera "Home and Away" after auditioning because she was homesick and knew this opportunity would bring her back to Australia. The character of Maddy is a teenager who comes to Summer Bay with her boyfriend Spencer Harrington (Andrew Morley) after running away from home.


title: Kassandra Clementi

text: Clementi fronted the summer 2018/2019 campaign for lifestyle brand Sunnylife, that was shot in Northern Queensland.


title: Kassandra Clementi

text: In 2020, The Christmas High Note, a Lifetime Movie, was released with Clementi playing the part of Emma. During filming Clementi adopted a rescue dog.


title: Kassandra Clementi

text: On August 18, 2021, Clementi announced her engagement to actress, Jacqueline Toboni. Clementi currently resides in Los Angeles, USA. However, as of August 7, 2022, Kassandra confirmed via an Instagram comment that she and Jacqueline had "separated awhile ago, amicably".


title: Kassandra Clementi

text: Clementi is currently in a relationship with Daniel McKernan of The Animal Planet's series Saved by the Barn. On November 28, 2022, McKernan posted a picture to social media announcing he and Clementi are expecting their first child in May.


title: Katelyn Nacon

text: Katelyn Nacon is an American actress. She played Elisia Brown in the go90 web series "Tagged" (2016–2018) and Enid on "The Walking Dead" (2015–2019).


title: Katelyn Nacon

text: Nacon began her acting career with a role in the film "Loving Generously". Her first television appearance was on "Resurrection". She appeared on Adult Swim's "Too Many Cooks", an episode that went viral on YouTube. She portrays Elisia on "T@gged". Her most notable role is Enid on "The Walking Dead" where she was a main character in season 9.


title: Stampede Trail

text: The Stampede Trail is a remote road and trail located in the Denali Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. Apart from a paved or maintained gravel road for between Eight Mile Lake and the trail's eastern end, the route consists of a primitive and at times dangerous hiking or ATV (all-terrain vehicle) trail following the path of the original road, which has deteriorated over the years. The route ends at an abandoned antimony mine at along Stampede Creek, a couple miles past Stampede Airport's grass airstrip.


title: Stampede Trail

text: Historically, access to the east end of the trail was gained from the Alaska Railroad. Today, the primary access to the trail is from the George Parks Highway (Alaska Route 3) which opened in the early 1970s. The Parks Highway intersects the trail at milepost 251.1, two miles north of the center of Healy. Though this intersection marks the present-day eastern terminus of the Stampede Road, Lignite Road continues a few miles east from this intersection to the railroad tracks and the Nenana River.


title: Stampede Trail

text: The trail is located near the northern boundary of Denali National Park in a small finger of State of Alaska public land that extends into the national park. The valley, known as the Stampede Valley or the Stampede Corridor, is mostly low-lying tundra and watersheds.


title: Stampede Trail

text: The Stampede Trail has been the subject of international attention since the 1992 death of Christopher McCandless, whose remains were found in an abandoned bus deep inside the wilderness about 28 miles down the trail. The bus was first brought to the public's attention by writer Jon Krakauer in an "Outside" magazine article; a book in 1996 and a film in 2007 followed. This made the trail popular among hikers, some unprepared for the rugged conditions, resulting in several rescue operations and even some deaths. In 2020, citing safety reasons, the bus was removed and shipped to the University of Alaska Museum of the North.


title: Stampede Trail

text: The trail currently receives limited tour traffic. In 2015, Alaska Travel Adventures stopped operating Jeep tours along the trail due to deteriorating trail conditions and frequent mechanical problems. Denali Tundra Tours ceased operations of an Argo tour in 2016. As of 2019, Stampede Excursions continues to operate three daily tours along the trail in Pinzgauer 6x6 military grade trucks as well as Volvo C306 6x6 personnel carriers. This tour is called the Denali Backcountry Safari. While they pick up passengers from all Denali area hotels, the 6x6 tours actually begin at their Eight Mile Lake Base Camp at mile 7.5 of the Stampede Road. Their pavilion and other associated buildings are the last permanent structures along the Stampede Road. All tours turn around a few miles east of the Savage River. Traversing the beaver ponds, "mud flats,” and crossing the Teklanika River are major obstacles preventing most vehicles from continuing more than 5 miles or so down the trail.


title: Stampede Trail

text: During the fall, hunting traffic along the trail is heavy as the area is prime habitat for moose. Many hunters use ATVs or Argos to access hunting camps. Moose hunting in this area generally yields high success rates. Winter travel by snowmobile, dog sled, or tracked vehicle is much easier than summer travel after the boggy tundra, beaver ponds, and rivers freeze.


title: Stampede Trail

text: The Stampede Trail began as the "Lignite to Kantishna" mining trail blazed in 1903 by prospectors drawn to the Kantishna region by the discovery of placer gold. In the 1930s miner Earl Pilgrim used the trail to access his antimony claims on Stampede Creek at , above the Clearwater Fork of the Toklat River. For many years, the mine was accessed through the use of a winter trail. Antimony ore was shipped east to the railroad through the use of “Cat Trains,” sleds loaded with ore and towed by Caterpillar Bulldozers. Fuel and supplies for the mine were backhauled in the same way. The overland cat trains could take 3 or more days of travel time and February was generally the best month for such winter trail travel.


title: Stampede Trail

text: In 1960, Yutan Construction won a contract from the new state of Alaska to upgrade the trail as part of Alaska's Pioneer Road Program, building a road for trucks to haul ore from the mine year-round for transshipment to the railroad at Lignite (near the present day town of Healy.) Construction was discontinued in 1961 after only of road were built. No bridges were constructed over the several rivers it crossed. In 1963 maintenance was halted and the route promptly became impassable for road vehicles by the soft permafrost and seasonal flooding.


title: Stampede Trail

text: The trail has since been used by backcountry travelers on foot, bicycle, dog sleds, snowmachines, and all-terrain vehicles. The trail's main obstacle is crossing the Teklanika River during the summer months when the river swells with snowmelt. The Alaska State Troopers report that several rescues were necessary every year at the river crossing. In August 2010, high water resulted in the drowning death of Claire Ackermann, a hiker from Switzerland and in July 2019 Veranika Nikanava of Belarus was also swept downstream and drowned. Hundreds of hikers attempted to reach Bus 142 every year, until its removal in June 2020.


title: Stampede Trail

text: From the 1970s until 2020, an abandoned bus sat on the Stampede Trail near Denali National Park, and became a destination for visitors. Fairbanks City Transit System Bus 142 was a 1946 International Harvester K-5 bus left in a clearing at . It was originally one of three buses used by the Yutan Construction Company to provide site accommodations for the construction crew from Fairbanks that worked on road upgrades in 1960–1961. It was towed on location by a Caterpillar D8 bulldozer, as the engine had been removed. It contained a couple of beds and a wood-burning stove. When the Stampede Mine ceased operations in the 1970s, the buses were removed, but Bus 142 was left behind due to a broken rear axle, and subsequently served as a shelter for hunters, trappers, and other visitors.


title: Stampede Trail

text: The bus gained notoriety in January 1993 when "Outside" magazine published an article written by Jon Krakauer titled "Death of an Innocent" describing the death of Christopher McCandless, an American hitchhiker who lived in the bus during the summer of 1992 while attempting to survive off the Alaskan wilderness, only to die of starvation after three and a half months.


title: Stampede Trail

text: The bus – referred to by McCandless in his journal as the "Magic Bus" – became a pilgrimage site for visitors seeking the location where he perished. The 2007 film version of Jon Krakauer's 1996 book about McCandless, "Into the Wild", revived more interest in the bus. In 2013, Dave Gill visited the bus as part of a British documentary publishing project, discovering that visitors had shot at the bus and caused damage, resulting in its accelerated deterioration. In 2017, Circle the Globe Productions filmed a pilot episode for "Off the Map" – a proposed series on the Travel Channel – along the trail and at the bus.


title: Stampede Trail

text: Two additional hikers died attempting to reach Bus 142. In 2010, Claire Ackermann of Switzerland drowned trying to cross the Teklanika River. She had tied herself to a rope spanning the fast-moving river, but lost her footing and drowned before she could be cut free. In 2019, Veranika Nikanava of Belarus also drowned while trying to cross the river while tied to a rope. Subsequently, hikers were strongly urged to avoid tying themselves to ropes as a method of crossing Alaskan rivers. After Nikanava’s death, her husband is attempting to raise awareness and funds for a cable crossing or bridge at this location.


title: Stampede Trail

text: In June 2020, various government agencies coordinated a training mission with the Alaska Army National Guard to remove the bus, deemed a public safety issue after the deaths of Ackermann and Nikanava and numerous visitor rescue incidents. It was flown out of the wilderness by a CH-47 Chinook helicopter to Healy. The Museum of The North at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks became the new home of Bus 142, where it would be restored and an outdoor exhibit created.


title: Heal the World

text: "Heal the World" is a song recorded by American recording artist Michael Jackson from his eighth studio album, "Dangerous" (1991). It was released on November 23, 1992 as the fifth single from the album. It was written and composed by Jackson, and produced by Jackson and Bruce Swedien. It is a song steeped with antiwar lyrics and Jackson's wish for humanity of making the world a better place.


title: Heal the World

text: In a 2001 Internet chat with fans, Jackson said that "Heal the World" is the song he was most proud to have created. He also created the Heal the World Foundation, a charitable organization which was designed to improve the lives of children. The organization was also meant to teach children how to help others. This concept of 'betterment for all' would become a centerpiece for the Dangerous World Tour. In the documentary "Living with Michael Jackson", Jackson said he created the song in his "Giving Tree" at Neverland Ranch.


title: Heal the World

text: An ensemble performance of "We Are the World" and "Heal the World" closed Jackson's memorial service at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on July 7, 2009. The song was performed as rehearsed by Jackson at the venue just weeks earlier, in preparation for his planned "This Is It" concerts in London along with "Dirty Diana". R&B singer Ciara sang the song as a tribute to Jackson at the 2009 BET Awards.


title: Heal the World

text: The song was played at the funeral of James Bulger, and Jackson also donated the song to be used as the anthem for the James Bulger Red Balloon Centre, a school for children to go to if they are being bullied or have learning difficulties.


title: Heal the World

text: This song is written in the key of A major (but will later transitions to B Major as a choir starts singing, and last more chorus in D major from the end), and it spans from E to C#. It has a tempo of 80 beats per minute.


title: Heal the World

text: Chris Lacy from Albumism described the song as "a beautifully understated anthem whose lyrics call for universal improvement." AllMusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine called it "middle-class soft." Larry Flick from "Billboard" viewed "Heal the World" as a "oh-so-sweet call for peace and love". He added, "Although tune sounds a bit like "We Are the World", the sincerity in his vocal cuts through a somewhat overblown arrangement and choir climax." Randy Clark from "Cash Box" said that it's "musically about as close a jab at his previous "We Are The World" as he could pull off without Quincy Jones and the superstar backing." He added that "the sing-along ballad features mostly Michael's vocals, bringing in a choir at the end for the full effect. The universal message is also the theme of his current world tour." After Jackson's death, the Daily Vault's Michael R. Smith wrote, "Certainly, message songs like "Heal the World" and "Gone Too Soon" have a striking and sad resonance now that Jackson is no longer with us, so in that way his legacy is preserved and his music does live on." David Browne of "Entertainment Weekly" praised the song, "And when his voice isn't competing with drum machines, it has rarely sounded stronger-achingly pure". "Rolling Stone"s Alan Light was not satisfied, calling it "a Hallmark-card knockoff of 'We Are the World'."


title: Heal the World

text: The song reached number two in the UK Singles Chart in December 1992, kept off the number one position by Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You". It peaked number 27 on the "Billboard" Hot 100.


title: Heal the World

text: The accompanying music video for the song was directed by Joe Pytka and features children living in countries suffering from unrest, especially Burundi. The version of the video included on "" and "Michael Jackson's Vision" contains an introductory video that features a speech from Jackson taken from the special "spoken word" version of the track. This version was not included on "Video Greatest Hits – HIStory" featuring the music video. Jackson performed the song in the Super Bowl XXVII halftime show with a 35,000 person flash card performance.


title: Haji Wright

text: Haji Amir Wright (born March 27, 1998) is an American professional soccer player who plays for Süper Lig club Antalyaspor and the United States national team.


title: Haji Wright

text: Known for his finishing, ability to win headers, and quickness, Wright had been dubbed by many media outlets as one of the top prospects in the United States youth system. His success with the under-17 national team prompted him to train with Schalke 04's academy.


title: Haji Wright

text: In March 2015, Wright officially signed with NASL club New York Cosmos for an undisclosed fee and contract length. Wright's contract expired following the season, and he did not re-sign. During his time at Cosmos, Wright featured in 3 league games, playing a total of 80 minutes. He made his debut versus Indy Eleven on July 26, 2015.


title: Haji Wright

text: In April 2016, Wright signed with Schalke 04. In his debut with the Schalke under-19 team on April 16, Wright scored a brace against Borussia Mönchengladbach U19.


title: Haji Wright

text: Wright was promoted to the Schalke first team in May 2017. He was named on the bench against FC Ingolstadt 04 on May 20, 2017. In July 2018, Wright underwent a trial period with 2. Bundesliga club Union Berlin. On November 24, 2018, Wright made his debut for Schalke first team when he replaced Steven Skrzybski in the 88th minute of the 5–2 win against 1. FC Nürnberg.


title: Haji Wright

text: In August 2020, Wright joined SønderjyskE on a free transfer. He got off to a strong start in the league, with 6 goals in 8 appearances by early November, and his performances led to him being named as the Danish Superliga Player of the Month for October 2020. In July 2021, Wright wanted to move on from SønderjyskE and failed to report back for pre-season training. On July 21, 2021, Turkish club Antalyaspor confirmed that they had signed Wright on loan from SønderjyskE with an option to buy. However, later on the same day, SønderjyskE went out and denied that the deal had gone through because they hadn't yet received any payment. However, a few days later, on July 28, 2021, SønderjyskE confirmed that he had been loaned out to Antalyaspor for the 2021–22 season and also signed a new deal with Sønderjyske until June 2024.


title: Haji Wright

text: Wright is of Liberian and Ghanaian descent. He has represented the United States at all youth levels. In May 2022, Wright was called into the United States senior camp by Gregg Berhalter for a CONCACAF Nation's League window.


title: Haji Wright

text: Wright scored his first international goal on his senior debut for the United States on June 1, 2022, in a 3–0 friendly victory against Morocco. In November 2022, Wright was named to the squad for the 2022 FIFA World Cup.


title: Haji Wright

text: Haji's brother Hanif plays on the under-19 team of Bonner SC. Haji's cousins are also active in athletics: Joseph Putu played cornerback for the Florida Gators, his second cousin, Isaac Nana Addai, played for the Liberia national under-23 team as well as Boston City FC, and his third cousin, Joseph Addai, won Super Bowl XLI in 2007 with the Indianapolis Colts.


title: Marcos Acuña

text: Marcos Javier Acuña (born 28 October 1991) is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a left back for Spanish club Sevilla and the Argentina national team.


title: Marcos Acuña

text: Acuña began his athletic training at Club Don Bosco in his hometown. At that time he played as a left wing-back. His good performance got him noticed by scouts who invited him to perform tests at various clubs in Buenos Aires. Thus, at age 13 he tried out for but did not stay at Boca Juniors and San Lorenzo de Almagro. Four years later he tried out for Quilmes, River Plate and Tigre before ultimately being taken by Ferro Carril Oeste. After a few seasons in Ferro's reserve team, he was promoted to the first team. He made his debut in 2009 in a match in the Primera B Nacional playing as a winger under coach José María Bianco. Already in the 2013–14 season he stood out for his ability to assist his peers, providing 12 assists, which caught the attention of major clubs. At Ferro, Acuña played a total of 117 matches, with 5 goals and 23 assists.


title: Marcos Acuña

text: On 18 July 2014, Acuña moved to Racing Club for a net fee of 4,900,000 pesos for 50% of his rights, with the option to buy another 25% at $750,000. On 27 July 2014, he played his first game with the "Academia" in a match for the knockout phase of the 2013–14 Copa Argentina against San Martín de San Juan, in which he also scored the winning goal on a header to give Racing a 1–0 victory. Later that year he was part of Racing's championship team that won the 2014 Argentine Primera División, cutting a streak of 13 years without titles for the Avellaneda side, in which Acuña played 15 games and scored two goals.


title: Marcos Acuña

text: On 12 June 2017, Racing president Víctor Blanco confirmed that Acuña would be leaving the club for Sporting CP. He made his debut for the Portuguese team in a 2–0 away victory over Desportivo Aves. On 15 May 2018, Acuña and several of his teammates, including coaches, were injured following an attack by around 50 supporters of Sporting at the club's training ground after the team finished third in the league and missed out on the UEFA Champions League qualification. Despite the attack, he and the rest of the team agreed to play in the Portuguese Cup final scheduled for the following weekend, eventually losing to C.D. Aves.


title: Marcos Acuña

text: On 14 September 2020, Acuña joined Spanish club Sevilla on a four-year deal. On 7 November 2021, Acuña scored his first league goal of the 2021–22 season in the "el gran derbi" where Sevilla won 2–0 against Real Betis.


title: Marcos Acuña

text: On 15 November 2016, Acuña made his international debut with the Argentina national team in a World Cup Qualifier 2018 match against Colombia. He was part of Argentina's squad that won the 2021 Copa América.


title: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

text: SMBC group operates in over 40 countries and maintains a presence in all International Financial Centres as the 12th biggest bank in the world by total assets. It is one of the largest global financial institutions in project finance space by total loan value. As of May 2020, SMBC group is listed as 80th largest public company in the world according to Forbes ranking.


title: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

text: It is the second largest banking institution by total assets and market capitalization in Japan. Along with MUFJ Financial Group and Mizuho Financial Group, SMBC group is referred to as a Japanese megabank, one of the three largest banking institutions who dominate market share in Japan's financial system. It is closely affiliated with Sumitomo and Mitsui "keiretsu".


title: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

text: The core subsidiary of SMBC group is the banking unit, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC). Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group acts as the holding company for the group. The other major subsidiaries include SMBC Nikko Securities, SMBC Trust Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management, Sumitomo Mitsui Finance and Leasing and Japan Research Institute (JRI).


title: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

text: was a Japanese bank based in Tokyo and Kobe. It was formed in April 1990 as the Mitsui Taiyo Kobe Bank (MTKB) by the merger of Mitsui Bank (founded 1876) and Taiyo Kobe Bank (founded 1973).


title: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

text: Sakura bank root can be traced back to July 1876 when its predecessor, Mitsui Bank, was established with capital of two million yen. It was one of the Japanese government's main banks for deposits and tax collections until the formation of the Bank of Japan in 1882. In ensuing decades, the Mitsui family took over numerous government industrial plants to form a major "zaibatsu" conglomerate, with the bank as one of its core businesses. Mitsui Bank reorganized as an unlimited partnership in 1893, and as a limited company (capital stock: ¥20 million) in 1909.


title: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

text: World War II led Mitsui Bank to distance itself from the Mitsui "zaibatsu" beginning around 1937, as the bank's large balance of loans to munitions manufacturers made it vulnerable to failure should a recession occur after the war. The solution found by Mitsui's chairman was to merge the bank with the Dai-Ichi Bank, creating a much larger institution outside the Mitsui family's control. In April 1943, Mitsui Bank merged with Dai-Ichi to form Teikoku Bank ("Imperial Bank").


title: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

text: Teikoku almost immediately found itself short of funds, and for the remainder of the war, mainly provided short-term financing, with long-term financing for its munitions manufacturing customers mostly provided by the Industrial Bank of Japan. Dai-Ichi and Mitsui had very different corporate cultures which led to friction between the two; the two banks never completely integrated, and in October 1948, Dai-Ichi Bank separated from Teikoku Bank.


title: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

text: Teikoku Bank listed its shares on the Tokyo and Osaka stock exchanges in May 1949 and changed its name back to Mitsui Bank in January 1954. Mitsui Bank merged with Toto Bank in April 1968.


title: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

text: Around 1960, Mitsui Bank and its general trading company partner Mitsui & Co. formed a horizontal "keiretsu" alliance between other companies descended from the Mitsui conglomerate, including Toyota, Toshiba, Toyo Menka Kaisha, Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries, Showa Aircraft and Oji Paper.


title: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

text: Mitsui established The Mitsui Bank of California in Los Angeles in 1974, and acquired Manufacturers Bank in 1981, merging the two later that year to form Mitsui Manufacturers Bank (renamed Manufacturers Bank in 1992).


title: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

text: Mitsui Bank agreed to merge with Taiyo Kobe Bank in 1989. The TKB-Mitsui merger, agreed in end of 1989 during the height of the Japanese asset price bubble, was to create the second largest bank in the world behind Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank. While TKB had a large base of individual and small business customers, Mitsui had a complementary base of larger institutional Clients. The Sakura Bank name was adopted 3 years later in April 1992. The merger was aimed at leveraging these synergies, as well as providing stronger competition against European banks, which were expected to consolidate following a deregulation in 1992.


title: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

text: Sakura became a major corporate and retail bank in the Greater Tokyo Area during the 1990s and was the largest retail bank in Japan by several measures, including housing loan and investment trust sales. However, Sakura incurred massive bad loan write-offs in 1998 and approached one of its major corporate customers, Toyota, for financial support, which was rejected.


title: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

text: Sakura led the consortium that established Japan Net Bank, an online bank, in 2000, and began talks with Sony to establish a second online banking operation in Japan.


title: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

text: Sumitomo Bank was established as a private enterprise in November 1895 and reorganized as a limited company with 15 million yen of capital in March 1912. It opened numerous overseas branches during the World War I era as the Sumitomo "zaibatsu" business globalized.


title: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

text: After World War II, the Sumitomo group was dismantled and its constituent companies were forbidden from using the Sumitomo name. The bank renamed itself Osaka Bank in October 1948. In December 1952, its name was changed back to Sumitomo Bank. Sumitomo was the main bank for several major Japanese manufacturers during the early postwar era, including NEC and Panasonic (Matsushita).


title: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

text: In the 1970s, it lost nearly US$1 billion in the restructuring of Osaka-based general trading company Ataka & Co., which, combined with the contemporaneous bailout of Mazda, had a major impact on Sumitomo's finances, driving it down from the most profitable bank in Japan to being only ninth-ranked. However, the Ataka and Mazda bailouts enhanced Sumitomo's industry reputation by showing its dedication to customers. It became the largest Japanese bank by deposits until the merger of Dai-Ichi Bank and Nippon Kangyo Bank to form Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank.


title: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

text: In 1986, Sumitomo merged with Heiwa Sogo Bank in order to expand its presence in the Tokyo area. In the same year, it acquired 12.5% of Goldman Sachs.


title: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

text: Sumitomo incurred major losses during the collapse of the Japanese asset price bubble in the 1990s. In 1993 it wrote off 100 billion yen in bad loans, and in 1994 its Nagoya branch manager was murdered in possible connection with a bad debt collection. In 1995, it posted the first net loss of a major Japanese bank in the postwar era. It sold Sumitomo Bank of California, the sixth-largest bank in California, at a steep discount to Zions Bancorporation in 1998 (SBC is now part of California Bank and Trust).


title: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

text: In 1999, amid intensifying competition as other Japanese and foreign banks consolidated, Sumitomo announced its merger with Sakura Bank to form Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation. The merger was approved in June 2000 and combined Sakura's strong retail operation and eastern Japan presence with Sumitomo's strong wholesale operation and western Japan presence.


title: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

text: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) was formed by the merger of The Sumitomo Bank and Sakura Bank in April 2001. Sumitomo Bank was a major Japanese bank founded in 1895; while Sakura Bank was a descendant of Mitsui Bank, another major Japanese bank founded in 1876, but with operations dating back to 1683, when the Tokugawa Shogunate granted Mitsui Takatoshi permission to act as a money changer. The merger created one of the world's largest banking group, with similar size to Deutsche Bank and the pending merger that would form Mizuho Bank. However, the newly created bank was still plagued with bad assets at that time post the asset price bubble burst (the Japanese banking industry as a whole suffered from significant non-performing loans during the 1990s and early 2000s). This led to several corporate actions taken by SMBC to clean its balance sheet and raise capital such as writing off its non-performing loans and selling its entire stake in Goldman Sachs.


title: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

text: In 2003, SMBC conducted reverse merger with its subsidiary, Wakashio Bank, to secure financial resources to cover large deferred losses from its equity holdings. Although SMBC was technically dissolved and Wakashio Bank became a company that survived, under the Japanese Commercial Code, the surviving entity took the name Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp., just like the disbanded bank name. SMBC President Yoshifumi Nishikawa and Chairman Akishige Okada became president and Chairman of the new entity respectively. Hiroyasu Ichikawa, President of Wakashio Bank, assumed the position of senior managing director. The idea of the reverse merger is to create smaller entity with excess profit. The profit, then, was used to accelerate write-offs of the bank's unrealized securities losses and boost sales of its shareholdings to reduce risk from the fluctuation of stock prices. Post the merger, the new entity grew rapidly through organic and inorganic growth strategy. The assets expanded


title: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

text: from 102.4 trillion yen in 2003 to more than 200 trillion yen by the end of 2019, making it the 12th largest bank in the world.


title: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

text: At present, the bank serves as the core retail, corporate, and investment banking arm of "both" the namesake Sumitomo and Mitsui groups. Its traditional client base is made up of Japanese corporates, but overseas corporate lending increased following overseas expansion. SMBC's overseas network consists of 130 branches and offices in 40 countries and regions as of 2018. SMBC provides financial products and services to a wide range of clients, including individuals, small and medium-sized enterprises, large corporations, financial institutions and public sector entities. Since 2008, the Singapore branch has become SMBC's regional hub in Asia Pacific while global headquarters is still maintained in Tokyo, Japan.


title: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

text: SMBC's shares has become listed on the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, the Osaka Securities Exchange and the Nagoya Stock Exchange since December 2002. It has secondary listing in New York Stock Exchange. The stock tickers are and .


title: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

text: The bank steadily increased its tier 1 capital ratios from 12.19% in 2014 to 16.69% as reported in March 2018. Standard & Poor's, Moody’s and Fitch Ratings assigned SMBC's an A1, A and A rating respectively (as at March 2018).


title: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

text: Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, Inc. (SMFG) was established in December 2002 through a share transfer from Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation. It acts as bank holding and financial services company of Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation.


title: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

text: In February 2003, Sumitomo Mitsui Card Company, Limited, SMBC Leasing Company, Limited, and The Japan Research Institute became wholly owned subsidiaries of SMFG.


title: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

text: SMFG reached an agreement in June 2004 to form a strategic alliance with Promise Co., Ltd. on consumer finance business. The two firms started collaborative business in April 2005.


title: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

text: The same month, SMFG reached an agreement to form a strategic alliance with NTT DoCoMo on credit card business. A portion of the shares of Sumitomo Mitsui Card held by SMFG were transferred to NTT DoCoMo, and Sumitomo Mitsui Card issued new shares and allocated them to NTT DoCoMo by means of third party allocation in July 2005. Collaborative business began in December 2005.


title: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

text: In September 2006, SMBC Friend Securities became a wholly owned subsidiary of SMFG and the following month, SMFG reached an agreement to pursue strategic joint business with the Sumitomo Corporation group in the leasing and auto leasing businesses.


title: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

text: In April 2016, Sumitomo Mitsui Finance and Leasing completed the acquisition of General Electric Group's Japan-based leasing business.


title: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

text: Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group acts as the holding company for the SMBC group. The core subsidiary of the group is the banking unit, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC).


title: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

text: Throughout the years, the group has expanded into other related businesses such as leasing, brokerage and asset management. As of 2020, the major subsidiaries beside the banking unit include SMBC Nikko Securities, SMBC Trust Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management, Sumitomo Mitsui Finance and Leasing and Japan Research Institute (JRI).


title: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

text: The group was identified by its holding entity name, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMFG), until early of 2018. By March 2018, the group established "SMBC Group" as its master brand name. Since then, the corporate group has been referred to as SMBC Group instead of SMFG. The press release by the company stated the move is to associate the brand with the group's core banking business, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation.


title: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

text: SMBC Group's corporate logo uses "Rising Mark" sign. The background color is trad green, fresh green. The “SMBC” name is shown on the right side of the rising mark with white block letters.


title: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

text: In 2014, SMBC Group created an original mascot character called Midosuke, which imitates an otter. The body of the character is green in color, the neck of it is covered by a scarf with the color similar to SMBC group's rising mark logo. The character was designed by Tsuneo Goda (Dwarf Co., Ltd.). Originally, it was used mainly for official LINE accounts but later it has been used as commercials character, face design of cash cards or debit cards, and merchandise for bank customers.


title: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

text: The history of SMBC Nikko Securities can be traced back to Nikko Cordial Corporation, which was the holding company for Nikko Cordial Securities. The company was Japan's third largest brokerage until 2008, when Nikko Cordial Corporation became a wholly owned subsidiary of Citigroup; upon completion of share exchange, it merged with Citigroup Japan Holdings Ltd. to form Nikko Citi Holdings Inc., before changing its name to Citigroup Japan Holdings Corp. in 2009.


title: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

text: In October 2009, all of the operations of Nikko Cordial Securities and certain businesses of Nikko Citigroup, such as the domestic stock and bond underwriting business among others, were sold to Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, before being reorganized into a new subsidiary company, SMBC Nikko Securities Inc., in April 2011. SMBC Nikko Securities becomes investment banking arm of SMBC group and offers equity and debt financing, trading, and merger and acquisition advisory services worldwide with the main base in Japan.


title: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

text: SMBC Aviation Capital, formerly RBS Aviation Capital, is one of the world's largest aircraft leasing companies. Headquartered in the International Financial Services Centre in Dublin and with locations in Amsterdam, Beijing, Hong Kong, Kyiv, Moscow, New York, Seattle, Miami, Shanghai, Singapore, Tokyo and Toulouse, the company employs 160 people.


title: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

text: In 2012, the company was acquired by the Japanese consortium of Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC), Sumitomo Mitsui Finance and Leasing Company Limited (SMFL) and Sumitomo Corporation for US$7.3 billion which was the largest ever global sale of an aircraft leasing business. The sale completed on 1 June 2012 and the business was renamed SMBC Aviation Capital.


title: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

text: The company currently has a portfolio of 453 aircraft (273 owned and 180 managed) with a further 203 aircraft on order from Airbus and Boeing, made up of a mix of A320neos, A320-200s, B737-800s and B737 MAXs. It has more than 150 airline customers in over 50 countries worldwide, including a range of traditional carriers alongside start-up airlines.


title: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

text: Its strategy is to own and lease technologically advanced, efficient and frequently-used aircraft types. SMBC Aviation Capital maintains a young fleet with an average weighted age of 4.7 years. The company has a BBB+ rating from Fitch.


title: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

text: The company is now in its 15th year in business. In July 2016, the company completed a debut US$500 million unsecured notes offering, which was eight times over-subscribed.


title: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

text: Bank BTPN focuses on serving the mass market segment consisting of pensioners, micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), productive poor communities; consuming class segment; and the corporate segment in Indonesia. By 2019, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) officially owns 96.9% of PT Bank Tabungan Pensiunan Negara Tbk (BTPN) shares. This is an increase from the previous ownership which was only 39.92%. The gain in the portion of SMBC shares in BTPN is in line with the acquisition of additional shares of 3.33 billion or around 56.98% conducted in January 2019. The shares transaction was carried out at IDR4,282 per share.


title: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

text: Post acquisition, the entity was merged with SMBC's subsidiary in Indonesia. In a summary of the proposed merger of BTPN and Bank Sumitomo Indonesia, the total assets and total equity of the merged bank reached a total IDR 178 trillion and IDR 26.92 trillion respectively, using financial position as of May 31, 2018. Upon the merger, BTPN became the 8th largest bank in Indonesia by total assets.


title: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

text: SMBC has an ownership in Bank of East Asia (BEA). In 2015, the bank increased its investment in BEA by approximately HKD 6.6 billion, bringing SMBC's shareholding in BEA to 17.50% from 9.68% previously.


title: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

text: An IC cash card is a single cash card that can be used with three method of identification: biometric authentication, IC chip or magnetic stripe, by setting the limit and registering biometric information (finger vein pattern). With this cash card, the security of usage improved since transactions relies on IC chip recording data and the pattern of past transactions that combined IC chip recording data and biometric authentication.


title: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

text: As of 2017, SMBC issued IC cash cards at the bank's counters (only applicable to ordinary design deposit cash cards; cards of other designs and non-savings accounts are not eligible for immediate issuance).


title: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

text: Several Blockchain-related initiatives also has been implemented by SMBC. The bank is planning to implement the use of R3's Marco Polo trade finance blockchain, the international blockchain trade finance network, on a commercial basis by the end of 2020.


title: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

text: SMBC has been an early adopter of AI in its banking operation. It is the first Japanese bank to use IBM Watson since 2014 to support operators at its call center. AmiVoice, a voice recognition solution provided by SMBC, transforms inquiries into text on a real-time basis as a speech recognition system, while IBM Watson gives customers responses taken from service manuals and Q&As, thereby allowing digital operators to provide timely and correct answers to callers.


title: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

text: In 2006 SMBC was among the first Japanese Bank to adopt the Equator Principles, an international set of social and environmental standards for financial institutions launched in 2003. The bank updated its policy to exclude the funding of ultrasupercritical coal power.


title: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

text: SMBC has involved in funding renewable project finance worth three trillion yen globally. As one of the leading players in finance for offshore wind power and solar energy generation, SMBC has been funding renewable power plant projects with a total capacity of more than 10 GW by 2018. Since 2016, the bank has supported 44 project finance deals in renewable energy area. The projects consist of 20 solar energy, 17 wind energy, 3 Geothermal Energy, 2 Hydropower, 1 Biomass 1 Submarine power cable, 1 waste-to-energy in the Americas, Asia, Europe, and Australasia.


title: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

text: However, international environmental groups have criticized SMBC for failing to adhere to its social environmental standards, because SMBC is still involved in the financing of coal projects such as the Vung Ang 2 and Nghi Son 2 coal power station in Vietnam. In December 2019, a research released at United Nations Climate Change conference named SMBC Group among the top three private lender to coal developers between January 2017 and September 2019.


title: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

text: SMBC also involves as one of lead arrangers for a massive oil pipeline under construction in Uganda and Tanzania. The construction of East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline is a part of a push to open oil fields around Uganda’s Lake Albert to international markets, which will be connected to the port of Tanga in Tanzania. The required investment value is estimated at US$3.5 billion. With 1,443 kilometres of length, it will be the longest heated pipeline in the world. International organizations warned the environmental risks to fresh water sources including Lake Victoria, which supports the livelihoods of more than 30 million people in the region.


title: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

text: Having said this, news reported that SMBC is to reconsider its prolific funding of coal-fired plants, the first of the nation's major banks to do so.


title: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

text: SMBC and Singapore Open have a title sponsorship deal since 2016, making the Singapore top golf tournament commercially known as SMBC Singapore Open. The Singapore Open is a golf tournament in Singapore that is part of the Asian Tour schedule. The event has been held at Sentosa Golf Club since 2005 and since 2017 has been part of the Open Qualifying Series, giving up to four non-exempt players entry into The Open Championship.


title: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

text: In April 2015, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation became a Gold Partner (banking category) for the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020.


title: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

text: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation is the only bank that has a branch office in Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea. The branch is the legacy of Mitsui Bank, which was a member of the Mitsui Group when Oriental Land was established. Tokyo Disney Resort project was done by Mitsui Fudosan.


title: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

text: The branch office in Tokyo DisneySea has an unmanned ATM section called "Nihonbashi Branch Tokyo DisneySea Branch", but staff are still assigned to the "Urayasu Branch Tokyo Disneyland Branch" (store number 593) in Tokyo Disneyland. The operating hours follow normal bank operational time. It was possible to open an account and no limitation of total handled customers, but now it is limited only to Urayasu citizens and related parties. The passbook design and the card design are not different from the one issued by ordinary SMBC's branches and cannot be visually differentiated. Previously, the Disneyland branch office also handled foreign currency exchange.


title: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

text: Note, SMBC is not a participating company nor official sponsor of Tokyo Disney Resort. For instance, Disney characters have been used by the Bank of Mitsubishi UFJ as an image character for over half a century since it was adopted by Mitsubishi Bank in 1962.


title: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

text: Since 2011, Japan's law regulator put series of efforts to battle organized crime activities in the country. This includes exclusion ordinances that made it illegal to do business with Yakuza gang members. Methods include that which brought down Al Capone such as checking the organization's finances. In 2013, the Financial Services Agency, Japan’s financial watchdog, started investigation of the three mega banks over possible ties to organised crime after Mizuho banking group was accused to lend more than US$2 million to people affiliated with organized crime groups in Japan. The probe also focused on compliance practices and risk management systems of the banks.


title: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

text: To step up the effort of dissociation with Yakuza, the Japanese Bankers Association's members, including SMBC Group, started to compile their own lists on Yakuza and other so-called anti-social forces to keep undesirable persons from using their services to perform transactions.


title: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

text: In June 2012, an employee of SMBC Nikko securities was arrested for alleged insider trading due to the suspicion of having leaked information on tender offers. The employee allegedly provided leaked information on tender offers for at least more than 10 firms to a company top personnel and other recipients. One of the information was regarding management buyout bid by a wine trading house, Enoteca Co., before the takeover bid plan was announced in February of when it was listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's Second Section.


title: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

text: The said employee worked for SMBC Nikko on secondment from Tokyo-based Sumitomo Mitsui's banking unit since October 2009. He was the deputy head of investment banking at that time and was loaned from SMBC bank (it is common for employees to be rotated to other divisions of the bank periodically). He became the first banker from a major Japanese brokerage to be detained for suspected insider trading since 2008. He was ultimately convicted by Yokohama District Court in 2013 and charged with prison sentence of 2 years and 6 months.


title: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

text: As a consequence of this event, The Tokyo Stock Exchange fined SMBC Nikko Securities 80 million yen (US$1.02 million) for the violation of exchange rules.


title: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

text: A former deputy branch manager of the Omori branch illegally operated the foreign currency deposit transaction system from November 2015 to June 2016. The employee was accused of stealing around ¥190 million (US$1.84 million) by manipulating the bank's foreign exchange trading system.


title: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

text: A group of criminal hackers including Hugh Rodley, security insider Kevin O'Donoghue and Soho sex shop owner David Nash were found guilty of an attempted high-tech robbery of £229m from Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation's London branch in September 2004. Henchmen Jan Van Osselaer and Gilles Poelvoorde were also found guilty of conspiracy to steal. The plot was discovered by Sumitomo Mitsui staff, and no money was stolen. Another accused, Bernard Davies, died before trial.


title: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

text: Hedge fund activist investor Elliott Management filed a lawsuit against BEA in July 2016 in Hong Kong court over a share placement transaction. Elliott Management, which held 7% of listed shares of BEA, had included majority of the bank's directors, its CEO and chairman in the lawsuit. The transaction in question was on BEA's issuance of new shares to Japan's Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp (SMBC) in 2015. Elliott cited "allegations of unfairly prejudicial conduct" and "alleged serious corporate governance failings".


title: Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

text: In response, BEA applied to have Elliott's petition against them "struck out". This case was heard by Mr Justice Jonathan Harris from 17 to 19 July 2017.


title: Dead mall

text: A dead mall (also known as a ghost mall, zombie mall, or abandoned mall) is a shopping mall with a high vacancy rate or a low consumer traffic level, or that is deteriorating in some manner.


title: Dead mall

text: Many malls in North America are considered "dead" (for the purposes of leasing) when they have no surviving anchor store or successor that could attract people to the mall.


title: Dead mall

text: Without the pedestrian traffic that department stores previously generated, sales volumes decline for almost all stores and rental revenues from those stores can no longer sustain the costly maintenance of the malls. Without good pedestrian access, smaller stores inside malls are difficult to reach.


title: Dead mall

text: Structural changes in the department-store industry have also made survival of these malls difficult. These changes have contributed to some areas or suburbs having insufficient traditional department stores to fill all the existing larger-lease-area "anchor spaces". A few large national chains have replaced many local and regional chains, and some national chains are defunct.


title: Dead mall

text: In the US and Canada, newer "big box" chains (also referred to as "category killers") such as Walmart, Target Corporation and Best Buy normally prefer purpose-built free-standing buildings rather than using mall-anchor spaces. 21st-century retailing trends favor open air lifestyle centers; which resemble elements of power centers, big box stores, and strip malls; and (most disruptively for storefronts) online shopping over indoor malls. The massive change led "Newsweek" to declare the indoor mall format obsolete in 2008. The year 2007 marked the first time since the 1950s that no new malls were built in the United States. Most Canadian malls still remain indoors after renovations due to the harsh winter climate throughout most of the country, however the Don Mills Centre was turned into an open-air shopping plaza. Attitudes about malls have also been changing. With changing priorities, people have less time to spend driving to and strolling through malls and, during the Great Recession, specialty stores offered what many shoppers saw as useless luxuries they could no longer afford. In this respect, big box stores and conventional strip malls have a time-saving advantage.


title: Dead mall

text: The number of dead malls has increased significantly because the economic health of malls across the United States has been in decline, with high vacancy rates in many of these malls. From 2006 to 2010, the percentage of malls that are considered to be "dying" by real estate experts (have a vacancy rate of at least 40%), unhealthy (20-40%), or in trouble (10-20%) all increased greatly, and these high vacancy rates only partially decreased from 2010 to 2014. In 2014, nearly 3% of all malls in the United States were considered to be "dying" (40% or higher vacancy rates) and nearly one-fifth of all malls had vacancy rates considered "troubling" (10% or higher).


title: Dead mall

text: Some real estate experts say the "fundamental problem" is a glut of malls in many parts of the country creating a market that is "extremely over-retailed". Cowen Research reported that the number of malls in the U.S. grew more than twice as fast as the population between 1970 and 2015; Cowen also reported that shopping center "gross leasable area" in the U.S. is 40 percent more shopping space per capita than Canada and five times more than the U.K.


title: Dead mall

text: Some malls have maintained profitability, particularly in areas with frequent inclement weather (or otherwise weather undesirable for outdoor activities, such as shopping in an open-air shopping/lifestyle center) or large populations of senior citizens who can partake in mall walking. Combined with lower rents, these factors have led to companies like Simon Malls enjoying high profits and occupancy averages of 92%. Some retailers have also begun to re-evaluate the mall environment, a positive sign for the industry.


title: Dead mall

text: A retail apocalypse that started in the 2010s made the dead mall situation even more noticeable, due to the complete closing of several retailers, as well as anchor tenants Macy's and J. C. Penney closing many locations and the sharp decline in Sears Holdings. The trend was particularly noticeable when Pittsburgh Mills, a mall once worth as much as $190 million, was sold at a foreclosure sale for $100, with the mall itself being purchased by lien holder Wells Fargo.


title: Dead mall

text: It has been suggested the some malls die when its surrounding neighborhoods undergo a demographic change or socio-economic decline.


title: Dead mall

text: In the case of the Cloverleaf Mall in Chesterfield, Virginia, which had operated successfully in the 1970s and 1980s; by the 1990s, its best customers, women, began staying away from the mall, fearful of the youth who were beginning to congregate there. A former Cloverleaf manager stated "People started seeing kids with huge baggy pants and chains hanging off their belts, and people were intimidated, and they would say there were gangs". Another mall with an almost identical story. The 1982 built Chambersburg Mall which had 75 stores and had successful years throughout the 1990s and early to mid 2000s. But by 2003 the mall instituted a policy stating all kids younger than 18 needed a parent to be with them at all times because of fights and incidents at the mall over the last few years. The mall began to decline a few years after that eventually being labeled as one of the U.S’s top 10 most endangered malls in 2009 as mall occupancy had fallen to 62% and sales to 234$ per square foot. Competition from newer retail centers, online shopping, the closure of almost all but 2 anchors in 2014, 2015, 2018 and 2019 respectively by late 2022 mall occupancy is now at 10% with only 2 small anchors and 4 stores.


title: Dead mall

text: The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated many issues affecting malls. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many malls closed temporarily due to stay-at-home orders. A number of notable retailers filed for bankruptcy during the pandemic including Ascena Retail Group, Brooks Brothers, GNC, JCPenney, Lord & Taylor, and Neiman Marcus.


title: Dead mall

text: American malls that have permanently closed citing the pandemic as a precipitating factor include Northgate Mall in Durham, North Carolina, Cascade Mall in Burlington, Washington, and the Metrocenter in Phoenix, Arizona.


title: Dead mall

text: Dead malls are occasionally redeveloped. Leasing or management companies may change the architecture, layout, decor, or other component of a shopping center to attract more renters and draw more profits. Several dead malls have been significantly renovated into open-air shopping centers.


title: Dead mall

text: Redevelopment can involve a switch from retail usage to office or educational use for a building, such as is the case with Eastgate Metroplex in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Park Central Mall in Phoenix, Eastmont Town Center in Oakland, California, Windsor Park Mall in San Antonio (now the global headquarters of Rackspace), Global Mall at the Crossings in Nashville, Tennessee, and the Coral Springs Mall in Florida. Allegheny Center Mall, a retail mall just north of downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, closed as a retail mall in the early 1990s. The mall was successfully redeveloped into office space, but much of the space was taken by telecommunications carriers, data center operators, and Internet service providers, and is now a major carrier hotel serving southwestern Pennsylvania. Yet another use for a former mall can be seen in Lexington, Kentucky, where Lexington Mall was partially demolished and converted into a satellite worship center for a local megachurch.


title: Dead mall

text: Conversion from a shopping mall into an open-air, mixed-use area may entail the demolition of parts of or all of the former shopping mall. An example of this can be seen in Fairfax County, Virginia, where the old Springfield Mall was converted into Springfield Town Center, a mixed-use development that includes a 12-screen movie theatre, shops, and restaurants with outdoor seating and entrances. When the structures are demolished completely, it is known as a greyfield site. In jurisdictions such as Vermont (with a strict permitting process) or in major urban areas (where open fields are long gone), this greyfielding can be much easier and cheaper than building on a greenfield site. An example of this type of redevelopment is Prestonwood Town Center in Dallas and Voorhees Town Center in Voorhees Township, New Jersey.


title: Dead mall

text: Amazon, FedEx and DHL have already acquired the sites of some failed malls and converted them to fulfillment centers. A proposal called "Re-Habit" uses portions of struggling malls, particularly vacated big box space, for homeless housing. As an example of this concept, the vacant Macy's in the Landmark Mall of Alexandria, Virginia has been converted into a temporary homeless shelter for the Carpenter's Shelter.


title: Dead mall

text: Some major healthcare systems such as Vanderbilt Health and the University of Rochester (UR) Health have converted several dying malls into new "health malls" or "mall to medicine." The large spaces allow for the easy conversion of space-intensive activities such as ambulatory surgical centers, while the multiple storefronts facilitate "one stop shopping" for all your health related needs, with specialists co-located with primary care, laboratories, pharmacies and more. Roughly half of 100 Oaks Mall in Nashville, TN is now dedicated to Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Following in Vanderbilt's successful model, it is expanding to other dead or dying malls throughout its region, while University of Rochester Medical Center is converting roughly one-third of The Marketplace Mall in Henrietta, NY.


title: Livonian language

text: The Livonian language ( or ; ) is a Finnic language whose native land is the Livonian Coast of the Gulf of Livonia, located in the north of the Kurzeme peninsula in Latvia. Although its last native speaker died in 2013, there are about 40 reported L2 speakers and 210 having reported some knowledge of the language. Possibly uniquely among the Uralic languages, Livonian has been described as a pitch-accent language (see below).


title: Livonian language

text: Currently, the only person whose native language is Livonian is Kuldi Medne who was born in 2020. Her parents are Livonian language revival activists Jānis Mednis and Renāte Medne. Some ethnic Livonians are learning or have learned Livonian in an attempt to revive it, but because ethnic Livonians are a small minority, opportunities to use Livonian are limited. The Estonian newspaper "Eesti Päevaleht" erroneously announced that Viktors Bertholds, who died on 28 February 2009, was the last native speaker who started Latvian-language school as a monolingual. Some other Livonians had argued, however, that there were some native speakers left, including Viktors Bertholds' cousin, , who died in 2013. An article published by the Foundation for Endangered Languages in 2007 stated that there were only 182 registered Livonians and a mere six native speakers. In a 2009 conference proceeding, it was mentioned that there could be "at best 10 living native" speakers of the language.


title: Livonian language

text: The promotion of the Livonian language as a living language has been advanced mostly by the Livonian Cultural Centre (""), an organisation of mostly young Livonians. Livonian as a lesser used language in Latvia – along with Latgalian – is represented by the Latvian Bureau of Lesser Used Languages (LatBLUL), formerly a national branch of the European Bureau of Lesser Used Languages (EBLUL).


title: Livonian language

text: The language is taught in universities in Latvia, Estonia, Finland and Sweden, which constantly increases the pool of people with some knowledge of the language who do not permanently reside in Latvia.


title: Livonian language

text: In the 19th century, about 2,000 people still spoke Livonian; in 1852, the number of Livonians was 2,394. Various historical events have led to the near total language death of Livonian:


title: Livonian language

text: In the 13th century, the native Livonians inhabited the Estonian counties Alempois, Jogentagana Järva, Läänemaa, Mõhu, Nurmekund, Sakala, Ugandi, and Vaiga in the north, and by the Daugava in the south . The Livonian settlement of Curonia was also begun then. In the 12th–13th centuries the Livonian lands were conquered by the Teutonic Order. The conquest led to a strong decrease in the number of speakers of the Livonian language, empty Livonian lands inhabited by the Latvians, which contributed to the replacement of the Livonian language in favor of Latvian. It is estimated that at the time of the German colonization, there were 30,000 Livonians. In the 19th century the number of speakers of the Couronian dialect is estimated as follows: 2,074 people in 1835, 2,324 people in 1852, 2,390 people in 1858, 2,929 people in 1888. According to the Soviet Census of 1989, 226 people were Livonian, and almost half of them spoke Livonian. According to estimates of the Liv Culture Center in 2010, only 40 people spoke Livonian in everyday life. In 2013, there were none who spoke Livonian in everyday life.


title: Livonian language

text: The first Livonian words were recorded in the Livonian Chronicle of Henry. The first written sources about Livonian appeared in the 16th century. The collection of Livonian poems "Mariners sacred songs and prayers" () was translated to Latvian by Jānis Prints and his son Jānis Jr. and was published in 1845. The first book in Livonian was the Gospel of Matthew, published in 1863 in London in both the eastern and western Courland dialects. It was translated into eastern Couronian by Nick Pollmann and into western Couronian by Jānis Prints and Peteris. The plan with the book was to establish a standard orthography by F. Wiedemann, which consisted of 36 letters with many diacritics. The total circulation was 250 copies. The Livonians received only one copy of each dialect. The second book in Livonian was the same Gospel of Matthew, published in 1880 in St. Petersburg, with an orthography based on Latvian and German.


title: Livonian language

text: In the interwar period, there were several dozen books published in Livonian, mainly with the help of Finnish and Estonian organizations. In 1930, the first newspaper in Livonian, ""Līvli"", was published. In 1942, a translation of the New Testament was published in Helsinki. It was translated by Kōrli Stalte, with help from the Finnish linguist Lauri Kettunen. After WWII, books in Livonian were no longer published, as Latvia was occupied by the Soviet Union. The whole area of the Livonian Coast became a restricted border zone under tight Soviet supervision. Coastal fishing was gradually eliminated in the smaller villages and concentrated in the larger population centres of Kolka, Roja, and Ventspils. Limits were placed on freedom of movement for inhabitants. All of these factors contributed to the decline of the language, although some initiatives appeared starting from the early 1970s.


title: Livonian language

text: After Latvia regained its independence, the newsletter ""Õvā"" was published in Livonian in 1994, dedicated to the Livonian culture, art, and figures of the national movement, and in 1998 with the support of the "Open Society," the first collection of poetry in Livonian, ""Ma akūb sīnda vizzõ, tūrska!"", was published and presented in Finland and Estonia. It combines the works of famous Livonian poets. To date, the only Livonian media outlet is the trilingual (English-Latvian-Livonian) Livones.lv (livones.net) operated by the Liv Culture Center.


title: Livonian language

text: Viktors Bertholds (10 July 1921 – 28 February 2009), one of the last Livonian speakers of the generation who learned Livonian as a first language in a Livonian-speaking family and community, died on 28 February 2009. Though it was reported that he was the last native speaker of the language, Livonians themselves claimed that there were more native speakers still alive, albeit very few.


title: Livonian language

text: As reported in the Estonian newspaper "Eesti Päevaleht", Viktors Bertholds was born in 1921 and probably belonged to the last generation of children who started their (Latvian-medium) primary school as Livonian monolinguals; only a few years later it was noted that Livonian parents had begun to speak Latvian with their children. During World War II, Bertholds, unlike most Livonian men, managed to avoid being mobilized in the armies of either occupation force by hiding in the woods. After the war, Bertholds worked in various professions and shared his knowledge of Livonian language with many field linguists; in the 1990s, he also taught Livonian in children's summer camps.


title: Livonian language

text: Bertholds' Livonian-speaking brother and wife died in the 1990s. In the early 2000s, many other prominent "last Livonians" also died, such as Poulin Klavin (1918–2001), keeper of many Livonian traditions and the last Livonian to reside permanently on the Courland coast, and Edgar Vaalgamaa (1912–2003), clergyman in Finland, translator of the New Testament and author of a book on the history and culture of the Livonians.


title: Livonian language

text: Supposedly the last native speaker of Livonian was Grizelda Kristiņa, née Bertholde (1910–2013, a cousin of Viktors Bertholds), who lived in Canada from 1949. According to Valts Ernštreits, she spoke Livonian as well "as if she had stepped out of her home farm in a Livonian coastal village just yesterday". and qualified as the last living native speaker of the Livonian language of her generation. She died on June 2, 2013.


title: Livonian language

text: The survival of the Livonian language now depends on young Livonians who learned Livonian in their childhood from grandparents or great-grandparents of the pre-war generations. There are not many of them, though there are a few hundred ethnic Livonians in Latvia now who are interested in their Livonian roots. Some young Livonians not only sing folk-songs in Livonian but even strive to use Livonian actively in everyday communication. One such younger generation Livonian speaker is , who performs with the Livonian-Estonian world music group Tuļļi Lum. In 2018, the Livonian Institute at the University of Latvia was established to promote research and awareness of the language.


title: Livonian language

text: Livonian, like Estonian, has lost vowel harmony, but unlike Estonian, it has also lost consonant gradation.


title: Livonian language

text: All vowels can be long or short. Short vowels are written as indicated in the table; long vowels are written with an additional macron ("ˉ") over the letter, so, for example, = . The Livonian vowel system is notable for having a "stød" similar to Danish. As in other languages with this feature, it is thought to be a vestige of an earlier pitch accent.


title: Livonian language

text: Livonian has also a large number of diphthongs, as well as a number of triphthongs. These can also occur short or long.


title: Livonian language

text: The two opening diphthongs and vary in their stress placement depending on length: short "ie", "uo" are realized as rising , , while long "īe", "ūo" are realized as falling , . The same applies to the triphthongs "uoi" : "ūoi".


title: Livonian language

text: Livonian has for centuries been thoroughly influenced by Latvian in terms of grammar, phonology and word derivation etc. The dative case in Livonian, for example, is very unusual for a Finnic language. There are about 2,000 Latvian and 200 Low Saxon and German loanwords in Livonian and most of the Germanic loanwords were adopted through Latvian. Latvian, however, was influenced by Livonian as well. Its regular syllable stress, which is based on Livonian, is very unusual in a Baltic language. Especially as of the end of the nineteenth century there was a great deal of contact with Estonians, namely between (Kurzeme) Livonian fishers or mariners and the Estonians from Saaremaa or other islands. Many inhabitants of the islands of Western Estonia worked in the summer in Kurzeme Livonian villages. As a result, a knowledge of Estonian spread among those Livonians and words of Estonian origin also came into Livonian. There are about 800 Estonian loanwords in Livonian, most of which were borrowed from the Saaremaa dialect.


title: Robbie Knievel

text: Robert Edward Knievel II (born May 7, 1962) is an American daredevil and son of stunt performer Evel Knievel. He has also used the code name "Kaptain Robbie Knievel".


title: Robbie Knievel

text: Robbie Knievel is the son of the stuntman Robert "Evel" Knievel and his first wife, Linda. The third of four children (two boys and two girls), Knievel is named after his paternal grandfather. Knievel has two daughters, Krysten and Karmen. He also has a granddaughter and grandson, Analise and Kane.


title: Robbie Knievel

text: Knievel began jumping his bicycle at age four and rode motorcycles at age seven. At age eight, he performed his first show with his father at Madison Square Garden. At age 12, he was on tour with his father, where he would perform in the pre-jump shows. Knievel attended Central Catholic High School in Butte, Montana between 1975 and 1976, but he never graduated. He wanted to lengthen his jumps, but his father disapproved. Knievel then went solo after his dad's approval.


title: Robbie Knievel

text: Knievel's jumping career is markedly different from his father's, in that Robbie, up until 2009, used high-performance Honda CR500 motocross bikes that have been designed for jumping. Evel made most of his record-breaking jumps using a Harley-Davidson XR-750 motorcycle. The XR-750 is a significantly heavier and less agile motorcycle than the CR500 because the Honda is a motocross bike whereas the Harley is a flat-track racing motorcycle.


title: Robbie Knievel

text: Robbie has made and often replicated Evel's jumps (including Evel's 1967 Caesars Palace crash) with the exception of two of his father's major accomplishments: a Harley-Davidson XR-750 jump and the Snake River Canyon jump using the X-2 Skycycle. Although never attempted, Robbie stated that he would use a XR-750 to clear a record-breaking 16 buses, three more buses than his father attempted at Wembley Stadium in 1975 (the current record for jumping a Harley-Davidson XR-750 is 15 buses, currently held by Bubba Blackwell). Additionally, Robbie stated that he would attempt to re-create his father's 1974 failed rocket jump over the Snake River Canyon near Twin Falls, Idaho.


title: Robbie Knievel

text: Like his father's famous white leather jumpsuit, Knievel would also use the red, white, and blue V-shaped jumpsuit. Throughout his career, Knievel has had three notable variances in the jumpsuits:


title: Robbie Knievel

text: Knievel has had several jumps televised live, including the Caesars Palace jump, the building-to-building jump in Las Vegas, a jump over a moving train, a jump in front of the volcano at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas, and the Grand Canyon jump.


title: Robbie Knievel

text: In 1996, Knievel jumped over 10 limousines at the Lake Elsinore Storm Stadium celebrating the return of the Elsinore Grand Prix.


title: Robbie Knievel

text: In 2003, Knievel jumped 15 Diet Pepsi trucks at the Chinook Winds Casino. In late March 2006, Knievel jumped from one barge to another in Jacksonville, Florida and in late July 2006, he made a triple tribute jump to his father Evel at Evel Knievel Days in Butte, Montana by jumping the Batmobile, four huge flame throwers and a 1959 era Harley-Davidson motorcycle.


title: Robbie Knievel

text: On March 18, 2007, Knievel jumped an assortment of military vehicles at the North Carolina Auto Expo in Raleigh, North Carolina. Soon afterwards, he appeared in a nationally broadcast commercial for Holiday Inn Express. On June 9, 2007, he appeared in Wilmington, Delaware and successfully jumped $4.8 billion in bogus money representing the amount of interest paid to the customers of ING Direct. In August 2007, he was inducted into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame in Sturgis, South Dakota and made a jump at the Buffalo Chip campground.


title: Robbie Knievel

text: Knievel successfully jumped over 24 Coca-Cola Zero truck cabs at The Kings Island Amusement Park outside Cincinnati, Ohio on May 24, 2008. The jump took place 33 years after his father, Evel Knievel, made daredevil history by jumping over 14 Greyhound buses at Kings Island. At age 46, Knievel landed a few feet short on his safety deck over the 23rd truck. The jump mirrored his father's 1975 record-breaking whereas Evel successfully jumped 14 buses on a Harley-Davidson XR-750 and also landed on the safety deck.


title: Robbie Knievel

text: Knievel successfully jumped on June 7, 2008, at the Texas Motor Speedway in Ft. Worth, Texas. He cleared 21 Hummers on the front stretch of the speedway. He originally was going to jump 25 Hummers. However, there was a strong sustained headwind the evening of the jump.


title: Robbie Knievel

text: While performing pre-jump wheelies at the LCO Casino near Hayward, Wisconsin on August 16, 2008, Knievel fell off the bike and slid into some hay bales, dislocating his shoulder. Despite his injury, he performed the jump clearing four small airplanes and a small helicopter.


title: Robbie Knievel

text: On October 31, 2008, Knievel successfully performed two back-to-back jumps in Nashville, Tennessee to promote a glow-in-the-dark paint. Knievel ended 2008 with a New Year's Eve jump at the newly renovated volcano at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas. The stunt was advertised as jumping over the top of the Mirage's volcano, however, Knievel limited the stunt to an approximately ramp to ramp jump in front of the volcano. Knievel claimed the false promotion of a jump over the volcano was decided by the Mirage Hotel, which did not want to tear down some palm trees or have its valet parking affected. The live Fox television special marked the 8th live special in Knievel's career.


title: Robbie Knievel

text: Knievel's last jump to date was held on October 29, 2011, in Coachella, California at the Spotlight 29 Casino. Knievel jumped over tractor trailer trucks.


title: Robbie Knievel

text: In mid-2005, Knievel starred in A&E the TV series "Knievel's Wild Ride". Knievel also was to co-star with Lee Majors in a pilot series called "Hollywood Stunts" that featured greats such as Spanky Spangler, Matthew Phillips, George Nelson and Ron Nix. In 2006, Knievel opened a new business called Knievel's Custom Cycles, based in Lake Hopatcong, New Jersey. Business ventures were conducted through the company, Knievel Motorcycle Manufacturing Inc., which sold different custom motorcycles and various Knievel clothing items.


title: Wētā

text: Wētā (also spelt weta) is the common name for a group of about 100 insect species in the families Anostostomatidae and Rhaphidophoridae endemic to New Zealand. They are giant flightless crickets, and some are among the heaviest insects in the world. Generally nocturnal, most small species are carnivores and scavengers while the larger species are herbivorous. Wētā are preyed on by introduced mammals, and some species are now critically endangered.


title: Wētā

text: Wētā is a loanword, from the Māori-language word "wētā", which refers to this whole group of large insects; some types of wētā have a specific Māori name. In New Zealand English, it is spelled either "weta" or "wētā", although the form with macrons is increasingly common in formal writing, as the Māori word "weta" (without macrons) instead means "filth or excrement".


title: Wētā

text: Many wētā are large by insect standards and some species are among the largest and heaviest in the world. Their physical appearance is like a katydid, long-horned grasshopper, or cricket, but the hind legs are enlarged and usually very spiny. Many are wingless. Because they can cope with variations in temperature, wētā are found in a variety of environments, including alpine, forests, grasslands, caves, shrub lands and urban gardens. They are nocturnal, and all New Zealand species are flightless. Different species have different diets. Most wētā are predators or omnivores preying on other invertebrates, but the tree and giant wētā eat mostly lichens, leaves, flowers, seed-heads, and fruit.


title: Wētā

text: Male giant wētā ("Deinacrida" sp.) are smaller than females and they show scramble competition for mates. Tree wētā ("Hemideina" sp) males have larger heads than females and a polygynandrous mating system with harem formation and male-male competition for mates. Ground wētā ("Hemiandrus" sp.) males provide nuptial food gifts when mating and females of some species provide maternal care. Wētā eggs are laid in soil over the autumn and winter months and hatch the following spring. A wētā takes between one and two years to reach adulthood, and over this time will have to shed its skin around ten times as it grows.


title: Wētā

text: Wētā can bite with powerful mandibles. Tree wētā bites are painful but not particularly common. Tree wētā lift their hind legs in a defence displays to look large and spiky, but they tend to retreat if given the chance. Tree wētā raise their hind legs into the air in warning to foes, and then bring them down to stridulate. Pegs or ridges on the side of their abdomen are struck by a patch of fine pegs at the inner surface of their hind legs (femur) and this action makes a distinctive sound. These actions are also used in defence of a gallery by competing males. The female wētā looks as if she has a stinger, but it is an ovipositor, which enables her to lay eggs inside rotting or mossy wood or soil. Some species of "Hemiandrus" have very short ovipositors, related perhaps to their burrowing into soil and laying their eggs in a special chamber at the end of the burrow.


title: Wētā

text: Fossilised orthopterans have been found in Russia, China, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand, but the relationships are open to different interpretations by scientists. Most wētā of both families are found in the Southern Hemisphere. Wētā were probably present in ancient Gondwanaland before Zealandia separated from it. Rhaphidophoridae dispersed over sea to colonise the Chatham Islands, the Auckland, Snares and Campbell Islands. The present species might have resulted from a recent radiation, which conflicts with those earlier ideas about dispersal of wētā forebears around the Southern Hemisphere (Wallis "et al." 2000).


title: Wētā

text: Giant, tree, ground, and tusked wētā are all members of the family Anostostomatidae (formerly in the Stenopelmatidae, but recently separated). Cave wētā are better referred to as "tokoriro", since they are members of the family Rhaphidophoridae, called cave crickets or camel crickets elsewhere, in a different ensiferan superfamily. In New Zealand there were as of 2014 19 genera of tokoriri, and their taxonomy is under review. Seven new species of South Island cave wētā were named and described in 2019, including "Pleioplectron rodmorrisi".


title: Wētā

text: The 11 species of giant wētā ("Deinacrida" spp.) are endemic to New Zealand. Giant wētā ("wētā punga" in Māori) are large by insect standards. They are heavy herbivorous Orthoptera with a body length of up to excluding their lengthy legs and antennae, and weigh about 20–30 g. A captive giant wētā ("Deinacrida heteracantha") filled with eggs reached a record 70 g, making it one of the heaviest documented insects in the world and heavier than a sparrow. The largest species of giant wētā is the Little Barrier Island wētā, also known as the wētāpunga. Giant wētā tend to be less social and more passive than tree wētā ("Hemideina" spp.). They are classified in the genus "Deinacrida", which is Greek for "terrible grasshopper". They are found primarily on small islands off the coast of the main islands or at high elevation on New Zealand's South Island (e.g. the alpine scree wētā "D. connectens"), and are sometimes considered examples of island gigantism.


title: Wētā

text: Tree wētā ("Hemideina") are commonly encountered in suburban settings in New Zealand's North Island. They are up to 40 mm long and most commonly live in holes in trees formed by beetle and moth larvae or where rot has set in after a twig has broken off. The hole, called a gallery, is maintained by the wētā and any growth of the bark surrounding the opening is chewed away. They readily occupy a preformed gallery in a piece of wood (a "wētā motel") and can be kept in a suburban garden as pets. A gallery might house a harem of up to 10 adult females and one male. Tree wētā are nocturnal. Their diet consists of plants and small insects. The males have much larger jaws than the females, though both sexes will stridulate and bite when threatened.


title: Wētā

text: The North Island species each have a distinctive set of chromosomes (karyotype). When the territories of species overlap, as with the related species "H. femorata" and "H. ricta" on Banks Peninsula, they may interbreed, although offspring are sterile.


title: Wētā

text: Tusked wētā are characterised by long, curved tusks projecting forward from the male's mandibles. The tusks are used in male-to-male combat, not for biting. Female tusked wētā look similar to ground wētā. Tusked wētā are mainly carnivorous, eating worms and insects. There are three known species in two different subfamilies: the Northland tusked wētā "Anisoura nicobarica" (originally described as a ground wētā, "Hemiandrus monstrosus"), in the subfamily Deinacridinae; the Mercury Islands tusked wētā "Motuweta isolata"; and the most recently discovered, the Raukumara tusked wētā "Motuweta riparia". "Motuweta" is in the same subfamily as ground wētā, Anostostomatinae.


title: Wētā

text: The Northland tusked wētā lives in tree holes, similar to tree wētā. The Mercury Islands or Middle Island tusked wētā was discovered in 1970. It is a ground-dwelling wētā, entombing itself in shallow burrows during the day, and is critically endangered: a Department of Conservation breeding programme has established new colonies on other islands in the Mercury group. The Raukumara tusked wētā was discovered in 1996, in the Raukumara Range near the Bay of Plenty. It has the unusual habit of diving into streams and hiding underwater for up to three minutes if threatened.


title: Wētā

text: Ground wētā are classified in the genus "Hemiandrus". About 30 species of ground wētā occur in New Zealand, and several very similar (undescribed) ones are found in Australia. They are also very like the Californian "Cnemotettix"—a similarity perhaps due to their very similar habits and habitat. 19 "Hemiandrus" species have been described from New Zealand and other distinct populations require further study. They hide in burrows in the ground during the day, and those that live in open ground (e.g., "H. focalis", "H. maia") conceal their exit holes with a specially made perforated door. During the night, ground wētā hunt invertebrate prey and eat fruit. Most female ground wētā have long ovipositers (e.g. "H. maculifrons"), but some have short ovipositers and maternal care (e.g. "H. maia, H. pallitarsis").


title: Wētā

text: The 60 species of cave wētā or "tokoriro" are only very distant relatives of the other types of wētā, being classified in several genera of subfamily Macropathinae in family Rhaphidophoridae.


title: Wētā

text: They have extra-long antennae, and may have long, slender legs and a passive demeanour. Although they have no hearing organs on their front legs like species of "Hemideina" and "Deinacrida", some (such as "Talitropsis") are very sensitive to ground vibrations sensed through pads on their feet. Specialised hairs on the cerci and organs on the antennae are also sensitive to low-frequency vibrations in the air.


title: Wētā

text: Although some do live in caves, most species (e.g. "Talitropsis sedilloti") live in the forest among leaf litter, logs, under bark (e.g. "Isoplectron"), inside tree holes (e.g. "Neonetus" sp.) and amongst rocks in the mountains (e.g. "Pharmacus"). Cave-dwelling species may be active within the confines of their caves during the daytime, and those individuals close to cave entrances venture outside at night.


title: Wētā

text: Although wētā had native predators in the form of birds (especially the weka and kiwi), reptiles, and bats before the arrival of humans, introduced species such as cats, hedgehogs, rats (including kiore) and mustelids have caused a sharp increase in the rate of predation. They are also vulnerable to habitat destruction caused by humans and modification of their habitat caused by introduced browsers. New Zealand's Department of Conservation considers 16 of the 70 species at risk. Programmes to prevent extinctions have been implemented since the 1970s.


title: Wētā

text: New Zealanders Peter Jackson, Richard Taylor, and Jamie Selkirk founded visual effects company Weta Digital, naming it after the insect. The business was later renamed as Wētā FX.


title: Aston Martin DB7

text: The Aston Martin DB7 is a grand tourer which was produced by British luxury automobile manufacturer Aston Martin from September 1994 to December 2004. The car was available either as a coupé or a convertible. The prototype was complete by November 1992 and debuted at the Geneva Motor Show in March, 1993; the car was designed by Ian Callum and Keith Helfet. The six-cylinder DB7 (based on the Jaguar AJ6 engine) was positioned as an "entry-level" model below the hand-built V8 Virage introduced a few years earlier. This model was the most-produced Aston Martin automobile up to that point in time, with more than 7,000 built before it was replaced by the DB9 in 2004.


title: Aston Martin DB7

text: The DB7, known internally as the XX project, was made mostly with resources from Jaguar Cars and had the financial backing of the Ford Motor Company, owner of Aston Martin from 1988 to 2007. The DB7's platform is an evolution of the Jaguar XJS platform, though with many changes.


title: Aston Martin DB7

text: The DB7 began life as a successor to the Jaguar XJS envisioned by Tom Walkinshaw of TWR. Walkinshaw had been impressed by the XJS' potential after driving it in the European Touring Car Championship in the late 1970s and early 1980s and wanted to re-body the car so it would have more modern styling. He initially wanted to engage Peter Stevens to design such a car but he refused due to his on going projects at the time. Walkinshaw then engaged Ian Callum, who was new in the car design work at the time, to design the car.


title: Aston Martin DB7

text: Jaguar had been struggling to replace the XJS due to its weak financial position. A project codenamed the XJ41/42 (41 for the coupé, 42 for the convertible) was already in development stage in the company, mooted to be called the F-Type when completed and was designed by Keith Helfet. When American automobile manufacturer Ford acquired both Jaguar and Aston Martin, the new management cancelled the XJ41/42 project in 1990 because of the car's heavier weight than the XJS, the project's high budget and also the employee overtime spent on the car. Seeing the potential of the abandoned project, Walkinshaw based his concept on the XJ41 and tasked Ian Callum to design his envisioned body around the XJ41. He presented the completed car to Jaguar's management who rejected it.


title: Aston Martin DB7

text: Due to the development of the Jaguar XJ220, Ford had not been very keen on development of new Aston Martin models due to high development costs and the wake of the 1990s economic downturn. Aston Martin CEO at the time, Walter Hayes approached Walkinshaw as he had seen the potential in Walkinshaw's proposition to succeed. Development started with a project name of XX. Ian Callum was again tasked to redesign the car so it would look like an Aston Martin. Due to a limited financial backing at the time, the final product shared many components from other marques owned by Ford. The tail lights came from the Mazda 323 F, the Chrome door handles came from the Mazda 323 Estate, the turn signals came from the Mazda MX-5 and the interior door mirror switches came from the Ford Scorpio. The only foreign component would be the wing mirrors which were shared with the Citroën CX. The whole project cost US$30 million.


title: Aston Martin DB7

text: These vehicles were fitted with the Tibbe disc tumbler lock barrel design as used on Ford vehicles around the time of this vehicle's manufacture. The difference between Ford locks and the ones fitted to the DB7 is the fact the DB7 utilises 8 discs rather than 6, hence the key blade and the lock barrel is longer. Jaguar vehicles also used the 8 disc Tibbe locks.


title: Aston Martin DB7

text: An alternate DB7 proposal was considered in 1991 to develop a 6-cylinder platform from the Escort RS Cosworth's 4x4 system.