title: Ty Segall

text: In August 2019, Segall released his twelfth studio album, "First Taste", consisting of songs recorded without the use of guitars. Segall and the Freedom Band played the album on full on its accompanying tour, alongside 'full album' performances of several previous releases.


title: Ty Segall

text: Segall also composed the theme music for three Comedy Central television programs, "The Opposition with Jordan Klepper" (2017), and "Corporate" (2018), and "Klepper".


title: Ty Segall

text: At the outset of the 2020 coronavirus pandemic outbreak in the United States and Canada, Segall released Segall Smeagol, a set of covers of six tracks from Harry Nilsson's groundbreaking album Nilsson Schmilsson, on Bandcamp. The album is free of charge to download.


title: Ty Segall

text: Segall surprise-released his thirteenth studio album, "Harmonizer" on August 3, 2021. Co-produced by Cooper Crain, the album featured performances from the Freedom Band and Segall's wife, Denée Segall. In early 2022, he released a soundtrack album to the film, "Whirlybird", which had previously competed in the US Documentary category at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival.


title: Ty Segall

text: Recorded at Segall's home studio, his fourteenth studio album, ""Hello, Hi"", was released on July 22, 2022. The album's press release noted: ""Hello, Hi" is expansively rendered by Ty, mostly by himself, at home. The isolation suits the songs: you’re only ever as 'at home' as you are with yourself in the mirror."


title: Ty Segall

text: Segall's music has been described as garage rock, garage rock revival, lo-fi, indie rock and psychedelic rock. Segall has stated in interviews that his favorite band of all time is Hawkwind. Notable glam rockers David Bowie and Marc Bolan heavily influenced Segall's early career, as well as heavy rock and punk bands such as Black Sabbath, Kiss, The Stooges, and Black Flag (especially in the Ty Segall Band). However, over time Segall's output has gotten mellower on albums such as "Goodbye Bread" and "Sleeper", taking cues from Neil Young, The Byrds, The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, The Beatles (even being compared to John Lennon vocally on some of his albums), and early T. Rex (when they were known as Tyrannosaurus Rex) and Grateful Dead. A big source of his inspiration also comes from the San Francisco garage and indie rock scenes, from which he has named bands such as Thee Oh Sees (being personal friends with frontman John Dwyer).


title: Ty Segall

text: Segall has his own record label imprint on Drag City called GOD? Records. In 2014, Segall signed fellow-garage rock act Wand to the label and subsequently invited them to join him on tour.


title: Robert K. Merton

text: Robert King Merton (born Meyer Robert Schkolnick; July 4, 1910 – February 23, 2003) was an American sociologist who is considered a founding father of modern sociology, and a major contributor to the subfield of criminology. He served as the 47th President of the American Sociological Association. He spent most of his career teaching at Columbia University, where he attained the rank of University Professor. In 1994 he was awarded the National Medal of Science for his contributions to the field and for having founded the sociology of science.


title: Robert K. Merton

text: Merton’s contribution to sociology falls into three areas: (1) sociology of science; (2) sociology of crime and deviance; (3) sociological theory. He developed notable concepts, such as "unintended consequences", the "reference group", and "role strain", but is perhaps best known for the terms "role model" and "self-fulfilling prophecy". The concept of "self-fulfilling prophecy", which is a central element in modern sociological, political, and economic theory, is one type of process through which a belief or expectation affects the outcome of a situation or the way a person or group will behave. More specifically, as Merton defined, "the self-fulfilling prophecy is, in the beginning, a false definition of the situation evoking a new behavior, which makes the originally false conception come true".


title: Robert K. Merton

text: Merton's concept of the "role model" first appeared in a study on the socialization of medical students at Columbia University. The term grew from his theory of the "reference group", the group to which individuals compare themselves but to which they do not necessarily belong. Social roles were central to Merton's theory of "social groups". Merton emphasized that, rather than a person assuming just one role and one status, they have a status set in the social structure that has, attached to it, a whole set of expected behaviors.


title: Robert K. Merton

text: Robert King Merton was born on July 4, 1910, in Philadelphia as Meyer Robert Schkolnick into a family of Yiddish-speaking Russian Jews who had immigrated to the United States in 1904. His mother was Ida Rasovskaya, an "unsynagogued" socialist who had freethinking radical sympathies. His father was Aaron Schkolnickoff, a tailor who had officially been registered at port of entry to the United States as "Harrie Skolnick". Merton's family lived in strained financial circumstances after his father's uninsured dairy-product shop in South Philadelphia burned down. His father later became a carpenter's assistant to support the family.


title: Robert K. Merton

text: Even though Merton grew up fairly poor, he believed that he had been afforded many opportunities. As a student at South Philadelphia High School, he was a frequent visitor to nearby cultural and educational venues, including the Andrew Carnegie Library, the Academy of Music, the Central Library, and the Museum of Arts. In 1994, Merton stated that growing up in South Philadelphia provided young people with "every sort of capital—social capital, cultural capital, human capital, and, above all, what we may call public capital—that is, with every sort of capital except the personally financial."


title: Robert K. Merton

text: He adopted the name Robert K. Merton initially as a stage name for his magic performances. Young Merton developed a strong interest in magic, heavily influenced by his sister's boyfriend. For his magic acts he initially chose the stage name "Merlin", but eventually settled on the surname "Merton" to further "Americanize" his immigrant-family name. He picked the given name "Robert" in honor of the 19th-century French magician Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin, widely considered the father of modern-style conjuring. Thus his stage name became "Robert Merton", and he kept it as his personal name upon receiving a scholarship to Temple University.


title: Robert K. Merton

text: Merton began his sociological career under the guidance of George E. Simpson at Philadelphia's Temple University (1927–1931). Merton's work as Simpson's research assistant on a project dealing with race and media introduced Merton to sociology. Under Simpson's leadership, Merton attended an American Sociological Association annual meeting where he met Pitrim A. Sorokin, the founding chair of the sociology department at Harvard University. Merton applied to Harvard and went to work as a research assistant to Sorokin from 1931 to 1936.


title: Robert K. Merton

text: Many had doubted that Merton would be accepted into Harvard after graduating from Temple, but he quickly defied the odds and by his second year he had begun publishing with Sorokin. By 1934, he had even begun publishing articles of his own, including: "Recent French Sociology", "The Course of Arabian Intellectual Development, 700–1300 A.D.", "Fluctuations in the Rate of Industrial Invention", and "Science and Military Technique". After completing these, Merton went on to graduate from Harvard with an MA and PhD in sociology.


title: Robert K. Merton

text: By the end of his student career in 1938, he had already begun to embark on works that made him renowned in the sociological field, publishing his first major study, "Science, Technology, and Society in Seventeenth-Century England", which helped create the sociology of science. Merton's dissertation committee was composed of Sorokin, but also Talcott Parsons, the historian George Sarton, and the biochemist Lawrence Joseph Henderson. The Merton thesis—similar to Max Weber's famous claim on the link between Protestant ethic and the capitalist economy—proposes a positive correlation between the rise of Protestant Pietism, Puritanism and early experimental science.


title: Robert K. Merton

text: In 1934 Merton married Suzanne Carhart, with whom he had one son, Robert C. Merton, winner of the 1997 Nobel Prize in economics, and two daughters, Stephanie Merton Tombrello and Vanessa Merton, a professor of law at Pace University School of Law. Merton and Carhart separated in 1968, and she died in 1992.


title: Robert K. Merton

text: In 1993 Merton married his fellow sociologist and collaborator, Harriet Zuckerman. On February 23, 2003, aged 92, Merton died in Manhattan, survived by his wife, three children, nine grandchildren, and nine great-grandchildren.


title: Robert K. Merton

text: Merton taught at Harvard until 1938, when he became professor and chairman of the Department of Sociology at Tulane University. In 1941, he joined the Columbia University faculty, where he spent the vast majority of his teaching career. Over his five decades at Columbia University he held numerous prestigious titles. He was associate director of the university's Bureau of Applied Social Research from 1942 to 1971, and named Giddings Professor of Sociology in 1963. He was also named to the university's highest academic rank, University Professor, in 1974 and became a Special Service Professor, a title reserved by the trustees for emeritus faculty who "render special services to the University", upon his retirement in 1979. He was an adjunct faculty member at Rockefeller University, and was also the first Foundation Scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation. He withdrew from teaching in 1984. In recognition of his lasting contributions to scholarship and the university, Columbia established the Robert K. Merton Professorship in the Social Sciences in 1990.


title: Robert K. Merton

text: Over his career, Merton published some 50 papers in the sociology of science. Among many other fields and topics to which he contributed his ideas and theories were deviance theory, Organization theory, and middle-range theory.


title: Robert K. Merton

text: Merton received many national and international honors for his research. He was one of the first sociologists elected to the National Academy of Sciences, and the first American sociologist to be elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy. He was also a member of the American Philosophical Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, which awarded him its Parsons Prize, the National Academy of Education, and Academica Europaea. Merton is also credited as the creator of the "focus group" research method.


title: Robert K. Merton

text: He received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1962 and was the first sociologist to be named a MacArthur Fellow (1983–1988). More than twenty universities awarded him honorary degrees, including: Harvard, Yale, Columbia, and Chicago University in the US; and, abroad, the Universities of Leiden, Wales, Oslo, Kraków, Oxford, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.


title: Robert K. Merton

text: In 1994 Merton became the first sociologist to be awarded the US National Medal of Science, for "founding the sociology of science and for his pioneering contributions to the study of social life, especially the self-fulfilling prophecy and the unintended consequences of social action."


title: Robert K. Merton

text: Merton's work is often compared to that of Talcott Parsons. Merton enrolled in Parsons' theory course while at Harvard, admiring Parsons' work because it introduced him to European methods of theory, while also broadening his own ideas about sociology. However, unlike Parsons, who emphasized the necessity for social science to establish a general foundation, Merton preferred more limited, "middle-range" theories. Merton later explained in his writings that "although much impressed by Parsons as a master-builder of sociological theory, I found myself departing from his mode of theorizing (as well as his mode of exposition)." Merton himself fashioned his theory very similarly to that of Emile Durkheim's "Suicide" (1897) or Max Weber's "Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism" (1905). Weber had suggested a strong relationship between Protestant beliefs and the Economic activity that gave rise to capitalism. Merton’s extensive research highlighted a complementarity between puritanical Protestant beliefs and science, which developed rapidly in the seventeenth century. Merton believed that middle range theories bypassed the failures of larger theories, which are too distant from observing social behavior in a particular social setting.


title: Robert K. Merton

text: According to Merton, "middle-range theory" starts its theorizing with clearly defined aspects of social phenomena, rather than with broad, abstract entities such as society as a whole. Theories of the middle range should be firmly supported by empirical data. These theories must be constructed with observed data to create theoretical problems and to be incorporated in proposals that allow empirical testing. Middle-range theories, applicable to limited ranges of data, transcend sheer description of social phenomena and fill in the blanks between raw empiricism and grand or all-inclusive theory.


title: Robert K. Merton

text: The identification of middle-range theories or "intermediate provisions", as defined by Rinzivillo (2019), is typical of the specification that passes through functional analysis, developed by Merton in the course of his research on the relationship between theory and empirical research. Unlike the functionalist theorisation proposed by Parsons, Merton proposes a choice that puts in particular evidence the relationship that the researcher should assume in the direction of a pragmatic choice of the instruments and methodology it uses. In this way, the theory can be addressed for heuristic purposes and the empirical research results in the operative aspect of the analysis, where the sociologist is obliged to choose to represent always, not the universe of the variables in play, but a reduction of the field of scientific interest. A strategy, in short, in favor of the "survey".


title: Robert K. Merton

text: Merton argued that general strain theory is developed by a blockage in an individual's life which does not allow them to achieve their goal, essentially leading to deviant behaviour. Merton uses the progress of achieving the 'American Dream' as an example. If an individual can not achieve this, it can prove frustrating for the individual and may lead to breaking free into illegal escape routes or anger-based delinquency. This theory has many criticisms as it does not factor in an individual's social class as someone as a lower socio-economic level might not be striving to achieve the 'American Dream', meaning they do not need to carry out illegal acts. This also creates the idea that only people that fall under the bracket of the lower socio-economic are the only ones that will become a criminal and people that have achieved the 'American Dream' will not, which is simply incorrect.


title: Robert K. Merton

text: Merton argues that the central orientation of functionalism is in interpreting data by their consequences for larger structures in which they are implicated. Like Durkheim and Parsons, he analyzes society with reference to whether cultural and social structures are well or badly integrated. Merton is also interested in the persistence of societies and defines functions that make for the adaptation of a given social system. He believed that the way these early functionalists put emphasis on functions of one social structure or institution for another, created bias when focusing only on adaptation or adjustment because they would always have a positive consequence. Finally, Merton thinks that shared values are central in explaining how societies and institutions work; however, he disagrees with Parsons on some issues.


title: Robert K. Merton

text: His belief in empirical testing led to the development of his "paradigm" of functional analysis. According to Merton, "paradigm" refers to: exemplars of codified basic and often tacit assumptions, problem sets, key concepts, logic of procedure, and selectively accumulated knowledge that guide [theoretical and empirical] inquiry in all scientific fields.


title: Robert K. Merton

text: In Merton's writing on "dysfunctions", he highlights problems that tend to keep social systems from meeting all of their functional requirements. In doing this, he was able to point out the details as well as the contradictions of the overall concept. One group's function could serve as another group's dysfunction, and a general incident could turn out to be both functional and dysfunctional for the same group. Merton clarified the concept by stating that a certain degree of social cohesion eases the productivity of a group and is therefore functional, but it can become dysfunctional when it surpasses a certain threshold, because then the members of the group may become equally indulgent and fail to hold each other to high performance standards.


title: Robert K. Merton

text: Merton elaborates on his three main issues or flaws with functionalism, which he labels "postulates":


title: Robert K. Merton

text: The postulate of the functional unity of society refers to the misunderstanding that societies are functional and harmonious unions. According to Merton's perception of "functionalism", all standardized social and cultural beliefs and practices are functional for both society as a whole as well as individuals in society. This outlook maintains that various parts of social systems must show a high level of integration, but Merton argues that a generalization like this cannot be extended to larger, more complex societies. Merton points out that not all societies are happy and well-integrated, where the people function well together and all involved prosper. Merton cites examples, such as civil wars, African-Americans in the 1950s, and South African blacks during the apartheid regime as instances where societies were not necessarily functional for all people.


title: Robert K. Merton

text: The postulate of universal functionalism refers to the idea that all ideals work for everyone in a society. The claim of "universal functionalism" argues that all standardized social and cultural structures and forms have a positive function. Merton argues that this is a contradiction to what is seen in the real world; not every structure, idea, belief, etc., has positive functions. Merton believes that some things may have consequences that are generally dysfunctional or which are dysfunctional for some and functional for others. For example, poverty may benefit the rich because they are allowed to maintain more of their wealth, but it certainly does not benefit the poor who struggle. On this point he approaches conflict theory, although he does believe that institutions and values can be functional for society as a whole. Merton states that only by recognizing the dysfunctional aspects of institutions, can we explain the development and persistence of alternatives. Merton's concept of dysfunctions is also central to his argument that functionalism is not essentially conservative.


title: Robert K. Merton

text: Lastly, the postulate of indispensability refers to the social function for customs, ideals, or institutions as a whole. This postulate states that the standardized parts of society have positive functions, and also represent indispensable parts of the working whole, which implies that structures and functions are functionally necessary for society. Here, Merton argues, people must be willing to admit that there exist various structural and functional alternatives within society. In terms of structural functionalism, Merton felt that the focus should be on social functions rather than on individual motives. He raises the question and doubt of whether every social institution performs a specific function, believing that several institutions can provide the same function or none at all, so it is impossible to decipher what functions are vital or not to a society.


title: Robert K. Merton

text: To help people determine whether positive functions outweigh dysfunctions, and vice versa, Merton developed the concept of "net balance". Because the issues are complex and based on a lot of subjective judgement, they cannot be calculated and weighed easily. Therefore, positive functions and dysfunctions cannot be simply added up and objectively determine which outweighs the other. To deal with these issues, Merton believed that there must be levels of functional analysis. Rather than solely focusing on the analysis of society as a whole, Merton argued that analysis could and should also be done on an organization, institution or group.


title: Robert K. Merton

text: Some of the crucial innovations that Merton made to sociology include the description of the unanticipated consequences of social action, of latent functions vs. manifest functions, and, as previously mentioned, of dysfunctions.


title: Robert K. Merton

text: According to Merton, "unanticipated consequences" are actions that have both intended and unintended consequences. Everyone is aware of the intended consequences, but the unintended are more difficult to recognize, and therefore, sociological analysis is required to uncover what they may be. In his 1936 essay, "The Unanticipated Consequences of Purposive Social Action", Merton uncovered the wide field of human activity where things do not go as planned, and paradoxes and strange outcomes are seen. One of these outcomes is the "self-defeating prophecy", which through the very fact of its being publicized, is actually wrong. Merton was able to illustrate this by referencing Karl Marx's prediction that as societies become more modern, the wealth will be concentrated amongst fewer people, and the majority of society would suffer from poverty and misery. This prediction helped to stimulate the socialist movement, which in some countries slowed the development that Marx had predicted. Struggles for economic equality tend to spread economic benefit rather than concentrating it. The opposite of the "self-defeating prophecy" then, is the "self-fulfilling prophecy", when an originally unfounded prophecy turns out to be correct because it is believed and acted upon.


title: Robert K. Merton

text: The distinction implied between manifest and latent functions was devised to preclude the unintentional confusion between conscious motivations for our social behavior and its objective consequences. Manifest functions are the consequences that people observe or expect, or what is intended; latent functions are those that are neither recognized nor intended. In distinguishing between manifest and latent functions, Merton argued that one must dig to discover latent functions. His example from his 1949 piece, "Manifest and Latent Functions", was an analysis of political machines. Manifest and latent functions were devised to prelude the inadvertent confusion between conscious motivations for social behavior and its objective consequences.  Merton began by describing the negative consequences of political machines, and then changed the angle and demonstrated how the people in charge of the machines, acting in their own interest, were meeting the social needs not met by government institutions. Merton made it very clear however, that unanticipated consequences and latent functions are not the same. "Latent functions" are one type of unanticipated consequences; functional for the designated system.


title: Robert K. Merton

text: Merton sees attention to latent functions as increasing the understanding of society: the distinction between manifest and latent forces the sociologist to go beyond the reasons individuals give for their actions or for the existence of customs and institutions; it makes them look for other social consequences that allow these practices' survival and illuminate the way society works.


title: Robert K. Merton

text: Functionalists believe societies must have certain characteristics to survive. Merton shares this view but stresses that at the same time particular institutions are not the only ones able to fulfill these functions; a wide range of functional alternatives may be able to perform the same task. This notion of functional alternative is important because it alerts sociologists to the similar functions different institutions may perform and it further reduces the tendency of functionalism to imply approval of the status quo.


title: Robert K. Merton

text: Merton's theory on deviance stems from his 1938 analysis of the relationship between culture, structure and anomie. Merton argued that deviance is most likely to occur when there is a discrepancy between culturally prescribed goals and the legitimate means of obtaining them. Merton defines culture as an "organized set of normative values governing behavior which is common to members of a designated society or group". Social structures are the "organized set of social relationships in which members of the society or group are variously implicated." Anomie, the state of normlessness, arises when there is "an acute disjunction between the cultural norms and goals and the socially structured capacities of members of the group to act in accord with them." In his theory, Merton links anomie with deviance and argues that the discontinuity between culture and structure have the dysfunctional consequence of leading to deviance within society. The goal of material success was accepted, but the legitimate means were abandoned in preference for illegitimate ones. So, theft might replace hard work as the means for achieving goals. Merton argued deviance results not from pathological personalities but from the culture and structure of society itself. Value consensus is when all members of society share the same values; however, since members of society are placed in different positions in the social structure, they do not have the same opportunity of realizing the shared values. This can create deviance.


title: Robert K. Merton

text: The term "anomie", derived from Émile Durkheim, for Merton means a discord between cultural goals and the legitimate means available to reach them. Applied to the United States, he sees the American dream as an emphasis on the goal of monetary success, but without a corresponding emphasis on the legitimate avenues to attaining the Dream. In other words, Merton believes that the American Dream is a cultural ideal, but the ways in which people go about obtaining it are not the same. This can lead to a considerable amount of deviance (in the Parsonian sense). This theory is commonly used in the study of criminology (specifically the strain theory).


title: Robert K. Merton

text: In 1938, Merton’s “Social Structure and Anomie,” one of the most important works of structural theory in American sociology, Merton’s basic assumption was that the individual is not just in a structured system of action but that his or her actions may be forced by the demands of the system. Merton argued that when the economic system fails to provide legitimate means to earn an income, and status, the cultural logic of the social system may force the individual to act in ways that are culturally logical, even if illegal.


title: Robert K. Merton

text: In this rubric, conformity refers to the attaining of societal goals by socially accepted means, while innovation refers to the attaining of those goals in unaccepted ways (such as crime and deviance). Innovators find and create their own ways to obtain what they want, and a majority of the time, these new means are considered to be socially unaccepted and deviant. Merton considers "ritualism" the acceptance of the means but the forfeit of the goals. Ritualists continue to subscribe to the means, but they have rejected the overall goal; they are not viewed as deviant. Retreatism is the rejection of both the means and the goals. Retreaters want to find a way to escape from everything and therefore reject both the goals and the means and are seen as deviant. Rebellion differs from the other four approaches in a number of ways. Temporally, rebellion is a short-term response (unlike the other four). Like retreaters, rebels reject both existing societal goals and means, but unlike retreaters, rebels work at the macro level to replace those existing societal goals and means with new goals and means embodying other values. Innovation and ritualism are the pure cases of anomie as Merton defined it because in both cases there is a contradiction or discontinuity between goals and means.


title: Robert K. Merton

text: The sociology of science was a field that Merton was very interested in and remained very passionate about throughout his career. Merton was interested in the interactions and importance between social and cultural structures and science. For example, he did pioneering historical research in his PhD dissertation on the role of military institutions in stimulating scientific research during the era of the Scientific Revolution.


title: Robert K. Merton

text: Merton carried out extensive research into the sociology of science, developing the Merton Thesis explaining some of the religious causes of the Scientific Revolution, and the Mertonian norms of science, often referred to by the acronym "CUDOS". This is a set of ideals that are dictated by what Merton takes to be the goals and methods of science and to be binding on scientists. They include:


title: Robert K. Merton

text: The "OS" in "CUDOS" is sometimes identified as "Originality" (i.e. novelty in research contributions) and "Skepticism". This is a subsequent modification of Merton's norm set, as he did not refer to Originality in the 1942 essay that introduced the norms, "The Normative Structure of Science".


title: Robert K. Merton

text: Merton introduced many concepts to the sociology of science, including: "obliteration by incorporation", referring to when a concept becomes so popularized that its inventor is forgotten; and "multiples", referring to independent similar discoveries.


title: Robert K. Merton

text: Merton and his colleagues spent much time studying "how the social system of science works in accordance with, and often also in contradiction to, the ethos of science." This newer focus on the social organization of science led Merton to study the reward system in science, priority disputes between scientists, and the way in which famous scientists often receive disproportionate credit for their contributions, while less-known scientists receive less credit than their contributions merit. Merton called this phenomenon the "Matthew effect". (See also Stigler's law of eponymy.) As a result of the Matilda effect, Harriet Zuckerman is credited by Merton as co-author of the Matthew effect.


title: Robert K. Merton

text: With his study of the "Matthew effect", Merton showed how the social system of science sometimes deviated structurally from the ethos of science, in this case by violating the norm of universalism: a few top scientists enjoying large chunks of awards, grants and jobs, and the spread and distribution of resources and recognition among scientists being highly skewed.


title: Robert K. Merton

text: Merton referred to his book "On the Shoulders of Giants: A Shandean Postscript" as "OTSOG"—"part parody and part history of ideas", according to the publisher. In "OTSOG", he traces the history of Newton's famous comment "If I have seen farther, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants" back to centuries earlier, in the rambling style of Laurence Sterne's "The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman".


title: Robert K. Merton

text: Merton was heavily influenced by Talcott Parsons and to a much lesser degree of Pitirim Sorokin. Indeed, Merton's choice of dissertation topic reflect profoundly the interest from Parsons and was not of Sorokin's liking. Hence, Sorokin was strongly opposed to the emphasis of the creativity of Puritanism, which was a central element in Merton's discussion. Merton, however, managed to have both men on his dissertation committee. Merton worked with Sorokin as a graduate student at Harvard University. However, intellectuals like Paul Lazarsfeld influenced Merton to occupy himself with middle-range theories. Yet Merton's general theoretical perspectives were much closer to Parsons than Sorokin. He was also influenced by Lawrence Joseph (L.J.) Henderson, who taught him something about the disciplined investigation of what is first entertained as an interesting idea. E.F. Gay also played a role in Merton's thought, as did the famous historian of science George Sarton, who allowed Merton to work with him at Harvard and is believed to have inspired Merton to have interest in science. Émile Durkheim and Georg Simmel also greatly contributed to Merton's understanding of sociology and to his own ideas.


title: Robert K. Merton

text: Today, Merton is viewed as one of the founding fathers of modern-day sociology. His works are seen as the driving force of many of today's sociologists' studies. Merton's friends and colleagues credit his guidance to the positive direction of modern sociology as well. In particular, Columbia provost Jonathan R. Cole who studied under Merton praised him shortly after his death, saying:


title: Robert K. Merton

text: Bob Merton became the leader of structural-functional analysis in sociology, and the leader of those sociologists who attempted to create social theories that could be empirically tested. He was an inspirational teacher and editor, and with his students, such as James S. Coleman and Seymour Martin Lipset, among many others who would become leading figures in the field, he helped to build and legitimate the field of sociology in America. For me, he was a model teacher and mentor, a trusted colleague, and a close friend. His death, in many ways, puts a period at the end of 20th-century sociology.


title: Robert K. Merton

text: Through his theory and research during his many decades as a sociologist, Merton essentially created and sustained what is the modern sociology of science.


title: Robert K. Merton

text: The Robert K. Merton Award for the best paper in analytical sociology, has been awarded annually by the International Network of Analytical Sociology since 2013.


title: Millerovo air base attack

text: On 25 February 2022, the Russian air base in Millerovo, Rostov Oblast, Russia was attacked by Ukrainian forces during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. According to some Ukrainian officials, Ukrainian military forces attacked the Millerovo air base with OTR-21 Tochka missiles, destroying Russian Air Force planes and setting the airbase on fire.


title: Millerovo air base attack

text: Millerovo is a town in Rostov Oblast in Russia, about 60 kilometers from Luhansk, a territory in the Donbas region bordering Russia and partially Russian-rebel held since the beginning of the Russo-Ukrainian War.


title: Millerovo air base attack

text: A local law enforcement agency source told local outlet "Komsomolskaya Pravda" that a Ukrainian Tochka-U missile had hit the facility. Another local outlet, "Rostov Gazeta" reported that the attack was carried out by Ukrainian armed formations.


title: Millerovo air base attack

text: Editor-in-chief edition of Ukrainian largest online media Censor.net Yuriy Butusov called the attack "One of the most successful Armed Forces of Ukraine operations in the history of war" and "defeat, which Putin will not be able to hide".


title: Millerovo air base attack

text: The attack, which the Ukrainian Armed Forces did not officially comment on, was reportedly launched in response to the shelling of Ukrainian cities by Russian forces.


title: Millerovo air base attack

text: Multiple people were reported to be wounded, and one pilot reportedly died later of his wounds. At least one Sukhoi Su-30SM was destroyed on the ground per tweeted images. However, Ukrainian officials and military experts have claimed that at least two Russian Su-30SM fighters were destroyed on the ground.


title: Placenta praevia

text: Placenta praevia is when the placenta attaches inside the uterus but in a position near or over the cervical opening. Symptoms include vaginal bleeding in the second half of pregnancy. The bleeding is bright red and tends not to be associated with pain. Complications may include placenta accreta, dangerously low blood pressure, or bleeding after delivery. Complications for the baby may include fetal growth restriction.


title: Placenta praevia

text: Risk factors include pregnancy at an older age and smoking as well as prior cesarean section, labor induction, or termination of pregnancy. Diagnosis is by ultrasound. It is classified as a complication of pregnancy.


title: Placenta praevia

text: For those who are less than 36 weeks pregnant with only a small amount of bleeding recommendations may include bed rest and avoiding sexual intercourse. For those after 36 weeks of pregnancy or with a significant amount of bleeding, cesarean section is generally recommended. In those less than 36 weeks pregnant, corticosteroids may be given to speed development of the baby's lungs. Cases that occur in early pregnancy may resolve on their own.


title: Placenta praevia

text: It affects approximately 0.5% of pregnancies. After four cesarean sections, however, it affects 10% of pregnancies. Rates of disease have increased over the late 20th century and early 21st century. The condition was first described in 1685 by Paul Portal.


title: Placenta praevia

text: Women with placenta previa often present with painless, bright red vaginal bleeding. This commonly occurs around 32 weeks of gestation, but can be as early as late mid-trimester. More than half of women affected by placenta praevia (51.6%) have bleeding before delivery. This bleeding often starts mildly and may increase as the area of placental separation increases. Placenta praevia should be suspected if there is bleeding after 24 weeks of gestation. Bleeding after delivery occurs in about 22% of those affected.


title: Placenta praevia

text: The exact cause of placenta previa is unknown. It is hypothesized to be related to abnormal vascularisation of the endometrium caused by scarring or atrophy from previous trauma, surgery, or infection. These factors may reduce differential growth of lower segment, resulting in less upward shift in placental position as pregnancy advances.


title: Placenta praevia

text: Placenta previa is itself a risk factor of placenta accreta. Alcohol use during pregnancy was previously listed as a risk factor, but is discredited by this article.


title: Placenta praevia

text: Traditionally, four grades of placenta previa were used, but it is now more common to simply differentiate between "major" and "minor cases.


title: Placenta praevia

text: Marginal: When the placenta ends near the edge of the cervix, about 2 cm from the internal cervical os


title: Placenta praevia

text: History may reveal antepartum hemorrhage. Abdominal examination usually finds the uterus non-tender, soft and relaxed. Leopold's maneuvers may find the fetus in an oblique or breech position or lying transverse as a result of the abnormal position of the placenta. Malpresentation is found in about 35% cases. Vaginal examination is avoided in known cases of placenta previa.


title: Placenta praevia

text: Previa can be confirmed with an ultrasound. Transvaginal ultrasound has superior accuracy as compared to transabdominal one, thus allowing measurement of distance between placenta and cervical os. This has rendered traditional classification of placenta previa obsolete.


title: Placenta praevia

text: In parts of the world where ultrasound is unavailable, it is not uncommon to confirm the diagnosis with an examination in the surgical theatre. The proper timing of an examination in theatre is important. If the woman is not bleeding severely she can be managed non-operatively until the 36th week. By this time the baby's chance of survival is as good as at full term.


title: Placenta praevia

text: An initial assessment to determine the status of the mother and fetus is required. Although mothers used to be treated in the hospital from the first bleeding episode until birth, it is now considered safe to treat placenta previa on an outpatient basis if the fetus is at less than 30 weeks of gestation, and neither the mother nor the fetus are in distress. Immediate delivery of the fetus may be indicated if the fetus is mature or if the fetus or mother are in distress. Blood volume replacement (to maintain blood pressure) and blood plasma replacement (to maintain fibrinogen levels) may be necessary.


title: Placenta praevia

text: The method of delivery is determined by clinical state of the mother, fetus and ultrasound findings. In minor degrees (traditional grade I and II), vaginal delivery is possible. RCOG recommends that the placenta should be at least 2 cm away from internal os for an attempted vaginal delivery. When a vaginal delivery is attempted, consultant obstetrician and anesthetists are present in delivery suite. In cases of fetal distress and major degrees (traditional grade III and IV) a caesarean section is indicated. Caesarian section is contraindicated in cases of disseminated intravascular coagulation. An obstetrician may need to divide the anterior lying placenta. In such cases, blood loss is expected to be high and thus blood and blood products are always kept ready. In rare cases, hysterectomy may be required.


title: Placenta praevia

text: Placenta previa occurs approximately one of every 200 births globally. It has been suggested that rates of placenta previa are increasing due to increased rate of Caesarian section. Reasons for regional variation may include ethnicity and diet.


title: Placenta praevia

text: Rates of placenta praevia in sub-Saharan Africa are the lowest in the world, averaging 2.7 per 1000 pregnancies. Despite a low prevalence, this disease has had a profound impact in Africa as it is linked with negative outcomes for both the mother and infant. The most common maternal outcome of placenta praevia is extreme blood loss before or after birth (antepartum hemorrhage and postpartum hemorrhage), which is a major cause of maternal and infant mortality in countries like Tanzania. Risk factors for placenta praevia among African women include prior pregnancies, prenatal alcohol consumption, and insufficient gynecologic care. In North Africa placenta praevia rates occur in 6.4 per 1000 pregnancies.


title: Placenta praevia

text: Mainland China has the highest prevalence of placenta praevia in the world, measuring at an average of 12.2 per 1000 pregnancies. Specifically, placenta praevia is most common in Southeast Asia, though the reason for this has not yet been investigated. There are many risk factors for placenta praevia in Asian women, of which include pregnancies occurring in women ages 35 and older (advanced maternal age) or in women who have had a prior Caesarean section, having multiple pregnancies, and experiencing either miscarriage or abortion in the past. In comparison with other Asian countries, placenta praevia is more common in Japan (13.9 per 1000) and Korea (15 per 1000). In the Middle East, placenta praevia rates are lower in both Saudi Arabia (7.3 per 1000) and Israel (4.2 per 1000).


title: Placenta praevia

text: The continent with the second highest rates for placenta praevia is Australia, where it affects about 9.5 out of every 1000 pregnant women. Researchers concerned with these rates have tested the specificity and sensitivity of fetal anomaly scans. In conclusion, it was determined the threshold that defines placenta praevia (based on proximity of placenta to cervix) must be reduced in order to improve the accuracy of diagnoses and to avoid false positives leading screenings.


title: Placenta praevia

text: In North America placenta praevia occurs in 2.9 per 1000 pregnancies. Ethnic differences indicate White women are less likely to experience placenta praevia than Black women. Additionally, more cases of placenta praevia are found in women from low-income areas which are linked to insufficient pregnancy care. According to the socioeconomic demographic in North America, Black women are more likely to come from low income areas and are thus more likely to develop placenta praevia.


title: Placenta praevia

text: In Nova Scotia, infants born to pregnant woman who experience placenta praevia have a mortality rate 3–4 times higher than normal pregnancies. A couple of factors contribute to this rate, including length of time fetus was in the womb and mother's age. Infants that did survive experienced increased rates of birth defects, breathing problems, and blood abnormalities.


title: Placenta praevia

text: Research suggests that the incidence of placenta praevia in the U.S. is increasing as a result of the increased rate of Caesarian sections.


title: Kelly Craft

text: Kelly Dawn Craft (; born February 24, 1962) is an American businesswoman, political donor, philanthropist, and former diplomat who served as the United States ambassador to the United Nations from 2019 to 2021. Craft previously served as the United States ambassador to Canada from 2017 to 2019, the first woman to hold the office. She earlier was appointed by President George W. Bush as a US alternate delegate to the United Nations in 2007, where her focus included US engagement in Africa. Craft serves on the advisory board of the Canadian American Business Council and heads Kelly G. Knight LLC, a business advisory firm based in Lexington, Kentucky.


title: Kelly Craft

text: She was confirmed as the US ambassador to the United Nations by the US Senate by a vote of 56–34, and was officially sworn in in September 2019. Craft formally presented her credentials to UN Secretary-General António Guterres on September 12, 2019.


title: Kelly Craft

text: Craft was born in Lexington, Kentucky, a daughter of the late Dr. Bobby Guilfoil and Sherry Dale Guilfoil, who both died in 2011. She grew up just outside Glasgow, a small town in rural central Kentucky.


title: Kelly Craft

text: Her father was the town veterinarian in Glasgow, farmed, and raised cows and horses. He was active in the Democratic Party, and in his later years served as chairman of the Barren County, Kentucky Democratic Party. He was also a deacon of the First Christian Church in Glasgow, and served on the local board of health. Her mother was a home economics teacher at Glasgow High School, a public high school. Her mother sewed the family’s clothing, and the house’s draperies. She has a younger sister, Micah Guilfoil Payne (a lawyer in Glasgow), and a younger brother, Marc Guilfoil (executive director of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission).


title: Kelly Craft

text: She grew up in a middle class family. Craft played clarinet in the high school band at Glasgow High School, and graduated in 1980.


title: Kelly Craft

text: Craft then created her own interdisciplinary major, with an emphasis on international law, at the University of Kentucky in Lexington. She graduated with a B.A. in 1984.


title: Kelly Craft

text: In 2004, Craft started a marketing, strategic management, leadership advice, and business consulting firm, Kelly G. Knight, LLC. Its principal office is in Lexington.


title: Kelly Craft

text: Craft was initially active in local politics and civic causes, such as helping the poor, and raising funds for the arts. She has been a generous donor to and supporter of primarily Republican political candidates. In 2004, Craft was a prominent supporter of President George W. Bush. In 2012 she was the Kentucky finance committee chairwoman for Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign. She also raised money for then-governor Ernie Fletcher, and congressmen Hal Rogers and Ron Lewis.


title: Kelly Craft

text: The Crafts have strongly supported then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. She is also an influencer in Kentuckian affairs. Craft has also supported both Democratic Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, and former Kentucky Governor, Republican Matt Bevin.


title: Kelly Craft

text: She was a delegate to the 2016 Republican National Convention from Kentucky. That year, Craft and her husband Joe Craft donated millions of dollars to candidates for the 2016 Republican nomination for president. The couple initially supported Marco Rubio, but in June 2016 moved their support to Donald Trump and contributed more than $2 million to his campaign, in part because he agreed with them in private that he wouldn’t replace House Speaker Paul Ryan or Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, whom they supported. Political commentator Scott Jennings said that their support gave Trump instant credibility.


title: Kelly Craft

text: Separate from politics, Craft has been a philanthropist and the couple has donated to philanthropic causes. In 2015 they co-founded the Craft Academy for Excellence in Science and Mathematics at Kentucky's Morehead State University, a special program for academically exceptional high school students . By 2019 they had committed over $10 million to the Academy. They have also donated substantial sums to the University of Kentucky.


title: Kelly Craft

text: Craft served on the University of Kentucky Board of Trustees for a term beginning in August 2016, but resigned to accept the US ambassadorship to Canada a year later. She has also served on the boards of directors of the Salvation Army, the Lexington Philharmonic, the United Way of the Bluegrass, the YMCA of Central Kentucky, the Kentucky Arts Council, and the Center for Rural Development (a nonprofit dedicated to economic development in rural Kentucky).


title: Kelly Craft

text: President George W. Bush appointed Craft an alternate delegate to the United Nations in 2007, for the 62nd Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations. On October 24, 2007, Senator Joe Biden reported favorably on her nomination on behalf of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. On October 26, she was confirmed by the United States Senate by voice vote.


title: Kelly Craft

text: As part of the US delegation, her responsibilities included advising the US Ambassador to the UN on US engagement in Africa. She also gave a speech to the UN General Assembly on the investment the US and other nations were making to fight HIV/AIDS in Africa and malaria in Africa, and promote development there. She later said: "President Bush’s example and his initiative to cure AIDS on the African continent instilled in me the value of using diplomatic positions to help the less fortunate. And that’s what I am going to do."


title: Kelly Craft

text: On June 15, 2017, Craft was nominated by President Donald Trump to become the US ambassador to Canada, with the support of Senator Mitch McConnell. She was confirmed by the United States Senate by unanimous voice vote on August 3, and assumed office on October 23.


title: Kelly Craft

text: Craft became the 31st United States Ambassador to Canada. She also became the first woman to hold the job. In her first week as ambassador to Canada, Craft said in an interview with CBC News that when it came to climate change she appreciated all of the scientific evidence, and thought that "both sides have their own results, from their studies, and I appreciate and I respect both sides of the science." She played a leadership role in trade negotiations between the US and Canada, resulting in the signing of a new free trade agreement with the US, Canada, and Mexico (the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement; USMCA), which replaced the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Her work in hammering out the tri-lateral agreement raised her stock with the Trump administration. In addition during her tenure the relationship between the countries was the subject of controversial steel tariffs, and critical comments by Trump about the Canadian prime minister. In June 2018, as US-Canadian relations grew testy, an envelope was mailed to her containing a suspicious white powder and a death threat.


title: Kelly Craft

text: According to a June 2019 report in "Politico", Craft was frequently away from her Ottawa post during her tenure as ambassador, though the report acknowledged that US State Department officials said that many of her trips were related to the new North American trade agreement. During a 15-month period, she took 128 flights between Ottawa and the United States, equal to a round trip per week. Seventy had Lexington as the origin or destination, which raised questions to some as to whether the trips were for personal reasons. A State Department spokesperson explained, however, that all of Craft’s personal and official travel "to and from the United States, including numerous trips associated with USMCA [US-Canada-Mexico trade deal] negotiations, were pre-approved by the State Department and complied with all Department travel guidelines," that the number of her personal absences did not exceed State Department limits, and in addition that Craft chose to cover all her travel expenses from her personal funds, "saving the U.S. government substantial money." Separately, a US official said that Craft was often in Washington for trade negotiations in which she was directly involved, that she would also fly to other places in the United States to promote the trade deal which was one of the president's top priorities, and also explained that Craft would during the course of these travels sometimes spend the weekend at her Kentucky home rather than return to Ottawa, which did not count toward the "26 [work] days" away from her post limitation. Per State Department rules, an ambassador may only spend 26 "work days" away from a post without first obtaining special State Department approval, and she testified that each of her trips was in fact made with State Department approval. The State Department and Craft do not provide records of Craft's schedule and the number of days she was in Ottawa, but the newspaper said she spent 300 days (more than half her term) away from her Ottawa post. Craft herself likewise insisted that all of her trips were taken in accordance with US State Department regulations, and with State Department approval, with much of the time spent negotiating the trade deal with Canada and Mexico in Washington, D.C. She also pledged to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to deliver to it all of her travel records for her time as U.S. ambassador to Canada. Senator Marco Rubio commented: "I have a sneaking suspicion that having you here (for trade talks) or having you attend a cocktail party at some embassy, we would prefer you would prioritize the trade deal."


title: Kelly Craft

text: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau thanked Craft for what he said was her "dedication to building on the strong relationship between our two countries," and her help in "securing a new North American trade deal that increases the prosperity of both Canada and the United States." Former Canadian Ambassador to the United States Frank McKenna said that Craft brought "charm and grace and listening skills" to the ambassadorship, and did “the job very well when at the top, the relationship is as bad as it’s ever been." Ontario Premier Doug Ford gave her tenure a positive review, saying "Every premier I know thinks the world of her. She really proved herself over some tough times."


title: Kelly Craft

text: On February 22, 2019, Trump announced his intention to nominate Craft to be the next United States Ambassador to the United Nations, replacing Nikki Haley, who had resigned two months prior, after his first replacement choice, Heather Nauert, withdrew herself from consideration. US National Security Advisor John Bolton and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo both agreed that Craft was qualified and the most logical choice to replace Haley. Pompeo said she: "has been an outstanding advocate for America's national security and economic interests in Canada and she is extremely well-qualified to do the same at the United Nations." On May 2, Trump formally sent Craft's nomination to the United States Senate. On June 19, a hearing on her nomination was held before the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee. During the hearing Craft said "Israel ... is the subject of unrelenting bias and hostility in UN venues. The United States will never accept such bias, and if confirmed I commit to seizing every opportunity to shine a light on this conduct, call it what it is, and demand that these outrageous practices finally come to an end." Although Craft had previously said during her tenure as Ambassador to Canada that she believed there were "good scientists on both sides” of the climate debate, during her confirmation hearing she altered her position, saying that she believed that fossil fuels and human behavior have contributed to climate change. Due to her family's connections to the coal industry, she also said she would recuse herself from any UN discussions involving climate change or coal. On July 25, 2019, her nomination was reported out of committee by a vote of 15–7, with Democratic Senators Jeanne Shaheen, Chris Coons, and Chris Murphy voting for her, as well as all Republicans. On July 30, the US Senate voted 57–33 to invoke cloture on her nomination. On July 31, her nomination was confirmed by a vote of 56–34.


title: Kelly Craft

text: She was formally sworn in by Vice President Mike Pence on September 10, 2019. Craft formally presented her credentials to UN Secretary-General António Guterres on September 12, 2019.


title: Kelly Craft

text: When the UN General Assembly voted to add to the UN Human Rights Council in October 2019, Craft wrote: "I am personally aggrieved that 105 countries voted in favor of this affront to human life and dignity. It provides ironclad proof that the Human Rights Council is broken, and reinforces why the United States withdrew." Venezuela had been accused of withholding from the Venezuelan people humanitarian aid delivered from other nations, and of manipulating its voters in exchange for food and medical care. The council had been criticized regularly for admitting members who were themselves suspected of human rights violations. The US left the council in 2018, protesting the Council's frequent denunciations of Israel.


title: Kelly Craft

text: Speaking to the UN Security Council in October 2019, she called Hamas "a terrorist organization that oppresses the Palestinian people in Gaza through intimidation and outright violence, while inciting violence against Israel." She condemned as "despicable" Hamas's violence against its own people, its use of Palestinian children as pawns, and its indiscriminate attacks on Israeli civilian areas, and called it one of the greatest obstacles to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.


title: Kelly Craft

text: In November 2019, Craft met with President of Haiti Jovenel Moïse at the Haiti National Palace about ways to implement a consensual resolution of Haiti's political crisis through inclusive dialogue. Craft later met with political leaders from other Haitian parties, listened to their different views, and urged an inclusive solution with Moïse. She also urged the Haitian government to fight corruption, investigate and prosecute human rights abusers, and combat narcotics and human trafficking.


title: Kelly Craft

text: In December 2019, Craft said during a meeting of the UN Security Council that was called at her request that the US was prepared to take "simultaneous steps" with North Korea to achieve peace. But she also warned the North Koreans against conducting further missile tests.


title: Kelly Craft

text: In January 2020, after the US killed Iranian Major General Qassim Suleimani, who had led the Quds Force, in a drone strike, Craft wrote a letter to the UN Security Council in which she said that the act was one of self-defense. At the same time, she wrote in the letter that the US stood "ready to engage without preconditions in serious negotiations with Iran, with the goal of preventing further endangerment of international peace and security or escalation by the Iranian regime."


title: Kelly Craft

text: In May 2020, Craft spoke at a session of the UN Security Council, and said that the Council must ensure that armed groups in Lebanon such as the Islamist Hezbollah are disarmed, and that the role of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) is strengthened so that it can effectively investigate Hezbollah’s violations. She also said the US was deeply concerned about Iran’s and Syria’s transfers of weaponry to Hezbollah.


title: Kelly Craft

text: On August 13, 2020, Craft celebrated the announcement of diplomatic relations between the United Arab Emirates and Israel, calling it “a huge win” for Trump and for the world, saying that the diplomatic ties show “just how hungry for peace we all are in this world,” and saying that Mideast countries understand the need “to stand firm against a regime that is the number one state sponsor of terrorism”—Iran.


title: Kelly Craft

text: Speaking about Iran and the US desire to restore UN sanctions against it and extend an embargo to arms sales to the country in 2020, Craft said: "History is replete of tragedies of appeasing regimes such as this one, that for decades have kept its own people under its thumb. The Trump administration has no fear in standing in limited company on this matter, in light of the unmistakable truth guiding our actions. I only regret that other members of this [Security Council] have lost their way, and now find themselves standing in the company of terrorists." She also wrote a September 20, 2021, letter to the President of the UN Security Council, pressing her point on sanctions. Speaking at the US State Department in September 2020, she said: "As we have in the past, we will stand alone to protect peace and security at all times. We don’t need a cheering section to validate our moral compass."


title: Kelly Craft

text: In mid-September 2020, Craft met with James K.J. Lee, director-general of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York, for lunch in New York City. He had been secretary-general in Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs until July. It was the first meeting between a top Taiwan official and a United States Ambassador to the United Nations. Craft said they discussed ways the US can help Taiwan become more engaged within the UN, and she pointed to a December 2019 email early alert from Taiwan that WHO had ignored, which had warned about the danger of the person-to-person transmission of the new highly contagious Covid-19 virus in China.


title: Kelly Craft

text: Later in September 2020, at a UN Security Council meeting to discuss challenges related to “Post-COVID-19 Global Governance,” after her fellow members veered off onto other topics only tangentially related to the virus, Craft criticized them for using a COVID-19 meeting to focus on what she called "political grudges," rather than the pandemic. She said: "You know, shame on each of you. I am astonished and I am disgusted by the content of today’s discussion. I am actually really quite ashamed of this council – members of the council who took this opportunity to focus on political grudges rather than the critical issue at hand."


title: Kelly Craft

text: In December 2020 she said that the UN Human Rights Council was "a haven for despots and dictators, hostile to Israel, and ineffectual on true human rights crises." Remarking on China's and Venezuela's human-rights records, she said the Council "includes the voices of the very human-rights violators it was designed to counter." Speaking to the Council’s treatment of Israel, Craft said: "We must deal with the insanity at the center of the Human Rights Council's persistent and egregious anti-Israel bias... No other country is targeted in this way – not the murderous Assad regime in Syria, not the disastrous Maduro regime in Venezuela, and not the Chinese Communist Party responsible for abuses; not Russia, Cuba, or North Korea. Israel, only Israel..."


title: Kelly Craft

text: In January 2021, Craft met with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen by video link. Craft said: "We discussed the many ways Taiwan is a model for the world, as demonstrated by its success in fighting Covid-19 and all that Taiwan has to offer in the fields of health, technology and cutting-edge science... the U.S. stands with Taiwan and always will." Speaking in Beijing, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Zhao Lijian said: "Certain U.S. politicians will pay a heavy price for their wrong words and deeds." On her last day in office later that month, Craft called Taiwan "a force for good on the global stage -- a vibrant democracy, a generous humanitarian actor, a responsible actor in the global health community, and a vigorous promoter and defender of human rights."


title: Kelly Craft

text: On January 20, 2021, days after Craft's call with the Taiwan President, China imposed sanctions against Craft (who in addition, had sent a letter to the UN secretary general criticizing China’s “excessive maritime claims” in the South China Sea), Pompeo, and 26 other former Trump officials. President Biden's National Security Council called the sanctions "unproductive and cynical."


title: Kelly Craft

text: On September 7, 2022, Craft launched her campaign to become Governor of Kentucky ahead of the 2023 Kentucky gubernatorial election. Her campaign has put focus into the process of illegalizing marijuana and lowering state crime rated


title: Kelly Craft

text: In a primary poll done by co/efficient in June of 2022, she was polling 3%. 44 Points behind Daniel Cameron, the trump endorsed incumbent Attorney General.


title: Kelly Craft

text: Craft married David Moross and then Judson Knight, and has two daughters. She wed Joe Craft in April 2016. A Hazard, Kentucky, native and University of Kentucky College of Law graduate, he is a billionaire coal-mining executive for Alliance Resource Partners, L.P., the second-largest coal producer in the eastern United States. The couple share six children and, as of 2018, 11 grandchildren.


title: Transform fault

text: A transform fault or transform boundary, is a fault along a plate boundary where the motion is predominantly horizontal. It ends abruptly where it connects to another plate boundary, either another transform, a spreading ridge, or a subduction zone. A transform fault is a special case of a "strike-slip fault" that also forms a plate boundary.


title: Transform fault

text: Most such faults are found in oceanic crust, where they accommodate the lateral offset between segments of divergent boundaries, forming a zigzag pattern. This is a result of oblique seafloor spreading where the direction of motion is not perpendicular to the trend of the overall divergent boundary. A smaller number of such faults are found on land, although these are generally better-known, such as the San Andreas Fault and North Anatolian Fault.


title: Transform fault

text: Transform boundaries are also known as conservative plate boundaries because they involve no addition or loss of lithosphere at the Earth's surface.


title: Transform fault

text: Geophysicist and geologist John Tuzo Wilson recognized that the offsets of oceanic ridges by faults do not follow the classical pattern of an offset fence or geological marker in Reid's rebound theory of faulting, from which the sense of slip is derived. The new class of faults, called transform faults, produce slip in the opposite direction from what one would surmise from the standard interpretation of an offset geological feature. Slip along transform faults does not increase the distance between the ridges it separates; the distance remains constant in earthquakes because the ridges are spreading centers. This hypothesis was confirmed in a study of the fault plane solutions that showed the slip on transform faults points in the opposite direction than classical interpretation would suggest.


title: Transform fault

text: Transform faults are closely related to transcurrent faults and are commonly confused. Both types of fault are strike-slip or side-to-side in movement; nevertheless, transform faults always end at a junction with another plate boundary, while transcurrent faults may die out without a junction with another fault. Finally, transform faults form a tectonic plate boundary, while transcurrent faults do not.


title: Transform fault

text: Faults in general are focused areas of deformation or strain, which are the response of built-up stresses in the form of compression, tension, or shear stress in rock at the surface or deep in the Earth's subsurface. Transform faults specifically accommodate lateral strain by transferring displacement between mid-ocean ridges or subduction zones. They also act as the plane of weakness, which may result in splitting in rift zones.


title: Transform fault

text: Transform faults are commonly found linking segments of divergent boundaries (mid-oceanic ridges or spreading centres). These mid-oceanic ridges are where new seafloor is constantly created through the upwelling of new basaltic magma. With new seafloor being pushed and pulled out, the older seafloor slowly slides away from the mid-oceanic ridges toward the continents. Although separated only by tens of kilometers, this separation between segments of the ridges causes portions of the seafloor to push past each other in opposing directions. This lateral movement of seafloors past each other is where transform faults are currently active.


title: Transform fault

text: Transform faults move differently from a strike-slip fault at the mid-oceanic ridge. Instead of the ridges moving away from each other, as they do in other strike-slip faults, transform-fault ridges remain in the same, fixed locations, and the new ocean seafloor created at the ridges is pushed away from the ridge. Evidence of this motion can be found in paleomagnetic striping on the seafloor.


title: Transform fault

text: A paper written by geophysicist Taras Gerya theorizes that the creation of the transform faults between the ridges of the mid-oceanic ridge is attributed to rotated and stretched sections of the mid-oceanic ridge. This occurs over a long period of time with the spreading center or ridge slowly deforming from a straight line to a curved line. Finally, fracturing along these planes forms transform faults. As this takes place, the fault changes from a normal fault with extensional stress to a strike-slip fault with lateral stress. In the study done by Bonatti and Crane, peridotite and gabbro rocks were discovered in the edges of the transform ridges. These rocks are created deep inside the Earth's mantle and then rapidly exhumed to the surface. This evidence helps to prove that new seafloor is being created at the mid-oceanic ridges and further supports the theory of plate tectonics.


title: Transform fault

text: Active transform faults are between two tectonic structures or faults. Fracture zones represent the previously active transform-fault lines, which have since passed the active transform zone and are being pushed toward the continents. These elevated ridges on the ocean floor can be traced for hundreds of miles and in some cases even from one continent across an ocean to the other continent.


title: Transform fault

text: In his work on transform-fault systems, geologist Tuzo Wilson said that transform faults must be connected to other faults or tectonic-plate boundaries on both ends; because of that requirement, transform faults can grow in length, keep a constant length, or decrease in length. These length changes are dependent on which type of fault or tectonic structure connect with the transform fault. Wilson described six types of transform faults:


title: Transform fault

text: "Growing length:" In situations where a transform fault links a spreading center and the upper block of a subduction zone or where two upper blocks of subduction zones are linked, the transform fault itself will grow in length.


title: Transform fault

text: "Constant length:" In other cases, transform faults will remain at a constant length. This steadiness can be attributed to many different causes. In the case of ridge-to-ridge transforms, the constancy is caused by the continuous growth by both ridges outward, canceling any change in length. The opposite occurs when a ridge linked to a subducting plate, where all the lithosphere (new seafloor) being created by the ridge is subducted, or swallowed up, by the subduction zone. Finally, when two upper subduction plates are linked there is no change in length. This is due to the plates moving parallel with each other and no new lithosphere is being created to change that length.


title: Transform fault

text: Decreasing length faults: In rare cases, transform faults can shrink in length. These occur when two descending subduction plates are linked by a transform fault. In time as the plates are subducted, the transform fault will decrease in length until the transform fault disappears completely, leaving only two subduction zones facing in opposite directions.


title: Transform fault

text: The most prominent examples of the mid-oceanic ridge transform zones are in the Atlantic Ocean between South America and Africa. Known as the St. Paul, Romanche, Chain, and Ascension fracture zones, these areas have deep, easily identifiable transform faults and ridges. Other locations include: the East Pacific Ridge located in the South Eastern Pacific Ocean, which meets up with San Andreas Fault to the North.


title: Transform fault

text: Transform faults are not limited to oceanic crust and spreading centers; many of them are on continental margins. The best example is the San Andreas Fault on the Pacific coast of the United States. The San Andreas Fault links the East Pacific Rise off the West coast of Mexico (Gulf of California) to the Mendocino Triple Junction (Part of the Juan de Fuca plate) off the coast of the Northwestern United States, making it a ridge-to-transform-style fault. The formation of the San Andreas Fault system occurred fairly recently during the Oligocene Period between 34 million and 24 million years ago. During this period, the Farallon plate, followed by the Pacific plate, collided into the North American plate. The collision led to the subduction of the Farallon plate underneath the North American plate. Once the spreading center separating the Pacific and the Farallon plates was subducted beneath the North American plate, the San Andreas Continental Transform-Fault system was created.


title: Transform fault

text: In New Zealand, the South Island's alpine fault is a transform fault for much of its length. This has resulted in the folded land of the Southland Syncline being split into an eastern and western section several hundred kilometres apart. The majority of the syncline is found in Southland and The Catlins in the island's southeast, but a smaller section is also present in the Tasman District in the island's northwest.


title: Maria Sten

text: Maria Sten is a Danish actress, writer, and filmmaker born and raised in Denmark with Danish, Swedish, and Congolese roots. She was Miss Denmark Universe 2008.


title: Maria Sten

text: Sten competed in Miss Supertalent of the World 2011 and was placed in the top 7 women among 50 candidates.


title: Maria Sten

text: As an actor, Sten played the lead role of Jillian Hope Hodgson in the fourth season of the television show "Channel Zero: The Dream Door". She portrayed Liz Tremayne in the DC Universe television series "Swamp Thing", which also starred Crystal Reed.


title: Maria Sten

text: She wrote two episodes of David E. Kelley's series "Big Sky", and wrote, directed, and produced the short film "Wild Things Run Free". In 2018 Sten was named to the Tracking Board's "Young & Hungry List", which showcases the top 100 new writers as voted on by Hollywood's most influential.


title: Historical method

text: Historical method is the collection of techniques and guidelines that historians use to research and write histories of the past. Secondary sources, primary sources and material evidence such as that derived from archaeology may all be drawn on, and the historian's skill lies in identifying these sources, evaluating their relative authority, and combining their testimony appropriately in order to construct an accurate and reliable picture of past events and environments.


title: Historical method

text: In the philosophy of history, the question of the nature, and the possibility, of a sound historical method is raised within the sub-field of epistemology. The study of historical method and of different ways of writing history is known as historiography.


title: Historical method

text: Source criticism (or information evaluation) is the process of evaluating the qualities of an information source, such as its validity, reliability, and relevance to the subject under investigation.


title: Historical method

text: The first four are known as higher criticism; the fifth, lower criticism; and, together, external criticism. The sixth and final inquiry about a source is called internal criticism. Together, this inquiry is known as source criticism.


title: Historical method

text: R. J. Shafer on external criticism: "It sometimes is said that its function is negative, merely saving us from using false evidence; whereas internal criticism has the positive function of telling us how to use authenticated evidence."


title: Historical method

text: Noting that few documents are accepted as completely reliable, Louis Gottschalk sets down the general rule, "for each particular of a document the process of establishing credibility should be separately undertaken regardless of the general credibility of the author." An author's trustworthiness in the main may establish a background probability for the consideration of each statement, but each piece of evidence extracted must be weighed individually.


title: Historical method

text: Bernheim (1889) and Langlois & Seignobos (1898) proposed a seven-step procedure for source criticism in history:


title: Historical method

text: Subsequent descriptions of historical method, outlined below, have attempted to overcome the credulity built into the first step formulated by the nineteenth century historiographers by stating principles not merely by which different reports can be harmonized but instead by which a statement found in a source may be considered to be unreliable or reliable as it stands on its own.


title: Historical method

text: The following core principles of source criticism were formulated by two Scandinavian historians, Olden-Jørgensen (1998) and Thurén (1997):


title: Historical method

text: Louis Gottschalk adds an additional consideration: "Even when the fact in question may not be well-known, certain kinds of statements are "both incidental and probable" to such a degree that error or falsehood seems unlikely. If an ancient inscription on a road tells us that a certain proconsul built that road while Augustus was princeps, it may be doubted without further corroboration that that proconsul really built the road, but would be harder to doubt that the road was built during the principate of Augustus. If an advertisement informs readers that 'A and B Coffee may be bought at any reliable grocer's at the unusual price of fifty cents a pound,' all the inferences of the advertisement may well be doubted without corroboration except that there is a brand of coffee on the market called 'A and B Coffee.'"


title: Historical method

text: Garraghan says that most information comes from "indirect witnesses", people who were not present on the scene but heard of the events from someone else. Gottschalk says that a historian may sometimes use hearsay evidence when no primary texts are available. He writes, "In cases where he uses secondary witnesses...he asks: (1) On whose primary testimony does the secondary witness base his statements? (2) Did the secondary witness accurately report the primary testimony as a whole? (3) If not, in what details did he accurately report the primary testimony? Satisfactory answers to the second and third questions may provide the historian with the whole or the gist of the primary testimony upon which the secondary witness may be his only means of knowledge. In such cases the secondary source is the historian's 'original' source, in the sense of being the 'origin' of his knowledge. Insofar as this 'original' source is an accurate report of primary testimony, he tests its credibility as he would that of the primary testimony itself." Gottschalk adds, "Thus hearsay evidence would not be discarded by the historian, as it would be by a law court merely because it is hearsay."


title: Historical method

text: Gilbert Garraghan maintains that oral tradition may be accepted if it satisfies either two "broad conditions" or six "particular conditions", as follows:


title: Historical method

text: Other methods of verifying oral tradition may exist, such as comparison with the evidence of archaeological remains.


title: Historical method

text: More recent evidence concerning the potential reliability or unreliability of oral tradition has come out of fieldwork in West Africa and Eastern Europe.


title: Historical method

text: Once individual pieces of information have been assessed in context, hypotheses can be formed and established by historical reasoning.


title: Historical method

text: McCullagh sums up, "if the scope and strength of an explanation are very great, so that it explains a large number and variety of facts, many more than any competing explanation, then it is likely to be true."


title: Historical method

text: This is a syllogism in probabilistic form, making use of a generalization formed by induction from numerous examples (as the first premise).


title: Historical method

text: McCullagh says that an argument from analogy, if sound, is either a "covert statistical syllogism" or better expressed as an argument to the best explanation. It is a statistical syllogism when it is "established by a sufficient number and variety of instances of the generalization"; otherwise, the argument may be invalid because properties 1 through n are unrelated to property "n" + 1, unless property "n" + 1 is the best explanation of properties 1 through "n". Analogy, therefore, is uncontroversial only when used to suggest hypotheses, not as a conclusive argument.


title: Tracey Collins

text: Tracey Collins is an American educator and author who is the "de facto" first lady of New York City as the domestic partner of New York City Mayor Eric Adams.


title: Tracey Collins

text: Collins was born in New Orleans, Louisiana to a large family where she grew up with four sisters and many nieces and nephews.


title: Tracey Collins

text: Collins is the senior youth development director for the New York City Department of Education and has served as an elementary school principal. In Adams' book "Healthy at Last: A Plant-based Approach to Preventing and Reversing Diabetes", published in 2020, he said Collins "gets up at dawn to run the largest school system in the United States" and notes that she usually works "12 hours a day [and] never gets a break.” Collins ran a Brooklyn-based charity, Fully Persuaded, from its incorporation in 2007 until it was shut down in 2015.


title: Tracey Collins

text: She chaired Adams's Educational Taskforce when he was a state senator. Collins also collaborated with then-Senator Adams in 2010 on his "Stop the Sag" campaign, which placed billboards around parts of Brooklyn encouraging youth not to partake in pants sagging.


title: Tracey Collins

text: During Adams's successful run for mayor of New York, Collins kept a low profile. She did not appear on the campaign trail with Adams or attend his victory parties. "The New York Post" has raised potential ethical concerns with the fact that Collins, who is an administrator in the New York Department of Education, would have her domestic partner also serving as her boss.


title: Tracey Collins

text: Collins lives in an apartment in Fort Lee, New Jersey, where she and Adams live during the weekends. During the 2021 New York City mayoral election, this apartment became a point of contention as rival candidates contended that Adams resided there on a regular basis.


title: Scaled and Icy

text: Scaled and Icy is the sixth studio album by American musical duo Twenty One Pilots. The album was released on May 21, 2021, through Fueled by Ramen and Elektra. The album's title is a play on "scaled back and isolated", a phrase frontman Tyler Joseph associated with music produced during the COVID-19 pandemic, though the phrase is also an anagram of "Clancy is dead", a reference to the protagonist of their previous album, "Trench".


title: Scaled and Icy

text: On March 4, 2019, five months after the release of their fifth studio album "Trench", the band confirmed that they were working on their next studio album. About the possible theme, frontman Joseph said, "There's a character that hasn't been talked about on any record yet that plays a huge role in the narrative that obviously will need to be talked about and it's probably where we're going next". On April 9, 2020, the duo released the song "Level of Concern", which marked the first musical output by the duo since the release of "Trench". The song encourages the listener to keep hope during hard times, specifically alluding to the COVID-19 pandemic. In a May 2020 interview with Zane Lowe, Joseph expressed uncertainty as to whether their next album would continue "Trench"s narrative or would be an "in-between record", explaining: "It's kind of hard for me to tap into the story of "Trench" and what we've been building on up until that point without being out there, without touring, without having those live shows, without interacting with our fans."


title: Scaled and Icy

text: "Scaled and Icy" was written and largely produced by Joseph in his home studio over a year-long period during the COVID-19 pandemic, while drummer Josh Dun engineered the drum tracks remotely. The band had initially planned on embarking on a "victory lap" tour of arenas and festivals to draw the album cycle for "Trench" to a close, but the pandemic had instead left them with more free time than they were accustomed to. Joseph recalled being faced with two potential directions for the album when its writing process began in 2020, either to "lean into what [he] felt like everyone was feeling, this ominous world is ending feel", or to "kind of escape from that feeling", eventually choosing the latter approach. Dun had revealed in November 2020 that they were still working "remotely" on the album, with both members being in different locations during the time. He describes the recording process, "we both have our own studios, which is really nice, so he comes up with a lot of stuff at his studio, sends it over to me, and then I come up with some stuff here at my studio and then send it back".


title: Scaled and Icy

text: "Scaled and Icy" is the first studio album to involve Joseph's youngest brother, Jay Joseph, who performs vocally alongside five of Jay's close friends on "Never Take It", "Bounce Man" and "No Chances".


title: Scaled and Icy

text: The album's title is a play on "scaled back and isolated", a phrase frontman Tyler Joseph associated with the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the music produced at the time. On an interview with Sirius XM, he stated that he wanted to "lean into being aware that things are scaled back and that we're isolated". Despite that, Joseph's goal was to create an album that contrasts this very idea and that conveys the opposite of it. The album title is also an anagram of "Clancy is dead", a reference to the protagonist of their previous album, "Trench"; the band has however neither described this as coincidental nor declined to comment on this subject. The title's initials appear on the cover art for their 2020 single "Christmas Saves the Year", on which the sentence "SAI is propaganda" is written in purple on one of the wrapped gifts.


title: Scaled and Icy

text: The cover artwork for "Scaled and Icy" was designed by Brandon Rike, who also designed the cover art for "Trench" and "Blurryface". It features a scaled, teal dragon breathing yellow fire over a pink background, as well as a psi symbol in the top right corner. The dragon is named Trash, and represents "inspiration, fear, and magic"; Joseph explained that he wanted to "tie the songs to something as powerful as that". The creature was originally drawn by British illustrator Walter Crane in a children's book from the 1860s (the artwork is in the public domain, allowing the band to use it in the album cover). Its usage was also inspired by a small dragon figurine Joseph keeps in his home studio, with Joseph revealing to BBC Radio 1 that it represented an idea that if he were to focus on a single detail of a small room, "then that detail can then come to life".


title: Scaled and Icy

text: "Scaled and Icy" has been described as, "at first listen, the most upbeat and optimistic the band have sounded since they first emerged in 2009", which Joseph explained is a reaction against the "strange and bleak conditions" caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, during which the album was recorded. Critics specifically noted its departure from the darker approach of "Trench" (2018) and "Blurryface" (2015) and a return to the "playful alt-pop sound" of "Vessel" (2013), with Joseph stating that the record is a "bit of a reaction to "Trench"". The album has also been described as alternative rock, pop, rock, rap and synth-pop, with elements of electro.


title: Scaled and Icy

text: Although a departure from the conceptual narrative found on "Trench", the band largely continues to examine serious themes on "Scaled and Icy" despite its upbeat sound. Joseph explained that the contrast was deliberate, stating that "as you dive into lyrics, a lot of times it's asking some pretty heavy questions and addressing some pretty heavy things". Neil Z. Yeung of AllMusic described the album as "a snapshot of the emotional highs and lows of quarantine life", while Augusta Battoclette of "Alternative Press" noted the themes of "anxiety, doubt and the need to keep your loved ones close".


title: Scaled and Icy

text: On June 16, 2021, Twenty One Pilots announced the Takeover Tour. The tour began in Denver, Colorado and the band spent one week in each city, where they performed at small clubs as well as large venues. The tour began on September 21, 2021. On July 23, 2021, the artists Half Alive, Arrested Youth and Jay Joseph were announced as openers for the U.S. leg of the tour.


title: Scaled and Icy

text: On November 18, 2021, the band announced a second tour of North America in support of the album called "The Icy Tour", which started on August 18, 2022 in Saint Paul, Minnesota.


title: Scaled and Icy

text: The duo began teasing the era in January 2021 by updating their social media headers with an orange-tinged photo of the duo in an empty venue, the band's "Trench" era logo placed between them. The following month, Joseph posted a selfie to his Instagram story featuring a blue psi symbol over his right eye. On April 2, 2021, a progress bar appeared on "dmaorg.info"—a website the band uses to share background stories and lore—which appeared to be deleting files. When the progress bar timed out three days later, three posters appeared on the page announcing a new album titled "Scaled and Icy" and a "Livestream Experience" scheduled for May 21, 2021. The lead single "Shy Away" premiered on BBC Radio 1 on April 7, with a music video being released shortly after alongside an official album announcement on the band's social media. A second single, "Choker", premiered on the band's livestream pre-access website, with fans participating in a release event. The music video and single were premiered on April 30, 2021, at 12:00am ET. The third single from the album, "Saturday", was released on May 18, 2021, with a music video for the song released on July 8, 2021. The song "The Outside" was released as a single for the album on November 24, 2021. On March 18, 2022, the duo released a music video for the song "The Outside".


title: Scaled and Icy

text: The duo was initially reluctant to do a livestream concert, arguing that "you can't recreate a live experience on a stream". However, they changed their minds as they resolved to "create something that's never been done before", and promised in an interview with "NME" that "it's not going to be stale by song two, like every other livestream concert." Their manager, Chris Woltman, stressed that it would be different from their past live shows, describing it as "a convergence of live theater mixed with a livestream moment and a Twenty One Pilots show". Work on the event began in July 2020, and required 150 production and support staff, 12 cameras, almost 30,000 square feet of on-set floor space, over 130 rehearsal hours, and 13 days for its set-up, rehearsal and the show itself according to the band's management. The show's synopsis ties in closely to the storyline from "Trench", featuring numerous Easter eggs concerning the band's lore. The livestream experience's page received 3.6 million session from April 7, which included 3.48 million hours of watch time from 202 international territories on one million different devices, 56% of them outside the USA. The event garnered high praise from various publications, including "NME", who awarded it five stars, with Ali Shutler calling it "one of the most forward-thinking shows that've been attempted in over a year" which "sees them push the limit on just what a livestream can be". Gil Kaufman of "Billboard" meanwhile described it as "eye-popping" and a "Las Vegas-worthy spectacle".


title: Scaled and Icy

text: On April 8, 2022, a year after the announcement of the livestream and album, the duo announced a reshowing of the livestream exclusively in select theaters, which had premiered on May 19, 2022 worldwide.


title: Scaled and Icy

text: "Scaled and Icy" received generally positive reviews from music critics overall. On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has an average score of 70, based on 9 critical reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: Scaled and Icy

text: Ali Shutler of "NME" praised the album as "an expectation-crushing statement of ambition", noting its more optimistic and upbeat tone compared to the band's earlier work while still remaining "very much in the Twenty One Pilots universe". "The Guardian"s Rachel Aroesti also noted the "move away from this anxious melancholy"; she claimed that while fans would "view this shift as hard-won hopefulness", listeners unfamiliar with the band would find the album "pleasingly buoyant, if conspicuously USP-less". Jake Richardson of "Kerrang!" considered that although "there are times on "Scaled And Icy" where things just feel a little safe", it "is a good record which balances out the occasional underwhelming moment with flashes of brilliance that could only come from its creators".


title: Scaled and Icy

text: Steven Loftin of "The Line of Best Fit" commended the album's fun sound and the progression it represented for the band, concluding that "while it's not a home run, as a society it's a time for exploration and change, and the duo have pasted the pastel colours on heavy ready for when the sunshine decides to grace us with its presence". Writing for "Stereogum", Chris DeVille opined that the album "maintains the knack for poppy off-kilter rock music that made the band stars in the first place" aside from "a few clunkers", and considered that it represented an evolution towards a more grown-up sound and image. "Clash"s meanwhile asserted that "most – though not all of these tracks having you reaching for the replay button", and added that "memorable is definitely the word to describe the album". However, Mason Meyers of "Gigwise" called the album "an unfocused, often forgettable, attempt to appeal to the masses with cutesy pop tunes".


title: Scaled and Icy

text: Several reviews criticised the loose relationship between the album's content and the surrounding concept. Ludovic Hunter-Tilney was critical of the record's "contradictory tones" in his assessment for the "Financial Times", arguing that "tracks are caught between servicing the concept and existing in their own right", and concluded that "the result suggests indecision, not an enigmatic layer of mystery". David Smyth of the "Evening Standard" also highlighted the contrast between the "bright and poppy" sound of the album and its conceptual promotion, asking: "Is it worth sticking around to hunt for secret messages though? Not really." Conversely, AllMusic's Neil Z. Yeung wrote that "whether or not they decide to revive their ongoing album mythology, "Scaled and Icy" will remain a quick dose of TOP perfection, a lean catalog gem that is bright, effervescent, and immensely addictive."


title: Scaled and Icy

text: The album won Top Rock Album at the 2022 "Billboard" Music Awards, beating out "OK Orchestra" by "AJR", "Music of the Spheres" by Coldplay, "Mercury – Act 1" by Imagine Dragons, and "Sob Rock" by John Mayer.


title: Natron

text: Natron is a naturally occurring mixture of sodium carbonate decahydrate (NaCO·10HO, a kind of soda ash) and around 17% sodium bicarbonate (also called baking soda, NaHCO) along with small quantities of sodium chloride and sodium sulfate. Natron is white to colourless when pure, varying to gray or yellow with impurities. Natron deposits are sometimes found in saline lake beds which arose in arid environments. Throughout history natron has had many practical applications that continue today in the wide range of modern uses of its constituent mineral components.


title: Natron

text: In modern mineralogy the term "natron" has come to mean only the sodium carbonate decahydrate (hydrated soda ash) that makes up most of the historical salt.


title: Natron

text: The English and German word "natron" is a French cognate derived from the Spanish "natrón" through Latin "natrium" and Greek "nitron" (). This derives from the Ancient Egyptian word "nṯrj". "Natron" refers to Wadi El Natrun or Natron Valley in Egypt, from which natron was mined by the ancient Egyptians for use in burial rites. The modern chemical symbol for sodium, Na, is an abbreviation of that element's New Latin name "natrium", which was derived from "natron".