title: Chopper (motorcycle)

text: In the post–World War II United States, servicemen returning home from the war started removing all parts deemed too big, heavy, ugly, or not essential to the basic function of the motorcycle, such as fenders, turn indicators, and even front brakes. The large, spring-suspended saddles were also removed in order to sit as low as possible on the motorcycle's frame. These machines were lightened to improve performance for dirt-track racing and mud racing. In California dry lake beds were used for long top speed runs. Motorcycles and automobiles ran at the same meets, and bobbers were an important part of the hotrod culture that developed in this era.


title: Chopper (motorcycle)

text: The first choppers were built in America, and were an outgrowth of the milder customization trend that had originated after WW2 when returning soldiers and others began modifying cars and motorcycles, frequently to improve performance in top-speed races on dry lake beds in Southern California and similar desolate spaces such as unused airstrips in other parts of the country, or on the street for street racing. These early modified motorcycles were known as "bobbers", and there are many common features between bobbers and choppers, with choppers differentiated by more radical modifications, especially frame tube and geometry modifications ("chopped" by welding) intended to make the bike longer.


title: Chopper (motorcycle)

text: The earliest choppers tended to be based on Harley-Davidson motorcycles, at first making use of the Flathead, Knucklehead and Panhead engines—many of which could be found in surplus military and police motorcycles bought cheaply at auction. As new engines became available they were soon utilized in choppers. British bikes, particularly Triumphs, were also a popular motor for choppers early on. As the Japanese manufacturers began offering larger engines in the late 1960s these motors were also quickly put to use by chopper builders. The Honda 750-4 was the most widely used Japanese motor for early chopper builders. Choppers have been created using almost every available engine, but builders have always shown a preference for older air cooled designs. It is rare to see a chopper with a radiator.


title: Chopper (motorcycle)

text: Over time the choppers became more and more about achieving a certain look, rather than being primarily performance oriented modifications. The modifications that had had their origin in hotrodding evolved into an artistic and aesthetic direction. By the mid 1970s stock Japanese and European performance motorcycles would outperform most bobbers and choppers. The one exception to this was the drag racing arena, which placed a premium on pure engine power, rather than handling over curvy courses. Chopper styling continued to be influenced by drag-bike modifications throughout the 1960s and 1970s.


title: Chopper (motorcycle)

text: While all choppers are highly customized bikes, sometimes even being built from scratch using all custom parts, not all customized bikes are choppers. In Europe at roughly the same era that choppers were invented and popularized in the US, bikers modified their bikes (primarily English brands like Triumph, BSA, Norton, and Matchless) in a different way, to achieve different looks, performance goals and riding position. The resulting bikes are known as café racers, and look very different from a chopper.


title: Chopper (motorcycle)

text: As the popularity of choppers grew, in part through exposure in movies such as the 1969 classic "Easy Rider", several motorcycle brands took note and began to include chopper influenced styling in their factory offerings. None of the factories were willing to go all out and do things like abandon rear-suspension to achieve the classic chopper look, however. As a result, these bikes were given the name "factory customs" and are not considered choppers.


title: Chopper (motorcycle)

text: Over the decades since the first choppers were created many different trends and fads have taken hold and held sway, so that it is often possible for someone to look at a chopper and say that it is a "1970s" style or fits into a specific era or sub-type. Some contemporary builders specialize in building choppers that very exactly fit into these styles, which are frequently referred to as "old school" style choppers.


title: Chopper (motorcycle)

text: By the early 1960s there was a big enough contingent of people modifying motorcycles, still mostly big Harley-Davidsons, that a certain style had begun to take hold. A set of modifications became common: the fat tires and 16" wheels of the stock motorcycles were replaced with narrower tires often on a larger 19" or 21" wheel. Forward-mounted foot pegs replaced the standard large 'floorboard' foot rests. Frequently the standard headlight and fuel tank were replaced with much smaller ones. Often upgraded chromed parts (either one-off fabricated replacements or manually chromed stock parts) were added. It is in this era that what we would today consider a chopper came into existence and began to be called the chopper.


title: Chopper (motorcycle)

text: During the 1960s, candy-colored paint, often multicolored and metal-flaked with different patterns, became a trend that allowed builders to further express their individuality and artistry. Soon many parts were being offered by small companies expressly for use in building choppers, not necessarily as performance parts as was common in the Bobber Era.


title: Chopper (motorcycle)

text: The first famous chopper builders came to prominence in this era, including Arlen Ness who was a leader in the "Frisco" or "Bay Area Chopper" style. Ness's bikes were characterized by having long low frames and highly raked front ends, typically 45 degrees or more, and frequently made use of springer front ends. Many made use of the newer Harley-Davidson Sportster motor, a simpler and more compact "unit motor" that included the transmission in the same housing as the motor itself, which lent itself nicely to Ness's stripped down style. Many of Ness's bikes in this era retained the rear shocks of the donor Sportster to provide a more forgiving ride than the typical hardtail chopper.


title: Chopper (motorcycle)

text: In 1967 Denver Mullins and Mondo Porras opened Denver's Choppers in San Bernardino, California, and soon became famous for building "long bikes", often referred to as "Denver choppers". These featured even longer front ends than the Bay Area style, and had a much higher frame (stretched "up and out"). Denver's was particularly well known for the springer forks that they fabricated, as well as the overall style of their bikes.


title: Chopper (motorcycle)

text: With choppers still not yet a mass market concept regional variations and formulations flourished in this period. Many innovations were tried in this period, found not to work that well, and then abandoned. A great deal of knowledge about how to build long bikes that handled well adjusting rake and trail was developed, yet less sophisticated builders also created a lot of bikes that had handling issues in this period as expertise was still scarce and closely held.


title: Chopper (motorcycle)

text: The huge success of the 1969 film "Easy Rider" instantly popularized the chopper around the world, and drastically increased the demand for them. What had been a subculture known to a relatively small group of enthusiasts in a few regions of the US became a global phenomenon. During the late 1960s, the first wave of European chopper builders emerged, such as the "Swedish Chopper" style, but Easy Rider brought attention everywhere to choppers.


title: Chopper (motorcycle)

text: The number of chopper-building custom shops multiplied, as did the number of suppliers of ready-made chopper parts. According to the taste and purse of the owner, chop shops would build high handle bars, or later Ed Roth's Wild Child designed stretched, narrowed, and raked front forks. Shops also custom built exhaust pipes and many of the aftermarket kits followed in the late 1960s into the 1970s. Laws required (and in many locales still do) a retention fixture for the passenger, so vertical backrests called sissy bars became a popular installation, often sticking up higher than the rider's head.


title: Chopper (motorcycle)

text: While the decreased weight and lower seat position improved handling and performance, the main reason to build a chopper was to show off and provoke others by riding a machine that was stripped and almost nude compared to the stock Harley-Davidsons and automobiles of the period. Style trumped practicality, particularly as forks became longer and longer handling suffered. As one biker said, "You couldn't turn very good but you sure looked good doing it."


title: Chopper (motorcycle)

text: The Digger became another popular style. Similar to the Frisco choppers Diggers were frequently even longer than earlier bikes, but still low. The coffin and prism shaped tanks on these bikes were frequently mated with very long front ends (12" over stock and more), with the archaic girder fork often being used to accomplish this instead of the more common springer or telescopic types. Body work was also moulded to flow seamlessly, using copious amounts of bondo. New paint colors and patterns included paisleys, day-glo and fluorescent, along with continuing use of metal-flakes and pearls.


title: Chopper (motorcycle)

text: Honda's groundbreaking 750 cc four cylinder engine, first introduced to America in the 1969 CB-750, became widely available from salvage and wrecking operations and became a popular alternative to Harley-Davidson's motors. Harley's then-current big-twin motor, the Shovelhead, was extremely popular with chopper builders in this era, and use of the older motors, particularly the Knucklehead and Flathead declined as parts became harder to get and the performance of the new motors proved superior.


title: Chopper (motorcycle)

text: In 1984 Harley-Davidson, who had been using chopper inspired styling for a number of years, released the 'Softail', a design that hid the rear shocks under the engine creating a profile that looked a lot like a hard-tail. This frame was initially offered in the Softail Custom, a bike that took many styling cues from choppers, including the narrow 21" front wheel. Buyers looking for the chopper look had a plausible factory alternative, and interest in choppers declined.


title: Chopper (motorcycle)

text: With some time out of the limelight chopper builders seemed to work on craft more than wild innovation in this period. While individual builders still built long bikes, the trend was towards more moderate geometries, and the basics of how to build a good handling chopper while still looking great became more common knowledge. In this period, it became possible to assemble a complete chopper using all aftermarket parts, companies like S&S Cycle built complete replacement engines based on Harley-Davidson engines, frame makers such as Paughco offered a variety of hardtail frames and many bikes were built using these new repro parts. Super long girder and springer forked bikes were less popular in this era, while the use of telescopic forks grew, and builders upgraded to larger diameter tubes in both forks and frames to gain more rigidity.


title: Chopper (motorcycle)

text: Japanese bike builders offered a dizzying array of new bikes, including full-faired racing styled machines as well as many 'customs' that picked at chopper styling in a random way and rarely achieved the powerful integrated style that more and more custom chopper builders in this era seemed able to consistently achieve. As materials, fabrication and knowledge improved the performance of the better choppers improved. More powerful engines drove the need for stronger frames, brakes and bigger tires with more grip. These trends worked together so that as the 1990s closed the modern chopper was a larger looking, more powerful machine. The widespread use of CNC made it possible for even small shops to fabricate out of block aluminum, and billet components became a signature item often replacing stamped and chromed steel components of the earlier eras.


title: Chopper (motorcycle)

text: The millennium began with the cable TV network The Discovery Channel creating a number of television shows around several custom bike builders who built choppers. The first, the 2000 special "Motorcycle Mania", followed builder Jesse James of Long Beach, California, and is credited with creating "a new genre of reality TV" around choppers.


title: Chopper (motorcycle)

text: The celebrity builders featured on the cable shows enjoyed a large following. Companies like Jesse James' West Coast Choppers have been successful in producing expensive choppers, and a wide range of chopper-themed brands of merchandise such as clothing, automobile accessories and stickers.


title: Chopper (motorcycle)

text: The "American Chopper" reality television series featuring Paul Teutul Sr, and his sons Paul Jr. and Mike, ran six years starting in 2003, and featured bike building at Orange County Choppers (OCC).


title: Chopper (motorcycle)

text: This led to a backlash, and a renewed interest in home garage fabricated bikes built on a budget with available materials. Many builders eschewed Harley "pattern" motors and frames and started building choppers out of neglected bikes like Yamaha XS-650 twins, old Harley Sportsters, and various 1980's so called UJM bikes (four cylinder air-cooled Japanese bikes - Universal Japanese Motorcycle).


title: Chopper (motorcycle)

text: Another aspect of the backlash was a return to more traditional styling. Bobbers were again in style: stock rake machines with a stripped down look, often with flat or primer paints in charcoal grey, flat black, olive drab or brown.


title: Chopper (motorcycle)

text: Indian Larry and Paul Cox along with other New York City builders from Psycho Cycles are often credited with leading the movement back towards old school choppers in this period. Indian Larry was a featured builder early on the series "Biker Build-Off" on Discovery network, and won all three build off competitions, highlighting the popularity of his old-school style.=


title: Chopper (motorcycle)

text: Three inch wide belt drives and motors were still appreciated by many, but an increasing counter-movement of people building bikes with Shovelhead motors and chain drive primaries has occurred. Springers and even girder forks have made yet another come back. Magazines such as "Iron Horse", "Street Chopper" and "Show Class" cater to the retro, old-school and backyard builders, and feature more DIY technology than the TV builders with their million-dollar garages of the previous decade.


title: Chopper (motorcycle)

text: Later-generation builders take the chopper concept but keep the bike small, nimble and performance-inspired while nodding the styling of yesteryear. Some common characteristics of these custom bikes may include tall front end, narrow tires, high-output motor, cradle seat slammed onto the frame, t-bars, mid controls for example.


title: Chopper (motorcycle)

text: In the UK, due to the cost and lack of availability of the v-twin engine, many chose to use British engines from bikes such as Triumph or BSA; following an increase in imports, Japanese engines have seen more use.


title: Foreign trade of India

text: Foreign trade in India includes all imports and exports to and from India. At the level of Central Government it is administered by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. Foreign trade accounted for 48.8% of India's GDP in 2018.


title: Foreign trade of India

text: Even before independence, the Government of India maintained semi-autonomous diplomatic relations. It had colonies (such as the Aden Settlement), who sent and received full missions, and was a founder member of both the League of Nations and the United Nations. After India gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1947, it soon joined the Commonwealth of Nations and strongly supported independence movements in other colonies, like the Indonesian National Revolution. The partition and various territorial disputes, particularly that over Kashmir, would strain its relations with Pakistan for years to come. During the Cold War, India adopted a foreign policy of non-alignment policy itself with any major power bloc. However, India developed close ties with the Soviet Union and received extensive military support from it.


title: Foreign trade of India

text: The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea is a document written by an anonymous sailor from Alexandria about 100CE describing trade between countries, including India.


title: Foreign trade of India

text: In 1498 Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama landed in Calicut (modern day Kozhikode in Kerala) as the first European to ever sail to India. The tremendous profit made during this trip made the Portuguese eager for more trade with India and attracted other European navigators and tradesmen.


title: Foreign trade of India

text: Pedro Álvares Cabral left for India in 1500 and established Portuguese trading posts at Calicut and Cochin (modern day Kochi), returning to Portugal in 1501 with pepper, ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, mace, and cloves. The profits made from this trip were huge.


title: Foreign trade of India

text: Prior to the 1991 economic liberalisation, India was a closed economy due to the average tariffs exceeding 200 percent and the extensive quantitative restrictions on imports. Foreign investment was strictly restricted to only allow Indian ownership of businesses. Since the liberalisation, India's economy has improved mainly due to increased foreign trade.


title: Foreign trade of India

text: India was the eighth largest exporter of commercial services in the world in 2016, accounting for 3.4% of global trade in services. India recorded a 5.7% growth in services trade in 2016–17.


title: Foreign trade of India

text: India exports approximately 7500 commodities to about 190 countries, and imports around 6000 commodities from 140 countries.


title: Foreign trade of India

text: India's largest trading partners in alphabetical order are Bangladesh, Bhutan, Germany, Hong Kong, Iraq, Israel, Japan, Nepal, Russia, Saudi Arabia, China, Singapore, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates and the United States. India is biggest exporter of pharmaceuticals, some food products and is a mixed economy.


title: Caroline Vreeland

text: Caroline Olivia Zickerick (born October 26, 1987), known professionally as Caroline Vreeland, is a German-American singer-songwriter, actress, columnist, and model.


title: Caroline Vreeland

text: Caroline Vreeland was born Caroline Olivia Zickerick in Washington, D.C. to Daisy Vreeland and Michael Zickerick. Her father, a German diplomat, served as the German Ambassador to Moldova and as the Director General of the German Institute Taipei in Taiwan. Her maternal great-grandmother was fashion editor Diana Vreeland. She is a grandniece of American diplomat Frederick Vreeland and a first cousin once removed of the Buddhist abbot Nicholas Vreeland. Vreeland spent four months of her childhood living at the German Embassy in Kingston, Jamaica while her father was stationed there. Her father later had an affair and her parents divorced. Vreeland's mother moved them to a Siddha Yoga ashram in Upstate New York. They left New York and moved in with her grandparents in Belvedere, Marin County in the San Francisco Bay Area. After graduating from high school she moved to Los Angeles to pursue a music career.


title: Caroline Vreeland

text: Vreeland worked as a waitress and bartender in Los Angeles while pursuing a career in music. When she was twenty-one she filmed a reality television show pilot episode produced by Ryan Seacrest. The show didn't make it past production. In 2013 she was a contestant on the twelfth season of "American Idol" but was dismissed from the competition once it was revealed that she had previously worked with Seacrest.


title: Caroline Vreeland

text: In 2014 Vreeland was signed with boutique music label BlessandSee and began making music full-time. She began working on her EP in 2015. She released a single, "Unbreakable Love". Her six-song EP titled "Like a Woman Like a Drunkard Like an Animal", which she produced on her own, was released in 2018. She has cited Fiona Apple and Portishead as musical influences. She began working on a second musical project, titled "Please Feel", in 2018.


title: Caroline Vreeland

text: In February 2019 Vreeland performed at the 21st amfAR New York City Gala, which opens New York Fashion Week and raises money for AIDS research.


title: Caroline Vreeland

text: Vreeland is signed with Next Models and had her first modeling job in an editorial spread for "Vogue Italia". After her work with "Vogue Italia" she was discovered by Carine Roitfeld, the former editor-in-chief of "Vogue Paris", who invited her to model in an editorial in "CR Fashion Book". In 2018 Vreeland began working at "CR Fashion Book" as a writer with her own column, "Going to Bed with Caroline Vreeland". In June 2016 she was featured on the cover of "Harper's Bazaar Russia". In 2019 she walked the runway for Marco De Vincenzo's Autumn/Winter 2019/20 collection at Milan Fashion Week.


title: Caroline Vreeland

text: Vreeland made her acting debut in the 2007 thriller film "Children of Moloch". In 2016 she starred in the French short film "Diary". In 2018 she landed a recurring role on the television series "Star".


title: Caroline Vreeland

text: In October 2019 Vreeland performed at the Casino de Monte Carlo for members of the Monegasque princely family.


title: Caroline Vreeland

text: Vreeland is a dual citizen of the United States and Germany. She is a vegetarian. Vreeland identifies as sexually fluid. In 2016 she was in a relationship with Tasya van Ree.


title: Caroline Vreeland

text: Vreeland lives in Miami, Florida. She has a large social media following, and is known as an influencer on Instagram.


title: Caroline Vreeland

text: In 2019 Vreeland met Nicolas Rico, a Canadian arts festival organizer, at Art Basel. They married in a small, private ceremony on December 7, 2020 in the penthouse of the Ludlow Hotel on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, there were only ten guests in attendance at the wedding. They welcomed their first child, a son, in February 2022.


title: Debenture

text: In corporate finance, a debenture is a medium- to long-term debt instrument used by large companies to borrow money, at a fixed rate of interest. The legal term "debenture" originally referred to a document that either creates a debt or acknowledges it, but in some countries the term is now used interchangeably with bond, loan stock or note. A debenture is thus like a certificate of loan or a loan bond evidencing the company's liability to pay a specified amount with interest. Although the money raised by the debentures becomes a part of the company's capital structure, it does not become share capital. Senior debentures get paid before subordinate debentures, and there are varying rates of risk and payoff for these categories.


title: Debenture

text: Debentures are freely transferable by the debenture holder. Debenture holders have no rights to vote in the company's general meetings of shareholders, but they may have separate meetings or votes e.g. on changes to the rights attached to the debentures. The interest paid to them is a charge against profit in the company's financial statements.


title: Debenture

text: The term "debenture" is more descriptive than definitive. An exact and all-encompassing definition for a debenture has proved elusive. The English commercial judge, Lord Lindley, notably remarked in one case: "Now, what the correct meaning of 'debenture' is I do not know. I do not find anywhere any precise definition of it. We know that there are various kinds of instruments commonly called debentures."


title: Debenture

text: Debentures gave rise to the idea of the rich "clipping their coupons", which means that a bondholder will present their "coupon" to the bank and receive a payment each quarter (or in whatever period is specified in the agreement).


title: Debenture

text: There are also other features that minimize risk, such as a "sinking fund", which means that the debtor must pay some of the value of the bond after a specified period of time. This decreases risk for the creditors, as a hedge against inflation, bankruptcy, or other risk factors. A sinking fund makes the bond less risky, and therefore gives it a smaller "coupon" (or interest payment). There are also options for "convertibility", which means a creditor may turn their bonds into equity in the company if it does well. Companies also reserve the right to call their bonds, which mean they can call it sooner than the maturity date. Often there is a clause in the contract that allows this; for example, if a bond issuer wishes to rebook a 30-year bond at the 25th year, they must pay a premium. If a bond is called, it means that less interest is paid out.


title: Debenture

text: Failure to pay a bond effectively means bankruptcy. Bondholders who have not received their interest can throw an offending company into bankruptcy, or seize its assets if that is stipulated in the contract.


title: Debenture

text: In the United States, debenture refers specifically to an unsecured corporate bond, i.e. a bond that does not have a certain line of income or piece of property or equipment to guarantee repayment of principal upon the bond's maturity. Where security is provided for loan stocks or bonds in the US, they are termed 'mortgage bonds'.


title: Debenture

text: In Canada, a debenture refers to a secured loan instrument where security is generally over the debtor's credit, but security is not pledged to specific assets. Like other secured debts, the debenture gives the debtor priority status over unsecured creditors in a bankruptcy; however debt instruments where security is pledged to specific assets (such as a bond) receive a higher priority status in a bankruptcy than do debentures.


title: Debenture

text: In Asia, if repayment is secured by a charge over land, the loan document is called a mortgage; where repayment is secured by a charge against other assets of the company, the document is called a debenture; and where no security is involved, the document is called a note or 'unsecured deposit note'.


title: Tina O'Brien

text: Tina Michelle O'Brien (born 7 August 1983) is an English actress. She is best known for her portrayal of Sarah Platt in the long-running ITV soap opera "Coronation Street" (1999–2008, 2015–present). She also appeared in the BBC One drama series "Waterloo Road" (2010–2011).


title: Tina O'Brien

text: Born in Rusholme, Manchester, England, O'Brien was educated at Trinity C.E. High School. Her early acting roles included "Children's Ward" in 1997, "The Cops" in 1998 and "Clocking Off" in 2000. At the age of sixteen, she joined "Coronation Street" in October 1999, taking over the role of Sarah Platt from actress Lynsay King. Sarah's pregnancy with Bethany Platt won O'Brien Best Storyline at the British Soap Awards. She also won Best Newcomer at the National Television Awards and the "TV Quick" Awards.


title: Tina O'Brien

text: Her first role after leaving "Coronation Street" was in the 2007 pantomime at Manchester Opera House, where she played the title character of Cinderella. Her first television role post-"Coronation Street" was in the ITV police television drama "Blue Murder", filmed whilst four months pregnant, in which she played a character called Amy Kirkland. O'Brien expressed interest in doing televised dramas and theatre work, although after becoming pregnant, she decided to put her career on hold.


title: Tina O'Brien

text: In 2010, O'Brien starred in the sixth series of the BBC school drama "Waterloo Road" as Bex Fisher, the eldest daughter of the new headteacher Karen Fisher (Amanda Burton). In 2010, she also appeared in "The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister", in which she played the character of Miss Browne, a role which required her first on-screen lesbian kiss. Later in 2010, she appeared as a character in the new television drama "Accused", written by Jimmy McGovern, as well as starring in the 2010 series of "Strictly Come Dancing". Her partner was Jared Murillo, and she was unable to perform in the third week due to illness. O'Brien was eliminated in the fifth week of the competition after failing to impress the viewers with her Argentine Tango. She fell into the bottom two alongside Felicity Kendal, who was saved thanks to the public vote.


title: Tina O'Brien

text: From 4 December 2010 to 3 January 2011, O'Brien played the title character of Snow White in Manchester Opera House's 2010/2011 pantomime. Between 14 January and 13 February 2011, she participated in the 2011 "Strictly Come Dancing Live Tour".


title: Tina O'Brien

text: In October 2014, O'Brien announced that she would be reprising her role of Sarah Platt in "Coronation Street" in early 2015. The character returned on an episode broadcast on 30 March 2015.


title: Tina O'Brien

text: O'Brien is the godmother of Emily Walton, who played the original Bethany Platt, her on-screen daughter.


title: Geoff Barrow

text: Geoffrey Paul Barrow (born 9 December 1971) is an English music producer, composer, and DJ. He is a member of the bands Portishead, Beak and supergroup Quakers, and has scored several films.


title: Geoff Barrow

text: Portishead—formed in 1991—was named after the small coastal town near Bristol where Barrow grew up. On his intentions in forming Portishead, he has stated, "I just wanted to make interesting music, proper songs with a proper life span and a decent place in people's record collections."


title: Geoff Barrow

text: Born in Walton in Gordano, Somerset, Geoff and his mother moved to the town Portishead when he was eleven, after his parents divorced. After being involved in many local rock bands, playing drums and DJing in hip hop groups, Barrow got his first job at the Coach House Studios as a tape operator soon after it opened in 1989. In 1991, while he was assisting on Massive Attack's breakthrough album "Blue Lines", the band allowed him spare studio time to get his own ideas on tape. Soon after, Barrow met Beth Gibbons during a coffee break at an Enterprise Allowance course. They formed the band Portishead, later adding third member Adrian Utley, releasing their debut album "Dummy" in 1994 to critical acclaim. The group have since produced two more studio albums, a live album, and various singles in the years since. Their most recent album, "Third", was released in April 2008. The group performed for the first time in seven years at the on 2 May 2022, as part of a War Child concert benefitting refugees and children affected by the Ukraine war.


title: Geoff Barrow

text: In 2001, Barrow formed the Australian record label Invada, whose artist roster includes acts such as RuC.L and ARIA-award-winning group Koolism), together with Katalyst's Ashley Anderson. In 2003 he set up the UK arm of Invada, a more experimental music label with partner Fat Paul. Bands who released work through Invada included Gonga, Team Brick, Atavist, Joe Volk, malakai and Crippled Black Phoenix. Barrow co-produced and co-wrote Stephanie McKay's 2003 debut album, "McKay", under the pseudonym Fuzzface. The album featuring songs co-penned by Tim Saul and Carl Hancock Rux.


title: Geoff Barrow

text: At the dawn of the '90s, Barrow was making a name for himself as a remixer, working with such artists as Primal Scream, Paul Weller, Gabrielle and Depeche Mode. He produced a track for Tricky and wrote songs for Neneh Cherry, both of whom were based in Bristol and also worked with Massive Attack. He has remixed songs for both Gravediggaz and the Pharcyde. In 2005, Barrow and Portishead collaborator Adrian Utley produced the Coral's third album, "The Invisible Invasion". In 2009, Barrow produced the Horrors' second album "Primary Colours" with Craig Silvey. He mixed the self-titled debut album by Billy Nomates, as well as her EP "Emergency Telephone".


title: Geoff Barrow

text: In 2009 he formed Beak with Billy Fuller (Fuzz Against Junk) and Matt Williams (Team Brick). Their self-titled album was released in 2009. In 2010 the group performed as the backing band for Anika's self-titled debut album. Barrow had met Anika, a political journalist, and proposed recording material together. The album was produced over twelve days, using one room, no overdubs or repair, and only edits to create arrangements. The album's lead single, "Yang Yang", was released on 17 November 2009 through Invada and Stones Throw Records in the USA and Japan.


title: Geoff Barrow

text: In early 2012, Barrow's new hip hop project Quakers was announced to be releasing an album on Stones Throw. He also formed the musical project Drokk with TV composer Ben Salisbury and released the album "Drokk: Music inspired by Mega-City One", with songs inspired by the comic book character "Judge Dredd". On 2 July Barrow, Billy Fuller and Matt Williams released their second Beak album through Invada. On 20 September 2018 the band, with Will Young replacing Williams, released their third album on Invada.


title: Geoff Barrow

text: Barrow was the music supervisor for the Banksy film "Exit Through the Gift Shop", which premièred at the Sundance Film Festival on 24 January 2010, and was released in April 2010.


title: Geoff Barrow

text: In 2013, Barrow collaborated again with Ben Salisbury on the score for the Alex Garland film "Ex Machina". The pair also worked together on a 2018 film "Annihilation", 2020 miniseries "Devs" and 2022 film "Men". The duo also collaborated on the scores for the "Black Mirror" episode "Men Against Fire" and the Netflix series "Archive 81". Barrow, Salisbury and Simon Ashdown produced the score for the Prime Video series "Hanna".


title: Geoff Barrow

text: Beak performed the soundtrack for Tom Geens' 2015 film "Couple in a Hole", drawing largely on the band's earlier material. In 2016, Barrow scored the Ben Wheatley film "Free Fire".


title: History of the British Isles

text: The British Isles have witnessed intermittent periods of competition and cooperation between the people that occupy the various parts of Great Britain, the Isle of Man, Ireland, the Bailiwick of Guernsey, the Bailiwick of Jersey and the smaller adjacent islands.


title: History of the British Isles

text: Today, the British Isles contain two sovereign states: the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom. There are also three Crown dependencies: Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man. The United Kingdom comprises England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. England and Scotland were separate independent countries until 1603, and then legally separate under one monarch until 1707, when they united as one kingdom. Wales and Northern Ireland were composed of several independent kingdoms with shifting boundaries until the medieval period.


title: History of the British Isles

text: The British monarch was head of state of all of the countries of the British Isles from the Union of the Crowns in 1603 until the enactment of the Republic of Ireland Act in 1949, although the term "British Isles" was not used in 1603. Additionally, since the independence of most of Ireland, some historians of the region often avoid the term "British Isles" due to the complexity of relations between the peoples of the islands. (see: "Terminology of the British Isles").


title: History of the British Isles

text: The Palaeolithic and Mesolithic, also known as the Old and Middle Stone Ages, were characterised by a hunter-gatherer society and a reliance on stone tool technologies.


title: History of the British Isles

text: The Lower Palaeolithic period in the British Isles saw the region's first known habitation by early hominids, specifically the extinct Homo heidelbergensis. This period saw many changes in the environment, encompassing several glacial and interglacial episodes greatly affecting human settlement in the region. Providing dating for this distant period is difficult and contentious. The inhabitants of the region at this time were bands of hunter-gatherers who roamed Northern Europe following herds of animals, or who supported themselves by fishing. One of the most prominent archaeological sites dating to this period is that of Boxgrove Quarry in West Sussex, southern England.


title: History of the British Isles

text: By the Mesolithic, "Homo sapiens", or modern humans, were the only hominid species to still survive in the British Isles. There was then limited occupation by Ahrensburgian hunter gatherers, but this came to an end when there was a final downturn in temperature which lasted from around 9,400 to 9,200 BC. Mesolithic people occupied Britain by around 9,000 BC, and it has been occupied ever since. By 8000 BC temperatures were higher than today, and birch woodlands spread rapidly, but there was a cold spell around 6,200 BC which lasted about 150 years. The British Isles were linked to continental Europe by a territory named Doggerland. The plains of Doggerland were thought to have finally been submerged around 6500 to 6000 BC, but recent evidence suggests that the bridge may have lasted until between 5800 and 5400 BC, and possibly as late as 3800 BC.


title: History of the British Isles

text: Around 4000 BCE migrants began arriving from central Europe. Although the earliest indisputably acknowledged languages spoken in the British Isles belonged to the Celtic branch of the Indo-European family it is not known what language these early farming people spoke. These migrants brought new ideas, leading to a radical transformation of society and landscape that has been called the Neolithic Revolution. The Neolithic period in the British Isles was characterised by the adoption of agriculture and sedentary living. To make room for the new farmland, these early agricultural communities undertook mass deforestation across the islands, dramatically and permanently transforming the landscape. At the same time, new types of stone tools requiring more skill began to be produced; new technologies included polishing.


title: History of the British Isles

text: The Neolithic also saw the construction of a wide variety of monuments in the landscape, many of which were megalithic in nature. The earliest of these are the chambered tombs of the Early Neolithic, although in the Late Neolithic this form of monumentalization was replaced by the construction of stone circles, a trend that would continue into the following Bronze Age. These constructions are taken to reflect ideological changes, with new ideas about religion, ritual and social hierarchy.


title: History of the British Isles

text: In the British Isles, the Bronze Age saw the transformation of British and Irish society and landscape. It saw the adoption of agriculture, as communities gave up their hunter-gatherer modes of existence to begin farming. During the British Bronze Age, large megalithic monuments similar to those from the Late Neolithic continued to be constructed or modified, including such sites as Avebury, Stonehenge, Silbury Hill and Must Farm. This has been described as a time "when elaborate ceremonial practices emerged among some communities of subsistence agriculturalists of western Europe".


title: History of the British Isles

text: As its name suggests, the British Iron Age is also characterised by the adoption of iron, a metal which was used to produce a variety of different tools, ornaments and weapons.


title: History of the British Isles

text: In the course of the first millennium BC, and possibly earlier, some combination of trans-cultural diffusion and immigration from continental Europe resulted in the establishment of Celtic languages in the islands, eventually giving rise to the Insular Celtic group. What languages were spoken in the islands before is unknown, though they are assumed to have been Pre-Indo-European.


title: History of the British Isles

text: In 55 and 54 BC, Roman general and future dictator Gaius Julius Caesar launched two separate invasions of the British Isles, though neither resulted in a full Roman occupation of the island. In 43 AD, southern Britain became part of the Roman Empire. On Nero's accession Roman Britain extended as far north as Lindum (Lincoln). Gaius Suetonius Paulinus, the conqueror of Mauretania (modern-day Algeria and Morocco), then became governor of Britain, where he spent most of his governorship campaigning in Wales. Eventually in 60 AD he penned up the last resistance and the last of the druids in the island of Mona (Anglesey). Paulinus led his army across the Menai Strait and massacred the druids and burnt their sacred groves. At the moment of triumph, news came of the Boudican revolt in East Anglia.


title: History of the British Isles

text: The suppression of the Boudican revolt was followed by a period of expansion of the Roman province, including the subjugation of south Wales. Between 77 and 83 AD the new governor Gnaeus Julius Agricola led a series of campaigns which enlarged the province significantly, taking in north Wales, northern Britain, and most of Caledonia (Scotland). The Celts fought with determination and resilience, but faced a superior, professional army, and it is likely that between 100,000 and 250,000 may have perished in the conquest period.


title: History of the British Isles

text: The Early medieval period saw a series of invasions of Britain by the Germanic-speaking Saxons, beginning in the 5th century. Anglo-Saxon kingdoms were formed and, through wars with British states, gradually came to cover the territory of present-day England. Scotland was divided between the Picts, Dál Riata, the Kingdom of Strathclyde and the Angles. Around 600, seven principal kingdoms had emerged, beginning the so-called period of the Heptarchy. During that period, the Anglo-Saxon states were Christianised (the conversion of the British ones had begun much earlier).


title: History of the British Isles

text: In the 9th century, Vikings from Scandinavia conquered most of England and the Scots and Picts were combined to form the Kingdom of Alba. Only the Kingdom of Wessex under Alfred the Great survived and even managed to re-conquer and unify England for much of the 10th century, before a new series of Danish raids in the late 10th century and early 11th century culminated in the wholesale subjugation of England to Denmark under Canute the Great. Danish rule was overthrown and the local House of Wessex was restored to power under Edward the Confessor for about two decades until his death in 1066.


title: History of the British Isles

text: In 1066, William, Duke of Normandy said he was the rightful heir to the English throne, invaded England, and defeated King Harold II at the Battle of Hastings. Proclaiming himself to be King William I, he strengthened his regime by appointing loyal members of the Norman elite to many positions of authority, building a system of castles across the country and ordering a census of his new kingdom, the Domesday Book. The Late Medieval period was characterized by many battles between England and France, coming to a head in the Hundred Years' War from which France emerged victorious. The English monarchs throughout the Late Medieval period belonged to the houses of Plantagenet, Lancaster, and York.


title: History of the British Isles

text: Under John Balliol, in 1295, Scotland entered into the Auld Alliance with France. In 1296, England invaded Scotland, but in the following year William Wallace defeated the English army at the Battle of Stirling Bridge. However, King Edward I of England came north to defeat Wallace himself at the Battle of Falkirk. In 1320, the Declaration of Arbroath, seen as an important document in the development of Scottish national identity, led to the recognition of Scottish independence by major European dynasties. In 1328, the Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton with England recognised Scottish independence under Robert the Bruce.


title: History of the British Isles

text: Major historical events in the early modern period include the English Renaissance, the English Reformation and Scottish Reformation, the English Civil War, the Restoration of Charles II, the Glorious Revolution, the Treaty of Union, the Scottish Enlightenment and the formation of the First British Empire.


title: History of the British Isles

text: The Kingdom of Ireland was a settler state; the monarch was the incumbent monarch of England and later of Great Britain. The Lord Lieutenant of Ireland headed the government on behalf of the monarch. He was assisted by the Chief Secretary of Ireland. Both were responsible to the government in London rather than to the Parliament of Ireland. Before the Constitution of 1782, the Irish parliament was also severely fettered, and decisions in Irish courts could be overturned on appeal to the British House of Lords in London.


title: History of the British Isles

text: The Anglo-Irish ruling class gained a degree of independence in the 1780s thanks to Henry Grattan. During this time the effects of the penal laws on the primarily Roman Catholic population were reduced, and some property-owning Catholics were granted the franchise in 1794; however, they were still excluded from becoming members of the Irish House of Commons. This brief period of limited independence came to an end following the Irish Rebellion of 1798, which occurred during the British war with revolutionary France. The British government's fear of an independent Ireland siding against them with the French resulted in the decision to unite the two countries. This was brought about by legislation in the parliaments of both kingdoms and came into effect on 1 January 1801. The Irish had been led to believe by the British that their loss of legislative independence would be compensated for with Catholic Emancipation, i.e. by the removal of civil disabilities placed upon Roman Catholics in both Great Britain and Ireland. However, King George III was bitterly opposed to any such Emancipation and succeeded in defeating his government's attempts to introduce it.


title: History of the British Isles

text: During the War of the Second Coalition (1799–1801), William Pitt the Younger (1759–1806) provided strong leadership in London. Britain occupied most of the French and Dutch overseas possessions, the Netherlands having become a satellite state of France in 1796. After a short peace, in May 1803, war was declared again. Napoleon's plans to invade Britain failed, chiefly due to the inferiority of his navy. In 1805 Lord Nelson's fleet decisively defeated the French and Spanish at Trafalgar, ending any hopes Napoleon had to wrest control of the oceans away from the British.


title: History of the British Isles

text: The British Army remained a minimal threat to France; it maintained a standing strength of just 220,000 men at the height of the Napoleonic Wars, whereas France's armies exceeded a million men—in addition to the armies of numerous allies and several hundred thousand national guardsmen that Napoleon could draft into the French armies when they were needed. Although the Royal Navy effectively disrupted France's extra-continental trade—both by seizing and threatening French shipping and by seizing French colonial possessions—it could do nothing about France's trade with the major continental economies and posed little threat to French territory in Europe. France's population and agricultural capacity far outstripped that of Britain.


title: History of the British Isles

text: In 1806, Napoleon set up the Continental System to end British trade with French-controlled territories. However Britain had great industrial capacity and mastery of the seas. It built up economic strength through trade and the Continental System was largely ineffective. As Napoleon realized that extensive trade was going through Spain and Russia, he invaded those two countries. He tied down his forces in Spain, and lost very badly in Russia in 1812. The Spanish uprising in 1808 at last permitted Britain to gain a foothold on the Continent. The Duke of Wellington and his army of British and Portuguese gradually pushed the French out of Spain, and in early 1814, as Napoleon was being driven back in the east by the Prussians, Austrians, and Russians, Wellington invaded southern France. After Napoleon's surrender and exile to the island of Elba, peace appeared to have returned, but when he escaped back into France in 1815, the British and their allies had to fight him again. The armies of Wellington and Blucher defeated Napoleon once and for all at Waterloo.


title: History of the British Isles

text: Simultaneous with the Napoleonic Wars, trade disputes and British impressment of American sailors led to the War of 1812 with the United States. A central event in American history, it was little noticed in Britain, where all attention was focused on the struggle with France. The British could devote few resources to the conflict until the fall of Napoleon in 1814. American frigates also inflicted a series of embarrassing defeats on the British navy, which was short on manpower due to the conflict in Europe. The Duke of Wellington argued that an outright victory over the U.S. was impossible because the Americans controlled the western Great Lakes and had destroyed the power of Britain's Indian allies. A full-scale British invasion was defeated in upstate New York. Peace was agreed to at the end of 1814, but unaware of this, Andrew Jackson won a great victory over the British at the Battle of New Orleans in January 1815 (news took several weeks to cross the Atlantic before the advent of steam ships). The Treaty of Ghent subsequently ended the war with no territorial changes. It was the last war between Britain and the United States.


title: History of the British Isles

text: Britain emerged from the Napoleonic Wars a very different country than it had been in 1793. As industrialisation progressed, society changed, becoming more urban and less rural. The postwar period saw an economic slump, and poor harvests and inflation caused widespread social unrest. Europe after 1815 was on guard against a return of Jacobinism, and even liberal Britain saw the passage of the Six Acts in 1819, which proscribed radical activities. By the end of the 1820s, along with a general economic recovery, many of these repressive laws were repealed and in 1828 new legislation guaranteed the civil rights of religious dissenters.


title: History of the British Isles

text: A weak ruler as regent (1811–1820) and king (1820–1830), George IV let his ministers take full charge of government affairs, playing a far lesser role than his father, George III. His governments, with little help from the king, presided over victory in the Napoleonic Wars, negotiated the peace settlement, and attempted to deal with the social and economic malaise that followed. His brother William IV ruled (1830–37), but was little involved in politics. His reign saw several reforms: the poor law was updated, child labour was restricted, slavery was abolished in nearly all the British Empire, and, most important, the Reform Act 1832 refashioned the British electoral system.


title: History of the British Isles

text: There were no major wars until the Crimean War (1853–1856). While Prussia, Austria, and Russia, as absolute monarchies, tried to suppress liberalism wherever it might occur, the British came to terms with new ideas. Britain intervened in Portugal in 1826 to defend a constitutional government there and recognising the independence of Spain's American colonies in 1824. British merchants and financiers, and later railway builders, played major roles in the economies of most Latin American nations.


title: History of the British Isles

text: The Whig Party recovered its strength and unity by supporting moral reforms, especially the reform of the electoral system, the abolition of slavery and emancipation of the Catholics. Catholic emancipation was secured in the Catholic Relief Act of 1829, which removed the most substantial restrictions on Roman Catholics in Great Britain and Ireland.


title: History of the British Isles

text: The Whigs became champions of Parliamentary reform. They made Lord Grey prime minister 1830–1834, and the Reform Act of 1832 became their signature measure. It broadened the franchise and ended the system of "rotten borough" and "pocket boroughs" (where elections were controlled by powerful families), and instead redistributed power on the basis of population. It added 217,000 voters to an electorate of 435,000 in England and Wales. The main effect of the act was to weaken the power of the landed gentry, and enlarge the power of the professional and business middle-class, which now for the first time had a significant voice in Parliament. However, the great majority of manual workers, clerks, and farmers did not have enough property to qualify to vote. The aristocracy continued to dominate the government, the Army and Royal Navy, and high society. After parliamentary investigations demonstrated the horrors of child labour, limited reforms were passed in 1833.


title: History of the British Isles

text: Chartism emerged after the 1832 Reform Bill failed to give the vote to the working class. Activists denounced the "betrayal" of the working classes and the "sacrificing" of their "interests" by the "misconduct" of the government. In 1838, Chartists issued the People's Charter demanding manhood suffrage, equal sized election districts, voting by ballots, payment of Members of Parliament (so that poor men could serve), annual Parliaments, and abolition of property requirements. The ruling class saw the movement as dangerous, so the Chartists were unable to force serious constitutional debate. Historians see Chartism as both a continuation of the 18th century fight against corruption and as a new stage in demands for democracy in an industrial society. In 1832 Parliament abolished slavery in the Empire with the Slavery Abolition Act 1833. The government purchased the slaves for £20,000,000 (the money went to rich plantation owners who mostly lived in England), and freed the slaves, especially those in the Caribbean sugar islands.


title: History of the British Isles

text: Prime Ministers of the period included: William Pitt the Younger, Lord Grenville, Duke of Portland, Spencer Perceval, Lord Liverpool, George Canning, Lord Goderich, Duke of Wellington, Lord Grey, Lord Melbourne, and Sir Robert Peel.


title: History of the British Isles

text: The Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's rule between 1837 and 1901 which signified the height of the British Industrial Revolution and the apex of the British Empire. Scholars debate whether the Victorian period—as defined by a variety of sensibilities and political concerns that have come to be associated with the Victorians—actually begins with the passage of the Reform Act 1832. The era was preceded by the Regency era and succeeded by the Edwardian period. Victoria became queen in 1837 at age 18. Her long reign saw Britain reach the zenith of its economic and political power, with the introduction of steam ships, railroads, photography, and the telegraph. Britain again remained mostly inactive in Continental politics.


title: History of the British Isles

text: The Great London Exhibition of 1851 clearly demonstrated Britain's dominance in engineering and industry; that lasted until the rise of the United States and Germany in the 1890s. Using the imperial tools of free trade and financial investment, it exerted major influence on many countries outside Europe, especially in Latin America and Asia. Thus Britain had both a formal Empire based on British rule as well as an informal one based on the British pound.


title: History of the British Isles

text: One nagging fear was the possible collapse of the Ottoman Empire. It was well understood that a collapse of that country would set off a scramble for its territory and possibly plunge Britain into war. To head that off Britain sought to keep the Russians from occupying Constantinople and taking over the Bosporous Straits, as well as from threatening India via Afghanistan. In 1853, Britain and France intervened in the Crimean War against Russia. Despite mediocre generalship, they managed to capture the Russian port of Sevastopol, compelling Tsar Nicholas I to ask for peace. It was a frustrating war with very high casualty rates—the iconic hero was Florence Nightingale.


title: History of the British Isles

text: The next Russo-Ottoman war in 1877 led to another European intervention, although this time at the negotiating table. The Congress of Berlin blocked Russia from imposing the harsh Treaty of San Stefano on the Ottoman Empire. Despite its alliance with the French in the Crimean War, Britain viewed the Second Empire of Napoleon III with some distrust, especially as the emperor constructed ironclad warships and began returning France to a more active foreign policy.


title: History of the British Isles

text: During the American Civil War (1861–1865), British leaders favoured the Confederacy, a major source of cotton for textile mills. Prince Albert was effective in defusing a war scare in late 1861. The British people, however, who depended heavily on American food imports, generally favoured the Union. What little cotton was available came from New York, as the blockade by the US Navy shut down 95% of Southern exports to Britain. In September 1862, Abraham Lincoln announced the Emancipation Proclamation. Since support of the Confederacy now meant supporting the institution of slavery, there was no possibility of European intervention. The British sold arms to both sides, built blockade runners for a lucrative trade with the Confederacy, and surreptitiously allowed warships to be built for the Confederacy. The warships caused a major diplomatic row that was resolved in the Alabama Claims in 1872, in the Americans' favour.


title: History of the British Isles

text: In 1867, Britain united most of its North American colonies as Canada, giving it self-government and responsibility for its own defence, but Canada did not have an independent foreign policy until 1931. Several of the colonies temporarily refused to join the Dominion despite pressure from both Canada and Britain; the last one, Newfoundland, held out until 1949. The second half of the 19th century saw a huge expansion of Britain's colonial empire, mostly in Africa. A talk of the Union Jack flying "from Cairo to Cape Town" only became a reality at the end of the Great War. Having possessions on six continents, Britain had to defend all of its empire and did so with a volunteer army, the only great power in Europe to have no conscription. Some questioned whether the country was overstretched.


title: History of the British Isles

text: The rise of the German Empire since its creation in 1871 posed a new challenge, for it (along with the United States), threatened to usurp Britain's place as the world's foremost industrial power. Germany acquired a number of colonies in Africa and the Pacific, but Chancellor Otto von Bismarck succeeded in achieving general peace through his balance of power strategy. When William II became emperor in 1888, he discarded Bismarck, began using bellicose language, and planned to build a navy to rival Britain's.


title: History of the British Isles

text: Ever since Britain had wrested control of the Cape Colony from the Netherlands during the Napoleonic Wars, it had co-existed with Dutch settlers who had migrated further away from the Cape and created two republics of their own. The British imperial vision called for control over these new countries, and the Dutch-speaking "Boers" (or "Afrikaners") fought back in the War in 1899–1902. Outgunned by a mighty empire, the Boers waged a guerrilla war (which certain other British territories would later employ to attain independence). This gave the British regulars a difficult fight, but their weight of numbers, superior equipment, and often brutal tactics, eventually brought about a British victory. The war had been costly in human rights and was widely criticised by Liberals in Britain and worldwide. However, the United States gave its support. The Boer republics were merged into the Union of South Africa in 1910; this had internal self-government, but its foreign policy was controlled by London and it was an integral part of the British Empire.


title: History of the British Isles

text: Part of the agreement which led to the 1800 Act of Union stipulated that the Penal Laws in Ireland were to be repealed and Catholic emancipation granted. However King George III blocked emancipation, arguing that to grant it would break his coronation oath to defend the Anglican Church. A campaign by the lawyer Daniel O'Connell, and the death of George III, led to the concession of Catholic Emancipation in 1829, allowing Roman Catholics to sit in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. But Catholic Emancipation was not O'Connell's ultimate goal, which was Repeal of the Act of Union with Great Britain. On 1 January 1843 O'Connell confidently, but wrongly, declared that Repeal would be achieved that year. When potato blight hit the island in 1846, much of the rural population was left without food, because cash crops were being exported to pay rents.


title: History of the British Isles

text: British politicians such as the Prime Minister Robert Peel were at this time wedded to the economic policy of laissez-faire, which argued against state intervention. While funds were raised by private individuals and charities, lack of adequate action let the problem become a catastrophe. Cottiers (or farm labourers) were largely wiped out during what is known in Ireland as the "Great Hunger". A significant minority elected Unionists, who championed the Union. A Church of Ireland former Tory barrister turned nationalist campaigner, Isaac Butt, established a new moderate nationalist movement, the Home Rule League, in the 1870s. After Butt's death the Home Rule Movement, or the Irish Parliamentary Party as it had become known, was turned into a major political force under the guidance of William Shaw and a radical young Protestant landowner, Charles Stewart Parnell.


title: History of the British Isles

text: Parnell's movement campaigned for "Home Rule", by which they meant that Ireland would govern itself as a region within Great Britain. Two Home Rule Bills (1886 and 1893) were introduced by Liberal Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone, but neither became law, mainly due to opposition from the Conservative Party and the House of Lords. The issue was a source of contention throughout Ireland, as a significant majority of Unionists (largely based in Ulster), opposed Home Rule, fearing that a Catholic Nationalist ("Rome Rule") Parliament in Dublin would discriminate against them, impose Roman Catholic doctrine, and impose tariffs on industry. While most of Ireland was primarily agricultural, six of the counties in Ulster were the location of heavy industry and would be affected by any tariff barriers imposed.


title: History of the British Isles

text: Queen Victoria, who had reigned since 1837, died in 1901 and was succeeded by her son, Edward VII, who, in turn, was succeeded by his son, George V, when he died in 1910. The British Empire flourished but there was a bitterly fought Second Boer War in South Africa. In 1914, Britain entered the First World War by declaring war on Germany. Nearly a million Britons were killed in the war, which lasted until Germany's surrender on 11 November 1918.


title: History of the British Isles

text: Home Rule in Ireland, which had been a major political issue since the late 19th century but put on hold by the war, was somewhat resolved after the Irish War of Independence brought the British Government to a stalemate in 1922. Negotiations led to the formation of the Irish Free State. However, in order to appease Unionists in the north, the north-eastern six counties remained as part of the U.K., forming Northern Ireland with its own Parliament at Stormont in Belfast.


title: History of the British Isles

text: Liberals were in power for much of the early 20th century under Prime Ministers Campbell-Bannerman, Asquith and Lloyd George. After 1914, the Liberal party suffered a sharp decline. The new Labour party, whose leader Ramsay MacDonald led two minority governments, swiftly became the Conservatives' main opposition, and Britain's largest party of the left.


title: History of the British Isles

text: King Edward VIII succeeded his father George V in January 1936, but was not allowed by the government to marry Wallis Simpson, a divorcee. In December, he abdicated in order to marry Simpson. His brother George VI was crowned king.


title: History of the British Isles

text: In order to avoid another European conflict, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain attempted to appease German Chancellor Adolf Hitler, who was expanding his country's territory across Central Europe. Despite proclaiming that he has achieved "peace for our time", Britain declared war on Germany on 3 September 1939, following Hitler's invasion of Poland two days earlier. The U.K. thus joined the Allied forces in opposition to the Axis forces of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. For the first time, civilians were not exempt from the war, as London suffered nightly bombings during the Blitz. Much of London was destroyed, with 1,400,245 buildings destroyed or damaged. At the war's end in 1945, however, the U.K. emerged as one of the victorious nations.


title: History of the British Isles

text: Winston Churchill, who had been leader of the wartime coalition government, suffered a surprising landslide defeat to Clement Attlee's Labour party in 1945 elections. Attlee created a Welfare State in Britain, which most notably provided free healthcare under the National Health Service.


title: History of the British Isles

text: On the international stage, the second half of the 20th century was dominated by the Cold War between the Soviet Union and its socialist allies and the United States and its capitalist allies; the U.K. was a key supporter of the latter, joining the anti-Soviet military alliance NATO in 1949. During this period, the U.K. fought in the Korean War (1950–1953). The Cold War shaped world affairs until victory was achieved in 1989. The major parties largely agreed on foreign and domestic policy—except nationalization of some industries—in an era of Post-war consensus that lasted into the 1970s.


title: History of the British Isles

text: In 1951, Churchill and the Tories returned to power; they would govern uninterrupted for the next 13 years. King George VI died in 1952, and was succeeded by his eldest daughter, Elizabeth II, who reigned until her death on 8 September 2022. Churchill was succeeded in 1955 by Sir Anthony Eden, whose premiership was ruined by the Suez Crisis, in which Britain, France and Israel plotted to attack Egypt after its President Nasser nationalised the Suez Canal. Eden's successor, Harold Macmillan, split the Conservatives when Britain applied to join the European Economic Community, but French President Charles de Gaulle vetoed the application.


title: History of the British Isles

text: Labour returned to power in 1964 under Harold Wilson, who brought in a number of social reforms, including the legalisation of abortion, the abolition of capital punishment and the decriminalisation of homosexuality. In 1973, Conservative Prime Minister Edward Heath succeeded in securing U.K. membership in the European Economic Community (EEC), what would later become known as the European Union. Wilson, having lost the 1970 election to Heath, returned to power in 1974; however, Labour's reputation was harmed by the winter of discontent of 1978-9 under Jim Callaghan, which enabled the Conservatives to re-take control of Parliament in 1979, under Margaret Thatcher, Britain's first female Prime Minister.


title: History of the British Isles

text: Although Thatcher's economic reforms made her initially unpopular, her decision in 1982 to retake the Falkland Islands from invading Argentine forces, in the Falklands War, changed her fortunes and enabled a landslide victory in 1983. After winning an unprecedented third election in 1987, however, Thatcher's popularity began to fade and she was replaced by her chancellor John Major in 1990.


title: History of the British Isles

text: Tensions between Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland came to a head in the late 1960s, when nationalist participants in a civil rights march were shot by members of the B Specials, a reserve police force manned almost exclusively by unionists. From this point the Provisional Irish Republican Army, also known as the Provos or simply the IRA, began a bombing campaign throughout the U.K., beginning a period known as The Troubles, which lasted until the late 1990s.


title: History of the British Isles

text: Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales and Elizabeth's eldest son married Lady Diana Spencer in 1981; the couple had two children, William and Harry, but divorced in 1992, during which year Prince Andrew and Princess Anne also separated from their spouses, leading the Queen to call the year her 'annus horribilis'. In 1997, Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris, leading to a mass outpouring of grief across the United Kingdom, and indeed the world.


title: History of the British Isles

text: In 1997, Tony Blair was elected prime minister in a landslide victory for the so-called 'New Labour', economically following 'Third Way' programmes. Blair won re-election in 2001 and 2005, before handing over power to his chancellor Gordon Brown in 2007. After a decade of prosperity both the U.K. and the Republic of Ireland were affected by the global recession, which began in 2008. In 2010, the Conservative party formed a coalition government with the Liberal Democrats, with Tory leader David Cameron as Prime Minister. In 2014, a referendum was held in Scotland on Scottish independence; the Scottish electorate voted to remain within the United Kingdom. In 2015 polling suggested a hung parliament was the most likely outcome in the General Election; however the Conservatives secured a slim majority.


title: History of the British Isles

text: After the September 11 Attacks, the U.K. supported the U.S. in their "War on Terror", and joined them in the War in Afghanistan (2001–2021) and the invasion of Iraq. London was attacked in July 2005. The U.K. also took a leading role in the 2011 military intervention in Libya. In a referendum in 2016, the UK voted to leave the European Union, which was done 31 January 2020. Negotiations between the UK and Ireland culminated in the controversial, threatened Northern Ireland Protocol, ratified January 2020 to create a "de facto" customs border along the Irish Sea to ensure uninterrupted trade between Northern Ireland and the Republic.


title: History of the British Isles

text: After becoming Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative Party shortly after David Cameron's resignation following the Brexit result, an election was called by Prime Minister Theresa May (the former Home Secretary), in an attempt to gain a larger majority for Brexit negotiations and also as an advantage, as the Labour Party were doing badly in the polls, the Conservative Party lost their majority despite winning a record number of votes, and were restricted to forming a "supply and confidence" deal, yet not a formal coalition with the Northern Irish unionist party, the DUP in order to have a working majority in the House of Commons.


title: History of the British Isles

text: Subsequent UK headlines focussed upon the calamitous Grenfell Tower fire that killed 72 in North Kensington on 14 June 2017, the deadliest structural fire in nearly three decades, which prompted an ongoing public inquiry; the novichok nerve agent poisoning of Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his wife Yulia in Salisbury on 4 March 2018, raising diplomatic tensions between the UK and Russia; and May's authorisation of air strikes against Bashar al-Assad's Syria in the ongoing civil war. Concurrently, Ireland elected its first openly gay taoiseach Fine Gael's Leo Varadkar to replace the embattled Enda Kenny on 13 June 2017 in an unprecedented coalition with Fianna Fáil and the Greens; under Varadkar, GDP expanded some 8% in 2017 and 2018 before slowdowns in 2019 and then 2020.


title: History of the British Isles

text: May subsequently faced challenges to her premiership both within and without her party, surviving a vote of confidence in her leadership of the Conservative Party on 12 December 2018 by 200 MPs of the 159 votes required, and a motion of no confidence on 16 January 2019 by a margin of 19. May's Irish backstop plan to keep Northern Ireland partially in the EU single market until a deal was made was consistently defeated in the House, forcing her to postpone the UK's scheduled departure date. She resigned as party leader and Prime Minister 27 March; in the subsequent leadership election Boris Johnson (who served as foreign secretary in May's cabinet 2016–18) defeated Jeremy Hunt, was elected Prime Minister and secured the largest parliamentary majority in that May's general election since 1987, securing an 80-seat majority against Labour's Jeremy Corbyn, who would be replaced as Leader of the Opposition by Sir Keir Starmer 4 April 2020.


title: History of the British Isles

text: Under Johnson, Britain withdrew from the EU, and faced challenges, as did Ireland, from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which forced the countries into many months lockdown, imposing social distancing and mask-wearing requirements as millions, including Johnson and incumbent taoiseach Micheál Martin, contracted coronavirus. The economy suffered greatly in both cases, but rebounded quickly; the two nations now face high inflation, economic cooldown and fears of recession. Negotiations after the 2020 Irish general election secured the aforementioned coalition 15 June 2020 largely against the democratic socialist Sinn Féin party, which became the second-largest party in the Dáil with 37 seats, the party's most since 1923. Martin became taoiseach 27 June, and Varadkar will return December 2022.


title: History of the British Isles

text: Johnson was greatly damaged by a string of scandals between November 2021 and July 2022, including over his attendance earlier in the pandemic of numerous parties which flouted the government's own lockdown restrictions, a string of electoral defeats, controversy involving several Tory MPs, including Owen Paterson and Sir Geoffrey Cox, and his awareness of allegations of sexual misconduct against former chief whip Chris Pincher. Despite surviving a no-confidence vote 6 June by the slightest majority against any sitting Tory Prime Minister, 62 MPs resigned from government between 5–7 July, including Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak and Health Secretary Sajid Javid, prompting his resignation the morning of 7 July. He was replaced as Prime Minister by Foreign Secretary Liz Truss 5 September, three days before the accession of King Charles III on the death of Queen Elizabeth II.


title: Helen Thomson (actress)

text: Helen Thomson is an Australian actress. Thomson's credits include the television shows "Bad Mothers", "Stupid Stupid Man" and "Blue Heelers" and the films "Gettin' Square", "A Man's Gotta Do" and "La Spagnola". Thomson has multiple stage credits with the Sydney Theatre Company and Melbourne Theatre Company. She has been a frequent collaborator with her husband David Roberts.


title: World Trade Center controlled demolition conspiracy theories

text: Some conspiracy theories contend that the collapse of the World Trade Center was not solely caused by the airliner crash damage that occurred as part of the September 11 attacks, and the resulting fire damage, but by explosives installed in the buildings in advance. Controlled demolition theories make up a major component of 9/11 conspiracy theories.


text: Early advocates such as physicist Steven E. Jones, architect Richard Gage, software engineer Jim Hoffman, and theologian David Ray Griffin, proposed that the sole aircraft impacts and resulting fires could not have weakened the buildings sufficiently to initiate the catastrophic collapse, and that the buildings would have neither collapsed completely nor at the speeds that they did without additional energy involved to weaken their structures.


text: The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the magazine "Popular Mechanics" examined and rejected these theories. Specialists in structural mechanics and structural engineering accept the model of a fire-induced, gravity-driven collapse of the World Trade Center buildings, an explanation that does not involve the use of explosives. NIST "found no corroborating evidence for alternative hypotheses suggesting that the WTC towers were brought down by controlled demolition using explosives planted prior to Sept. 11, 2001." Professors Zdeněk Bažant of Northwestern University, Thomas Eagar, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and James Quintiere of the University of Maryland, have also dismissed the controlled-demolition conspiracy theory.


text: In 2006, Jones suggested that thermite or super-thermite may have been used by government insiders with access to such materials and to the buildings themselves, to demolish the buildings. In April 2009, Jones, Dane Niels H. Harrit and seven other authors published a paper in "The Open Chemical Physics Journal", causing the editor, Prof. Marie-Paule Pileni, to resign as she accused the publisher of printing it without her knowledge; this article was titled 'Active Thermitic Material Discovered in Dust from the 9/11 World Trade Center Catastrophe', and stated that they had found evidence of nano-thermite in samples of the dust that was produced during the collapse of the World Trade Center towers. NIST responded that there was no "clear chain of custody" to prove that the four samples of dust came from the WTC site. Jones invited NIST to conduct its own studies using its own known "chain of custody" dust, but NIST did not investigate.


text: The Controlled demolition conspiracy theories were first suggested in September 2001. Eric Hufschmid's book, "Painful Questions: An Analysis of the September 11th Attack", in which the controlled demolition theory is explicitly advocated, was published in September 2002. David Ray Griffin and Steven E. Jones are the best known advocates of the theory. Griffin's book "The New Pearl Harbor", published in 2004, has become a reference work for the 9/11 Truth movement. In the same year, Griffin published the book "The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions", in which he argues that flaws in the commission's report amounts to a cover-up by government officials and says that the Bush administration was complicit in the 9/11 attacks.


text: Steven E. Jones has been another voice of the proponents of demolition theories. In 2006, he published the paper "Why Indeed Did the WTC Buildings Completely Collapse?". On September 7, 2006, Brigham Young University placed Jones on paid leave citing the "increasingly speculative and accusatory nature" of his statements, pending an official review of his actions. Six weeks later, Jones retired from the university. The structural engineering faculty at the university issued a statement which said that they "do not support the hypotheses of Professor Jones".


text: In its final report, NIST stated that it "found no corroborating evidence for alternative hypotheses suggesting that the WTC towers were brought down by controlled demolition using explosives planted prior to Sept. 11, 2001. NIST also did not find any evidence that missiles were fired at or hit the towers. Instead, photographs and videos from several angles clearly show that the collapse initiated at the fire and impact floors and that the collapse progressed from the initiating floors downward until the dust clouds obscured the view" and posted a FAQ about related issues on its website in August 2006. Allegations of controlled demolition have been found to be devoid of scientific merit by mainstream engineering scholarship. The magazine "Popular Mechanics" also found the theories lacked scientific support in its special report "Debunking the 9/11 Myths".


text: Articles, letters and comments by controlled demolition advocates have been published in scientific and engineering journals. In April 2008, a letter titled "Fourteen Points of Agreement with Official Government Reports on the World Trade Center Destruction," was published by Steven E. Jones, Frank Legge, Kevin Ryan, Anthony Szamboti and James Gourley in "The Open Civil Engineering Journal". A few months later, in July 2008, an article titled "Environmental anomalies at the World Trade Center: evidence for energetic materials," was published by Ryan, Gourley and Jones in "the Environmentalist." Later that same year, in October 2008, the "Journal of Engineering Mechanics" published a comment by chemical engineer and attorney James R. Gourley, in which he describes what he considered fundamental errors in a 2007 paper on the mechanics of progressive collapse by Bažant and Verdure. In the same issue, Bažant and Le rebutted Gourley's arguments, finding his criticisms scientifically incorrect. They suggested future critics should "become acquainted with the relevant material from an appropriate textbook on structural mechanics" or risk "misleading and wrongly influencing the public with incorrect information."


text: In April 2009, Danish chemist Niels H. Harrit, of the University of Copenhagen, and eight other authors published a paper in "The Open Chemical Physics Journal", titled, "Active Thermitic Material Discovered in Dust from the 9/11 World Trade Center Catastrophe." The paper concludes that chips consisting of unreacted and partially reacted super-thermite, or nano-thermite, appear to be present in samples of the dust. The editor in chief of the publication subsequently resigned.


text: Internet websites and videos have contributed to the growth of the movement of individuals supporting the theory that planted explosives destroyed the World Trade Center. The website of Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth cites the membership of over 2,400 architects and engineers. The controlled demolition theory often includes allegations that U.S. government insiders planned and / or participated in the destruction of the WTC in order to justify the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan. The theory features prominently in popular entertainment type movies, such as "Loose Change", as well as documentaries such as "9/11: Blueprint for Truth", by San Francisco-area architect Richard Gage.


text: While mainstream press has a significant history of derogatory labels, descriptions and interpretations of demolition theory advocates (i.e., in 2006, the magazine "New York" reported that a "new generation of conspiracy theorists is at work on a secret history of New York's most terrible day."), the theory has been supported by a number of popular actors, musicians and politicians, including Charlie Sheen, Willie Nelson, former Governor of Minnesota Jesse Ventura, talkshow host Rosie O'Donnell, and actors Ed Asner and Daniel Sunjata.


text: On September 11, the North Tower (1 WTC) was hit by American Airlines Flight 11 and the South Tower (2 WTC) was hit by United Airlines Flight 175, both Boeing 767 aircraft. The South Tower collapsed 56 minutes after the impact, and the North Tower collapsed 102 minutes after. An investigation by NIST concluded that the collapse was caused by a combination of damage to support columns and fire insulation from the aircraft impacts and the weakening of columns and floors by jet fuel ignited fires. NIST also found "no corroborating evidence for alternative hypotheses suggesting that the WTC towers were brought down by controlled demolition using explosives planted prior to September 11, 2001".


text: Jones, among others, points to many descriptions by individuals working on the WTC rubble pile suggesting the presence of molten steel in the pile and a stream of molten metal that poured out of the South Tower before it collapsed as evidence of temperatures beyond those produced by the fire. Jones has argued that the molten metal may have been elemental iron, a product of a thermite reaction. Jones and other researchers analyzed samples of dust from the World Trade Center buildings and reported their findings for evidence of nano-thermite in the dust. Jones informed NIST of his findings and NIST responded that there was no "clear chain of custody" proving that the dust indeed came from the WTC site. Jones invited NIST to conduct its own studies with dust under custody of NIST itself, but NIST has not done so.


text: NIST found that the condition of the steel in the wreckage of the towers does not provide conclusive information on the condition of the building before the collapse and concluded that the material coming from the South Tower was molten aluminum from the plane, which would have melted at lower temperatures than steel. NIST also pointed out that cutting through the vertical columns would require planting an enormous amount of explosives inconspicuously in highly secured buildings, then igniting it remotely while keeping it in contact with the columns. The Energetic Materials Research and Testing Center performed a test with conventional thermite and was unable to cut a vertical column, despite the column being much smaller than those used in the World Trade Center. Jones and others have responded that they do not believe that thermite was used, but rather a form of thermite called nano-thermite, a nanoenergetic material developed for military use, propellants, explosives, or pyrotechnics. Historically, explosive applications for traditional thermites have been limited by their relatively slow energy release rates. But because nano-thermites are created from reactant particles with proximities approaching the atomic scale, energy release rates are far improved.


text: The NIST report provides an analysis of the structural response of the building only up to the point where collapse begins, and asserts that the enormous kinetic energy transferred by the falling part of the building makes progressive collapse inevitable once an initial collapse occurs. A paper by Zdeněk Bažant indicates that once collapse began, the kinetic energy imparted by a falling upper section onto the floor below was an order of magnitude greater than that which the lower section could support.


text: Engineers who have investigated the collapses generally agree that controlled demolition is not required to understand the structural response of the buildings. While the top of one of the towers did tilt significantly, it could not ultimately have fallen into the street, they argue, because any such tilting would place sufficient stress on the lower story (acting as a pivot) that it would collapse long before the top had sufficiently shifted its center of gravity. Indeed, they argue, there is very little difference between progressive collapse with or without explosives in terms of the resistance that the structures could provide after collapse began. Controlled demolition of a building to code requires weeks of preparation, including laying large quantities of explosive and cutting through beams, which would have rendered the building highly dangerous and which would have to be done without attracting the attention of the thousands of people who worked in the building. Controlled demolition is traditionally done from the bottom of buildings rather than the top, although there are exceptions depending on structural design. There is little dispute that the collapse started high up at the point where the aircraft struck. Furthermore, any explosives would have to withstand the impact of the airliners.


text: Members of the group "Scholars for 9/11 Truth" have collected eyewitness accounts of flashes and loud explosions immediately before the fall. Eyewitnesses have repeatedly reported of explosions happening before the collapse of the WTC towers, and the organization "International Center for 9/11 Studies" has published videos obtained from NIST, together with indications about when such explosions could be heard. There are many types of loud sharp noises that are not caused by explosives, and seismographic records of the collapse do not show evidence of explosions. Jones and others have argued that horizontal puffs of smoke seen during the collapse of the towers would indicate that the towers had been brought down by controlled explosions. NIST attributes these puffs to air pressure, created by the decreasing volume of the falling building above, traveling down elevator shafts and exiting from the open elevator shaft doors on lower levels.


text: In September 2011 Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who holds a PhD in Transportation Engineering and Planning, said that it would have been impossible for two jetliners to bring down the towers simply by hitting them and that some kind of planned explosion must have taken place. Al-Qaida sharply criticized Ahmadinejad in their English-language publication, "Inspire", calling his assertions "a ridiculous belief that stands in the face of all logic and evidence".


text: Proponents of World Trade Center controlled demolition theories allege that 7 World Trade Center—a 47-story skyscraper that stood across Vesey Street north of the main part of the World Trade Center site—was intentionally destroyed with explosives. Unlike the Twin Towers, 7 World Trade Center was not hit by a plane, although it was hit by debris from the Twin Towers and was damaged by fires which burned for seven hours, until it collapsed completely at about 5:20 p.m. on the evening of September 11 (a new building has been erected on the site of the old and opened in May 2006). Several videos of the collapse event exist in the public domain, thus enabling comparative analysis from different angles of perspective. Proponents typically say the collapse of 7 World Trade Center was not mentioned in the 9/11 Commission Report and that the federal body charged with investigating the event, NIST, required seven years to conduct its investigation and issue a report.


text: In November 2010, Fox News reporter Geraldo Rivera hosted members of a television ad campaign called "BuildingWhat?", a series of commercials in which 9/11 family members ask questions about 7 World Trade Center and call for an investigation into its collapse. Rivera called the television ads "not so easy to dismiss as those demonstrators were," and stated that, "If explosives were involved, that would mean the most obnoxious protesters in recent years ... were right." Days later, Rivera appeared on the program "Freedom Watch" with legal analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano on the Fox Business Network to discuss the BuildingWhat? TV ad campaign. Napolitano stated, "It's hard for me to believe that [7 World Trade Center] came down by itself. I was gratified to see Geraldo Rivera investigating it."


text: Some proponents of World Trade Center controlled demolition theories suggest that 7 WTC was demolished because it may have served as an operational center for the demolition of the Twin Towers, while others suggest that government insiders may have wanted to destroy key files held in the building pertaining to corporate fraud. The WTC buildings housed dozens of federal, state and local government agencies. According to a statement reported by the BBC, "Loose Change" film producer Dylan Avery thinks the destruction of the building was suspicious because it housed some unusual tenants, including a clandestine CIA office on the 25th floor, an outpost of the U.S. Secret Service, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and New York City's emergency command center. The former chief counter-terrorism adviser to the President, Richard Clarke, does not think that 7 WTC is mysterious, and said that anyone could have rented floor space in the building.


text: At the time, no steel frame high rise had ever before collapsed because of a fire, although there had been previous cases of collapses or partial collapses of smaller steel buildings due to fire. However, the ability of such a building to be completely destroyed by fire would be demonstrated by the collapse of the Plasco Building in Tehran in 2017 and the Wilton Paes de Almeida Building in São Paulo, Brazil, the following year. In addition, NIST claims debris ejected during the collapse of 1 WTC caused significant structural damage in 7 WTC before the fire.


text: BBC News reported the collapse of 7 WTC twenty minutes before it actually fell. The BBC has stated that many news sources were reporting the imminent collapse of 7 WTC on the day of the attacks. Jane Standley, the reporter who announced the collapse prematurely, called it a "very small and very honest mistake" caused by her thinking on her feet after being confronted with a report she had no way of checking.


text: In the PBS documentary "America Rebuilds," which aired in September 2002, Larry Silverstein, the owner of 7 WTC and leaseholder and insurance policy holder for the remainder of the WTC complex, recalled a discussion with the fire department in which doubts about containing the fires were expressed. Silverstein recalled saying, "We've had such terrible loss of life, maybe the smartest thing to do is pull it". "They made that decision to pull", he recalled, "and we watched the building collapse." Silverstein issued a statement that it was the firefighting team, not the building, that was to be pulled, contradicting theorists' allegation that "pull" was used in a demolition-related sense.


text: In 2002, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) began a general investigation into the collapse of the World Trade Center but soon made a decision to focus first on the collapse of the Twin Towers. A draft version of its final report on the collapse of 7 WTC was released in August 2008. The agency has blamed the slowness of this investigation on the complexity of the computer model it used, which simulated the collapse from the moment it begins all the way to the ground; and NIST says the time taken on the investigation into 7 WTC is comparable to the time taken to investigate an aircraft crash. The agency also says another 80 boxes of documents related to 7 WTC were found and had to be analyzed. These delays fueled suspicion among those already questioning the validity of the September 11 attacks that the agency was struggling to come up with a plausible conclusion.


text: NIST released its final report on the collapse of 7 World Trade Center on November 20, 2008. Investigators used videos, photographs and building design documents to come to their conclusions. The investigation could not include physical evidence as the materials from the building lacked characteristics allowing them to be positively identified and were therefore disposed of prior to the initiation of the investigation. The report concluded that the building's collapse was due to the effects of the fires which burned for almost seven hours. The fatal blow to the building came when the 13th floor collapsed, weakening a critical steel support column that led to catastrophic failure, and extreme heat caused some steel beams to lose strength, causing further failures throughout the buildings until the entire structure succumbed. Also cited as a factor was the collapse of the nearby towers, which broke the city water main, leaving the sprinkler system in the bottom half of the building without water.


text: NIST considered the possibility that 7 WTC was brought down with explosives and concluded that a blast event did not occur, that the "use of thermite [...] to sever columns in 7 WTC on 9/11/01 was unlikely". The investigation cited as evidence the claim that no blast was audible on recordings of the collapse and that no blast was reported by witnesses, stating that it would have been audible at a level of 130-140 decibels at a distance of half a mile. Demolition proponents say eyewitnesses repeatedly reported explosions happening before the collapse of the towers, and have published videos obtained from NIST, together with indications about when such explosions could be heard in support of the sounds of explosions before collapse.


text: NIST also concluded that it is unlikely that the quantities of thermite needed could have been carried into the building undetected. Demolition advocates have responded that they do not claim that thermite was used, but rather that nano-thermite, far more powerful than thermite, was used. Finally, the NIST investigated and ruled out the theory that fires from the large amount of diesel fuel stored in the building caused the collapse.


text: University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) Professor of Civil Engineering J Leroy Hulsey subsequently led a 4-year (2015-2019) detailed investigation titled "A Structural Reevaluation of the Collapse of World Trade Center 7", taking advantage of the considerable improvement in computing resources since NIST's study to allow the carrying-out of precisely the type of more detailed modelling envisaged by earlier commentators. Hulsey's group concluded in their final report:


text: The American Society of Civil Engineers Structural Engineering Institute issued a statement calling for further discussion of NIST's recommendations, and Britain's Institution of Structural Engineers published a statement in May 2002 welcoming the FEMA report, noting that the report expressed similar views to those held by its group of professionals.


text: Following the publication of Jones' paper "Why Indeed Did the WTC Buildings Completely Collapse?" Brigham Young University responded to Jones' "increasingly speculative and accusatory" statements by placing him on paid leave, and thereby stripping him of two classes, in September 2006, pending a review of his statements and research. Six weeks later, Jones retired from the university. The structural engineering faculty at the university issued a statement which said that they "do not support the hypotheses of Professor Jones". On September 22, 2005, Jones gave a seminar on his hypotheses to a group of his colleagues from the Department of Physics and Astronomy at BYU. According to Jones, all but one of his colleagues agreed after the seminar that an investigation was in order and the lone dissenter came to agreement with Jones' suggestions the next day.