title: Shadow

text: In photography, which is essentially recording patterns of light, shade, and color, "highlights" and "shadows" are the brightest and darkest parts, respectively, of a scene or image. Photographic exposure must be adjusted (unless special effects are wanted) to allow the film or sensor, which has limited dynamic range, to record detail in the highlights without them being washed out, and in the shadows without their becoming undifferentiated black areas.


title: Shadow

text: On satellite imagery and aerial photographs, taken vertically, tall buildings can be recognized as such by their long shadows (if the photographs are not taken in the tropics around noon), while these also show more of the shape of these buildings.


title: Shadow

text: "Shadow" as a term is often used for any occlusion or blockage, not just those with respect to light. For example, a rain shadow is a dry area, which with respect to the prevailing wind direction, is beyond a mountain range; the elevated terrain impedes rainclouds from entering the dry zone. An acoustic shadow occurs when a direct sound has been blocked or diverted around a given area.


title: Shadow

text: Shadows often appear in mythical or cultural contexts. Sometimes in a malevolent light, other times not.


title: Shadow

text: An unattended shade was thought by some cultures to be similar to that of a ghost. The name for the fear of shadows is "sciophobia" or "sciaphobia".


title: Shadow

text: In heraldry, when a charge is supposedly shown "in the shadow" (the appearance is of the charge merely being outlined in a neutral tint rather than being of one or more tinctures different from the field on which it is placed), it is technically described as "umbrated". Supposedly, only a limited number of specific charges can be so depicted.


title: Shadow

text: Shadows are often linked with darkness and evil; in common folklore, like shadows who come to life, are often evil beings trying to control the people they reflect. The film Upside-Down Magic features an antagonistic shadow spirit who possesses people.


title: Shadow

text: Ancient Egyptians surmised that a shadow, which they called šwt (shut), contains something of the person it represents because it is always present. Through this association, statues of people and deities were sometimes referred to as shadows.


title: Shadow

text: In a commentary to The Egyptian Book of the Dead (BD), Egyptologist Ogden Goelet, Jr. discusses the forms of the shadow: "In many BD papyri and tombs the deceased is depicted emerging from the tomb by day in shadow form, a thin, black, featureless silhouette of a person. The person in this form is, as we would put it, a mere shadow of his former existence, yet nonetheless still existing. Another form the shadow assumes in the BD, especially in connection with gods, is an ostrich-feather sun-shade, an object which would create a shadow."


title: Shadow

text: Scientists from the National University of Singapore presented a shadow-effect energy generator (SEG), which consists of cells of gold deposited on a silicon wafer attached on a plastic film. The generator has a power density of 0.14 μW cm under indoor conditions (0.001 sun).


title: Abe Reles

text: Abraham "Kid Twist" Reles (; May 10, 1906 – November 12, 1941) was a New York Jewish mobster who was a hit man for Murder, Inc., the enforcement contractor for Meyer Lansky's National Crime Syndicate.


title: Abe Reles

text: Reles later turned government witness and sent several members of Murder, Inc. to the electric chair. Reles's death from falling through a window while in police custody might have been a hit placed by the American Mafia, as he was set to testify against Gambino crime family underboss and future boss Albert Anastasia.


title: Abe Reles

text: Abraham Reles, the son of Austrian Jewish immigrants, was born in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, New York, on May 10, 1906. His father, Sam, worked in one of the garment trades until sometime during the Great Depression. His father's last known occupation was peddling knishes on the streets of Brownsville. His full formal Hebrew name was Elkanah ben Shimon.


title: Abe Reles

text: Reles attended school through the eighth grade. After leaving school, he began hanging out at pool rooms and candy stores in and around Brownsville. He soon teamed up with two of his childhood friends, Martin "Buggsy" Goldstein and Harry "Pittsburgh Phil" Strauss, who eventually rose to power with him in the group conventionally known as Murder, Inc. His first arrest came in 1921 for stealing $2 worth of gum from a vending machine, and he was sent to the Children's Village at Dobbs Ferry, New York, for four months.


title: Abe Reles

text: Reles's small physical size did not deter him from committing ruthless acts of violence. When carrying out murders, his weapon of choice was an ice pick, which he would ram through his victim's ear right into the brain. Reles became so adept at using the ice pick that many of his murder victims were thought to have died of a cerebral hemorrhage.


title: Abe Reles

text: Reles became known as a particularly cold-blooded and psychopathic murderer. On one occasion, in broad daylight, he attacked a worker at a car wash for failing to clean a smudge from the fender of his car. Another time, Reles killed a parking lot attendant for failing to fetch his car fast enough. On another occasion, he brought a guest to his mother-in-law's home for supper. When his mother-in-law retired after the meal, Reles and another gang member murdered the guest and then removed the body.


title: Abe Reles

text: Reles reportedly got the nickname "Kid Twist" after an earlier New York City Jewish gangster, Max "Kid Twist" Zwerbach. Another theory behind the moniker is that it was the name of his favorite candy. Yet another theory is that the nickname described his method for strangling people. Reles was a bootlegger who rarely touched alcohol. Reles lived at 649 East 91st Street in Brooklyn before moving to 9102 Avenue A, also in Brooklyn.


title: Abe Reles

text: During the Prohibition days of the 1920s, while still teenagers, Reles and Goldstein went to work for the Shapiro brothers, who ran the Brooklyn rackets. Soon Reles and Goldstein were committing petty crimes for the brothers. On one such occasion, Reles was caught and sentenced to two years in an upstate New York juvenile institution. The Shapiro brothers failed to help Reles, prompting Reles to plan revenge.


title: Abe Reles

text: After his release, Reles, Goldstein, and George Defeo entered the slot machine business, the province of the Shapiro brothers. Through Defeo's connections, Reles and Goldstein were able to make a deal with the influential crime lord Meyer Lansky, who wanted access to the poorer neighborhoods of Brooklyn and thus agreed. Both parties prospered: Lansky was able to get sizable footholds in Brownsville, East New York, and Ocean Hill, while Reles gained the backing he needed to keep both his business and himself alive.


title: Abe Reles

text: Reles, Goldstein, and Strauss were partners in all of their criminal activities, which had primarily been the slot machine business and quickly expanded to include loan sharking, crap games, and labor slugging in connection with union activities, especially the restaurant union.


title: Abe Reles

text: The slot machine business thrived and soon Reles and Goldstein were on the Shapiros' hit list. One night, the two men received a phone call from a "friend" saying that the Shapiros had left their East New York headquarters. Hopping into a car with Defeo, they headed to East New York. However, when they reached the Shapiros' building, the three men were ambushed. Reles and Goldstein were wounded, but all three managed to escape. In the meantime, Meyer Shapiro abducted Reles' girlfriend and dragged her to an open field, where he beat and raped her.


title: Abe Reles

text: To avenge the ambush and his girlfriend's rape, Reles enlisted the help of fellow Murder, Inc. killers Frank "Dasher" Abbandando and Harry "Happy" Maione. The two killers were glad to help: they hoped to kill the Shapiro brothers and take over some of their operations. After several futile attempts by each side to eradicate the other, the Murder, Inc. group finally caught up with Irving Shapiro.


title: Abe Reles

text: On that occasion, Reles dragged Irving from the hallway of his home out into the street. Reles beat, kicked, and then shot Irving numerous times, killing him. Two months later, Reles met Meyer Shapiro on the street and killed him by shooting him in the face. Another three years elapsed before Reles finally got the last Shapiro brother, William. William was abducted off the street and taken to a gang hideout. Once there, he was beaten nearly to death, stuffed into a sack, and driven out to the Canarsie section of Brooklyn and buried. Before the gang could finish burying William, a passerby spotted them and they had to flee the scene. William Shapiro's body was exhumed shortly thereafter, and after being autopsied it was determined that he had been buried alive.


title: Abe Reles

text: In 1940, Reles was implicated in a number of killings. Realizing that he faced execution if convicted, Reles became a government witness. Reles implicated his boss Lepke Buchalter in the murder of Brooklyn candy store owner Joseph Rosen; Buchalter was eventually convicted and executed for this crime. Reles's information also implicated Louis Capone, Mendy Weiss, Harry Maione, Harry Strauss, Frank Abbandando, Irving ("Knadles" and "the Plug") Nitzberg, and even his own childhood friend "Buggsy" Goldstein. All except Nitzberg were eventually convicted and executed. Reles' next target was Albert Anastasia, who had been co-chief of operations of Murder, Inc.


title: Abe Reles

text: Reles was to implicate Anastasia in the murder of union longshoreman Pete Panto. However, unlike other members of Murder, Inc., Anastasia was a high-ranking member of the Cosa Nostra. The trial, based solely on Reles' testimony, was set for November 12, 1941. Until then, Reles was under constant guard by police detectives at the Half Moon Hotel in Coney Island.


title: Abe Reles

text: In the early morning of November 12, 1941, with police guarding the door, Reles fell to his death from a window in room 623 at the Half Moon Hotel.


title: Abe Reles

text: It appeared he may have been trying to lower himself to the fifth floor window underneath using two bedsheets tied together and then to a four-foot length of wire that had been attached to a valve in his room. However, the wire knot to the valve came undone, and he fell to a second floor outdoor landing, and newspapers dubbed him "The Canary Who Could Sing, But Couldn't Fly".


title: Abe Reles

text: There was widespread speculation that he had been thrown or pushed out of the window and the room had been arranged to look like he was trying to escape. Reles had shown no inclination to escape from protective custody and indeed had demonstrated a fear of even being out of earshot of the police.


title: Abe Reles

text: On the day of his death he was to have testified against Anastasia, a high-ranking member of the Cosa Nostra, and the trial was based solely on Reles's testimony. Frank Costello reportedly raised $100,000 to bribe these guards to kill Reles. In 2005 evidence was reported that NYPD Detective Charles Burns, one of Reles's police bodyguards, was involved in the disappearance and probable murder of NYC anti-corruption judge Joseph Force Crater in 1930.


title: The Scouring of the Shire

text: "The Scouring of the Shire" is the penultimate chapter of J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy "The Lord of the Rings". The Fellowship hobbits, Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin, return home to the Shire to find that it is under the brutal control of ruffians and their leader "Sharkey", revealed to be the Wizard Saruman. The ruffians have despoiled the Shire, cutting down trees and destroying old houses, as well as replacing the old mill with a larger one full of machinery which pollutes the air and the water. The hobbits rouse the Shire to rebellion, lead their fellow-hobbits to victory in the Battle of Bywater, and end Saruman's rule.


title: The Scouring of the Shire

text: Critics have considered "The Scouring of the Shire" the most important chapter in "The Lord of the Rings". Tolkien denied that the chapter was an allegory of the state of Britain during the aftermath of World War II. Commentators and critics have however seen it as applicable to that period, with clear contemporary political references, which in their opinions include a satire of socialism; echoes of Nazism; allusions to the shortages in postwar Britain; and a strand of environmentalism.


title: The Scouring of the Shire

text: The idea of such a chapter was, as Tolkien stated, planned from the outset, as part of the overall formal structure of "The Lord of the Rings", though its details were not worked out until much later. The book's central theme is going out on the physical quest to destroy the One Ring, to be balanced by a chapter on returning home on the moral quest to purify the Shire and to take responsibility for oneself. However, the actual addition of Saruman to this part of the story, as the reason why the Shire should need to be scoured, came very late in Tolkien's composition; he considered other identities for the wicked Sharkey before settling on Saruman.


title: The Scouring of the Shire

text: The chapter, which has been called one of the most famous anticlimaxes in literature, has been left out of all film adaptations of the novel, except, in "The Lord of the Rings" film trilogy, as a brief flash-forward when Frodo looks into the crystal ball-like Mirror of Galadriel, and for the death of Saruman, which is transposed to Isengard.


title: The Scouring of the Shire

text: The chapter follows all the main action of "The Lord of the Rings". The story tells how the One Ring, a ring of power made by the Dark Lord Sauron, lost for many centuries, has reappeared and is in the hands of a hobbit, Frodo Baggins, in the England-like Shire. If Sauron finds the Ring, he will use it to take over the whole of Middle-earth. A Wizard, Gandalf, tells Frodo the history of the ring and persuades him to leave the Shire to destroy the Ring. He is joined by three other hobbits, his friends Sam, Merry, and Pippin. They are pursued by Sauron's Black Riders, but escape to a stronghold of the Elves, Rivendell. There, they learn that it can only be destroyed in the volcano, Mount Doom, where Sauron forged the Ring, in the evil land of Mordor. They are joined by others opposed to Sauron, forming a Fellowship of the Ring, led by Gandalf. They face many perils on the journey, and the Fellowship is split up. Merry and Pippin become involved in wars against the evil Wizard Saruman and then against Sauron: Merry becomes a knight of Rohan, while Pippin becomes a guard of Gondor. With Sauron distracted, Frodo and Sam manage to travel to Mount Doom. The Ring is destroyed in the Cracks of Doom, and Sauron is overthrown. The hobbits, much changed by their experiences, ride home to the Shire, hoping to return to a peaceful rural life.


title: The Scouring of the Shire

text: The hobbits of the Fellowship – Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin – returning home to the Shire, come to its border, the Brandywine Bridge, late at night. They are surprised to find it barred, but are taken in, after some convincing, by the Shiriffs, a kind of hobbit police, who are guarding the bridge. They are shocked at the state of the Shire, with endless rules, ugly new buildings, and wanton destruction of trees and old buildings. One of these was Sandyman's mill, replaced by a big, noisy one full of machinery that fouls the water and pollutes the air; Ted Sandyman is the only hobbit who likes it, and he works for the Men who built it, where his father was his own boss. Sam recognises one of the Shiriffs and tells him he should be ashamed of himself for joining in with "such nonsense". All the cheerful inns are closed, so the Fellowship hobbits stay in the depressing, badly-built new Shiriff-house.


title: The Scouring of the Shire

text: Setting off on ponies for Hobbiton at the centre of the Shire the next morning, the four hobbits are met by Shiriffs who attempt to arrest them for breaking several rules the night before. Unable to keep up with the ponies, the Shiriffs let the hobbits pass.


title: The Scouring of the Shire

text: Reaching the village of Bywater, Merry, Pippin and Sam use their swords and their height to scare away a group of ruffians. The hobbits decide to 'raise the Shire'; Merry blows the magic horn given to him by Éowyn of Rohan, while Sam recruits his neighbour Tom Cotton and his sons, who rouse the village. Cotton tells them that wagonloads of goods, including tobacco, have been sent "away", causing shortages; they were paid for with unexplained funds by Lotho Sackville-Baggins, known as the "Chief" or the "Boss", who moved into Frodo's home, Bag End, when Frodo left on the quest to destroy the Ring. Pippin rides to his home village, Tuckborough, to rally his kin, the large Took clan. A gang of twenty ruffians from Hobbiton try to take farmer Cotton prisoner; the leader of the gang is killed with arrows, and the other ruffians quickly surrender.


title: The Scouring of the Shire

text: The next morning the hobbits at Bywater learn that Pippin's father, Thain Paladin II, has raised Tookland and is pursuing ruffians who have fled south; that Pippin will return with all the hobbits his father could spare; and that a much larger group of ruffians is heading towards them. Pippin returns with one hundred members of his family, before the ruffians arrive. Merry and Pippin lead the hobbits to victory in the brief Battle of Bywater. They ambush the ruffians by blocking a high-hedged lane with wagons in front of them and then behind them; most of the ruffians are killed. Frodo does not take part in the fighting.


title: The Scouring of the Shire

text: The hobbits go to Hobbiton to visit Lotho. The whole area has been despoiled, and Bag End is apparently empty and unused. There they meet "Sharkey", alias the Wizard Saruman; he is accompanied by his servant Wormtongue. He has lost his Wizard's power, except for his deceptive voice; he tells them he has deliberately harmed their home in revenge. Frodo tells him to leave the Shire; Saruman in reply tries to stab Frodo, but the knife snaps on Frodo's hidden coat of chain-mail. Frodo asks the other hobbits not to kill Saruman and offers Wormtongue the opportunity to stay. Saruman reveals that Wormtongue killed Lotho, provoking Wormtongue to cut Saruman's throat. Wormtongue is shot dead by hobbit archers. A column of mist arises from Saruman's corpse and is blown away in the wind.


title: The Scouring of the Shire

text: After the scouring, "the clearing up certainly needed a lot of work, but it took less time than Sam had feared". The cleanup is described in the first pages of the final chapter, "The Grey Havens"; the new buildings put up during Sharkey's rule are torn down and their materials reused "to repair many an old [hobbit] hole". Sam goes around the Shire planting saplings to replace lost trees, giving each one a grain of the dust from Galadriel's garden; the single nut he plants in the Party Field. The work is successful: "spring surpassed his wildest hopes", and "altogether 1420 in the Shire was a marvellous year". A mallorn sapling like those of Lothlórien replaces the Party Tree, many children are born with "a rich golden hair", and young hobbits "very nearly bathed in strawberries and cream".


title: The Scouring of the Shire

text: Tolkien scholars and critics have noted that the chapter implies some kind of formal structure for the whole work. The critic Bernhard Hirsch writes that "The Scouring of the Shire" has "provoked considerable critical debate", unlike the rest of the "homeward journey" in Book VI. Hirsch accepts Tolkien's statement in the foreword to the "Fellowship of the Ring" that the formal structure of "The Lord of the Rings", namely a journey outward for the quest and a journey home, meant that the chapter, along with the other two chapters of the return journey, was "foreseen from the outset". Another critic, Nicholas Birns, notes approvingly David Waito's argument that the chapter is as important morally as the Fellowship's main quest to destroy the One Ring, "but applies [the morals] to daily life". The Tolkien scholar Paul Kocher writes that Frodo, having thrown aside his weapons and armour on Mount Doom, chooses to fight "only on the moral plane" in the Shire.


title: The Scouring of the Shire

text: Birns goes further, arguing that the chapter has an important formal role in the overall composition of "The Lord of the Rings", as Tolkien had stated. In Birns's view, the chapter's main surprise is the appearance of Saruman, and it was indeed, Birns writes, his presence that made it necessary to scour the Shire. Evidence that Tolkien had planned something of the sort is found, Birns notes, in Frodo's vision of the future of the Shire in peril when he looks in the Mirror of Galadriel in Lothlorien in "The Fellowship of the Ring".


title: The Scouring of the Shire

text: Scholars have identified several possible origins and antecedents for the chapter, and these have been added to by Christopher Tolkien's exploration of the literary history of his father's work on it over the years. Birns writes that the "Scouring" has an ancient pedigree, echoing Homer's "Odyssey" when after long years away Odysseus returns to his home island of Ithaca to scour it of Penelope's worthless suitors. Robert Plank echoes the comparison with the "Odyssey", adding that Tolkien could have chosen as a pattern any number of other returning heroes. This theme, of a last obstacle to the heroic homecoming, was paradoxically both long-planned (certainly back to the time of writing of the Lothlorien chapter) and, in the person of Saruman-as-Sharkey, "a very late entry". David Greenman both likens the hobbits' scouring of the Shire to Odysseus's return, and contrasts it to Tuor's Aeneas-like escape from a wrecked kingdom as told in "The Fall of Gondolin".


title: The Scouring of the Shire

text: In "Sauron Defeated", earlier drafts of the chapter show that Tolkien had considered giving Frodo a far more energetic part in confronting Sharkey and the ruffians. These throw light on Tolkien's choice of who Sharkey actually was, whether the "boss" hobbit Lotho Sackville-Baggins, a human leader of the gang of ruffians, or Saruman. Tolkien had thus hesitated over how to implement the "Scouring", only arriving at Saruman after trying other options. Birns argues that the effect is to bring the "consequentiality of abroad" (including Isengard, where Saruman was strong) back to the "parochialism of home", not only scouring the Shire but also strengthening it, with Merry and Pippin as "world citizens".


title: The Scouring of the Shire

text: In his "Foreword to the Second Edition", Tolkien denies that the chapter is an allegory or relates to events in or after the Second World War:


title: The Scouring of the Shire

text: The Tolkien critic Tom Shippey writes that the Shire is certainly where Middle-earth comes nearest to the 20th century, and that the people who had commented that the "Scouring of the Shire" was about Tolkien's contemporary England were not wholly wrong. Shippey suggests however that rather than seeing the chapter as an allegory of postwar England, it could be taken as an account of "a society suffering not only from political misrule, but from a strange and generalized crisis of confidence." Shippey draws a parallel with a contemporary work, George Orwell's 1938 novel "Coming Up for Air", where England is subjected to a "similar diagnosis" of leaderless inertia.


title: The Scouring of the Shire

text: Critics including Plank have noted that Tolkien denied that the "Scouring of the Shire" reflected England in the late 1940s, claiming instead that the chapter echoed his youthful experience of seeing his home at Sarehole, then in rural Warwickshire, being taken over by the growing city of Birmingham in the early 1900s. Tolkien related the chapter to his childhood experiences at the end of the 19th century:


title: The Scouring of the Shire

text: Instead of a strict allegory with exact correspondences between the elements of the chapter and 20th century events and personages, Plank suggested that the chapter was "a realistic parable of reality". Birns and others note, too, that there is an echo in the chapter of the soldiers, including Tolkien, returning home from the trenches of the First World War, and meeting an unfair lack of appreciation of their contribution, as when Sam's father, Gaffer Gamgee, is more concerned with the damage to his potatoes than any "trapessing in foreign parts".


title: The Scouring of the Shire

text: Various commentators have noted that the chapter has political overtones. The critic Jerome Donnelly suggests that the chapter is a satire, of a more serious kind than the knockabout "comedy of manners" at the start of "The Hobbit". Plank calls it a caricature of fascism. Donnelly agrees with Tolkien that the "Scouring" is not an allegory, but proposes that Saruman's "Ruffians" echo the tyrannical behaviour of the Nazis, as do "the use of collaborators, threats, torture and killing of dissenters, and internment".


title: The Scouring of the Shire

text: Jay Richards and Jonathan Witt write that "conservatives and progressives alike" had seen the chapter as a "pointed critique of modern socialism", citing the scholar of politics Hal Colebatch's comment that the rule- and redistribution-heavy Saruman regime "owed much to the drabness, bleakness and bureaucratic regulation of postwar Britain under the Attlee Labour Government". They note similarly Plank's identification of "parallels" between the Shire under Saruman and both the German Nazi Party under Hitler and Italian Fascism under Mussolini. Plank discusses, for example, why the hobbits did not resist fascism, giving as reasons cowardice, lack of solidarity, and what he finds "the most interesting and the most melancholy": the shirriff-hobbit's statement "I am sorry, Mr. Merry, but we have orders." Plank comments that this recalls statements from the Nuremberg trials. He further compares Saruman with Mussolini, noting that they both came to "a miserable end". Richards and Witt concede that the chapter has wider themes, including the ugliness of Saruman's "vengeful heart", the nastiness of (sub)urban development, the hobbits' love-inspired defence of their homeland, and the need not to just obey orders, but state that Tolkien's letters demonstrate his dislike of socialism, and that in the chapter Tolkien deftly satirizes "socialism's pose of moral superiority".


title: The Scouring of the Shire

text: Shippey comments that whatever Tolkien's protestations, readers back in the 1950s would have noticed some features of the Shire during the "Scouring" that "seem[ed] slightly out of place", such as the fact that wagonloads of "pipeweed" (tobacco) are being taken away, seemingly at the wizard Saruman's orders, with no visible in-universe explanation. What, Shippey asks, was Saruman doing with so much tobacco: a wizard was hardly going to be trading it for profit, nor "issuing" it to his orcs in Isengard. Instead, Shippey suggests, it echoes Britain's shortages just after the Second World War, routinely explained at that time with "the words 'gone for export'". Kocher adds that the devastation and people's responses in the Shire after the War would have been only too familiar to people in the 20th century.


title: The Scouring of the Shire

text: Not all critics have seen the chapter as political; the medievalist Jane Chance notes the "domestic image" of the "Scouring" in the chapter's title, suggesting in her view a "rejuvenation" of the Shire. She describes the chapter's social cleansing of the Shire in similar terms, writing of washing and purifying it of "the reptilian monsters" Sharkey and Wormtongue.


title: The Scouring of the Shire

text: Tolkien critics have noted that the chapter has a distinctive novel-like quality. Birns echoes Plank's comment that the chapter is "fundamentally different from the rest of the book", and states that it is "the most novelistic episode in Tolkien's massive tale." He cites Janet Brennan Croft's description of it as "that deceptively anti-climactic but all-important chapter". Birns argues that it meets three aspects of Ian Watt's definition of the kind of novel read by the middle class, dominant among the reading public: firstly, it shows multiple social classes interacting; secondly, it is in a domestic context, the homely Shire; thirdly, it favours the point of view of the "emerging and aspiring middle classes". Birns concludes that "'The Scouring of the Shire' is where Tolkien's dark romance bends the most towards the realistic novel of domestic reintegration and redemption." Plank writes that the distinctive feature of the "Scouring" is that unlike in the rest of the book, there are no miracles and the laws of nature work with "full and undisputed force". Saruman, Plank notes, was once able to work magic, but in the chapter he works as a politician, without sorcery: the chapter is "realistic", not fantasy, except for the moment of Saruman's death.


title: The Scouring of the Shire

text: Michael Treschow and Mark Duckworth, writing in "Mythlore", note that the return to the Shire emphasises the protagonists' growth in character, so that they can deal with life's challenges for themselves. Just as at the end of "The Hobbit" Gandalf tells Bilbo that he is "not the hobbit that you were", having learnt from his adventures, so in "The Lord of the Rings" Gandalf tells Frodo and the other hobbits that he will not be coming to the Shire with them since "you will need no help. You are grown up now. Grown indeed very high; among the great you are, and I have no longer any fear at all for any of you."


title: The Scouring of the Shire

text: Another element in the chapter is the appearance of Tolkien's own feelings about England. Shippey writes that there is a "streak of 'wish-fulfilment'" in the account, and that Tolkien would have liked "to hear the horns of Rohan blow, and watch the Black Breath of inertia dissolve" from England. More specifically, Shippey applies this idea to "The Scouring of the Shire", noting that Merry returns from Rohan with a horn, brought by Eorl the Young, founder of Rohan, from the dragon-hoard of Scatha the Worm from the North. The horn, he explains, is "a magic one, though only modestly so": blowing it brings joy to his friends in arms, fear to his enemies, and in the chapter, it awakens the "revolution against sloth and shabbiness and Saruman-Sharkey" and quickly gets the Shire purified. Shippey suggests that Tolkien wished to do the same, and notes that with his novels he at least succeeded in bringing joy. Caitlin Vaughn Carlos writes that Sam Gamgee's exclamation "This is worse than Mordor! ... It comes home to you, they say; because it is home, and you remember it before it was ruined" encapsulates the impulse to nostalgia, since Sam is longing for the remembered home, not the one which now exists.


title: The Scouring of the Shire

text: Critics since the 1970s have observed one more theme in the chapter: environmentalism. One of the first to note that "Tolkien was [an] ecologist" was Paul H. Kocher. Birns calls it "as much conservationist as it is traditionalist", writing that it presents a strong pro-environmentalist argument in addition to its other themes. Plank describes the chapter's emphasis on the "deterioration of the environment" "quite unusual for its time", with the returning hobbits finding needless destruction of the old and beautiful, and its replacement by the new and ugly; pollution of air and water; neglect; "and above all, trees wantonly destroyed". Matthew Dickerson and Jonathan Evans look at the chapter from the point of view of rousing people to environmental action in their "own backyard".


title: The Scouring of the Shire

text: Brian Attebery, introducing Birns's article in "Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts", notes that Birns calls "The Scouring of the Shire" "one of the most famous anticlimaxes in literature", and that conventional wisdom is to stop at once when the action has completed. Attebery begs to differ, saying that he likes anticlimaxes, as when Jane Austen's heroes and heroines work everything out in detail once they have at last reached agreement. In his view, the novel "would be much the less" without the chapter.


title: The Scouring of the Shire

text: Tolkien critics John D. Rateliff and Jared Lobdell have compared the sudden shrivelling of Saruman's flesh from his skull at the moment of his death with the instantaneous aging of the protagonist Ayesha in Rider Haggard's 1887 novel "", when she bathes in the fire of immortality. Tolkien acknowledged Haggard as a major influence, especially "She".


title: The Scouring of the Shire

text: In an interview in 2015, the novelist and screenwriter George R. R. Martin called this section of the "Lord of the Rings" story brilliant, and said it was the tone he would be aiming for at the end of "Game of Thrones".


title: The Scouring of the Shire

text: Jonathon D. Langford, writing in "Mythlore", describes the scouring as the hobbits' coming of age, the culmination of their individual quests. He states that Merry and Pippin have clearly matured on their journey, while Frodo and Sam see the success of their quest reassessed by hobbit society. He notes that a heroic quest as described by Joseph Campbell ends with the hero's return from the enchanted lands to the ordinary world, renewing his community, as the hobbits' return does.


title: The Scouring of the Shire

text: The 1981 BBC "The Lord of the Rings" radio play covers "The Scouring of the Shire", including the original showdown and ending in which Saruman dies by Wormtongue's knife and Wormtongue is killed by arrows in the Shire.


title: The Scouring of the Shire

text: The chapter has been left out of the "Lord of the Rings" film trilogy, except as a brief flash-forward when Frodo looks into the crystal ball-like Mirror of Galadriel. In the extended edition of "", Wormtongue kills Saruman (stabbing him in the back, not slitting his throat) and is in turn killed by an arrow as in the chapter; however, this takes place at Isengard instead of the Shire and it is Legolas who shoots Wormtongue. Peter Jackson called the chapter anticlimactic, and decided in 1998 not to include it in the film trilogy. He decided to merge Saruman's and Wormtongue's death scene with "The Voice of Saruman" chapter from "The Two Towers", but did not wish to go back to Isengard after the Battle of Helm's Deep. Jackson explained that in post-production of "The Return of the King", the scene felt like a seven minute wrap up of "The Two Towers", gave the film an unsteady beginning, and made the film too long, so it ended up in the extended DVD.


title: The Scouring of the Shire

text: Alan Lee, in the last of his series of 50 illustrations of "The Lord of the Rings", depicted the four hobbits of the Fellowship returning on horseback along a hedged lane, with the stumps of recently cut trees and felled trunks in the foreground, and a tall chimney making a plume of dark smoke in the background. The painting was reviewed for "Mythlore" by Glen GoodKnight, who wrote that it was "anti-clima[c]tic, containing no joy, and denying us even the hint of the bitter-sweet resolution of the story".


title: Austin Vanderford

text: Austin Vanderford (born March 21, 1990) is an American professional mixed martial artist, currently signed to Bellator MMA where he competes in the Middleweight division. As of August 16, he is #7 in the Bellator Middleweight Rankings.


title: Austin Vanderford

text: Vanderford was born in Santa Rosa, California, before moving at the age of 9 months old to Ninilchik, Alaska and developing a taste for competitive sport while wrestling for his high school team, where he became a 2-time Alaska State Wrestling Champion (2007-160 lbs, 2006-152 lbs) both his junior and senior years. After moving to Southern Oregon University, Vanderford joined the wrestling team, becoming the NAIA National Wrestling Champion (184 lbs.) in 2012 and was a 2-time NAIA All-American wrestler. After finishing his college career graduating with a Bachelors degree, he took up a coaching job with the University for a couple of years, before following his desire to fight and moved swiftly on to the lower ranks of the welterweight MMA circuit and effortlessly winning all four bouts of his amateur career.


title: Austin Vanderford

text: Making his professional debut at Prime Fighting 9 on March 11, 2017, Vanderford faced Sol Renato, going on to defeat him via TKO in first round. He went on to defeat his next two opponents, Adam Fugitt and Ben Fodor, both via unanimous decisions, winning the CageSport Welterweight title against the later at CageSport 47. He would go on to tap out Kenny Licea in the second round via rear-naked choke at VFC 59, before he was invited to face Angelo Trevino on July 17, 2018 at Dana White's Contender Series 13. He won the fight via a rear-naked choke in round two, however did not secure a contract with the UFC. In his last bout on the regionals, Vanderford faced Brazil’s Edmilson Freitas, knocking him out in the first round.


title: Austin Vanderford

text: After going undefeated in 6 bouts on the regional scene, Vanderford signed a multi-fight contract with Bellator MMA.


title: Austin Vanderford

text: In his debut appearance with Bellator MMA at Bellator 215 on February 15, 2019, he took on Cody Jones and submitted him via arm-triangle choke in the first round.


title: Austin Vanderford

text: Vanderford faced Joseph Creer at Bellator 225 on August 25, 2019, winning the bout after the doctor stopped the fight after the second round.


title: Austin Vanderford

text: On November 15, 2019 at Bellator 234, he faced Russian submission specialist Grachik Bozinyan, defeating him via unanimous decision.


title: Austin Vanderford

text: Vanderford was scheduled to face Daniel Madrid on September 12, 2020 at Bellator 246. However, he had to pull out of the bout due to unknown reasons.


title: Austin Vanderford

text: Vanderford was scheduled to face Chris Curtis on November 5, 2020 at Bellator 251. However, Curtis had to pull out of the bout due to a positive COVID test and was replaced by Vinicius de Jesus. Vanderford won the bout via unanimous decision.


title: Austin Vanderford

text: Vanderford faced Fabian Edwards on May 21, 2021 at Bellator 259, defeating him via unanimous decision.


title: Austin Vanderford

text: Vanderford fought for the Bellator Middleweight World Championship against Gegard Mousasi at Bellator 275 on February 25, 2022 at the 3Arena in Dublin, Ireland. He lost the fight via technical knockout in round one.


title: Austin Vanderford

text: Vanderford was scheduled to face Anthony Adams at Bellator 284 on August 12, 2022. After Adams pulled out of the bout 2 weeks before the event, Aaron Jeffery stepped in on short notice. He lost the bout in the first round via TKO stoppage.


title: Austin Vanderford

text: In September 2018, Vanderford married Paige VanZant, a former UFC strawweight. The couple began dating the previous year, and Vanderford proposed to VanZant in January 2018.


title: Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat

text: Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat, or simply Sagwa, is a children's animated television series based on the children's book of the same name by Amy Tan which aired on PBS Kids, co-produced by Canada-based animation studio CinéGroupe and "Sesame Street" creator Sesame Workshop.


title: Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat

text: In the series, which is set , after the cinematograph was patented and during the late Qing dynasty, Sagwa has fun in her day-to-day life while learning and teaching valuable life lessons. The show is notable for its setting and messages about family obligations and loyalty. The show is also intentionally cross-cultural, with the theme song in both English and Chinese.


title: Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat

text: The series was developed and produced for television by executive producers George Daugherty and Michel Lemire, and producers David Ka Lik Wong and Leon G. Arcand.


title: Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat

text: The series aired from September 3, 2001, to October 5, 2002, running for one season and 40 episodes. The series was cancelled in 2002, ending on October 5 of that year, and as of 2019 is still aired on several networks worldwide.


title: Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat

text: The series won the Silver Plaque at the Chicago International Film Festival for Children's Film in 2001, as well as winning an Outstanding Individual in Animation award for background artist Valery Mihalkov at the 29th Daytime Emmy Awards and a "TV Series - Family/Children" award at WorldFest Houston in 2002.


title: Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat

text: Sagwa resides in a palace of a magistrate in China in what is assumed to be modern-day Fujian province (possibly during the late Qing dynasty, as shown by the characters' clothes), as part of a royal family of cats who have the ability to write with their tails. She and her siblings, along with various other cats and Fu-Fu the bat, have adventures that are usually accompanied by moral lessons, as is typical with most children's shows. However, one aspect of the show which sets it apart is its display of various elements of Chinese culture.


title: Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat

text: Many of the names of the characters derive from the Chinese language. Their spellings are romanizations (though not always Wade–Giles, but possibly dialects also), and differ from the standardized Pinyin system.


title: Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat

text: The name of the titular character Sagwa literally means "silly melon head". Although innocuously without context, this phrase is typically regarded by Chinese to be an insult by carrying connotations of incompetence, foolishness and even mental retardation. However, the character herself was not meant to be that as she was named out of love by her parents. It was to the point where they actually felt like “Silly Melon Heads” literally when they were in winter melons and watermelons. She could also been acting “silly” when she fell into the inkpot, but her mistake made the better for China's Siamese cat and people. Also a change of heart for the magistrate


title: Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat

text: Additional voices were done by Leanne Adachi, Terrence Scammell, Simon Peacock, Howard Ryshpan, Carrie Finlay, Jonathan Koensgen, Chris Phillips, Dean Hagopian, Len Carlson, Mitchell Rothpan, Kyle Fairlie, Ricky Mabe, Michael Yarmush, Justin Bradley, Jaclyn Linetsky, Daniel Brochu, Walter Massey, Marc Donato, Olivia Garratt, Martin Watier, Andrew Rannells, Richard M. Dumont, Peter Linz, Tyler Bunch, Steven Crowder, Lisa Jai, Liz MacRae, Tyrone Savage, Catherine Disher, Kathy Tsoi, Brigid Tierney, Melissa Pirrera, Mark Camacho, Jesse Camacho, Bruce Dinsmore, Thor Bishopric, Pauline Little, Michel Perron, Peter Shinkoda, Linda Wang, Karen Lee, Kameron Louangxay, Kamiko Taka, Rosa Yee, Amy Chow, Michael O'Reilly, A.J. Henderson, Susan Glover, Jane Woods, Eleanor Noble, Derek Lowe and John Stocker.


title: Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat

text: From 2002 to 2003, CinéGroupe Star released six volumes of the series in Canada. The VHS versions were released in both separate English and French versions, while the DVD counterparts featured both languages.


title: Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat

text: In 2003, PBS Home Video and Warner Home Video brought each compilation of individual episodes to VHS and DVD.


title: Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat

text: On VHS, there were eight volumes with each containing three episodes. On DVD, there were four volumes which each contain six episodes each. Each DVD combined episodes from each pair of the VHS tapes. A pair of VHS titles ("Best Friends" and "Family Fun") were renamed for the "Feline and Friends" and Family DVD. There was also a 6 volume DVD box set, with each disc consisting of 5-6 episodes. Every disc comprises episodes based on themes and were divided in half for those select sections of segments.


title: Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat

text: In 2006, Paramount Home Entertainment brought sixteen episodes from the show were released on one disc as part of the PBS Kids pack anthology set, with the two other discs containing episodes from "Zoboomafoo" and "George Shrinks".


title: Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat

text: In 2018, TFO's MiniMation YouTube channel began uploading episodes from the French version. The series was also briefly on Google Play.


title: Lockout–tagout

text: Lock out, tag out (LOTO) is a safety procedure used to ensure that dangerous equipment is properly shut off and not able to be started up again prior to the completion of maintenance or repair work. It requires that hazardous energy sources be "isolated and rendered inoperative" before work is started on the equipment in question. The isolated power sources are then locked and a tag is placed on the lock identifying the worker and reason the LOTO is placed on it. The worker then holds the key for the lock, ensuring that only they can remove the lock and start the equipment. This prevents accidental startup of equipment while it is in a hazardous state or while a worker is in direct contact with it.


title: Lockout–tagout

text: Lockout–tagout is used across industries as a safe method of working on hazardous equipment and is mandated by law in some countries.


title: Lockout–tagout

text: Disconnecting or making safe the equipment involves the removal of all energy sources and is known as "isolation". The steps necessary to isolate equipment are often documented in an "isolation procedure" or a "lockout tagout procedure". The isolation procedure generally includes the following tasks:


title: Lockout–tagout

text: The locking and tagging of the isolation point lets others know not to de-isolate the device. To emphasize the last step above in addition to the others, the entire process can be referred to as lock, tag, and try (that is, trying to turn on the isolated equipment to confirm it has been de-energized and cannot operate).


title: Lockout–tagout

text: In the USA, the National Electric Code states that a safety/service disconnect must be installed within sight of serviceable equipment. The safety disconnect ensures the equipment can be isolated and there is less chance of someone turning the power back on if they can see the work going on. These safety disconnects usually have multiple places for locks so more than one person can work on equipment safely.


title: Lockout–tagout

text: In industrial processes it can be difficult to establish where the appropriate danger sources might be. For example, a food processing plant may have input and output tanks and high-temperature cleaning systems connected, but not in the same room or area of the factory. It would not be unusual to have to visit several areas of the factory in order to effectively isolate a device for service (the device itself for power, upstream material feeders, downstream feeders and control room).


title: Lockout–tagout

text: Safety equipment manufacturers provide a range of isolation devices specifically designed to fit various switches, valves and effectors. For example, most circuit breakers have a provision to have a small padlock attached to prevent their activation. For other devices such as ball or gate valves, plastic pieces which either fit against the pipe and prevent movement, or clamshell-style objects which completely surround the valve and prevent its manipulation are used.


title: Lockout–tagout

text: A common feature of these devices is their bright color, usually red, to increase visibility and allow workers to readily see if a device is isolated. Also, the devices are usually of such a design and construction to prevent it being removed with any moderate force – for example, an isolation device does not have to resist a chainsaw, but if an operator forcibly removes it, it will be immediately visible that it has been tampered with.


title: Lockout–tagout

text: To protect one or more circuit breakers in an electrical panel, a lockout–tagout device called the Panel Lockout can be used. It keeps the panel door locked and prevents the panel cover from being removed. The circuit breakers remain in the off position while electrical work is done.


title: Lockout–tagout

text: When two or more people are working on the same or different parts of a larger overall system, there must be multiple holes to lock the device. To expand the number of available holes, the lockout device is secured with a folding scissors clamp that has many pairs of padlock holes capable of keeping it closed. Each worker applies their own padlock to the clamp. The locked-out machinery cannot be activated until all workers have removed their padlocks from the clamp.


title: Lockout–tagout

text: In the United States a lock selected by color, shape or size, such as a red padlock, is used to designate a standard safety device, locking and securing hazardous energy. No two keys or locks should ever be the same. A person's lock and tag must only be removed by the individual who installed the lock and tag unless removal is accomplished under the direction of the employer. Employer procedures and training for such removal must have been developed, documented and incorporated into the employer energy control program.


title: Lockout–tagout

text: By US Federal regulation 29 CFR 1910.147 (c) (5) (ii) (c) (1) the tag must have an identification showing the name of the person doing the lock and tag.


title: Lockout–tagout

text: While this may be true for the United States, it is not mandatory in Europe. The lockout can also be done by a "role" such as the shift leader. Using a "lockbox", the shift leader is always the last one to remove the lock and has to verify it is safe to start up equipment.


title: Lockout–tagout

text: According to the European standard EN 50110-1, the safety procedure before working on electric equipment comprises the following five steps:


title: Lockout–tagout

text: A site lockout–tagout policy will provide workers with an explanation of the safety goals of the policy, will identify steps required for a lockout–tagout, and will advise of the consequences of failure to carry out the policy. A documented lockout–tagout policy may be required by government regulations in some jurisdictions, for example in the United States for sites regulated by OSHA rules.


title: Lockout–tagout

text: All Canadian jurisdictions legally require lockout for certain work. However, the specific activities required for appropriate lockout are usually not specified in law. These specifics are provided through industry standards. The Canadian Standards Association's standard CSA Z460, based on industry, labour and government consultations, outlines the specific activities of a lockout program and is usually considered the appropriate standard of good practice for lock out. All Canadian health and safety legislation places a general duty on an employer to take all reasonable precautions and carrying out this standard of good practice is usually considered a mark of due diligence.


title: Lockout–tagout

text: Lockout–tagout in the US, has five required components to be fully compliant with OSHA law. The five components are:


title: Lockout–tagout

text: In industry this is an Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standard, as well as for electrical NFPA 70E. OSHA's standard on the Control of Hazardous Energy (Lockout-Tagout), found in 29 CFR 1910.147, spells out the steps employers must take to prevent accidents associated with hazardous energy. The standard addresses practices and procedures necessary to disable machinery and prevent the release of potentially hazardous energy while maintenance or servicing activities are performed.


title: Lockout–tagout

text: Two other OSHA standards also contain energy control provisions: 29 CFR 1910.269 and 29 CFR 1910.333. In addition, some standards relating to specific types of machinery contain de-energization requirements such as 29 CFR 1910.179(l)(2)(i)(c)(requiring the switches to be "open and locked in the open position" before performing preventive maintenance on overhead and gantry cranes). The provisions of Part 1910.147 apply in conjunction with these machine-specific standards to assure that employees will be adequately protected against hazardous energy.


title: Lockout–tagout

text: If employees service or maintain machines where the unexpected startup, energization, or the release of stored energy could cause injury, the OSHA standard applies, unless an equivalent level of protection can be proven. Equivalent level of protection may be achieved in some cases through standard operating procedures (SOP) and custom machine guarding solutions that are combined to establish machine control to protect the worker for specific tasks. The standard applies to all sources of energy, including, but not limited to: mechanical, electrical, hydraulic, pneumatic, chemical, and thermal energy.


title: Lockout–tagout

text: The standard does not cover electrical hazards from work on, near, or with conductors or equipment in electric utilization (premise wiring) installations, which are outlined by 29 CFR Part 1910 Subpart S. The specific lockout and tagout provisions for electrical shock and burn hazards can be found in 29 CFR Part 1910.333. Controlling hazardous energy in installations for the exclusive purpose of power generation, transmission, and distribution, including related equipment for communication or metering, is covered by 29 CFR 1910.269.


title: Lockout–tagout

text: The standard also does not cover the agriculture, construction, and maritime industries or oil and gas well drilling and servicing. Other standards concerning the control of hazardous energy, however, apply in many of these industries and situations.


title: Lockout–tagout

text: The standard does not apply to general industry service and maintenance activities in the following situations, when:


title: Lockout–tagout

text: There are a few instances across UK regulations that refer to lockout–tagout indirectly. The use of lockout–tagout is not currently enforced in the UK but has been proven to be best practice for multiple UK industries.


title: Lockout–tagout

text: BS7671:2008 is a regulation in the UK that ensures that all wiring and electrical installations completed within any building is of the highest standard. It also states that "Every employer shall ensure that where appropriate, work equipment is provided with a suitable means to isolate it from all its sources of energy. Every employer shall take appropriate measures to ensure that reconnection of any energy source to work equipment does not expose any person using the equipment to any risk to their health or safety". [Provision of Work Equipment Regulations – Regulation 19 – Isolation from Sources of Energy


title: Lockout–tagout

text: The Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 (1999 in Northern Ireland) (PUWER) is the key regulation that is enforced within the Manufacturing industry within the UK. This reinforces that employers should make all machinery safe for use, including adding additional precautions such as extra Guards and safer PPE (Personal Protective Equipment). Machinery should also be inspected at regular intervals to ensure it is in a continued ‘safe to use’ state.


title: Lockout–tagout

text: There are citations within the PUWER regulations that argue the use of safety devices such as lockout–tagout, however at no point do the regulations state this outright. But it does explain that ‘lockout devices’ should be used to enhance the safety of employees. So, it may not be written in black and white under English Regulations that lockout–tagout should be used but the document does mention a "‘Hierarchy of measures"’ for standardising safety procedures that are lockout–tagout related but they are explained as a permanent fixture to any machine or tool. For instance one of the three measures mentioned is to "‘provide protection appliances (jigs, holders, push sticks)’". And as a wider assumption this could include LOTO devices but it doesn't specifically say that in the regulation. This part of the regulation is more about ensuring that the day to day workplace risks are assessed properly and thoroughly. However, in the same set of regulations, later on, it states that employers should ensure that all work equipment is accompanied by an appropriate way to isolate power/energy. Including an appropriate set of actions (and facilities) to turn the power back on without creating a potential hazard for other employees. This is more aligned with the American OSHA guidelines and practices and defines that the lockout–tagout Safety movement is on the rise in the UK.


title: Lockout–tagout

text: In the EU, the guidelines are OSHA based and therefore pick up on American characteristics in its legislation, but it is 89/655 paragraph 2.14 that states that "“every piece of equipment must be fitted with clearly visible devices with which it can be separated from every energy source”" [EU Guidelines 89/655 (Paragraph 2.14)]. This indicates that all workplace machinery should be fitted with permanent LOTO solutions for easy and safe lockout–tagout procedures.


title: Shuggie Otis

text: Johnny Shuggie Otis (born Johnny Alexander Veliotes, Jr.; November 30, 1953) is an American singer-songwriter, recording artist, and multi-instrumentalist.


title: Shuggie Otis

text: Otis's composition "Strawberry Letter 23" (as recorded by The Brothers Johnson) topped the "Billboard" R&B chart and reached #5 of the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart in 1977. He also achieved commercial success with his 1974 single "Inspiration Information" (from the album of the same title), reaching #56 on the R&B chart.


title: Shuggie Otis

text: Born in Los Angeles, California, Otis is the son of rhythm and blues pioneer, musician, bandleader, and impresario Johnny Otis, who was of Greek descent, and his wife Phyllis Walker, who was of African American and Filipino descent. The name "Shuggie" (short for "sugar," according to his mother) was coined by Phyllis when he was a newborn. Otis began playing guitar when he was two years old and performing professionally with his father's band at the age of eleven, often disguising himself with dark glasses and a false mustache so that he could play with his father's band in after-hours nightclubs.


title: Shuggie Otis

text: Otis, primarily known as a guitarist, also sings and plays a multitude of other instruments. While growing up with and being heavily influenced by many blues, jazz and R&B musicians in his father Johnny's immediate circle, Otis began to gravitate towards the popular music of his generation such as Jimi Hendrix, Arthur Lee (of the band Love), and Sly Stone. In 1969, Al Kooper asked Otis to be the featured guest on the second installment ("Kooper Session") of the "Super Session" album series that had previously included Stephen Stills and Mike Bloomfield. Kooper and the then-fifteen-year-old Otis recorded the whole album over one weekend in New York. Immediately returning to Los Angeles, Otis, along with his father and singer Delmar "Mighty Mouth" Evans, performed on the album "Cold Shot" (by the elder Otis), released in 1969 on the Los Angeles-based Kent label. Another obscure album this three-man team recorded was the extremely rare and risque "Snatch & The Poontangs", on which Otis recorded tracks under the pseudonym "Prince Wunnerful".


title: Shuggie Otis

text: Otis then released his first solo album later that year entitled "Here Comes Shuggie Otis" on Epic Records. Countless musicians were his guests on that debut attempt, including Johnny, Leon Haywood, Al McKibbon, Wilton Felder. This further established his reputation and catapulted him to the attention of B. B. King, who was quoted in a 1970 issue of "Guitar Player" magazine saying Otis was his "favorite new guitarist". Some of the artists Otis performed and recorded with during that time include Frank Zappa (having played electric bass on the legendary instrumental, "Peaches en Regalia" from the 1969 album "Hot Rats"), Etta James, Eddie Vinson, Richard Berry, Louis Jordan, and Bobby 'Blue' Bland, among many others.


title: Shuggie Otis

text: The album Otis received the most recognition for was his second Epic Records release in 1971, "Freedom Flight", which featured his hit "Strawberry Letter 23". Both the album and single reached the "Billboard" Top 200 and the "Billboard" Hot 100, respectively and caught the attention of Brothers Johnson guitarist George Johnson, who then played it for producer Quincy Jones. They covered the song and it instantly became a smash hit. Even though Otis played most of his own parts in the studio, the lineup on this album was quite extensive, including keyboardist George Duke and Aynsley Dunbar of Frank Zappa, Journey and Whitesnake fame.


title: Shuggie Otis

text: In 1974, Otis released "Inspiration Information", his third and final album for Epic Records. The album had taken almost three years to finish. All the songs were written and arranged by Otis himself, who played every musical instrument on the album, except for horns and some strings. However, despite its long-awaited impact, "Inspiration Information" had but one single (the title track) reach the "Billboard" Hot 100. After the album's release, Otis was approached by Billy Preston on behalf of The Rolling Stones, asking him to join the band for their upcoming world tour. He declined the offer, along with the chance to work with Quincy Jones in helping produce Otis's next album. After a series of similar refusals, Otis gained the reputation of "taking his time", and his recording contract with Epic Records was nullified. Otis's only credited works throughout the mid-1970s were done as a session musician for his father's recording projects.


title: Shuggie Otis

text: "Inspiration Information" gained a cult following during the 1990s with the emergence of rare groove and acid jazz. It was lauded by such musicians as Prince and Lenny Kravitz. Due in part to this regained interest, the album was re-released on April 3, 2001, by David Byrne's independent label Luaka Bop Records. This CD re-issue includes all nine original album tracks plus four songs taken from Otis' 1971 album "Freedom Flight", and features new cover art, liner notes, and exclusive never-seen-before photos.


title: Shuggie Otis

text: Otis is featured in every one of his father Johnny's books, as well as "Alligator Records Presents West Coast Blues", issued in August 1998.


title: Shuggie Otis

text: Otis and Sony Music Entertainment made a deal for a double CD which was released on April 20, 2013. It is a re-release of "Inspiration/Information". Added to the album are several bonus tracks, including an accompanying album entitled "Wings of Love". "Wings of Love" is an album of previously unreleased material, all of which was written from 1975 to the present, including live material from some of his performances. It will be available on Shugiterius records (Otis's company) and Sony records, through Sony Music Entertainment.


title: Shuggie Otis

text: Otis and a band entitled Shuggie Otis Rite toured internationally in 2013 in support of the release, including Australia, Japan, the U.S., Ireland and the U.K. Their performances earned rave reviews from critics.


title: Shuggie Otis

text: Otis had a son named Johnny III, known as Lucky Otis, with his first wife Miss Mercy of The GTOs, an all-girl group produced by Frank Zappa. Soon after his first marriage ended, he married Lillian Wilson (known as Teri), daughter of trumpeter/bandleader/Latin-jazz pioneer Gerald Wilson; they had a son, Eric, naming him after Eric Dolphy, who was one of Gerald's bandmates and close friends.


title: Shuggie Otis

text: Both of Shuggie's sons, Lucky and Eric, are musicians. Eric has played and toured in his father's band. Lucky, a bassist, began by playing with his grandfather, Johnny Otis, and then launched a solo career, heading his own group Otis Ledbetter with partner Louis Ledbetter, great-grandson of blues musician Lead Belly. He has also fronted a 13-piece rhythm-and-blues orchestra, The New Johnny Otis All-Stars, continuing his grandfather's Big Band legacy.


title: The Camp of the Saints

text: The Camp of the Saints () is a 1973 French dystopian fiction novel by author and explorer Jean Raspail. A speculative fictional account, it depicts the destruction of Western civilization through Third World mass immigration to France and the West. Almost forty years after its initial publication, the novel returned to the bestseller list in 2011.


title: The Camp of the Saints

text: On its publication, the book received praise from prominent French literary figures, and through time has also been praised by critics and politicians in Europe and the United States, but has also been criticized by both French- and English-language commentators for conveying themes described as racism, xenophobia, nativism, monoculturalism, and anti-immigration content. The novel is popular within far-right and white nationalist circles.


title: The Camp of the Saints

text: Raspail has said his inspiration came while at the French Riviera in 1971, as he was looking out at the Mediterranean.


title: The Camp of the Saints

text: The name of the book comes from a passage in the Book of Revelation () depicting the apocalypse. Satan influences most of the nations of the Earth to gather for one final battle against "the camp of the saints," before being defeated for eternity:


title: The Camp of the Saints

text: In Calcutta, India, Catholic priests promote the adoption of Indian children by those back in Belgium as a form of charity. When the Belgian government realizes that the number of Indian children raised in Belgium has reached 40,000 in just five years, an emergency policy attempts to halt the migration. Desperate for the chance to send their children to what they call a "land of plenty", a mob of desperate Indians swarms the consulate. As a Belgian aid worker works through the crowd, an Indian gong farmer known only as "the turd eater", carrying aloft his monstrously deformed child, begs him to take them back to Europe, to which the worker agrees.


title: The Camp of the Saints

text: The worker and farmer bring the crowd to the docks, where there are hundreds of ships once owned by European powers, now suited only for river traffic. Nevertheless, the crowd boards, and a hundred ships soon leave for Europe; conditions on board are cramped, unsanitary and miserable, with many passengers including children publicly fornicating. As the ships pass "the straits of Ceylon", helicopters swarm overhead, capturing images of the migrants on board to be published in Europe. Meanwhile, on the Russian Far East, the Soviet troops see masses of Chinese ready to enter Siberia but are reluctant to fight them.


title: The Camp of the Saints

text: As the fleet crosses the Indian Ocean, the political situation in France becomes more charged. At a press conference about the crisis, a French official who offers a speech in praise of the migrants is confronted by a journalist who claims he is merely trying to "feed the invaders" and demands to know if France will "have the courage to stand up to" the migrants when they reach France. The official decries this question as morally offensive and threatens to throw the journalist out when he continues to yell. Other journalists seek to inflame tensions between the French and Africans and Arabs already living in the country. Over time, these journalists begin to write that the migrant fleet is on a mission to "enrich, cleanse and redeem the Capitalist West". At the same time as the fleet is praised by those in Paris, the people of Southern France, terrified of the migrants' arrival, flee to the north.


title: The Camp of the Saints

text: As the fleet approaches the Suez Canal, Egyptian military forces fire a warning shot, causing the fleet to steer south, around the Cape of Good Hope. To the surprise of observers, the apartheid regime of South Africa floats out barges of food and supplies, which the migrants throw overboard. The international press is thrilled, believing the rejection of these supplies to be a political statement against the apartheid South African regime. Western leaders, confident the migrants will accept supplies from their "more virtuous" nations, organize a supply mission, funded by governments, charities, rock stars and major churches, to meet the migrants off São Tomé. However, the fleet does not stop for these barges either, and when a worker from the Pope's barge attempts to board one of the ships, he is strangled and thrown overboard. The press attempts to contain coverage of the murder.


title: The Camp of the Saints

text: When the migrants pass through the Strait of Gibraltar, the French president orders troops to the south and addresses the nation with his plan to repel them. However, in the middle of the address, he breaks down, demanding the troops simply follow their consciences instead. Most of the troops immediately desert their posts and join the civilians as they flee north, and the south is quickly overrun by the migrants. Some of the last troops to stand their ground take refuge in a small village, along with Calguès, an old man who has chosen to remain at his home, and Hamadura, a Westernized Indian who is terrified of his "filthy, brutish" countrymen and prides himself on having more in common with whites than Indians. The troops in this village, a total of nineteen Frenchmen and one Indian, surrounded by what they deem "occupied territory", remain the last defense of Western values and "Free France" against the immigrants.


title: The Camp of the Saints

text: The immigrants make their way north, having no desire to assimilate to French culture, but continuing to demand a First World standard of living, even as they flout laws, do not produce, and murder French citizens, such as factory bosses and shopkeepers, as well as the ordinary people who do not welcome them. They are also joined by the immigrants who already reside in Europe, as well as various left-wing and anarchist groups. Across the West, more and more migrants arrive and have children, rapidly growing to outnumber whites. In a matter of months, the white West has been overrun and pro-immigrant governments have been established, while the white people are ordered to share their houses and flats with the immigrants. The village containing the troops is bombed flat by airplanes of the new French government, referred to only as the "Paris Multiracial Commune". Within a few years, most Western governments have surrendered. The mayor of New York City is made to share Gracie Mansion with three African-American families from Harlem; migrants gather at coastal ports in West Africa and South Asia and swarm into Europe, Australia, and New Zealand; London is taken over by an organization of non-white residents known as the "Non-European Commonwealth Committee", who force the British queen to have her son marry a Pakistani woman; millions of black Africans from around the continent gather at the Limpopo River and invade South Africa; and only one drunken Soviet soldier stands in the way of hundreds of thousands of Chinese peasants as they overrun Siberia.


title: The Camp of the Saints

text: The epilogue reveals that the story was written in the last holdout of the Western world, Switzerland, but international pressure from the new governments, isolating it as a rogue state for not opening its borders, along with internal pro-migrant elements, force it to capitulate as well. Mere hours from the border opening, the author dedicates the book to his grandchildren, in the hopes they will grow up in a world where they will not be ashamed of him for writing such a book.


title: The Camp of the Saints

text: According to literary scholar Jean-Marc Moura, native French people are described in the novel as "[giving] in without a blow to the hyperbolic egalitarianism that 'swallows' them down to the rank of third-world men ... In such a context, racist deviations are inevitable ... The plot is thus biased, since the cards are dealt in such a way that racism and ostracism become conditions for survival. By painting the Third World in such aggressive colours, it gives Western characters little choice: destroy or die."


title: The Camp of the Saints

text: In 2001, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) described "The Camp of the Saints" as "widely revered by American white supremacists" and "a sort of anti-immigration analog to "The Turner Diaries"", and attributed its popularity to the plot's parallels with the white genocide conspiracy theory. Ryan Lenz, a senior investigative reporter for the SPLC, notes that "[t]he premise of "Camp of the Saints" plays directly into that idea of white genocide. It is the idea that through immigration, if it's left unchecked, the racial character and content of a culture can be undermined to the point of oblivion." Political scientist Jean-Yves Camus argues that "The Camp of the Saints", with its apocalyptical vision of a sudden and violent mass migration swarming towards Europe, is even more radical than Renaud Camus' Great Replacement theory, and therefore probably more influential on white nationalist terrorists.


title: The Camp of the Saints

text: "The Camp of the Saints" initially received a positive reception in France, with most critics focusing on the "prophetic" nature of the story. It was praised by journalist Bernard Pivot and intellectuals such as Jean Anouilh, Hervé Bazin, Michel Déon, Jean Cau, Thierry Maulnier, and Louis Pauwels.


title: The Camp of the Saints

text: After the book was translated into English in 1975, journalist Max Lerner wrote that it had "irresistible pace of skill and narrative". Philosopher Sidney Hook said that it would "succeed in shocking and challenging the complacent contemporary mind." In 1975, "Time" magazine panned the novel as a "bilious tirade" that only required a response because it "arrives trailing clouds of praise from French savants, including dramatist Jean Anouilh ('A haunting book of irresistible force and calm logic'), with the imprint of a respected U.S. publisher and a teasing pre-publication ad campaign ('The end of the white world is near')".


title: The Camp of the Saints

text: Jeffrey Hart, in a 1975 "National Review" article, mocked the rejection of the novel by critics, deriding them as "respectable, comfortable reviewers", and lauded the book in those terms: "in freer and more intelligent circles in Europe, the book is a sensation and Raspail is a prize-winner [...] his plot is both simple and brilliant." Syndicated columnist Garry Wills, writing in the "Journal Inquirer", condemned the embrace of the novel by the "more 'respectable' channels" of American right-wing media, including Jeffrey Hart, drawing parallels between the "racial implications" of the book and the "National Review"s "overtly racist analysis" of school integration efforts. "Kirkus Reviews" compared the novel to "Mein Kampf." In 1983, Linda Chavez called the novel "a sickening book", describing it as "racist, xenophobic and paranoid."


title: The Camp of the Saints

text: In the early 1980s, the director of the French intelligence service SDECE, Alexandre de Marenches, gave a copy of the book to Ronald Reagan, who reportedly stated that he was "terribly impressed" with it. The December 1994 cover story of "The Atlantic Monthly" focused on the themes of the novel, analyzing them in the context of international relations, while describing it as "the most politically incorrect book in France in the second half of the twentieth century". Its authors, British historian Paul Kennedy and Columbia professor Matthew Connelly further wrote, "many members of the more prosperous economies are beginning to agree with Raspail's vision".


title: The Camp of the Saints

text: In 2002, columnist Lionel Shriver described the novel as "both prescient and appalling", certainly "racist" but "written with tremendous verbal energy and passion." Shriver writes that the book "gives bilious voice to an emotion whose expression is increasingly taboo in the West, but that can grow only more virulent when suppressed: the fierce resentment felt by majority populations when that status seems threatened."


title: The Camp of the Saints

text: William F. Buckley, Jr. praised the book in 2004 as "a great novel" that raised questions on how to respond to massive illegal immigration, and in 2014, Mackubin Thomas Owens noted Buckley's praise of it, while remarking that "Raspail was ahead of his time in demonstrating that Western civilization had lost its sense of purpose and history—its 'exceptionalism'." In 2005, the conservative Chilton Williamson praised the book as "one of the most uncompromising works of literary reaction in the 20th century."


title: The Camp of the Saints

text: In March 2011, the book returned to the bestseller list, ranking in the top five in bookstores in France. It has been favorably referred to by Steve Bannon, U.S. President Donald Trump's former Chief Strategist. It has also been promoted by Trump's senior policy advisor Stephen Miller, GOP Congressman Steve King, French National Rally leader Marine Le Pen and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. A 2015 report from the SPLC described the novel as "the favorite racist fantasy of the anti-immigrant movement in the US".


title: The Camp of the Saints

text: On February 26, 2021, the Australian Classification Board classified the book as "Unrestricted", without the consumer advice letter M for Mature, meaning that it was not found inappropriate for children under fifteen.


title: The Camp of the Saints

text: An English language translation by Norman Shapiro was published by Scribner in 1975 (). It was republished in mass market paperback format in 1977 by Ace Books () and Sphere Books (). John Tanton acquired the rights to the book in 1994 and printed a softcover edition through his publishing company The Social Contract Press (). The Winter 1994-1995 issue of "The Social Contract Journal" was a special edition released to coincide with the new printing of the book, each article dedicated to discussion of the book and its themes.


title: The Adventures of Puss in Boots

text: The Adventures of Puss in Boots is an American computer-animated streaming television series. It stars the character Puss in Boots from DreamWorks Animation's "Shrek" franchise and its 2011 spin-off film, voiced by Eric Bauza. The series premiered with its first five episodes on Netflix on January 16, 2015; the sixth and


title: The Adventures of Puss in Boots

text: The series is set before the events of "Puss in Boots" (2011) and sees Puss in Boots fight off an endless legion of invaders to protect the previously hidden village of San Lorenzo, after his actions unintentionally broke the spell that protected its legendary mystic treasure from the outside world. Subsequently, he must find a way to restore the protection spell that will cloak the town once more.


title: The Adventures of Puss in Boots

text: The first season was released on January 16, 2015 on Netflix, when the first five episodes were released, with further episodes released in May and September 2015. A second season was released on December 11, 2015. The third season was released on July 15, 2016. The fourth season was released on December 16, 2016. The fifth season was released on July 28, 2017. The sixth and final season was released on January 26, 2018.


title: The Adventures of Puss in Boots

text: Bandits: A large group of thieves who try to steal from San Lorenzo, but the town's protector, Puss In Boots always stops them. Some of them also work for El Moco and they ruled over San Lorenzo once but Puss stops them once again.


title: The Adventures of Puss in Boots

text: The series was announced in March 2014 as part of an agreement between Netflix and DreamWorks Animation, under which the studio will develop more than 300 hours of exclusive programming for the service. In 2015, it was stated that a total of 78 episodes were in production for the series, and they were expected to be released in blocks from 2015 onward in a multi-year deal.


title: The Adventures of Puss in Boots

text: "The New York Times" gave the first episode a positive review stating that the show "is nicely drawn, and San Lorenzo is populated with some appealingly odd young residents, human and otherwise." Moreover, they praised the humour stating that it was "relatively sophisticated (you could write a psychological treatise on Dulcinea, who has modeled her life on a somewhat vacuous book of epigrams), but not so sophisticated that children will be left behind."


title: The Adventures of Puss in Boots

text: In 2015, the second episode of the series, "Sphinx", was nominated at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival. In 2016, the series won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Casting for an Animated Series or Special.


title: The Adventures of Puss in Boots

text: In April 2016, Titan Comics released the first of a two-issue limited series of comic books as a tie-in to the TV show, under the same title of "The Adventures of Puss in Boots".


title: Wax play

text: Wax play is a form of temperature play practiced in a BDSM context, in which wax from a candle is dripped onto a person's naked skin, in order to introduce a slight burning sensation to the skin.


title: Wax play

text: This is considered a moderately advanced form of play. If done wrong, wax play can cause burns severe enough to require medical attention.


title: Wax play

text: Different types of candles produce different temperatures of wax. They can range from warm and soothing to dangerously hot wax. There is significant difference between individuals' tolerance for heat, which can vary depending on exactly where the wax is applied.


title: Wax play

text: Wax can splatter into the eyes, which may be harmful. Wax that is too hot can cause serious burns. Wax may be difficult to remove, particularly from areas with hair. A flea comb or a sharp knife may be necessary for wax removal; use of a knife for this purpose requires special skills, though a plastic card can work as well. Applying mineral oil or lotion before play can make wax removal easier.


title: Wax play

text: Wax may pool and concentrate heat. Temperatures listed above only apply when wax is in equilibrium. Wax heated in any sort of pot must be stirred vigorously or there can be dangerous temperature variations. Some people may be allergic to perfumes and dyes. Whatever is above a burning candle can get very hot, even at distances that may be surprising. Candles may break and set fire to objects underneath or nearby. Wax is difficult to wash out of clothes and bed linens. People with certain diseases, skin conditions, or taking certain medications may require additional precautions. The page on waxing for hair removal has additional safety considerations.


title: Medroxyprogesterone acetate

text: Medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA), also known as depot medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA) in injectable form and sold under the brand name Depo-Provera among others, is a hormonal medication of the progestin type. It is used as a method of birth control and as a part of menopausal hormone therapy. It is also used to treat endometriosis, abnormal uterine bleeding, abnormal sexuality in males, and certain types of cancer. The medication is available both alone and in combination with an estrogen. It is taken by mouth, used under the tongue, or by injection into a muscle or fat.


title: Medroxyprogesterone acetate

text: Common side effects include menstrual disturbances such as absence of periods, abdominal pain, and headaches. More serious side effects include bone loss, blood clots, allergic reactions, and liver problems. Use is not recommended during pregnancy as it may harm the baby. MPA is an artificial progestogen, and as such activates the progesterone receptor, the biological target of progesterone. It also has androgenic activity and weak glucocorticoid activity. Due to its progestogenic activity, MPA decreases the body's release of gonadotropins and can suppress sex hormone levels. It works as a form of birth control by preventing ovulation.


title: Medroxyprogesterone acetate

text: MPA was discovered in 1956 and was introduced for medical use in the United States in 1959. It is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines. MPA is the most widely used progestin in menopausal hormone therapy and in progestogen-only birth control. DMPA is approved for use as a form of long-acting birth control in more than 100 countries. In 2020, it was the 214th most commonly prescribed medication in the United States, with more than 2million prescriptions.


title: Medroxyprogesterone acetate

text: The most common use of MPA is in the form of DMPA as a long-acting progestogen-only injectable contraceptive to prevent pregnancy in women. It is an extremely effective contraceptive when used with relatively high doses to prevent ovulation. MPA is also used in combination with an estrogen in menopausal hormone therapy in postmenopausal women to treat and prevent menopausal symptoms such as hot flashes, vaginal atrophy, and osteoporosis. It is used in menopausal hormone therapy specifically to prevent endometrial hyperplasia and cancer that would otherwise be induced by prolonged unopposed estrogen therapy in women with intact uteruses. In addition to contraception and menopausal hormone therapy, MPA is used in the treatment of gynecological and menstrual disorders such as dysmenorrhea, amenorrhea, and endometriosis. Along with other progestins, MPA was developed to allow for oral progestogen therapy, as progesterone (the progestogen hormone made by the human body) could not be taken orally for many decades before the process of micronization was developed and became feasible in terms of pharmaceutical manufacturing.


title: Medroxyprogesterone acetate

text: DMPA reduces sex drive in men and is used as a form of chemical castration to control inappropriate or unwanted sexual behavior in those with paraphilias or hypersexuality, including in convicted sex offenders. DMPA has also been used to treat benign prostatic hyperplasia, as a palliative appetite stimulant for cancer patients, and at high doses (800 mg per day) to treat certain hormone-dependent cancers including endometrial cancer, renal cancer, and breast cancer. MPA has also been prescribed in feminizing hormone therapy for transgender women due to its progestogenic and functional antiandrogenic effects. It has been used to delay puberty in children with precocious puberty but is not satisfactory for this purpose as it is not able to completely suppress puberty. DMPA at high doses has been reported to be definitively effective in the treatment of hirsutism as well.


title: Medroxyprogesterone acetate

text: Though not used as a treatment for epilepsy, MPA has been found to reduce the frequency of seizures and does not interact with antiepileptic medications. MPA does not interfere with blood clotting and appears to improve blood parameters for women with sickle cell anemia. Similarly, MPA does not appear to affect liver metabolism, and may improve primary biliary cirrhosis and chronic active hepatitis. Women taking MPA may experience spotting shortly after starting the medication but is not usually serious enough to require medical intervention. With longer use amenorrhea (absence of menstruation) can occur as can irregular menstruation which is a major source of dissatisfaction, though both can result in improvements with iron deficiency and risk of pelvic inflammatory disease and often do not result in discontinuation of the medication.


title: Medroxyprogesterone acetate

text: DMPA, under brand names such as Depo-Provera and Depo-SubQ Provera 104, is used in hormonal birth control as a long-lasting progestogen-only injectable contraceptive to prevent pregnancy in women. It is given by intramuscular or subcutaneous injection and forms a long-lasting depot, from which it is slowly released over a period of several months. It takes one week to take effect if given after the first five days of the period cycle, and is effective immediately if given during the first five days of the period cycle. Estimates of first-year failure rates are about 0.3%. MPA is effective in preventing pregnancy, but offers no protection against sexually transmitted infections (STIs).


title: Medroxyprogesterone acetate

text: Trussell's estimated "perfect use" first-year failure rate for DMPA as the average of failure rates in seven clinical trials at 0.3%. It was considered "perfect use" because the clinical trials measured efficacy during actual use of DMPA defined as being no longer than 14 or 15 weeks after an injection (i.e., no more than 1 or 2 weeks late for a next injection).


title: Medroxyprogesterone acetate

text: Prior to 2004, Trussell's "typical use" failure rate for DMPA was the same as his "perfect use" failure rate: 0.3%.


title: Medroxyprogesterone acetate

text: In 2004, using the 1995 NSFG failure rate, Trussell increased (by 10 times) his "typical use" failure rate for DMPA from 0.3% to 3%.


title: Medroxyprogesterone acetate

text: Trussell did not use 1995 NSFG failure rates as "typical use" failure rates for the other two then newly available long-acting contraceptives, the Norplant implant (2.3%) and the ParaGard copper T 380A IUD (3.7%), which were (as with DMPA) an order of magnitude higher than in clinical trials. Since Norplant and ParaGard allow no scope for user error, their much higher 1995 NSFG failure rates were attributed by Trussell to contraceptive overreporting at the time of a conception leading to a live birth.


title: Medroxyprogesterone acetate

text: The United Kingdom Department of Health has actively promoted Long Acting Reversible Contraceptive use since 2008, particularly for young people; following on from the October 2005 National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence guidelines. Giving advice on these methods of contraception has been included in the 2009 Quality and Outcomes Framework "good practice" for primary care.


title: Medroxyprogesterone acetate

text: Proponents of bioidentical hormone therapy believe that progesterone offers fewer side effects and improved quality of life compared to MPA. The evidence for this view has been questioned; MPA is better absorbed when taken by mouth, with a much longer elimination half-life leading to more stable blood levels though it may lead to greater breast tenderness and more sporadic vaginal bleeding. The two compounds do not differentiate in their ability to suppress endometrial hyperplasia, nor does either increase the risk of pulmonary embolism. The two medications have not been adequately compared in direct tests to clear conclusions about safety and superiority.


title: Medroxyprogesterone acetate

text: MPA is available alone in the form of 2.5, 5, and 10 mg oral tablets, as a 150 mg/mL (1 mL) or 400 mg/mL (2.5 mL) microcrystalline aqueous suspension for intramuscular injection, and as a 104 mg (0.65 mL of 160 mg/mL) microcrystalline aqueous suspension for subcutaneous injection. It has also been marketed in the form of 100, 200, 250, 400, and 500 mg oral tablets; 500 and 1,000 mg oral suspensions; and as a 50 mg/mL microcrystalline aqueous suspension for intramuscular injection. A 100 mg/mL microcrystalline aqueous suspension for intramuscular injection was previously available as well. In addition to single-drug formulations, MPA is available in the form of oral tablets in combination with conjugated estrogens (CEEs), estradiol, and estradiol valerate for use in menopausal hormone therapy, and is available in combination with estradiol cypionate in a microcrystalline aqueous suspension as a combined injectable contraceptive.


title: Medroxyprogesterone acetate

text: Depo-Provera is the brand name for a 150 mg microcrystalline aqueous suspension of DMPA that is administered by intramuscular injection. The shot must be injected into thigh, buttock, or deltoid muscle four times a year (every 11 to 13 weeks), and provides pregnancy protection instantaneously after the first injection. Depo-subQ Provera 104 is a variation of the original intramuscular DMPA that is instead a 104 mg microcrystalline dose in aqueous suspension administered by subcutaneous injection. It contains 69% of the MPA found in the original intramuscular DMPA formulation. It can be injected using a smaller injection needle inserting the medication just below the skin, instead of into the muscle, in either the abdomen or thigh. This subcutaneous injection claims to reduce the side effects of DMPA while still maintaining all the same benefits of the original intramuscular DMPA.


title: Medroxyprogesterone acetate

text: MPA is not usually recommended because of unacceptable health risk or because it is not indicated in the following cases:


title: Medroxyprogesterone acetate

text: In women, the most common adverse effects of MPA are acne, changes in menstrual flow, drowsiness, and can cause birth defects if taken by pregnant women. Other common side effects include breast tenderness, increased facial hair, decreased scalp hair, difficulty falling or remaining asleep, stomach pain, and weight loss or gain. Lowered libido has been reported as a side effect of MPA in women. DMPA can affect menstrual bleeding. After a year of use, 55% of women experience amenorrhea (missed periods); after two years, the rate rises to 68%. In the first months of use "irregular or unpredictable bleeding or spotting, or, rarely, heavy or continuous bleeding" was reported. MPA does not appear to be associated with vitamin B deficiency. Data on weight gain with DMPA likewise are inconsistent.


title: Medroxyprogesterone acetate

text: At high doses for the treatment of breast cancer, MPA can cause weight gain and can worsen diabetes mellitus and edema (particularly of the face). Adverse effects peak at five weeks, and are reduced with lower doses. Less frequent effects may include thrombosis (though it is not clear if this is truly a risk, it cannot be ruled out), painful urination, headache, nausea, and vomiting. When used as a form of androgen deprivation therapy in men, more frequent complaints include reduced libido, impotence, reduced ejaculate volume, and within three days, chemical castration. At extremely high doses (used to treat cancer, not for contraception) MPA may cause adrenal suppression and may interfere with carbohydrate metabolism, but does not cause diabetes.


title: Medroxyprogesterone acetate

text: When used as a form of injected birth control, there is a delayed return of fertility. The average return to fertility is 9 to 10 months after the last injection, taking longer for overweight or obese women. By 18 months after the last injection, fertility is the same as that in former users of other contraceptive methods. Fetuses exposed to progestogens have demonstrated higher rates of genital abnormalities, low birth weight, and increased ectopic pregnancy particularly when MPA is used as an injected form of long-term birth control. A study of accidental pregnancies among poor women in Thailand found that infants who had been exposed to DMPA during pregnancy had a higher risk of low birth weight and an 80% greater-than-usual chance of dying in the first year of life.


title: Medroxyprogesterone acetate

text: There have been concerns about a possible risk of depression and mood changes with progestins like MPA, and this has led to reluctance of some clinicians and women to use them. However, contrary to widely-held beliefs, most research suggests that progestins do not cause adverse psychological effects such as depression or anxiety. A 2018 systematic review of the relationship between progestin-based contraception and depression included three large studies of DMPA and reported no association between DMPA and depression. According to a 2003 review of DMPA, the majority of published clinical studies indicate that DMPA is not associated with depression, and the overall data support the notion that the medication does not significantly affect mood.


title: Medroxyprogesterone acetate

text: In the largest study to have assessed the relationship between MPA and depression to date, in which over 3,900 women were treated with DMPA for up to 7 years, the incidence of depression was infrequent at 1.5% and the discontinuation rate due to depression was 0.5%. This study did not include baseline data on depression, and due to the incidence of depression in the study, the FDA required package labeling for DMPA stating that women with depression should be observed carefully and that DMPA should be discontinued if depression recurs. A subsequent study of 495 women treated with DMPA over the course of 1 year found that the mean depression score slightly decreased in the whole group of continuing users from 7.4 to 6.7 (by 9.5%) and decreased in the quintile of that group with the highest depression scores at baseline from 15.4 to 9.5 (by 38%). Based on the results of this study and others, a consensus began emerging that DMPA does not in fact increase the risk of depression nor worsen the severity of pre-existing depression.


title: Medroxyprogesterone acetate

text: Similarly to the case of DMPA for hormonal contraception, the Heart and Estrogen/Progestin Replacement Study (HERS), a study of 2,763 postmenopausal women treated with 0.625 mg/day oral CEEs plus 2.5 mg/day oral MPA or placebo for 36 months as a method of menopausal hormone therapy, found no change in depressive symptoms. However, some small studies have reported that progestins like MPA might counteract beneficial effects of estrogens against depression.


title: Medroxyprogesterone acetate

text: The Women's Health Initiative investigated the use of a combination of oral CEEs and MPA compared to placebo. The study was prematurely terminated when previously unexpected risks were discovered, specifically the finding that though the all-cause mortality was not affected by the hormone therapy, the benefits of menopausal hormone therapy (reduced risk of hip fracture, colorectal and endometrial cancer and all other causes of death) were offset by increased risk of coronary heart disease, breast cancer, strokes and pulmonary embolism.