title: Jim Risch

text: On January 21, 2020, during the first day of opening arguments in Trump's Senate impeachment trial, Risch was the first senator to fall asleep. Courtroom sketch artist Art Lien memorialized his nap.


title: Jim Risch

text: In 2020, while Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Risch decided not to press Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to testify at the annual budget hearing. Pompeo had just successfully sought to have State Department inspector general Steve Linick fired; at the time, Linick had been conducting a watchdog investigation into the Trump administration's decision to sell arms to Saudi Arabia without congressional approval. For his tenure as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during the 116th Congress, the nonpartisan Lugar Center's Congressional Oversight Hearing Index gave Risch an "F" grade.


title: Jim Risch

text: Risch was participating in the certification of the 2021 United States Electoral College vote count when Trump supporters stormed the United States Capitol. He called the attack "unpatriotic and un-American in the extreme" and suggested it was sparred by "deep distrust in the integrity and veracity of our elections."


title: Jim Risch

text: In 2021, Risch blocked the confirmation of Holocaust historian Deborah Lipstadt to the position of special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism.


title: Jim Risch

text: In 2019, Risch sought to quell dissent among Republican senators over what they perceived as the Trump administration's weak response to the killing of Saudi journalist and U.S. permanent resident Jamal Khashoggi, and its refusal to send Congress a report on the administration's determination of who killed Khashoggi. He told his fellow Republican senators and "Politico" that the Trump administration was in compliance with the Magnitsky Act, but the administration had said that it refused to comply with the Act.


title: Jim Risch

text: In March 2018, Risch co-sponsored the Israel Anti-Boycott Act (s. 720), which would make it a federal crime for Americans to encourage or participate in boycotts against Israel and Israeli settlements in the West Bank if protesting actions by the Israeli government.


title: Jim Risch

text: Risch was a co-sponsor of the Promoting American National Security and Preventing the Resurgence of ISIS Act of 2019 (S.2641–116th), which was intended to punish Turkey and protect allies like the Kurds, who had suffered from recent Turkish military operations in Syria, including by resettling them in the U.S. The measure had broad support in Congress, which was concerned about the purchase of the Russian S-400 missile system Turkey was testing.


title: Jim Risch

text: On October 18, 2022, Risch criticized the Biden administration for hesitating to impose sanctions on the government of Ethiopia, where many atrocities and war crimes were committed in the Tigray War. He tweeted that Biden "must stop avoiding the use of sanctions in fear of offending and prioritize #humanrights".


title: Jim Risch

text: Risch is considered politically conservative. The American Conservative Union's Center for Legislative Accountability gives him a lifetime conservative score of 91.54. The liberal Americans for Democratic Action gave him an ideology score of zero in 2019.


title: Jim Risch

text: Risch is anti-abortion. He believes that "Roe v. Wade" was wrongly decided. In 2013, he co-sponsored the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act, which would have made it illegal for a minor to cross state lines for an abortion. Risch supported the June 2022 overturning of "Roe v. Wade" and applauded the Supreme Court for recognizing "that states have an interest in protecting life at all stages of development by giving Americans the power to decide this matter at the state-level through their elected representatives."


title: Jim Risch

text: The National Rifle Association (NRA) endorsed Risch and gave him an A+ grade for his voting record on gun issues.


title: Jim Risch

text: In 2013, along with 12 other Republican Senators, Risch threatened to filibuster any bills Democrats introduced that Republicans perceived as a threat to gun rights, including expanded background checks. In an interview with National Public Radio, he said that Americans' right to keep and bear arms includes "a right to purchase one [a gun], to sell one, to trade in one, and you really have to have a robust market if indeed you're going to have a constitutional right." He also said that additional background checks would mean that gun dealers would "have to deal with the federal bureaucracy, which is very, very difficult to deal with."


title: Jim Risch

text: In response to the Orlando nightclub shooting, Risch and Crapo said the shooting was not a reason to call for gun control legislation.


title: Jim Risch

text: In 2016, Risch voted against the Feinstein Amendment, which would have blocked the sale of guns to people on the terrorist watch list, and Democrat Chris Murphy's proposal to expand background checks for sales at gun shows and online. Risch voted for both Republican-backed bills, John Cornyn's proposal to create a 72-hour delay for anyone on the terrorist watchlist buying a gun and Charles Grassley and Ted Cruz's proposal to alert authorities if a someone on the list tries to buy a firearm.


title: Jim Risch

text: Risch opposed the FIRST STEP Act, a bipartisan criminal justice reform bill. The bill passed 87–12 on December 18, 2018.


title: Jim Risch

text: Risch supports repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare. He voted against the ACA in 2010.


title: Jim Risch

text: On May 21, 2020, Risch introduced S. 3829, the Global Health Security and Diplomacy Act, but it did not receive a vote. In opening the confirmation hearings for Secretary Antony Blinken, Risch emphasized it as a legislative and foreign policy priority, given the "catastrophic failure at every level" of global health security infrastructure. The bill's supporters claim it would "improve coordination among the relevant Federal departments and agencies implementing United States foreign assistance for global health security, and more effectively enable partner countries to strengthen and sustain resilient health systems and supply chains with the resources, capacity, and personnel required to prevent, detect, mitigate, and respond to infectious disease threats before they become pandemics, and for other purposes."


title: Jim Risch

text: On May 28, 2021, Risch abstained from voting on the creation of an independent commission to investigate the 2021 United States Capitol attack.


title: Jim Risch

text: On August 2, 2022, Risch was one of only 11 senators to vote against the Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act, a bill to expand VA health care and benefits for veterans exposed to burn pits and other toxic substances.


title: Gravettian

text: The Gravettian was an archaeological industry of the European Upper Paleolithic that succeeded the Aurignacian circa 33,000 years BP. It is archaeologically the last European culture many consider unified, and had mostly disappeared by  22,000 BP, close to the Last Glacial Maximum, although some elements lasted until  17,000 BP. In Spain and France, it was succeeded by the Solutrean, and developed into or continued as the Epigravettian in Italy, the Balkans, Ukraine and Russia.


title: Gravettian

text: The Gravettian culture is known for Venus figurines, which were typically carved from either ivory or limestone. The culture was first identified at the site of La Gravette in the southwestern French department of Dordogne.


title: Gravettian

text: The Gravettians were hunter-gatherers who lived in a bitterly cold period of European prehistory, and the Gravettian lifestyle was shaped by the climate. Pleniglacial environmental changes forced them to adapt. West and Central Europe were extremely cold during this period. Archaeologists usually describe two regional variants: the western Gravettian, known mainly from cave sites in France, Spain and Britain, and the eastern Gravettian in Central Europe and Russia. The eastern Gravettians, which include the Pavlovian culture, were specialized mammoth hunters, whose remains are usually found not in caves but in open air sites.


title: Gravettian

text: Gravettian culture thrived on their ability to hunt animals. They utilized a variety of tools and hunting strategies. Compared to theorized hunting techniques of Neanderthals and earlier human groups, Gravettian hunting culture appears much more mobile and complex. They lived in caves or semi-subterranean or rounded dwellings which were typically arranged in small "villages". Gravettians are thought to have been innovative in the development of tools such as blunted-back knives, tanged arrowheads and boomerangs. Other innovations include the use of woven nets and oil lamps made of stone. Blades and bladelets were used to make decorations and bone tools from animal remains.


title: Gravettian

text: Gravettian culture extends across a large geographic region, as far as Estremadura in Portugal. but is relatively homogeneous until about 27,000 BP. They developed burial rites, which included the inclusion of simple, purpose-built offerings and/or personal ornaments owned by the deceased, placed within the grave or tomb. Surviving Gravettian art includes numerous cave paintings and small, portable Venus figurines made from clay or ivory, as well as jewelry objects. The fertility deities mostly date from the early period; there are over 100 known surviving examples. They conform to a very specific physical type, with large breasts, broad hips and prominent posteriors. The statuettes tend to lack facial details, and their limbs are often broken off.


title: Gravettian

text: During the post glacial period, evidence of the culture begins to disappear from northern Europe but was continued in areas around the Mediterranean.


title: Gravettian

text: Animals were a primary food source for early humans of the Gravettian period. Since Europe was extremely cold during this period, food sources needed to be high in energy and fat content. Testing comparisons among various human remains reveal that populations at higher latitudes placed greater dietary emphasis on meat. A defining trait distinguishing Gravettian people was their ease of mobility compared to their Neanderthal counterparts. Modern humans developed the technology and social organization that enabled them to migrate with their food source whereas Neanderthals were not adept at travelling, even with relatively sedentary herds.


title: Gravettian

text: With their ability to move with the herds, Gravettian diets incorporated a huge variety of animal prey. The main factors were the animal's age and size. For example, first year deer offered hides most suitable for clothing, while fourth year deer contained far more meat. Gravettian diet included larger animals such as mammoths, hyenas, wolves, and reindeer killed with stone or bone tools, as well as hares and foxes captured with nets. This time period is classified by the strong emphasis on meat consumption because agriculture had not been fully introduced nor utilized. In addition, the climate was not favorable to stable crop cultivation.


title: Gravettian

text: Coastal Gravettians were able to avail of marine protein. From remains found in Italy and Wales, carbon dating reveals that 20-30% of Gravettian diets of coastal peoples consisted of sea animals. Populations of lower latitudes relied more on shellfish and fish while higher latitudes' diets consisted of seals.


title: Gravettian

text: Physical remains of people of the Gravettian have revealed that they were tall and relatively slender people. The male height of the Gravettian culture ranged between tall with an average of , which is exceptionally tall not only for that period of prehistory, but for all periods of history.


title: Gravettian

text: They were fairly slender and normally weighed between , although they would likely have had a higher ratio of lean muscle mass compared to body fat in comparison to modern humans as a result of a very physically active and demanding lifestyle. The females of the Gravettian were much shorter, standing on average, with an average weight of . Examinations of Gravettian skulls reveal that high cheekbones were common among them.


title: Gravettian

text: Clubs, stones and sticks were the primary hunting tools during the Upper Paleolithic period. Bone, antler and ivory points have all been found at sites in France; but proper stone arrowheads and throwing spears did not appear until the Solutrean period (~20,000 Before Present). Due to the primitive tools, many animals were hunted at close range. The typical artefact of Gravettian industry, once considered diagnostic, is the small pointed blade with a straight blunt back. They are today known as the Gravette point, and were used to hunt big game. Gravettians used nets to hunt small game, and are credited with inventing the bow and arrow.


title: Gravettian

text: Gravettian settlers tended towards the valleys that pooled migrating prey. Examples found through discoveries in Gr. La Gala, a site in Southern Italy, show a strategic settlement based in a small valley. As the settlers became more aware of the migration patterns of animals like red deer, they learned that prey herd in valleys, thereby allowing the hunters to avoid travelling long distances for food. Specifically in Gr. La Gala, the glacial topography forced the deer to pass through the areas in the valley occupied by humans. Additional evidence of strategically positioned settlements include sites like Klithi in Greece, also placed to intercept migrating prey.


title: Gravettian

text: Discoveries in the Czech Republic suggest that nets were used to capture large numbers of smaller prey, thus offering a quick and consistent food supply and thus an alternative to the feast/famine pattern of large game hunters. Evidence comes in the form of thick rope preserved on clay imprints. Research suggests that although no larger net imprints have been discovered, there would be little reason for them not to be made as no further knowledge would be required for their creation. The weaving of nets was likely a communal task, relying on the work of both women and children.


title: Gravettian

text: The Gravettian era landscape is most closely related to the landscape of present-day Moravia. Pavlov I in southern Moravia is the most complete and complex Gravettian site to date, and a perfect model for a general understanding of Gravettian culture. In many instances, animal remains indicate both decorative and utilitarian purposes. In the case of, for example, Arctic foxes, incisors and canines were used for decoration, while their humeri and radii bones were used as tools. Similarly, the skeletons of some red foxes contain decorative incisors and canines as well as ulnas used for awls and barbs.


title: Gravettian

text: Some animal bones were only used to create tools. Due to their shape, the ribs, fibulas, and metapodia of horses were good for awl and barb creation. In addition, the ribs were also implemented to create different types of smoothers for pelt preparation. The shapes of hare bones are also unique, and as a result, the ulnas were commonly used as awls and barbs. Reindeer antlers, ulnas, ribs, tibias and teeth were utilised in addition to a rare documented case of a phalanx. Mammoth remnants are among the most common bone remnants of the culture, while long bones and molars are also documented. Some mammoth bones were used for decorative purposes. Wolf remains were often used for tool production and decoration.


title: Gravettian

text: Fu et al. (2016) examined the remains of fourteen Gravettians. The eight male included three samples of haplogroup CT, one of I, one IJK, one BT, one C1a2, and one sample of F. Of the fourteen samples of mtDNA, there were thirteen samples of U and one sample of M. The majority of the sample of U belonged to the U5 and U2.


title: Gravettian

text: Teschler et al. (2020) examined the remains of one adult male and two twin boys from a Gravettian site in Austria. All belonged to haplogroup Y-Haplogroup I. and all had the same mtDNA, U5. According to Scorrano et al. (2022), "the genome of an early European [Gravettian] individual from Kostenki 14, dated to around 37,000 years ago, demonstrated that the ancestral European gene pool was already established by that time.”


title: Ossian

text: Ossian (; Irish Gaelic/Scottish Gaelic: "Oisean") is the narrator and purported author of a cycle of epic poems published by the Scottish poet James Macpherson, originally as "Fingal" (1761) and "Temora" (1763), and later combined under the title "The Poems of Ossian". Macpherson claimed to have collected word-of-mouth material in Scottish Gaelic, said to be from ancient sources, and that the work was his translation of that material. Ossian is based on Oisín, son of Fionn mac Cumhaill (anglicised to Finn McCool), a legendary bard in Irish mythology. Contemporary critics were divided in their view of the work's authenticity, but the current consensus is that Macpherson largely composed the poems himself, drawing in part on traditional Gaelic poetry he had collected.


title: Ossian

text: The work was internationally popular, translated into all the literary languages of Europe and was highly influential both in the development of the Romantic movement and the Gaelic revival. Macpherson's fame was crowned by his burial among the literary giants in Westminster Abbey. W.P. Ker, in the "Cambridge History of English Literature", observes that "all Macpherson's craft as a philological impostor would have been nothing without his literary skill."


title: Ossian

text: In 1760, Macpherson published the English-language text "Fragments of ancient poetry, collected in the Highlands of Scotland, and translated from the Gaelic or Erse language". Later that year, he claimed to have obtained further manuscripts and, in 1761, he claimed to have found an epic on the subject of the hero Fingal (with Fingal or "Fionnghall" meaning "white stranger"), written by Ossian. According to Macpherson's prefatory material, his publisher, claiming that there was no market for these works except in English, required that they be translated. Macpherson published these translations during the next few years, culminating in a collected edition, "The Works of Ossian", in 1765. The most famous of these Ossianic poems was "Fingal", written in 1761 and dated 1762.


title: Ossian

text: The supposed original poems are translated into poetic prose, with short and simple sentences. The mood is epic, but there is no single narrative, although the same characters reappear. The main characters are Ossian himself, relating the stories when old and blind, his father Fingal (very loosely based on the Irish hero Fionn mac Cumhaill), his dead son Oscar (also with an Irish counterpart), and Oscar's lover Malvina (like Fiona a name invented by Macpherson), who looks after Ossian in his old age. Though the stories "are of endless battles and unhappy loves", the enemies and causes of strife are given little explanation and context.


title: Ossian

text: Characters are given to killing loved ones by mistake, and dying of grief, or of joy. There is very little information given on the religion, culture or society of the characters, and buildings are hardly mentioned. The landscape "is more real than the people who inhabit it. Drowned in eternal mist, illuminated by a decrepit sun or by ephemeral meteors, it is a world of greyness." Fingal is king of a region of south-west Scotland perhaps similar to the historical kingdom of Dál Riata and the poems appear to be set around the 3rd century, with the "king of the world" mentioned being the Roman Emperor; Macpherson and his supporters detected references to Caracalla (d. 217, as "Caracul") and Carausius (d. 293, as "Caros", the "king of ships").


title: Ossian

text: The poems achieved international success. Napoleon and Diderot were prominent admirers and Voltaire was known to have written parodies of them. Thomas Jefferson thought Ossian "the greatest poet that has ever existed", and planned to learn Gaelic so as to read his poems in the original. They were proclaimed as a Celtic equivalent of the Classical writers such as Homer. "The genuine remains of Ossian...are in many respects of the same stamp as the Iliad," was Thoreau's opinion. Many writers were influenced by the works, including Walter Scott, and painters and composers chose Ossianic subjects.


title: Ossian

text: The Hungarian national poet Sándor Petőfi wrote a poem entitled "Homer and Ossian", comparing the two authors, of which the first verse reads:


title: Ossian

text: Despite its doubtful authenticity, the Ossian cycle popularized Scottish national mythology across Europe, and became one of the earliest and most popular texts that inspired romantic nationalist movements over the following century. European historians agree that the Ossian poems and their vision of mythical Scotland spurred the emergence of enlightened patriotism on the continent and played a foundational role in the making of modern European nationalism.


title: Ossian

text: The cycle had less impact in the British Isles. Samuel Johnson held it up as "another proof of Scotch conspiracy in national falsehood," while the Irish objected to what they saw as Macpherson's misappropriation of their own traditions. David Hume eventually withdrew his initial support of Macpherson and quipped that he could not accept the claimed authenticity of the poems even if "fifty bare-arsed Highlanders" vouched for it. By the early 19th century, the cycle came to play a limited role in Scottish patriotic rhetoric.


title: Ossian

text: There were immediate disputes of Macpherson's claims on both literary and political grounds. Macpherson promoted a Scottish origin for the material, and was hotly opposed by Irish historians who felt that their heritage was being appropriated. However, both Scotland and Ireland shared a common Gaelic culture during the period in which the poems are set, and some Fenian literature common in both countries was composed in Scotland.


title: Ossian

text: Samuel Johnson, English author, critic, and biographer, was convinced that Macpherson was "a mountebank, a liar, and a fraud, and that the poems were forgeries". Johnson also dismissed the poems' quality. Upon being asked, "But Doctor Johnson, do you really believe that any man today could write such poetry?" he famously replied, "Yes. Many men. Many women. And many children." Johnson is cited as calling the story of Ossian "as gross an imposition as ever the world was troubled with". In support of his claim, Johnson also called Gaelic the rude speech of a barbarous people, and said there were no manuscripts in it more than 100 years old. In reply, it was proved that the Advocates' library at Edinburgh contained Gaelic manuscripts 500 years old, and one of even greater antiquity.


title: Ossian

text: Scottish author Hugh Blair's 1763 "A Critical Dissertation on the Poems of Ossian" upheld the work's authenticity against Johnson's scathing criticism and from 1765 was included in every edition of "Ossian" to lend the work credibility. The work also had a timely resonance for those swept away by the emerging Romantic movement and the theory of the "noble savage", and it echoed the popularity of Burke's seminal "A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful" (1757).


title: Ossian

text: In 1766 the Irish antiquarian and Gaelic scholar Charles O'Conor dismissed Ossian's authenticity in a new chapter "Remarks on Mr. Mac Pherson's translation of Fingal and Temora" that he added to the second edition of his seminal history. In 1775 he expanded his criticism in a new book, "Dissertation on the origin and antiquities of the antient Scots".


title: Ossian

text: Faced with the controversy, the Committee of the Highland Society enquired after the authenticity of Macpherson's supposed original. It was because of these circumstances that the so-called Glenmasan manuscript (Adv. 72.2.3) came to light in the late 18th century, a compilation which contains the tale "Oided mac n-Uisnig". This text is a version of the Irish "Longes mac n-Uislenn" and offers a tale which bears some comparison to Macpherson's "Darthula", although it is radically different in many respects. Donald Smith cited it in his report for the Committee.


title: Ossian

text: The controversy raged on into the early years of the 19th century, with disputes as to whether the poems were based on Irish sources, on sources in English, on Gaelic fragments woven into his own composition as Johnson concluded, or largely on Scots Gaelic oral traditions and manuscripts as Macpherson claimed. In the late 19th century, it was demonstrated that the only "original" Gaelic manuscripts that Macpherson produced for the poems were in fact back-translations of his work from English. During the same period, Peter Hately Waddell defended the authenticity of the poems, arguing in "Ossian and the Clyde" (1875) that poems contained topographical references that could not have been known to Macpherson.


title: Ossian

text: In 1952, the Scottish literary scholar Derick Thomson investigated the sources for Macpherson's work and concluded that Macpherson had collected genuine Scottish Gaelic ballads, employing scribes to record those that were preserved orally and collating manuscripts, but had adapted them by altering the original characters and ideas, and had introduced a great deal of his own.


title: Ossian

text: According to historians Colin Kidd and James Coleman, "Fingal" (1761, dated 1762) was indebted to traditional Gaelic poetry composed in the 15th and 16th centuries, as well as to Macpherson's "own creativity and editorial laxity", while the second epic "Temora" (1763) was largely his own creation. Yet acknowledging the tales were variations of the original Gaelic Irish versions.


title: Ossian

text: One poem was translated into French in 1762, and, by 1777, the whole "corpus". In the German-speaking states Michael Denis made the first full translation in 1768–69, inspiring the proto-nationalist poets Klopstock and Goethe, whose own German translation of a portion of Macpherson's work figures prominently in a climactic scene of "The Sorrows of Young Werther" (1774). Goethe's associate Johann Gottfried Herder wrote an essay titled "Extract from a correspondence about Ossian and the Songs of Ancient Peoples" (1773) in the early days of the Sturm und Drang movement.


title: Ossian

text: Complete Danish translations were made in 1790, and Swedish ones in 1794–1800. In Scandinavia and Germany the Celtic nature of the setting was ignored or not understood, and Ossian was regarded as a Nordic or Germanic figure who became a symbol for nationalist aspirations. In 1799, the French general Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte named his only son Oscar after the character from Ossian, at the suggestion of Napoleon, the child's godfather and an admirer of Ossian. Bernadotte later was made King of Sweden and Norway. In 1844, his son became King Oscar I of Sweden and Norway, who was, in turn, succeeded by his sons Charles XV and Oscar II (d. 1907). "Oscar" being a royal name led to its becoming also a common male first name, especially in Scandinavia but also in other European countries.


title: Ossian

text: Melchiore Cesarotti was an Italian clergyman whose translation into Italian is said by many to improve on the original, and was a tireless promoter of the poems, in Vienna and Warsaw as well as Italy. It was his translation that Napoleon especially admired, and among others it influenced Ugo Foscolo who was Cesarotti's pupil in the University of Padua.


title: Ossian

text: By 1800, Ossian was translated into Spanish and Russian, with Dutch following in 1805, and Polish, Czech and Hungarian in 1827–33. The poems were as much admired in Hungary as in France and Germany; Hungarian János Arany wrote "Homer and Ossian" in response, and several other Hungarian writers – Baróti Szabó, Csokonai, Sándor Kisfaludy, Kazinczy, Kölcsey, Ferenc Toldy, and Ágost Greguss, were also influenced by it.


title: Ossian

text: The first partial Polish translation of Ossian was made by Ignacy Krasicki in 1793. The complete translation appeared in 1838 by Seweryn Goszczyński.


title: Ossian

text: British composer Harriet Wainwright premiered her opera "Comala", based on text by Ossian, in London in 1792.


title: Ossian

text: The opera "Ossian, ou Les bardes" by Jean-François Le Sueur (with the famous, multimedial scene of "Ossian's Dream“) was a sell-out at the Paris Opera in 1804, and transformed the composer's career. The poems also exerted an influence on the burgeoning of Romantic music, and Franz Schubert in particular composed Lieder setting many of Ossian's poems. In 1829 Felix Mendelssohn was inspired to visit the Hebrides and composed the "Hebrides Overture", also known as "Fingal's Cave". His friend Niels Gade devoted his first published work, the concert overture "Efterklange af Ossian" ("Echoes of Ossian") written in 1840, to the same subject.


title: Ossian

text: Macpherson's "Ossian" made a strong impression on Dugald Buchanan (1716–68), a Perthshire poet whose celebrated "Spiritual Hymns" are written in a Scots Gaelic of a high quality that to some extent reflects the Classical Gaelic literary language once common to the bards of both Ireland and Scotland. Buchanan, taking the poems of "Ossian" to be authentic, was moved to revalue the genuine traditions and rich cultural heritage of the Gaels. At around the same time, he wrote to Sir James Clerk of Penicuik, the leading antiquary of the movement, proposing that someone should travel to the Isles and Western Coast of Scotland and collect the work of the ancient and modern bards, in which alone he could find the language in its purity.


title: Ossian

text: Much later, in the 19th and 20th centuries, this task was taken up by collectors such as Alexander Carmichael and Lady Evelyn Stewart Murray, and to be recorded and continued by the work of the School of Scottish Studies and the Scottish Gaelic Texts Society.


title: Ossian

text: Subjects from the Ossian poems were popular in the art of northern Europe, but at rather different periods depending on the country; by the time French artists began to depict Ossian, British artists had largely dropped him. Ossian was especially popular in Danish art, but also found in Germany and the rest of Scandinavia.


title: Ossian

text: British artists began to depict the Ossian poems early on, with the first major work a cycle of paintings decorating the ceiling the "Grand Hall" of Penicuik House in Midlothian, built by Sir James Clerk, who commissioned the paintings in 1772. These were by the Scottish painter Alexander Runciman and lost when the house burnt down in 1899, though drawings and etchings survive, and two pamphlets describing them were published in the 18th century. A subject from Ossian by Angelica Kauffman was shown in the Royal Academy exhibition of 1773, and Ossian was depicted in "Elysium", part of the Irish painter James Barry's "magnum opus" decorating the Royal Society of Arts, at the Adelphi Buildings in London (still "in situ").


title: Ossian

text: Works on paper by Thomas Girtin and John Sell Cotman have survived, though the Ossianic landscapes by George Augustus Wallis, which the Ossian fan August Wilhelm Schlegel praised in a letter to Goethe, seem to have been lost, as has a picture by J.M.W. Turner exhibited in 1802. Henry Singleton exhibited paintings, some of which were engraved and used in editions of the poems.


title: Ossian

text: The Danish painter Nicolai Abildgaard, Director of the Copenhagen Academy from 1789, painted several scenes from Ossian, as did his pupils including Asmus Jacob Carstens. His friend Joseph Anton Koch painted a number of subjects, and two large series of illustrations for the poems, which never got properly into print; like many Ossianic works by Wallis, Carstens, Krafft and others, some of these were painted in Rome, perhaps not the best place to evoke the dim northern light of the poems. In Germany the request in 1804 to produce some drawings as illustrations so excited Philipp Otto Runge that he planned a series of 100, far more than asked for, in a style heavily influenced by the linear illustrations of John Flaxman; these remain as drawings only. Many other German works are recorded, some as late as the 1840s; word of the British scepticism over the Ossian poems was slow to penetrate the continent, or considered irrelevant.


title: Ossian

text: In France the enthusiasm of Napoleon for the poems accounts for most artistic depictions, and those by the most famous artists, but a painting exhibited in the Paris Salon in 1800 by Paul Duqueylar (now Musée Granet, Aix-en-Provence) excited "Les Barbus" ("the Bearded Ones") a group of primitivist artists including Pierre-Maurice Quays (or Quaï) who promoted living in the style of "early civilizations as described in Homer, Ossian, and the Bible". Quays is reported as saying: "Homère? Ossian? ... le soleil? la lune? Voilà la question. En vérité, je crois que je préfère la lune. C'est plus simple, plus grand, plus "primitif"". ("Homer? Ossian? ... the sun? the moon? That's the question. Truthfully I think I prefer the moon. It's more simple, more grand, more "primitive""). The same year Napoleon was planning the renovation of the Château de Malmaison as a summer palace, and though he does not seem to have suggested Ossianic subjects for his painters, two large and significant works were among those painted for the reception hall, for which six artists had been commissioned.


title: Ossian

text: These were Girodet's painting of 1801–02 "Ossian receiving the Ghosts of the French Heroes", and "Ossian Evoking ghosts on the Edge of the Lora" (1801), by François Pascal Simon Gérard. Gérard's original was lost in a shipwreck after being bought by the King of Sweden after the fall of Napoleon, but survives in three replicas by the artist (a further one in Berlin was lost in 1945). One is now at Malmaison (184.5 × 194.5 cm / 72.6 × 76.6 in), and the Kunsthalle Hamburg has another (180,5 × 198,5 cm). A watercolour copy by Jean-Baptiste Isabey was placed as frontispiece to Napoleon's copy of the poems.


title: Ossian

text: Duqueylar, Girodet and Gérard, like Johann Peter Krafft (above) and most of the "Barbus", were all pupils of David, and the clearly unclassical subjects of the Ossian poems were useful for emergent French Romantic painting, marking a revolt against David's Neoclassical choice of historical subject-matter. David's recorded reactions to the paintings were guarded or hostile; he said of Girodet's work: "Either Girodet is mad or I no longer know anything of the art of painting".


title: Ossian

text: Girodet's painting (still at Malmaison; 192.5 x 184 cm) was a "success de scandale" when exhibited in 1802, and remains a key work in the emergence of French Romantic painting, but the specific allusions to the political situation that he intended it to carry were largely lost on the public, and overtaken by the Peace of Amiens with Great Britain, signed in 1802 between the completion and exhibition of the work. He also produced "Malvina dying in the arms of Fingal" (c. 1802), and other works.


title: Ossian

text: Another pupil of David, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, was to depict Ossianic scenes over most of his long career. He made a drawing in 1809, when studying in Rome, and in 1810 or 1811 was commissioned to make two paintings, "The Dream of Ossian" and a classical scene, to decorate the bedroom Napoleon was to occupy in the Palazzo Quirinale on a visit to Rome. In fact the visit never came off and in 1835 Ingres repurchased the work, now in poor condition.


title: Ossian

text: National Library of Scotland has 327 books and associated materials in its Ossian Collection. The collection was originally assembled by J. Norman Methven of Perth and includes different editions and translations of James Macpherson's epic poem 'Ossian', some with a map of the 'Kingdom of Connor'. It also contains secondary material relating to Ossianic poetry and the Ossian controversy. More than 200 items from the collection have been digitised.


title: Imogen Thomas

text: Imogen Mary Thomas (born 29 November 1982) is a Welsh model and television personality. She won the Miss Wales award in 2003, and appeared on the seventh series of Channel 4 reality television programme "Big Brother" in 2006. In 2011, her alleged extramarital relationship with footballer Ryan Giggs was the subject of a gagging order in the England and Wales.


title: Imogen Thomas

text: Imogen Mary Thomas was born 29 November 1982 in Llanelli, Wales. She started working as a model at age 13, and at the age of 17 moved to London to become a professional model. Working in bars to pay for her living costs, she was rejected by many modelling agencies due to her height (5ft 6").


title: Imogen Thomas

text: She was crowned Miss Wales in 2003, beating future "Big Brother" 9 winner Rachel Rice, who came third. She went on to represent Wales at Miss World in China. This prompted her to return to London to try glamour modelling, and also working as a bar hostess at London's Sanderson Hotel.


title: Imogen Thomas

text: In 2006, Thomas was selected as a housemate for the seventh series of "Big Brother". She was evicted on Day 86 with 62% of the public vote. Since her time on "Big Brother", Thomas has become a glamour model.


title: Imogen Thomas

text: Like other contestants, Thomas has taken part in many "Big Brother" spin-off programmes, including "Big Brother's Little Brother" and "Big Brother's Big Mouth". She also co-presented with other housemates for "T4".


title: Imogen Thomas

text: Imogen appeared on the S4C "Planed Plant" ghost hunting show "Ofn", filmed at Chirk Castle alongside fellow Big Brother contestant Glyn Wise. She also portrayed herself in a cameo performance on the S4C soap opera "Pobol y Cwm".


title: The Mollusk

text: The Mollusk is the sixth studio album by American rock band Ween, released by Elektra Records on June 24, 1997. It is a multi-genre concept album with a dark nautical theme, with most songs incorporating elements from psychedelia and/or sea shanties, while also featuring a heavy progressive rock influence. Dean Ween described the album as "the only record that I ever felt really confident about" and "my favorite record we've ever done." Gene Ween has echoed this sentiment, saying: ""The Mollusk" is probably my favorite, at the end of the day."


title: The Mollusk

text: Starting with the release of their 1994 album "Chocolate and Cheese", Aaron Freeman and Mickey Melchiondo—known by their stage names Gene and Dean Ween, respectively—began to significantly enhance their approach to studio recording. While their earlier albums were almost entirely recorded by Freeman and Melchiondo themselves at their home using a 4-track recorder, "Chocolate and Cheese" marked the first time the band produced an album in a professional recording studio. It also notably began their transition from a duo to a more traditional band with the addition of drummer Claude Coleman, allowing Freeman and Melchiondo to experiment with a wider range of musical styles than they could with the drum machine they had used on previous releases.


title: The Mollusk

text: Though Ween's 1996 album "12 Golden Country Greats" was their first record to feature a full-fledged band on each track, the songs were recorded with various Nashville session musicians, so it was viewed by the band as more of a spin-off album, in the vein of "The Beach Boys' Christmas Album", than a true follow-up to "Chocolate and Cheese". "The Mollusk" was the debut album for keyboardist Glenn McClelland, and, with bassist Dave Dreiwitz joining shortly before the album’s release, the band finally evolved into the final five-man incarnation that continues to this day.


title: The Mollusk

text: The cover art for "The Mollusk" was created by Storm Thorgerson, the graphic designer who designed many of Pink Floyd's album covers, including "The Dark Side of the Moon". Thorgerson liked the album so much that, although he was only hired to do the cover art, he decided to do the related promo and poster art, including all of the initial print ads associated with "The Mollusk", for no extra charge.


title: The Mollusk

text: After recording 1994's "Chocolate and Cheese" in a professional studio, Gene and Dean Ween decided they wanted to return to their early method of recording albums at home. In 1995, they relocated their recording equipment to a rented beach house on the shore of Holgate, New Jersey, and the equipment and some of the early materials for the album were nearly lost when a water pipe burst in the house while it was unoccupied. At this point, the band put this album on hold and made plans to record 1996's "12 Golden Country Greats" in Nashville. After recording "12 Golden Country Greats" in 1995 and releasing and touring behind it, Ween completed the remaining tracking of "The Mollusk" at various inland locations. The album was finished in 1996 and released on June 24, 1997.


title: The Mollusk

text: "The Mollusk" was a direct influence on the animated television series "SpongeBob SquarePants". Stephen Hillenburg, the show's creator, contacted the band shortly after the album's release, and he requested a song from them which later became "Loop de Loop". The track "Ocean Man" is played during the end credits of "The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie".


title: The Mollusk

text: Kurt Vile named "Mutilated Lips" his favorite song of all time, and recalled that the album "blew [his] mind" when he listened to it as a teenager.


title: The Mollusk

text: "The Mollusk Sessions" is a compilation album released digitally for free trading by the band in 2007. It contains a combination of demo tracks from "The Mollusk" and songs recorded for the album which were cut prior to pressing.


title: Ruby Keeler

text: Ethel Ruby Keeler (August 25, 1909 – February 28, 1993) was an American actress, dancer, and singer who was paired on-screen with Dick Powell in a string of successful early musicals at Warner Bros., particularly "42nd Street" (1933). From 1928 to 1940, she was married to actor and singer Al Jolson. She retired from show business in the 1940s, but made a widely publicized comeback on Broadway in 1971.


title: Ruby Keeler

text: Keeler was born in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada, in 1909 to Ralph Hector and Nellie ("née" Lahey) Keeler, one of six siblings in an Irish Catholic family. Two sisters, Helen and Gertrude, had brief performing careers. Her father was a truck driver. When Ruby was three years old, her family moved to New York City, where her father could get better pay. Although Keeler was interested in taking dance lessons, the family could not afford to send her.


title: Ruby Keeler

text: Keeler attended St. Catherine of Siena on New York's East Side, and one period each week, a dance teacher taught all styles of dance. The teacher saw potential in Keeler and spoke to her mother about Ruby's taking lessons at her studio. Though her mother declined, apologizing for the lack of money, the teacher wanted to work with her so badly that she asked her mother if she would bring her to class lessons on Saturdays, and she agreed.


title: Ruby Keeler

text: During the classes, a girl told her about auditions for chorus girls. The law required professional chorus girls to be at least 16 years old; although they were only 13, they decided to lie about their ages at the audition. It was a tap audition, and many other talented girls were there. The stage was covered except for a wooden apron at the front. When it was Ruby's turn to dance, she asked the dance director, Julian Mitchell, if she could dance on the wooden part so that her taps could be heard. He did not answer, so she went ahead, walked up to the front of the stage, and started her routine. The director said "Who said you could dance up there?" She replied "I asked you!", and she got a job in George M. Cohan's "The Rise of Rosie O'Reilly" (1923), in which she made $45 per week.


title: Ruby Keeler

text: Around 1923, when she was around 14 years old, she was hired by Nils Granlund, the publicity manager for Loews Theaters, who also served as the stage-show producer for Texas Guinan at Larry Fay's El Fay nightclub, a speakeasy frequented by gangsters. She was noticed by Broadway producer Charles B. Dillingham, who gave her a role in "Bye, Bye, Bonnie" (produced by L. Lawrence Weber), which ran for six months. She then appeared in "Lucky" and as Mamie in "The Sidewalks of New York", also produced by Dillingham. In the later show, she was seen by Flo Ziegfeld, who sent her a bunch of roses and a note that stated, "May I make you a star?"


title: Ruby Keeler

text: She appeared in Ziegfeld's "Whoopee!" (before being replaced before the opening by Ethel Shutta) in 1928, the same year she married Al Jolson. The two met in Los Angeles (not at Texas Guinan's as he would claim), where Granlund had sent her to assist in the marketing campaign for "The Jazz Singer". Jolson was smitten and immediately proposed. The couple married September 21, 1928, in Port Chester, New York, in a private ceremony. The two sailed the following morning for a brief honeymoon before she began her tour with "Whoopee!" She was 19 years old, and he was around 42.


title: Ruby Keeler

text: In 1933, producer Darryl F. Zanuck cast Keeler in the Warner Bros. musical "42nd Street" opposite Dick Powell and Bebe Daniels. The film was a huge success due to Busby Berkeley's lavish, innovative choreography. Following "42nd Street", Jack L. Warner gave Keeler a long-term contract and cast her in "Gold Diggers of 1933", "Footlight Parade", "Dames", and "Colleen". Keeler and Jolson starred together in "Go into Your Dance", which was their only film together. They are satirized in Frank Tashlin's 1937 cartoon "The Woods Are Full of Cuckoos". Jolson and Keeler appeared on Broadway one last time together for the unsuccessful show "Hold on to Your Hats".


title: Ruby Keeler

text: In 1963, Keeler appeared in "The Greatest Show on Earth", Jack Palance's television series based on the earlier Charlton Heston circus film of the same name, and made a brief cameo in the 1970 film "The Phynx". In 1971, Keeler was acclaimed as a star again in the successful Broadway revival of the 1920s musical "No, No, Nanette", opposite Jack Gilford, Bobby Van, Helen Gallagher, and Patsy Kelly. The production was supervised by Keeler's "42nd Street" director Busby Berkeley, adapted and directed by Burt Shevelove, and choreographed by Donald Saddler, who won the Tony Award for his musical staging. Keeler starred in the musical for two seasons on Broadway, followed by two additional years touring in the show. After suffering a brain aneurysm in 1974, she became spokeswoman for the National Stroke Association.


title: Ruby Keeler

text: In 1992, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars was dedicated to her. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6730 Hollywood Blvd. In 1979, she was awarded an honorary doctor of humane letters degree by St. Bonaventure University.


title: Ruby Keeler

text: Keeler and Jolson adopted a son, but later divorced in 1940. In 1941, she married John Homer Lowe, a businessman, and left show business the same year. Keeler and Lowe had four children. Lowe died in 1969.


title: Ruby Keeler

text: Keeler had two nephews who also worked in the film business. Joey D. Vieira, also known as Donald Keeler, is best remembered for portraying Sylvester "Porky" Brockway on TV's "Lassie" (retitled "Jeff's Collie" in syndicated reruns and on DVD) from 1954 to 1957. Vieira's brother, Ken Weatherwax, played Pugsley Addams on the 1960s TV series "The Addams Family". Ruby's son John Lowe had a career as a Broadway stage manager for a number of productions beginning with "No, No, Nanette" in 1970.


title: Ruby Keeler

text: Keeler was a Catholic. She was also a Republican who supported Dwight Eisenhower's campaign during the 1952 presidential election.


title: Mátyás Rákosi

text: Mátyás Rákosi (; born Mátyás Rosenfeld; 9 March 1892 – 5 February 1971) was a Hungarian communist politician who was the "de facto" leader of Hungary from 1947 to 1956. He served first as General Secretary of the Hungarian Communist Party from 1945 to 1948 and then as General Secretary (later renamed First Secretary) of the Hungarian Working People's Party from 1948 to 1956.


title: Mátyás Rákosi

text: Rákosi had been involved in left-wing politics since his youth, and in 1919 was a leading commissar in the short-lived Hungarian Soviet Republic. After the fall of the Communist government, he escaped the country and worked abroad as an agent of the Comintern. He was arrested in 1924 after attempting to return to Hungary and organize the Communist Party underground, and ultimately spent over fifteen years in prison. He became a cause célébre in the international Communist movement, and the predominantly Hungarian Rakosi Battalion of the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War bore his name. Rákosi was finally allowed to leave for the Soviet Union in 1940 in exchange for prized battle flags captured by Tsarist Russian forces after the Hungarian Revolution of 1848.


title: Mátyás Rákosi

text: As the Red Army drove the German Wehrmacht out of Hungary at the end of World War II, Rákosi returned to his home country in early 1945 and became the leader of the re-founded Hungarian Communist Party. The Party suffered a crushing defeat in Hungary's postwar free election, at the hands of the agrarian Independent Smallholders' Party. However, at Moscow's insistence the Communists received key positions in the government including the Interior Ministry, while Rákosi himself became a heavily influential deputy prime minister. From this position the Communists were able to use political intrigue, subterfuge, and conspiracy to destroy their opponents piece by piece, in what Rákosi would later term "salami tactics". By 1948 they had gained total power over the country, and in 1949 the country was proclaimed a people's republic with Rákosi as its absolute ruler.


title: Mátyás Rákosi

text: Rákosi was an ardent Stalinist, and his government was very loyal to the Soviet Union; he even set up a personality cult of his own, modeled on that of Stalin. He presided over the mass imprisonment of hundreds of thousands of Hungarian people, and the deaths of thousands. He orchestrated show trials modeled on those of the USSR, among the most prominent victims of which was his former lieutenant László Rajk. His policies of collectivization and mass repression devastated the country's economy and political life, causing massive discontent. After the death of Stalin in 1953, Rákosi was partially demoted at Moscow's behest and the reformist Communist Imre Nagy became the new Prime Minister. However, Rákosi was able to use his continuing influence as First Secretary to thwart all of Nagy's attempts at reform and ultimately force the latter out of office in 1955.


title: Mátyás Rákosi

text: However, after Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev's famous "Secret Speech" in early 1956 denouncing the crimes of Stalin, Rákosi found his position fatally compromised. Large numbers of people within the Party and society at large began to speak out against him and call for his resignation, as information about the Party's past abuses came to light. Rákosi was finally forced to resign in July 1956 and leave for the Soviet Union, replaced by his second-in-command Ernő Gerő. The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 occurred barely three months later as a result of the abuses of Rákosi's system, and his former rival Imre Nagy became a dominant figure in the Revolution. Soviet troops ultimately crushed the uprising and installed a new Communist government under János Kádár.


title: Mátyás Rákosi

text: Rákosi lived out the rest of his life in exile in the Soviet Union, denied permission to return home by the Hungarian government, out of fear of mass unrest. He died in Gorky in 1971, and his ashes were returned to Hungary in secret. Rákosi is generally seen as a symbol of tyranny and oppression in Hungary.


title: Mátyás Rákosi

text: Rákosi was born in Ada, a village in Bács-Bodrog County in the Kingdom of Hungary (now a town in Vojvodina, Serbia). Born to Jewish parents, the fourth son of József Rosenfeld, a grocer, his mother Cecília Léderer would give birth to seven more children. Of his younger siblings the most notable was Ferenc Rákosi (later Biró, 1904–2006), an administrator, who also became active in Communist politics and was, for a time, General Manager of the Mátyás Rákosi Steel and Metal Works during his brother's rule. His other siblings were Béla (1886–1944), Jolán (1888–?), Matild Gizella (1890–?), Izabella (1895–?), Margit (1896–1932), Zoltán (1898–?), Mária (1902–1938), Dezső (1906–?) and Hajnal (1908–1944).


title: Mátyás Rákosi

text: Rákosi's paternal grandfather participated in the Hungarian Revolution of 1848; as a result, he had to flee the village following the defeat. Rákosi's father, József Rosenfeld, was called "Kossuth's Jew" by the villagers, because he had been a member and avid supporter of the oppositionist Party of Independence and '48. He changed his surname Rosenfeld to Rákosi in 1903. He later repudiated religion and in common with most other Marxists described himself as an atheist and opponent of organised religion.


title: Mátyás Rákosi

text: Rákosi was a diligent and good student during his childhood. He finished his elementary studies in Sopron, then took his final exam at the High Technical Gymnasium of Szeged in 1910. He then studied external trade at the Eastern Commerce Academy. He won scholarships for a year each in Hamburg (1912) and London (1913).


title: Mátyás Rákosi

text: While still a student in Hungary, he joined the Hungarian Social Democratic Party (MSZDP) in 1910 and was also a secretary and active member of the anarcho-syndicalist student movement, the Galilei Circle.


title: Mátyás Rákosi

text: He served in the Austro-Hungarian Army during the First World War and was captured on the Eastern Front in 1915 and held as a prisoner-of-war in Far Eastern POW camps by the Russians until the end of the war. Taking advantage of the chaotic situation in Russia, he successfully escaped from his detention and moved to Petrograd, centre of the Bolshevik Revolution.


title: Mátyás Rákosi

text: After returning to Hungary, he participated in the communist movement of Béla Kun and also joined the Party of Communists in Hungary. During the short-lived 133-day Communist rule after the resignation of President Mihály Károlyi, when the Hungarian Soviet Republic was established, Rákosi served as Deputy People's Commissar for Trade from 21 March to 3 April in the Revolutionary Governing Council led by Sándor Garbai. Between 3 April and 24 June 1919, Rákosi was one of the six people's commissars for social production, alongside Jenő Varga, Antal Dovcsák, Gyula Hevesi, József Kelen and Ferenc Bajáki. He was also involved in the Hungarian Red Army's Northern and Eastern military campaigns against the newly formed Czechoslovakia and Romania. At the end of July 1919, he was promoted to Commander of the internal law-enforcement Red Guard for a short time.


title: Mátyás Rákosi

text: Following the Soviet Republic's fall, Rákosi fled Hungary on 2 August 1919 via the Austrian border, eventually to the Soviet Union where he worked as part of the Communist International, including representing it at the Livorno congress of the Italian Socialist Party in 1921. After returning to Hungary in 1924, he was imprisoned, but he was released to the Soviet Union in 1940, in exchange for the Hungarian revolutionary banners captured by Russian troops at Világos in 1849. In the Soviet Union, he became leader of the Comintern. In 1942, he married divorced lawyer Feodora (Fenia) Kornilova, a woman of Yakut origin. He returned to Debrecen, Hungary, on 30 January 1945, having been selected by the Soviet authorities to organise the Hungarian Communist Party.


title: Mátyás Rákosi

text: When the Red Army set up a Soviet-approved government in Hungary (1944–1945), Rákosi was appointed General Secretary of the Hungarian Communist Party (MKP) (1945). He was a member of the High National Council from 27 September to 7 December 1945. Rákosi was deputy prime minister from 1945 to 1949, and was acting Prime Minister from 1 to 4 February 1946 and on 31 May 1947.


title: Mátyás Rákosi

text: Initially, Rákosi and the Communists appeared willing to work within the system. From 1947 onwards, however, he and the Communists began pressuring the other parties to exclude those not willing to work with the Communists on the grounds that they were "fascists" or fascist sympathisers. Later on, after the Communists won complete control. It was commonly believed that Rákosi referred to this practice as "salami tactics," saying he had destroyed the non-Communist forces in the country by "cutting them off like slices of salami." However, no verified source for the "salami" quote has ever been discovered. According to historian Norman Stone, the term might have been invented by the leader of the Hungarian Independence Party Zoltán Pfeiffer.


title: Mátyás Rákosi

text: The process began when Smallholder Party Prime Minister Ferenc Nagy was forced to resign in favour of a more pliant Smallholder, Lajos Dinnyés. By the 1947 elections, the Communists had won a majority, and had largely emasculated the next-largest non-Communist Party, the Social Democrats.


title: Mátyás Rákosi

text: By October 1947, Rákosi had dropped all pretense of multi-party democracy. He gave the non-Communist parties an ultimatum: cooperate with a new, Communist-dominated coalition government or go into exile. By the end of 1947, the opposition parties had largely shunted aside their more courageous members, leaving them in the hands of fellow travellers willing to do the Communists' bidding. In the summer of 1948, the Communists forced the Social Democrats to merge with them to form the Hungarian Working People's Party (MDP). However, the few remaining independent-minded Social Democrats were quickly pushed out in short order, leaving the MDP as an enlarged MKP.


title: Mátyás Rákosi

text: He also pushed out the Smallholder president, Zoltán Tildy, in favour of Social Democrat-turned-Communist Árpád Szakasits, and forced Dinnyés to resign in favour of the openly pro-Communist István Dobi. A year later, elections took place with a single list of candidates. Although non-Communists nominally still figured, in reality they were fellow travellers.


title: Mátyás Rákosi

text: Rákosi described himself as "Stalin's best Hungarian disciple" and "Stalin's best pupil". At the height of his rule, he developed a strong cult of personality around himself.


title: Mátyás Rákosi

text: Approximately 350,000 officials and intellectuals were purged under his rule, from 1948 to 1956. Rákosi imposed totalitarian rule on Hungary — arresting, jailing and killing both real and imagined foes in various waves of Stalin-inspired political purges. In August 1952, he also became Prime Minister (Chairman of the Council of Ministers).


title: Mátyás Rákosi

text: However, in June 1953, Rákosi and other party leaders were summoned to Moscow, where the Soviet leadership dressed down their Hungarian counterparts for Hungary's lackluster economic performance. On 13 June 1953, to appease the Soviet Politburo, Rákosi accepted the Soviet model of collective leadership. While he gave up the premiership to Imre Nagy, he retained the office of General Secretary. Nagy favoured a more humane way of governing, which Rákosi vigorously opposed. On 9 March 1955, the Central Committee of the MDP condemned Nagy for "rightist deviation." Hungarian newspapers joined the attacks and Nagy was blamed for the country's economic problems. On 18 April, the National Assembly unanimously sacked Nagy from his post. Although the Kremlin frowned on a return of Rákosi to the premiership, he and Nagy's successor, András Hegedüs, quickly put the country back on its previous Stalinist course.


title: Mátyás Rákosi

text: The post-war Hungarian economy suffered from multiple challenges. The most important was the destruction of infrastructure in the war (40% of national wealth, including all bridges, railways, raw materials, machinery, etc.). Hungary agreed to pay war reparations totalling approximately US$300 million, to the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, and to support Soviet garrisons.


title: Mátyás Rákosi

text: The Hungarian National Bank in 1946 estimated the cost of reparations as "between 19 and 22 percent of the annual national income." In spite of this, after the highest historical rate of inflation in world history, a new, stable currency was successfully introduced in August 1946 on the basis of the plans of the Communist Party and the Social Democratic Party. The low production of consumer goods and the backwardness of light industry resulted in frequent shortages, especially in the countryside, leading to discontent. In addition, the huge investments in military sectors after the outbreak of the Korean War further reduced the supply of consumer goods. Due to shortages, forced savings (state bond sales to the population) and below-inflation wage increases were introduced.


title: Mátyás Rákosi

text: Rákosi was then removed as General Secretary of the Party under pressure from the Soviet Politburo in June 1956 (shortly after Nikita Khrushchev's Secret Speech), and was replaced by his former second-in-command, Ernő Gerő.


title: Mátyás Rákosi

text: To remove him from the Hungarian political scene, the Soviet Politburo forced Rákosi to move to the Soviet Union in 1956, with the official story being that he was "seeking medical attention". From 1964 to 1968 he lived in the town of Tokmok in Soviet Kirghizia and later he was sent to Arzamas and further to Gorky.


title: Mátyás Rákosi

text: Shortly before his death, Rákosi was in 1970 finally granted permission to return to Hungary if he promised not to engage in any political activities. He refused the deal and remained in the USSR where he died in Gorky in 1971. After his death, his ashes were privately returned to Hungary for burial in the Farkasréti Cemetery in Budapest. Only his initials are visible on his gravestone to avoid vandalism.


title: Oklahoma State Cowboys football

text: The Oklahoma State Cowboys football program represents Oklahoma State University–Stillwater in college football. The team is a member of the Big 12 Conference and competes at the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision level. The Cowboys are led by Mike Gundy, who is in his 17th year as head coach. Oklahoma State plays its home games at Boone Pickens Stadium in Stillwater, Oklahoma.


title: Oklahoma State Cowboys football

text: The Oklahoma A&M Aggies (also referred to as the Tigers) played their first season of football in 1900 and joined their first conference for the start of the 1915 season, the Southwest Conference. In 1925, the Oklahoma A&M program joined the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association. In 1928, the MVIAA split into the Big Six Conference and the Missouri Valley Conference. A&M was the only large school that joined the smaller MVC. Jim Lookabaugh led the Aggies for eleven seasons, which included a 9–0 campaign and a national championship in 1945 which followed an 8–1 season the year before. Lookabaugh was an OSU alum who lettered in multiple sports. In October 2016, Oklahoma State was retroactively awarded the 1945 national championship by the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA). Lookabaugh stepped down after the 1949 season, finishing his tenure with a mark of 58–41–6. From 1950 to 1954, Jennings B. Whitworth coached at Oklahoma A&M, and compiled a 22–27–1 record, which included only one winning season, a 7–3 campaign in 1953. Whitworth departed A&M to accept the head coaching position at Alabama following the 1954 season. In 1951, Oklahoma A&M players and coaches caused the Johnny Bright incident, a violent on-field assault against an African American player from Drake University, Johnny Bright; Oklahoma A&M administration would attempt to cover up and deny the incident for over half a century.


title: Oklahoma State Cowboys football

text: Cliff Speegle took the reins of the Oklahoma A&M Cowboys. Under Speegle's tutelage, the Cowboys compiled a record of 36–42–3, which included three winning seasons from 1957 to 1959. The losing record, combined with an 0–8 mark against rival Oklahoma, resulted in Speegle's firing following the 1962 season. In 1956, A&M announced it was joining (or rejoining, depending on one's view) what had become the Big Seven for the 1958–59 academic year. As part of a transition period, the Cowboys went independent for two years. On May 15, 1957, Oklahoma A&M changed its name to Oklahoma State University. They officially became a part of the renamed Big Eight Conference in 1958.


title: Oklahoma State Cowboys football

text: Longtime Bear Bryant assistant Phil Cutchin led Oklahoma State to its first win over Oklahoma in 20 years, but failed to bring success to Stillwater, compiling a mark of 19–38–2. Cutchin was replaced by the OSU administration eager to see a winning product on the field.


title: Oklahoma State Cowboys football

text: Oklahoma State continued to struggle under head coach Floyd Gass, an OSU alum, who led the Cowboy football program for three seasons. During his tenure, he led the team to three straight losing seasons. Fan and administration support became increasingly hard to come by as the on-field production slipped. Despite the lack of football success, Gass would serve in multiple capacities at OSU, including athletics director for several years after his resignation as football coach.


title: Oklahoma State Cowboys football

text: The Cowboys were finally able to enjoy a winning season —their first in nine years—in 1974 under the leadership of head coach Dave Smith. However, Smith wouldn't stick around, as he departed for the head coaching position at SMU after just one season in Stillwater.


title: Oklahoma State Cowboys football

text: Jim Stanley, a two-time defensive coordinator at OSU, returned to Stillwater to become the head coach of the Cowboys in 1973. He coached them from 1973 to 1978, amassing a career record of 35–31–2. Stanley's Cowboys earned a Fiesta Bowl victory in 1974 and his 1976 team ended the season 9–3 finishing as a Big Eight co-champions on their way to a Tangerine Bowl victory. His success at Oklahoma State earned him many accolades, including being invited to coach three collegiate all-star games: the 1973 East–West Shrine Game, the 1977 Hula Bowl, and the 1977 Japan Bowl.


title: Oklahoma State Cowboys football

text: In 1978, the Big Eight Conference initiated an investigation into the OSU football program in response to allegations of violations of several NCAA rules and regulations while Stanley was head coach. Stanley successfully filed suit against the conference to require them to provide various due process protections in their final hearing on the charges.


title: Oklahoma State Cowboys football

text: In 1979, Jimmy Johnson got the head coaching job at Oklahoma State. Johnson's successful rebuilding of the inconsistent Cowboys football program is a hallmark in the long history of Cowboy football. In his final season, he led the Cowboys to an 8–4 record and a 24–14 victory over 20th-ranked Baylor in the Astro-Bluebonnet Bowl. The season included a season opening romp over then No. 12 ranked Arizona State in Tempe, and a Bedlam matchup between the No. 2 ranked Oklahoma Sooners and the No. 3-ranked Cowboys on November 24, 1984. A game in which the Cowboys ultimately lost, 24–14.


title: Oklahoma State Cowboys football

text: In 1984, when he was offered the head coaching job at Miami, Jimmy Johnson was unsure if he wanted to leave Stillwater. His good friend Larry Lacewell told Johnson that if he wanted to win a national championship and eventually coach in the NFL he had to take the Miami job. Johnson soon after accepted the head coaching job at Miami. Jimmy Johnson left OSU with an overall record of 29–25–3.


title: Oklahoma State Cowboys football

text: Pat Jones was promoted from assistant coach to head coach following Johnson's departure. He served as head coach of the Oklahoma State Cowboys from 1984 to 1994 after five years as an assistant under Jimmy Johnson. During his 11 years at Oklahoma State, he compiled a 62–60–3 record, including a 3–1 bowl game record. Jones was named Big Eight Coach of the Year in both 1984 and 1992. From 1984 to 1988, Jones led the Cowboys to the most successful period in school history at the time. With a talented roster that included running backs Barry Sanders and Thurman Thomas, wide receiver Hart Lee Dykes and quarterback Mike Gundy, they went 44–15 over this five-year stretch, including the school's first three-year stretch of ten-win seasons.


title: Oklahoma State Cowboys football

text: Running back Barry Sanders played for the Cowboys from 1986 to 1988. During his first two seasons at Oklahoma State, he backed up All-American Thurman Thomas. In 1987, Sanders led the nation in yards per kickoff return (31.6), while also rushing for over 600 yards and scoring 8 touchdowns. Thomas moved on to the NFL, and Sanders became the starter for his junior year.


title: Oklahoma State Cowboys football

text: In 1988, in what has been called the greatest individual season in college football history, Sanders led the nation by averaging 7.6 yards per carry and over 200 yards per game, including rushing for over 300 yards in four games. Despite his massive workload of 344 carries, Sanders was still used as the team's punt and kickoff returner, adding another 516 yards on special teams. He set college football season records with 2,628 yards rushing, 3,248 total yards, 234 points, 39 touchdowns, 37 rushing touchdowns, 5 consecutive 200 yard games, scored at least 2 touchdowns in 11 consecutive games, and 9 times he scored at least 3 touchdowns. Sanders also ran for 222 yards and scored 5 touchdowns in his three quarters of action in the 1988 Holiday Bowl, a game that is not included in the official NCAA season statistics. Sanders learned of his Heisman Trophy win while he was with the team in Tokyo, Japan, preparing to face Texas Tech in the Coca-Cola Classic. He chose to leave Oklahoma State before his senior season to enter the NFL draft.


title: Oklahoma State Cowboys football

text: Days after the 1988 season, Oklahoma State and the NCAA released the results of an unusual joint investigation into the football program. The investigation revealed several major violations dating prior to Johnson's tenure, principally involvement in a "bidding war" for Dykes out of high school. The Cowboys were banned from bowl games for three years and from live television for two years, and they were also limited to 20 scholarships from 1989 to 1992. Jones was not directly implicated in any wrongdoing; indeed, the investigation found that no violations had taken place in two years. He was unable to put together another winning team due to the sanctions, and left OSU after the 1994 season. In Jones' last six years, the Cowboys won only seven games in Big Eight play, including three seasons of winless conference records. Oklahoma State would need almost the entire decade of the 1990s to recover; with only one winning season coming between 1989 and 2001.


title: Oklahoma State Cowboys football

text: Bob Simmons came to OSU from his post as defensive line coach at Colorado to replace Jones. Simmons' teams were largely unsuccessful, and Simmons resigned under pressure following the 2000 season. His final record in Stillwater was 30–38 with just one winning campaign, an 8–4 season in 1997 that culminated in a loss in the Alamo Bowl. In 1996, OSU joined with the other Big Eight schools and four schools from the old Southwest Conference to form the Big 12 Conference.


title: Oklahoma State Cowboys football

text: After Simmons' resignation, a coaching search produced Dirk Koetter as the new head coach. Hours after accepting the job, Koetter reneged on his offer in order to coach at Arizona State.


title: Oklahoma State Cowboys football

text: The next two candidates were Les Miles, a former OSU offensive coordinator, and Mike Gundy, a former OSU player and coach. Miles was hired as head coach while Gundy was brought on as offensive coordinator. In his first year as head coach, Miles would achieve a 4–7 record. In the 2001 regular season finale, the underdog Cowboys would defeat the reigning National Champion Oklahoma Sooners in Norman 16–13. In 2002, Miles would post a 7–5 regular season record. The Cowboys again defeated the Oklahoma Sooners, this time in Stillwater. The team would go on to three straight bowl games in Miles's last three years as head coach ('02,'03,'04). Miles left after the 2004 season to take the head coaching position at LSU.


title: Oklahoma State Cowboys football

text: Mike Gundy was promoted from offensive coordinator and named immediately as Miles' successor and the 22nd head coach at Oklahoma State. Gundy is one of three head football coaches at Oklahoma State to have played for Oklahoma State, along with Jim Lookabaugh and Floyd Gass. His first season saw the expulsion of 11 players from the team and the Cowboys struggled to a 4–7 record winning only one Big 12 conference game. In his second season, the Cowboy offense began to click and the Cowboys would finish 7–6 including a victory over the Alabama Crimson Tide in the Independence Bowl. In 2007, the Cowboys again posted a 6–6 regular season record and a bowl win over the Indiana Hoosiers in the Insight Bowl. After their second straight bowl appearance, Gundy was rewarded with a contract extension through the 2013 season.


title: Oklahoma State Cowboys football

text: After posting a 9–3 regular season record in 2008, Coach Gundy received a new seven-year contract worth $15.7 million. The contract, which extends through the 2015 season, was taken into effect on January 1, 2009. Gundy's tenure as head coach of the Cowboys has seen the rise and expansion of not only his football program, but the football facilities as well. The Cowboys began the 2009 season ranked No. 9 in the country in the AP Top 25, but the dreams of a miracle season were crushed when the Pokes lost 45–35 to the unranked Houston Cougars at home the following week, and later finding out that star wide receiver Dez Bryant was ruled ineligible for the remainder of the season, for lying to the NCAA about having contact with 8-time pro bowler Deion Sanders, which wasn't an NCAA violation in the first place. The following year, Oklahoma State hired Offensive Coordinator Dana Holgorsen from the University of Houston. In 2010 coach Gundy recorded the first ever 11-win season in Oklahoma State history. What was supposed to be a rebuilding year turned into the best in school history.


title: Oklahoma State Cowboys football

text: Under Gundy there have been a series of NFL quality wide receivers to come through Boone Pickens Stadium. These include Adarius Bowman, Dez Bryant, Justin Blackmon, James Washington, and Tylan Wallace. On December 3, 2011, the Cowboys won their first Big 12 Championship in school history with a 44–10 victory over rival Oklahoma in the Bedlam Series. The nationally third-ranked Cowboys eventually went on to win the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl by beating fourth-ranked Stanford in overtime, 41–38, on January 2, 2012. Early in the 2012 season, he notched his 63rd win as head coach, passing Jones as the winningest coach in school history. On October 29, 2016, Mike Gundy recorded his 100th victory as a head coach with a 37–20 win over # 10 West Virginia. In the process, notching his sixth victory over a top 10 ranked school. Gundy is the only Oklahoma State football coach to record 100 victories, and only the 6th coach to reach such a milestone with his current school. Oklahoma State beat Oklahoma in Bedlam on November 27, 2021 to reach 5th place in the AP poll coming into championship weekend where they were defeated by Baylor, 21-16, in the Big 12 Championship.


title: Oklahoma State Cowboys football

text: OSU has two national championships. The 2011 team was selected by NCAA-designated major selector Colley Matrix, though the Cowboys do not claim this title. In 2016, the AFCA committee (which conducts the Coaches Poll) retroactively selected the 1945 team. Oklahoma State claims the 1945 championship.


title: Oklahoma State Cowboys football

text: The Cowboys have played in 32 bowl games, garnering a record of 21–11. They are 5–4 in the six major bowl games (Rose, Peach, Cotton Bowl Classic, Sugar, Fiesta & Orange), with their biggest win being over Stanford in the 2012 Fiesta Bowl, with the win making them finish 3rd in the final poll, the highest ever finish for a Cowboy team.


title: Oklahoma State Cowboys football

text: The first Bedlam game was held at Island Park in Guthrie, Oklahoma. It was a cold, and very windy day with the temperatures well below the freezing mark. At one moment in the game when the Oklahoma A&M Aggies were punting, the wind carried the ball backwards behind the kicker. If the Oklahoma A&M squad recovered the ball it would be a touchback and if the University of Oklahoma squad recovered it, it would be a touchdown. The ball kept going backwards and rolled down a hill into the half-frozen creek. Since a touchdown was at stake, members of both teams dove into the icy waters to recover the ball. A member of the OU team came out with the ball and downed it for a touchdown, eventually winning the game 75–0.[2] Thus was the beginning of Bedlam.


title: Oklahoma State Cowboys football

text: Author Steve Budin, whose father was a New York bookie, has recently publicized the claim that the 1954 "Bedlam" game against rival OU was fixed by mobsters in his book "Bets, Drugs, and Rock & Roll" (). Allegedly, the mobsters threatened and paid off a cook to slip laxatives into a soup eaten by many OU Sooner starting players, causing them to fall violently ill in the days leading up to the game. OU was victorious in the end, but their 14–0 win did not cover the 20-point spread they had in their favor. However, many people involved in the 1954 contest do not recall any incident like the one purported by Budin to have occurred.


title: Oklahoma State Cowboys football

text: The Cowboys also have a rivalry with Tulsa. Oklahoma State leads Tulsa in the all-time series 43–28–5, winning the most recent match up in 2020, 16-7. Since 1990 Tulsa is 3–10 versus Oklahoma State with the Cowboys scoring at least 36 points in four of the last five contests. The Cowboys have a twenty-game home winning streak against Tulsa. The last time Tulsa won in Stillwater was 1951.


title: Oklahoma State Cowboys football

text: Oklahoma State plays in Boone Pickens Stadium in Stillwater, Oklahoma. The original football field was inaugurated in 1913, and the first stand was built in 1920. At that time the field was repositioned from a north-south to an east-west configuration to avoid the strong prevailing winds of Northern Oklahoma. From 1914 until 2004, the stadium was named Lewis Field, named after popular professor and dean Laymon Lowery Lewis. Even though a stadium would not be built for six years after the field's inception, the students felt obliged to name their alma mater's field after their beloved "Dr. Lew".


title: Oklahoma State Cowboys football

text: By 1930 the capacity had risen to 13,000 and increased again in 1947. Major additions, including the first press box, brought the capacity to 30,000. In 1950 again seats were added and the total capacity increased to 39,000. The next renovations came in 1972 and for the next three decades the capacity hovered around 50,000.


title: Oklahoma State Cowboys football

text: In 2003, alumnus T. Boone Pickens made a historic donation to the university for improvements to its athletic facilities, and it was announced that the stadium would be renamed in his honor. The announcement of the renovation came after two consecutive victories over the Oklahoma Sooners in the Bedlam Series. To this day, Boone Pickens Stadium is one of a very few major college football stadiums with an east-west configuration. The latest renovation of the football stadium was completed in 2009, with the capacity at 60,218. In 2017, Oklahoma State renumbered and expanded the current seats, leaving the new capacity at 56,790 in an effort to increase seat width and improve the fan experience. In 2018, Oklahoma State installed a 6,160 square foot video board on the façade of Gallagher-Iba Arena in the stadium's east end zone. The jumbotron will be one of the ten largest in the country, placing it ahead of USC's jumbotron at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.


title: Oklahoma State Cowboys football

text: In 2007, plans to build the Sherman E. Smith Training Center were unveiled. The 92,000 square foot indoor practice facility was completed in 2013.


title: Oklahoma State Cowboys football

text: On September 10, 2013, "Sports Illustrated" published the first of 5 stories alleging misconduct during Les Miles tenure and extending into the Mike Gundy era. Writers Thayer Evans and George Dohrmann reportedly engaged in a 10-month-long investigation into wrongdoing throughout the early-mid 2000s of the Oklahoma State football program. The first installment "The Money" made allegations of illicit gifts, overzealous boosters, no-show jobs, and a bounty system in place. The second installment, "The Academics" alleged academic fraud, steering athletes into easy pass or no-show classes, and grade tampering. The third installment, "The Drugs" painted a picture of a drug culture, in which the players were selling drugs, and the school did little to curtail drug usage. The fourth installment, "The Sex" was heavily edited by all accounts, considering its late online release time. This installment revealed a hostess program where the head coaches oversaw the application process, and writers implied the hostesses were expected to have sex with recruits. The final installment "The Fallout" told the tale of Artrell Woods, who had left school after a horrific accident from which he had recovered.


title: Oklahoma State Cowboys football

text: While at first shocking to fans and media, Oklahoma State immediately pledged transparency. Athletic Director Mike Holder held a press conference the day before the release and apologized for the bad publicity, and promised to investigate the claims. OSU then hired independent investigator, Charles Smrt to conduct a thorough investigation into the allegations. ESPN later debunked several of the claims in the story by simply calling OSU's registrar and obtaining a transcript from Tatum Bell that proved he was not in school during stated timelines. Further controversy began to surround the "Sports Illustrated" article when Jason Whitlock, a former colleague of Evans, claimed that he was a huge fan of the University of Oklahoma. Dohrmann went on national syndicated radio with Doug Gottlieb and stated that Fath' Carter had two degrees from OSU. When questioned by ESPN's Brett McMurphy, the registrars' office later stated that Fath' Carter had never graduated. Brandon Weeden also was able to point to unprofessional behavior from Evans displayed during a press conference. DeadSpin also found out that many crucial professors and tutors never were interviewed for the story.


title: Oklahoma State Cowboys football

text: In June 2014, John Talley, a spokesperson for the FCA chapter at Oklahoma State had filed a lawsuit against Dohrmann, Time Inc., and Evans for false-light accusations which painted him as an overzealous booster. In his lawsuit, Talley is seeking damages of $75,000. In July 2014, OSU confirmed that the NCAA had been investigating the allegations.


title: Oklahoma State Cowboys football

text: On October 21, 2014, the NCAA and The Compliance Group, an independent investigation firm led by Charles Smrt, jointly released a statement that the allegations contained in the Sports Illustrated story were "fundamentally unfounded". The NCAA and the investigator had pored over 50,000 emails and had unfettered access to all areas of the compliance department and re-interviewed those who were quoted in the story. The report stated ""Overall, several interviewees indicated that they reported to SI general information or incidents about college football but that the SI reporter indicated that the incident occurred at OSU."" During the joint investigation, however, three lesser allegations – not related to the Sports Illustrated claims, and labeled as Level II violations – were uncovered:


title: Oklahoma State Cowboys football

text: ""During the period of fall 2007 through the spring of 2013, approximately 1,572 drug tests occurred of football players. There were 94 positives involving approximately 60 student-athletes per the policy. (According to the company used by the University to conduct its drug testing program, this positive rate per total number of tests is slightly less than the national average).


title: Oklahoma State Cowboys football

text: The institution examined the application of the policy in those 94 situations and believes that on four occasions, the applicable penalty per the policy was not applied and reported this information to the Enforcement Staff.""


title: Oklahoma State Cowboys football

text: Also, it was deemed that the Orange Pride spirit program was chartered under the football program, but a recent NCAA policy change in 2007 required spirit clubs to form under the admissions department. Because of these two minor violations, OSU was cited for a failure to monitor in these two instances. The total cost for the independent investigation amounted to $221,055.18.


title: Oklahoma State Cowboys football

text: On January 22, 2015, Burns Hargis and other OSU officials visited the NCAA offices in Indianapolis to appeal to the NCAA. Even as Level II allegations, OSU officials considered them harsh and sought to have them reduced further. Hargis stated OSU's intent on having those Level II allegations reconsidered, possibly as Level III.


title: Oklahoma State Cowboys football

text: On April 24, 2015, the NCAA announced the sanctions against Oklahoma State would include an $8,500 fine and one-year probation to avoid further citings. The University self-imposed limits on the number of recruiting visits, off-campus evaluations, and the number of evaluation days in the fall and spring recruiting periods all of which will expire in 2016. The University is also not allowed to use the Orange Pride program to assist with recruiting visits for four years (2019–2020 season). No scholarships were reduced and no postseason bans were put into place.


title: Oklahoma State Cowboys football

text: Throughout the 2000s, the Cowboys had four main uniform combinations. For the 2011 football season, it was revealed that Nike had created new uniforms for the Cowboys, offering three different helmet options in either gray, black, or white. New jerseys and pants consisting of black, orange, grey and white also came aboard, allowing for up to 48 different variations. The Cowboys debuted their new gray uniforms for the first game of the 2011 season. In a 2012 home game against Iowa State, the Cowboys debuted the new orange helmets, along with a new Pistol Pete decal. This would bring the different uniform combinations up to 64.


title: Oklahoma State Cowboys football

text: The uniform combinations are chosen before the season by a committee of players and the Cowboys equipment manager, Wes Edwards. A few patterns have evolved since the origination of the multiple uniform era. Thursday night games during 2009, 2010, 2011, and in 2014 have involved black uniforms. Another trend has the Cowboys reverting to the traditional White Helmet/Traditional Brand Logo/Orange Jersey/White Pants for the home opener in 2012, 2013, and 2014. Bowl games for the 2012 Fiesta Bowl, the 2013 Heart of Dallas Bowl, and the high-profile 2014 season opener in the Cowboys Classic featured Oklahoma State wearing all black.


title: Oklahoma State Cowboys football

text: During the 2012 season, fans saw the addition of the orange helmet, and the addition of new decals. For the first time since 1979, the Cowboys took the field in "All Orange" against Iowa State for Homecoming. Also during the 2012 season, new carbon fiber gray helmets replaced the matte gray that had been used in 2011. The Cowboys helmet logos include a Pistol Pete logo, as well as what fans refer to as "Phantom Pete". The "OSU" Branded logo was now featured in different variants, to reflect the helmet being worn. During 2013, OSU began incorporating a stripe down the center of their helmets for different variations. In 2014, OSU revealed two new helmet choices- a "classic Aggie" which paid homage to the bucking Aggie logo used in the 1940s and 1950s when the school was still called Oklahoma A&M Aggies. The other helmet was an Orange-Chrome with an oversized, off-center Pistol Pete. This was worn in a Thursday night victory over Texas Tech.


title: Oklahoma State Cowboys football

text: The student section has a tradition of hitting orange paddles on the sideline wall at home games. This tradition apparently started in the early 1990s, and has since become an official group within the university. The orange paddles have the word "pokes" in bold letters written on them.


title: Eyehategod

text: Eyehategod (also abbreviated and referred to as EHG) is an American sludge metal band from New Orleans, Louisiana who formed in 1988. They have become one of the better known bands to emerge from the NOLA metal scene. Their core lineup has remained consistent since the band's inception, with the exception of the bassist (the role of which has been filled by several musicians over the years), until the death of drummer Joey LaCaze in 2013. As of 2021, the band has released seven studio albums.


title: Eyehategod

text: Eyehategod have noted the Melvins, Carnivore, The Obsessed, Discharge, Black Flag, Corrosion of Conformity, Black Sabbath, Celtic Frost, Confessor, and Saint Vitus as key influences to their sound. Heavy, detuned, and bluesy guitar riffs dominate the band's discography. They are combined with walls of feedback, and tortured vocals, with lyrical themes centered around substance abuse, to create a harsh misanthropic mood.


title: Eyehategod

text: The band were friends with grindcore group Anal Cunt and performed with them for the first show after their frontman Seth Putnam was revived from his 2004 coma. Putnam had previously filled in for Mike Williams at a show in New Orleans during Mardi Gras in 1996. Williams was out of town at the time.


title: Eyehategod

text: Jimmy Bower and Joey LaCaze founded the band on April 20, 1988 (in accordance with 4/20 in cannabis culture), and they recruited Mark Schultz, Steve Dale and vocalist Chris Hilliard. Hilliard would later leave the group early on, and would be replaced by Mike Williams. The band then recorded two demos "Garden Dwarf Woman Driver" (1989) and "Lack of Almost Everything" (1990); the latter was sent out to various labels. They eventually got signed to the small French label Intellectual Convulsion, and released their first album "In the Name of Suffering" in 1990. The album had a far more primitive and raw sound than later releases (as it was recorded by the inexperienced band members for only $1,000), and had a more hardcore feel to it. The label dissolved with only a couple of thousand copies having been printed, so the band had to find a new label. They soon signed with Century Media however, who re-released "In the Name of Suffering" on December 1, 1992, as it is known today. Also in 2006, "In the Name of Suffering" was re-issued with four bonus tracks. These four tracks were the same as those on the original demo "Lack of Almost Everything".


title: Eyehategod

text: Eyehategod then went on to record "Take as Needed for Pain" in 1993, with new bassist Mark Schultz who had also contributed on "In The Name Of Suffering". The album was recorded at Studio 13, a small recording studio working from the 13th floor of an abandoned department store on Canal Street in New Orleans. The band played daily during this period to put down tracks for the album. At the time, Mike Williams was homeless (having been thrown out by his former girlfriend) and living in an abandoned, flea-infested room above a strip club just a few minutes away from the studio. The sound of "Take as Needed for Pain" seemed much closer to what the members intended than the material on "In the Name of Suffering", and it shows a cleaner, more distinct sound with better defined riffs. The southern rock, blues, and doom influences are also more distinctly felt on this album. After the release of the album, the band toured extensively with acts such as Chaos UK, Buzzov*en, White Zombie and Corrosion of Conformity. After touring, the band members briefly spread out in different directions. Mike Williams busied himself contributing to "Metal Maniacs" magazine. Jimmy Bower played drums on Crowbar's "Broken Glass" as well as Down's debut album, "NOLA". Brian Patton recorded Soilent Green's debut album, "Pussysoul".


title: Eyehategod

text: The band had been recording several demos, which were released on various seven-inch records and splits on various labels, but finally in 1995 settled down to record an album, with Pepper Keenan of Corrosion of Conformity as producer, and new bassist Vince LeBlanc, which would be named "Dopesick". At the time, Mike Williams was living in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn in New York City, and so had to travel between there and New Orleans frequently for the recording sessions. The recording sessions were infamously chaotic, and involved the studio owner reportedly calling Century to ask if the band were insane, and threatening to kick them out. This particular incident occurred after Mike Williams had attempted to record the sound of smashing glass for the introduction to the album, by smashing a bottle on the floor of the studio. In the process he slashed his hand open badly and bled all over the studio floor (this recording did make it to the record as the introduction to the first track, "My Name is God (I Hate You)"). One of the band members then apparently smeared the words "Hell" and "Death to Pigs" in Mike's blood. Brian Patton and Joey LaCaze then flew out to San Francisco to mix the album. This album was far more chaotic than their previous, but still retained the distinct southern, bluesy feel, distancing it from "In the Name of Suffering". The band then embarked on a US tour in the spring of 1996 to support the album, supporting White Zombie and Pantera, bringing their music to a far wider audience, raising the profile of sludge metal, and becoming (in)famous as one of its founding acts.


title: Eyehategod

text: Eyehategod then went through a period of internal disputes, and went on unofficial hiatus as its members scattered again to record and tour with their various side-projects; namely Soilent Green, Corrosion of Conformity and Crowbar. Eventually, in 2000, the band reconvened (again with a new bassist, this time Daniel Nick) to compile their various "Take as Needed for Pain" and "Dopesick" era singles, seven inches and split records into one record, "Southern Discomfort". This reconvention gave them the impetus to knuckle down and record another album, and that album was 2000's "Confederacy of Ruined Lives". The album was a much more polished, sober affair, and so sounded distinctly more like a sequel to "Take as Needed for Pain" than "Dopesick". After its release, the band then toured extensively, embarking on a world tour for the first time, with dates in Europe and Japan.


title: Eyehategod

text: By 2001, the members of Eyehategod had continued juggling with various side-projects. During this time, Down recorded their second album, and Bower formed the mostly instrumental band, The Mystick Krewe of Clearlight, as well as Soilent Green releasing their third album. Mike Williams also founded Outlaw Order and Arson Anthem. During all this activity, Eyehategod found time to compile and release their live album "10 Years of Abuse (and Still Broke)" (which was mainly released due to a contractual obligation with Century Media), and record and release yet more split records and 7 inches. With the release of their live album, the band were free of their contract with Century, and chose to sign to Emetic Records (with their fifth and current bassist, Gary Mader) for the release of their 2005 stop-gap compilation album, "Preaching the "End-Time" Message", much in the vein of "Southern Discomfort", but this time with some unreleased studio tracks.


title: Eyehategod

text: Following the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, singer Mike Williams and his ex-girlfriend Alicia Morgan (a member of sludge metal band, 13) were arrested in Morgan City, Louisiana on a narcotics charge. Williams spent 91 days in the Morgan City Jail, and kicked his heroin habit.


title: Eyehategod

text: With the help of his Eyehategod bandmates and supporters such as Phil Anselmo, Williams was released from jail on December 2, 2005. The band played a set at the 2006 Mardi Gras festival, the first since the disaster. Emetic Records released a various artists tribute album to Eyehategod on March 20, 2007, titled "For the Sick". On August 29, 2008, the band celebrated their 20-year anniversary with a show at One Eyed Jacks in New Orleans. The band played a few shows in the American South in May 2009, and are on tour the same winter. They also performed at Hellfest in France in June.


title: Eyehategod

text: Jimmy Bower announced in an interview that Eyehategod are still active and preparing a new album. The band played at the Inferno festival in Oslo, Norway, on April 1, 2010, and also played two sets at the Roadburn festival later that month. Eyehategod performed a new song called "New Orleans Is the New Vietnam" during their set at their July 1, 2011 show in Roskilde Festival, Denmark.


title: Eyehategod

text: Drummer Joey LaCaze died on August 23, 2013, from respiratory failure. Earsplit PR issued a press release on the life and death of LaCaze. The release states, "Doctors confirmed to family members that the cause of death was respiratory failure. He also suffered from long term asthma." He had recently come back from a European tour and had celebrated his 42nd birthday.