title: Andy Farrell

text: After the 1993–94 Rugby Football League season, during which he scored a try in Wigan's Challenge Cup Final victory, Farrell travelled with his club to Brisbane and played as a in their 1994 World Club Challenge victory over Australian premiers, the Brisbane Broncos. He rates this as one of his greatest achievements in rugby league. Farrell was selected to play for Great Britain against Australia in all three Ashes Tests of the 1994 Kangaroo tour. The following year he played from the bench for Wigan in the 1995 Challenge Cup Final victory over Leeds Rhinos. At the end of the season he played as a for England in the 1995 World Cup Final, but Australia won the match and retained the Cup. Also that year, Farrell married the elder sister of future Great Britain international and Wigan captain Sean O'Loughlin.


title: Andy Farrell

text: In July 1996 Farrell was appointed Wigan Warriors' captain and later that year, aged 21 years and four months, became the youngest-ever captain of the Great Britain team, leading the 1996 Lions tour of New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Fiji. In October that year he won the prestigious Man of Steel Award. He was also named at in 1996's Super League Dream Team. On 28 September 1997 in the 1997 Super League Premiership Final, Farrell played at in Wigan's 33–20 win over St. Helens at Old Trafford before a crowd of 33,389. He was awarded the Harry Sunderland Trophy as man-of-the-match. In the 1997 post-season, Farrell was selected to captain Great Britain at in all three matches of the Super League Test series against Australia. He captained the Wigan Warriors as a in their 1998 Super League Grand Final victory over Leeds Rhinos.


title: Andy Farrell

text: Farrell played for the Wigan Warriors at , scoring a try and kicking two goals, in their 2000 Super League Grand Final defeat by St. Helens. In the post-season he was selected to captain England in the 2000 Rugby League World Cup. In 2001 Farrell set the Wigan club record for most points in a season with 429 and most points in a Super League championship season with 388. He is only the second Wigan Warriors player to score more than 3,000 points in all competitions. Farrell played for the Wigan Warriors at in their 2001 Super League Grand Final defeat by the Bradford Bulls. He celebrated his testimonial match in 2002 and also captained Wigan to victory in the 2002 Challenge Cup.


title: Andy Farrell

text: Farrell played for Wigan Warriors at and kicked two goals in the 2003 Super League Grand Final defeat by the Bradford Bulls. He was inducted into the Order of the British Empire for services to the game in the New Year's list of 2004. He won the Players' Player Award and twice won the Man of Steel Award. Now Britain's oldest international, Farrell was then selected in the Great Britain team to compete in the end-of-season 2004 Rugby League Tri-Nations tournament. In the final against Australia he played at , missing his only goal-kick in the Lions' 4–44 loss. Farrell was awarded the Golden Boot as the best player in the world in 2004. He retired while second on the list of the England rugby league side's all-time top goal scorers (behind George Fairbairn), with 78 points.


title: Andy Farrell

text: On 24 March 2005 Farrell announced his retirement from rugby league in order to play at Saracens, and the Rugby Football Union. A series of injuries and accidents (including a car crash) meant that his début in the 15-man code was delayed until 2006. He finally made a try-scoring début for Saracens reserves on 11 September 2006. Farrell then made his first-team début against Newcastle Falcons on 17 September 2006 as a replacement. On both occasions he played as blind-side flanker. A row then broke out about his best position: the England management suggested he should be playing in the centre, while Saracens continued to play him as a flanker. However Farrell went on to play primarily at centre for the Saracens first team, and again when selected to play for a World XV against South Africa. He was selected as a part of the England Elite squad for the 2007 Six Nations by new coach Brian Ashton. He was seen by some to be the main contender for the starting inside centre position, after England's problems in that position during the 2006 autumn internationals.


title: Andy Farrell

text: Farrell made his England début at Twickenham after he was named at inside centre in the first Six Nations game against Scotland. The 2007 World Cup saw Farrell starting at inside centre against South Africa, in England's chastening group stage defeat. He was then brought on as a replacement against Tonga, and scored his first England try. However, after being picked for the quarter-final decider against Australia he had to withdraw with a calf injury. Unfortunately he never produced the performances for the England union side for which many had hoped, and ultimately he won only eight caps. In January 2008 Farrell was joined at Saracens by his 16-year-old son Owen Farrell, who signed a three-year academy deal with the club. In August 2008 Farrell was named co-captain for the 2008–09 season along with Steve Borthwick. There were rumours of Farrell returning to rugby league and rejoining Wigan Warriors, after it emerged that Saracens head coach Eddie Jones had become unhappy with the direction his club was taking. It was rumoured that Jones and Farrell could be moving up north, with the Warriors becoming increasingly impatient with out-of-favour Brian Noble especially after their poor start to the season; however this proved to be unfounded, with the Warriors instead hiring Melbourne Storm assistant coach Michael Maguire. In April 2009 Farrell announced his retirement and said he was taking up a coaching role with Saracens at the end of the season.


title: Andy Farrell

text: Farrell was promoted to Saracens first-team coach at the end of 2010 after impressing as skills coach. The RFU announced on 8 December 2011 that both he and Graham Rowntree were to join the national coaching team, led by Stuart Lancaster, for the 2012 Six Nations championship. After the successful campaign Farrell was given the chance to become a permanent part of the England coaching team, but decided to return to Saracens. However, Farrell soon left the London club and the RFU announced on 28 June 2012 that he would join the England coaching team on a three-and-a-half-year contract.


title: Andy Farrell

text: Farrell toured with the British and Irish Lions in 2013 as defence coach, having proved himself with England. He was heavily praised by head coach Warren Gatland, having drilled the team to concede very few points during the 10-match tour.


title: Andy Farrell

text: On 15 December 2015, following the resignation of head coach Stuart Lancaster on 11 November 2015, newly appointed head coach Eddie Jones sacked Farrell along with the rest of the coaching team.


title: Andy Farrell

text: On 6 January 2016, it was announced that Farrell would take up the role of Ireland defence coach after the completion of the 2016 Six Nations Championship. As his previous contract with England prevented him from working with an international team until April 2016, Farrell joined Irish province Munster in January 2016 in a temporary advisor role that was to last for four months.


title: Andy Farrell

text: On 26 November 2018 it was announced that Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt would step down after the 2019 Rugby World Cup with Farrell taking over as head coach.


title: Andy Farrell

text: His first game in charge was against Scotland at the Aviva Stadium on 1 February 2020 in the 2020 Six Nations Championship Ireland won this game 19-12 and went on to finish in third place in the delayed Six Nations Championship.


title: Andy Farrell

text: Ireland finished in third place again in the 2021 Six Nations Championship, losing games against Wales and France. On 13 November 2021, in the Autumn internationals, Ireland defeated New Zealand 29–20. Ireland claim pulsating win over the All Blacks 13 November 2021.


title: Andy Farrell

text: Ireland won 29–7 against Wales in their opening fixture of the 2022 Six Nations Championship on 5 February, before losing 30–24 defeat away to France on 12 February. They won the next game 57–6 against Italy on 27 February, before a 32–15 away win against England on 12 March. A 26–5 win at home against Scotland on 19 March was enough to secure the Triple Crown for Ireland and a second-place finish in the championship. On 9 July 2022, Andy Farrell's side had a historical win in New Zealand beating the All Blacks 23–12 in Dunedin in the second match of the 2022 New Zealand tour. This was Ireland's first ever victory against the All Blacks on New Zealand soil. A week later, they were victorious once again in Wellington beating the All Blacks 32–22 to win the series. Following that victory Ireland officially became the world number one team for the second time in their history.


title: Andy Farrell

text: Farrell married Colleen O’Loughlin, the sister of former Wigan teammate Sean O’Loughlin in 1995 and has four children including England rugby union player Owen Farrell.


title: Lambda phage

text: Enterobacteria phage λ (lambda phage, coliphage λ, officially Escherichia virus Lambda) is a bacterial virus, or bacteriophage, that infects the bacterial species "Escherichia coli" ("E. coli"). It was discovered by Esther Lederberg in 1950. The wild type of this virus has a temperate life cycle that allows it to either reside within the genome of its host through lysogeny or enter into a lytic phase, during which it kills and lyses the cell to produce offspring. Lambda strains, mutated at specific sites, are unable to lysogenize cells; instead, they grow and enter the lytic cycle after superinfecting an already lysogenized cell.


title: Lambda phage

text: The phage particle consists of a head (also known as a capsid), a tail, and tail fibers (see image of virus below). The head contains the phage's double-strand linear DNA genome. During infection, the phage particle recognizes and binds to its host, "E. coli", causing DNA in the head of the phage to be ejected through the tail into the cytoplasm of the bacterial cell. Usually, a "lytic cycle" ensues, where the lambda DNA is replicated and new phage particles are produced within the cell. This is followed by cell lysis, releasing the cell contents, including virions that have been assembled, into the environment. However, under certain conditions, the phage DNA may integrate itself into the host cell chromosome in the lysogenic pathway. In this state, the λ DNA is called a prophage and stays resident within the host's genome without apparent harm to the host. The host is termed a lysogen when a prophage is present. This prophage may enter the lytic cycle when the lysogen enters a stressed condition.


title: Lambda phage

text: The virus particle consists of a head and a tail that can have tail fibers. The whole particle consists of 12–14 different proteins with more than 1000 protein molecules total and one DNA molecule located in the phage head. However, it is still not entirely clear whether the L and M proteins are part of the virion. All characterized lambdoid phages possess an N protein-mediated transcription antitermination mechanism, with the exception of phage HK022


title: Lambda phage

text: The genome contains 48,502 base pairs of double-stranded, linear DNA, with 12-base single-strand segments at both 5' ends. These two single-stranded segments are the "sticky ends" of what is called the "cos" site. The "cos" site circularizes the DNA in the host cytoplasm. In its circular form, the phage genome, therefore, is 48,502 base pairs in length. The lambda genome can be inserted into the " E. coli" chromosome and is then called a prophage. See section below for details.


title: Lambda phage

text: Lambda phage is a non-contractile tailed phage, meaning during an infection event it cannot 'force' its DNA through a bacterial cell membrane. It must instead use an existing pathway to invade the host cell, having evolved the tip of its tail to interact with a specific pore to allow entry of its DNA to the hosts.


title: Lambda phage

text: On initial infection, the stability of cII determines the lifestyle of the phage; stable cII will lead to the lysogenic pathway, whereas if cII is degraded the phage will go into the lytic pathway. Low temperature, starvation of the cells and high multiplicity of infection (MOI) are known to favor lysogeny (see later discussion).


title: Lambda phage

text: This occurs without the N protein interacting with the DNA; the protein instead binds to the freshly transcribed mRNA. Nut sites contain 3 conserved "boxes", of which only BoxB is essential.


title: Lambda phage

text: This is the lifecycle that the phage follows following most infections, where the cII protein does not reach a high enough concentration due to degradation, so does not activate its promoters.


title: Lambda phage

text: Rightward transcription expresses the "O", "P" and "Q" genes. O and P are responsible for initiating replication, and Q is another antiterminator that allows the expression of head, tail, and lysis genes from "P".


title: Lambda phage

text: Q is similar to N in its effect: Q binds to RNA polymerase in "Qut" sites and the resulting complex can ignore terminators, however the mechanism is very different; the Q protein first associates with a DNA sequence rather than an mRNA sequence.


title: Lambda phage

text: Leftward transcription expresses the "gam", "red", "xis", and "int" genes. Gam and red proteins are involved in recombination. Gam is also important in that it inhibits the host RecBCD nuclease from degrading the 3’ ends in rolling circle replication. Int and xis are integration and excision proteins vital to lysogeny.


title: Lambda phage

text: The lysogenic lifecycle begins once the cI protein reaches a high enough concentration to activate its promoters, after a small number of infections.


title: Lambda phage

text: The prophage is duplicated with every subsequent cell division of the host. The phage genes expressed in this dormant state code for proteins that repress expression of other phage genes (such as the structural and lysis genes) in order to prevent entry into the lytic cycle. These repressive proteins are broken down when the host cell is under stress, resulting in the expression of the repressed phage genes. Stress can be from starvation, poisons (like antibiotics), or other factors that can damage or destroy the host. In response to stress, the activated prophage is excised from the DNA of the host cell by one of the newly expressed gene products and enters its lytic pathway.


title: Lambda phage

text: The integration of phage λ takes place at a special attachment site in the bacterial and phage genomes, called "att". The sequence of the bacterial att site is called "attB", between the "gal" and "bio" operons, and consists of the parts B-O-B', whereas the complementary sequence in the circular phage genome is called "attP" and consists of the parts P-O-P'. The integration itself is a sequential exchange (see genetic recombination) via a Holliday junction and requires both the phage protein Int and the bacterial protein IHF ("integration host factor"). Both Int and IHF bind to "attP" and form an intasome, a DNA-protein-complex designed for site-specific recombination of the phage and host DNA. The original B-O-B' sequence is changed by the integration to B-O-P'-phage DNA-P-O-B'. The phage DNA is now part of the host's genome.


title: Lambda phage

text: The classic induction of a lysogen involved irradiating the infected cells with UV light. Any situation where a lysogen undergoes DNA damage or the SOS response of the host is otherwise stimulated leads to induction.


title: Lambda phage

text: Multiplicity reactivation (MR) is the process by which multiple viral genomes, each containing inactivating genome damage, interact within an infected cell to form a viable viral genome. MR was originally discovered with phage T4, but was subsequently found in phage λ (as well as in numerous other bacterial and mammalian viruses). MR of phage λ inactivated by UV light depends on the recombination function of either the host or of the infecting phage. Absence of both recombination systems leads to a loss of MR.


title: Lambda phage

text: Survival of UV-irradiated phage λ is increased when the E. coli host is lysogenic for an homologous prophage, a phenomenon termed prophage reactivation. Prophage reactivation in phage λ appears to occur by a recombinational repair process similar to that of MR.


title: Lambda phage

text: The repressor found in the phage lambda is a notable example of the level of control possible over gene expression by a very simple system. It forms a 'binary switch' with two genes under mutually exclusive expression, as discovered by Barbara J. Meyer.


title: Lambda phage

text: The lambda repressor is a self assembling dimer also known as the cI protein. It binds DNA in the helix-turn-helix binding motif. It regulates the transcription of the cI protein and the Cro protein.


title: Lambda phage

text: The life cycle of lambda phages is controlled by cI and Cro proteins. The lambda phage will remain in the lysogenic state if cI proteins predominate, but will be transformed into the lytic cycle if cro proteins predominate.


title: Lambda phage

text: Binding of a cI dimer to O1 enhances binding of a second cI dimer to O2, an effect called cooperativity. Thus, O1 and O2 are almost always simultaneously occupied by cI. However, this does not increase the affinity between cI and O3, which will be occupied only when the cI concentration is high.


title: Lambda phage

text: At high concentrations of cI, the dimers will also bind to operators O1 and O2 (which are over 2 kb downstream from the R operators). When cI dimers are bound to O1, O2, O1, and O2 a loop is induced in the DNA, allowing these dimers to bind together to form an octamer. This is a phenomenon called "long-range cooperativity". Upon formation of the octamer, cI dimers may cooperatively bind to O3 and O3, repressing transcription of cI. This "autonegative" regulation ensures a stable minimum concentration of the repressor molecule and, should SOS signals arise, allows for more efficient prophage induction.


title: Lambda phage

text: An important distinction here is that between the two decisions; lysogeny and lysis on infection, and continuing lysogeny or lysis from a prophage. The latter is determined solely by the activation of RecA in the SOS response of the cell, as detailed in the section on induction. The former will also be affected by this; a cell undergoing an SOS response will always be lysed, as no cI protein will be allowed to build up. However, the initial lytic/lysogenic decision on infection is also dependent on the cII and cIII proteins.


title: Lambda phage

text: In cells with sufficient nutrients, protease activity is high, which breaks down cII. This leads to the lytic lifestyle. In cells with limited nutrients, protease activity is low, making cII stable. This leads to the lysogenic lifestyle. cIII appears to stabilize cII, both directly and by acting as a competitive inhibitor to the relevant proteases. This means that a cell "in trouble", i.e. lacking in nutrients and in a more dormant state, is more likely to lysogenise. This would be selected for because the phage can now lie dormant in the bacterium until it falls on better times, and so the phage can create more copies of itself with the additional resources available and with the more likely proximity of further infectable cells.


title: Lambda phage

text: A full biophysical model for lambda's lysis-lysogeny decision remains to be developed. Computer modeling and simulation suggest that random processes during infection drive the selection of lysis or lysogeny within individual cells. However, recent experiments suggest that physical differences among cells, that exist prior to infection, predetermine whether a cell will lyse or become a lysogen.


title: Lambda phage

text: Lambda phage has been used heavily as a model organism, and has been a rich source for useful tools in microbial genetics, and later in molecular genetics. Uses include its application as a vector for the cloning of recombinant DNA; the use of its site-specific recombinase (int) for the shuffling of cloned DNAs by the gateway method; and the application of its Red operon, including the proteins Red alpha (also called 'exo'), beta and gamma in the DNA engineering method called recombineering. The 48 kb DNA fragment of lambda phage is not essential for productive infection and can be replaced by foreign DNA. Lambda phage will enter bacteria more easily than plasmids making it a useful vector that can destroy or can become part of the host's DNA. Lambda phage can be manipulated and used as an anti-cancer vaccine, nanoparticle, targeting human aspartyl (asparaginyl) β-hydroxylase (ASPH, HAAH). Lambda phage has also been of major importance in the study of specialized transduction.


title: Gravity battery

text: A gravity battery is a type of energy storage device that stores gravitational energy, the energy stored in an object resulting from a change in height due to gravity, also called potential energy. A gravity battery works by using excess energy from the grid to raise a mass to generate gravitational potential energy, which is then dropped to convert potential energy into electricity through an electric generator. Energy generated from a gravity battery is a form of sustainable energy. One form of a gravity battery is one that lowers a mass, such as a block of concrete, to generate electricity. The most common gravity battery is used in pumped-storage hydroelectricity, where water is pumped to higher elevations to store energy and released through water turbines to generate electricity.


title: Gravity battery

text: The earliest form of a device that used gravity to power mechanical movement was the pendulum clock, invented in 1656 by Christiaan Huygens. The clock was powered by the force of gravity using an escapement mechanism, that made a pendulum move back and forth. Since then, gravity batteries have advanced into systems that can harness the power of gravity and turn it into electricity for large scale energy storage.


title: Gravity battery

text: The first gravity based pumped-storage hydroelectricity (PSH) system was developed in 1907 in Switzerland. In 1930, pumped-storage came to the United States by the Connecticut Electric and Power Company. As of 2019, the total world capacity for PSH is 168 GW (gigawatts). The United States has 23 GW capacity from PSH, accounting for nearly 2% of the energy supply system and 95% of utility-scale energy storage in the US. Gravity based pumped-storage electricity is currently the largest form of grid energy storage in the world.


title: Gravity battery

text: In 2012, Martin Riddiford and Jim Reeves developed the first functioning prototype of GravityLight, a small-scale gravity battery that is now commercially available in certain countries.


title: Gravity battery

text: Energy Vault, a Swiss company founded in 2017, stores electricity using a crane that raises and lowers blocks of concrete. In late 2020, a prototype built in Arbedo-Castione used six cranes on a 110-meter-high tower to move 35-ton concrete blocks with a capacity of 80 megawatt hours.


title: Gravity battery

text: Cascadia Carbon Inc., a Portland, Oregon company, is developing a potential energy battery with the University of British Columbia.


title: Gravity battery

text: Gravitricity, founded in 2011 by Peter Fraenkel, built a 15-meter 250-kilowatt gravity battery prototype near Edinburgh, Scotland that started trial operations and grid-connection in April 2021.


title: Gravity battery

text: Gravity batteries can have different designs and structures, but all gravity batteries use the same properties of physics to generate energy. Gravitational potential energy is the work required to move an object in the opposite direction of Earth's gravity, expressed by the equation


title: Gravity battery

text: where U is gravitational potential energy, m is the mass of the object, g is the acceleration of the object due to gravity (9.8 m/s on earth), and h is the height of the object. Using the work-energy principle, the total amount of energy generated can be expressed by the equation


title: Gravity battery

text: where E is the total amount of energy generated and h1 and h2 represent the initial and final heights of an object. The change of energy directly correlates to the vertical displacement of a mass; the higher a mass is lifted, the more gravitational potential energy is stored. The change in energy also directly correlates to the mass of an object; the heavier the mass, the bigger the change in energy.


title: Gravity battery

text: In a gravity battery, a mass is displaced, or lifted, to generate gravitational potential energy that is transformed into electricity. Gravity batteries store gravitational potential energy by lifting a mass to a certain height using a pump, crane, or motor. After the mass is lifted, it now stores a certain gravitational potential energy based on the mass of the object and how high it was lifted. The stored gravitational potential energy is then transferred into electricity. The mass is lowered to fall back to its original height, which causes a generator to spin and create electricity.


title: Gravity battery

text: Pumped-storage hydroelectricity (PSH) is the most widely used and highest-capacity form of grid-energy storage. In PSH, water is pumped from a lower reservoir to a higher reservoir, which can then be released through turbines to create energy. An alternative PSH proposal uses a proprietary high-density liquid, times denser than water, which requires a smaller head (elevation) and thus decreases the size and cost of the necessary infrastructure.


title: Gravity battery

text: Energy-storage-by-rail is a concept where excess renewable energy is used to run heavy trains cars uphill during times of low energy demand. The potential energy is released later by using regenerative braking as they roll downhill, acting as a gravity battery. A utility-scale (50 MW) facility called GravityLine began construction in October 2020 by Advanced Rail Energy Storage, located at the Gamebird Pit gravel mine in the Pahrump Valley, Nevada, and is planned to deliver up to 15 minutes of service at full capacity.


title: Gravity battery

text: Lift Renewable Energy uses a form of gravity battery. To store energy, buoyant gas containers are pulled down into water by a winch, water is in effect lifted hundreds of meters. The cycle is then reversed and electricity is generated as the gas containers rise. Relatively little infrastructure is required, the batteries can be sited near major population centers, round trip efficiency is 85+%, and the system can be built at a GWh scale.


title: Gravity battery

text: Lifted Weight Storage (LWS) technology uses surplus energy to mechanically lift solid weights vertically, typically on a pulley system. When extra energy is needed, the mass is lowered, and the pulley turns a generator.


title: Gravity battery

text: EnergyVault is designing a LWS system using a tower built from 32-ton concrete blocks, stacked with 120-meter cranes. One commercial unit is expected to store 20 MWh or energy, or enough to power 2,000 Swiss homes a day.


title: Gravity battery

text: Gravitricity's LWS system in an underground shaft uses an electric winch to lift a 500-to-5000-tonne weight, which when lowered turns the winch motor as a generator. The system generates 10 MWh, enough to power 13,000 homes for two hours. The weight can also be dropped quickly for a small burst of power.


title: Gravity battery

text: GravityLight is a small gravity-powered light that operates by manually lifting a bag of rocks or sand up and then letting it fall by itself to generate energy. It is designed as an alternative for those who do not have access to electricity and typically rely on kerosene lamps, which are expensive, dangerous, and polluting.


title: Gravity battery

text: Pumped storage hydropower costs $165/kWh to operate, with a levelized cost of storage (LCOS), of $0.17/kWh. The pumps and turbines of PSH systems operate at up to 90% efficiency.


title: Gravity battery

text: Gravitricity's 250 kW demonstrator is expected to be $1.25 million, promising a 50-year lifespan and efficiency of 80–90%. A 2018 comparative review of the proposition was favorable considering the extended lifespan and power-to-energy cost ratio.


title: Gravity battery

text: Gravity batteries can make solar and wind more viable as they can store the excess energy they make during peak hours and distribute it later when needed.


title: Gravity battery

text: Gravity batteries are designed to be paired with renewable energy solutions whose sources (sunlight, wind, etc) are frequently variable and do not necessarily coincide with demand. It is hoped that they will have a better long term cost than chemical batteries, while having fewer environmental issues than other traditional storage solutions such as pumped-water storage. It is anticipated that gravity battery systems will be able to quickly provide power during peak consumption which may allow them to supplement or replace fossil fuel peaking power plants. Single weight systems are expected to be able to achieve full power generation in less than a second.


title: Gravity battery

text: Among low-carbon long-duration energy storage methods, pumped storage hydropower had the lowest current energy cost, though lithium-ion batteries are expected to overtake it in the future. Pumped storage hydropower and other long-duration storage methods are considered to have low environmental and security risks compared to battery technology, with the only limiting factor being geology.


title: Gravity battery

text: From 1870 to 1930, the term "gravity battery" was used to describe a collection of popular battery types where gravity was used to keep the chemical constituents separate based on their respective densities.


title: The Firm (2012 TV series)

text: The Firm is a legal thriller television series that began airing on January 8, 2012, on Global in Canada and NBC in the United States and in February 2012 on AXN, and is a sequel to the 1991 John Grisham novel of the same name and its 1993 film adaptation. The television adaptation is set ten years after the novel and film.


title: The Firm (2012 TV series)

text: On February 3, 2012, NBC announced that the series would be pulled from its Thursday 10/9c slot immediately, and placed on Saturdays at 9/8c starting on February 18; Global continued to air the series at the former time slot until March 3, when the show was moved to Saturdays. AXN began broadcasts in over 125 territories and countries on February 19.


title: The Firm (2012 TV series)

text: The 2012 television show picks up on the story of Mitchell Y. McDeere and his family ten years after the fictional setting of the 1991 novel and 1993 film. In the original film and book, McDeere helped topple the Memphis law firm of Bendini, Lambert & Locke that protected a Chicago organized crime syndicate, resulting in mob convictions. When the Chicago mob boss dies in prison, the McDeeres emerge from witness protection to start their new life. The television adaptation attempts to remain true to the conspiracy element of its predecessors. Once McDeere is out of witness protection and building a new law firm, Kinross & Clark, a shady law firm, pushes to acquire McDeere's. Since the McDeeres are strapped for cash, he is tempted by the business prospects of the mysterious firm. Although McDeere's law firm is considered scrappy, he has become leery of being watched, which makes focusing on his job difficult. McDeere has a ten-year-old daughter Claire (Natasha Calis) and he begins the remaking of his career in the Washington Metropolitan Area. Mitch's brother and his brother's girlfriend work for his upstart law firm, which works out of a tiny former travel agency office. The first season revolves around a conspiracy and Kinross & Clark's interest in a McDeere client accused of murder. Throughout the season, the deceased mob boss' son contemplates seeking revenge on Mitch who was a cause of his father's prison term.


title: The Firm (2012 TV series)

text: The concept of bringing these characters to television had been in the works for a few years with CBS having formerly been the expected network. Reiter conceived the recreation of the series 10 years into the future and proposed it to Grisham. Grisham oversaw the first three or four episode scripts and then became confident with its development.


title: The Firm (2012 TV series)

text: Sony Pictures Television ordered 22 episodes of the show from Entertainment One Television in late April 2011 for broadcast on their AXN stations in 125 markets outside of Canada and the U.S. Shortly thereafter, NBC and Shaw Media confirmed that they had acquired broadcast rights in the U.S. and Canada respectively. The show's 22 episode order was the largest of any of NBC's newly picked up shows.


title: The Firm (2012 TV series)

text: The show was filmed in Toronto and was produced by Entertainment One in association with Sony Pictures Television and Paramount Pictures. Filming of Season 1 took place between August 4, 2011 and April 30, 2012. The pilot was directed by David Straiton.


title: The Firm (2012 TV series)

text: Grisham served as an executive producer of the television series. Lukas Reiter, a former "Law & Order" producer, wrote the pilot and was the showrunner. Some of the other legal shows he has produced are "The Practice" and "Boston Legal". Other executive producers were Entertainment One's John Morayniss, Michael Rosenberg, Noreen Halpern, and Helen Shaver. The show's writers included Alyson Feltes, Peter Noah, David Feige, William Rothko, Vincent Angell, and Jonathan Shapiro.


title: The Firm (2012 TV series)

text: On June 8, 2011, it was announced that Josh Lucas had been cast in the lead role of Mitch McDeere. On July 12, Entertainment One announced the casting of Callum Keith Rennie as Ray McDeere and Juliette Lewis as Tammy. The addition of Molly Parker as Abby McDeere was announced on July 29. Natasha Calis was cast as Claire McDeere, Mitch and Abby McDeere's daughter. Parker had previously played Calis' mother in the 2011 Lifetime film, "Gone". Then, Tricia Helfer and Shaun Majumder were added in recurring roles as Alex Clarke and Andrew Palmer on August 19 and 22. , the show was under production. Although mostly shot in Toronto, the production has included other host cities such as Washington, D.C. , eight of the 22 episodes had been shot, according to Grisham.


title: The Firm (2012 TV series)

text: On July 19, 2011, CBS filed a lawsuit against Reiter and Entertainment One "for tortious interference with contract, breach of contract, and breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing" because after CBS declined to commission a series from his script after paying him for it, Reiter reworked it, and Entertainment One agreed to produce it.


title: The Firm (2012 TV series)

text: Both the novel and the film recount the story of an upstart attorney who unknowingly was hired by an organized crime enterprise's legal team. He became a whistleblower to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and brought down the corrupt Memphis law firm with Chicago mob ties. The TV series begins as the McDeere family emerge from witness protection to encounter old and new challenges. The novel sold seven million copies. The film starring Tom Cruise grossed over $158 million ($ million in dollars) domestically and $111 million internationally ($270 million worldwide in 1993 dollars). It was the largest grossing R-rated movie of 1993 and of any film based on a Grisham novel. The week the film was released, Grisham and Michael Crichton evenly divided the top six paperback spots on The New York Times Best Seller list.


title: The Firm (2012 TV series)

text: In reporting about the television series, Bill Keveney of "USA Today" said, "The book ends with him [Mitch McDeere] on the run, his law career apparently over; the movie ends with him and his wife, Abby, on their way back to Boston, hoping for a new start in life and law." Keveney said that the television show more closely resembles the film in this regard. Mike Hale of "The New York Times", however, notes that conflict with the mob "...doesn’t jibe with the film, which ended with his having reached a détente with them while avoiding witness protection." He does note that "It takes a couple of jarring, revisionist flashbacks in the first 10 minutes of the premiere to reconcile these details."


title: The Firm (2012 TV series)

text: "The Firm" marks the third television adaptation of a John Grisham novel. "The Client" was a 1995 adaptation of the 1993 novel of the same name that aired 21 episodes on CBS between September 17, 1995, and April 16, 1996, during the 1995–96 United States television season. Grisham was not credited for the development of that adaptation. "The Street Lawyer" was a 2003 adaptation of the 1998 novel of the same name that never aired on ABC that was developed for the 2003–04 United States television season. The novel "Ford County" was also in development as an NBC series at one time.


title: The Firm (2012 TV series)

text: In May 2011, it was announced that in the United States, "The Firm" would air during the 2011–12 network television season on Sundays at 10:00 pm. It was intended to premiere as a 2012 mid-season replacement following "The Apprentice". However, in November 2011, it was announced that in the United States, "The Firm" would air on Thursdays 10:00 pm. It premiered as a 2012 midseason replacement following "Up All Night", taking over the time slot from "Prime Suspect". It premiered with a two-hour special on Sunday January 8, 2012 before debuting in its regular one-hour time slot on January 12. The premiere drew NBC's worst ratings in the key advertising demographic ever for a regular season drama debut. On February 3, 2012, NBC announced that "The Firm" was being rescheduled to Saturdays at 9/8c, with its original Thursday 10/9c slot being taken by "Awake".


title: The Firm (2012 TV series)

text: In Canada, the show premiered on January 8 and was shown in simulcast with NBC for the first six episodes. With the acquisition of "Awake", Shaw has moved "The Firm" to Saturdays at 10:00 pm on Global, beginning with "Chapter 10" on March 10, 2012. "The Firm" repeats on Showcase on Friday night, Saturday morning and night, as well as morning and night of the following Tuesday. The series is also shown Sundays on Mystery TV.


title: The Firm (2012 TV series)

text: With its debut on February 19, "The Firm" marks the first time that AXN has premiered a show on the same day in all of its markets. The AXN broadcast broadens the shows markets to over 125 territories and countries across Africa, Asia, Latin America, Central Europe, Germany, Italy, Japan, Portugal, Russia, and Spain. Worldwide distribution is handled by Entertainment One, who owns the basic and pay television, broadcast television, and digital/DVD rights for the show outside of AXN markets.


title: The Firm (2012 TV series)

text: On March 17, 2012, the show was pre-empted by the new NBC reality show "Fashion Star" for one week. On May 4, 2012 NBC announced on the show's Facebook page that they were delaying episode 16 until May 12 due to the holiday Cinco de Mayo. Episode 16 was broadcast in Canada on May 5, resulting in NBC being one week behind the Canadian broadcast.


title: The Firm (2012 TV series)

text: As of 2021, the series is currently being heavily promoted by Scottish Television (STV) for its STV Player service.


title: The Firm (2012 TV series)

text: The series received an approval rating of 39% on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, based on twenty three reviews, its consensus reads, "A typical, old-fashioned legal crime show, The Firm grows tedious from the first episode."


title: The Firm (2012 TV series)

text: While giving the show two stars, Gail Pennington of the "St. Louis Post-Dispatch" says "'The Firm' is tedious but not terrible; whether it will be watchable depends, one, on how much you like legal procedurals and, two, how the ongoing McDeeres-in-jeopardy plot is handled in future episodes." By way of comparison, she describes the show as ""Harry's Law" minus all charm" and as a show that "really wants to be "Damages" circa 2007". She also notes that because of the financing deal, the show is unlikely to be cancelled before the 22-episode run is completed.


title: The Firm (2012 TV series)

text: Not all the reviews were negative. David Wiegand of the "San Francisco Chronicle" describes the show as "old-fashioned" in a good way. He speaks highly of things ranging from retro opening credits that he described as slick to the payphone that he mentions as if it is quaint. He also notes that the characters incorporate "nods to classic thrillers of the past" in a manner that is "in keeping with that old-fashioned element that wafts through the show". Wiegand considers the unusual 22-episode investment a safe one because "The cast is appealing and the story line is not only compelling but also deals with fascinating moral complexities."


title: Retail apocalypse

text: A retail apocalypse is the closing of numerous brick-and-mortar retail stores, especially those of large chains worldwide. It began around 2010, and was severely exacerbated by the mandatory closures during the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Retail apocalypse

text: In 2017, over 12,000 physical stores closed due to factors including over-expansion of malls, rising rents, bankruptcies, leveraged buyouts, low quarterly profits outside holiday binge spending, delayed effects of the Great Recession, and changes in spending habits. American consumers have shifted their purchasing habits due to various factors, including experience-spending versus material goods and homes, casual fashion in relaxed dress codes, as well as the rise of e-commerce, mostly in the form of competition from juggernaut companies such as Amazon.com and Walmart. A 2017 "Business Insider" report dubbed this phenomenon the "Amazon effect," and calculated that Amazon.com was generating greater than 50% of the growth of retail sales. Dissenting economists and experts asserted that recent retail closures are a market correction, suggesting that "retail apocalypse" is a misleading phrase that instills insecurity in the 16 million U.S. retail workers.


title: Retail apocalypse

text: Research published by global retail analyst IHL Group in 2019 suggests that the so-called retail apocalypse narrative was an exaggeration, with "more chains that are expanding their number of stores than closing stores.” That year, retailers in the United States announced 9,302 store closings, a 59% jump from 2018, and the highest number since tracking the data began in 2012.


title: Retail apocalypse

text: Corporate bankruptcies and store closings increased significantly from 2020 due to the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, with most retail stores, especially already struggling mall-based retailers, closing for extended periods of time. J. Crew, Neiman Marcus, Stage Stores, JCPenney, and Tuesday Morning were among the retailers to file for bankruptcy during the pandemic.


title: Retail apocalypse

text: The most productive retailers in North America during contemporary retail apocalypses are discount superstores (Walmart, Target), low-cost "fast-fashion" brands (Zara, Uniqlo, Cotton On, H&M), off-price department stores (Ross, Marshalls, Burlington), pet stores (PetSmart, Petco) and dollar stores (Dollar General, Dollar Tree, Family Dollar).


title: Retail apocalypse

text: "Retail apocalypse" appeared in print in an early 1990s essay by "It's Not My Department!" author Peter Glen. The term became controversial as used by media to refer to multiple brick-and-mortar store closures resulting from shifts in consumer spending.


title: Retail apocalypse

text: The phrase began gaining widespread usage in 2017 following multiple announcements from many major retailers of plans to either discontinue or greatly scale back a retail presence, including companies such as H.H. Gregg, Family Christian Stores and The Limited all going out of business entirely. "The Atlantic" described the phenomenon as "The Great Retail Apocalypse of 2017," reporting nine retail bankruptcies and several apparel companies having their stock hit new lows, including that of Lululemon, Urban Outfitters, and American Eagle. Credit Suisse, a major global financial services company, predicted that 25% of U.S. malls remaining in 2017 could close by 2022.


title: Retail apocalypse

text: Since at least 2010, various economic factors have resulted in the closing of many stores in North America, the United Kingdom, and Australia, particularly in the department store industry. For example, Sears Holdings had more than 3,500 stores and 355,000 employees in 2006. By the end of 2016, Sears operated 1,430 stores. In October 2018, Sears filed for bankruptcy and announced they would close an additional 142 of their 687 stores. At the time of filing, Sears had 68,000 employees.


title: Retail apocalypse

text: From 2017, the phrase is frequently applied to brick-and-mortar closures in retail, with the retail apocalypse creating a domino effect on manufacturers and suppliers; Hasbro, for example, cited the losses of the Toys "R" Us chain as a major cause for lost revenue and layoffs the company imposed in October 2018.


title: Retail apocalypse

text: A 2019 analysis conducted by IHL Group international research and advisory firm found that when a retailer closes many stores, it indicates more about the individual retailer rather than the retail industry overall. In 2019, the 20 stores announcing the most closures represent 75% of all closures. IHL found that for each retailer closing stores in 2019, more than five retail chains are opening stores, an increase from the 3.7 ratio of 2018. IHL also reported that the number of chains adding stores in 2019 had increased 56%, while the number of closing stores decreased by 66% in the last year.


title: Retail apocalypse

text: As of May 2020, bankruptcies and store closings were expected to intensify due to widespread business closures and the resulting financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. J. Crew, Neiman Marcus, Stage Stores, JCPenney, and Tuesday Morning were among the first major retailers to file for bankruptcy during the pandemic.


title: Retail apocalypse

text: The main factor cited in the closing of retail stores in the retail apocalypse is the shift in consumer habits towards online shopping. Holiday sales for e-commerce increased by an estimated 11% to 20% from 2015 to 2016. The same year, brick-and-mortar stores saw an overall increase of only 1.6%, with physical department stores experiencing a 4.8% decline.


title: Retail apocalypse

text: Another factor is an over-supply of malls as the growth rate of malls in North America between 1970 and 2015 was over twice the growth rate of the population. In 2004, Malcolm Gladwell wrote that investment in malls was artificially accelerated when the United States Congress introduced accelerated depreciation into the tax code in 1954. Despite the construction of new malls, mall visits declined by 50% between 2010 and 2013 with further declines reported in each successive year.


title: Retail apocalypse

text: A major reported contributing factor to the supposed retail decline is an on-going "restaurant renaissance" — a shift in consumer spending habits for their disposable income from material purchases such as clothing towards dining out and travel.


title: Retail apocalypse

text: Another cited factor is the "death of the American middle class" (declining real wages and rising costs creating a middle-class squeeze), resulting in large-scale closures of retailers such as Macy's and Sears which traditionally relied on spending from this market segment. Particularly in rural areas, variety stores such as Dollar General, Dollar Tree, and Family Dollar, once thought to be unaffected by the apocalypse since they have continued growing rapidly, are now perceived as being at best a symptom of the phenomenon, and at worst a direct cause of rural, independent retailers collapsing, unable to compete with the lower margins that national chains can sustain.


title: Retail apocalypse

text: The final factor in poor brick-and-mortar sales performance is a combination of poor retail management coupled with an overcritical eye towards quarterly dividends: a lack of accurate inventory control creates both underperforming and out-of-stock merchandise, causing a poor shopping experience for customers in order to optimize short-term balance sheets, the latter of which also influences the desire to understaff retail stores in order to keep claimed profits high. Furthermore, many long-standing chain retailers are overloaded with debt, often from leveraged buyouts from private equity firms, which hinders the profitable operation of retail chains.


title: Retail apocalypse

text: The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated many issues affecting retailers, as many were forced to shut down due to non-pharmaceutical interventions that were issued in an effort to mitigate the pandemic.


title: Retail apocalypse

text: At the same time, online shopping has been booming during the coronavirus-related lockdown. Most of the major e-commerce retailers in the United States were classified as essential businesses and were not required to shut down. Buyers stated that they would deliberately buy products from such categories as food and drinks, hygiene, household cleaning, clothing, health, and consumer electronics online rather than in person due to COVID-19. The outbreak is said to have changed shopping behavior permanently: in the US, 29% of surveyed consumers stated that they had no intention to ever go back to offline shopping. In the UK, this number reached 43%.


title: Retail apocalypse

text: In June 2020, retail research firm Coresight reported that they estimated that the number of store closures due to the pandemic and ensuing recession would exceed the 2019 record of 9,302.


title: Retail apocalypse

text: Coresight Research data later indicated that store closures had reduced by 49% from 2020 to 2021, with store openings increased by 36% over the previous year. Clothing and accessories accounted for 43% of retail closures in 2021. In July 2022, the analytics firm published findings that store openings had exceeded store closings for the first half of 2022, and that there were 10% fewer closings and 3% fewer openings than in 2021.


title: Retail apocalypse

text: Below is a sample of the numerous retail chains that declared bankruptcy during the ten-year period, 2011 – 2021.


title: Retail apocalypse

text: Researchers have identified customer experience and brand reputation as two factors that can influence whether a retailer will survive. Some more established retailers like Toys "R" Us may not have been as responsive to changing trends in consumer behavior. Some researchers have made recommendations based on trends and technologies to improve the outlook for traditional brick and mortar retailers.


title: Retail apocalypse

text: Employing technology, Ikea became one of the first retailers to use Apple's ARKit to develop an augmented reality app that allowed customers to visualize 3D renderings of Ikea products as they would appear in a certain room or place. Macy's, American Eagle, Nike and Sephora were reported to be implementing various technologies to integrate digital experiences to improve consumers' physical shopping experiences. Sephora has installed smart mirrors that use augmented reality technology to allow customers to try on makeup. Walmart automated some aspects of its supply chain, while Kohl's streamlined its retail presence, reducing the size of some stores from 90,000 to between 60,000 and 35,000 square feet. starting the use of robots to help clean and stock shelves. Company executives have said robots lower costs and improve efficiency, but employees report they don't like working with robots. Lowe's has been using LowesBot to help customers find items.


title: Retail apocalypse

text: According to a 2018 study from the International Council of Shopping Centers, new stores can increase traffic to retailer websites by an average of 37% and drive up share of web traffic within that market by 27% in what is called a "halo effect". Prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, "Forbes" outlined several aspects that aid retail survival, highlighting brand reputation as the topmost factor. In February 2020, Monash University in Australia underlined the three key factors for a healthy survival during an apparent retail apocalypse as delivering a "great in-store retail experience", customer-targeted stock offerings, and "seamless omnichannel integration".


title: Universal Time

text: Universal Time (UT or UT1) is a time standard based on Earth's rotation. While originally it was mean solar time at 0° longitude, precise measurements of the Sun are difficult. Therefore, UT1 is computed from a measure of the Earth's angle with respect to the International Celestial Reference Frame (ICRF), called the Earth Rotation Angle (ERA, which serves as a modern replacement for Greenwich Mean Sidereal Time). UT1 is the same everywhere on Earth. UT1 is required to follow the relationship


title: Universal Time

text: Prior to the introduction of standard time, each municipality throughout the clock-using world set its official clock, if it had one, according to the local position of the Sun (see solar time). This served adequately until the introduction of rail travel in Britain, which made it possible to travel fast enough over long distances to require continuous re-setting of timepieces as a train progressed in its daily run through several towns. Starting in 1847, Britain established Greenwich Mean Time, the mean solar time on the Prime Meridian at Greenwich, England, to solve this problem: all clocks in Britain were set to this time regardless of local solar noon. Using telescopes, GMT was calibrated to the mean solar time at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich in the UK. Chronometers or telegraphy were used to synchronize these clocks.


title: Universal Time

text: As international commerce increased, the need for an international standard of time measurement emerged. Several authors proposed a "universal" or "cosmic" time (see ). The development of Universal Time began at the International Meridian Conference. At the end of this conference, on 22 October 1884, the recommended base reference for world time, the "universal day", was announced to be the local mean solar time at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, counted from 0 hours at Greenwich mean midnight. This agreed with the civil Greenwich Mean Time used on the island of Great Britain since 1847. In contrast, astronomical GMT began at mean noon, i.e. astronomical day "X" began at noon of civil day "X". The purpose of this was to keep one night's observations under one date. The civil system was adopted as of 0 hours (civil) 1 January 1925. Nautical GMT began 24 hours before astronomical GMT, at least until 1805 in the Royal Navy, but persisted much later elsewhere because it was mentioned at the 1884 conference. Greenwich was chosen because by 1884 two-thirds of all nautical charts and maps already used it as their prime meridian.


title: Universal Time

text: During the period between 1848 and 1972, all of the major countries adopted time zones based on the Greenwich meridian.


title: Universal Time

text: In 1928, the term Universal Time (UT) was introduced by the International Astronomical Union to refer to GMT, with the day starting at midnight. The term was recommended as a more precise term than Greenwich Mean Time, because GMT could refer to either an astronomical day starting at noon or a civil day starting at midnight. As the general public had always begun the day at midnight, the timescale continued to be presented to them as Greenwich Mean Time.


title: Universal Time

text: When introduced, broadcast time signals were based on UT, and hence on the rotation of the Earth. In 1955 the BIH adopted a proposal by William Markowitz, effective January 1, 1956, dividing UT into UT0 (UT as formerly computed), UT1 (UT0 corrected for polar motion) and UT2 (UT0 corrected for polar motion and seasonal variation). UT1 was the version sufficient for "many astronomical and geodetic applications", while UT2 was to be broadcast over radio to the public.


title: Universal Time

text: UT0 and UT2 soon became irrelevant due to the introduction of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Starting in 1956, WWV broadcast an atomic clock signal stepped by 20 ms increments to bring it into agreement with UT1. The up to 20 ms error from UT1 is on the same order of magnitude as the differences between UT0, UT1, and UT2. By 1960, the U.S. Naval Observatory, the Royal Greenwich Observatory, and the UK National Physical Laboratory had developed UTC, with a similar stepping approach. The 1960 URSI meeting recommended that all time services should follow the lead of the UK and US and broadcast coordinated time using a frequency offset from cesium aimed to match the predicted progression of UT2 with occasional steps as needed. Starting January 1, 1972, UTC was defined to follow UT1 within 0.9 seconds rather than UT2, marking the decline of UT2.


title: Universal Time

text: Modern civil time generally follows UTC. In some countries, the term "Greenwich Mean Time" persists in common usage to this day in reference to UT1, in civil timekeeping as well as in astronomical almanacs and other references. Whenever a level of accuracy better than one second is not required, UTC can be used as an approximation of UT1. The difference between UT1 and UTC is known as DUT1.


title: Universal Time

text: The table shows the dates of adoption of time zones based on the Greenwich meridian, including half-hour zones.


title: Universal Time

text: Apart from Nepal Standard Time (UTC+05:45), the Chatham Standard Time Zone (UTC+12:45) used in New Zealand's Chatham Islands and the officially unsanctioned Central Western Time Zone (UTC+8:45) used in Eucla, Western Australia and surrounding areas, all time zones in use are defined by an offset from UTC that is a multiple of half an hour, and in most cases a multiple of an hour.


title: Universal Time

text: Historically, Universal Time was computed from observing the position of the Sun in the sky. But astronomers found that it was more accurate to measure the rotation of the Earth by observing stars as they crossed the meridian each day. Nowadays, UT in relation to International Atomic Time (TAI) is determined by Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) observations of the positions of distant celestial objects (stars and quasars), a method which can determine UT1 to within 15 microseconds or better. Additional data sources include laser ranging of the Moon and artificial satellites, as well as the determination of GPS satellite orbits.


title: Universal Time

text: The rotation of the Earth and UT are monitored by the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS). The International Astronomical Union also is involved in setting standards, but the final arbiter of broadcast standards is the International Telecommunication Union or ITU.


title: Universal Time

text: The rotation of the Earth is somewhat irregular and also is very gradually slowing due to tidal acceleration. Furthermore, the length of the second was determined from observations of the Moon between 1750 and 1890. All of these factors cause the modern mean solar day, on the average, to be slightly longer than the nominal 86,400 SI seconds, the traditional number of seconds per day. As UT is thus slightly irregular in its rate, astronomers introduced Ephemeris Time, which has since been replaced by Terrestrial Time (TT). Because Universal Time is determined by the Earth's rotation, which drifts away from more precise atomic-frequency standards, an adjustment (called a leap second) to this atomic time is needed since () 'broadcast time' remains broadly synchronised with solar time. Thus, the civil broadcast standard for time and frequency usually follows International Atomic Time closely, but occasionally step (or "leap") in order to prevent them from drifting too far from mean solar time.


title: Universal Time

text: Barycentric Dynamical Time (TDB), a form of atomic time, is now used in the construction of the ephemerides of the planets and other solar system objects, for two main reasons. First, these ephemerides are tied to optical and radar observations of planetary motion, and the TDB time scale is fitted so that Newton's laws of motion, with corrections for general relativity, are followed. Next, the time scales based on Earth's rotation are not uniform and therefore, are not suitable for predicting the motion of bodies in our solar system.


title: Universal Time

text: UT1 is the principal form of Universal Time. However, there are also several other infrequently-used time standards that are referred to as Universal Time, which agree within 0.03 seconds with UT1:


title: Calling All Stations

text: ...Calling All Stations... is the fifteenth and final studio album by English rock band Genesis. It was released 1 September 1997 by Virgin Records, and is their only album featuring Scottish singer Ray Wilson as frontman following the departure of longtime drummer/singer Phil Collins in 1996. The remaining members—founding keyboardist Tony Banks and guitarist/bassist Mike Rutherford—decided to continue the band and write new music for an album, during which they auditioned singers and picked Wilson.


title: Calling All Stations

text: "Calling All Stations" was released to mostly negative reviews from music critics who chastised its lack of direction, but praised Wilson's performance. It sold poorly in comparison to their earlier albums; it reached No. 2 in the UK and performed well in Europe, but it peaked at No. 54 in the US. This marked their first studio album not to reach number one in the UK since 1978. "Congo", the first of three singles from the album, went to No. 29 in the UK. The Calling All Stations Tour saw Genesis tour Europe throughout 1998, but an American leg was booked and cancelled twice due to low ticket sales. The group disbanded at the tour's conclusion, focusing on archival and greatest hit albums until Collins returned in 2006 for the Turn It On Again Tour.


title: Calling All Stations

text: At the end of the We Can't Dance Tour in November 1992 the band went on hiatus, reuniting only for a one-off charity performance in September 1993. Their drummer and lead vocalist Phil Collins resumed his solo career and released "Both Sides", keyboardist Tony Banks recorded an album with Jack Hues under the Strictly Inc. project, and guitarist/bassist Mike Rutherford continued his band Mike + the Mechanics. In mid-1994, Collins said that singing Genesis songs at the charity gig after making "Both Sides", which he deemed a highly personal album, was uncomfortable. "For the first time I felt like an actor playing somebody else's part." After a band meeting with manager Tony Smith in the summer of 1995, Collins left. A press release from management announcing the news was released in March 1996.


title: Calling All Stations

text: Banks and Rutherford decided they had nothing to lose and started to write new songs in January 1996 to see if it was worth carrying on with Genesis. After some ideas had been put down they were pleased with the results and began to audition lead singers. At this stage, the basic structure of the tracks on "Calling All Stations" had been written but the lyrics had not been worked on. Shortly after the album's release, Wilson described the material as a mixture of their earlier progressive rock sound and their later, more commercial period.


title: Calling All Stations

text: The final two candidates were English singer David Longdon, later a member of Big Big Train, and Scottish singer and guitarist Ray Wilson of the grunge-influenced band Stiltskin. Longdon's song "Hieroglyphics of Love" attracted producer Nick Davis who forwarded it onto Banks and Rutherford and liked it enough to invite him to the studio to audition. Banks had liked Wilson's vocals from listening to Stiltskin's first album, "The Mind's Eye" (1994). For his first audition, Wilson sang Genesis songs with Collins's vocals removed. At his second, he was asked to contribute vocal ideas to the new music that Banks and Rutherford had written, singing and humming ideas on the spot. Takes from this session were used by Banks to shape the verses to "There Must Be Some Other Way". In November 1996, Banks and Rutherford chose Wilson as the new lead singer. Longdon said Rutherford phoned him with the news while Banks sent him a Christmas card with "a lengthy message inside." Wilson's arrival into the band was made public on 6 June 1997.


title: Calling All Stations

text: "Calling All Stations" features Israeli session drummer Nir Zidkyahu and American drummer Nick D'Virgilio of the prog rock band Spock's Beard. It was recorded using RADAR, a type of non-linear digital audio recording software capable of simultaneously recording 24-tracks onto computer hard drives.


title: Calling All Stations

text: Wilson said he had a "pretty small" amount of input into the album. Wilson recalled having free rein with his vocals on Rutherford's songs because he "doesn't know what he wants until he hears it", whereas Banks had worked out firm ideas from the beginning.


title: Calling All Stations

text: "Calling All Stations" is the first track Banks and Rutherford wrote for the album and most of the original takes were retained for the recorded version. It was used as the opener because of its heavier rock sound and dramatic mood. The song's arrangement underwent several changes as Banks and Rutherford had Wilson sing various melody lines to see what his voice was capable of, resulting in a stronger track overall. Wilson picked "Calling All Stations" as his favourite song from the album.


title: Calling All Stations

text: The lyrics to "Small Talk" were written by Wilson. The B-side "Anything Now" was considered one of the strongest tracks from the recording sessions but was not included on the album, as Banks believed "we couldn't quite get Ray to sing it right."


title: Calling All Stations

text: The album was launched in Europe on 26 August 1997 with a live press conference, interview, and acoustic performance on German television and VH1 from the Television Tower in Berlin. Two days later, the North American launch event with a live interview and acoustic performance took place at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, broadcast as a nationwide radio special.


title: Calling All Stations

text: "Calling All Stations" peaked at No. 2 in the UK, making it the first Genesis studio album not to reach the top spot since "...And Then There Were Three..." (1978). It was also their first album not to produce a Top 20 single in the UK since "Wind & Wuthering" (1976). It failed to make an impact in the US chart with a peak at No. 54 on the "Billboard" 200. This made "Calling All Stations" the first Genesis album since "Selling England by the Pound" (1973) to not crack its top 50. It also became their first album since "A Trick of the Tail" (1976) to not produce a charting single in the US.


title: Calling All Stations

text: A Super Audio CD/DVD set with new stereo and 5.1 surround sound mixes was released in September 2007. A CD/DVD set was released in North America in November 2007.


title: Calling All Stations

text: Steve Knopper reviewed the album in the "Chicago Tribune", calling it "a formless blob of synth sounds" and asserting that new singer Ray Wilson has "no confidence or personality, let alone the vision to stave off his bandmates' meandering ideas." Both AllMusic and "Rolling Stone" commented that Ray Wilson was a fitting vocal replacement for Collins, but thought that the album was generally lacking in good material. AllMusic picked "Calling All Stations", "Congo", and "Not About Us" as the album's stronger tracks, while "Rolling Stone" described "Shipwrecked" and "Not About Us" as "pleasant if generic FM-rock tunes." Both also commented on the album's odd mix of art rock and pop, believing that it failed to gel into


title: Calling All Stations

text: a coherent style; "Rolling Stone" summarised it as "a Mike and the Mechanics artrock album". In 2014, Stevie Chick of "The Guardian" dismissed the album as "inexplicable".


title: Calling All Stations

text: In a 2019 interview, Tony Banks thought the album contained "some very good songs," but "has a kind of uniformity about it that I regret. It contains one or two rather weak tracks, too. We also left off two of the strongest tracks, which was a mistake." Rutherford said he did not regret the album, but due to its sales being lower than that of previous albums, he had "sensed that the mood had changed in terms of radio play." As he thought Genesis was "becoming a catalogue act," this influenced the band's decision to not continue after the album.


title: Calling All Stations

text: Genesis supported the album with a 47-date European tour from 29 January to 31 May 1998, featuring shows in large arenas throughout Europe. The core trio were joined by Zidkyahu on drums, percussion, and backing vocals and Irish musician Anthony Drennan on guitar and bass. Former touring members Daryl Stuermer and Chester Thompson were initially approached but Stuermer was already working with Collins and Thompson refused to join after his request for full-fledged band membership was denied. Rehearsals took place at Bray Film Studios in Windsor and the Working Men's Club in Chiddingfold, close to the band's recording studio. The tour concluded with spots at the Rock am Ring and Rock im Park Festival in Germany. A majority of the older songs were transposed in a lower key to accommodate Wilson's lower vocal range. Midway through the set included an acoustic medley of songs from their 1970s output. The tour was captured live on the promotional album "Calling Radio Stations".


title: Calling All Stations

text: A 27-date North American tour in large arenas was booked to start in November 1997, but it was cancelled due to insufficient ticket sales. A revised 22-date tour in smaller venues was arranged, but that too was cancelled. At the European tour's conclusion, Genesis went on hiatus until Collins returned for their 2007 .


title: Calling All Stations

text: "Papa He Said" and "Banjo Man" are from the single "Congo". "Phret" and "7/8" (which are both instrumentals) are from the single "Shipwrecked". "Anything Now", "Sign Your Life Away" and "Run Out of Time" are from the single "Not About Us". All these tracks are Banks/Rutherford compositions, except "Banjo Man" which is by Banks/Rutherford/Wilson. "Nowhere Else to Turn" is an unreleased track from the sessions that only appeared on a promotional CD.


title: Konrad Laimer

text: Konrad Laimer (born 27 May 1997) is an Austrian footballer who currently plays as a midfielder for Bundesliga club RB Leipzig and the Austria national team. He will join Bayern Munich on June 30, 2023.


title: Konrad Laimer

text: Laimer is a youth exponent from FC Red Bull Salzburg. He made his Erste Liga debut with FC Liefering at 2 May 2014 against SV Horn. He made his first team debut at 28 September 2014 against SK Rapid Wien. He replaced Alan in added time.


title: Konrad Laimer

text: On 30 June 2017, Laimer joined RB Leipzig on a four-year deal. Laimer's deal was due to run out in 2021, but he later signed a contract extension until 2023.


title: Konrad Laimer

text: Laimer got his first call up to the senior Austria side for 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifiers against Wales and Georgia in September 2017.


title: Inga Swenson

text: Inga Swenson (born December 29, 1932) is an American retired actress and singer. She appeared in multiple Broadway productions and received two Tony nominations. She also spent seven years portraying Gretchen Kraus in the ABC comedy series "Benson".


title: Inga Swenson

text: Inga Swenson graduated from Omaha Central High School in Nebraska in 1950. While she was attending OCHS, as a junior, Swenson won the state title in the National Forensic League's speech contest and later, she won the NFL's national contest. As a high school senior she was considered the school's best vocalist and she was also the president of the Central High Players. She studied drama at Northwestern University under Alvina Krause, among others, and was a member of the Alpha Phi sorority.


title: Inga Swenson

text: Early in her career, Swenson had supporting roles in the films "Advise and Consent" (1962) and "The Miracle Worker" (1962) in which she played Helen Keller's mother. Swenson is a trained lyric soprano and starred on Broadway in "New Faces" (c. 1956), and "The First Gentleman" (1959), receiving Tony Award nominations for Best Actress in a Musical for her performances in "110 in the Shade" (1964) and "Baker Street" (1965).


title: Inga Swenson

text: Swenson had a role in the TV western series "Bonanza" in two episodes: "Inger, My Love" (1962) and "Journey Remembered" (1963). Swenson also portrayed Gretchen Kraus, the autocratic and acerbic German cook (later head housekeeper and budget director) in the TV sitcom "Benson", for which she received three Emmy nominations. She received the part by appearing in a multi-episode stint as Ingrid Svenson, the Swedish birth mother of Corinne Tate (Diana Canova), on the TV sitcom "Soap", which had the same producers. She also appeared as northern matriarch Maude Hazard in the mini-series "North and South" in 1985 and again in 1986.


title: Inga Swenson

text: A life member of The Actors Studio, her favorite role was Lizzie Currie in the musical "110 in the Shade."


title: Sunoco

text: Sunoco LP is an American master limited partnership organized under Delaware state laws and headquartered in Dallas, Texas, that is a wholesale distributor of motor fuels. It distributes fuel to more than 5,500 Sunoco-branded gas stations, almost all of which are owned and operated by third parties. The partnership is controlled by Energy Transfer Partners.


title: Sunoco

text: The partnership was known as Sun Company Inc. from 1886 to 1920 and 1976 to 1998, and as Sun Oil Co. from 1920 to 1976. (Sunoco is a condensation of SUN Oil COmpany.) It used to be engaged in oil refinery, the chemical industry, and retail sales, but divested these businesses. Sunoco today claims to be the largest distributor of fuels in the United States, distributing fuels to 10,000 locations across 33 US States.


title: Sunoco

text: The partnership began as The Peoples Natural Gas Company in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 1886, its partners – Joseph Newton Pew, Philip Pisano, and Edward O. Emerson – decided to expand their gas business with a stake in the new oil discoveries in Ohio and Pennsylvania. Four years later, the growing enterprise became the Sun Oil Company of Ohio. Sun Oil diversified quickly, active in production and distribution of oil as well as processing and marketing refined products. By 1901, the company was incorporated in New Jersey as Sun Company.


title: Sunoco

text: In 1902, the Sun Oil Refining Company was chartered in Texas, as it turned its interest to the new Spindletop field in Texas. Joseph Pew's nephew, J. Edgar Pew, was able to buy the storage and transportation assets of Lone Star and Crescent Oil Company at a receivership auction. Spindletop oil was then shipped to the company's Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania, refinery.


title: Sunoco

text: Pew's sons, J. Howard Pew and Joseph N. Pew Jr. would take over the company after their father's death.


title: Sunoco

text: With a growing portfolio of oil fields and refineries, Sun opened its first service station in Ardmore, Pennsylvania in 1920. In 1922, it changed its name back to Sun Oil Company and, in 1925, it became a public company via an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange. Sunoco ranked 39th among United States corporations in the value of World War II production contracts. Sun expanded internationally following the war. Its first Canadian refinery was built in 1953 in Sarnia, Ontario, home to a burgeoning new petrochemical industry. Sun established a facility at Venezuela's Lake Maracaibo in 1957, which produced over a billion barrels (160,000,000 m) before the operation was nationalized in 1975.


title: Sunoco

text: In 1956, Sunoco introduced "custom blending" pumps, an innovation that allowed customers of Sunoco service stations to choose from several octane ratings through a single pump. Sunoco stations offered as many as eight grades of "Custom Blended" gasolines from its "Dial A Grade" pumps ranging from subregular Sunoco 190 to Sunoco 260, the latter a super-premium grade of 102 octane that was advertised as the "highest octane pump gas" and very popular with operators of V8-powered muscle cars of the 1960s.


title: Sunoco

text: In 1967, Sun established its Great Canadian Oil Sands Limited facility in northern Alberta, Canada, to access the estimated 300 billion barrels (48 km) of extractable oil in the Athabasca oil sands.


title: Sunoco

text: In 1968, Sun Oil merged with Tulsa, Oklahoma-based Sunray DX Oil Company, which refined and marketed gasoline under the DX brand in several midwestern states, and included several refineries. Its Tulsa refinery was operated by Sun until its sale in June 2009 to Holly Corporation of Dallas. This move expanded Sun's marketing area into the mid-continent region.


title: Sunoco

text: Sun Oil continued marketing its petroleum products under both the Sunoco and DX brands through the 1970s and into the 1980s. In the late 1980s, Sun began rebranding DX stations in the Midwest to the Sunoco brand, but by the early 1990s, they pulled out of virtually all areas in the southeastern U.S. and west of the Mississippi, resulting in the closing and rebranding of service stations and jobbers to other brands in those areas, notably Sinclair in Oklahoma and Kerr-McGee in Arkansas.


title: Sunoco

text: With increased diversification, Sun Oil Company was renamed Sun Company in 1976. In 1980, Sun acquired the U.S. oil and gas properties of Texas Pacific Oil Company, Inc., a subsidiary of The Seagram Company, Ltd., for US$2.3 billion—the second largest acquisition in U.S. history to that date.


title: Sunoco

text: Through the 1980s, Sun developed oil interests in the North Sea and offshore China and expanded its holdings in both oil and coal with additional U.S. business acquisitions. In 1983, Sun Oil launched Sunoco ULTRA 94, the market's highest octane unleaded gasoline. Then in 1988, Sun undertook a restructuring to segregate its domestic oil and gas exploration and production business and the focus the company on its refining and marketing business. This led to the acquisition of Atlantic Refining and Marketing (and, in effect, that company's convenience store chain, A-Plus), including its Philadelphia refinery which was later merged with the former Gulf Oil refinery next door that Sunoco acquired from Chevron.


title: Sunoco

text: By the 1990s, Sun had departed the international exploration business and was fully dedicated to its branded products and services. In 1994, Sunoco acquired the Philadelphia Chevron Oil refinery consolidating operations with its own adjacent which it had acquired with Atlantic. Sun sold its remaining interest in Canada's Suncor Energy in 1995, but markets product from two refineries – one in Toledo, Ohio, and the other Sarnia, Ontario – in joint ventures. In 1998, Sun Company, Inc. became Sunoco, Inc. In 2011 the Toledo facility was sold to PBF Energy.


title: Sunoco

text: In 1998, Sun acquired the chemical business of Allied Signal, including a phenol plant. The business was renamed as "Sunoco Chemicals, Inc." In 2011, the plant was acquired by Honeywell for $85 million.


title: Sunoco

text: In 2003, Speedway LLC, then a subsidiary of Marathon Petroleum, sold 193 convenience stores to Sunoco. It also acquired many service stations from Coastal Petroleum.


title: Sunoco

text: After ConocoPhillips abandoned the marketing of the Mobil brand name in the Washington, D.C., area, Sunoco purchased these rights, converted Maryland and Virginia Mobil stations to the Sunoco brand, bringing the A-Plus convenience store with them – prior to this, these stations had convenience stores under the Circle K or On the Run brands.


title: Sunoco

text: In September 2009, Sunoco sold its retail heating oil and propane distribution business to Superior Plus for $82.5 million in cash.


title: Sunoco

text: In 2012, Sunoco demolished its Eagle Point refinery complex in West Deptford Township, New Jersey, which had been idle since 2010.


title: Sunoco

text: In Canada, the Sunoco brand was licensed for the Ontario retail gas station operations of Suncor Energy until 2010. Following Suncor's acquisition of Petro-Canada, all Canadian Sunoco outlets were converted to Petro-Canada branding, except for one location in Port Colborne, Ontario.


title: Sunoco

text: In December 2010, Sunoco sold its refinery in Toledo, Ohio to PBF Energy for $400 million. Effective September 6, 2011, Sunoco announced that it would exit the crude oil refining business and seek to sell its Philadelphia and Marcus Hook refineries by mid-2012. The company has said that its cost for exiting the refining business could be as high as $2.7 billion. According to one report, the company had lost some $800 million on refining operations since 2009; an earlier report provided a figure of $772 million.


title: Sunoco

text: On December 1, 2011, Sunoco announced it would accelerate closure of the Marcus Hook facility. The Marcus Hook facility, founded in 1902 and covering 781 acres, was dedicated exclusively to the processing of light sweet crude oil; this processing focus combined with volatility in crude oil prices are considered contributing factors to both this refinery's closure and Sunoco's exit from the refinery business.


title: Sunoco

text: In September 2012, Sunoco formed a joint venture with The Carlyle Group, allowing for the continuation of operations at the Philadelphia refinery, and temporarily saving over 800 jobs. However, on January 22, 2018, the joint venture, named Philadelphia Energy Solutions, filed for bankruptcy. The bankruptcy announcement was followed by a damaging fire on June 21, 2019, which occurred at the 30,000 bpd alkylation unit. The explosion of the alkylation unit triggered a massive fireball and caused nearby homes to shake. A few days later, on June 26 the refinery complex announced it would cease operations and shut down.


title: Sunoco

text: In 2012, Dallas-based energy company Energy Transfer Partners purchased Sunoco. Sunoco would subsequently move its corporate headquarters to Dallas in 2016.


title: Sunoco

text: In 2014, Energy Transfer Partners acquired Susser Holdings Corporation, the parent company of Stripes Convenience Stores, and merged it with Sunoco into a master limited partnership, forming Sunoco LP. In Texas, the Sunoco brand replaced Valero Energy at the Stripes locations; Stripes and A-Plus remained separate brands.


title: Sunoco

text: In December 2015, Sunoco LP completed its acquisition of Alta East, Inc., a wholesale motor fuel distribution business serving the northeast United States.


title: Sunoco

text: In June 2016, Sunoco LP purchased Valentine Convenience stores, consisting of 18 locations selling more than 20 million gallons of fuel, as well as Texas based Kolkhorst Petroleum, Inc. Kolkhorst operated 14 convenience stores under the Rattler's brand and distributed more than 46 million gallons of fuel.


title: Sunoco

text: Denny Oil, a convenience store and wholesale distributor operator was purchased by Sunoco LP in October 2016, adding an additional 90 million gallons of fuel to its distribution business.


title: Sunoco

text: In April 2017, Sunoco introduced at all of its stations Sunoco UltraTech, a high detergent fuel blend that met Top Tier standards. Sunoco UltraTech contains the same detergent level as the fuel Sunoco makes for NASCAR.


title: Sunoco

text: In January 2018, the company sold 1,030 retail stores to 7-Eleven and agreed to supply 2.2 billion gallons of fuel to 7-Eleven convenience stores annually for 15 years. This included Sunoco's contract to the service plazas along the Pennsylvania Turnpike.


title: Sunoco

text: Sunoco diversified its portfolio in August 2016 with the acquisition of Emerge Energy Services LP, entering into the business of processing transmix fuels.


title: Sunoco

text: On April 2, Sunoco announced the completion of the conversion of its 2017 retail sites located in certain West Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico markets to a single commission agent, Cal's Convenience Inc. That month also saw the acquisition of Superior Plus Energy Services, adding three terminals and approximately 200 million gallons to Sunoco LP's wholesale fuels business. Additional 2018 acquisitions included Sandford Energy, LLC. in August, BRENCO Marketing Corp. in October, and Schmitt Sales Inc. in December.


title: Sunoco

text: Sunoco LP announced the completion of the acquisition of the refined terminalling business from American Midstream Partners, LP on December 20, 2018.


title: Sunoco

text: In 2019, Sunoco LP announced a 50 percent ownership joint venture with Energy Transfer on the J.C. Nolan diesel fuel pipeline that connects west Texas to the Gulf Coast.


title: Sunoco

text: On January 18, 2019, Sunoco LP announced the execution of a definitive asset purchase agreement with Attis Industries Inc. for the sale of Sunoco LP's ethanol plant, including the grain malting operation in Fulton, New York.


title: Sunoco

text: As of 2020, Sunoco still operates 78 retail locations, all of which are located in New Jersey and Hawaii (branded as Aloha Petroleum).


title: Sunoco

text: Sunoco had exclusive deals as the gasoline supplier at the travel plazas along the Ohio Turnpike, Pennsylvania Turnpike, New Jersey Turnpike, Garden State Parkway, Atlantic City Expressway, Palisades Parkway, and Delaware Turnpike.


title: Sunoco

text: Sunoco also operates some of the filling stations on the New York Thruway, as well as the two service areas - Chesapeake House and Maryland House - along Interstate 95 in Maryland.


title: Sunoco

text: In 2014, Sunoco was one of 50 companies sued by Pennsylvania, which alleged that the companies polluted waters with MTBE, a gasoline additive.


title: Sunoco

text: In 2000, Sunoco leaked 190,000 gallons of oil into the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum in Pennsylvania through a cracked pipe. Sunoco claimed their systems did not detect the leak; the leak was reported by a hiker in the Wildlife Refuge.


title: Sunoco

text: In 1993, when the company owned refineries, it signed the Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies (Ceres) principal.


title: Sunoco

text: On April 4, 1991, Pennsylvania Senator H. John Heinz III was killed when his airplane collided with a Sun Company helicopter in what is known as the Merion air disaster. Falling debris killed two children at the Merion Elementary School in the Lower Merion School District. The National Transportation Safety Board determined that the probable cause of the accident included poor judgment on the part of the captain of the Sun Company helicopter, and his failure to maintain safe separation from the Senator's airplane.


title: Sunoco

text: Sunoco Race Fuels is a refiner and distributor of racing fuels. Originally featuring two high-octane options (Sunoco 260 and 280), Sunoco Race Fuels now produces 18 different high-performance fuel blends, which are used for all types of professional motorsports. All Sunoco Race Fuels products are refined at Sunoco LP's Marcus Hook facility.


title: Sunoco

text: Sunoco Race Fuels also holds partnerships as the Official Fuel or spec fuel of popular racing series including NASCAR, SCCA, IHRA, PASS, SVRA, and Trans Am.


title: Sunoco

text: The Sunoco fuel brand was Team Penske's sponsor of choice for many years, particularly in the SCCA Trans-Am Series, where Roger Penske's Sunoco Camaros won the championship in 1968 and 1969. Sunoco also sponsored Penske Porsches in the SCCA Can-Am series, and won the Indianapolis 500 in 1972 with Penske and driver Mark Donohue.


title: Sunoco

text: Between 1989 and 1992, Sunoco sponsored NASCAR team owner Billy Hagan's No. 94 Cup team. Sterling Marlin drove the #94 Sunoco Ultra94 Oldsmobile during the 1989-90 seasons and Terry Labonte for the 1991-92 seasons.


title: Sunoco

text: From 1995 to 1997, Sunoco was the primary sponsor of ST Motorsports' #47 Chevrolet, driven by Jeff Fuller. Fuller captured his lone NASCAR Busch Grand National Series (now NASCAR Xfinity Series) victory at Bristol Motor Speedway on August 23, 1996.


title: Sunoco

text: Sunoco was the official fuel supplier of the IndyCar Series (now the Verizon IndyCar Series) from 2011 through 2018. In 2013, Sunoco sponsored the #60 Panther Racing Chevrolet in the 97th Running of the Indianapolis 500 with driver Townsend Bell. Following their participation in that event, Sunoco partnered with KV Racing and driver Tony Kanaan, who won the 2013 Indianapolis 500, for a four-race primary sponsorship agreement.


title: Sunoco

text: In 2016, Sunoco was the founding partner of the "Daytona Rising" project, which was highlighted by the reimagining of the historic Daytona International Speedway. The Sunoco Injector, a branded fan engagement area built as part of the new stadium opened during NASCAR's Daytona 500 weekend that year.


title: Sunoco

text: In 2019, Sunoco signed on to be the presenting sponsor of the Richmond Raceway eSports Fueled By Sunoco, an eNASCAR iRacing World Championship Series team, with Malik Ray driving the #90 Sunoco Toyota Camry. Beginning in 2020, defending series champion Zack Novak will pilot the Sunoco-sponsored entry, with Jimmy Mullis as his RR eSports teammate in the #46 Toyota.


title: Sunoco

text: Due to its large presence in Western Pennsylvania, Sunoco is a longtime sponsor of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Sunoco also held partnerships with additional Major League Baseball teams, including the New York Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies, Detroit Tigers, and the Boston Red Sox.


title: Sunoco

text: With its former headquarters in the Philadelphia area, Sunoco was a sponsor of the Philadelphia Union, a Major League Soccer franchise.


title: Sunoco

text: Sunoco is also a partner with the Hersheypark amusement facility in Hershey, Pennsylvania. They are the presenting sponsor of the Twin Turnpike ride at the park. They are also a sponsor of the Hershey Bears, an affiliate of the Washington Capitals in the American Hockey League.


title: Carolingian Renaissance

text: The Carolingian Renaissance was the first of three medieval renaissances, a period of cultural activity in the Carolingian Empire. It occurred from the late 8th century to the 9th century, taking inspiration from the Christian Roman Empire of the fourth century. During this period, there was an increase of literature, writing, visual arts, architecture, music, jurisprudence, liturgical reforms, and scriptural studies.


title: Carolingian Renaissance

text: The movement occurred mostly during the reigns of Carolingian rulers Charlemagne and Louis the Pious. It was supported by the scholars of the Carolingian court, notably Alcuin of York. Charlemagne's "Admonitio generalis" (789) and "Epistola de litteris colendis" served as manifestos.


title: Carolingian Renaissance

text: The effects of this cultural revival were mostly limited to a small group of court "literati". According to John Contreni, "it had a spectacular effect on education and culture in Francia, a debatable effect on artistic endeavors, and an unmeasurable effect on what mattered most to the Carolingians, the moral regeneration of society". The secular and ecclesiastical leaders of the Carolingian Renaissance made efforts to write better Latin, to copy and preserve patristic and classical texts, and to develop a more legible, classicizing script, with clearly distinct capital and minuscule letters. It was the Carolingian minuscule that Renaissance humanists took to be Roman and employed as humanist minuscule, from which has developed early modern Italic script. They also applied rational ideas to social issues for the first time in centuries, providing a common language and writing style that enabled communication throughout most of Europe.


title: Carolingian Renaissance

text: As Pierre Riché points out, the expression "Carolingian Renaissance" does not imply that Western Europe was barbaric or obscurantist before the Carolingian era. The centuries following the collapse of the Roman Empire in the West did not see an abrupt disappearance of the ancient schools, from which emerged Martianus Capella, Cassiodorus and Boethius, essential icons of the Roman cultural heritage in the Middle Ages, thanks to which the disciplines of liberal arts were preserved. The 7th century saw the "Isidorian Renaissance" in the Visigothic Kingdom of Hispania in which sciences flourished and the integration of Christian and pre-Christian thought occurred, while the spread of Irish monastic schools (scriptoria) over Europe laid the groundwork for the Carolingian Renaissance.


title: Carolingian Renaissance

text: There were numerous factors in this cultural expansion, the most obvious of which was that Charlemagne's uniting of most of Western Europe brought about peace and stability, which set the stage for prosperity. This period marked an economic revival in Western Europe, following the collapse of the Western Roman Empire. Local economies in the West had degenerated into largely subsistence agriculture by the early seventh century, with towns functioning merely as places of gift-exchange for the elite. By the late seventh century, developed urban settlements had emerged, populated mostly by craftsmen, merchants and boaters and boasting street grids, artisanal production as well as regional and long-distance trade. A prime example of this type of emporium was Dorestad.


title: Carolingian Renaissance

text: The development of the Carolingian economy was fueled by the efficient organization and exploitation of labor on large estates, producing a surplus of primarily grain, wine and salt. In turn, inter-regional trade in these commodities facilitated the expansion of towns. Archaeological data shows the continuation of this upward trend in the early eighth century. The zenith of the early Carolingian economy was reached from 775 to 830, coinciding with the largest surpluses of the period, large-scale building of churches as well as overpopulation and three famines that showed the limits of the system. After a period of disruption from 830 to 850, caused by civil wars and Viking raids, economic development resumed in the 850s, with the emporiums disappearing completely and being replaced by fortified commercial towns.


title: Carolingian Renaissance

text: One of the major causes of the sudden economic growth was the slave trade. Following the rise of the Arab empires, the Arab elites created a major demand for slaves with European slaves particularly prized. As a result of Charlemagne's wars of conquest in Eastern Europe, a steady supply of captured Slavs, Avars, Saxons and Danes reached merchants in Western Europe, who then exported the slaves via Ampurias, Girona and the Pyrenees passes to Muslim Spain and other parts of the Arab world. The market for slaves was so lucrative that it almost immediately transformed the long-distance trade of the European economies. The slave trade enabled the West to re-engage with the Muslim and Eastern Roman empires so that other industries, such as textiles, were able to grow in Europe as well.


title: Carolingian Renaissance

text: Kenneth Clark was of the view that by means of the Carolingian Renaissance, Western civilization survived by the skin of its teeth. However, the use of the term "renaissance" to describe this period is contested, notably by Lynn Thorndike, due to the majority of changes brought about by this period being confined almost entirely to the clergy, and due to the period lacking the wide-ranging social movements of the later Italian Renaissance. Instead of being a rebirth of new cultural movements, the period was more an attempt to recreate the previous culture of the Roman Empire. The Carolingian Renaissance in retrospect also has some of the character of a false dawn, in that its cultural gains were largely dissipated within a couple of generations, a perception voiced by Walahfrid Strabo (died 849), in his introduction to Einhard's "Life of Charlemagne", summing up the generation of renewal:


title: Carolingian Renaissance

text: Charlemagne was able to offer the cultureless and, I might say, almost completely unenlightened territory of the realm which God had entrusted to him, a new enthusiasm for all human knowledge. In its earlier state of barbarousness, his kingdom had been hardly touched at all by any such zeal, but now it opened its eyes to God's illumination. In our own time the thirst for knowledge is disappearing again: the light of wisdom is less and less sought after and is now becoming rare again in most men's minds.


title: Carolingian Renaissance

text: A lack of Latin literacy in eighth-century western Europe caused problems for the Carolingian rulers by severely limiting the number of people capable of serving as court scribes in societies where Latin was valued. Of even greater concern to some rulers was the fact that not all parish priests possessed the skill to read the Vulgate Bible. An additional problem was that the vulgar Latin of the later Western Roman Empire had begun to diverge into the regional dialects, the precursors to today's Romance languages, that were becoming mutually unintelligible and preventing scholars from one part of Europe being able to communicate with persons from another part of Europe.