title: Gary Pallister

text: Although it was his excellent defensive displays that helped Manchester United to the league title along with Steve Bruce at the heart of the defence, forming one of the best central defensive partnerships in the club's history, in the 1992–93 season, he scored a memorable goal in the final home game of the season against Blackburn Rovers. Into stoppage time, with his team winning 2–1, he stepped up to drive a free-kick into the bottom corner from the edge of the penalty area. It was his first goal of the season and just about summed up an incredible season for Manchester United. He partnered Bruce in central defence for virtually every game until Bruce left United to join Birmingham City on a free transfer at the end of the 1995–96 season. The following campaign saw Pallister partnered with either Bruce's former understudy David May or with new signing Ronny Johnsen, and ended with United winning their fourth league title in five seasons. A highlight of this season for Pallister was scoring twice in a 3–1 win against Liverpool at Anfield.


title: Gary Pallister

text: The final season Pallister played for Manchester United was the 1997–98 season in which Manchester United came second in the league table, losing by one point to Arsenal.


title: Gary Pallister

text: During his time at Manchester United, Pallister won the FA Cup in 1990, 1994 and 1996, the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup in 1991, the Football League Cup in 1992 and Premier League titles in 1993, 1994, 1996 and 1997, amongst other honours. He was also part of the team that came second in the league in 1992, 1995 and 1998, as well as the team that finished runners-up in the League Cup in 1991 and 1994 and the FA Cup in 1995. By the time of his departure from Old Trafford after nine years, he was the only player to have collected winner's medals in all of the club's successes under Alex Ferguson's management, and second only to Brian McClair (who left United at the same time) he was the club's longest serving player.


title: Gary Pallister

text: He also scored some crucial goals for United. He scored an equaliser in extra time against Crystal Palace in the 1994–95 FA Cup semi-final at Villa Park, forcing a replay which United won and in which Pallister made the scoresheet once again. In April 1997, he scored twice against Liverpool in a match billed the "title decider" which ended in a 3–1 United win at Anfield. These would be the last two goals he scored for the club, who went on to win their fourth league title in five seasons shortly afterwards. His first goal for United had come on 12 November 1989, as he scored their only goal in the 1–0 home win over Nottingham Forest in the First Division.


title: Gary Pallister

text: With Pallister now aged 33 and United having signed Jaap Stam from PSV Eindhoven, Pallister was sold back to Middlesbrough in July 1998 for £2.5 million, £200,000 more than when he first moved to Manchester United. He was brought back to Teesside by manager Bryan Robson, who had played alongside Pallister at Old Trafford until 1994. He scored once against Southampton in 55 league appearances, as well as appearing in two FA Cup matches and four League Cup matches.


title: Gary Pallister

text: His final playing season, in which Middlesbrough finished 14th in the table, was season 2000–01. He retired from playing due to a succession of injuries on 4 July 2001, at the age of 36, just three weeks after the appointment of Steve McClaren as manager following the departure of Robson.


title: Gary Pallister

text: Pallister made his debut for the England B team in May 1989; he started the match against Switzerland before being replaced by Alan McLeary in the 2−0 win at Stadion Schützenwiese. He made eight more appearances over the next three years with the last coming in the 3−0 victory against France in February 1992.


title: Gary Pallister

text: Pallister made his debut for England in the friendly with Hungary in April 1988. He played the whole game in the goalless draw at Népstadion in Budapest. He had to wait over three years to make his competitive debut when he played in the win against Turkey during qualifying for UEFA Euro 1992. England qualified for the tournament finals in Sweden but Pallister was not selected in the squad. He featured in the United States Cup in June 1993; he started the defeats against the United States and Germany, and the draw against Brazil, as England finished last place in the group. Pallister played three matches as England failed to qualify for the 1994 FIFA World Cup. He was used sporadically over the next three years, mainly playing in friendlies, before making his last appearances in the 1998 FIFA World Cup qualifiers against Moldova and Poland in the autumn of 1996. Overall, Pallister won 22 caps and scored no goals.


title: Rebel Yell (song)

text: "Rebel Yell" is a song by English-American rock musician Billy Idol. It is the title track of his 1983 album of the same name, and was released as the album's lead single on 24 October 1983. Although it charted outside the UK Top 40, a 1985 re-issue peaked at no. 6, and it reached no. 46 in the US. The song received wide critical acclaim and in 2009 was named the 79th best hard rock song of all time by VH1 based on a public vote.


title: Rebel Yell (song)

text: At a televised performance of "VH1 Storytellers," Idol said that he had attended an event where Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and Ronnie Wood of The Rolling Stones were taking swigs from a bottle of "Rebel Yell" bourbon whiskey. He was not familiar with the brand, but he liked the name and decided to write the song.


title: Rebel Yell (song)

text: The song was co-written by guitarist Steve Stevens. The instrumental introduction, which sounds like a combination of electric guitar and electronic keyboard, is performed by Stevens on guitar alone, who intended it to sound this way. Stevens states that he was inspired by acoustic guitarist Leo Kottke's style.


title: Rebel Yell (song)

text: In 1984, music magazine "Cash Box" wrote that the song "combines the tough swagger and high-powered drive of 'White Wedding' with the decadent dance focus of 'Dancing With Myself.'"


title: Rebel Yell (song)

text: In 1994 Idol released the single "Speed", a song from the box office hit movie of the same name, with a live acoustic version of "Rebel Yell" accompanying the lead song on the UK CD single release.


title: Rebel Yell (song)

text: "Rebel Yell" has been covered by many different bands such as Children of Bodom, HIM, Drowning Pool, Dope, Black Veil Brides, Adrenaline Mob, Bullets and Octane, Otherwise, Blue Stahli, and Queensrÿche.


title: Rebel Yell (song)

text: The song appears several 1980s movies, including "Sixteen Candles" (1984), "The Legend of Billie Jean" (1985), The Wraith ((1986)


title: Rebel Yell (song)

text: In 1996, the song was covered by German dance band Scooter. It was released in May 1996 as the third single of their second album, "Our Happy Hardcore".


title: Dick Black (politician)

text: Richard Hayden Black (born May 15, 1944) is an American politician. A Republican, he served as a member of the Virginia State Senate, representing the 13th District, which encompasses parts of both Loudoun and Prince William Counties, from 2012 to 2020. Black was previously a member of the Virginia House of Delegates from 1998 to 2006. Black announced that he would not seek re-election in 2019, instead retiring at the end of his term.


title: Dick Black (politician)

text: Black was born in northern Virginia in 1944 and grew up in Miami as the middle of three children. His father was an IRS agent who helped investigate organized crime. Black's first job was working at the Miami Serpentarium, importing cobras, vipers and other venomous snakes, and preparing them for transport to zoos throughout the world. He graduated from high school in 1962 and studied at the University of Miami for a year before enlisting in the Marine Corps. After completing his service in the Vietnam War, Black returned to school, earning a BSBA in Accounting in 1973 and a JD in 1976, both from the University of Florida.


title: Dick Black (politician)

text: Black was a career military officer. He served in both the U.S. Marines and in the U.S. Army JAG Corps. He served a total of 31 years active and reserve, rising from the rank of private to full colonel. He is a graduate of the U.S. Army War College, Command and General Staff College, and Naval Aviator's Flight School.


title: Dick Black (politician)

text: Black enlisted in the Marines in 1963 at the age of 19. He graduated from Parris Island as a PFC and entered the Marine Aviation Cadet Program at Naval Air Station Pensacola. He was commissioned a 2nd Lt. in 1965.


title: Dick Black (politician)

text: Black served as a pilot in the US Marines during the Vietnam War, earning the Purple Heart medal. He flew 269 combat helicopter missions with HMM-362, which operated out of Ky Ha, Vietnam.


title: Dick Black (politician)

text: From 11 February to 17 June 1967, he served as Forward Air Controller (FAC) for the 1st Marine Regiment, making 70 combat patrols in the jungle. He engaged in intense combat around Nui Loc Son in April 1967. He received the Navy Commendation Medal with "V" for valor, while serving as FAC for 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment. Lt. Black volunteered to join Fox Company, 1st Marines, which held the ridgeline at Nui Loc Son—an extremely dangerous and remote outpost in the Que Son Valley.


title: Dick Black (politician)

text: After the war, he left the service and graduated from law school, returning to military service as a prosecutor with the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General's Corps. Black later headed the Army's Criminal Law Division at the Pentagon, before retiring from the military in 1994.


title: Dick Black (politician)

text: Black first held elective office on the Loudoun County Library Board, where in 1997 he authored a policy that blocked pornography on library computers. The policy drew national attention and First Amendment litigation struck down the policy.


title: Dick Black (politician)

text: The United States Supreme Court ruled in 2003 in US v. American Library Association that public libraries' use of Internet filtering software does not violate their patrons' First Amendment rights. Today Loudoun County Public libraries do contain internet filters, but allow adult patrons to turn them off provided they read and sign the LCPL Adult Internet Use Agreement to register to use the Internet, and by doing so agree to comply with library policies and guidelines which prohibit the viewing of pornographic materials.


title: Dick Black (politician)

text: Black was first elected to the Virginia House in a special election in 1998 to succeed Republican Delegate Bill Mims, who had been elected to the Virginia Senate. Black resigned from the Library Board a few months after being sworn-in. A "deeply conservative" delegate, Black became well known for making controversial statements.


title: Dick Black (politician)

text: In 2001, Black sponsored a bill to require internet filters on the computers in public schools. The bill passed overwhelmingly in both the House and Senate and was signed into law in March, 2001.


title: Dick Black (politician)

text: During the 2001 Legislative session, Black dealt with a number of abortion related bills. In February 2001, he co-sponsored a bill to establish a 24-hour "informed consent" waiting period for women seeking an abortion. The bill required a clinic or hospital to tell a woman seeking an abortion the approximate age of the fetus, details of the abortion procedure and other options available to her. The bill eventually passed and was signed into law.


title: Dick Black (politician)

text: Also during the 2001 session, Black opposed a bill that would allow the "morning-after pill" to be dispensed at pharmacies. Opponents of the bill said that, unlike normal contraceptives that prevent the fertilization of an egg, these types of emergency contraceptives can act as an abortifacient, preventing a fertilized egg from attaching to the uterine wall. "This is a baby pesticide we're looking at. It's a toxic method of eliminating a child," said Black. Although the bill failed to become law, the morning-after pill can be purchased in Virginia from pharmacies without a prescription by people ages 17 or older and with a prescription for those 16 and younger, and one brand is available over-the-counter for people of all ages without ID.


title: Dick Black (politician)

text: During the 2002 Session, Black successfully passed HB 735 – Transportation Improvement Districts. The bill was designed to allow property along the Route 28 corridor to be included in multiple special tax districts. This was necessary because some of the property was already in an existing special tax district and the landowners along Route 28 were looking to create a new transportation improvement district to change this major corridor into a high speed freeway.


title: Dick Black (politician)

text: In late 2002 and early 2003, Black opposed erecting a statue of Abraham Lincoln and his son Thomas at the Tredegar Iron Works to commemorate Lincoln's visit to Richmond on April 4, 1865, 10 days before his assassination. Black said, "Putting a statue to [Lincoln] there is sort of like putting the Confederate flag at


title: Dick Black (politician)

text: In July 2003, Black proposed legislation that would prevent unmarried and gay couples from applying for low-interest home mortgages, saying that the state was "spending $90 million to subsidize sodomy and adultery. I just don't understand why we are taking money away [from worthwhile programs] and supporting a radical homosexual agenda."


title: Dick Black (politician)

text: Also in 2003, delivered plastic fetus dolls to fellow delegates and senators. Black used the dolls to generate publicity for his bill requiring Parental consent for a minor to get an abortion. Black's bill, HB 1402, passed and was signed into law.


title: Dick Black (politician)

text: In February 2005, he urged his constituents to picket Stone Bridge High School for putting on a play about a gay football player, claiming that the school was "being used to promote a homosexual lifestyle." He further claimed that attempts to "encourage homosexual activity, to portray it in a cute or favorable light" could lead to children contracting HIV. In 2004, he said with regard to Virginia's sodomy law: "If I'm the last person on the face of this Earth to vote against legalizing sodomy, I'll do it."


title: Dick Black (politician)

text: During his time in the Virginia House of Delegates, Black was also involved with advocating for clemency on behalf of Ollin Crawford. Crawford, known as the "grenade lady," was serving a 70-year sentence after she committed a series of robberies where she claimed to have a grenade stuffed into a sock. No one was injured in any of the four robberies. Because the Dept. of Corrections classified Crawford as a "three-time loser," she was ineligible for parole.


title: Dick Black (politician)

text: Black's interest in the case came from what he felt was a discrepancy in the way Crawford was treated and a similar case where Sue Kennon, a suburban housewife, committed four armed robberies with a toy pistol. Kennon was granted parole in 2001 after serving 14 years of a 48-year sentence. In pointing out the similarities of the case, but the difference in outcome, Black said. “I don't believe there was deliberate discrimination, but reasonable people might ask why a poor black woman hasn't received the same consideration as an affluent white woman. We do know that two women with very similar cases received vastly different treatment.”


title: Dick Black (politician)

text: Black advocated on Crawford's behalf for 10 years, starting in 1997. He requested clemency for Crawford from three different Virginia Governors, including George Allen (American politician) and Mark Warner. Finally, Tim Kaine granted clemency and Crawford was released in early 2008.


title: Dick Black (politician)

text: Black was defeated in his quest for a fifth term by Democrat David Poisson in 2005. Poisson defeated him 53%–47%. Black ran for the Republican nomination in the special election for Virginia's 1st congressional district in October 2007. A convention was held to determine the nominee and Black came fifth eliminated in the fourth ballot. State Delegate Rob Wittman was picked and went on to win the election.


title: Dick Black (politician)

text: Black ran for the State Senate in 2011 in the newly-created 13th district, which encompasses nearly half of Loudoun County and a portion of Prince William County. His former home had been in another portion of Loudoun County represented in the State Senate by Democrat Mark Herring. Black won a hard-fought three-way primary, taking 3,143 votes (38.83%) to John Stirrup's 3,029 votes (37.42%) and Robert S. Fitzsimmonds' 1,923 votes (23.76%). In the general election, Black handily defeated Democrat Shawn Mitchell by 57% to 43%.


title: Dick Black (politician)

text: In an interview in December 2013, Black compared same-sex marriage to polygamy and incest, saying that although he opposed polygamy, "at least it functions biologically", adding that it was "just more natural" than homosexuality.


title: Dick Black (politician)

text: In 2014, Black briefly ran for Virginia's 10th congressional district in the 2014 elections to succeed retiring Republican incumbent Frank Wolf. He withdrew on January 23, two days after declaring his candidacy, saying: "after meeting with Republican Caucus leaders in Richmond, it is imperative that I remain in the Senate where I am needed to maintain our 20/20 split." Although the Virginia Senate was split 20/20, Democrats held the majority as Ralph Northam, the Democratic Lieutenant Governor of Virginia, cast tie-breaking votes.


title: Dick Black (politician)

text: In January 2019, Black announced he would not seek reelection for his State Senate seat in the 2019 Virginia legislative elections and instead retire at the end of his term.


title: Dick Black (politician)

text: In April 2014, Black sent an official letter to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, thanking "the Syrian Arab Army for its heroic rescue of Christians in the Qalamoun Mountain Range", praising Assad for "treating with respect all Christians and the small community of Jews in Damascus," and stating it was obvious that the rebel side of the war was largely being fought by "vicious war criminals linked to Al Qaeda" Democratic State Senator A. Donald McEachin called the letter "bizarre," while Republican State Senator Bill Stanley later joked "What's the matter, Dick? Was Kim Jong-un not returning your text messages?".


title: Dick Black (politician)

text: In 2015 Islamic State included Black in a list of its enemies, calling him "The American Crusader." It quoted the following statement by Black: "One thing is clear, if Damascus falls, the dreaded black and white flag of ISIS will fly over Damascus. ... Within a period of months after the fall of Damascus, Jordan will fall and Lebanon will fall. ... I think you will automatically see a beginning of a historic push of Islam towards Europe and I think, ultimately, Europe will be conquered."


title: Dick Black (politician)

text: On April 27, 2016, Black began a three-day trip to Syria in support of its government. Explaining his trip in a series of Twitter exchanges with "The Washington Post", Black wrote that the United States was "allied with two of the most vile nations on earth, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, which are intent on imposing a [Wahhabi] fundamentalist government on the Syrian people."


title: Dick Black (politician)

text: In 2018, Black appeared on Hezbollah-affiliated Arab TV channel Al Mayadeen to assert that the British intelligence service, MI6, was planning a false flag chemical attack on Syria, which it would then try to blame on the Assad regime.


title: Dick Black (politician)

text: Black introduced a budget amendment to the General Assembly to prohibit Medicaid expansion without the legislature's approval. He led a conservative revolt against Medicaid expansion that inspired the Twitter hashtag #BlackorBust. After a full day of heated back-door debates, Black prevailed and the Senate approved a budget without Medicaid expansion, which was Democratic Governor Terry McAuliffe's signature issue. McAuliffe vowed not to sign a budget without it.


title: Dick Black (politician)

text: On June 20, 2014, McAuliffe announced he would veto the Black or Bust amendment. But his attempted veto of the Black or Bust Medicaid Amendment failed when his veto was ruled unlawful by the Speaker.


title: Dick Black (politician)

text: Black has made appearances on Russian, Israel and Chinese state-run and Hezbollah-affiliated media critiquing US foreign policy.


title: Dick Black (politician)

text: On June 22, 2021 at a Loudoun County Public Schools board meeting, Black argued against Policy 8040, mandating that teachers refer to students by pronouns matching their gender identity, and accused the board of suppressing free speech. After his minute of allotted time concluded and his microphone was disabled, he continued speaking while chaos erupted from the crowd. The board subsequently moved to end public comments, he being the 51st speaker among the 259 who had registered.


title: The Innocents (2016 film)

text: The Innocents (), also known as Agnus Dei, is a 2016 French film directed by Anne Fontaine, which features Lou de Laâge, Agata Kulesza, Agata Buzek and Vincent Macaigne in its cast. The script is by Sabrina B. Karine, Pascal Bonitzer, Anne Fontaine and Alice Vial, after an original idea by Philippe Maynial. Maynial took inspiration from the experiences of his aunt, Madeleine Pauliac, a French Red Cross doctor who worked in Poland after World War II, dealing with the aftermath of mass rapes by Soviet soldiers.


title: The Innocents (2016 film)

text: In Warsaw, December 1945, a nun known as Sister Teresa approaches a young French female student doctor, Mathilde Beaulieu, serving with an army unit. She says there are sick women in need and is not satisfied with a referral to the Polish Red Cross.


title: The Innocents (2016 film)

text: Beaulieu decides to go at night to the nun's convent, where one woman has given birth. The Mother Superior tells her that the nun was thrown out by her family and was taken in out of charity. Beaulieu tells the Mother Superior (Abbess) that she works for the French Red Cross.


title: The Innocents (2016 film)

text: A novice nun at the convent is grieving the death of another nun. Confined to her cell, she engages in morning prayer.


title: The Innocents (2016 film)

text: Later the Abbess discloses to Beaulieu that several nuns at the convent were raped by Russian soldiers, relating that the experience was nightmarish, and they wish to keep this a secret. Seven of the nuns are pregnant. Some of the pregnant nuns are reluctant to be examined intimately by the doctor, believing this will violate their vow of chastity. One of the nuns confesses to Mother Superior that her faith has been deeply shaken by these events.


title: The Innocents (2016 film)

text: Soldiers come to the convent believing the nuns are harboring an enemy soldier. However, Beaulieu convinces them she is there to deal with an emergency outbreak of typhus. The Mother Superior is badly shaken by the threat of the soldiers, and thanks the doctor for her presence of mind. Beaulieu realizes that she too was raped. The Mistress of Novices, Sister Maria, tells the doctor that every day she is reminded of these harsh events. She relates how faith has become more difficult for her, but it is the cross she bears.


title: The Innocents (2016 film)

text: When Beaulieu returns to headquarters, her boss chastises her for having been away without leave. He says that the military is a place of order and discipline.


title: The Innocents (2016 film)

text: At a later visit at the convent, Beaulieu is present when another novice nun gives birth unexpectedly. This nun had not realized she was pregnant, and does not seem to know she has given birth. The Abbess had given orders that she be notified of all births, but Beaulieu requests that she not be notified immediately. The doctor needs to focus on care for the newborn. A different nun, Sister Zofia, takes responsibility for the child.


title: The Innocents (2016 film)

text: Beaulieu asks the Mistress of Novices if she ever regrets her life as a nun. The novice replies, "Faith is 24 hours of doubt with one minute of hope", going on to describe her difficulties with the practice.


title: The Innocents (2016 film)

text: Beaulieu returns to the army medical unit, and discovers the unit is going to be transferred out of the area.


title: The Innocents (2016 film)

text: Several nuns are about to give birth at once. Beaulieu returns to the convent with a male Jewish colleague. She assures the nuns that he will keep their secret. The doctor visits the baby whose existence has been kept secret from the Abbess. The Mistress of Novices plans to take the baby to Zofia's family, but the baby is discovered by the abbess. The Abbess is upset that she was lied to and tells the Mistress of Novices that she has been corrupted by "that French woman", who has brought scandal and disorder to the convent. The Mistress of Novices replies, "Forgive me, but scandal and disorder were already here".


title: The Innocents (2016 film)

text: The Mother Superior has been telling everyone that she takes the babies to families who have agreed to adopt, but she abandons this baby in front of a crucifix on a country walking path, after baptizing it. Zofia is distraught, knowing the child is missing. The Mother Superior privately prays that she have the courage to continue on the path she has chosen. Meanwhile, Sister Zofia commits suicide by jumping from an upper ledge, dying shortly after her wounded body is discovered.


title: The Innocents (2016 film)

text: When the Mistress of Novices goes to Zofia's family to report her death, she discovers that Zofia's aunt never knew Zofia had a child, nor that she had been caring for another baby. The Mistress of Novices decides to not tell the aunt the truth. This is the Mistress of Novices' first realization that the Abbess has been dishonest about the fate of the babies. She confronts the Abbess demanding the truth. She says she entrusted the child to God, saying "Don't you believe in Providence?"


title: The Innocents (2016 film)

text: At the medical base, Mathilde Beaulieu is getting ready to finally leave the area. The Mistress of Novices brings three babies to the base to protect them from the Abbess. Beaulieu notices that many orphans living on the street have been helping personnel at the base from time to time. It occurs to her that the nuns could start raising many of these children and open an orphanage, thus avoiding questions about where the babies are coming from. One of the nuns decides to leave the convent and raise her own child, and another decides to leave, but allow her baby to be raised by the nuns.


title: The Innocents (2016 film)

text: The final scene is three months later, with a photographer at the convent taking pictures of the nuns and happy orphans.


title: The Innocents (2016 film)

text: The film is a French-Polish-Belgian co-production that was supported by the Polish Film Institute and the Film Commission Poland. Principal photography began on 13 January 2015 in the Warmia region in Poland, and lasted for seven weeks. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2016. In some countries the film is titled "Agnus Dei" (Latin for "God's lamb", or "lamb of God", from the Mass liturgy).


title: The Innocents (2016 film)

text: On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 95%, based on 112 reviews, with an average rating of 7.5/10. The site's critical consensus reads, ""The Innocents" isn't always easy to watch, but its nuanced exploration of complex themes -- and its refreshing perspective -- are well worth the effort." Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score from 1 to 100 with respect to reviews from mainstream critics, reports a score of 78 out of 100, based on 23 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews ".


title: Christianity in Kerala

text: Christianity is the third-largest practiced religion in Kerala, accounting for 18% of the population according to the Indian census. Although a minority, the Christian population of Kerala is proportionally much larger than that of India as a whole. A significant portion of the Indian Christian population resides in the state.


title: Christianity in Kerala

text: The tradition of origin among Saint Thomas Christians relates to the arrival of Saint Thomas, one of the 12 disciples of Jesus at the ancient seaport Muziris on the Kerala coast in AD 52.


title: Christianity in Kerala

text: It is also possible for Aramaic-speaking Jews from Galilee to make a trip to Kerala in the 1st century. The Cochin Jews are known to have existed in Kerala around that time.


title: Christianity in Kerala

text: The earliest known source connecting the apostle to India is the Acts of Thomas, likely written in the early 3rd century, perhaps in Edessa. The text describes Thomas' efforts in bringing Christianity to Northwest India, specifically in the Indo-Parthian Kingdom.


title: Christianity in Kerala

text: According to traditional accounts such as the "Thomma Parvam" ("Song of Thomas"). Generally he is described as arriving in or around Maliankara and founding Seven Churches and half churches, or Ezharapallikal: Kodungallur, Kollam, Niranam, Nilackal (Chayal), Kokkamangalam, Kottakkavu, Palayoor , Thiruvithamcode Arappalli and Aruvithura church (half church). A number of 3rd- and 4th-century Roman writers also mention Thomas' trip to India, including Ambrose of Milan, Gregory of Nazianzus, Jerome, and Ephrem the Syrian, while Eusebius of Caesarea records that his teacher Pantaenus visited a Christian community in India in the 2nd century. There came into existence a Christian community who were mainly merchants. These sources link him solely to Northwestern India, and modern scholars agree there is no evidence that Thomas visited South India at any point, and that he ultimately met his demise in the Indo-Parthian Kingdom.


title: Christianity in Kerala

text: The 2011 Indian census found a total of 6,411,269 Christians in Kerala, with their various denominations as stated: Saint Thomas Christians (including multiple Catholic, Oriental Orthodox and Protestant bodies) constituted 70.73% of the Christians of Kerala, followed by Latin Catholics at 13.3%, Pentecostals at 4.3%, CSI at 4.5%, Dalit Christians at 2.6% and other Protestant groups (such as Lutheran, Calvinist and other charismatic churches) at 5.9%.


title: Christianity in Kerala

text: The Saint Thomas Christians (Nasrani) of Kerala primarily belongs to the churches which use the East Syriac Rite (Syro-Malabar Catholic Church and Chaldean Syrian Church) and West Syriac Rite (Jacobite Syrian Christian Church, Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, Mar Thoma Syrian Church, St. Thomas Evangelical Church of India, Syro-Malankara Catholic Church and the Malabar Independent Syrian Church). The Church of South India belongs to the Anglican Communion and Saint Thomas Anglicans are theologically and liturgically similar to Anglicans elsewhere. Pentecostal Saint Thomas Christians, like other Pentecostals, are riteless (nonliturgical). , Saint Thomas Christians composed 12.5% of the total population of Kerala.


title: Christianity in Kerala

text: In 2016, 61% of Christians in the state were Catholics, which includes the Eastern Catholics and Latin Catholic. Major Pentecostal denominations in Kerala include the India Pentecostal Church of God, Assemblies of God in India, Church of God (Full Gospel) in India, and The Pentecostal Mission.


title: WWE 2K18

text: WWE 2K18 is a professional wrestling video game developed by Yuke's and published by 2K Sports. It is the nineteenth installment in the WWE game series (fifth under the "WWE 2K" banner) and a follow-up to "WWE 2K17". It was released worldwide on October 17, 2017, for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch. With its release, "WWE 2K18" became the first in the series to be exclusively released on eighth generation hardware and also the first in the series to be released for PC and consoles simultaneously. A Nintendo Switch version followed on December 6, 2017, the only release of the series for the Switch and the first WWE game to be released for a Nintendo platform since "WWE '13".


title: WWE 2K18

text: Among the features 2K promoted were enhanced graphics and the return of Kurt Angle to the series as a playable character. Critical response to the game was mixed, with particular criticism levied at the Switch version and its various technical issues. A sequel, "WWE 2K19", was released in October 2018.


title: WWE 2K18

text: On May 23, 2017, 2K Sports announced "WWE 2K18" would be released in 2017. On June 19, 2017, 2K released a trailer, revealing that Seth Rollins will be featured as the game's cover star. In the trailer, it features Rollins vandalizing and burning down a fictitious WWE warehouse in Stamford, Connecticut, as well as showing the tagline "Be Like No One". The second trailer features Kurt Angle visiting the ruins of the warehouse and finding a pair of his boots among the ashes, which announced Angle as the game's pre-order. The game's Deluxe Edition was also announced, giving players access to the game four days early, along with the season pass and additional in-game content. On July 10, 2017, a Nintendo Switch version was also confirmed. On July 27, 2K Sports announced the Collector's Edition, called the "Cena (Nuff)" edition. The collector's edition revolves around John Cena, commemorating his 15 years in the WWE, and includes a Cena action figure, a piece of the ring mat from his victory at the 2017 Royal Rumble, and an autographed photo from Cena. Unlike previous years, the Collector's Edition included the game's season pass. The Collector's Edition (as well as the Deluxe Edition) has two additional playable versions of Cena (included with 2006's ECW One Night Stand and WrestleMania XXVI attires), as well as Batista and Rob Van Dam as playable characters.


title: WWE 2K18

text: On August 16, 2K and IGN announced the first 47 playable characters, with a roster reveal special hosted by Corey Graves, Renee Young, and Goldust. Two days later, 2K announced that the soundtrack for the game would be curated by The Rock and will feature a mix of classic rock, modern rock, and hip hop. On September 26, 2K announced that for the first time, the PC version of the game will release alongside its console counterparts on October 17. Season pass details were unveiled on September 27, featuring the Accelerator, MyPlayer kick start, New Moves pack, NXT Generation pack, and the Enduring Icons pack. The NXT Generation pack was released on November 21, 2017, while the pre-order and deluxe edition bonus content was available as a separate purchase a week earlier. The New Moves pack was released on December 12, 2017, and the Enduring Icons pack was released on January 16, 2018. On March 23, 2018, a WrestleMania-themed edition of "WWE 2K18" was released internationally, which contained all of the characters and downloadable content in addition to exclusive items prior to WrestleMania 34.


title: WWE 2K18

text: On June 29, 2017, it was announced that Kurt Angle would be the pre-order bonus character for "WWE 2K18", making his first WWE video game appearance since "WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2007". For the third installment in a row, the roster is the largest included in the series with over 200 WWE superstars from the roster. As part of a product placement deal with KFC, "WWE 2K18" has Colonel Sanders as a playable character, accessible through the attire templates in the Create-A-Wrestler feature.


title: WWE 2K18

text: Similar to its predecessors, "WWE 2K18" is a professional wrestling game and for the first time since "WWF SmackDown! Just Bring It", eight wrestlers are able to be in a match at once, instead of six (the Nintendo Switch version only supports six wrestlers in the ring). The Royal Rumble match has been retooled, with new mechanics, finishers and elimination sequences. A carry system was introduced (which is similar to the Ultimate Control Grapple system introduced in "WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2007"), allowing players to pick up or drag their opponent and place them in a specific spot. Thousands of new moves and animations have been added to the game.


title: WWE 2K18

text: Improvements have been made to the creation suite, such as new superstar parts and materials. One such material is a glow effect, which gives players the ability to make hair, clothing, and logos on their created superstars glow. Other new creation suite features include an enhanced highlight system, however the free-roaming camera has been removed when the highlight reel is being used mid-match. Crowd area templates can also be selected in Create-An-Arena, allowing players to select five different templates that have different weapons and objects to use. The Create-A-Match feature, last seen in the 7th-gen version of "WWE 2K17" ("WWE 2K15" for 8th-gen players), has returned. New to the feature includes the ability to create your own custom matches and save them for use in exhibition mode, Universe, and Online through Private matches. MyCareer now allows backstage free roaming (Last seen in "WWE SmackDown vs Raw 2011"s Road to WrestleMania mode), with wrestlers creating alliances and enemies, and fighting styles are introduced in the "MyPlayer" career mode, letting players choose between eight different fighting styles, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. However mixed gender tag-team matches are not featured in the game and cannot be created using Create-a-Match.


title: WWE 2K18

text: The new "Road To Glory" mode enables players to use their MyPlayer characters to qualify and compete in events, similar to the one found in WWE SuperCard. This mode replaces the 2K Tonight online mode from "WWE 2K17".


title: WWE 2K18

text: Universe mode has been improved with a new story system, alongside new cut-scenes, power-rankings, and a goal system.


title: WWE 2K18

text: "WWE 2K18" features a new commentary team of Monday Night Raw's Michael Cole, SmackDown Live's Byron Saxton, and dual branded commentator Corey Graves. Crowd sound is also improved and features authentic crowd chants for entrances and during a match.


title: WWE 2K18

text: "WWE 2K18" received "mixed or average" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic. The Nintendo Switch version, however, received "generally unfavourable" reviews. It was heavily criticized for its inevitable glitches, with montages of them posted on YouTube. The technical issues were more severe on the Switch version.


title: Monsoon of South Asia

text: The Monsoon of South Asia is among several geographically distributed global monsoons. It affects the Indian subcontinent, where it is one of the oldest and most anticipated weather phenomena and an economically important pattern every year from June through September, but it is only partly understood and notoriously difficult to predict. Several theories have been proposed to explain the origin, process, strength, variability, distribution, and general vagaries of the monsoon, but understanding and predictability are still evolving.


title: Monsoon of South Asia

text: The unique geographical features of the Indian subcontinent, along with associated atmospheric, oceanic, and geophysical factors, influence the behavior of the monsoon. Because of its effect on agriculture, on flora and fauna, and on the climates of nations such as Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka – among other economic, social, and environmental effects – the monsoon is one of the most anticipated, tracked, and studied weather phenomena in the region. It has a significant effect on the overall well-being of residents and has even been dubbed the "real finance minister of India".


title: Monsoon of South Asia

text: The word "monsoon" (derived from the Arabic "mausim", meaning "seasonal reversal of winds"), although generally defined as a system of winds characterized by a seasonal reversal of direction, lacks a consistent, detailed definition. Some examples are:


title: Monsoon of South Asia

text: Observed initially by sailors in the Arabian Sea traveling between Africa, India, and Southeast Asia, the monsoon can be categorized into two "branches" based on their spread over the subcontinent:


title: Monsoon of South Asia

text: Alternatively, it can be categorized into two "segments" based on the direction of rain-bearing winds:


title: Monsoon of South Asia

text: Based on the time of year that these winds bring rain to India, the monsoon can also be categorized into two "periods":


title: Monsoon of South Asia

text: The complexity of the monsoon of South Asia is not completely understood, making it difficult to accurately predict the quantity, timing, and geographic distribution of the accompanying precipitation. These are the most monitored components of the monsoon, and they determine the water availability in India for any given year.


title: Monsoon of South Asia

text: Monsoons typically occur in tropical areas. One area that monsoons impact greatly is India. In India monsoons create an entire season in which the winds reverse completely.


title: Monsoon of South Asia

text: The rainfall is a result of the convergence of wind flow from the Bay of Bengal and reverse winds from the South China Sea.


title: Monsoon of South Asia

text: The onset of the monsoon occurs over the Bay of Bengal in May, arriving at the Indian Peninsula by June, and then the winds move towards the South China Sea.


title: Monsoon of South Asia

text: Although the southwest and northeast monsoon winds are seasonally reversible, they do cause precipitation on their own.


title: Monsoon of South Asia

text: Additionally, one of the causes of rain must happen. In the case of the monsoon, the cause is primarily orographic, due to the presence of highlands in the path of the winds. Orographic barriers force wind to rise. Precipitation then occurs on the windward side of the highlands because of adiabatic cooling and condensation of the moist rising air.


title: Monsoon of South Asia

text: The unique geographic relief features of the Indian subcontinent come into play in allowing all of the above factors to occur simultaneously. The relevant features in explaining the monsoon mechanism are as follows:


title: Monsoon of South Asia

text: "Bursting of monsoon" refers to the sudden change in weather conditions in India (typically from hot and dry weather to wet and humid weather during the southwest monsoon), characterized by an abrupt rise in the mean daily rainfall. Similarly, the burst of the northeast monsoon refers to an abrupt increase in the mean daily rainfall over the affected regions.


title: Monsoon of South Asia

text: One of the most commonly used words to describe the erratic nature of the monsoon is "vagaries", used in newspapers, magazines, books, web portals to insurance plans, and India's budget discussions.


title: Monsoon of South Asia

text: In some years, it rains too much, causing floods in parts of India; in others, it rains too little or not at all, causing droughts. In some years, the rain quantity is sufficient but its timing arbitrary. Sometimes, despite average annual rainfall, the daily distribution or geographic distribution of the rain is substantially skewed. In the recent past, rainfall variability in short time periods (about a week) were attributed to desert dust over the Arabian Sea and Western Asia.


title: Monsoon of South Asia

text: Normally, the southwest monsoon can be expected to "burst" onto the western coast of India (near Thiruvananthapuram) at the beginning of June and to cover the entire country by mid-July. Its withdrawal from India typically starts at the beginning of September and finishes by the beginning of October.


title: Monsoon of South Asia

text: The northeast monsoon usually "bursts" around 20 October and lasts for about 50 days before withdrawing.


title: Monsoon of South Asia

text: However, a rainy monsoon is not necessarily a normal monsoon – that is, one that performs close to statistical averages calculated over a long period. A normal monsoon is generally accepted to be one involving close to the "average quantity" of precipitation over all the geographical locations under its influence ("mean spatial distribution") and over the entire expected time period ("mean temporal distribution"). Additionally, the "arrival date" and the "departure date" of both the southwest and northeast monsoon should be close to the mean dates. The exact criteria for a normal monsoon are defined by the India Meteorological Department with calculations for the mean and standard deviation of each of these variables.


title: Monsoon of South Asia

text: Theories of the mechanism of the monsoon primarily try to explain the reasons for the seasonal reversal of winds and the timing of their reversal.


title: Monsoon of South Asia

text: Because of differences in the specific heat capacity of land and water, continents heat up faster than seas. Consequently, the air above coastal lands heats up faster than the air above seas. These create areas of low air pressure above coastal lands compared with pressure over the seas, causing winds to flow from the seas onto the neighboring lands. This is known as sea breeze.


title: Monsoon of South Asia

text: Also known as the "thermal theory" or the "differential heating of sea and land theory", the traditional theory portrays the monsoon as a large-scale sea breeze. It states that during the hot subtropical summers, the massive landmass of the Indian Peninsula heats up at a different rate than the surrounding seas, resulting in a pressure gradient from south to north. This causes the flow of moisture-laden winds from sea to land. On reaching land, these winds rise because of the geographical relief, cooling adiabatically and leading to orographic rains. This is the "southwest monsoon".


title: Monsoon of South Asia

text: The reverse happens during the winter, when the land is colder than the sea, establishing a pressure gradient from land to sea. This causes the winds to blow over the Indian subcontinent toward the Indian Ocean in a northeasterly direction, causing the "northeast monsoon". Because the southwest monsoon flows from sea to land, it carries more moisture, and therefore causes more rain, than the northeast monsoon. Only part of the northeast monsoon passing over the Bay of Bengal picks up moisture, causing rain in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu during the winter months.


title: Monsoon of South Asia

text: However, many meteorologists argue that the monsoon is not a local phenomenon as explained by the traditional theory, but a general weather phenomenon along the entire tropical zone of Earth. This criticism does not deny the role of differential heating of sea and land in generating monsoon winds, but casts it as one of several factors rather than the only one.


title: Monsoon of South Asia

text: The prevailing winds of the atmospheric circulation arise because of the difference in pressure at various latitudes and act as means for distribution of thermal energy on the planet. This pressure difference is because of the differences in solar insolation received at different latitudes and the resulting uneven heating of the planet. Alternating belts of high pressure and low pressure develop along the equator, the two tropics, the Arctic Circle and Antarctic Circle, and the two polar regions, giving rise to the trade winds, the westerlies, and the polar easterlies. However, geophysical factors like Earth's orbit, its rotation, and its axial tilt cause these belts to shift gradually north and south, following the Sun's seasonal shifts.


title: Monsoon of South Asia

text: The "dynamic theory" explains the monsoon on the basis of the annual shifts in the position of global belts of pressure and winds. According to this theory, the monsoon is a result of the shift of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) under the influence of the vertical sun. Though the mean position of the ITCZ is taken as the equator, it shifts north and south with the migration of the vertical sun toward the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn during the summer of the respective hemispheres (Northern and Southern Hemisphere). As such, during the northern summer (May and June), the ITCZ moves north, along with the vertical sun, toward the Tropic of Cancer. The ITCZ, as the zone of lowest pressure in the tropical region, is the target destination for the trade winds of both hemispheres. Consequently, with the ITCZ at the Tropic of Cancer, the southeast trade winds of the Southern Hemisphere have to cross the equator to reach it. However, because of the Coriolis effect (which causes winds in the Northern Hemisphere to turn right, whereas winds in the Southern Hemisphere turn left), these southeast trade winds are deflected east in the Northern Hemisphere, transforming into southwest trades. These pick up moisture while traveling from sea to land and cause orographic rain once they hit the highlands of the Indian Peninsula. This results in the southwest monsoon.


title: Monsoon of South Asia

text: The dynamic theory explains the monsoon as a global weather phenomenon rather than just a local one. And when coupled with the traditional theory (based on the heating of sea and land), it enhances the explanation of the varying intensity of monsoon precipitation along the coastal regions with orographic barriers.


title: Monsoon of South Asia

text: This theory tries to explain the establishment of the northeast and southwest monsoons, as well as unique features like "bursting" and variability.


title: Monsoon of South Asia

text: The jet streams are systems of upper-air westerlies. They give rise to slowly moving upper-air waves, with 250-knot winds in some air streams. First observed by World War II pilots, they develop just below the tropopause over areas of steep pressure gradient on the surface. The main types are the "polar jets", the "subtropical westerly jets", and the less common "tropical easterly jets". They follow the principle of geostrophic winds.


title: Monsoon of South Asia

text: Over India, a subtropical westerly jet develops in the winter season and is replaced by the tropical easterly jet in the summer season. The high temperature during the summer over the Tibetan Plateau, as well as over Central Asia in general, is believed to be the critical factor leading to the formation of the tropical easterly jet over India.


title: Monsoon of South Asia

text: The mechanism affecting the monsoon is that the westerly jet causes high pressure over northern parts of the subcontinent during the winter. This results in the north-to-south flow of the winds in the form of the northeast monsoon. With the northward shift of the vertical sun, this jet shifts north, too. The intense heat over the Tibetan Plateau, coupled with associated terrain features like the high altitude of the plateau, generate the tropical easterly jet over central India. This jet creates a low-pressure zone over the northern Indian plains, influencing the wind flow toward these plains and assisting the development of the southwest monsoon.


title: Monsoon of South Asia

text: The "bursting" of the monsoon is primarily explained by the jet stream theory and the dynamic theory.


title: Monsoon of South Asia

text: According to this theory, during the summer months in the Northern Hemisphere, the ITCZ shifts north, pulling the southwest monsoon winds onto the land from the sea. However, the huge landmass of the Himalayas restricts the low-pressure zone onto the Himalayas themselves. It is only when the Tibetan Plateau heats up significantly more than the Himalayas that the ITCZ rises abruptly and swiftly shifts north, leading to the bursting of monsoon rains over the Indian subcontinent.


title: Monsoon of South Asia

text: The reverse shift takes place for the northeast monsoon winds, leading to a second, minor burst of rainfall over the eastern Indian Peninsula during the Northern Hemisphere winter months.


title: Monsoon of South Asia

text: According to this theory, the onset of the southwest monsoon is driven by the shift of the subtropical westerly jet north from over the plains of India toward the Tibetan Plateau. This shift is due to the intense heating of the plateau during the summer months. The northward shift is not a slow and gradual process, as expected for most changes in weather pattern. The primary cause is believed to be the height of the Himalayas. As the Tibetan Plateau heats up, the low pressure created over it pulls the westerly jet north. Because of the lofty Himalayas, the westerly jet's movement is inhibited. But with continuous dropping pressure, sufficient force is created for the movement of the westerly jet across the Himalayas after a significant period. As such, the shift of the jet is sudden and abrupt, causing the bursting of southwest monsoon rains onto the Indian plains. The reverse shift happens for the northeast monsoon.


title: Monsoon of South Asia

text: Timing: A timely northward shift of the subtropical westerly jet at the beginning of summer is critical to the onset of the southwest monsoon over India. If the shift is delayed, so is the southwest monsoon. An early shift results in an early monsoon.


title: Monsoon of South Asia

text: Strength: The strength of the southwest monsoon is determined by the strength of the easterly tropical jet over central India. A strong easterly tropical jet results in a strong southwest monsoon over central India, and a weak jet results in a weak monsoon.


title: Monsoon of South Asia

text: "El Niño" is a warm ocean current originating along the coast of Peru that replaces the usual cold Humboldt Current. The warm surface water moving toward the coast of Peru with El Niño is pushed west by the trade winds, thereby raising the temperature of the southern Pacific Ocean. The reverse condition is known as La Niña.


title: Monsoon of South Asia

text: "Southern Oscillation", a phenomenon first observed by Sir Gilbert Walker, director general of observatories in India, refers to the seesaw relationship of atmospheric pressures between Tahiti and Darwin, Australia. Walker noticed that when pressure was high in Tahiti, it was low in Darwin, and . A "Southern Oscillation Index" (SOI), based on the pressure difference between Tahiti and Darwin, has been formulated by the Bureau of Meteorology (Australia) to measure the strength of the oscillation. Walker noticed that the quantity of rainfall in the Indian subcontinent was often negligible in years of high pressure over Darwin (and low pressure over Tahiti). Conversely, low pressure over Darwin bodes well for precipitation quantity in India. Thus, Walker established the relationship between southern oscillation and quantities of monsoon rains in India.


title: Monsoon of South Asia

text: Ultimately, the southern oscillation was found to be simply an atmospheric component of the El Niño/La Niña effect, which happens in the ocean. Therefore, in the context of the monsoon, the two together came to be known as the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) effect. The effect is known to have a pronounced influence on the strength of the southwest monsoon over India, with the monsoon being weak (causing droughts) during El Niño years, while La Niña years bring particularly strong monsoons.


title: Monsoon of South Asia

text: Although the ENSO effect was statistically effective in explaining several past droughts in India, in recent decades, its relationship with the Indian monsoon seemed to weaken. For example, the strong ENSO of 1997 did not cause drought in India. However, it was later discovered that, just like ENSO in the Pacific Ocean, a similar seesaw ocean-atmosphere system in the Indian Ocean was also in play. This system was discovered in 1999 and named the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD). An index to calculate it was also formulated. IOD develops in the equatorial region of the Indian Ocean from April to May and peaks in October. With a positive IOD, winds over the Indian Ocean blow from east to west. This makes the Arabian Sea (the western Indian Ocean near the African coast) much warmer and the eastern Indian Ocean around Indonesia colder and drier. In negative dipole years, the reverse happens, making Indonesia much warmer and rainier.


title: Monsoon of South Asia

text: A positive IOD index often negates the effect of ENSO, resulting in increased monsoon rains in years such as 1983, 1994, and 1997. Further, the two poles of the IOD – the eastern pole (around Indonesia) and the western pole (off the African coast) — independently and cumulatively affect the quantity of monsoon rains.


title: Monsoon of South Asia

text: As with ENSO, the atmospheric component of the IOD was later discovered and the cumulative phenomenon named "Equatorial Indian Ocean oscillation" (EQUINOO). When EQUINOO effects are factored in, certain failed forecasts, like the acute drought of 2002, can be further accounted for. The relationship between extremes of the Indian summer monsoon rainfall, along with ENSO and EQUINOO, have been studied, and models to better predict the quantity of monsoon rains have been statistically derived.


title: Monsoon of South Asia

text: Since 1950s, the South Asian summer monsoon has been exhibiting large changes, especially in terms of droughts and floods. The observed monsoon rainfall indicates a gradual decline over central India, with a reduction of up to 10%. This is primarily due to a weakening monsoon circulation as a result of the rapid warming in the Indian Ocean, and changes in land use and land cover, while the role of aerosols remains elusive. Since the strength of the monsoon is partially dependent on the temperature difference between the ocean and the land, higher ocean temperatures in the Indian Ocean have weakened the moisture bearing winds from the ocean to the land. The reduction in the summer monsoon rainfall has grave consequences over central India because at least 60% of the agriculture in this region is still largely rain-fed.


title: Monsoon of South Asia

text: A recent assessment of the monsoonal changes indicate that the land warming has increased during 2002–2014, possibly reviving the strength of the monsoon circulation and rainfall. Future changes in the monsoon will depend on a competition between land and ocean—on which is warming faster than the other.


title: Monsoon of South Asia

text: Meanwhile, there has been a three-fold rise in widespread extreme rainfall events during the years 1950 to 2015, over the entire central belt of India, leading to a steady rise in the number of flash floods with significant socioeconomic losses. Widespread extreme rainfall events are those rainfall events which are larger than 150 mm/day and spread over a region large enough to cause floods.


title: Monsoon of South Asia

text: Since the Great Famine of 1876–1878 in India, various attempts have been made to predict monsoon rainfall. At least five prediction models exist.


title: Monsoon of South Asia

text: The Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC) at Bengaluru facilitated the Seasonal Prediction of Indian Monsoon (SPIM) experiment on the PARAM Padma supercomputing system.


title: Monsoon of South Asia

text: This project involved simulated runs of historical data from 1985 to 2004 to try to establish the relationship of five "atmospheric general circulation models" with monsoon rainfall distribution.


title: Monsoon of South Asia

text: The department has tried to forecast the monsoon for India since 1884, and is the only official agency entrusted with making public forecasts about the quantity, distribution, and timing of the monsoon rains. Its position as the sole authority on the monsoon was cemented in 2005 by the Department of Science and Technology (DST), New Delhi. In 2003, IMD substantially changed its forecast methodology, model, and administration. A sixteen-parameter monsoon forecasting model used since 1988 was replaced in 2003. However, following the 2009 drought in India (worst since 1972), The department decided in 2010 that it needed to develop an "indigenous model" to further improve its prediction capabilities.


title: Monsoon of South Asia

text: The monsoon is the primary delivery mechanism for fresh water in the Indian subcontinent. As such, it affects the environment (and associated flora, fauna, and ecosystems), agriculture, society, hydro-power production, and geography of the subcontinent (like the availability of fresh water in water bodies and the underground water table), with all of these factors cumulatively contributing to the health of the economy of affected countries.


title: Monsoon of South Asia

text: The monsoon turns large parts of India from semi-deserts into green grasslands. See photos taken only three months apart in the Western Ghats.


title: Monsoon of South Asia

text: Mawsynram and Cherrapunji, both in the Indian state of Meghalaya, alternate as the wettest places on Earth given the quantity of their rainfall, though there are other cities with similar claims. They receive more than 11,000 millimeters of rain each from the monsoon.


title: Monsoon of South Asia

text: In India, which has historically had a primarily agrarian economy, the services sector recently overtook the farm sector in terms of GDP contribution. However, the agriculture sector still contributes 17–20% of GDP and is the largest employer in the country, with about 60% of Indians dependent on it for employment and livelihood. About 49% of India's land is agricultural; that number rises to 55% if associated wetlands, dryland farming areas, etc., are included. Because more than half of these farmlands are rain-fed, the monsoon is critical to food sufficiency and quality of life.


title: Monsoon of South Asia

text: Despite progress in alternative forms of irrigation, agricultural dependence on the monsoon remains far from insignificant. Therefore, the agricultural calendar of India is governed by the monsoon. Any fluctuations in the time distribution, spatial distribution, or quantity of the monsoon rains may lead to floods or droughts, causing the agricultural sector to suffer. This has a cascading effect on the secondary economic sectors, the overall economy, food inflation, and therefore the general population's quality and cost of living.


title: Monsoon of South Asia

text: The economic significance of the monsoon is aptly described by Pranab Mukherjee's remark that the monsoon is the "real finance minister of India".


title: Monsoon of South Asia

text: A good monsoon results in better agricultural yields, which brings down prices of essential food commodities and reduces imports, thus reducing food inflation overall. Better rains also result in increased hydroelectric production.


title: Monsoon of South Asia

text: The down side however is that when monsoon rains are weak, crop production is low leading to higher food prices with limited supply. As a result, the Indian government is actively working with farmers and the nation's meteorological department to produce more drought resistant crops.


title: Monsoon of South Asia

text: The onset of the monsoon increases fungal and bacterial activity. A host of mosquito-borne, water-borne and air-borne infections become more common as a result of the change in the ecosystem. These include diseases such as dengue, malaria, cholera, and colds.


title: Monsoon of South Asia

text: D. Subbarao, former governor of the Reserve Bank of India, emphasized during a quarterly review of India's monetary policy that the lives of Indians depend on the performance of the monsoon. His own career prospects, his emotional well-being, and the performance of his monetary policy are all "a hostage" to the monsoon, he said, as is the case for most Indians. Additionally, farmers rendered jobless by failed monsoon rains tend to migrate to cities. This crowds city slums and aggravates the infrastructure and sustainability of city life.


title: Monsoon of South Asia

text: In the past, Indians usually refrained from traveling during monsoons for practical as well as religious reasons. But with the advent of globalization, such travel is gaining popularity. Places like Kerala and the Western Ghats get a large number of tourists, both local and foreigners, during the monsoon season. Kerala is one of the top destinations for tourists interested in Ayurvedic treatments and massage therapy. One major drawback of traveling during the monsoon is that most wildlife sanctuaries are closed. Also, some mountainous areas, especially in Himalayan regions, get cut off when roads are damaged by landslides and floods during heavy rains.


title: Monsoon of South Asia

text: The monsoon is the primary bearer of fresh water to the area. The peninsular/Deccan rivers of India are mostly rain-fed and non-perennial in nature, depending primarily on the monsoon for water supply.


title: Monsoon of South Asia

text: Most of the coastal rivers of Western India are also rain-fed and monsoon-dependent. As such, the flora, fauna, and entire ecosystems of these areas rely heavily on the monsoon.


title: Nissan Fuga

text: The Nissan Fuga (Japanese: 日産・フーガ "Nissan Fūga") is a mid-size luxury sedan produced by Japanese automaker Nissan since October 2004. It is built on a wider, stretched wheelbase version of the Nissan FM platform. After the Nissan Cima and Nissan President were discontinued in August 2010, the Fuga became Nissan's flagship vehicle. In North America and Europe, the Fuga is sold as the second and third-generation Infiniti M (Q70 from 2014), where it has been the flagship of the Infiniti luxury division of Nissan since 2006.


title: Nissan Fuga

text: First shown as the Fuga Concept at the 2003 Tokyo Motor Show, the F51 replaced the long-running Nissan Cedric, Gloria, Cima and President. The name derives from the Italian "fuga", for fugue, the musical composition form.


title: Nissan Fuga

text: When the Prince (Nissan) Gloria was first introduced in 1959, it was based on a stretched version of the original Prince (Nissan) Skyline, which was first introduced in 1957. Nissan used this approach again for the Fuga, using the Skyline platform again. The Fuga was available at Japanese Nissan dealerships called "Nissan Red Stage" and "Nissan Blue Stage" until "Blue Stage" and "Red Stage" dealerships were combined into one Japanese Nissan dealership network utilized internationally in 2005.


title: Nissan Fuga

text: Nissan wanted to create a fresh approach started by the Cedric/Gloria and focus its efforts to compete with European executive mid-sized sports sedans, such as the BMW 5 series, Audi A6, Mercedes-Benz E-Class and Jaguar S-Type. The Fuga's primary competitor is the Toyota Crown Athlete Series, but also competes with the Lexus GS, as well as Honda Legend.


title: Nissan Fuga

text: The Fuga trim levels began with "XV" and ended with "GT" as the top trim package, equivalent to the previous "Brougham" and "Gran Turismo" versions of the Cedric and Gloria.


title: Nissan Fuga

text: In markets outside Japan it is sold as the second-generation Infiniti M (M35/45). The Infiniti M became the flagship of the Infiniti luxury division after the 2006 model year, as the Infiniti Q (the Cima's counterpart in certain markets) was discontinued. However the Cima would remain in production for the Japanese domestic market and it is longer than the Fuga which slots below it in the lineup.


title: Nissan Fuga

text: Mitsuoka Motors, a small Japanese automobile company, uses the Nissan Fuga as a base for their Galue-III luxury sedan which has been produced since 2005.


title: Nissan Fuga

text: Aluminium is used in the body, hood, trunk lid and door internal structure to reduce weight. The front suspension uses a double wishbone setup, also to reduce unsprung weight, and to improve vehicle handling. This type of suspension was previously used on the Cedric/Gloria until 1983, when that platform began to use MacPherson struts for the front suspension, but still uses the multilink rear suspension which was introduced on the Cedric/Gloria in 1979. The Fuga uses aluminum alloy extensively in both the front and rear suspension components.


title: Nissan Fuga

text: The GT sports package includes Nissan's 4WS version of HICAS to improve stability and handling, taking advantage of the 53:47 weight distribution.


title: Nissan Fuga

text: A driver aid system used in Japan, called Distance Control Assistance, pushes the gas pedal against the foot when the DVD navigation with GPS determines that an unsafe speed is being maintained. If the Autonomous cruise control system is being used, the Distance Control Assistance will reduce speed automatically, and will warn the driver that an adjustment is being made with an audible bell sound.


title: Nissan Fuga

text: When the Fuga was first introduced for sale October 14, 2004 the advertising campaign used a musical work in the fugue style. The work is titled "Vortex", composed and arranged by Akihiko Matsumoto, and was specially commissioned for Nissan. The music was played in three movements by a full orchestra for 7 minutes and 42 seconds, and a recording was given to dealers in Japan as a promotional DVD-CD gift for customers called "Fuga The Movie and Premium Soundtrack", free of charge.


title: Nissan Fuga

text: The DVD and CD package was not available for private sale, with the DVD providing a gallery of images, and descriptions of key technologies such as how the adaptive cruise control functions, various safety technologies like the Blind Spot camera, which is a camera installed on the passenger side side view mirror displaying a view of the curb on the in-dash monitor, and a movie with the Fuga on a mountain road, using the "Vortex" soundtrack. The DVD is recorded in Dolby 5.1 surround sound.


title: Nissan Fuga

text: The second generation Nissan Fuga, introduced as the Infiniti M, was previewed at the 2009 Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance. The new Fuga debuted at the 2009 Tokyo Motor Show. The production version went on sale across Japan starting on December 21, 2009. It is sold in overseas markets under the Infiniti nameplate as the third-generation M (M37/M56/35h/30d). The second generation Fuga's body design (styled by Hideo Komuro in 2007), took on a more organic look. and was a resurrection of a 1960s and 1970s appearance called "coke bottle styling" that was used on the 1970s Nissan Cedric and Nissan Gloria.


title: Nissan Fuga

text: The Y51 series Infiniti M / Nissan Fuga introduced November 2009 is only shorter than the F50 series Nissan Cima, with the same width dimensions of and height of compared to the Cima's of height. In August 2010, the Fuga became Nissan's flagship with the announcement of the cancellation of the Nissan Cima and the Nissan President. The Fuga is shorter than the Nissan President, and the Fuga has a longer wheelbase at , compared to the wheelbase on the President and Cima at . When the Fuga assumed the role as flagship sedan of Nissan Japan August 2010, it became the first time that Nissan didn't sell a premium luxury V8 sedan in Japan; the Fuga's North American cousin, the Infiniti M56, is offered with a V8 shared with the Infiniti QX56.


title: Nissan Fuga

text: The VK45DE V8 engine used in the previous generation is no longer offered in Japan, neither is the succeeding VK56VD V8 which is only found on the Fuga's North American counterpart, the Infiniti M56. The larger 5.6L engine incurs a higher rate of road tax liability which hampers sales. The VQ35HR 3.5 L V6 Hybrid is now the Fuga's third engine option, utilizing the Atkinson cycle. The electric motor, installed in parallel between the engine and the transmission, produces from 1.3kWh lithium-ion batteries that are expected to have a service life of 10 years. The batteries are installed upright behind the rear seats. The Fuga Hybrid introduced Nissan's first in-house developed electric hybrid technology, and Nissan claims it will double the fuel economy of its gasoline-powered version.


title: Nissan Fuga

text: A driving mode selector knob has been installed as standard equipment on all models, situated below the transmission gear lever and between the heated and ventilated front seat controls, providing four selections labeled "Standard", "Sport", "Eco", and "Snow", allowing the 7-speed transmission, engine and various systems to optimize driving based on varying conditions. To minimize exhaust noise intrusion into the passenger compartment from the engine at low RPMs, "Active Noise Control" has been installed. Double-piston shock absorbers, developed by Kayaba Industry Company, have replaced the ones previously supplied by Hitachi.


title: Nissan Fuga

text: Trim levels offered in Japan start with the 250GT, 250GT Type P, 250GT "A" package; 370GT, 370GT FOUR (AWD), 370GT FOUR (AWD) "A" package, 370GT Type S, with the 370VIP at the top of the range. The 370GT Type S uses 20" Bridgestone Potenza RE050A 245/40 tires, with other trim packages using Dunlop SP Sport Maxx TT 245/50 tires on 18" with all wheels consisting of aluminum alloy.


title: Nissan Fuga

text: Some of the optional interior equipment includes heated and ventilated front seats, a 16 speaker Bose "studio surround" audio system, power reclining rear seats, power ottoman for the rear passenger opposite the driver, and HDD navigation combined with a telematics subscription service called "CarWings" in Japan.


title: Nissan Fuga

text: Safety technology has also been introduced, such as Lane Departure Prevention, which uses a small camera mounted above the rearview mirror to gauge distance from the lane markers, and will lightly tap selected brakes when necessary to help ease the car back into the correct lane. It will allow for unimpeded lane changes when the turn signal is used, and will yield control to the driver at all times.


title: Nissan Fuga

text: Blind Spot Intervention System uses sensors to provide a visual warning in the side view mirror. If the car senses that movement towards the obstacle is occurring, it will provide an audible warning and will apply opposite side brakes to guide the vehicle into the correct lane.


title: Nissan Fuga

text: The Nissan Fuga Hybrid, together with the Nissan Leaf, will include Nissan's new Vehicle Sound for Pedestrians system to alert pedestrians, the blind and others to their presence when the hybrid is operating at low speeds in all-electric mode.


title: Catharine A. MacKinnon

text: Catharine Alice MacKinnon (born October 7, 1946) is an American radical feminist legal scholar, activist, and author. She is the Elizabeth A. Long Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School, where she has been tenured since 1990, and the James Barr Ames Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. From 2008 to 2012, she was the special gender adviser to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.


title: Catharine A. MacKinnon

text: As an expert on international law, constitutional law, political and legal theory, and jurisprudence, MacKinnon focuses on women's rights and sexual abuse and exploitation, including sexual harassment, rape, prostitution, sex trafficking and pornography. She was among the first to argue that pornography is a civil rights violation, and that sexual harassment in education and employment constitutes sex discrimination.


title: Catharine A. MacKinnon

text: MacKinnon is the author of over a dozen books, including "Sexual Harassment of Working Women" (1979); "Feminism Unmodified" (1987), "Toward a Feminist Theory of the State" (1989); "Only Words" (1993); a casebook, "Sex Equality" (2001 and 2007); "Women's Lives, Men's Laws" (2005); and "Butterfly Politics" (2017).


title: Catharine A. MacKinnon

text: MacKinnon was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the first of three children (a girl and two boys) to Elizabeth Valentine Davis and George E. MacKinnon; her father was a lawyer, congressman (1947–1949), and judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (1969–1995).


title: Catharine A. MacKinnon

text: She is the third generation of her family to attend her mother's alma mater, Smith College. She obtained her J.D. from Yale University in 1977 and a PhD in political science, also from Yale, in 1987. While at Yale, she received a National Science Foundation fellowship.


title: Catharine A. MacKinnon

text: MacKinnon is the Elizabeth A. Long Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School and the James Barr Ames Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. In 2007, she served as the Roscoe Pound Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and has also visited at NYU, University of Western Australia, University of San Diego, Hebrew University, Columbia Law School, University of Chicago, University of Basel, Yale Law School, Osgood Hall Law School, UCLA School of Law, and Stanford Law School.


title: Catharine A. MacKinnon

text: MacKinnon is a highly cited legal scholar and regular public speaker. Her ideas can be divided into three overlapping areas: sexual harassment, pornography and prostitution, and international work. She has also written extensively on social and political theory and methodology.


title: Catharine A. MacKinnon

text: In 1977, MacKinnon graduated from Yale Law School having written a paper on sexual harassment for Professor Thomas I. Emerson arguing that it was a form of sex-based discrimination. Two years later, Yale University Press published MacKinnon's book, "Sexual Harassment of Working Women: A Case of Sex Discrimination" (1979), creating the legal claim for sexual harassment as a form of sex discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and any other sex-discrimination prohibition. She also conceived the legal claim for sexual harassment as sex discrimination in education under Title IX, which was established through litigation brought by Yale undergraduates in "Alexander v. Yale." While the plaintiff who went to trial on the facts, Pamela Price, lost, the case established the law: the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit recognized that, under the civil rights statute Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, schools must have procedures to address sexual harassment as a form of sex discrimination.


title: Catharine A. MacKinnon

text: In her book, MacKinnon argued that sexual harassment is sex discrimination because the act is a product of, and produces, the social inequality of women to men (see, for example, pp. 116–18, 174). She distinguishes between two types of sexual harassment (see pp. 32–42):


title: Catharine A. MacKinnon

text: In 1980, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission followed MacKinnon's framework in adopting guidelines prohibiting sexual harassment by prohibiting both quid pro quo harassment and hostile work environment harassment (see 29 C.F.R. § 1604.11 (a)). Courts also used the concepts.


title: Catharine A. MacKinnon

text: In 1986, the U.S. Supreme Court held in "Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson" that sexual harassment may violate laws against sex discrimination. MacKinnon was co-counsel for Mechelle Vinson, the plaintiff, and wrote the brief in the Supreme Court. In "Meritor", the Court recognized the distinction between quid pro quo sexual harassment and hostile workplace harassment. In a 2002 article, MacKinnon wrote, quoting the Court:


title: Catharine A. MacKinnon

text: "Without question," then-Justice Rehnquist wrote for a unanimous Court, "when a supervisor sexually harasses a subordinate because of the subordinate's sex, that supervisor "discriminate[s]" on the basis of sex." The D.C. Circuit, and women, had won. A new common-law rule was established.


title: Catharine A. MacKinnon

text: "Sexual Harassment of Working Women: A Case of Sex Discrimination", is the eighth most-cited American legal book published since 1978, according to a study published by Fred R. Shapiro in January 2000.


title: Catharine A. MacKinnon

text: MacKinnon, along with fellow radical feminist writer and activist Andrea Dworkin, tried to change legal approaches to pornography by framing it as a civil rights violation in the form of sex discrimination, and as human trafficking. They defined pornography as:


title: Catharine A. MacKinnon

text: In "Toward a Feminist Theory of the State", MacKinnon writes, "Pornography, in the feminist view, is a form of forced sex, a practice of sexual politics, and institution of gender inequality". As documented by extensive empirical studies, she writes, "Pornography contributes causally to attitudes and behaviors of violence and discrimination which define the treatment and status of half the population".


title: Catharine A. MacKinnon

text: In 1980, Linda Boreman (who had appeared, under the name Linda Lovelace in the pornographic film "Deep Throat") said her ex-husband Chuck Traynor had violently coerced her into making "Deep Throat" and other pornographic films. Boreman made her charges public for the press corps at a press conference, together with MacKinnon, members of Women Against Pornography, and feminist writer Andrea Dworkin offering statements in support. After the press conference, Dworkin, MacKinnon, Boreman, and Gloria Steinem began discussing the possibility of using federal civil rights law to seek damages from Traynor and the makers of "Deep Throat". This was not possible for Boreman because the statute of limitations for a possible suit had passed.


title: Catharine A. MacKinnon

text: MacKinnon and Dworkin continued to discuss civil rights litigation, specifically sex discrimination, as a possible approach to combating pornography. MacKinnon opposed traditional arguments and laws against pornography based on the idea of morality or filth or sexual innocence, including the use of traditional criminal obscenity law to suppress pornography. Instead of condemning pornography for violating "community standards" of sexual decency or modesty, they characterized pornography as a form of sex discrimination and sought to give women the right to seek damages under civil rights law when they could prove they had been harmed. Their anti-pornography ordinances make actionable only sexually explicit material that can be proven to discriminate on the basis of sex.


title: Catharine A. MacKinnon

text: In 1983, the Minneapolis city government hired MacKinnon and Dworkin to draft an anti-pornography civil rights ordinance as an amendment to the Minneapolis city human rights ordinance. The amendment defined pornography as a civil rights violation against women and allowed women who claimed harm from trafficking in pornography to sue the producers and distributors for damages in civil court. It also allowed those who had been coerced into pornography, had had pornography forced upon them, or were assaulted in a way caused by specific pornography to sue for harm they could prove. The law was passed twice by the Minneapolis city council but was vetoed by the mayor. Another version of the ordinance passed in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1984, but was ruled unconstitutional by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, a decision summarily affirmed (without opinion) by the U.S. Supreme Court.


title: Catharine A. MacKinnon

text: And as you think about the assumption of consent that follows women into pornography, look closely some time for the skinned knees, the bruises, the welts from the whippings, the scratches, the gashes. Many of them are not simulated. One relatively soft core pornography model said, "I knew the pose was right when it hurt". It certainly seems important to the audiences that the events in the pornography be real. For this reason, pornography becomes a motive for murder, as in "snuff" films in which someone is tortured to death to make a sex film. They exist.


title: Catharine A. MacKinnon

text: MacKinnon represented Boreman from 1980 until Boreman's death in 2002. Civil libertarians frequently find MacKinnon's theories objectionable (see "Criticism" section), arguing there is no evidence that sexually explicit media encourages or promotes violence against women. Max Waltman states that empirical evidence (based on changes to obscenity doctrine in Canada) suggests that civil rather than legal remedies may be more effective as a means of discouraging violence against women.


title: Catharine A. MacKinnon

text: In February 1992, the Supreme Court of Canada largely accepted MacKinnon's theories of equality, hate propaganda, and pornography, citing extensively from a brief she co-authored in a ruling against Manitoba pornography distributor Donald Butler. The "Butler" decision was controversial to some; it is sometimes implied that shipments of Dworkin's book "" were seized by Canadian customs agents under this ruling, as well as books by Marguerite Duras and David Leavitt. In fact, MacKinnon's brief argued that seizure of materials for which no harm was shown was unconstitutional.


title: Catharine A. MacKinnon

text: Successful "Butler" prosecutions have been undertaken against the lesbian sadomasochistic magazine "Bad Attitude", as well as the owners of a gay and lesbian bookstore for selling it. Canadian authorities raided an art gallery and confiscated controversial paintings depicting child abuse. Many free speech and gay rights activists have alleged that the law is selectively enforced, targeting the LGBT community.


title: Catharine A. MacKinnon

text: MacKinnon represented Bosnian and Croatian women against Serbs accused of genocide since 1992, creating the legal claim for rape as an act of genocide in that conflict. She was co-counsel, representing named plaintiff S. Kadic, in "Kadic v. Karadzic" and won a jury verdict of $745 million in New York City on August 10, 2000. The lawsuit (under the United States' Alien Tort Statute) established forced prostitution and forced impregnation when based on ethnicity or religion in a genocidal context as legally actionable acts of genocide. In 2001, MacKinnon was named co-director of the Lawyers Alliance for Women (LAW) Project, an initiative of Equality Now, an international non-governmental organization.


title: Catharine A. MacKinnon

text: MacKinnon and Dworkin proposed the law against prostitution in Sweden in 1990, which Sweden passed in 1998. What became termed the Swedish Model, also known as the Nordic Model, the "Equality Model," or the "Restrictive Model", penalises buyers of sexual services as well as sellers, where sellers are characterised as pimps or sex traffickers, while putatively decriminalizing all those who are "bought and sold in prostitution." The fundamental concept is that the requirement to exchange sexual services for survival is a product of sex inequality and a form of violence against women. This model has been accepted in Norway, Iceland, Canada, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Israel and France, but was rejected in New Zealand.


title: Catharine A. MacKinnon

text: Some organisations and individuals, such as the Global Network of Sex Work Projects, International, and the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women say that this legal model makes it harder for sex workers to find housing, make money to survive, screen clients to avoid violence, prevent their boyfriends from being arrested as "pimps", and avoid the interactions with police which account for the plurality of sexual violence against sex workers.


title: Catharine A. MacKinnon

text: MacKinnon works actively with the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW) and Apne Aap in India.


title: Catharine A. MacKinnon

text: MacKinnon argues that the inequality between women and men in most societies forms a hierarchy that institutionalizes male dominance, subordinating women, in an arrangement rationalised and often perceived as natural. She writes about the interrelations between theory and practice, recognizing that women's experiences have, for the most part, been ignored in both arenas. Furthermore, she uses Marxism to critique certain points in liberal feminism in feminist theory and uses radical feminism to criticize Marxist theory. MacKinnon notes Marx's criticism of theory that treated class division as a spontaneous event that occurred naturally. She understands epistemology as theories of knowing, and politics as theories of power: "Having power means, among other things, that when someone says, 'this is how it is,' it is taken as being that way. ...Powerlessness means that when you say 'this is how it is,' it is not taken as being that way. This makes articulating silence, perceiving the presence of absence, believing those who have been socially stripped of credibility, critically contextualizing what passes for simple fact, necessary to the epistemology of a politics of the powerless."


title: Catharine A. MacKinnon

text: In 1996, Fred R. Shapiro calculated that "Feminism, Marxism, Method, and the State: Toward Feminist Jurisprudence", 8 Signs 635 (1983), was the 96th most cited article in law reviews even though it was published in a non-legal journal.


title: Catharine A. MacKinnon

text: During the "Feminist Sex Wars" in the 1980s, feminists opposing anti-pornography stances, such as Carole Vance and the late Ellen Willis, began referring to themselves as "pro-sex" or "sex-positive feminists". Sex-positive feminists and anti-pornography feminists have debated over the implicit and explicit meanings of these labels. Sex-positive feminists note that anti-pornography ordinances drafted by MacKinnon and Dworkin called for the removal, censorship, or control over sexually explicit material.


title: Catharine A. MacKinnon

text: In "States of Injury" (1995), Wendy Brown contends that MacKinnon's attempt to ban prostitution and pornography does not primarily protect but re-inscribes the category of "woman" as an essentialized identity premised on injury. In "The Nation", Brown also characterized MacKinnon's "Toward a Feminist Theory of the State" (1989) as a "profoundly static world view and undemocratic, perhaps even anti-democratic, political sensibility" as well as "flatly dated" and "developed at 'the dawn of feminism's second wave... framed by a political-intellectual context that no longer exists — a male Marxist monopoly on radical social discourse'".


title: Catharine A. MacKinnon

text: Judith Butler's 1994 article "Against Proper Objects," in a section titled "Against the anti-pornography paradigm," criticizes MacKinnon as having "totalizing" and "deterministic" positions on sexuality, specifically heterosexuality, as follows:


title: Catharine A. MacKinnon

text: In the early 1990s, MacKinnon had a relationship with author and animal-rights activist Jeffrey Masson.


title: Future of the Royal Air Force

text: The planning for the future of the Royal Air Force involves supporting ongoing British military operations, the introduction of new aircraft types, greater focus on network enabled capability and increasing interoperability with members of NATO, team tempest, and mixed crewed fighters. From the updated plans of the RAF (2021) state that the new initiative will focus on becoming carbon net-zero, with strategies such as using sustainable aviation fuels in aircraft. The RAF also are looking into investing in the maintenance of the aircraft to ensure success of future operations.


title: Future of the Royal Air Force

text: The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is a family of single-seat, single-engine, fifth generation multirole fighters under development to perform ground attack, reconnaissance, and air defence missions with stealth capability. It was selected for the UK's Joint Combat Aircraft requirement in 2001, having been selected initially to replace the Royal Navy's BAE Sea Harrier fighter, and latterly the existing Panavia Tornado GR.4 and Harrier GR.9 fleets (the latter already having been retired in late 2010), operating principally from the "Queen Elizabeth"-class aircraft carriers. It will be the main component of the RAF's manned strike capability, and marks the return of a carrier-borne strike capability for the Fleet Air Arm for the first time in nearly a decade.


title: Future of the Royal Air Force

text: The version initially selected was the Short Take Off Vertical Landing (STOVL) variant of the F-35, known as the F-35B. However, on 19 October 2010, David Cameron announced that the UK would change their order to the F-35C CATOBAR carrier variant for both the RAF and Navy. The F-35C variant features larger wings with folding wingtips and larger wing and tail control surfaces for improved low-speed control. This gives it a greater range and the ability to carry a larger and more diverse payload than the F-35B.


title: Future of the Royal Air Force

text: In May 2012, it was announced that the government had reverted to the previous plan to operate the STOVL F-35B, due to rising estimated shipbuilding costs associated with the CATOBAR variant F-35C, and an earlier estimated in-service date for the F-35B.


title: Future of the Royal Air Force

text: The delivery of the UK's first F-35B was made on 19 July 2012 at Fort Worth, Texas, for flight trials by the RAF and Royal Navy.


title: Future of the Royal Air Force

text: In 2015, the government's Strategic Defence and Security Review stated that the Government planned to order 138 F-35s, with 24 of them to be available for carrier duties by 2023. However, the 2021 defence white paper cut that number to only "more than 48" with the First Sea Lord stating that the objective would be to increase the order to 60 initially and then "maybe more up to around 80". It was hoped that 4 deployable squadrons (combined RAF and Royal Navy) might still be formed. On 10 January 2019, initial operating capability for the UK's F-35B was announced. The UK is committed to improving its F-35Bs to Block 4 standard, however, the actual number of improved jets is yet to be known. In April 2022, the Deputy Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshal Richard Knighton, told the House of Commons Defence Select Committee that the MoD was in discussions to purchase a second tranche of 26 F-35B fighters. Plans for frontline F-35B squadrons envisage a total of three frontline (RAF and RN) squadrons each deploying 12-16 aircraft. At least one F-35B squadron is envisaged as part of the Fleet Air Arm in the Royal Navy. In surge conditions 24 F-35s might be deployed on one of the Queen Elizabeth-class carriers, but a routine deployment would likely involve 12 aircraft.


title: Future of the Royal Air Force

text: A report in September 2022 indicated that three additional aircraft are expected to the delivered in 2022 (delivery took place in November 2022), seven in 2023, four in 2024 and seven in 2025, completing the delivery of the planned 48 tranche 1 (one of which was lost in 2021).


title: Future of the Royal Air Force

text: It was indicated in the 2015 Strategic Defence and Security Review that the RAF would retain its Tranche 1 Typhoons and use them to stand up an additional two squadrons. It was also announced that the aircraft would remain in service until 2040, ten years longer than previously planned. However, the 2021 defence white paper subsequently announced that the Tranche 1 Typhoons would instead be withdrawn from service by 2025. For the Typhoons remaining in service, the Government also promised to invest further in Typhoon air-to-ground capabilities and in a new active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar, as well as completing integration of the Storm Shadow and Brimstone missiles with the Typhoon. 107 Tranche 2 and 3 Typhoons will be equipped via "Project Centurion", allowing them to launch Meteor missiles, Brimstone and Storm Shadow missiles.


title: Future of the Royal Air Force

text: At the 2018 Farnborough Airshow, UK Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson announced Team Tempest, a joint program office consisting of government divisions alongside BAE Systems, Leonardo S.p.A., MBDA and Rolls-Royce would be developing a new design of fighter aircraft with £2 billion STG (US$2.6 billion) in funding, by 2025. This will develop new technologies and means of production under the Future Combat Air System Technology Initiative (FCAS TI). It is likely to involve technology from Italy and Sweden using Gripen E, and is also likely to leverage on the UK's Typhoon experience.


title: Future of the Royal Air Force

text: In 2018, the RAF announced plans to upgrade its airborne early warning facility. Initially this was planned as an upgrade of the E-3D Sentry fleet, which would mirror the Sentry Block 40/45 upgrade undertaken by the USAF, and subsequently fitted to the Sentry fleet of the Armée de l'Air in France. However, owing to the significant cost of such a project, estimated at approximately £2 billion, it was thought that it would be more cost-effective to procure a new system instead. Although there were calls for an open competition to select the new platform, most notably from a partnership between Airbus and Saab, which would feature the Swedish company's Erieye radar system combined with an Airbus aircraft, the Ministry of Defence was announced as being in talks with Boeing over procuring its E-7 Wedgetail aircraft. To this end, in August 2018 the RAF began sending personnel to Australia to undergo training on the E-7, which was already in service with the RAAF. The potential selection of the E-7 was seen as advantageous in part due to its level of commonality with the P-8 Poseidon, which the RAF had selected as its new maritime patrol aircraft, as well as enabling greater co-operation with the RAAF. In October 2018, Gavin Williamson, announced that the Government had begun negotiations with Boeing, having determined that the E-7 "represents the best value for money option for the UK against need". A deal was signed in March 2019 that will see the RAF procure five E-7 aircraft for approximately £1.5bn. However, the 2021 defence white paper cut the total number of aircraft to only three. These will be based at RAF Lossiemouth alongside the Boeing P-8 Poseidon, and were initially due to enter service in 2023. With the E-3 Sentry having been withdrawn in 2021, this will leave a two-year capability gap that will see the United Kingdom rely on the NATO Airborne Early Warning and Control Force until the E-7 is operational. As of late 2022, the in-service date for the aircraft had been delayed to 2024.


title: Future of the Royal Air Force

text: 22 Airbus A400M Atlas aircraft are being procured to replace the Lockheed Hercules C4/C5 (C-130J) aircraft which will be withdrawn from service by 2023.