title: Kuniaki Koiso

text: After the Allied landing in Normandy (June 6) and the successful capture of Saipan (9 July), the government of Hideki Tojo lost its credibility and a new cabinet was formed. In selecting a new Prime Minister, the elder statesmen narrowed the candidates down to three: Hisaichi Terauchi (commander of the Southern Expeditionary Army Group), Shunroku Hata (commander of the China Expeditionary Army), and Koiso.


title: Kuniaki Koiso

text: The Army strongly favored General Hisaichi Terauchi; however, they could not afford to recall him to Japan from his role as commander-in-chief of all Japanese forces in Southeast Asia. The civilian government, especially Kōichi Kido and Fumimaro Konoe, also did not favor Koiso, due to Koiso's previous involvement with the ultranationalist "Sakura Kai" and its attempted coup d'état against the government in 1931 (i.e. the "March Incident"). These reservations were shared by the Emperor in his Privy Council meetings. Koiso was supported by Mitsumasa Yonai and Hiranuma Kiichirō, and as no consensus could be reached on a more suitable alternative, their arguments prevailed. Moreover, Mitsumasa Yonai was appointed vice-Prime Minister as a way of dealing with strong objections to Koiso.


title: Kuniaki Koiso

text: Koiso attempted to end army-navy rivalry by creating a Supreme Chief of Staff (最高幕僚長), but this was structured to favor the army, thus bitter opposition from the navy doomed the plan. Instead, a Supreme War Guidance Council (最高戦争指導会議) was created (August 4 1944–August 22 1945). Koiso was not taken seriously at Council meetings, where he was openly contradicted by Hata Hikosaburo. Within the top levels of the Imperial Army, rumors circulated that the Koiso Cabinet would only last two months (it lasted nine months).


title: Kuniaki Koiso

text: Koiso's strategy for ending the war was to strike a hard blow against the American Army in the Philippines, forcing negotiations. However, the general entrusted with the defense of the Philippines, Tomoyuki Yamashita, disagreed with the planners in the Southern Expeditionary Army. As such, the Army and Navy could not agree on a coordinated plan. Nevertheless, the defenders were prepared to make considerable sacrifices when Douglas MacArthur invaded Leyte on October 17, with the first kamikaze attack carried out on October 21, and the Japanese Navy losing four aircraft carriers and three battleships during the Battle of Leyte Gulf. Although the strategy had failed, Koiso did not change his way of thinking. Late in 1944, Koiso still planned to send Prince Konoe on a peace mission to Switzerland and Sweden, but it came to nothing.


title: Kuniaki Koiso

text: During the remainder of Koiso's term in office, Japanese forces continued to suffer a string of defeats on all fronts at the hands of the Allies. Also during his tenure, on November 10, 1944, Wang Jingwei died of pneumonia in a Japanese hospital in Nagoya, which effectively was the end of the Reorganized National Government of China in northern China. For a time, Koiso considered making peace, but he could not find a solution that would appease both the Japanese military and the Allies. Left with little choice but to continue the war effort, Koiso tried to extend his power over the army by attempting to assume the position of War Minister concurrently with that of Prime Minister, but was unable to legally do so as he was on the reserve list. Koiso resigned in April 1945 when American forces invaded Okinawa and his demands to be included in military decisions were rejected, the same date the Imperial Japanese Navy flagship was sunk by American aircraft during Operation Ten-Go.


title: Kuniaki Koiso

text: Koiso was an ardent supporter of State Shintoism along with Heisuke Yanagawa, who directed the Government Imperial Aid Association. He restored the ancient sacred rites in the Sukumo river, near Hakone, the "Preliminary Misogi Rite".


title: Kuniaki Koiso

text: After the end of World War II, Koiso was arrested by the Allied occupation powers and tried by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East for war crimes. Upon conviction as a Class-A war criminal on counts 1, 27, 29, 31, 32 and 55, he was given a sentence of life imprisonment. The Tribunal specifically cited Koiso's decisive role in starting the wars against China and the Allies. "Furthermore, despite the fact that Kuniaki Koiso was not directly responsible for the war crimes committed by the Japanese Army, he took no measures to prevent them or to punish the perpetrators when, as Prime Minister, it was within his power to do so." Koiso died of esophageal cancer in Sugamo Prison in 1950. His grave is at the Aoyama Cemetery in central Tokyo.


title: Sarpanch

text: A sarpanch (IAST: "Sarpañch") or Gram Pradhan or Mukhiya is a decision-maker, elected by the village-level constitutional body of local self-government called the Gram Sabha (village government) in India. The Sarpanch, together with other elected panchayat members (referred to as "ward panch"), constitute gram panchayats and zilla panchayats. The sarpanch is the focal point of contact between government officers and the village community and retains power for five years.


title: Sarpanch

text: Sar, meaning head, and panch meaning five, gives the meaning "head of the five decision makers of the gram panchyat" of the village. In the state of West Bengal, a Sarpanch is called as Panchayat Pradhan (Pradhan means Chief) and his deputy as Panchyat Upa-Pradhan.


title: Sarpanch

text: Although panchayats have been in existence in India since antiquity. We find Panchayati system from Chola dynasty in Sangam period. In post-Independence India, most of the rural development and community development projects have been sought to be executed through panchayats. India's federal structure of governance means that different states have different laws governing the powers of the gram panchayats and sarpanches.


title: Sarpanch

text: In many states, elections were not held for decades and instead of elected sarpanches, the gram panchayats were run by bureaucratically appointed administrators. With the passage of 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments in 1992, a number of safeguards have been built in, including those pertaining to regular elections.


title: Sarpanch

text: Article 243D(3) of the 73rd Constitutional Amendment requires one-third of seats in panchayats and one-third of panchayat chairperson positions be reserved for women, across all three levels of the panchayati raj system. This amendment followed various state-level legislative reforms in which reservations were set for panchayat positions to be held by women.


title: Ne-Yo discography

text: American singer Ne-Yo has released nine studio albums, forty-one singles and several other appearances with other artists.


title: Ne-Yo discography

text: In 2006, Ne-Yo's debut album, "In My Own Words", debuted at number one on the "Billboard" 200 in the United States. His second single, "So Sick", reached number one on the "Billboard" Hot 100; it was also Ne-Yo's first UK number-one single. The album was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America in the US and gold by the British Phonographic Industry in the UK. Ne-Yo's second album, "Because of You", was released in May 2007; it debuted at number one in the US and number six in the UK. The first single, "Because of You", peaked at number two in the US and number four in the UK. The album was certified platinum in the US and silver in the UK.


title: Ne-Yo discography

text: Ne-Yo's third album, "Year of the Gentleman", was released in September 2008 and debuted at number two in both the US and the UK. The first single, "Closer", became Ne-Yo's second UK number-one single and peaked at number seven in the US. "Year of the Gentleman" was certified platinum in the US. In September 2009, Ne-Yo released his first greatest hits album, "", in Japan.


title: Piper PA-23

text: The Piper PA-23, named Apache and later Aztec, is an American four- to six-seat twin-engined light aircraft aimed at the general-aviation market. The United States Navy and military forces in other countries also used it in small numbers. Originally designed in the 1950s by the Stinson Aircraft Company, Piper Aircraft manufactured the Apache and a more powerful version, the Aztec, in the United States from the 1950s to the 1980s.


title: Piper PA-23

text: The PA-23 was the first twin-engined Piper aircraft, and was developed from a proposed "Twin Stinson" design, inherited when Piper bought the Stinson Division of the Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation. The prototype PA-23 was a four-seat, low-wing, all-metal monoplane with a twin tail, powered by two 125 hp Lycoming O-290-D piston engines; it first flew on March 2, 1952. The aircraft performed badly, so it was redesigned with a single vertical stabilizer and an all-metal rear fuselage and more powerful 150 hp Lycoming O-320-A engines.


title: Piper PA-23

text: Two new prototypes of the redesigned aircraft, now named Apache, were built in 1953 and entered production in 1954; 1,231 were built. In 1958, the Apache 160 was produced by upgrading the engines to 160 hp (119 kW); 816 were built.


title: Piper PA-23

text: The Apache 160 was superseded in 1962 by the Aztec-derived Apache 235. With a 1962 price of $45,000, the Apache 235 featured the Aztec's 235 hp (175 kW) engines and swept tail surfaces (119 built).


title: Piper PA-23

text: In 1959, Piper produced an upgraded version with 250 hp (186 kW) Lycoming O-540 engines and a swept vertical tail as the PA-23-250, and named it Aztec. The first models came in a five-seat configuration. In 1961, a longer-nosed variant, the Aztec B, entered production. Later Aztecs were equipped with Lycoming IO-540 fuel-injected engines and six-seat capacity, and remained in production until 1982. Turbocharged versions of the later models could fly at higher altitudes.


title: Piper PA-23

text: The United States Navy acquired 20 Aztecs, designating them UO-1, which changed to U-11A when unified designations were adopted in 1962.


title: Piper PA-23

text: In 1974, Piper produced a single experimental PA-41P Pressurized Aztec concept. This concept was short-lived, however, as the aspects of the Aztec that made it so popular for its spacious interior and ability to haul large loads did not lend themselves well to supporting the sealed pressure vessel required for a pressurized aircraft. The project was scrapped, and the one pressurized Aztec produced, N9941P, was donated to Mississippi State University, where it was used for testing purposes. In 2000, N9941P was donated to the Piper Aviation Museum in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, on the condition that it never be flown again. It is now there on display.


title: Ride or Die (2021 film)

text: Rei is a lesbian in her late 20s who, upon learning that her former classmate Nanae is suffering brutal domestic violence from her husband, decides to kill him to show her love for Nanae. Nanae is filled with disgust and fear about the murder, but Rei accepts the results of her decision with the sole purpose of saving Nanae. While turning to each other for love, Rei and Nanae find themselves struggling with incompatible emotions.


title: Ride or Die (2021 film)

text: In October 2020, it was announced that Netflix is developing a live-action film adaptation of the manga, under the title "Ride or Die" ( in Japanese) that will premiere worldwide simultaneously spring 2021.


title: Lothrop Stoddard

text: Theodore Lothrop Stoddard (June 29, 1883 – May 1, 1950) was an American historian, journalist, political scientist, conspiracy theorist, white supremacist, and white nationalist. Stoddard wrote several books which advocated eugenics and scientific racism, including "The Rising Tide of Color Against White World-Supremacy" (1920). He advocated a racial hierarchy which he believed needed to be preserved through anti-miscegenation laws. Stoddard's books were once widely read both inside and outside the United States.


title: Lothrop Stoddard

text: He was a member of the Ku Klux Klan, where his books were recommended reading. He was also a member of the American Eugenics Society as well as a founding member (along with Margaret Sanger) and board member of the American Birth Control League.


title: Lothrop Stoddard

text: Stoddard's work influenced the Nazi government of Germany. His book "The Revolt Against Civilization: The Menace of the Under-man" (1922) introduced the term Untermensch (the German translation of Under-man) into Nazi conceptions of race. As a journalist he spent time in Germany during the first months of World War II, where he interviewed several prominent Nazi officials. After the end of the war, Stoddard's writing faded from popularity.


title: Lothrop Stoddard

text: Stoddard was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, the son of John Lawson Stoddard, a prominent writer and lecturer, and his wife Mary H. Stoddard. He attended Harvard College, graduating "magna cum laude" in 1905, and studied law at Boston University until 1908. Stoddard received a Ph.D. in History from Harvard University in 1914.


title: Lothrop Stoddard

text: Stoddard was a member of the American Historical Association, the American Political Science Association, and the Academy of Political Science.


title: Lothrop Stoddard

text: In 1923, an exposé by "Hearst's International" revealed that Stoddard was a member of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), and had been acting as a consultant to the organization. A letter from the KKK to members had praised "The Rising Tide of Color Against White World-Supremacy" in explicitly racial terms. Stoddard privately dismissed the Hearst magazine as a "radical-Jew outfit".


title: Lothrop Stoddard

text: Stoddard authored many books, most of them related to race and civilization. He wrote primarily on the alleged dangers posed by "colored" peoples to white civilization. Many of his books and articles were racialist and described what he saw as the peril of nonwhite immigration. He develops this theme in "The Rising Tide of Color Against White World-Supremacy" originally published in 1920 with an introduction by Madison Grant. He presents a view of the world situation pertaining to race and focusing concern on the coming population explosion among the non-white peoples of the world and the way in which "white world-supremacy" was being lessened in the wake of World War I and the collapse of colonialism. In the book, Stoddard blamed the ethnocentrism of the German "Teutonic imperialists" for the outbreak of World War I.


title: Lothrop Stoddard

text: Stoddard argued that race and heredity were the guiding factors of history and civilization and that the elimination or absorption of the "white" race by "colored" races would result in the destruction of Western civilization. Like Madison Grant in "The Passing of the Great Race", Stoddard divided the white race into three main divisions: Nordic, Alpine, and Mediterranean. He considered all three to be of good stock and far above the quality of the colored races but argued that the Nordic was the greatest of the three and needed to be preserved by way of eugenics. He considered most Jews to be racially "Asiatic" and argued for restricting Jewish immigration because he considered them a threat to Nordic racial purity in the US. He warned that US was being "invaded by hordes of immigrant Alpines and Mediterraneans, not to mention Asiatic elements like Levantines and Jews." Stoddard's racist beliefs were especially hostile to black people. He claimed that they were fundamentally different from other groups, they had no civilizations of their own, and had contributed nothing to the world. Stoddard opposed miscegenation, and said that "crossings with the negro are uniformly fatal". During a 1921 speech in Birmingham, Alabama, President Warren G. Harding praised the book.


title: Lothrop Stoddard

text: In "The Revolt Against Civilization" (1922), Stoddard put forward the theory that civilization places a growing burden on individuals, which leads to a growing underclass of individuals who cannot keep up and a "ground-swell of revolt". Stoddard advocated immigration restriction and birth control legislation to reduce the numbers of the underclass and promoted the reproduction of members of the middle and upper classes. Stoddard was one of several eugenicists who sat on the board of the American Birth Control League.


title: Lothrop Stoddard

text: The Nazi Party's chief racial theorist Alfred Rosenberg appropriated the racial term "Untermensch" from the German version of Stoddard's 1922 book "The Revolt Against Civilization: The Menace of the Under-man". The German title was "Der Kulturumsturz: Die Drohung des Untermenschen" (1925).


title: Lothrop Stoddard

text: In 1929, Stoddard debated African American historian W.E.B. Du Bois on white supremacy and its assertion of the natural inferiority of colored races. The debate, organized by the Chicago Forum Council, was billed as "One of the greatest debates ever held". Du Bois argued in the affirmative to the question "Shall the Negro be encouraged to seek cultural equality? Has the Negro the same intellectual possibilities as other races?" Du Bois knew the racism would be unintentionally funny onstage; as he wrote to Moore, Senator James Thomas Heflin "would be a scream" in a debate. "Du Bois let the overconfident and bombastic Stoddard walk into a comic moment, which Stoddard then made even funnier by not getting the joke".


title: Lothrop Stoddard

text: The transcript records Stoddard saying: "'The more enlightened men of southern white America ... are doing their best to see that separation shall not mean discrimination; that if the Negroes have separate schools, they shall be good schools; that if they have separate train accommodations, they shall have good accommodations.' [laughter]."


title: Lothrop Stoddard

text: Du Bois, in responding to Stoddard, said the reason for the audience laughter was that he had never journeyed under Jim Crow restrictions. "We have," Du Bois told him and the mixed audience.


title: Lothrop Stoddard

text: This moment was captured in "The Chicago Defender"s headline: "DuBois Shatters Stoddard’s Cultural Theories in Debate; Thousands Jam Hall ... Cheered As He Proves Race Equality." "The Afro-American" reported: "5,000 Cheer W.E.B. DuBois, Laugh at Lothrop Stoddard."


title: Lothrop Stoddard

text: Between 1939 and 1940, Stoddard spent four months as a journalist for the North American Newspaper Alliance in Nazi Germany. He received preferential treatment from Nazi officials compared to other journalists. An example was the Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda's insisting that NBC's Max Jordan and CBS's William Shirer use Stoddard to interview the captain of the "Bremen".


title: Lothrop Stoddard

text: Stoddard wrote a memoir, "Into the Darkness: Nazi Germany Today" (1940), about his experiences in Germany. Among other events, the book describes interviews with such figures as Heinrich Himmler, Robert Ley and Fritz Sauckel, as well as a brief meeting with Hitler himself. Stoddard visited the Hereditary Health Court in Charlottenburg, an appeals court that decided whether Germans would be sterilized. After having observed several dysgenics trials at the court, Stoddard stated that the eugenics legislation was "being administered with strict regard for its provisions and that, if anything, judgments were almost too conservative" and that the law was "weeding out the worst strains in the Germanic stock in a scientific and truly humanitarian way."


title: Lothrop Stoddard

text: After World War II, Stoddard's theories were deemed too closely aligned with those of the Nazis and so he suffered a large drop in popularity. His death from cancer in 1950 went almost entirely unreported despite his previously broad readership and influence.


title: Russian Academy of Sciences

text: The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; "Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk") consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across the Russian Federation; and additional scientific and social units such as libraries, publishing units, and hospitals.


title: Russian Academy of Sciences

text: Peter the Great established the Academy (then the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences) in 1724 with guidance from Gottfried Leibniz. From its establishment, the Academy benefitted from a slate of foreign scholars as professors; the Academy then gained its first clear set of goals from the 1747 Charter. The Academy functioned as a university and research center throughout the mid-18th century until the university was dissolved, leaving research as the main pillar of the institution. The rest of the 18th century continuing on through the 19th century consisted of many published academic works from Academy scholars and a few Academy name changes, ending as The Imperial Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences right before the Soviet period.


title: Russian Academy of Sciences

text: Now headquartered in Moscow, the Academy (RAS) is a non-profit organization established in the form of a federal state budgetary institution chartered by the Government of Russia. In 2013, the Russian government restructured RAS, assigning control of its property and research institutes to a new government agency headed by Mikhail Kotyukov.


title: Russian Academy of Sciences

text: , the Academy included 1008 institutions and other units; in total about 125,000 people were employed of whom 47,000 were scientific researchers.


title: Russian Academy of Sciences

text: There are three types of membership in the RAS: full members (academicians), corresponding members, and foreign members. Academicians and corresponding members must be citizens of the Russian Federation when elected. However, some academicians and corresponding members were elected before the collapse of the USSR and are now citizens of other countries. Members of RAS are elected based on their scientific contributions – election to membership is considered very prestigious.


title: Russian Academy of Sciences

text: In the years 2005–2012, the academy had approximately 500 full and 700 corresponding members. But in 2013, after the Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences and the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences became incorporated into the RAS, a number of the RAS members accordingly increased. The last elections to the renewed Russian Academy of Sciences were organized from May 30 to June 3, 2022.


title: Russian Academy of Sciences

text: At the beginning of June 2022 (after the last elections), the Academy had 2023 living Russian members (full: 888, corresponding: 1135) and 470 foreign members.


title: Russian Academy of Sciences

text: Since 2015, the Academy also awards, on a competitive basis, the honorary scientific rank of a RAS Professor to the top-level researchers with Russian citizenship. Now there are 715 scientists with this rank. RAS professorship is not a membership type but its holders are considered as possible candidates for membership; some professors became members already in 2016, in 2019 or in 2022 and are henceforth titled "RAS professor, corresponding member of the RAS" (163 scientists) or even "RAS professor, academician of the RAS" (16 scientists).


title: Russian Academy of Sciences

text: The RAS consists of 13 specialized scientific divisions, three territorial branches and 15 regional scientific centers. The Academy has numerous councils, committees, and commissions, all organized for different purposes.


title: Russian Academy of Sciences

text: Member institutions are linked via a dedicated Russian Space Science Internet (RSSI). Started with just three members, The RSSI now has 3,100 members, including 57 from the largest research institutions.


title: Russian Academy of Sciences

text: Russian universities and technical institutes are not under the supervision of the RAS (they are subordinated to the Ministry of Education of Russian Federation), but a number of leading universities, such as Moscow State University, St. Petersburg State University, Novosibirsk State University, and the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, make use of the staff and facilities of many institutes of the RAS (as well as of other research institutions); the MIPT faculty refers to this arrangement as the "Phystech System".


title: Russian Academy of Sciences

text: From 1933 to 1992, the main scientific journal of the Soviet Academy of Sciences was the "Proceedings of the USSR Academy of Sciences" (Doklady Akademii Nauk SSSR); after 1992, it became simply "Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences" ("Doklady Akademii Nauk").


title: Russian Academy of Sciences

text: The Academy is also increasing its presence in the educational area. In 1990 the Higher Chemical College of the Russian Academy of Sciences was founded, a specialized university intended to provide extensive opportunities for students to choose an academic path.


title: Russian Academy of Sciences

text: The Academy was a culmination of Emperor Peter the Great's inspiration from his tours to Western Europe and its' higher education centers along with the beginning of his correspondence with Gottfried Leibniz, a philosopher, mathematician, and diplomat. Peter's Western European travels introduced him to the new inventions and ideas of the Enlightenment period. Leibniz was attracted to Peter's desire to promote education and science in Russia through modernization of the academic system as he had seen in Western Europe, although he couldn't get a meeting with Peter during Peter's first European tour. Leibniz did, however, begin correspondence with Peter's advisors where he discussed different plans to achieve the westernization of Russia. Leibniz suggested an education reform which divided schools, universities, and academies, as well as creating new academies and schools. Also, Leibniz suggested creating an arts and sciences institution with faculty consisting of leading foreign scholars.


title: Russian Academy of Sciences

text: Following Leibniz's advice, Peter founded the St. Petersburg Academy of Science just before he died in January 1724 and the Senate decree of February 8, 1724 implemented the Academy. It was modeled after the centralized structure of the Paris Academy and the Berlin Academy of Sciences. These model institutions had led to an educated society of philosophical men, something Peter wanted in Russia. In particular, the Berlin Academy of Sciences was founded by Leibniz, exemplary of the influence which Leibniz had on the creation of the St Petersburg Academy of Science. The Paris Academy was administered directly by the King, which inspired Peter to make himself the supreme head of the St Petersburg Academy of Science, although there could be an academy president.


title: Russian Academy of Sciences

text: Peter's widow and Empress Catherine I followed through with the establishment and formation of the Academy, opening it in December 1725. Mathematics, physical sciences, and humanities were the three departments which made up the Academy upon its' opening. The Academy also contained a university and secondary school, promoting higher education in Russia. As such, the initial 17 scholars had to teach and administer research. They were a portion of the 84 Academy staff in 1726 There were also student assistents who helped the scholars and taught in the secondary school. 112 students ages 5-18 made up the total first year enrollment in 1726. 76 of the 112 students were Russian while the other 36 students were foreign. The Academy didn't have an official charter until 1747. Peter I did lay out the goals for the academy in a document signed before his death called the "Project". In the document, Peter wished for the Academy to be a model for Russia.


title: Russian Academy of Sciences

text: Since the Academy was under the Tsar, the presidents, vice-presidents, directors, and vice-directors were all appointed by the crown. Catherine I started this precedent which lasted until the end of the Russian Empire. The Academy hit hard times during Empress Anna's rule. A low of 6 students remained in 1744 and the teaching was in German, contrary to Peter I's wishes. The Academy achieved a major goal in the 1740s by turning out the first Russian scholar members, Stepan Krasheninnikov and Mikhail Lomonosov.


title: Russian Academy of Sciences

text: The Academy's charter in 1747 brought some changed to the Academy's organization which stood until the end of the century. Among some of the changes were Russian and Latin as the official languages, a push to translate literature into Russian, and restrictive working hours for faculty. The charter also emphasized the hope for Russian Academy graduates to replace all the foreign scholars in time. Surprisingly, most of the secondary school graduates went into civil service instead of continue to the university. The university part of the Academy gradually deteriorated and eventually died by 1767.


title: Russian Academy of Sciences

text: During Catherine the Great's rule, she enacted reforms to improve the Academy for scholars. She created a commission of Academy faculty to lead the Academy instead of bureaucratic rule. Also, in the second half of the 18th century, Russian scholars grew in number among the faculty of the academy. To heal the growing internal German versus Russian conflict of the faculty, Catherine the Great convinced Euler to return to St Petersburg and head the Academy in 1766, where he stayed until he died in 1783. Catherine the Great's son Paul I's short reign marked a decline for the academy as he cut funding for academic institutions and prohibited Russians from attending Western influenced institutions. In 1803, Alexander I reverted back to reforms from Catherine the Great's era and gave the Academy self-administration power in a new charter. The new charter came with a name change to the Imperial Academy of Sciences.


title: Russian Academy of Sciences

text: Following Leibniz's instructions, Peter reached out to the German philosopher Christian Wolff, a correspondent of Leibniz, in the early 1720s and unsuccessfully offered him the Vice-Presidency of the Academy. While Wolff declined a position in the Academy, he did invite western scholars to work at the academy to improve higher education within the Russian Empire as outlined in Leibniz's letters. Foreign scholars invited to work at the academy included the mathematicians Leonhard Euler (1707–1783), Anders Johan Lexell, Christian Goldbach, Georg Bernhard Bilfinger, Nicholas Bernoulli (1695–1726) and Daniel Bernoulli (1700–1782), botanist Johann Georg Gmelin, embryologists Caspar Friedrich Wolff, astronomer and geographer Joseph-Nicolas Delisle, physicist , historian Gerhard Friedrich Müller and English Astronomer Royal Nevil Maskelyne (1732–1811).


title: Russian Academy of Sciences

text: Expeditions to explore remote parts of the country had Academy scientists as their leaders or most active participants. These included Vitus Bering's Second Kamchatka Expedition of 1733–1743, expeditions to observe the 1769 transit of Venus from eight locations in Russian Empire, and the expeditions of Peter Simon Pallas (1741–1811) to Siberia. The expeditions led to the creation of an atlas of Russia and to research in astronomy, geography, and fauna and flora. From 1750 to 1777, the Academy published 20 volumes of their academic journal called "Novi Commentarii Academiae Scientiarum Imperialis Petropolitanae". The majority of Russian scientific research in the 18th century was done by members of the Academy.


title: Russian Academy of Sciences

text: Originally called "The Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences" (), the organization went under various names over the years, becoming "The Imperial Academy of Sciences and Arts" (Императорская академия наук и художеств; 1747–1803), "The Imperial Academy of Sciences" (Императорская академия наук; 1803—1836), and finally, "The Imperial Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences" (Императорская Санкт-Петербургская академия Наук, from 1836 and until the end of the empire in 1917).


title: Russian Academy of Sciences

text: A separate organization, called the Russian Academy (), was created in 1783 to work on the study of the Russian language. Presided over by Princess Yekaterina Dashkova (who at the same time was the Director of the Imperial Academy of Arts and Sciences, i.e., the country's "main" academy), the Russian Academy was engaged in compiling the six-volume "Academic Dictionary of the Russian Language" (1789–1794). The Russian Academy was merged into the Imperial Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences in 1841.


title: Russian Academy of Sciences

text: Shortly after the October Revolution, in December 1917, Sergey Fedorovich Oldenburg, a leading ethnographer and political activist in the Kadet party, met with Vladimir Lenin to discuss the future of the Academy. They agreed that the expertise of the Academy would be applied to addressing questions of state construction, while in return the Soviet government would give the Academy financial and political support.


title: Russian Academy of Sciences

text: The most important activities of the Academy in the 1920s included an investigation of the large Kursk Magnetic Anomaly, of the minerals in the Kola Peninsula, and participation in the GOELRO plan targeted electrification of the whole country. In these years, many research institutions were established, and the number of scientists became four times larger than in 1917. In 1925 the Soviet government recognized the Russian Academy of Sciences as the "highest all-Union scientific institution" and renamed it the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union.


title: Russian Academy of Sciences

text: The Stalin years were marked by a rapid industrialisation of the Soviet Union for which a great deal of research, mainly in the technical fields, was done. However, on the other hand, in these very times, many scientists underwent repressions for ideological reasons.


title: Russian Academy of Sciences

text: In the years of the Second World War, the Soviet Academy of Sciences made a big contribution to a development of modern weapons – tanks (new series of T-34), airplanes, degaussing the ships (for protection against the naval mines) etc. – and therefore to victory of the USSR over Nazi Germany. During and after the war, the Academy was involved in the Soviet atomic bomb project; due to its success and other achievements in military techniques, the USSR became one of the superpowers in the Cold War era.


title: Russian Academy of Sciences

text: At the end of the 1940s, the Academy consisted of eight divisions (Physico-Mathematical Science, Chemical Sciences, Geological-Geographical Sciences, Biological Science, Technical Science, History and Philosophy, Economics and Law, Literature and Languages); three committees (one for coordinating the scientific work of the Academies of the Republics, one for scientific and technical propaganda, and one for editorial and publications), two commissions (for publishing popular scientific literature, and for museums and archives), a laboratory for scientific photography and cinematography and Academy of Science Press departments external to the divisions.


title: Russian Academy of Sciences

text: The Academy of Sciences of the USSR helped to establish national Academies of Sciences in all Soviet republics (with the exception of the Russian SFSR), in many cases delegating prominent scientists to live and work in other republics. In the case of Ukraine, its academy was formed by the local Ukrainian scientists and prior to occupation of the Ukrainian People's Republic by Bolsheviks. These academies were:


title: Russian Academy of Sciences

text: Among the most important achievements of the Academy of the second half of the 20th century, there is, first of all, the Soviet space program. In 1957 the first satellite was launched, in 1961 Yury Gagarin became the first person in space, and in 1971 the first space station Salyut 1 began its operation. Substantial discoveries were also made in the nuclear branch and in other fields of physics. Furthermore, the Academy participated in opening new universities or new study programs in the already existed universities, whose best absolvents started their career at the research institutes of the Academy.


title: Russian Academy of Sciences

text: Generally, the Soviet period was the most fruitful in the history of the Russian (Soviet, at these times) Academy of Sciences and is now recalled with nostalgia by many Russian scientists.


title: Russian Academy of Sciences

text: After the collapse of the Soviet Union, by decree of the President of Russia of December 2, 1991, the academy again became the "Russian Academy of Sciences", inheriting all facilities of the USSR Academy of Sciences in the territory of the Russian Federation.


title: Russian Academy of Sciences

text: The crisis of the 1990s in the post-Soviet Russia and a consequent drastic reduction of the state support for science have forced many scientists to leave Russia for Europe, Israel or the United States. Some excellent university graduates who could have become promising researchers also switched to other activities, predominately in commerce. The Russian Academy practically lost a generation of people born from the mid-1960s to mid-1970s; this age category is now underrepresented in all research institutes.


title: Russian Academy of Sciences

text: In the 2000s, the situation in the Russian science and technology has improved, the government announced a modernization campaign. Nevertheless, according to the Russian Academy of Sciences, total R&D spending in 2013 still hovered about 40% below the pre-crisis 1990 levels. Furthermore, a lack of competition, decayed infrastructure and continuing, though slightly reduced, brain drain play their part.


title: Russian Academy of Sciences

text: On June 28, 2013, the Russian Government announced a draft law that would dissolve the RAS while creating a new "public-governmental" organization with the same name. The RAS would be fused with two other Russian national academies — and Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, with all members of all academies acquiring equal status as academicians.


title: Russian Academy of Sciences

text: The law also created a new government agency: (FASO). FASO would take control of all buildings and other property of the Academy. In addition, all RAS academic institutes were removed from academy control. Instead, the new government agency FASO was empowered to “evaluate”, relying on its own criteria, the efficiency of research institutes and rearrange ineffective ones.


title: Russian Academy of Sciences

text: The draft law, which, in its initial form, would have fundamentally changed the system of science organization in Russia, provoked conflicts and protests within academic circles. A large group of the RAS members signalized their intention not to join the new academy if the reform is run as planned in the draft. Some leading scientists (including Pierre Deligne, Michael Atiyah, Mumford, and others) wrote open letters which referred to the planned reform of the RAS as "shocking" and even "criminal". In this situation, the draft was softened in some details, e.g. there remained no words about “dissolution” in the text, — and approved on September 27, 2013. In 2014, Putin announced more changes to science funding that reduced RAS power while increasing that of the government.


title: Russian Academy of Sciences

text: In 2017, the election of the RAS president was also brought under government control. At the General Meeting of the RAS in March 2018, the RAS president (that time) Alexander Sergeev said that the Academy enters now the post-reform period.


title: Russian Academy of Sciences

text: In May 2018, the FASO was incorporated into Russia's new Ministry of Science and Higher Education. The latter was created by splitting the Ministry of Education and Science. Mikhail Kotyukov, who had been head of FASO since its creation, was named head of the new Ministry of Science and Higher Education.


title: Russian Academy of Sciences

text: The last presidential elections in the Academy (and also elections of the presidium) were organized on September 25—28, 2017. Initially the event was planned for March 2017, but unexpectedly all candidates retracted their nominations, and the elections were postponed.


title: Eduardo Galeano

text: Eduardo Hughes Galeano (; 3 September 1940 – 13 April 2015) was a Uruguayan journalist, writer and novelist considered, among other things, "global soccer's pre-eminent man of letters" and "a literary giant of the Latin American left".


title: Eduardo Galeano

text: Galeano's best-known works are "Las venas abiertas de América Latina" ("Open Veins of Latin America", 1971) and "Memoria del fuego" ("Memory of Fire Trilogy", 19826). "I'm a writer," the author once said of himself, "obsessed with remembering, with remembering the past of America and above all that of Latin America, intimate land condemned to amnesia."


title: Eduardo Galeano

text: Author Isabel Allende, who said her copy of Galeano's book was one of the few items with which she fled Chile in 1973 after the military coup of Augusto Pinochet, called "Open Veins of Latin America" "a mixture of meticulous detail, political conviction, poetic flair, and good storytelling."


title: Eduardo Galeano

text: Eduardo Germán María Hughes Galeano was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, on 3 September 1940. His two family names were inherited from Welsh and Italian (from Genoa) great-grandfathers; the other two were from Germany and Spain. Galeano wrote under his maternal family name; as young man, he briefly wrote for a Uruguayan socialist publication, "El Sol", signing articles as "Gius," "a pseudonym approximating the pronunciation in Spanish of his paternal surname Hughes." Galeano's family belonged to the fallen Uruguayan aristocracy.


title: Eduardo Galeano

text: After completing two years of secondary school, Galeano went to work at age fourteen in various jobs, including messenger and fare collector. He eventually landed at . The Uruguayan socialist weekly first published the teenager's comics prior to his writing. Galeano's passion for drawing continued throughout his life; his vignettes can be seen in many of his later books while his signature was often accompanied by a small hand-drawn pig. As a journalist throughout the 1960s Galeano rose in prominence among leftist publications, and became editor of "Marcha", an influential weekly with contributors such as Mario Vargas Llosa, Mario Benedetti, Manuel Maldonado Denis and Roberto Fernández Retamar. For two years he edited the daily "Época" and worked as editor-in-chief of the University Press. In 1959 he married his first wife, Silvia Brando, and in 1962, having divorced, he remarried to Graciela Berro.


title: Eduardo Galeano

text: In 1973, a military coup took power in Uruguay; Galeano was imprisoned and later was forced to flee, going into exile in Argentina where he founded the magazine "Crisis". His 1971 book "Open Veins of Latin America" was banned by the right-wing military government, not only in Uruguay, but also in Chile and Argentina. In 1976 he married for the third time to Helena Villagra; however, in the same year, the Videla regime took power in Argentina in a bloody military coup and his name was added to the list of those condemned by the death squads. He fled again, this time to Spain, where he wrote his famous trilogy, "Memoria del fuego" ("Memory of Fire"), described as "the most powerful literary indictment of colonialism in the Americas."


title: Eduardo Galeano

text: At the beginning of 1985 Galeano returned to Montevideo when democratization occurred. Following the victory of Tabaré Vázquez and the Broad Front alliance in the 2004 Uruguayan elections marking the first left-wing government in Uruguayan history Galeano wrote a piece for "The Progressive" titled "Where the People Voted Against Fear" in which Galeano showed support for the new government and concluded that the Uruguayan populace used "common sense" and were "tired of being cheated" by the traditional Colorado and Blanco parties. Following the creation of TeleSUR, a Latin American television station based in Caracas, Venezuela, in 2005 Galeano along with other left-wing intellectuals such as Tariq Ali and Adolfo Pérez Esquivel joined the network's 36 member advisory committee.


title: Eduardo Galeano

text: On February 10, 2007, Galeano underwent a successful operation to treat lung cancer. During an interview with journalist Amy Goodman following Barack Obama's election as President of the United States in November 2008, Galeano said: "The White House will be Barack Obama's house in the time coming, but this White House was built by black slaves. And I'd like, I hope, that he never, never forgets this." At the 17 April 2009 opening session of the 5th Summit of the Americas held in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez gave a Spanish-language copy of Galeano's "Open Veins of Latin America" to U.S. President Barack Obama, who was making his first diplomatic visit to the region.


title: Eduardo Galeano

text: In a May 2009 interview he spoke about his past and recent works, some of which deal with the relationships between freedom and slavery, and democracies and dictatorships: "not only the United States, also some European countries, have spread military dictatorships all over the world. And they feel as if they are able to teach democracy". He also talked about how and why he has changed his writing style, and his recent rise in popularity.


title: Eduardo Galeano

text: In April 2014 Galeano gave an interview at the "II Bienal Brasil do Livro e da Leitura" in which he regretted some aspects of the writing style in "Las Venas Abiertas de América Latina", saying "Time has passed, I've begun to try other things, to bring myself closer to human reality in general and to political economy specifically. 'The Open Veins' tried to be a political economy book, but I simply didn't have the necessary education. I do not regret writing it, but it is a stage that I have since passed." This interview was picked up by many critics of Galeano's work in which they used the statement to reinforce their own criticisms. However, in an interview with Jorge Majfud he said, "The book, written ages ago, is still alive and kicking. I am simply honest enough to admit that at this point in my life the old writing style seems rather stodgy, and that it's hard for me to recognize myself in it since I now prefer to be increasingly brief and untrammeled. [The] voices that have been raised against me and against "The Open Veins of Latin America" are seriously ill with bad faith."


title: Eduardo Galeano

text: "Las venas abiertas de América Latina" ("Open Veins of Latin America"), a history of the region from the time of Columbus from the perspective of the subjugated people, is considered one of Galeano's best-known works. An English-language translation by Cedric Belfrage gained some popularity in the English-speaking world after Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez gave it as a gift to U.S. President Barack Obama in 2009.


title: Eduardo Galeano

text: Galeano was also an avid fan of football, writing most notably about it in "Football in Sun and Shadow" ("El fútbol a sol y sombra"). In a retrospective for SB Nation after Galeano's death, football writer Andi Thomas described the work—a history of the sport, as well as an outlet for the author's own experiences with the sport and his political polemics—as "one of the greatest books about football ever written".


title: Eduardo Galeano

text: Galeano died on 13 April 2015 in Montevideo from lung cancer at the age of 74, survived by third wife Helena Villagra and three children.


title: SpongeBob SquarePants (season 12)

text: The twelfth season of the American animated television series "SpongeBob SquarePants", created by former marine biologist and animator Stephen Hillenburg, began airing on Nickelodeon in the United States on November 11, 2018, and ended on April 29, 2022. It consists of 26 half-hours of 48 segments, along with five additional specials, making it the longest season of the whole show. The series chronicles the exploits and adventures of the title character and his various friends in the fictional underwater city of Bikini Bottom. The season was executive produced by series creator Hillenburg. The showrunners for this season are Marc Ceccarelli and Vincent Waller, who are also the co-executive producers. This was the last season Hillenburg was involved in before his death on November 26, 2018.


title: SpongeBob SquarePants (season 12)

text: The "SpongeBob SquarePants: The Complete Twelfth Season" DVD was released in region 1 on January 12, 2021, before several episodes aired in the United States; however, the episode "Kwarantined Krab" was not included on the DVD due to the episode's plot being unintentionally similar to the COVID-19 pandemic, which was ongoing at the time of the DVD's release.


title: SpongeBob SquarePants (season 12)

text: On May 23, 2017, it was announced that the series had been renewed for a twelfth season consisting of 26 episodes. The season began airing on November 11, 2018.


title: SpongeBob SquarePants (season 12)

text: The episodes are ordered below according to Nickelodeon's packaging order, and not their original production or broadcast order.


title: SpongeBob SquarePants (season 12)

text: The DVD boxset for season twelve was released by Paramount Home Entertainment and Nickelodeon in the United States and Canada on January 12, 2021; a few episodes on this DVD by then had yet to air on American television. "Kwarantined Krab" is excluded from this DVD due to being too unintentionally similar to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, making this the second season DVD to exclude an episode from its set, after The Complete 1st Season which excluded "Help Wanted".


title: Misattribution of arousal

text: In psychology, misattribution of arousal is the process whereby people make a mistake in assuming what is causing them to feel aroused. For example, when actually experiencing physiological responses related to fear, people mislabel those responses as romantic arousal. The reason physiological symptoms may be attributed to incorrect stimuli is because many stimuli have similar physiological symptoms such as increased blood pressure or shortness of breath.


title: Misattribution of arousal

text: One of the initial studies looking into this phenomenon conducted by Schachter and Singer (1962) was based on the idea that the experience of arousal could be ambiguous and therefore misattributed to an incorrect stimulus. Operating under this assumption, the researchers developed the two factor theory of emotion. Misattribution of arousal, which is an influence on emotion processing, can be found in multiple situations, such as romantic situations and physiological responses from exercise.


title: Misattribution of arousal

text: An example of the possible effects of misattribution of arousal is perceiving a potential partner as more attractive because of a heightened state of physiological stress. A study done by White et al. (1981) investigated this phenomenon and found that those in an unrelated aroused state will rate an attractive confederate more highly than a rater without arousal. The researchers also found that aroused raters would dislike an unattractive confederate more than those without arousal.


title: Misattribution of arousal

text: Donald Dutton and Arthur Aron's study (1974) to test the causation of misattribution of arousal incorporated an attractive confederate woman to wait at the end of a bridge that was either a suspension bridge (that would induce fear) or a sturdy bridge (that would not induce fear). After the men crossed the bridge, they were stopped by a female confederate and took a Thematic Apperception Test wherein they had to compose a short story based on an ambiguous image; the image chosen was purposely not sexual at all. Afterward, the story was analyzed for sexual content. As the men finished the survey, the female confederate, who was not aware of the experimental hypothesis, explained she would be available to answer any questions regarding her project, giving her phone number and name to the male subjects. (This was during a time when gender identity and sexual preferences were assumed to be correlated, and sexual preferences were assumed to be predominantly male-female, thus the experiment did not reflect the diversity of sexual preferences we recognize today.) Dutton and Aron wondered if the participants were more likely to call the woman because they were physically attracted to her or not. However, Dutton and Aron had to take into consideration that some factors of the men, such as the possibility of some men already being involved in a relationship or how an individual male interpreted the woman's body gestures.


title: Misattribution of arousal

text: Therefore, Dutton and Aron had the woman survey the men under two conditions: immediately after they crossed a -long bridge or after they had crossed and had enough time to rest. In the first condition, the men who were surveyed during their cross over the bridge would have had their arousal level increased as they were speaking to the woman. Conditions such as experiencing winds during their walk and the nervous feeling may have contributed to their fast-paced heartbeats and rapid breathing.


title: Misattribution of arousal

text: In the other condition, the woman had approached the men after they had crossed the bridge. They had enough time to rest and get their heartbeat and breathing back to normal.


title: Misattribution of arousal

text: More males contacted the female experimenter when they had just walked down the suspension bridge, which was thought to be due to their misattribution of their arousal (they believed that they were feeling sexual arousal at the sight of the female instead of feeling the leftover physiological arousal from the fear of walking across the suspension bridge). This was interpreted by the researchers to mean that the men found the woman more attractive when they had more anxiety about crossing the bridge. There were no significant differences on either bridge when the researchers used a male confederate to give the Thematic Apperception Test and his phone number for any further questions about the experiment.


title: Misattribution of arousal

text: Fear is not the only emotion that can be a result of misattribution of arousal. One of the earlier studies that focused on misattribution of arousal was done by Schachter and Singer in 1962. The researchers told the participants in their study that they were testing how their vision responded to a shot of vitamins called Suproxin. Suproxin was actually a shot of epinephrine or a placebo. Epinephrine activated the sympathetic nervous system and produced symptoms such as an elevated heart rate and blood pressure. The researchers then either told the participants the effects of the epinephrine, said nothing about any potential effects of the epinephrine, or told them they may feel some effects that had nothing to do with the epinephrine (for example, the researchers told the participants they could experience a headache from the shot). The participants were told that they had to wait 20 min for the Suproxin to get into their bloodstreams. While they were waiting, a confederate (a participant who is also covertly collaborating with/an associate of the researchers) who was either euphoric or angry waited with the participant to see if the emotion of the participant could be manipulated by the epinephrine and the emotion of the confederate. The confederate played basketball with pieces of balled up scrap paper while in the euphoric state or had to take a questionnaire and became very angry with the personal questions in the anger state. The participants then were observed to see if they appeared to be angry or euphoric and took a self-reported survey about their mood.


title: Misattribution of arousal

text: They found that if someone was physiologically aroused without being aware of it, they would attribute their arousal to a recent thought in their memory. The researchers also found that emotions (in this study, euphoria and anger) could be manipulated by providing a participant with a shot of epinephrine.


title: Misattribution of arousal

text: Misattribution of arousal can also influence how much confidence one feels before completing a task. One study conducted by Savitsky, Medvec, Charlton, and Gilovich focused on how confidence can be affected by misattribution of arousal. Typically people feel more confident before they are supposed to do a task, but the closer they get to having to perform that task, the less confident they feel, which could be due to the arousal from the expectation of the performance. The researchers told participants that they would be exposed to a subliminal noise and were then asked if they could predict how well they would do on two tasks. After they made their predictions, the researchers either told them that the noise could make them nervous, the noise would have no effect on them, or they were told that they would not have to do the tasks until the next session a month away after they were exposed to the noise. The tasks were to unscramble anagrams or to recall as many nonsense syllables as they could after seeing them briefly. They could earn money for the tasks (more money was earned for each anagram unscrambled or each syllable correctly recalled). The participants then predicted how well they did on the tasks, and how well they believed everyone else did on the task. A second experiment replicated this first experiment. The researchers had participants attribute their arousal to noises that they heard, which resulted in those participants feeling more confident that they did well on the tasks than those that attributed their arousal to the performance anxiety from the task.


title: Misattribution of arousal

text: White, Fishbein, and Rutsein generated further research on the misattribution of arousal with their 1981 study, "Passionate Love and the Misattribution of Arousal". The researchers performed their study using two experiments. In the first experiment, 54 male participants were placed under varying degrees of physical exertion, in order to create a state of arousal. The participants were then asked to view a video of a female confederate either manipulated to be attractive or unattractive. The video was a self-disclosure statement where the female discussed hobbies and other typically dating related material. After completing the video, participants were given thirteen attraction trait criteria on which to rate the female. The experiment confirmed the researcher's hypothesis that individuals in a neutral aroused state were more likely to rate a target as attractive than an unaroused individual.


title: Misattribution of arousal

text: White, Fishbein, and Rutsein hypothesized that the polarity of an individual's arousal could influence the impact of the misattribution of arousal. To test this hypothesis the researchers created three separate videos to prime the subjects with a positive, negative, or neutral arousal. Sixty six male participants were asked to watch one of the videos and then rate the female as in the first study. The study found that regardless of the stimuli's polarity, the participants in the aroused state found the attractive confederate more attractive and the unattractive confederate as less attractive than the unaroused participants.


title: Misattribution of arousal

text: A study done by Loftis and Ross in 1974 looked at the effects of misattribution of arousal upon acquisition and extinction of a conditional emotional response. They conducted two experiments with 89 female undergraduates to show that misattribution procedures can alter physiological response to a conditioned source of a fear or arousal. The results suggested that self perception and attribution play a major role in emotional response.


title: Misattribution of arousal

text: Additionally, a study conducted by Allen, Kenrick, Linder and McCall in 1989 suggested an alternative explanation to the misattribution of arousal in terms of attraction-arousal (as there are other types of arousal that can be misattributed). The original model of misattribution of arousal essentially states that the person who is aroused will only be attracted to the target person, so long as they are unaware of the true cause of arousal. Allen et al. propose a different model called Response-Facilitation, in which they suggest that the subject that is aroused will be more attracted to the target person (compared to people who are unaroused), regardless of if they know the true source of the stimulation. To test this new model, they ran two studies in which they manipulated the type of arousal the participants experienced and the salience (awareness) of the arousal. In one study, they put the participants into three different groups: control (no arousal), arousal-awareness (where they were put in front of an attractive person, but knew what the actual cause of arousal (exercise) was), and arousal-unaware (where they were put in front of an attractive person but didn't realize the true cause of arousal). After conducting the study, the researchers found that regardless of whether the person was aware of the true cause of arousal, they were still more attracted to the target person than those in the control condition. In other words, whereas the original theory of misattribution of arousal said that people could only misattribute their arousal if they were unaware of the true cause, the Response-Facilitation model states that it is possible that people could be aware of the true cause of arousal and still find themselves attracted to someone, compared to people who are unaroused. This demonstrates another potential model that could explain the attraction-arousal component of the misattribution of arousal theory.


title: The Real World: Austin

text: The Real World: Austin is the sixteenth season of MTV's reality television series "The Real World", which focuses on a group of diverse strangers living together for several months in a different city each season, as cameras follow their lives and interpersonal relationships. It is the second season to be filmed in the West South Central States region of the United States, specifically in Texas.


title: The Real World: Austin

text: The season featured seven people who lived in a converted warehouse, which production started from January to May 2005. Consisting of 24 episodes, the season premiered on June 21 later that year and was watched by nearly 4 million viewers. "The Real World: Austin" won "Favorite Season" at the 2008 "The Real World Awards Bash".


title: The Real World: Austin

text: In 2019, the season was made available for streaming on Facebook Watch (alongside the and seasons) ahead of ""'s premiere.


title: The Real World: Austin

text: Almost every season of "The Real World", beginning with its , has included the assignment of a season-long group job or task to the housemates, continued participation in which has been mandatory to remain part of the cast since the Back to New York season. The Austin cast had to shoot, edit and direct their own documentary on the South by Southwest music festival. Their "boss" was Paul Stekler, an award-winning documentary filmmaker who taught at the University of Texas.


title: The Real World: Austin

text: This season the cast was housed in the west half of a warehouse at 301 San Jacinto Boulevard at East 3rd Street in Austin, Texas, of which were used for filming. The interior used for the series was designed by Austin designer Joel Mozersky. Construction took three and a half weeks. 44 cameras were mounted on walls for filming. After filming ended, the warehouse was completely gutted. The west half of it was turned into a Mexican restaurant called The Rio Grande. The east half was leased to a printing services company. The house was converted into the Vince Young Steakhouse, which opened in November 2010.


title: The Real World: Austin

text: Six months after the cast left the "Real World" house, all seven of them appeared to discuss their experiences both during and since their time on the show, "Tex, Hugs, & Rock 'n' Roll: The Real World Austin Reunion", which premiered on November 29, 2005, and was hosted by Susie Castillo.


title: The Real World: Austin

text: At the 2008 "The Real World Awards Bash", the Austin season won "Favorite Season", Danny and Melinda won "Favorite Love Story" and Johanna won "Best Dance-Off". The cast also received a nomination for "Steamiest Scene", Melinda was nominated for "Hottest Female", Danny for "Hottest Male", Johanna for "Best Brush with the Law", Rachel for "Best Meltdown".


title: The Real World: Austin

text: When filming ended Melinda moved to Boston to be with Danny. A film crew followed them in New York City as they took a carriage ride through Central Park and he proposed before the reunion show. On August 2, 2008, they married at Castle Hill outside Boston, with most of their former cast members among those in attendance. Danny owns a construction company while Melinda is planning a career in dentistry. During the premiere of "", Melinda revealed in a confessional that she and Danny were going through a divorce. In 2016, Melinda married Matt Collins. Their first child, Camden, was born in 2019. In 2021, Stolp announced she was expecting a second child, but later suffered a miscarriage.


title: The Real World: Austin

text: Wes and Johanna announced during the reunion show that they began dating several months after the conclusion of filming the show. They appeared together in "", and Wes promised to use his prize money to pay for her engagement ring as he won the "". At the "" reunion show Johanna announced that she and Wes are no longer together. During the reunion special for "", which premiered November 5, 2008, it was revealed that KellyAnne Judd from "" was dating Wes at the time. Wes and Johanna both appeared on the "" (as did KellyAnne Judd), during which they experienced interpersonal conflicts stemming from the game and relationship issues. During the reunion for "The Ruins" the two indicated that they were never officially engaged, despite prior indications to the contrary. In a clip from "" reunion, which aired December 16, 2009, Wes and KellyAnne revealed that they were no longer a couple.


title: The Real World: Austin

text: Wes proposed to Amanda Hornick in September 2016 at a Royals baseball game and got married in June 2018. Former roommates Lacey, Melinda, Rachel, Nehemiah and "The Challenge" costar Devin Walker-Molaghan were in attendance.


title: The Real World: Austin

text: This is the third season of "The Real World" whose entire cast has at one time or another competed in MTV's spin-off reality series "The Real World/Road Rules Challenge". The first two are "" and "".


title: 1999–2000 Los Angeles Lakers season

text: The 1999–2000 NBA season was the Lakers' 52nd season in the National Basketball Association, and 40th season in Los Angeles. It was also the Lakers first season playing in their new arena, the Staples Center, becoming co-tenants with their crosstown rival, the Los Angeles Clippers. During the off-season, the team re-acquired former Lakers forward A. C. Green from the Dallas Mavericks, and signed free agents Ron Harper, Brian Shaw and John Salley. Green won two championships with the Lakers in the 1980s, and Salley won three championships with the Detroit Pistons and the Chicago Bulls. More significantly, the Lakers hired former Bulls coach Phil Jackson, who would go on to help the team win five NBA championships over the course of the next 12 years.


title: 1999–2000 Los Angeles Lakers season

text: After an 8–4 start to the season, the Lakers won seven consecutive games, then posted a 16-game winning streak between December and January, held a 37–11 record at the All-Star break, posted a 19-game winning streak between February and March, and an 11-game winning streak between March and April, finishing the regular season with 67 wins and 15 losses, the most wins since the 1971–72 team won a franchise-record 69 games. The Lakers clinched the top seed in the playoffs for the 25th time in franchise history and the first in nine years.


title: 1999–2000 Los Angeles Lakers season

text: Center Shaquille O'Neal averaged 29.7 points, 13.6 rebounds and 3.0 blocks per game, and was almost unanimously named the Most Valuable Player of the regular season, and was also named to the All-NBA First Team, and NBA All-Defensive Second Team. 21-year old shooting guard Kobe Bryant averaged 22.5 points, 6.3 rebounds and 4.9 assists per game, and was named to the All-NBA Second Team, and NBA All-Defensive First Team. In addition, Glen Rice finished third on the team in scoring averaging 15.9 points per game, while Harper provided the team with 7.0 points and 3.4 assists per game, Rick Fox contributed 6.5 points per game off the bench, and Derek Fisher provided with 6.3 points and 2.8 assists per game. On the defensive side, Robert Horry averaged 5.7 points and 4.8 rebounds per game off the bench, and Green contributed 5.0 points and 5.9 rebounds per game. The Lakers had the best team defensive rating in the NBA, with O'Neal and Bryant both finishing within the top 5 of Defensive Player of the Year voting.


title: 1999–2000 Los Angeles Lakers season

text: In the playoffs, the Lakers were pushed to the limit by the Sacramento Kings, whom they defeated in a deciding fifth game in the Western Conference First Round, before going on to defeat the Phoenix Suns in five games in the Western Conference Semi-finals. In the Western Conference Finals, they defeated a Portland Trail Blazers team featuring Rasheed Wallace, Scottie Pippen and Steve Smith in seven games, before going on to win the NBA Finals 4–2 against the Indiana Pacers, earning the franchise its 12th NBA championship. It was the Lakers' first championship since 1988. It was also Phil Jackson's seventh championship as a head coach, and the first with a team besides the Chicago Bulls.


title: 1999–2000 Los Angeles Lakers season

text: The season is memorable; 21-year-old Bryant being named to the All-NBA Defensive First Team while emerging as one of the NBA's young superstars, the Lakers signing Harper and Shaw to give the team a veteran presence, and hiring Phil Jackson to give the team a championship experience. Bryant, O'Neal and coach Jackson represented the Western Conference in the 2000 NBA All-Star Game, where O'Neal and Tim Duncan of the San Antonio Spurs were both named co-MVP's. Following the season, Rice and Travis Knight were both traded to the New York Knicks, while Green signed as a free agent with the Miami Heat, and Salley retired after making a comeback.


title: 1999–2000 Los Angeles Lakers season

text: For the season, the Lakers sported new uniforms adding side panels to their jerseys and shorts, which remained in use until 2004, where they slightly changed their uniforms adding the secondary logo to their shorts.


title: 1999–2000 Los Angeles Lakers season

text: Because of their dominant regular and postseason performance, as well as O'Neal and Bryant's individual achievements, this Los Angeles Lakers team is widely regarded as one of the greatest teams in NBA history. A documentary miniseries, Birth of a Dynasty, based on this Lakers season, was released in late 2019.


title: 1999–2000 Los Angeles Lakers season

text: The Lakers went 31-19 during the shortened lockout season of 1998-99, good enough to claim the fourth spot of the Western Conference. They cruised past the Rockets on the first round, before bowing down to the eventual champions, the Spurs.


title: 1999–2000 Los Angeles Lakers season

text: The Lakers started their season without Kobe Bryant, who missed the first month of the regular season due to a preseason hand injury, so Phil Jackson used veteran forwards such as A.C. Green and Glen Rice to fill the void left by Bryant.


title: 1999–2000 Los Angeles Lakers season

text: On November 2, 1999, the Lakers started their season with a 91-84 win on the road against the Utah Jazz. Glen Rice led the Lakers with 28 points to go along with 5 3-pointers made. The very next day, the Lakers got their first win at home after defeating the visiting Vancouver Grizzlies, 103-88, behind Shaquille O'Neal's double-double performance of 28 points and 10 rebounds. It was also the first time that the Lakers played in STAPLES Center. Their first loss of the season came on November 6 when the Lakers were defeated by the home team, Portland Trail Blazers, led by Scottie Pippen. In that game, Shaquille O'Neal led both teams in scoring as he scored 21 points to go along with 10 rebounds and 2 blocks. The next two games, the Lakers were pitted against the Dallas Mavericks led by rising stars Steve Nash and Dirk Nowitzki. They played first at the Lakers homecourt then the next game, on the Mavericks homecourt. However, they were no match for the dominance of O'Neal who averaged 28.5 points per game, 15.0 rebounds per game and 2 blocks per game in those two contests. The Lakers will face the Houston Rockets the next two games, this time, they will face the Rockets first on the road before going home to face the Rockets there. During their first meeting on November 10, the Lakers were pushed to the limit for Shaquille O'Neal was fouled out in the game. He just played 16 minutes for the entire game. However, the Rockets were not able to capitalize the opportunity as the veterans of the Lakers led by Glen Rice's 24 points, powered the Lakers towards their 5th win of the season. They match-up against each other again two days after, but without O'Neal who was suspended, they bowed to the visiting Rockets, 81-97, who was led by Hakeem Olajuwon and Steve Francis. Two days after, the Lakers bounced back because O'Neal was back who dominated the whole game against the visiting Atlanta Hawks. O'Neal recorded 23 points, 11 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 blocks as he led the Lakers towards the win. The Lakers, led by the strong performance of O'Neal, overpowered the home team, Phoenix Suns, who were led by Jason Kidd and former Bulls player, Luc Longley, 91-82. O'Neal recorded 34 points, 18 rebounds, 4 assists and 8 blocks for the Lakers. On November 18, the Lakers were up against the Nick Van Exel-led Nuggets. Van Exel was the former point guard of the Lakers. During the first half, the Lakers were up 42-39. However, the Nuggets stormed back as they got the win, 93-82. It was the Lakers' third loss of the season. Shaquille O'Neal led all scorers with 36 points to go along with 8 rebounds. The Lakers next faced the Chicago Bulls. O'Neal led the Lakers towards their eighth win of the season as they defeat the visiting Bulls, 103-95. O'Neal recorded 41 points, 17 rebounds and 7 blocks. On November 21, the Lakers were up against the Vince Carter-led Toronto Raptors. However, Vince Carter scored 34 points to go along with 13 rebounds as the Raptors take the win in STAPLES Center, 111-102, to give the Lakers their fourth loss of the season. For the Lakers, O'Neal was again the leading scorer with 37 points to go along with 19 rebounds. On their last game for the month in November, the Lakers traveled on the road to match-up against the Gary Payton-led Seattle Supersonics. However, the Lakers just proved too much to be handled as they dispatched the Supersonics, 101-77. They finished the month of November with an 11-4 record.


title: 1999–2000 Los Angeles Lakers season

text: On December 1, 1999, Kobe Bryant was back from almost a month of not playing due to injury, and this time, they were up against the 2-11 Golden State Warriors. Bryant came off the bench to play almost 30 minutes and scored 19 points and grabbed 6 rebounds. O'Neal also contributed 28 points and 23 rebounds as they got the 12th win of the season. Six days later, the Lakers won their 15th game of the season, led by Shaquille O'Neal who recorded 30 points, 16 rebounds and 7 blocks, in a 91-80 win over the visiting Washington Wizards. On December 12, Kobe Bryant scored 26 points and Shaquille O'Neal contributed 22 points and 24 rebounds as the Lakers won their 17th win of the season after beating the visiting Detroit Pistons, 101-93. Two days after, Phil Jackson re-inserted Kobe Bryant into the startling lineup for the first time this season. And now, the Lakers were up against their division rivals, the L.A. Clippers. O'Neal recorded 21 points, 19 rebounds and 3 blocks and Bryant added 18 points as the Lakers dismissed the Clippers, 95-68. On December 17, the Lakers won their fifth straight game as they won on the road against the Timberwolves, 97-88. Kobe Bryant paved the way with 28 points, 7 rebounds and 12 assists. Three days later, Shaquille O'Neal recorded 34 points, 20 rebounds and 2 blocks in a 99-90 win over the home team, Boston Celtics, for the seventh straight win. The next game, the Lakers were visited by the defending champions, the San Antonio Spurs who were led by the "Twin Towers" of Tim Duncan and David Robinson for a Christmas showdown. At halftime, the Lakers led the Spurs, 50-42, before the Spurs surged in the third quarter, outscoring the Lakers, 25-21, cutting the lead to four. However, the Lakers responded in the fourth quarter as they pulled away and won their eighth straight game. Shaquille O'Neal recorded 35 points and 14 rebounds as the Lakers took a narrow win over the visiting Mavericks, 108-106. On their last game of the century and year 1999, the Lakers won their tenth straight game, after defeating the visiting Suns, 103-88, thanks to Shaquille O'Neal's performance of 27 points, 19 rebounds, 7 assists and 5 blocks. For the month of December, the Lakers have a record of 14-1, and they went undefeated at their homecourt.


title: 1999–2000 Los Angeles Lakers season

text: In the first two games of the 21st century (year 2000), the Lakers were up against the Clippers, whom they defeated both games. In the second game, O'Neal recorded 40 points and 19 rebounds for the Lakers. On January 10, Bryant and O'Neal combined for 61 of the 130 points of the Lakers whom they guided towards a win over the visiting Nuggets. It was their 15th straight win The next game, they traveled in Milwaukee in which they recorded their 16th straight win after beating the Bucks, 103-94. Their 16-game winning streak came to an end when the Reggie Miller-led Indiana Pacers beat the Lakers, 111-102. It was their sixth loss of the season. Their seventh loss came against the Seattle Supersonics wherein Gary Payton led the Supersonics towards the win. Following their loss against the Supersonics, in the next 6 games, they have a record of 2 wins and 4 losses, and 3 of the 4 losses came on the road. Their last win for the month of January happened on January 28 wherein the Lakers defeated the visiting Bucks, 117-89.


title: 1999–2000 Los Angeles Lakers season

text: They started the month of February with an 81-105 loss to the defending champions, San Antonio Spurs. The "Twin Towers" proved too much for the Lakers. O'Neal led the Lakers in scoring with 31 points. The next game, the Lakers blows out the visiting Utah Jazz, 113-67. Shaquille O'Neal recorded 25 points, 6 rebounds and 5 blocks to lead the Lakers. It was the tied for the sixth highest point differential in Lakers franchise history. On February 9, the Lakers had another blowout win, this time against the visiting Timberwolves. O'Neal recorded 37 points, 16 rebounds and 4 blocks as the Lakers won 114-81. On February 20, the Lakers escaped the Allen Iverson-led 76ers on the road, 87-84, thus winning their seventh straight game. O'Neal once again led the Lakers with 22 points, 16 rebounds, 9 assists and 4 blocks. During their last game of February, O'Neal and Bryant recorded 55 points of the 90 Laker points as they led the Lakers towards their 12th straight win, escaping the home team, Portland Trail Blazers, 90-87. They ended the month of February with a record of 12-1.


title: 1999–2000 Los Angeles Lakers season

text: On March 1, the Lakers defeated the visiting Vancouver Grizzlies, 103-91, thus winning their 13th straight win. Kobe Bryant led the Lakers in scoring with 27 points to go along with 6 rebounds and 3 assists. Five days later, the Lakers were up against the Clippers, and they won their 16th straight win, 123-103. O'Neal recorded a career-high 61 points to go along with 23 rebounds and 3 assists for the Lakers. They also have won their 50th game of the season. Three days after, Bryant and O'Neal combined for 59 points as they defeated the home team, Golden State Warriors, 109-92, to extend their winning streak to 17 in a row. With that win, the Lakers now have their second longest winning streak in franchise history, after beating their winning streak earlier in the season when they won 16 in a row. They also won 16 in a row back in January to February 1991. On March 12, their winning streak were nearly snapped as they overcame a 12-point deficit against the visiting Sacramento Kings. The Lakers won 109-106. Bryant recorded 40 points, 10 rebounds and 8 assists and O'Neal added 39 points, 20 rebounds and 5 assists. The very next day, O'Neal, Bryant and Rice combined for 82 points as they extend their winning streak to 19 games as they defeat the home team, the Denver Nuggets, 118-108. Their 19-game winning streak was the longest in the NBA for four years when the 1995-96 Bulls won 18 in a row. Their 19-game winning streak ended when they were defeated by the home team, Washington Wizards, 102-109, despite O'Neal's 40 points and 12 rebounds for the Lakers. They got back in the winning column, as they blown out the home team, the Detroit Pistons, 110-82. In that game, they've won their 54th game of the season. O'Neal led the Lakers with 35 points and 11 rebounds. O'Neal again led the Lakers as he recorded 43 points and 10 rebounds as they won again, 92-85, against the home team, New York Knicks. On March 20, O'Neal and Rice combined for 56 of the 100 Lakers points as they got the road win in Miami, 100-89. Bryant also added 23 points and 5 rebounds for the Lakers. On March 26, in a road game against the Sacramento Kings, the Kings jumped out on an early lead, leading the Lakers 50-47 by the end of the first half. However, the Lakers outscored the Kings, 43-37, in the second half, thus winning the game, 90-89. The Lakers now have won their sixth straight game. In their last game for the month of March, the Lakers defeated the visiting 76ers, 100-88. O'Neal led the Lakers with 37 points, 14 rebounds, 5 assists and 8 blocks. The Lakers now have won their 61st game of the season, the first time they have won over 61 games for over a decade. They ended the month of March with a 15-1 win record, only losing to the Washington Wizards.


title: 1999–2000 Los Angeles Lakers season

text: Their first game on April was against the visiting Knicks. O'Neal led the Lakers with 34 points, 12 rebounds, 4 assists and 5 blocks as the Lakers captured their 62nd win of the season, 106-82. On April 5, O'Neal recorded 49 points and 13 rebounds as the Lakers recorded their 64th win of the season as they won on the road, 111-104, against the home team, Golden State Warriors. On April 10, the Lakers captured their 65th win of the season, behind Kobe Bryant's 33 points, 10 rebounds and 6 assist performance for the Lakers, as they escaped the visiting SuperSonics, 106-103. Their 65 wins have matched their 2nd highest win total for a single season in franchise history, matching the 1986-87 Lakers season. Their 67th win of the season came in a 101-95 win over the visiting Timberwolves. O'Neal once again led the Lakers with 33 points, 14 rebounds and 8 assists.


title: 1999–2000 Los Angeles Lakers season

text: Last Playoff Meeting: 1984 Western Conference First Round (Los Angeles won 3-0; Kings were in Kansas City, Missouri)


title: 1999–2000 Los Angeles Lakers season

text: In Game 1, the Lakers started the game strong, outscoring the visiting Kings, 65-55, at halftime. The Lakers carried this momentum all the way towards the second half, thus winning Game 1 of the series. O'Neal led the Lakers with 46 points, 17 rebounds and 4 blocks. Bryant added 23 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists for the Lakers. Shaquille O'Neal became the first player to record that statline since Hakeem Olajuwon back in 1987. He also became the first Lakers player to have done that since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar recorded 45 points and 18 rebounds back in 1977.


title: 1999–2000 Los Angeles Lakers season

text: In Game 2, the Lakers were once again dominant, outscoring the visiting Kings in every quarter. Kobe Bryant led the Lakers with 32 points and 4 rebounds. O'Neal added 23 points, 19 rebounds, 6 assists and 3 blocks for the Lakers.


title: 1999–2000 Los Angeles Lakers season

text: In Game 3, the series now shifted in Sacramento, wherein the Kings now host the Lakers. Up 2-0 in the series, the Lakers lead the Kings, 51-46, at halftime. The Lakers maintained that lead until the end of the third quarter. However, the Kings outscored the Lakers 33-20 during the fourth quarter, thus winning against the visiting Lakers. Kobe Bryant led all players in terms of scoring with 35 points for the Lakers.


title: 1999–2000 Los Angeles Lakers season

text: In Game 4, the Kings opened up their largest lead of the series in the first half, leading the visiting Lakers, 56-45, at halftime. Despite the Lakers outscoring the Kings in the third quarter, the Kings responded in the fourth quarter, thus the Lakers lost again on the road, 88-101. Kobe Bryant once again led all players in scoring with 32 points to go along with 6 rebounds.


title: 1999–2000 Los Angeles Lakers season

text: With the Kings winning in Game 4, this sets up for a winner-take-all Game 5 back in Los Angeles. The Lakers, determined to avenge their losses, blew out the visiting Kings, 113-86, thus advancing to the next round. Shaquille O'Neal led the Lakers with 32 points, 18 rebounds and 4 assists.


title: 1999–2000 Los Angeles Lakers season

text: The following scoring summary is written in a line score format, except that the quarter numbers are replaced by game numbers.


title: 1999–2000 Los Angeles Lakers season

text: Although the Lakers were one of the more talented teams in the NBA the previous year, they failed to win a single game against the San Antonio Spurs in the 1999 NBA playoffs. Twenty-four days after being swept by the eventual league champion, the Lakers signed Phil Jackson as head coach. Jackson, famous for coaching Michael Jordan and the six-time champion Chicago Bulls, would build his triangle offense around Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant. General Manager Jerry West surrounded O'Neal and Bryant with effective role players such as Glen Rice, Ron Harper (who had experience with Jackson's triangle offense as part of the '96–'98 Bulls), and A. C. Green (member of the last two Lakers championship teams).


title: 1999–2000 Los Angeles Lakers season

text: Along with these starters, the Lakers also possessed a strong bench. Robert Horry not only had championship experience with the Houston Rockets but also was a threat on the perimeter and a defensive star. Derek Fisher was a defensively minded point-guard with the ability to shoot well from long range. Rick Fox, acquired after being released by the Boston Celtics, was the Lakers' sixth man. With a healthy O'Neal, the Lakers dominated the regular season, with winning streaks of 11, 16, and 19 en route to a 67–15 record, tying the 1992 Chicago Bulls and 1986 Boston Celtics as the fifth best record in NBA regular season history.


title: 1999–2000 Los Angeles Lakers season

text: Although many expected the Lakers to reach the Finals, the road would be a rocky one. In the first round, the Lakers won the first two games against the Sacramento Kings, only to drop the next two games in Sacramento. The Lakers then defeated Sacramento in Game 5, 113–86, to face the Phoenix Suns in the conference semifinals. The Lakers clobbered the Suns, winning the series 4–1 (with their only loss coming in Game 4). In Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals against the Portland Trail Blazers, Rasheed Wallace earned two technical fouls and was ejected; the Lakers took advantage of Wallace's absence and secured victory. The Trail Blazers stormed back in the next game, giving the Lakers their worst home loss of the season in a 106–77 shellacking. This setback did not affect Los Angeles, as they assembled a 3–1 series lead by winning the next two games in Portland. The Lakers underestimated the Trail Blazers, however. Led by former Jackson linchpin Scottie Pippen, Portland won back-to-back elimination games and forced a series-deciding Game 7. Amid several controversial foul calls by referee Dick Bavetta against members of the Trail Blazers, Portland relinquished a 75–60 fourth quarter lead. Rallying back with a 25–4 run, the Lakers won the game and secured a berth in the NBA Finals.


title: 1999–2000 Los Angeles Lakers season

text: In the 1997–1998 NBA season, the Chicago Bulls narrowly defeated the Pacers, 4 games to 3, in the Eastern Conference Finals. The 1998–1999 NBA season began with a lockout but saw Indiana return to the Eastern Conference Finals, where they fell to the New York Knicks. The 1999–2000 NBA season brought several major changes to the Pacers. It was their first season at Conseco Fieldhouse, as well as their first since 1993 without center Antonio Davis, who was traded for the rights to the No. 5 overall pick in the 1999 NBA Draft. Jalen Rose replaced Chris Mullin in the starting line up, winning the NBA Most Improved Player award, while Austin Croshere replaced him as the sixth man.


title: 1999–2000 Los Angeles Lakers season

text: The Pacers started the season 7–7 but eventually finished with an Eastern Conference best 56–26 record, including a franchise-best 25 game win streak at home. The Pacers, like the Lakers, struggled in the playoffs. They needed a clutch Travis Best three-pointer to dispatch the Milwaukee Bucks in five games. Indiana faced the Philadelphia 76ers in the second round and took the series in six games, earning a trip to the Eastern Conference Finals. The Pacers would face their rival Knicks, winning a memorable six game series in a reversal of fortunes from years past. With the victory, Indiana advanced to the first NBA Finals in franchise history, becoming the second former ABA team to do so.


title: 1999–2000 Los Angeles Lakers season

text: The Lakers dominated from the start. The Lakers shot 15-for-20 (75%) in the first period while the Pacers shot only 7-for-20 (35%). Miller would miss all of his shots in the first quarter to give the Lakers a 15-point lead. Croshere came off the bench to keep the Pacers alive in the 2nd quarter, scoring 9 points and grabbing 4 rebounds in the quarter. Although the Pacers attempted a comeback in the 2nd quarter, they were still down by 12. In the 3rd quarter, it would be Jackson who led the Pacers to a comeback, cutting the Lakers lead by 2. Miller also hit his first field goal in the 3rd quarter, though it would be his last. The Lakers handled the Pacers in the final quarter, with a 13–2 run winning by 17 points. O'Neal scored 43 points and grabbed 19 rebounds.


title: 1999–2000 Los Angeles Lakers season

text: Los Angeles and Indiana were evenly matched for the first quarter, both scoring 28. However, Los Angeles suffered a major setback when Kobe Bryant left the game in the 2nd quarter due to a sprained ankle and did not return. Jalen Rose later admitted that he intentionally stuck out his foot when Kobe shot a jumpshot in order to trip him when he landed. Ron Harper went in for Bryant and scored 21 points for the game. Desperate to try to gain the lead, Larry Bird resorted to the "Hack-a-Shaq" strategy. Shaq shot 39 free throws, making only 18, an NBA record for most free throws attempted. Despite this low percentage, Shaq made 9 of 16 in the 4th quarter to keep a Lakers lead. The Pacers cut the lead to 99–96 and were looking to foul Shaq, but when Shaq got the ball he passed to Robert Horry who converted not only the layup, but the foul shot as well giving them a 102–96 lead en route to a 111–104 Lakers victory.


title: 1999–2000 Los Angeles Lakers season

text: Taking advantage of Kobe Bryant's ankle injury, Indiana restored a semblance of parity to the proceedings. Kobe's absence was felt as the Pacers had an 11–2 run in the first quarter to take an 8-point lead. Austin Croshere once again had another huge 2nd quarter, scoring 8 points as the Pacers shot 61% from the field. The Lakers tried to make a run to get back into the game, but upon doings so, Indiana answered with 12 straight points and led by 17. The Lakers were desperate and attempted another run to get within 3 points, but Reggie Miller nailed all his free throws at the end of the game to give Indiana a 9-point win.


title: 1999–2000 Los Angeles Lakers season

text: The Pacers took a quick 9–2 lead due to Rik Smits hitting his first four shots. Kobe Bryant attempted to play with his sore ankle but only managed to score 6 points in the first half. Even though Bryant and O'Neal were in foul trouble in the first half (each picking up his third with 5 minutes remaining in the second quarter), Indiana could not take advantage and did not extend their lead. This would be a problem as Kobe Bryant scored 10 points and the Lakers took a 62–60 lead due to a Glen Rice three-pointer. The game remained close going into the fourth quarter, when O'Neal and Reggie Miller scored 14 and 13 points respectively, sending the game into overtime. Midway through overtime, O'Neal committed his sixth foul but 21-year-old Bryant delivered three clutch shots, as the Lakers were able to overcome back-up center John Salley's inability to effectively defend Smits. Smits and Miller scored all 14 of Indiana's OT points, but it was not enough to overcome as Miller missed a last-second three-pointer, and L.A. was able to pull one out in Indianapolis.


title: 1999–2000 Los Angeles Lakers season

text: Reggie Miller and the Pacers dominated the game from the start in what would be Larry Bird's last game as a coach in the state of Indiana. Reggie Miller came out and made 5 straight shots including a 4-point play. The Pacers hit their first 6 three point shots in the game. The Pacers would have a 20-point lead in the 2nd quarter, and eventually won by 33 – it was the worst Lakers NBA Finals loss since the 148–114 loss to Boston in the 1985 NBA Finals, known as the "Memorial Day Massacre."


title: 1999–2000 Los Angeles Lakers season

text: With their loss in Game 5, the Lakers record in close-out games dropped to 3–6 in the 2000 NBA Playoffs (the other losses coming in Games 3 and 4 in the first round against Sacramento, Game 4 in the series against Phoenix, and Games 5 and 6 versus Portland). As a result, the series returned to California.


title: 1999–2000 Los Angeles Lakers season

text: After the two teams traded blows in the first quarter, Mark Jackson concluded the period with a turn-around half-court shot at the buzzer to give the Pacers a 26–24 advantage. They would not relinquish their lead until the fourth quarter. In the first half, the Pacers would lead by as many as twelve points. However, the Lakers chipped away and entered intermission trailing 56–53. Indiana, however, added two more points to their lead, and entered the final period in a position to force a decisive seventh game.


title: 1999–2000 Los Angeles Lakers season

text: In the fourth quarter, the momentum shifted. The Lakers got four timely three-pointers from Derek Fisher, Robert Horry, and Rick Fox. The turning point occurred on a play where Brian Shaw stole the ball from Jalen Rose, leading to a fast break where Shaquille O'Neal hit an off-balance shot to give the Lakers the lead. The Pacers never led after that point.


title: 1999–2000 Los Angeles Lakers season

text: The Lakers would build a seven-point lead, but the Pacers fought back to tie the score at 103. After a timeout, the Lakers scored six unanswered points to regain control. The Pacers made one final valiant effort, but it fell short and the Lakers clinched their first championship in twelve years. Shaquille O'Neal led all scorers with 41 points and also pulled down 12 rebounds. He was awarded the Finals MVP.


title: 1999–2000 Los Angeles Lakers season

text: Briefly, the Lakers considered to trade Kobe Bryant for Grant Hill, but it never came close to consummation.


title: Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor

text: Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor or Eastern DFC is an under-construction broad gauge freight corridor in India. The railway will run between Ludhiana in Punjab and Dankuni (near Kolkata) in West Bengal via Khurja in Uttar Pradesh. This railway line is one of the multiple freight corridors being constructed by the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India (DFCCIL), a public-sector unit (PSU) under the Ministry of Railways. The Eastern DFC will mostly have double tracks and will be electrified, but the section from Ludhiana to Khurja (365 km) will be single line electrified due to lack of space. This freight corridor will cover a total distance of 1,839 km. This corridor is having a 46 km branch line which is joining Khurja (Bulandshahr district) on the Eastern DFC with Dadri (Gautam Buddha Nagar district) on the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (Western DFC).


title: Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor

text: As of June 2022, 923 km or 50% of the Eastern DFC has been completed and 99% required land for these have been acquired. The Eastern DFC is expected to be complete by March 2023.


title: Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor

text: First two DFCs, Western DFC, from Dadri, Uttar Pradesh to JNPT (Navi Mumbai) and Eastern DFC from Punjab to West Bengal, which will decongest railway network by moving 70% of India's goods trains to these two corridors, are both on track for completion in March 2023. However, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which caused lockdowns, curfews and restrictions, it resulted in delays in work due to lack of labour.