title: Crampons

text: To prevent snow from balling up under crampons, especially in temperatures around freezing, most models can be fitted with plastic or rubber "anti-balling" systems to reduce build-up. Rubber models use flexion to repel snow while plastic anti-balling plates employ a hydrophobic surface to prevent adhesion.


title: Crampons

text: Crampons are graded C1, C2 and C3 relative to their flexibility and general compatibility with different styles of boots. No crampons are suitable for B0 boots (flexible walking boots).


title: Crampons

text: Specialized "ski crampons" are employed in ski mountaineering on hard snow and ice. Far more common in the Alps than in the United States, these ski crampons are known by their European names: "" (German), "couteaux" (French) and "coltelli" (Italian), literally French and Italian for "knives" in those languages.


title: Crampons

text: While crampons generally have a solid frame, large spikes, and may only be attached to a mountaineering boot, microspikes typically are flexible rubber or metal chains with more, smaller spikes. Since crampons are tighter and have larger spikes, they are typically used for mountaineering on steep and dense snow or glacial ice in order to maintain strong traction and avoid falls, whereas microspikes may be attached to multiple types of shoes and are generally used for hiking on flatter surfaces such as snow or even gravel or dirt.


title: Iris Law

text: Law was born in the district of Primrose Hill in the London Borough of Camden, to actors Jude Law and Sadie Frost; she has two brothers Rafferty and Rudy, one maternal half-brother, two paternal half-sisters, and another paternal half-sibling born in 2020. Her godmother is British supermodel Kate Moss. She completed her GCSEs in 2017. She is studying textiles at Central Saint Martins.


title: Iris Law

text: Law's career in fashion started with a photoshoot for a brand called Illustrated People, from there she was contacted by an agent; she was then chosen by Christopher Bailey to be the face of Burberry's beauty campaign. The next year, in 2016, she appeared in a resort look-book for Miu Miu. She has appeared in adverts for Marc Jacobs, La Perla, and Stella McCartney, as well as Lacoste, Calvin Klein, and Versace. In 2021, she became an ambassador for Dior Beauty. She made her runway debut at Miu Miu's A/W 2020 fashion show. She had already appeared in a "Vogue" editorial as a toddler.


title: Anti-consumerism

text: Anti-consumerism is a sociopolitical ideology that is opposed to consumerism, the continual buying and consuming of material possessions. Anti-consumerism is concerned with the private actions of business corporations in pursuit of financial and economic goals at the expense of the public welfare, especially in matters of environmental protection, social stratification, and ethics in the governing of a society. In politics, anti-consumerism overlaps with environmental activism, anti-globalization, and animal-rights activism; moreover, a conceptual variation of anti-consumerism is "post-consumerism", living in a material way that transcends consumerism.


title: Anti-consumerism

text: Anti-consumerism arose in response to the problems caused by the long-term mistreatment of human consumers and of the animals consumed, and from the incorporation of consumer education to school curricula; examples of anti-consumerism are the book "No Logo" (2000) by Naomi Klein, and documentary films such as "The Corporation" (2003), by Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott, and "Surplus: Terrorized into Being Consumers" (2003), by Erik Gandini; each made anti-corporate activism popular as an ideologically accessible form of civil and political action.


title: Anti-consumerism

text: The criticism of economic materialism as a dehumanizing behaviour that is destructive to Earth, as human habitat, comes from religion and social activism. The religious criticism asserts that materialist consumerism interferes with the connection between the individual and God, and so is an inherently immoral style of life; thus the German historian Oswald Spengler (1880–1936) said that, "Life in America is exclusively economic in structure, and lacks depth." From the Roman Catholic perspective, Thomas Aquinas said that, "Greed is a sin against God, just as all mortal sins, in as much as man condemns things eternal for the sake of temporal things"; in that vein, Francis of Assisi, Ammon Hennacy, and Mohandas Gandhi said that spiritual inspiration guided them towards simple living.


title: Anti-consumerism

text: From the secular perspective, social activism indicates that from consumerist materialism derive crime (which originates from the poverty of economic inequality), industrial pollution and the consequent environmental degradation, and war as a business.


title: Anti-consumerism

text: About the societal discontent born of malaise and hedonism, Pope Benedict XVI said in 2008 that the philosophy of materialism offers no purpose for human existence, and in 2011 specifically attacked the commercialization of Christmas; likewise, the writer Georges Duhamel said that "American materialism [is] a beacon of mediocrity that threatened to eclipse French civilization".


title: Anti-consumerism

text: Anti-consumerism originated from criticism of consumption, starting with Thorstein Veblen, who, in the book "The Theory of the Leisure Class: An Economic Study of Institutions" (1899), indicated that consumerism dates from the cradle of civilization. The term "consumerism" also denotes economic policies associated with Keynesian economics, and the belief that the free choice of consumers should dictate the economic structure of a society (cf. producerism).


title: Anti-consumerism

text: Many anti-corporate activists believe the rise of large-business corporations poses a threat to the legitimate authority of nation states and the public sphere. They feel corporations are invading people's privacy, manipulating politics and governments, and creating false needs in consumers. They state evidence such as invasive advertising adware, spam, telemarketing, child-targeted advertising, aggressive guerrilla marketing, massive corporate campaign contributions in political elections, interference in the policies of sovereign nation states (Ken Saro-Wiwa), and news stories about corporate corruption (Enron, for example).


title: Anti-consumerism

text: Anti-consumerism protesters point out that the main responsibility of a corporation is to answer only to shareholders, giving human rights and other issues almost no consideration. The management does have a primary responsibility to their shareholders, since any philanthropic activities that do not directly serve the business could be deemed to be a breach of trust. This sort of financial responsibility means that multi-national corporations will pursue strategies to intensify labor and reduce costs. For example, they will attempt to find low wage economies with laws which are conveniently lenient on human rights, the natural environment, trade union organization and so on (see, for example, Nike).


title: Anti-consumerism

text: An important contribution to the critique of consumerism has been made by French philosopher Bernard Stiegler, arguing modern capitalism is governed by consumption rather than production, and the advertising techniques used to create consumer behaviour amount to the destruction of psychic and collective individuation. The diversion of libidinal energy toward the consumption of consumer products, he argues, results in an addictive cycle of consumption, leading to hyper-consumption, the exhaustion of desire, and the reign of symbolic misery.


title: Anti-consumerism

text: In art, Banksy, an influential British graffiti master, painter, activist, filmmaker and all-purpose provocateur, has created satirical and provocative works about the consumerist society (notable examples include "Napalm", also known as "Can't Beat That Feelin'", an attack on Walt Disney Pictures and McDonald's, and "Death By Swoosh", directed at Nike). Working undercover, the secretive street artist challenges social ideas and goads viewers into rethinking their surroundings, to acknowledge the absurdities of closely held preconceptions. In an essay contained in his 2004 book "Cut It Out", he writes, "You owe the companies nothing. Less than nothing, you especially don't owe them any courtesy. They owe you. They have re-arranged the world to put themselves in front of you. They never asked for your permission, don't even start asking for theirs." After 2003, Banksy wrote the "New Yorker" by e-mail: "I give away thousands of paintings for free. I don't think it's possible to make art about world poverty and trouser all the cash." Banksy believes that there is a consumerist shift in art, and for the first time, the bourgeois world of art belongs to the people. On his website , he provides high-resolution images of his work for free downloading.


title: Anti-consumerism

text: Anti-Consumerism from a sustainability perspective also ties into the social and political understanding of the term, as ideas surrounding this perspective are rooted in sustainability efforts. Practicing anti-consumerism can mean voluntarily simplifying and minimizing one's lifestyle; this can be in efforts to exist more sustainably in a consumer culture. These lifestyle changes, which include choosing paper bags over plastic bags when shopping, are also in line with anti-corporate activism and green consumerism -- both large contributors to the ethical market.


title: Anti-consumerism

text: In many critical contexts, the term describes the tendency of people to identify strongly with products or services they consume, especially with commercial brand names and obvious status-enhancing appeal, such as a brand of expensive automobiles or jewelry. It is a pejorative term which most people deny, having some more specific excuse or rationalization for consumption other than the idea that they are "compelled to consume". A culture that has a high amount of consumerism is referred to as a consumer culture.


title: Anti-consumerism

text: To those who embrace the idea of consumerism, these products are not seen as valuable in themselves, but rather as social signals that allow them to identify like-minded people through consumption and display of similar products. Few would yet go so far, though, as to admit that their relationships with a product or brand name could be substitutes for healthy human relationships that sometimes lack in a dysfunctional modern society.


title: Anti-consumerism

text: The older term "conspicuous consumption" described the United States in the 1960s, but was soon linked to larger debates about media influence, culture jamming, and its corollary productivism.


title: Anti-consumerism

text: The term and concept of "conspicuous consumption" originated at the turn of the 20th century in the writing of economist Thorstein Veblen. The term describes an apparently irrational and confounding form of economic behaviour. Veblen's scathing proposal that this unnecessary consumption is a form of status display is made in darkly humorous observations like the following, from his 1899 book, "The Theory of the Leisure Class":


title: Anti-consumerism

text: According to archaeologists, evidence of conspicuous consumption up to several millennia ago has been found, suggesting that such behavior is inherent to humans.


title: Anti-consumerism

text: Collaborative consumption describes the way that consumers of a good engage in shared consumption either through temporary rentals or second-hand purchases. Anti-consumerism opposes the continuous consumption of material possessions in part because of the unsustainability that individuals who seek the experience of consumer culture without the desire of long-term possession.


title: Anti-consumerism

text: Collaborative consumption is understood as anti-consumption by focusing on the temporary usage of the products, consumers are able to express sustainable attitudes with the intent of reducing natural resources by reducing direct consumption of a product or brand.


title: Anti-consumerism

text: Modern day creative destruction culture causes sustainability issues, and in order to mitigate them, a more collaborative mindset is necessary when it comes to consumption.


title: Anti-consumerism

text: Anti-consumerists believe advertising plays a huge role in human life by informing values and assumptions of the cultural system, deeming what is acceptable, and determining social standards. They declare that ads create a hyper-real world where commodities appear as the key to securing happiness. Anti-consumerists cite studies that find that individuals believe their quality of life improves in relation to social values that lie outside the capability of the marketplace. Therefore, advertising attempts to equate the social with the material by utilizing images and slogans to link commodities with the real sources of human happiness, such as meaningful relationships. Ads are then a detriment to society because they tell consumers that accumulating more and more possessions will bring them closer to self-actualization, or the concept of a complete and secure being. "The underlying message is that owning these products will enhance our image and ensure our popularity with others." And while advertising promises that a product will make the consumer happy, advertising simultaneously depends upon the consumer never being truly happy, as then the consumer would no longer feel the need to consume needless products.


title: Anti-consumerism

text: Anti-consumerists claim that in a consumerist society, advertisement images disempower and objectify the consumer. By stressing individual power, choice and desire, advertising falsely implies the control lies with the consumer. Because anti-consumerists believe commodities supply only short-term gratification, they detract from a sustainably happy society. Further, advertisers have resorted to new techniques of capturing attention, such as the increased speed of ads and product placements. In this way, commercials infiltrate the consumerist society and become an inextricable part of the culture. Anti-consumerists condemn advertising because it constructs a simulated world that offers fantastical escapism to consumers, rather than reflecting actual reality. They further argue that ads depict the interests and lifestyles of the elite as natural; cultivating a deep sense of inadequacy among viewers. They denounce the use of beautiful models because they glamorize the commodity beyond the reach of the average individual.


title: Anti-consumerism

text: In an opinion segment of "New Scientist" magazine published in August 2009, reporter Andy Coghlan cited William Rees of the University of British Columbia and epidemiologist Warren Hern of the University of Colorado at Boulder, saying that human beings, despite considering themselves civilized thinkers, are "subconsciously still driven by an impulse for survival, domination and expansion... an impulse which now finds expression in the idea that inexorable economic growth is the answer to everything, and, given time, will redress all the world's existing inequalities." He argues that consumerism is making these tendencies worse by encouraging consumption without limit.


title: Anti-consumerism

text: Supporters of anti-consumerism often accuse advertising of attention theft, i.e. they believe it unjustifiably invades public areas, thereby imposing itself on people who consider its presence unwanted. American graphic designer Sean Tejaratchi expresses his resentment of this "ad creep" in a 1999 issue of his clip art zine "Crap Hound": "Advertising increasingly invades my environment instead of letting me come to it on my own terms when I need it... The most powerful and well-funded methods of mass communication in history have been used to create a one-way, unending flow of shit into my life... In the twenty-eight years since I was born, I've been subjected to a stunning amount of advertising, and I don't recall anyone ever asking me if I minded."


title: Anti-consumerism

text: Austrian economic advocates focus on the entrepreneur, promoting a productive lifestyle rather than a materialistic one wherein the individual is defined by things and not their self.


title: Anti-consumerism

text: Critics of anti-consumerism have accused anti-consumerists of opposing modernity or utilitarianism, arguing that it can lead to elitism, primarily among libertarian viewpoints, who argue that every person should decide their level of consumption independent of outside influence. Right-wing critics see anti-consumerism as rooted in socialism. In 1999, the right-libertarian magazine "Reason" attacked anti-consumerism, claiming Marxist academics were repackaging themselves as anti-consumerists. James B. Twitchell, a professor at the University of Florida and popular writer, referred to anti-consumerist arguments as "Marxism Lite".


title: Anti-consumerism

text: There have also been socialist critics of anti-consumerism who see it as a form of anti-modern "reactionary socialism", and state that anti-consumerism has also been adopted by ultra-conservatives and fascists.


title: Anti-consumerism

text: In "Fight Club", the protagonist finds himself participating in terroristic acts against corporate society and consumer culture.


title: Anti-consumerism

text: In "Mr. Robot", Elliot Alderson, a young cybersecurity engineer, joins a hacker group known as society, which aims to crash the U.S. economy, eliminating all debt.


title: Anti-consumerism

text: In the novel "American Psycho" by Bret Easton Ellis, the protagonist Patrick Bateman criticizes the consumerist society of America in the 1980s of which he is a personification. Later on he goes on a killing spree without any consequences, suggesting that the people around him are so self-absorbed and focused on consuming that they either do not see or do not care about his acts.


title: Anti-consumerism

text: In the "Pixar" movie, "WALL-E", earth is depicted in an apocalyptic state caused by the negative effects of human consumerism.


title: Aircrew

text: Aircrew, also called flight crew, are personnel who operate an aircraft while in flight. The composition of a flight's crew depends on the type of aircraft, plus the flight's duration and purpose.


title: Aircrew

text: In commercial aviation, the aircrew are called "flight crew". Some flight crew position names are derived from nautical terms and indicate a rank or command structure similar to that on ocean-going vessels, allowing for quick executive decision making during normal operations or emergency situations. Historical flightdeck positions include:


title: Aircrew

text: From the start of military aviation, additional crew members have flown on military aircraft. Over time these duties have expanded:


title: Western Kentucky University

text: Western Kentucky University is a public university in Bowling Green, Kentucky. It was founded by the Commonwealth of Kentucky in 1906, though its roots reach back a quarter-century earlier. It operates regional campuses in Glasgow, Elizabethtown-Fort Knox, and Owensboro. The main campus, which has been undergoing expansion and renovation since the 1990s, sits atop a hill overlooking the Barren River valley.


title: Western Kentucky University

text: The roots of Western Kentucky University go back to 1876 with the founding by A. W. Mell of the privately owned Glasgow Normal School and Business College in Glasgow, Kentucky. This moved to Bowling Green in 1884 and became the Southern Normal School and Business College. In 1890, Potter College was opened as a private women's college by Pleasant J. Potter. In 1906, Henry Hardin Cherry sold the Southern Normal School and became president of the Western Kentucky State Normal School, which had just been created by an act of the Kentucky General Assembly. Southern's student body and its building became the new school, with classes beginning on January 22, 1907. In 1909 Potter College closed and Western bought the buildings and property of the school. In 1911, Western relocated to its present site on the property that had been Potter College.


title: Western Kentucky University

text: In 1922, the school was authorized by the state to grant four-year degrees and was renamed "Western Kentucky State Normal School and Teachers College". The first four-year degrees were awarded in 1924. In 1927, the school merged with Ogden College, which occupied an adjacent campus. The name changed again in 1930 to "Western Kentucky State Teachers College". The school was authorized to offer the Master of Arts degree in 1931. Another name change took place in 1948, when the school became simply "Western Kentucky State College".


title: Western Kentucky University

text: WKSC merged with the Bowling Green College of Commerce, which had formerly been the Bowling Green Business University, in 1963. Bowling Green Business University had originally been a part of the Southern Normal School and had been sold off by Henry Hardin Cherry when Southern Normal School was transferred to the state. The structure of the institution changed at this time, dividing into separate colleges. Bowling Green College of Commerce maintained its identity in this way. The Graduate School also became a constituent college. In 1965, three additional colleges were created. In 1966, Western Kentucky State College became Western Kentucky University.


title: Western Kentucky University

text: For many years, the college was popularly known as "Western," as indicated in its fight song, "Stand Up and Cheer." However, administrators in recent years have preferred to call it "WKU."


title: Western Kentucky University

text: , twenty-seven alumni of WKU's photo and print journalism programs have been awarded thirteen Pulitzer Prizes, including eleven alumni recognized for their coverage of the Carrollton bus crash. The school publishes a twice-weekly newspaper, the "College Heights Herald."


title: Western Kentucky University

text: WKU is home to a master's degree program in folklore. It is unique among American folklore programs for its public folklore program and is one of the few schools in Kentucky to offer a focus in historic preservation.


title: Western Kentucky University

text: The WKU Honors College became the first Honors College in the Commonwealth of Kentucky on July 1, 2007. The Honors College serves over 1,300 active Honors students with the 2016 incoming freshman class ACT/SAT average ranking among the top 6% in the nation.


title: Western Kentucky University

text: WKU's Center for Gifted Studies conducts research and provides opportunities for gifted and talented students, educators, and parents. Founded in 1981, its first events were workshops for gifted education professionals. It partnered with Duke's Talent Identification Program, and began offering academic summer camps: beginning in 1983, the Summer Camp for Academically Talented Middle School Students (SCATS) for students finishing grades 6-8, and beginning in 1984 the Summer Program for Verbally and Mathematically Precocious Youth (VAMPY) for students finishing grades 7-10. In 2011 the Center became the headquarters of the World Council for Gifted and Talented Children.


title: Western Kentucky University

text: The Carol Martin Gatton Academy of Mathematics and Science in Kentucky opened in the Fall of 2007. The project is based on the University of North Texas's Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science. The school accepts roughly 100 high school juniors each year. As an incoming junior, students can earn at least 60 college credit hours during their time at the school. The Gatton Academy was named "America's Best High School" by Newsweek in 2012 and 2013. The building, originally designed in 1929, was renovated and expanded by RossTarrant Architects to transform it into the Gatton Academy.


title: Western Kentucky University

text: The Western Kentucky (WKU) athletic teams are called the "Hilltoppers" (men's) and "Lady Toppers" (women's). Their mascot is known as Big Red. The mascot has become one of the most popular characters in collegiate sports, even appearing in a series of ESPN promotions. The university is a member of the NCAA Division I ranks, primarily competing in the Conference USA (C-USA) since the 2014–15 academic year. The Hilltoppers and Lady Toppers previously competed in the Sun Belt Conference from 1982–83 to 2013–14; and in the Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) from 1948–49 to 1981–82.


title: Western Kentucky University

text: WKU competes in 16 intercollegiate varsity sports: Men's sports include baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf and track & field; while women's sports include basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, softball, tennis, track & field and volleyball.


title: Western Kentucky University

text: The WKU swim team, before its suspension after the 2014–15 season, consistently placed in the top 5 in the Mid-Major National Rankings. In 2006 their men were undefeated in dual meets and were Sun Belt Conference Champions. The women won five consecutive championships from 2001 to 2005. In 2005, after 37 years as head coach, coach Bill Powell became an assistant coach, and holds record for being the second winningest coach in men's swimming in NCAA dual meet history.


title: Western Kentucky University

text: In January 2015, former swimmer Colin Craig told police he had been assaulted and forced to drink alcohol, even though at the time he was too young to buy or drink alcohol. He also reported incidents of hazing at a house near campus. An investigation by police and school officials revealed numerous incidents of drug use and sexually charged hazing dating back to at least 2012. Powell's successor, Bruce Marchionda, was aware of this behavior and did nothing to prevent it, even though it violated university policies on hazing, sexual harassment and sexual misconduct. One swimmer was charged with possession of marijuana. On April 14, WKU officials announced the swimming and diving program would be suspended for five years due to what former school president Gary Ransdell called a "pervasive" and "intolerable" environment. The program's return after the suspension was placed in serious doubt after WKU officials canceled all funding for the swimming and diving program in 2018 as part of larger budget cuts to the athletic department. According to the Bowling Green Daily News, the program would likely not return in 2020 without "significant" outside donations.


title: Western Kentucky University

text: The baseball team has enjoyed some success, winning the Sun Belt Conference tournament championship in 2009. In April 2010, the WKU baseball team defeated the University of Kentucky 24–8 in a game at Bowling Green Ballpark. The crowd of 6,183 was the largest crowd to ever attend a college baseball game in the Commonwealth of Kentucky.


title: Western Kentucky University

text: The men's basketball program has the 14th most victories in the history of the NCAA. The school has been to the NCAA Tournament 21 times; in addition, it has made one appearance in the NCAA Final Four, in 1971 (later vacated by the NCAA). WKU also made three appearances in the NIT Final Four while it was a premier post-season tournament, equal in stature to the NCAA Tournament. In Street & Smith's publications "100 Greatest Programs", WKU ranked #31. WKU also has the 3rd most conference titles in NCAA history with 41 trailing only Kentucky and Kansas, 6th in NCAA history with 40 20-win seasons, 8th in NCAA history in winning percentage at 67.2%, and recorded the first 30-win season in NCAA history in the 1937–1938 season with a record of 30–3.


title: Western Kentucky University

text: The men's basketball team defeated Middle Tennessee in the 2008 Sun Belt Conference tournament championship game to get a bid into the 2008 NCAA Tournament. The Hilltoppers won their first-round contest against Drake on a last-second three-pointer by Ty Rogers, and won their second-round game against San Diego, before losing by 2 points against UCLA in the Sweet 16. It was the Toppers' third appearance in the Sweet 16 but their first since 1993. In 2009, the men's basketball team defeated Illinois in the first round of the NCAA Tournament to advance to the second-round game against Gonzaga. Unfortunately, the Toppers were beaten by a last second shot, failing to advance to their second straight Sweet 16. In the first round of the NCAA Tournament in 2012, the Toppers pulled off a stunning win against Mississippi Valley State, erasing a 16-point deficit with less than five minutes left and pulling off the 59–58 win while President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron looked on.


title: Western Kentucky University

text: The women's basketball team is a storied program, with three National Collegiate Athletic Association Final Four appearances. In 1992, coach Paul Sanderford's Lady Toppers advanced to the national championship game before bowing out to Stanford. The Lady Toppers are known for their post-season prowess, and returned to the NCAA Tournament in 2014.


title: Western Kentucky University

text: Michelle Clark-Heard is the current women's basketball coach at Western Kentucky. Coach Clark-Heard is a former WKU player who has spent the last five years as an assistant at the University of Louisville under former WKU assistant coach Jeff Walz. Previously, she coached Division II Kentucky State University for two years. In her five seasons in Louisville, the Cardinals made three regional semifinal appearances and finished as national runner-up in 2009. She helped develop former Louisville forward and current WNBA star Angel McCoughtry, and also helped recruit and develop another current WNBA player, former Cardinals guard Shoni Schimmel.


title: Western Kentucky University

text: Clark-Heard also worked as an assistant at Cincinnati and Nebraska before her time at Kentucky State. She played four seasons for the Lady Toppers after being named the 1986 girls' high school player of the year in Kentucky.


title: Western Kentucky University

text: The Hilltopper football team belonged to what was then the Gateway Football Conference until 2006. In 2002, WKU won the NCAA Division I FCS National Football championship. In 2006, the school's board of regents voted to move the team to the Division I Bowl Subdivision (formerly I-A). After two years of provisional status, they began to compete in 2009 as a member of the Sun Belt Conference. An extensive rivalry with Eastern Kentucky University, known as the Battle of the Bluegrass, ended in 2008 as WKU moved into FBS football. The Hilltoppers' biggest Sun Belt rivals had been the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders, who are less than two hours away from WKU. The rivalry was temporarily halted in 2013 after Middle Tennessee left the Sun Belt for C-USA, but was renewed the following year when WKU moved to C-USA. The Hilltoppers are coached by head coach Tyson Helton


title: Western Kentucky University

text: In 1965 the Western Kentucky University Board of Regents allowed national fraternities and sororities to form local chapters. Currently there are 33 active organizations with approximately 1,500 active undergraduate members per year.


title: Western Kentucky University

text: Predating the national fraternities, there were local fraternities reaching back to the 1930s. The two leading men's social organizations were Phi Phi Kappa (also known as the Thirteeners), founded in 1939; and the Barons, founded the same year. When national Greek organizations were admitted to WKU, Phi Phi Kappa became Delta Tau Delta and the Barons became Alpha Tau Omega.


title: Western Kentucky University

text: WKU Student Publications ("Herald" and Talisman) moved into a state-of-the-art new facility, the Adams-Whitaker Student Publications Center, in December 2007. The $1.6 million complex was built through a partnership between alumni, who raised more than $1 million, and the university. The building, across Normal Drive from the School of Journalism and Broadcasting, is named for Robert Adams and the late David B. Whitaker.


title: Western Kentucky University

text: In 2015, Western Kentucky University (WKU), the University of Akureyri (UNAK) and the Icelandic Arctic Cooperation Network (IACN) signed an academic and research agreement that solidifies the North Atlantic Climate Change Collaboration (NAC3) project.


title: Western Kentucky University

text: The NAC3 project focuses on academic exchange, course development, and collaborative research in the areas of climate change, climate literacy, health and wellness, ocean dynamics, sustainability, informal public education, economic development, technology exchange, and water resources, among others.


title: Miniature Bull Terrier

text: The English Miniature Bull Terrier is a breed with origins in the extinct English White Terrier, the Dalmatian and the Bulldog. The first existence is documented in 1872 in "The Dogs of British Island".


title: Miniature Bull Terrier

text: Miniature Bull Terriers have short, fine, and glossy coats that are very close to the skin, like Bull Terriers. They are accepted in the ring to be white, white with another color, or fully colored. However, like the Bull Terriers, any blue or liver-colored coats are undesirable. These dogs require minimal grooming.


title: Miniature Bull Terrier

text: In the early 1900s, the difference between the breeds was determined by the dog's weight. However, this led to Miniature Bull Terriers becoming so small and fine that they looked more like a Chihuahua than a Bull Terrier. So, in the 1970s, the weight limit was replaced with a height limit of under fourteen inches. They are usually no smaller than ten inches. According to the AKC, miniature bull terriers' weight must be proportionate to its height. However, they tend to range anywhere from 20–35  lbs.


title: Miniature Bull Terrier

text: The Miniature Bull Terriers have a very bold build. They have very muscular shoulders and a full body. Like the Bull Terrier, they have a head described as "egg-shaped". It is flat on top with a Roman nose. The eyes are triangular and closely set. The ears are carried erect and are not cropped or otherwise altered. The tail is carried horizontally rather than vertically.


title: Miniature Bull Terrier

text: Like Bull Terriers, Miniature Bull Terriers are loving and, like many terrier breeds, they can be stubborn at times; but despite this they make great dogs for people with limited space.


title: Miniature Bull Terrier

text: Miniature Bull Terriers are known to be stubborn and courageous. Despite their diminutive stature, they will readily challenge larger dogs. However, as with any dog, owners can reduce the likelihood of confrontations by providing appropriate training. They are very energetic and playful and love people, but care must be taken as they are variable around other dogs.


title: Miniature Bull Terrier

text: Miniature Bull Terriers require little grooming. A quick brushing once a day or a few times a week is sufficient. Sunscreen must be used on any sparse white sections of fur around the face, ears, hindquarters or stomach when outdoors (especially in summer between the hours of 10am and 2pm) to avoid sunburn and cancer.


title: Miniature Bull Terrier

text: Bull terriers and huskies mix make an adorable addition to any family, but they require particular care and training in order to be a success as a family pet. Here are some basics you should know before getting your bull terrier or husky mix:


title: Miniature Bull Terrier

text: Both breeds were developed specifically for hunting in cold climates, so they have strong working instincts. They need a lot of exercise and stimulation and must be kept on a leash when not supervised. Bull terriers can be protective of their home territory and may bark aggressively if they feel threatened. Huskies are more independent but can also be reactive to strangers.


title: Miniature Bull Terrier

text: Both mixes are usually medium-to-large dogs with low-key personalities. They can be quite easy to train, but do require patience and consistency.


title: Miniature Bull Terrier

text: You’ll want to make sure your bull terrier or husky mix is kept up on basic obedience training such as sit, down, stay, come when called, and leave it. Both breeds also enjoy playing fetch and will do best with regular opportunities to do so.


title: Miniature Bull Terrier

text: Miniature Bull Terriers are prone to many health problems (physiologic and psychologic), and anyone considering adopting a bull terrier must be aware of these issues.


title: Miniature Bull Terrier

text: Deafness occurs in both colored and white Miniature Bull Terriers. Puppies can be born unilaterally deaf (deaf in one ear) or bilaterally deaf (deaf in both ears). Deaf dogs should not be bred due to deafness being hereditary. BEAP (or BAER) testing is done on puppies prior to sale to discover which puppies have hearing problems.


title: Miniature Bull Terrier

text: Lethal Acrodermatitis or LAD is a lethal genetic degenerative disease found in Miniature Bull Terriers. It starts appearing in puppies around the age of 4 weeks. The usual black color of affected puppies will start to appear diluted and turn liverish, due to a zinc deficiency which results in a terrible skin condition, dysfunction of their overall system and eventually premature death. A new DNA test was released to test breeding stock and ensure LAD-clear puppies.


title: Miniature Bull Terrier

text: Miniature Bull Terriers are also susceptible to having luxating patellas. This is a knee problem common in small dogs. It can be treated by surgery.


title: Miniature Bull Terrier

text: Polycystic kidney disease (PKD) and Bull Terrier hereditary nephritis (BTHN) are autosomal dominant diseases. PKD is diagnosed by an Ultrasonic scan by a specialist veterinarian. BTHN is diagnosed by a UPC test. Dogs with a score of .3 or below are considered clear of the disease. Clearing breeding stock prior to use ensures that progeny are not affected by the disease.


title: Miniature Bull Terrier

text: Miniature Bull Terriers are also susceptible to eye problems such as primary lens luxation. PLL is a late-onset disease that typically affects dogs between the ages of mid-2 and 7. Younger and older cases are known. In September 2009 a definitive DNA test was released by the Animal Health Trust. This test gives three results: Clear, Carrier, or Affected.


title: Miniature Bull Terrier

text: Aortic valve stenosis and mitral valve dysplasia are heart diseases. Diagnosis is made by color doppler echocardiography scanning by a specialist veterinarian.


title: Miniature Bull Terrier

text: Disorders of the skin of a Miniature Bull Terrier can occur. Pyotraumatic dermatitis (hot spots), allergic reactions, and hives can be problematic.


title: Miniature Bull Terrier

text: When the Bull Terrier breed was first created in 19th century England, it was about the same size as the Miniature Bull Terrier. Miniature Bull Terriers were granted membership in the American Kennel Club (AKC) on May 14, 1991 (effective January 1, 1992).


title: Miniature Bull Terrier

text: Interbreeding, the process of mating together a Miniature Bull Terrier and Bull Terrier, is allowed, but only for a short time, in Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. Interbreeding is undertaken to reduce the incidence of Primary Lens Luxation in the Miniature. The Bull Terrier does not carry the PLL gene, so all progeny are phenotypically normal for the disease.


title: Scott Mansell

text: He is not related to British Formula One champion Nigel Mansell. In June 2015, he started the Driver61 YouTube channel, presenting videos primarily about Formula 1 and autosport in general. In July 2021 he started his new youtube channel called Driven Media, which is more for cars and funny experiments with cars presenting videos about unique cars and celebrating their engineering.


title: Scott Mansell

text: An alumnus of Bishop Vesey's Grammar School in Sutton Coldfield, Mansell was the 2004 EuroBOSS champion. Scott was a 2004 McLaren Autosport BRDC Award nominee, losing out to eventual winner Paul di Resta. At the Brands Hatch Indy circuit, Mansell set a lap record of 38.032 seconds during the 2004 EuroBOSS season. As well as the Brands Hatch record, Mansell has also broken lap records at Silverstone, Donington Park, Lausitzring and Zolder in 2004. In the same year Mansell won the BBC Midlands Young Sportsperson of the Year as well as being nominated for the Autosport Club Driver of the Year Award.


title: Scott Mansell

text: In 2009, he was the replacement for Duncan Tappy in the Superleague Formula for Galatasaray. This was his first race since the 2006 United States Grand Prix-supporting round of the Indy Pro Series.


title: Scorpio (weapon)

text: The scorpio or scorpion was a type of Roman torsion siege engine and field artillery piece. It was described in detail by the early-imperial Roman architect and engineer Vitruvius in the 1st century BC and by the 4th century AD officer and historian Ammianus Marcellinus.


title: Scorpio (weapon)

text: Two versions are known: a horizontal two-armed variety like a ballista and a one-armed, vertical version otherwise referred to as an "onager". The fourth century army officer and historian Ammianus Marcellinus witnessed the use of "scorpiones" during several engagements in the Persian wars of Constantius II, and described the one-armed version as synonymous with the "onager", with the vertical upraised arm as the 'scorpion's sting'.


title: Scorpio (weapon)

text: The complexity of construction and in particular the torsion springs (which the Romans referred to as "tormenta") led to great sensitivity to any variation in temperature or moisture, which limited their use. While this type of technology continued to be used in the Byzantine Empire, which was the continuation of the Roman Empire through the Middle Ages, it had disappeared in the Middle Ages in Western Europe.


title: Scorpio (weapon)

text: In 52 BC, during the siege of Avaricum in the war against the Gauls, Julius Caesar mentions the "scorpio" in use as an anti-personnel weapon against the Gallic town's defenders. The late third or early fifth century Roman author Vegetius described weapons like the scorpion mounted on carts for campaign use. According to Vegetius, the Roman Empire ideally fielded fifty-five "carroballistae" per legion, one for every century, of whom ten men would be deputed to operate the machine. These, which match Vitruvius's description and the depictions on Trajan's Column and the Column of Marcus Aurelius, he describes as mule-drawn, armour-piercing ballistae which "are to be used not only for defending the camp, but also in the field". The carroballista could be synonymous with, or very similar to, the "scorpio" mounted (and not merely transported) on a cart.


title: Scorpio (weapon)

text: The bolt-firing scorpio had mainly two functions in a legion. In precision shooting, it was a weapon of marksmanship capable of cutting down any foe within a distance of 100 meters. In parabolic shooting, the range is greater, with distances up to 400 meters, and the firing rate is higher (3 to 4 shots per minute). With precision shooting the rate of fire was significantly less. Scorpions could be used in an artillery battery at the top of a hill or other high ground, the side of which was protected by the main body of the legion. The weight and speed of a bolt was sufficient to pierce enemy shields, usually also wounding the enemy so struck.


title: Scorpio (weapon)

text: Like other ancient artillery, the scorpion could be cumbersome and costly campaign equipment, as it could be quite difficult to move quickly and usually acted as a fixed weapon used in infantry defense and for sieges, where it was used both as a siege weapon, fired by the besiegers from earthworks and siege towers, and as an element in cities' defences, mounted on walls and towers.


title: Scott Turow

text: Scott Frederick Turow (born April 12, 1949) is an American author and lawyer. Turow has written 13 fiction and three nonfiction books, which have been translated into more than 40 languages and sold more than 30 million copies. Turow’s novels are set primarily among the legal community in the fictional Kindle County. Films have been based on several of his books.


title: Scott Turow

text: Turow was born in Chicago, to a family of Russian Jewish descent. He attended New Trier High School and graduated from Amherst College in 1970, as a brother of the Alpha Delta Phi Literary Society. He received an Edith Mirrielees Fellowship to Stanford University’s Creative Writing Center, which he attended from 1970 to 1972.


title: Scott Turow

text: Turow later became a Jones Lecturer at Stanford, serving until 1975, when he entered Harvard Law School. In 1977, Turow wrote "One L", a book about his first year at law school. After earning his Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree "cum laude" in 1978, Turow became an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Chicago, serving in that position until 1986. There, he prosecuted several high-profile corruption cases, including the tax fraud case of state Attorney General, William Scott. Turow was also lead counsel in Operation Greylord, the federal prosecution of judicial corruption cases in Illinois.


title: Scott Turow

text: After leaving the U.S. Attorney's Office, Turow became a novelist and wrote the legal thrillers "Presumed Innocent" (1987), "The Burden of Proof" (1990), "Pleading Guilty" (1993), and "Personal Injuries", which "Time" magazine named as the Best Fiction Novel of 1999. All four books became bestsellers, and Turow won multiple literary awards, most notably the Silver Dagger Award of the British Crime Writers' Association.


title: Scott Turow

text: In 1990, Turow was featured on the June 11 cover of "Time", which described him as "Bard of the Litigious Age". In 1995, Canadian author Derek Lundy published a biography of Turow, entitled "Scott Turow: Meeting the Enemy" (ECW Press, 1995). In the 1990s, a British publisher bracketed Turow’s work with that of Margaret Atwood and John Irving, republished in the series "Bloomsbury Modern Library."


title: Scott Turow

text: Turow was elected the President of the Authors Guild in 2010, which he was previously President of from 1997 to 1998. As the President of the Authors Guild, he has been criticized for his copyright maximalist and anti-ebook stance. Turow has often responded that he is not against E-books, however, and he has shared that, in fact, he does the majority of his own reading electronically. According to Turow, he is interested in protecting writing as a livelihood.


title: Scott Turow

text: From 1997 to 1998, Turow was a member of the U.S. Senate Nominations Commission for the Northern District of Illinois, which recommends federal judicial appointments. In 2011, Turow met with Harvard Law School professor, Lawrence Lessig, to discuss political reform, including a possible Second Constitutional Convention of the United States. According to one source, Turow saw risks with having such a convention, but he believed that it may be the "only alternative,” given his stance that campaign money can undermine the one man, one vote principle of democracy.


title: Scott Turow

text: Turow is a retired partner of the international law firm Dentons having been a partner of one of its constituents, the Chicago law firm of Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal. Much of Turow’s caseload work is pro bono, including a 1995 case, in which he won the release of Alejandro Hernandez, a man that spent 11 years on death row for a murder he did not commit. He was also appointed to the commission considering the reform of the Illinois death penalty by former Governor George Ryan. Additionally, Turow was the first Chair of the Illinois Executive Ethics Commission, and he served as one of the 14 members on the Commission, which was appointed in March of 2000, by Illinois Governor George Ryan to consider reform of the capital punishment system. Turow also served as a member of the Illinois State Police Merit Board 2000–2002.


title: Scott Turow

text: Turow’s fiction is set primarily among the legal community in the fictional Kindle County. According to Turow, he planned to set his first novel, ‘’Presumed Innocent’’ in Boston, where he attended law school. But by the time he finished the work, the setting had taken on characteristics of Chicago, Turow’s hometown to which he had returned.


title: Scott Turow

text: His non-fiction work "Ultimate Punishment" also received the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights 2003 Book award given annually to a novelist who "most faithfully and forcefully reflects Robert Kennedy's purposes – his concern for the poor and the powerless, his struggle for honest and even-handed justice, his conviction that a decent society must assure all young people a fair chance, and his faith that a free democracy can act to remedy disparities of power and opportunity."


title: Scott Turow

text: Scott Turow was inducted as a Laureate of The Lincoln Academy of Illinois and awarded the Order of Lincoln (the State’s highest honor) by the Governor of Illinois in 2000 in the area of Communications.


title: Anéantir

text: Anéantir (, ) is a novel by Michel Houellebecq, published on 7 January 2022 by Éditions Flammarion. The novel's first print run was 300,000 copies.


title: Anéantir

text: The novel mixes espionage and politics, mystery and romanticism. Jean Birnbaum of "Le Monde" called it a "political thriller that veers into metaphysical meditation." It envisions the years of 2026 and 2027 where France is in a period of decline. However, France shows some signs of revival and is without labour strikes but "the gap between the ruling classes and the populace has reached unprecedented levels." The country nonetheless remains in a state of moral decay with high levels of unemployment and rural poverty. It begins during the 2027 French presidential election with the outgoing president, although not named, is implied to be Emmanuel Macron. Right-wing figures Marine Le Pen and Éric Zemmour, however, appear by name.


title: Anéantir

text: Paul Raison, the novel's protagonist, is an adviser and confidant of the Minister of the Economy and Finance, Bruno Juge. He is the son of Édouard Raison, a former civil servant of the DGSI. As the nation is plunging into the feverish presidential campaign, mysterious cyberattacks start to take place. The sophisticated nature of the attacks leaves the best computer scientists of the DGSI scrambling for answers. One of the videos posted on the internet shows the virtual beheading of Minister Bruno Juge by guillotine. This environment of cyberterrorism defines the atmosphere of the election. The young outgoing president is completing his second term, having "given up the fantasies of a start-up nation which won his first election, but had objectively resulted only in the creation of a few precarious underpaid jobs." This parallels Macron's promise of a , which critics have echoed similar evaluations of. The election candidates include, on the presidential majority side, the Minister of the Economy and a character who resembles media personality Cyril Hanouna. In the opposition, a young far-right candidate is dangerously close behind the favorite in the polls.


title: Anéantir

text: At over 700 pages, "Anéantir" is unusual for its slow pace and its tone, which is characterised more by compassion than irony. Raison's relationship with his wife, Prudence, an official of the Treasury, has become strained, while the ties with his siblings have long been disjointed. The stroke of their father presents an opportunity for siblings Cécile, a fervent Catholic, Aurélien, a sensitive artist, and Paul, an énarque in search of meaning, to repair their relationship. They are determined to get their father, who is sick in a vegetative state, out of the center where he is wasting away. However, Paul himself is later stricken with illness. The narrative explores themes of faith and love. France Inter described the narrative as a "Houellebecq somewhere between nihilism and romanticism." On Europe 1 Dimitri Pavlenko said, "You might think this is a sinister and pessimistic Houellebecq. But no. Many of the characters are searching for goodness and the message of the book could be: "Love saves".


title: Anéantir

text: The character of Bruno Juge, Minister of the Economy and Finance, is likely a reference to Bruno Le Maire (Minister of the Economy and Finance at the time of the novel's publication). In October 2021, Bruno Le Maire, a personal friend of Houellebecq, revealed some elements of the novel's plot.


title: Anéantir

text: Less than three weeks before its publication, the first pages of the novel were illegally distributed on social media, and, on 21 December 2021, a complete digital copy was circulated, presumably made from a scan of the book since no digital version was released. Only print copies were sent to literary journalists, with a formal request from the publisher not to reveal any details of the novel's plot until 30 December 2021.


title: Anéantir

text: Reviews for "Anéantir" have been largely positive. Jean Birnbaum of "Le Monde" wrote, "The most poignant pages of his novel are those in which he manages to bring to life, amid solitude and dereliction, fleeting gestures that make you cry." Étienne Campion of "Marianne" called it a "profound novel about illness, suffering, agony, and death, which will surprise, even irritate, many readers." The daily newspapers "Le Figaro" and "Libération", who are positioned on opposing sides of the political spectrum, were in agreement in praising the success of the novel's storyline. Likewise, a favourable reception was received from the magazine "Elle" and from regional daily newspapers such as "Ouest-France" et "La Voix du Nord".


title: Anéantir

text: "Mediapart" panned the novel, writing, "All these nauseating words are distilled in small touches, as in the minor mode." Left-wing publications "L'Obs", "Les Inrockuptibles" and "L'Humanité" also published unfavourable reviews of the novel, deviating from their usual acclaim of Houellebecq's work. "L'Obs" criticized the novel's length and described it as "a yawn."


title: Amnesty

text: Amnesty (from the Ancient Greek ἀμνηστία, "amnestia", "forgetfulness, passing over") is defined as "A pardon extended by the government to a group or class of people, usually for a political offense; the act of a sovereign power officially forgiving certain classes of people who are subject to trial but have not yet been convicted." Though the term general pardon has a similar definition, an amnesty constitutes more than a pardon, in so much as it obliterates all legal remembrance of the offense. Amnesty is increasingly used to express the idea of "freedom" and to refer to when prisoners can go free.


title: Amnesty

text: Amnesties, which in the United Kingdom may be granted by the crown or by an act of Parliament, were formerly usual on coronations and similar occasions, but are chiefly exercised towards associations of political criminals, and are sometimes granted absolutely, though more frequently there are certain specified exceptions. Thus, in the case of the earliest recorded amnesty, that of Thrasybulus at Athens, the thirty tyrants and a few others were expressly excluded from its operation; and the amnesty proclaimed on the restoration of Charles II of England did not extend to those who had taken part in the execution of his father. Other famous amnesties include: Napoleon's amnesty of March 13, 1815, from which thirteen eminent persons, including Talleyrand, were exempt; the Prussian amnesty of August 10, 1840; the general amnesty proclaimed by the emperor Franz Josef I of Austria in 1857; the general amnesty granted by President of the United States, Andrew Johnson, after the American Civil War (1861–1865), in 1868, and the French amnesty of 1905. Amnesty in U.S. politics in 1872 meant restoring the right to vote and hold office to ex-Confederates, which was achieved by act of Congress. Those were true amnesties, pardoning past violations without changing the laws violated.


title: Amnesty

text: An amnesty may be extended when the authority decides that bringing citizens into compliance with a law is more important than punishing them for past offenses. Amnesty after a war helps end a conflict. While laws against treason, sedition, etc. are retained to discourage future traitors during future conflicts, it makes sense to forgive past offenders, after the enemy no longer exists which had attracted their support but a significant number remains in flight from authorities. In 1718, when a general pardon was offered to pirates by the British, its advocates hoped it would dissuade recipients from entering Spanish service while the countries were at war.


title: Amnesty

text: Amnesty is often used to encourage people to turn in contraband, as in the case of China's gun restrictions, or the Kansas City ban on pit bulls.


title: Amnesty

text: Advantages of using amnesty may include avoiding expensive prosecutions (especially when massive numbers of violators are involved), prompting violators to come forward who might otherwise have eluded authorities, and promoting reconciliation between offenders and society. An example of the latter was the amnesty that was granted to conscientious objectors and draft evaders in the wake of the Vietnam War in the 1970s, in an effort by President Jimmy Carter to heal war wounds, given that both the war and the draft were over.


title: Amnesty

text: Amnesty can at times raise questions of justice. An example was the Ugandan government's offer not to prosecute alleged war criminal Joseph Kony, in hopes that further bloodshed would be avoided. David Smock noted, "The downside of it is the impunity that it implies; that people can commit atrocities and say that they will only stop if they are given amnesty..."


title: Amnesty

text: Controversies also raise towards amnesties given to alleged perpetrators of the most serious crimes of international law (or crimes of the "Jus Cogens" which include genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and aggression). Courts have rejected amnesties for such crimes, such as the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the Special Court for Sierra Leone. But scholars have suggested that there should be room for amnesties which were imperative necessities to achieve peace and accompanied by effective Truth and Reconciliation Commissions. One particular case was in Uruguay: the controversial Law on the Expiration of the Punitive Claims of the State pretended to put an end to unsolved issues deriving from 12 years of civic-military dictatorship; local human rights organizations challenged that law and called a referendum in 1989 which confirmed the law by 56% of the popular vote.


title: Amnesty

text: The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986—signed into law by President Ronald Reagan on November 6, 1986—granted amnesty to about 3 million undocumented immigrants in the United States.


title: Amnesty

text: A controversial issue in the United States is whether undocumented immigrants should be granted some form of amnesty. It is proposed that undocumented immigrants be able to come forward and immediately receive probationary status. California Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said an amnesty program like the one the federal government undertook in 1986 would be ill-advised today. "It backfired big-time. It sent the wrong message: You come here illegally, and then we go and give you amnesty. So then, the next million come and they say, 'Hey, we get amnesty, this is really terrific'."


title: American coot

text: The American coot (Fulica americana), also known as a mud hen or pouldeau, is a bird of the family Rallidae. Though commonly mistaken for ducks, American coots are only distantly related to ducks, belonging to a separate order. Unlike the webbed feet of ducks, coots have broad, lobed scales on their lower legs and toes that fold back with each step which facilitates walking on dry land. Coots live near water, typically inhabiting wetlands and open water bodies in North America. Groups of coots are called covers or rafts. The oldest known coot lived to be 22 years old.


title: American coot

text: The American coot is a migratory bird that occupies most of North America. It lives in the Pacific and southwestern United States and Mexico year-round and occupies more northeastern regions during the summer breeding season. In the winter they can be found as far south as Panama. Coots generally build floating nests and lay 8–12 eggs per clutch. Females and males have similar appearances, but they can be distinguished during aggressive displays by the larger ruff (head plumage) on the male. American coots eat primarily algae and other aquatic plants but also animals (both vertebrates and invertebrates) when available.


title: American coot

text: The American coot is listed as “Least Concern” under the IUCN conservation ratings. Hunters generally avoid killing American coots because their meat is not as sought after as that of ducks.


title: American coot

text: Much research has been done on the breeding habits of American coots. Studies have found that mothers will preferentially feed offspring with the brightest plume feathers, a characteristic known as chick ornaments. American coots are also susceptible to conspecific brood parasitism and have evolved mechanisms to identify which offspring are theirs and which are from parasitic females.


title: American coot

text: The American coot was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's "Systema Naturae". He placed it with all the other coots in the genus "Fulica" and coined the binomial name "Fulica americana". Gmelin based his description on the "Cinereous coot" from North America that had been described in 1785 by the English ornithologist John Latham in his book "A General Synopsis of Birds".


title: American coot

text: Coot fossils from the Middle Pleistocene of California have been described as "Fulica hesterna" but cannot be separated from the present-day American coot. However, the Pleistocene coot "Fulica shufeldti" (formerly "F. minor"), famously known as part of the Fossil Lake fauna, quite possibly was a paleosubspecies of the American coot (as "Fulica americana shufeldti") as they only differed marginally in size and proportions from living birds. Thus, it seems that the modern-type American coots evolved during the mid-late Pleistocene, a few hundred thousand years ago.


title: American coot

text: The American coot's genus name, "Fulica", is a direct borrowing of the Latin word for "coot". The specific epithet "americana" means "America".


title: American coot

text: The American coot measures in length with a wingspan of . Adults have a short, thick, white bill and white frontal shield, which usually has a reddish-brown spot near the top of the bill between the eyes. Males and females look alike, but females are smaller. Body mass in females ranges from and in males from . Juvenile birds have olive-brown crowns and a gray body. They become adult-colored around 4 months of age.


title: American coot

text: The American coot has a variety of repeated calls and sounds. Male and female coots make different types of calls to similar situations. Male alarm calls are ' while female alarm calls are '. Also, stressed males go ' or ' while females call "".


title: American coot

text: American coots are found near water reed-ringed lakes and ponds, open marshes, and sluggish rivers. They prefer freshwater environments but may temporarily live in saltwater environments during the winter months.


title: American coot

text: The American coot's breeding habitat extends from marshes in southern Quebec to the Pacific coast of North America and as far south as northern South America. Birds from temperate North America east of the Rocky Mountains migrate to the southern United States and southern British Columbia. It is often a year-round resident where water remains open in winter. The number of birds that stay year-round near the northern limit of the species' range seems to be increasing.


title: American coot

text: Autumn migration occurs from August to December, with males and non-breeders moving south before the females and juveniles. Spring migration to breeding ranges occurs from late February to mid-May, with males and older birds moving North first. There has been evidence of birds travelling as far north as Greenland and Iceland.


title: American coot

text: Coots resident in the Caribbean and Greater and Lesser Antilles lack the red portion of the frontal shield, and were previously believed to be a distinct species, the Caribbean coot ("Fulica caribaea"). In 2016, due to research showing that the only distinguishing characteristic between American and Caribbean coots, the presence or absence of red in the frontal shield, was not distinct to Caribbean coots as some American coots, in locations where vagrancy from Caribbean populations was highly unlikely, had fully white shields and, therefore, there was no way to reliably distinguish the species, and there was no evidence of Caribbean and American coots engaging in assortative mating, the American Ornithological Society lumped the Caribbean coot as a regional variation of the American coot.


title: American coot

text: The American coot is a highly gregarious species, particularly in the winter, when its flocks can number in the thousands. When swimming on the water surface, American coots exhibit a variety of interesting collective formations, including single-file lines, high density synchronized swimming and rotational dynamics, broad arcing formations, and sequential take-off dynamics.


title: American coot

text: The American coot can dive for food but can also forage and scavenge on land. Their principal source of food is aquatic vegetation, especially algae. Yet they are omnivorous, also eating arthropods, fish, and other aquatic animals. During breeding season, coots are more likely to eat aquatic insects and mollusks—which constitute the majority of a chick's diet.


title: American coot

text: The coot mating season occurs during May and June. Coot mate pairings are monogamous throughout their life, given they have a suitable territory. A typical reproductive cycle involves multiple stages: pairing, nesting, copulation, egg deposition, incubation, and hatching.


title: American coot

text: The American coot typically has long courtship periods. This courtship period is characterized by billing, bowing, and nibbling. Males generally initiate billing, which is the touching of bills between individuals. As the pair bond becomes more evident, both males and females will initiate billing only with each other and not other males or females. After a pair bond is cemented, the mating pair looks for a territory to build a nest in. A pair bond becomes permanent when a nesting territory is secured. Copulation behavior among coot pairs always falls under the same general pattern. First the male chases the female. Then, the female moves to the display platform and squats with her head under the water. The male then mounts the female, using his claws and wings to balance on the female's back while she brings her head above the water. Sexual intercourse usually takes no longer than two seconds.


title: American coot

text: The American coot is a prolific builder and will create multiple structures during a single breeding season. It nests in well-concealed locations in tall reeds. There are three general types of structures: display platforms, egg nests and brood nests.


title: American coot

text: Since American coots build on the water, their structures disintegrate easily and have short life spans. Egg and brood nests are actually elaborate rafts, and must be constantly added to in order to stay afloat. Females typically do the most work while building.


title: American coot

text: Females deposit one egg a day until the clutch is complete. Eggs are usually deposited between sunset and midnight. Typically, early season and first clutches average two more eggs than second nestings and late season clutches. Early season nests see an average of 9.0 eggs per clutch while late clutches see an average of 6.4 eggs per clutch. There is an inverse relationship between egg weights and laying sequence, wherein earlier eggs are larger than eggs laid later in the sequence. It is possible to induce a female coot to lay more eggs than normal by either removing all or part of her clutch. Sometimes, a female may abandon the clutch if enough eggs are removed. Coots, however, do not respond to experimental addition of eggs by laying fewer eggs.


title: American coot

text: The American coot is a persistent re-nester, and will replace lost clutches with new ones within two days of clutch-loss during deposition. One study showed that 68% of destroyed clutches are eventually replaced. Re-nested clutches are typically smaller than original clutches by one or two eggs, but this could be attributed to differences in time and habitat quality instead of food or nutrient reserves and availability.


title: American coot

text: Younger females reproduce later in the season and produce smaller eggs than older females. Their offspring are also smaller. However, there is no difference in clutch size between older and younger females as there is in other avian species.


title: American coot

text: Incubation start time in the American coot is variable, and can begin anywhere from the deposition of the first egg to after the clutch is fully deposited. Starting incubation before the entire clutch has been laid is an uncommon practice among birds. Once incubation starts it continues without interruption. Male and female coots share incubation responsibility, but males do most of the work during the 21-day incubation period. Females will begin to re-nest clutches in an average of six days if clutches are destroyed during incubation.


title: American coot

text: Hatch order usually follows the same sequence as laying order. Regardless of clutch size, eight is the typical maximum size of a brood. Egg desertion is a frequent occurrence among coots because females will often deposit more than eight eggs. Brood size limits incubation time, and when a certain number of chicks have hatched the remaining eggs are abandoned. The mechanism for egg abandonment has not yet been discovered. Food resource constraints may limit the number of eggs parents let hatch, or the remaining eggs may not provide enough visual or tactile stimulation to elicit incubation behavior. An American coot can be forced to hatch more eggs than are normally laid. These additional offspring, however, suffer higher mortality rates due to inadequacy in brooding or feeding ability.


title: American coot

text: Hormones that are passed down from the mother into the egg affect offspring growth, behavior, and social interactions. These nongenetic contributions by the mother are known as maternal effects. In the American coot, two levels of androgen and testosterone variation have been discovered—within-clutch and among-clutch variation. Within the same clutch, eggs laid earlier in the sequence have higher testosterone levels than eggs laid later in the sequence. Females that lay three clutches deposit more androgens into their yolks than females who lay only one or two clutches.


title: American coot

text: The American coot has a mixed reproductive strategy, and conspecific brood parasitism is a common alternative reproductive method. In one 4-year study, researchers found that 40% of nests were parasitized, and that 13% of all eggs were laid by females in nests that were not their own. Increasing reproductive success under social and ecological constraints is the primary reason for brood parasitism. Floater females without territories or nests use brood parasitism as their primary method of reproduction, if they breed at all. Other females may engage in brood parasitism if their partially complete clutches are destroyed. Conspecific brood parasitic behavior is most common among females trying to increase their total number of offspring. Food supply is the limiting factor to chick survival and starvation is the most common cause of chick morbidity. Parasitic females bypass the parental care constraint of feeding by laying additional parasitic eggs in addition to their normal nest.


title: American coot

text: When a parasitic female lays her egg in a host female's nest, the host female experiences a deposition rate of two eggs per day. Host females may recognize parasitic eggs when the egg deposition pattern deviates from the traditional one egg per day pattern. The occurrence of brood parasitism may be influenced by the body size of the potential parasitic female relative to the potential host female. Parasitic females are generally larger than their host counterparts, but on average, there is no size difference between the parasite and the host.


title: American coot

text: The American coot, unlike other parasitized species, has the ability to recognize and reject conspecific parasitic chicks from their brood. Parents aggressively reject parasite chicks by pecking them vigorously, drowning them, preventing them from entering the nest, etc. They learn to recognize their own chicks by imprinting on cues from the first chick that hatches. The first-hatched chick is a reference to which parents discriminate between later-hatched chicks. Chicks that do not match the imprinted cues are then recognized as parasite chicks and are rejected.


title: American coot

text: Chick recognition reduces the costs associated with parasitism, and coots are one of only three bird species in which this behavior has evolved. This is because hatching order is predictable in parasitized coots—host eggs will reliably hatch before parasite eggs. In other species where hatching order is not as reliable, there is a risk of misimprinting on a parasite chick first and then rejecting their own chicks. In these species, the cost of accidentally misimprinting is greater than the benefits of rejecting parasite chicks.


title: American coot

text: The first evidence for parental selection of exaggerated, ornamental traits in offspring was found in American coots. Black American coot chicks have conspicuously orange-tipped ornamental plumes covering the front half of their body that are known as “chick ornaments” that eventually get bleached out after six days. This brightly colored, exaggerated trait makes coot chicks more susceptible to predation and does not aid in thermoregulation, but remains selected for by parental choice. These plumes are not necessary for chick viability, but increased chick ornamentation increases the likelihood that a chick will be chosen as a favorite by the parents. Experimental manipulation of chick ornamentation by clipping the bright plumes has shown that parents prefer ornamented chicks over non-ornamented ones.


title: American coot

text: The American coot is fairly aggressive in defense of its eggs and, in combination with their protected nesting habitat, undoubtedly helps reduce losses of eggs and young to all but the most determined and effective predators. American crows, black-billed magpies and Forster's tern can sometimes take eggs. Mammalian predators (including red foxes, coyotes, skunks and raccoons) are even less likely to predate coot nests, though nests are regularly destroyed in usurpation by muskrats. Conversely, the bold behavior of immature and adult coots leads to them falling prey with relative regularity once out of the breeding season. Regular, non-nesting-season predators include great horned owls, northern harriers, bald eagles, golden eagles, American alligators, bobcats, great black-backed and California gulls. In fact, coots may locally comprise more than 80% of the bald eagle diet.


title: American coot

text: On the Louisiana coast, the Cajun word for coot is pouldeau, from French for "coot", "poule d'eau" – literally "water hen". Coot can be used for cooking; it is somewhat popular in Cajun cuisine, for instance as an ingredient for gumbos cooked at home by duck hunters.


title: American coot

text: The American coot is listed under "least concern" by the IUCN Red List of Endangered Species. They are common and widespread, and are sometimes even considered a pest. They are rarely the targets of hunters since their meat is not considered to be as good as that of ducks; although some are shot for sport, particularly in the southeastern United States. Because they are found in wetlands, scientists use them to monitor toxin levels and pollution problems in these environments.


title: Intergalactic travel

text: Intergalactic travel is the hypothetical crewed or uncrewed travel between galaxies. Due to the enormous distances between the Milky Way and even its closest neighbors—tens of thousands to millions of light-years—any such venture would be far more technologically and financially demanding than even interstellar travel. Intergalactic distances are roughly a hundred-thousandfold (five orders of magnitude) greater than their interstellar counterparts.


title: Intergalactic travel

text: The technology required to travel between galaxies is far beyond humanity's present capabilities, and currently only the subject of speculation, hypothesis, and science fiction.


title: Intergalactic travel

text: However, theoretically speaking, there is nothing to conclusively indicate that intergalactic travel is impossible. There are several hypothesized methods of carrying out such a journey, and to date several academics have studied intergalactic travel in a serious manner.


title: Intergalactic travel

text: Theorized in 1988, and observed in 2005, hypervelocity stars move faster than the escape velocity of the Milky Way, and are traveling out into intergalactic space. There are several theories for their existence. One of the mechanisms would be that the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way ejects stars from the galaxy at a rate of about one every hundred thousand years. Another theorized mechanism might be a supernova explosion in a binary system. Intergalactic travel using these stars would involve entering into an orbit around them and waiting for them to reach another galaxy.


title: Intergalactic travel

text: While it takes light approximately 2.54 million years to traverse the gulf of space between Earth and, for instance, the Andromeda Galaxy, it would take a much shorter amount of time from the point of view of a traveler at close to the speed of light due to the effects of time dilation; the time experienced by the traveler depending both on velocity (anything less than the speed of light) and distance traveled (length contraction). Intergalactic travel for humans is therefore possible, in theory, from the point of view of the traveler. For example, a rocket that accelerated at standard acceleration due to gravity toward the Andromeda Galaxy and started to decelerate halfway through the trip would arrive in about 28 years, from the frame of reference of the observer.


title: Intergalactic travel

text: The Alcubierre drive is a hypothetical concept that is able to impulse a spacecraft to speeds faster than light (the spaceship itself would not move faster than light, but the space around it would). This could in theory allow practical intergalactic travel. There is no known way to create the space-distorting wave this concept needs to work, but the metrics of the equations comply with relativity and the limit of light speed.


title: Intergalactic travel

text: A wormhole is a hypothetical tunnel through space-time that would allow instantaneous intergalactic travel to the most distant galaxies even billions of light years away. Wormholes are allowed by general relativity.


title: Pat DiCicco

text: Pasquale "Pat" DiCicco (; February 14, 1909 – October 24, 1978) was an American agent, movie producer, and occasional actor, as well as an alleged mobster working for Lucky Luciano. He was married three times, including to Thelma Todd and Gloria Vanderbilt. He was a cousin of Albert R. Broccoli and gave him his well-known nickname "Cubby".


title: Pat DiCicco

text: DiCicco married Thelma Todd in 1932. The couple had a particularly unstable marriage, and they frequently erupted in drunken brawls, one of which resulted in a broken nose for DiCicco and an emergency appendectomy for Todd. They divorced in 1934. Todd died a year later from what was ruled to be accidental carbon monoxide poisoning.


title: Pat DiCicco

text: In 1941, DiCicco married Gloria Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt, who was only 17, had moved to Hollywood that same year. DiCicco was allegedly a temperamental and abusive husband who called Vanderbilt "Fatsy Roo" and regularly beat her. Vanderbilt later said, "He would take my head and bang it against the wall. I had black eyes." They divorced in 1945.


title: Pat DiCicco

text: In 1953, DiCicco married actress Mary Jo Tarola (born February 27, 1928), also known by her stage name, Linda Douglas. The marriage lasted eight years before ending in divorce in 1960.


title: Pat DiCicco

text: DiCicco is alleged to have been involved in an altercation with comedian Ted Healy just before the latter's death in 1937. A source alleged that actor Wallace Beery, producer Albert R. "Cubby" Broccoli and DiCicco beat Healy so badly that he fell into a coma and died. While there is no documentation in contemporaneous news reports that either Beery or DiCicco was present, Broccoli admitted that he was indeed involved in a fist fight with Healy at the Trocadero. He later modified his story, stating that a heavily intoxicated Healy had picked a fight with him, the two had briefly scuffled, then shook hands and parted ways. In other reports, Broccoli admitted to pushing Healy, but not striking him. It is also possible the investigation and subsequent newspaper coverage was influenced by the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio "fixers" Eddie Mannix and Howard Strickling (Mannix would later run the studio) as Wallace Beery was one of MGM's highest paid actors. Beery took a long vacation in Europe after the altercation until the story died down.


title: Pat DiCicco

text: There is disagreement over whether Healy died as a result of the brawl or due to his well-known alcoholism. Because of the authorities' lack of interest in investigating Healy's death, an autopsy was not performed until after Healy's corpse had been embalmed, rendering the examiner's note that Healy's organs were "soaked in alcohol" and useless in determining a cause of death.


title: Pat DiCicco

text: Following the autopsy, the Los Angeles county coroner reported that Healy died of acute toxic nephritis secondary to acute and chronic alcoholism. Police closed their investigation, as there was no indication in the report that his death was caused by physical assault.


title: Larry Grayson

text: Larry Grayson (31 August 1923 – 7 January 1995), born William Sulley White, was an English comedian and television presenter who was best known in the 1970s and early 1980s. He is best remembered for hosting the BBC's popular series "The Generation Game" and for his high camp and English music hall humour.


title: Larry Grayson

text: His camp stand-up act consisted mainly of anecdotes about a cast of imaginary friends; the most frequently mentioned were Everard, Apricot Lil and Slack Alice. He is often cited as one of the first gay entertainers to have enjoyed mass appeal, although he never made any reference to his sexuality. He was devoted to his home town of Nuneaton, where a museum display relating to his life and work and a memorial have been established.


title: Larry Grayson

text: Grayson was born William Sulley White in Banbury, Oxfordshire, in 1923. His parents were unmarried and he never met his father. When Grayson was ten days old, his mother, Ethel White, arranged for him to be fostered by Alice and Jim Hammonds in Nuneaton, Warwickshire. He had two foster sisters, Flo and May. His foster mother Alice died when he was six years old, and he was brought up by his elder foster sister, Flo, with whom he lived for much of his life. It has been reported that his birth mother stayed in touch with the family and was known to Grayson as "Aunt Ethel", until he discovered her true identity when he was eight years old. Larry was never formally adopted.


title: Larry Grayson

text: Grayson's sexuality was the subject of much speculation, and while he never publicly came out as gay his unpublished memoirs do discuss his sexuality. He recounted how his "one true love" had been his best friend from school days, Tom Proctor, who was killed at the age of 21 at The Battle of Monte Cassino during the Second World War. Grayson states that he never got over this loss, and he is not known to have had any other significant relationships (albeit one biographer recalls there was "a brief smokescreen" when he was said to be engaged to "Crossroads" actress Nolly Gordon).


title: Larry Grayson

text: Homosexual relationships were illegal in England and Wales until the 1967 Sexual Offences Act (when Grayson was 44), and even after that coming out as gay would have damaged his television career. During his life Grayson was targeted by gay rights campaigners – who picketed his shows calling for him to be open about his sexuality, while the Gay Liberation Front also protested against his stereotypical camp portrayals of gay men for comedic purposes. Grayson's biographer, Tony Nicholson, observes that "many gay people acknowledge how important his contribution to camp culture was, and how his mass popularity did perhaps help spearhead greater acceptance of the LGBT community".


title: Larry Grayson

text: Grayson left school at the age of 14 and began working professionally as a supporting drag act on the comedy club circuit. He initially used the stage name Billy Breen, but changed it to Larry Grayson in the 1950s on the advice of his agent. BBC TV's "The One Show" reported on 27 November 2012 that the name Grayson was taken from the American singer Kathryn Grayson. While the origin of the name Larry is unknown, his management at the time felt a two-syllable first name would be more memorable and go better with the surname Grayson.


title: Larry Grayson

text: Over the next 30 years he toured the UK in male revues and drag shows, as well as in variety shows at venues including working men's clubs, regional theatres and the Metropolitan in London. He also added stand-up comedy to his act and developed a unique and very gentle anecdotal style of comedy. It was usually based around his various imaginary friends such as Everard, Apricot Lil, Slack Alice, milkman Sterilised Stan, window cleaner Peek-a-boo Pete with his dirty shammy, and the postman Pop-It-In Pete. A lot of his material was observational. In his early years, Grayson's family had the only telephone in the street, and his inspiration came from overhearing his neighbours using it. The "imaginary friends" were in fact based on local characters: for example, Apricot Lil worked at the local jam factory.


title: Larry Grayson

text: It was while he performed as Billy Breen at the New Pavilion Theatre Redcar (now the Regent Cinema) that he started using his familiar catchphrase "shut that door" when a side door had been left open causing a cold breeze to blow across the stage straight from the sea. During this period, Grayson was briefly managed by Eve Taylor, who renamed him Larry Grayson and is credited with being the source of the phrase, as several of her clients revealed that whenever she wanted to discuss money or personal issues with her clients she would always tell them to "shut that door". Taylor struggled to find him the right opportunities and they parted, with Grayson becoming a client of Michael Grade.


title: Larry Grayson

text: An early TV appearance in the 1950s had led to complaints about his act being too outrageous, and Grayson had resigned himself to a career off television. Then in the early 1970s his club act was seen by Michael Grade, then an agent, who quickly signed him.


title: Larry Grayson

text: Following several successful appearances in ATV variety shows, Grade's uncle, impresario Lew Grade, gave Grayson a contract to front a show, "Shut That Door!" (1972), and slightly later, the "Larry Grayson Show".


title: Larry Grayson

text: Grayson also made two cameo appearances in the Midlands-based soap opera "Crossroads", as a flouncing, difficult customer at the Crossroads Motel and as the chauffeur at the wedding of Meg Richardson, played by his close friend Noele Gordon. In real life Grayson could not drive. He also made a number of guest appearances in variety shows, chat shows and panel games.


title: Larry Grayson

text: Grayson's popularity peaked when he was hired by the BBC to present the Saturday night show "The Generation Game" in 1978, as the replacement for Bruce Forsyth. The show became hugely successful, once attracting an audience of 25 million (due to a strike at ITV) at its peak. Grayson was assisted by his co-star Isla St Clair, whom he frequently referred to as "my lovely Isla".


title: Larry Grayson

text: Despite its huge popularity, by 1981 "The Generation Game" was being overtaken in the ratings by ITV's rival show "Game for a Laugh". Grayson decided to leave "The Generation Game" in 1982 while it was still relatively successful, in the expectation that the BBC would offer him another high-profile Saturday night show; this did not materialise.


title: Larry Grayson

text: Because offers of work were not forthcoming, Grayson went into unintentional semi-retirement, enjoying time on his own at his house in Nuneaton with his beloved dogs, although he did return to television to present the game show "Sweethearts" for ITV in 1987. He made a number of other TV appearances and radio broadcasts, especially on the Tom O'Connor hosted TV quiz show "A Question of Entertainment", where he was one of the team captains in 1988. Grayson moved with Flo (his adoptive older sister) to Torquay, Devon, as part of his semi-retirement, but moved back to Nuneaton after just a couple of years when he became bored and missed his close family and friends. They lived in two separate neighbouring bungalows.


title: Larry Grayson

text: Grayson's final public appearance was on 3 December 1994 at the "Royal Variety Performance". During this performance he referred to his hiatus from television by commenting to the audience, "They thought I was dead!".


title: Larry Grayson

text: On New Year's Eve 1994, Grayson was rushed into hospital. He was found to have suffered from a perforated appendix. After being allowed home from hospital, Grayson died on 7 January 1995 in Nuneaton, at the age of 71. His body was buried alongside other members of his family at Oaston Road Cemetery in his home town of Nuneaton.


title: Larry Grayson

text: In 2009, Network DVD released a three disc set "Shut That Door – Larry Grayson At ITV", which features material from his ITV days, including the one existing episode of his series "Shut That Door" and both series of "The Larry Grayson Show".


title: Laura Robson

text: Laura Robson (born 21 January 1994) is a British former professional tennis player. She debuted on the ITF Junior Circuit in 2007, and a year later won the Junior Wimbledon championships at the age of 14. As a junior, she also twice reached the final of the girls' singles tournament at the Australian Open, in 2009 and 2010. She won her first tournament on the ITF Women's Circuit in November 2008.


title: Laura Robson

text: In singles tennis, Robson was the first British woman since Samantha Smith at Wimbledon in 1998 to reach the fourth round of a Grand Slam tournament, doing so at the 2012 US Open and the 2013 Wimbledon Championships. At the 2012 Guangzhou Women's Open, Robson became the first British woman since Jo Durie in 1990 to reach a WTA Tour final, where she lost to Hsieh Su-wei. She was named WTA Newcomer of the Year for 2012 and reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 27 the following year.


title: Laura Robson

text: In mixed doubles, she won a silver medal at the 2012 London Olympics playing with Andy Murray, with whom she also reached the 2010 Hopman Cup final. She has a career-high doubles ranking of No. 82 (July 2013).


title: Laura Robson

text: Robson suffered from various injuries throughout the 2014 and 2015 seasons, notably to her left (and dominant) wrist for which she underwent surgery in April 2014, resulting in multiple prolonged absences from the WTA Tour. She dropped out of the world rankings in early 2015, returning at No. 906 in July 2015. After returning to full-time tennis in January 2016 post-injury, Robson struggled with form and did not return to the top 150 in singles tennis. In July 2018, she underwent hip surgery, and she did not return to the WTA Tour afterwards.


title: Laura Robson

text: Robson was born on 21 January 1994 in Melbourne, the third child of Australian parents Andrew, an oil executive with Shell, and Kathy Robson, a sports coach and former professional basketball player. Robson and her family moved from Melbourne to Singapore when she was 18 months old, where she attended Tanglin Trust School and then to the United Kingdom when she was six.


title: Laura Robson

text: According to her parents, she began playing tennis "as soon as she could hold a tennis racquet", and after being encouraged by them, she entered a junior tennis academy at age seven. She signed with management company Octagon when she was ten, with Adidas at age 11, and also signed a racquet deal with Wilson Sporting Goods.


title: Laura Robson

text: After working with several coaches, including the head of the Lawn Tennis Association Carl Maes, she chose coach Martijn Bok in 2007. Bok said later that although Robson "had trouble staying emotionally under control", he "saw right away...a lot of potential in Laura." Robson also began training at the National Tennis Centre, under the guidance of Bok, Maes, and the head of women's tennis at the centre, Nigel Sears, while taking school lessons at home.


title: Laura Robson

text: Robson's first tournament on the Junior ITF Circuit was in 2007. She went from the qualifying draw of the tournament to the quarterfinals, and reached the final of two other tournaments, and won her first title in October. In the first half of 2008, she reached the finals of three tournaments, but was also eliminated before the third round in three straight tournaments.


title: Laura Robson

text: Robson competed in her first junior Grand Slam at the Wimbledon girls' event, as an unseeded player. As the youngest player in the tournament, she beat top seed Melanie Oudin on her way to the finals where she defeated third seed Noppawan Lertcheewakarn. Her victory made her the first British player to win the girls' event since Annabel Croft in 1984, and the British media described her as the "new darling" of British tennis, and the "Queen of Wimbledon".


title: Laura Robson

text: After a brief period on the main tour, Robson returned to junior competition but was knocked out in the second round of a tournament in December. In the same month she played her final junior tournament of 2008, the Orange Bowl, where she had to retire in the third round with a stomach strain. At the end of the year, she was shortlisted for the BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year, but lost out to Paralympic swimmer Eleanor Simmonds.


title: Laura Robson

text: After recovering from her injury, Robson entered the junior tournament of the 2009 Australian Open, where she was seeded fifth. In the semifinals she faced a replay of her Wimbledon final, against top seed Tara Flanagan, whom she beat in straight sets to reach her second Grand Slam junior final. Facing third seed Ksenia Pervak from Russia, Robson was defeated in straight sets. She later attributed her loss to Pervak's greater consistency, and her coach Bok said that "everybody has to be patient". After the tournament, Robson started to train with Gil Reyes, the former trainer of Andre Agassi. She was also named the MCC Young Sportswoman of the Year. She claimed the top ranking of ITF Junior Tour in April, despite not playing for two months because of shin splints.


title: Laura Robson

text: At the French Open, Robson was the top seed in the junior's competition, but was defeated in round two by Sandra Zaniewska. Robson was the defending champion at Wimbledon, but she fell in the second round to Quirine Lemoine.


title: Laura Robson

text: Due to her focusing on her senior career, Robson entered the US Open unseeded. In the first round, she beat Ons Jabeur of Tunisia. She then faced the seventh seed Lauren Embree of the United States and beat her in three sets. She went on to face the 12th seed, Tamaryn Hendler, who she defeated in straight sets. Robson then beat Lauren Davis in the quarterfinals. In her semifinal, she faced Yana Buchina of Russia. Due to rain delay, both quarter- and semifinals were played on the same day. Therefore, the semifinal followed the quarterfinal match. Despite starting strongly, Robson tired, losing the match in three sets.


title: Laura Robson

text: At the junior singles at the 2010 Australian Open, Robson was unseeded and defeated Belinda Woolcock, Yulia Putintseva, and Cristina Dinu to reach the quarterfinals. In the last eight, she easily overcame American Ester Goldfeld to move through to her fourth junior Grand Slam semifinal where she defeated Kristýna Plíšková of the Czech Republic. She was defeated by Kristýna's twin sister Karolína in the final. In the Wimbledon junior singles she reached the semifinals, losing to Sachie Ishizu of Japan.


title: Laura Robson

text: Following her victory at Wimbledon, Robson made her debut on the ITF Women's Circuit circuit at a $10k tournament in Limoges, France. She won two matches to qualify for the main draw of the tournament, as well as her first-round match, before having to retire with a shoulder injury in the second round against the second seed Marina Melnikova.


title: Laura Robson

text: Robson was then given a wildcard into the main draw of the $75k event in Shrewsbury. After beating 2007 Wimbledon girls' singles champion Urszula Radwańska and fourth seed Tzipi Obziler, Robson lost to second seed Maret Ani in three sets in the semifinals. She was given another wildcard into the $50k in Barnstaple, but was defeated in three sets in her first round match against the seventh seed Angelique Kerber, who later said that it was "unbelievable how she's playing".