title: Britt Assombalonga

text: Britt Curtis Assombalonga (born 6 December 1992) is a Congolese professional footballer who plays as a striker for Turkish Super Lig club Adana Demirspor and the DR Congo national team. He played in the Football League for Watford, Southend United, Peterborough United, Nottingham Forest and most recently Middlesbrough.


title: Britt Assombalonga

text: Assambalonga was born in Kinshasa, Zaire, and moved to London, England, with his family at eight months old. He grew up in Swiss Cottage, in the London borough of Camden, and attended Whitefield School. He is the son of Fedor Assombalonga, a former Zaire international footballer. His brother, Christian, is also a footballer who plays in the English non-League football system.


title: Britt Assombalonga

text: Assombalonga began his career with Watford, signing as a 17-year-old youth player in 2010 after making his way through via the Hertswood Impact Scheme. In his first full season in the youth team, he finished as the second top goal scorer while his team made it to the FA Youth Cup quarter-finals.


title: Britt Assombalonga

text: He also appeared regularly for Watford's reserve team, and was rewarded for his performances with a one-year professional contract at the end of the season. He was an unused substitute for the senior squad's last two games against Preston North End and Queens Park Rangers.


title: Britt Assombalonga

text: In November 2011, Assombalonga joined Wealdstone alongside youth teammate Connor Smith to gain more playing experience. On 3 December, he scored his first goal in a league match against Concord Rangers. Assombalonga had his loan spell extended for another month on 4 January 2012. Assombalonga returned to Watford on 4 February, having scored 11 goals in 16 games for Wealdstone.


title: Britt Assombalonga

text: Just days after his return to Watford, Assombalonga was loaned to Braintree Town on a one-month deal. Despite being heavily linked with a permanent move to Scottish club Peterhead, he also signed a one-year contract extension with Watford on the same day. Assombalonga made an eventful debut in a 3–3 draw against Lincoln City; he scored his first goal for the club to put Braintree 3–2 up before being sent off for a second bookable offence. He scored four more goals in four games for Braintree after serving his one-match suspension, and was subsequently recalled by Watford to join their senior squad.


title: Britt Assombalonga

text: On 17 March 2012, he made his first-team debut in a 0–0 draw with Coventry City. His appearance made him the 50th player to go through Watford's academy and represent the first-team.


title: Britt Assombalonga

text: At the start of the 2012–13 season, Assombalonga joined League Two club Southend United on an initial one-month loan. On 25 August 2012, he scored his first goal for the club in a 3–3 draw against Northampton Town. Assombalonga went on to score five goals in four matches, including a brace in a 3–1 win against Dagenham & Redbridge on 7 September.


title: Britt Assombalonga

text: At the end of the month, Southend extended the loan deal to run until 3 January 2013. Having established himself in the first team, Assombalonga became the club's top scorer that season with a total of 15 goals. Southend again extended Assombalonga's loan in December 2012, keeping him at the club until the end of the season. He played in the 2013 League Trophy Final against Crewe Alexandra which Southend lost 2–0.


title: Britt Assombalonga

text: On 31 July 2013, League One side Peterborough United broke their previous transfer record to sign Assombalonga from Watford on a four-year deal. The fee was undisclosed, but was confirmed as greatly exceeding the club's previous £1.1 million record fee. He was given the number nine shirt. Peterborough chairman Darragh MacAnthony hailed the deal, saying he was "delighted", and that Assombalonga had been Peterborough's main transfer target. On the opening game of the season, he scored on his debut as Peterborough defeated Swindon Town 1–0. He scored a penalty in a 3–1 win over Chesterfield at Wembley in the 2014 Football League Trophy Final.


title: Britt Assombalonga

text: On 6 August 2014, Assombalonga joined Nottingham Forest on a five-year contract for an undisclosed fee reported to be in the region of £5 million, potentially rising to £8 million based on various clauses (of which Watford will receive 50% due to sell-on clauses). This made Assombalonga Forest's record signing, surpassing the £4.5 million fee paid to Celtic for striker Pierre van Hooijdonk in 1997. Assombalonga scored his first goals for Forest twelve days after signing, netting a brace against Bolton Wanderers at the Macron Stadium. He then scored a goal each in their next two games, against Bournemouth and Reading respectively. Assombalonga scored in his first East Midlands Derby, opening the scoring against Derby County at the City Ground. Assombalonga's goal-scoring run continued with his first hat-trick for Forest on 17 September in a 5–3 home victory against Fulham. He then went on to score in the reverse fixture against Derby, equalising at Pride Park as Forest secured a 2–1 win to relieve the pressure on their beleaguered manager Stuart Pearce. On 11 February 2015, Assombalonga sustained a serious knee injury during a 3–0 victory over Wigan Athletic after taking a shot at goal that prematurely ended his season. Assombalonga eventually made his return from injury on 19 April 2016 as an 84th-minute substitute for Robert Tesche in a draw against Blackburn Rovers. On 7 May Assombalonga scored the winner away at MK Dons, his first senior goal since his injury.


title: Britt Assombalonga

text: On the opening day of the 2016–17 season, Assombalonga started the first competitive match under new manager Philippe Montanier and scored a brace at home against newly promoted Burton Albion. The striker then reaffirmed his commitment to Forest by signing a new five-year contract on 2 September, tying him to the club until 2021. On 19 November, Assombalonga scored a brace against Ipswich Town, his first coming after only 17 seconds, which took his tally to six goals in eight games for the season. After the game, Assombalonga was described as the "best goalscorer in the league" by teammate Ben Osborn and "the best in the business outside of the Premier League" by former Forest defender Kenny Burns. Assombalonga missed Forest's next game – a 5–2 win at Barnsley – with a hamstring problem to continue his injury-hit start to the season. Assombalonga ended the season on a high, scoring his second brace against Ipswich Town on 7 May. With Forest remaining out of the Championship relegation zone by virtue of a one-goal difference with Blackburn Rovers, Assombalonga's brace – one a penalty and the other an exquisite solo effort – either side of a Chris Cohen goal ensured that Forest retained their Championship status at the expense of the Lancashire club. He ended the Championship season as Forest's top goalscorer, having scored 14 goals from 20 starts and 12 substitute appearances.


title: Britt Assombalonga

text: On 17 July 2017, Assombalonga signed for newly relegated Championship club Middlesbrough, for a reported club-record fee of £15 million. He scored his first goals for Middlesbrough when he scored twice in a 2–0 win against Burton Albion on 15 August 2017.


title: Britt Assombalonga

text: Middlesbrough did not offer him a renewal of his contract, due to expire at the end of the 2020–21 season, and manager Neil Warnock confirmed on 21 April 2021 that he had been allowed to leave the club early.


title: Britt Assombalonga

text: On 3 July 2021, Assombalonga signed a three-year deal with the newly-promoted Süper Lig side Adana Demirspor.


title: Britt Assombalonga

text: Assombalonga was eligible to represent both England and the Democratic Republic of the Congo internationally. In August 2014, he was named on a 37-man provisional DR Congo squad list for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations qualification but withdrew from the final squad.


title: Britt Assombalonga

text: On 4 November 2016, the Nottingham Post reported that Assombalonga had accepted a call-up to the DR Congo national side for their away game against Guinea on 13 November. Assombalonga was forced to pull out of the squad prior to the game as he was not cleared to play in time. That December, Assombalonga rejected the chance to represent DR Congo at the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations in Gabon, stating that he wanted to focus on playing games for Nottingham Forest after an injury-hit season.


title: Libyan desert glass

text: Libyan Desert glass or Great Sand Sea glass is an impactite, made mostly of lechatelierite, found in areas in the eastern Sahara, in the deserts of eastern Libya and western Egypt. Fragments of desert glass can be found over areas of tens of square kilometers.


title: Libyan desert glass

text: The origin of desert glass is uncertain. Meteoritic origins have long been considered possible, and recent research links the glass to impact features, such as zircon breakdown, vaporized quartz and meteoritic metals, and to an impact crater. Some geologists associate the glass with radiative melting from meteoric large aerial bursts, making it analogous to trinitite created from sand exposed to the thermal radiation of a nuclear explosion. Libyan Desert glass has been dated as having formed about 29 million years ago. Like obsidian, it was knapped and used to make tools during the Pleistocene.


title: Libyan desert glass

text: The glass is nearly pure silica which requires temperatures above 1,600 °C to form – hotter than any igneous rock on Earth. However, few mineral relics survived from whatever caused the melting, including a form of quartz called cristobalite, a rarely occurring high-temperature mineral; and grains of the mineral zircon, although most have reacted to form a higher-temperature mineral called zirconia. Ideas about how the glass formed include melting during meteorite impact, or melting caused by an airburst from an asteroid or other object burning up high in Earth's atmosphere.


title: Soviet invasion of Xinjiang

text: The Soviet invasion of Xinjiang () was a military campaign of the Soviet Union in the Chinese northwestern region of Xinjiang in 1934. White Russian forces assisted the Soviet Red Army.


title: Soviet invasion of Xinjiang

text: In 1934, Ma Zhongying's troops, supported by the Kuomintang government of the Republic of China were on the verge of defeating the Soviet client Sheng Shicai during the Battle of Ürümqi (1933–34) in the Kumul Rebellion.


title: Soviet invasion of Xinjiang

text: Ma Zhongying, a Hui (Chinese Muslim), had earlier attended the Whampoa Military Academy in Nanjing in 1929, when it was run by Chiang Kai-shek, who was also the head of the Kuomintang and leader of China (Nationalist government).


title: Soviet invasion of Xinjiang

text: Ma Zhongying then was sent back to Gansu after graduating from the academy and fought in the Kumul Rebellion where, with the tacit support of the Kuomintang government of China, he tried to overthrow the pro-Soviet provincial government first led by Governor Jin Shuren then "duban" (military governor) Sheng Shicai. Ma invaded Xinjiang in support of Kumul Khanate loyalists and received official approval and designation from the Kuomintang as commander of the 36th Division.


title: Soviet invasion of Xinjiang

text: In late 1933, the Han Chinese provincial commander General Zhang Peiyuan and his army defected from the provincial government side to Ma Zhongying's side and joined him in waging war against Jin Shuren's provincial government.


title: Soviet invasion of Xinjiang

text: In 1934, two brigades of about 7,000 Soviet GPU troops, backed by tanks, airplanes and artillery with mustard gas, crossed the border to assist Sheng Shicai in gaining control of Xinjiang. The brigades were named "Altayiiskii" and "Tarbakhataiskii". Sheng's Manchurian army was being severely beaten by an alliance of the Han Chinese army led by general Zhang Peiyuan, and the New 36th Division led by Ma Zhongying. Ma fought under the banner of the Kuomintang Republic of China government. The joint Soviet-White Russian force was called "The Altai Volunteers". Soviet soldiers disguised themselves in uniforms lacking markings, and were dispersed among the White Russians.


title: Soviet invasion of Xinjiang

text: Despite his early successes, Zhang's forces were overrun at Kulja and Chuguchak, and he committed suicide after the battle at Muzart Pass to avoid capture.


title: Soviet invasion of Xinjiang

text: Even though the Soviets were superior to the New 36th Division in both manpower and technology, they were held off for weeks and took severe casualties. The New 36th Division managed to halt the Soviet forces from supplying Sheng with military equipment. Chinese Muslim troops led by Ma Shih-ming managed to hold off the superior Red Army forces armed with machine guns, tanks, and planes for about 30 days.


title: Soviet invasion of Xinjiang

text: When news that Chinese forces had defeated the Soviets reached Chinese prisoners in Ürümqi, they were reported to have jubilantly celebrated in their cells.


title: Soviet invasion of Xinjiang

text: Ma Hushan, Deputy Divisional Commander of the New 36th division, became well known for victories over Russian forces during the invasion.


title: Soviet invasion of Xinjiang

text: At this point, Chiang Kai-shek was ready to send Huang Shaohong and his expeditionary force which he assembled to assist Ma Zhongying against Sheng, but when Chiang heard about the Soviet invasion, he decided to withdraw to avoid an international incident if his troops directly engaged the Soviets.


title: Soviet invasion of Xinjiang

text: "The Russ(ians) brought the feiji (airplanes) and bombed and gassed us" – Ma Hsi Jung reported (Ma Hushan) on the war.


title: Soviet invasion of Xinjiang

text: In 1934, two Soviet OGPU brigades, consisting of about 7,000 troops backed by tanks, planes, and artillery, attacked the new 36th division near Tutung. The battle raged for several weeks along the frozen Tutung River. New 36th Division troops, camouflaged in sheepskins in the snow, stormed Soviet machine gun posts with swords to defeat a Soviet pincer attack. Soviet planes bombed the new 36th Division with mustard gas. Both sides suffered heavy casualties, before Ma Zhongying ordered the 36th Division to withdraw.


title: Soviet invasion of Xinjiang

text: Ma Zhongying was chased by a mixture of White Russian, Mongol, and collaborationist Chinese forces. As he pulled back his forces, Ma Zhongying encountered a Soviet armored car column of a few hundred soldiers near Dawan Cheng. The 36th Division wiped out nearly the entire column, after engaging the Soviets in fierce melee combat and toppled the wrecked Russian armored cars down the mountain. When a White Russian force showed up, Ma Zhongying withdrew.


title: Soviet invasion of Xinjiang

text: During the Battle of Dawan Cheng, Ma Zhongying for the last time tried to retake initiative from invading Soviet troops. His men dug trenches in a narrow mountain pass and blocked the advance of Soviet troops for weeks. However, mustard gas air bombings of his positions, affecting about 20% of his troops, forced him to withdraw his forces at the end of February 1934 from Dawan Cheng to Turpan.


title: Soviet invasion of Xinjiang

text: During Ma Zhongying's retreat, he and 40 of his Chinese Muslim troops, fully armed, hijacked lorries at gunpoint from Sven Hedin, who was on an expedition from the Nanjing KMT government. When Hedin showed him his passports from Nanjing, Ma Zhongying's men, who were technically under Nanjing's command, responded by saying: "This has nothing to do with Nanking. There's a war on here, and no passports are valid in wartime."


title: Soviet invasion of Xinjiang

text: The Chinese Muslim forces also reminded Hedin that since they were serving Nanjing too, the lorries should be put under their command. Chang, who was in the service of General Ma Chung-ping, one of Ma Zhongying's subordinate generals, explained: "Military matters come before everything else! Nothing can be allowed to interfere with them. Nanking counts for nothing in a war in Sinkiang. For that matter, we are under Nanking too, and it ought to be in both your interest and Nanking's to help us."


title: Soviet invasion of Xinjiang

text: Hedin and his party were detained in Korla by Soviet and White Russian forces. Hedin personally met General Volgin. Torgut Mongols and White Russians served under the Soviet forces and joined them in occupying numerous cities.


title: Soviet invasion of Xinjiang

text: The White Russians first advanced from Davan-ch'eng and then to Korla via Toqsun and Qara-Shahr. The Torgut and Russian army marched into Korla on March 16. Russian Cossacks were seen serving in the Soviet forces. Ma Zhongying had warned Sven Hedin to avoid Dawan Cheng due to the battle going on between Chinese Muslim and Russian forces.


title: Soviet invasion of Xinjiang

text: General Volgin then met with Hedin and started verbally attacking Ma Zhongying by saying: "General Ma is hated and abused everywhere, and he has turned Sinkiang into a desert. But he is brave and energetic and sticks at nothing. He isn't afraid of anything, whether airplanes or superior numbers. But now a new era has begun for Sinkiang. Now there is to be order, peace, and security in this province. General Sheng Shih-ts'ai is going to organize the administration and put everything on its legs again."


title: Soviet invasion of Xinjiang

text: General Ma Zhongying's retreating army often hijacked lorries to assist in their retreat. Volgin noted that Ma Zhongying often destroyed Russian lorries during battle. A White Russian informed Sven Hedin that "We have been coming here from Qara-Shahr all day, troop after troop. Two thousand Russians arrived to-day, half White, half Red. There are a thousand Torguts here, and two thousand troops of all arms have gone straight on to Kucha to attack Ma Chung-ying without touching Korla. Most of the two thousand who are in Korla now will continue westward to-morrow. We were five thousand strong when we started from Urumchi."


title: Soviet invasion of Xinjiang

text: When the White Russian started to brag about what their army had done, Sven Hedin concluded that the Russian was lying, giving as one example of these lies the White Russian's exaggerated number of lorries they used.


title: Soviet invasion of Xinjiang

text: Hedin met another two White Russian officers serving under the Soviets, Colonel Proshkukarov and General Bekteev, who demanded an explanation as to why Hedin's lorries were in the service of Ma Zhongying's forces.


title: Soviet invasion of Xinjiang

text: Before Ma Zhongying himself retreated from the front line, he sent an advance guard of 800 troops under General Ma Fu-yuan to defeat the Uyghur forces of Hoja-Niyaz, who were armed with weapons supplied by the USSR, and to assist Ma Zhancang in the Battle of Kashgar (1934) to destroy the First East Turkestan Republic. Thomson-Glover stated that the Soviets gave Hoya Niyaz "nearly 2,000 rifles with ammunition, a few hundred bombs, and three machine guns". Hoja Niyaz's Uighur forces were defeated by the advance guard at Aksu, and he fled to Kashgar with 1,500 troops on January 13, 1934. During the Battle of Kashgar, he and the Turkic forces failed in all of their attacks to defeat the Chinese Muslim forces trapped in the city, suffering severe casualties. Ma Fuyuan's 800 Chinese Muslim troops, along with 1,200 conscripts, routed and bulldozed the East Turkestani army of 10,000.


title: Soviet invasion of Xinjiang

text: Ma Zhongying and his army retreated to Kashgar, arriving on April 6, 1934. GPU Soviet troops did not advance beyond Turfan. Ma was chased by provincial forces of White Russians, Mongols, and Sheng Shicai's Chinese troops from Manchuria, all the way to Aksu, but the pursuit gradually abated. Ma arrived in Sven Hedin's hijacked lorry, with the final part of his army, the rear guard, behind the advance guard. His forces were reported to be superior in hand-to-hand combat, but the Soviets continued to bomb his positions.


title: Soviet invasion of Xinjiang

text: General Ma told the British consulate in Kashgar that he immediately required assistance against the Russians, pointing out that he owed allegiance to the Chinese government, and that he intended to save Xinjiang from the grip of the Russians. Ma Zhongying consolidated his position at Maral-Bashi and Fayzabad, establishing defensive lines against the Soviet/provincial attack. Ma Hushan directed the defense against the provincial forces. Bombing runs continued at Maral-Bashi in June, Ma Zhongying ordered his forces to shift from Kashgar to Khotan. On 4th, 5th and 6th July the Tungan forces streamed out of Kashgar towards Khotan, apparently expecting Ma Zhongying to follow with the rear-guard, as he had done during the retreat from Korla to Kashgar. However, for unknown reasons, Ma Zhongying himself crossed the border into the Soviet Union and was never heard from again. What actually happened, in the words of the British Consul-General Thomson-Glover, was that: "Ma Zhongying left Kashgar for Irkeshtam early on 7th July with three or four of his officers...and an escort of some 50 Tungans and one or more members of the USSR Consulate or Trade Agency (Ma Zhongying was accompanied by M.Konstantinov, the Secretary of the Soviet Consulate at Kashgar, as far as Ming Yol, the first stage on the road to Irkeshtam). Arrived near the border to Russia the escort were met by Russians and Russian-employed troops. The Tungan escort dispersed or handed over their arms to some of Khoja Niyaz' levies and Ma Zhongying disappeared into Russia."


title: Soviet invasion of Xinjiang

text: Vice British Consul-General in Kashgar in 1937 M.C.Jillet, who travelled to "Tunganistan" in 1937 and interviewed Ma Hushan, then the commander of 36th Division, reported that Ma Zhongying went to the Soviet Union "as a hostage to prevent the further punishment of his troops".


title: Soviet invasion of Xinjiang

text: The 36th Division was severely lacking in arms. Rifles and other equipment dated around 1930 were seized from the Soviets as booty to augment their own arms.


title: Soviet invasion of Xinjiang

text: In Novosibirsk, a hospital for Soviet wounded for their invasion of Xinjiang was disguised as a "hospital for the injured from the Manchurian War", it was "discovered" by the "Evening Standard" reporter Bosworth Goldman.


title: Casuarina equisetifolia

text: Casuarina equisetifolia, common names "Coastal She-oak" or "Horsetail She-oak" (sometimes referred to as the Australian pine tree or whistling pine tree outside Australia), is a she-oak species of the genus "Casuarina". The native range extends throughout Southeast Asia, Northern Australia and the Pacific Islands; including Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Indonesia, East Timor, and the Philippines (where it is known as agoho pine), east to Papua New Guinea, French Polynesia, New Caledonia, and Vanuatu, and south to Australia (north of Northern Territory, north and east Queensland, and north-eastern New South Wales). Populations are also found in Madagascar, but it is doubtful if this is within the native range of the species. The species has been introduced to the Southern United States and West Africa. It is an invasive species in Florida, South Africa, India and Brazil.


title: Casuarina equisetifolia

text: "Casuarina equisetifolia" was officially described by Linnaeus in 1759 as "Casuarina equisetifolia". A type was designated by New South Wales botanist Lawrie Johnson in 1989.


title: Casuarina equisetifolia

text: The specific name "equisetifolia" is derived from the Latin "equisetum", meaning "horse hair" (referring to the resemblance of the drooping branchlets to horse tail).


title: Casuarina equisetifolia

text: Common names include coast sheoak (coast she oak, coastal she-oak), beach casuarina, beach oak, beach sheoak (beach she-oak), beach pine, whistling tree, horsetail she oak, horsetail beefwood, horsetail tree, Australian pine, ironwood, whistling pine, Filao tree, and agoho.


title: Casuarina equisetifolia

text: "Casuarina" is an evergreen tree growing to tall. The foliage consists of slender, much-branched green to grey-green twigs diameter, bearing minute scale-leaves in whorls of 6–8.


title: Casuarina equisetifolia

text: Like some other species of the genus "Casuarina", "C. equisetifolia" is an actinorhizal plant able to fix atmospheric nitrogen. In contrast to species of the plant family Fabaceae (e.g., beans, alfalfa, "Acacia"), "Casuarina" harbours a symbiosis with a "Frankia" actinomycete.


title: Casuarina equisetifolia

text: The flowers are produced in small catkin-like inflorescences; the male flowers in simple spikes long, the female flowers on short peduncles. Unlike most other species of "Casuarina" (which are dioecious) it is monoecious, with male and female flowers produced on the same tree.


title: Casuarina equisetifolia

text: The fruit is an oval woody structure long and in diameter, superficially resembling a conifer cone made up of numerous carpels each containing a single seed with a small wing long.


title: Casuarina equisetifolia

text: When these fruits ripen, they turn brown and open, dispersing the seeds by water. The seeds can only grow in hot sand near the seashore. Those seeds sprout and form thickets.


title: Casuarina equisetifolia

text: "Casuarina" is found from Myanmar and Vietnam throughout Malesia east to French Polynesia, New Caledonia, and Vanuatu, and south into Australia (the northern parts of Northern Territory, north and east Queensland, and northeastern New South Wales, where it extends as far south as Laurieton.


title: Casuarina equisetifolia

text: "Casuarina" is widely used as a bonsai subject, particularly in South-east Asia and parts of the Caribbean. Indonesian specimens and those cultivated in Taiwan are regarded among the best in the bonsai world. The wood of this tree is used for shingles, fencing, and is said to make excellent hot-burning firewood. Among the islands of Hawaii, "Casuarina" are also grown for erosion prevention, and in general as wind breaking elements.


title: Casuarina equisetifolia

text: Other than ornamental purposes, the "Casuarina" was also explored in for its potential in remediation of textile dye wastewater. "Casuarina" leaves were found to be useful as absorbent material for the removal of textile dyes such as reactive orange 16 Rhodamine B, methylene blue, malachite green and methyl violet 2b. Similarly the "Casuarina" dried cone was also reported to be able to remove Rhodamine B, and methyl violet 2b. The "Casuarina" bark was reported to able to remove methylene blue. Even the "Casuarina" seed was also found to be useful in dye removal of neutral red and malachite green. The carbon derived from the cones of "Casuarina" was found to be good absorbent for the landfill leachate, while another laboratory also reported good absorbent for copper ions from aqueous solution. "Casuarina equisetifolia" Lin. (Casuarinaceae) has been used traditionally for treating inflammation, cancer and other diseases, but its efficacy has not been scientifically examined in treating arthritis; the bark extract showed anti-arthritic activity. Methanolic extract of "Casuarina equisetifolia" fruit contain significant percentage of secondary metabolite like poly phenol, it showed antioxidant and anti-arthritic activity. Methanolic extract of "Casuarina equisetifolia" Lin. Leaf against Ehrlich Ascites Carcinoma Induced Cancer in Mice; possess protective action on the hemopoietic system.


title: Casuarina equisetifolia

text: There are many places in South Asia and Southeast Asia named after this plant. In Sri Lanka, a famous beach on the Jaffna Peninsula, Casuarina Beach, is named because of the many Casuarina trees that line the coast. Casuarina is known as "ru", "rhu" or "aru" in Malay. Many coastal fisherman villages in Terengganu have names such as Ru Renggeh, Ru Dua, Rusila formerly Ru Se Le ("Ru Satu Pokok Sahaja" "Just One Casuarina Tree"), and Ru Rendang.


title: Casuarina equisetifolia

text: There are many places named because they have a cape ("tanjung") where casuarina trees grow there. In Singapore, there is a road named Tanjong Rhu Road because it once had many of these trees growing along the coast from Kallang to Rochor. In the island of Langkawi, Kedah, Malaysia, there is a sand spit in the mouth of the Ayer Hangat river in the Kilim Karst Geoforest Park about 20 km from the town of Kuah also named Tanjung Rhu where these trees line here. The town of Tanjung Aru in Sabah is also named because a lot of this tree ("aru") is found in its beach.


title: Casuarina equisetifolia

text: The legendary miraculous spear "Kaumaile" came with the hero Tefolaha on the South Pacific island Nanumea. He fought with it on the islands of Samoa and Tonga. As Tefolaha died, "Kaumaile" went to his heirs, then to their heirs, and on and on - 23 generations. It is about 1.80 meters long and about 880 years old and the tree was cut on Samoa.


title: Valkyria Chronicles (video game)

text: Valkyria Chronicles is a tactical role-playing game developed and published by Sega for the PlayStation 3 in 2008. A Microsoft Windows version was released on November 11, 2014. A remastered version for PlayStation 4 was released in Japan on February 10, 2016, with a Western release on May 17, 2016. The game was released digitally for the Nintendo Switch on September 27, 2018 in Japan and on October 16, 2018 in North America and Europe. The later versions include previously released downloadable content.


title: Valkyria Chronicles (video game)

text: The game is set in Europa, a fictional region loosely based on Europe during the early years of World War II. Because of its abundance of Ragnite ore, which takes the place of petroleum in the game setting, the neutral nation of Gallia comes under attack from the East Europan Imperial Alliance, which is itself engaged in war with the Atlantic Federation. Players take control of a unit of the Gallian Militia, dedicated to repelling the invasion. The game's visuals, which use Sega's CANVAS graphics engine, resemble pencil drawings in motion.


title: Valkyria Chronicles (video game)

text: "Valkyria Chronicles" earned numerous awards from several notable video game publications and has been cited as one of the greatest video games of all time. The success of the title spawned a media franchise, including several manga titles and an anime series. Two sequels were released for PlayStation Portable: "Valkyria Chronicles II" in 2010, and "Valkyria Chronicles III" in 2011. A spin-off, "Valkyria Revolution", was released on January 19, 2017, for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, and Xbox One. The fourth entry, "Valkyria Chronicles 4" was released in 2018 for PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One and Microsoft Windows.


title: Valkyria Chronicles (video game)

text: "Valkyria Chronicles" is a tactical role-playing game in which the player uses a unique turn-based battle system called BLiTZ ("B"attle of "Li"ve "T"actical "Z"ones). During their turn the player views an overhead map in Command Mode, but zooms in to control each individual unit on the battlefield in Action Mode. Movement and other actions are handled in real time during Action Mode, though limited in movement by an action point (AP) gauge that varies for each type of character. During Target Mode, the player is in direct control of characters' aim while the action freezes, allowing for head shots and other maneuvers. Taking command of individual units during the player's phase costs Command Points, which can be used dynamically to grant movement to many different units or the same unit consecutively with diminishing AP reserve, depending on what the player wants to accomplish. By using their troops the player must fulfill various conditions depending on the mission in order to achieve victory, most often the capture of a major enemy encampment. Upon completing missions, the player is awarded money and experience with which to upgrade their materiel and character classes, respectively, and the game's story is advanced. Missions can be failed if the player's forces are wholly incapacitated or killed, the squad's main battle tank is destroyed, or the player's main base camp is captured by the enemy.


title: Valkyria Chronicles (video game)

text: Each character in the game fulfills a specific role — for instance, Alicia is a mid-range rifle-toting scout, while Welkin is a tank commander. Other roles include Shocktroopers (assault infantry), "Lancers" specializing in anti-tank warfare, snipers, and engineers. These various units form a rock-paper-scissors dynamic of strength and weakness. The foot soldiers (Scout, Shocktrooper, and Sniper) are effective against slower anti-tank units, anti-tank units can quickly destroy tanks with a well-aimed shot, and tanks are generally devastating against infantry, whose anti-personnel weapons are unable to inflict any significant frontal damage. While each character within a class is basically similar in terms of weaponry and statistics, each individual has a distinguishing set of Potentials: special abilities or stat modifiers triggered by various psychological or environmental factors in battle.


title: Valkyria Chronicles (video game)

text: The environment also factors heavily in combat. In an urban level, for example, snipers can be sent onto rooftops to eliminate unsuspecting enemies below. Tanks can knock down walls and other obstacles to open new paths. Buildings and other structures offer hard cover around which to maneuver. Foliage offers soft cover to reduce the chance of being spotted by the enemy and to confound their aim when seen. As the Gallian forces advance across the battlefield, control points can be captured, giving the player a tactical advantage and offering additional locations in which to call reinforcements. As Welkin, the player can issue various Orders for the purpose of things such as artillery strikes, supervising medics, and improving offensive or defensive capabilities of various characters.


title: Valkyria Chronicles (video game)

text: In 1935 E.C., the continent of Europa is dominated by two superpowers: The Autocratic East Europan Imperial Alliance in the east and a commonwealth of loosely allied democracies known as the Atlantic Federation in the west. The economies of both powers depend on a precious multipurpose mineral called Ragnite. Its growing scarcity results in the Empire declaring war on the Federation, sparking the Second Europan War. The Empire uses its military superiority to quickly put the Federation on the defensive. Emboldened by their progress and momentum, the Empire decides to invade the neutral Principality of Gallia to seize its rich Ragnite deposits.


title: Valkyria Chronicles (video game)

text: When Imperial forces launch an attack on the Gallian border town of Bruhl, Welkin Gunther, son of the country's hero General Belgen Gunther, is forced to fight for his life alongside the town watch captain, Alicia Melchiott. Together with Welkin's adopted sister Isara and using Belgen's prototype tank from the first war, the "Edelweiss", they escape to the capital city of Randgriz and join the Gallian militia. Welkin is promoted to the rank of Lieutenant and assumes command of the newly formed Squad 7, with Alicia acting as his non-commissioned officer. Members of the squad initially question Welkin's qualifications due to a lack of combat experience. He quickly gains their trust and loyalty, however, with his brilliant tactics. Welkin and Alicia soon become romantically engaged, but tragically, Isara is killed by an Imperial sniper.


title: Valkyria Chronicles (video game)

text: After Squad 7 wages a successful campaign against Imperial forces, the crown prince Maximilian deploys one of his commanders, Selvaria Bles, a rare descendant of the Valkyrians who are believed to have saved the ancient world from the Darcsen race. Using innate magic powers and equipped with a legendary Ragnite lance and shield, Selvaria destroys the Gallian army. Alicia is shot by Welkin's archaeologist colleague Faldio Landzaat to awaken her own latent Valkyrian powers. Alicia is able to drive Selvaria back, allowing the Gallians to advance to the border. At the cost of her own life, Selvaria uses the "final flame" after the capture of the Ghirlandaio fortress, killing the entire core of Gallian military and leaving only the militia, including Squad 7, remaining.


title: Valkyria Chronicles (video game)

text: In an attempt to create his own empire, Maximilian uses a "land dreadnought", the "Marmota", to break through Gallia's defenses and steal a giant Valkyrian lance from inside Randgriz Castle. The princess reveals herself to be Darcsen - the Valkyrians rewrote history to make themselves into heroes, while an allied Darcsen tribe gained Randgriz as the spoils. With Alicia's help, Squad 7 is able to board the "Marmota" and send Maximilian to his demise, destroying the dreadnought and ending the conflict between the two factions. Alicia and Welkin return to Bruhl, where they marry and raise a daughter named Isara together.


title: Valkyria Chronicles (video game)

text: The earliest concept for "Valkyria Chronicles" was created in 2003, during discussions between director Shuntaro Tanaka and producer Ryutaro Nonaka. The two were part of neighbouring teams working on different games; Nonaka was leading production on "Nightshade", while Tanaka was completing the GameCube port of "Skies of Arcadia". The two wanted to work on something new, with Tanaka suggesting a game based around a dramatic war story. Both had worked on the "Sakura Wars" series, but knew they would face restrictions if they created something within that series, so they created a new concept. Nonaka and Tanaka later said the many similarities to "Sakura Wars" were mainly because of shared development teams and gameplay styles rather than conscious choices. A key aspect of the project was to go against market trends, which were focusing on specific genre archetypes that did not allow for much creativity on the team's part. The initial pitch was titled ""Gallian Panzers"". The pitch artwork was created by Daisuke Tabayashi, who would stay as part of the game's art and modelling team. After the concept was approved, the team made a movie pitch using its new official title. During its early concept stages, no platform had been decided; Nonaka vaguely thought the game would be produced for the PlayStation 2, for which the team had been principally developing. He also considered developing the game for the PlayStation Portable. When the PS3 was revealed and internal discussions began about its use by the company, Nonaka suggested that "Valkyria Chronicles" could be produced for the platform. The production team was based in Sega's GE2 R&D division. The staff had worked on a wide variety of titles for Sega, including "Sakura Wars" and "Skies of Arcadia". Production for the PS3 was both liberating thanks to the increased hardware specifications, and challenging due to working out how to best use the console's CPU. Its final Japanese title represented the focus on war, with the term "Valkyria" symbolising its fantasy elements.


title: Valkyria Chronicles (video game)

text: In its earliest form, the gameplay was a traditional tactical simulation game played from an overhead view. After considering this, Nonaka—comparing it to a game of shogi—realised players would feel little emotional investment in characters if they continued with this gameplay style. Much of the early development was devoted to creating a working system that would combine tactical elements with real-time action. The concept of the BLiTZ battle system was to encourage player freedom. When creating the battle system around firearms rather than swords and magic, the team needed to abandon many of the logical RPG standards. The team chose to have players control individual units to further emphasise the game's themes. The AP system was designed around the concept of emulating the fear of soldiers in combat, afraid to take a step in case of hidden enemies or making a fatal move. The class-based leveling was a response to the large number of playable characters. If they went with traditional character-based leveling, the team knew players would likely stick to a few favorites. This leveling system also played into the permadeath systems and the focus on turn numbers determining how players did on a map rather than unit survival. The emphasis was getting the players emotionally invested by picking party members based on personality, making their loss in battle more noticeable. A sixth character class, the Medic, was originally planned. The only remnant of its inclusion was the rescue mechanic for downed units. Nonaka attributed his ability to handle the dual-natured gameplay from his work on both the tactics-based "Sakura Wars" and the action game "Nightshade".


title: Valkyria Chronicles (video game)

text: The world's period setting—based on Europe during the period before and during World War II during 1930s to 1940s was in place from the beginning of development. The aim was to blend this setting with medieval elements, with the rest of the world view and design springing from that point. Many levels included direct homages to events from World War II, including forest battles, an amphibious landing, and a fort line similar to the Maginot Line. The country of Gallia drew inspiration from smaller countries of that time like Belgium and the Netherlands, which were often caught between larger powers. The team considered using Switzerland as inspiration, but its mountainous terrain made tank combat impracticable, so the team principally used the Netherlands as inspiration for Gallia's geography. Its name and aspects of its story were inspired by Gaul. The Empire and Federation were respectively based on Germany and the United Kingdom during the 1930s. The game's idyllic scenery was influenced by the team's desire to incorporate fantasy, as a purely urban setting might reduce the opportunity for fantastic elements.


title: Valkyria Chronicles (video game)

text: Tanaka wrote the main narrative and scenarios for the characters, assisted by a dedicated writing team. While the leads Welkin and Alicia and much of the key supporting cast were present from the earliest stages, several had different artistic designs and several concept scenes and more fantastical elements such as floating islands were dropped from the final game. Welkin's name and parts of his storyline were derived from Gaulish chieftain Vercingetorix who united Gaul against the Romans. To give the story a more personal feeling and draw from Japanese military history, the characters were made militiamen without extensive military training, creating a deliberate contrast to the hardened career soldier protagonists from the movie "Saving Private Ryan" and the series "Combat!". The history between the Darcsan and Valkyria groups was written as a tragic tale, with people accepting as fact a . The team were directly inspired by the ethnic conflicts fuelling World War II, and the long histories behind them. The Valkyria formed an allegory for weapons of mass destruction in real-life conflicts.


title: Valkyria Chronicles (video game)

text: The lead characters were designed by Raita Honjou. Honjou was selected after the team saw his art, as they felt he could portray both the realistic and fantastic elements of the game's world. The overall visual design was influenced by the long-running anime series "World Masterpiece Theater". As part of their research on the graphical style, the team researched both realistic and comic-based art styles. The uniforms were based around a variety of real-life uniforms, with both practical elements and individual quirks that would not be allowed in real-life such as Rosie's hairstyle. Originally directly inspired by World War II uniforms, they looked too futuristic for the setting. The team instead drew inspiration from earlier uniform designs, which were more specific to different countries. They also made an effort to keep American uniform influences out of the designs. For the large majority of minor and supporting characters, other artists were in charge. The team originally planned 100 side characters, but this proved practically impossible, so the number was cut to 50. The Imperial tank designs were based on those from the Russian military. To ease unit identification for players, the Gallian and Imperial forces were respectively colored blue and red. The game's early internal promotional videos focused on the art style over gameplay, as the team knew if they simply described its genre it would give the wrong impression to executives.


title: Valkyria Chronicles (video game)

text: "Valkyria Chronicles" made use of a proprietary game engine dubbed CANVAS, which produced stylised graphics modelled on watercolor paintings. Nonaka wanted to blend traditional animation style with CGI elements, something he had previously experienced with the "Neo-CGI" used in "". CANVAS came about from experiments within another of Sega's R&D department with next-generation engine technology. Its graphical style, which allowed for the emulation of hand-drawn artwork, was picked by staff once the game was moved to the PS3. A key figure in the engine's development for "Valkyria Chronicles" was Hirotaka Kanazawa. Kanazawa helped with the early map designs. During early development, the team struggled to make their vision work with the CANVAS prototype. The graphics still had a strong CGI aesthetic, with crisp graphics and a strong draw distance. These did not fit with Nonaka's vision for the game, which was a non-photorealistic presentation described as a natural evolution from the styles of "Sakura Wars" and "Skies of Arcadia". With this concept in mind, Kanazawa and Tabayashi redesigned the engine to show these graphics. One of the elements the team focused on was shadows effects, with environments and characters requiring two different shadow types with differing strengths. Using the CANVAS engine was a challenge for the designers and programmers due to its heavy hardware demands, with the team's PC development needed two stacked graphics cards to run the software without crashing.


title: Valkyria Chronicles (video game)

text: The music was handled by Hitoshi Sakimoto, a composer noted for his work on the "Final Fantasy" series and other projects through his company Basiscape. Sakimoto was brought on board the project during its pre-production stage, though most of his compositional work during 2007. He was brought in by Nonaka, who contacted him about "Valkyria Chronicles" when it still had a small team and had not entered full production. Sakimoto assumed it would be a small-scale game for a portable console, so its development for PS3 came as a shock to him. "Valkyria Chronicles" was the first PS3 project Basiscape worked on. The battle scores were the most difficult to create due to the need for scale. Several tracks made use of a full live orchestra. These tracks were performed by the Eminence Symphony Orchestra founded in Australia.


title: Valkyria Chronicles (video game)

text: When told about the game, Sakimoto received the impression of militarism, which was reflected throughout the score. Originally treating as a musical investigation of war, Sakimoto's discussions with the staff began steering the score towards portraying the romance between Welkin and Alicia. Ultimately, the music's military elements became supporting parts for the romantic themes. The main theme was created by Sakimoto during pre-production, as one of three pieces based on the demo movie; the other pieces included the opening battle theme "Desperate Battle" and the story theme "Empty Loneliness". Sakimoto created three different arrangements for the team to choose from, with the current one being picked due to its thematic qualities. The main theme recurs as a leitmotif in multiple tracks. A dominant instrument used by Sakimoto was taiko drums, using a wide variety of them to create different sounds and emulate the sound of a marching band. Two themes were created by Sakimoto for Selvaria; the first theme "A Valkyria Awakened" had Sakimoto making use of traditional classical music and nonsensical chorus work to emulate the group's mythical status, and an arranged version called "Signs of the Valkyria" which would communicate Selvaria's tragic past. Military base themes made heavy use of brass instruments, and the character theme for the Darcsans was modelled in Israeli music.


title: Valkyria Chronicles (video game)

text: A key vocal theme is "A Love Passed On". Sakimoto created the track as a "Gallian traditional song". He planned to write a short version without a full orchestra, but after learning the original song would not be used extensively, he focused on the orchestral version. The melody of "A Love Passed On" was used in the track "The Legacy", which played during the epilogue cutscenes. A version for solo piano was written for that final scene, but it was dropped and only included on the soundtrack's album release. The Japanese version was written by Taihei Sato, and sung by Rosie's voice actress Megumi Toyoguchi. According to Sakimoto, the song moved her so much that she cried after finishing recording. The English version was performed by Hedy Burress. The game's opening and ending song, "No Matter How Far..." was performed by Japanese singer Juju. It was the only song with which Sakimoto had no involvement. Juju was suggested to the team by Sega's marketing division. After hearing some of her published work, the team pushed to have her work on the game. Her producer offered a song that had yet to be released, which the team accepted. They collaborated with Juju to rework the song so its tone and lyrics fitted the world of "Valkyria Chronicles".


title: Valkyria Chronicles (video game)

text: On September 29, 2008, Sega of America held a "Valkyria Chronicles" pre-launch event at the Sony Metreon in San Francisco. Press and public were invited, and Sega used a raffle to give away soundtracks, figurines of the characters, matted art posters signed by Nonaka, and an 80 GB PlayStation 3. Sega let the community send in questions before the event, and posted these to Nonaka in an interview during the event. Pictures and a follow-up of the event were posted on the Sega of America Blog.


title: Valkyria Chronicles (video game)

text: Supplemental downloadable content (DLC) was made available for purchase via PlayStation Network. First is the inclusion of a Hard EX Mode, extra challenging versions of existing skirmish missions where the "Edelweiss" is unavailable. Two side story chapters, "Edy's Mission: Enter the Edy Detachment" and "Selvaria's Mission: Behind Her Blue Flame", introduce Squad 7's motliest crew led by Edy Nelson and Homer Pieron, and the early portion of the invasion into Gallia as seen from the Imperial perspective. Hard EX Mode and Edy's Mission were originally released for the Japanese version on August 8, 2008, while Selvaria's Mission was released on October 31 of the same year. All three were made available in North America on April 16, 2009. A fourth DLC, titled "Edy Detachment's Formal Challenge!" was made available in Japan on June 26, 2009, and in North America on February 25, 2010. Included are a set of six challenge missions, each focusing on one of the game's unit classes.


title: Valkyria Chronicles (video game)

text: "Valkyria Chronicles" was re-released in Japanese retails stores under its "The Best" label on March 5, 2009, with a retail price of ¥3,900. This version of the game includes Edy's Mission without need of download.


title: Valkyria Chronicles (video game)

text: "Valkyria Chronicles" was ported to Windows and released on Steam on November 11, 2014. This version of the game includes all downloadable content. The PC release features performance improvements, including the ability to play the game at 60 frames per second and on resolutions greater than 1080p, in addition to customised control mapping.


title: Valkyria Chronicles (video game)

text: A remastered version, titled "Valkyria Chronicles Remastered", was announced by Sega and released on May 17, 2016, for PlayStation 4 in North America and Europe. The remastered console version runs at 1080p and 60 frames per second and includes both Japanese and English audio as well as all downloadable content. Outlet Crash Landed praised the remastered versions visuals and still stellar gameplay in their review, but criticized the lack of PlayStation 4 functionality implemented. This version was released digitally for the Nintendo Switch on September 27, 2018, in Japan and October 16, 2018, in North America and Europe.


title: Valkyria Chronicles (video game)

text: "Valkyria Chronicles" has received very favorable reviews from numerous sources, including writers for IGN, RPGFan, G4TV's X-Play, and GameTrailers. Kevin VanOrd of GameSpot was impressed with the title's gameplay design, noting that it gave players a new sense of tactical freedom absent in other games of the same genre via the removal of certain staples such as a grid-based map. Some reviewers enjoyed the active and strategic nature of combat. According to Game Revolution's Chris Hudak, "nail-gnawingly tense" situations kept the player emotionally involved in the game. Both the game's story and the way in which it was presented were cited as strong points. Longevity was also attributed to the game, with James Quentin Clark of RPGFan noting that, "the game gets better the more you play it." While pleased overall, multiple reviewers criticized the artificial intelligence of enemy forces. Others stated that the third-person camera interfered with the ability to shoot effectively in certain situations.


title: Valkyria Chronicles (video game)

text: Despite receiving positive press, sales of the game have been mixed. While it sold 77,000 copies in its first week of release in Japan and a further 81,000 during its budget release, the game only sold 33,000 copies in the United States during November 2008. The game failed to reach the top 100 sold software in the month of November; it was the 93rd best-selling game in Japan in 2008, selling 141,589 copies. Despite weak initial North American sales, "Valkyria Chronicles" recovered with sales sharply increasing in April 2009 following a price cut and the simultaneous release of an anime based on the game. Approximately a year after the game's initial release, both producer Ryutaro Nonaka and gamers surveyed by "Famitsu" stated interest in a sequel to the game. As of 2015, the PS3 version has shipped 1million units worldwide.


title: Valkyria Chronicles (video game)

text: The 2014 PC version of the game exceeded its publisher's expectations, topping the Steam sales charts on the day of its release, ahead of the then also recently launched games "" and "Assassin's Creed Unity". It also received favorable reviews, with a Metacritic score of 85. By April 2017, the PC version of the game had sold about 700,000 copies on Steam. As of April 2018, the Steam version has sold about 940,000 copies. The remastered PS4 version has sold 39,071 copies in Japan as of December 2016. In total, the game sold about 2 million copies across all platforms.


title: Valkyria Chronicles (video game)

text: "Valkyria Chronicles" won "Best Artistic Graphics" from GameSpot. The game's soundtrack was awarded the "Best Original Soundtrack" by GameSpy, and Strategy Game of the Year 2008. GameTrailers nominated it for the "Best Role-Playing Game" category. Gaming Target recognized the game in the "40 Games We'll Still Be Playing From 2008" category. IGN recognized the game as "PlayStation 3 Strategy Game of 2008. RPGFan awarded the game with the "PlayStation 3 RPG of the Year" and "Best Strategy RPG on a Console" awards. and several RPGamer awards including the "RPG of the Year", "Best Graphics", and "PlayStation 3 RPG of the Year" categories. On June 17, 2010, "Valkyria Chronicles" was recognized by Guinness World Records as the best strategy RPG on the PlayStation 3.


title: Valkyria Chronicles (video game)

text: Three manga adaptations, two Drama CDs and an anime television series have been released based on the game.


title: Mike Wallace (American football)

text: Burnell Michael Wallace III (born August 1, 1986) is a former American football wide receiver. He played college football for Ole Miss, and was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the third round, 84th overall of the 2009 NFL Draft. He also played for the Miami Dolphins, Minnesota Vikings, Baltimore Ravens, and Philadelphia Eagles. Throughout his career, Wallace was known for his speed after finishing with a time of 4.33-seconds in the 40-yard dash at the NFL Scouting Combine.


title: Mike Wallace (American football)

text: Wallace was born to his parents Burnell and Sonjia Wallace in New Orleans, Louisiana. He grew up in the Cut-Off section of the Algiers neighborhood of New Orleans. He attended O. Perry Walker High School, where he played football on both offense and defense and his teammates included future New Orleans Saints cornerback Keenan Lewis. After seeing limited playing time as a junior (four receptions while playing mostly on defense), Wallace had an outstanding senior season, catching 60 passes for 1,039 yards with 19 touchdowns. He received first-team All-State honors as a wide receiver, earned league and district MVP honors as well as All-league, All-Metro, All-West Bank and All-West Bank MVP following his senior season. He also returned four punts and four kickoffs for touchdowns, giving him 27 for the season and 162 points, with seven more scores called back due to penalties. Wallace set the school records for total points and kick return touchdowns.


title: Mike Wallace (American football)

text: Also a standout track & field athlete in high school, Wallace earned All-State honors in the 100-meter dash as a senior. As a junior, Wallace ran the anchor leg for the O.P. Walker 4 × 100 meter relay squad at the 2004 State Outdoor Championships, helping them earn a fourth-place finish with a school-record time of 41.81 seconds. In addition, he also owned a 4.4-second 40-yard dash and had a 36-inch vertical jump.


title: Mike Wallace (American football)

text: Wallace was rated as a two-star recruit by "Rivals.com". SuperPrep named him the 17th-ranked college prospect in the state of Louisiana and was a member of its 2004 Southwest Team. Wallace was also named the league MVP, district MVP, and All-West Bank MVP. He was also named an All-State, All-league, All-Metro, All-West Bank player. He committed to Oregon State on February 4, 2004.


title: Mike Wallace (American football)

text: In 2004, Wallace accepted a scholarship from Oregon State after insisting that they also recruit his best friend and high school teammate Keenan Lewis, who was one year ahead of Wallace in school. However, Wallace later decided not to join Lewis at Oregon State but instead to follow his high school coach, Frank Wilson, who had joined the coaching staff at the University of Mississippi.


title: Mike Wallace (American football)

text: As a true freshman in 2005, Wallace played in 10 games. In 2006, he started all 12 games as a split end. He recorded two touchdown receptions to tie for first on the team. At Kentucky, he had two receptions for 65 yards. Against Wake Forest, he had two receptions for 36 yards. At Alabama, he had his first career touchdown on a 55-yard catch from Brent Schaeffer. He had one catch for 38 yards against Mississippi State.


title: Mike Wallace (American football)

text: In 2007, Wallace saw action in all 12 games with nine starts as a split end. He recorded 716 receiving yards and had two 100-yard games. He had seven catches of at least 40 yards and three of at least 50 yards. He ranked first in the Southeastern Conference (SEC) in yards per catch with 18.8. He was named third-team All-SEC.


title: Mike Wallace (American football)

text: In 2008, he played in six games, recording 39 receptions for 784 yards and seven touchdowns. He also had ten carries for 92 yards. In the 2009 Cotton Bowl against Texas Tech, he caught a 41-yard touchdown pass from Jevan Snead. Wallace participated in the 2009 Senior Bowl on the South team, as a replacement for a no-show wide receiver invitee.


title: Mike Wallace (American football)

text: At the 2009 NFL Scouting Combine, Wallace finished second overall in the 40-yard dash with an official 4.33-second time.


title: Mike Wallace (American football)

text: The Pittsburgh Steelers selected Wallace in the third round (84th overall) of the 2009 NFL Draft. Wallace was the 11th wide receiver chosen in the 2009 draft. On June 18, 2009, Wallace signed a three-year contract with the Steelers worth $1.740 million which included a $555,000 signing bonus. In Pittsburgh he was reunited with former high school teammate Keenan Lewis, whom the Steelers selected just twelve picks after Wallace.


title: Mike Wallace (American football)

text: Wallace achieved his first 100-yard receiving game against the Cincinnati Bengals in the season; he had 7 receptions for 102 yards. On December 20, Wallace caught a game winning pass while falling out of bounds as time expired to defeat the Green Bay Packers, 37-36. The catch made him a hero in Pittsburgh and the receiver was named the winner of the "Joe Greene Great Performance Award", which is awarded each season to the outstanding Steelers rookie. It was only his second catch of the game, but the first had been a 60-yard touchdown reception on the very first Steelers offensive snap.


title: Mike Wallace (American football)

text: Wallace finished his rookie season leading the entire league in average yards per reception with 19.4 yards.


title: Mike Wallace (American football)

text: Following his promising rookie season and Santonio Holmes' trade to the New York Jets, Wallace was moved up the depth chart in 2010 to the #2 receiver spot behind Hines Ward.


title: Mike Wallace (American football)

text: In 2010, Wallace had a standout second season with the Steelers, establishing himself as one of the NFL's elite wideouts with 1,257 yards receiving (third most in the AFC) and 10 touchdowns. Wallace led the NFL with seven 100-yard receiving games.


title: Mike Wallace (American football)

text: Wallace averaged 21.0 yards per catch in 2010, the most of any AFC receiver. Wallace just missed becoming the third receiver in NFL history to lead the league in yardage per reception in his first two seasons after leading with 19.4 as a rookie. DeSean Jackson of Philadelphia averaged 22.5 yards per catch in 2010.


title: Mike Wallace (American football)

text: During Super Bowl XLV, Wallace had nine catches for 89 yards and a touchdown. He recorded a tackle after an interception from quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. It was Wallace's first and only Super Bowl appearance.


title: Mike Wallace (American football)

text: Against the Arizona Cardinals, he and Roethlisberger connected for a 95-yard touchdown reception, becoming the longest in Steelers history. On December 27, 2011 Wallace was selected to the Pro Bowl for the AFC. Wallace finished the season with 8 touchdown receptions, 1,193 receiving yards and 72 receptions for an average total of 16.6 yards per catch. The Steelers were eliminated in the Wild Card round of the playoffs by the Denver Broncos 29-23. Wallace finished the game with only 3 receptions and 29 receiving yards. He did, however, score a rushing touchdown in the third quarter.


title: Mike Wallace (American football)

text: After the 2011 season, Wallace held out from all of the team's OTAs, and held out the majority of training camp. He reported on August 28, 2012. Wallace became a free agent at the conclusion of the 2012 season.


title: Mike Wallace (American football)

text: On March 12, 2013, Wallace was reportedly signed by the Miami Dolphins in a five-year deal worth $60 million. Wallace's father revealed that despite the fact that the Minnesota Vikings offered a bigger contract, Mike decided to move his home to a warmer Miami.


title: Mike Wallace (American football)

text: On March 13, 2015, the Dolphins traded Wallace and a 2015 seventh-round pick to the Minnesota Vikings in exchange for a 2015 fifth-round pick (Jay Ajayi).


title: Mike Wallace (American football)

text: In Week 1, Wallace led the Vikings with six catches and 63 receiving yards on seven targets in their 20-3 loss to the San Francisco 49ers on Monday night. Wallace caught his first touchdown pass as a member of the Minnesota Vikings against the Denver Broncos in Week 4. The catch came late in the first half, right after linebacker Anthony Barr recorded his first career interception. He finished with eight catches for 83 yards. For the year Wallace totaled the fewest catches, yards and yards per reception of any season in his career (although the Vikings as a whole put up far fewer passing yards than the Steelers or Dolphins).


title: Mike Wallace (American football)

text: On March 8, 2016, Wallace was released by the Vikings; he had 39 receptions for 473 yards in his only season in Minnesota.


title: Mike Wallace (American football)

text: On March 15, 2016, Wallace signed a two-year, $11.5 million contract with the Baltimore Ravens. In the Ravens' season opener against the Buffalo Bills, he scored his team's only touchdown off a 66-yard catch and run, as he and the Ravens won 13–7. The following week, he scored two touchdowns in a 20-point comeback victory over the Cleveland Browns. In Week 9, against his former team the Pittsburgh Steelers, Wallace caught a 95-yard touchdown from Joe Flacco in a 21–14 victory.


title: Mike Wallace (American football)

text: On March 22, 2018, Wallace signed a one-year, $2.5 million contract with the Philadelphia Eagles. In Week 2, against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Wallace suffered a fractured fibula and was expected to miss a few weeks. He was placed on injured reserve on September 19, 2018. He was activated off injured reserve on December 24, 2018.


title: Toxicodendron diversilobum

text: Toxicodendron diversilobum (syn. "Rhus diversiloba"), commonly named Pacific poison oak or western poison oak, is a woody vine or shrub in the sumac family, Anacardiaceae. It is widely distributed in western North America, inhabiting conifer and mixed broadleaf forests, woodlands, grasslands, and chaparral biomes. Peak flowering occurs in May. Like other members of the genus "Toxicodendron", "T. diversilobum" causes itching and allergic rashes in most people after contact by touch or smoke inhalation. Despite its name, it is not closely related to oaks.


title: Toxicodendron diversilobum

text: "Toxicodendron diversilobum" is extremely variable in growth habit and leaf appearance. It grows as a dense tall shrub in open sunlight, a treelike vine and may be more than long with an trunk, as dense thickets in shaded areas, or any form in between. It reproduces by spreading rhizomes and by seeds.


title: Toxicodendron diversilobum

text: The plant is winter deciduous, so that after cold weather sets in, the stems are leafless and bear only the occasional cluster of mature fruit. Without leaves the stems may sometimes be identified by occasional black marks where its milky sap may have oozed and dried.


title: Toxicodendron diversilobum

text: The leaves are divided into three (rarely 5, 7, or 9) leaflets, long, with scalloped, toothed, or lobed edges. They generally resemble the lobed leaves of a true oak, though tend to be more glossy. Leaves are typically bronze when first unfolding in February to March, bright green in the spring, yellow-green to reddish in the summer, and bright red or pink from late July to October.


title: Toxicodendron diversilobum

text: White flowers form in the spring, from March to June. If they are fertilized, they develop into greenish-white or tan drupes.


title: Toxicodendron diversilobum

text: "Toxicodendron diversilobum" is found in California (Los Angeles was built on the site of a village named Yaangna or "iyáanga’", meaning "poison oak place"), the Baja California Peninsula, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. The related "T. pubescens" (eastern poison oak) is native to the Southeastern United States. "T. diversilobum" and "T. rydbergii" (western poison ivy) hybridize in the Columbia River Gorge area.


title: Toxicodendron diversilobum

text: "Toxicodendron diversilobum" is common in various habitats, from mesic riparian zones to xeric chaparral. It thrives in shady and dappled light through full and direct sunlight conditions, at elevations below . The vining form can climb up large shrub and tree trunks into their canopies. Sometimes it kills the support plant by smothering or breaking it. The plant often occurs in chaparral and woodlands, coastal sage scrub, grasslands, and oak woodlands; and Douglas-fir ("Pseudotsuga menzesii"), hemlock–Sitka spruce, "Sequoia sempervirens "(coast redwood), "Pinus ponderosa" (Ponderosa pine), and mixed evergreen forests.


title: Toxicodendron diversilobum

text: Black-tailed deer, mule deer, California ground squirrels, western gray squirrels, and other indigenous fauna feed on the leaves of the plant. It is rich in phosphorus, calcium, and sulfur. Bird species use the berries for food, and utilize the plant structure for shelter. Neither native animals nor horses, livestock, or dogs demonstrate reactions to urushiol.


title: Toxicodendron diversilobum

text: Due to human allergic reactions, "T. diversilobum "is usually eradicated from gardens and public landscaped areas. It can be a weed in agricultural fields, orchards, and vineyards. It is usually removed by pruning, herbicides, digging out, or a combination.


title: Toxicodendron diversilobum

text: "Toxicodendron diversilobum" leaves and twigs have a surface oil, urushiol, which causes an allergic reaction. It causes contact dermatitis – an immune-mediated skin inflammation – in four-fifths of humans. Most, if not all, will become sensitized over time with repeated or more concentrated exposure to urushiol.


title: Toxicodendron diversilobum

text: The active components of urushiol have been determined to be unsaturated congeners of 3-heptadecylcatechol with up to three double bonds in an unbranched C17 side chain. In poison ivy, these components are unique in that they contain a -CH2CH2- group in an unbranched alkyl side chain.


title: Toxicodendron diversilobum

text: "Toxicodendron diversilobum" skin contact first causes itching; then evolves into dermatitis with inflammation, colorless bumps, severe itching, and blistering. In the dormant deciduous seasons the plant can be difficult to recognize, however contact with leafless branches and twigs also causes allergic reactions.


title: Toxicodendron diversilobum

text: Urushiol volatilizes when burned, and human exposure to "T. diversilobum" smoke is extremely hazardous, from wildfires, controlled burns, or disposal fires. The smoke can poison people who thought they were immune. Branches used to toast food over campfires can cause reactions internally and externally.


title: Toxicodendron diversilobum

text: Urushiol is also found in the skin of mangos, posing a danger to people sensitized to "T. diversilobum" when eating the fruit while it is still in the rind.


title: Toxicodendron diversilobum

text: Californian Native Americans used the plant's stems and shoots to make baskets, the sap to cure ringworm, and as a poultice of fresh leaves applied to rattlesnake bites. The juice or soot was used as a black dye for sedge basket elements, tattoos, and skin darkening.


title: Toxicodendron diversilobum

text: An infusion of dried roots, or buds eaten in the spring, were taken by some native peoples for an immunity from the plant poisons.


title: Toxicodendron diversilobum

text: Chumash peoples used "T. diversilobum" sap to remove warts, corns, and calluses; to cauterize sores; and to stop bleeding. They drank a decoction made from the roots to treat dysentery.


title: Toxicodendron diversilobum

text: "Toxicodendron diversilobum" can be a carefully situated component in wildlife gardens, habitat gardens, and natural landscaping.


title: Toxicodendron diversilobum

text: The plant is used in habitat restoration projects. It can be early stage succession where woodlands have been burned or removed, serving as a nurse plant for other species.


title: Jim Florentine

text: James Florentine (born August 18, 1964) is an American comedian, actor, author and television personality. He is best known for co-hosting "That Metal Show" on VH1 Classic and voicing several characters on "Crank Yankers", including Special Ed and Bobby Fletcher. He hosts "The Jim Florentine Show" on Sirius XM Satellite Radio and a podcast called "Everybody Is Awful (Except You)". He has released six albums of stand-up comedy, two comedy specials, six installments in the "Terrorizing Telemarketers" prank call compilation, and three installments of the "Meet the Creeps" hidden camera show. His 2018 book "Everybody is Awful (Except You!)" reached No. 1 on the Book Soup nonfiction chart.


title: Jim Florentine

text: He was born on August 18, 1964, in Brooklyn, New York to a large Catholic family; he has six brothers and sisters. He launched his career in New York City comedy clubs.


title: Jim Florentine

text: Florentine is a native of central New Jersey. He came from a large Catholic family and was one of seven children who attended the Catholic school St Ambrose. He has stated in various interviews and in his stand-up act that he disliked his religious upbringing. Florentine was interested in a musical career growing up because of his love for heavy metal music but would often joke that he never had the talent to play an instrument.


title: Jim Florentine

text: Florentine lived for several years in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where his father wanted to set up a family-run hot dog vending business. The business, however, proved unsuccessful, and the family moved back to New Jersey. In his late teens, Florentine had drug and alcohol problems and was in and out of rehab. He has stated his love of hard rock music set him on a straight path in life. Florentine was later a DJ on his college radio station in Hazlet, New Jersey WCNJ. He later mentioned after seeing Andrew Dice Clay for the first time on a Rodney Dangerfield Comedy special, he wanted a career in stand-up comedy. He would often joke on air that marriage and kids were not for him. His girlfriend of six years committed suicide in December 2006. In August 2007, while a guest on the Howard Stern Show, Jim Florentine asked co-host Robin Quivers to go on a date with him during a show segment. Due to the attention this garnered, Quivers became tight-lipped about the topic. On July 28, 2008, Quivers announced on the radio show that she and Florentine had ended their relationship. She stated that the breakup was amicable, that Florentine was "genuine and honest," and that he was the one who initiated the breakup.


title: Jim Florentine

text: In July 2001, Florentine released "Terrorizing Telemarketers Volume 1". After numerous plays on the "Howard Stern Radio Show", his CD ranking on Amazon.com went from 282,363 to number 2. The only artist ahead of him was the Backstreet Boys. Later that week, Florentine's CD came in at No. 17 on the Internet Billboard charts.


title: Jim Florentine

text: After the release of "Terrorizing Telemarketers Volume 2" in late 2001, Jimmy Kimmel and Adam Carolla took a liking to Florentine's prank calls and hired him for a show to debut in June 2002 on Comedy Central called "Crank Yankers". Florentine played Special Ed, a developmentally disabled teenager, and Bobby Fletcher, a despicable, alcoholic slob who is the older cousin of Ed.


title: Jim Florentine

text: After season 1, Eminem took a liking to Florentine's characters and flew him out to his Detroit studio to do prank calls together for the upcoming season of "Crank Yankers". The following year in 2004, Eminem and Florentine did a bit together on the MTV Music awards show where Eminem beat up Special Ed, who kept annoying him (and tore his leg off). "Crank Yankers" lasted three seasons on Comedy Central. The show moved over to MTV2 in 2006 for one season. Florentine's Special Ed character that he created is still played at various sporting events at stadiums across the USA.


title: Jim Florentine

text: Florentine was featured on the series premiere of "Down and Dirty with Jim Norton", a comedy series that aired on HBO on October 3, 2008. The series spotlights new and established talent, including Artie Lange, Bill Burr ("Chappelle Show"), Patrice O'Neal, and Andrew Dice Clay. Lemmy, leader of the heavy metal band Motörhead, served as the musical director.


title: Jim Florentine

text: Later that year, "That Metal Show" made its debut on VH1 Classic. Florentine co-hosted the show with fellow comedian Don Jamieson and rock radio broadcaster Eddie Trunk. The show discussed various topics in the hard rock and metal community, along with interviewing musicians and giveaways for the audience. The show ended production in 2015.


title: Jim Florentine

text: Florentine has been seen on "The Apprentice", Comedy Central's "Mother Load", HBO's "Inside the NFL", "The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn", "The Opie and Anthony Show", "Opie with Jim Norton", "The Howard Stern Show", Spike TV's "Video Game Awards", "MTV Music Video Awards", "Jimmy Kimmel Live!", "Last Call with Carson Daly", "Tough Crowd" with Colin Quinn on Comedy Central, VH1's "The List", Louie Anderson's "Comedy Showcase", Jim Norton and Sam Roberts on Sirius/XM and Comedy Central's "@midnight". He also voiced the redneck radio host Bobbie Ray in the video game "".


title: Jim Florentine

text: He has a series of prank call CDs known as "Terrorizing Telemarketers" Volumes 1–5. The CDs feature a series of recorded telephone conversations, often with Florentine receiving calls from telemarketers, wherein he turns the tables on often aggressive salespeople by being deliberately difficult and creating awkward situations.


title: Jim Florentine

text: In 2004, he worked one season on HBO's "Inside the NFL" performing various comedy sketches. The show won an Emmy that season and Florentine has proudly said in various interviews that when he was single, he kept it on his nightstand and it would close the deal anytime he had a date over. He called it his "Mariano Rivera".


title: Jim Florentine

text: At the same time, Florentine released two hidden camera DVDs called "Meet The Creeps" where he and his partner Don Jamieson pull outrageous pranks on people. The DVD has got in the hands of some "Comedy Central" executives, and they brought "Meet The Creeps" to their broadband channel called "Motherload". After the two successful seasons, Comedy Central did a "Meet The Creeps" pilot for the network. The pilot was deemed too mean-spirited and the show never made it on the network.


title: Jim Florentine

text: Between 2004 and 2008, he made three appearances on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" on ABC. He also appeared on "The Late Late Show Craig Kilborn". In 2007, Florentine appeared on the last episode of "The Apprentice" in season 4 doing his edgy stand-up comedy at a conservative charity event. He asked Trump's partner George if he wears a diaper. He has not appeared on "The Apprentice" since.


title: Jim Florentine

text: In 2011, Florentine launched his weekly podcast called "Comedy, Metal, Midgets". It is one of the most popular comedy podcasts landing in the top 20 every week.


title: Jim Florentine

text: On October 25, 2011, Florentine released his stand-up CD on Metal Blade Records called "Cringe N Purge". It landed at No. 3 on the iTunes charts and No. 5 on the Comedy Billboard Charts.


title: Jim Florentine

text: In June 2012, Florentine hosted the OMA Awards for MTV that aired worldwide. In August 2012 That Metal Show that Jim co hosts on VH1 Classic will be going into its 11th season. Florentine also opened for the band Metallica at Orionfest festival which attracted over 50,000 fans.


title: Jim Florentine

text: On September 4, 2012, Florentine released his second CD on Metal Blade Records called "Awful Jokes From My First Comedy Notebook". The CD also landed at No. 3 on the iTunes Charts and No. 10 on the Comedy Billboard Charts. Jim is only the third comedian ever to have two CDs land in the top 10 in the same year. The concept for this CD was that Jim stumbled across his first comedy notebooks from when he first started doing comedy back in the early 1990s. He could not believe how bad his early jokes were and decided to share them with his fans and went into a recording studio and read his awful jokes directly out of his notebook. The CD has received critical acclaim in the comedy world for taking a huge risk.


title: Jim Florentine

text: On April 17, 2013, radio personality Marc Maron posted a lengthy interview with Florentine on his "WTF" podcast series.


title: Jim Florentine

text: In 2015, Jim was on the season finale of "Louie" and was submitted for an Emmy nomination for "Best Guest Star." He will be on the current season of "Inside Amy Schumer".


title: Jim Florentine

text: In 2016, he released two comedy specials, "I'm Your Savior" was a critically acclaimed one-man show about his life and the death of his ex-girlfriend. His second special released the same year, "A Simple Man" debuted at number one on the comedy charts.


title: Impeachment of Park Geun-hye

text: The impeachment of Park Geun-hye, President of South Korea, was the culmination of a political scandal involving interventions to the presidency from her aide, Choi Soon-sil. The impeachment vote took place on 9 December 2016, with 234 members of the 300-member National Assembly voting in favour of the impeachment and temporary suspension of Park Geun-hye's presidential powers and duties. This exceeded the required two-thirds threshold in the National Assembly and, although the vote was by secret ballot, the results indicated that more than half of the 128 lawmakers in Park's party Saenuri had supported her impeachment. Thus, Hwang Kyo-ahn, then Prime Minister of South Korea, became Acting President while the Constitutional Court of Korea was due to determine whether to accept the impeachment. The court upheld the impeachment in a unanimous 8–0 decision on 10 March 2017, removing Park from office. The regularly scheduled presidential election was advanced to 9 May 2017, and Moon Jae-in, former leader of the Democratic Party, was elected as Park's permanent successor.


title: Impeachment of Park Geun-hye

text: Park was formally sentenced to 24 years in prison on 6 April 2018 after being found guilty of abuse of power and coercion. This was later raised to 25 years and a fine of ₩20 billion (US$17.86 million) following an appeal by prosecutors.


title: Impeachment of Park Geun-hye

text: The procedure for impeachment is set out in the 10th Constitution of South Korea in 1987. And according to Article 65 Clause 1, if the President, Prime Minister, or other state council members violate the Constitution or other laws of official duty, the National Assembly can impeach them.


title: Impeachment of Park Geun-hye

text: Clause 2 states the impeachment bill must be proposed by one third, and approved by a majority of members of the National Assembly for passage. In the case of the President, the motion must be proposed by a majority and approved by two thirds or more of the total members of the National Assembly, meaning that 200 of 300 members of the parliament must vote to approve the bill. This article also states that any person against whom a motion for impeachment has been passed shall be suspended from exercising his/her power until the impeachment has been adjudicated, and a decision on impeachment shall not extend further than removal from public office. However, impeachment shall not exempt the person impeached from civil or criminal liability for such violations.


title: Impeachment of Park Geun-hye

text: By the Constitutional Court Act of 1988, the Constitutional Court must make a final decision within 180 days after it receives any case for adjudication, including impeachment cases. If the respondent has already left office before the pronouncement of the decision, the case is dismissed.


title: Impeachment of Park Geun-hye

text: The last president to be subject to impeachment was Roh Moo-hyun, who was impeached by parliament in 2004 and was suspended from duties for two months. In that case, the Constitutional Court of Korea acquitted Roh and restored him to power, with the South Korean public by and large in support of Roh.


title: Impeachment of Park Geun-hye

text: Revelations emerged in late October 2016, that President Park Geun-hye's aide, Choi Soon-sil, who did not have an official position in the government, had used her position to seek donations of money from several business conglomerates (known as "chaebol"), including Samsung, Hyundai, SK Group and Lotte, to two foundations she controlled.


title: Impeachment of Park Geun-hye

text: These revelations were first revealed when Park's unofficial clothier Ko Young-tae revealed evidence to the media of the nature of Park and Choi's relationship which suggested Choi's access to Park's personal and work life, and Choi was said to have directly influenced, and interfered with the policies of the Park government and to have edited Park's presidential speeches. Media investigations also reported that Choi and President Park's senior staff members, including both Ahn Jong-bum and Jeong Ho-sung, have allegedly used their influence to extort ₩77.4 billion ($60 million) from Korean chaebols—family-owned large business conglomerates—and set up two culture- and sports-related foundations, Mir and K-sports foundations.


title: Impeachment of Park Geun-hye

text: On 25 October 2016, Park apologized to the nation in a televised address from the Blue House for giving Choi access to draft speeches during the first months of her presidency. Protests began on 26 October calling on President Park's resignation. Three days later, she dismissed her top aides including chief of staff Kim Ki-choon and two members of the cabinet and attempted to replace prime minister Hwang Kyo-ahn with Kim Byong-joon, a former aide to former president Roh Moo-hyun, but this was rejected by the National Assembly.


title: Impeachment of Park Geun-hye

text: On 31 October, Choi Soon-sil was arrested by prosecutors, having concluded that there was enough evidence for an indictment. She was formally charged with abuse of power and fraud on 20 November.


title: Impeachment of Park Geun-hye

text: Park made a second apology on 4 November, pledging to take responsibility if she was found guilty, and a third apology on 29 November, calling for the National Assembly to decide the manner of her departure, but this was rejected by the opposition-controlled legislature. Protests across South Korea began on 26 October with Park's approval rating dropping to 4%, and according to an opinion poll, as of 9 December 78% of South Koreans supported her impeachment. President Park appointed Park Young-soo, former head of the Seoul High Prosecutors' Office, as a special prosecutor to investigate the allegations on 30 November.


title: Impeachment of Park Geun-hye

text: Choi's daughter Chung Yoo-ra was also sought by prosecutors as a key witness. When she did not return to Korea for the investigation, an Interpol warrant was put out for her arrest. She was arrested in Denmark on 1 January 2017, and extradited to Korea in May. In late 2016 and early 2017, the German Federal Police began investigating Choi and Chung for money laundering.


title: Impeachment of Park Geun-hye

text: The response to the "Sewol" ferry sinking accident that occurred on 16 April 2014 also contributed to Park's declining presidential ratings.


title: Impeachment of Park Geun-hye

text: On 3 December 2016, at 4:10 am, Woo Sang-ho of the Democratic Party, Park Jie-won of the People's Party, and Roh Hoe-chan of the Justice Party moved the "President (Park Geun-hye) impeachment proposal" in the National Assembly on behalf of 171 members of their respective parties and other independent representatives, on the grounds that Geun-hye had violated the Constitution and the law. Park's Saenuri Party initially preferred Park to voluntarily step down in late April, but with mounting protests, the ruling party became divided on whether Park should step down voluntarily or be impeached. On 4 December, members of Saenuri's "non-mainstream" factions declared that they would vote in favour of Park's impeachment.


title: Impeachment of Park Geun-hye

text: The 300-member National Assembly was scheduled to vote on an impeachment bill on 9 December, at the end of the legislative session. As impeachment against president requires a two-thirds supermajority, at least 200 members would have to vote to impeach, in which case Park would be impeached and immediately suspended from her office. There were up to 172 opposition and independent lawmakers, which meant at least 28 of the 128 MPs from the ruling Saenuri Party needed to cross the floor and join the opposition in supporting the impeachment measure for the vote to pass.


title: Impeachment of Park Geun-hye

text: On 8 December, the South Korean National Assembly announced that the vote on the motion to impeach would take place on 9 December, at 3:00 pm local time. The opposition parties pledged to resign their seats in the National Assembly if the impeachment motion failed to pass. On 9 December, the National Assembly approved the impeachment motion by a vote of 234 in favour and 56 against in a secret ballot. The Speaker of the National Assembly (who happens to be unaffiliated with any party) abstained from the vote. Two other MPs abstained from voting and seven votes were declared invalid.


title: Impeachment of Park Geun-hye

text: As a result of the motion's passage, President Park's powers and duties were suspended for up to 180 days while the Constitutional Court of Korea considered the validity of the impeachment motion. It was necessary for six of the nine judges on that court to agree with the impeachment for the removal to take effect.


title: Impeachment of Park Geun-hye

text: President Park held a final cabinet meeting acknowledging the impeachment motion and apologised for causing uncertainty, before Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn assumed presidential powers and duties at 19:30 Korean Standard Time, on an interim basis.


title: Impeachment of Park Geun-hye

text: Protesters congregated outside the National Assembly hall where the voting session was held. Some 40 family members of the victims of the sinking of MV "Sewol" looked on as lawmakers cast their secret ballots. Citizens who have been rallying in massive numbers against Park rejoiced at the news, while Park's supporters called the parliamentary impeachment a "witch-hunt" without concrete evidence of Park's wrongdoings.


title: Impeachment of Park Geun-hye

text: On 1 January 2017, Park appeared in public for the first time since the impeachment before a select group of reporters at the Blue House, saying she denied any allegations of the scandal and wrongdoings.


title: Impeachment of Park Geun-hye

text: The South Korean Constitutional Court had up to 180 days (until early June 2017) to decide on the issue. It held public hearings to hear from both sides on whether the National Assembly had followed due process and the impeachment was justified.


title: Impeachment of Park Geun-hye

text: The Constitutional Court has been considered generally conservative, as all nine judges of the Constitutional Court were appointed during the conservative Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye administrations. The Constitutional Court was to start the Preparatory Hearing on 22 December, with initial views from both sides.


title: Impeachment of Park Geun-hye

text: The first impeachment trial focused on the whereabouts of Park Geun-hye seven hours after the Sewol ferry sinking. The administration's delayed response to the disaster led to widespread criticism in South Korea and forced Park to deny various rumours. Then, on 23 December the Justice Ministry of South Korea said that it has submitted its views on the recent parliamentary vote to impeach President Park Geun-hye to the Constitutional Court, adding that the process has met all the necessary legal requirements.


title: Impeachment of Park Geun-hye

text: The Constitutional Court was to officially start the main hearings on Tuesday, 3 January 2017, and Park would not be required to appear for questioning. Park was absent at the first open hearing and the first session was closed after just nine minutes. The hearings were rescheduled to start on 5 January 2017. The trial heard arguments and evidence until 27 February.


title: Impeachment of Park Geun-hye

text: On 6 March, special prosecutor Park Young-soo announced the results of his probe into the Choi and Park allegations, finding evidence of collusion between Park and Choi to solicit bribes from Samsung Group and blacklisting more than 9,000 artists, authors, and movie industry professionals from government assistance that constituted an abuse of power. This opened the possibility of Park's indictment if the Constitutional Court upheld the National Assembly's impeachment motion.


title: Impeachment of Park Geun-hye

text: On 10 March 2017, 11.00 am KST, the Constitutional Court upheld the impeachment in a unanimous 8–0 decision read out by Acting Chief Justice Lee Jung Mi which formally ended Park's presidency, the first time that a sitting president was removed from the office since the creation of the Sixth Republic of South Korea after the country's democratization in 1987. As supporters and opponents of Park gathered outside the building for the verdict, the ensuing clashes between her supporters and police resulted in injuries, and three of them later died.


title: Impeachment of Park Geun-hye

text: As a result of impeachment, Park was stripped of her post-presidential benefits such as retirement pension, free medical services, state funding for her post-retirement office, personal assistants and a chauffeur, and right to burial at the Seoul National Cemetery after death. However, she is entitled to retain security protection under the Presidential Security Act.


title: Impeachment of Park Geun-hye

text: Park left the Blue House on the evening of 11 March and was welcomed to her home by supporters. She was arrested and placed into custody after an indictment by prosecutors on charges of bribery, abuse of power, coercion, and leaking government secrets on 31 March.


title: Impeachment of Park Geun-hye

text: After Park's removal from office, Prime Minister Hwang remained as Acting President. A presidential election was already scheduled for December 2017. However, it was advanced to 9 May 2017, as the constitution requires new elections within 60 days of a permanent presidential vacancy. In that election, Moon Jae-in was elected as the 12th president of South Korea.


title: Impeachment of Park Geun-hye

text: In July 2018, it emerged that the Defense Security Command made plans for declaring martial law and authority to use military force to crackdown on protesters, if the Constitutional Court did not uphold Park's removal from office. The DSC had planned to mobilize 200 tanks, 550 armoured vehicles, 4,800 armed personnel, and 1,400 members of special forces in Seoul in order to enforce martial law. Other components of the plan included monitoring and censoring media content and arresting politicians taking part in protests.


title: Impeachment of Park Geun-hye

text: On 6 April 2018, Park was sentenced to 24 years in prison, after being found guilty of abuse of power and coercion. This was later raised to 25 years and a fine of ₩20 billion (US$17.86 million) following an appeal by prosecutors.


title: Snow globe

text: A snow globe (also called a waterglobe, snowstorm, or snowdome) is a transparent sphere, traditionally made of glass, enclosing a miniaturized scene of some sort, often together with a model of a town, neighborhood, landscape or figure. The sphere also encloses the water in the globe; the water serves as the medium through which the "snow" falls. To activate the snow, the globe is shaken to churn up the white particles. The globe is then placed back in its position and the flakes fall down slowly through the water. Snow globes sometimes have a built-in music box that plays a song. Some snow globes have a design around the outerbase for decoration. Snow globes are often used as a collectible item.


title: Snow globe

text: At the end of the 19th century the Austrian Erwin Perzy, a producer of surgical instruments, invented the so-called "Schneekugel" (snow globe) and got the first patent for it. Originally his goal was to develop an extra bright lightsource for use as a surgical lamp. As he tried to intensify the candlepower of a so-called "Schusterkugel" (a water-filled flask used to focus light since the Middle Ages) with particles made out of different materials for reflection purpose, the effect reminded him of snowfall. He then built his first scene globe with a model of the basilica of Mariazell. Because of the great demand for his snow globes, Perzy and his brother Ludwig opened a shop in Vienna, where the production continues until today as a family business exporting throughout the world. The material and methods used to make the particles for Perzy globes is a family production secret.


title: Snow globe

text: In the United States, the first snow globe-related patent was granted in 1927 to Joseph Garaja of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 1929, Garaja convinced Novelty Pool Ornaments to manufacture a fish version underwater.


title: Snow globe

text: In America, during the 1940s, snow globes were often used for advertising. In Europe, during the 1940s and 1950s, religious snow globes were common gifts for Roman Catholic children. Snow globes have appeared in a number of film scenes, the most famous of which is the opening of the 1941 classic "Citizen Kane".


title: Snow globe

text: In the 1950s, the globes, which were previously made of glass, became available in plastic. Currently, there are many different types of snow globes available. These globes are produced by a number of countries and range from the mass-produced versions of Hong Kong and China to the finely crafted types still produced in Austria. Snow globes feature diverse scenes, ranging from the typical holiday souvenirs to more eclectic collectibles featuring Christmas scenes, Disney characters, popular icons, animals, military figures, historical scenes, etc.