title: Treaties of the European Union

text: An updated EMU reform plan issued in June 2015 by the five presidents of the council, European Commission, ECB, Eurogroup and European Parliament outlined a roadmap for integrating the Fiscal Compact and Single Resolution Fund agreement into the framework of EU law by June 2017, and the intergovernmental European Stability Mechanism by 2025. Proposals by the European Commission to incorporate the substance of the Fiscal Compact into EU law and create a European Monetary Fund to replace the ESM were published in December 2017. On 30 November 2020 the finance ministers at the Eurogroup agreed to amend the treaties establishing the ESM and Single Resolution Fund, to be ratified in 2021 by all Eurozone member states. The reform proposal was blocked for months because of the veto of the Italian government. The proposed amendments include:


title: Gigantophis

text: Gigantophis is an extinct genus represented by its sole member Gigantophis garstini, a giant snake. Before the Paleocene constrictor genus "Titanoboa" was described from Colombia in 2009, "Gigantophis garstini" was regarded as the largest snake ever recorded. It lived about 40 million years ago during the Eocene epoch of the Paleogene Period, in the Paratethys Sea, within the northern Sahara, where Egypt and Algeria are now located.


title: Gigantophis

text: Jason Head, of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, has compared fossil "Gigantophis garstini" vertebrae to those of the largest modern snakes, and concluded that the extinct snake could grow from in length. If , it would have been more than 10% longer than its largest living relatives.


title: Gigantophis

text: Later estimates, based on allometric equations scaled from the articular processes of tail vertebrae referred to "Gigantophis garstini", revised the length of "Gigantophis garstini" to .


title: Gigantophis

text: Its discovery was published in 1901 by paleontologist Charles William Andrews, who described it, estimated its length to be about 30 feet, and named it "garstini" in honor of Sir William Garstin, KCMG, the Under Secretary of State for Public Works in Egypt.


title: Gigantophis

text: In 2013, vertebrae collected in Pakistan were found to be similar to "Gigantophis" vertebrae collected in Egypt, but their exact affinities are uncertain.


title: Zoe Wees

text: Zoe Wees is a German singer. Her debut single "Control" charted in several nations including number one in France (SNEP Radio) and the top ten in Belgium.


title: Zoe Wees

text: Wees grew up in Hamburg. She has lived with benign rolandic epilepsy (BRE), a syndrome that caused her to have feelings of exclusion from others, helplessness, and loss of control. Wees stated, "The sickness was stronger than me, and left scars that have become part of my life. Accepting them has taken so much time, but they make me what I am today: a fighter."


title: Zoe Wees

text: Wees' music has been described as "raw, deeply emotional" that ranges "from raspy low to unbelievably powerful and sky high". Wees can often be found playing the piano or guitar.


title: Zoe Wees

text: Wees has written music in English since childhood. She began working on music as a teenager when her teacher came up to her after a school concert wanting to work with her on music. In early 2017, Wees took part in the fifth season of the music talent show "The Voice Kids". Wees joined pop singer Sasha's team in the Blind Auditions. In the Sing-Offs, the third of five phases in the competition, Wees was eliminated. Wees released the song "Control" on 13 March 2020. The song is written about anxiety and not being in control, but more specifically, about her battle with benign rolandic epilepsy. Her mission in writing the song was to say thank you to her primary school teacher who pushed her along as a young girl into becoming who she is today.


title: Zoe Wees

text: On 19 April, Wees released "Ghost", part of her debut EP "Golden Wings," which was released on 21 May via Capitol Records. Wees said that "Ghost" was written about letting someone get too close even if you know they can hurt you and about being vulnerable to that person in a way that could essentially destroy your life. Ghost was co-written by Ricardo Muñoz Repko, VVAVES, Nicolas Rebscher, and Patrick Salmy.


title: Zoe Wees

text: Wees noted that she listened to Jessie J and Miley Cyrus as she grew up. Artists that she cited as influences include Jessie J and Lewis Capaldi. She describes her genre as pop.


title: Vengeance (2002)

text: The 2002 Vengeance was the second annual Vengeance professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It was held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown! brand divisions. The event took place on July 21, 2002, at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, Michigan. It was the first Vengeance event held under the WWE name, after the company had been renamed from World Wrestling Federation to WWE in May that year, as well as the first Vengeance held under the first brand extension.


title: Vengeance (2002)

text: The main event from SmackDown! saw The Rock win the WWE Undisputed Championship in a Triple Threat match also involving Kurt Angle and the defending champion The Undertaker. The main event from Raw was between the champion Rob Van Dam and challenger Brock Lesnar for the WWE Intercontinental Championship, in which Van Dam retained his championship by disqualification. The undercard featured The Un-Americans (Lance Storm and Christian) versus Hollywood Hulk Hogan and Edge for the WWE Tag Team Championship, Booker T versus Big Show in a No Disqualification match and John Cena versus Chris Jericho in Cena's first PPV match.


title: Vengeance (2002)

text: In December 2001, World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), at the time known as the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), held a pay-per-view (PPV) event titled Vengeance to replace Armageddon that year as the Armageddon name was considered potentially offensive to the victims of the September 11 attacks. Following the company being renamed from WWF to WWE in May 2002, the promotion announced that Vengeance would return that year, but in the July slot of their PPV calendar—as Armageddon was reinstated for that December—thus establishing Vengeance as an annual event for the promotion, with the 2002 event also being the first Vengeance promoted under the WWE name. The 2002 event would also be the first Vengeance event held under the first brand extension that was introduced in March, in which the promotion divided its roster into two distinct brands, Raw and SmackDown!, where the wrestlers were exclusively assigned to perform. The 2002 event thus featured wrestlers from both brands and was held on July 21, 2002, at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, Michigan.


title: Vengeance (2002)

text: Stone Cold Steve Austin was featured on early promotional posters for the event, despite not wrestling or appearing at the event due to him walking out from the company the previous month.


title: Vengeance (2002)

text: Vengeance featured professional wrestling matches that involved different wrestlers from pre-existing feuds, plots, and storylines that were played out on "Raw" and "SmackDown!" – World Wrestling Entertainment's (WWE) television programs. Wrestlers portrayed a hero or villain as they followed a series of events that built tension, and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches. All wrestlers were from WWE's Raw and SmackDown! brands – a storyline division in which WWE employees are assigned to a television program of the same name.


title: Vengeance (2002)

text: The main feud from SmackDown! heading into Vengeance was between The Rock, Kurt Angle and The Undertaker fighting for the WWE Undisputed Championship. At King of the Ring, The Undertaker defeated Triple H to retain the title. During the match, The Rock interfered hitting The Undertaker with a "Rock Bottom". The Undertaker, angry because of The Rock's interference, asked Mr. McMahon for a match with The Rock. McMahon booked the match for Vengeance and told The Undertaker that it was for the championship. On the July 4 episode of "SmackDown!", however, The Undertaker wrestled Angle to a draw in a WWE Undisputed Championship match, when The Undertaker pinned Angle and tapped out to Angle's submission hold at the same time. On the July 8 episode of "Raw", McMahon announced that Angle would be added to the match, making it a triple threat match. On the July 11 episode of "SmackDown!", The Rock made his return to confront Angle, who challenged him to a match the next week, only for The Undertaker to attack both The Rock and Angle. Later that night, as Angle teamed up with Chris Jericho against John Cena and The Undertaker, The Rock hit the "Rock Bottom" on both Angle and The Undertaker. On the July 18 episode of "SmackDown!", The Rock defeated Angle by disqualification due to interference from The Undertaker. Angle then nailed The Undertaker with a chair.


title: Vengeance (2002)

text: The main feud from Raw heading into Vengeance was between Rob Van Dam and Brock Lesnar for the Intercontinental Championship. The previous month at King of the Ring, Van Dam defeated Chris Jericho in the first semifinal match while Lesnar defeated Test in the second semifinal match. Later that night, Lesnar defeated Van Dam in the finals become King of the Ring and earn the right to face the WWE Undisputed Champion at SummerSlam. Van Dam had held the Intercontinental Championship since the May 27 episode of "Raw" when he defeated Eddie Guerrero in a ladder match. On the June 24 episode of "Raw", Van Dam interrupted Lesnar's King of the Ring coronation by attacking him from behind and knocking him down with the "Van Daminator" and a diving superkick. Later that night, Lesnar faced Van Dam for the Intercontinental Championship in a match that Lesnar lost by disqualification when Lesnar's agent, Paul Heyman, interfered. Afterward, Lesnar nailed Van Dam with two powerbombs, including one through the announce table. On the July 1 episode of "Raw", Lesnar and Heyman issued a challenge to Van Dam at Vengeance for the Intercontinental Championship, which Van Dam accepted. On the July 8 episode of "Raw", Van Dam brawled with Lesnar and Heyman, with Van Dam nailing Heyman in the face with a "Van Terminator" with a steel chair. Later that night, Van Dam chased Shawn Michaels to the back while being distracted, allowing Lesnar to perform an "F-5" on Van Dam onto the steel ramp. On the July 15 episode of "Raw", Lesnar and The Undertaker defeated Van Dam and Ric Flair in a tag team match. After the match, Lesnar attacked The Undertaker.


title: Vengeance (2002)

text: Another storyline heading into Vengeance was Triple H determining what brand he would permanently join. He could either stay on SmackDown! with the new General Manager Stephanie McMahon or move to Raw with General Manager Eric Bischoff. Originally the New World Order (nWo) was planning to threaten Triple H to join the nWo if he joined Raw, but due to backstage circumstances, the nWo was written off television a week before Vengeance. Shawn Michaels, however, would still promise to bring Triple H to Raw.


title: Vengeance (2002)

text: John Cena made his WWE debut a month before Vengeance on the June 27 episode of "SmackDown!" and had entered a minor feud with Kurt Angle and Chris Jericho. Jericho and Edge were also feuding at that time. Their feud began on the June 6 episode of "SmackDown!" when Edge and Jericho were scheduled to compete in the King of the Ring first round tournament, but Edge forfeited his match to Jericho due to a legitimate shoulder injury that he suffered on the May 30 episode of "SmackDown!" in a steel cage match hitting Angle with a spear. Jericho then forced Edge to raise his hand in victory, but Edge refused and tried to assault Jericho, who retaliated by targeting Edge's shoulder, including nailing his shoulder onto the steel ring steps with the steel chair. Edge and Jericho were booked for a match at Vengeance, until Hollywood Hulk Hogan and Edge defeated Billy and Chuck for the WWE Tag Team Championship on the July 4 episode of "SmackDown!". Later that night, Jericho had a match with Cena, which Jericho won after he pinned Cena with his own feet on the ropes. On the July 11 episode of "SmackDown!", Cena teamed with The Undertaker to take on Angle and Jericho in a tag match, which Cena and The Undertaker won after Cena pinned Jericho.


title: Vengeance (2002)

text: Chris Jericho then asked Mr. McMahon to let The Un-Americans (Lance Storm and Christian) to wrestle Hollywood Hulk Hogan and Edge for the WWE Tag Team Championship at Vengeance, to which McMahon agreed.


title: Vengeance (2002)

text: On the July 8 episode of "Raw", Jeff Hardy defeated William Regal to win the European Championship. Regal, upset after his loss, used his rematch clause at Vengeance. On the July 15 episode of "Raw", Hardy teamed with Bubba Ray and Spike Dudley to take on Regal, Chris Benoit and Eddie Guerrero in a six-man tag team elimination match. Benoit last eliminated Hardy by forcing Hardy to submit to the "Crippler Crossface" following a brass knuckles shot by Regal, who had already been eliminated.


title: Vengeance (2002)

text: Booker T had been feuding with the nWo at the time of their demise after being kicked out of the group on the June 10 episode of "Raw". On the June 17 episode of "Raw", Booker T competed in the King of the Ring quarter final round against Brock Lesnar, who won following the interference from the nWo. On the July 15 episode of "Raw", Booker T defeated former nWo member Big Show by disqualification after Big Show hit Booker T with a chair. After the match, Big Show asked Raw General Manager Eric Bischoff if he could fight Booker T in a no disqualification match at Vengeance, which Bischoff granted.


title: Vengeance (2002)

text: On the June 6 episode of "SmackDown!", Jamie Noble debuted by attacking The Hurricane and was joined by Nidia. On the June 20 episode of "SmackDown!", Noble defeated Billy Kidman after he nailed him with a DDT off the top rope. Afterward, Hurricane got his mask back (that Noble and Nidia had taken from him the previous week) after nailing Noble with a chokeslam. Then at King of the Ring, Noble defeated Hurricane for the Cruiserweight Championship. The following three weeks on "SmackDown!", Kidman and Hurricane defeated Noble and Tajiri in two tag team matches and Kidman then challenged Noble to a Cruiserweight Championship match at Vengeance.


title: Vengeance (2002)

text: Before the event went live on pay-per-view, Goldust defeated Stevie Richards in a match aired live on "Sunday Night Heat".


title: Vengeance (2002)

text: The show began with Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler until Tazz and Michael Cole said they deserved to call Vengeance just as much as Ross and Lawler should. Ross agreed and let Tazz and Cole call the first half of the show.


title: Vengeance (2002)

text: The first match saw The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray Dudley and Spike Dudley) face Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit in an Elimination tag team tables match. Guerrero was eliminated by Spike after a Dudley Dog through a table. Spike was eliminated by Benoit after a Military Press Slam through a table. Benoit was eliminated by Bubba Ray after a Bubba Bomb through a table, winning the match for the Dudley Boyz.


title: Vengeance (2002)

text: The second match was for the WWE Cruiserweight Championship between Jamie Noble and Billy Kidman. Noble pinned Kidman after a Gibson Driver to retain the title.


title: Vengeance (2002)

text: The third match was for the WWE European Championship between Jeff Hardy and William Regal. Hardy pinned Regal with a roll-up to retain the title.


title: Vengeance (2002)

text: The fourth match was between John Cena and Chris Jericho. Jericho attempted to apply the Walls of Jericho on Cena, but Cena countered with a roll-up to win the match, ending their feud.


title: Vengeance (2002)

text: The fifth match was for the WWE Intercontinental Championship between Rob Van Dam and Brock Lesnar. In the end, Lesnar attempted an F5 on Van Dam but Van Dam countered with a DDT and executed a Five Star Frog Splash on Lesnar. Van Dam attempted to pin Lesnar, but Paul Heyman pulled Charles Robinson out of the ring, meaning Van Dam retained the title by disqualification. After the match, Van Dam performed a Baseball Slide on Heyman and Robinson attacked Heyman. Van Dam attempted a Van Terminator on Lesnar, but Heyman stopped Van Dam and Lesnar performed an F5 onto a steel chair on Van Dam.


title: Vengeance (2002)

text: The sixth match was a No Disqualification match between Booker T and Big Show. Booker T performed a Scissors Kick on Big Show through a broadcast table, another Scissors Kick and a Houston Hangover to win the match.


title: Vengeance (2002)

text: A segment occurred involving SmackDown! General Manager Stephanie McMahon and Raw General Manager Eric Bischoff trying to sign Triple H to "Raw" or "SmackDown!". After Shawn Michaels told Triple H he had an idea (referencing reforming D-Generation X), Triple H decided to sign with the "Raw" brand.


title: Vengeance (2002)

text: The seventh match was for the WWE Tag Team Championship between Hollywood Hulk Hogan and Edge and The Un-Americans (Lance Storm and Christian). During the match, Edge attempted a Spear on Storm, but Edge accidentally speared the referee. Test interfered, executing a Big Boot on Edge. Storm pinned Edge for a near-fall. Edge performed a Spear on Storm, but Christian distracted the referee, allowing Chris Jericho to interfere and hit Edge with a title belt. Storm pinned Edge to win the match and the title for The Un-Americans.


title: Vengeance (2002)

text: The main event was a Triple threat match for the WWE Undisputed Championship between The Undertaker, The Rock and Kurt Angle. During the match, The Rock performed a Chokeslam on The Undertaker and applied an Ankle Lock on Angle, but Angle countered with a Rock Bottom on The Rock. Angle attempted an Angle Slam on The Undertaker, but The Undertaker countered with an Angle Slam on Angle. The Rock performed a People's Elbow on The Undertaker, but Angle pulled The Rock out of the ring and nearly pinned The Undertaker for a near-fall. Angle hit The Undertaker with a steel chair and performed an Angle Slam on The Rock, getting near-falls on both competitors. The Undertaker performed a Last Ride on The Rock, but Angle broke up the pinfall by applying an Ankle Lock on The Undertaker, The Undertaker escaped the hold. The Undertaker performed a Chokeslam on Angle and The Rock performed a Rock Bottom on The Undertaker for a near-fall. Angle performed an Angle Slam on The Undertaker and The Rock performed a Rock Bottom on Angle to win the title for a (then) record seventh time.


title: Vengeance (2002)

text: After winning the WWE Undisputed Championship, The Rock then entered a feud with the number one contender Brock Lesnar for the upcoming SummerSlam event. Lesnar went on to win the match and become the youngest champion in the title's history. It was also the last match for The Rock as an active WWE wrestler, and his final reign as WWE Champion until winning the title at the Royal Rumble in 2013, prior to being a full-time actor in Hollywood.


title: Vengeance (2002)

text: Triple H and Shawn Michaels came out the night after Vengeance and what appeared to be a reunion for D-Generation X was instead Triple H turning heel and nailing a "Pedigree" on Michaels. This caused Michaels to retaliate and challenge Triple H to an Unsanctioned Street Fight at SummerSlam, marking his first official match since WrestleMania XIV. Michaels won the match, and Triple H attacked him after the match.


title: Vengeance (2002)

text: The following night on "Raw", Eric Bischoff decided to merge the Intercontinental Championship and the European Championship into one, putting Rob Van Dam and Jeff Hardy against each other in a ladder match. Van Dam won the match, and the European Championship was retired. On the next "Raw", Van Dam lost the Intercontinental Championship to Chris Benoit, who would then jump to the SmackDown! brand. Van Dam used his rematch clause for SummerSlam and brought the Intercontinental Championship back to Raw.


title: Vengeance (2002)

text: After losing to John Cena, Chris Jericho had to face Edge in a steel cage match on the July 25 episode of "SmackDown!". Edge won the match, and Jericho, along with The Un-Americans, moved to the Raw brand. Jericho then went on to feud with Ric Flair. Lance Storm and Christian began to feud with Booker T and Goldust, while Test had a one-month feud with The Undertaker. After his steel cage match win over Jericho, Edge began a two-month-long feud with Eddie Guerrero.


title: Vengeance (2002)

text: After losing the triple threat match to The Rock, Kurt Angle was pinned by Rey Mysterio in a six-man tag team match on the August 8 episode of "SmackDown!". As a result, on the following episode of "SmackDown!", he challenged Mysterio to a match at SummerSlam to which Mysterio agreed.


title: Vengeance (2002)

text: Although the 2002 Vengeance featured wrestlers from both brands, the following year, Vengeance was promoted as a SmackDown!-exclusive PPV.


title: Amadou Haidara

text: Amadou Haidara (born 31 January 1998) is a Malian professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Bundesliga club RB Leipzig and the Mali national team.


title: Amadou Haidara

text: Haidara started his career with the Malian side JMG Academy Bamako. In July 2016, he was signed by FC Red Bull Salzburg. He was sent out on loan to the second league side FC Liefering, which is the farm team of Red Bull Salzburg. Haidara also played for the FC Red Bull Salzburg U-19 team in the UEFA Youth League. There he scored two goals versus FK Vardar.


title: Amadou Haidara

text: He made his first appearance in the third round of the 2016–17 league versus LASK Linz. He substituted Gideon Mensah after the halftime break and scored his first goal in the 48th minute for Liefering.


title: Amadou Haidara

text: During the 2017–18 season, Salzburg had their best ever European campaign. They finished top of their Europa League group, for a record fourth time, before beating Real Sociedad and Borussia Dortmund thus making their first ever appearance in the UEFA Europa League semi-final. On 3 May 2018, he played in the Europa League semi-finals as Olympique de Marseille played out a 1–2 away loss but a 3–2 aggregate win to secure a place in the 2018 UEFA Europa League Final.


title: Amadou Haidara

text: On 22 December 2018, Haidara was signed by German club RB Leipzig. On 30 March 2019, he scored his first Bundesliga goal in a 5–0 win over Hertha BSC. In the 2019–20 season, RB Leipzig managed to reach the Champions League semi-finals.


title: Amadou Haidara

text: On 8 December 2020, he scored his first Champions League goal in a 3–2 win over Manchester United in the 2020–21 season.


title: Amadou Haidara

text: Haidara played five matches for the Malian U17 team, scoring one goal. Haidara made his senior debut for the Mali national football team in a 2018 World Cup qualification tie against Ivory Coast on 6 October 2017.


title: 2011–12 Bundesliga

text: The 2011–12 Bundesliga was the 49th season of the Bundesliga, Germany's premier football league. The season started on 5 August 2011 with the opening match involving defending champions Borussia Dortmund and ended with the last games on 5 May 2012. The traditional winter break was held between the weekends around 17 December 2011 and 20 January 2012.


title: 2011–12 Bundesliga

text: The league comprised eighteen teams: The best fifteen teams of the 2010–11 season, the best two teams from the 2010–11 2. Bundesliga and the winners of the relegation play-off between the 16th-placed Bundesliga team and the third-placed 2. Bundesliga team.


title: 2011–12 Bundesliga

text: Since Germany climbed from fourth to third place in the UEFA association coefficient rankings at the end of the 2010–11 season, the league gained an additional group stage berth for the UEFA Champions League.


title: 2011–12 Bundesliga

text: The league comprised eighteen teams: Eintracht Frankfurt and FC St. Pauli were directly relegated after finishing the 2010–11 season in the bottom two places. Frankfurt ended a six-year tenure in the Bundesliga, while St. Pauli only made a cameo one-year appearance in the top flight and directly returned to the second level.


title: 2011–12 Bundesliga

text: The relegated teams were replaced by Hertha BSC, champions of the 2010–11 2. Bundesliga, and runners-up FC Augsburg. The Bavarian side made their debut at the highest level of football in Germany, while Hertha directly returned to the Bundesliga after just one year at the second tier.


title: 2011–12 Bundesliga

text: A further place in the league was decided through a two-legged play-off between Borussia Mönchengladbach, the 16th-placed team of the 2010–11 Bundesliga, and VfL Bochum, the third-placed 2. Bundesliga team. Mönchengladbach won the series 2–1 on aggregate and therefore retained its Bundesliga spot.


title: 2011–12 Bundesliga

text: The most prominent change regarding stadiums occurred at Mainz, where FSV Mainz 05 moved from Stadion am Bruchweg into their newly built Coface Arena. Other changes included the completion of works at Mercedes-Benz Arena, which was converted to a football-only stadium during the 2009–10 and 2010–11 seasons, and the renaming of Impuls Arena, the ground of promoted team FC Augsburg, to "SGL Arena" effective from the beginning of the season after SGL Carbon acquired the naming rights for the structure in May 2011.


title: 2011–12 Bundesliga

text: In addition to the individual sponsorships of each club listed below, all teams used a league-wide ball named "Torfabrik" (goal factory), provided by Adidas; the ball was updated to a new design for the 2011–12 season.


title: 2011–12 Bundesliga

text: Hertha BSC as 16th-placed team faced third-placed 2011–12 2. Bundesliga side Fortuna Düsseldorf in a two-legged play-off. Fortuna Düsseldorf won 4–3 on aggregate and thus were promoted for the 2012–13 Bundesliga season. Hertha BSC were relegated to the 2012–13 2. Bundesliga.


title: 2011–12 Bundesliga

text: Following the second leg, which was marred by several incidents of crowd disturbances, Hertha appealed against the result. On 21 May the DFB Sports Court rejected this appeal, having considered that these crowd disturbances did not psychologically impinge the Hertha players and that the referee's handling of the situation was sound. However, Hertha appealed again, this time to the Federal Court of the German FA. On 25 May, the Federal Court of the German FA also rejected the appeal. On 19 June, Hertha BSC decided not to appeal the decision, marking their immediate return to the 2. Bundesliga.


title: American Idol (season 9)

text: The ninth season of "American Idol" premiered on Tuesday, January 12, 2010, and concluded on Wednesday, May 26, 2010, on Fox. Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson, and Kara DioGuardi returned to the judging panel. Ellen DeGeneres joined the panel as a replacement for Paula Abdul after guest judges filled in during the auditions. Idol Gives Back also returned for the season and was held on April 21, 2010, during the top seven results show. The top 24 semi-finals format used in the fourth through seventh seasons also returned this season. Cowell, DioGuardi and DeGeneres all left the show after this season ended, although only Cowell's departure was announced in advance. This was the second season where neither of the final 2 contestants had been in the bottom 2 or 3 prior to the finale, with the first being the seventh season. This was also the third consecutive season a male contestant had won, the longest streak for either gender. It was the first season since the sixth season where a female made it to the finale and was also the first time since the seventh season that both the finalists released a different song as a debut single.


title: American Idol (season 9)

text: Lee DeWyze, a folk rocker from Mount Prospect, Illinois won the competition, beating the runner-up Crystal Bowersox.


title: American Idol (season 9)

text: Multiple contestants from this season were signed to record deals, including winner Lee DeWyze, runner-up Crystal Bowersox, finalists Casey James, Michael Lynche, Siobhan Magnus, and semi-finalist John Park.


title: American Idol (season 9)

text: After the season began, Paula Abdul did not return to the judging panel, having announced in the beginning of August 2009 that she was leaving the show due to unresolved contract negotiations. Victoria Beckham, Mary J. Blige, Shania Twain, Katy Perry (who would go on to be a regular judge on Idol starting in the sixteenth season), Avril Lavigne, Joe Jonas, Neil Patrick Harris and Kristin Chenoweth were brought in to star as guest judges during the auditions phase. There was no guest judge on day two of the Orlando auditions because day one guest judge Chenoweth was called back to New York City. Therefore, Simon Cowell, Kara DioGuardi and Randy Jackson appeared with only three judges on the audition panel similar to the main panel from the first to the seventh season.


title: American Idol (season 9)

text: After making the decision to utilize guest judges in Abdul's absence, Fox chairman Peter Rice stated that they would find a permanent fourth judge before the season premiere in January 2010, leading the confirmation on September 9, 2009, by Ellen DeGeneres that she would be joining the show as the new permanent fourth judge for the rounds held at CBS Television City for Hollywood Week and thereafter, onto the live shows.


title: American Idol (season 9)

text: In addition, Simon Cowell announced shortly before the ninth season began that it would be his last season on "American Idol". Cowell left the show to begin preparations for an American version of his singing competition "The X-Factor".


title: American Idol (season 9)

text: Also, DeGeneres announced on July 29, 2010, that she would not return to the judging panel because it was not the right fit for her. DioGuardi would also not return as a judge for the tenth season as announced on September 3, 2010. After her departure, DioGuardi helped and nominated Steven Tyler for a role as a judge on season ten to the show's producers.


title: American Idol (season 9)

text: Auditions had begun on June 14 of the previous year, less than a month after previous season's finale. Auditions were held in the following cities:


title: American Idol (season 9)

text: During this stage guest judges filled in the fourth judging seat. Beckham was the first guest judge, appearing for the Denver and Boston auditions. Blige served as a guest judge for the Atlanta auditions. Jonas filled the guest judging role on the first day of the Dallas auditions and Harris took over the role the following day. Chenoweth served as a guest judge on the first day of the Orlando auditions and Twain judged in Chicago. Lavigne judged on the first day of the Los Angeles auditions and was replaced by Perry the following day.


title: American Idol (season 9)

text: During the Atlanta auditions, 62-year-old activist Larry Platt appeared and performed his original song "Pants on the Ground". The song's lyrics criticize people wearing the hip-hop style of clothing including pants that sag. Well over the age limit of 28, Platt was ineligible to continue. His performance has since become a viral hit, and several celebrities performed the song in the days that followed the original airing of his audition in Atlanta.


title: American Idol (season 9)

text: Held at the Kodak Theatre for the second straight year, the first day of Hollywood Week featured the 181 contestants from the auditions round (although only 172 contestants were listed on the American Idol website) singing solo with the option of playing an instrument. Ninety-six contestants advanced. The next round required the contestants to split up into groups and perform. Seventy-one advanced to the final round of Hollywood requiring a solo performance. Forty-six made it to the final round where the judges take contestants one by one and tell them if they made the final twenty-four.


title: American Idol (season 9)

text: The first seven were revealed on February 16, 2010 (during the second hour on the episode), and the rest were revealed on the following night's episode.


title: American Idol (season 9)

text: The semi-final format used through the fourth through seventh seasons was revived for this season. Starting with 12 women and 12 men, the women and men perform on weekly separate shows and on the result shows, each performing a "Billboard" Hot 100 Hit song, and the bottom two contestants each night are eliminated from the competition. The semi-finals took place over three weeks, meaning that six from each gender will be eliminated over the course of the competition, leaving the other six to form the top 12. The females performed on the first night, followed by the males thereafter (the exception was the Top 20, as the Males performed first instead due to a hospitalization of one contestant, Crystal Bowersox, due to complications from diabetes.


title: American Idol (season 9)

text: From this point on in the show, this season's exit song, "Leave Right Now" by Will Young, was played over eliminations.


title: American Idol (season 9)

text: Kris Allen's rendition of "Let It Be" was made available on iTunes for download, with all proceeds going to Haiti charities.


title: American Idol (season 9)

text: Lee DeWyze (born April 2, 1986, in Mount Prospect, Illinois, 23 years at the start of the show) is from Mount Prospect, Illinois and auditioned in Chicago, Illinois with Bill Withers' Ain't No Sunshine. He performed The Fray's "You Found Me" during Hollywood week. Prior to his appearance on American Idol, he had worked in various jobs, including as a paint salesman and a trading floor clerk at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. He also appeared as an actor in a short low-budget film 'Deadscapes: Broken Road.' When he was 17, he was signed to Wuli Records and had released two CDs – "So I'm Told" and "Slumberland". He was declared the winner on May 26. He was signed to RCA Records after the competition and released an album "Live It Up" on November 16, 2010.


title: American Idol (season 9)

text: Crystal Bowersox (born August 4, 1985, in Elliston, Ohio, 24 years at the time of the show) is from Elliston, Ohio and auditioned in Chicago, Illinois with Erma Franklin's Piece of My Heart. She auditioned for Idol to try to make a better life for her son. Her Hollywood performance of Aretha Franklin's "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" impressed the judges and fellow contestants alike. She had performed as a singer from the age of 10 and moved to Chicago aged 17, frequently working as a busker at train stations there. She was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when she was six, and while on the show, she suffered diabetic complication and was hospitalized which resulted in the Top 20 performance nights for the male and female contestants being switched. She became the runner-up and was signed to Jive Records. Her debut album "Farmer's Daughter" was released on December 14, 2010.


title: American Idol (season 9)

text: Casey James (born May 31, 1982, in Princeton, Texas, 27 years at the time of the show) is from Fort Worth, Texas and auditioned in Denver, Colorado with John Mayer's "Slow Dancing in a Burning Room". He performed professionally after finishing school, but suffered a serious motorcycle accident when he was 21. He took his shirt off during audition after prompting from Kara DioGuardi and Randy Jackson, and Kara's interest in him became a recurring joke in the season. He is an accomplished guitarist and demonstrated his skill with his Hollywood round performance of Ray Charles's "I Don't Need No Doctor" and Top 20 performance of Gavin DeGraw's "I Don't Want to Be." He had never previously watched the show before he auditioned. He was eliminated as a third-place finisher on May 19. He was signed to Sony Music Nashville after the show.


title: American Idol (season 9)

text: Michael Lynche (born May 31, 1983, 26 years at the time of the show) is from St. Petersburg, Florida auditioned in Orlando, Florida with Todd Duncan' "Unchained Melody". He worked as personal trainer prior to Idol. His is married and his daughter was born during Hollywood round, and the unfolding drama of his wife's labor was heavily featured during the Hollywood round where he performed John Mayer's "Waiting on the World to Change". He was saved by the judges when he became the lowest vote-getter on April 7, 2010, but finally he was eliminated at fourth place on May 12.


title: American Idol (season 9)

text: Aaron Kelly (born April 2, 1993, in Davenport, Florida, 16 years old at the start of the show) is from Sonestown, Pennsylvania and auditioned in Orlando, Florida as a winner from American Idol Experience at Disney's Hollywood Studios. His audition song was Miley Cyrus's "The Climb", and performed Sarah McLachlan's "Angel" during the Hollywood rounds but forgot his words. He was adopted by his aunt and uncle at age 5. He had performed from a young age, and was a finalist on PAX-TV's "America's Most Talented Kid" at the age of 11. He was in 2010 the youngest American Idol contestant to reach Top 12. He was eliminated at fifth place on May 5.


title: American Idol (season 9)

text: Siobhan Magnus (born March 15, 1990, in Barnstable, Massachusetts, 19 years at the start of the show) is from Cape Cod, Massachusetts and auditioned in Boston, Massachusetts with Queen's "Love of My Life". Before Idol she performed as the lead vocalist of her band, Lunar Valve, and she worked as a glassblower in Hyannis, Massachusetts. She performed Stevie Wonder's "Living for the City" in the Hollywood rounds. She was noted in the show for her ability to sustain a long high-pitched note. She was eliminated as sixth-placed finisher on April 28.


title: American Idol (season 9)

text: Tim Urban (born May 1, 1989, in Tacoma, Washington, 20 years at the time of the show) is from Duncanville, Texas and auditioned in Dallas, Texas with Matt Nathanson's Bulletproof Week. He performed David Cook's Come Back To Me during the Hollywood round. He did not qualify initially for the semi-finals but was chosen as a replacement for Chris Golightly who was disqualified for having a prior record deal. He finished at seventh place on April 21.


title: American Idol (season 9)

text: Katie Stevens (born December 8, 1992, in Southbury, Connecticut, 17 years at the time of the show) is from Middlebury, Connecticut auditioned in Boston, Massachusetts with Glenn Miller's At Last. She looked after her Portuguese grandmother who suffered from Alzheimer's disease, and she is fluent in Portuguese. She performed Jean DuShon's "For Once in My Life" in the Hollywood rounds where Kara DioGuardi considered her a possible season's winner. She finished eighth place on April 14 in a double elimination, due to judges' save being used the previous week.


title: American Idol (season 9)

text: Andrew Garcia (born October 8, 1985, in Moreno Valley, California, 24 years at the time of the show) auditioned in Los Angeles with Maroon 5's "Sunday Morning". He had a good sized following on YouTube prior to auditioning on Idol. He impressed the judges with his performance of Paula Abdul's "Straight Up" during the Hollywood rounds, but failed to interest the judges in the later rounds. He was eliminated as joint eighth-place finishers together with Katie Stevens on April 14.


title: American Idol (season 9)

text: Didi Benami (born October 25, 1986, in New York, 23 years at the time of the show) is from Knoxville, Tennessee and currently resides in Hollywood. She auditioned in Los Angeles, California with The Beatles' "Hey Jude". She was inspired to audition by her best friend who died in a traffic accident. She was notable during the Hollywood rounds for her performance of Kara DioGuardi-penned Katharine McPhee's song "Terrified." She finished tenth after being eliminated on March 31.


title: American Idol (season 9)

text: Paige Miles (born September 26, 1985, 24 years at the time of the show) is from Naples, Florida and auditioned in Dallas, Texas. She was eliminated in eleventh place on March 24, 2010. She performed Stevie Wonder's "Living for the City" in the Hollywood rounds which she considered her favorite moment prior the semi-final. Simon Cowell considered her to have the best voice among the girls.


title: American Idol (season 9)

text: Lacey Brown (born August 13, 1985, 24 years at the time of the show) is from Amarillo, Texas and auditioned in Orlando, Florida with Judy Garland's "Over the Rainbow". She had previously made it to the Hollywood round in the eighth season of American Idol but lost out to Megan Joy at Top 50. Ryan Seacrest noted that her chilling performance of "What a Wonderful World" by Louie Armstrong had a major part in her advancing into the Top 24. She was the first finalist to be voted off on March 17.


title: American Idol (season 9)

text: There are 11 weeks of finals and 12 contestants compete and one finalist eliminated per week based on the American public's votes, except for one week on the Top 9 where it became a double elimination cumulating to the use of the Judges' Save which first introduced in the previous season.


title: American Idol (season 9)

text: Teams performed a song which hit a number #1 song in the "Billboard". Miley Cyrus served as the guest mentor this week.


title: American Idol (season 9)

text: Contestants performed songs paying tribute to Shania Twain, who also served as the guest mentor this week.


title: American Idol (season 9)

text: Each contestant sang one solo and one duet with a fellow contestant. Jamie Foxx served as the guest mentor this week.


title: American Idol (season 9)

text: Each contestant sang three songs, a song of their choice, a song chosen by the mentor Fuller, and one winner's single.


title: American Idol (season 9)

text: Since the seventh season, the voting results are seemingly skewed towards white contestants, and critics believe that it was white female viewers who vote only for white male contestants. During top 20 week, all four eliminated contestants were non-white. This season had the fewest non-white finalists. This led to criticism of bias in favor of white contestants.


title: American Idol (season 9)

text: Chris Golightly was originally selected as semi-finalist. According to reports, Golightly was disqualified on February 17, 2010, after already being told he was in the top 24, over an old contract. The contract had expired by the time the top 24 began to tape, but they disqualified him because he was under contract at the time of the tryouts, in violation of "Idol" rules. He was later replaced by Tim Urban at the last minute of the last part of Hollywood Week. Golightly later appears on a Korean television show called "Superstar K", a singing competition similar to the American Idol. In there, he tells that he also used to write songs for Korean singers, such as Jewelry, DBSK and .


title: American Idol (season 9)

text: The semi-final eliminations of early favorites Alex Lambert, Katelyn Epperly and Lilly Scott before the Top 12 stunned bloggers and viewers. Michael Slezak of Entertainment Weekly stated, "So you'd think by season 9 — during the inconsequential semifinals, no less — it would be easy to brush off the bad judgment of speed-texting tweens, to process the way-too-early exits of Lilly Scott, Katelyn Epperly, and Alex Lambert...and move on...(S)o why do the ritual killings of the dreams of (three) indisputably flawed semifinalists feel like they’re part of something bigger, a shifting of the tectonic plates at the core of the Idol universe?"


title: American Idol (season 9)

text: Lacey Brown's elimination stirred up controversy after Ryan Seacrest tweeted the results before the elimination aired on the west coast. This caused anger among the fans of the show and as a result, the elimination show may have had lower ratings than usual.


title: American Idol (season 9)

text: Seacrest has been criticized by The Wrap and MSNBC Entertainment contributors for "critiquing the judges’ comments" and becoming more aggressive. Ratings for this season have dropped significantly compared to the prior two seasons leading to speculation that its run as the number one show on television may be coming to a close. Reasons for the decline have ranged from the smaller role and pending departure of Simon Cowell to the more unpredictable behavior of Ryan Seacrest.


title: American Idol (season 9)

text: It was also claimed that Crystal Bowersox had considered Ryan Seacrest to have betrayed her. After it was reported that she had doubts about staying on in the show but Ryan Seacrest had talked her out of it, her fellow contestant Katelyn Epperly revealed that Crystal texted: "I'm fine...betrayed by Seacrest!" in a text message to her. Crystal denied that she was planning to leave, and there was no evidence that Ryan Seacrest had leaked the information himself.


title: American Idol (season 9)

text: This season of "American Idol" was the top show for the 2009–10 season of broadcast primetime shows. Its Tuesday and Wednesday episodes occupied the top two spots of the season. Viewership for the Tuesday episodes averaged 22.974 million, while the Wednesday episodes averaged 21.951 million.


title: American open-wheel car racing

text: American open-wheel car racing, also known as Indy car racing, is a category of professional automobile racing in the United States. As of 2022, the top-level American open-wheel racing championship is sanctioned by IndyCar.


title: American open-wheel car racing

text: Competitive events for professional-level, single-seat open-wheel race cars have been conducted under the auspices of various sanctioning bodies since 1902. A season-long, points-based, National Championship of drivers has been officially recognized in 1905, 1916, and since 1920.


title: American open-wheel car racing

text: The open-wheeled, winged, single-seater cars have generally been similar to those in Formula One, though there are important differences. The cars that compete on the American Championship circuit are popularly known as "Indy cars" after the Indianapolis 500, the premier event of Indy car racing.


title: American open-wheel car racing

text: This form of racing was especially popular in the decades after World War II. The "golden era" of the 1950s was followed by a decade of transition and innovation in the 1960s, which included increased international participation. The sport experienced considerable growth and exposure during the rising popularity of the CART PPG Indy Car World Series in the 1980s and early 1990s. Organizational disputes in 1979 and 1996 split participants (and fans) among two separate sanctioning bodies until the sport was re-unified in 2008.


title: American open-wheel car racing

text: The national championship was sanctioned by the Contest Board of the American Automobile Association (AAA). The AAA first sanctioned automobile motorsports events in 1902. At first it used the rules of the Automobile Club of America (ACA), but it formed its own rules in 1903. It introduced the first track season championship for racing cars in 1905. Barney Oldfield was the first champion. No official season championship was recognized from 1906 to 1915, however, many races were held. Official records regard 1916 as the next contested championship season. Years later, retroactive titles were named back to 1902. These "post factum" seasons (1902–1904, 1906–1915, and 1917–1919) are considered unofficial and revisionist history by accredited historians.


title: American open-wheel car racing

text: Racing did not cease in the United States during WWI, but the official national championship was suspended. The Indianapolis 500 itself was voluntarily suspended for 1917–1918 due to the war. In 1920, the championship officially resumed, and despite the difficult economic climate that would later follow, ran continuously throughout the Depression. Shortly after Pearl Harbor, all auto racing was suspended during World War II. From 1942 to 1945 no events were contested, banned by the U.S. government primarily on account of rationing. Racing resumed in full in 1946. The 1946 season is unique, in that it included six Champ Car events, and 71 "Big Car" races, as organizers were initially unsure about the availability of cars and participation.


title: American open-wheel car racing

text: AAA ceased participation in auto racing at the end of the 1955 season. It cited a series of high-profile fatal accidents, namely Bill Vukovich at Indianapolis, and the Le Mans disaster.


title: American open-wheel car racing

text: Through 1922 and again from 1930 to 1937, it was commonplace for the cars to be two-seaters, as opposed to the aforementioned standard single-seat form. The driver would be accompanied by a riding mechanic (or ""mechanician"").


title: American open-wheel car racing

text: The national championship was taken over by the United States Auto Club (USAC), a new sanctioning body formed by the then-owner of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Tony Hulman. Championship racing continued to grow in popularity in a stabilized environment for over two decades, with the two traditional disciplines of paved oval tracks and dirt oval tracks. During the 1950s, front-engined "roadsters" became the dominant cars on the paved oval tracks, while "upright" Champ Dirt Cars continued to dominate on dirt tracks. In the 1960s, drivers and team owners with road racing backgrounds, both American and foreign, began creeping into the series and the paved oval track cars evolved from front-engine "roadsters" to rear-engine formula-style racers. Technology, speed, and expense climbed at a rapid rate. The schedule continued to be dominated by oval tracks, but a few road course races were added to assuage the newcomers. Dirt tracks were dropped from the national championship after 1970.


title: American open-wheel car racing

text: During the 1970s, the increasing costs began to drive some of the traditional USAC car owners out of the sport. The dominant teams became Penske, Patrick, Gurney, and McLaren, all run by people with road racing backgrounds. There was a growing dissent between these teams and USAC management. Events outside Indianapolis were suffering from low attendance, and poor promotion. The Indy 500 was televised on a same day tape delayed basis on ABC, however, most of the other races had little or no coverage on television.


title: American open-wheel car racing

text: Towards the end of the decade, the growing dissent prompted several car owners to consider creating a new sanctioning body to conduct the races. Meanwhile, two events had a concomitant effect on the situation. Tony Hulman, president of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and founder of USAC, died in the fall of 1977. A few months later, eight key USAC officials were killed in a plane crash. By the end of 1978, the owners had broken away and founded Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) to wrest control of Championship racing away from USAC.


title: American open-wheel car racing

text: Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) was formed by most of the existing team owners, with some initial assistance from the SCCA (in order to be recognized by ACCUS). Therefore, there were two national championships run each by USAC and CART. The Indianapolis 500 remained under USAC sanction. The top teams allied to CART, and the CART championship quickly became the more prestigious national championship. USAC ran a "rump" 1979 season, with few big name drivers — the only exception being A. J. Foyt. In 1979, USAC denied several of the entries from the CART teams at the 1979 Indianapolis 500. The controversy saw a court injunction during the month, which allowed the CART-affiliated entrants to participate.


title: American open-wheel car racing

text: In 1980 USAC and CART jointly formed the Championship Racing League (CRL) to jointly run the national championship, but IMS management disliked the idea. USAC pulled out of the CRL arrangement in July. CART continued with the schedule for the remainder of the season. Both CART and USAC awarded separate national championship titles that year, and Johnny Rutherford happened to win both.


title: American open-wheel car racing

text: In 1981–1982, the Indianapolis 500 remained sanctioned by USAC. The preeminent national championship was now the one being sanctioned by CART. The Indy 500 field would consist largely of CART teams, as well as numerous independent, "Indy-only" teams. Indianapolis was not included as a points-paying round of the CART national championship. In addition, by that time USAC had designated Indianapolis an "invitational" race, offering entries only to invited teams. That moved in part to prevent the uproar over denied entries which occurred in 1979. One further race in 1981 was run by USAC at Pocono. This race was not supported by many CART teams, and featured a mixed field filled out by converted dirt track cars. USAC soon stopped sanctioning championship races outside the Indianapolis 500.


title: American open-wheel car racing

text: Stability returned and the national championship was now run by CART full-time. The Indianapolis 500 was sanctioned singly by USAC, but points were paid towards the CART season championship. The cars and engines used in the CART races and USAC-sanctioned Indy 500 were the same, with only relatively minor rules differences. The Indy 500 field would consist of the CART regulars, and numerous one-off ("Indy only") entries. On occasion, some of the "Indy only" entries also elected to participate in the Michigan 500 and Pocono 500 (both sanctioned by CART) given the increased stature and exposure of those two events.


title: American open-wheel car racing

text: One of the more noticeable rule differences by USAC was allowing "stock block" engines a higher level of turbocharger boost. While most full-time CART-based teams utilized their V-8 quadcam engines at Indy, some of the smaller or "Indy only" teams elected to run stock block engines, attracted by the boost rules.


title: American open-wheel car racing

text: USAC's Gold Crown Championship continued, settling into an unusual June through May schedule calendar. This provided that the Indianapolis 500 would be the final race of the respective season. However, during that period, the USAC Gold Crown schedule never included more than one race (i.e., Indianapolis). As such, the winner of the Indy 500 would automatically win the USAC Gold Crown Championship.


title: American open-wheel car racing

text: In 1994, Tony Hulman's grandson, Tony George, president of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, founded the Indy Racing League (IRL), to begin competition in 1996. It would exist as a separate championship, and leveraged the fame of the Indianapolis 500, which was placed as its centerpiece. After the IRL announced that 25 teams that competed in IRL races would get automatic qualifications to the race, making it impossible for the majority of the CART field to make the race, CART teams boycotted the 1996 Indy 500. It was the beginning of the second open-wheel "split". Initially, USAC sanctioned the IRL, however after officiating controversies in 1997 at Indianapolis and Texas, the USAC was replaced by the IRL's in-house officiating.


title: American open-wheel car racing

text: CART, which had been licensing the trademarked "IndyCar" name for several seasons, subsequently entered into a legal battle with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (the trademark owner) over the use of the moniker. Eventually a settlement was reached in which CART gave up use of the name, but the IRL in turn could not use it until 2003. CART rebranded themselves with the CART name, and began referring to their machines as Champ Cars.


title: American open-wheel car racing

text: CART's existing national championship remained dominant after the split for some time, initially retaining the top drivers, teams, and sponsors. However, in 2000, CART teams began to return to the Indy 500, eventually defecting permanently to the IRL. For 2003, it lost title sponsor FedEx and engine providers Honda and Toyota to the IRL.


title: American open-wheel car racing

text: After steadily losing teams and drivers, sponsors, and manufacturers, and after a series of major financial setbacks, CART filed for bankruptcy in 2003. The assets were purchased by a consortium called Open Wheel Racing Series (OWRS) in 2004 and the series was renamed the Champ Car Open Wheel Racing Series, later renaming it to the Champ Car World Series. However, the sanctioning body continued to be plagued by financial difficulties, In 2007, CCWS's presenting sponsors Bridgestone and Ford Motor Company withdrew.


title: American open-wheel car racing

text: During this time, the IRL was now operating under the moniker IndyCar Series, and slowly beginning to establish itself as the more preeminent national championship trail. In 2005, the IRL added road/street courses, and began picking up several former CART venues.


title: American open-wheel car racing

text: Prior to the start of the 2008 season, the CCWS Board authorized bankruptcy and Champ Car was absorbed into the IRL, creating a unified series for the national championship for the first time since 1978. The unified series competed under the name IndyCar Series. The two calendars were merged into one schedule, with the top Champ Car races surviving. Some of the other races from the Champ Car schedule were dropped or put on hiatus for a few seasons. All historical record and property of CART/CCWS was assumed by the IRL.


title: American open-wheel car racing

text: Randy Bernard was announced as the new IRL CEO in February 2010. In 2011, the sanctioning body dropped the Indy Racing League name, becoming IndyCar to reflect the merged series. The new Dallara DW12 racecar was introduced for the 2012 season. Bernard was replaced by Mark Miles in 2012.


title: American open-wheel car racing

text: The series operated under the name IZOD IndyCar Series from 2010 to 2013, then became known as the Verizon IndyCar Series from 2014 to 2018, and the NTT IndyCar Series since 2019.


title: American open-wheel car racing

text: In 2020, the IndyCar Series, as well as the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and other holdings, was sold to Penske Entertainment Corp., a subsidiary of the Penske Corporation, owned by Roger Penske.


title: American open-wheel car racing

text: The race cars participating in national championship events have been referred to by various names. Early nomenclature was to call the machines "Championship Cars", which was later shortened to "Champ Cars". The ambiguous term "Big Cars" saw some limited use; a term that identified the machines as larger and faster than junior formulae such as sprints and midgets. That term quickly disappeared from use and was instead largely used for Sprint cars. In the post-World War II era, the term "Speedway Cars" saw brief use, a loosely descriptive term, distinguishing the machines as those driven at the Indianapolis Motor "Speedway" and other major "speedways", as opposed to those driven at smaller tracks, for instance. However, the term "Champ Cars" prevailed as the preferred moniker.


title: American open-wheel car racing

text: In most years since the USAC era, the term "Indy cars" (after the Indy 500) has taken over as the preferred moniker. Apropos to that, when CART was founded in 1979, its acronym stood for "Championship Auto Racing Teams", which reflected the historical use of the term "Championship Car". Soon thereafter, CART started exclusively marketing itself with the two-word "Indy car" term, advertising itself as the "CART Indy Car World Series".


title: American open-wheel car racing

text: Through the 1980s, the term "Indy car" referred to machines used to compete in events sanctioned by CART, as well as the machines competing in the Indianapolis 500 (singly sanctioned by USAC).


title: American open-wheel car racing

text: In 1992, the CamelCase term "IndyCar" was trademarked by IMS, Inc. It was licensed to CART through 1997. After the inception of the Indy Racing League in 1996, the terms of the contract were voided after a lawsuit. As part of the settlement, the term was shelved by a six-year non-use agreement. Following the settlement, and the lack of direct connection to the Indianapolis 500, CART decided to revert to the former term. It re-branded itself as Champ Car and the machines were referred to again as "Champ cars".


title: American open-wheel car racing

text: Complicating the situation resulting from the open-wheel split, Champ Car races held outside the United States were still permitted to use the "Indy" moniker (e.g., Molson Indy Toronto and Lexmark Indy 300). Foreign venue promoters took advantage of the marketing power of the Indy 500 name for their events, even though the Champ Car series they were promoting no longer had any ties to that race. The exceptions created confusion, and Champ Car gradually phased out the usage to distance itself further from the IRL.


title: American open-wheel car racing

text: After the settlement expired in 2003, the IndyCar term was brought back. The Indy Racing League was re-branded as the "IRL IndyCar Series". The machines in the series were also referred to as "Indy cars". Despite the official acknowledgment, media and fans alike would continue to use the term "IRL" to describe the series, and to a lesser extent, "IRL cars" to describe the machines. Removing the "IRL" term from use proved difficult.


title: American open-wheel car racing

text: With two series (IndyCar and Champ Car) still competing parallel, the umbrella terms "Open Wheel Cars" and "Open Wheel Racing" saw increased use during the split and post-split era. Many drivers during the era competed in both series at one time or another. The term was used as a way to combine a driver's career accomplishments without being series/machine specific. It also served to link the lineage of events, teams, drivers, etc., even as they switched sanctioning bodies.


title: American open-wheel car racing

text: In 2008, when Champ Car merged into the Indy Racing League, the term "Champ Car" was abandoned. The unified racing series fell under the "IndyCar" name once again. On January 1, 2011, the names "Indy Racing League" and "IRL" were officially retired. The sanction body was re-branded as INDYCAR LLC, and the premier touring series was named the IndyCar Series (currently known as the NTT IndyCar Series for sponsorship reasons).


title: American open-wheel car racing

text: At first, American and European open-wheel racing were not distinct disciplines. Races on both continents were mostly point-to-point races, and large ovals tracks emerged on both continents. But in America, racing took off at horse-race tracks and at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, while in Europe, racing from point to point and around large circuits gained in popularity. Grand Prix racing (which became Formula One) and rallying then diverged in Europe. Formula One was established after World War II as the World Championship for road racing, and F1 cars became increasingly specialized and high-tech.


title: American open-wheel car racing

text: In the 1960s, road racing gained popularity in North America, and Formula One-style design ideas changed IndyCars, which until then had all been classic-styled front-engined roadsters. When North America's road racing championship, Can-Am Challenge, collapsed in the 1970s, the IndyCars were ready to fill the void. IndyCar was a combination road- and oval-racing championship from this time until the Split. Compared to F1 cars, IndyCars were partly specialized for oval-racing: they were larger and had other safety features, and were designed to run at the higher speeds necessary for oval racing. Because IndyCars were usually "customer" cars that the teams purchased from constructors, and because of rules to contain costs, they were considerably less expensive than F1 cars, each model of which was designed by the team that used it. After the Split in the 1990s, CART maintained the old formula while the IRL drifted toward the "spec" design that has been the only IndyCar model since 2003 (which changed in 2012, with specialized aero kits available from 2015 to 2017).


title: American open-wheel car racing

text: As engine formulas have changed, and as engine technology has developed over time, F1 cars and IndyCars have each produced more power than the other at different times. But for the foreseeable future, F1 cars will have considerably more power than the spec IndyCar.


title: American open-wheel car racing

text: Alex Zanardi, who drove both in F1 and CART, said that the lighter, naturally aspirated F1 car was more responsive and accelerated off the turns faster, while the turbocharged CART car was more stable and accelerated to top speed faster.


title: American open-wheel car racing

text: More recently Formula 2 drivers Callum Ilott and Christian Lundgaard, who are both also test and reserve drivers for Alpine F1 and Scuderia Ferrari respectively, have stated that the modern Dallara DW12 spec car used in the IndyCar Series sits in between a Formula 2 and a Formula One car on road and street courses in terms of performance. Both Ilott and Lundgaard have stated that the IndyCar's lack of power steering combined with the lower downforce levels and roughly 100 horsepower advantage make the IndyCar harder to drive than a Formula 2 car. Both noted however that around a road or street course the Formula One car would be significantly faster than an IndyCar.


title: American open-wheel car racing

text: There is debate on which series is more demanding. Some point out that champions that retired from F1 have won CART championships: e.g., Emerson Fittipaldi and Nigel Mansell. Drivers who did not excel in F1 have continued their careers in IndyCar with varying levels of success. Some successful IndyCar drivers have tried but failed to get a seat in even a low level Formula One team. A handful of notable IndyCar drivers, however, found subsequent success in F1, including Mario Andretti and Jacques Villeneuve, who became Formula One champions, and Juan Pablo Montoya, who won several F1 races. Conversely, some point to the different track designs of IndyCar (see below) as a bigger challenge to the drivers. Former Haas F1 driver Romain Grosjean stated in 2021 that a modern IndyCar is more physically exerting to drive than a modern Formula One car but that the Formula One car was more mentally taxing due to all its additional complexity, horsepower, and downforce levels compared to the IndyCar as well as the need to manage fuel levels given that Formula One cars do not refuel during the race while IndyCar racing allows refueling during races.


title: American open-wheel car racing

text: The American National Championship is notable for the wide variety of racetracks it has used compared to other series, such as Formula One and the various forms of Endurance sports car racing. The mainstays of the championship are as follows:


title: American open-wheel car racing

text: Until 1970 the championship frequently raced on dirt and clay tracks, but all such tracks were removed permanently by USAC before the 1971 season.


title: American open-wheel car racing

text: From 1915 to 1931 board tracks were frequently used for championship races, however safety concerns and cost of maintenance, especially with the onset of the Great Depression, and nearly all were demolished in the 1930s.


title: American open-wheel car racing

text: Airport runways have also been used to create temporary circuits. The most notable used for open-wheel racing was the Cleveland Grand Prix at Burke Lakefront Airport. St. Pete and Edmonton also utilize airport runways for parts of the course, however, they lead back to streets for the rest of the lap.


title: American open-wheel car racing

text: For the majority of the national championship, the races have been held inside the United States. American championship cars raced at the Monza oval in 1957 and 1958 alongside Formula One and sports cars in the non-championship Race of Two Worlds. Also, in 1966 there was a non-championship USAC race at Fuji Speedway in Japan. The first championship events outside the U.S. took place in 1967 at Mosport and Saint-Jovite in Canada. In 1971, the USAC season-opening race was held at Rafaela. In the autumn of 1978, two races were held in England, the first at Silverstone, then a week later at Brands Hatch.


title: American open-wheel car racing

text: Beginning in the mid-1980s, CART expanded throughout North America, venturing into Mexico (Mexico City) and Canada (Sanair, Toronto and Vancouver). In the 1990s and early 2000s, international expansion reached overseas with events at Surfer's Paradise, Rio de Janeiro, Motegi, Lausitz, and Rockingham.


title: American open-wheel car racing

text: Towards the end of its run, Champ Car ran races at European tracks such as TT Circuit Assen and Zolder Circuit, intentionally scheduled in regions and dates that would not compete with Formula One.


title: American open-wheel car racing

text: In 2011 IndyCar revived the Astor Cup, first awarded in 1915 as the series championship trophy. A black granite base has been added displaying the names of all the American Championship car racing series winners since 1909.


title: American open-wheel car racing

text: The 1916, 1936 and 1937 Vanderbilt Cup races were included in the national championship. The 1909–1915 races were retrospectively added to the championship in 1926.


title: American open-wheel car racing

text: CART resurrected the Cup in 1996 as the winner's trophy for the US500 race. When that race was discontinued in 2000, the Cup changed roles and became the championship trophy. Champ Car retained the rights to use the trophy after CART's bankruptcy, but use of the trophy was discontinued after Champ Car's merger with the Indy Racing League.


title: American open-wheel car racing

text: From its inception in 1911, the Indianapolis 500 has been considered the marquee event of Championship/Indy car racing. The race has been held every year from 1911, with the exception of 1917-1918 (World War I) and 1942-1945 (World War II). The Indianapolis 500 has been part of an official national championship in 1916, 1920–1941, and since 1946. In the years from 1911 to 1915, as well as 1919, the race was held as a formally sanctioned event, but an official national championship was not recognized in those years. Therefore, those six editions of the race were not attached to an officially recognized national championship.


title: American open-wheel car racing

text: Winning the Indianapolis 500 has frequently been considered at near or equal profile to winning the national championship. However, direct comparisons are difficult as many of the national champions are also Indy 500 winners in their own right. In many instances, drivers have won both the 500 and the championship in the same calendar year.


title: American open-wheel car racing

text: During the first USAC/CART open-wheel "split", which encompasses the period from 1979 to 1995, the status of the Indianapolis 500 as part of the national championship changed somewhat. The Indy 500 was sanctioned by USAC, and during that time, was officially part of the USAC Gold Crown Championship calendar. However, the bulk of the field was CART-based teams and drivers. The Indy 500 paid points to the CART title in 1979 and 1980, but did not count towards the CART title in 1981 and 1982. By 1983, an arrangement was made such that the Indy 500 would continue to be sanctioned singly by USAC, but be it would be recognized on the CART schedule, and pay championship points towards the CART title.


title: American open-wheel car racing

text: Starting in 1996, the Indianapolis 500 became part of the new Indy Racing League championship. All ties to the CART championship were severed. It was the beginning of the second open-wheel "split". In 2008, when the two series unified as IndyCar, ending the "split", the Indianapolis 500 was now part of the unified IndyCar Series national championship. Since 2014, the Indy 500 has paid double points towards the IndyCar Series points championship, and additional championship points are awarded based on Indy 500 qualifying results.


title: Barbelo

text: Barbēlō (Greek: Βαρβηλώ) refers to the first emanation of God in several forms of Gnostic cosmogony. Barbēlō is often depicted as a supreme female principle, the single passive antecedent of creation in its manifoldness. This figure is also variously referred to as 'Mother-Father' (hinting at her apparent androgyny), 'First Human Being', 'The Triple Androgynous Name', or 'Eternal Aeon'. So prominent was her place amongst some Gnostics that some schools were designated as "Barbeliotae", Barbēlō worshippers or Barbēlō gnostics.


title: Barbelo

text: In the "Apocryphon of John", a tractate in the Nag Hammadi Library containing the most extensive recounting of the Sethian creation myth, the Barbēlō is described as "the first power, the glory, Barbēlō, the perfect glory in the aeons, the glory of the revelation". All subsequent acts of creation within the divine sphere (save, crucially, that of the lowest aeon Sophia) occurs through her coaction with God. The text describes her thus:


title: Barbelo

text: In the "Pistis Sophia" Barbēlō is named often, but her place is not clearly defined. She is one of the gods, "a great power of the Invisible God" (373), joined with Him and the three "Thrice-powerful deities" (379), the mother of Pistis Sophilight" or heavenly body (13, 128; cf. 116, 121); the earth apparently is the "matter kishan choure of Barbēlō" (128) or the "place of Barbēlō" (373).


title: Barbelo

text: She is obscurely described by Irenaeus as "a never-aging aeon in a virginal spirit", to whom, according to certain "Gnostici", the Innominable Father wished to manifest Himself, and who, when four successive beings, whose names express thought and life, had come forth from Him, was quickened with joy at the sight, and herself gave birth to three (or four) other like beings.


title: Barbelo

text: She is noticed in several neighbouring passages of Epiphanius, who in part must be following the Compendium of Hippolytus, as is shown by comparison with Philaster (c. 33), but also speaks from personal knowledge of the Ophitic sects specially called "Gnostici" (i. 100 f.). The first passage is in the article on the Nicolaitans (i. 77 f.), but is apparently an anticipatory reference to their alleged descendants the "Gnostici" (77 A; Philast.). According to their view Barbēlō lives "above in the eighth heaven"; she had been 'put forth' (προβεβλῆσθαι) "of the Father"; she was mother of Yaldabaoth (some said, of Sabaoth), who insolently took possession of the seventh heaven, and proclaimed himself to be the only God; and when she heard this word she lamented. She was always appearing to the Archons in a beautiful form, that by beguiling them she might gather up her own scattered power.


title: Barbelo

text: Others, Epiphanius further seems to say (78 f.), told a similar tale of Prunikos, substituting Caulacau for Yaldabaoth. In his next article, on the "Gnostici", or Borborites (83 C D), the idea of the recovery of the scattered powers of Barbēlō recurs as set forth in an apocryphal Book of Noria, Noah's legendary wife.


title: Barbelo

text: In both places Epiphanius represents the doctrine as giving rise to sexual libertinism. Mircea Eliade has compared these Borborite beliefs and practices involving Barbēlō to Tantric rituals and beliefs, noting that both systems have a common goal of attaining primordial spiritual unity through erotic bliss and the consumption of menses and semen.


title: Barbelo

text: In a third passage (91 f.), enumerating the Archons said to have their seat in each heaven, Epiphanius mentions as the inhabitants of the eighth or highest heaven "her who is called Barbēlō", and the self-gendered Father and Lord of all things, and the virgin-born (αὐτολόχευτον) Christ (evidently as her son, for according to Irenaeus her first progeny, "the Light", was called Christ); and similarly he tells how the ascent of souls through the different heavens terminated in the upper region, "where Barbēro or Barbēlō is, the Mother of the Living" ().


title: Barbelo

text: Theodoret ("H. F." f. 13) merely paraphrases Irenaeus, with a few words from Epiphanius. Jerome several times includes "Barbēlō" in lists of portentous names current in Spanish heresy, that is, among Priscillianists; "Balsamus" and "Leusibora" being three times associated with it ("Ep." 75 c. 3, p. 453 c. Vall.; c. "Vigil." p. 393 A; "in Esai". lxvi. 4 p. 361 c; in "Amos" iii. 9 p. 257 E).


title: Barbelo

text: "Babel", in the book of "Baruch" of the Gnostic Justin, the name of the first of the twelve "maternal angels" born to Elohim and Edem (Hipp. "Haer". v. 26, p. 151). She is identical with Aphrodite, and is enjoined by her mother to cause adulteries and desertions among men, in revenge for Edem's desertion by Elohim (p. 154). When Heracles is sent by Elohim as "a prophet of the uncircumcision" to overcome "the twelve evil angels of the creation," i. e. the maternal angels, Babel, now identical with Omphale, beguiles and enfeebles him (p. 156; x. 15, p. 323). She may possibly be the Baalti or female Baal of various Semitic nations, though the intrusive β is not easily explained. But it is on the whole possible to take "Babel", "confusion" (Joseph. "Ant". i. 4, § 3), as a form of Barbēlō, which may have the same meaning. The eclecticism of Justin would account for his deposition of Barbēlō from the first to the second place, where she is still above Hachamoth.


title: Barbelo

text: In Gnostic accounts of God, the notions of impenetrability, stasis and ineffability are of central importance. The emanation of Barbēlō may be said to function as an intermediary generative aspect of the Divine, or as an abstraction of the generative aspect of the Divine through its Fullness. The most transcendent hidden invisible Spirit is not depicted as actively participating in creation. This significance is reflected both in her apparent androgyny (reinforced by several of her given epithets), and in the name "Barbēlō" itself. Several plausible etymologies of the name (Βαρβηλώ, Βαρβηρώ, Βαρβηλ, Βαρβηλώθ) have been proposed.


title: Philip Luty

text: Philip A. Luty (1965 - 8 April 2011) was an English activist opposing gun control, who was notable for the production of homemade firearms and manuals providing instruction at the same time. He was charged with illegal arms construction in the late 1990s and sentenced to four years in prison, with other investigations ongoing at the time of his death.


title: Philip Luty

text: Weapons based on Luty's designs have been used or found in numerous recorded incidents of criminal or terrorist activity, including criminal groups in Australia, Brazil, Romania, Sweden, Ecuador, the United Kingdom, with terrorist organizations in Indonesia, and in an antisemitic terror incident in Germany.


title: Philip Luty

text: Philip Luty grew up on a farm in West Yorkshire, England. He campaigned for the free possession of firearms and published instructions on self-built fully automatic weapons that can be produced by simple metalworking. Luty understood his work as a protest against the British government's prohibition of full and semi-automatic weapons.


title: Philip Luty

text: Luty was charged with illegal arms construction in the late 1990s and sentenced to four years in prison.


title: Philip Luty

text: In 2009, another charge was made after an armed anti-terrorist unit searched Luty's home in May 2009. Luty was subsequently tried for violating the Terrorism Act 2000. In particular, he was accused of "creating records that could be of use to a person who wants to commit or prepare a terrorist attack". He also possesed a "collection of pipes which could be screwed together to produce an item from which a bulleted cartridge could be discharged."


title: Philip Luty

text: He had also been the prime suspect in a campaign of harassment against a local charity and property developer in Cookridge from 2006 to 2009. He was arrested for criminal damage incidents but was released due to a lack of evidence.


title: Philip Luty

text: On 8 April 2011, Luty died after a prolonged, serious illness of cancer. The ongoing criminal case was ended because of his death.


title: Philip Luty

text: Luty designed several firearms, including four sub-machine gun designs. Of these, one particular design, outlined in his book "Expedient Homemade Firearms", is the best known. This design makes extensive use of easily procured materials such as folded sheet metal, bar stock, washers, and hex screws. It is a simple blowback-operated sub-machine gun and made from entirely craft-produced components, including the magazine and pistol grip. The major drawback of such designs is the lack of rifling in the barrel, which results in poor accuracy and limited range.


title: Philip Luty

text: Two copies of the original "Luty SMG 9mm Parabellum" are part of the collection of the British "National Firearms Centre (NFC)" and are exhibited in Leeds at the Royal Armouries Museum.


title: Philip Luty

text: Luty submachine guns have been documented in Australia, Brazil, Germany, Indonesia, Romania, Sweden, Ecuador, United States of America, and the United Kingdom.


title: Prison ship

text: A prison ship, often more accurately described as a prison hulk, is a current or former seagoing vessel that has been modified to become a place of substantive detention for convicts, prisoners of war or civilian internees. While many nations have deployed prison ships over time, the practice was most widespread in seventeenth and eighteenth century Britain, as the government sought to address the issues of overcrowded civilian jails on land and an influx of enemy detainees from the War of Jenkins' Ear, the Seven Years' War and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.


title: Prison ship

text: The terminology "hulk" comes from the Royal Navy meaning a ship incapable of full service either through damage or from initial non-completion. In England in 1776, during the reign of King George III, due to a shortage of prison space in London, the concept of "prison hulks" moored in the Thames, was introduced to meet the need for prison space. The first such ship came into use on 15 July 1776 under command of Mr Duncan Campbell and was moored at Barking Creek with prisoners doing hard labour on the shore during daylight hours.


title: Prison ship

text: The vessels were a common form of internment in Britain and elsewhere in the 18th and 19th centuries. Charles F. Campbell writes that around 40 ships of the Royal Navy were converted for use as prison hulks. Other hulks included , which became a prison ship at Woolwich in February 1840. One was established at Gibraltar, others at Bermuda (the "Dromedary"), at Antigua, off Brooklyn in Wallabout Bay, and at Sheerness. Other hulks were anchored off Woolwich, Portsmouth, Chatham, Deptford, and Plymouth-Dock/Devonport. HMS "Argenta", originally a cargo ship with no portholes, was acquired and pressed into service in Belfast Lough Northern Ireland to enforce the Civil Authorities (Special Powers) Act (Northern Ireland) 1922 during the period around the Irish Catholics' Bloody Sunday (1920). Private companies owned and operated some of the British hulks holding prisoners bound for penal transportation to Australia and America.


title: Prison ship

text: HMP "Weare" was used by the British as a prison ship between 1997 and 2006. It was towed across the Atlantic from the United States in 1997 to be converted into a jail. It was berthed in Portland Harbour in Dorset, England.


title: Prison ship

text: During the American War of Independence, more American Patriots died as prisoners of war on British prison ships than died in every engagement of the war combined. During the war, 11,500 Americans onboard British prison ships died due to overcrowding, contaminated water, starvation, and disease on ships anchored in the East River; the bodies of those who died were hastily buried along the shore. This is now commemorated by the "Prison Ship Martyrs' Monument" in Fort Greene Park, Brooklyn in New York City.


title: Prison ship

text: When a man died he was carried up on the forecastle and laid there until the next morning at 8 o'clock when they were all lowered down the ship sides by a rope round them in the same manner as tho' they were beasts. There was 8 died of a day while I was there. They were carried on shore in heaps and hove out the boat on the wharf, then taken across a hand barrow, carried to the edge of the bank, where a hole was dug 1 or 2 feet deep and all hove in together.


title: Prison ship

text: In 1778, Robert Sheffield, of Stonington, Connecticut, escaped from one of the prison ships, and told his story in the "Connecticut Gazette", printed July 10, 1778. He was one of 350 prisoners held in a compartment below the decks.


title: Prison ship

text: The heat was so intense that (the hot sun shining all day on deck) they were all naked, which also served well to get rid of vermin, but the sick were eaten up alive. Their sickly countenances, and ghastly looks were truly horrible; some swearing and blaspheming; others crying, praying, and wringing their hands; and stalking about like ghosts; others delirious, raving and storming,--all panting for breath; some dead, and corrupting. The air was so foul that at times a lamp could not be kept burning, because of which the bodies were not missed until they had been dead ten days.


title: Prison ship

text: Some British scholars have written that for prisoners of war held in hulks at Chatham, Portsmouth and Plymouth, living conditions on board and the mortality amongst prisoners were misrepresented by the French for propaganda purposes during the Wars and by individual prisoners who wrote their memoirs afterwards and exaggerated the sufferings they had undergone. Memoirs such as Louis Garneray's "Mes Pontons" (translated in 2003 as "The Floating Prison"), Alexandre Lardier's "Histoire des pontons et prisons d’Angleterre pendant la guerre du Consulat et de l’Empire", (1845), Lieutenant Mesonant's "Coup d’œuil rapide sur les Pontons de Chatam", (1837) the anonymous "Histoire du Sergent Flavigny" (1815) and others, are largely fictitious and contain lengthy plagiarised passages. Reputable and influential historians such as Francis Abell in his "Prisoners of War in Britain, 1756–1814" (1914) and W. Branch Johnson in his "The English Prison Hulks", (1970) took such memoirs at their face value and did not investigate their origins. This has resulted in the perpetuation of a myth that the hulks were a device for the extermination of prisoners and that conditions on board were intolerable. The truth appears to be much less lurid and when the death rates of prisoners are properly investigated a mortality of between 5 and 8 per cent of all prisoners, both on shore and on the hulks seems to have been normal.


title: Prison ship

text: The first British use of a prison ship was the privately owned "Tayloe", engaged by the Home Office in 1775 via contract with her owner, Duncan Campbell. "Tayloe" was moored in the Thames with the intention that she be the receiving point for all inmates whose sentences of transportation to the Americas had been delayed by the American Rebellion. Prisoners began arriving from January 1776. For most, their incarceration was brief as the Home Office had also offered pardons for any transportee who joined the Army or Navy, or chose to voluntarily leave the British Isles for the duration of their sentence. By December 1776 all prisoners aboard "Tayloe" had been pardoned, enlisted or died, and the contract ceased.


title: Prison ship

text: While the "Tayloe" was still in use, the British Government was simultaneously developing a longer-term plan for the use of transportees. In April and May 1776, legislation was passed to formally convert sentences of transportation to the Americas, to hard labour on the Thames for between three and ten years. In July 1776, "Tayloe"s owner Duncan Campbell was named Overseer of Convicts on the Thames and awarded a contract for the housing of transportees and use of their labour. Campbell provided three prison ships for these purposes; the 260-ton "Justitia", the 731-ton former French frigate "Censor" and a condemned East Indiaman, which he also named "Justitia." Collectively, these three prison ships held 510 convicts at any one time between 1776 and 1779.


title: Prison ship

text: Conditions aboard these prison ships were poor, and mortality rates were high. Inmates aboard the first "Justitia" slept in groups in tiered bunks with each having an average sleeping space long and wide. Weekly rations consisted of biscuits and pea soup, accompanied once a week by half an ox cheek and twice a week by porridge, a lump of bread and cheese. Many inmates were in ill health when brought from their gaols, but none of the ships had adequate quarantine facilities, and there was a continued contamination risk caused by the flow of excrement from the sick bays. In October 1776 a prisoner from Maidstone Gaol brought typhus aboard. It spread rapidly; over a seven-month period to March 1778, a total of 176 inmates died, or 28 percent of the prison ship population.


title: Prison ship

text: Conditions thereafter improved. In April 1778 the first "Justitia" was converted into a receiving ship, where inmates were stripped of their prison clothing, washed and held in quarantine for up to four days before being transferred to the other vessels. Those found to be ill were otherwise held aboard until they recovered or died. On the second "Justitia" the available sleeping space was expanded to allow for just two inmates per bunk, each having an area long and wide in which to lie. The weekly bread ration was lifted from 5 to 7 pounds, the supply of meat enhanced with the daily delivery of ox heads from local abattoirs, and there were occasional supplies of green vegetables. The effects of these improvements were evident in the prisoner mortality rates. In 1783 89 inmates died out of 486 brought aboard; and by the first three quarters of 1786 only 46 died out of 638 inmates on the ships.


title: Prison ship

text: Naval vessels were also routinely used as prison ships. A typical British hulk, the former ship of the line , was decommissioned after the Battle of Waterloo and became a prison ship in October 1815. Anchored off Sheerness in England, and renamed HMS "Captivity" on 5 October 1824, she usually held about 480 convicts in woeful conditions. became a prison hulk in 1818 at Deptford. Another famous prison ship was which served in this capacity from 1813 to 1819.


title: Prison ship

text: In New South Wales, Australia, hulks were also used as juvenile correctional centers. In 1813 a tender document was advertised in "the Australian" newspaper for the supply of bread to prisoners aboard a prison hulk in Sydney Harbour.


title: Prison ship

text: Between 1824 and 1837 "Phoenix" served as a prison hulk in Sydney Harbour. She held convicts awaiting transportation to Norfolk Island and Moreton Bay. One source claims she was Australia's first prison hulk.


title: Prison ship

text: "Vernon" (1867–1892) and "Sobraon" (1892–1911) — the latter officially a "nautical school ship" — were anchored in Sydney Harbour. The commander of the two ships, Frederick Neitenstein (1850–1921), introduced a system of "discipline, surveillance, physical drill and a system of grading and marks. He aimed at creating a 'moral earthquake' in each new boy. Every new admission was placed in the lowest grade and, through hard work and obedience, gradually won a restricted number of privileges."


title: Prison ship

text: Between 1880 and 1891 the hulk "Fitzjames" was used as a reformatory by the South Australian colonial government in Largs Bay. The ship kept about 600 prisoners at a time, even though it was designed to carry 80 or so crewmembers.


title: Prison ship

text: Nazi Germany assembled a small fleet of ships in the Bay of Lübeck to hold concentration camp prisoners. They included the passenger liners "Cap Arcona" and , and the vessels , and . All were destroyed on May 3, 1945 by RAF aircraft whose pilots erroneously believed them to be legitimate targets; most of the inmates were either killed by bombing or strafing, burned alive, drowned while trying to reach the shore, or killed by the SS guards.


title: Prison ship

text: Reports from Amnesty International, the US Senate and Chilean Truth and Reconciliation Commission describe "Esmeralda" (BE-43) as a kind of a floating prison for political prisoners of the Augusto Pinochet administration from 1973 to 1980. It is claimed that probably over a hundred persons were kept there at times and subjected to hideous treatment, among them the British priest Miguel Woodward.


title: Prison ship

text: In 1987, Colonel Gregorio Honasan, leader of various coups d'état in the Philippines was captured and was imprisoned in a navy ship temporarily converted to be his holding facility. However, he escaped after convincing the guards to join his cause.


title: Prison ship

text: was used as a prison ship in Northern Ireland in the 1970s for suspected Republican paramilitaries and non-combatant activist supporters. The former president of the Republican political party Sinn Féin, Gerry Adams, spent time on "Maidstone" in 1972. He was released in order to take part in peace talks.


title: Prison ship

text: In 1997 the United Kingdom Government established a new prison ship, HMP "Weare", as a temporary measure to ease prison overcrowding. "Weare" was docked at the disused Royal Navy dockyard at Portland, Dorset. "Weare" was closed in 2006.


title: Prison ship

text: In the United States, the Vernon C. Bain Correctional Center is a prison barge operated by the New York City Department of Correction as an adjunct to Rikers Island, opened in 1992. However, it was built for this purpose rather than repurposed. It is the largest operational prison ship facility in the United States currently in operation.


title: Prison ship

text: In June 2008 "The Guardian" printed claims by Reprieve that US forces are holding people arrested in the War on Terrorism on active navy ships, including the and , although this was denied by the US Navy. The United States subsequently admitted in 2011 to holding terrorist suspects on ships at sea, claiming legal authority to do so.


title: Prison ship

text: In 2009 the US Navy converted the main deck aboard the supply ship into a brig to hold pirates captured off the coast of Somalia until they could be transferred to Kenya for prosecution. The brig was capable of holding up to twenty-six prisoners and was operated by a detachment of Marines from the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit.


title: Prison ship

text: Charles Dickens' novel "Great Expectations" opens in 1812 with the escape of the convict Abel Magwitch from a hulk moored in the Thames Estuary. In fact, the prison ships were largely moored off Upnor in the neighbouring River Medway, but Dickens used artistic licence to place them on the Thames.


title: Prison ship

text: French artist and author Ambroise Louis Garneray depicted his life on a prison hulk at Portsmouth in the memoir "Mes Pontons".


title: Soltam K6

text: The Soltam K6 is a 120 mm (4.75 inch) mortar that was developed by Soltam Systems of Israel. It is the long-range version of the Soltam K5 and has replaced older systems, such as the M30, in several armies including the United States Army. It is much lighter than the M30, has a greater range, and can sustain a rate of fire of four rounds per minute, while the M30 could sustain only three.


title: Soltam K6

text: The K6 fires fin-stabilized ammunition from a smoothbore barrel. Unlike its smaller ammunition cousins, the 81 mm and 60 mm mortars, the fin blades of the ammunition fired from the M120 are not canted. Thus, no spin is imparted to the projectile in flight. Although heavy mortars require trucks or tracked mortar carriers to move them, they are still much lighter than field artillery pieces. They outrange light and medium mortars, and their explosive power is much greater. An improved version is known as the K6A3.


title: Soltam K6

text: The K6 entered service with the United States Army in 1991 as the M120 Mortar System. Its mission is to provide heavy weapon, high-angle organic indirect fire support to the unit commander. The M120 is used by both mechanized units and light infantry in certain situations. Another feature of the M120 is the M303 Sub-Caliber insert, which allows the mortar to fire 81 mm ammunition.


title: Soltam K6

text: The M120 is transported on the M1100 Trailer by the M998 Humvee. The version that is mounted on the M1064 and M1129 mortar carriers is known as the M121.


title: Soltam K6

text: In 2007, the U.S. Army ordered 588 M326 MSS (Mortar Stowage Systems) from BAE Systems. Here, the assembled mortar is mounted on a truck, Humvee or M1101 trailer and can be mounted and dismounted in less than 20 seconds.


title: Soltam K6

text: In November 2016, Elbit Systems announced it was awarded an Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (ID/IQ) contract for the production of the M121


title: McLaren MCL35

text: The McLaren MCL35 is a Formula One car that was designed under the direction of James Key and constructed by McLaren to compete in the Formula One World Championship. The car was originally intended to compete in the season only, but as the championship was heavily disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the lifespan of all 2020 cars was extended into . McLaren produced an upgraded version of the car, the McLaren MCL35M, for the championship as the team returned to using Mercedes engines. Both variants of the car were considered competitive and the team's results improved considerably during the two seasons it was used in, with McLaren regularly the third-fastest team and significantly closer to the leading teams than had been the case since the turbo-hybrid era began in .