Question: What is the largest ethnic group in Mexico currently?

The largest ethnic group in Mexico today is not related to the Maya peoples or the Q'eqchi'. Instead, it is the Mexican Mestizo population, which makes up the majority of the country's inhabitants. This group is a result of the mixing of indigenous peoples and Spanish colonizers, forming a unique cultural and ethnic identity that dominates Mexico. The Q'eqchi', while significant in Guatemala, do not hold a prominent position in Mexico's ethnic landscape.

Although it is a subject of debate whether Teotihuacan was the center of a state empire, its influence throughout Mesoamerica is well documented; evidence of Teotihuacano presence can be seen at numerous sites in Veracruz and the Maya region. The later Aztecs saw these magnificent ruins and claimed a common ancestry with the Teotihuacanos, modifying and adopting aspects of their culture. The ethnicity of the inhabitants of Teotihuacan is the subject of debate. Possible candidates are the Nahua, Otomi or Totonac ethnic groups. Scholars have suggested that Teotihuacan was a multi-ethnic state.

Some Spanish vocabulary in Mexico has roots in the country's indigenous languages, which are spoken by approximately 6% of the population.[7] Some indigenous Mexican words have become common in other languages, such as the English language. For instance, the words tomato, chocolate, coyote, and avocado are Nahuatl in origin.[8]

In the late 1980s, the United States Drug Enforcement Administration believed the Sinaloa Cartel was the largest drug trafficking organization operating in Mexico.[46] By the mid-1990s, according to one court opinion, it was believed to be the size of the Medellín Cartel during its prime.[46] The Sinaloa Cartel was believed to be linked to the Juárez Cartel in a strategic alliance following the partnership of their rivals, the Gulf Cartel and Tijuana Cartel.[42][46][47] Following the discovery of a tunnel system used to smuggle drugs across the Mexican/US border, the group has been associated with such means of trafficking.[44][48]

The Mexico national football team (Spanish: Selección de fútbol de México) represents Mexico in association football and is governed by the Mexican Football Federation (FMF, from the native name of Federación Mexicana de Fútbol Asociación), the governing body for football in Mexico. Mexico's home stadium is the Estadio Azteca and their head coach is Juan Carlos Osorio. The team is currently ranked 13th in the World Football Elo Ratings.

With only 597 people as of 2005[update], Atotonilco (formally Sanctuary of Atotonilco) is not the largest community in the municipality, but it is the best known due to its religious sanctuary, which has World Heritage Site status along with the historic center of San Miguel.[3] The sanctuary is located fourteen km outside of the main town and dates from the 18th century.[6] The church building itself has plain, very high walls on the outside,[3] and consists of one large church, with several smaller chapels.[6] It is officially called the "Santuario de Dios y de la Patria" (Sanctuary of God and Country),[18] but it is better known as the Sanctuary of JesÃºs Nazareno de Atotonilco.[6] It is the church from which Miguel Hidalgo took the Virgin of Guadalupe standard for his army.[3]

Mexican society enjoys a vast array of music genres, showing the diversity of Mexican culture. Traditional music includes Mariachi, Banda, Norteño, Ranchera and Corridos. Mexicans also listen to contemporary music such as pop and Mexican rock. Mexico has the largest media industry in Latin America, producing Mexican artists who are famous in the Americas and parts of Europe.

All nations in North and South America have populations of indigenous peoples within their borders. In some countries (particularly Latin American), indigenous peoples form a sizable component of the overall national population—in Bolivia they account for an estimated 56–70% of the total nation, and at least half of the population in Guatemala and the Andean and Amazonian nations of Peru. In English, indigenous peoples are collectively referred to by different names that vary by region and include such ethnonyms as Native Americans, Amerindians, and American Indians. In Spanish or Portuguese speaking countries one finds the use of terms such as pueblos indígenas, amerindios, povos nativos, povos indígenas, and in Peru, Comunidades Nativas (Native Communities), particularly among Amazonian societies like the Urarina[19] and Matsés. In Chile there are indigenous tribes like the Mapuches in the Center-South and the Aymaras in the North, also the Rapa Nui indigenous to Easter Island are a Polynesian tribe.

"Guadalupe Day" is regarded by many Mexicans as the most important religious holiday of their country. It honours the Virgin of Guadalupe, the patron saint of Mexico, which is celebrated on December 12. In the last decade, all the celebrations happening from mid December to the beginning of January have been linked together in what has been called the Guadalupe-Reyes Marathon.

Race and other large-scale groupings can also influence class standing. The association of particular ethnic groups with class statuses is common in many societies. As a result of conquest or internal ethnic differentiation, a ruling class is often ethnically homogenous and particular races or ethnic groups in some societies are legally or customarily restricted to occupying particular class positions. Which ethnicities are considered as belonging to high or low classes varies from society to society.

This a historically significant election that made Fox the first president elected from an opposition party since Francisco I. Madero in 1910 and the first one in 71 years to defeat, with 42 percent of the vote, the then-dominant Institutional Revolutionary Party.


Question: Where is iron (Fe) best absorbed in the body?

In the context of human iron metabolism, the majority of iron absorption from food or supplements occurs in the duodenum, facilitated by enterocytes lining the duodenal wall. These cells utilize specific molecules to transport iron into the body. For absorption, iron must be in its ferrous Fe2+ form, which can be achieved through the reduction of ferric Fe3+ by a ferric reductase enzyme, duodenal cytochrome B (Dcytb), present on the enterocytes' brush border. Iron is then transported across the cell membrane by a protein known as divalent metal transporter 1 (DMT1), which is capable of transporting various divalent metals.

If defined strictly as having local effect, the topical route of administration can also include enteral administration of medications that are poorly absorbable by the gastrointestinal tract. One poorly absorbable antibiotic is vancomycin, which is recommended by mouth as a treatment for severe Clostridium difficile colitis.[24]

Fluoride toxicity is a condition in which there are elevated levels of the fluoride ion in the body. Although fluoride is safe for dental health at low concentrations, sustained consumption of large amounts of soluble fluoride salts is dangerous. Referring to a common salt of fluoride, sodium fluoride (NaF), the lethal dose for most adult humans is estimated at 5 to 10 g (which is equivalent to 32 to 64 mg/kg elemental fluoride/kg body weight).[1][2][3] Ingestion of fluoride can produce gastrointestinal discomfort at doses at least 15 to 20 times lower (0.2–0.3 mg/kg or 10 to 15 mg for a 50 kg person) than lethal doses.[4] Although it is helpful for dental health in low dosage, chronic exposure to fluoride in large amounts interferes with bone formation. In this way, the most widespread examples of fluoride poisoning arise from consumption of ground water that is abnormally fluoride-rich.[5]

Upon ingestion, ethanol is rapidly distributed throughout the body.[7] It is distributed most rapidly to tissues with the greatest blood supply.[5] As such, the drug primarily affects the brain, liver, and kidneys.[7] Other tissues with lower circulation, such as bone, require more time for ethanol to distribute into.[5] The drug crosses biological membranes and the blood–brain barrier easily, through a simple process of passive diffusion.[7][71] The volume of distribution of ethanol is around 0.55 L/kg.[7] It is only weakly or not at all plasma protein bound.[7][8]

Zinc supplements (frequently zinc acetate or zinc gluconate lozenges) are a group of dietary supplements that are commonly used for the treatment of the common cold.[158] The use of zinc supplements at doses in excess of 75 mg/day within 24 hours of the onset of symptoms has been shown to reduce the duration of cold symptoms by about 1 day.[158][159] Due to a lack of data, there is insufficient evidence to determine whether the preventative use of zinc supplements reduces the likelihood of contracting a cold.[159] Adverse effects with zinc supplements by mouth include bad taste and nausea.[158][159] The intranasal use of zinc-containing nasal sprays has been associated with the loss of the sense of smell;[158] consequently, in June 2009, the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) warned consumers to stop using intranasal zinc products.[158]

The most important process for the elimination of EDTA from surface waters is direct photolysis at wavelengths below 400 nm.[25] Depending on the light conditions, the photolysis half-lives of iron(III) EDTA in surface waters can range as low as 11.3 minutes up to more than 100 hours.[26] Degradation of FeEDTA, but not EDTA itself, produces iron complexes of the triacetate (ED3A), diacetate (EDDA), and monoacetate (EDMA) – 92% of EDDA and EDMA biodegrades in 20 hours while ED3A displays significantly higher resistance. Many environmentally-abundant EDTA species (such as Mg2+ and Ca2+) are more persistent.

All carbohydrates absorbed in the small intestine must be hydrolyzed to monosaccharides prior to absorption. Hydrolysis precedes transport of monosaccharides in hamster intestine. From sucrose, glucose is taken up much faster than fructose. Monosaccharide transport saturates with D-glucose at 30 mM.[1]

Helminths may cause iron-deficiency anemia. This is most severe in heavy hookworm infections, as Necator americanus and Ancylostoma duodenale feed directly on the blood of their hosts. Although the daily consumption of an individual worm (0.02–0.07 ml and 0.14–0.26 ml respectively) is small, the collective consumption under heavy infection can be clinically significantly.[3][19] Intestinal whipworm may also cause anemia. Anemia has also been associated with reduced stamina for physical labor, a decline in the ability to learn new information, and apathy, irritability, and fatigue.[3] A study of the effect of deworming and iron supplementation in 47 students from the Democratic Republic of the Congo found that the intervention improved cognitive function.[22] Another study found that in 159 Jamaican schoolchildren, deworming led to better auditory short-term memory and scanning and retrieval of long-term memory over a period of nine-weeks.[23]

Digestion of starch begins with the action of salivary alpha-amylase/ptyalin, although its activity is slight in comparison with that of pancreatic amylase in the small intestine. Amylase hydrolyzes starch to alpha-dextrin, which are then digested by gluco-amylase (alpha-dextrinases) to maltose and maltotriose. The products of digestion of alpha-amylase and alpha-dextrinase, along with dietary disaccharides are hydrolyzed to their corresponding monosaccharides by enzymes (maltase, isomaltase, sucrase and lactase) present in the brush border of the small intestine. In the typical Western diet, digestion and absorption of carbohydrates is fast and takes place usually in the upper small intestine. However, when the diet contains carbohydrates not easily digestible, digestion and absorption take place mainly in the ileal portion of the intestine.

The iron oxide cycle is a series of thermochemical processes used to produce hydrogen. The iron oxide cycle consists of two chemical reactions whose net reactant is water and whose net products are hydrogen and oxygen. All other chemicals are recycled. The iron oxide process requires an efficient source of heat.

The rectal route is an effective route of administration for many medications, especially those used at the end of life.[7][8][9][10][11][12][13] The walls of the rectum absorb many medications quickly and effectively.[14] Medications delivered to the distal one-third of the rectum at least partially avoid the "first pass effect" through the liver, which allows for greater bio-availability of many medications than that of the oral route. Rectal mucosa is highly vascularized tissue that allows for rapid and effective absorption of medications.[15] A suppository is a solid dosage form that fits for rectal administration. In hospice care, a specialized rectal catheter, designed to provide comfortable and discreet administration of ongoing medications provides a practical way to deliver and retain liquid formulations in the distal rectum, giving health practitioners a way to leverage the established benefits of rectal administration.


Question: What is a summary of the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005?

The Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 (BAPCPA) is a significant amendment to the United States Bankruptcy Code. Commonly known as the "New Bankruptcy Law," this act has made it more challenging for certain consumers to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, potentially steering them towards Chapter 13 instead. This legislation was enacted on April 20, 2005, as part of an effort to prevent bankruptcy abuse and protect consumers.

In his book The National Credit Act Explained, Otto concludes,

The provision presumes that the repeat filings are not in good faith and requires the party seeking to impose the stay (usually the debtor) to rebut the presumption by clear and convincing evidence.

The Clean Air Act was enacted by the United States Congress and signed by President Richard Nixon in 1970. The main provisions of the Clean Air Act were to control air pollution on a national level and an initiative program called New Source Review (NSR). The NSR initiative would require power plants to upgrade to anti-pollution technologies before they can expand existing facilities and add new technologies.[25] The Clear Skies initiative proposed by the Bush administration main intention was to remove the New Source Review provision and deregulate some of the standards that the Clean Air Act required energy facilities to meet.[26] The proposed removal of the NSR prompted nine northeastern states to file suit in federal court to prevent the new ruling. Advocates against Clear Skies viewed the removal of NSR as a weakening of existing laws and an “assault on the Clean Air Act”. Environmental advocates and their political allies would eventually prevail in defeating the Clear Skies initiative.

Jim Sensenbrenner, Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee claimed: "If someone in Katrina is down and out, and has no possibility of being able to repay 40 percent or more of their debts, then the new bankruptcy law doesn't apply.[34]

The Marshall Court determined another dispute in Sturges v. Crowninshield. The case involved a debt that was contracted in early 1811. Later in that year, the state of New York passed a bankruptcy law, under which the debt was later discharged. The Supreme Court ruled that a retroactively applied state bankruptcy law impaired the obligation to pay the debt, and therefore violated the Constitution. In Ogden v. Saunders (1827), however, the court decided that state bankruptcy laws could apply to debts contracted after the passage of the law. State legislation on the issue of bankruptcy and debtor relief has not been much of an issue since the adoption of a comprehensive federal bankruptcy law in 1898.

The Act uses the gender-neutral term “ombud” (often known as ombudsman). The Act provides that certain disputes between a financial institution (like a bank) and a consumer, arising from a credit agreement, may be referred to the relevant ombud. The ombud will then act as mediator between the institution and the consumer with a complaint.

All in all, the muscle of the National Credit Regulator, the far-reaching powers of the National Consumer Tribunal and the courts, the almost paternalistic protective inclination of the legislature, and the extensive network of dispute-solving account for consumer legislation that is going to have a huge impact on the enormous credit industry in South Africa.[10]

The exemption regarding EU documents was taken out of the Act in 1991.[43] Amendments were also made in 2000; they concerned data on the employees of the Government.[43] In January 2014 new Public Records Act was enforced.[44] The new act was highly debated since it was considered to limit transparency in the Government and legislative proceedings; Denmark received one point less in the category of Political Environment when compared with the Freedom of the Press report of 2015.[45] The new legislation caused demonstrations and protests.[45] It can be regarded as a response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks.[45] After the Public Records Act of 2013 came into effect, public access to information regarding the Intelligence Services instead of falling under the Public Records Act is now managed by the Act on the Security and Intelligence Service as well as the Act on the Defense Intelligence Service.[45] In addition, the access to legislative process was further restricted. According to the new Act documents in the drafting stage are not to be accessed as well as “other corresponding political activities,” so restriction is not concerning only Bills.[45] In the future, it will not be possible to find the calendars of ministers being published.[45] Nevertheless, the Act was created while keeping in mind the strengthening the project of the Open Government; the list of institutions covered by the Act was extended as well as list of public-private institutions and companies.[45]

The deductions applicable in the “means test” are defined in 11 U.S.C. § 707(b)(2)(A), (ii)-(iv) and include:

On October 13, 2006, President Bush officially signed into law the SAFE Port Act, a bill aimed at enhancing security at U.S. ports.[13] Attached to the Safe Port Act was a provision known as the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIGEA). According to the UIGEA, "unlawful internet gambling" means to place, receive, or otherwise knowingly transmit a bet or wager by means of the internet where such bet is unlawful under any law in the State in which the bet is initiated, received, or otherwise made. Thus, the UIGEA prohibits online gambling sites from performing transactions with American financial institutions. As a result of the bill, several large publicly traded poker gaming sites such as PartyPoker, PacificPoker and bwin closed down their US facing operations. The UIGEA has had a devastating effect on the stock value of these companies.[14] Some poker sites, such as PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, Absolute Poker, continued to operate and remained open to US players.[15]


Question: How does methyl red function as a pH indicator?

Methyl red, a pH indicator and azo dye (2-(N,N-dimethyl-4-aminophenyl) azobenzenecarboxylic acid), also known as C.I. Acid Red 2, changes color based on the acidity of a solution. It appears red in acidic solutions with a pH below 4.4, yellow in solutions with a pH above 6.2, and orange in solutions with a pH in between. Its pKa value is 5.1. Methyl red has been studied for its potential to enhance the sonochemical destruction of chlorinated hydrocarbon pollutants and is classified by the IARC as a substance in group 3 - not classifiable as to its carcinogenic potential in humans.

The alcohol dehydrogenases comprise a group of several isozymes that catalyse the oxidation of primary and secondary alcohols to aldehydes and ketones, respectively, and also can catalyse the reverse reaction.[15] In mammals this is a redox (reduction/oxidation) reaction involving the coenzyme nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+).

Borax as a source of borate has been used to take advantage of the co-complexing ability of borate with other agents in water to form complex ions with various substances. Borate and a suitable polymer bed are used to chromatograph non-glycosylated hemoglobin differentially from glycosylated hemoglobin (chiefly HbA1c), which is an indicator of long term hyperglycemia in diabetes mellitus.

The bioelectric recognition assay (BERA) is a novel method for determination of various chemical and biological molecules by measuring changes in the membrane potential of cells immobilized in a gel matrix. Apart from the increased stability of the electrode-cell interface, immobilization preserves the viability and physiological functions of the cells. BERA is used primarily in biosensor applications in order to assay analytes that can interact with the immobilized cells by changing the cell membrane potential. In this way, when a positive sample is added to the sensor, a characteristic, "signature-like" change in electrical potential occurs. BERA is the core technology behind the recently launched pan-European FOODSCAN project, about pesticide and food risk assessment in Europe.[8] BERA has been used for the detection of human viruses (hepatitis B and C viruses and herpes viruses),[9] veterinary disease agents (foot and mouth disease virus, prions, and blue tongue virus), and plant viruses (tobacco and cucumber viruses)[10] in a specific, rapid (1â€“2 minutes), reproducible, and cost-efficient fashion. The method has also been used for the detection of environmental toxins, such as pesticides[11][12][13] and mycotoxins[14] in food, and 2,4,6-trichloroanisole in cork and wine,[15][16] as well as the determination of very low concentrations of the superoxide anion in clinical samples.[17][18]

Low-molecular-weight (LMW) organic acids are found in soils. They originate from the activities of various microorganisms in soils or may be exuded from the roots of living plants. Several of those organic acids are capable of forming stable organo-metal complexes with various metal ions found in soil solutions. As a result, these processes may lead to the release of inorganic phosphorus associated with aluminium, iron, and calcium in soil minerals. The production and release of oxalic acid by mycorrhizal fungi explain their importance in maintaining and supplying phosphorus to plants.[2][9]

Alcohol dehydrogenase is also involved in the toxicity of other types of alcohol: For instance, it oxidizes methanol to produce formaldehyde and ethylene glycol to ultimately yield glycolic and oxalic acids. Humans have at least six slightly different alcohol dehydrogenases. Each is a dimer (i.e., consists of two polypeptides), with each dimer containing two zinc ions Zn2+. One of those ions is crucial for the operation of the enzyme: It is located at the catalytic site and holds the hydroxyl group of the alcohol in place.

The terminal stage of anaerobic digestion is the biological process of methanogenesis. Here, methanogens use the intermediate products of the preceding stages and convert them into methane, carbon dioxide, and water. These components make up the majority of the biogas emitted from the system. Methanogenesis is sensitive to both high and low pHs and occurs between pH 6.5 and pH 8.[22] The remaining, indigestible material the microbes cannot use and any dead bacterial remains constitute the digestate.

The official technique to measure oil concentration in cutting fluid samples is manual titration:[3] 100ml of the fluid under test is titrated with a 0.5M HCl solution to an endpoint of pH 4 and the volume of titrant used to reach the endpoint is used to calculate the oil concentration. This technique is accurate and not affected by fluid contamination, but needs to be performed by trained personnel in a laboratory environment. A hand-held refractometer is the industrial standard used to determine the mix ratio of water-soluble coolants[4] that estimates oil concentration from the sample refractive index measured in the Brix scale. The refractometer allows for in situ measurements of oil concentration within industrial plants. However, contamination of the sample reduces the accuracy of the measure. Other techniques are used to measure the oil concentration in cutting fluids, such as measure of the fluid viscosity, density, and ultrasound speed. Other test equipment is used to determine such properties as acidity and conductivity.

In another comparison of Lewis and Brønsted–Lowry acidity by Brown and Kanner,[11] 2,6-di-t-butylpyridine reacts to form the hydrochloride salt with HCl but does not react with BF3. This example demonstrates that steric factors, in addition to electron configuration factors, play a role in determining the strength of the interaction between the bulky di-t-butylpyridine and tiny proton.

Back titration is a titration done in reverse; instead of titrating the original sample, a known excess of standard reagent is added to the solution, and the excess is titrated. A back titration is useful if the endpoint of the reverse titration is easier to identify than the endpoint of the normal titration, as with precipitation reactions. Back titrations are also useful if the reaction between the analyte and the titrant is very slow, or when the analyte is in a non-soluble solid.[42]

Under typical circumstances, hydrolysis, acetogenesis, and acidogenesis occur within the first reaction vessel. The organic material is then heated to the required operational temperature (either mesophilic or thermophilic) prior to being pumped into a methanogenic reactor. The initial hydrolysis or acidogenesis tanks prior to the methanogenic reactor can provide a buffer to the rate at which feedstock is added. Some European countries require a degree of elevated heat treatment to kill harmful bacteria in the input waste.[42] In this instance, there may be a pasteurisation or sterilisation stage prior to digestion or between the two digestion tanks. Notably, it is not possible to completely isolate the different reaction phases, and often some biogas is produced in the hydrolysis or acidogenesis tanks.


Question: How does methyl red function as a pH indicator?

Methyl red exhibits pH-dependent photochromism, where protonation results in a hydrazone/quinone structure. This structural change is responsible for the color shift observed when methyl red is used as a pH indicator.

At its inception, the IRL used methanol racing fuel, which had been the de facto standard in American open-wheel racing since the 1964 Indianapolis 500 Eddie Sachs â€“ Dave MacDonald crash. Methanol had long provided a safer alternative to gasoline. It had a higher flash point, was easily extinguishable with water, but burned invisibly. With the IRL's introduction of night races in 1997, the burning of methanol fuel was visible for the first time, seen with a light blue haze. With this in mind, as a safety feature to make it more visible in case of fire during daylight hours, additional mixtures were placed in the fuel, so it would burn with a color.

The color of red blood cells is due to the heme group of hemoglobin. The blood plasma alone is straw-colored, but the red blood cells change color depending on the state of the hemoglobin: when combined with oxygen the resulting oxyhemoglobin is scarlet, and when oxygen has been released the resulting deoxyhemoglobin is of a dark red burgundy color. However, blood can appear bluish when seen through the vessel wall and skin.[11] Pulse oximetry takes advantage of the hemoglobin color change to directly measure the arterial blood oxygen saturation using colorimetric techniques. Hemoglobin also has a very high affinity for carbon monoxide, forming carboxyhemoglobin which is a very bright red in color. Flushed, confused patients with a saturation reading of 100% on pulse oximetry are sometimes found to be suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning.

If mineral acid is added to the acetic acid mixture, increasing the concentration of hydronium ion, the amount of dissociation must decrease as the reaction is driven to the left in accordance with this principle. This can also be deduced from the equilibrium constant expression for the reaction:

Low-molecular-weight (LMW) organic acids are found in soils. They originate from the activities of various microorganisms in soils or may be exuded from the roots of living plants. Several of those organic acids are capable of forming stable organo-metal complexes with various metal ions found in soil solutions. As a result, these processes may lead to the release of inorganic phosphorus associated with aluminium, iron, and calcium in soil minerals. The production and release of oxalic acid by mycorrhizal fungi explain their importance in maintaining and supplying phosphorus to plants.[2][9]

UV light is often used, since the common coenzymes NADH and NADPH absorb UV light in their reduced forms, but do not in their oxidized forms. An oxidoreductase using NADH as a substrate could therefore be assayed by following the decrease in UV absorbance at a wavelength of 340Â nm as it consumes the coenzyme.[4]

Quinones are mobile, lipid-soluble carriers that shuttle electrons (and protons) between large, relatively immobile macromolecular complexes embedded in the membrane. Bacteria use ubiquinone (the same quinone that mitochondria use) and related quinones such as menaquinone. Another name for ubiquinone is Coenzyme Q10.

Some redox reactions may require heating the sample solution and titrating while the solution is still hot to increase the reaction rate. For instance, the oxidation of some oxalate solutions requires heating to 60 °C (140 °F) to maintain a reasonable rate of reaction.[20]

Formic acid, systematically named methanoic acid, is the simplest carboxylic acid. The chemical formula is HCOOH or HCO2H. It is an important intermediate in chemical synthesis and occurs naturally, most notably in some ants. The word "formic" comes from the Latin word for ant, formica, referring to its early isolation by the distillation of ant bodies. Esters, salts, and the anion derived from formic acid are called formates.

Acid phosphatase catalyzes the following reaction at an optimal acidic pH (below 7):

It's also used as a cytogenetic marker to distinguish the two different lineages of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia(ALL)Â : B-ALL ( a leukemia of B Lymphocytes ) is Acid-Phosphatase negative , T-ALL ( originating instead from T Lymphocytes ) is acid-phosphatase positive .


Question: When was the last time the NY Rangers won the Stanley Cup?

The New York Rangers, a professional ice hockey team based in New York City and part of the Original Six NHL teams, have won the Stanley Cup four times. Their most recent victory was during the 1993-94 season. The Rangers, who play their home games at Madison Square Garden and are part of the Metropolitan Division of the Eastern Conference, are one of three NHL franchises in the New York metropolitan area, alongside the New Jersey Devils and New York Islanders.

In the following eleven seasons, New York had limited success, reaching the playoffs only once and enduring a string of disastrous seasons, including a 1–15 record in 1996. The following year, the Jets hired two-time Super Bowl winning coach Bill Parcells. The new coach guided the team to its most successful season since the merger in 1998; the Jets finished 12–4 and reached the AFC Championship Game, in which they fell to the Denver Broncos. The team made five playoff appearances in the 2000s, their most of any decade. In 2009 and 2010, the Jets achieved back-to-back appearances in the AFC Championship Game, losing to the Indianapolis Colts and Pittsburgh Steelers. In 2010, the team began to play in MetLife Stadium, constructed near the now-demolished Giants Stadium.

The loss marked the end of the Rangers four-year run at success. Kitchener would rebuild for four seasons, before winning the Emms division regular season title in the 1988â€“89 season, in which Gus Morschauser was the OHL Goaltender of the Year. Kitchener was upset in the first round of the playoffs by the North Bay Centennials.

The Maple Leafs were founded in 1917, operating simply as Toronto and known then as the Toronto Arenas. Under new ownership, the club was named the Toronto St. Patricks in 1919. In 1927 the club was purchased by Conn Smythe and renamed the Maple Leafs. A member of the "Original Six," the club was one of six NHL teams to have endured through the period of League retrenchment during the Great Depression. The club has won thirteen Stanley Cup championships, second only to the 24 championships of the Montreal Canadiens. The club's history includes two recognized dynasties, from 1946 to 1951; and from 1961 to 1967.[5][6] Winning their last championship in 1967, the club's 50-season drought between championships is the longest current streak in the NHL.

The National Hockey League has occasionally participated in international club competitions. Most of these competitions were arranged by the NHL or NHLPA. The first international club competition was held in 1976, with eight NHL teams playing against the Soviet Championship League's HC CSKA Moscow, and Krylya Sovetov Moscow. Between 1976 and 1991, the NHL, and the Soviet Championship League would hold a number of exhibition games between the two leagues known as the Super Series. No NHL club had played a Russian-based club from the end of the Super Series in 1991 to 2008, when the New York Rangers faced Metallurg Magnitogorsk in the 2008 Victoria Cup.

The Rangers played a legendary conference semi-final series against the Philadelphia Flyers in the 1973–74 playoffs, losing in seven games and becoming the first of the Original Six teams to lose a playoff series to a 1967 expansion team. This series was noted for a game seven fight between Dale Rolfe of the Rangers and Dave Schultz of the Flyers.[14] The Rangers' new rivals, the New York Islanders, who entered the League in 1972 after paying a hefty territorial fee – some $4 million – to the Rangers, were their first round opponents in 1975. After splitting the first two games, the Islanders defeated the more-established Rangers 11 seconds into overtime of the deciding game three, establishing a rivalry that continued to grow for years.

The Cubs have appeared in a total of eleven World Series. The 1906 Cubs won 116 games, finishing 116â€“36 and posting a modern-era record winning percentage of .763, before losing the World Series to the Chicago White Sox ("The Hitless Wonders") by four games to two. The Cubs won back-to-back World Series championships in 1907 and 1908, becoming the first major league team to play in three consecutive World Series, and the first to win it twice. Most recently, the Cubs won the 2016 National League Championship Series and 2016 World Series, which ended a 71-year National League pennant drought and a 108-year World Series championship drought,[3] both of which are record droughts in Major League Baseball.[4][5] The 108-year drought was also the longest such occurrence in all major North American sports. Since the start of divisional play in 1969, the Cubs have appeared in the postseason nine times through the 2017 season.[3][6]

While New York of the 1940s and 1950s often had two or three teams vying for championships, the two Chicago teams had comparatively little to celebrate for a long time, except for pennants in 1945 (Cubs) and 1959 (Sox), until the White Sox won the 2005 World Series and the Cubs won the 2016 World Series. Historically, each team's fans felt bad for their own team's relatively poor performance, but took solace in that the other team was doing just as badly. Thus, the rivalry often was one in which fans of one team are just as happy for the poor play of the other team as they are for the good play of their own (schadenfreude). This above all is what made the Chicago rivalry unique in Major League Baseball. An examination of other great rivalries (Yankees–Red Sox, Mets–Yankees, A's–Giants, Dodgers–Giants) shows that both teams have made World Series appearances on a fairly regular basis.

The first outdoor game between two NHL teams (and the first played to completion) was an official pre-season match-up on September 27, 1991. The game took place in the parking lot of Caesars Palace[5] in Las Vegas, Nevada, and featured the Los Angeles Kings and the New York Rangers.[6] The process of keeping the ice cool in the desert heat required three times as much coolant as a standard NHL rink.[7] There were few problems despite temperatures that reached 95 °F (35 °C) during the day and a game time temperature of 80 °F (27 °C).[7] During the contest grasshoppers began to jump onto the ice, where they would freeze or drown in water used to maintain the ice, and by the end of the second period the ice was littered with the bugs.[6] Nearly 14,000 fans watched the Kings defeat the Rangers 5–2.[8] Since 1997, the Los Angeles Kings have returned to Las Vegas to play an annual indoors preseason game as part of the Frozen Fury series. As of the 2017-2018 season Las Vegas has its own NHL franchise. Interesting fact, future recording artist, a young Usher, sang The National Anthem for this match.

Orr went on to lead the Bruins in a march through the 1970 playoffs scoring nine goals and 11 assists. The march culminated on May 10, 1970, when he scored one of the most famous goals in hockey history and one that gave Boston its first Stanley Cup since 1941.[50] The goal came off a give-and-go pass with teammate Derek Sanderson at the 40-second mark of the first overtime period in the fourth game, helping to complete a sweep of the St. Louis Blues. According to Orr:[50]

The Kitchener Rangers have appeared in the Memorial Cup tournament six times, winning twice. Kitchener has also won the J. Ross Robertson Cup four times, won the Hamilton Spectator Trophy seven times, and have won seven division titles.


Question: What is the meaning of the music video for "Wake Me Up When September Ends"?

The music video for "Wake Me Up When September Ends" portrays a couple being separated due to the Iraq War, which serves as a visual representation of the song's core theme of experiencing loss.

The video begins with the band members walking up to the screen in a stylized pace, in plain white clothes and bare feet, with a dark background. This is shown often in the video, and is also how the video ends. Throughout the video, each of the band members do different poses and dance moves in time to the song, with the dark, cloudy background in place. Also in one of the scenes in the video, all three band members are seen in a line, with a glass floor and four metal posts with lights in the background that accompanies the perennial dark background. In this scene, the girls are seen doing a basic dance routine in time with the song. For Jenny's solo, she is seen lying down on the floor doing a sexy pose. However, Frost later claimed in the So Far So Good DVD, that she had tonsillitis for the video shoot, and was lying down due to being ill and couldn't stand up.[40] There is also a version of the video that contains clips from the movie The Parole Officer which was taken from the DVD "So Far So Good".

An accompanying music video was shot for the single (both the original and dance versions), featuring both Thorn and Watt in an apartment, having split up but them missing each other. It also features Thorn walking around Balham and Clapham South.[19]

The music video was directed by directing duo Deaton-Flanigen. The video features Stone singing the song in a motel room, with him hitchhiking for a ride. At the end of the video, it shows his former lover getting married to another man. As Stone walks away, the woman takes a glance at him as the limo that she and her new husband is in leaves the church.

"New Perspective" is a song by American rock band Panic! at the Disco, released on July 28, 2009 as a single promoting the film Jennifer's Body. Vocalist Brendon Urie began writing the song two years prior to its recording regarding a lucid dream he had. The song was completed in the summer of 2009, and was co-written by producer John Feldmann. "New Perspective" was Panic! at the Disco's first single in aftermath of the departure of guitarist Ryan Ross and bassist Jon Walker, both of whom had no involvement in the track.

The band members grew uncomfortable with their success, with much of the burden of Pearl Jam's popularity falling on frontman Vedder.[10] While Pearl Jam received four awards at the 1993 MTV Video Music Awards for its video for "Jeremy", including Video of the Year and Best Group Video, the band refused to make a video for "Black" in spite of pressure from the label. This action began a trend of the band refusing to make videos for its songs. Vedder felt that the concept of music videos robbed listeners from creating their own interpretations of the song, stating that "Before music videos first came out, you’d listen to a song with headphones on, sitting in a beanbag chair with your eyes closed, and you’d come up with your own visions, these things that came from within. Then all of a sudden, sometimes even the very first time you heard a song, it was with these visual images attached, and it robbed you of any form of self-expression."[33] "Ten years from now," Ament said, "I don't want people to remember our songs as videos."[10]

The video was filmed at Alexander Hamilton High School, with students in different cliques such as cheerleaders, goths, etc. The video starts with Brendon Urie and Spencer Smith walking into the school in plain black suits and black sunglasses. They walk past the students, not paying attention even when fighting breaks out around them. The pair continues walking as the fire alarm sounds and the sprinklers activate. They take off their sunglasses and a few seconds later the scene rewinds, returning to the start off the video, and again showing Brendon and Spencer as they enter the school. The next part of the music video is shown in photographs rather than film. The pictures depict the pair getting shouted at by teachers, and being taken towards the front doors only to be attacked by the same students involved in the fight earlier. Brendon and Spencer get pushed and beaten through the hallways and down a staircase to where they are finally shown alone and in film again, limping away from the school, with bruises and damaged clothing. Throughout the music video are Jennifer's Body references, such as shirts that read, "I eat boys" and "Jennifer's Body", as well as clips from the film.

Writers from numerous media outlets, including E! Online, Cosmopolitan, Variety, People magazine, concluded that the video was a tribute to the victims of the Orlando nightclub shooting. The video opens with a low drone and cuts between shots of a fraught Maddie Ziegler smearing rainbow colors on her cheeks. She frees 48 other young people trapped in a cage (49 being the number of people killed in the shooting); their freedom is short-lived, however. Later, a wall is seen riddled with bullet holes as everyone falls to the ground, and tears stream down Ziegler's face.[3][20] Kornhaber wrote:

In February 2015, McLean announced he would reveal the meaning of the lyrics to the song when the original manuscript went for auction in New York City, in April 2015.[19] The lyrics and notes were auctioned on April 7, and sold for $1.2Â million.[20] In the sale catalogue notes, McLean revealed the meaning in the song's lyrics: "Basically in American Pie things are heading in the wrong direction. ... It [life] is becoming less idyllic. I don't know whether you consider that wrong or right but it is a morality song in a sense."[21] The catalogue confirmed some of the better known references in the song's lyrics, including mentions of Elvis Presley ("the king") and Bob Dylan ("the jester"), and confirmed that the song culminates with a near-verbatim description of the death of Meredith Hunter at the Altamont Free Concert, ten years after the plane crash that killed Holly, Valens, and Richardson.[21]

The official music video for the song was released on 11 Septemper 2014 in Ware's YouTube account and was directed by collective Tell No One.[1] The video features Ware with a black dress, barefoot and sitting on a rock with a tropical background and leaves on the floor. As the video goes, the lights turn off focusing on Ware. The video has over 71 million views, making it her most watched video.

The music video was released for the UK on 12 March 2010 on the band's MySpace website and on 18 March 2010 worldwide. It consists of a fight between two men in a poorly lit room while the band are playing the song, apparently in the same place. After a long fight, the masked fighter's mask is removed, and it is shown that the man was fighting himself.


Question: Who created the peanut butter and jelly sandwich, according to Yahoo?

The peanut butter and jelly sandwich has a rich history. Initially, peanut butter was paired with a variety of foods, including pimento, cheese, celery, watercress, and toasted crackers. In 1896, Good Housekeeping suggested using a meat grinder to create peanut butter and spreading it on bread. Soon after, Table Talk magazine published a peanut butter sandwich recipe. As peanut butter prices fell in the early 1900s, the sandwich gained popularity among different social classes. By the 1920s, it became a favorite among children, thanks to manufacturers adding sugar to peanut butter. After World War II, both peanut butter and jelly were included in US soldiers' military rations.

Pebbles Flintstone (also known as Pebbles Flintstone-Rubble as an adult) is a fictional character in the Flintstones franchise. The red-haired daughter of Fred and Wilma Flintstone, Pebbles is born near the end of the third season. She is most famous in her infant form on The Flintstones, but has also appeared at various other ages, including as a teenager on the early 1970s spin-off The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show and as an adult in three made-for-television movies. She spent most of her time with Bamm-Bamm Rubble, her childhood best friend whom she eventually marries.[5]

Chef Alton Brown states in the "Shell Game" episode of his Food Network series Good Eats that Alciatore took his recipe to the grave, and any version since is merely an assumption. While many achieve the sauce's trademark green color simply using spinach, Antoine's chefs have repeatedly denied the dish contains it. A 1986 laboratory analysis by William Poundstone in Bigger Secrets indicated its primary ingredients were parsley, pureed and strained celery, scallions or chives (indistinguishable in a food lab), olive oil, and capers.

The popularity of Cup Noodles has also resulted in the creation of a Cup Noodle Museum. The museum features displays on cup noodles and their founder, Momofuku Ando. The museum is located in Yokohama, Japan.

Hap Shaughnessy appeared in many segments, and always told Re outlandish stories about his life, and occasionally another character, who would doubt Hap's claims, and start making jokes about them. Among other things, Hap claims to have been an astronaut, to have fought Sonny Liston, to have invented television and basketball, and to have once advised Walt Disney on how many fingers to put on Mickey Mouse.

In 1988, Gunpei Yokoi and his team at Nintendo R&D1 conceived the new Game Boy handheld system, with the purpose of merging the two very successful ideas of the Game & Watch's portability along with the NES's cartridge interchangeability. Nintendo released the Game Boy in Japan on 21 April 1989, and in North America on 31 July 1989. Nintendo of America president Minoru Arakawa managed a deal to bundle the popular third party game Tetris along with the Game Boy, and the pair launched as an instant success.

In 2006, the label denied "Weird Al" Yankovic permission to release "You're Pitiful", a parody of James Blunt's "You're Beautiful", despite Blunt's own approval of the song. Atlantic said that it was too early in Blunt's career, and that they did not want Blunt to become a one-hit wonder.[90] Although Yankovic could have legally gone ahead with the parody anyway under the Fair Use doctrine, his record label, Volcano Entertainment, thought that it was best not to "go to war" with Atlantic.[91] The parody was released onto the Internet as a free download. Later he recorded two more parodies, "White & Nerdy", and "Do I Creep You Out", to replace "You're Pitiful". Yankovic, afterward, began wearing T-shirts reading "Atlantic Records sucks" while performing live. In addition, the music video for "White & Nerdy" depicts Yankovic vandalizing this article on Wikipedia, replacing the whole page with "YOU SUCK!" in excessively large type (which spawned copycat vandalism).[92]

The song "Jelly Bean (He's a Curbstone Cutie)" was made popular during the 1940s by Phil Harris.  It was written by Jimmie Dupre, Sam Rosen, and Joe Verges and published in New Orleans during 1920 by Universal Music Publishers, Inc.

In 1916, Carver was made a member of the Royal Society of Arts in England, one of only a handful of Americans at that time to receive this honor. Carver's promotion of peanuts gained him the most notice. In 1919, Carver wrote to a peanut company about the potential he saw for peanut milk. Both he and the peanut industry seemed unaware that in 1917 William Melhuish had secured US 1243855, issued 1917-10-23Â  for a milk substitute made from peanuts and soybeans.[improper synthesis?]

Jaffa Cakes are biscuit-sized cakes introduced by McVitie and Price in the UK in 1927 and named after Jaffa oranges. The most common form of Jaffa cakes are circular, 2 1⁄8 inches (54 mm) in diameter and have three layers: a Genoise sponge base, a layer of orange flavoured jam and a coating of chocolate.[1] Jaffa cakes are also available as bars or in small packs, and in larger and smaller sizes.[2] The original Jaffa Cakes come in packs of 12, 24 or 36.[3]

The song received generally positive reviews from critics, who complimented its mainstream appeal though many noted Swift's experimentation with dubstep was relatively limited. The New York Times critic Jon Caramanica praised the song, calling it "one of [2012's] great pop songs" and noting that the dubstep element "arrives halfway through like a wrecking ball, changing the course not just of the song but also of Ms. Swift's career."[22] Spin's Mark Hogan compared the song positively to lead single "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together", calling it "peppy, uber-catchy pop" and "a far cry from traditional country". The reviewer also commented that "yes, 'Trouble' shows some wub... But as dubstep breakdowns have increasingly become just another feature of the ever-changing pop landscape, like Auto-Tune or 2 Chainz guest spots, what emerges here is merely another sharply crafted Swift kiss-off, in post-David Guetta dance-pop clothing."[24] Ray Rahman of Entertainment Weekly commented in a short review that "I Knew You Were Trouble" had the same kind of "defiant pop-radio oomph that made her fourth albumâ€™s other big breakup banger, 'We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together,' a number one."[25] Lewis Corner from Digital Spy gave the song four out of five stars and made a comparison that "[l]ike peanut butter and jelly, Taylor Swift and [dubstep] may seem at odds with her angelic image, but the result is surprisingly satisfying".[31] Randall Roberts from Los Angeles Times wrote in-depth about the repercussions of Swift using dubstep in her songs, and her departure from country music with the songs from Red:


Question: When did Starbucks become a publicly traded corporation?

Starbucks became a publicly traded company in June 1992, when it held its initial public offering (IPO). At that time, the company had 140 outlets and a market value of US$271 million. The IPO raised approximately US$25 million, enabling Starbucks to expand rapidly, doubling its number of stores over the next two years. By September 1992, the company's share price had surged by 70%, reaching over 100 times the earnings per share of the previous year.

In October 2012, Starbucks announced plans to open 1,000 stores in the United States in the next five years.[112] The same month, the largest Starbucks in the US opened at the University of Alabama's Ferguson Center.[113]

KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) was founded by Colonel Harland Sanders, an entrepreneur who began selling fried chicken from his roadside restaurant in Corbin, Kentucky, during the Great Depression. Sanders identified the potential of restaurant franchising, and the first "Kentucky Fried Chicken" franchise opened in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1952. KFC popularized chicken in the fast-food industry, diversifying the market by challenging the established dominance of the hamburger. Branding himself "Colonel Sanders", the founder became a prominent figure of American cultural history, and his image remains widely used in KFC advertising. The company's rapid expansion made it too large for Sanders to manage, so in 1964 he sold the company to a group of investors led by John Y. Brown, Jr. and Jack C. Massey.

In 1963, Rosenberg’s son Robert became CEO of the company at age 25, and Dunkin’ Donuts opened its hundredth location that year. Dunkin' Donuts was a subsidiary of Universal Food Systems at the time, a conglomerate of 10 small food-service businesses,[9] and Dunkin' Donuts locations varied greatly, with some selling full breakfasts and others serving only doughnuts and coffee.

On December 1, 2016, Howard Schultz announced he would resign as CEO effective April 2017 and would be replaced by Kevin Johnson. Johnson assumed the role of CEO on April 3, 2017.[14]

In May 2015, Starbucks entered a partnership with music streaming service Spotify. The partnership entailed giving U.S.-based employees a Spotify premium subscription and to help influence the music played in store via playlists made using Spotify. Starbucks was also given its own curated Spotify playlist to be featured on Spotify's mobile app.[188]

Other successful cases filed by Starbucks include the case won in 2006 against the chain Xingbake in Shanghai, China for trademark infringement, because the chain used a green-and-white circular logo with a name that sounded phonetically similar to the Chinese for Starbucks.[196] Starbucks did not open any stores after first registering its trademark in Russia in 1997 and in 2002 a Russian lawyer successfully filed a request to cancel the trademark. He then registered the name with a Moscow company and asked for $600,000 to sell the trademark to Starbucks, but was ruled against in November 2005.[41]

Wizards of the Coast LLC (often referred to as WotC /ˈwɒtˌsiː/ or simply Wizards) is an American publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and science fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail stores for games. Originally a basement-run role-playing game publisher, the company popularized the collectible card game genre with Magic: The Gathering in the mid-1990s, acquired the popular Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game by purchasing the failing company TSR, and experienced tremendous success by publishing the licensed Pokémon Trading Card Game. The company's corporate headquarters are located in Renton, Washington in the United States of America.[1]

At the end of December in 2017, the world biggest Starbucks store opened in Shanghai, China.

During 1999, Enron initiated EnronOnline, an Internet-based trading operation, which was used by virtually every energy company in the United States. Enron president and chief operating officer Jeffrey Skilling began advocating a novel idea: the company didn't really need any "assets".[citation needed] By promoting the company's aggressive investment strategy, he helped make Enron the biggest wholesaler of gas and electricity, trading over $27Â billion per quarter. The corporation's financial claims, however, had to be accepted at face value. Under Skilling, Enron adopted mark to market accounting, in which anticipated future profits from any deal were tabulated as if currently real. Thus, Enron could record gains from what over time might turn out to be losses, as the company's fiscal health became secondary to manipulating its stock price on Wall Street during the so-called Tech boom.[citation needed] But when a company's success is measured by undocumented financial statements, actual balance sheets are inconvenient. Indeed, Enron's unscrupulous actions were often gambles to keep the deception going and so increase the stock price. An advancing price meant a continued infusion of investor capital on which debt-ridden Enron in large part subsisted (much like a financial "pyramid" or "Ponzi scheme"). Attempting to maintain the illusion, Skilling verbally attacked Wall Street Analyst Richard Grubman,[29] who questioned Enron's unusual accounting practice during a recorded conference telephone call. When Grubman complained that Enron was the only company that could not release a balance sheet along with its earnings statements, Skilling replied, "Well, thank you very much, we appreciate that ... asshole." Though the comment was met with dismay and astonishment by press and public, it became an inside joke among many Enron employees, mocking Grubman for his perceived meddling rather than Skilling's offensiveness.[30][31] When asked during his trial, Skilling declared that industrial dominance and abuse was a global problem: "Oh yes, yes sure, it is."[19]

Commonwealth Ventures, a group of private investors in Richmond, Virginia, paid $225 million in 1985 to purchase the bowling center and bowling products divisions, forming AMF Bowling Companies, Inc. (later known as AMF Bowling Worldwide). In 1996 Goldman Sachs paid $1.4 billion to buy the company from Commonwealth Ventures. AMF Bowling went public with its listing on the New York Stock Exchange in November 1997. In 1998 its stock price plummeted as losses mounted, so expansion plans were put on hold. In 1999 the decision was made to downsize. By 2000 the company was more than $1 billion in debt and was delisted.[2]


Question:
Which side does the US Army wear the ACU on?

(Note: ACU stands for Army Combat Uniform, and the question is asking which side of the uniform the US Army wears it on, which may be interpreted as which side the uniform is worn on the body, or which side of the body the specific features of the uniform are placed. The original question is a bit unclear, so the similar question attempts to clarify the intent.)

In the summer of 2011, the regulations for the Army Combat Uniform (ACU) were updated to permit the wearing of sew-on embroidered skill badges, similar to those worn on the older BDUs. The 5-badge limit was still in place, and there was no allowance for mixing sew-on and pin-on badges. At the same time, the US Army tape, personal nametapes, and rank insignia could be sewn-on at the wearer's discretion. Skill tabs, including the President's Hundred Tab, Special Forces, Ranger, and Sapper, are positioned on the left sleeve pocket flap, with a 3-tab limit. Tabs that are an essential part of a unit patch, such as the "Mountain" or "Airborne" tab, do not count towards this limit. The U.S. Army Chaplain insignia is the only authorized branch insignia to be worn on the ACU, centered 1/8 inch above the right name tape. This insignia can be either the metal pin-on type or the black embroidered version on digitized fabric with Velcro attachments.

The Army NCO Professional Development Ribbon is a green ribbon 1 3⁄8 inches (35 mm) wide. It has a center strip of 1⁄4 inch (6 mm) of Flag Blue, bordered by 1⁄16 inch (2 mm) stripes of yellow. Equidistant from the edge and center stripes on each side are 1⁄8 inch (3 mm) stripes of yellow. The green and yellow of the ribbon represent the chevrons worn by noncommissioned officers. The central stripe of blue represents support of the United States.[5]

When the flag is displayed vertically, it is rotated 90 degrees clockwise such that the bear and star face upward and red stripe is on the left.[4]

In addition to being the headdress of the United States Army Special Forces, "Green Berets" is also a well known nickname of the organization.

The University uses unique academic regalia. Instead of the traditional academic dress composed of a cap, hood and gown, some constituent units prescribe the Sablay. The "Sablay" is a sash joined in front by an ornament and embroidered or printed with the University's initials in Baybayin script and running geometric motifs of indigenous Filipino ethnic groups. It is traditionally worn over a white or ecru dress for females or an ecru barong Tagalog and black pants for males, although there has been instances wherein the Sablay is worn over other indigenous clothing.[79] Candidates for graduation wear the sablay at the right shoulder, and is then moved to the left shoulder after the President of the University confers their degree, similar to the moving of the tassel of the academic cap.

The position of Major General Commanding the Army was entitled to wear three stars according to General Order No. 6 of March 13, 1861.[14] When Ulysses S. Grant was appointed lieutenant general on March 9, 1864,[15] and took command of the Union forces, he used the three-star insignia formerly assigned to that position.

Some Traffic Enforcement units used a modified paint job, with dark blue carbody and white stripes on the sides. The text on the car is also printed in white. These were phased out in favor of units painted in a modified version of the regular NYPD paint job, with the word "TRAFFIC" printed on the rear side panels and trunk.

By General Order of 23 August 1856, Pursers were required to wear the uniform of their relative rank with the exception of the lace on the pantaloons; their corps device on epaulets, shoulder straps and cap remaining the same. As late as 1862 uniform regulations did not distinguish among the different staff corps.  In January 1864 the various corps were again assigned distinguishing marks, with the Pay Corps insignia being a silver oak sprig worn on the shoulder straps and in the wreath of the cap.

In 1956 General Paul D. Adams, the post commander at Fort Bragg, banned its wear, even though it was worn surreptitiously when deployed overseas. This was reversed on 25 September 1961 by Department of the Army Message 578636, which designated the green beret as the exclusive headdress of the Army Special Forces.[9]

In the U.S. armed forces, the green beret may be worn only by soldiers awarded the Special Forces Tab, signifying they have been qualified as Special Forces (SF) soldiers. The Special Forces beret is officially designated "beret, man's, wool, rifle green, army shade 297."

The seven British Army Infantry battalions of the Scottish Division, plus the Scots Guards and Royal Scots Dragoon Guards regiments, use the Saltire in a variety of forms. Combat and transport vehicles of these Army units may be adorned with a small, (130x80mm approx.), representation of the Saltire; such decals being displayed on the front and/or rear of the vehicle. (On tanks these may also be displayed on the vehicle turret).[32] In Iraq, during both Operation Granby and the subsequent Operation Telic, the Saltire was seen to be flown from the communications whip antenna of vehicles belonging to these units.[33][34] Funerals, conducted with full military honours, of casualties of these operations in Iraq, (plus those killed in operations in Afghanistan),[35] have also been seen to include the Saltire; the flag being draped over the coffin of the deceased on such occasions.[36]


Question: When does "The X-Files: I Want to Believe" take place?

The X-Files: I Want to Believe is set several years after the events of the TV series, with Mulder living as a fugitive and Scully working as a doctor at a Catholic hospital. The plot revolves around the abduction of an FBI agent and the psychic visions of a convicted child molester, leading Mulder and Scully to assist the FBI in a standalone thriller horror story, independent of the series' extraterrestrial mytharc.

Homecoming, set in the very early 1980s, tells the story of four siblings aged between six and thirteen, whose mother abandons them one summer afternoon in their car next to a Connecticut shopping mall during an aborted road trip to a family member in Bridgeport. Realizing that their mother is not coming back, and that they cannot go home (as their father walked out before the youngest child was born), the children travel together, mostly on foot, trying to reach Bridgeport. There, they hope to find their missing mother at the home of a relative they have never met. The children find themselves on a journey that is emotional as well as literal; during their weeks on the road, their adventures and the people they meet along the way help them to find out more about who they are and what is important to them, as well as to cope with the loss of their mother and to understand society's reaction to her poverty, isolation, mental illness and the fact that she was an unmarried mother of four.

The story takes place during three years (1933â€“35) of the Great Depression in the fictional "tired old town" of Maycomb, Alabama, the seat of Maycomb County. It focuses on six-year-old Jean Louise Finch (nicknamed Scout), who lives with her older brother, Jeremy (nicknamed Jem), and their widowed father, Atticus, a middle-aged lawyer. Jem and Scout befriend a boy named Dill, who visits Maycomb to stay with his aunt each summer. The three children are terrified yet fascinated by their neighbor, the reclusive Arthur "Boo" Radley. The adults of Maycomb are hesitant to talk about Boo, and few of them have seen him for many years. The children feed one another's imagination with rumors about his appearance and reasons for remaining hidden, and they fantasize about how to get him out of his house. After two summers of friendship with Dill, Scout and Jem find that someone leaves them small gifts in a tree outside the Radley place. Several times the mysterious Boo makes gestures of affection to the children, but, to their disappointment, he never appears in person.

Thirty-five years in the past, the children at the Sisters of Mercy Orphanage are playing soccer with an old soda can in the front yard. But then, Sister Mary-Mengele (Larry David), the meanest and strictest nun in the orphanage gets their attention by telling them to go inside and do their work. The kids sing "Everybody is Special", but she tells them to shut up and go to work. Later, infant versions of Moe, Larry, and Curly are dumped on the doorstep of the orphanage from an unknown personâ€™s car. Ever since, the trio have wreaked havoc in the place, leaving the nuns who run it utterly terrified, especially Sister Mary-Mengele, who has always hated the trio. Ten years later, out of desperation, when a prospective couple comes to adopt, the exasperated nuns bring out the trio as being the only three available, eventually being forced to add a fourth when another boy, Teddy, enters the picture. The couple, the Harters (Stephen Collins and Carly Craig), decides to pick Moe, but when he requests Larry and Curly to join him, he is dropped back off at the orphanage, and they choose Teddy instead.

The film tells the story of a washed-up, desperate American salesman who travels to Saudi Arabia to sell a holographic teleconferencing system to the Saudi government.[7][9] Set in 2010, before the Arab Spring, American consultant Alan Clay is depressed after losing his house and being divorced by his wife during the Great Recession; he arrives in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia to make a sale in an upcoming development called the Kingâ€™s Metropolis of Economy and Trade (a fictionalized version of King Abdullah Economic City).[9]

The game takes place approximately six months after the events of the first game,[10] and a year before the first Star Wars.[11][12] The Force Unleashed II is described as the "dark entry" in the series,[12] and a more personal story for the game's protagonist than the first game.[10]

The film received mixed to negative reviews from critics. Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 reviews from mainstream film critics, reported that there were "mixed or average" reviews, with an average score of 47 based on 33 reviews.[38] Rotten Tomatoes reported that 32% of 161 listed film critics gave the film a positive review, with an average rating of 4.8 out of 10. The website wrote of the critics' consensus stating; "The chemistry between leads David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson do live up to The X-Files' televised legacy, but the roving plot and droning routines make it hard to identify just what we're meant to believe in."[39]

The director filmed exterior scenes in Illinois in the winter and the spring of 2001, using real weather conditions such as snow, rain, and mud for the scenes. Mendes considered the usage of bleak weather conditions and the intended coldness of Gassner's exterior locations to define the characters' emotional states. Pullman became a key location to reflect this theme, having several settings, including the town's historic Florence Hotel, easily redressed by the crew for the film.[17] Filming concluded in June 2001.[3]

The story takes place in an unnamed school classroom in the United States, in the aftermath of a war between the US and an unnamed country. It is implied that America has been defeated and occupied. The story opens with the previous teacher leaving the classroom, having been removed from her position and replaced with an agent of the foreign power. The new teacher has been trained in propaganda techniques, and is responsible for re-educating the children to be supportive of their occupiers. During the course of the story, the children are persuaded to abandon their religion and national loyalty. Framing the story is the fact that, while the children have ritually recited a 'Pledge of Allegiance' every morning, none know what it actually means. The teacher is relentlessly positive about the change, offering the children candy, songs and praise. When asked if the war was won or lost, she responds only that "we won," implying that everyone would benefit from the conquest.[2]

In the first film of the series, Alex and the senior class of Mt. Abraham High School board Volée Airlines Flight 180, which is bound for departure from JFK International for Paris, France. While on board, Alex has an ominous vision of the plane exploding in mid-air. After warning everyone about it, he and some of his schoolmates are removed from the plane. While waiting at the airport, Alex witnesses the plane explode as he predicted. FBI Agent Schreck and Agent Weine interview the survivors afterwards and believe that Alex was responsible for blowing up Flight 180. While attending the memorial for the victims, Alex notices both agents carefully observing him and develops a relationship with Clear Rivers. Tod and Terry Chaney die afterwards and the Waggner household's anger towards Alex grows further. With the help of Clear, Alex encounters William Bludworth, a mortician who knows more about Death than anyone else. Later that night, Alex realizes that Death is claiming back their lives which should have been lost on the plane, and is attacking them according to the order of their deaths on the plane. Alex and Clear attempt to save the remaining survivors, but fail in their attempts, with the exception of Carter. Knowing he is next to die, Alex suddenly realizes that he had exchanged seats in his original premonition, thus Clear will die before him. Finding Clear at her car trapped by live wires, Alex sacrifices himself by touching the wires to let her escape. It is revealed later on that Alex survived the electrocution. Now in Paris, the films ends with Carter saving Alex from a falling neon sign, but the sign swings back and kills Carter instead.[5]

During the Christmas season of 1938, an alien spacecraft approaches Earth ready to destroy it when it suddenly explodes courtesy of the Doctor who escapes the ship and then falls to Earth by rapidly donning an impact space suit, though in his haste, the helmet is put on backwards. On crashing to Earth, he is found by Madge Arwell (Claire Skinner), wife of Reg (Alexander Amstrong) and mother of two children, Lily (Holly Earl) and Cyril (Maurice Cole). She helps the Doctor to his TARDIS, and the Doctor promises to repay her for her kindness. Three years later, during World War II, Reg is reported missing in action when the Lancaster bomber he was piloting disappeared over the English Channel. Madge is told this via telegram just before Christmas, but decides not to tell her children yet, hoping to keep their spirits up through the holiday. Madge and the children evacuate London to a relative's house in Dorset, where they are greeted by the Doctor, calling himself "the Caretaker"; Madge does not recognise him from their previous encounter, as his face had been hidden by the backwards helmet.


Question: When does "The X-Files: I Want to Believe" take place?

In "The X-Files: I Want to Believe," Dana Scully, now a Catholic hospital staff physician, is treating a young boy with symptoms akin to Sandhoff disease. FBI agent Mosely Drummy seeks Scully's assistance to locate her ex-partner, Fox Mulder, who has been evading capture for several years. Drummy offers to end the FBI's pursuit of Mulder if he assists in the investigation of a series of women's disappearances in West Virginia, including that of a recent FBI agent named Monica Bannan. Scully persuades Mulder, who is initially hesitant, to participate in the case. The film takes place several years after the events of the original television series and the first movie, focusing on the characters' lives and the new mystery they must solve.

The Haunted Mansion Holiday takes place shortly after the events of the film it conjoins with, The Nightmare Before Christmas, where Jack Skellington, who tried to create his very own twisted Christmas in a Halloween-style overlay in the movie, now discovers the Haunted Mansion, home to 999 Happy Haunts. Deciding to spread joy to the mansion's gloomy residents for the holidays, Jack and his creepy crew from Halloween Town bring hundreds of Jack's original evil Christmas presents and decorations to the manor and deck the haunting grounds for a thrilling and chilling holiday for the Grim Grinning Ghosts inhabiting the abandoned house, setting the stage for the ride itself.

In the season 12 finale, Stabler is forced to shoot and kill a young woman who opens fire in the Special Victims squad room. Before dying in Stabler's arms, she had killed two suspects involved in the rape and murder of her mother and injured a third, as well as killing recurring character Sister Peg (Charlayne Woodard).[10] After the shootout, Stabler is placed on administrative leave by IAB.[11] Although he is eventually cleared, it is nonetheless his sixth career "good shooting" and according to Cragen, IAB "wants to go over his entire jacket...if Elliot wants to keep his job, he's gonna have to submit to a psych eval, anger management, a lot of hoops." Confirming Benson's assurance that he will instead tell them to "go to hell", Stabler subsequently retires from the police force off screen during the thirteenth season premiere.[12] Benson and Cragen agree that he's earned it "and then some". Nevertheless, Benson is quietly devastated by his resignation as she breaks down sobbing in the interrogation room.

The show was filmed on the Universal Studios back lot in Los Angeles.[9] One area on the lot is Courthouse Square from the Back to the Future trilogy, though it has been drastically modified to depict Grandview. For example, the clock tower in Back to the Future has been completely covered up. The front of Melinda and Jim's house is also the same set used by the Finch family in the film adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird. Cast and crew members said they believed that the set got visits from real spirits.[10] After the show's cancellation and shortly before the sets were torn down, Jennifer Love Hewitt filmed a tour demonstrating the ways in which the areas were different from those shown in the TV broadcast.[11]

Nevertheless, X-Files writer Frank Spotnitz, has stated that this version of events is only one possibility and is not accepted canon.[5]

On 2 February 2014, friends Mike (Brett Dalton), Sam (Hayden Panettiere), Chris (Noah Fleiss), Ashley (Galadriel Stineman), Jessica ("Jess") (Meaghan Martin), Matt (Jordan Fisher) and Emily (Nichole Bloom) celebrate their winter getaway at the Blackwood Pines lodge, owned by mutual friends Josh Washington (Rami Malek) and his twin sisters, Hannah and Beth (Ella Lentini), located in Blackwood Mountain, in the Canadian Rockies, in Alberta, in Canada. Mike, Ashley, Emily, Jess, and Matt trick Hannah into opening her shirt for Mike while they hide. They then come out of hiding, embarrassing Hannah and causing her to flee into the forest. As Beth follows, they are hunted by an unknown pursuer that corners them to a cliff, where they both fall to their deaths and aren't recovered.

The second episode, "Flesh & Blood", takes place on Thanksgiving when "a year after her mother's death, Kimberly begins to suspect that she is in danger in the home, but she can't leave and doesn't know whom she can trust."[1]

The exterior of Monica Bannan's house was actually filmed in Pemberton, British Columbia, Canada, a location that Spotnitz found to be beautiful but extremely cold. Although the location is shown in exterior shots incorporated into the scene in which Fox Mulder (Duchovny), Whitney (Amanda Peet), Drummy (Alvin "Xzibit" Joiner), and Father Joe (Billy Connolly) drove to the missing agent's home, the same scene also includes footage of the actors that was filmed on a stage, using a rear projection to show the exterior from inside the car. The latter method was used for all the shots in which any of the travelers appear.[19]

The vicar tells Alice that for Christmas she is most looking forward to seeing Jurassic Park and The Queen's Christmas Message (Elizabeth II in this instance); the former is also mentioned by Hugo who feels sorry for people who are lonely and watch it as entertainment over Christmas.[3] Alice tells the vicar that Only Fools and Horses is more entertaining than the story of Jesus' birth as the latter lacks comedy, adding "that Rodney, what a plonker". Jim tells the vicar a knock-knock joke where the punchline is Doctor Who. During the sprout eating contest Hugo introduces the vicar and his father in the style of John Anderson on Gladiators. During charades Alice holds up two jars believing she is acting out a film called Jars, the others realise she is meant to be doing Jaws.[4]

Fifteen years after the events of the first movie, Tramell speeds through London in a sports car with Kevin Franks, an English football player. After taking Franks' hand to masturbate herself and reach climax, Tramell crashes the car into the Thames river and ultimately leaves Franks to drown. When Scotland Yard finds evidence of her culpability in the death, Tramell is made to take therapy sessions with a court-appointed psychologist, Dr. Michael Glass (David Morrissey). At her trial, Glass testifies that Tramell is a narcissist who suffers from a pathological "risk addiction", showing no regard for right or wrong. However, Glass' testimony is deemed insufficient, and Tramell goes free.

Despite her apparent resolve to move on, Brennan later showed sorrow when her father noted that he always thought she and Booth would end up together. During a subsequent case involving a polygamist who would spend the night with his first wife on the night he was scheduled to sleep alone, Booth commented that, while you can love several people, there is only ever one person you love the most, prompting Brennan to ask what happens when you push that person away, something Booth answered saying that it never truly leaves, adding further weight to the implication that he still has feelings for Brennan. Following Hannah's departure, the two have begun to reconnect, to the point that, during a case that saw the two trapped in an elevator during a blackout for several hours, Booth and Brennan admitted that they are each interested in a relationship, but require more time to sort out their own feelings before they make such a commitment.


Question: Is the Race to the Top initiative still ongoing?

Race to the Top, or R2T, is a $4.35 billion competitive grant program by the US Department of Education aimed at promoting innovation and reforms in K-12 education at state and local levels. Launched in 2009 under President Barack Obama and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, the program was funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. States could earn points for implementing specific educational policies, including performance-based evaluations for teachers and principals, adopting common standards (not necessarily the Common Core), allowing the expansion of high-quality charter schools, and revamping low-performing schools. Additionally, the program emphasized the importance of building and utilizing comprehensive data systems.

EUC is a 100% federally funded program that provides benefits to individuals who have exhausted regular state benefits. The EUC program was created on June 30, 2008, and has been modified several times. Most recently, the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 (P.L. 112-240) extended the expiration date of the EUC program to January 1, 2014. To date, Congress has not passed any further extensions.[2]

The Walt Disney Company acquired Schoolhouse Rock in 1996 along with its acquisition of ABC owner Capital Cities/ABC Inc.; Schoolhouse Rock was one of only two children's shows (The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show being the other) to continue airing (albeit in reruns) after the transition to One Saturday Morning. The series as a whole (after 27 years, shortly before the show's 30th anniversary) ceased airing on television in 2000, with newer episodes being released directly to home video. However, the series occasionally was seen airing reruns on Toon Disney's Big Movie Show block in 2004, but soon got removed from the schedule sometime later. As a result, the series officially came to an end on television and has not seen anymore reruns since.

From 2000 to 2015, NYIT invested in initiatives to enhance the quality of the university, including campus infrastructure, a larger faculty, new endowed chairs and professorships. The money came from federal grants, New York state grants, and National Science Foundation grants, as well as university funding and contributions from alumni, corporations and foundations.[31] For example, in 2002, federal government awarded NYIT $0.3 million for a new cyber security lab,[25] in 2009, NYIT received a multimillion-dollar donation from Lumeta Corporation,[32] in 2011, NYIT received a $0.16 million grant from the Verizon Foundation,[33] in 2013, NYIT received $1.4 million in state and federal grants for a portion of the costs required for constructing NYIT's new $4 million Entrepreneurship Technology Innovation Center,[34][35] in 2014, NYIT received a $0.23 million National Science Foundation grant to purchase a sputtering machine, used in the electronics and medical fields to create thin film sensors,[34] and in 2015, NYIT received from New York State a grant of $0.4 million for a portion of the costs required to renovate a 5,300-square-foot facility to house three new laboratories on its Old Westbury campus.[36]

In a subsequent phase of urban renewal, the rail yards which had formed the Upper West Side's southwest corner were replaced by the Riverside South residential project, which included a southward extension of Riverside Park. The evolution of Riverside South had a 40-year history, often extremely bitter, beginning in 1962 when the New York Central Railroad, in partnership with the Amalgamated Lithographers Union, proposed a mixed-use development with 12,000 apartments, Litho City, to be built on platforms over the tracks. The subsequent bankruptcy of the enlarged, but short-lived Penn Central Railroad brought other proposals and prospective developers. The one generating the most opposition was Donald Trump's "Television City" concept of 1985, which would have included a 152-story office tower and six 75-story residential buildings. In 1991, a coalition of prominent civic organizations proposed a purely residential development of about half that size, and then reached a deal with Trump. As of 2008, construction is well underway, but still to be resolved is the future of the West Side Highway viaduct over the park area.[citation needed]

UCLA professor Richard H. Sander published an article in the November 2004 issue of the Stanford Law Review that questioned the effectiveness of racial preferences in law schools. He noted that, prior to his article, there had been no comprehensive study on the effects of affirmative action.[82] The article presents a study that shows that half of all black law students rank near the bottom of their class after the first year of law school and that black law students are more likely to drop out of law school and to fail the bar exam.[82] The article offers a tentative estimate that the production of new black lawyers in the United States would grow by eight percent if affirmative action programs at all law schools were ended. Less qualified black students would attend less prestigious schools where they would be more closely matched in abilities with their classmates and thus perform relatively better.[82] Sander helped to develop a socioeconomically-based affirmative action plan for the UCLA School of Law after the passage of Proposition 209 in 1996, which prohibited the use of racial preferences by public universities in California. This change occurred after studies showed that the graduation rate of blacks at UCLA was 41%, compared to 73% for whites.

The move is being championed by District of Columbia officials because of the positive economic impact it will have on historically depressed Anacostia. The move has been criticized by historic preservationists, who claim the revitalization plans will destroy dozens of historic buildings on the campus.[38] Community activists have criticized the plans because the facility will remain walled off and have little interaction with the surrounding area.[39] On January 8, 2009, the National Capital Planning Commission approved the Department of Homeland Security's plans to move into the campus of St. Elizabeths Hospital.[40] In February 2015 the General Services Administration said that the site would open in 2021.[41]

In 2008, the Vereniging van Nederlandse Gemeenten (VNG, the organisation of Dutch municipalities) organised a wiettop ("weed summit", a wordplay on the flowery tops that cannabis is made of), attended by 33 Dutch mayors from both big and small municipalities and various political parties. Reasons for the summit were drugs tourism in border regions (the mayors of Roosendaal and Bergen op Zoom had just announced an intention to close all coffeeshops), the strong link with illegality (including laundering of money through coffeeshops) and the discrepancies between the policies of the various municipalities. At this wiettop, all mayors agreed that regulation of the 'backdoor' was desirable. Rob van Gijzel, mayor of Eindhoven announced he intended to start a 'monitored pilot' of issuing licenses for the production of cannabis. But near the borders, the front door should also be (better) regulated, forbidding sales to foreigners. This would also greatly decrease the demand at the backdoor. Intentions were to discuss the results of the wiettop with the national government before the end of 2008. As of 2014, this discussion is still ongoing. A majority of mayors and users have extended the wish to allow some form of regulated, legal, cultivation for sale to the coffeeshops as this would lower the crime/violence rate, solve the backdoor issue and can generate some income. However, liberal minister Ivo Opstelten has blocked any such proposals so far and has refused to investigate it altogether. The mayors are still trying to force the minister to at least investigate the situation and allow a pilot to be conducted.

In 1994 federal legislation for both the Educate America Act and the Improving America's School's Act (IASA) authorized funds for state and federal educational technology planning.[12] One of the principal goals listed in the Educate America Act is to promote the research, consensus building, and systemic changes needed to ensure equitable educational opportunities and high levels of educational achievement for all students (Public Law 103-227).[13] In 1996 the Telecommunications Act provided a systematic change necessary to ensure equitable educational opportunities of bringing new technology into the education sector.[14] The Telecomm Act requires affordable access and service to advanced telecom services for public schools and libraries. Many of the computers, tablets, and mobile devices currently used in classrooms operate through Internet connectivity; particularly those that are application based such as tablets. Schools in high-cost areas and disadvantaged schools were to receive higher discounts in telecom services such as Internet, cable, satellite television, and the management component.[14]

Over the many years of their relationship with NASCAR, Winston sponsored several races and prize programs including the Winston 500, The Winston all-star race, the Winston Western 500 and the 1985â€“97 Winston Million, which awarded a million dollars to a driver who could win a "small slam" of the sport's four Grand Slam events in the same year. From 1998 to 2002, the Winston No Bull 5, a more complex award system, was used. Each year, there were five races (initially the four majors and Indianapolis) selected to be a part of this promotion. Each driver who finished in the top 5 in the previous No Bull 5 race was eligible to win in the next race selected, along with a fan. If one of the eligible drivers won that race, they were awarded with a million dollar bonus.

In January 2009, President Obama signed executive orders directing the CIA to shut what remains of its network of "secret" prisons and ordering the closing of the Guantánamo detention camp within a year.[43] However, he postponed difficult decisions on the details for at least six months.[44] On 7 March 2011, President Obama issued an executive order that permits ongoing indefinite detention of Guantánamo detainees.[45] The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 authorized indefinite detention of suspected terrorists,[46] but enforcement of the relevant section was temporarily blocked by a federal court ruling in the case of Hedges v. Obama on 16 May 2012,[47] a suit brought by a number of private citizens, including Chris Hedges, Daniel Ellsberg, Noam Chomsky, and Birgitta Jónsdóttir.[48] After a series of decisions and appeals, the lawsuit was vacated because the plaintiffs lacked standing to file the suit.[49] As of December 2017[update], the detention center was in operation.