title: Wardlow (wrestler)

text: At All Elite Wrestling (AEW)'s All Out pay-per-view on August 31, 2019, a video package was aired, promoting Wardlow's impending debut. Wardlow made his debut for AEW on the November 13 episode of "Dynamite", attacking Cody. He would then align himself with Cody's rival MJF and become his bodyguard. Wardlow wrestled his AEW debut match on the February 19, 2020 episode of "Dynamite", where he lost to Cody in a steel cage match. In October, Wardlow would participate in a tournament to determine the number one contender for the AEW World Championship, defeating Jungle Boy in the first round before ultimately being eliminated by Adam Page in the semi-finals. Following this, Wardlow and MJF would join The Inner Circle faction, also consisting of Chris Jericho, Sammy Guevara, Jake Hager, Santana and Ortiz. However, after months of tension within the group, Wardlow and MJF separated from The Inner Circle in March 2021 to form a new group called The Pinnacle, also made up of Shawn Spears and FTR (Cash Wheeler and Dax Harwood), sparking a feud between the two groups. At the Blood and Guts event on May 5, The Pinnacle defeated The Inner Circle in the inaugural Blood and Guts match. At the Double or Nothing pay-per-view later that month, The Pinnacle were defeated by The Inner Circle in a Stadium Stampede match. On the June 18 episode of "Dynamite", Wardlow was defeated by Hager in a MMA rules cage match. On the August 11 episode of "Dynamite", Wardlow faced Jericho, but was unsuccessful. On the December 8 episode of "Dynamite", Wardlow competed in the Dynamite Dozen Battle Royale, but he was inadvertently eliminated by MJF, thus beginning to tease a face turn due to growing dissension with MJF. Over the following weeks, the tension would continue to grow as Wardlow came into conflict with Shawn Spears, MJF, and other members of the Pinnacle, culminating in the March 2, 2022 episode of Dynamite, where MJF slapped Wardlow in a heated confrontation.


title: Wardlow (wrestler)

text: On March 6, 2022, Wardlow competed in, and won, the "Face of the Revolution" ladder match at Revolution. Later that same evening, Wardlow would help CM Punk defeat MJF (after helping MJF cheat his previous victory against Punk) during their Dog Collar match by handing him the Dynamite Diamond Ring, thus turning face. On the following Wednesday's episode of "Dynamite", Wardlow cemented his turn in a promo, declaring that he was no longer MJF's bodyguard and no longer a member of the Pinnacle. On the March 16, 2022 episode of "Dynamite" Wardlow would lose his AEW TNT Championship match to reigning champion Scorpio Sky following interference from MJF and Shawn Spears. Wardlow also had a confrontation with Austin Vanderford, who later assisted MJF and Spears in attacking him after the match ended. Within storyline, Wardlow was not employed by AEW but by MJF, who could forbid him from wrestling him or for AEW altogether. MJF set up stipulations under which he would let him out of the contract, such as being lashed 10 times. On the May 25 episode of "Dynamite", Wardlow completed the final stipulation which guaranteed him a match with MJF at the upcoming Double or Nothing pay-per-view by defeating Spears in a steel cage match, with MJF serving unsuccessfully as the special guest referee; should he win, Wardlow would be officially released from his contract with MJF, but would be banned from obtaining a new AEW contract and be required to remain under MJF's employment should he lose. At the event, Wardlow defeated MJF after hitting him with ten consecutive powerbombs to win the match and was freed of his contract; as a result, Wardlow would also earn a new contract which in storyline made him an official member of AEW.


title: Wardlow (wrestler)

text: On the June 1, 2022 episode of "Dynamite", Wardlow wrestled in his first match as an official member of the AEW roster, defeating J.D. Drake.


title: Wardlow (wrestler)

text: On the July 6 episode of "Dynamite", Wardlow would defeat Scorpio Sky in a street fight match to win the TNT Championship. Wardlow's first defence of the TNT Championship was against Orange Cassidy on 13 July 2022. Wardlow beat Cassidy with his powerbomb finishing move, after catching the challenger midair. On July 29, 2022's episode of "Rampage", Wardlow intervened to save Cassidy from an attack by Jay Lethal. On the following episode of "Dynamite", Lethal's manager, Sonjay Dutt, challenged Wardlow to defend his TNT Championship against his client. Wardlow accepted the challenge. Wardlow successfully defended the TNT Championship against Lethal at Battle of the Belts III on 6 August, winning with a head butt and power bomb finish. After conclusion of the match, Wardlow was attacked by Sonjay Dutt and Satnam Singh. Despite Wardlow trying to fight back – including an attempt to powerbomb Singh – Singh choke slammed Wardlow through a table. Lethal mocked Wardlow by standing triumphantly with the TNT Championship belt.


title: Dystonia

text: Dystonia is a neurological hyperkinetic movement disorder in which sustained or repetitive muscle contractions result in twisting and repetitive movements or abnormal fixed postures. The movements may resemble a tremor. Dystonia is often intensified or exacerbated by physical activity, and symptoms may progress into adjacent muscles.


title: Dystonia

text: The disorder may be hereditary or caused by other factors such as birth-related or other physical trauma, infection, poisoning (e.g., lead poisoning) or reaction to pharmaceutical drugs, particularly neuroleptics, or stress. Treatment must be highly customized to the needs of the individual and may include oral medications, chemodenervation botulinum neurotoxin injections, physical therapy, or other supportive therapies, and surgical procedures such as deep brain stimulation.


title: Dystonia

text: Also known as torsion dystonia or idiopathic torsion dystonia (old terminology "dystonia musculorum deformans").


title: Dystonia

text: The combination of blepharospasmodic contractions and oromandibular dystonia is called cranial dystonia or Meige's syndrome.


title: Dystonia

text: There is a group called myoclonic dystonia where some cases are hereditary and have been associated with a missense mutation in the dopamine-D2 receptor. Some of these cases have responded well to alcohol.


title: Dystonia

text: Other genes that have been associated with dystonia include CIZ1, GNAL, ATP1A3, and PRRT2. Another report has linked THAP1 and SLC20A2 to dystonia.


title: Dystonia

text: Symptoms vary according to the kind of dystonia involved. In most cases, dystonia tends to lead to abnormal posturing, in particular on movement. Many individuals with the condition have continuous pain, cramping, and relentless muscle spasms due to involuntary muscle movements. Other motor symptoms are possible including lip smacking.


title: Dystonia

text: Early symptoms may include loss of precision muscle coordination (sometimes first manifested in declining penmanship, frequent small injuries to the hands, and dropped items), cramping pain with sustained use, and trembling. Significant muscle pain and cramping may result from very minor exertions like holding a book and turning pages. It may become difficult to find a comfortable position for arms and legs with even the minor exertions associated with holding arms crossed causing significant pain similar to restless leg syndrome. Affected persons may notice trembling in the diaphragm while breathing, or the need to place hands in pockets, under legs while sitting or under pillows while sleeping to keep them still and to reduce pain. Trembling in the jaw may be felt and heard while lying down, and the constant movement to avoid pain may result in the grinding and wearing down of teeth, or symptoms similar to temporomandibular joint disorder. The voice may crack frequently or become harsh, triggering frequent throat clearing. Swallowing can become difficult and accompanied by painful cramping.


title: Dystonia

text: Electrical sensors (EMG) inserted into affected muscle groups, while painful, can provide a definitive diagnosis by showing pulsating nerve signals being transmitted to the muscles even when they are at rest. The brain appears to signal portions of fibers within the affected muscle groups at a firing speed of about 10 Hz causing them to pulsate, tremble and contort. When called upon to perform an intentional activity, the muscles fatigue very quickly and some portions of the muscle groups do not respond (causing weakness) while other portions over-respond or become rigid (causing micro-tears under load). The symptoms worsen significantly with use, especially in the case of focal dystonia, and a "mirror effect" is often observed in other body parts: Use of the right hand may cause pain and cramping in that hand as well as in the other hand and legs that were not being used. Stress, anxiety, lack of sleep, sustained use and cold temperatures can worsen symptoms.


title: Dystonia

text: Direct symptoms may be accompanied by secondary effects of the continuous muscle and brain activity, including disturbed sleep patterns, exhaustion, mood swings, mental stress, difficulty concentrating, blurred vision, digestive problems, and short temper. People with dystonia may also become depressed and find great difficulty adapting their activities and livelihood to a progressing disability. Side-effects from treatment and medications can also present challenges in normal activities.


title: Dystonia

text: In some cases, symptoms may progress and then plateau for years, or stop progressing entirely. The progression may be delayed by treatment or adaptive lifestyle changes, while forced continued use may make symptoms progress more rapidly. In others, the symptoms may progress to total disability, making some of the more risky forms of treatment worth considering. In some cases with patients who already have dystonia, a subsequent traumatic injury or the effects of general anesthesia during an unrelated surgery can cause the symptoms to progress rapidly.


title: Dystonia

text: An accurate diagnosis may be difficult because of the way the disorder manifests itself. Affected individuals may be diagnosed as having similar and perhaps related disorders including Parkinson's disease, essential tremor, carpal tunnel syndrome, temporomandibular joint disorder, Tourette's syndrome, conversion disorder or other neuromuscular movement disorders. It has been found that the prevalence of dystonia is high in individuals with Huntington's disease, where the most common clinical presentations are internal shoulder rotation, sustained fist clenching, knee flexion, and foot inversion. Risk factors for increased dystonia in patients with Huntington's disease include long disease duration and use of antidopaminergic medication.


title: Dystonia

text: "Primary dystonia" is suspected when the dystonia is the only sign and there is no identifiable cause or structural abnormality in the central nervous system. Researchers suspect it is caused by a pathology of the central nervous system, likely originating in those parts of the brain concerned with motor function—such as the basal ganglia and the GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid) producing Purkinje neurons. The precise cause of primary dystonia is unknown. In many cases it may involve some genetic predisposition towards the disorder combined with environmental conditions.


title: Dystonia

text: "Secondary dystonia" refers to dystonia brought on by some identified cause, such as head injury, drug side effect (e.g. tardive dystonia), or neurological disease (e.g. Wilson's disease, stroke).


title: Dystonia

text: Meningitis and encephalitis caused by viral, bacterial, and fungal infections of the brain have been associated with dystonia. The main mechanism is inflammation of the blood vessels, causing restriction of blood flow to the basal ganglia. Other mechanisms include direct nerve injury by the organism or a toxin, or autoimmune mechanisms.


title: Dystonia

text: Environmental and task-related factors are suspected to trigger the development of focal dystonias because they appear disproportionately in individuals who perform high precision hand movements such as musicians, engineers, architects, and artists. Chlorpromazine can also cause dystonia, which can be often misjudged as a seizure.


title: Dystonia

text: Malfunction of the sodium-potassium pump may be a factor in some dystonias. The - pump has been shown to control and set the intrinsic activity mode of cerebellar Purkinje neurons. This suggests that the pump might not simply be a homeostatic, "housekeeping" molecule for ionic gradients; but could be a computational element in the cerebellum and the brain. Indeed, an ouabain block of - pumps in the cerebellum of a live mouse results in it displaying ataxia and dystonia. Ataxia is observed for lower ouabain concentrations, dystonia is observed at higher ouabain concentrations. A mutation in the - pump (ATP1A3 gene) can cause rapid onset dystonia parkinsonism. The parkinsonism aspect of this disease may be attributable to malfunctioning - pumps in the basal ganglia; the dystonia aspect may be attributable to malfunctioning - pumps in the cerebellum (that act to corrupt its input to the basal ganglia) possibly in Purkinje neurons.


title: Dystonia

text: Cerebellum issues causing dystonia is described by Filip et al. 2013: "Although dystonia has traditionally been regarded as a basal ganglia dysfunction, recent provocative evidence has emerged of cerebellar involvement in the pathophysiology of this enigmatic disease. It has been suggested that the cerebellum plays an important role in dystonia etiology, from neuroanatomical research of complex networks showing that the cerebellum is connected to a wide range of other central nervous system structures involved in movement control to animal models indicating that signs of dystonia are due to cerebellum dysfunction and completely disappear after cerebellectomy, and finally to clinical observations in secondary dystonia patients with various types of cerebellar lesions. It is proposed that dystonia is a large-scale dysfunction, involving not only cortico-basal ganglia-thalamo-cortical pathways, but the cortico-ponto-cerebello-thalamo-cortical loop as well. Even in the absence of traditional "cerebellar signs" in most dystonia patients, there are more subtle indications of cerebellar dysfunction. It is clear that as long as the cerebellum's role in dystonia genesis remains unexamined, it will be difficult to significantly improve the current standards of dystonia treatment or to provide curative treatment."


title: Dystonia

text: Reducing the types of movements that trigger or worsen dystonic symptoms provides some relief, as does reducing stress, getting plenty of rest, moderate exercise, and relaxation techniques. Various treatments focus on sedating brain functions or blocking nerve communications with the muscles via drugs, neuro-suppression, or denervation. All current treatments have negative side-effects and risks.


title: Dystonia

text: A "geste antagoniste" is a physical gesture or position (such as touching one's chin) that temporarily interrupts dystonia, it is also known as a "sensory trick". Patients may be aware of the presence of a geste antagoniste that provides some relief. Therapy for dystonia can involve prosthetics that passively simulate the stimulation.


title: Dystonia

text: While research in the area of effectiveness of physical therapy intervention for dystonia remains weak, there is reason to believe that rehabilitation can benefit dystonia patients. Physical therapy can be utilized to manage changes in balance, mobility and overall function that occur as a result of the disorder. A variety of treatment strategies can be employed to address the unique needs of each individual. Potential treatment interventions include splinting, therapeutic exercise, manual stretching, soft tissue and joint mobilization, postural training and bracing, neuromuscular electrical stimulation, constraint-induced movement therapy, activity and environmental modification, and gait training.


title: Dystonia

text: A patient with dystonia may have significant challenges in activities of daily living (ADL), an area especially suited for treatment by occupational therapy (OT). An occupational therapist (OT) may perform needed upper extremity splinting, provide movement inhibitory techniques, train fine motor coordination, provide an assistive device, or teach alternative methods of activity performance to achieve a patient's goals for bathing, dressing, toileting, and other valued activities.


title: Dystonia

text: Recent research has investigated further into the role of physiotherapy in the treatment of dystonia. A recent study showed that reducing psychological stress, in conjunction with exercise, is beneficial for reducing truncal dystonia in patients with Parkinson’s disease. Another study emphasized progressive relaxation, isometric muscle endurance, dynamic strength, coordination, balance, and body perception, seeing significant improvements to patients' quality of life after 4 weeks.


title: Dystonia

text: Since the root of the problem is neurological, doctors have explored sensorimotor retraining activities to enable the brain to "rewire" itself and eliminate dystonic movements. The work of several doctors such as Nancy Byl and Joaquin Farias has shown that sensorimotor retraining activities and proprioceptive stimulation can induce neuroplasticity, making it possible for patients to recover substantial function that was lost due to Cervical Dystonia, hand dystonia, blepharospasm, oromandibular dystonia, dysphonia and musicians' dystonia.


title: Dystonia

text: Some focal dystonias have been proven treatable through movement retraining in the Taubman approach, particularly in the case of musicians. However other focal dystonias may not respond and may even be made worse by this treatment.


title: Dystonia

text: Due to the rare and variable nature of dystonia, research investigating the effectiveness of these treatments is limited. There is no "gold standard" for physiotherapy rehabilitation. To date, focal cervical dystonia has received the most research attention; however, study designs are poorly controlled and limited to small sample sizes.


title: Dystonia

text: Different medications are tried in an effort to find a combination that is effective for a specific person. Not all people respond well to the same medications. Medications that have had positive results in some include: anticholinergics (such as diphenhydramine, benzatropine, atropine), dopamine agonists (such as ropinirole and bromocriptine), and muscle relaxants (such as diazepam).


title: Dystonia

text: Medications such as anticholinergics (benztropine), which act as inhibitors of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, may provide some relief. In the case of an acute dystonic reaction, diphenhydramine is sometimes used (though this drug is well known as an antihistamine, in this context it is being used primarily for its anticholinergic role).. See also Procyclidine. Another which in many has shown total control of symptoms, alone or taken with other medications,often clonazepam, is gabapentin. Noting, some are generic sensitive, as with other medications, and either have to sample test each one for a successful result, or take the original version.


title: Dystonia

text: A baclofen pump has been used to treat patients of all ages exhibiting muscle spasticity along with dystonia. The pump delivers baclofen via a catheter to the thecal space surrounding the spinal cord. The pump itself is placed in the abdomen. It can be refilled periodically by access through the skin. Baclofen can also be taken in tablet form


title: Dystonia

text: Botulinum toxin injections into affected muscles have proved quite successful in providing some relief for around 3–6 months, depending on the kind of dystonia. Botox or Dysport injections have the advantage of ready availability (the same form is used for cosmetic surgery) and the effects are not permanent. There is a risk of temporary paralysis of the muscles being injected or the leaking of the toxin into adjacent muscle groups, causing weakness or paralysis in them. The injections must be repeated, as the effects wear off and around 15% of recipients develop immunity to the toxin. There is a Type A and a Type B toxin approved for treatment of dystonia; often, those that develop resistance to Type A may be able to use Type B.


title: Dystonia

text: Clonazepam, a benzodiazepine, is also sometimes prescribed. However, for most, their effects are limited and side-effects like mental confusion, sedation, mood swings, and short-term memory loss occur.


title: Dystonia

text: Dopamine agonists: One type of dystonia, dopamine-responsive dystonia, can be completely treated with regular doses of L-DOPA in a form such as Sinemet (carbidopa/levodopa). Although this does not remove the condition, it does alleviate the symptoms most of the time. (In contrast, dopamine antagonists can sometimes cause dystonia.)


title: Dystonia

text: One complex case study found that a ketogenic type diet may have been helpful in reducing symptoms associated with alternating hemiplegia of childhood (AHC) of a young child. However, as the researchers noted, their results could have been corollary in nature and not due to the diet itself, though future research is warranted.


title: Dystonia

text: Surgery, such as the denervation of selected muscles, may also provide some relief; however, the destruction of nerves in the limbs or brain is not reversible and should be considered only in the most extreme cases. Recently, the procedure of deep brain stimulation (DBS) has proven successful in a number of cases of severe generalised dystonia. DBS as treatment for medication-refractory dystonia, on the other hand, may increase the risk of suicide in patients. However, reference data of patients without DBS therapy are lacking.


title: Dystonia

text: The Italian Bernardino Ramazzini provided one of the first descriptions of task-specific dystonia in 1713 in a book of occupational diseases, The Morbis Artificum.


title: Dystonia

text: In chapter II of this book's Supplementum, Ramazzini noted that "Scribes and Notaries" may develop "incessant movement of the hand, always in the same direction … the continuous and almost tonic strain on the muscles... that results in failure of power in the right hand". A report from the British Civil Service also contained an early description of writer's cramp. In 1864, Solly coined the term "scrivener’s palsy" for this condition. These historical reports usually attributed the etiology of the motor abnormalities to overuse. Then, dystonia were reported in detail in 1911, when Hermann Oppenheim, Edward Flatau and Wladyslaw Sterling described some Jewish children affected by a syndrome that was retrospectively considered to represent familial cases of DYT1 dystonia. Some decades later, in 1975, the first international conference on dystonia was held in New York. It was then recognized that, in addition to severe generalized forms, the dystonia phenotype also encompasses poorly-progressive focal and segmental cases with onset in adulthood, such as blepharospasm, torticollis and writer's cramp.


title: Dystonia

text: These forms were previously considered independent disorders and were mainly classified among neuroses. A modern definition of dystonia was worded some years later, in 1984. During the following years it became evident that dystonia syndromes are numerous and diversified, new terminological descriptors (e.g., dystonia plus, heredodegenerative dystonias, etc.) and additional classification schemes were introduced. The clinical complexity of dystonia was then fully recognized.


title: Vojvodina

text: Vojvodina (), officially the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, is an autonomous province that occupies the northernmost part of Serbia. It lies within the Pannonian Basin, bordered to the south by the national capital Belgrade and the Sava and Danube Rivers. The administrative center, Novi Sad, is the second-largest city in Serbia.


title: Vojvodina

text: The historic regions of Banat, Bačka, and Syrmia overlap the province. Modern Vojvodina is multi-ethnic and multi-cultural, with some 26 ethnic groups and six official languages. About two million people, nearly 27% of Serbia's population, live in the province.


title: Vojvodina

text: "Vojvodina" is also the Serbian word for voivodeship, a type of duchy overseen by a voivode. The Serbian Voivodeship, a precursor to modern Vojvodina, was an Austrian province from 1849 to 1860.


title: Vojvodina

text: Its official name is the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina. Its name in the province's six official languages is:


title: Vojvodina

text: In the Neolithic period, two important archaeological cultures flourished in this area: the Starčevo culture and the Vinča culture. Indo-European peoples first settled in the territory of present-day Vojvodina in 3200 BC. During the Eneolithic period, the Bronze Age and the Iron Age, several Indo-European archaeological cultures were centered in or around Vojvodina, including the Vučedol culture, the Vatin culture, and the Bosut culture, among others.


title: Vojvodina

text: Before the Roman conquest in the 1st century BC, Indo-European peoples of Illyrian, Thracian and Celtic origin inhabited this area. The first states organized in this area were the Celtic State of the Scordisci (3rd century BC-1st century AD) with capital in Singidunum (Belgrade), and the Dacian Kingdom of Burebista (1st century BC).


title: Vojvodina

text: During Roman rule, Sirmium (modern Sremska Mitrovica) was one of the four capital cities of the Roman Empire, and six Roman Emperors were born in this city or in its surroundings. The city was also the capital of several Roman administrative units, including Pannonia Inferior, Pannonia Secunda, the Diocese of Pannonia, and the Praetorian prefecture of Illyricum.


title: Vojvodina

text: Roman rule lasted until the 5th century, after which the region came into the possession of various peoples and states. While Banat was a part of the Roman province of Dacia, Syrmia belonged to the Roman province of Pannonia. Bačka was not part of the Roman Empire and was populated and ruled by Sarmatian Iazyges.


title: Vojvodina

text: After the Romans were driven away from this region, various Indo-European and Turkic peoples and states ruled in the area. These peoples included Goths, Sarmatians, Huns, Gepids and Avars. For regional history, the largest in importance was a Gepid state, which had its capital in Sirmium. According to the 7th-century "Miracles of Saint Demetrius", Avars gave the region of Syrmia to a Bulgar leader named Kuber circa 680. The Bulgars of Kuber moved south with Maurus to Macedonia where they co-operated with Tervel in the 8th century.


title: Vojvodina

text: Slavs settled today's Vojvodina in the 6th and 7th centuries, before some of them crossed the rivers Sava and Danube and settled in the Balkans. Slavic tribes that lived in the territory of present-day Vojvodina included Abodrites, Severans, Braničevci and Timočani.


title: Vojvodina

text: In the 9th century, after the fall of the Avar state, the first forms of Slavic statehood emerged in this area. The first Slavic states that ruled over this region included the Bulgarian Empire, Great Moravia and Ljudevit's Pannonian Duchy. During the Bulgarian administration (9th century), local Bulgarian dukes, Salan and Glad, ruled over the region. Salan's residence was Titel, while that of Glad was possibly in the rumoured rampart of Galad or perhaps in the Kladovo (Gladovo) in eastern Serbia. Glad's descendant was the duke Ahtum, another local ruler from the 11th century who opposed the establishment of Hungarian rule over the region.


title: Vojvodina

text: In the village of Čelarevo archaeologists have also found traces of people who practised the Judaic religion. Bunardžić dated Avar-Bulgar graves excavated in Čelarevo, containing skulls with Mongolian features and Judaic symbols, to the late 8th and 9th centuries. Erdely and Vilkhnovich consider the graves to belong to the Kabars who eventually broke ties with the Khazar Empire between the 830s and 862. (Three other Khazar tribes joined the Magyars and took part in the Magyar conquest of the Carpathian basin including what is now Vojvodina in 895–907.)


title: Vojvodina

text: Following territorial disputes with Byzantine and Bulgarian states, most of Vojvodina became part of the Kingdom of Hungary between the 10th and 12th century and remained under Hungarian administration until the 16th century (Following periods of Ottoman and Habsburg administrations, Hungarian political dominance over most of the region was established again in 1867 and over entire region in 1882, after abolition of the Habsburg Military Frontier).


title: Vojvodina

text: The regional demographic balance started changing in the 11th century when Magyars began to replace the local Slavic population. But from the 14th century, the balance changed again in favour of the Slavs when Serbian refugees fleeing from territories conquered by the Ottoman army settled in the area. Most of the Hungarians left the region during the Ottoman conquest and early period of Ottoman administration, so the population of Vojvodina in Ottoman times was predominantly Serbs (who comprised an absolute majority of Vojvodina at the time), with significant presence of Muslims of various ethnic backgrounds.


title: Vojvodina

text: After the defeat of the Kingdom of Hungary at Mohács by the Ottoman Empire, the region fell into a period of anarchy and civil wars. In 1526 Jovan Nenad, a leader of Serb mercenaries, established his rule in Bačka, northern Banat and a small part of Syrmia. He created an ephemeral independent state, with Subotica as its capital.


title: Vojvodina

text: At the peak of his power, Jovan Nenad proclaimed himself Serbian Emperor in Subotica. Taking advantage of the extremely confused military and political situation, the Hungarian noblemen from the region joined forces against him and defeated the Serbian troops in the summer of 1527. Emperor Jovan Nenad was assassinated and his state collapsed. After the fall of emperor's state, the supreme military commander of Jovan Nenad's army, Radoslav Čelnik, established his own temporary state in the region of Syrmia, where he ruled as Ottoman vassal.


title: Vojvodina

text: A few decades later, the whole region was added to the Ottoman Empire, which ruled over it until the end of the 17th and the first half of the 18th century, when it was incorporated into the Habsburg monarchy. The Treaty of Karlowitz of 1699, between Holy League and Ottoman Empire, marked the withdrawal of the Ottoman forces from Central Europe, and the supremacy of the Habsburg monarchy in that part of the continent. According to the treaty, the western part of Vojvodina passed to Habsburgs. The eastern part (eastern Syrmia and Province of Tamışvar) remained in Ottoman hands until Austrian conquest in 1716. This new border change was ratified by the Treaty of Passarowitz in 1718.


title: Vojvodina

text: During the Great Serb Migration, Serbs from Ottoman territories settled in the Habsburg monarchy at the end of the 17th century (in 1690). Most settled in what is now Hungary, with the lesser part settling in western Vojvodina. All Serbs in the Habsburg monarchy gained the status of a recognized nation with extensive rights, in exchange for providing a border militia (in the Military Frontier) that could be mobilized against invaders from the south (such as the Ottomans), as well as in case of civil unrest in the Habsburg Kingdom of Hungary. Wallachian Right became the point of reference in the 18th century for military settlement in lowland region. The Vlachs who settled there were actually mainly Serbs, although there were also and Romanians while Aromanians lived in the urban areas.


title: Vojvodina

text: At the beginning of Habsburg rule, most of the region was integrated into the Military Frontier, while western parts of Bačka were put under civil administration within the County of Bač. Later, the civil administration was expanded to other (mostly northern) parts of the region, while southern parts remained under military administration. The eastern part of this area was held again by the Ottoman Empire between 1787 and 1788, during the Russo-Turkish War. In 1716, Vienna temporarily forbade settlement by Hungarians and Jews in the area, while large numbers of German speakers were settled in the region from Bavaria and southern areas, in order to repopulate it and develop agriculture. From 1782, Protestant Hungarians and ethnic Germans settled in larger numbers.


title: Vojvodina

text: During the 1848–49 revolutions, Vojvodina was a site of a war between Serbs and Hungarians, due to the opposite national conceptions of these two peoples. At the May Assembly in Sremski Karlovci (13–15 May 1848), Serbs declared the constitution of the "Serbian Voivodship" ("Serbian Duchy"), a Serbian autonomous region within the Austrian Empire. The Serbian Voivodship consisted of Srem, Bačka, Banat, and Baranja.


title: Vojvodina

text: The head of the metropolitanate of Sremski Karlovci, Josif Rajačić, was elected patriarch, while Stevan Šupljikac was chosen as first voivod (duke). The ethnic war erupted harshly in this area, with both sides committing terrible atrocities against the civilian populations.


title: Vojvodina

text: Following the Habsburg-Russian and Serb victory over the Hungarians in 1849, a new administrative territory was created in the region in November 1849, in accordance with a decision made by the Austrian emperor. By this decision, the Serbian autonomous region created in 1848 was transformed into the new Austrian crown land known as Voivodeship of Serbia and Banat of Temeschwar. It consisted of Banat, Bačka and Srem, excluding the southern parts of these regions which were part of the Military Frontier.


title: Vojvodina

text: An Austrian governor seated in Temeschwar ruled the area, while the title of Voivod belonged to the emperor himself. The full title of the emperor was "Grand Voivod of the Voivodship of Serbia" (German: "Großwoiwode der Woiwodschaft Serbien"). German and Serbian were the official languages of the crown land. In 1860, the new province was abolished and most of it (with exception of Syrmia) was again integrated into the Habsburg Kingdom of Hungary.


title: Vojvodina

text: Vojvodina remained Austrian Crown land until 1860, when Emperor Franz Joseph decided that it would be Hungarian Crown land again. After 1867, the Kingdom of Hungary became one of two self-governing parts of Austria-Hungary, and the territory was returned again to Hungarian administration.


title: Vojvodina

text: In 1867, a new county system was introduced. This territory was organized among Bács-Bodrog, Torontál and Temes counties. The era following the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 was a period of economic flourishing. The Kingdom of Hungary had the second-fastest growing economy in Europe between 1867 and 1913, but ethnic relations were strained. According to the 1910 census, the last census conducted in Austria-Hungary, the population of Vojvodina included 510,754 (33.8%) Serbs; 425,672 (28.1%) Hungarians; and 324,017 (21.4%) Germans.


title: Vojvodina

text: At the end of World War I, the Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed. On 29 October 1918, Syrmia became a part of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs. On 31 October 1918, the Banat Republic was proclaimed in Timișoara. The government of Hungary recognized its independence, but it was short-lived.


title: Vojvodina

text: On 25 November 1918, the Great People's Assembly of Serbs, Bunjevci and other Slavs in Banat, Bačka and Baranja in Novi Sad proclaimed the unification of Vojvodina (Banat, Bačka and Baranja) with the Kingdom of Serbia (The assembly numbered 757 deputies, of which 578 were Serbs, 84 Bunjevci, 62 Slovaks, 21 Rusyn, 6 Germans, 3 Šokci, 2 Croats and 1 Hungarian). One day before this, on 24 November, the Assembly of Syrmia also proclaimed the unification of Syrmia with Serbia. On 1 December 1918, Vojvodina (as part of the Kingdom of Serbia) officially became part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.


title: Vojvodina

text: Between 1929 and 1941, the region was part of the Danube Banovina, a province of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Its capital city was Novi Sad. Apart from the core territories of Vojvodina and Baranja, it included significant parts of Šumadija and Braničevo regions south of the Danube (but not the capital city of Belgrade).


title: Vojvodina

text: Between 1941 and 1944, during World War II, Nazi Germany and its allies, Hungary and the Independent State of Croatia, occupied Vojvodina and divided it. Bačka and Baranja were annexed by Hungary and Syrmia was included in the Independent State of Croatia. A smaller Danube Banovina (including Banat, Šumadija, and Braničevo) was designated as part of the area governed by the Military Administration in Serbia. The administrative center of this smaller province was Smederevo. But, Banat was a separate autonomous region ruled by its ethnic German minority.


title: Vojvodina

text: The occupying powers committed numerous crimes against the civilian population, especially against Serbs, Jews and Roma; the Jewish population of Vojvodina was almost completely killed or deported. In total, Axis occupational authorities killed about 50,000 citizens of Vojvodina (mostly Serbs, Jews and Roma) while more than 280,000 people were interned, arrested, violated or tortured. Such crimes in varying regions of Vojvodina were carried out by Nazi Germans, Ustaše and Hungarian Axis forces. Many historians and authors describe the Ustashe regime's mass killings as genocide of the Serbs, including Raphael Lemkin. In 1942, in the Novi Sad Raid, a military operation carried out by the Királyi Honvédség, the armed forces of Hungary, during World War II, after occupation and annexation of former Yugoslav territories. It resulted in the deaths of 3,000–4,000 civilians in the southern Bačka (Bácska) region. Under the Hungarian authority, 19,573 people were killed in Bačka, of which the majority of victims were of Serb, Jewish and Romani origin.


title: Vojvodina

text: When Axis occupation ended in 1944, the region was temporarily placed under a military administration (1944–45) run by the new communist authorities. During and after the military administration, several thousands of citizens were killed. Victims were mostly ethnic Germans, but Hungarian and Serb populations were also killed. Both the war-time Axis occupational authorities and the post-war communist authorities ran concentration/prison camps in the territory of Vojvodina (see List of concentration and internment camps). While war-time prisoners in these camps were mostly Jews, Serbs and communists, post-war camps were formed for ethnic Germans (historically known as Danube Swabians).


title: Vojvodina

text: Most Vojvodina ethnic Germans (about 200,000) fled the region in 1944, together with the defeated German army. Most of those who remained in the region (about 150,000) were sent to some of the villages cordoned off as prisons. It is estimated that some 48,447 Germans died in the camps from disease, hunger, malnutrition, mistreatment, and cold. Some 8,049 Germans were killed by partisans during military administration in Vojvodina after October 1944.


title: Vojvodina

text: It has also been estimated that post-war communist authorities killed some 15,000–20,000 Hungarians and some 23,000–24,000 Serbs during Communist purges in Serbia in 1944–45. According to Professor Dragoljub Živković, some 47,000 ethnic Serbs were murdered in Vojvodina between 1941 and 1948. About half were killed by occupational Axis forces and the other half by the post-war Communist authorities.


title: Vojvodina

text: The region was politically restored in 1944 (incorporating Syrmia, Banat, Bačka, and Baranja) and became an autonomous province of Serbia in 1945. Instead of the previous name (Danube Banovina), the region regained its historical name of Vojvodina, while its capital city remained Novi Sad. When the final borders of Vojvodina were defined, Baranja was assigned to Croatia, while the northern part of the Mačva region was assigned to Vojvodina.


title: Vojvodina

text: For decades, the province enjoyed only a small level of autonomy within Serbia. Under the 1974 Yugoslav constitution, it gained extensive rights of self-rule, as both Kosovo and Vojvodina were given "de facto" veto power in the Serbian and Yugoslav parliaments. Changes to their status could not be made without the consent of the two Provincial Assemblies.


title: Vojvodina

text: The 1974 Serbian constitution, adopted at the same time, reiterated that "the Socialist Republic of Serbia comprises the Socialist Autonomous Province of Vojvodina and the Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo, which originated in the common struggle of nations and nationalities of Yugoslavia in the National Liberation War (the Second World War) and socialist revolution".


title: Vojvodina

text: In 1990s, during the war in Croatia in persecution of Croats in Serbia during Yugoslav Wars was organized and participated in the expulsion of the Croats in some places in Vojvodina. Based on an investigation by the "Humanitarian Law Fund" from Belgrade in the course of June, July, and August 1992, more than 10,000 Croats from Vojvodina exchanged their property for the property of Serbs from Croatia, and altogether about 20,000 Croats left Serbia. According to other estimations, the number of Croats which have left Serbia under political pressure of Milošević's regime might be between 20,000 and 40,000. According to Petar Kuntić of Democratic Alliance of Croats in Vojvodina, 50,000 Croats were pressured to move out from Serbia during the Yugoslav wars.


title: Vojvodina

text: Under the rule of Serbian president Slobodan Milošević, a series of protests against Vojvodina's party leadership took place during the summer and autumn of 1988, which forced it to resign. Eventually Vojvodina and Kosovo had to accept Serbia's constitutional amendments that practically dismissed the autonomy of the provinces in Serbia. Vojvodina and Kosovo lost elements of statehood in September 1990 when the new constitution of the Republic of Serbia was adopted.


title: Vojvodina

text: Vojvodina was still referred to as an autonomous province of Serbia, but most of its autonomous powers – including, crucially, its vote on the Yugoslav collective presidency – were transferred to the control of Belgrade, the capital. The province still had its own parliament and government, and some other autonomous functions as well. According to Đorđe Tomić, this is an example of a phantom border.


title: Vojvodina

text: The fall of Milošević in 2000 created a new political climate in Vojvodina. Following talks between the political parties, the level of the province's autonomy was somewhat increased by the omnibus law in 2002. The Vojvodina provincial assembly adopted a new statute on 15 October 2008, which, after being partially amended, was approved by the Parliament of Serbia.


title: Vojvodina

text: On January 28, 2013, as an answer to the proposal of the Third Serbia political organization from Novi Sad to abolish the autonomy of Vojvodina, the pro-autonomist Vojvodina's Party performed a campaign that involved the posting of "Republic of Vojvodina" posters in Novi Sad.


title: Vojvodina

text: Vojvodina is situated in the northern quarter of Serbia, in the southeast part of the Pannonian Plain, the plain that remained when the Pliocene "Pannonian Sea" dried out. As a consequence of this, Vojvodina is rich in fertile loamy loess soil, covered with a layer of chernozem. The region is divided by the Danube and Tisa rivers into: Bačka in the northwest, Banat in the east and Syrmia (Srem) in the southwest. A small part of the Mačva region is also located in Vojvodina, in the Srem District.


title: Vojvodina

text: Today, the western part of Syrmia is in Croatia, the northern part of Bačka is in Hungary, the eastern part of Banat is in Romania (with a small piece in Hungary), while Baranja (which is between the Danube and the Drava) is in Hungary and Croatia. Vojvodina has a total surface area of . Vojvodina is also part of the Danube-Kris-Mures-Tisa euroregion. The Gudurica peak (Gudurički vrh) on the Vršac Mountains, is the highest peak in Vojvodina, at an altitude of 641 m above sea level.


title: Vojvodina

text: The climate of the area is moderate continental, including cold winters and hot and humid summers. The Vojvodina climate is characterized by a vast range of extreme temperatures and very irregular rainfall distribution per month.


title: Vojvodina

text: The Assembly of Vojvodina is the provincial legislature composed of 120 proportionally elected members. The current members were elected in the 2020 provincial elections. The Government of Vojvodina is the executive administrative body composed of a president and cabinet ministers.


title: Vojvodina

text: The current ruling coalition in the Vojvodina parliament is composed of the following political parties: Serbian Progressive Party, Socialist Party of Serbia and Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians. The current president of Vojvodinian government is Igor Mirović (Serbian Progressive Party), while the president of the provincial Assembly is István Pásztor (Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians).


title: Vojvodina

text: Vojvodina is divided into seven districts. They are regional centers of state authority, but have no powers of their own; they present purely administrative divisions. The seven districts are further subdivided into 37 municipalities and the 8 cities of Kikinda, Novi Sad, Subotica, Zrenjanin, Pančevo, Sombor, Sremska Mitrovica, and Vršac.


title: Vojvodina

text: Vojvodina is more diverse than the rest of Serbia with more than 25 ethnic groups and six languages which are in official use by the provincial administration.


title: Vojvodina

text: There are two daily newspapers published in Vojvodina, "Dnevnik" in Serbian and "Magyar Szó" in Hungarian. Monthly and weekly publications in minority languages include "Hrvatska riječ" ("Croatian Word") in Croatian, "Hlas Ľudu" ("The Voice of the People") in Slovak, "Libertatea" ("Freedom") in Romanian, and "Руске слово" ("Rusyn Word") in Rusyn. There is also "Bunjevačke novine" ("The Bunjevac newspaper") in Bunjevac.


title: Vojvodina

text: Public Broadcasting Service of Vojvodina was founded in 1974 as Radio Television of Novi Sad, as an equal member of the association of JRT – Yugoslav Radio Television. Radio Novi Sad's first broadcast was on November 29, 1949. During the NATO bombing in the spring of 1999, the RT Novi Sad building of 20 thousand square meters was completely destroyed along with its basic production and technical premises . The Venac terrestrial broadcasting site was heavily damaged.


title: Vojvodina

text: The Radio-Television of Vojvodina produces and broadcasts regional programming on two channels, RTV1 (Serbian language) and RTV2 (minority languages), and three radio frequencies: Radio Novi Sad 1 (Serbian), Radio Novi Sad 2 (Hungarian), Radio Novi Sad 3 (other minority communities).


title: Vojvodina

text: The economy of Vojvodina is largely based on developed food industry and fertile agricultural soil. Agriculture is a priority sector in Vojvodina. Traditionally, it has always been a significant part of the local economy and a generator of positive results, due to the abundance of fertile agricultural land which makes up 84% of its territory. The share of agribusiness in the total industrial production is 40%, that is 30% in the total exports of Vojvodina.


title: Vojvodina

text: The metal industry of Vojvodina has a long tradition and consists of smaller metal processing companies for components manufacturing and, to a lesser extent, of original equipment manufacturers (OEM) with their own brand name products. Vojvodina Metal Cluster gathers 116 companies with 6,300 employees. Other branches of industry are also developed such as the chemical industry, electrical industry, oil industry and construction industry. In the past decade, ICT sector has been growing rapidly and has taken significant role in Vojvodina's economic development.


title: Vojvodina

text: High- tech sector is a fast-growing sector in Vojvodina. Software development represents the main source of revenue, particularly development of ERP solutions, Java applications and mobile applications. IT sector companies mainly deal with software outsourcing, based on demands of international clients or with development of their own software products for purposes of domestic and international market.


title: Vojvodina

text: Vojvodina pays particular attention to interregional and cross-border economic cooperation, as well as to implementation of priorities defined within the EU Strategy for the Danube Region.


title: Vojvodina

text: Vojvodina promotes its investment potentials through the Vojvodina Investment Promotion (VIP) agency, which was founded by the Parliament of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina.


title: Vojvodina

text: There are many important roads which pass through Vojvodina. First of all, the motorway A1 motorway which goes from Central Europe and the Horgos border crossing to Hungary, via Novi Sad to Belgrade and further to the southeast toward Niš, where it branches: one way leads east to the border with Bulgaria; the other to the south, towards Greece. Motorway A3 in Srem separates the west, towards the neighboring Croatia and further to Western Europe. There is also a network of regional and local roads and railway lines.


title: Vojvodina

text: The three largest rivers in Vojvodina are navigable stream. Danube River with a length of 588 kilometers and its tributaries Tisa (168 km), Sava (206 km) and Bega (75 km). Among them was dug extensive network of irrigation canals, drainage and transport, with a total length of , of which navigable.


title: Vojvodina

text: Tourist destinations in Vojvodina include well known Orthodox monasteries on Fruška Gora mountain, numerous hunting grounds, cultural-historical monuments, different folklores, interesting galleries and museums, plain landscapes with a lot of greenery, big rivers, canals and lakes, sandy terrain Deliblatska Peščara ("the European Sahara"), etc.


title: Arvydas Sabonis

text: Arvydas Romas Sabonis (; born December 19, 1964) is a Lithuanian former professional basketball player and businessman. Recognized as one of the best European players of all time, he won the Euroscar six times and the Mr. Europa Award twice. He played in a variety of leagues, including the Spanish ACB League, and spent seven seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Playing the center position, Sabonis won a gold medal at the 1988 Summer Olympics, in South Korea, for the Soviet Union, and later earned bronze medals at the 1992 Olympic Games and 1996 Olympic Games representing Lithuania. He retired from professional basketball in 2005. Sabonis was selected by the Portland Trail Blazers in the first round of the 1986 NBA draft, but he did not play his first NBA game until 1995, at the age of 30.


title: Arvydas Sabonis

text: Sabonis is considered one of the best big man passers, as well as one of the best overall centers, in the history of the game. Bill Walton once called Sabonis "a Larry Bird" due to his unique court vision, shooting range, rugged in-game mentality, and versatility.


title: Arvydas Sabonis

text: On August 20, 2010, Sabonis was inducted into the FIBA Hall of Fame, in recognition of his great play in international competition. On April 4, 2011, Sabonis was named to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, and he was as a player, inducted on August 12, 2011. At that time, he was the tallest player to ever enter the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame; one year later, he would be surpassed by Ralph Sampson. On October 24, 2011, Sabonis was voted as the next President of the Lithuanian Basketball Federation, replacing Vladas Garastas, who had led the LBF since 1991. He resigned from the position on October 2, 2013, but came back to it on October 10, 2013.


title: Arvydas Sabonis

text: Born in Kaunas, in then Lithuanian SSR, Soviet Union, Sabonis began playing basketball at age 13. By the time he was 15 years old, he was a member of the Soviet national junior team.


title: Arvydas Sabonis

text: Sabonis was excused from mandatory service to the Soviet Army, by enrolling at the Lithuanian University of Agriculture, in his hometown.


title: Arvydas Sabonis

text: Sabonis made his professional club debut in 1981, with one of the oldest basketball teams in Lithuania, Žalgiris, in his hometown of Kaunas. With the club, he won three consecutive Soviet Premier League titles, and the 1986 FIBA Club World Cup (FIBA Intercontinental Cup).


title: Arvydas Sabonis

text: In 1989, Sabonis left Žalgiris, and signed with the Spanish Liga ACB club Fórum Valladolid. During the 1991–92 season, Sabonis helped the team to reach the semifinals at the Korać Cup.


title: Arvydas Sabonis

text: In 1992, after playing with Fórum Valladolid for three seasons, Sabonis joined the Spanish club Real Madrid, and with them, he won two Spanish League titles, and a FIBA European League (EuroLeague) title, in 1994–95. With Real Madrid, during the 1994–95 Spanish League season, he averaged 22.9 points, 12.5 rebounds, 2.4 assists, 1.6 steals, and 2.3 blocked shots, in 42 games played. While in the 1994–95 FIBA European League season, he averaged 21.8 points, 11.2 rebounds, 2.6 assists, and 1.8 steals per game, in 17 games played.


title: Arvydas Sabonis

text: Sabonis was originally selected by the Atlanta Hawks, with the 77th overall pick, of the 1985 NBA draft. However, the selection was voided, because Sabonis was under 21 at the time of the draft. The following spring, he suffered a devastating Achilles' tendon injury. Nevertheless, he was selected by the Portland Trail Blazers, with the 24th overall pick of the 1986 NBA draft. Sabonis was not allowed to play in the US by the Soviet authorities, despite LSU Tigers head coach Dale Brown's plans to have Sabonis studying and playing at Louisiana State University, and thus keeping him in an amateur status. However, he did go to Portland, to rehabilitate his injury with the Blazers medical staff, in 1988, while also practicing with the team.


title: Arvydas Sabonis

text: After the 1994–95 European season, Sabonis and Portland contacted one another about a move to the NBA. Before signing Sabonis, Portland's then-general manager, Bob Whitsitt, asked the Blazers team physician to look at Sabonis' X-rays. Illustrating the impact of Sabonis' numerous injuries, Whitsitt recalled in a 2011 interview, that when the doctor reported the results, "He said that Arvydas could qualify for a handicapped parking spot, based on the X-ray alone." Nevertheless, the Blazers signed Sabonis. He had a successful rookie campaign, averaging 14.5 points, on 55% shooting, and 8.1 rebounds per game while playing less than 24 minutes per game. Sabonis was selected to the All-Rookie First Team, and was runner-up in both Rookie of the Year and Sixth Man of the Year voting. His postseason averages went up to 23.6 points and 10.2 rebounds per game. In the first playoff series of his NBA career, Portland lost to Utah, in five games. Sabonis averaged 16.0 points, 10.0 rebounds, and 3.0 assists per game, in 1997–98, all career-highs.


title: Arvydas Sabonis

text: During Sabonis' first leg in Portland, the Blazers always made the playoffs (part of a 21-year streak); between 1998 and 1999, the Oregon franchise changed large parts of its roster, in order to compete for the NBA Championship (after six consecutive first round losses), with center Sabonis the only player remaining in the starting five. Kenny Anderson and Isaiah Rider were traded for Damon Stoudamire and Steve Smith. In both those years, the Blazers reached the Western Conference Finals; in 1999 they were swept by the eventual champions, the San Antonio Spurs, while the next year, the team (starting Sabonis, Smith, Stoudamire, Rasheed Wallace, and recently added Scottie Pippen) lost to the Los Angeles Lakers (at the beginning of the team's three-peat), in seven games.


title: Arvydas Sabonis

text: The question that frequently surrounds Sabonis' NBA career revolves around how good he could have been, had he played in the NBA during his prime. Sabonis was already 30 when he joined the Blazers, by which time he had already won multiple gold medals, suffered through numerous injuries, and had lost much of his mobility and athleticism. In Bill Simmons' "Book of Basketball", Sabonis the international player is idealized, while Sabonis the Blazer, is described as "lumbering up and down the court in what looked to be concrete Nikes", and ranking "just behind Artis Gilmore on the Moving Like a Mummy Scale." In ESPN's David Thorpe's view, Sabonis would be the best passing big man in NBA history, and possibly a top four center overall, had he played his entire career there. In Clyde Drexler's view, if Sabonis had been able to spend his prime in Portland, next to the plethora of other Trail Blazers' All Stars (Drexler, Terry Porter, Buck Williams and Clifford Robinson), the Trail Blazers would "have had four, five or six titles. Guaranteed. He was that good. He could pass, shoot three pointers, had a great post game, and dominated the paint."


title: Arvydas Sabonis

text: After the 2000–2001 NBA season, Sabonis refused to sign an extension with the Trail Blazers and retired from the NBA. In his own words, he "was tired mentally and physically." Instead, he returned to Europe, where he signed a one-year deal, at a nominal salary, with Žalgiris Kaunas, expecting to join the team for the most important games of the season down the stretch. However, he ended up missing that season in its entirety, resting and recovering from injuries. Sabonis rejoined the Trail Blazers for one final season, in 2002–2003.


title: Arvydas Sabonis

text: He won the Euroscar twice, while playing with the Blazers. He also became a fan favorite, and had a warm welcome back when he visited Portland in 2011, en route to being enshrined into the Naismith Hall of Fame.


title: Arvydas Sabonis

text: Sabonis came back to Žalgiris to play his final season, in 2003–04. He led the team to the Top 16 stage of the EuroLeague that year, and was named the Regular Season MVP and the Top 16 MVP. He also became the team's President. Sabonis would officially retire from playing professional basketball, in 2005.


title: Arvydas Sabonis

text: In 1982, Sabonis was one of the players in the senior Soviet Union national team that toured the United States, playing against various college basketball teams.


title: Arvydas Sabonis

text: Despite being recommended to rest, instead of playing in the 1988 Summer Olympics, the Soviets allowed Sabonis to remain a part of their national team. Sabonis led the Soviet Union to a gold medal, with a win against the 1988 edition of the United States national team, that featured future NBA All-Stars David Robinson, Mitch Richmond, and Danny Manning in the semifinals. This was the last American Olympic team that was not composed of active NBA players. The team later beat Yugoslavia in the finals.


title: Arvydas Sabonis

text: In his career with the senior Soviet national team, Sabonis also played at the following major tournaments: the 1982 FIBA World Championship (gold medal), the 1983 EuroBasket (bronze medal), the 1985 EuroBasket (gold medal), the 1986 FIBA World Championship (silver medal), and the 1989 EuroBasket (bronze medal). He was named to the EuroBasket All-Tournament Team in 1983 and 1985, and he was named the EuroBasket MVP in 1985.


title: Arvydas Sabonis

text: The 1985–1988 stretch of a heavy playing schedule, and lack of rest, took a significant toll on Sabonis' future health and durability. Various leg injuries were not given much time to heal, due to the Cold War climate that surrounded international competition, as well as the intense rivalry of the Žalgiris Kaunas versus CSKA Moscow games in the USSR Premier League. In a 2011 interview, Sabonis expressed an opinion, that overuse by the coaches of the Soviet national program, was a major contributing factor to his first Achilles' tendon injury, back in 1986. Another key moment for his future health, took place in 1988, when Sabonis had a surgical Achilles procedure performed in Portland, but was rushed back on the floor with the USSR Olympic team, before a full recovery. The decision to include a limping Sabonis, on the USSR roster for the 1988 Olympic Games, was protested at the time by the Portland medical staff, and was later heavily criticized. While the Soviets cleared him to play professionally in 1989, when his Soviet national teammate, Šarūnas Marčiulionis, went to North America, Sabonis postponed his travel, over feeling that he was not physically ready for the NBA. Eventually, Sabonis would develop chronic knee, ankle and groin issues, that substantially limited his mobility and explosiveness, by the mid-1990s.


title: Arvydas Sabonis

text: After breakup of the Soviet Union, and the independence of Lithuania, Sabonis then became a member of the senior Lithuanian national team. He represented Lithuania at the following major tournaments: the 1992 Summer Olympic Games (bronze medal), the 1995 EuroBasket (silver medal), the 1996 Summer Olympic Games (bronze medal), and the 1999 EuroBasket. He was named to the EuroBasket All-Tournament Team in 1995.


title: Arvydas Sabonis

text: Sabonis was also awarded a silver medal at the 2013 EuroBasket tournament, due to being the Lithuanian Basketball Federation (LKF) President.


title: Arvydas Sabonis

text: Sabonis is married to , the first Miss Lithuania, a fashion model, and a movie actress. They have a daughter named Aušrinė, and three sons: Žygimantas, Tautvydas, and Domantas – the last two being born in the cities their father was playing, Valladolid and Portland. Once Sabonis left the NBA, the family moved to the Spanish coastal city of Málaga. Domantas was drafted 11th overall in the 2016 NBA draft and is currently a two-time NBA All-Star, and currently plays for the Sacramento Kings. Žygimantas, and Tautvydas decided to continue their careers in Europe. Both Domantas and Tautvydas played for the Lithuania national team in different levels of competition.


title: Arvydas Sabonis

text: In September 2011, Sabonis suffered a heart attack, while playing basketball in Lithuania. Doctors said that the heart attack was not life-threatening.


title: Arvydas Sabonis

text: According to his son, Domantas, Arvydas is a huge fan of the Boston Celtics, his favorite basketball player is Larry Bird and his favorite color is green.


title: Arvydas Sabonis

text: Arvydas Sabonis' basketball career and journey to represent his native country Lithuania in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics is highlighted in the documentary film The Other Dream Team. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2012 and was distributed by Lionsgate in the U.S. and Disney internationally.


title: Kia Telluride

text: The Kia Telluride is a mid-size crossover SUV with three-row seating manufactured and marketed by Kia since 2019. Positioned above the smaller Sorento, the Telluride was previewed as a concept car in 2016, with the production model debuting in the spring of 2019 as a 2020 model. It shares components and specifications with its sister model, the Hyundai Palisade, including its engine, transmission, and wheelbase. Named after the town of Telluride, Colorado, the Telluride is the largest vehicle Kia has manufactured in the United States.


title: Kia Telluride

text: In 2020, the Telluride was named the 2020 World Car of the Year as well as "Motor Trend"'s SUV of the year.


title: Kia Telluride

text: The production version of the Telluride was launched at the 2019 North American International Auto Show in January. Previously, the Telluride was displayed as a customized version inspired by fashion designer Brandon Maxwell's Texas-inspired collection, at New York Fashion Week in September 2018. The overall design is similar to the 2016 concept except for the front end which was completely redesigned.


title: Kia Telluride

text: The Telluride is the first Kia designed specifically for the US market, with the design work handled at the Kia Design Center in Irvine, California. The production version Telluride is powered by a 3.8-liter "Lambda II" V6 Atkinson cycle gasoline engine rated at and , paired with an eight-speed automatic transmission and either front-wheel drive or all-wheel-drive.


title: Kia Telluride

text: The Telluride features four drive modes – Smart, Eco, Sport and Comfort. Snow and AWD Lock modes are also available for specific driving conditions, and the on-demand electro-hydraulic AWD system with multi-plate clutch plate constantly redistributes power to both axles. In Eco and Smart modes, power is completely routed to the front wheels, whereas Sport mode splits the power down to 65 percent front, 35 percent rear.


title: Kia Telluride

text: The standard towing rate for this SUV is rated at , and it also features the optional self-levelling rear suspension where the ride height is automatically calibrated depending on vehicle load to optimise control and stability.


title: Kia Telluride

text: The Telluride is not marketed in South Korea as it is only produced in the United States, whereas its Hyundai counterpart, the Korean-built Palisade is marketed there instead. Exports from the West Point, Georgia plant to the Middle East started in February 2019. Kia limited exports of the Telluride to around 3,000 units annually.


title: Kia Telluride

text: In U.S. and Canada, the Telluride is offered in four trim levels: LX, S, EX, and SX. The latter is offered with an optional "SX Prestige Package," which include several premium features. Since 2021, Kia has offered a "Premium Package" on the EX trim. A 3-seat bench is standard for the second row while captain's chairs can be added, dropping the seating capacity from eight to seven.


title: Kia Telluride

text: All Tellurides are equipped with various features that are otherwise optional in some of its competitors, such as "Sofino" (leatherette)-trimmed or leather-trimmed seating surfaces. Available equipment includes a 10.25-inch touchscreen infotainment system, rear view monitor, 630-watt 10-speaker Harman Kardon audio system, wireless smartphone charging tray, and head-up display with turn-by-turn navigation, along with heated and ventilated first and second row bucket seats. The Telluride is also equipped with Driver Talk for some trim levels, an in-car intercom system that allows the driver to communicate separately with passengers in the second or third row.


title: Kia Telluride

text: The refreshed 2023 Telluride was unveiled at the New York International Auto Show on April 13, 2022. New convenience technology such as a 12.3-inch instrument panel and an available smart power liftgate with auto-close functionality were added. On the exterior, the grille, headlights, and front bumper were redesigned. More rugged-looking X-Line and X-Pro trims became available since the 2023 model year.


title: Kia Telluride

text: The concept version was first introduced at the 2016 North American International Auto Show. A mid-size, three-row, seven-passenger SUV, the Telluride concept is based on a modified Sorento chassis, and powered by a transversely-mounted 3.5-liter gasoline direct injected V6 producing combined with an electric motor producing , for an overall output of . Fuel consumption is claimed to be .


title: Kia Telluride

text: The exterior was finished in "dark pyrite" paint and featured a squared off body riding on 22-inch rims, as well as an enlarged tiger nose grille and multiple LED headlamps, consistent with Kia's current design language (as of 2016). The car's suicide doors swung open 90 degrees in opposite directions, revealing a pillarless design. Some of the interior components were 3D printed, marking Kia's first usage of 3D printing technology. It was designed by Tom Kearns from Kia Design Center America.


title: Lucerne

text: Lucerne ( , ; High Alemannic: "Lozärn") or Luzern () is a city in central Switzerland, in the German-speaking portion of the country. Lucerne is the capital of the canton of Lucerne and part of the district of the same name. With a population of approximately 82,000 people, Lucerne is the most populous city in Central Switzerland, and a nexus of economics, transportation, culture, and media in the region. The city's urban area consists of 19 municipalities and towns with an overall population of about 220,000 people.


title: Lucerne

text: Owing to its location on the shores of Lake Lucerne () and its outflow, the river Reuss, within sight of the mounts Pilatus and Rigi in the Swiss Alps, Lucerne has long been a destination for tourists. One of the city's landmarks is the Chapel Bridge (), a wooden bridge first erected in the 14th century.


title: Lucerne

text: The official language of Lucerne is German, but the main spoken language is the local variant of the Alemannic Swiss German dialect, Lucerne German.


title: Lucerne

text: After the fall of the Roman Empire beginning in the 6th century, Germanic Alemannic peoples increased their influence on this area of present-day Switzerland.


title: Lucerne

text: Around 750 the Benedictine Monastery of St. Leodegar was founded, which was later acquired by Murbach Abbey in Alsace in the middle of the 9th century, and by this time the area had become known as "Luciaria".


title: Lucerne

text: The origin of the name is uncertain, it is possibly derived from the Latin name of the pike, "lucius", thus designating a pike fishing spot in the river Reuss. Derivation from the theonym Lugus has been suggested but is phonetically implausible. In any case, the name was associated by popular etymology with Latin "lucerna" "lantern" from an early time.


title: Lucerne

text: In 1178 Lucerne acquired its independence from the jurisdiction of Murbach Abbey, and the founding of the city proper probably occurred that same year. The city gained importance as a strategically located gateway for the growing commerce from the Gotthard trade route.


title: Lucerne

text: By 1290, Lucerne had become a self-sufficient city of reasonable size with about 3000 inhabitants. About this time King Rudolph I von Habsburg gained authority over the Monastery of St. Leodegar and its lands, including Lucerne. The populace was not content with the increasing Habsburg influence, and Lucerne allied with neighboring towns to seek independence from their rule. Along with Lucerne, the three other forest cantons of Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden formed the "eternal" Swiss Confederacy, known as the "Eidgenossenschaft", on November 7, 1332.


title: Lucerne

text: Later the cities of Zürich, Zug and Bern joined the alliance. With the help of these additions, the rule of Austria over the area came to an end. The issue was settled by Lucerne's victory over the Habsburgs in the Battle of Sempach in 1386. For Lucerne this victory ignited an era of expansion. The city shortly granted many rights to itself, rights which had been withheld by the Habsburgs until then. By this time the borders of Lucerne were approximately those of today.


title: Lucerne

text: In 1415 Lucerne gained "Reichsfreiheit" from Emperor Sigismund and became a strong member of the Swiss confederacy. The city developed its infrastructure, raised taxes, and appointed its own local officials. The city's population of 3000 dropped about 40% due to the Black Plague and several wars around 1350.


title: Lucerne

text: Among the growing towns of the confederacy, Lucerne was especially popular in attracting new residents. Remaining predominantly Catholic, Lucerne hosted its own annual passion play from 1453 to 1616, a two-day-long play of 12 hours performance per day. As the confederacy broke up during the Reformation, after 1520, most nearby cities became Protestant, but Lucerne remained Catholic. After the victory of the Catholics over the Protestants in the Battle at Kappel in 1531, the Catholic towns dominated the confederacy. It was during this period that Jesuits first came to Lucerne in 1567, with their arrival given considerable backing by Cardinal Carlo Borromeo, Archbishop of Milan. The region, though, was destined to be dominated by Protestant cities such as Zürich, Bern and Basel, which defeated the Catholic forces in the 1712 Toggenburg War. The former prominent position of Lucerne in the confederacy was lost forever. In the 16th and 17th centuries, wars and epidemics became steadily less frequent and as a result the population of the country increased strongly.


title: Lucerne

text: Lucerne was besieged by a peasant army and quickly signed a peace treaty with the rebels in the Swiss peasant war of 1653.


title: Lucerne

text: In 1798, nine years after the beginning of the French Revolution, the French army marched into Switzerland. The old confederacy collapsed and the government became democratic. The industrial revolution hit Lucerne rather late, and by 1860 only 1.7% of the population worked in industry, which was about a quarter of the national average at that time. Agriculture, which employed about 40% of the workers, was the main form of economic output in the canton. Nevertheless, industry was attracted to the city from areas around Lucerne. From 1850 to 1913, the population quadrupled and the flow of settlers increased. In 1856 trains first linked the city to Olten and Basel, then Zug and Zürich in 1864 and finally to the south in 1897.


title: Lucerne

text: The 1804 play "William Tell" by Friedrich Schiller did much to establish the reputation of Lucerne and its environs. Schiller himself had not been to Lucerne, but was inspired to write the play by his wife Lotte and his friend Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who had both personally visited the city and its surrounding canton. Goethe had lodged in the Hirschenplatz on his route to Italy in 1779.


title: Lucerne

text: It was during the latter part of the 19th century that Lucerne became a popular destination for artists, royalty and others to escape to. The German composer Richard Wagner established a residence at Tribschen in 1866, where he lived and worked. The city was then boosted by a visit by Queen Victoria to the city in 1868, during which she went sightseeing at the Kapellbrücke and Lion Monument and relished speaking with local people in her native German. The American writer Mark Twain further popularised the city and its environs in his travel writings after visiting twice, in 1878 and 1897. In 1892 Swiss poet and future Nobel Prize laureate Carl Spitteler also established himself in Lucerne, living there until his death in 1924.


title: Lucerne

text: Lucerne's status as a fashionable destination led to it becoming one of the first centres of modern-style tourism. Some of the city's most recognisable buildings are hotels from this period, such as the Schweizerhof Hotel (1845), Grand Hotel National (1870), and Château Gütsch (1879). It was at the National that Swiss hotelier César Ritz would establish himself as manager between 1878 and 1888.


title: Lucerne

text: In August 1993, the Kapellbrücke in the centre of the city suffered from a great fire which destroyed two thirds of its interior paintings. The bridge was subsequently reconstructed and reopened to the public in April 1994, after a total of CHF 3.4 million was spent on its repair.


title: Lucerne

text: On June 17, 2007, voters of the city of Lucerne and the adjacent town of Littau agreed to a merger in a simultaneous referendum. This took effect on January 1, 2010. The new city, still called Lucerne, has a population of around 80,000 people, making it the seventh-largest city in Switzerland. The results of this referendum are expected to pave the way for negotiations with other nearby cities and towns in an effort to create a unified city-region, based on the results of a study.


title: Lucerne

text: Lucerne is located at the outfall of Lake Lucerne into the river Reuss, which flows from south-east to north-west. The city occupies both banks of the river and the lowest reach of the lake, with the city centre straddling the river immediately downstream of the outfall. The city's suburbs climb the hills to the north-east and south-west, and stretch out along the river and lake banks, whilst the recently added area of Littau is to the north-west.


title: Lucerne

text: Besides this contiguous city area, the municipality also includes an exclave on the south shore of Lake Lucerne some away, comprising the northern slopes of the Bürgenstock. This section of the municipality is entirely surrounded by the lake and by land of the canton of Nidwalden. It does not contain any significant settlements, but the summit of the Bürgenstock is the highest point of the municipality.


title: Lucerne

text: The municipality has an area of . Of this area and , 28.0% is used for agricultural purposes, while 22.3% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 47.6% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (2.1%) is non-productive (rivers, glaciers or mountains).


title: Lucerne

text: Between 1961 and 1990 Lucerne had an average of 138.1 days of rain per year and on average received of precipitation. The wettest month was June during which time Lucerne received an average of of rainfall. During this month there was rainfall for an average of 14.2 days. The driest month of the year was February with an average of of precipitation over 10.2 days. Climate in this area has mild differences between highs and lows, and there is adequate rainfall year-round. The Köppen Climate Classification subtype for this climate is "" (Marine West Coast Climate/Oceanic climate).


title: Lucerne

text: The City Council (Stadtrat) constitutes the executive government of the city of Lucerne and operates as a collegiate authority. It is composed of five councilors (), each presiding over a directorate ("Direktion") comprising several departments and bureaus. The president of the executive department acts as mayor ("Stadtpräsident"). In the mandate period ("Legislatur") September 2020 – August 2024 the City Council is presided by "Stadtpräsident" Beat Züsli. Departmental tasks, coordination measures and implementation of laws decreed by the Grand City Council are carried by the City Council. The regular election of the City Council by any inhabitant valid to vote is held every four years. Any resident of Lucerne allowed to vote can be elected as a member of the City Council. The delegates are selected by means of a system of Majorz. The mayor is elected as such as well by public election while the heads of the other directorates are assigned by the collegiate.


title: Lucerne

text: , Luzern's City Council is made up of one representative of the SP (Social Democratic Party, who is also the mayor), and one each of CVP (Christian Democratic Party), GPS (Green Party), FDP (FDP.The Liberals), and glp (Green Liberal Party). The last regular election was held on 29 March/28 June 2020. All members have been re-elected, though two of them (Bitz Staub and Jost) only with the second round.


title: Lucerne

text: The Grand City Council (Grosser Stadtrat) holds legislative power. It is made up of 48 members, with elections held every four years. The Grand City Council decrees regulations and by-laws that are executed by the City Council and the administration. The delegates are selected by means of a system of proportional representation.


title: Lucerne

text: The sessions of the Grand City Council are public. Unlike members of the City Council, members of the Grand City Council are not politicians by profession, and they are paid a fee based on their attendance. Any resident of Luzern allowed to vote can be elected as a member of the Grand City Council. The parliament holds its meetings in the "Rathaus" (Town Hall) am Kornmarkt.


title: Lucerne

text: The last regular election of the Grand City Council was held on 29 March 2020 for the mandate period () from September 2020 to August 2024. Currently the Grand City Council consist of 13 members of the Social Democratic Party (SP/PS) and one of its junior section, the "JUSO", 9 The Liberals (FDP/PLR), 7 Christian Democratic People's Party (CVP/PDC), 7 Swiss People's Party (SVP/UDC), 6 Green Party (GPS/PES) and one of its junior section, the "jg of Luzern", and 4 Green Liberal Party (GLP/PVL).


title: Lucerne

text: In the 2019 federal election for the Swiss National Council the most popular party was the PS which received 25.0% (-0.7) of the vote. The next five most popular parties were the Green Party (20.8%, +7.4), the SVP (15.0%, -4.6), the CVP (14.1%, 0), FDP (13.0%, -2.5), the glp (10.5%, +1.8). In the federal election a total of 25,836 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 49.5%.


title: Lucerne

text: In the 2015 election for the Swiss National Council the most popular party was the SP which received 25.8% of the vote. The next five most popular parties were the SVP (19.5%), the FDP (15.4%), the CVP (14.1%), the GPS (13.3%), and the GLP (8.9%). In the federal election, a total of 26,521 voters were cast, and the voter turnout was 49.48%.


title: Lucerne

text: Lucerne has a population (as of ) of . , 19,264 or 25.0% of the population was made up of foreign nationals, of which 19.9% are from Europe, 2.8% from Asia, 1.2% from Africa and 1.0% from America. Over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 1.2%. Most of the population () speak German (87%), with Italian, as well as Serbo-Croatian and English with 5% being second most common languages, followed by French and Albanian with 3%, and Portuguese and Spanish with 2% each.


title: Lucerne

text: The age distribution in Lucerne is (); 12,916 people or 15.7% of the population is 0–19 years old. 26,381 people or 33.8% are 20–39 years old, and 25,863 people or 32.1% are 40–64 years old. The senior population distribution is 10,530 people or 13.1% are 65–79 years old, 4,208 or 5.2% are 80–89 years old and 900 people or 1.1% of the population are 90+ years old.


title: Lucerne

text: In Lucerne about 73.6% of the population (between age 25–64) have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education (either university or a "Fachhochschule").


title: Lucerne

text: The city grew up around Sankt Leodegar Abbey, founded in AD 840, and remained strongly Roman Catholic into the 21st century. By 1850, 96.9% of the population was Catholic, in 1900 it was 81.9% and in 1950 it was still 72.3%. the religious membership of Lucerne was: 35,682 (60%) Roman Catholic, 9,227 (15.5%) Protestant, with an additional 1,979 (3.33%) who were of some other Christian denominations; 1,824 individuals (3.07% of the population) Muslim; 196 individuals (0.33% of the population) Jewish. Of the remainder, 1,073 (1.8%) individuals were another religion; 6,310 (10.61%) stated they do not belong to any organized religion; and 3,205 (5.39%) did not answer the question.


title: Lucerne

text: , there were a total of 77,641 people employed in the municipality. Of these, a total of 166 people worked in 53 businesses in the primary economic sector. The secondary sector employed 7,326 workers in 666 separate businesses. Finally, the tertiary sector provided 70,149 jobs in 6,929 businesses. In 2013 a total of 11.0% of the population received social assistance. 51.7% of the population of the municipality were employed in some capacity. At the same time, women made up 47.9% of the workforce.


title: Lucerne

text: Lucerne is home to a number of major Swiss companies, including AlpTransit Gotthard rail link, Schindler Group, Chronoswiss, Emmi, and the Luzerner Kantonalbank. Suva, one of Switzerland's oldest accident insurance companies, is also based in Lucerne, as is the University of Lucerne, the youngest of Switzerland's traditional universities. International companies are the EF Education First and the Institute of Rare Earths Elements and Strategic Metals.


title: Lucerne

text: Thanks to its continuous tax-cutting policies, Lucerne has become Switzerland's most business-friendly canton. Lucerne offers Switzerland's lowest corporate tax rate at cantonal level.


title: Lucerne

text: Furthermore, Lucerne also offers very moderate personal income tax rates. In a recent published study of BAK Basel Economics taxation index 2012, Lucerne made it to the 4th place with an only marginally 2% higher tax rate compared to the top canton in this comparison.


title: Lucerne

text: Since the city straddles the Reuss where it drains the lake, it has a number of bridges. These include the Chapel Bridge ("Kapellbrücke"), a long wooden covered bridge originally built in 1333, the oldest covered bridge in Europe, although much of it had to be replaced after a fire on 18 August 1993, allegedly caused by a discarded cigarette. Partway across, the bridge runs by the octagonal Water Tower ("Wasserturm"), a fortification from the 13th century. Inside the bridge are a series of paintings from the 17th century depicting events from Lucerne's history.


title: Lucerne

text: Downriver, between the Kasernenplatz and the Mühlenplatz, the Spreuer Bridge ("Spreuerbrücke" or "Mühlenbrücke", Mill Bridge) zigzags across the Reuss. Constructed in 1408, it features a series of medieval-style 17th century plague paintings by Kaspar Meglinger () titled "Dance of Death" ("Totentanzzyklus"). The bridge has a small chapel in the middle that was added in 1568.


title: Lucerne

text: Old Town Lucerne is mainly located just north of the Reuss, and still has several fine half-timber structures with painted fronts. Remnants of the old town walls exist on the hill above Lucerne, complete with eight tall watch towers. An additional gated tower sits at the base of the hill on the banks of the Reuss.


title: Lucerne

text: The twin needle towers of the Church of St. Leodegar, which was named after the city's patron saint, sit on a small hill just above the lake front. Originally built in 735, the present structure was erected in 1633 in the late Renaissance style. However, the towers are surviving remnants of an earlier structure. The interior is richly decorated. The church is popularly called the "Hofkirche" (in German) and is known locally as the "Hofchile" (in Swiss-German).


title: Lucerne

text: Bertel Thorvaldsen's carving of a dying lion (the "Lion Monument", or "Löwendenkmal") is found in a small park just off the Löwenplatz. The carving commemorates the hundreds of Swiss Guards who were massacred in 1792 during the French Revolution, when an armed mob stormed the Tuileries Palace in Paris.


title: Lucerne

text: The Swiss Museum of Transport is a large and comprehensive museum exhibiting all forms of transport, including locomotives, automobiles, ships, and aircraft. It is to be found beside the lake in the northern-eastern section of the city.


title: Lucerne

text: The Culture and Convention Center (KKL) beside the lake in the center of the city was designed by Jean Nouvel. The center has one of the world's leading concert halls, with acoustics by Russell Johnson.


title: Lucerne

text: The Richard Wagner Museum is found on the lake at Tribschen and is dedicated to the composer Richard Wagner. Wagner lived in Lucerne from 1866 to 1872 and his former villa now hosts the museum dedicated to him.


title: Lucerne

text: Since plans for the new culture and convention centre arose in the late 1980s, Lucerne has found a balance between the so-called established culture and alternative culture. A consensus was reached that culminated in a culture compromise (Kulturkompromiss). The established culture comprises the Lucerne Culture and Congress Centre (KKL), the city theater (Luzerner Theater) and, in a broader sense, smaller establishments such as the Kleintheater, founded by comedian Emil Steinberger, a Lucerne native, or Stadtkeller, a music restaurant in the city's old town. KKL houses a concert hall as well as the Museum of Art Lucerne (Kunstmuseum Luzern).


title: Lucerne

text: Alternative culture took place mostly on the premises of a former tube factory, which became known as Boa. Other localities for alternative culture have since emerged in the same inner city area as Boa. Initially, Boa staged various plays, but concerts became more and more common; this new use of the building clashed with the development of apartment buildings on nearby lots of land. Due to possible noise pollution, Boa was closed and a replacement in a less heavily inhabited area is currently under construction. Critics claimed though that the new establishment would not meet the requirements for an alternative culture.


title: Lucerne

text: Südpol is a center for performing arts in Lucerne presenting music-, dance- and theatre-events. The house at the foot of Pilatus opened in November 2008.


title: Lucerne

text: Lucerne is home to the Luzerner Sinfonieorchester, a category A symphonic orchestra, and to the 21st Century Symphony Orchestra, and they both hold most of their performances in the Lucerne Culture and Congress Centre.


title: Lucerne

text: Lucerne is also home to Keramikkonzerte, a series of classical chamber music concerts held throughout each year, as well as Zaubersee, a festival dedicated to Russian classical music.


title: Lucerne

text: Every year, towards the end of winter, "Fasnacht" (Carnival) breaks out in the streets, alleyways and squares of the old town. This is a glittering outdoor party, where chaos and merriness reign and nothing is as it normally is. Strange characters in fantastic masks and costumes make their way through the alleyways, while "Guggenmusiken" (carnival bands) blow their instruments in joyful cacophony and thousands of bizarrely clad people sing and dance away the winter. The "Lucerner Fasnacht", based on religious, Catholic backgrounds, starts every year on the Thursday before "Aschermittwoch" (Ash Wednesday) with a big bang at 5am called "Morgenwacht" (Morning Watch). There are big parades in the afternoon on "Schmotzige Donnerstag" (literally: Lardy Thursday) and the following Monday, called "Güdismontag" (literally: Paunch Monday), which attract tens of thousands of people. Lucerne's Carnival ends with a crowning finish on "Güdisdienstag" (literally: Paunch Tuesday) evening with the "Monstercorso", a tremendous parade of "Guggenmusiken", lights and lanterns with even a larger audience. Rather recently a fourth Fasnacht day has been introduced on the Saturday between the others Fasnacht days, the "Rüüdige Samstag" while mainly several indoor balls take place. From dusk till dawn on the evenings of "Schmotzige Donnerstag", "Güdismontag", and after the "Monstercorso" many bands wander through the historical part of the city playing typical Fasnacht tunes. Until midnight, the historical part of the city usually is packed with people participating. A large part of the audience are also dressed up in costumes, even a majority in the evenings.


title: Lucerne

text: The city hosts various renowned festivals throughout the year. The Lucerne Festival for classical music takes place in the summer. Its orchestra, the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, is hand-picked from some of the finest instrumentalists in the world. In June yearly the pop music festival B-Sides takes place in Lucerne. It focuses on international acts in alternative music, indie rock, experimental rock and other cutting edge and left field artistic musical genres. In July, the Blue Balls Festival brings jazz, blues and punk music to the lake promenade and halls of the Culture and Convention Center. The Lucerne Blues Festival is another musical festival which usually takes place in November. Since spring 2004, Lucerne has hosted the Festival Rose d'Or for television entertainment. And in April, the well-established comics festival "Fumetto" attracts an international audience.


title: Lucerne

text: Being the cultural center of a rather rural region, Lucerne regularly holds different folklore festivals, such as Lucerne Cheese Festival, held annually. In 2004, Lucerne was the focus of Swiss Wrestling fans when it had hosted the Swiss Wrestling and Alpine festival ("Eidgenössisches Schwing- und Älplerfest"), which takes place every three years in a different location. A national music festival ("Eidgenössiches Musikfest") attracted marching bands from all parts of Switzerland in 2006. In summer 2008, the yodelling festival ("Eidgenössisches Jodlerfest") had a similar impact.


title: Lucerne

text: After Ferdinand von Zeppelin landed his airship in Lucerne in 1909, the city became a pioneer for the aeronautical industry in Switzerland. In February 1910 the countries first (and after the DELAG of Germany the second in the world) air transport company was founded, in July the same year then also the first airship hangar at Tribschenmoos. The company provided flights with airships until 1914 without notable accidents.


title: Lucerne

text: Lucerne boasts a developed and well-run transport network, with the main operator, Verkehrsbetriebe Luzern (VBL), running both the trolleybuses in Lucerne and a motor buses network in the city and to neighboring municipalities. Other operators, such as PostAuto Schweiz and Auto AG Rothenburg, provide bus services to other towns and villages.


title: Lucerne

text: Lucerne railway station is one of Switzerland's principal stations, and is well-connected to the rest of Switzerland via railway services operated by Swiss Federal Railways (SBB CFF FFS), the Südostbahn SOB, the BLS and the Zentralbahn (zb). There are 40 trains per day between Lucerne and Zurich, with an average travel time of 48 minutes. Zurich Airport can be reached in just over an hour. Adjacent to the station is Luzern Bahnhofquai, from which ships of the Lake Lucerne Navigation Company operate to various destinations on Lake Lucerne. Between April and mid October, the tourist oriented Gotthard Panorama Express connects Lucerne with Lugano once a day by boat and train, travelling by boat along the length of Lake Lucerne and then by train over the historic high-level Gotthard route.


title: Lucerne

text: Three other railway stations are located within the city boundaries, with Lucerne Allmend/Messe railway station close to the Swissporarena in the south of the city, Littau Bahnhof in the former municipality of Littau and the Lucerne Verkehrshaus railway station adjacent to the Swiss Museum of Transport in the east.


title: Lucerne

text: Lucerne's city transit system is fully integrated into the coherent and integrated fare network system called passepartout encompassing all kind of public transport in the cantons of Lucerne, Obwalden, and Nidwalden.


title: Lucerne

text: There are several football clubs throughout the city. The most successful one is FC Luzern which plays in Switzerland's premier league (Swiss Super League). The club plays its home matches at the new Swissporarena, with a capacity of 16,800.


title: Lucerne

text: The city's main hockey team is the HC Luzern which plays in the Swiss Second League, the fourth tier of Swiss hockey. They play their home games in the 5,000-seat Swiss Life Arena.


title: Lucerne

text: In the past, Lucerne also produced national successes in men's handball and women's volleyball and softball.


title: Lucerne

text: Having a long tradition of equestrian sports, Lucerne has co-hosted CSIO Switzerland, an international equestrian show jumping event, until it left entirely for St. Gallen in 2006. Since then, the Lucerne Equestrian Masters replaced it. There is also an annual horse racing event, usually taking place in August.


title: Lucerne

text: Lucerne annually hosts the final leg of the Rowing World Cup on Rotsee Lake. Numerous World Rowing Championships have been held in Lucerne including the inaugural World Championships of 1962 and then the regattas of 1974, 1982 and 2001.


title: Lucerne

text: Lucerne hosts the annual Spitzen Leichtathletik Luzern Track and field meeting, which attracts world class athletes such as Yohan Blake and Valerie Adams.


title: Lucerne

text: The city also provides facilities for ice-hockey, figure-skating, golf, swimming, basketball, rugby, skateboarding, climbing and more.


title: Lucerne

text: Lucerne hosted FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour event Lucerne Open 2015 and FIVB Beach Volleyball U21 World Championship in 2016.


title: Delusion

text: A delusion is a false fixed belief that is not amenable to change in light of conflicting evidence. As a pathology, it is distinct from a belief based on false or incomplete information, confabulation, dogma, illusion, hallucination, or some other misleading effects of perception, as individuals with those beliefs "are" able to change or readjust their beliefs upon reviewing the evidence. However:


title: Delusion

text: "The distinction between a delusion and a strongly held idea is sometimes difficult to make and depends in part on the degree of conviction with which the belief is held despite clear or reasonable contradictory evidence regarding its veracity."


title: Delusion

text: Delusions have been found to occur in the context of many pathological states (both general physical and mental) and are of particular diagnostic importance in psychotic disorders including schizophrenia, paraphrenia, manic episodes of bipolar disorder, and psychotic depression.


title: Delusion

text: In addition to these categories, delusions often manifest according to a consistent theme. Although delusions can have any theme, certain themes are more common. Some of the more common delusion themes are:


title: Delusion

text: Grandiose delusions or delusions of grandeur are principally a subtype of delusional disorder but could possibly feature as a symptom of schizophrenia and manic episodes of bipolar disorder. Grandiose delusions are characterized by fantastical beliefs that one is famous, omnipotent or otherwise very powerful. The delusions are generally fantastic, often with a supernatural, science-fictional, or religious bent. In colloquial usage, one who overestimates one's own abilities, talents, stature or situation is sometimes said to have "delusions of grandeur". This is generally due to excessive pride, rather than any actual delusions. Grandiose delusions or delusions of grandeur can also be associated with megalomania.


title: Delusion

text: Persecutory delusions are the most common type of delusions and involve the theme of being followed, harassed, cheated, poisoned or drugged, conspired against, spied on, attacked, or otherwise obstructed in the pursuit of goals.