Sersi () is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character is depicted as a member of the Eternals, a race of superhumans. She was also a member of the Avengers and God Squad. Sersi first appeared in the 1976–1978 comic book series The Eternals.

Gemma Chan portrays Sersi in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) film Eternals (2021).

Publication history
Sersi first appeared in The Eternals #3 (September 1976) as Sersy. Although The Eternals was published by Marvel Comics, it was not treated as part of the Marvel Universe, but rather as a stand-alone series. The characters were later incorporated into the Marvel universe. In the 1980s, she made guest appearances in the series The Avengers and Captain America.

Later, Marvel Comics continuity was retconned so that Sersi was the Greek mythological enchantress Circe, as introduced in Strange Tales #109 (June 1963).

In 1990, Sersi joined the Avengers team, after her fellow Eternal Gilgamesh left the team following an injury. Sersi left the team in 1994.

After Malibu Comics was acquired by Marvel, Sersi and the Black Knight were incorporated into the short-lived Ultraverse imprint along with other Marvel characters.

During the 2006 relaunch of the Eternals, the character was redesigned by Neil Gaiman.

Sersi and the other Eternals returned in Jason Aaron's Avengers. They were then all killed in a story arc involving the Dark Celestials in issue #4.

Fictional character biography

Origins and early history
Sersi is a fourth-generation member of the Eternals, an evolutionary offshoot of the human race. She is the daughter of the Eternals Helios and Perse and was probably born in Olympia, Greece, sometime after the Great Cataclysm that destroyed the continents of Atlantis and Lemuria during an extended ice age known as the Hyborean Age. At a young age, Sersi differed from her fellow Eternals in her desire to live among humans. Sersi first met Captain America, who had travelled back in time, during her time in ancient Mesopotamia. Although Sersi still had the appearance of a child at this time, she was already thousands of years old.

A few thousand years later, Sersi was based in ancient Greece, where she met the poet Homer, who would later write one of the earliest works in Western literature, The Odyssey. Sersi was based upon the mythological figure Circe, who lived on Aeaea, an island in the Aegean Sea, and turned Odysseus' men into pigs.

Under the name of Circe, Sersi also imprisoned the imps in Pandora's box in ancient times.

Unlike the majority of her fellow Eternals who stay in hidden cities, Sersi revels in her humanity. Except for the Forgotten One, she has lived amongst humans more than any other Eternal. This includes various places of historical importance like Nero's Rome and Camelot, the court of King Arthur, where she helped Merlin the magician defeat an impostor who had usurped his position. Sersi also fought alongside Thor in the Viking Siege of Paris, although he was not aware of this. She has been a dancer, actress, stage magician, hedonist and adventurer.

The Marvel Age
In The Eternals #3-5, published in 1976, Sersi battled Deviants in New York City, after which anthropologist Dr. Samuel Holden introduced her to the world at large at New York's City College, along with other Eternals. Sersi became fascinated with the soft-spoken Doctor and began a relationship with him. Sersi turned out to be a staunch ally to the Eternals in their struggles with the Deviants.

Sersi met and became an ally of Thor. She then participated in a battle between the Olympian gods and Eternals. Despite her loyalty to the Eternals, Sersi valued her independence, and she often refused to come to the Eternals' gatherings. During one such instance, Domo of the Eternals sent the Delphan Brothers to bring her to Olympia so that all the Eternals could form the Uni-Mind to debate their future. However, Sersi had decided not to attend, as she would continue doing what she wanted regardless of the outcome. Unbeknown to the Delphan Brothers, the Wasp and Starfox of the Avengers, much to Sersi's delight, had crashed the party. They came to Olympia as well, where it was revealed that Starfox was the son of A'lars, who was also the Mentor of Titan, brother to Zuras. When the majority of Eternals decided to leave Earth for space, Sersi chose to remain.

At least 13 years later, the Avenger Captain America needed someone with illusion-casting or shape-changing abilities for help with a case he was working on. He found Sersi's address on the Avengers' database and decided to ask her for help. Sersi was happy to aid "Cap" (she often flirted with him, to his embarrassment) but required a favor from him in return  a dinner invitation.

Sersi battled Ghaur alongside the Eternals, Thor, and the West Coast Avengers. Sersi also aided the Avengers in their struggle against the Deviants and the Elder God Set. When her fellow Eternal, the Forgotten One, was injured while serving as an Avenger, the Avengers came to Sersi for help. She travelled into the Negative Zone with the Avengers to find the Eternals, where she was seemingly killed by Blastaar, but returned to life.

Earth's mightiest
Captain America, the chairman of the Avengers, decided to ask Sersi to join the Avengers due to her previous assistance. Sersi accepted Cap's proposal and became one of Earth's mightiest. In her first mission with the team, she helped them defeat Nebula.

Sersi was a powerful addition to the Avengers roster, although her flirtation still managed to embarrass Captain America. Sersi served with the team for quite a long time. Then, during an attack on the Earth by the Brethren, Sersi was captured and formed a Uni-Mind with the Brethren leader, Thane Ector. Such a union, between two different species, is forbidden by the Eternals, as it may lead to the breakdown of the Eternals' mental disciplines. Sersi fought Sybil Dorn and became an ally to Thane Ector.

Some months after this, Sersi became more aggressive; she was one of the Avengers involved in the attempted murder of the Kree Leader, the Supreme Intelligence, during the Avengers involvement in the Kree-Shi'ar War.

Black Knight's love and Proctor's evil
During this time, Sersi began a relationship with fellow Avenger Dane Whitman, the Black Knight. The Avengers began a fight against a villain called Proctor, who was reuniting Avengers from different realities, forming a team called The Gatherers.

Sersi's aggression caused tensions between her and her teammates. A romantic triangle formed between Sersi, the Black Knight, and the newest Avenger, Crystal. These tensions came to a climax when the Avengers traveled to the planet Polemachus. When the villainous priest Anskar murdered a young girl called Astra, Sersi killed him in retribution.

When the Avengers returned to Earth, Sersi fled to Warrior Falls in Wakanda, trying to escape her guilt and fear. The Black Knight found her and convinced her to return to Avengers Headquarters. Sersi said that she feared she was going insane. Upon her return to Avengers Headquarters, Sersi suddenly attacked her fellow Avengers. She was stopped only by the intervention of the Vision (who was secretly the Anti-Vision, a member of the Gatherers). The real Vision was being held prisoner in Proctor's Andean mountain base.

By this time, Sersi's fellow Eternals had become aware of her unstable nature. Three of them (Ikaris, Arex, and Sprite) came to return her to Olympia (the Eternal's capital). The Eternals feared Sersi was suffering from the Mahd W'yry disease, a breakdown of the mind due to the Eternals extended lives. Sersi rejected their fears as archaic and refused to accompany them back to Olympia. The Avengers didn't want to let the Eternals take one of their members against her will. They also learned that if Sersi was found to be suffering from the Mahd W'yry, the Eternals planned to 'cleanse' her by molecular disintegration, which would kill her. Sprite, who had learned of Sersi's relations with the Black Knight, proposed that the Knight be made her Gann Josin (a concept the Eternals use to describe an intimate joining of two minds as soulmates in their own personal Uni-Mind). Before the matter could be further discussed, Ikaris used his powers as the Prime Eternal to create the link between Sersi and The Black Knight. The Eternals then departed. The Black Knight was not happy with the result, for he had decided that he loved Crystal and not Sersi.

The Avengers had little time to discuss the situation because they needed to assault Proctor's Andean citadel. Then they fought against the Kree suicide squad, In the Genoshan conflict, Sersi fought Exodus. The Avengers also ventured into Deviant Lemuria in a battle against the mad priest Ghaur, an old enemy of Sersi.

The relations between the teammates continued to worsen, and Sersi remained in her unstable state. The Avengers called on former member Hank Pym to discover the cause of her mental problems. At one point, Sersi confided in the Avengers' butler Jarvis that she had been having dreams about a strange man dressed in black, who was assaulting young men she had befriended. Jarvis probed her further, and Sersi used her powers to pull the image of Proctor from her mind. Neither Jarvis nor Sersi had ever seen Proctor and didn't recognize him. Around this time, two police officers questioned Sersi personally. Later, they were found dredged from a river and turned into stone. Sersi was framed for these murders.

The Avengers believed her capable of the crimes, and Sersi was surprised by this accusation. When the police attempted to arrest her, Sersi destroyed the Avengers Mansion and fled to the Brooklyn Bridge. In her maddened state, she used the Gann Josin link to call the Black Knight to her side, and the two of them prepared to fight the other Avengers. When Sersi threatened Crystal, the Black Knight reacted and temporarily broke the Gann Josin bond. Shocked by this, Sersi destroyed the Brooklyn Bridge.

Confused by her state of mind, Sersi was finally approached by Proctor, who revealed the full extent of his plan. Capturing her, Proctor returned to his base of operations in New York and revealed that he was behind her madness and seizures, and was responsible for the murders of the young men and police officers. With her full memory returned, Sersi broke free from Proctor's control long enough to stumble upon the villain's trophy room. There laid Ute, a defeated Watcher (whom Proctor used to traverse the multiverse) as well as innumerable Sersis of other worlds that Proctor had already killed. With Sersi confused, the Gatherer Rik was able to contain her once again. The Avengers were rescued by the Eternals Thena and Sprite. Based on the description Jarvis gave them of the man in Sersi's dream, the Avengers concluded that Proctor was responsible for the crimes. They also were approached by Ute in astral form, who warned them that Proctor should be defeated to prevent all of reality from collapsing. Dane Whitman discovered by computer analysis that Proctor was a version of himself from a different reality. Proctor meanwhile began his final gambit: using the life energies of Sersi and Ute to collapse the various realities into one another.

The Avengers, joined by Thena and Sprite, rushed to the scene, only to be confronted by the Gatherers. While his fellow Avengers fought the various Gatherers, the Black Knight approached Proctor himself, only to be defeated by his Ebony Blade. Sersi and the Watcher looked on from the vortex that contained them as Proctor began to 'gather' the Black Knight's essence into himself, preparing to merge with him. Quicksilver, Crystal's estranged husband, stopped him. Approaching Proctor, a freed Sersi used the villain's Ebony Blade to kill him. After this, Ute (in his dying breaths) used his powers to undo the damage that had been done to the Avengers Mansion, the Brooklyn Bridge, and various other locations, as well as opening a dimensional rift to another reality. Sersi, fearing that the manipulations of Proctor were irreversible, decided to enter this door between worlds, so that she may be able to live free of his madness. With his own mind clear the Black Knight decided to join Sersi in her exile. He felt responsible for the suffering Sersi had endured, and he knew that he couldn't remain in the Avengers if it meant interfering with Quicksilver's attempts to reconcile with Crystal. The two Avengers entered the dimensional rift, traveling to another universe.

Lost in the Ultraverse

The portal brought the duo to the Ultraverse, the home of the ultras (a universe created by Malibu Comics). They were separated in the rift: Sersi ended up in Equatorial Africa, while Dane Whitman found himself in Miami. In the Ultraverse, Sersi was possessed by the spirit of one of the Infinity Gems, the Ego gem.

The Ego gem had been separated from the other gems many times, and now intended to be reunited with them by using Sersi (the gems had also been transported to the Ultraverse by the Ultra supervillain Rune). Sersi's will proved too strong for the Gem, and her bond with the Black Knight caused her to seek him out. The Ego Gem gave her one day to make peace with her past.

The Black Knight meanwhile had found the local Ultraforce, the mightiest heroes of the Ultraverse, which included Hardcase, Prime, and Topaz. Learning of Loki's control of the Infinity Gems, the Knight attempted to contact the Avengers, but was foiled when Sersi showed up. Sersi intermediately fought with Topaz, an amazonian queen of Gwendor. Black Knight intervened and ended the battle. The Ego Gem, realizing that it could use the Ultraforce to reunite with its 'brothers', forced Sersi to send them after the six other Gems. The Black Knight and Ultraforce failed to wrest the Gems from Loki's control. Sersi used her remaining free will to return them to their base.

Now completely under the Ego Gem's control, Sersi became aware of the Grandmaster's presence in the Ultraverse. This Elder of the Universe had journeyed to the Ultraverse in an attempt to obtain the Mind Gem. Realizing the opportunity, the Ego Gem forced the Grandmaster to carry out its bidding. The Grandmaster approached Loki, and proposed a game. If he won, the Grandmaster would be given the Mind Gem. If Loki won, he would be told the location of the Ego Gem. The game was called Worlds and Warriors, a simplified version of an Earth card game. Instead of cards, however, actual heroes would be used. The Grandmaster had chosen the Avengers, while Loki had chosen Ultraforce. Members of each team were pitted against members of the other. The Avengers, for their part, were told it was to stop Loki, and to save the Black Knight, while the members of Ultraforce were told that the Avengers were part of an invading force. The various battles ended in stalemates, and Loki claimed victory. The Grandmaster, under the Ego Gem's will, revealed Sersi to Loki. She was able to separate him from the Gems before he could act. At this time, the Ego Gem released Sersi from its power. Reuniting with the six other Gems, they were rendered entirely sentient, anthropomorphizing into a cosmic being calling itself Nemesis.

Nemesis wanted to create a new world, and joined elements from both the Avengers' and Ultraforce's worlds to create an amalgam universe. There were too many conflicting elements though, and when Topaz of the Ultraverse made physical contact with Loki, elements from two wildly different continua, the structure snapped. In her panic, Nemesis teleported to the Ultra's Earth, and intended to continue creating there, even if it meant the destruction of the already present world. The six other Gems resisted her, as Nemesis lacked the controlling influence that was needed to unite them. The Avengers and Ultraforce joined forces to stop her. Creating a diversion, they attacked her together, allowing the Black Knight to get close enough to separate the Gems once more. In the resulting explosion, the Avengers were returned to the Marvel Universe Earth, while Ultraforce and the Black Knight returned to the Ultraverse. Sersi wandered in limbo until the Black Knight returned to her.

Ancient enemies — modern rebirth
In time, Sersi and the Black Knight found a way to return to Earth-616, but not before traveling back in time to the era of the Crusades, where they fought the villain Exodus.

The two were separated once more on their return to their correct timeline. The Black Knight found himself in New York, but as the Avengers were dead in the wake of Onslaught, he joined the Heroes for Hire (both fictional group and 1997 limited series title). Sersi found herself in Lemuria. Upon learning of yet another plot by Ghaur, she escaped to get aid. On finding the Avengers dead, she also turned to the Heroes for Hire. Foiling Ghaur's plot, Sersi and the Black Knight decided that they both needed some time apart after all they had been through.

Sersi returned to Olympia, where she remained (apart from aiding the Avengers in their battle against Morgana Le Fey) until she joined the New Breed, a group of Eternals posing as a human super team aiming to control the Deviants.

The Eternals (2006)

Sersi moved to New York, where she planned parties for a living. She could not remember her origin as an Eternal, nor her powers. She was hired by Druig, deputy Prime Minister of Vorozheika, to publicize a small former Soviet republic by organizing a party at the Vorozheikan embassy. After the party was saved from a group of gunmen by Mark Curry and Iron Man, Iron Man questioned Sersi about registering, as she was a former Avenger. Sersi was perplexed by this, and Iron Man was confounded when he finds that there are no longer any records of Sersi in the Avengers database. She tests her powers out and accidentally turns a cat into a dragon.

If the Eternal known as Sprite is to be believed, the Eternals' memories of their history and lives are actually a complex illusion created by him (a possible retcon of the Eternals' origin brought to the fore in this new Comic miniseries). Sersi is actually much closer to half a million years old (rather than five thousand years old) and has had the Eternal Makkari as an on-again, off-again lover for hundreds of thousands of years. By the end of the series, she decides that she wants to resume her normal life, wishing to be neither an Eternal nor an Avenger.

Retired from the world of superheroics, Sersi later appears as the head of a party planning website. She declines the Wasp's request to become an Avenger once again, but does use her powers to help the team track down Yon-Rogg.

Death
When the Final Host arrived on Earth, Sersi and all the other Eternals killed themselves after realizing the true purpose for which they were created. Her body was seen when Iron Man and Doctor Strange traveled to the mountains of Greece to get answers from the Eternals.

Powers and abilities
As a member of the Eternals, Sersi has their standard abilities, though she has focused her power into transmutational abilities and passed it off as illusion or magic over the centuries. Sersi's psionic ability to rearrange the molecular structure of objects is far greater than that of any other Eternal. The limits on Sersi's molecular rearrangement powers are as yet unrevealed, but she once stated that even the Eternals' leader, Zuras, feared her, and Sprite claimed that she was the most powerful of all the Eternals. Sersi is the only living Fifth Level adept at matter transmutation (on a 1-5 scale). She has the ability to alter molecular and atomic structures of all matter including living organisms. However, she has expressed difficulty in rearranging sub-atomic matter.

Reception

Accolades

 In 2015, Entertainment Weekly ranked Sersi 8th in their "Let's rank every Avenger ever" list.
 In 2018, CBR.com ranked Sersi 8th in their "25 Most Powerful Avengers Ever" list.
 In 2019, CBR.com ranked Sersi 8th in their "15 Most Powerful Eternals" list.
 In 2021, Screen Rant ranked Sersi 5th in their "10 Most Powerful Members Of The Eternals" list.
 In 2021, CBR.com ranked Sersi 4th in their "10 Strongest Characters From Eternals Comics" list.

Other versions
Sersi has many other versions in the multiverse, but many of them were apparently killed by Proctor.

Mutant X
In Mutant X, Sersi and many other Eternals and Inhumans confront the murderous duo of Dracula and the Beyonder in Washington, D.C. They all perish.

In other media

Television
 Sersi appears in Marvel Knights: Eternals, voiced by Kelly Sheridan.

Film
 Sersi appears in Eternals, portrayed by Gemma Chan. Feige described Sersi as the lead of the film. Sersi is an empathetic Eternal with an affinity for humankind who can manipulate matter. She has been in love with Ikaris for centuries. She poses as a museum curator on Earth and begins a relationship with Dane Whitman. After Ajak's betrayal by Ikaris, she becomes the new Eternal leader. Chan is set to return as Sersi in future MCU films.

Video games
 Sersi made her video game debut as an unlockable playable character in Marvel Future Fight in March 2021. A Sersi costume, based on the MCU character, was later added during the tie-in event to the release of Eternals in November of the same year.
 Sersi appears as an unlockable playable character in Marvel Contest of Champions.
 Sersi appears as an unlockable playable character in Marvel Super War.
 Sersi appears as an unlockable playable character in Marvel Strike Force.
 Sersi appears as an unlockable playable character in Marvel Puzzle Quest.
 Sersi appears as a companion character in Marvel Future Revolution.

References

External links

  Sersi's loft
 Marvel Database Project: Sersi

Avengers (comics) characters
Characters created by Jack Kirby
Characters created by Stan Lee
Circe
Comics characters introduced in 1976
Eternals (comics)
Fictional characters with elemental transmutation abilities
Marvel Comics characters who can move at superhuman speeds
Marvel Comics characters who have mental powers
Marvel Comics characters with accelerated healing
Marvel Comics characters with superhuman durability or invulnerability
Marvel Comics characters with superhuman strength
Marvel Comics martial artists
Marvel Comics telekinetics
Marvel Comics telepaths
Marvel Comics female superheroes
Ultraverse

Sersi


The Caucasus is a region atween the Bleck Sea in the wast an the Caspian Sea in the eist. Kintras in the Caucasus are Armeinie, Azerbaijan and Georgie, wi bits o soothren Roushie an aw. The Caucasus Moontains, as weel as the Greater Caucasus, hae beid thocht o as a naitural frontier atween Eistren Europe an Wastren Asie.

Moont Elbrus, in Roushie - whilk is the maistmuckle moont in Europe - is in the wastren Caucasus. In the soothren bit o the rainge, the Lasser Caucasus incluid the Javakheti Plateau an the Armenian Highlands, o whilk is pairtly in Turkey.

Caucasus


A leasehold valuation tribunal (LVT) was a statutory tribunal in England which determined various types of landlord and tenant dispute involving residential property in the private sector. An LVT consisted of a panel of three; one with a background in property law (generally a solicitor); one with a background in property valuation generally a qualified surveyor; and a layman, although some decisions of an LVT were decided by a single member. LVTs were non-departmental public bodies.

The leasehold valuation tribunals were abolished under the Transfer of Tribunal Functions Order 2013 and their functions were transferred to the Property Chamber of the newly created First-tier Tribunal with effect from 1 July 2013.

Jurisdiction
Leasehold valuation tribunals had a number of jurisdictions including:

 Determining the price to be paid by tenants compulsorily acquiring either the freehold of houses or lease extensions of flats or collectively exercising the right to purchase the freehold of a collection of flats
 Determination of whether a service charge is payable
 Granting dispensations to landlords from compliance with statutory consultation with respect to service charges
 On a tenant's application, preventing the landlord from treating costs of proceedings as relevant costs (i.e. from adding them to the tenant's service charge bill)
 The appointment of managers and receivers for flats improperly managed
 Determining whether a leaseholder is in breach of a term of their lease other than one to pay rent or a service or administration charge for the purposes of permitting the landlord to take steps to forfeit the lease
 Variation of long leases of flats

History
Initially created by the Housing Act 1980 which transferred jurisdiction from the Lands Tribunal (a superior tribunal of England and Wales), functions were expanded by the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 and the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002.

Lease extension
One of the earliest functions of the LVT was to determine disputes concerning the extension of leases.

One of the drawbacks of owning a flat on a long lease is that it reduces in value over time. The less time is left on the lease, the less valuable the property becomes. Because of this, the law (the Leasehold Reform Housing and Urban Development Act 1993) gives the leaseholder the right to extend their lease once they have owned it for two years.

Historically, when a lease ran out the property held thereunder would revert to the possession of the landlord/freeholder.  In this case, the job of the leasehold valuation tribunal was to hear evidence from both sides as to what the long leasehold value of such a property would be and to determine what proportions of the value of the said property should rightfully be ascribed to leaseholder and the freeholder under the legislation. Generally, such evidence was given by an expert witness for each side who will argue that a particular value is more applicable based on an analysis of recent sales of comparable properties around the date that the Leasehold Notice was served.

In many parts of the UK there are substantial freeholders who historically have owned and continue to own large land holdings, and this ownership has been and continues to be passed under leased ownership to sub-landlords and leaseholders; this system was particularly suitable when areas of London were initially built on greenfield land, and later in the period immediately after the Second World War, when considerable renovation and rebuilding was urgently required, the estates were able to effectively subcontract redevelopment to sub-landlords, known as head-lessors.

The most notable London estates are those of the Crown Estate, the Duke of Westminster, Earl Cadogan, and Lord Howard de Walden; with the changes in legislation these freeholders are now obliged to sell lease extensions under the various Acts of Parliament which have been passed at prices agreed by negotiation or determined by a leasehold valuation tribunal.  Appeals against decisions of a leasehold valuation tribunal are made to the Lands Tribunal.

Composition
Tribunals technically comprised members drawn from one of the five rent assessment panels of England, constituted under schedule 10 of the Rent Act 1977. Such members also sat on rent assessment committees which determined Fair Rents under s. 70 of the Rent Act 1977, rent tribunals under the same Act which determined rents payable under Restricted Contracts (room lettings) and residential property tribunals which were created by the Housing Act 2004.

A legally qualified chairman sitting with a Chartered Surveyor and a lay member usually constituted the tribunal. However, a small number of chairmen were chartered surveyors and a small number of members of other professions were appointed to sit. Chairmen were appointed by the Lord Chancellor and other members by the Secretary of State.

References

External links
a free list of LVT decisions on the leasehold advisory service website
an online calculator for the cost of buying a share of freehold
Association of Leasehold Enfranchisement Practitioners (ALEP) - professional association for organisations in the leasehold sector

English property law
Defunct non-departmental public bodies of the United Kingdom government
Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
United Kingdom tribunals
Housing law

Leasehold valuation tribunal


Cenobamate, sold under the brand names Xcopri (US) and Ontozry (EU), is a medication used for the treatment of partial-onset seizures, a kind of epilepsy, in adults. It is taken by mouth.

Cenobamate was approved for medical use in the United States in November 2019 and placed in Schedule V of the Controlled Substances Act in March 2020. Cenobamate was approved for medical use in the European Union in March 2021.

Medical uses
In the United States, cenobamate is indicated for the treatment of partial-onset seizures in adults.

In the European Union, it is indicated for the adjunctive treatment of focal-onset seizures with or without secondary generalization in adults with epilepsy who have not been adequately controlled despite a history of treatment with at least two anti-epileptic medications.

Contraindications
Cenobamate shortens the QT interval of the heart rhythm. It is therefore contraindicated in people with familial short QT syndrome, a very rare disease of the electrical system of the heart.

Adverse effects
The most common side effects are drowsiness (in 37% of people taking the drug), dizziness (33%), and fatigue (24%). Sight disorders, headache and elevated potassium levels in the blood (over 5 mmol/L) are also common. Hypersensitivity occurs in fewer than 1% of patients, drug reaction with eosinophilia and systemic symptoms (DRESS) in fewer than 0.1%.

Overdose
There are few data regarding cenobamate overdose. It is expected that the described adverse effects such as drowsiness, dizziness and fatigue would occur, as well as possibly problems with the heart rhythm. No specific antidote exists.

Interactions
Using cenobamate together with other central nervous system depressants such as barbiturates, benzodiazepines or alcohol may result in increased drowsiness and other central nervous system symptoms.

Cenobamate induces the enzymes CYP3A4 and CYP2B6 and can therefore decrease blood concentrations of drugs that are metabolized by these enzymes (for example midazolam and bupropion, respectively). Conversely, it inhibits the enzyme CYP2C19, potentially increasing concentrations of drugs metabolized by this enzyme (for example omeprazole).

Pharmacology

Mechanism of action
Cenobamate is a voltage-gated sodium channel (VGSC) blocker. It is a selective blocker of the inactivated state of VGSCs, preferentially inhibiting persistent sodium current. It has been proposed that cenobamate additionally enhances presynaptic release of γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA), thereby increasing inhibitory GABAergic neurotransmission.

Pharmacokinetics
Cenobamate is absorbed from the gut to at least 88% and reaches highest concentrations in the blood plasma after one to four hours. When in the bloodstream, 60% of the substance are bound to plasma proteins, mostly to albumin. Cenobamate is inactivated mainly by glucuronidation via the enzyme UGT2B7 and to a lesser extent UGT2B4. The enzymes CYP2E1, CYP2A6, CYP2B6, CYP2C19 and CYP3A4 play smaller roles in the drug's metabolism.

Steady state conditions are reached after 14 days. Cenobamate and its metabolites are mostly eliminated via the urine and only to 5.2% via the faeces. The terminal half-life is 50 to 60 hours.

History
The safety and efficacy of cenobamate to treat partial-onset seizures was established in two randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled studies that enrolled 655 adults. In these studies, patients had partial-onset seizures with or without secondary generalization for an average of approximately 24 years and median seizure frequency of 8.5 seizures per 28 days during an 8-week baseline period. During the trials, doses of 100, 200, and 400 milligrams (mg) daily reduced the number of seizures per 28 days compared with the placebo group.

Society and culture

Legal status
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved cenobamate in November 2019, and granted the application for Xcopri to SK Life Science Inc.

On 28 January 2021, the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) adopted a positive opinion, recommending the granting of a marketing authorization. The applicant for this medicinal product is Arvelle Therapeutics Netherlands B.V. Ontozry was approved on 26 March 2021.

References

External links

Anticonvulsants
Carbamates
Chloroarenes
CYP3A4 inducers
Phenylethanolamine ethers
Tetrazoles

Cenobamate


In railroad structures, and rail terminology, a wye (like the 'Y' glyph) or triangular junction (often shortened to just triangle) is a triangular joining arrangement of three rail lines with a railroad switch (set of points) at each corner connecting to the incoming lines. A turning wye is a specific case.

Where two rail lines join, or where a spur diverges from a railroad's mainline, wyes can be used at a mainline rail junction to allow incoming trains to travel in either direction.

Wyes can also be used for turning railway equipment, and generally cover less area than a balloon loop doing the same job, but at the cost of two additional sets of points to construct and then maintain. These turnings are accomplished by performing the railway equivalent of a three-point turn through successive junctions of the wye. The direction of travel and the relative orientation of a locomotive or railway vehicle thus can be reversed. Where a wye is built specifically for equipment reversing purposes, one or more of the tracks making up the junction will typically be a stub siding.

Tram or streetcar tracks also make use of triangular junctions and sometimes have a short triangle or wye stubs to turn the car at the end of the line.

Considerations

At junctions
The use of triangular junctions allows flexibility in routing trains from any line to either of the two other paths, without the need to reverse the train. For this reason they are common across most rail networks. A slower train may be signaled to temporarily enter a wye (as a refuge siding in lieu of a passing loop) for a meet with an oncoming train, or to allow a faster one to overtake, and then reverse out to continue in the original direction.

Where one or more of the lines forming the junction are multi-track, the presence of a triangular junction does introduce a number of potential conflicting moves. For this reason, where traffic is heavy the triangle may incorporate flying junctions on some of the legs.

For turning equipment

From time to time it is necessary to turn both individual pieces of railroad equipment or whole trains. This may be because the piece of equipment is not directionally symmetrical, for example, most steam locomotives and some diesel locomotives, or where the consist has a dedicated tail end car such as an observation car. Even where equipment is symmetrical, periodic turning may still be necessary in order to equalize wear (e.g., on the London Underground's Circle Line).

Several different techniques can be used to achieve such turning. Turntables require the least space, but can generally only deal with a single piece of equipment at a time. Balloon or turning loops can turn trains of any length — up to the total length of the loop — in a single operation, but require far more space than wyes. Rail wyes can be constructed on sites where a loop would not be possible, and can turn trains up to the length of the stub tracks at the end of the wye.

Railroad systems in North America and Australia have tended to have more wyes than railroads elsewhere. North American locomotives and cars (such as observation cars) are more likely to be directional than those found on other continents. In Canada and the United States, the railroad often was built before other structures, and railway builders had much more freedom to lay down tracks where they wished. Similarly, when not constrained by space limitations many early Australian railways made use of wyes (particularly in rural locations) for their lower installation and maintenance costs; however, their necessity and use diminished from the 1960s onwards with the major trend in most states toward bidirectional locomotives and railcars.

In Europe, although some use was made of bi-directional tank locomotives and push–pull trains, most steam locomotives were uni-directional. Because of land usage considerations, turntables were normally used to turn such locomotives, and most terminal stations and locomotive depots were so equipped. Over time, most diesel and electric locomotives ordered in Europe have been designed to be fully bi-directional and normally with two driving cabs. Thus most rail wyes, where they existed, and turntables have been taken out of use.

Streetcar or tram systems
Similar considerations as for mainline rail systems apply to the use of triangular junctions and reversing wyes on streetcar and tram systems. Many, although by no means all, streetcar and tram systems use single ended vehicles that have doors on one side only, and that must be turned at each end of the route.

However, the vehicles used on such systems tend to have much smaller minimum curvature requirements than heavy rail equipment. This renders the use of a balloon loop more practical in a small amount of space, and with street-running vehicles such a loop may be able to use side streets or street squares. However, although turning loops are the most common way of turning such vehicles, wye tracks are also sometimes used.

Disadvantages
A triangle may have a situational disadvantage in train operations when space constraints of the local geography cause one leg of triangle to bypass a main station. In tight city environments, this can happen easily, as it did, for example, at Cootamundra West, Australia and Tecuci, Romania, where extra passenger stations had to be built to serve trains taking the shortcut.

In contrast, the engineering of a terminus station such as Woodville Railway Station, New Zealand avoided this problem by building a balloon loop (reversing loop) so that trains can serve the main station in either direction without the need to reverse. In a midline station where it is desired to reverse a consist or locomotive, a double-track and turning wye arrangement is far more common.

Land usage

The land within a triangle is cut off from the adjacent area (and normally fenced off) and has marginal commercial value, so will be purposed mainly for the railway's exclusive use – generally being used for maintenance depots, storage, or vehicle parking. On electrified lines substations tend to be located inside triangles, in part because the land is cheap, and also because it provides the most convenient and flexible sectioning arrangements.

Earliest examples
The earliest British (and possibly worldwide) example is the double-tracked triangle within Earlestown railway station on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, which was completed by the Grand Junction Railway in 1837. The triangle has two passenger platform faces on each of its three sides and five of the six platforms are in frequent (half-hourly, etc.) use by passenger trains. When steam engines were in regular use the triangle (which is of course also traversed by freight trains) was also used to turn locomotives, and can still be so used.

An earlier example may be on the Cromford and High Peak Railway, which had been opened in 1831 as a horse-drawn railway. This appears to have been used for reversing trains of wagons with end doors that have just come up the rope-hauled inclines to the highest level of the railway before they proceeded down the remaining inclines. The site of this can still be seen near Hindlow, in Derbyshire. (National Grid location .).

Examples by country

Australia

Sefton railway station in Sydney lies on one corner of a triangular junction, which allows trains to branch off in either direction without the need to terminate or change ends. One train a day from Birrong to Sefton does terminate and reverse at Regents Park station (in order to clean the rust off the crossover rails). There is a goods branch from Chullora and, in the future, the possibility of a separate single track freight line. The three passenger stations at the vertices of the triangle have island platforms making it convenient to change trains. The sharp curves of the triangle, and especially the turnouts on those sharp curves, restrict train speeds to between .
Near Hamilton station on the Central Coast and Newcastle line there is a wye for freight trains and regional trains. This puts them directly on the main northern line

A number of triangular junctions were built on the Victorian Railways network, both at major junctions, and for turning locomotives and train consists in places where the provision of a turntable was impractical or unnecessarily expensive. These included:
 Wodonga – Built on the junction of the Cudgewa Line and used to turn the consists of the Sydney Limited and Spirit of Progress trains.
 Ararat
 North Geelong – built to allow trains to travel directly between Geelong, Ballarat or Melbourne without using a run-around or turntable. It was also used to turn trains, such as during the demonstration run of the Spirit of Progress in 1937.

A triangular junction is used to turn tramcars on the Portland Cable Tram line in Portland, Victoria.

Ireland
In the Republic of Ireland two triangular junctions are in use. One is at Limerick Junction, and the other at Lavistown, near Kilkenny. The former allows direct Limerick–Dublin passenger trains to bypass the Limerick Junction station, and is also occasionally used to turn steam locomotives on railtours, whilst the latter is used primarily by freight trains running between the Port of Waterford and County Mayo to avoid having to run around in Kilkenny station.

In Belfast, Northern Ireland, a triangular junction exists at Great Victoria Street station. It is rarely used to turn locomotives, save the occasional steam engine. It is usually used by Enterprise express trains to bypass Great Victoria Street and continue on to terminate at Belfast Central. Commuter trains enter the junction from one direction (e.g., the Portadown line), stop at Great Victoria Street, and then continue out on the other direction towards Bangor station. Commuter trains on NI Railways are all diesel multiple unit railcars, so they do not need to use the junction as a turning method.

The only other operational triangular junction in Ireland is Downpatrick Loop on the Downpatrick and County Down Railway. Originally constructed to allow direct Belfast–Newcastle trains to bypass Downpatrick station, the triangle forms the basis of a heritage railway, the only heritage railway of this type in the British Isles. There is one station at each end of the triangle and another in the southernmost corner.

Historical triangular junctions in Ireland include Moyasta Junction on the West Clare line, the Monkstown/Greenisland/Bleach Green triangle on the Northern Counties Committee and Bundoran Junction on the Great Northern Railway. Though two sides of the former are still in mainline use, the "back line" between Monkstown and Greenisland has been removed, whilst the latter was closed altogether in 1957. Additionally, the Great Northern's largest locomotive yard at Adelaide never had a turntable, using a dedicated turning triangle instead.

The Luas tram system has a triangular junction on the Red Line between the stations of Busáras, Connolly and George's Dock. The line that goes between George's Dock and Connolly is never used, as no trams operate between The Point Luas stop & Connolly

Italy
Railways in Italy used a number of  for turning locomotives. This uses a pentagram layout, requiring four movements and five turnouts to reverse. It allows a smaller layout, without excessively tight curve radii, compared to a triangle.

Some of these still survive, such as at  of Carbonia in Sardinia and at Mals or Malles Venosta in Val Venosta in the South Tyrol.

In addition to small terminal stations such as Carbonia and Malles Venosta, inversion stars were also installed at some principal stations such as Verona Porta Nuova and Brenner at the summit of the Brenner Pass.

Namibia
Tsumeb railway station in Namibia has two triangles. The first and smaller one is for turning engines and is near the station. The second and larger one is to bypass the dead-end station at Tsumeb for trains travelling directly between the new extension towards Angola and Windhoek. This direct bypass line can save an hour of shunting time, particularly if the train is longer than the loops in the station.

Switzerland
There is a turning triangle partly tunnelled into the mountain at Kleine Scheidegg at the summit of the 800mm gauge Wengernalpbahn in the Bernese Oberland, Switzerland. Kleine Scheidegg is reached from two lower termini, Lauterbrunnen and Grindelwald, located on opposite sides of the col. Trains normally descend in the direction they have arrived from and are designed accordingly with the power unit at the lower end and seating angled to compensate for the gradient. They therefore have to be turned at the summit should it be necessary to make a through journey. Whilst limitations of space dictated that the triangle had to be partly constructed in tunnels it also ensures that in winter it is snow-free and thus readily available in emergencies.

United Kingdom

In Britain triangular layouts that could be used for turning locomotives were usually the result of junctions of two or more lines. There are many examples, including the one known as the Maindee triangle in Newport, South Wales. Here the ex-GWR South Wales mainline from London to Swansea is joined by another GWR line from Shrewsbury via Hereford. The significance of it is that steam-hauled trains can run to Newport and their engines be turned using the triangle. Its National Grid location is . Shrewsbury also has a triangular route formation that was used to turn steam locomotives, and is still available. A triangle, , was provided in 1989 adjacent to the transfer sidings for Wylfa Nuclear Power Station, near to Valley on Anglesey in Wales. This enables the North Wales Coast Line to be used by steam hauled excursions. The turntable at Holyhead has long been removed and the area re-developed; the sidings at Valley some 4 miles (6.4 km) from the terminus are the nearest suitable site.

An unusual arrangement, unique in Britain, was constructed at Grantham. Its location was  and it is shown on the 1963 edition of OS 1 inch to 1 mile sheet 113. It was built in the 1950s after the turntable at the locomotive shed failed and expenditure on a replacement was no longer justified. Locomotives requiring to be turned had to travel to Barkston Junction to traverse the triangular layout there (this was where Mallard with a dynamometer car attached was turned before starting out south on its record-breaking run on 3 July 1938). The journey to Barkston Junction and back was a time-consuming business involving a round trip of some  along the busy East Coast Main Line. Eventually authority was given to construct a turning arrangement on a strip of spare land to the west of the main line, just south of Grantham station. There was insufficient space for a conventional triangle but this was overcome by constructing an "inside-out" triangle whereby the approach tracks intersected in a scissors crossing.

United States
Many North American passenger terminals in large cities had wye tracks to allow the turning and backing of directional passenger trains onto a main line. Freight traffic could bypass the terminal through the wye. Notable examples include the Los Angeles Union Station, which has a double wye, the Saint Paul Union Depot, and the Memphis Union Station.

A typical use for a stub-end passenger station would be as follows: A wye was incorporated at the "throat" where the rows of tracks converged from the station to facilitate the turning of trains. An arriving train came to a stop on the main line after passing the wye. Once the switches on the wye are aligned, the train reversed, with the brakeman at the rear of the last car regulating the speed with the brake lever upon approach to the platform. After coming to a complete stop at the end of the track, passengers were allowed to disembark safely.

Meanwhile, the locomotives could be uncoupled from the train and sent to the engine terminal to be serviced for their next assignment. Then, the head-end cars could be uncoupled from the rest of the train and spotted by a station switcher at the parcel facility where mail and express packages were handled. The departing train was reassembled, freshly cleaned and serviced for the next journey. A steam pipe from the station's steam generator could have been attached to the train's steam line from the rear to supply heat until the locomotives were coupled up front to supply steam.

The train was announced for boarding with a list of destinations. With switches aligned, the train slowly departed to the main line, continuing on its journey or returning toward the direction from which it arrived by rounding the opposite leg from the one it reversed on upon arrival.

The Keddie Wye in Keddie, California, was built by the Western Pacific Railroad and is a remarkable engineering feat. Two sides of the wye are built on tall trestles and one side is in a tunnel bored through solid rock.

The town of Wyeville, Wisconsin, is named after the Union Pacific Railway, formerly the Chicago and North Western Transportation Company wye and crossover nearby.

A primary feature of the Bay Area Rapid Transit system is the Oakland Wye. Located beneath Downtown Oakland, California, the vast majority of the system's trains run through the wye primarily to and from San Francisco with some services running north and south along the East Bay. This section of track is considered a bottleneck for system-wide capacity based on speed restrictions and timing difficulties from distant branch lines.

The southern terminus of the Amtrak Auto Train in Sanford, Florida, uses a wye to turn the locomotives around for the return trip north. A road that crosses the eastern side of the wye allows access to the inner part of the wye where there is a rock supply company.

In Arizona, the Grand Canyon Railway (GCRY) has a wye at both the Williams and South Rim/Grand Canyon Village termini of its line. The train is turned around at the South Rim/Grand Canyon Village wye with the passengers on board. At the Williams end, the train is turned around after the passengers disembark.

The Chowchilla Wye is a primary feature of the planned California High-Speed Rail System. It will allow for transfers from feeder services on the third leg and facilitate more routing options as future phases are completed.

Convoluted wye

Convoluted wye, turning star or reversing star () is a special wye layout used in places where the space is tight. It has a pentagram-like form and consists of five turnouts (versus three for a wye) and three, four or five diamond crossings. Because of this, a reversing star is more expensive to build and service.

It takes four changes of direction of movement to turn a piece of rolling stock on a reversing star.

There was a "star" layout at the summit of the Brenner Pass, on the Austrian–Italian border. It was still there in 1991, covered over with gravel so that market-stalls could function on top.

See also

 Balloon loop
 Control car
 Double junction
 Flying junction
 Level junction
 Railway turntable

References

Rail junction types

Wye (rail)


"Dance with Me" is the debut single by Hungarian singer Zoli Ádok. It was the Hungarian entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 in Moscow, Russia.

Eurovision
On 23 February 2009, Hungarian national broadcaster MTV held a press conference about its Eurovision entrant. During the conference they mentioned that the jury chose three songs before the final decision was made to be sure one of them will not withdraw and completely meet the requirements. Then they announced that Zoli Ádok will represent Hungary in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 with his song "Dance With Me". "Dance with Me" was the internal selection juries' third choice, but after the original winning song was disqualified and the first runner-up withdrawn Zoli's song was chosen for Moscow.

In the Eurovision the song competed in the second semi-final on 14 May 2009, where it was performed eleventh, following Sloveniaand preceding Azerbaijan. On stage, Zoli was joined by two male backing vocalists: Gábor Heincz and Jnoffin Kasai, and three female dancers. The stage atmosphere during the performance shows the LED monitors have floating shapes in the verses, and expanding white lines and the words 'Dance With Me' written across them during the chorus. The song failed to qualify from the second semi-final and placing in 15th place with 16 points.

Other websites

2009 songs
Debut singles

Dance with Me (Zoli Ádok song)


The Queen of Hearts is a fictional character from the 1865 book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, of which she is also a major antagonist in. She is well-known for ordering the execution of people who annoy her in the smallest ways.

Many people believe her to be an exaggerated version of Elizabeth I and Queen Victoria. The Queen of Hearts is often seen as the villain in most adaptations of the story.

In Alice in Wonderland, she is voiced by Verna Felton. In Tim Burton's version of the story, the Queen of Hearts and the Red Queen (from Through the Looking-Glass) are combined into once character played by Helena Bonham Carter.
Fictional royalty
Villains

Queen of Hearts


Françoise Marie de Bourbon, Légitimée de France, Granddaughter of France by marriage (4 May 1677 – 1 February 1749) was the youngest legitimised daughter (fille légitimée de France) of Louis XIV of France and his mistress, Madame de Montespan. She was famed for her arrogance and belief that she was above most other people.

Biography

Originally known as the second Mademoiselle de Blois, that style eventually gave way to the name Françoise Marie de Blois. She married her first cousin Philippe d'Orléans in 18 February 1692 at the age of fourteen and later bore eight children, four of which would have further children.

Proud, lazy and attractive, she successfully intrigued to have her daughters marry well to the Prince of Conti, Duke of Berry, Duke of Modena and King of Spain, mostly to spite her sister Louise Françoise de Bourbon, the Duchess of Bourbon. However, she welded little political influence considering her proximity to the political circle of the era. She was involved in the Cellamare Conspiracy in 1718 which was supposed to overthrow her own husband Philippe d'Orléans as Regent of the Kingdom and replace him with her favourite brother the Duke of Maine. The marquis d'Argenson said she was very like her mother, Madame de Montespan, but also had Louis XIV's orderly mind with his failings of injustice and harshness.

Among her male line descendents are Philippe Egalité, Louis-Philippe I, King of the French, and Prince Henri, Count of Paris, the present Orléanist pretender to the French throne. She is also an ancestor of Juan Carlos I of Spain, Philippe, King of the Belgians, Henri, Grand Duke of Luxembourg and Vittorio Emanuele, Prince of Naples, the pretender to the Italian throne.

Children

Mademoiselle de Valois (17 December 1693 - 17 October 1694) died in infancy.
Marie Louise Élisabeth d'Orléans (20 August 1695 - 21 July 1719) married Charles of France, Duke of Berry and had children but none survived to adulthood.
Louise Adélaïde d'Orléans (13 August 1698 - 10 February 1743) Abbess of Chelles died unmarried and childless.
Charlotte Aglaé d'Orléans (20 October 1700 - 19 January 1761) married Francesco d'Este, Duke of Modena and had children.
Louis d'Orléans (4 August 1703 - 4 February 1752) married Margravine Johanna of Baden-Baden and had children.
Louise Élisabeth d'Orléans (11 December 1709 - 16 June 1742) married Louis I of Spain, no issue.
Philippine Élisabeth d'Orléans (18 December 1714 - 21 May 1734) engaged to Infante Carlos of Spain but never married and died childless.
Louise Diane d'Orléans (27 June 1716 - 26 September 1736) married Louis François de Bourbon, Prince of Conti and had children.

Titles, styles, honours and arms

Titles and styles
4 May 1677 – 22 November 1681 Françoise Marie de Bourbon.
22 November 1681 – 18 February 1692 Her Highness Françoise Marie de Bourbon, Legitimée de France, "Mademoiselle de Blois".
18 February 1692 – 9 June 1701 Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Chartres.
 9 June 1701 – 2 December 1723 Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Orléans.
2 December 1723 – 1 February 1749 Her Royal Highness the Dowager Duchess of Orléans.

References

1677 births
1749 deaths
House of Bourbon
House of Orléans
Dukes and Duchesses of Chartres
Dukes and Duchesses of Orléans
Dukes and Duchesses of Montpensier
Dukes and Duchesses of Nemours

Françoise Marie de Bourbon


Aerial perspective, or atmospheric perspective, refers to the effect the atmosphere has on the appearance of an object as viewed from a distance. As the distance between an object and a viewer increases, the contrast between the object and its background decreases, and the contrast of any markings or details within the object also decreases. The colours of the object also become less saturated and shift toward the background colour, which is usually bluish, but may be some other colour under certain conditions (for instance, reddish around sunrise or sunset).

History

Atmospheric perspective was used in Pompeian Second Style frescos, one of the Pompeian Styles, dating as early as 30 BCE. Notable examples include the Garden Room Fresco from the Villa of Livia in Prima Porta, Italy, and the first century Pompeian fresco Paris on Mount Ida.

With varying degrees of accuracy, explanations of the effects of atmospheric perspective were written by polymaths such as Leon Battista Alberti and Leonardo da Vinci. The latter used aerial perspective in many of his paintings such as The Annunciation, the Mona Lisa, and The Last Supper, introducing a technique to paint the effect accurately that was adopted by his followers, the Leonardeschi. Art historians note that it is lacking in works by some artists of the same period, such as Raphael, although he adopted the use of sfumato that was introduced by Leonardo at the same time.

Aerial perspective was used in paintings from the Netherlands in the fifteenth century.

Optics

The major component affecting the appearance of objects during daylight is scattering of light, called sky light, into the line of sight of the viewer. Scattering occurs from molecules of the air and also from larger particles in the atmosphere such as water vapour and smoke. Scattering adds the sky light as a veiling luminance onto the light from the object, reducing its contrast with the background sky light. Sky light usually contains more light of short wavelength than other wavelengths (this is why the sky usually appears blue), which is why distant objects appear bluish.

Why reducing contrast reduces clarity

The ability of a person with normal visual acuity to see fine details is determined by contrast sensitivity. Contrast sensitivity is the reciprocal of the smallest contrast for which a person can see a sine-wave grating. A person's contrast sensitivity function is contrast sensitivity as a function of spatial frequency. Normally, peak contrast sensitivity is at about four cycles per degree of visual angle. At higher spatial frequencies, comprising finer and finer lines, contrast sensitivity decreases, until at about forty cycles per degree even the brightest of bright lines and the darkest of dark lines cannot be seen.

The high spatial frequencies in an image give it fine details. Reducing the contrast of an image reduces the visibility of these high spatial frequencies because contrast sensitivity for them already is poor. This is how a reduction of contrast can reduce the clarity of an image—by removing its fine details.

It is important to emphasize that reducing the contrast is not the same as blurring an image. Blurring is accomplished by reducing the contrast only of the high spatial frequencies. Aerial perspective reduces the contrast of all spatial frequencies.

In art

In art, especially painting, aerial perspective, or atmospheric perspective, refers to the technique of creating an illusion of depth by depicting distant objects as paler, less detailed, and usually bluer than near objects. This technique was introduced in painting by Leonardo da Vinci to portray what was observed in nature and evident in his interest in optics.

The technique allows a painter to capture the effect that atmosphere has on the appearance of an object as viewed from a distance. As the distance between an object and a viewer increases, the contrast between the object and its background decreases, and the contrast of any markings or details within the object also decreases. The colours of the object also become less saturated and shift toward the colour of the atmosphere, which is bluish when sunlit, but will shift to other colours under certain conditions (for instance, reddish around sunrise and sunset or saturated during fog).

(One caution: in common speech, the words perspective and viewpoint tend to be used interchangeably; however, in art, aerial perspective does not imply an aerial viewpoint, such as that forming the basis of the aerial landscape genre. The example by Frans Koppelaar pictured here shows the difference. This landscape is a good example of aerial perspective; however, it is not an aerial landscape, since apparently, the observer is standing on the ground.) As such, the term atmospheric perspective can be understood to better describe how properties of the scene's atmosphere effect the appearance of an object as it moves further from the viewer.

See also

 Aerial shot
 Landscape art
 List of art techniques
 Teide
 Tyndall effect

References

Perspective projection
Artistic techniques
Vision
Perception
Visual perception
Composition in visual art

Aerial perspective


Jerusalem () is an 1867 painting by the French artist Jean-Léon Gérôme. It is also known as Golgotha, Consumatum Est and The Crucifixion (La Crucifixion). The foreground depicts the ground of Golgotha with the shadows of three crucified men: Jesus and the two thieves. Further back in the picture is a crowd of people moving away from the scene. In the background is the city of Jerusalem under a cloudy sky.

It was characteristic of Gérôme to depict not a violent event itself, but the aftermath of such violence; see The Death of Caesar, The Execution of Marshal Ney, and The Duel After the Masquerade.

The painting marked Gérôme's return to history painting after a period of exploring orientalism. Like much Christian art of the era, the depiction was influenced by Ernest Renan's Life of Jesus.

The painting was presented at the 1868 Salon. Since 1990 it is located at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.

References

External links

1867 paintings
Paintings in the Musée d'Orsay
Paintings by Jean-Léon Gérôme
Paintings depicting the Crucifixion of Jesus
Horses in art
Oil on canvas paintings
Orientalist paintings

Jerusalem (painting)


Pedro Colina Hill, also known as PC Hill or Tantawan, is a hill in Cotabato City, Philippines.

Geography
Pedro Colina Hill is one of the two prominent elevated area in Cotabato City, the other being Timako Hill. The hill also host a network of caves. PC Hill has an elevation of .

Etymology
The name of hill, Pedro Colina Hill was named after Peter the Apostle (or San Pedro) by the Spaniards in the 1800s, during the time when the Spanish began exploring South Central Mindanao. "Colina" means hill in Spanish, hence Pedro Colina Hill's name is tautological or redundant. The hill is also traditionally known as Tantawan, which means "extensive view".

Cultural significance

Cotabato City derived from PC Hill, which historically was used as a fort by natives in the area. Cotabato City's name was derived from Kutang Bato or "stone fort". In Maguindanaon, the hill is known as "Tantawan".

The hill linked to the history of Cotabato City's indigenous peoples (IPs), including the Teduray, Dulangan Manobo, and the Maguindanao peoples. The IPs share roots to brothers, Mamalu and Tabunaway who ruled the area as chieftains who set up their center of governance in what is now known as PC Hill until the introduction of Islam in the area sometime in the 15th century. When the Cotabato area experienced floods, the hill was used as a refuge by the area's early inhabitants.

PC Hill is a military reservation area. Many of local law enforcement agencies hold office in the hill including the Cotabato City Police, and regional offices of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, and the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group. Most of the hill's residents as of 2018 are retired local military and police personnel. The Philippine Constabulary also had a local headquarters on the hill during the American colonial administration. The "P.C." in the hill's name is sometimes mistaken for to mean "Philippine Constabulary".

In 2018, houses in PC Hill were painted rainbow with motifs relevant to Cotabato City's history and culture such as crabs, gongs, and the guinakit (Moro boats) as part of an effort to redevelop the site and boost tourism in the city.

References

Cotabato City
Hills of the Philippines

Pedro Colina Hill


Aston Iain Merrygold (born 13 February 1988) is a British singer, songwriter, dancer, television personality, actor, and philanthropist. He recently appeared on the X Factor. He is part of the group JLS (an acronym for Jack the Lad Swing).

Aston grew up in Peterborough dreaming of being a footballer. At secondary school, he represented England for the European Youth Games in 2004 but but soon after he discovered that, he had a nerve disorder in his left foot and had to give up sport.

When Aston was 14, his mother asked him to enter Kid Stars in their eyes and appeared as Michael Jackson in 2002 singing "Rockin' Robin". Aston performed in all of his school productions and after finishing school in 2004, he was cast in a new TV show called Fun Song Factory.

Aston met Marvin Humes whilst auditioning for a TV advert. Since joining the band, Aston moved to London to make rehearsing easier.

Aston Merrygold and fellow members of JLS, Marvin Humes, Oritsé Williams, and JB Gill were absolutely fantastic singers and they deserved to become the number 1 boy band in the United Kingdom.

British R&B musicians
British soul musicians
English pop singers
English songwriters
Hip hop musicians
Living people
1988 births

Aston Merrygold


Fernando Lúcio da Costa (18 March 1978 – 7 June 2014), better known as Fernandão, was a Brazilian footballer. He played professionally as a striker from 1996 until 2011. He was born in Goiânia, Goiás.

Fernandão first played for Goiás, before moving to France to play for Olympique de Marseille. While playing for Marseille, he was loaned to Toulouse. He later returned to Brazil to play for Internacional from 2004 until 2008. He soon played in Qatar for Al-Gharafa. In 2009, he returned to Goiás for a season. He played his final season for São Paulo in 2010/11. He also played for the national team for one match in 2005. For four months in 2012, he coached Internacional with very little success.

Fernandão was one of five people killed in a helicopter crash on 7 June 2014 in Aruanã, Goiás. He was 36 and died less than a week before the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. His wife, Fernanda Costa, and his two twin sons, Eloa and Enzo, outlived him.

References

Other websites

1978 births
2014 deaths
Aviation deaths
Brazilian footballers

Fernandão


Stormi Bree Henley (born December 6, 1990), also known simply as Stormi Bree, is an American singer, actress, model and beauty pageant titleholder. At age 18, she was crowned Miss Teen USA 2009, after previously winning Miss Tennessee Teen USA 2009.

Personal life
Henley is the daughter of Kip and Sissi Henley and has a sister named Darbi Henley.  Her father was the winner of The Golf Channel's The Big Break II reality television competition.
She is a 2009 graduate of Cumberland County High School and represented her school at regional golf competitions.

Henley has a daughter, Gravity Blue Smith (born July 26, 2017) with former partner Lucky Blue Smith.

Career

Miss Teen USA
Henley won the Miss Tennessee Teen USA 2009 title on October 5, 2008, after competing in the pageant for the first time.

In July 2009, Henley represented Tennessee in the Miss Teen USA 2009 pageant held in
Atlantis Paradise Island, Nassau, Bahamas, which was the second Miss Teen USA pageant held outside the United States. This was the first internationally web-cast Miss Teen USA pageant, after the television contract ended with the 2007 event. In the final competition on July 31, 2009, Henley was crowned Miss Teen USA 2009 by outgoing titleholder Stevi Perry. She was the second teen from Tennessee to win Miss Teen USA and Tennessee's second national titleholder in three years, following the Miss USA win of Rachel Smith in 2007.  Prior to Henley's win, only Oregon and Texas had produced more than one Miss Teen USA titleholder.

During her reign Henley made appearances of the behalf of the Miss Universe Organization alongside her sister queens Kristen Dalton, Miss USA 2009, from North Carolina, and Stefanía Fernández, Miss Universe 2009, from Venezuela.

Music
Stormi auditioned for American Idol Season 10 and was given a Golden Ticket for Hollywood. She was eliminated in the first round of Hollywood Week.

In 2012 Henley joined music group U.G.L.Y., signed to Chris Brown (American entertainer)'s recording label CBE with fellow artists Barry "Mijo" Bradford and Braxton Olita.

She starred in American musician Børns's music video for his single "I Don't Want U Back". It was released on February 14, 2018.

Acting
Stormi appeared in "Boyle's Hunch" (2015), in the third season of FOX sitcom Brooklyn Nine-Nine. In 2014 she played a humanoid in 2307 Winter's Dream, a science fiction film starring Paul Sidhu which was directed by Joey Curtis and produced by Robert Beaumont.

References

External links
Miss Tennessee Teen USA official website
Miss Teen USA official profile

1990 births
Living people
People from Crossville, Tennessee
Beauty pageant contestants from Tennessee
American beauty pageant winners
Miss Teen USA winners
21st-century American women singers
21st-century American singers
American Idol participants

Stormi Henley


XOL DOG 400 is a German hardcore techno music project of Christian Müller, mostly publishing gabber and terrorcore tracks.

XOL DOG 400 was founded in 1992 in Berlin as successor of the electronic body music act "Le Nokto Vezyn".
In contrast to the short lifetimes typical of early techno projects, XOL DOG 400 has continued its activity through to the present (2019).

XOL DOG 400 has published several CDs and vinyl recordings, as well as contributing many tracks on samplers such as the Terrordrome compilations.

XOL DOG 400 also recorded a John Peel session for Peel's Radio show on BBC 1 and was the only German act to play at the 1998 Meltdown Festival in London hosted by John Peel.

With side projects ("Antizycle") XOL DOG 400 publishes also ambient music, worked as remixer (f.e. for  NewMind) and wrote scores.

XOL DOG 400 is a co-founder of the Fuckparade.

External links
 www.xol-dog-400.de - XOL DOG 400 homepage in German (partly English)
 www.antizycle.de -AntiZycle homepage in German

German electronic music groups

XOL DOG 400


Richard Samuel Morris (born November 28, 1948) is an American political author and commentator who previously worked as a pollster, political campaign consultant, and general political consultant.

A friend and advisor to Bill Clinton during his time as Governor of Arkansas and since his 1978 run, Morris became a political adviser to the White House after Clinton was elected president in 1992. Morris encouraged Clinton to pursue Third Way policies of triangulation that combined traditional Republican and Democratic proposals, rhetoric, and issues so as to achieve maximum political gain and popularity. He worked as a Republican strategist before joining the Clinton administration, where he helped Clinton recover from the Republican Revolution by advising him to adopt more moderate policies. The president consulted Morris in secret beginning in 1994. Clinton's communications director George Stephanopoulos has said, "Over the course of the first nine months of 1995, no single person had more power over the president." Morris went on to become campaign manager of  Clinton's successful 1996 bid for re-election as president, but his tenure on that political campaign was cut short two months before the election, when it was revealed that he had not only solicited a prostitute but also allowed her to listen in on conversations with the President.

Morris now writes a weekly column for the New York Post that is carried nationwide, and contributes columns and blogs to both the print and online versions of The Hill. He is also president of Vote.com. By 2005, Morris had emerged as a harsh critic of the Clintons and wrote several books that criticize them, including Rewriting History, a rebuttal to then-U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton's Living History.

Morris was the strategist for Republican Christy Mihos's campaign in the 2010 Massachusetts gubernatorial election, and supported Mitt Romney in 2012, predicting that he would achieve a landslide victory. Blogger Andrew Sullivan has named an annual award after Morris, given for "stunningly wrong political, social and cultural predictions". He has appeared in the past on Fox News for political commentary, especially appearing on The O'Reilly Factor and Hannity. After the 2012 presidential election, Morris did not appear on Fox News for three months, and the network ultimately opted not to renew his contract.

Early life
Morris was born in New York City, New York, the son of writer Terry Lesser Morris, an early proponent of confessional human interest stories, and attorney Eugene J. Morris. He attended Stuyvesant High School in New York City, where he was active on the debate team. He managed Jerrold Nadler's campaign for class president; Nadler has since gone on to represent New York in the House of Representatives. Morris was also involved in the first campaign of Richard Gottfried for New York State Assembly in 1970. Morris graduated from Stuyvesant in 1964, then attended Columbia University, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree, graduating in 1967. At Columbia, he roomed with Nadler.

Morris is a first cousin once removed of the late attorney Roy Cohn.

Morris and the Clintons
Morris first worked with Bill and Hillary Clinton during Bill Clinton's successful 1978 bid for Governor of Arkansas. Morris did not have a role in Clinton's successful 1992 presidential campaign, which instead was headed by David Wilhelm, James Carville, George Stephanopoulos, and Paul Begala. After the 1994 midterm elections, in which Republicans took control of both houses of the United States Congress and gained considerable power in the states, Clinton once again sought Morris' help to prepare for the 1996 presidential election.

In his writings, Morris "recounts the First Lady's numerous kindnesses to his aging (and of course Jewish) parents."

Prostitute scandal
On August 29, 1996, Morris resigned from the Clinton campaign after tabloid reports stated that he had been involved with a prostitute, Sherry Rowlands, as reported by The Washington Post. A New York tabloid newspaper, the Star, had obtained and published a set of photographs allegedly of Morris and the woman on a Washington, D.C., hotel balcony. News of the impending publication broke during the third day of the 1996 Democratic Convention. The Electronic Telegraph reported unverified claims that in order to impress Rowlands, Morris invited her to listen in on his conversations with President Clinton. It was reported that Rowlands worked for $200 an hour and that after he solicited her for sex, Morris gave Rowlands access to President Clinton's campaign speeches before they were delivered and also let her hear the President's voice during a telephone conservation. According to Rowlands, Morris had a fondness for sucking toes. It was also alleged he had an out-of-wedlock child from an affair with a Texas woman.

Morris resigned on the same day that Bill Clinton spoke and accepted the nomination at the Democratic National Convention. In his resignation statement, he said that "while I served I sought to avoid the limelight because I did not want to become the message. Now, I resign so I will not become the issue." In his response, President Clinton praised Morris as a "friend", and publicly thanked him for his years of service. Privately, several of Clinton's aides were furious that in his resignation statement Morris credited himself with helping the President "come back from being buried in a landslide" and that Morris ended by comparing himself to Robert F. Kennedy.

Morris was featured on two consecutive covers of Time magazine. The September 2, 1996 issue, which was released before the prostitute story broke, featured Morris as "The Man Who Has Clinton's Ear". The following week, the cover featured Morris and his wife, Eileen McGann, and the headline read "The Morris Mess: After the Fall".

Montgomery Blair Sibley wrote a book Why Just Her in defence of the "Washington Madam", Debra Jeane Palfrey. In it, he wrote that Morris was a client of Palfrey's escort agency, and the first individual he (Sibley) planned to call in Palfrey's defence.

Later work
In his 1997 book, Behind the Oval Office, Morris wrote that, following an argument in the Arkansas Governor's Mansion in May 1990, he strode toward the exit and was tackled by Clinton. In 2003, Morris further stated that Clinton cocked his arm back to throw a punch, but Hillary Clinton pulled her husband off Morris. In both versions of the story, she consoled Morris and apologized to him, stating that Bill behaved as such only with those he cared for most. According to Morris, she did this to keep him quiet about the incident. He says the incident was the reason for denying Bill Clinton's request to work on the 1992 campaign.

Morris has become a vocal and regular critic of the Clintons since his departure, in particular Hillary Rodham Clinton and her bid for the presidency. Morris has written extensively about the Clintons (see below) and also contributed to Hillary: The Movie, a documentary about Rodham Clinton when she was still a 2008 Presidential candidate. Later, after Bill Clinton's comments about the similarities between Barack Obama's popularity and that of presidential candidate Jesse Jackson in 1988, Morris put out an article on his blog that asserted that this was Clinton's way of injecting race into the political campaign.

Political consulting
As of August 2009, Morris lends his name and assistance to the League of American Voters, an advocacy group for seniors to defeat the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. He has been described as "America's most ruthless political consultant" in the BBC documentary Century of the Self, which chronicled how he brought lifestyle marketing to politics for the first time.

Morris has consulted for candidates in other countries of the western hemisphere, including the campaigns of Fernando de la Rua for President of Argentina (1999), Jorge Batlle for President of Uruguay (1999), Vicente Fox for President of Mexico (2000), and Raphael Trotman for President of Guyana (2006).

Morris and his wife, Eileen McGann, are behind www.vote.com, a site intended to register non-scientific political public opinion on various issues.

Morris worked as a strategist for Christy Mihos, who sought the Republican nomination to run for Governor of Massachusetts in 2010 against incumbent Deval Patrick overseeing strategy, polling, and advertising. At the Republican state convention, Mihos lost to Charlie Baker by 89 percent to 11 percent; by failing to reach 15 percent, Mihos did not qualify for a primary against Baker.

Guest commentator and political prognosticator

Since leaving Clinton's employ in 1996, Morris has said he has become profoundly "disillusioned" with the actions of the Clintons in the late 1990s. He has since formed a career as a political commentator and critic of the Clintons (particularly Hillary), appearing on Fox News programs such as Hannity & Colmes, Hannity, and The O'Reilly Factor, and on various local and nationally syndicated radio talk shows. Morris is also a regular columnist and Pundits Blogger for The Hill, a nonpartisan daily newspaper based in Washington, D.C., and for Newsmax, a conservative online news website. Morris regularly makes predictions about candidates' chances of winning elections during these appearances.

Regarding the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination, he initially stated that Howard Dean's candidacy could be written off right away. He had earlier discussed the likelihood of Dean defeating John Kerry after early strong showings by the former Vermont governor. Kerry defeated Dean and all his other rivals and won the nomination.

In a column in The Hill on June 22, 2005, Morris predicted that Hillary Clinton would face her "worst nightmare" in her 2006 Senate race against Republican candidate Judge Jeanine Pirro, whose campaign subsequently collapsed within a matter of two months after repeated crushing defeats in the opinion polls due to her husband's alleged Mafia ties. He even went so far as to suggest that Hillary Clinton would drop out to focus on her 2008 presidential campaign.

In 2005 Morris wrote that Hurricane Katrina "has the capacity to shape the second Bush term in the same way September 11 shaped his first term—not only in rebuilding New Orleans but in taking preventative steps around the nation to bolster our defenses against natural and man-made disasters and terror strikes. Responding to disasters is a source of presidential strength and popularity, and Bush is about to show how it is done."

In August 2011, Morris began a petition on his website opposing federal funding for the Park51 Muslim community center, claiming that the center is "designed to celebrate the attacks that killed 3,000 Americans", and that the center would "train the same kinds of terrorists who caused the... attacks".

2008 election
In a 2005 book on the 2008 presidential campaign, Morris stated that it was most likely that Hillary Clinton would face Condoleezza Rice for the presidency. Morris's critics reacted by mocking his mistaken predictions of past races. Appearing on Fox News' Hannity and Colmes on January 29, 2008, Morris said that those voting for John Edwards were "at the moment... those that can't decide which they don't like more—a black or a woman getting elected". Morris elaborated that exit polls showed some Edwards voters were unsure if a woman or an African-American, in reference to then Democratic Primary front runners Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, could get elected to the Presidency for the first time in 2008.

In the weeks leading up to the 2008 election, Morris correctly predicted that Obama would win the election in a landslide, but incorrectly predicted that Obama would win Missouri, Arkansas, North Carolina, Arizona, Tennessee, and West Virginia by comfortable margins, while Louisiana, Georgia and South Carolina would be tossups. Of those states, Obama only won North Carolina in a close margin.

After Obama won the 2008 election, Morris was critical of him. In early 2009, Morris said: "Those crazies in Montana who say, 'We're going to kill ATF agents because the UN's going to take over'? Well, they're beginning to have a case." In April 2009, Morris keynoted an animated debate at the Yale Political Union on the topic "Resolved: Save Capitalism from President Obama".

2012 election
During the 2012 United States presidential election, Morris received widespread attention for his inaccurate predictions and controversial statements about candidates. In a March 2011 column for The Hill, Morris predicted that Obama would not win a second term as president. In July 2012, Morris predicted that Mitt Romney would choose Florida Senator Marco Rubio as his running mate as an effort to court the Latino vote; Romney ultimately chose Paul Ryan. In August 2012, Morris predicted that Bill Clinton was going to vote for Mitt Romney, but that he would still speak in favor of Obama because "his wife is hostage."

In October 2012, Morris was a speaker at a special meeting of the Republican Caucus of the Georgia House of Representatives to discuss claims that Obama was using 'mind-control' techniques to create a Communist dictatorship controlled by the United Nations under the guise of promoting sustainability and public transportation. Speaking at the event, Morris argued that Obama's aim was to join with the United Nations to "force everyone into the cities from whence our ancestors fled."

On the day before the 2012 U.S. presidential election, Morris predicted on his website and in an article in The Hill that the Republican candidate, Mitt Romney, would win the presidency in a landslide "approaching the magnitude of Obama's against McCain." Specifically, he stated that Romney would win 325 electoral votes and that Obama would win 213. Obama ended up winning 332 electoral votes with Romney winning 206, meaning Morris was off by 119 electoral votes. He explained the logic behind his prediction in a video posted at his website. He made this prediction in the face of an overwhelming consensus among expert pollsters leading up to election night that Obama would win at least the Electoral College and likely the popular vote. Morris wrote on his website, "On Sunday, we changed our clocks. On Tuesday, we'll change our president." With regard to his prognostications, Morris announced on Fox and Friends two days before the election that after the election "either I'm gonna have to go through a big reckoning, or they [the mainstream pollsters] are." Jon Stewart mocked the idea on The Daily Show, calling Dick Morris the "King of Wrong Mountain" and claiming that pundits live in a "reckoning-free zone." Morris was the least accurate major pundit in predicting the 2012 presidential election.

In Morris's article in The Hill, he identified some "key mistakes" by the Obama campaign, which he stated would cost Obama the election:
 The campaign "bet the farm on negative ads in swing states."
 Obama never moved to the political center.
 The Obama campaign did not consider Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan or Minnesota swing states.
 Obama "became nothing more than a nasty partisan" instead of trying to look presidential.
 Obama offered nothing more than "a grab-bag of special-interest pleadings for single women, unions, college kids and minorities".
 Obama underperformed in the first presidential debate.
 Obama was slow to release information about the attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi.
 Obama returned to campaigning too quickly after Hurricane Sandy.

On November 7, 2012, the day after the election, Morris published an article in The Hill titled "Why I was wrong". Morris stated that he had "egg on his face" and that the "key reason for my bum prediction is that I believed, mistakenly, that the 2008 surge in black, Latino and young voter turnout would recede in 2012 to 'normal' levels. Didn't happen. These high levels of minority and young voter participation are here to stay. And, with them, a permanent reshaping of our nation's politics." In a subsequent interview on Fox News, Morris added: "I called it as I saw it from the polling and I did the best I could and I also worked very hard for Romney." He elaborated on the latter point by explaining that he thought it was his duty to help the Romney campaign by countering pessimism about Romney's chances.

Other elections
In March 2021, it was reported by The New York Times that he was meeting with Donald Trump in New York, "encouraging him to take on the party he once led".

Foreign political consultant
Morris worked with the United Kingdom Independence Party in their campaign before the 2004 European Parliament election. The party, which advocated withdrawal from the European Union, won 12 of the United Kingdom's 78 seats.

In 2004 and 2005, he and his wife had acted as campaign consultants to the successful Yushchenko Presidential campaign in Ukraine. Morris reports that he insisted on the use of exit polls as a means of potentially exposing ballot tampering. He argues this played a significant role in forcing the government of then President Leonid Kuchma to acquiesce to a new poll when the official results of the first varied materially from the exit surveys. Faced with a similar (though smaller) divergence between exit polling and election returns, he took the opposite stance in a 2004 article in The Hill when he suspected "foul play" on the part of the exit pollsters in the US presidential race.

In a November 13, 2007 press conference in Nairobi, Kenya, Morris announced that he would be offering his consultancy services pro bono for the campaign to elect Raila Odinga as President of Kenya in the 2007 Presidential election running on the Orange Democratic Movement ticket. With four weeks to the national elections, an editorial in one of the leading dailies called into question the legalities of Morris' consulting work from the perspective of his presence in and lack of legal ability to work in Kenya "pro bono" or "through the back door".

The outcome of the December 27, 2007, elections in Kenya is still disputed due to allegations of electoral fraud and rigging by the incumbent president, Mwai Kibaki, the Party of National Unity and erroneous reporting by the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK). Massive protests and tribal tensions have since erupted between the president's Kikuyu tribe and the majority of other tribes not favorably aligned to the outcome. Major mediations have commenced between concerned parties, including possible formation of a coalition and/or interim government until reelections are held.

Radio and TV host
Following the 2012 election, Morris did not appear on Fox News for almost three months. On February 5, 2013, Fox announced that it would not renew Morris' contract. In addition to his numerous inaccurate predictions, Morris had been criticized for accepting paid ads on his Website from candidates whom he discussed on the air, a clear conflict of interest.

Beginning in 2013, Morris' Super PAC For America disbursed approximately $1.7mm for "fundraising" to the television network, Newsmax. Emails from both Morris and Newsmax were paid for by Super PAC for America. Some media outlets speculate that Morris took advantage of Super PAC For America donations by paying Newsmax for fundraising which in turn paid Morris large sums of money to 'rent' his email list. Morris was a regular guest on multiple Newsmax shows, such as American Agenda, Greg Kelly Reports and Spicer & Co.. In 2021, Morris launched a weekly half-hour show on Newsmax TV, Dick Morris Democracy.

Morris was host of a daily radio talk show on WPHT in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from 2013 to 2015. Morris cited his desire to campaign for 2016 Republican candidates as his reason for leaving. In 2021, Morris launched a one-hour radio program on WABC in New York City, aired from noon to 1 PM on Sundays.

Film
Morris has appeared in, and wrote the screenplay for, the documentary film FahrenHYPE 9/11. The film was a response to Michael Moore's 2004 film, Fahrenheit 9/11.

Tax problems
Morris failed to pay a variety of state and federal taxes beginning in 1996. In 2010, he declared that he had reached an agreement with the State of Connecticut, and that he is committed to paying his taxes: "Following a difficult period in my life, I fell into arrears. But since then, I have paid almost $3 million in state and federal taxes." In 2012, the lien that had been placed on his house was lifted.

Books
Morris has written several books, many co-authored with his wife, Eileen McGann. He authored Condi vs. Hillary in which he argues that only Condoleezza Rice could block Hillary Clinton's anticipated 2008 bid for the White House.

Rewriting History was published in May 2004 as a rebuttal to Hillary Clinton's book, Living History (). In it, he argues that Hillary Clinton has presented a false "nice" persona in the book. Morris instead remembers her as manipulative, cold, and single-minded in her pursuit of power. Similarly, Morris and McGann wrote Because He Could in response to Bill Clinton's memoir My Life ().

Bibliography
 Behind the Oval Office: Winning the Presidency in the Nineties (1997)
 Vote.com: How Big-Money Lobbyists and the Media Are Losing Their Influence, and the Internet Is Giving Power Back to the People (1999)
 The New Prince: Machiavelli Updated for the Twenty-First Century (2000)
 Power Plays: Win or Lose – How History's Great Political Leaders Play the Game (2003)
 Rewriting History (2004)
 Because He Could (2004, with Eileen McGann)
 Condi vs. Hillary: The Next Great Presidential Race (2005, with Eileen McGann)
 Outrage: How Illegal Immigration, the United Nations, Congressional Ripoffs, Student Loan Overcharges, Tobacco Companies, Trade Protection, and Drug Companies are Ripping Us Off ...And What to Do About It (2007, with Eileen McGann)
 Catastrophe: How Obama, Congress, and the Special Interests Are Transforming a Slump Into a Crash, Freedom Into Socialism, and a Disaster Into a Catastrophe ...and How to Fight Back (2008, with Eileen McGAnn)
 Fleeced: How Barack Obama, Media Mockery of Terrorist Threats, Liberals Who Want To Kill Talk Radio, the Do-Nothing Congress, Companies That Help Iran, and Washington Lobbyists for Foreign Governments Are Scamming Us...And What To Do About It (2008, with Eileen McGann)
 Revolt! How to Defeat Obama and Repeal His Socialist Programs (2011, with Eileen McGann)
 Screwed: How Foreign Countries Are Ripping America Off and Plundering Our Economy-and How Our Leaders Help Them Do It (2012, with Eileen McGann)
 Here Come the Black Helicopters!: UN Global Governance and the Loss of Freedom (2012, with Eileen McGann)
 Armageddon: How Trump Can Beat Hillary (2016, with Eileen McGann)
 Rogue Spooks: The Intelligence War on Donald Trump (2017, with Eileen McGann)

References

External links

 Vote.com Dick Morris online polling site
 Podcasts of Morris' recent articles
 Dick Morris' Pundits Blogs for The Hill

1947 births
20th-century American non-fiction writers
21st-century American non-fiction writers
American campaign managers
American columnists
American political consultants
American political commentators
American political writers
American male non-fiction writers
Clinton administration personnel
Columbia College (New York) alumni
Fox News people
Living people
Pollsters
Stuyvesant High School alumni
United States presidential advisors
New York (state) Republicans
20th-century American male writers
21st-century American male writers

Dick Morris