DMRC

The Delhi Metro is a rapid transit system serving Delhi and its satellite cities of Ghaziabad, Faridabad, Gurgaon, Noida, Bahadurgarh and Ballabhgarh, in the National Capital Region of India.[9] It is by far the largest and busiest metro in India, and second oldest after the Kolkata Metro.[10] The network consists of Eleven colour-coded regular lines serving 285 stations with a total length of 391 kilometres (243 mi).[2][3] The system has a mix of underground, at-grade, and elevated stations using both broad-gauge and standard-gauge. Delhi Metro operates over 2,700 trips daily, starting at around 05:00 and ending at 23:30.[11]

Construction started in 1998, and the first elevated section (Shahdara to Tis Hazari) on the Red Line opened in 2002. The first underground section (Vishwa Vidyalaya - Kashmere Gate) on the Yellow Line opened in 2004.[12] The development of the network was divided into phases. Phase I with 3 lines was completed by 2006, and Phase II in 2011. As of 2019, Phase III is in the finishing stage, and scheduled to be mostly complete by the end of the year. Construction on Phase IV was formally started on 30 December 2019.[13]

Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Limited (DMRC), a company with equal equity participation from the Government of India and the Government of Delhi, built and operates the Delhi Metro.[14][15] DMRC was certified by the United Nations in 2011 as the first metro rail and rail-based system in the world to get carbon credits for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, reducing carbon emission levels in the city by 630,000 tonnes every year.[8]

Delhi Metro also interchanges with the Rapid Metro Gurugram (with a shared ticketing system) and Noida Metro. On 5 February 2019, the DMRC took over the operations of the financially troubled Rapid Metro Gurgaon as part of its own network
Background
The concept of a mass rapid transit for New Delhi first emerged from a traffic and travel characteristics study which was carried out in the city in 1969.[17] Over the next several years, many official committees by a variety of Government departments were commissioned to examine issues related to technology, route alignment, and Governmental jurisdiction.[18] In 1984, the Urban Arts Commission came up with a proposal for developing a multi-modal transport system, which would consist of constructing three underground mass rapid transit corridors as well augmenting the city's existing suburban railway and road transport networks.[19]

While extensive technical studies and the raising of finance for the project were in progress, the city expanded significantly resulting in a twofold rise in population and a five-fold rise in the number of vehicles between 1981 and 1998.[19] Consequently, traffic congestion and pollution soared, as an increasing number of commuters took to private vehicles with the existing bus system unable to bear the load.[17] An attempt at privatizing the bus transport system in 1992 merely compounded the problem, with inexperienced operators plying poorly maintained, noisy and polluting buses on lengthy routes, resulting in long waiting times, unreliable service, extreme overcrowding, unqualified drivers, speeding and reckless driving.[20] To rectify the situation, the Government of India and the Government of Delhi jointly set up a company called the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) on 3 May 1995, with Elattuvalapil Sreedharan as the managing director.[21] Sreedharan handed over the charge as Managing Director of DMRC to Mangu Singh on 31 December 2011.

Initial construction
Physical construction work on the Delhi Metro started on 1 October 1998.[22] After the previous problems experienced by the Kolkata Metro, which was badly delayed and 12 times over budget due to "political meddling, technical problems and bureaucratic delays", DMRC is a special-purpose organisation vested with great autonomy and powers to execute this gigantic project involving many technical complexities, under a difficult urban environment and within a very limited time frame. DMRC was given full powers to hire people, decide on tenders and control funds.[23] The DMRC then hired the Hong Kong MTRC as a technical consultant on rapid transit operation and construction techniques.[24] As a result, construction proceeded smoothly, except for one major disagreement in 2000, where the Ministry of Railways forced the system to use broad gauge despite the DMRC's preference for standard gauge.[25]

The first line of the Delhi Metro, the Red Line, was inaugurated by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the then Prime Minister of India on 24 December 2002.[26] The Delhi Metro became the second underground rapid transit system in India, after the Kolkata Metro, when the Vishwa Vidyalaya–Kashmere Gate section of the Yellow Line opened on 20 December 2004. This underground line was inauguated by the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The first phase of the project was eventually completed in 2006,[27][28] on budget and almost three years ahead of schedule, an achievement described by Business Week as "nothing short of a miracle".[29]

Phase I

Heropanti 2

Heropanti (transl. Heroic antics) is an Indian Hindi-language romantic action comedy film, directed by Sabbir Khan and produced by Sajid Nadiadwala. The film stars Tiger Shroff and Kriti Sanon in their Hindi film debuts, alongside Prakash Raj in a supporting role. It is a remake of the Telugu film Parugu. Heropanti was released on 23 May 2014.[1] The movie went on to become a hit at the box office.
Chaudhary (Prakash Raj) is a very well known and respected man in his village. He is a very strict patriarch of the Jat family from Haryana consisting of four brothers – Chaudhary himself, Bhuppi (Samar Jai Singh), Pappi (K. C. Shankar) and Sukhi (Prashant Singh). On the night of her marriage, Renu (Sandeepa Dhar), the elder daughter of Chaudhary, elopes with her boyfriend, Rakesh. Chaudhary decides to find them at any cost.

Chaudhary and his men manage to locate two of Rakesh's friends from different places and beat them up. Chaudhary and his men bring them over to his place and one of them reveals Bablu's (Tiger Shroff) name and that he might have an idea where Renu and Rakesh are. At first when Bhuppi, Pappi, Sukhi, and the gang confront Bablu and attack him to find Rakesh, Bablu single-handedly beats up all of them but is hit in the head and loses consciousness.

Chaudhary holds Bablu and the other two friends captive till they tell of the couple's whereabouts. They tell him that they don't know anything, but no one believes them. Meanwhile, Bablu tells his friends that he is in love with a girl of that town, whom he doesn't know and he only has her earring which she dropped that day. The friends decide to flee one day, but Bablu gets a glimpse of the girl and stops in his tracks to look at her and the boys are caught because of him.

Back at Chaudhary's household where the friends are held captive, Chaudhary's younger daughter and Renu's sister, Dimpy (Kriti Sanon) tries to ask them where her sister is, but they won't tell her. Dimpy finds Renu's love letters in her room one of which reaches her uncle. Dimpy manages to clean up everything before her uncle Bhuppi reaches her room. When Shaalu (Sugandha Mishra) is about to burn those letters, Dimpy's uncle asks one of his men to check it. Without thinking much she drops those letters where the boys are held captive. With the help of these letters Bablu and his friends blackmail her. However, Bablu makes a deal with her that in exchange for her sister's whereabouts, Dimpy must find the girl he fell in love with. Dimpy does not agree, but later when circumstances force her, she agrees. That night, Bablu escapes and enters the house after the light fuse burns out. He drinks from the glass of Rajjo (Vikram Singh) (who later turns out to be the would-be-suitor of Dimpy) and becomes drunk. Dimpy finds Bablu and he gives her the earring he found that belongs to the girl he fell in love with. To Dimpy's shock, it turns out that it was none other than her, herself that Bablu saw that day. But she stays silent.

Bablu and his friends go with Chaudhary's men to town one day to search for Renu and Rakesh, where Bablu helps them to board a bus to Shimla. Dimpy's uncle, Pappi, comes to know that Bablu had helped them to flee when he overhears Dimpy. The entire group is beaten badly. When they threaten to kill one of his friends, Bablu tells them that Renu and Rakesh are in Delhi.

Bablu and his friends as well as Dimpy accompany her father to Delhi to find the couple. At this juncture, Dimpy is kidnapped by some local goons, who attempt to rape her. Bablu manages to locate her in time and beats up the goons, winning the trust of Dimpy's father.

That night Dimpy and Bablu go to a night club. In the morning, while Dimpy is confessing her love to Bablu, Chaudhary spots Renu and Rakesh on a bus and chases after them with Bablu and Chaudhary's men following close behind. They manage to stop the bus but when Renu talks back to her father, Chaudhary is heartbroken. When Renu and Rakesh are about to be killed as punishment, Renu confesses that she is pregnant. Chaudhary decides to spare their lives, but at a cost- openly claiming that, to him, Renu is no more.

The group returns home and Chaudhary arranges Dimpy's marriage with Rajjo. He plans on conducting the marriage with pomp. Bablu realises that he misses Dimpy too much. He and his friends come back with the intention to get Dimpy to elope with Bablu. Chaudhary, however, is frightened when Bablu returns, fearing that he will elope with Dimpy. He keeps a close eye on Bablu and Dimpy. When Chaudhary takes Bablu outside, Bablu tells him that he understands how Chaudhary felt when Renu ran way from home and promises him that he will not elope with Dimpy.

When Bablu and his friends are about to leave, Rajjo beats up Bablu with the intention of injuring him, however Bablu fights back and defeats Rajjo in a hand-to-hand combat when Rajjo insults him and Dimpy. They are however stopped at the last moment by Chaudhary. He realises that Dimpy will only be happy if she is with Bablu, and tells Bablu to take her away. Bablu and Dimpy unite with a hug, while Chaudhary and the other people of the Jatt community agree to permit inter-caste and love marriages and Chaudhary accepts Renu back as his daughter.

Cast
Tiger Shroff as Bablu Singh[3][4]
Kriti Sanon as Dimple (Dimpy) Chaudhary[5]
Prakash Raj as Mr. Adhvik Chaudhary (Dimpy's father)
Raashul Tandon as Kiki [6]
Sandeepa Dhar as Renu Chaudhary (Dimpy's sister)[7]
Vikram Singh as Rajjo Fauji[8]
Shireesh Sharma as Police Commissioner
Priyamvada Kant in special appearance
Samar Jai Singh as Bhuppi
K. C. Shankar as Pappi
Sunil Grover as Driver
Jatin Suri as Jitesh (Bablu's friend)
Sugandha Mishra as Shalu (Dimpy's friend)
Prashant Singh as Sukhi
Production
On Salman Khan's insistence, Sajid Nadiadwala was to cast the former's bodyguard Shera's son Tiger Jolly in the film.[9] Instead, Khan later asked Nadiadwala to launch Jackie Shroff's son Tiger Shroff for the film who was signed in June 2012.[10] Filming was mostly done in Kashmir including the romantic song "Rabba".[11] Official trailer was released on 6 April 2014.[12] The film was released on 25 May 2014.[13][14]

Sequel
On 19 February 2020, Tiger Shroff revealed that a sequel was in cards with Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment producing it again. On 27 February, a post on the banner's social media handle presented that it will make a big announcement on next day. Eventually, on 28 February, the two posters of the sequel Heropanti 2 were released to officially announce it with Ahmed Khan as director and release date to be 16 July 2021.[15]

Critical reception
Film critic Subhash K. Jha gave it 3.5 out of 5 stars and said that Shroff delivers a rare combination of romantic and action oriented protagonist.[16] Bollywood Hungama critic Taran Adarsh also gave the movie 3.5 out of 5 stars, calling it an entertainer that hits the right notes.[17]

CNN-News18 critic Rajeev Masand gave the film 2 out of 5 stars and stated that "for Heropanti, with its regressive themes, sexist humor, and stock villains wears you out early on during its 2 hours 26-minute running time."[18] Anupama Chopra also gave the movie 2 out of 5 stars and overall criticised the movie by saying, "the disjointed narrative brims with low-IQ high-testosterone men brandishing weapons. The women are puppets who either simper or scream."[19] According to Firstpost critic Mihir Fadnavis, Tiger Shroff can pull off stunts, but that's about it.[20] Faheem Rumani of India Today gave it 1.5 out of 5 stars, stating that, "Heropanti is all about Shroff's athletic ability and has little to do with his acting skills".[21] Puneet kapil Gave this movie 2/5* and added that movie is for only one time watch and that too for light comedy and action scenes.

Forensic movie

Forensic : The Science of a Crime is a 2020 Indian Malayalam language crime thriller film, starring Tovino Thomas and Mamta Mohandas.the film is now scheduled to hit screens on 28 February 2020.[1]

Cast
Tovino Thomas as Samuel John Kattookkaran (Medico-Legal Advisor)
Mamta Mohandas as Rithika Xavier IPS
Reba Monica John as Shikha Damodar
Renji Panicker as Abdul Wahab
Saiju Kurup as Xavier John Kattookkaran
Prathap Pothan
Mohan Sharma as John Kattookkaran
Giju John
Anwar Shereef
Rony David as Cameo appearance
Anil Murali as Cameo appearance
Ramu as Cameo appearance
Srikanth Murali as Cameo appearance
Lukman as Cameo appearance

Leap Year

A leap year (also known as an intercalary year or bissextile year) is a calendar year that contains an additional day (or, in the case of a lunisolar calendar, a month) added to keep the calendar year synchronized with the astronomical year or seasonal year.[1] Because astronomical events and seasons do not repeat in a whole number of days, calendars that have the same number of days in each year drift over time with respect to the event that the year is supposed to track. By inserting (called intercalating in technical terminology) an additional day or month into the year, the drift can be corrected. A year that is not a leap year is a common year.

For example, in the Gregorian calendar, each leap year has 366 days instead of 365, by extending February to 29 days rather than the common 28. These extra days occur in each year which is an integer multiple of 4 (except for years evenly divisible by 100, which are not leap years unless evenly divisible by 400). Similarly, in the lunisolar Hebrew calendar, Adar Aleph, a 13th lunar month, is added seven times every 19 years to the twelve lunar months in its common years to keep its calendar year from drifting through the seasons. In the Bahá'í Calendar, a leap day is added when needed to ensure that the following year begins on the March equinox.

The term leap year probably comes from the fact that a fixed date in the Gregorian calendar normally advances one day of the week from one year to the next, but the day of the week in the 12 months following the leap day (from March 1 through February 28 of the following year) will advance two days due to the extra day, thus leaping over one day in the week.[2][3] For example, Christmas Day (December 25) fell on a Tuesday in 2012, Wednesday in 2013, Thursday in 2014, and Friday in 2015, but then leapt over Saturday to fall on a Sunday in 2016.

The length of a day is also occasionally corrected by inserting a leap second into Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) because of variations in Earth's rotation period. Unlike leap days, leap seconds are not introduced on a regular schedule because variations in the length of the day are not entirely predictable.

Leap years can present a problem in computing, known as the leap year bug, when a year is not correctly identified as a leap year or when February 29 is not handled correctly in logic that accepts or manipulates dates.
Algorithm
The following pseudocode determines whether a year is a leap year or a common year in the Gregorian calendar (and in the proleptic Gregorian calendar before 1582). The year variable being tested is the integer representing the number of the year in the Gregorian calendar.

if (year is not divisible by 4) then (it is a common year)
else if (year is not divisible by 100) then (it is a leap year)
else if (year is not divisible by 400) then (it is a common year)
else (it is a leap year)

The algorithm applies to proleptic Gregorian calendar years before 1, but only if the year is expressed with astronomical year numbering. It is not valid for the BC or BCE notation. The algorithm is not necessarily valid for years in the Julian calendar, such as years before 1752 in the British Empire. The year 1700 was a leap year in the Julian calendar, but not in the Gregorian calendar.

Leap day
February 29 is a date that usually occurs every four years, and is called the leap day. This day is added to the calendar in leap years as a corrective measure, because the Earth does not orbit the sun in precisely 365 days.

The Gregorian calendar is a modification of the Julian calendar first used by the Romans. The Roman calendar originated as a lunisolar calendar and named many of its days after the syzygies of the moon: the new moon (Kalendae or calends, hence "calendar") and the full moon (Idus or ides). The Nonae or nones was not the first quarter moon but was exactly one nundina or Roman market week of nine days before the ides, inclusively counting the ides as the first of those nine days. This is what we would call a period of eight days. In 1825, Ideler believed that the lunisolar calendar was abandoned about 450 BC by the decemvirs, who implemented the Roman Republican calendar, used until 46 BC. The days of these calendars were counted down (inclusively) to the next named day, so February 24 was ante diem sextum Kalendas Martias ("the sixth day before the calends of March") often abbreviated a. d. VI Kal. Mart. The Romans counted days inclusively in their calendars, so this was actually the fifth day before March 1 when counted in the modern exclusive manner (not including the starting day).[11]

The Republican calendar's intercalary month was inserted on the first or second day after the Terminalia (a. d. VII Kal. Mar., February 23). The remaining days of Februarius were dropped. This intercalary month, named Intercalaris or Mercedonius, contained 27 days. The religious festivals that were normally celebrated in the last five days of February were moved to the last five days of Intercalaris. Because only 22 or 23 days were effectively added, not a full lunation, the calends and ides of the Roman Republican calendar were no longer associated with the new moon and full moon.

The Julian calendar, which was developed in 46 BC by Julius Caesar, and became effective in 45 BC, distributed an extra ten days among the months of the Roman Republican calendar. Caesar also replaced the intercalary month by a single intercalary day, located where the intercalary month used to be. To create the intercalary day, the existing ante diem sextum Kalendas Martias (February 24) was doubled, producing ante diem bis sextum Kalendas Martias. Hence, the year containing the doubled day was a bissextile (bis sextum, "twice sixth") year. For legal purposes, the two days of the bis sextum were considered to be a single day, with the second half being intercalated; but in common practice by 238, when Censorinus wrote, the intercalary day was followed by the last five days of February, a. d. VI, V, IV, III and pridie Kal. Mart. (the days numbered 24, 25, 26, 27, and 28 from the beginning of February in a common year), so that the intercalated day was the first half of the doubled day. Thus the intercalated day was effectively inserted between the 23rd and 24th days of February. All later writers, including Macrobius about 430, Bede in 725, and other medieval computists (calculators of Easter), continued to state that the bissextum (bissextile day) occurred before the last five days of February.
Until 1970, the Roman Catholic Church always celebrated the feast of Saint Matthias on a. d. VI Kal. Mart., so if the days were numbered from the beginning of the month, it was named February 24 in common years, but the presence of the bissextum in a bissextile year immediately before a. d. VI Kal. Mart. shifted the latter day to February 25 in leap years, with the Vigil of St. Matthias shifting from February 23 to the leap day of February 24. This shift did not take place in pre-Reformation Norway and Iceland; Pope Alexander III ruled that either practice was lawful (Liber Extra, 5. 40. 14. 1). Other feasts normally falling on February 25–28 in common years are also shifted to the following day in a leap year (although they would be on the same day according to the Roman notation). The practice is still observed by those who use the older calendars.

Synchronized calendars (Bengali, Indian and Thai)
The Revised Bengali Calendar of Bangladesh and the Indian National Calendar organise their leap years so that the every leap day is close to a February 29 in the Gregorian calendar and vice versa. This makes it easy to convert dates to or from Gregorian.

The Thai solar calendar uses the Buddhist Era (BE), but has been synchronized with the Gregorian since AD 1941.

Julian, Coptic and Ethiopian calendars
From AD 8 the Julian calendar received an extra day added to February in years that are multiples of 4.

The Coptic calendar and Ethiopian calendar also add an extra day to the end of the year once every four years before a Julian 29-day February.

This rule gives an average year length of 365.25 days. However, it is 11 minutes longer than a tropical year. This means that the vernal equinox moves a day earlier in the calendar about every 131 years.

Revised Julian calendar
The Revised Julian calendar adds an extra day to February in years that are multiples of four, except for years that are multiples of 100 that do not leave a remainder of 200 or 600 when divided by 900. This rule agrees with the rule for the Gregorian calendar until 2799. The first year that dates in the Revised Julian calendar will not agree with those in the Gregorian calendar will be 2800, because it will be a leap year in the Gregorian calendar but not in the Revised Julian calendar.

This rule gives an average year length of 365.242222 days. This is a very good approximation to the mean tropical year, but because the vernal equinox year is slightly longer, the Revised Julian calendar for the time being does not do as good a job as the Gregorian calendar at keeping the vernal equinox on or close to March 21.

Chinese calendar
The Chinese calendar is lunisolar, so a leap year has an extra month, often called an embolismic month after the Greek word for it. In the Chinese calendar the leap month is added according to a rule which ensures that month 11 is always the month that contains the northern winter solstice. The intercalary month takes the same number as the preceding month; for example, if it follows the second month (二月) then it is simply called "leap second month" i.e. simplified Chinese: 闰二月; traditional Chinese: 閏二月; pinyin: rùn'èryuè.

Hebrew calendar
The Hebrew calendar is lunisolar with an embolismic month. This extra month is called Adar Alef (first Adar) and is added before Adar, which then becomes Adar Bet (second Adar). According to the Metonic cycle, this is done seven times every nineteen years (specifically, in years 3, 6, 8, 11, 14, 17, and 19). This is to ensure that Passover (Pesah) is always in the spring as required by the Torah (Pentateuch) in many verses[12] relating to Passover.

In addition, the Hebrew calendar has postponement rules that postpone the start of the year by one or two days. These postponement rules reduce the number of different combinations of year length and starting days of the week from 28 to 14, and regulate the location of certain religious holidays in relation to the Sabbath. In particular, the first day of the Hebrew year can never be Sunday, Wednesday or Friday. This rule is known in Hebrew as "lo adu rosh" (לא אד"ו ראש), i.e., "Rosh [ha-Shanah, first day of the year] is not Sunday, Wednesday or Friday" (as the Hebrew word adu is written by three Hebrew letters signifying Sunday, Wednesday and Friday). Accordingly, the first day of Passover is never Monday, Wednesday or Friday. This rule is known in Hebrew as "lo badu Pesah" (לא בד"ו פסח), which has a double meaning — "Passover is not a legend", but also "Passover is not Monday, Wednesday or Friday" (as the Hebrew word badu is written by three Hebrew letters signifying Monday, Wednesday and Friday).

One reason for this rule is that Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Hebrew calendar and the tenth day of the Hebrew year, now must never be adjacent to the weekly Sabbath (which is Saturday), i.e., it must never fall on Friday or Sunday, in order not to have two adjacent Sabbath days. However, Yom Kippur can still be on Saturday. A second reason is that Hoshana Rabbah, the 21st day of the Hebrew year, will never be on Saturday. These rules for the Feasts do not apply to the years from the Creation to the deliverance of the Hebrews from Egypt under Moses. It was at that time (cf. Exodus 13) that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob gave the Hebrews their "Law" including the days to be kept holy and the feast days and Sabbaths.

Years consisting of 12 months have between 353 and 355 days. In a k'sidra ("in order") 354-day year, months have alternating 30 and 29 day lengths. In a chaser ("lacking") year, the month of Kislev is reduced to 29 days. In a malei ("filled") year, the month of Marcheshvan is increased to 30 days. 13-month years follow the same pattern, with the addition of the 30-day Adar Alef, giving them between 383 and 385 days.

Islamic calendar
The observed and calculated versions of the Islamic calendar do not have regular leap days, even though both have lunar months containing 29 or 30 days, generally in alternating order. However, the tabular Islamic calendar used by Islamic astronomers during the Middle Ages and still used by some Muslims does have a regular leap day added to the last month of the lunar year in 11 years of a 30-year cycle.[13] This additional day is found at the end of the last month, Dhu 'l-Hijja, which is also the month of the Hajj.[14]

The Hijri-Shamsi calendar, also adopted by the Ahmadiyya Community, is based on solar calculations and is similar to the Gregorian calendar in its structure with the exception that the first year starts with Hijra.[15]

Bahá'í calendar
The Iranian calendar is an observational calendar that starts on the spring equinox and adds a single intercalated day to the last month (Esfand) once every four or five years; the first leap year occurs as the fifth year of the typical 33-year cycle and the remaining leap years occur every four years through the remainder of the 33-year cycle. This system has less periodic deviation or jitter from its mean year than the Gregorian calendar, and operates on the simple rule that the vernal equinox always falls in the 24-hour period ending at noon on New Year's Day.[16] The 33-year period is not completely regular; every so often the 33-year cycle will be broken by a cycle of 29 years.[17] A similar rule has been proposed to simplify the Gregorian calendar.[18] The centennial leap years would be spaced so that in years giving remainder 3 on division by 100 the dynamic mean sun[19] passes through the equinox in the 24-hour period ending at 1 PM GMT on 19 March. The system would be introduced when for the first time the dynamic mean sun is due to pass through the equinox before 1 PM GMT on 18 March in a year giving remainder 3 on division by 400. The immediately preceding centennial leap year will be cancelled. The first cancellation will probably be AD 8400 and the next two centennial leap years thereafter will probably be AD 8800 and AD 9700.
In Ireland and Britain, it is a tradition that women may propose marriage only in leap years. While it has been claimed that the tradition was initiated by Saint Patrick or Brigid of Kildare in 5th century Ireland, this is dubious, as the tradition has not been attested before the 19th century.[21] Supposedly, a 1288 law by Queen Margaret of Scotland (then age five and living in Norway), required that fines be levied if a marriage proposal was refused by the man; compensation was deemed to be a pair of leather gloves, a single rose, £1 and a kiss.[22] In some places the tradition was tightened to restricting female proposals to the modern leap day, February 29, or to the medieval (bissextile) leap day, February 24.

According to Felten: "A play from the turn of the 17th century, 'The Maydes Metamorphosis,' has it that 'this is leape year/women wear breeches.' A few hundred years later, breeches wouldn't do at all: Women looking to take advantage of their opportunity to pitch woo were expected to wear a scarlet petticoat — fair warning, if you will."[23]

In Finland, the tradition is that if a man refuses a woman's proposal on leap day, he should buy her the fabrics for a skirt.[24]

In France, since 1980, a satirical newspaper entitled La Bougie du Sapeur is published only on leap year, on February 29.

In Greece, marriage in a leap year is considered unlucky.[25] One in five engaged couples in Greece will plan to avoid getting married in a leap year.[26]

In February 1988 the town of Anthony in Texas, declared itself "leap year capital of the world", and an international leapling birthday club was started.[

Gmail account

Gmail is a free email service developed by Google. Users can access Gmail on the web and using third-party programs that synchronize email content through POP or IMAP protocols. Gmail started as a limited beta release on April 1, 2004 and ended its testing phase on July 7, 2009.

At launch, Gmail had an initial storage capacity offer of one gigabyte per user, a significantly higher amount than competitors offered at the time. Today, the service comes with 15 gigabytes of storage. Users can receive emails up to 50 megabytes in size, including attachments, while they can send emails up to 25 megabytes. In order to send larger files, users can insert files from Google Drive into the message. Gmail has a search-oriented interface and a "conversation view" similar to an Internet forum. The service is notable among website developers for its early adoption of Ajax.

Google's mail servers automatically scan emails for multiple purposes, including to filter spam and malware, and to add context-sensitive advertisements next to emails. This advertising practice has been significantly criticized by privacy advocates due to concerns over unlimited data retention, ease of monitoring by third parties, users of other email providers not having agreed to the policy upon sending emails to Gmail addresses, and the potential for Google to change its policies to further decrease privacy by combining information with other Google data usage. The company has been the subject of lawsuits concerning the issues. Google has stated that email users must "necessarily expect" their emails to be subject to automated processing and claims that the service refrains from displaying ads next to potentially sensitive messages, such as those mentioning race, religion, sexual orientation, health, or financial statements. In June 2017, Google announced the end to the use of contextual Gmail content for advertising purposes, relying instead on data gathered from the use of its other services.[3]

By 2018, Gmail had 1.5 billion active users worldwide
On April 1, 2004, Gmail was launched with one gigabyte (GB) of storage space, a significantly higher amount than competitors offered at the time.[4]
On April 1, 2005, the first anniversary of Gmail, the limit was doubled to two gigabytes of storage. Georges Harik, the product management director for Gmail, stated that Google would "keep giving people more space forever."[5]
On April 24, 2012, Google announced the increase of storage included in Gmail from 7.5 to 10 gigabytes ("and counting") as part of the launch of Google Drive.[6]
On May 13, 2013, Google announced the overall merge of storage across Gmail, Google Drive, and Google+ Photos, allowing users 15 gigabytes of included storage among three services.[7][8]
Users can buy additional storage, shared among Gmail, Google Drive and Google Photos, through a monthly subscription plan from Google One. As of 2018, storage of up to 15 gigabytes is included, and paid plans are available for up to 30 terabytes for personal use.[9]
There are also storage limits to individual Gmail messages. Initially, one message, including all attachments, could not be larger than 25 megabytes.[10] This was changed in March 2017 to allow receiving an email of up to 50 megabytes, while the limit for sending an email stayed at 25 megabytes.[11][12] In order to send larger files, users can insert files from Google Drive into the message.[13]

Interface
The Gmail user interface initially differed from other web-mail systems with its focus on search and conversation threading of emails, grouping several messages between two or more people onto a single page, an approach that was later copied by its competitors. Gmail's user interface designer, Kevin Fox, intended users to feel as if they were always on one page and just changing things on that page, rather than having to navigate to other places.[14]

Gmail's interface also makes use of 'labels' (tags) – that replace the conventional folders and provide a more flexible method of organizing emails; filters for automatically organizing, deleting or forwarding incoming emails to other addresses; and importance markers for automatically marking messages as 'important'.

2011 redesign
In November 2011, Google began rolling out a redesign of its interface that "simplified" the look of Gmail into a more minimalist design to provide a more consistent look throughout its products and services as part of an overall Google design change. Majorly redesigned elements included a streamlined conversation view, configurable density of information, new higher-quality themes, a resizable navigation bar with always-visible labels and contacts, and better search.[15][16] Users were able to preview the new interface design for months prior to the official release, as well as revert to the old interface, until March 2012, when Google discontinued the ability to revert and completed the transition to the new design for all users.[17]

Tabbed inbox
In May 2013, Google updated the Gmail inbox with tabs which allow the application to categorize the user's emails. The five tabs are: Primary, Social, Promotions, Updates, and Forums. In addition to customization options, the entire update can be disabled, allowing users to return to the traditional inbox structure.[18][19]

2018 redesign
In April 2018, Google introduced a new web UI for Gmail. The new redesign follows Google's Material Design, and changes in the user interface include the use of Google's Product Sans font. Other updates include a Confidential mode, which allows the sender to set an expiration date for a sensitive message or to revoke it entirely, integrated rights management and two-factor authentication.[20]

2019 update
In October 2019, Gmail was scheduled to get a dark mode for iOS and Android apps though the spokesperson said it was a limited roll out for Android 10 and iOS 11 users.[21]

Spam filter
Gmail's spam filtering features a community-driven system: when any user marks an email as spam, this provides information to help the system identify similar future messages for all Gmail users.[22]

In the April 2018 update, the spam filtering banners got a redesign, with bigger and bolder lettering.

Gmail Labs
The Gmail Labs feature, introduced on June 5, 2008, allows users to test new or experimental features of Gmail. Users can enable or disable Labs features selectively and provide feedback about each of them. This allows Gmail engineers to obtain user input about new features to improve them and also to assess their popularity.[23]

Popular features, like the "Undo Send" option, often "graduate" from Gmail Labs to become a formal setting in Gmail.[24]

All Labs features are experimental and are subject to termination at any time.[25]

Search
Gmail incorporates a search bar for searching emails. The search bar can also search contacts, files stored in Google Drive, events from Google Calendar, and Google Sites.[26][27][28]

In May 2012, Gmail improved the search functionality to include auto-complete predictions from the user's emails.[29]

Gmail's search functionality does not support searching for word fragments (also known as 'substring search' or partial word search). Workarounds exist.[29]

Language support

As of March 2015, the Gmail interface supports 72 languages, including: Arabic, Basque, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese (simplified), Chinese (traditional), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English (UK), English (US), Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Gujarati, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Kannada, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Malay, Malayalam, Marathi, Norwegian (Bokmål), Odia, Polish, Punjabi, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Sinhala, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Tagalog (Filipino), Tamil, Telugu, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Vietnamese, Welsh and Zulu.[30]

Language input styles

In October 2012, Google added over 100 virtual keyboards, transliterations, and input method editors to Gmail, enabling users different types of input styles for different languages in an effort to help users write in languages that aren't "limited by the language of your keyboard.”[31][32]

In October 2013, Google added handwriting input support to Gmail.[33]

In August 2014, Gmail became the first major email provider to let users send and receive emails from addresses with accent marks and letters from outside the Latin alphabet.[34][35]

Platforms

Web browsers

Gmail's "basic HTML" version works on almost all browsers. The modern AJAX version is officially supported in the current and previous major releases of Google Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Microsoft Edge and Safari web browsers on a rolling basis.[36][37]

In August 2011, Google introduced Gmail Offline, an HTML5-powered app for providing access to the service while offline. Gmail Offline runs on the Google Chrome browser and can be downloaded from the Chrome Web Store.[38][39][40]

In addition to the native apps on iOS and Android, users can access Gmail through the web browser on a mobile device.[41]

Mobile

Gmail has native applications for iOS devices[42] (including iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch) and for Android devices.[43]

In November 2014, Google introduced functionality in the Gmail Android app that enabled sending and receiving emails from non-Gmail addresses (such as Yahoo! Mail and Outlook.com) through POP or IMAP.[44]

In November 2016, Google redesigned the Gmail app for the iOS platform, bringing the first complete visual overhaul in "nearly four years". The update added much more use of colors, sleeker transitions, and the addition of several "highly-requested" features, including Undo Send, faster search with instant results and spelling suggestions, and Swipe to Archive/Delete.[45][46]

In May 2017, Google updated Gmail on Android to feature protection from phishing attacks.[47][48][49] Media outlets noticed that the new protection was announced amid a widespread phishing attack on a combination of Gmail and Google's Docs document service that occurred on the same day.[48][49]

Later in May, Google announced the addition of "Smart Reply" to Gmail on Android and iOS. "Smart Reply", a feature originally launched for Google's Inbox by Gmail service, scans a message for information and uses machine intelligence to offer three responses the user can optionally edit and send. The feature is limited to the English language at launch, with additional support for Spanish, followed by other languages arriving later.[50][51]

Inbox by Gmail, another app from the Gmail team, is also available for iOS[52] and Android[53] devices.

Third-party programs can be used to access Gmail, using the POP or IMAP protocols.[54] In 2019, Google rolled out dark mode for its mobile apps in Android and iOS.[55]

Inbox by Gmail

In October 2014, Google introduced Inbox by Gmail on an invitation-only basis. Developed by the Gmail team, but serving as a "completely different type of inbox", the service is made to help users deal with the challenges of an active email. Citing issues such as distractions, difficulty in finding important information buried in messages, and receiving more emails than ever, Inbox by Gmail has several important differences from Gmail, including bundles that automatically sort emails of the same topic together, highlights that surface key information from messages, and reminders, assists, and snooze, that help the user in handling incoming emails at appropriate times.[56][57][58]

Inbox by Gmail became publicly available in May 2015.[59] In September 2018, Google announced it would end the service at the end of March 2019, most of its key features having been incorporated into the standard Gmail service.[60] The service was discontinued on April 2, 2019.[61]

Integration with Google products

In August 2010, Google released a plugin that provides integrated telephone service within Gmail's Google Chat interface. The feature initially lacked an official name, with Google referring to it as both "Google Voice in Gmail chat" and "Call Phones in Gmail".[62][63][64] The service logged over one million calls in 24 hours.[64][65] In March 2014, Google Voice was discontinued, and replaced with functionality from Google Hangouts, another communication platform from Google.[66][67]

On February 9, 2010, Google commenced its new social networking tool, Google Buzz, which integrated with Gmail, allowing users to share links and media, as well as status updates.[68] Google Buzz was discontinued in October 2011, replaced with new functionality in Google+, Google's then-new social networking platform.[69][70]

Gmail was integrated with Google+ in December 2011, as part of an effort to have all Google information across one Google account, with a centralized Google+ user profile.[71] Backlash from the move caused Google to step back and remove the requirement of a Google+ user account, keeping only a private Google account without a public-facing profile, starting in July 2015.[72]

In May 2013, Google announced the integration between Google Wallet and Gmail, which would allow Gmail users to send money as email attachments. Although the sender must use a Gmail account, the recipient does not need to be using a Gmail address.[73][74] The feature has no transaction fees, but there are limits to the amount of money that can be sent.[75] Initially only available on the web, the feature was expanded to the Android app in March 2017, for people living in the United States.[76][77]

In September 2016, Google released Google Trips, an app that, based on information from a user's Gmail messages, automatically generates travel cards. A travel card contains itinerary details, such as plane tickets and car rentals, and recommends activities, food and drinks, and attractions based on location, time, and interests. The app also has offline functionality.[78][79] In April 2017, Google Trips received an update adding several significant features. The app now also scans Gmail for bus and train tickets, and allows users to manually input trip reservations. Users can send trip details to other users' email, and if the recipient also has Google Trips, the information will be automatically available in their apps as well.[80][81]

Security

History

Google has supported the secure HTTPS since the day it launched. In the beginning, it was only default on the login page, a reason that Google engineer Ariel Rideout stated was because HTTPS made "your mail slower". However, users could manually switch to secure HTTPS mode inside the inbox after logging in. In July 2008, Google simplified the ability to manually enable secure mode, with a toggle in the settings menu.[82]

In 2007, Google fixed a cross-site scripting security issue that could let attackers collect information from Gmail contact lists.[83]

In January 2010, Google began rolling out HTTPS as the default for all users.[84]

In June 2012, a new security feature was introduced to protect users from state-sponsored attacks. A banner will appear at the top of the page that warns users of an unauthorized account compromise.[85][86]

In March 2014, Google announced that an encrypted HTTPS connection would be used for the sending and receiving of all Gmail emails, and "every single email message you send or receive —100% of them —is encrypted while moving internally" through the company's systems.[87]

Whenever possible, Gmail uses transport layer security (TLS) to automatically encrypt emails sent and received. On the web and on Android devices, users can check if a message is encrypted by checking if the message has a closed or open red padlock.[88]

Gmail automatically scans all incoming and outgoing e-mails for viruses in email attachments. For security reasons, some file types, including executables, are not allowed to be sent in emails.[89]

At the end of May 2017, Google announced that it had applied machine learning technology to identify emails with phishing and spam, having a 99.9% detection accuracy. The company also announced that Gmail would selectively delay some messages, approximately 0.05% of all, to perform more detailed analysis and aggregate details to improve its algorithms.[90][91]

Third-party encryption in transit

In Google's Transparency Report under the Safer email section, it provides information on the percentage of emails encrypted in transit between Gmail and third-party email providers.[92]

Two-step verification

Gmail supports two-step verification, an optional additional measure for users to protect their accounts when logging in.[93]

Once enabled, users are required to verify their identity using a second method after entering their username and password when logging in on a new device. Common methods include entering a code sent to a user's mobile phone through a text message, entering a code using the Google Authenticator smartphone app, or by inserting a physical security key into the computer's USB port.[94]

Using a security key for two-step verification was made available as an option in October 2014.[95][96]

24-hour lockdowns

If an algorithm detects what Google calls "abnormal usage that may indicate that your account has been compromised", the account can be automatically locked down for between one minute and 24 hours, depending on the type of activity detected. Listed reasons for a lock-down include:[97]

"Receiving, deleting, or downloading large amounts of mail via POP or IMAP in a short period of time. If you're getting the error message, 'Lockdown in Sector 4,' you should be able to access Gmail again after waiting 24 hours."

"Sending a large number of undeliverable messages (messages that bounce back)."

"Using file-sharing or file-storage software, browser extensions, or third-party software that automatically logs into your account."

"Leaving multiple instances of Gmail open."

"Browser-related issues. Please note that if you find your browser continually reloading while attempting to access your Inbox, it's probably a browser issue, and it may be necessary to clear your browser's cache and cookies."

Anti-child pornography policy

Google combats child pornography through Gmail's servers in conjunction with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) to find children suffering abuse around the world. In collaboration with the NCMEC, Google creates a database of child pornography pictures. Each one of the images is given a unique numerical number known as a hash. Google then scans Gmail looking for the unique hashes. When suspicious images are located Google reports the incident to the appropriate national authorities

The idea for Gmail was developed by Paul Buchheit several years before it was announced to the public. The project was known by the code name Caribou. During early development, the project was kept secret from most of Google's own engineers. This changed once the project improved, and by early 2004, most employees were using it to access the company's internal email system.[99]

Gmail was announced to the public by Google on April 1, 2004 as a limited beta release.[100]

In November 2006, Google began offering a Java-based application of Gmail for mobile phones.[101]

In October 2007, Google began a process of rewriting parts of the code that Gmail used, which would make the service faster and add new features, such as custom keyboard shortcuts and the ability to bookmark specific messages and email searches.[102] Gmail also added IMAP support in October 2007.[103]

An update around January 2008 changed elements of Gmail's use of JavaScript, and resulted in the failure of a third-party script some users had been using. Google acknowledged the issue and helped users with workarounds.[104]

Gmail exited the beta status on July 7, 2009.[105]

Prior to December 2013, users had to approve to see images in emails, which acted as a security measure. This changed in December 2013, when Google, citing improved image handling, enabled images to be visible without user approval. Images are now routed through Google's secure proxy servers rather than the original external host servers.[106] MarketingLand noted that the change to image handling means email marketers will no longer be able to track the recipient's IP address or information about what kind of device the recipient is using.[107] However, Wired stated that the new change means senders can track the time when an email is first opened, as the initial loading of the images requires the system to make a "callback" to the original server.[108]

Growth

In June 2012, Google announced that Gmail had 425 million active users globally.[109] In May 2015, Google announced that Gmail had 900 million active users, 75% of whom were using the service on mobile devices.[110] In February 2016, Google announced that Gmail had passed 1 billion active users.[111][112] In July 2017, Google announced that Gmail had passed 1.2 billion active users.[113][114]

In the business sector, Quartz reported in August 2014 that, among 150 companies checked in three major categories in the United States (Fortune 50 largest companies, mid-size tech and media companies, and startup companies from the last Y Combinator incubator class), only one Fortune 50 company used Gmail – Google itself – while 60% of mid-sized companies and 92% of startup companies were using Gmail.[115]

In May 2014, Gmail became the first app on the Google Play Store to hit one billion installations on Android devices

Hand sanitizer

Hand sanitizer is a liquid generally used to decrease infectious agents on the hands.[2] Formulations of the alcohol-based type are preferable to hand washing with soap and water in most situations in the healthcare setting.[3] It is generally more effective at killing microorganisms and better tolerated than soap and water.[4] Hand washing should still be carried out if contamination can be seen or following the use of the toilet.[5] The general use of non-alcohol based versions has no recommendations.[3] Outside the health care setting evidence to support the use of hand sanitizer over hand washing is poor.[6][7] They are available as liquids, gels, and foams.[4]

Alcohol-based versions typically contain some combination of isopropyl alcohol, ethanol (ethyl alcohol), or n-propanol.[4] Versions that contain 60 to 95% alcohol are most effective.[4] Care should be taken as they are flammable.[3] Alcohol-based hand sanitizer works against a variety of microorganisms but not spores.[4] Some versions contain compounds such as glycerol to prevent drying of the skin.[4] Non-alcohol based versions may contain benzalkonium chloride or triclosan.[8][9]

Alcohol has been used as an antiseptic at least as early as 1363 with evidence to support its use becoming available in the late 1800s.[10] Alcohol-based hand sanitizer has been commonly used in Europe since at least the 1980s.[11] The alcohol-based version is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines, the safest and most effective medicines needed in a health system.[12] The wholesale cost in the developing world is about US$1.40–3.70 per liter bottle.
Uses
General public
The Clean Hands campaign by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) instructs the public in hand washing. Alcohol-based hand sanitizer is recommended only if soap and water are not available.[14]

When using an alcohol-based hand sanitizer:

Apply product to the palm of one hand.
Rub hands together.
Rub the product over all surfaces of hands and fingers until hands are dry.[14]
The current evidence for school hand hygiene interventions is of poor quality.[15]

Health care
Alcohol-based hand sanitizer is more convenient compared to hand washing with soap and water in most situations in the healthcare setting.[3] It is generally more effective at killing microorganisms and better tolerated than soap and water.[4] Hand washing should still be carried out if contamination can be seen or following the use of the toilet.[5]

Hand sanitizer that contains at least 60 % alcohol or contains a "persistent antiseptic" should be used.[16][17] Alcohol rubs kill many different kinds of bacteria, including antibiotic resistant bacteria and TB bacteria. 90% alcohol rubs are highly flammable, but kill many kinds of viruses, including enveloped viruses such as the flu virus, the common cold virus, and HIV, though is notably ineffective against the rabies virus.[18][19][20]

90% alcohol rubs are more effective against viruses than most other forms of hand washing.[21] Isopropyl alcohol will kill 99.99 % or more of all non-spore forming bacteria in less than 30 seconds, both in the laboratory and on human skin.[16][22]

The alcohol in hand sanitizers may not have the 10–15 seconds exposure time required to denature proteins and lyse cells in too low quantities (0.3 ml) or concentrations (below 60%).[4] In environments with high lipids or protein waste (such as food processing), the use of alcohol hand rubs alone may not be sufficient to ensure proper hand hygiene.[4]

For health care settings like hospitals and clinics, optimum alcohol concentration to kill bacteria is 70% to 95%.[23][24] Products with alcohol concentrations as low as 40% are available in American stores, according to researchers at East Tennessee State University.[25]

Alcohol rub sanitizers kill most bacteria, and fungi, and stop some viruses. Alcohol rub sanitizers containing at least 70% alcohol (mainly ethyl alcohol) kill 99.9% of the bacteria on hands 30 seconds after application and 99.99% to 99.999%[note 1] in one minute.[21]

For health care, optimal disinfection requires attention to all exposed surfaces such as around the fingernails, between the fingers, on the back of the thumb, and around the wrist. Hand alcohol should be thoroughly rubbed into the hands and on the lower forearm for a duration of at least 30 seconds and then allowed to air dry.[26]

Use of alcohol-based hand gels dries skin less, leaving more moisture in the epidermis, than hand washing with antiseptic/antimicrobial soap and water.[27][28][29][30]

Drawbacks
There are certain situations during which hand washing with water and soap are preferred over hand sanitizer, these include: eliminating bacterial spores of Clostridioides difficile, parasites such as Cryptosporidium, and certain viruses like norovirus depending on the concentration of alcohol in the sanitizer (95% alcohol was seen to be most effective in eliminating most viruses).[31] In addition, if hands are contaminated with fluids or other visible contaminates, hand washing is preferred as well as when after using the toilet and if discomfort develops from the residue of alcohol sanitizer use.[32] Furthermore, CDC states hand sanitizers are not effective in removing chemicals such as pesticides.[33]

Safety
Fire
Alcohol gel can catch fire, producing a translucent blue flame. This is due to the flammable alcohol in the gel. Some hand sanitizer gels may not produce this effect due to a high concentration of water or moisturizing agents. There have been some rare instances where alcohol has been implicated in starting fires in the operating room, including a case where alcohol used as an antiseptic pooled under the surgical drapes in an operating room and caused a fire when a cautery instrument was used. Alcohol gel was not implicated.

To minimize the risk of fire, alcohol rub users are instructed to rub their hands until dry, which indicates that the flammable alcohol has evaporated.[34] Fire departments suggest refills for the alcohol-based hand sanitizers can be stored with cleaning supplies away from heat sources or open flames.[35][full citation needed]

Skin
Research shows that alcohol hand sanitizers do not pose any risk by eliminating beneficial microorganisms that are naturally present on the skin. The body quickly replenishes the beneficial microbes on the hands, often moving them in from just up the arms where there are fewer harmful microorganisms.[36]

However, alcohol may strip the skin of the outer layer of oil, which may have negative effects on barrier function of the skin. A study also shows that disinfecting hands with an antimicrobial detergent results in a greater barrier disruption of skin compared to alcohol solutions, suggesting an increased loss of skin lipids.[37][38]

Ingestion
In the United States, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) controls antimicrobial handsoaps and sanitizers as over-the-counter drugs (OTC) because they are intended for topical anti-microbial use to prevent disease in humans.[39] The FDA requires strict labeling which informs consumers on proper use of this OTC drug and dangers to avoid, including warning adults not to ingest, not to use in the eyes, to keep out of the reach of children, and to allow use by children only under adult supervision.[40] According to the American Association of Poison Control Centers, there were nearly 12,000 cases of hand sanitizer ingestion in 2006.[41] If ingested, alcohol-based hand sanitizers can cause alcohol poisoning in small children.[42] However, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control recommends using hand sanitizer with children to promote good hygiene, under supervision, and furthermore recommends parents pack hand sanitizer for their children when traveling, to avoid their contracting disease from dirty hands.[43]

There have been reported incidents of people drinking the gel in prisons and hospitals, where alcohol consumption is not allowed, to become intoxicated leading to its withdrawal from some establishments.[44][45]

Non-alcohol based
On April 30, 2015, the FDA announced that they were requesting more scientific data based on the safety of hand sanitizer. Emerging science also suggests that for at least some health care antiseptic active ingredients, systemic exposure (full body exposure as shown by detection of antiseptic ingredients in the blood or urine) is higher than previously thought, and existing data raise potential concerns about the effects of repeated daily human exposure to some antiseptic active ingredients. This would include hand antiseptic products containing alcohol and triclosan.[46]

Composition
Consumer alcohol-based hand sanitizers, and health care "hand alcohol" or "alcohol hand antiseptic agents" exist in liquid, foam, and easy-flowing gel formulations. Products with between 60% and 95% of alcohol by volume are effective antiseptics. Lower or higher concentrations are less effective; most products contain between 60% and 80% of alcohol.[47]

In addition to alcohol (ethanol, isopropanol or n-Propanol), hand sanitizers also contain the following:[47]

additional antiseptics such as chlorhexidine and quaternary ammonium derivatives,
sporicides such as hydrogen peroxides that eliminate bacterial spores that may be present in ingredients,
emollients and gelling agents to reduce skin dryness and irrritation,
a small amount of sterile or distilled water,
sometimes foaming agents, colorants or fragrances.
The World Health Organization has published a guide to producing hand sanitizer from widely available chemicals. Such hand sanitizer may be used in situations where commercially produced hand sanitizer is unavailable. According to this guide, to produce 10 liters of hand sanitizer, the following are mixed together:

8333 ml of 96% ethanol, 417 ml of 3% hydrogen peroxide, and 145 ml of 98% glycerol, or:
7515 ml of 99.8% isopropyl alcohol, 417 ml of 3% hydrogen peroxide, and 145 ml of 98% glycerol.[48]
Types

Alcohol-based hand rubs are extensively used in the hospital environment as an alternative to antiseptic soaps. Hand-rubs in the hospital environment have two applications: hygienic hand rubbing and surgical hand disinfection. Alcohol based hand rubs provide a better skin tolerance as compared to antiseptic soap.[30] Hand rubs also prove to have more effective microbiological properties as compared to antiseptic soaps.

The same ingredients used in over-the-counter hand-rubs are also used in hospital hand-rubs: alcohols such ethanol and isopropanol, sometimes combined with quaternary ammonium cations (quats) such as benzalkonium chloride. Quats are added at levels up to 200 parts per million to increase antimicrobial effectiveness. Although allergy to alcohol-only rubs is rare, fragrances, preservatives and quats can cause contact allergies.[49] These other ingredients do not evaporate like alcohol and accumulate leaving a "sticky" residue until they are removed with soap and water.

The most common brands of alcohol hand rubs include Aniosgel, Avant, Sterillium, Desderman and Allsept S. All hospital hand rubs must conform to certain regulations like EN 12054 for hygienic treatment and surgical disinfection by hand-rubbing. Products with a claim of "99.99% reduction" or 4-log reduction are ineffective in hospital environment, since the reduction must be more than "99.99%".[21]

The hand sanitizer dosing systems for hospitals are designed to deliver a measured amount of the product for staff. They are dosing pumps screwed onto a bottle or are specially designed dispensers with refill bottles. Dispensers for surgical hand disinfection are usually equipped with elbow controlled mechanism or infrared sensors to avoid any contact with the pump.

Surgical hand disinfection

Hands must be disinfected before any surgical procedure by hand washing with mild soap and then hand-rubbing with a sanitizer. Surgical disinfection requires a larger dose of the hand-rub and a longer rubbing time than is ordinarily used. It is usually done in two applications according to specific hand-rubbing techniques, EN1499 (hygienic handwash), and EN 1500 (hygienic hand disinfection) to ensure that antiseptic is applied everywhere on the surface of the hand.[50]

Alcohol-free

Some hand sanitizer products use agents other than alcohol to kill microorganisms, such as povidone-iodine, benzalkonium chloride or triclosan.[4]

The World Health Organization (WHO) and the CDC recommends "persistent" antiseptics for hand sanitizers. Persistent activity is defined as the prolonged or extended antimicrobial activity that prevents or inhibits the proliferation or survival of microorganisms after application of the product. This activity may be demonstrated by sampling a site several minutes or hours after application and demonstrating bacterial antimicrobial effectiveness when compared with a baseline level. This property also has been referred to as "residual activity." Both substantive and nonsubstantive active ingredients can show a persistent effect if they substantially lower the number of bacteria during the wash period.

Laboratory studies have shown lingering benzalkonium chloride may be associated with antibiotic resistance in MRSA.[51][52] Tolerance to alcohol sanitizers may develop in fecal bacteria.[53][54] Where alcohol sanitizers utilize 62%, or higher, alcohol by weight, only 0.1 to 0.13% of benzalkonium chloride by weight provides equivalent antimicrobial effectiveness.

Triclosan has been shown to accumulate in biosolids in the environment, one of the top seven organic contaminants in waste water according to the National Toxicology Program[55] Triclosan leads to various problems with natural biological systems,[56] and triclosan, when combined with chlorine e.g. from tap water, produces dioxins, a probable carcinogen in humans.[57] However, 90–98% of triclosan in waste water biodegrades by both photolytic or natural biological processes or is removed due to sorption in waste water treatment plants. Numerous studies show that only very small traces are detectable in the effluent water that reaches rivers.[58]

A series of studies show that photodegradation of triclosan produced 2,4-dichlorophenol and 2,8-dichlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (2,8-DCDD). The 2,4-dichlorophenol itself is known to be biodegradable as well as photodegradable.[59][full citation needed] For DCDD, one of the non-toxic compounds of the dioxin family,[60] a conversion rate of 1% has been reported and estimated half-lives suggest that it is photolabile as well.[61][full citation needed] The formation-decay kinetics of DCDD are also reported by Sanchez-Prado et al. (2006) who claim "transformation of triclosan to toxic dioxins has never been shown and is highly unlikely."[62]

Alcohol-free hand sanitizers may be effective immediately while on the skin, but the solutions themselves can become contaminated because alcohol is an in-solution preservative and without it, the alcohol-free solution itself is susceptible to contamination. However, even alcohol-containing hand sanitizers can become contaminated if the alcohol content is not properly controlled or the sanitizer is grossly contaminated with microorganisms during manufacture. In June 2009, alcohol-free Clarcon Antimicrobial Hand Sanitizer was pulled from the US market by the FDA, which found the product contained gross contamination of extremely high levels of various bacteria, including those which can "cause opportunistic infections of the skin and underlying tissues and could result in medical or surgical attention as well as permanent damage". Gross contamination of any hand sanitizer by bacteria during manufacture will result in the failure of the effectiveness of that sanitizer and possible infection of the treatment site with the contaminating organisms.

باير 04 ليفركوزن

باير 04 ليفركوزن هو أحد أندية كرة القدم في ألمانيا، يوم 27 نوفمبر 1903 كان بداية تأسيس النادي، حيث كتب فيليلم هاوسشيلد رسالة وقع عليها 170 شخص من زملائه العاملين لــ فريدريتش باير وشركاه، حيث طلبوا منه دعم النادي الرياضي، ووافقت الشركة حول هذه الفكرة والمبادرة، حيث ان النادي Bayer 04 Leverkusen تأسس في 1 يوليو 1904. و في يوم 31 مايو 1907، أصبح للعبة كرة القدم في النادي إدارة مستقله تشكلت من داخل النادي، لأن في ذلك الوقت كان يوجد هناك عداء كبير بين الجمباز والرياضات الأخرى ،، مما اسهم في نهاية المطاف إلى انقسام داخل النادي. و في 8 يونيو 1928، كان على لاعبي كرة القدم تشكيل رابطه مستقله، حيث ان الرياضات جميعها اخذت الالوان التقليدية الأحمر والأسود[؟]، الا الجمباز حيث اعتمد على اللون الأزرق مع الأصفر. و خلال هذه الفترة وإلى ثلاثينيات القرن[؟] العشرين، كان الليفركوزن يلعب ما بين الدرجتين الرابعة والثالثه، قبل أن ينتقل للدرجه الثانية عام 1936 و أيضا خلال ذلك العام، كان النادي يرتدي اللباس المألوف " Bayer " ولاول مرة. و من بعد ذلك حقق النادي أول ظهور في الدرجة الأولى Oberliga الغربية عام 1951، ولكنه لم يدم طويلاً ،، حيث رجع للدرجه الثانية عام 1956 SV Bayer 04 Leverkusen لم يعد للدرجه العليا في الدوري حتى عام 1961، قبل التشكيل الجديد لألمانيا للدوري المحترفين Bundesliga وبعد اربع سنوات، بدء الفريق بشكل ملائم، حيث أمن مكانه في اللعب بــــ Bundesliga موسم 1979-1980، وفي منتصف ثمانيات القرن التاسع عشر، بدء النادي SV Bayer 04 Leverkusen خطواته الراسخه في أن يكون ضمن نصف الجدول الأعلى بالدوري، وقد استطاع ان يحقق ذلك قبل نهاية العقد. من هذه الفترة، عام 1984، اعيد اتحاد النادي بعد انشقاقات داخل النادي استمرت أكثر من نصف قرن، وأصبح TSV Bayer 04 Leverkusen e.V. النادي الجديد اخذ اللونين الأساسيين للفريق الأحمر والأسود. بالإضافة بأن أصبح الفريق فريقا مؤكدا بــ Bundesliga في جهة، النادي حصل على شرف كبير وهو الأول من نوعه، بعد احرازه بطولة كأس الاتحاد الأوروبي في عام 1988 على حساب إسبانيول برشلونة الإسباني في مبارة مارثونية، حيث انتهت نتيجة مبارة الذهاب في برشلونة ب 3 - 0 لإسبانيول، بينما انتهت المبارة الاياب بنتيجة ذاتها وعلى مدينة ليفركوزن لصالح باير ليفركوزن، وحسمت بالركلات الترجيحية التي صبت بالنهاية باير ليفركوزن ب 3 - 2، واحرز بذلك نادي الليفركوزن لاول مرة بتاريخه، وهي المرة الوحيدة ببطولة UEFA Cup. وفي العام نفسه، أصبح المدير التنفيذي لليفركوزن السيد Reiner Calmund هو المدير العام للنادي. وهذه تعتبر أحد أهم المراحل، أو الخطوات التي قام بها النادي في تاريخه. كما شهد النادي خلال العقد والنصف لترأس السيد Calmund، أهم النجاحات التي حققها النادي من خلال التطلعات البعيده. وبعد اعادة توحيد ألمانيا في 1990، Calmund كان الاسرع في التعاقد مع لاعبين German الشرقية، وعلى رأسهم Ulf Kirsten، Andreas Thom، وكذلك Jens Melzig. ثلاث لاعبين أصبحوا العنوان الرئيسي لحشد الجماهير، كما قدموا الكثير من المساهمات الهامة للفريق. كما قام Calmund كذلك، ببناء قاعدة مع الكره البرازيليه، لابرام العقود بتوصيات من Juan Figer. وهو أحد أهم وكلاء الاعبين البرازليين. خلال سنوات قليله، تم حصد هذه الثمار من خلال لاعبين كبار مثل Jorginho وكذلك Paulo Sérgio الذين انضما للفريق، كما انضم أيضا للفريق نجم منتخب Pavel Hapal Czech. كما قاموا بالتوقيع مع لاعبين لامعين، ومؤثرين، ومنهم : Bernd Schuster، و Rudi Völler، الذان ساعدا في زيادة الرقعه الشعبية للفريق، كما ضمنوا المزيد من النجاح له. في 1993، قطف الفريق فوزا مهما جدا، ليفوز بشرف German Cup بعدما تغلب على Hertha Berlin للهواة بــ 1 - في الموسم الذي تلاه، والذي سمي بهدف الــ 45 متر، أو هدف الموسم من قبل الاعب Bernd Schuster، الذي سمي فيما بعد بهدف العقد (أفضل هدف في العقد الأخير). لعب Bayer 04 امام Eintracht Frankfurt في بداية الموسم، بينما كان الجميع يرفع القبعه لهم بسبب تاريخهم، ربما الامر الذي انزعج لاعبين Eintracht Frankfurt منه، في هذه المبارة، ارتدى لاعبي الليفر الملابس الثالثة للفريق، والتي كانت تقريبا موضة قديمه حينها، تتمثل في الالوان الحمراء والسوداء المقلمة (وهي تشبه إلى حد بعيد لباس Frankfurt القديم أو الذي ارتداه في أحد المراحل القديمة)، بعد ذلك بقليل ظهر الفريق بالالوان الحمراء والسوداء، الالوان التي استخدمت في ملابس الفريق إلى يومنا هذا. وحقق العاشره La Decima في سنه 2014 بعد النكسه التي تعرض لها الفريق تقريبا في 1996، حينما واجه الفريق شبح السقوط، قام الليفر بتأسيس نفسه، وارساء نفسه بقوة بعرض كبير يتمثل في الأسلوب الهجومي تحت قيادة المدرب Christoph Daum، الذي ساعد الفريق بتدعيمه بلاعبين امثال : Lúcio، و Emerson، و Zé Roberto، وكذلك Michael Ballack. Christoph Daum بعدها خرج، بسبب فضيحه المخدارت التي لاحقته، والتي أيضا اضاعت عليه حلم تدريب المنتخب الألماني. صحيفة باير ليفركوزن - عالم الرياضة الالمانيه - عالم الرياضة

Bayer Leverkusen

Bayer 04 Leverkusen Fußball GmbH, also known as Bayer 04 Leverkusen [ˌbaɪ̯ɐ ˈleːvɐˌkuːzn̩], Bayer Leverkusen, Leverkusen or simply Bayer, is a German football club based in Leverkusen, North Rhine-Westphalia.[3] The club plays in the Bundesliga, the top tier of German football, and hosts matches at the BayArena.[4][1]

The club was founded in 1904 by employees of the German pharmaceutical company Bayer, whose headquarters are in Leverkusen and from which the club draws its name. It was formerly the best-known department of TSV Bayer 04 Leverkusen, a sports club whose members also participate in athletics, gymnastics, basketball and other sports including the RTHC Bayer Leverkusen (rowing, tennis and hockey). In 1999 the football department was separated from the sports club and is now a separate entity formally called Bayer 04 Leverkusen GmbH.[4] The club's main colours are red and black, both having been used as the main shirt colour and with red and black stripes also having been used as home colours.

Bayer Leverkusen have won one DFB-Pokal and one UEFA Cup.[5] Their local rivals are 1. FC Köln
On 27 November 1903, Wilhelm Hauschild wrote a letter – signed by 170 of his fellow workers – to his employer, the Friedrich Bayer and Co., seeking the company's support in starting a sports club.[7] The company agreed to support the initiative, and on 1 July 1904 Turn- und Spielverein Bayer 04 Leverkusen was founded.[7] On 31 May 1907, a separate football department was formed within the club.[7] In the culture of sports in Germany at the time, there was significant animosity between gymnasts and other types of athletes. Eventually this contributed to a split within the club: on 8 June 1928, the footballers formed a separate association – Sportvereinigung Bayer 04 Leverkusen – that also included the handball and fistball players, athletics, and boxing, while the gymnasts carried on as TuS Bayer 04 Leverkusen. SV Bayer 04 Leverkusen took with them the club's traditional colours of red and black, with the gymnasts adopting blue and yellow.
Through this period, and into the 1930s, SV Bayer 04 Leverkusen played third and fourth division football.[8] In 1936, they earned promotion to the second highest class of play of the period.[8] That was also the year that the club wore the familiar "Bayer" cross for the first time.[8] They made their first appearance in upper league play in 1951, in the Oberliga West and played there until 1956, after which they were relegated.
2. Bundesliga to Bundesliga, UEFA Cup, and DFB-Pokal
SV Bayer 04 Leverkusen made something of a breakthrough in 1968 by winning the division title, but was unable to advance through the playoff round to the first division. The club was relegated again in 1973, but made a quick return to what was now called the 2. Bundesliga after just one season spent in the third division. Four years later, the club handily secured a place in the Bundesliga to start to play there in the 1979–80 season.

By the mid-1980s, SV Bayer 04 Leverkusen had played its way into the upper half of the league table and was well-established there by the end of the decade. It was during this time, in 1984, that the two-halves of the club that had parted ways over a half century earlier were re-united as TSV Bayer 04 Leverkusen e.V. The new club took red and white as its colours.

In addition to becoming an established Bundesliga side, the club earned its first honours with a dramatic win in the 1988 UEFA Cup. Down 0–3 to Espanyol after the first leg of the final, Bayer Leverkusen drew even in the return match and then captured the title on penalty kicks, 3–2.[9][10]

That same year, long-time Bayer Leverkusen executive Reiner Calmund became the general manager of the club. This is regarded as one of the most important moves in the club's history, as Calmund ushered in a decade and a half of the club's greatest successes through shrewd, far-sighted player acquisitions.

After the German reunification in 1990, Reiner Calmund was quick to sign East German stars Ulf Kirsten, Andreas Thom and Jens Melzig. The three players would become instant crowd favourites, and make significant contributions to the team. Calmund also established groundbreaking contacts in Brazilian football, befriending Juan Figer, one of Brazil's most powerful player agents. Over the next few years, budding superstars, such as Jorginho and Paulo Sérgio, joined the team, as did Czech star Pavel Hapal. The club also signed charismatic players, such as Bernd Schuster, and Rudi Völler, helping to ensure the team's popularity and growing success.
The club captured its next honour in 1993 with a 1–0 win in the DFB-Pokal over a surprising Hertha BSC amateur squad on 12 June 1993.[10][11] In the following season, in a game also known for its 45 m "German Goal of the Year" by Schuster (a goal which was later also named "Goal of the Decade"), Bayer played Eintracht Frankfurt early in the season, and, as both a "tip of the hat" to its own history as well as an attempt to perhaps upset the Frankfurt team, Bayer played in its new third colours, which were old-fashioned red and black stripes, similar jerseys to those Frankfurt generally wore at the time. This proved so popular with the fans that, very shortly thereafter, the team reverted to its "retro" colours of red and black, colours used on all home jerseys ever since.

After a near disaster in 1996 when the club faced a relegation battle, Bayer Leverkusen established itself as a powerful side, offering a technically pleasing offensive style of play under new coach Christoph Daum, who was also helped by the signing of players such as Lúcio, Emerson, Zé Roberto and Michael Ballack. Daum was later to be famously fired for a cocaine scandal that also cost him his ascent to the role of the Germany national team coach.[12][13]

The Nearly Men
The team earned a series of four-second-place finishes from 1997 to 2002. The finishes of 2000 and 2002 were heart-breaking for supporters as on both occasions the team had the Bundesliga title within its grasp. In 2000, Bayer Leverkusen needed only a draw against SpVgg Unterhaching to win the title, but an own goal by Michael Ballack helped send the team to a crushing 2–0 defeat, while Bayern Munich clinched the title with a 3–1 victory over Werder Bremen. Two years later, the club surrendered a five-point lead atop the league table by losing two of its last three matches while Borussia Dortmund swept ahead with three consecutive victories in its final matches. The 2002 season has been dubbed the "Treble Horror", as Bayer Leverkusen were also beaten 4–2 in the DFB-Pokal final by Schalke 04 and lost the UEFA Champions League final 2–1 to Real Madrid, which also led to some of the English-language media dubbing them "Neverkusen".[14][15][16] Leverkusen was the first team to reach the final of the Champions League without ever having won a national championship.[17]

Recent years

The club went through startling reversals of fortune in the next two seasons. In the 2002 off-season, the team lost influential midfield stars Michael Ballack and Zé Roberto to archrivals Bayern Munich. The team then flirted with relegation through most of the 2002–03 season, leading to the firing of Klaus Toppmöller, who had coached the team during its most successful year, and he was replaced by the inexperienced Thomas Hörster. Charismatic coach Klaus Augenthaler took up the reins in the last two games of the season and helped avoid disaster with a win over his previous club, 1. FC Nürnberg. He then led Bayer Leverkusen to a third-place finish and a Champions League place the following year.

That following season's run in the Champions League saw the club get some measure of revenge on Real Madrid, opening its group stage campaign with a 3–0 rout of the Spanish giants,[18] helping Leverkusen to win the group.[19] Leverkusen, however, was defeated in the first knockout round by eventual champions Liverpool.[20][21] The club finished sixth during the 2004–05 season to qualify for the next season's UEFA Cup.

Early in 2005, Augenthaler was fired as manager after the club got off to its worst Bundesliga start in over 20 years, with only one win in its first four league matches and a 0–1 home loss to CSKA Sofia in the first leg of its UEFA Cup match-up.[22] Former Germany national team manager Rudi Völler, who had been named sporting director prior to the season, took charge of five matches as caretaker manager.[23][24] Michael Skibbe, who was Völler's assistant coach with the national team, was named as his successor in October 2005.[24] Skibbe turned Leverkusen's season around and guided the club to a sixth-place finish in 2006, earning another UEFA Cup place, and then repeated that feat with a fifth place Bundesliga finish in 2007.[24]

The 2007–08 season was not a successful one for Leverkusen despite a good start to the season; five out of the last ten league matches were lost to clubs in the lower half of the table. Michael Skibbe was heavily criticised towards the end of the season after he continuously changed his starting line up. Bayer Leverkusen also lost a lot of its support towards the end of the season: in the 1–2 home loss against Hertha BSC, the Leverkusen fans caused much commotion, with fans chanting for the sacking of Skibbe, while some Ultras, who had seen enough, set fire to their jerseys and threw them onto the field. Michael Skibbe was sacked soon thereafter, leaving the club on 21 May 2008, with club officials stating that his departure was due to the failure to qualify for the following season's UEFA Cup group stage.[25]

The 2008–09 season got off to a great start for Bayer Leverkusen under new manager Bruno Labbadia, who the club had acquired from 2. Bundesliga club SpVgg Greuther Fürth.[26] As the season progressed, however, the team failed to achieve any wins against top clubs in the Bundesliga. Leverkusen did manage to reach the DFB-Pokal final on 30 May 2009 in Berlin, but fell 0–1 to Werder Bremen.[24][27] Leverkusen finished the season in ninth place in the Bundesliga table and Labbadia moved to Hamburger SV in June 2009.[28] Shortly thereafter, Leverkusen presented Jupp Heynckes as its new manager, who had previously managed Bayern Munich after Jürgen Klinsmann's departure.[29]

Club culture

In contrast to many other German football clubs, which hold close ties to their working-class roots, Bayer Leverkusen strives for a clean, family-friendly image.[30] The BayArena has the reputation of being one of the most family-friendly football stadiums in Germany.[30] Ironically, Bayer 04 was the first Bundesliga club whose fans identified themselves as Ultras and the city of Leverkusen is one of the old industrial cities of Germany.[31]

Bayer Leverkusen is perceived by some to have an ongoing image problem of a different sort.[32] Although they are a financially healthy club with a stable of strong players, many fans of the traditional clubs denounce Bayer Leverkusen as being a "plastic club" without traditions or a committed fan base, existing solely as a creation of their rich pharmaceutical company sponsor – Bayer AG.[33][34] As a result, the club and their fans have started to emphasize their industrial origins with pride, calling themselves "Werkself" (Eng. "Factory team", "Millhanders") or "Pillendreher" (Eng. "Tablet twisters").[35][36]

Bayer Leverkusen's corporate origins, however, are far from unique. Other clubs, including PSV, Carl Zeiss Jena and Sochaux, share a similar reputation of being works teams.[37][38] As distinguished from the various Red Bull teams (Salzburg, New York and Leipzig) which has been established or redefined in the recent past primarily for commercial reasons, the formation of Bayer Leverkusen was motivated by the idea of promoting the living conditions of local factory workers early in the 20th century. In view of this tradition, UEFA allows Bayer Leverkusen to use the brand name Bayer in European club competitions while disallowing such naming practices most notably to Red Bull Salzburg

Dark Waters

Dark Waters is a 2019 American legal thriller film directed by Todd Haynes and written by Mario Correa and Matthew Michael Carnahan. It is based on the 2016 article "The Lawyer Who Became DuPont's Worst Nightmare" by Nathaniel Rich, published in The New York Times Magazine.[3][4] Parts of the story were also reported by Mariah Blake, whose 2015 article "Welcome to Beautiful Parkersburg, West Virginia" was a National Magazine Award finalist,[5] and Sharon Lerner, whose series "Bad Chemistry" ran in The Intercept.[6][7] Robert Bilott, the principal character in the film, also wrote a memoir, Exposure,[8] detailing his 20-year legal battle against DuPont.[9] The film stars Mark Ruffalo, Anne Hathaway, Tim Robbins, Bill Camp, Victor Garber, Mare Winningham, William Jackson Harper, and Bill Pullman.

Dark Waters was theatrically released in a limited capacity on November 22, 2019, by Focus Features, and went wide on December 6, 2019. The film received positive reviews from critics and has grossed $13.6 million.
Plot
Robert Bilott (Mark Ruffalo), a corporate lawyer from Cincinnati, Ohio working for law firm Taft Stettinius & Hollister is visited by farmer Wilbur Tennant. Tennant asks that Robert link a number of unexplained deaths in Parkersburg, West Virginia to one of the world's largest corporations, DuPont, and gives Robert a large case of videotapes which Robert puts aside.

While Robert is actually a corporate defense lawyer and he helps chemical companies pollute without breaking the law, he still visits the Tennants' farm as a gesture of respect and kindness, especially since his grandmother still lives in Parkersburg. When he reaches the farm, Tennant reveals that over the past couple of years, he has lost over 190 cows to strange medical conditions such as bloated organs, black teeth, and huge tumors. At the farm, Robert witnesses the problem first hand when Tennant is forced to put down a tumor-covered cow.

Even though he is a defense lawyer who is on very good terms with executives at DuPont, he broaches the subject with DuPont attorney Phil Donnelly (Victor Garber), who politely tells him he is not aware of the specifics but will help out in any way he can. Robert files a small suit so he can gain information through legal discovery of the chemicals that have been dumped on the site. He does not find anything useful, then realizes it is possible that whatever poisoned Tennant's cattle could be something that is not even regulated by the EPA, and so is not listed by the EPA report that he has inquired into. With the reluctant agreement from Robert's boss Tom Terp, Robert forces DuPont to turn over all of its information, resulting in angry words between Phil and Robert. In an attempt to hide the truth, DuPont sends Robert hundreds of boxes, hoping to bury the evidence, but Robert goes through the evidence meticulously and finds numerous references to PFOA, a chemical with no references in any medical textbook.

Later, in the middle of the night, Robert's pregnant wife Sarah (Anne Hathaway) finds him tearing the carpet off the floors and going through their pans. He tells her they are being poisoned, and she thinks he has gone mad, until he explains what he has found deep in the DuPont documents: perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA-C8) used to manufacture Teflon. It was created for army tanks, but then used by companies in American homes for primarily nonstick pans. DuPont has been running tests of the effect of it for decades, including on animals and on their own employees. Their own studies show that it caused cancer in animals, people, and birth defects in babies of women working on their line – and they never said a thing. They then dumped hundreds of gallons of toxic sludge upriver from Tennant's farm. Even worse, PFOA and similar compounds are forever chemicals, chemicals that do not leave the blood stream and slowly accumulate over time. Teflon is used in everything from nonstick pans to plastics, and it's likely that every American on the planet has PFOA in his/her bloodstream.

Tennant, meanwhile, has been shunned by the entire local community for suing their biggest employer. His house is broken into, and he gets sicker. Robert goes to him with the evidence and tells Tennant to take the settlement DuPont is offering, but Tennant refuses, wanting justice and not wanting to stay silent. He tells Robert he and his wife both have cancer. Robert feels guilty, and so while he gets Wilbur Tennant the settlement, he also writes a brief with all the DuPont evidence and sends it to the EPA and Department of Justice, among others. The EPA fines DuPont $16.5 million.

Robert, however, is not satisfied; he realizes that the residents of Parkersburg will feel the effects of DuPont's PFOA for the rest of their lives. He decides to seek medical monitoring for all residents of Parkersburg in one big class-action suit. However, a call from a local resident, the Kigers, reveals that DuPont sent a letter notifying residents of the presence of PFOA, thus starting the statute of limitations and giving any further action only a month to begin.

Since PFOA is not regulated, they argue that DuPont is liable because the amount in the water was higher than the one part per billion their internal documents argued to be safe. In court, DuPont claims they did a new study that says that 150 parts per billion is safe. Robert is aghast, and the locals begin protesting DuPont and the story becomes national news. DuPont agrees to settle for $70 million. Legally, they are only required to do medical monitoring if scientists prove that PFOA causes the ailments, so an independent scientific review is set up to study the effects of PFOA. If they find in favor, DuPont will have to pay up. In order to get data for it, the firm tells the locals they can get their settlement money after donating blood, and nearly 70,000 people donate to the study.

Over 7 years pass with no result from the study. Tennant passes away, the Kiger family are harassed locally, and Robert faces extreme financial strain, having worked the entire case on the promise of the settlement and continuing to work on it, having to pay scientific experts. He has taken pay cut upon pay cut at the firm, and things are tense with Sarah. When Tom tells him he needs to take another pay cut, Robert collapses, shaking. At the hospitals, the doctors tell Sarah he had an ischemia, or minor stroke, and that he needs to get on new medication and stop dealing with so much stress. Sarah tells Tom to stop making Robert feel like a failure, since he is doing something for people who needed help.

Finally, the scientific review contacts Robert and tells him that PFOA causes multiple cancers and other diseases. At dinner with his family, Robert is informed that DuPont is reneging on the entire agreement. He is angry, saying Tennant told him that there would not be any justice and he did not believe him. So Robert decides to take each defendant's case to DuPont, one at a time. The post-credits information explains that Robert won his first three multi-million dollar settlements against DuPont, and finally DuPont settles the class action for $671 million. PFOA is still in the blood of ninety-nine percent of life on Earth, and thousands of chemicals are still unregulated.

Cast
Mark Ruffalo as Robert Bilott
Anne Hathaway as Sarah Bilott
Tim Robbins as Tom Terp
Bill Camp as Wilbur Tennant
Victor Garber as Phil Donnelly
Mare Winningham as Darlene Kiger
Bill Pullman as Harry Deitzler
William Jackson Harper as James Ross
Louisa Krause as Karla
Production
On September 21, 2018, it was announced that Todd Haynes would direct the film, then titled Dry Run, from a script by Matthew Michael Carnahan, which would be produced by Participant Media along with Mark Ruffalo.[10] In November 2018, Ruffalo was officially set to star in the film.[11]

In January 2019, Anne Hathaway, Tim Robbins, Bill Camp, Victor Garber, Mare Winningham, William Jackson Harper, and Bill Pullman joined the cast of the film, with Christine Vachon and Pamela Koffler producing under their Killer Films banner.[12] Principal photography began on January 14, 2019, in Cincinnati, Ohio.[12][13]

مؤشر داو جونز الصناعي

مؤشر الداو جونز أو الداو 30 وهو مؤشر صناعي لأكبر 30 شركة صناعية أمريكية في بورصة نيويورك أنشأ في 26 مايو 1896. وهو أقدم مؤشر في العالم وكان يحتوي على أكبر 12 شركة أمريكية وكانت أول شركاته شركة جنرال اليكتريك، وبدأت أعداد الشركات المدرجة بالتزايد حتى وصل إلى 30 شركة عام 1928، ومن الشركات التي تم إدراجها في المؤشر شركتي شيفرون وبنك أوف أمريكا في 19 فبراير 2008.
تأثير الأزمات
اضطرب مؤشر الداو جونز أكثر من مرة متأثرا بالأوضاع السياسية والاقتصادية في العالم، وكان أكبر انهيار له عام 1929 حيث فقد المؤشر ما يقارب ال 50 % من قيمته بسبب الركود الاقتصادي الذي خيم على الولايات المتحدة لمدة اربع سنوات. ولم يعد إلى مستواه الحقيقي الذي كان قبل الازمة الا بعد 20 سنة. وانهار المؤشر أيضا في سنة 1987 حيث فقد 22% في يوم واحد وعاد بعدها للصعود حتى عام 2001 حيث وقعت أحداث الحادي عشر من سبتمبر التي تسببت بخسائر كبيرة للمؤشر وقد وصل إلى أعلى مستوى له في أكتوبر 2007 فوق مستوى 14000 نقطة.

في بداية عام 2008 فقد المؤشر أكثر من 20% وصل تحت مستوى 12000 نقطة بسبب أزمة الرهن العقاري التي أدت إلى انهيار مؤسسات مالية ضخمة وفي شهر أبريل عاود المؤشر الارتفاع ووصل إلى مافوق 13000 نقطة لكنه عاود الانخفاض إلى ادنى مستوى له منذ سبتمبر 2006 ليصل تحت مستوى 11000 نقطة وانهى المؤشر اخر جلسة تداولات في سنة 2008 على ارتفاع لكنه انخفض 32% دون مستوى 9000 نقطة في عام 2008 الذي يعتبر واحدة من اسوا الاعوام في تاريخ المؤشر التي وصل فيها إلى ما يقارب 7550 نقطة وهو ادنى مستوى منذ عدة سنين.

Dow Jones

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), or simply the Dow (/ˈdaʊ/), is a stock market index that measures the stock performance of 30 large companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States. Although it is one of the most commonly followed equity indices, many consider the Dow not to be a good representation of the U.S. stock market (compared to total market indexes such as the Wilshire 5000 or Russell 3000) because it only includes 30 large cap companies, is not weighted by market capitalization, and does not use a weighted arithmetic mean.[4][5][6][7]

The value of the index is sum of the price of one share of stock for each component company divided by a factor which changes whenever one of the component stocks has a stock split or stock dividend, so as to generate a consistent value for the index. Since the divisor is currently around 0.1474, the value of the index is 6.7843 times larger than the sum of the component prices.

It is the second-oldest U.S. market index after the Dow Jones Transportation Average, created by The Wall Street Journal editor and Dow Jones & Company co-founder Charles Dow. It is the best known of the Dow Averages, of which the first (non-industrial) was originally published on February 16, 1885. The averages are named after Dow and one of his business associates, statistician Edward Jones. The industrial average was first calculated on May 26, 1896.[2]

The Industrial portion of the name is largely historical, as many of the modern 30 components have little or nothing to do with traditional heavy industry.

The index is maintained by S&P Dow Jones Indices, a joint venture majority-owned by S&P Global and its components are selected by a committee.

The ten components of the index with the highest dividend yields are referred to as the Dogs of the Dow
As of April 2, 2019, the components of the DJIA have changed 53 times since its beginning on May 26, 1896. General Electric had the longest continuous presence on the index, beginning in 1907 and ending in 2018. Changes to the index since 1991 are as follows:

On May 6, 1991, Caterpillar Inc., J.P. Morgan Chase, and the Walt Disney Company replaced American Can, Navistar, and U.S. Steel.[8]
On March 17, 1997, The Travelers Companies, Hewlett-Packard, Johnson & Johnson, and Walmart replaced Westinghouse Electric, Texaco, Bethlehem Steel, and F. W. Woolworth Company.[9]
On November 1, 1999, Microsoft, Intel, SBC Communications, and Home Depot replaced Goodyear Tire, Sears Roebuck, Union Carbide, and Chevron Corporation.[10]
On April 8, 2004, American International Group, Pfizer, and Verizon Communications replaced AT&T Corporation, Kodak, and International Paper.[11]
On February 19, 2008, Chevron Corporation and Bank of America replaced Altria Group and Honeywell. Chevron was previously a Dow component from July 18, 1930 to November 1, 1999. During Chevron's absence, its split-adjusted price per share went from $44 to $85, while the price of petroleum rose from $24 to $100 per barrel.[12]
On September 22, 2008, Kraft Foods Inc. replaced American International Group (AIG) in the index.[13][14]
On June 8, 2009, The Travelers Companies and Cisco Systems replaced Motors Liquidation Company (formerly General Motors) and Citigroup. Cisco became the third company traded on the NASDAQ to be part of the Dow.[15]
On September 24, 2012, UnitedHealth Group replaced Kraft Foods Inc. following Kraft's split into Mondelez International and Kraft Foods.
On September 20, 2013, Goldman Sachs, Nike, Inc., and Visa Inc. replaced Alcoa, Bank of America, and Hewlett-Packard. Visa replaced Hewlett-Packard because of the split into HP Inc. and Hewlett Packard Enterprise.[16][17][18]
On March 19, 2015, Apple Inc. replaced AT&T, which had been a component of the DJIA since November 1916.[19][20] Apple became the fourth company traded on the NASDAQ to be part of the Dow.
On September 1, 2017, DowDuPont replaced DuPont. DowDuPont was formed by the merger of Dow Chemical Company with DuPont.[21]
On June 26, 2018, Walgreens Boots Alliance replaced General Electric, which had been a component of the DJIA since November 1907, after being part of the inaugural index in May 1896 and much of the 1896 to 1907 period.[22][23][24]
On April 2, 2019, Dow Inc. replaced DowDuPont. Dow, Inc. is a spin-off of DowDuPont, itself a merger of Dow Chemical Company and DuPont.[25][26][27]
Investment methods
Investing in the DJIA is possible via index funds as well as via derivatives such as option contracts and futures contracts.

Mutual and exchange-traded funds
The easiest way to invest indirectly in the Dow Jones Industrial Average is to buy an index fund. Either a mutual fund or an exchange-traded fund (ETF) can replicate, before fees and expenses, the performance of the index by holding the same stocks as the index, in the same proportions.[28]. Some ETFs use leverage or short strategies to magnify price movements.[29]

Futures contracts
In the derivatives market, the CME Group through its subsidiaries the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) and the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), issues Futures Contracts; the E-mini Dow ($5) Futures (YM), which track the average and trade on their exchange floors respectively. Trading is typically carried out in an open outcry auction, or over an electronic network such as CME's Globex platform.

Options contracts
The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) issues option contracts on the Dow through the root symbol DJX. Options on various Dow-underlying ETFs are also available for trading.[30]