Betelgeuse is the tenth-brightest star in the night sky and, after Rigel, the second-brightest in the constellation of Orion. It is a distinctly reddish semiregular variable star whose apparent magnitude, varying between +0.0 and +1.6, has the widest range displayed by any first-magnitude star. At near-infrared wavelengths, Betelgeuse is the brightest star in the night sky, its Bayer designation is α Orionis, Latinised to abbreviated Alpha Ori or α Ori. Classified as a red supergiant of spectral type M1-2, Betelgeuse is one of the largest stars visible to the naked eye. There are several larger red supergiants in the Milky Way, including Mu Cephei and VY Canis Majoris. Calculations of Betelgeuse’s mass range from under ten to a little over twenty times that of the Sun, it is calculated to be about 700 light-years from the Sun, indicating an absolute magnitude of about −6. Less than 10 million years old, Betelgeuse has evolved because of its large mass and is expected to end its evolution with a supernova explosion, most within 100,000 years.

Having been ejected from its birthplace in the Orion OB1 Association—which includes the stars in Orion's Belt—this runaway star has been observed moving through the interstellar medium at a speed of 30 km/s, creating a bow shock over four light-years wide. In 1920, Betelgeuse became the first extrasolar star. Subsequent studies have reported an angular diameter ranging from 0.042 to 0.056 arcseconds. It is surrounded by a complex, asymmetric envelope 250 times the size of the star, caused by mass loss from the star itself; the Earth-observed angular diameter of Betelgeuse is exceeded only by those of R Doradus and the Sun. Starting in October 2019, Betelgeuse began to dim noticeably, by January 2020 its brightness had dropped by a factor of 2.5, from magnitude 0.5 to 1.5. By 22 February 2020, Betelgeuse may have started to again brighten. Infrared observations found no significant change in brightness over the last 50 years, suggesting that the dimming is due to a change in extinction rather than an underlying change in the luminosity of the star.

Α Orionis is the star's designation given by Johann Bayer in 1603. The traditional name Betelgeuse is derived from either the Arabic إبط الجوزاء Ibṭ al-Jauzā’, meaning "the armpit of Orion", or يد الجوزاء Yad al-Jauzā’ "the hand of Orion". In English there are four common pronunciations of this name, depending on whether the first e is pronounced short or long and whether the s is pronounced's' or'z':,the last popularized for sounding just like "beetle-juice". In 2016, the International Astronomical Union organized a Working Group on Star Names to catalog and standardize proper names for stars; the WGSN's first bulletin of July 2016 included a table of the first two batches of names approved by the WGSN, which included Betelgeuse for this star. It is now so entered in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. Betelgeuse and its red coloration have been noted since antiquity. In the nineteenth century, before modern systems of stellar classification, Angelo Secchi included Betelgeuse as one of the prototypes for his Class III stars.

By contrast, three centuries before Ptolemy, Chinese astronomers observed Betelgeuse as having a yellow coloration. The variation in Betelgeuse's brightness was described in 1836 by Sir John Herschel, when he published his observations in Outlines of Astronomy. From 1836 to 1840, he noticed significant changes in magnitude when Betelgeuse outshone Rigel in October 1837 and again in November 1839. A 10-year quiescent period followed. Observers recorded unusually high maxima with an interval of years, but only small variations from 1957 to 1967; the records of the American Association of Variable Star Observers show a maximum brightness of 0.2 in 1933 and 1942, a minimum of 1.2, observed in 1927 and 1941. This variability in brightness may explain why Johann Bayer, with the publication of his Uranometria in 1603, designated the star alpha as it rivaled the brighter Rigel. From Arctic latitudes, Betelgeuse's red colour and higher location in the sky than Rigel meant the Inuit regarded it as brighter, one local name was Ulluriajjuaq "large star".

In 1920, Albert Michelson and Francis Pease mounted a 6-meter interferometer on the front of the 2.5-meter telescope at Mount Wilson Observatory. Helped by John Anderson, the trio measured the angular diameter of Betelgeuse at 0.047", a figure which resulted in a diameter of 3.84×108 km based on the parallax value of 0.018″. However, limb darkening and measurement errors resulted in uncertainty about the accuracy of these measurements; the 1950s and 1960s saw two developments that would affect stellar convection theory in red supergiants: the Stratoscope projects and the 1958 publication of Structure and Evolution of the Stars, principally the work

Capital punishment in Mexico was abolished on 15 March 2005, having not been used in civil cases since 1937, in military cases since 1961. Mexico is the world's most populous country to have abolished the death penalty. There is significant history of abolitionism in Mexico, dating back to the 19th century. Following the Plan of Ayutla, the 1857 constitution was drafted, which outlawed the death penalty for political crimes, allowed abolition for ordinary crimes in the future. Mexico's government at that time was quite unstable, the express abolition of political crimes could have been linked to concern that the lawmakers themselves could become subject to the punishment if there was an uprising. Personal experiences too may have been a factor, as many Mexicans had experienced political repression. There was widespread condemnation of the death penalty in the media, many Mexican literates were familiar with the work of Cesare, Marquis of Beccaria. Following the rule of Porfirio Díaz, the death penalty article was amended in the reform which led to the current Constitution of Mexico.

The last non-military execution in Mexico was in 1937, the last military execution was in 1961, so the official abolition of the military death penalty in 2005 and of the civil death penalty in 1976 lagged the de facto cessations by 44 and 38 years, respectively. Mexico is a majority Roman Catholic country, with 88% of the population identifying themselves as adherents; the Vatican has made numerous statements criticizing capital punishment, this may be a factor in the debate in Mexico. During a debate in 2018 during the 2018 Mexican general election candidate Jaime Rodríguez Calderón proposed to reinstate the death penalty for drug traffickers, hijackers and serial killers; the Mexican Drug War has fueled rising rates of violent crimes such as kidnapping and murder, prompting a reemergence of capital punishment into the political discourse. The Ecologist Green Party of Mexico, the fourth biggest political force in the country, waged a campaign to promote restoration of the death penalty, including the use of billboards, as part of promotion of the party for the 2009 election for seats in Congress.

There have been proposals to amend the 1917 Constitution to allow capital punishment from both the PVEM and the Institutional Revolutionary Party, but both were rejected. Surveys in 2009 suggested that up to 70% of the population supported the restoration of the death penalty, however it is unlikely that the constitution will be changed, as both religious and human rights groups have opposed restoration. A 2017 poll study found younger Mexicans are more to support capital punishment. Constitution: Article 22 Cruel and unusual punishment is prohibited. Penalties of death, infamy, physical punishments, excessive fines, confiscation of assets, others are abolished. Confiscation of assets does not include the application of said assets to pay for civil responsibilities caused by a crime, or when used to pay taxes or other fines. Nor will it be confiscation when said assets are part of illegal activities, or when they are related to organized crime, or when proof of ownership cannot be established.

In 1981, Mexico ratified the American Convention on Human Rights, a treaty of the Organization of American States, which prohibits the death penalty from being restored if eliminated. Mexico does not extradite to countries that are seeking the death penalty, has defended 400 of its citizens charged with a capital offence in the United States; this has in the past led to American fugitives crossing the border into Mexico in order to avoid the death penalty. In 2002, President Vicente Fox cancelled a trip to the United States to meet US President George W. Bush, in protest of the imminent execution of a Mexican national, Javier Suárez Medina, in the U. S. state of Texas. Medina had been convicted in 1989 for killing an undercover police officer in Dallas. According to Mexican officials, Suárez was not informed about his right to consular access, fourteen countries lobbied the United States Supreme Court on behalf of him. In 2003 Mexico filed a complaint against the United States at the International Court of Justice, alleging that the US had contravened the Vienna Convention by not allowing 54 Mexicans sentenced to death to contact diplomatic officials.

Law of Mexico List of people executed in Alan William. Mexico: migration, U. S. economic issues and counter narcotic efforts, Nova Publishers, ISBN 978-1-59454-650-1

Stake: Fortune Fighters is a fighting video game, released on the Xbox in 2003. It was published by Metro3D, Inc.. Anglesite Baron Barty Habba Kenji Pharo Void The Monk Yen Fan Yen Yen Unlockable Boss Character: Thor Stake: Fortune Fighters was developed by Gameness Art Software and published by Metro3D, Inc. Stake is the first game created by Gameness Art, founded by the game's producer Owen Wu in Taipei, Taiwan in August 2000. Stake was developed for PC in 2001, but was converted to the Xbox beginning in July 2002. Wu explained that developing the game for Xbox was quick and easy due to the console being "very similar in architecture" to a PC. Graphically, Stake features environments consisting of about 30,000 polygons each and characters made up of about 5,000 polygons each; the developer extensively utilized bump mapping, shadow buffing, pixel shaders to enhance the game's realism. Wu wanted to make the gameplay in Stake unique by combining aspects of multiplayer fighting games and first-person shooters.

The use of free-for-all multiplayer fighting was influenced by the Capcom game Power Stone, though Wu found the stages in that game to be cramped and "aimed to open up the levels to make more Death Match style action throughout the game" and added a time limit and a frag count. Full online play was not implemented due to developmental time constraints, it has been discovered. It contains a much more polished looking version of the game with better textures and lighting, it is unknown if it shows gameplay of Xbox during mid-production. Comparing it to the final game, there are many differences in the artstyle and overall feel of the game. Many characters designs were drastically changed, such as Anglesite Obsidia being more bulky with a different color pallette. Changed is their "Rage Moves" being more identical to what they are referred to in the manual of the game. At the end of development it seems as if everything was reworked from scratch and made the game look and feel to many people- unfinished.

Stake: Fortune Fighters received negative reviews from critics. On Metacritic, the game holds a score of 26/100 based on 8 reviews. On GameRankings, the game holds a score of 31.00% based on 16 reviews. Stake: Fortune Fighters at MobyGames