title: Jeff Dunham

text: Dunham introduces Sweet Daddy Dee in "" as his "new manager". He calls himself a "pimp", which he says stands for "Player In the Management Profession." According to Sweet Daddy, because he is a pimp, that makes Jeff the "ho". When Dunham objects, Daddy Dee points out that Dunham makes people laugh and feel good for a living. When Dunham agrees that this is the case, Daddy Dee says "You a ho." When Dunham asks what he would say if he told him that he was a comedian only because he enjoyed it, Daddy Dee responds "You a "dumb" ho." Unlike Bubba J, he hates NASCAR. Sweet Daddy's headstone is featured in the beginning of the special "Minding the Monsters".


title: Jeff Dunham

text: Melvin wears a blue superhero costume, and is used to poke fun at superheroes. When asked about his superhuman powers, he indicates that he has X-ray vision, adding, "I love looking at boobies!" He appears to have no other powers, however: When Dunham asks how far he can fly, he responds, "How far can you throw me?", and when asked if he can stop a bullet like Superman, he responds, "Yeah. Once". Dunham portrays Melvin as unimpressed with other superheroes: When told Superman can leap tall buildings in a single bound, Melvin dismisses him as a "showoff," arguing that he can simply walk around them, observes that Aquaman has the same powers as SpongeBob SquarePants, asserts that the Flash's super speed is derived from methamphetamine, that the Hulk's vaunted ability to get stronger as he gets angrier merely mirrors "every white trash guy on "COPS"," and makes innuendo about the questionable relationship between Batman and the underage Robin. Melvin's first onscreen appearance was in the July 2003 "Comedy Central Presents" episode, in which he had small, black, beady eyes. By his next appearance, in "Spark of Insanity", he had been modified to have large, blue, crossed eyes. He has an enormous nose, which he claims is his symbol, and whose similarity in shape to that of a penis is alluded to in the act. Dunham sculpted the current version of Melvin's head himself, and hired an effects company called Renegade Effects Groups to create the rubber mold and complete the puppet, before then installing the mechanics himself. Melvin's headstone is featured in the beginning of the special "Minding the Monsters". As revealed in the DVD release, this signifies that he will no longer be used.


title: Jeff Dunham

text: Little Jeff is a miniature version of Dunham himself, usually dressed in the same clothes Dunham wears during each show. His first onscreen appearance was in the 1989 television program A&E's "An Evening at The Improv". He later appeared in "Jeff Dunham: Controlled Chaos" as a puppet that Peanut used when attempting his hand at ventriloquism. Peanut named the doll "Little Ugly Ass-Jeff", and uses him to insult Dunham.


title: Jeff Dunham

text: Diane first appeared with Dunham in the 2010 film "Dinner for Schmucks" as "Debbie", his character's "wife". She made her stand-up debut in Dunham's Identity Crisis Tour 2010.


title: Jeff Dunham

text: Achmed Junior is the estranged son of Achmed. He was designed by "Mad" magazine illustrator Tom Richmond. He first appeared during the Identity Crisis Tour 2010, and made his first onscreen appearance in Dunham's fourth special, "Jeff Dunham: Controlled Chaos". Like his father, Achmed Junior is the victim of a bomb, which resulted in the destruction of the half of his face and body. He speaks with a British accent because he was raised in Britain after the accident. Much to his father's consternation, he expresses an attraction to Dunham's male stage hand, Marnell, appears on stage to address Achmed's loss of balance. Conflict also stems from the fact that unlike his father, Achmed Junior does not wish to be a suicide bomber.


title: Jeff Dunham

text: Seamus is a grumpy, beer-drinking, Irish infant who first appears in "Relative Disaster", which was filmed in Ireland. Dunham, himself an adopted child, introduces him as a son that he has adopted in order to "pay it forward". Despite being an infant, he is a belligerent heavy drinker, traits with which Dunham pokes fun at Irish stereotypes. Dunham also establishes Seamus as a fan of United States President Donald Trump in order to poke fun at Trump, Hillary Clinton, and the 2016 United States presidential election.


title: Jeff Dunham

text: Larry is the personal adviser to Donald Trump. He has unkempt orange hair, big bulgy eyes and has a cigarette in one hand. Jeff lightly shakes him to give the feeling of jitteriness. Larry is constantly on edge and is implied to be unnerved for having worked with Trump for "four hours". He nevertheless "supports" the president.


title: Jeff Dunham

text: Other characters that Dunham has voiced include Little Peanut, a miniature version of Peanut that Dunham has used to counter Peanut's use of Little Jeff; and an unseen worm inside a bottle of tequila, both of which he has used, for example, in his appearance on A&E's "An Evening at The Improv".


title: Jeff Dunham

text: In the 2020 United States presidential election, Dunham adapted the Walter puppet into "Wonald Grump" and "Ben Hiden," caricatures of Donald Trump and Joe Biden, respectively, for a mock debate moderated by Achmed.


title: Jeff Dunham

text: Dunham met his first wife, Paige Brown, at the Comedy Corner in West Palm Beach, Florida. They began dating in December 1992. In May 1994, Dunham married Brown and adopted her one-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Bree. Their daughters Ashlyn and Kenna were born in 1995 and 1997, respectively. Dunham's time away while performing proved a strain on the marriage, and in November 2008, he filed for divorce. By mid-2009, Dunham was in a relationship with Audrey Murdick, a certified nutritionist, personal trainer, and competition bodybuilder, and on December 25, 2011 they became engaged. On October 12, 2012, the couple married. On May 14, 2015, Dunham announced, via Facebook, that he and Audrey were expecting twin boys. In October, she gave birth to James Jeffrey and Jack Steven.


title: Jeff Dunham

text: In addition to building the dummies he uses in his act, Dunham also restores antique ones as a hobby, such as The Umpire, a mechanized dummy built in 1941 to work the plate at a girls' softball game, which went unused and packed away for 50 years before Dunham acquired it in early 2008.


title: Jeff Dunham

text: Dunham has harbored a love of helicopters since childhood and is fond of building and flying his own kit helicopters from Rotorway helicopter kits. At the time he finished writing his autobiography in June 2010, he was beginning to build his fourth kit. He is also an aficionado of muscle cars and Apple, Inc. products. According to the July 16, 2012, television documentary "The Batmobile", Dunham owns the original Batmobile used in the Tim Burton film "Batman", which he had outfitted with Corvette engine to make it street legal.


title: Taeyeon

text: Kim Tae-yeon (; born March 9, 1989), known mononymously as Taeyeon, is a South Korean singer. She debuted as a member of girl group Girls' Generation in August 2007, which went on to become one of the best-selling artists in South Korea and one of the most popular K-pop groups worldwide. She has since participated in other SM Entertainment projects, including Girls' Generation-TTS, SM the Ballad, Girls' Generation-Oh!GG, and the supergroup Got the Beat.


title: Taeyeon

text: In 2015, Taeyeon released her debut extended play (EP) "I", whose titular single reached number one on South Korea's Gaon Digital Chart. In 2016, she released the number-one single "Rain" as part of the SM Station project, followed by her second EP "Why", which peaked atop the Gaon Album Chart. Taeyeon's debut studio album, "My Voice", was released in 2017 and yielded the top-five singles "", "Fine" and "Make Me Love You". Taeyeon ventured into the Japanese music scene in 2018 with the digital single "Stay", followed by the 2019 EP "Voice". Her second studio album, "Purpose" (2019), featured the successful singles "Four Seasons" and "Spark", and her third studio album "INVU" (2022) was preceded by the top-10 single "Can't Control Myself".


title: Taeyeon

text: On television, Taeyeon appeared as on the reality shows "We Got Married" (2009) and "Begin Again" (2019) and hosted "Queendom 2" (2022). She is currently a cast member of "Amazing Saturday" (2020–present). Additionally, Taeyeon has recorded soundtracks for various television dramas and films, including "If" for "Hong Gil-dong" (2008), "Can You Hear Me" for "Beethoven Virus" (2008), and the chart-topping "All about You" for "Hotel del Luna" (2019).


title: Taeyeon

text: Having sold over one million physical albums and twenty million digital singles as of 2021, Taeyeon is one of the best-selling solo artists in South Korea. She has received various awards and nominations, including six Golden Disc Awards, five Seoul Music Awards, four Gaon Chart Music Awards, three Melon Music Awards, and four Mnet Asian Music Awards.


title: Taeyeon

text: Taeyeon was born on March 9, 1989, in Jeonju, South Korea. Her family consists of her parents, an older brother, and a younger sister Kim Hayeon, who made her solo debut in 2020. Having believed that she was "only talented" at singing, Taeyeon first dreamed of becoming a singer at a young age. During her second year in middle school, Taeyeon accompanied her father to SM Academy, a former music institution and auxiliary affiliation of SM Entertainment, to pursue vocal lessons. Although at the time her father did not encourage Taeyeon to become an entertainer, he was persuaded by the school's principal to give his daughter a chance after she recognized Taeyeon's "clean" voice. During the next year, Taeyeon accompanied her father from their hometown to Seoul every Sunday to receive vocal lessons from The One. She named BoA, Whitney Houston and Hikaru Utada as her pre-debut inspirations.


title: Taeyeon

text: Taeyeon trained under The One for three years. In a 2011 interview, he described Taeyeon as a "smart" student, someone "unlike others who came to him with dreams of becoming a celebrity... [she] wanted to be a singer and reach the top with her own talents." In 2004, he "wanted to acknowledge Taeyeon's potential" by giving her the chance to be in his song "You Bring Me Joy". That same year, she won first place at the SM Youth Best Competition and signed a contract with SM Entertainment. The training process was so tough that she almost quit at one point; she persisted, however, and debuted as a member of girl group Girls' Generation in August 2007. Both the president of SM Academy and The One later named Taeyeon as one of their most memorable students. Taeyeon graduated from Jeonju Art High School and was awarded the school's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008.


title: Taeyeon

text: Taeyeon sang "7989" (featuring Kangta), a track from both Girls' Generation's eponymous debut album (2007) and Kangta's fourth studio album, "Eternity" (2008). Taeyeon began to gain popularity through her various television soundtrack releases, recording "If" for the KBS2 drama "Hong Gil Dong" (2008) and "Can You Hear Me" for MBC's drama "Beethoven Virus" (2008). "If" was later deemed more popular than its respective drama, and "Can You Hear Me" won a Popularity Award at the 2008 Golden Disk Awards. Both tracks remain among Taeyeon's most well-known hits. During this period, she also recorded "It's Love", a duet with Girls' Generation member Sunny, for the MBC drama "Heading to the Ground" (2009).


title: Taeyeon

text: Following a radio hosting job in 2009–10, Taeyeon journeyed into acting, making her theatrical debut in a lead role in the 2010 musical "A Song to the Sun". She played the part of Kaoru Amane, a teenager who suffered from xeroderma pigmentosum, and learned to play a guitar for the role. Her performance in the sold-out shows received good press despite the musical's critical reviews of the musical itself. Jang Gyeong-jin of "10Asia" praised Taeyeon's "distinct vocals" and commented that her acting stood out among idol stars who had ventured into musical theatre, while Kim Ji-yeong from "The Dong-a Ilbo" felt "Taeyeon's optimistic and charming personality made her the perfect match" for the role. Despite the favorable response, Taeyeon later described musicals as difficult, stating that her weak concentration made it hard for her to act and sing at the same time.


title: Taeyeon

text: The same year, Taeyeon worked with Korean songwriter-composer Ahn Young-min. She recorded "Like A Star", featuring The One, which reached number one on the Gaon Digital Chart. Her next single, "I Love You", for the SBS drama "" soundtrack, reached number two. Ahn recalled his impression of the latter song: "I was surprised at how well Taeyeon could sing. This is a rather mature song, so I would be lying if I said I didn't have my doubts, but she blew me away. I was moved to tears listening to her singing." In 2011, Taeyeon lent her voice to Kim Bum-soo's "Different", a single on his seventh album "Solista: Part 2". The song debuted at number two on the Gaon Digital Chart. Taeyeon and Kim Bum-soo reunited at his concert two years later for a live cover version of the latter's 2008 song "Man and Woman".


title: Taeyeon

text: After their first collaboration on the drama "Beethoven Virus" (2008), musical director Lee Pil-ho was determined to collaborate with Taeyeon again on the soundtrack for MBC's melodrama "The King 2 Hearts" (2012), having her record the main theme song "Missing You Like Crazy". It was released in March 2012 and debuted at number two on both the Gaon Digital Chart and K-pop Hot 100. Taeyeon's vocals received positive feedback from the song's composer Park Hae-woon: "She fully understood the song in its entirety and expressed each detail very precisely...even though this song requires the lowest note that a female singer can produce, Taeyeon executed them perfectly." The song was named the most popular soundtrack at 2012 Seoul Drama Awards. Later in the year, she contributed vocals to the song "Closer", for the SBS drama "To the Beautiful You", which charted at number seven on both the Gaon Digital Chart and K-pop Hot 100.


title: Taeyeon

text: In April 2012, a subgroup of Girls' Generation called TTS was formed, its lineup consisting of Taeyeon, Tiffany and Seohyun. Their debut EP, "Twinkle", was met with much success and became South Korea's eighth-highest selling album of the year. The subgroup went on to release two more EPs: "Holler" (2014) and "Dear Santa" (2015). In January 2013, Taeyeon and Tiffany sang a duet, "Lost in Love", which was featured on Girls' Generation's fourth Korean album, "I Got a Boy". Two months later, she recorded "And One", written and composed by Kangta, for the SBS drama "That Winter, The Wind Blows". It debuted at the top of "Billboard"'s K-pop Hot 100 and reached number two on the Gaon Digital Chart. In July 2013, Taeyeon was invited to record the theme song "Bye" for the soundtrack of the film "Mr. Go" after its musical director was left with a "deep impression" having heard her cover version of a song during a radio appearance.


title: Taeyeon

text: In February 2014, Taeyeon joined the roster of SM the Ballad, a ballad group initially formed by SM Entertainment in 2010, contributing vocals to their second album "Breath". Her lead single of the same name, a duet with Shinee's Jonghyun, peaked at number three and six on South Korea's Gaon Digital Chart and K-pop Hot 100 Chart, respectively. She also recorded a solo song, "Set Me Free", for the album. Her other releases in 2014 included "Colorful" for JTBC's campaign "The World Is More Beautiful Because We're Different" and "Love, That One Word" for the SBS's drama "You're All Surrounded"; the latter entered Top 10 on both Gaon Digital Chart and K-Pop Hot 100. In February 2015, Taeyeon accepted a personal request from f(x)'s Amber to feature in "Shake that Brass", the lead single from her debut album, "Beautiful".


title: Taeyeon

text: Taeyeon began working on her solo projects in late 2014, believing the "right time" had come after eight years with Girls' Generation. She released her debut extended play (EP), "I", in October 2015. It peaked at number two on South Korea's Gaon Album Chart, and charted atop the US "Billboard" World Albums. As of 2019, it has sold 160,000 copies in South Korea. The commercial success of "I", according to Yonhap News Agency, was the main contributor to SM Entertainment's leading music sales in the fourth quarter of 2015. The title track, which features rapper Verbal Jint, incorporated elements of pop rock that marked a departure from the ballad sound she had been known for until then. The song peaked at number one in South Korea, where it has sold over 2.5 million digital units. To accompany her solo release, Taeyeon held a series of small concerts called Taeyeon's Very Special Day, and a reality show, OnStyle's "Daily Taeng9Cam". She was awarded Best Female Artist at the 2015 Mnet Asian Music Awards and at the 2016 Golden Disk Awards.


title: Taeyeon

text: Taeyeon featured on Yim Jae-beom's "Scars Deeper than Love" (2015), Verbal Jint's "If The World Was a Perfect Place" (2015), and Crush's "Don't Forget" (2016). "Don't Forget" sold over 2.5 million copies in South Korea. In February 2016, she recorded "Rain" as the inaugural release of SM Entertainment's digital music platform SM Station. "Rain" peaked at number one in South Korea, where it sold over 2.5 million digital copies. Taeyeon and Super Junior's Kyuhyun were featured in a commercial for bottled water brand Jeju Samdasoo, for which she recorded a cover of "The Blue Night of Jeju Island". She also became a spokesperson for Sword and Magic, a game developed by the company Longtu Korea, for which she recorded a rendition of BoA's 2003 song "Atlantis Princess".


title: Taeyeon

text: Taeyeon's second EP, "Why" (2016), incorporated elements of more upbeat genres such as EDM and tropical house. It peaked atop the Gaon Album Chart, and charted at number two on the US "Billboard" World Albums. The EP has sold 120,000 copies as of 2019. It spawned two singles: "Starlight" featuring Dean and the title track, which peaked at numbers five and seven, respectively, in South Korea. The EP's associated concert, Butterfly Kiss, made Taeyeon the first Korean female artist to embark on a full-scale concert while still being a member of an active girl group. In September 2016, Taeyeon recorded "All With You" for SBS's television drama "". Her next single, "", was released in November 2016. It peaked at number two on the Gaon Digital Chart and sold 1.4 million copies by 2017. "Billboard" ranked it the seventh best K-pop song of 2016. "The Dong-a Ilbo" in December 2016 named Taeyeon as "Voice of the Year", "Singer of the Year", and "Most Hardworking". At the 2016 Mnet Asian Music Awards, Taeyeon was awarded Best Female Artist.


title: Taeyeon

text: Taeyeon's first studio album, "My Voice", having been in the production process for over a year, was released in February 2017 and included the single "Fine". Both the album and song were well-received, topping both the Gaon Album Chart and Gaon Digital Chart, respectively. On April 5, 2017, a deluxe edition of the album was released, accompanied by the single "Make Me Love You". The song reached number four on the Gaon Digital Chart. Taeyeon also featured in the single "Lonely" from labelmate Jonghyun's second compilation album, which was released April 24, 2017. The following month, Taeyeon embarked on her first Asian tour, Persona.


title: Taeyeon

text: In December 2017, Taeyeon released her special EP "". The album debuted at number two on the Gaon Album Chart and at number six on the "Billboard" World Albums Chart. Hong Dam-young of "The Korea Herald" highlighted Taeyeon's "calm and undeniable vocal prowess" in the album while praising the songs as "the most sophisticated Christmas tunes" of the year. Its lead single, "This Christmas," debuted at number two on the Gaon Digital Chart. To promote the album, Taeyeon held a two-day Christmas concert titled The Magic of Christmas Time.


title: Taeyeon

text: In June 2018, Taeyeon released her third EP, "Something New". It peaked at number three on the Gaon Album Chart and at number four on the "Billboard" World Albums Chart. That same month, Taeyeon embarked on a Japan Showcase Tour, available only to members of SM Entertainment's official Japanese fan club. The tour visited Fukuoka, Nagoya, Tokyo and Osaka. Following the success of her sold-out showcase, Taeyeon released her debut Japanese single, "Stay", on June 30, 2018. The single was accompanied by a B-side titled "I'm The Greatest".


title: Taeyeon

text: In August 2018, Taeyeon and MeloMance released a collaboration track titled "Page 0" for the third season of SM Station, marking Taeyeon's second time participating in the project. That same month, Taeyeon was announced to be part of Girls' Generation's second subgroup, Oh!GG, which consisted of the five members that re-signed with SM Entertainment; the group released their first single, "Lil' Touch" in September. Taeyeon embarked on her second Asian tour from October 2018 to January 2019. On October 12, it was announced that the tour would play a show at Hong Kong's AsiaWorld Expo Arena, making her the first South Korean female solo artist to hold a solo concert at the venue. Encore concerts of her tour were announced in early 2019 and took place at Seoul's Jamsil Arena on March 23 and 24.


title: Taeyeon

text: Taeyeon released the digital single "Four Seasons" and its B-side "Blue" in March 2019. "Four Seasons" charted at number six on the "Billboard" World Digital Songs and topped South Korea's Gaon Digital Chart for two consecutive weeks. The song was certified platinum by the Korean Music Content Association for exceeding 100 million streams. In April 2019, Taeyeon embarked on her first concert tour in Japan, ~Signal~, which started on April 13 in Fukuoka. She subsequently released her first Japanese-language EP, "Voice", on May 13. Taeyeon then contributed her vocals to Chancellor's "Angel" and Yoon Jong-shin's "A Train to Chuncheon", as part of his "Hello 30" project. The song was originally recorded by Kim Hyun-chul in 1989. In July 2019, Taeyeon appeared as a main cast member on the JTBC reality show "Begin Again" and busked in Berlin and Amsterdam. She also recorded "All About You" for the TVN television drama "Hotel Del Luna"; the song topped the Gaon Digital Chart for two consecutive weeks.


title: Taeyeon

text: Taeyeon released her second studio album, "Purpose", on October 28, 2019. The album peaked at number two in South Korea and spawned the single "Spark", which reached number two on the Gaon Digital Chart. The album was reissued on January 15, 2020 with three bonus tracks, including the single "Dear Me". To promote her recent releases, Taeyeon embarked on her third Asian tour, which began in Seoul on January 17, 2020. The shows—as well as her second concert tour in Japan, which was set to visit eight cities—were all eventually cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Taeyeon

text: On March 9, 2020, Taeyeon was set to release the digital single "Happy" in celebration of her birthday; however, she postponed the single's release to May 4 following the death of her father. The song reached number four on the Gaon Digital Chart and number nine on "Billboard"'s World Digital Songs Chart. In November 2020, Taeyeon released her second Japanese-language EP "#GirlsSpkOut". The title track of the same name featured Japanese rapper Chanmina, marking Taeyeon's first Japanese collaboration. In the same period, Taeyeon became a regular cast member on tvN's music variety show "Amazing Saturday - DoReMi Market".


title: Taeyeon

text: Taeyeon released her fourth Korean-language EP "What Do I Call You" on December 15, 2020. The album peaked at number four on the Gaon Album Chart and sold over 120,000 units in South Korea, making Taeyeon the first female artist to have five different albums sell over 100,000 units each on the Gaon Album Chart.


title: Taeyeon

text: On May 18, 2021, Taeyeon was featured in Taemin's song "If I Could Tell You", released as part of his EP "Advice".


title: Taeyeon

text: On July 6, 2021, Taeyeon released her new digital single "Weekend". The single peaked at number four on both the Gaon Digital Chart and the "Billboard" K-pop Hot 100 Chart. The following month, she joined the travel variety show "Petkage" alongside label-mate Kim Hee-chul.


title: Taeyeon

text: On August 30, 2021, Taeyeon was featured in Key's pre-release single "Hate That...". On November 28, 2021, Taeyeon recorded "Little Garden" for tvN's television drama "Jirisan". On December 27, 2021, Taeyeon was revealed as a member of the supergroup Got the Beat alongside groupmate Hyoyeon. The group debuted on January 3, 2022.


title: Taeyeon

text: On January 17, 2022, Taeyeon released her new digital single "Can't Control Myself", which serves as a pre-release single for her third studio album, "INVU", which was released on February 14. The album peaked at number two on South Korea's Gaon Album Chart. "INVU" charted at number eight on the "Billboard" World Digital Songs and topped South Korea's Gaon Digital Chart for four consecutive weeks. She was awarded Best Female Solo Artist at the 2022 Genie Music Awards.


title: Taeyeon

text: Taeyeon's musical style has evolved over the course over her career, especially since debuting as a solo artist. In her early years, she predominantly recorded ballads for television soundtracks. With the popularity of songs such as "If" (2008) and "Can You Hear Me" (2009), she was referred to as the "representative singer of popular OSTs". Taeyeon opted for a pop rock sound in her 2015 debut single "I"; her 2016 single "Rain" incorporates elements of jazz and R&B; and "Why" blends EDM, R&B and tropical house. Vibe's Yoon Min-soo described Taeyeon's musical style as an example of "K-Soul": "I can feel that sort of emotions from the ballads Taeyeon sings. If you can feel a deep soul from a singer, that's 'K-Soul'."


title: Taeyeon

text: Taeyeon has earned praise for her vocal talent, which has received attention from several major South Korean producers. In 2009, on MBC's "Yoo Jae-suk & Kim Won-hee's Come to Play", Park Jin-young of JYP Entertainment expressed his wish to work with Taeyeon because of her "ability to tell a story through singing." Korean composer Yoo Young-seok noted Taeyeon's ability to sing as expressively as "a woman who has been divorced seven times." Music producer Jo Young-soo, who wrote her song "Like a Star", was likewise impressed by Taeyeon's ability to convey a variety emotions through her vocal performance. Taeyeon was selected as the best K-pop vocalist by 40 anonymous music industry officials in October 2015, and was named the best female vocalist in their twenties by twelve Korean music companies in April 2016.


title: Taeyeon

text: Taeyeon has gained recognition in South Korea as both the leader of K-pop girl group Girls' Generation and a successful solo artist. Janelle Okwodu of "Vogue" described Taeyeon as "the Beyoncé" of Girls' Generation whose fashion styles are "constantly on the go." Taeyeon topped Gallup Korea's list of the most popular K-pop idols of 2016; she also appeared in the rankings in 2015 (at number three), 2017 (at number nine), and 2019 (at number seven). Taeyeon has been featured on the "Forbes" Korea Power Celebrity list in 2016 (at number 32), 2018 (at number 16), and 2019 (at number 23). In June 2015, she became the first K-pop female celebrity to reach seven million followers on Instagram and, as of April 2021, has over 16 million followers.


title: Taeyeon

text: Taeyeon sold over one million physical albums between 2011 and 2021, the highest-selling South Korean female artist at the time. She has influenced numerous K-pop artists, including Lovelyz's Jiae, Melody Day's Chahee, Cosmic Girls' Luda, CLC's Elkie, Sonamoo's High.D, Baek A-yeon, Mamamoo's Moonbyul and Heize. Boy band BTS named Taeyeon an inspiration for their 2014 single "Boy In Luv".


title: Taeyeon

text: In Asia, Taeyeon has been regarded by some media outlets a beauty icon and leader in fashion. She has endorsed various Korean beauty brands since her debut, appearing in commercials and advertisements both as a solo artist and with the members of Girls' Generation and Girls' Generation-TTS. Taeyeon's first solo endorsement was of A-Solution, a brand of acne cosmetics, in 2008. Two years later, she became the first female Asian brand ambassador of Korean skincare brand Nature Republic, along with boy group and labelmate Exo, for three consecutive years. In 2016, when Taeyeon's contract with Nature Republic expired, the cosmetic brand Banila Co. selected her to be its new spokesmodel due to her domestic and international popularity. In May 2020, Taeyeon become a muse for A'pieu, a Korean beauty subsidiary brand of Missha; its official brand representative stated that "Taeyeon's pure atmosphere matches well to A'pieu's cosmetics." In August 2021, she was selected as ambassador for South Korean super-premium skincare beauty brand Sulwhasoo's "New Concentrated Ginseng Renewing EX" campaign. In April 2022, Taeyeon was selected as a muse of global makeup brand Benefit Cosmetics.


title: Taeyeon

text: Aside from her activities in the beauty industry, Taeyeon also endorsed bottled mineral water brand Jeju Samdasoo in 2016, Sword and Magic game of Kaokao Games in 2016, bakery café franchise brand Paris Baguette in 2017, nail-art product brand Gelato Factory in 2018 and 2019, Déesse Color Contact Lenses in 2018, and Hyundai's Haesang Direct Car Insurance in 2019. From 2013 to 2014, she was also the first and only foreign spokesperson of B-ing Collagen Drink by Singha, a large Thai beverage corporation. She featured in commercial films for the product, broadcasting in various mass media channels, including numerous Thai local television and radio stations. Taeyeon also attended the B-ing Taeyeon's FinMeeting in Bangkok, a fan meeting sponsored by Singha. In July 2021, she became the brand model for Young Pizza, with the company official stating that Taeyeon "fits perfectly" with their "healthy and bright" brand image" and cited her "positive and good influence on society" as another reason for her selection. She became a model for Olive Young Omni Channel Campaign with labelmate Key in the same month. In September 2021, Taeyeon was announced as the new muse of the contemporary streetwear brand model for Nerdy. In March 2022, Taeyeon was announced as the global muse of self-hairstyling brand eZn. In May 2022, she was named House Ambassador for French luxury brand Louis Vuitton.


title: Taeyeon

text: Since debuting as a member of Girls' Generation, Taeyeon has received numerous nominations and awards for her solo activities in original soundtracks, radio show hosting and musical theatre. She won two Best Female Artist awards at the Mnet Asian Music Awards, as well as Bonsang awards at the 25th Seoul Music Awards and the 30th Golden Disc Awards. In January 2020, Taeyeon won the OST Award, Bonsang Award, and Daesang Award (grand prize) at the 29th Seoul Music Awards.


title: Dying Light

text: Dying Light is a 2015 survival horror video game developed by Techland and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. The game's story follows an undercover agent named Kyle Crane who is sent to infiltrate a quarantine zone in a Middle-eastern city called Harran. It features an enemy-infested, open-world city with a dynamic day–night cycle, in which zombies are slow and clumsy during daytime but become extremely aggressive at night. The gameplay is focused on weapons-based combat and parkour, allowing players to choose fight or flight when presented with dangers. The game also features an asymmetrical multiplayer mode (originally set to be a pre-order bonus), and a four-player co-operative multiplayer mode.


title: Dying Light

text: The development of the game began in early 2012, after the team completed the development of "Dead Island". The game's parkour system puts emphasis on natural movement. To implement that, Techland had to abandon most of the story elements and construct them again from scratch. To create a story that would suit the taste of the American audience, the writing team collaborated with Dan Jolley. The story was inspired by both "Heart of Darkness" and "The Plague". Announced in May 2013, it was released in January 2015 for Microsoft Windows, Linux, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. The game was planned to be released on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, but these versions were cancelled due to hardware limitations.


title: Dying Light

text: At release, "Dying Light" received positive reviews from critics, with praise mainly directed at the combat, graphics, co-operative multiplayer, navigation and the day–night cycle, while receiving criticism regarding the story, difficulty, and technical issues. The game was the best-selling title of January 2015 and broke the record for first-month sales of a new survival-horror intellectual property. The game was a commercial success, having sold 20 million units by April 2022. Techland committed to supporting the game, and released downloadable content packs, content drops and free updates for the game several years after the initial launch. An expansion, titled "", was released in February 2016. The sequel, "Dying Light 2 Stay Human", was released in February 2022.


title: Dying Light

text: "Dying Light" is a survival horror video game played from a first-person perspective. The game is set in an open-world environment called Harran; initially, an area named the Slums can be freely explored, later adding a second area called Old Town. Players traverse this urban environment, which is overrun by vicious zombies. There is an emphasis on parkour mechanics, which allow players to perform actions such as climbing ledges, leaping from edges, sliding, jumping between roofs and zip-lining. A grappling hook allows players to climb up buildings and quickly travel between places. As players explore the game's world, they can scavenge supplies and loot, which can be used to craft new weapons or sold to vendors. The player character can utilise his "survivor sense" to identify all nearby loot and use lock picks to open locked chests and locked vehicles. Players can also complete various side missions by accepting tasks issued by the non-playable characters in the game's safe zones. As players explore Harran, they can also pick up various collectibles such as notes and journals, and listen to voice mail recordings.


title: Dying Light

text: "Dying Light" contains a dynamic day–night cycle. During the day, players can set traps, save random survivors, and make their way to airdrops. The infected are slow, apathetic, and easily visible and they can be easily avoided. Players can use environmental traps, such as spikes, electrified fences, and gas tanks, to kill the infected. At night, the infected transform to become much more dangerous. Without daylight, the senses of the infected become more acute and accurate. They can also sprint after the player character, inflict more damage, and gain the ability to jump and climb buildings. In order for players to avoid contact, they need to use their "survivor sense" to locate and avoid the infected. If the player character is spotted, they can use distractions and traps to reduce the number of infected. Players' main defence against the infected is ultraviolet light, which slows their movement. At safehouses, players can adjust the time of day, skipping night altogether if the player does not feel ready.


title: Dying Light

text: The game features a variety of enemies, including the slow, low-level Biters, Bombers which explode when the player character gets too close, Virals which can run quickly, and dangerous Volatiles which only appear at night. The majority of the game's combat utilises melee weapons, with more than 100 weapons and over 1000 weapon possibilities through crafting and customisation. The melee weapons have a limited lifespan and will become degraded and broken if players use them in combat for a long time. Players can repair a weapon a limited number of times or dismantle it for parts. Crafting weapons requires crafting ingredients, such as gauze and metal parts, and a blueprint, which can be scavenged or purchased from a shop. In the second half of the game, players can also use ranged firearms: two types of assault rifles and a variety of small firearms and shotguns. Firearms do not break or degrade, but ammunition is generally scarce and the sound from them will attract enemies. Weapons are categorised into different rarities, which are indicated by a weapon's color. Players can also utilise other items such as firecrackers, which distract enemies, and explosives like molotov cocktails, to aid combat. In addition, parkour mechanics are integrated with combat.


title: Dying Light

text: The player character's combat efficiency is governed by his health, fitness and stamina. When players take damage, he will lose health, which can be replenished when Crane utilises a medkit or consumes food. Fitness governs his free running endurance, while stamina focuses on how fast Crane becomes tired in combat. A variety of actions in "Dying Light" can help players to earn experience points. Engaging in combat with enemies will help players to earn power points, while performing parkour movement can earn agility points. Completing missions, challenges, and quests will help players to earn survival points. As players earn experience, they can spend skill points to select new skills from a skill tree. Experience points are boosted when players explore at night, and while survival points are deducted if killed during the day, there is no such penalty at night.


title: Dying Light

text: The game features a four-player cooperative multiplayer mode which allows players to explore Harran and complete the campaign together. Players can also complete cooperative challenges for experience, such as fighting to kill as many infected as possible and racing against each other to an airdrop. A multiplayer feature included is a game mode known as "Be the Zombie" that allows the player to play as a particularly strong and fast infected mutant called the "Night Hunter" and invade other players' servers. The players who are playing as humans are tasked with destroying the infected nests and surviving attacks performed by the Night Hunter, while the Night Hunter's goal is to deplete the players' collective life pool and therefore prevent them from attacking the nests.


title: Dying Light

text: In the fictional Middle Eastern city of Harran, a mysterious viral outbreak has turned most of the population into hyper-aggressive zombie-like creatures, forcing Harran's Defence Ministry to quarantine parts of the city. The Global Relief Effort (GRE) assists survivors still trapped in the city by regularly airdropping supplies. Players assume the role of Kyle Crane (Roger Craig Smith), an undercover GRE operative sent to infiltrate the quarantine zone to find Kadir "Rais" Suleiman (Jim Pirri), a political figure gone rogue who has a file that could be vital data on the virus, which could potentially lead to a cure. When Crane arrives, he must decide between completing his mission or helping the survivors.


title: Dying Light

text: Undercover GRE agent Kyle Crane is airdropped into Harran to retrieve a sensitive file stolen by Kadir Suleiman, who is using it for blackmail. Crane is bitten by an infected, though he is rescued by Jade Aldemir and taken to a survivor sanctuary inside a skyscraper called the Tower. Crane is introduced to Rahim Aldemir, Jade's younger brother, who then teaches him the basics of parkour. Crane learns that the Tower is being harassed by a gang of bandits led by a warlord named Rais who steals and hoards supplies from the GRE airdrops. This includes Antizin, a drug that slows the process of infection and suppresses its symptoms. Crane is tasked with reaching an airdrop containing the direly needed Antizin but the GRE instructs him to destroy the airdrop and instead buy the drug from Rais in order to confirm his identity. Crane reluctantly complies and lies to the Tower that the supplies have been looted.


title: Dying Light

text: Upset, Tower leader Harris Brecken tasks Crane with negotiating a deal with Rais. Upon meeting Rais, Crane is able to confirm that he is indeed Suleiman. Crane carries out a series of unethical tasks for Rais under the assumption that he will be rewarded with two crates of Antizin, but Rais betrays him by only giving him five vials. He later severs relations with the GRE when they halt the supply drops and refuse to help the Tower. Desperate to obtain Antizin, Crane and Jade raid Rais's storage facility but they instead find a cache of plastic explosives. Rahim attempts to use the explosives to bomb a Volatile nest, despite Crane's objection. Rahim is wounded, and Crane executes Rahim's plan and destroys all the infected in the nest. However, when he returns, he discovers that Rahim was actually bitten and had turned into an infected while Crane was gone, forcing Crane to kill him.


title: Dying Light

text: Meanwhile, a scientist at the Tower named Dr. Imran Zere, who was attempting to develop a cure for the virus, is kidnapped by Rais. Crane attempts a rescue but is also captured. Rais reveals that the file he stole contains proof that the GRE intends to weaponise the virus rather than develop a cure. In the process of escaping, Crane cuts off Rais's hand. Dr. Zere is killed after telling Crane that he had tasked Jade with delivering his research to scientist Dr. Allen Camden. As Crane searches for Jade, he learns that the Defence Ministry is planning to firebomb Harran in an effort to eradicate the outbreak, claiming that there are no survivors. Working with the Embers, a survivor group in Old Town, Crane tries to alert the outside world by setting off bombs in an apartment building in the pattern of a sad face, but a jet fires a missile which obscures the pattern. Crane then reactivates a radio tower and successfully alerts the outside world of survivors in Harran, thwarting the Ministry's plan. In a desperate effort to evade scandals, the GRE contacts Crane to retrieve Dr Zere's research for them so they can convince the public they are working on the cure, in exchange they will extract him safely from Harran.


title: Dying Light

text: Jade is captured by Rais, who steals Dr. Zere's research. Crane begins to succumb to the virus as he searches for Jade at a museum; when he reaches her, he finds that she was also bitten and will soon turn into an infected. Watching from a distance, Rais offers Crane one dose of Antizin to save either himself or Jade. Jade sacrifices herself, injecting Crane at the last minute, and protects Crane from Rais's men. Jade then succumbs to the infection and turns, forcing Crane to kill her. After killing Rais's second-in-command, Crane delivers the tissue samples to Dr. Camden, who believes that he is close to developing a cure, but needs the rest of Dr. Zere's data.


title: Dying Light

text: Crane discovers that Rais is giving Dr. Zere's research to the GRE in exchange for extraction from Harran. Crane assaults Rais's headquarters and battles him atop a skyscraper, just as a GRE helicopter appears. Crane throws Rais off the building and narrowly recovers the research data; he decides to give it to Dr. Camden, and stays in Harran to help the remaining survivors.


title: Dying Light

text: The core team of Techland, which had previously released "Dead Island" in 2011, commenced development on "Dying Light" in early 2012. While the team was evaluating the feedback from "Dead Island" and identifying areas to improve, they felt that their new project deviated considerably from the original "Dead Island" and warranted the need to make it a completely separate game. Techland director Adrian Ciszewski noted the difference in creative vision between the studio and "Dead Island" publisher Deep Silver, whose control over the title prevented the studio from realising their vision. For this reason, Techland decided to split from Deep Silver and develop a new property. The development team also considered "Dying Light" an opportunity to prove that the studio could make a AAA game. Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment served as the game's publisher and gave Techland complete creative control over the project.


title: Dying Light

text: Parkour is an important part of the game. The team felt that the gameplay experience would be restricting if players could not jump over or climb environmental obstacles or perform other basic movements. As the game is a survival game, the team believed that players should be allowed to flee from danger and that restricted movement options would hinder players' immersion. The team initially aimed to implement a system similar to that of "Mirror's Edge"s parkour mechanic, in which players climb up specific rooftops or walls by use of a hook, an environmental object that the player character can interact with. However, as development progressed, the team found that the hooks were limiting players' freedom, since developers were placing hooks in very specific locations. In addition, when one designer changed the position of a hook, he also needed to adjust the locations of other hooks, which was a very troublesome process. Starting from 2012, programmer Bartosz Kulon decided to implement a system that scans all possible climbable objects and recognises them as hooks. The engine would then determine what type of object the player is climbing and choose an appropriate animation for the game to render. The new system, which was named "Natural Movement", saved the designers considerable time. However, it also created multiple problems. For instance, since players can now approach an objective from various directions and reach previously unreachable areas, the artificial intelligence (AI) controlling the enemies cannot simply spawn out of nowhere. The existing animations resulted in various glitches, as the player character would often clip through structures. Some playtesters also experienced motion sickness. This resulted in major changes in animations, AI, and the heads-up display. The studio had to abandon most story and quest ideas and start again. The team invited David Belle, the pioneer of parkour, to ensure that the parkour animations were grounded in reality.


title: Dying Light

text: The day–night cycle concept was envisioned by Ciszewski prior to the production of "Dead Island", but was not implemented in that title due to the team's limited size and resources. The vision was for "Dying Light" to be "two games in one box", since the gameplay experience during the day would be completely different to the experience at night. Harran is a fictional city located in Middle Eastern territories, and Mumbai and Istanbul served as its major inspirations. The Old Town was inspired by Wrocław, Poland, where Techland was located. The game's level designer, Jula Arendt, is a qualified architect and created the history of Harran, which influenced its architectural design. Inspired by the Rocinha favelas of Brazil, Harran was designed to be a city with many windows and interiors which serve as possible parkour routes for the players.


title: Dying Light

text: Another reason why Techland did not make "Dying Light" a sequel to "Dead Island" was because the team wanted to create a survival game with a serious tone, while "Dead Island"s story is lighthearted and the game features mostly hack and slash gameplay. According to producer Tymon Smektała, the team aimed to create a story that was "more mature and more serious". Concerned that their team of Poles would not be able to write a story that appealed to North American audiences, Techland invited DC Comics writer Dan Jolley to be a consultant for the story. Inspirations for the story were drawn from novels such as "The Plague" and "Heart of Darkness". Despite the serious tone, the game features some exotic weapons. Game designer Maciej Binkowski felt that the game featured "Hollywood realism", and that they did not intend to make over-the-top weapons like the "Dead Rising" series. Like "Dead Island", the game's combat was melee-focused, and the team invited a group of Krav Maga technique experts to show the programmers and designers "what it was like to hit something" in order to further refine the game's combat.


title: Dying Light

text: Techland audio director Paweł Błaszczak composed the music for "Dying Light". He took inspiration from 1970s and 1980s movie soundtracks, seeking a sadder tone which he felt was more appropriate than typical horror music for the game's post-apocalyptic setting. He made frequent use of synthesizers to "present a feeling of abandonment, emptiness and sadness" to players. When composing music for the night section of the game, his aim was to achieve a silent atmosphere. The team eventually created a whistling sound, which they felt made enemy encounters at night more eerie and disturbing.


title: Dying Light

text: "Dying Light" was first announced in May 2013. The game was originally planned for release in 2014, but it was later delayed until February 2015 due to a "desire to innovate", and to improve the parkour elements of the game. The game's release date was later pushed forward to January 2015 for personal computers, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game were cancelled, due to "thorough internal testing" that demonstrated these consoles could not handle the game properly. Techland originally aimed to deliver the game at 60 frames per second (FPS) on both PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. However, according to senior game producer Adrian Ciszewski, "Dying Light"s frame rate was locked at 30 FPS on consoles in order to be able to deliver native 1080p graphics, reduce input lag to minimum, and provide a smoother and more gameplay-tailored performance. "Dying Light" was the debut title for Techland's own Chrome Engine 6.


title: Dying Light

text: On 17 January 2015, Techland announced that physical copies of "Dying Light" had been delayed due to a "longer lead time than digital". The delay affected the Middle East, Asia, Australia, and Europe. Techland announced that the game would still be available digitally on its scheduled release date. The physical copies of "Dying Light" for the affected regions were released on 27 February 2015. "Be the Zombie" mode, originally a pre-order bonus, was made free for everyone who purchased the game regardless of platform and territory. Pre-orders of the physical copies of the game also received the "Cuisine & Cargo" and the Ultimate Survivor Bundle downloadable content (DLC) packs for free. Players who pre-ordered the game received bonus rare weapons. Early adopters were awarded with more in-game weapons. On Steam, players could also pre-order four copies of the game for the cost of three.


title: Dying Light

text: The game's season pass included three post-launch DLC packs. "Cuisine & Cargo", was released on 10 February 2015. It introduced two narrative missions in which the player investigates buildings which were cordoned off during the early days of the zombie apocalypse. The second DLC, "Ultimate Survivor Bundle", was released on 10 March 2015, and added new character skins and weapon blueprints to the game. It was released alongside a free hard mode, which introduced a new tier of weapon rarity and extends the duration of night. The third DLC, titled "The Bozak Horde", added a location called Harran Stadium and a horde mode, which tasks players to complete various objectives. It was released on 26 May 2015. To keep the game's player base engaged, Techland held a variety of community events and challenges on a regular basis following the game's launch.


title: Dying Light

text: On 2 February 2015, a patch disabled mod support for the game. At the same time, a mod that removed film grain from the game was taken down by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Techland later explained that the problem was an accident, caused by a side-effect of the release of a patch, and that they were developing a patch to restore modding. The ESA later apologised for issuing the takedown, stating that "the requests were issued erroneously by a third-party vendor on the organization's behalf". On 15 February 2015, a patch that restores modding was released. Techland further released the source development tool for modders in April 2015, allowing players to create custom maps and stories. Selected community maps were later released for the console version of the game in 2016.


title: Dying Light

text: Techland launched several promotional campaigns for the game. A "My Apocalypse Collectors Edition", which cost £250,000 (roughly $386,000 at the time) at release, was announced on 25 February 2015. In addition a special edition of the game, it included a physical zombie shelter, parkour lessons, night vision goggles and a trip to Techland in Poland. On 25 June 2015, in parody of a promotional campaign between "Destiny" and Red Bull, Techland announced that it would give away codes for premium weapons to players who tweeted a picture of themselves drinking a glass of water. This was later expanded into the "Drink for DLC" campaign, with the planned release of multiple pieces of free DLC for the game if a certain amount of pictures were posted.


title: Dying Light

text: A standalone expansion, "", was released on 9 February 2016. The title would be free to all players who purchased "Dying Light"s season pass, and also be available for separate purchase. "The Following" introduces a new story campaign, controllable vehicles, and a map the size of all the "Dying Light" maps combined. The expansion released alongside "Dying Light: The Following – Enhanced Edition", which includes the base game, all DLC and content updates, and the expansion. A gameplay demo was released on 26 August 2015. The demo offers three hours of gameplay content and supports four-player co-operative multiplayer. "Enhanced Edition" was released for macOS on 15 December 2016.


title: Dying Light

text: In December 2017, Techland announced that they would release 10 content packs within the following 12 months. These content drops included new weapons, new enemies, a new map called "Prison Heist", and a time-attack mode. It also partnered with the developers of "Left 4 Dead 2", "" and "Rocket League" to create crossover content. A story mode, which drastically lowers the game's difficulty, was added in February 2020. In July 2020, Techland released "Dying Light: Hellraid", a DLC pack inspired by the studio's unrealised project, "Hellraid". In this DLC, players fight demonic monsters with medieval weapons.


title: Dying Light

text: "Dying Light" was bundled with all of its DLC for the "Platinum Edition", which was released for Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on 27 May 2021. Techland released the same edition for Nintendo Switch on 19 October 2021. The game was also released for the PlayStation 5 on 8 March 2022. A performance patch was released for Xbox Series X and Series S on 21 March 2022. On June 9, 2022, Techland released "Dying Light: Definitive Edition", which bundles the base game with all the downloadable content packs released.


title: Dying Light

text: Dan Whitehead from "Eurogamer" felt that the story, despite being predictable, was serviceable, though he noted that the main campaign was "repetitive". Writing for "USgamer", Mike Williams described the hero as "generic", though he praised Roger Craig Smith's performance as Kyle Crane. Jeff Grubb from "VentureBeat" also criticised the writing and felt that the story does not make sense. "Destructoid"s Chris Carter lamented that the story was uninspired, and that the characters featured in the game were "contrived and boring". Kevin VanOrd from "GameSpot" stated that the story "lumbers through one cliche after another", though he remarked that it is "perfectly palatable", praising the voice acting and the expressive facial animation in the cutscenes. Mikel Reparaz from "IGN" believed that the characters were interesting, though "under-developed". He felt that the story was surprisingly straightforward, and wrote that the villain was "entertainingly cliched". In contrast, Brian Shea, writing for "Game Informer", praised the story for being immersive, and remarked that the players will slowly grow attached to the characters.


title: Dying Light

text: Grubb praised the responsive controls and liked the upgrade options and the progression system, which rewards players for taking risks during night. He added that night gameplay was "exhilarating" and "truly terrifying". Christopher Livingston from "PC Gamer" agreed, stating that the differences between daytime and night-time gameplay were "remarkable". VanOrd also felt that night time gameplay was a terrifying experience and believed that it had successfully created tense moments. However, he felt that the melee combat was not as "fulfilling" as the original game. Carter, however, enjoyed the game's combat which he described as "deliberate" and regarded it as an improvement over the original "Dead Island". Shea also liked the combat due to the "sheer brutality of the hand-to-hand animations", though he criticised the gunplay for not being as polished as the melee combat. Williams wrote that the free-running mechanic is "a ton of fun", and that he can "spend hours moving from one section of the city to the next". VanOrd also applauded the free running system, saying that it "energizes moments of great tension", and that climbing tall structures can be "an anxious exercise in precision".


title: Dying Light

text: Several critics believed that the game should be streamlined, with some singling out the weapon-breaking mechanic and the crafting system. Williams believed that they existed only to lengthen the game. Whitehead believed that these systems prevented players from taking a proactive role in combat. He also felt that the survival focus would cause players to lose interest. Carter agreed that Techland should have streamlined the game's micromanagement and kept the focus on combat. Arthur Gies from "Polygon" wrote that many of the systems in "Dying Light" were "clunky" and poorly implemented, and he lamented that the game was extended by "stringing objectives as far away from one another as possible". Williams felt that the side missions of the game generally contained better narrative than the main quests. However, he was disappointed that most of these missions were fetch quests. VanOrd agreed and likened the protagonist to an "errand boy", finding the objectives to be uninspiring and frustrating, adding that they were mostly "frustrating slogs, or simply bad ideas". The game was often criticised for its lack of innovation, as the game features many elements commonly found in other AAA open-world games such as "", "Assassin's Creed", and "Far Cry". Both VanOrd and Whitehead felt that the zombies become an annoyance in the game rather than an enemy.


title: Dying Light

text: Whitehead praised the game's multiplayer, adding that the cooperative challenges make the game's world reactive and fresh, and gives players reason to stay engaged after they finished the campaign. He also praised the asymmetrical multiplayer mode, and stated that it was "a blast" if players play in a full lobby. Reparaz agreed that the game is better when it is played with several friends, though he remarked that the gameplay can be unbalanced in the asymmetrical multiplayer mode if the lobby is not full. Shea also believed the multiplayer enhances the experience and that cooperative gameplay enables the campaign's difficult sections to become more "approachable". VanOrd liked the asymmetrical multiplayer, as he felt that it extended the tension created during night. However, Livingston was not impressed, calling it a half-baked version of "Left 4 Dead". Gies was concerned that this mode is merely a "distraction" and that it lacks sufficient depth and development.


title: Dying Light

text: In the first week after its release, 1.2 million people played "Dying Light". The retail version of "Dying Light" debuted at  1 on the US software sales chart, outselling heavy competitors such as "Grand Theft Auto V" and "". "Dying Light" has the highest-selling first month of sales for a new survival-horror intellectual property, breaking the record previously held by "The Evil Within". The game also reached No. 1 on the UK software retail chart for two weeks, outperforming other major releases in February such as "" and "Evolve", despite the game having been released a month earlier in digital format. In its first 45 days after its release, 3.2 million people played "Dying Light", making it the most popular game that Techland had developed. Techland announced 4.5 million players had played the game by May 2015. The game had sold five million units by August in the same year More than 17 million players had played the game by December 2019. By April 2022, the game had sold 20 million units.


title: Dying Light

text: A prequel novel, "Nightmare Row", written by Raymond Benson, was released on 8 April 2016. The story revolves around Mel Wyatt and her brother Paul, who were trapped in a hotel after the outbreak.


title: Dying Light

text: In May 2015, it was announced that the development of another Techland video game, "Hellraid", had been put on hold to allow the studio to allocate resources and time to concentrate on the development of the "Dying Light" franchise. A spin-off of the game, titled "Dying Light: Bad Blood", was released in early access in 2018. It is a battle royale game that pits 12 players against each other on a small map. The game failed to attract many players, and Techland made it available for all "Dying Light" players for free in January 2020. A sequel, "Dying Light 2 Stay Human", was released in February 2022 for Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X and Series S.


title: Scallop

text: Scallop () is a common name that encompasses various species of marine bivalve mollusks in the taxonomic family Pectinidae, the scallops. However, the common name "scallop" is also sometimes applied to species in other closely related families within the superfamily Pectinoidea, which also includes the thorny oysters.


title: Scallop

text: Scallops are a cosmopolitan family of bivalves found in all of the world's oceans, although never in fresh water. They are one of the very few groups of bivalves to be primarily "free-living", with many species capable of rapidly swimming short distances and even migrating some distance across the ocean floor. A small minority of scallop species live cemented to rocky substrates as adults, while others attach themselves to stationary or rooted objects such as seagrass at some point in their lives by means of a filament they secrete called a byssal thread. The majority of species, however, live recumbent on sandy substrates, and when they sense the presence of a predator such as a starfish, they may attempt to escape by swimming swiftly but erratically through the water using jet propulsion created by repeatedly clapping their shells together. Scallops have a well-developed nervous system, and unlike most other bivalves all scallops have a ring of numerous simple eyes situated around the edge of their mantles.


title: Scallop

text: Many species of scallops are highly prized as a food source, and some are farmed as aquaculture. The word "scallop" is also applied to the meat of these bivalves, the adductor muscle, that is sold as seafood. The brightly coloured, symmetric, fan-shaped shells of scallops with their radiating and often fluted ornamentation are valued by shell collectors, and have been used since ancient times as motifs in art, architecture, and design.


title: Scallop

text: Owing to their widespread distribution, scallop shells are a common sight on beaches and are often brightly coloured, making them a popular object to collect among beachcombers and vacationers. The shells also have a significant place in popular culture.


title: Scallop

text: Scallops inhabit all the oceans of the world, with the largest number of species living in the Indo-Pacific region. Most species live in relatively shallow waters from the low tide line to 100 m, while others prefer much deeper water. Although some species only live in very narrow environments, most are opportunistic and can live under a wide variety of conditions. Scallops can be found living within, upon, or under either rocks, coral, rubble, sea grass, kelp, sand, or mud. Most scallops begin their lives as byssally attached juveniles, an ability that some retain throughout their lives while others grow into free-living adults.


title: Scallop

text: Very little variation occurs in the internal arrangement of organs and systems within the scallop family, and what follows can be taken to apply to the anatomy of any given scallop species.


title: Scallop

text: The shell of a scallop consists of two sides or valves, a left valve and a right one, divided by a plane of symmetry. Most species of scallops rest on their right valve, and consequently, this valve is often deeper and more rounded than the left (i.e., upper) valve, which in many species is actually concave. With the hinge of the two valves oriented towards the top, one side corresponds to the animal's morphological "anterior" or front, the other is the "posterior" or rear, the hinge is the "dorsal" or back/top region, and the bottom corresponds to the "ventral" or (as it were) underside/belly. However, as many scallop shells are more or less bilaterally symmetrical ("equivalved"), as well as symmetrical front/back ("equilateral"), determining which way a given animal is "facing" requires detailed information about its valves.


title: Scallop

text: The model scallop shell consists of two similarly shaped valves with a straight hinge line along the top, devoid of teeth, and producing a pair of flat wings or "ears" (sometimes called "auricles", though this is also the term for two chambers in its heart) on either side of its midpoint, a feature which is unique to and apparent in all adult scallops. These ears may be of similar size and shape, or the anterior ear may be somewhat larger (the posterior ear is never larger than the anterior one, an important feature for distinguishing which valve is which). As is the case in almost all bivalves, a series of lines and/or growth rings originates at the center of the hinge, at a spot called the "beak" surrounded by a generally raised area called the "umbo". These growth rings increase in size downwards until they reach the curved ventral edge of the shell. The shells of most scallops are streamlined to facilitate ease of movement during swimming at some point in their lifecycles, while also providing protection from predators. Scallops with ridged valves have the advantage of the architectural strength provided by these ridges called "ribs", although the ribs are somewhat costly in weight and mass. A unique feature of the scallop family is the presence, at some point during the animal's lifecycle, of a distinctive and taxonomically important shell feature, a comb-like structure called a ctenolium located on the anterior edge of the "right" valve next to the valve's byssal notch. Though many scallops lose this feature as they become free-swimming adults, all scallops have a ctenolium at some point during their lives, and no other bivalve has an analogous shell feature. The ctenolium is found in modern scallops only; both putative ancestors of modern scallops, the entoliids and the Aviculopectinidae, did not possess it.


title: Scallop

text: Like the true oysters (family Ostreidae), scallops have a single central adductor muscle, thus, the inside of their shells has a characteristic central scar, marking the point of attachment for this muscle. The adductor muscle of scallops is larger and more developed than those of oysters, because scallops are active swimmers; some species of scallops are known to move "en masse" from one area to another. In scallops, the shell shape tends to be highly regular, and is commonly used as an archetypal form of a seashell.


title: Scallop

text: Scallops are filter feeders, and eat plankton. Unlike many other bivalves, they lack siphons. Water moves over a filtering structure, where food particles become trapped in mucus. Next, the cilia on the structure move the food toward the mouth. Then, the food is digested in the digestive gland, an organ sometimes misleadingly referred to as the "liver, " which envelops part of the oesophagus, intestine, and entire stomach. Waste is passed on through the intestine (the terminus of which, like that of many mollusks, enters and leaves the animal's heart) and exits via the anus.


title: Scallop

text: Like all bivalves, scallops lack actual brains. Instead, their nervous system is controlled by three paired ganglia located at various points throughout their anatomy, the cerebral or cerebropleural ganglia, the pedal ganglia, and the visceral or parietovisceral ganglia. All are yellowish. The visceral ganglia are by far the largest and most extensive of the three, and occur as an almost-fused mass near the center of the animal – proportionally, these are the largest and most intricate sets of ganglia of any modern bivalve. From this, radiate all of the nerves which connect the visceral ganglia to the circumpallial nerve ring which loops around the mantle and connects to all of the scallop's tentacles and eyes. This nerve ring is so well developed that, in some species, it may be legitimately considered an additional ganglion. The visceral ganglia are also the origin of the branchial nerves which control the scallop's gills. The cerebral ganglia are the next-largest set of ganglia and lie distinct from each other a significant distance dorsal to the visceral ganglia. They are attached to the visceral ganglia by long cerebral-visceral connectives, and to each other via a cerebral commissure that extends in an arch dorsally around the esophagus. The cerebral ganglia control the scallop's mouth via the palp nerves and connect to statocysts which help the animal sense its position in the surrounding environment. They are connected to the pedal ganglia by short cerebral-pedal connectives. The pedal ganglia, though not fused, are situated very close to each other near the midline. From the pedal ganglia, the scallop puts out pedal nerves which control the movement of, and sensation in, its small muscular foot.


title: Scallop

text: The scallop family is unusual in that some members of the family are dioecious (males and females are separate), while others are simultaneous hermaphrodites (both sexes in the same individual), and a few are protoandrous hermaphrodites (males when young then switching to female). Red roe is that of a female, and white, is that of a male. Spermatozoa and ova are released freely into the water during mating season and fertilized ova sink to the bottom. After several weeks, the immature scallops hatch and the larvae, miniature transparent versions of the adults called "spat", drift in the plankton until settling to the bottom again (an event called spatfall) to grow, usually attaching by means of byssal threads. Some scallops, such as the Atlantic bay scallop "Argopecten irradians", are short-lived, while others can live 20 years or more. Age can often be inferred from annuli, the concentric rings of their shells.


title: Scallop

text: Scallops have a large number (up to 200) of small (about 1 mm) eyes arranged along the edge of their mantles. These eyes represent a particular innovation among molluscs, relying on a concave, parabolic mirror of guanine crystals to focus and retro-reflect light instead of a lens as found in many other eye types. Additionally, their eyes possess a double-layered retina, the outer retina responding most strongly to light and the inner to abrupt darkness. While these eyes are unable to resolve shapes with high fidelity, the combined sensitivity of both retinas to light entering the eye and light retro-reflected from the mirror grants scallops exceptional contrast definition, as well as the ability to detect changing patterns of light and motion. Scallops primarily rely on their eyes as an 'early-warning' threat detection system, scanning around them for movement and shadows which could potentially indicate predators. Additionally, some scallops alter their swimming or feeding behaviour based on the turbidity or clarity of the water, by detecting the movement of particulate matter in the water column.


title: Scallop

text: Scallops possess fast (striated) and slow (smooth) adductor muscles, which have different structures and contractile properties. These muscles lie closely apposed to one another but are divided by a connective tissue sheet. The striated adductor muscle contracts very quickly for swimming, whereas the smooth catch adductor muscle lacks striations, and contracts for long periods, keeping shells closed with little expenditure of energy.


title: Scallop

text: Scallops are mostly free-living and active, unlike the vast majority of bivalves, which are mostly slow-moving and infaunal. All scallops are thought to start out with a byssus, which attaches them to some form of substrate such as eelgrass when they are very young. Most species lose the byssus as they grow larger. A very few species go on to cement themselves to a hard substrate (e.g. "Chlamys distorta" and "Hinnites multirigosus").


title: Scallop

text: However, the majority of scallops are free-living and can swim with brief bursts of speed to escape predators (mostly starfish) by rapidly opening and closing their valves. Indeed, everything about their characteristic shell shape – its symmetry, narrowness, smooth and/ or grooved surface, small flexible hinge, powerful adductor muscle, and continuous and uniformly curved edge – facilitates such activity. They often do this in spurts of several seconds before closing the shell entirely and sinking back to the bottom of their environment. Scallops are able to move through the water column either forward/ventrally (termed swimming) by sucking water in through the space between their valves, an area called the gape, and ejecting it through small holes near the hinge line called exhalant apertures, or backward/dorsally (termed jumping) by ejecting the water out the same way it came in (i.e. ventrally). A jumping scallop usually lands on the sea floor between each contraction of its valves, whereas a swimming scallop stays in the water column for most or all of its contractions and travels a much greater distance (though seldom at a height of more than 1 m off the sea bed and seldom for a distance of greater than 5 m). Both jumping and swimming movements are very energy-intensive, and most scallops cannot perform more than four or five in a row before becoming completely exhausted and requiring several hours of rest. Should a swimming scallop land on its left side, it is capable of flipping itself over to its right side via a similar shell-clapping movement called the righting reflex. So-called singing scallops are rumored to make an audible, soft popping sound as they flap their shells underwater (though whether or not this happens is open to some debate). Other scallops can extend their foot from between their valves, and by contracting the muscles in their foot, they can burrow into sand.


title: Scallop

text: Most species of the scallop family are free-living, active swimmers, propelling themselves through the water through the adductor muscles to open and close their shells. Swimming occurs through the clapping of valves for water intake. Closing the valves propels water with a strong force near the hinge via the velum, a curtain-like fold of the mantle that directs water expulsion around the hinge. Scallops swim in the direction of the valve opening unless the velum directs an abrupt change in course direction.


title: Scallop

text: Other species of scallops can be found on the ocean floor attached to objects by byssal threads. Byssal threads are strong, silky fibers extending from the muscular foot, used to attach to a firm support, such as a rock. Some can also be found on the ocean floor, moving with an extendable foot between their valves or burrowing themselves in the sand by extending and retracting their feet. Scallops are highly sensitive to shadows, vibrations, water movement, and chemical stimuli. All possess a series of 100 blue eyes, embedded on the edge of the mantle of their upper and lower valves that can distinguish between light and darkness. They serve as a vital defense mechanism for avoiding predators. Though rather weak, their series of eyes can detect surrounding movement and alert precaution in the presence of predators, most commonly sea stars, crabs, and snails. Physiological fitness and exercise of scallops decrease with age due to the decline of cellular and especially mitochondrial function, thus increasing the risk of capture and lowering rates of survival. Older individuals show lower mitochondrial volume density and aerobic capacity, as well as decreased anaerobic capacity construed from the amount of glycogen stored in muscle tissue. Environmental factors, such as changes in oxidative stress parameters, can inhibit the growth and development of scallops.


title: Scallop

text: Seasonal changes in temperature and food availability have been shown to affect muscle metabolic capabilities. The properties of mitochondria from the phasic adductor muscle of "Euvola ziczac" varied significantly during their annual reproductive cycle. Summer scallops in May have lower maximal oxidative capacities and substrate oxidation than any other time in the year. This phenomenon is due to lower protein levels in adductor muscles.


title: Scallop

text: Scallops do occasionally produce pearls, though scallop pearls do not have the buildup of translucent layers or "nacre" which give desirability to the pearls of the feather oysters, and usually lack both lustre and iridescence. They can be dull, small, and of varying colour, but exceptions occur that are appreciated for their aesthetic qualities.


title: Scallop

text: Some scallops, including "Chlamys hastata", frequently carry epibionts such as sponges and barnacles on their shells. The relationship of the sponge to the scallop is characterized as a form of mutualism, because the sponge provides protection by interfering with adhesion of predatory sea-star tube feet, camouflages "Chlamys hastata" from predators, or forms a physical barrier around byssal openings to prevent sea stars from inserting their digestive membranes. Sponge encrustation protects "C. hastata" from barnacle larvae settlement, serving as a protection from epibionts that increase susceptibility to predators. Thus, barnacle larvae settlement occurs more frequently on sponge-free shells than on sponge-encrusted shells.


title: Scallop

text: In fact, barnacle encrustation negatively influences swimming in "C. hastata". Those swimming with barnacle encrustation require more energy and show a detectable difference in anaerobic energy expenditure than those without encrustation. In the absence of barnacle encrustation, individual scallops swim significantly longer, travel further, and attain greater elevation.


title: Scallop

text: Many scallops are hermaphrodites (having female and male organs simultaneously), altering their sex throughout their lives, while others exist as dioecious species, having a definite sex. In this case, males are distinguished by roe-containing white testes and females with roe-containing orange ovaries. At the age of two, they usually become sexually active, but do not contribute significantly to egg production until four. The reproduction process occurs externally through spawning, in which eggs and sperm are released into the water. Spawning typically occurs in late summer and early autumn; spring spawning may also take place in the Mid-Atlantic Bight. The females of scallops are highly fecund, capable of producing hundreds of millions of eggs per year.


title: Scallop

text: Once an egg is fertilized, it is then planktonic, a collection of microorganisms that drift abundantly in fresh or salt water. Larvae stay in the water column for four to seven weeks before dissipating to the ocean floor, where they attach themselves to objects through byssus threads. Byssus is eventually lost with adulthood, transitioning almost all scallop species into free swimmers. Rapid growth occurs within the first several years, with an increase of 50–80 % in shell height and quadrupled size in meat weight, and reaches a commercial size at about four to five years of age. The lifespans of some scallops have been known to extend over 20 years.


title: Scallop

text: The family name Pectinidae, which is based on the name of the type genus, "Pecten", comes from the Latin "pecten" meaning comb, in reference to a comb-like structure of the shell which is situated next to the byssal notch.


title: Scallop

text: The fossil history of scallops is rich in species and specimens. The earliest known records of true scallops (those with a ctenolium) can be found from the Triassic period, over 200 million years ago. The earliest species were divided into two groups, one with a nearly smooth exterior: "Pleuronectis" von Schlotheim, 1820, while the other had radial ribs or riblets and auricles: "Praechlamys" Allasinaz, 1972. Fossil records also indicate that the abundance of species within the Pectinidae has varied greatly over time; Pectinidae was the most diverse bivalve family in the Mesozoic era, but the group almost disappeared completely by the end of the Cretaceous period. The survivors speciated rapidly during the Tertiary period. Nearly 7,000 species and subspecies names have been introduced for both fossil and recent Pectinidae.


title: Scallop

text: The cladogram is based on molecular phylogeny using mitochondrial (12S, 16S) and nuclear (18S, 28S, and H3) gene markers by Yaron Malkowsky and Annette Klussmann-Kolb in 2012.


title: Scallop

text: Scallops are the family Pectinidae, marine bivalve molluscs within the superfamily Pectinoidea. Other families within this same superfamily share a somewhat similar overall shell shape, and some species within some of the related families are also commonly referred to as "scallops" (for example, Propeamussiidae, the glass scallops).


title: Scallop

text: The family Pectinidae is the most diversified of the pectinoideans in present-day oceans. It is one of the largest marine bivalve families and contains over 300 extant species in 60 genera. Its origin dates back to the Middle Triassic Period, approximately 240 million years ago; in terms of diversity, it has been a thriving family to the present day.


title: Scallop

text: Evolution from its origin has resulted in a successful and diverse group: pectinids are present in the world's seas, found in environments ranging from the intertidal zone to the hadal depths. The Pectinidae play an extremely important role in many benthic communities and exhibit a wide range of shell shapes, sizes, sculptures, and cultures.


title: Scallop

text: Raines and Poppe listed nearly 900 species names of scallops, but most of these are considered either questionable or invalid. Raines and Poppe mentioned over 50 genera, around 250 species, and subspecies. Although species are generally well-circumscribed, their attribution to subfamilies and genera is sometimes equivocal, and information about phylogeny and relationships of the species are minimal, not the least because most work has been based only on adult morphology.


title: Scallop

text: This family's earliest and most comprehensive taxonomic treatments were based on macroscopic morphological characters of the adult shells and represent broadly divergent classification schemes. Some level of taxonomic stability was achieved when Waller's studies in 1986, 1991, and 1993 concluded evolutionary relationships between pectinid taxa based on hypothesized morphological synapomorphies, which previous classification systems of Pectinidae failed to do. He created three Pectinidae subfamilies: Camptonectinidae, Chlamydinae and Pectininae.


title: Scallop

text: The framework of its phylogeny shows that repeated life habit states derive from evolutionary convergence and parallelism. Studies have determined the family Pectinidae is monophyletic, developing from a single common ancestor. The direct ancestors of Pectinidae were scallop-like bivalves of the family Entoliidae. Entoliids had auricles and a byssal notch only at youth, but they did not have a ctenolium, a comb-like arrangement along the margins of the byssal notch in Pectinidae. The ctenolium is the defining feature of the modern family Pectinidae and is a characteristic that has evolved within the lineage.


title: Scallop

text: In a 2008 paper, Puslednik et al. identified considerable convergence of shell morphology in a subset species of gliding Pectinidae, which suggests iterative morphological evolution may be more prevalent in the family than previously believed.


title: Scallop

text: There have been a number of efforts to address phylogenetic studies. Only three have assessed more than ten species and only one has included multiple outgroups. Nearly all previous molecular analyses of the Pectinidae have only utilized mitochondrial data. Phylogenies based only on mitochondrial sequence data do not always provide an accurate estimation on the species tree. Complicated factors can arise due to the presence of genetic polymorphisms in ancestral species and resultant lineage sorting.


title: Scallop

text: In molecular phylogenies of the Bivalvia, both the Spondylidae and the Propeamussiidae have been resolved as sister to the Pectinidae.


title: Scallop

text: The largest wild scallop fishery is for the Atlantic sea scallop ("Placopecten magellanicus") found off the northeastern United States and eastern Canada. Scallops are harvested using scallop dredges or bottom trawls. Most of the rest of the world's production of scallops is from Japan (wild, enhanced, and aquaculture) and China (mostly cultured Atlantic bay scallops).


title: Scallop

text: In the D'Entrecasteaux Channel in the south of Tasmania dredging was banned in 1969, and since then divers have caught them in this area. Attempts to use lighted pots to attract lobster and crab led to the discovery that they were effective in attracting scallops.


title: Scallop

text: The scallop fishery in New Zealand declined from a catch of 1246 tonnes in 1975 to 41 tonnes in 1980, at which point the government ordered the fishery closed. Spat seeding in the 1980s helped it recover, and catches in the 1990s were up to 684 tonnes. The Tasman Bay / Te Tai-o-Aorere area was closed to commercial scallop harvesting from 2009 to 2011 due to a decline in the numbers. The commercial catch was down to 22 tonnes in 2015, and the fishery was closed again. The main causes for the decline seem to be fishing, climate effects, disease, pollutants, and sediment runoff from farming and forestry. Forest and Bird list scallops as the "Worst Choice" in their Best Fish Guide for sustainable seafood species.


title: Scallop

text: On the east coast of the United States, over the last 100 years, the populations of bay scallops have greatly diminished due to several factors but probably mostly due to a reduction in seagrasses (to which bay scallop spat attach) caused by increased coastal development and concomitant nutrient runoff. Another possible factor is the reduction of sharks from overfishing. A variety of sharks used to feed on rays, which are the main predator of bay scallops. With the shark population reduced – this apex predator in some places almost eliminated – the rays have been free to feed on scallops to greatly decrease their numbers. By contrast, the Atlantic sea scallop ("Placopecten magellanicus") is at historically high levels of abundance after recovery from overfishing.


title: Scallop

text: Scallops are characterized by offering two flavors and textures in one shell: the meat, called "scallop", which is firm and white, and the roe, called "coral", which is soft and often brightly coloured reddish-orange. Sometimes, markets sell scallops already prepared in the shell, with only the meat remaining. Outside the U.S., the scallop is often sold whole. They are available both with and without coral in the UK and Australia.


title: Scallop

text: Scallops without any additives are called "dry-packed", while scallops that are treated with sodium tripolyphosphate (STPP) are called "wet-packed". STPP causes the scallops to absorb moisture prior to the freezing process, thereby increasing their weight. The freezing process takes about two days.


title: Scallop

text: In Galician cuisine, scallops are baked with breadcrumbs, ham, and onions. In Japanese cuisine, scallops may be served in soup or prepared as "sashimi" or "sushi". In a sushi bar, "hotategai" (帆立貝, 海扇) is the traditional scallop on rice and, while "kaibashira" (貝柱) may be calscallop is more loosely used to include other shellfish species with round-shaped flesh (the adductor muscle), such as "Atrina" (帶子). Dried scallop is known in Cantonese Chinese cuisine as "conpoy" (乾瑤柱, 乾貝, 干貝). Smoked scallops are sometimes served as appetizers or used as an ingredient in the preparation of various dishes and appetizers.


title: Scallop

text: Scallops have lent their name to the culinary term "scalloped", which originally referred to seafood creamed and served hot in the shell. Today, it means a creamed casserole dish such as scalloped potatoes, which contains no seafood at all.


title: Scallop

text: The scallop shell is the traditional emblem of St James the Great and is popular with pilgrims returning from the Way of St James (Camino de Santiago) and the apostle's shrine at Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, Spain. Medieval Christians would collect a scallop shell while at Compostela as evidence of having made the journey. The association of Saint James with the scallop can most likely be traced to the legend that the apostle once rescued a knight covered in scallops. An alternative version of the legend holds that while St. James' remains were being transported to Galicia (Spain) from Jerusalem, the disciples witnessed a bridegroom on horseback fall into the water and emerge covered in the shells.


title: Scallop

text: Indeed in French, the mollusc itself – as well as a popular preparation of it in cream sauce – is called . In German they are – literally "James's shellfish". Curiously the Linnaean name "Pecten jacobeus" is given to the Mediterranean scallop, while the scallop endemic to Galicia is called "Pecten maximus" due to its bigger size. The scallop shell is represented in the decoration of churches named after St. James, such as in St James' Church, Sydney, where it appears in a number of places, including in the mosaics on the floor of the chancel.


title: Scallop

text: When referring to St James, a scallop shell valve is displayed with its convex outer surface showing. In contrast, when the shell refers to the goddess Venus (see below), it is displayed with its concave interior surface showing.


title: Scallop

text: Saint Augustine is said to have been walking along the seashore, meditating on the unfathomable mystery of the Holy Trinity. A boy was using a shell to pour seawater into a little hole. When Augustine asked what he was doing, he replied, "I am emptying the sea into this hole." Thus did Augustine understand that man would never penetrate to the depths of the mystery of God.


title: Scallop

text: This symbolic meaning was taken up by Joseph Ratzinger in his coat of arms as Archbishop of Munich, and also retained by him when elected Pope Benedict XVI. While a doctoral candidate in 1953, Ratzinger wrote his dissertation on "The People of God and the House of God in Augustine's Teaching", and the shell, therefore, has a personal connection with the thought of Saint Augustine.


title: Scallop

text: The scallop shell symbol found its way into heraldry as a badge of those who had been on the pilgrimage to Compostela, although later, it became a symbol of pilgrimage in general. Winston Churchill and Diana, Princess of Wales' family, the Spencer family coat of arms includes a scallop, as well as both of Diana's sons Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Prince Harry's personal coats of arms; also Pope Benedict XVI's personal coat of arms includes a scallop; another example is the surname Wilmot and also John Wesley's (which as a result the scallop shell is used as an emblem of Methodism). However, charges in heraldry do not always have an unvarying symbolic meaning, and there are cases of arms in which no family member went on a pilgrimage, and the occurrence of the scallop is simply a pun on the name of the armiger (as in the case of Jacques Coeur), or for other reasons. In 1988, the State of New York in the US chose the bay scallop ("Argopecten irradians") as its state shell.


title: Scallop

text: Throughout antiquity, scallops and other hinged shells have symbolized the feminine principle. Outwardly, the shell can symbolize the protective and nurturing principle, and inwardly, the "life-force slumbering within the Earth", an emblem of the vulva.


title: Scallop

text: Many paintings of Venus, the Roman goddess of love and fertility, included a scallop shell in the painting to identify her. This is evident in Botticelli's classically inspired 15th century painting "The Birth of Venus".


title: Scallop

text: One legend of the Way of St. James holds that the route was seen as a fertility pilgrimage, undertaken when a young couple desired to bear offspring. The scallop shell is believed to have originally been carried by pagans as a symbol of fertility.


title: Scallop

text: Alternatively, the scallop resembles the setting sun, which was the focus of the pre-Christian Celtic rituals of the area. To wit, the pre-Christian roots of the "Way of St. James" was a Celtic death journey westwards towards the setting sun, terminating at the "End of the World" ("Finisterra") on the "Coast of Death" (Costa da Morte) and the "Sea of Darkness" (i.e., the Abyss of Death, the "Mare Tenebrosum", Latin for the Atlantic Ocean, itself named after the "Dying Civilization" of Atlantis).


title: Scallop

text: The beach at Aldeburgh, Suffolk, England, features Maggi Hambling's steel sculpture, "The Scallop", erected in 2003 as a memorial to the composer Benjamin Britten, who had a long association with the town.


title: Gavin McInnes

text: Gavin Miles McInnes (; born 17 July 1970) is a Canadian writer, podcaster and far-right commentator and founder of the Proud Boys. He is the host of the podcast "Get Off My Lawn", on the online video platform "Censored.TV", of which he founded. He co-founded "Vice" in 1994 at the age of 24, and relocated to the United States in 2001. In 2016 he founded the Proud Boys, an American far-right neo-fascist organization designated as a terrorist group in Canada and New Zealand. McInnes has been accused of promoting violence against political opponents, but has claimed that he only has supported political violence in self-defense and that he is not far-right or a supporter of fascism, identifying as "a fiscal conservative and libertarian".


title: Gavin McInnes

text: Born to Scottish parents in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, England, McInnes immigrated to Canada as a child. He graduated from Carleton University in Ottawa before moving to Montreal and co-founding "Vice" with Suroosh Alvi and Shane Smith. He relocated with Vice Media to New York City in 2001. During his time at "Vice", McInnes was called a leading figure in the New York hipster subculture. He holds both Canadian and British citizenship and lives in Larchmont, New York.


title: Gavin McInnes

text: In 2018, McInnes was fired from Blaze Media, and was banned from Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for violating terms of use related to promoting violent extremist groups and hate speech. In June 2020, McInnes's account was suspended from YouTube for violating YouTube's policies concerning hate speech, posting content that was "glorifying [and] inciting violence against another person or group of people."


title: Gavin McInnes

text: Gavin Miles McInnes was born on 17 July 1970 in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, the son of Scottish parents James McInnes, who later became the Vice-President of Operations at Gallium Visual Systems Inc. – a Canadian defence company – and Loraine McInnes, a retired business teacher. His family migrated to Canada when McInnes was four, settling in Ottawa, Ontario. He attended Ottawa's Earl of March Secondary School. As a teen, McInnes played in an Ottawa punk band called Anal Chinook. He graduated from Carleton University.


title: Gavin McInnes

text: McInnes co-founded "Vice" in 1994 with Shane Smith and Suroosh Alvi. The magazine was launched as the "Voice of Montreal" with government funding. The intention of the founders was to provide work and a community service. When the editors later sought to dissolve their commitments with the original publisher Alix Laurent, they bought him out and changed the name to "Vice" in 1996. Richard Szalwinski, a Canadian software millionaire, acquired the magazine and relocated the operation to New York City in the late 1990s.


title: Gavin McInnes

text: During McInnes's tenure he was described as the "godfather" of hipsterdom by WNBC and as "one of hipsterdom's primary architects" by "AdBusters". He occasionally contributed articles to "Vice", including "The VICE Guide to Happiness" and "The VICE Guide to Picking Up Chicks", and co-authored two "Vice" books: "The Vice Guide to Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll", and "Vice Dos and Don'ts: 10 Years of VICE Magazine's Street Fashion Critiques".


title: Gavin McInnes

text: In an interview in the "New York Press" in 2002, McInnes said that he was pleased that most Williamsburg hipsters were white. McInnes later wrote in a letter to "Gawker" that the interview was done as a prank intended to ridicule "baby boomer media like "The Times"". After he became the focus of a letter-writing campaign by a black reader, "Vice" apologized for McInnes's comments. McInnes was featured in a 2003 "New York Times" article about "Vice" magazine; McInnes' political views were described by the "Times" as "closer to a white supremacist's."