title: Deepak Chopra

text: In 2001, ABC News aired a show segment on the topic of distance healing and prayer. In it, Chopra said that "there is a realm of reality that goes beyond the physical where in fact we can influence each other from a distance". Chopra was shown using his claimed mental powers in an attempt to relax a person in another room, whose vital signs were recorded in charts which were said to show a correspondence between Chopra's periods of concentration and the subject's periods of relaxation. After the show, a poll of its viewers found that 90% of them believed in distance healing. Health and science journalist Christopher Wanjek has criticized the experiment, saying that any correspondence evident from the charts would prove nothing, but that even so freezing the frame of the video showed the correspondences were not so close as claimed. Wanjek characterized the broadcast as "an instructive example of how bad medicine is presented as exciting news" which had "a dependence on unusual or sensational science results that others in the scientific community renounce as unsound".


title: Deepak Chopra

text: Chopra has been described as "America's most prominent spokesman for Ayurveda". His treatments benefit from the placebo response. Chopra states "The placebo effect is real medicine, because it triggers the body's healing system." Physician and former U.S. Air Force flight surgeon Harriet Hall has criticized Chopra for his promotion of Ayurveda, stating that "it can be dangerous", referring to studies showing that 64% of Ayurvedic remedies sold in India are contaminated with significant amounts of heavy metals like mercury, arsenic, and cadmium and a 2015 study of users in the United States who found elevated blood lead levels in 40% of those tested."


title: Deepak Chopra

text: Chopra has metaphorically described the AIDS virus as emitting "a sound that lures the DNA to its destruction". The condition can be treated, according to Chopra, with "Ayurveda's primordial sound". Taking issue with this view, medical professor Lawrence Schneiderman has said that ethical issues are raised when alternative medicine is not based on empirical evidence and that, "to put it mildly, Dr. Chopra proposes a treatment and prevention program for AIDS that has no supporting empirical data".


title: Deepak Chopra

text: He is placed by David Gorski among the "quacks", "cranks" and "purveyors of woo", and described as "arrogantly obstinate". "The New York Times" in 2013 stated that Deepak Chopra is "the controversial New Age guru and booster of alternative medicine". "Time" magazine stated that he is "the poet-prophet of alternative medicine." He has become one of the best-known and wealthiest figures in the holistic-health movement. "The New York Times" argued that his publishers have used his medical degree on the covers of his books as a way to promote the books and buttress their claims. In 1999, "Time" magazine included Chopra in its list of the 20th century's heroes and icons. Cosmo Landesman wrote in 2005 that Chopra was "hardly a man now, more a lucrative new age brand the David Beckham of personal/spiritual growth". For Timothy Caulfield, Chopra is an example of someone using scientific language to promote treatments that are not grounded in science: "[Chopra] legitimizes these ideas that have no scientific basis at all, and makes them sound scientific. He really is a fountain of meaningless jargon." A 2008 "Time" magazine article by Ptolemy Tompkins commented that Chopra was a "magnet for criticism" for most of his career, and most of it was from the medical and scientific professionals. Opinions ranged from the "dismissive" to the "outright damning". Chopra's claims for the effectiveness of alternative medicine can, some have argued, lure sick people away from medical treatment. Tompkins however considered Chopra a "beloved" individual whose basic messages centered on "love, health and happiness" had made him rich because of their popular appeal. English professor George O'Har argues that Chopra exemplifies the need of human beings for meaning and spirit in their lives, and places what he calls Chopra's "sophistries" alongside the emotivism of Oprah Winfrey. Paul Kurtz writes that Chopra's "regnant spirituality" is reinforced by postmodern criticism of the notion of objectivity in science, while Wendy Kaminer equates Chopra's views with irrational belief systems such as New Thought, Christian Science, and Scientology.


title: Deepak Chopra

text: Chopra believes that "ageing is simply learned behaviour" that can be slowed or prevented. Chopra has said that he expects "to live way beyond 100". He states that "by consciously using our awareness, we can influence the way we age biologically...You can tell your body not to age." Conversely, Chopra also says that aging can be accelerated, for example by a person engaging in "cynical mistrust". Robert Todd Carroll has characterized Chopra's promotion of lengthened life as a selling of "hope" that seems to be "a false hope based on an unscientific imagination steeped in mysticism and cheerily dispensed gibberish".


title: Deepak Chopra

text: Chopra has likened the universe to a "reality sandwich" which has three layers: the "material" world, a "quantum" zone of matter and energy, and a "virtual" zone outside of time and space, which is the domain of God, and from which God can direct the other layers. Chopra has written that human beings' brains are "hardwired to know God" and that the functions of the human nervous system mirror divine experience. Chopra has written that his thinking has been inspired by Jiddu Krishnamurti, a 20th-century speaker and writer on philosophical and spiritual subjects.


title: Deepak Chopra

text: In 2012, reviewing "War of the Worldviews"a book co-authored by Chopra and Leonard Mlodinow – physics professor Mark Alford says that the work is set out as a debate between the two authors, "[covering] all the big questions: cosmology, life and evolution, the mind and brain, and God". Alford considers the two sides of the debate a false opposition and says that "the counterpoint to Chopra's speculations is not science, with its complicated structure of facts, theories, and hypotheses," but rather Occam's razor.


title: Deepak Chopra

text: In August 2005, Chopra wrote a series of articles on the creation–evolution controversy and Intelligent design, which were criticized by science writer Michael Shermer, founder of The Skeptics Society. In 2010, Shermer said that Chopra is "the very definition of what we mean by pseudoscience".


title: Deepak Chopra

text: Paul Kurtz, an American skeptic and secular humanist, has written that the popularity of Chopra's views is associated with increasing anti-scientific attitudes in society, and such popularity represents an assault on the objectivity of science itself by seeking new, alternative forms of validation for ideas. Kurtz says that medical claims must always be submitted to open-minded but proper scrutiny, and that skepticism "has its work cut out for it".


title: Deepak Chopra

text: In 2013, Chopra published an article on what he saw as "skepticism" at work in Wikipedia, arguing that a "stubborn band of militant skeptics" were editing articles to prevent what he believes would be a fair representation of the views of such figures as Rupert Sheldrake, an author, lecturer, and researcher in parapsychology. The result, Chopra argued, was that the encyclopedia's readers were denied the opportunity to read of attempts to "expand science beyond its conventional boundaries". The biologist Jerry Coyne responded, saying that it was instead Chopra who was losing out as his views were being "exposed as a lot of scientifically-sounding psychobabble".


title: Deepak Chopra

text: More broadly, Chopra has attacked skepticism as a whole, writing in "The Huffington Post" that "No skeptic, to my knowledge, ever made a major scientific discovery or advanced the welfare of others." Astronomer Phil Plait said this statement trembled "on the very edge of being a blatant and gross lie", listing Carl Sagan, Richard Feynman, Stephen Jay Gould, and Edward Jenner among the "thousands of scientists [who] are skeptics", who he said were counterexamples to Chopra's statement.


title: Deepak Chopra

text: Reviewing Susan Jacoby's book, "The Age of American Unreason", Wendy Kaminer sees Chopra's popular reception in the US as being symptomatic of many Americans' historical inability (as Jacoby puts it) "to distinguish between real scientists and those who peddled theories in the guise of science". Chopra's "nonsensical references to quantum physics" are placed in a lineage of American religious pseudoscience, extending back through Scientology to Christian Science. Physics professor Chad Orzel has written that "to a physicist, Chopra's babble about 'energy fields' and 'congealing quantum soup' presents as utter gibberish", but that Chopra makes enough references to technical terminology to convince non-scientists that he understands physics. English professor George O'Har writes that Chopra is an exemplification of the fact that human beings need "magic" in their lives, and places "the sophistries of Chopra" alongside the emotivism of Oprah Winfrey, the special effects and logic of "Star Trek", and the magic of "Harry Potter".


title: Deepak Chopra

text: Chopra has been criticized for his frequent references to the relationship of quantum mechanics to healing processes, a connection that has drawn skepticism from physicists who say it can be considered as contributing to the general confusion in the popular press regarding quantum measurement, decoherence and the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. In 1998, Chopra was awarded the satirical Ig Nobel Prize in physics for "his unique interpretation of quantum physics as it applies to life, liberty, and the pursuit of economic happiness". When interviewed by ethologist and evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in the Channel 4 (UK) documentary "The Enemies of Reason", Chopra said that he used the term "quantum physics" as "a metaphor" and that it had little to do with quantum theory in physics. In March 2010, Chopra and Jean Houston debated Sam Harris and Michael Shermer at the California Institute of Technology on the question "Does God Have a Future?" Shermer and Harris criticized Chopra's use of scientific terminology to expound unrelated spiritual concepts. A 2015 paper examining "the reception and detection of pseudo-profound bullshit" used Chopra's Twitter feed as the canonical example, and compared this with fake Chopra quotes generated by a spoof website.


title: Deepak Chopra

text: In April 2010, Aseem Shukla, co-founder of the Hindu American Foundation, criticized Chopra for suggesting that yoga did not have its origins in Hinduism but in an older Indian spiritual tradition. Chopra later said that yoga was rooted in "consciousness alone" expounded by Vedic rishis long before historic Hinduism ever arose. He said that Shukla had a "fundamentalist agenda". Shukla responded by saying Chopra was an exponent of the art of "How to Deconstruct, Repackage and Sell Hindu Philosophy Without Calling it Hindu!", and he said Chopra's mentioning of fundamentalism was an attempt to divert the debate.


title: Deepak Chopra

text: In May 1991, the "Journal of the American Medical Association" ("JAMA") published an article by Chopra and two others on Ayurvedic medicine and TM. "JAMA" subsequently published an erratum stating that the lead author, Hari M. Sharma, had undisclosed financial interests, followed by an article by "JAMA" associate editor Andrew A. Skolnick which was highly critical of Chopra and the other authors for failing to disclose their financial connections to the article subject. Several experts on meditation and traditional Indian medicine criticized "JAMA" for accepting the "shoddy science" of the original article. Chopra and two TM groups sued Skolnick and "JAMA" for defamation, asking for $194 million in damages, but the case was dismissed in March 1993.


title: Deepak Chopra

text: After Chopra published his book, "Ageless Body, Timeless Mind" (1993), he was sued for copyright infringement by Robert Sapolsky for having used, without proper attribution, "five passages of text and one table" displaying information on the endocrinology of stress. An out-of-court settlement resulted in Chopra correctly attributing material that was researched by Sapolsky.


title: Deepak Chopra

text: , Chopra has written over 91 books, 21 of them "New York Times" bestsellers, which have been translated into 43 languages. His book "The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success" was on "The New York Times" Best Seller list for 72 weeks.


title: VX (nerve agent)

text: VX is an extremely toxic synthetic chemical compound in the organophosphorus class, specifically, a thiophosphonate. In the class of nerve agents, it was developed for military use in chemical warfare after translation of earlier discoveries of organophosphate toxicity in pesticide research. In recent years, VX was found to be the agent used in the assassination of Kim Jong-nam. In its pure form, VX is an oily, relatively non-volatile liquid that is amber-like in colour. Because of its low volatility, VX persists in environments where it is dispersed.


title: VX (nerve agent)

text: VX, short for "venomous agent X", is one of the best known of the V nerve agents and was first discovered at Porton Down by Ranajit Ghosh in England during the early 1950s based on research first done by Gerhard Schrader, a chemist working for IG Farben in Germany during the 1930s. It is now one of a broader V-series of agents which are classified as nerve agents and have been used as a chemical weapon in various recorded deadly attacks. VX fatalities occur with exposure to tens of milligram quantities via inhalation or absorption through skin; VX is thus more potent than sarin, another nerve agent with a similar mechanism of action. On such exposure, these agents severely disrupt the body's signaling between the nervous and muscular systems, leading to a prolonged neuromuscular blockade, flaccid paralysis of all the muscles in the body including the diaphragm, and death by asphyxiation.


title: VX (nerve agent)

text: The danger of VX, in particular, lies in direct exposure to the chemical agent persisting where it was dispersed, and not through its evaporating and being distributed as a vapor; it is not considered a vapor hazard due to its relative non-volatility. VX is considered an area denial weapon due to these physical and biochemical characteristics. As a chemical weapon, it is categorized as a weapon of mass destruction by the United Nations and is banned by the Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993, where production and stockpiling of VX exceeding per year is outlawed. The only exception is for "research, medical or pharmaceutical purposes outside a single small-scale facility in aggregate quantities not exceeding per year per facility".


title: VX (nerve agent)

text: VX is an odorless and tasteless chiral organophosphorous chemical with a molecular weight of 267.37 g/mol. Under standard conditions it is an amber-coloured liquid with a boiling point of , and a freezing point of . Its density is similar to that of water. It has a log P value of 2.047, meaning it is relatively hydrophobic with about 100-fold more partitioning into octanol, over water. Its low vapor pressure of gives it a low volatility, resulting in a high persistence in the environment.


title: VX (nerve agent)

text: When weaponized, it can be dispersed as a liquid, aerosol or as a mixture with a clay or talc thickening agent.


title: VX (nerve agent)

text: It blocks the function of the enzyme acetylcholinesterase (AChE). Normally, when a motor neuron is stimulated, it releases the neurotransmitter acetylcholine (ACh) into the space between the neuron and an adjacent muscle cell, the synaptic cleft. When acetylcholine binds to nicotinic receptors at the neuromuscular junction, it stimulates muscle contraction. To avoid a state of constant muscle contraction, the acetylcholine is then broken down (hydrolysed) into the inactive substances acetic acid and choline by AChE. VX blocks the action of AChE, resulting in an accumulation of acetylcholine in the space between the neuron and muscle cell. On a molecular level, this leads to the ongoing stimulation and eventual fatigue of all affected muscarinic and nicotinic ACh receptors. This results in initial violent contractions, followed by sustained supercontraction restricted to the fluid (sarcoplasm) of the subjunctional endplate and prolonged, depolarizing neuromuscular blockade.The prolonged blockade results in flaccid paralysis of all the muscles in the body, and it is such sustained paralysis of the diaphragm muscle that causes death by asphyxiation.


title: VX (nerve agent)

text: Accumulation of acetylcholine in the brain also causes neuronal excitotoxicity, due to activation of nicotinic receptors and glutamate release.


title: VX (nerve agent)

text: The extreme toxicity of VX is partly due to the fact that the inhibitor was designed to be an excellent structural mimic for the transition state of the natural substrate (acetylcholine) of acetylcholinesterase. VX has a very high "on-rate" to react with the target enzyme and form a stable P-O-C bond (phosphorylation). However, compared with other highly toxic nerve agents like soman or sarin, VX undergoes relatively slow "aging". Aging is a time-dependent side reaction (loss of an alkoxyl group) that occurs on nerve agents after phosphonylation and renders the nerve agent-acetylcholinesterase complex highly resistant to regeneration by any known antidote. Slower aging by VX suggests it should be possible to develop more effective antidotes and treatments.


title: VX (nerve agent)

text: The reaction products of acetylcholinesterase with VX before and after the "aging" reaction were solved near atomic resolution by X-ray crystallography to aid in antidote development. The X-ray structures revealed the specific parts of the VX molecule that interact with key residues and sub-sites of the target enzyme. The structural kinetic of phosphonylation followed by aging also showed an unexpected conformational change in the catalytic triad suggestive of an "induced fit" between the VX molecule and acetylcholinesterase.


title: VX (nerve agent)

text: VX is chiral at its phosphorus atom. The individual enantiomers are identified as "S"-(−)-VX, and "R"-(+)-VX (where the "P" subscript highlights that the chirality is at phosphorus).


title: VX (nerve agent)

text: VX is produced via the transester process, which gives a racemic mixture of the two enantiomers. This entails a series of steps whereby phosphorus trichloride is methylated to produce methyl phosphonous dichloride. The resulting material is reacted with ethanol to form a diester. This is then transesterified with "N","N"-diisopropylaminoethanol to produce the mixed phosphonite. Finally, this immediate precursor is reacted with sulfur to form VX.


title: VX (nerve agent)

text: VX can also be delivered in binary chemical weapons which mix in-flight to form the agent prior to release. Binary VX is referred to as VX2, and is created by mixing "O"-(2-diisopropylaminoethyl) "O′"-ethyl methylphosphonite (Agent QL) with elemental sulfur (Agent NE) as is done in the Bigeye aerial chemical bomb. It may also be produced by mixing with sulfur compounds, as with the liquid dimethyl polysulfide mixture (Agent NM) in the canceled XM736 8-inch projectile program.


title: VX (nerve agent)

text: Like other organophosphorus nerve agents, VX may be destroyed by reaction with strong nucleophiles. The reaction of VX with concentrated aqueous sodium hydroxide results in two competing solvolysis reactions: cleavage of either the P–O or P–S esters. Although the P–S cleavage is the dominant pathway, the product of P–O bond cleavage is the toxic phosphonic thioester EA-2192 and both reactions are slow. In contrast, reaction with the hydroperoxide anion (hydroperoxidolysis) leads to exclusive cleavage of the P–S bond and a more rapid overall reaction.


title: VX (nerve agent)

text: Early symptoms of percutaneous exposure (skin contact) include local sweating and muscular twitching at the area of exposure, followed by nausea or vomiting. Early symptoms of exposure to VX vapor include rhinorrhea (runny nose) and/or tightness in the chest with shortness of breath (bronchial constriction). Miosis (pinpointing of the pupils) may be an early sign of agent exposure, but is not usually used as the only indicator of exposure.


title: VX (nerve agent)

text: VX is a "particularly toxic nerve agent". The potentially fatal dose is only slightly higher than the dose having any effect at all, and the effects of a fatal dose are so rapid that there is little time for treatment. The median lethal dose (LD), the exposure required to kill half of a tested population, as estimated for 70 kg human males via exposure to the skin is reported to be 5–, and the lethal concentration time (LCt), measuring the concentration of the vapor or aerosol per length of time exposed, is estimated for VX to be 10–15 mg·min/m for exposure time of two minutes at a minute volume of 15 L (minute volume of 15 L corresponds to slight physical activity like slow walking).


title: VX (nerve agent)

text: When treating VX exposure, primary consideration is given to removal of the liquid agent from the skin, before removal of the individual to an uncontaminated area or atmosphere. After this, the victim is decontaminated by washing the contaminated areas with household bleach and flushing with clean water, followed by removal of contaminated clothing and further skin decontamination. When possible, decontamination is completed before the casualty is taken for further medical treatment.


title: VX (nerve agent)

text: An individual known to have been exposed to a nerve-agent, or who exhibits definite signs or symptoms of nerve-agent exposure is generally given the antidotes atropine and pralidoxime (2-PAM), and in the case of convulsions an injected sedative/antiepileptic such as diazepam. In several nations the nerve agent antidotes are issued for military personnel in the form of an autoinjector such as the United States military Mark I NAAK.


title: VX (nerve agent)

text: Atropine blocks a subset of acetylcholine receptors known as muscarinic acetylcholine receptors (mAchRs), so that the buildup of acetylcholine produced by loss of the acetylcholinesterase function has a reduced effect on their target receptor. 2-PAM reactivates the acetylcholinesterase enzyme (AChE), thus reversing the effects of VX. VX and other organophosphates block AChE activity by binding to and covalently inactivating the enzyme via transfer of the phosphonate moiety from VX to the active site of AChE; this inactivates AChE and produces an inactive by-product from the remaining portion of the VX molecule. Pralidoxime (2-PAM) removes this phosphate group.


title: VX (nerve agent)

text: Controlled studies in humans have shown that minimally toxic doses cause 70–75% depression of erythrocyte cholinesterase within several hours of exposure. The serum level of ethyl methylphosphonic acid (EMPA), a VX hydrolysis product, was measured to confirm exposure in one poisoning victim. There also exist procedures for determination of VX hydrolysis products in urine and of VX adducts to albumin in blood.


title: VX (nerve agent)

text: The chemists Ranajit Ghosh and J. F. Newman discovered the V-series nerve agents at the British firm ICI in 1952, patenting diethyl "S"-2-diethylaminoethyl phosphonothioate (agent VG) in November 1952. Further commercial research on similar compounds ceased in 1955 when its lethality to humans was discovered. The U.S. started production of large amounts of VX in 1961 at Newport Chemical Depot.


title: VX (nerve agent)

text: The discovery occurred when the chemists were investigating a class of organophosphate compounds (organophosphate esters of substituted aminoethanethiols). Like Gerhard Schrader, an earlier investigator of organophosphates, Ghosh found that they were quite effective pesticides. In 1954, ICI put one of them on the market under the trade name Amiton. It was subsequently withdrawn, as it was too toxic for safe use. The toxicity did not go unnoticed, and samples of it were sent to the British Armed Forces research facility at Porton Down for evaluation. After the evaluation was complete, several members of this class of compounds became a new group of nerve agents, the V agents. The best-known of these is probably VX, assigned the UK Rainbow Code Purple Possum, with the Russian V-Agent (VR) coming a close second (Amiton is largely forgotten as VG). The name is a contraction of the words "venomous agent X".


title: VX (nerve agent)

text: Beginning in 1959, the United States Army began volunteer testing of VX in humans. Dr. Van M. Sim underwent an intravenous infusion of VX to evaluate its effects and to establish a baseline for future experimentation. After approximately 3.5 hours following initial administration of the agent, Sim suddenly became pale and delirious. The experiment was immediately terminated to preserve his life. In their conclusion, the researchers estimated that 2.12 μg/kg of VX delivered intravenously over the course of several hours would be the maximum tolerable dosage and that any more would risk death in a human subject.


title: VX (nerve agent)

text: In 1988, a United Nations inquiry established that Cuba was responsible for deploying VX against Angolan insurgents during the Angolan Civil War. UN toxicologists obtained trace elements of VX from soil, water, and plant samples taken from areas where Cuban troops had recently carried out counter-insurgency operations. Patients demonstrating symptoms of exposure to nerve agents first began appearing in Angolan hospitals around 1984.


title: VX (nerve agent)

text: There was evidence of a combination of chemical agents having been used by Iraq against the Kurds in the Halabja chemical attack in 1988 under Saddam Hussein, including VX. Hussein later testified to UNSCOM that Iraq had researched VX, but had failed to weaponize the agent due to production failure. After U.S. and allied forces invaded Iraq, no VX agent or production facilities were found. However, UNSCOM laboratories detected traces of VX on warhead remnants.


title: VX (nerve agent)

text: In December 1994 and January 1995, Masami Tsuchiya of Aum Shinrikyo synthesized of VX which was used to attack three people. Two people were injured and one 28-year-old man died, who was the first victim of VX ever documented in the world at that time. The VX victim, whom Shoko Asahara had suspected as a spy, was attacked at 7:00 am on 12 December 1994 on the street in Osaka by Tomomitsu Niimi and another AUM member, who sprinkled the nerve agent on his neck. He chased them for about 90 metres (100 yd) before collapsing, dying ten days later without ever coming out of a deep coma. Doctors in the hospital suspected at the time he had been poisoned with an organophosphate pesticide, but the cause of death was pinned down only after cult members arrested for the Tokyo subway sarin attack confessed to the killing. Metabolites of VX such as ethyl methylphosphonate, methylphosphonic acid and diisopropyl-2-(methylthio)ethylamine were later found in samples of the victim's blood seven months after his murder. Unlike the cases for sarin gas (the Matsumoto incident and the attack on the Tokyo subway), VX was not used for mass murder.


title: VX (nerve agent)

text: On 13 February 2017, Kim Jong-nam, half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, died after an assault at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia. According to the authorities he was murdered by poisoning with VX which was found on his face. The authorities further reported that one of the women suspected of applying the nerve agent experienced some physical symptoms of VX-poisoning. The director of a non-proliferation research program of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey stated that VX fumes would have killed the suspected attackers even if they had been wearing gloves, suggesting that the VX was applied as two non-lethal components that would mix to form VX only on the victim's face.


title: VX (nerve agent)

text: Some countries known to possess VX are the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, North Korea, and Syria. A Sudanese pharmaceutical facility, the Al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory, was bombed by the U.S. in 1998 acting on information that it produced VX and that the origin of the agent was associated with both Iraq and Al Qaeda. The U.S. had obtained soil samples identified as containing "O"-ethyl hydrogen methylphosphonothioate (EMPTA), a chemical used in the production of VX which may also have commercial applications. Chemical weapons experts later suggested that the widely used fonofos organophosphate insecticide could have been mistaken for EMPTA. Cuba obtained VX during the 1980s and deployed it during its military intervention in Angola.


title: VX (nerve agent)

text: In 1969, the U.S. government cancelled its chemical weapons programs, banned the production of VX in the United States, and began the destruction of its stockpiles of agents by a variety of methods. Early disposal included the U.S. Army's CHASE (Cut Holes And Sink 'Em) program, in which old ships were filled with chemical weapons stockpiles and then scuttled. CHASE 8 was conducted on 15 June 1967, in which the steamship "Cpl. Eric G. Gibson" was filled with 7,380 VX rockets and scuttled in of water off the coast of Atlantic City, New Jersey. Incineration was used for VX stockpile destruction starting in 1990 with Johnston Atoll Chemical Agent Disposal System in the North Pacific with other incineration plants following at Deseret Chemical Depot, Pine Bluff Arsenal, Umatilla Chemical Depot and Anniston Army Depot with the last of the VX inventory destroyed on 24 December 2008.


title: VX (nerve agent)

text: Worldwide, VX disposal has continued since 1997 under the mandate of the Chemical Weapons Convention. When the convention entered force, the parties declared worldwide stockpiles of of VX. As of December 2015, 98% of the stockpiles had been destroyed.


title: VX (nerve agent)

text: In fiscal year 2008, the U.S. Department of Defense released a study finding that the United States had dumped at least of VX into the Atlantic Ocean off the coasts of New York/New Jersey and Florida between 1969 and 1970. This material consisted of nearly 22,000 M55 rockets, 19 bulk containers holding each, and one M23 chemical landmine.


title: VX (nerve agent)

text: The Newport Chemical Depot began VX stockpile elimination using chemical neutralization in 2005. VX was hydrolyzed to much less toxic byproducts by using concentrated caustic solution, and the resulting waste was then shipped off-site for further processing. Technical and political issues regarding this secondary byproduct resulted in delays, but the depot completed their VX stockpile destruction in August 2008.


title: VX (nerve agent)

text: The remaining VX stockpile in the U.S. was treated by the Blue Grass Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant in Kentucky, part of the Program Executive Office, Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives program. The program was established as an alternative to the incineration process successfully used by the Army Chemical Materials Agency, which completed its stockpile destruction activities in March 2012. The Blue Grass Pilot Plant has been plagued by repeated cost over-runs and schedule slippages since its inception.


title: VX (nerve agent)

text: In Russia, the U.S. provided support for these destruction activities with the Nunn-Lugar Global Cooperation Initiative. The Initiative has been able to convert a former chemical weapons depot at Shchuchye, Kurgan Oblast into a facility to destroy those chemical weapons. The new facility, which opened in May 2009, has been working on eliminating the nearly of nerve agents held at the former storage complex. However, this facility only held about 14% of Russian chemical weapons, which were stored at seven sites.


title: VX (nerve agent)

text: One of the best-known references to VX in popular culture is its use in the 1996 film "The Rock", which centers on a threatened VX attack on San Francisco from the island of Alcatraz. The film uses artistic license, notably with VX being ascribed corrosive powers it does not possess, permitting an early scene in which a VX victim is shown with his face melting, rather than dying through asphyxiation. It is also shown as being bright green, a colour often used in Hollywood to represent 'danger' when applied to substances, rather than amber. As well, its delivery and dispersal mechanism is based around a chain of fictional glass balls that hold the substance as a gel solution.


title: VX (nerve agent)

text: Other references to VX are found in the 2012 film "It's a Disaster" in which it is revealed that a nearby dirty bomb attack was a VX attack, prompting the four couples to contemplate a suicide pact, as well as the 2015 film "", in which series protagonist Ethan Hunt steals VX nerve gas from Chechen separatists on their way to Syria. Also season 5 of the TV series "24", has a similar storyline. The fifth episode of the 2020 anime series "" features a tear gas bomb with canisters loaded with VX gas and placed inside a cabinet of a safe room within the embassy; the protagonist Daisuke Kambe and two other characters were trapped inside the room after relocating themselves due to security reasons, and figuring out how to escape before the bomb detonates.


title: VX (nerve agent)

text: The album "VIVIsectVI" by the industrial band Skinny Puppy contains a song about chemical weapons called "VX Gas Attack".


title: VX (nerve agent)

text: In the BBC show "Spooks", series 2 episode 5, a dirty bomb using VX is said to have gone off in a 'training exercise'.


title: VX (nerve agent)

text: In the video game "Everybody's Gone to the Rapture", VX is alluded to as a nerve agent used by the government to contain a pattern which infects and kills humans and other animals.


title: VX (nerve agent)

text: In the book "Nightshade", the twelfth book in the Alex Rider Series, VX plays a major role, as it is used by terrorists in an attempt kill over half of the British government.


title: VX (nerve agent)

text: The second episode of the TV series "Seal Team" (season 1) focuses on a chemical weapons lab in an abandoned hospital, producing VX gas.


title: VX (nerve agent)

text: In the Netflix show "Designated Survivor", agent Hannah Wells is killed by VX in season 3, episode 7.


title: VX (nerve agent)

text: In the Crackle show "Startup", American soldiers discover a computer used by apparent terrorists in Aleppo, Syria. "VX components" are displayed as an item for purchase on the computer, which is logged into Araknet, a dark web created by the protagonists of the series.


title: Tiffany Darwish

text: Tiffany Renee Darwish (born October 2, 1971), known mononymously as Tiffany, is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and former teen icon. Her 1987 cover of the Tommy James and the Shondells song "I Think We're Alone Now" spent two weeks at No. 1 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart, and was released as the second single from her debut studio album "Tiffany".


title: Tiffany Darwish

text: Her singles "Could've Been" and "I Saw Him Standing There", a cover version of the Beatles' "I Saw Her Standing There", followed soon after, with the former also claiming the No. 1 position on the "Billboard" Hot 100. Thanks to an original mall tour, "The Beautiful You: Celebrating The Good Life Shopping Mall Tour '87", Tiffany found commercial success; and both her singles and the album peaked at No. 1 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 and "Billboard" 200 charts, respectively.


title: Tiffany Darwish

text: Although Tiffany's second studio album, "Hold an Old Friend's Hand", featured a Top 10 single, charted in the upper register of the "Billboard" 200 in 1988, and ultimately became platinum-selling, it failed to replicate the success of her debut. The 1990s saw two additional releases from Tiffany, 1990's "New Inside" and the Asia-exclusive "Dreams Never Die" in 1993, both of which failed to rekindle significant interest. Tiffany returned in 2000 with her first studio album in six years, "The Color of Silence". Although the album received some minor critical success, it also failed to achieve any significant standing. Since then, Tiffany has recorded five additional studio albums, as well as two albums of 1980s cover songs, and she continues to tour.


title: Tiffany Darwish

text: Outside of music, Tiffany posed nude in "Playboy" and has guest-starred on several reality television shows, including "Celebrity Fit Club", Australia's version of "I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!" and "Hulk Hogan's Celebrity Championship Wrestling", and has acted in a handful of horror and science fiction films, including "Necrosis" (2009), "Mega Piranha" (2010), and "Mega Python vs. Gatoroid" (2011).


title: Tiffany Darwish

text: Tiffany Renee Darwish was born on October 2, 1971 in the Los Angeles suburb of Norwalk, California, to Janie Wilson and James Robert Darwish, who divorced when she was 14 months old. Tiffany's father is of Lebanese origin and her mother is of Irish and Native American descent.


title: Tiffany Darwish

text: Tiffany began singing at age four when she learned the words to the Tanya Tucker song "Delta Dawn". After her parents' divorce, she lived with her father and attended Norwalk High School during her freshman and sophomore years and then attended Norwalk's Leffingwell Christian High School.


title: Tiffany Darwish

text: In 1981, Tiffany debuted with country music singer Jack Reeves at a country and western venue, Narods, in Chino, California. She passed a hat among the crowd afterwards, and collected $235 in what were her first career earnings.


title: Tiffany Darwish

text: When Tiffany was singing at the Palomino Club, she was discovered by Hoyt Axton and his mother Mae Axton. Mae took her to sing in Nashville, Tennessee, where she performed on WSMV's "The Ralph Emery Show", singing Juice Newton's "Queen of Hearts" and Tammy Wynette's "Your Good Girl's Gonna Go Bad".


title: Tiffany Darwish

text: In 1984, Tiffany signed a recording contract with George Tobin after he heard her sing on a demo tape. In 1985, she appeared on "Star Search" with Ed McMahon, where she finished in second place overall. In 1986, she signed a contract that gave Tobin total control over her career, recorded her debut studio album and was signed to an MCA contract. The album, "Tiffany", was released in 1987, but the first single she released from it, "Danny", failed to chart. Following the failure of "Danny", Tobin sent Tiffany on a nationwide tour of shopping malls, "The Beautiful You: Celebrating the Good Life Shopping Mall Tour '87". The tour began at the Bergen Mall in Paramus, New Jersey. Her second single, a cover of Tommy James and the Shondells' hit, "I Think We're Alone Now", became a number-one hit on the "Billboard" Hot 100 list. It remains her biggest hit.


title: Tiffany Darwish

text: Tiffany's ballad "Could've Been" also peaked at the No. 1 spot on the "Billboard" charts, in February 1988. Tiffany's modified version of the Beatles' "I Saw Her Standing There", retitled "I Saw "Him" Standing There", peaked at the No. 7 position on the Hot 100. "Feelings of Forever" also had chart success. Tiffany set a record for the youngest female artist to top the "Billboard" charts with a debut album. Later that year, she toured, with boy band New Kids on the Block as her opening act.


title: Tiffany Darwish

text: In 1988, at the peak of her popularity, Tiffany was embroiled in a conflict in which Tobin fought her mother and stepfather over control of her career and earnings. This led to a court fight in which Tiffany tried to have herself declared an emancipated minor. This was rejected by the court, but the judge did allow her to move out of her mother's home, and her grandmother (who sided with Tiffany during the trial) became her temporary guardian.


title: Tiffany Darwish

text: In late 1988, Tiffany released her second studio album, "Hold an Old Friend's Hand", which was less successful than her debut. Although it did not include any number-one hits, the song "All This Time" made the top 10. The album received positive reviews from critics, and immediately went platinum.


title: Tiffany Darwish

text: Shortly after turning eighteen, Tiffany left Tobin's management and signed with Dick Scott and Kim Glover, who managed New Kids on the Block, by then a successful boy band.


title: Tiffany Darwish

text: Tiffany's career suffered as musical tastes changed in the early 1990s, moving away from dance-pop and towards harder-edged rock and rap. Some of her fans found the new soulful, sultrier Tiffany in her third studio album, the urban-influenced "New Inside" (1990), less appealing than earlier work. "New Inside" received mixed reviews from music critics, and failed to chart, despite several TV appearances to promote it, including on the fantasy sitcom "Out of This World".


title: Tiffany Darwish

text: In 1991, Tiffany participated in the recording of the song "Voices That Care", which peaked at No. 11 on the "Billboard" Hot 100.


title: Tiffany Darwish

text: During a brief early 1990s comeback attempt, Tiffany reunited with Tobin on the album "Dreams Never Die" (1993), which spawned the singles "If Love is Blind" and "Can't You See". She headlined her own show at the Las Vegas Hilton in the summer of 1993, before breaking with Tobin once again.


title: Tiffany Darwish

text: In 1995, Tiffany moved to Nashville to develop her career as a songwriter, and to attempt a return as a country music artist.


title: Tiffany Darwish

text: In 2000, Tiffany released her fifth studio album, "The Color of Silence", which received favorable reviews. "Billboard" described it as "one of the best pop albums of the year" and the year's "biggest surprise". Her College Promotional Tour broke attendance records at most tour stops.


title: Tiffany Darwish

text: Tiffany posed nude for the April 2002 issue of "Playboy". Tiffany stated in interviews that she explained to her nine-year-old son that it was no different from posing in "Vogue" or "Elle", except that it showed more. She added years later that while she had no regrets posing in "Playboy", some of her family members disapproved because of how young her son was at the time.


title: Tiffany Darwish

text: On April 2, 2005, Tiffany was featured on the British TV show "Hit Me, Baby, One More Time", performing the Girls Aloud song "Love Machine" and securing a place in the show's finale. She also appeared on the US version of the show on June 2, 2005, losing to hip hop group Arrested Development.


title: Tiffany Darwish

text: Tiffany released her sixth studio album "Dust Off and Dance" on CD Baby in May 2005, followed later as a digital release on iTunes. It was dedicated to her new husband, but recorded as a thank you to her fans (particularly her gay and European fanbase) for reminding her about the fun to be had with her career. The album consisted of Eurodance and Hi-NRG style songs. Singles from "Dust Off and Dance", included "Ride It", "Fly", "Be with U Tonite", "Na Na Na", and "Artificial Girlfriend".


title: Tiffany Darwish

text: Tiffany toured with the album, which in September 2006 was nominated for six JPF Awards. She won for best dance song of the year for "Be with U Tonite" and best dance CD of the year on November 4, 2006.


title: Tiffany Darwish

text: In 2007, Tiffany, who had begun to struggle with her weight, was cast for the fifth season of VH1's "Celebrity Fit Club". The show premiered on April 22, 2007. During the show, the singer's weight started at and finished with , a difference of 18.4%.


title: Tiffany Darwish

text: In April 2007, Tiffany released a new album of cover material titled "" on Cleopatra Records. The album features updated versions of her first three Top Ten hits from her debut album, as well as cover versions of songs from other artists of the 1980s.


title: Tiffany Darwish

text: Tiffany's music video for "I Think We're Alone Now" is featured in an episode of "The Goldbergs", an episode of "The Umbrella Academy", and the 2012 film "Ted".


title: Tiffany Darwish

text: Tiffany in 2007 signed a recording contract with 10 Spot Records, a new division of Water Music Records Group, distributed by Universal Music Group, and released a new album titled "Just Me". The album contained all-new material in a singer-songwriter format "à la" her earlier album "The Color of Silence" (2000). The first single from the album, "Feels Like Love", was released on May 1, 2007.


title: Tiffany Darwish

text: In early August 2007, the dance single "Higher" began showing up online. On October 2, 2007 (Tiffany's 36th birthday), it debuted on the "Billboard" Hot Dance Club Play chart as the number-one breakout, her first "Billboard" chart appearance since 1989. From there, the single climbed the charts to No. 19.


title: Tiffany Darwish

text: In March 2008, Tiffany released "Mimi's Kitchen", an album limited to 500 copies and featuring rare demos from age three through the present. It was shipped to fans in a personalized package which also included autographed photos, two autographed CDs, and the "Mimi's Kitchen" demo collection. A small subset of the release also included "Playboy" T-shirts.


title: Tiffany Darwish

text: In late April 2008, a track with the same name as her 2005 dance album "Dust Off and Dance" became available for download on the Internet. The song consisted of Tiffany performing vocals for the dance team Hydra Productions; it is on their album "Liquid". In early January 2009, the single reached number one on the Hot Club Play Breakout charts.


title: Tiffany Darwish

text: In late July 2008, a new Tiffany dance song remixed by Dave Audé, "Just Another Day", was released on CD. It peaked at No. 28 on the U.S. "Billboard" Dance chart. On October 18, 2008, Tiffany appeared on the CMT reality show "Hulk Hogan's Celebrity Championship Wrestling", and was eliminated in the first episode.


title: Tiffany Darwish

text: On January 14, 2011, Tiffany released the single "Serpentine" on iTunes. This country song was taken from the soundtrack of the film "Mega Python vs. Gatoroid", in which she also starred. Her album "Rose Tattoo", released on March 1, 2011, was her first professional foray into country music.


title: Tiffany Darwish

text: On April 22, 2011, it was announced that Tiffany would be teaming up with fellow 1980s pop music sensation Debbie Gibson for an upcoming summer concert tour titled "Journey Through the 80's". When asked what material the pair would perform in the concerts, Tiffany said it would be a 1980s retrospective that, in addition to their own material, would also feature covers by Stevie Nicks, Guns N' Roses, and Reba McEntire.


title: Tiffany Darwish

text: In December 2012, having opened a clothing boutique of her own, Tiffany appeared on TLC's makeover reality show "What Not to Wear".


title: Tiffany Darwish

text: In January 2014, Tiffany became one of the eight stars competing in season three of Food Network's "". She won an MVP bonus of $2,500 in the first week of the competition, and ultimately placed third.


title: Tiffany Darwish

text: Tiffany was a celebrity contestant in 2018 on the fourth season of the Australian version of "I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!", and became the first celebrity eliminated from the series after 16 days in the jungle. On September 21, 2018, Tiffany self-released her tenth studio album, "Pieces of Me", via her own label, Go On Then Records. The following month her cover of Logan Lynn’s "Big City Now" was released as part of a multi-media double album titled "My Movie Star" produced by Lynn and Jay Mohr.


title: Tiffany Darwish

text: In April 2019, Tiffany released an updated version of her hit "I Think We're Alone Now" that featured a rock and roll arrangement. On May 2, 2019, the Mixtape Tour commenced in Cincinnati, Ohio. Other performers on this tour included Salt-N-Pepa, Debbie Gibson, and Naughty by Nature, with New Kids on the Block being billed as the headline performers.


title: Tiffany Darwish

text: Tiffany kicked off her 2019 solo tour on August 31, 2019, with a concert at Daybreak in South Jordan, Utah. The tour included nearly 50 dates at venues across the United States through March 2020.


title: Tiffany Darwish

text: In October 2019, Tiffany was a featured guest on "The Sam T. Blues Revue", the successor of "The BluesMobile Radio Hour".


title: Tiffany Darwish

text: In 2020, Tiffany performed a song that appears on the soundtrack of the movie "Love, Guaranteed". She also released her first original Christmas single "Angels" on December 4 of the same year on streaming services. "Angels" was written and recorded at her home studio in Nashville, Tennessee with Mark Alberici and Margie Hauser. Tiffany said, "The song is about hope and missing family. In my more than 30-year career, I've never recorded an original Christmas song, but it just felt right. It's raw and real and that's what makes it special to me."


title: Tiffany Darwish

text: While struggling through a November 2021 live performance of "I Think We're Alone Now" in Melbourne, Florida, Tiffany yelled an expletive at the crowd. Once media outlets picked up the story, Tiffany's representative explained that she had lost her voice and was frustrated with her performance. Tiffany herself addressed the event, apologizing for her actions that she claimed were the result of a combination of voice loss, panic attack, and frustration.


title: Tiffany Darwish

text: Tiffany’s eleventh studio album, "Shadows", produced by Mark Alberici, was released on November 25, 2022 via Deko Entertainment and Revolt Artist Management.


title: Tiffany Darwish

text: Tiffany's first acting job was providing the voice of Judy Jetson on "", which was released in 1990. She also contributed three songs to the soundtrack, including the single "I Always Thought I'd See You Again" and the main song "You and Me". Some controversy resulted from the fact that Janet Waldo, who had voiced the character in all previous "Jetsons" material, had all of her recorded dialogue in the movie replaced because studio executives thought Tiffany would attract a younger audience. The film however was a box-office bomb.


title: Tiffany Darwish

text: In April 2008, Tiffany starred in a national commercial campaign for AT&T titled "Paradise by the GoPhone Light" for AT&T's GoPhone, which featured Meat Loaf. The ad, which parodies his "Paradise by the Dashboard Light", was released in two versions, an extended music video version and a short commercial edit.


title: Tiffany Darwish

text: Also in April 2008, Tiffany made a cameo appearance on the sitcom "How I Met Your Mother" in the episode "Sandcastles in the Sand". She played herself as a backing vocalist in the 1980s-inspired music video by a fictional teen Canadian pop star who was inspired by real-life singers like Tiffany making a career out of performing in malls.


title: Tiffany Darwish

text: Tiffany starred in the 2008 short film "The Isolationist," which was screened at several film festivals. Her character, Barbara Newman, is a sexually-aggressive woman unwilling to let a co-worker enjoy some alone time. In 2009, she completed work on her first feature film, "Necrosis", which was released internationally as "Blood Snow". "Necrosis" is an independent psychological thriller in which she starred alongside James Kyson and George Stults. In the film, she plays Karen, a fun-loving adrenaline junkie who took matters into her own hands after a blizzard had trapped her friends and her in a cabin, and paranoia got the best of them. "Necrosis" premiered at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. Tiffany's musical contemporary, Debbie Gibson, had her film "Mega Shark Versus Giant Octopus" premiere at Cannes, as well. Tiffany also starred in a film from The Asylum, the mockbuster "Mega Piranha", directed by Eric Forsberg, which also starred Barry Williams.


title: Tiffany Darwish

text: Tiffany and Gibson starred together in a Syfy original movie "Mega Python vs. Gatoroid", which aired January 29, 2011. The movie featured a protracted catfight between Tiffany and Gibson.


title: Tiffany Darwish

text: The 2008 documentary "I Think We're Alone Now" is about two fans of Tiffany who both claim to be in love with Tiffany and have been labeled "stalkers" by the media. While Tiffany did not voluntarily participate in the production, she does appear in the film.


title: Tiffany Darwish

text: In 2011, Tiffany filmed an episode of the Biography Channel TV series "Celebrity Close Calls". On the episode first broadcast July 7, 2013, of the reality TV series "Celebrity Wife Swap", she traded places with actress/singer Nia Peeples.


title: Tiffany Darwish

text: Tiffany was the subject in 2013 of the Season 10 premiere episode of "What Not To Wear" on TLC. Later that year she starred in a Miracle Whip commercial alongside other celebrities, including Wynonna Judd, Lance Bass, Susan Boyle, and the Village People.


title: Tiffany Darwish

text: Tiffany married makeup artist Bulmaro Garcia in 1992. Their only son, Elijah, was born in September 1992. They divorced in 2003.


title: Tiffany Darwish

text: She married British businessman Ben George in 2004. During the writing process of 2018's "Pieces of Me", the couple mutually agreed to separate and have since divorced.


title: Hachi: A Dog's Tale

text: Hachi: A Dog's Tale is a 2009 American drama film and a remake of Kaneto Shindo's 1987 Japanese film "Hachikō Monogatari." The original film told the true story of the Akita dog named Hachikō who lived in Japan in the 1920s. This version, which places it in a modern American context, was directed by Lasse Hallström, written by Stephen P. Lindsey and Kaneto Shindo, and produced by Richard Gere, Bill Johnson and Vicki Shigekuni Wong. The film stars Gere, Joan Allen, Sarah Roemer, Jason Alexander and Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa.


title: Hachi: A Dog's Tale

text: "Hachi: A Dog's Tale" premiered at the Seattle International Film Festival on June 13, 2009, and its first theatrical release was in Japan on August 8, 2009. The film was given a UK theatrical release on March 12, 2010, courtesy of Entertainment Film Distributors, and opened in more than 60 countries throughout 2009 and 2010. By the end of September 2010, the film's foreign box office returns had totalled more than $45 million. Sony Pictures Entertainment decided to forgo a U.S. theatrical release, bringing the film out on DVD on March 9, 2010 and eventually selling it to the Hallmark Channel, where it debuted on September 26, 2010.


title: Hachi: A Dog's Tale

text: The film begins with Ronnie narrating to his class that his personal hero is his grandfather Parker Wilson's dog Hachi and the story goes in flashback.


title: Hachi: A Dog's Tale

text: Parker Wilson (played by Richard Gere), a professor who commutes to nearby Providence, Rhode Island, finds a young dog (played by Layla) lost on the railway station platform in Bedridge and temporarily takes it home. (The audience sees that it was freighted by a Japanese monastery and that the tag of its basket was torn in transit.) The dog remains unclaimed but grows close to Parker as he takes it everywhere with him. Parker's Japanese friend Ken tells him that the dog is a breed called Akita and that the character on its collar tag is "Hachi" ("Eight" in Japanese-language). Parker thus gives the name "Hachi" to the dog as it is a lucky number. Parker's wife Cate Wilson (played by Joan Allen) eventually warms to Hachi but he sleeps outside in his own shed. Meanwhile, Parker tries in vain to train Hachi in normal dog things like fetching a ball. Ken explains to him that Akita dogs cannot be trained and that if Hachi fetches the ball, it will be for a special reason. Later, Parker's daughter Andy (played by Sarah Roemer) gets married to Michael (played by Robbie Sublett) and Hachi is in the family marriage photograph. Soon after the marriage, Andy announces that she is pregnant. One spring morning, a grown up Hachi (played by Chico) digs under the fence and follows Parker to the railway station. He refuses to go home and Parker misses the train. He hands him over to Cate and catches the next train. At 5:00pm, he returns from the train and is surprised to find Hachi waiting for him at the railway station. He is even more surprised to learn that he came to the railway station all by himself. A daily routine begins: the two walk to the railway station, Parker leaves from the train, Hachi goes home, and returns at 5:00pm to receive Parker.


title: Hachi: A Dog's Tale

text: However, one winter morning, Hachi behaves strangely at home and then follows Parker to the railway station with the ball. Parker throws the ball towards him and much to his delight, Hachi fetches it for the first time. They play for a while and Parker eventually puts the ball in his pocket and begins to leave. Hachi barks and barks and watches Parker's train leaving. Hours later, while still holding the ball, Parker suffers a fatal stroke in his classroom and collapses; Hachi waits for him at the railway station. At 9:30pm, Michael comes to the railway station and takes Hachi home. From his shed, Hachi watches the family mourning Parker. The next morning, Parker's family members and friends gather for his funeral while Hachi goes to the railway station to wait. Soon, Cate sells the house and moves away and Hachi goes to live with Andy and Michael and their infant son Ronnie. However, Hachi follows the train tracks to Bedridge. Andy and Michael find him and take him back to their house but Andy ends up realising that Hachi is pining for Parker and opens the gate for him. Hachi licks her hand and runs back to the Bedridge railway station. Hachi now waits at the railway station everyday for hot-dog seller Jasjeet and the other passers-by feed him. Soon, a reporter writes a story about Hachi and people start sending him money and cards. Ken reads Hachi's news and travels to Bedridge where he speaks to Hachi in Japanese: He too misses his friend. On Parker's tenth death anniversary, Cate arrives in town to visit his grave where Ken is present too. She is moved to see an elderly Hachi (played by Forrest) still waiting at the railway station for his master. Later, Cate tells a 10-year-old Ronnie a story of Hachi who slowly settles in place. The audience sees flashbacks of Parker and Hachi together and a last passenger pauses at the door of the railway station. It is Parker who shouts "Hachi!" and the dog raises his head, runs to him and they embrace. Hachi lies dead at his place at the railway station while still waiting for Parker and the camera pans up to the night sky.


title: Hachi: A Dog's Tale

text: In the present, Ronnie narrates that his grandfather and Hachi taught him the meaning of "loyalty" which means "you should never forget anyone you have loved". He concludes that Hachi will forever be his personal hero and the class applauds. From the school bus, Ronnie is met by Michael and a tiny new puppy who is also named Hachi. The film ends with Ronnie and the puppy traveling through the same tracks Hachi traveled years ago.


title: Hachi: A Dog's Tale

text: The end credits include a disclaimer warning that "Although beloved by many as a family pet, Akitas are recommended only for dedicated and experienced dog owners," referring viewers to the American Humane Society and the American Kennel Club for more information.


title: Hachi: A Dog's Tale

text: When David Itzkoff wrote about the film in a September 24, 2010, article headlined "Film has Two Big Names and a Dog but No Big Screens", he reported that Sony refused to comment on its decision not to release the picture to theaters in the United States.


title: Hachi: A Dog's Tale

text: The color in scenes filmed from the dog's point of view is desaturated almost to black-and-white. Although there are several scenes from Hachi's POV, the film never puts human dialogue in Hachi's mind/mouth.


title: Hachi: A Dog's Tale

text: Animal trainer Mark Harden and his team trained the three Akitas—Layla, Chico and Forrest—who played the role of Hachi in the movie. Harden adopted Chico after the movie was completed. Trainer David Allsberry adopted Layla after the shoot. "New York Times" reporter David Itzkoff repeated Richard Gere's description of the challenging process of getting to know his canine co-stars: There was, Mr. Gere said, "a certain amount of anxiety, of would we get along? They cannot be bought." But after about three days, he said, "One of the dogs came over and put her head right on my lap. And that was a big moment - I was accepted in the pack."The movie was based on the real Japanese Akita dog Hachikō, who was born in Ōdate, Japan, in 1923. After the death of his owner, Ueno Hidesaburō in 1925, Hachikō returned to the Shibuya train station the next day and every day after that for the next nine years until he died in March 1935. A bronze statue of Hachikō is in front of the Shibuya train station in his honor, in the spot where he waited. Hachikō is known in Japanese as chūken Hachikō (忠犬ハチ公) "faithful dog Hachikō", "hachi" meaning "eight" and "kō" meaning "affection." The film ends with a text panel summarizing the story of the real Hachikō, a photo of the dog and a shot of the bronze statue. According to the movie's closing cards, the real Hachikō died in March 1934, while the earlier movie, "Hachikō Monogatari", and other sources state that his actual death was on March 1935 (9 years and 9 months after Professor Ueno's death).


title: Hachi: A Dog's Tale

text: The majority of filming took place in Bristol, Rhode Island, and Woonsocket, Rhode Island. The only spoken reference to the actual location where filming took place is when the newspaper reporter Teddy states he works for the "Woonsocket Call" (Woonsocket's daily newspaper).


title: Hachi: A Dog's Tale

text: Additional locations included the University of Rhode Island in Kingston, Rhode Island, along the Providence and Worcester Railroad Mechanical, and the Columbus Theater located in Providence, Rhode Island. A second production unit filmed scenes on-location in Japan. Footage was shot at the (now closed) Reynolds Elementary School in Bristol.


title: Hachi: A Dog's Tale

text: In October 2009, Christopher Lloyd of the "Sarasota Herald Tribune" gave the film 4 out of 5 stars, noting: ""Hachi: A Dog's Tale" is unapologetically a tear-jerker. You might resent being emotionally manipulated by this film, but I challenge even the most hard-hearted moviegoer not to spill some saltwater while watching it."


title: Hachi: A Dog's Tale

text: In June 2009, "Variety"s Alissa Simon described the film as a "Sentimental, repetitive tale... [harking] back to the values, production and otherwise, of an earlier era. [...] It’s family-friendly rather than family fare; kids are likely to be bored stiff. [...] Even so, the dog's silent distress and dignity will move all but the hardest hearts. [The] pic's main problem is that its human story lacks drama; Hachi's the central attraction."


title: Hachi: A Dog's Tale

text: Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported that 64% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 28 reviews, with an average rating of 5.88/10.


title: Hachi: A Dog's Tale

text: On May 19, 2012, a bronze replica of the original Hachiko statue was placed at the train depot at Woonsocket Depot Square, Woonsocket, Rhode Island, where the movie was filmed. The train depot at One Depot Square was renamed Hachiko Place. The Rhode Island statue's dedication ceremony was part of the Cherry Blossom Festival held in three Rhode Island towns: Pawtucket, Central Falls, and Woonsocket. Dignitaries including the Mayor of Woonsocket and the Consul General of Japan attended the ceremony. Two cherry blossom trees were planted by the statue. A visitor from New Jersey's Akita-mix (also named Hachi) was invited to participate at the ribbon-cutting ceremony as a "real-life stand-in for Hachiko".


title: Hachi: A Dog's Tale

text: The Blackstone Valley Heritage Corridor and the Blackstone Valley Tourism Council have created a handout with useful info for people who want to take a tour of the movie locations for "Hachi".


title: Hachi: A Dog's Tale

text: In commemoration of the daily vigil, a lone statue of Hachiko was erected in front of Shibuya Station in 1934, even while the canine was still alive.


title: Leif Garrett

text: Leif Garrett (born Leif Per Nervik; November 8, 1961) is an American singer, actor, and television personality. He worked as a child actor, then in the 1970s became famous as a teen idol in music. He later received much publicity for his drug abuse and legal troubles.


title: Leif Garrett

text: Garrett was born in Hollywood, California, to Rik Nervik and actress Carolyn Stellar, and started his entertainment career at age five. His father was absent for most of his life. He graduated from high school at the age of 15.


title: Leif Garrett

text: Garrett and his sister Dawn Lyn worked a variety of acting jobs. They co-starred in the horror movie "Devil Times Five" as juvenile mental patients who almost innocently go on a murder spree at an isolated ski resort. Dawn and Leif also guest-starred in an episode of "Gunsmoke" as well as "Wonder Woman".


title: Leif Garrett

text: Garrett's more notable performances include the breakthrough role of Jimmy Henderson in "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice" (1969); the protagonist's son Mike Pusser from the "Walking Tall" movies (1973, 1975, 1977) and the recurring role of Zack Russell on the ABC TV series "Family". He also played the role of Leonard Unger, the son of Felix Unger (Tony Randall), on the ABC series "The Odd Couple", a part that had been previously played by Willie Aames.


title: Leif Garrett

text: In late 1975, Garrett appeared in the role of Endy Karras in a 12-week CBS drama series "Three for the Road", with Alex Rocco as his father, Peter Karras, and Vincent Van Patten as his older brother, John Karras. Garrett's appearance in the program triggered a response from teenage girls and led to his first appearances in teenage magazines, such as "Tiger Beat". Garrett also played alongside Lee Van Cleef in two Spaghetti Westerns shot mainly in Israel: "" and "God's Gun". He played the title role in the television film "Peter Lundy and the Medicine Hat Stallion" and also starred in the film "Skateboard".


title: Leif Garrett

text: In the early 1980s, Garrett returned to acting, appearing in a small role as Bob Sheldon in the 1983 Francis Ford Coppola film "The Outsiders". In 1985, he starred in "Thunder Alley" as the lead singer of a pop band that is torn apart by drugs, and in "Shaker Run" as a mechanic. Other notable Garrett movies from the decade include "Delta Fever" and the horror film "Cheerleader Camp". He played a deranged murderer who was in love with his sister in "Party Line".


title: Leif Garrett

text: In late 1976, Garrett signed a five-album recording contract with Atlantic Records. In early 1977, he released a single called "Come Back When You Grow Up", and recorded his first album, "Leif Garrett". The album was released in July 1977, and his first four singles charted modestly on the US "Billboard" Hot 100. All of these hits were covers of late 1950s and early 1960s hits such as the Dion covers "Runaround Sue" and "The Wanderer". In mid-1978, he signed with Scotti Brothers Records and recorded his second album, "Feel the Need". Its first single, "I Was Made for Dancin'", reached number 10 on the US Hot 100 and number 4 on the UK Singles Chart early in 1979. It became his greatest hit in the US and the UK. Subsequent singles failed to crack the Top 20 in either country, but he continued to record, releasing the albums "Same Goes For You" (1979), "Can't Explain" (1980) and "My Movie of You" (1981) in quick succession. In May 1979, he hosted a TV special, "Leif", with guest stars Brooke Shields, Marie Osmond, Bob Hope and Flip Wilson. in 1981 Leif Garrett recorded "I Am a Rebel", words and music expressly composed for him by Victorio Pezzolla and produced by Richard Finch of KC and the Sunshine Band which became the theme song for an Italian TV program entitled "Il Barattolo". He mostly stopped recording music in the early 1980s and concentrated on acting for the rest of the decade. He later claimed the producers would not allow him to make music aimed at an adult audience when he reached his early twenties. In 1986, he provided lead vocals to the song "The Way to Happiness", and backing vocals to the title track of the L. Ron Hubbard album "The Road to Freedom".


title: Leif Garrett

text: In the mid-1990s, Garrett returned to acting and singing, appearing in the 1995 low-budget horror film "Dominion", touring with the Melvins and recording vocals for their cover of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" on "The Crybaby" (2000). In 1998, a greatest hits compilation, "The Leif Garrett Collection", was released. Garrett, however, has stated: "My former record label was bought out. The label was started by me … meaning my music started it, funded it. And then it was bought out by some company that released the Greatest Hits Collection. Not only have I not seen any royalties from that, but they wanted me to promote it — the compensation being a couple of CDs."


title: Leif Garrett

text: In the late 1990s, Garrett hosted the series "8-Track Flashback" on the cable music channel VH-1, replacing fellow teen idol David Cassidy. VH-1 went on to feature Garrett in a 1999 episode of its "Behind the Music" series.


title: Leif Garrett

text: In 1999 he formed the band Godspeed with Christopher Wade Damerst and Michael Scott (the Distortions, Deadtime Stories). They recorded a three-song EP on Garrett's own label, Tongue and Groove Records, and debuted on "The Rosie O'Donnell Show", but broke up after only a few performances. O'Donnell would go on to ban him from appearing on her program.


title: Leif Garrett

text: Garrett's stage work includes playing the title role in "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" and, in late 2000, appearing in the National Theatre of the Deaf's production of "A Child's Christmas in Wales". He also appeared in summer stock at The Barn Theatre's production of "Old Timer" in 2001. In the same year, he voiced himself in the animated television series "Family Guy" episode "The Thin White Line".


title: Leif Garrett

text: In 2003, Garrett appeared as himself in the David Spade film "". He also co-wrote and sang "Former Child Star" for the film's soundtrack and was one of the singers of "Child Stars on Your Television", which played over the ending credits. He appeared with Aaron Carter in the 2005 film "Popstar".


title: Leif Garrett

text: In September 2006, Garrett appeared on the celebrity edition of "Fear Factor". He won the grand prize of $50,000. On New Year's Eve 2006, Garrett first appeared in Las Vegas with retro act Original Idols Live!, hosted by Barry Williams. The show also featured the Bay City Rollers, Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods, and the Cowsills, with selected appearances by Merrill Osmond, Tony DeFranco, and Danny Bonaduce.


title: Leif Garrett

text: In August 2007, Country Music Television (CMT) cast Garrett in the short-lived "Ty Murray's Celebrity Bull Riding Challenge", among nine celebrities appearing on the show. However, he quit after one episode, citing soreness and lack of desire to continue.


title: Leif Garrett

text: In November 2007, Garrett released the album "Three Sides of...", which constituted songs he recorded with his current band F8 and his 1990s band Godspeed as well as some new songs.


title: Leif Garrett

text: In 2008, the producers of TruTV's "" added Garrett to their cast, which features comedic commentary from celebrities like Garrett who have had brushes with the law. Garrett has frequently spoofed his troubled past and participates in a wide variety of sketches and skits written specially for him by the show's producers. In a 2010 episode, Garrett reenacted his recent arrest with two actors, including Todd Bridges, another show regular, portraying police officers.


title: Leif Garrett

text: Garrett toured South Korea in May 2010, with shows in Seoul and Busan. This marked the 30th anniversary of Garrett's first performance in Korea in June 1980. He embarked on another tour of the country in 2013.


title: Leif Garrett

text: Garrett was a cast member in the fourth season of "Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew", which documented Garrett's struggle with addiction to heroin. The season premiered December 1, 2010. Garrett's sister, Dawn Lyn, and mother, Carolyn Stellar, who was battling Stage 4 lung cancer, both appeared in Episode 7, which was filmed during Family Day, when the recovering addicts were visited by their loved ones to discuss how their addiction affected their family relationship.


title: Leif Garrett

text: In the early 2010s, Garrett began collaborating with punk rock artist and songwriter Craig Else. Garrett released two singles on the Internet, sharing Else's credits, "Everything" (released in 2010) and "Help You, Make You" (released in 2012). The two also recorded a cover of Neil Young's "Old Man".


title: Leif Garrett

text: He published an autobiography entitled "Idol Truth" in 2019. In the biography and related interviews, Garrett explained that in multiple tracks in his earlier albums, Jim Haas, actually replaced his vocals entirely. The producers had wanted him to "smooth" Garrett's uneven vocals, but made the choice sometimes to replace Garrett entirely on his own albums. In some cases, Garrett's producers even brought in Haas to sing for Garrett behind a curtain during some live concert tour performances.


title: Leif Garrett

text: Garrett and actress Nicollette Sheridan dated on and off for five years until 1985. Garrett also dated celebrities such as his former "Family" co-star Kristy McNichol, Tatum O'Neal, and Justine Bateman. In the 1990s, Garrett was also in a long-term relationship with actress Elaine Bilstad, who died in 1999 of a heart problem.


title: Leif Garrett

text: In October 2001, Garrett was in a personal bankruptcy proceeding in a federal court in Los Angeles. Court papers stated his only regular income was a $1,000 monthly gift from his mother. His only listed possessions were his clothes, some household goods and about $350 in cash. Garrett had accumulated a $76,198 debt in unpaid credit card bills over a four-year period.


title: Leif Garrett

text: Garrett admitted that he started using drugs when he was 14. On November 3, 1979, five days before his 18th birthday, he crashed a Porsche 914 that was being leased to his mother after a midnight party while he was driving to buy more cocaine. His blood alcohol level was three times over today's legal limit, and he was high on quaaludes. The accident left his passenger and friend, Roland Winkler, a paraplegic. Garrett had only met Winkler about a month earlier. Neither Garrett nor Winkler were wearing a seatbelt. Garrett was later tried as a juvenile on drunk-driving charges; his driver's license was suspended for a year and he was placed on a year's probation. Winkler sued in January 1980, claiming Garrett was at fault in the accident.


title: Leif Garrett

text: In December 1984, Los Angeles Superior Court ordered Garrett's insurers, Transamerica Insurance Co., to pay $3.9 million to Winkler. Jurors assessed total damages in the civil negligence case at $4,215,500, but subtracted 8% of that amount, or $337,240, on the grounds that Winkler contributed to his own injuries by agreeing to ride in a car with a driver who he knew was drunk. Both Garrett and Winkler admitted in court that they were drunk and had taken depressant drugs; the court heard they had each taken equal amounts of alcohol and drugs that night. The panel ordered Garrett to pay $15,000 in punitive damages, which was not diminished by Winkler's partial responsibility. Winkler's attorney, Edward Steinbrecher, attributed the relatively small punitive damage award to Garrett's testimony that his net worth was only $50,000 to $100,000. In 1987, Winkler settled for $6 million with the Premier Insurance Co., which had insured the firm leasing the Porsche to Garrett's mother. Garrett and Winkler were reunited in 1999 for an episode of "Behind the Music", where Garrett was relieved to learn that Winkler had no bad feelings towards him and even said that Garrett's actions following the accident had actually saved his life.


title: Leif Garrett

text: On June 29, 1999, Los Angeles police arrested Garrett in the MacArthur Park area after he allegedly tried to buy heroin and cocaine from undercover officers. In March 2001, a Los Angeles judge issued a warrant for his arrest when he failed to attend court for a progress report required by his 1999 conviction. Two days later, the judge lifted the warrant and dropped the 1999 charges after Garrett submitted evidence that he had completed a rehab program.


title: Leif Garrett

text: In 2004, Garrett was arrested for possession of cocaine. He pleaded guilty in March 2005 to attempted possession of cocaine-based narcotics and was placed on probation. When he failed to appear in court in December 2005 for a status report, a warrant was issued for his arrest.


title: Leif Garrett

text: On January 14, 2006, when Garrett was arrested on a Los Angeles Metro Rail platform for not having a ticket, police found heroin in his possession. Because of the outstanding warrant for violating probation in a cocaine-related arrest, he was held without bail. He agreed to join a strict drug-diversion program, and his release from jail was ordered.


title: Leif Garrett

text: Garrett dropped out of the rehabilitation program and was taken into custody again on March 30 after a Superior Court commissioner determined he failed several drug tests while staying in a live-in drug diversion program. Garrett acknowledged he needed more help. On May 11, after failing to complete court-ordered drug rehabilitation, he was sentenced to 90 days in jail and three years' probation. He was given credit for the jail time he had already served since March 30.


title: Leif Garrett

text: On February 1, 2010, Garrett was arrested again for possession of narcotics. After denying having any drugs in his possession, he finally admitted to police that he had black tar heroin in his shoe. He posted $10,000 bail and was charged with a felony count of heroin possession. On October 18, 2010, Garrett pleaded no contest to heroin possession in Los Angeles and entered a court-ordered rehabilitation program.


title: Leif Garrett

text: Garrett has also sung on releases by the Melvins ("The Crybaby"), the Crush Ups ("Betty Ford for X-Mas") and Liberty n' Justice ("Sight Unseen" on "Soundtrack of a Soul"), among others.


title: The Elephant Man (film)

text: The Elephant Man is a 1980 British-American biographical drama film about Joseph Merrick (John Merrick in the film), a severely deformed man in late 19th-century London. The film was directed by David Lynch, produced by Mel Brooks (who was uncredited, to avoid audiences anticipating the film being in the vein of his comedic works, although his company Brooksfilms is in the opening credits) and Jonathan Sanger, and stars John Hurt, Anthony Hopkins, Anne Bancroft, John Gielgud, Wendy Hiller, Michael Elphick, Hannah Gordon and Freddie Jones. "The Elephant Man" is generally regarded as one of Lynch's more accessible and mainstream works, alongside "The Straight Story" (1999).


title: The Elephant Man (film)

text: The screenplay was adapted by Lynch, Christopher De Vore and Eric Bergren from Frederick Treves's "The Elephant Man and Other Reminiscences" (1923) and Ashley Montagu's "The Elephant Man: A Study in Human Dignity" (1971). It was shot in black-and-white and featured make-up work by Christopher Tucker.


title: The Elephant Man (film)

text: "The Elephant Man" was a critical and commercial success with eight Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Actor. After receiving widespread criticism for failing to honour the make-up effects, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was prompted to create the Academy Award for Best Makeup the following year. The film also won the BAFTA Awards for Best Film, Best Actor, and Best Production Design and was nominated for Golden Globe awards. It also won a French César Award for Best Foreign Film.


title: The Elephant Man (film)

text: Frederick Treves, a surgeon at the London Hospital, finds John Merrick in a Victorian freak show in London's East End, where he is kept by Mr. Bytes, the brutish ringmaster. His head is kept hooded, and his "owner", who views him as intellectually disabled, is paid by Treves to bring him to the hospital for examination. Treves presents Merrick to his colleagues and highlights his deformed skull, which forces him to sleep with his head on his knees, since if he were to lie down, he would asphyxiate. On Merrick's return, he is beaten so badly by Bytes that he has to call Treves for medical help. Treves brings him back to the hospital.


title: The Elephant Man (film)

text: Merrick is tended to by hospital matron Mrs. Mothershead, as the other nurses are too frightened of him. Mr. Carr Gomm, the hospital's Governor, is against housing Merrick, as the hospital does not accept "incurables". To prove that Merrick can make progress, Treves trains him to say a few conversational sentences and part of the 23rd Psalm. Carr Gomm sees through this ruse, but as he is leaving, Merrick begins to recite the whole of the Psalm. Merrick tells the doctors that he knows how to read, and has memorized the 23rd Psalm because it is his favorite. Carr Gomm permits him to stay, and Merrick spends his time practicing conversation with Treves and building a model of a cathedral he can see from his window.


title: The Elephant Man (film)

text: Merrick has tea with Treves and his wife, and is so overwhelmed by their kindness that he shows them his mother's picture. He believes he must have been a "disappointment" to his mother, but hopes she would be proud to see him with his "lovely friends". Merrick begins to take guests in his rooms, including the actress Madge Kendal, who gives him a copy of "Romeo and Juliet"; they play some lines from it and Kendal kisses Merrick on the lips. Merrick quickly becomes an object of curiosity to high society, and Mrs. Mothershead expresses concerns that he is still being put on display as a freak. Treves begins to question the morality of his own actions. Meanwhile, a night porter named Jim starts selling tickets to locals, who come at night to gawk at the "Elephant Man".


title: The Elephant Man (film)

text: The issue of Merrick's residence is challenged at a hospital council meeting, but he is guaranteed permanent residence by command of the hospital's royal patron, Queen Victoria, who sends word with her daughter-in-law Alexandra. However, during one of Jim's raucous late-night showings Merrick is kidnapped by Bytes. A witness reports this to Treves, who confronts Jim about what he has done, and Mothershead fires him.


title: The Elephant Man (film)

text: Bytes takes Merrick on the road as a circus attraction once again. During a "show" in Belgium, Merrick, who is weak and dying, collapses, causing a drunken Bytes to lock him in a cage at night with some apes and leave him to die. Merrick is released by his fellow freakshow attractions. Upon returning to London, he is harassed through Liverpool Street station by several young boys and accidentally knocks down a young girl. Merrick is chased, unmasked, and cornered by an angry mob. He cries "I am not an elephant! I am not an animal! I am a human being! I ... am ... a ... man!" before collapsing. Policemen return Merrick to the hospital and Treves. He recovers some of his health, but is dying of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Treves and Mothershead take Merrick, accompanying Princess Alexandra, to see a magical pantomime. Kendal comes on stage afterwards and dedicates the performance to him, and a proud Merrick receives a standing ovation from the audience.


title: The Elephant Man (film)

text: Back at the hospital, Merrick thanks Treves for all he has done, and completes his cathedral model. Saying "It is finished", he lies down on his back in bed and dies. He is consoled by a vision of his mother, who quotes Lord Tennyson's "Nothing Will Die".


title: The Elephant Man (film)

text: Producer Jonathan Sanger optioned the script from writers Christopher Devore and Eric Bergren after receiving the script from his babysitter. Sanger had been working as Mel Brooks' assistant director on "High Anxiety". Sanger showed Brooks the script, whereupon he decided to help finance via Brooksfilms, his new company. Brooks' personal assistant, Stuart Cornfeld, suggested David Lynch to Sanger.


title: The Elephant Man (film)

text: Sanger met Lynch and they shared scripts they were working on ("The Elephant Man" and Lynch's unrealized "Ronnie Rocket"). Lynch told Sanger that he would love to direct the script after reading it, and Sanger endorsed him after hearing Lynch's ideas. However, Brooks had not heard of Lynch at the time. Sanger and Cornfeld set up an "Eraserhead" viewing at a 20th Century Fox screening room; Brooks loved it and enthusiastically agreed for Lynch to direct. By his own request, Brooks was not credited as executive producer to ensure that audiences would not expect a comedy after seeing his name attached.


title: The Elephant Man (film)

text: The budget was $5 million, $4 million of which was raised from Fred Silverman of NBC. The remainder came from EMI Films.


title: The Elephant Man (film)

text: For his second feature and first studio film, albeit one independently financed, Lynch provided the musical direction and sound design. Lynch tried to design the make-up himself too but the design didn't work. The makeup, now supervised by Christopher Tucker, was based on direct casts of Merrick's body, which had been kept in the Royal London Hospital's private museum. The makeup took seven to eight hours to apply each day and two hours to delicately remove. John Hurt would arrive on set at 5am and shoot his scenes from noon until 10pm. After his first experience of the inconvenience of having to apply the makeup and perform with it, he called his girlfriend, saying, "I think they have finally managed to make me hate acting."


title: The Elephant Man (film)

text: Because of the strain on the actor, he worked alternate days. Lynch originally wanted Jack Nance for the title character. "But it just wasn't in the cards", Lynch says; the role went to Hurt after Brooks, Lynch and Sanger saw his performance as Quentin Crisp in "The Naked Civil Servant".


title: The Elephant Man (film)

text: The film is bookended with surrealist sequences centred around Merrick's mother and her death. Lynch used Samuel Barber's "Adagio for Strings" to underline the climax and Merrick's own death. Composer John Morris argued against using the music, stating that "this piece is going to be used over and over and over again in the future... And every time it's used in a film it's going to diminish the effect of the scene."


title: The Elephant Man (film)

text: Following their return from England with a print, Lynch and Sanger screened "The Elephant Man" for Brooks, who suggested some minor cuts but told them that the film would be released as they had made it.


title: The Elephant Man (film)

text: A West End play of the same name was enjoying a successful Broadway run at the time of the film's production. The producers sued Brooksfilms over the use of the title.


title: The Elephant Man (film)

text: "The Elephant Man" was a box office hit, grossing $26 million in the United States. In Japan, it was the second highest-grossing foreign film of the year with theatrical rentals of ¥2.45 billion, behind only "The Empire Strikes Back".


title: The Elephant Man (film)

text: On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, it has an approval rating of 92% based on 59 reviews, with an average score of 8.5/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "David Lynch's relatively straight second feature finds an admirable synthesis of compassion and restraint in treating its subject, and features outstanding performances by John Hurt and Anthony Hopkins." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 78 out of 100 based on 16 critic reviews, indicating "generally favourable reviews".


title: The Elephant Man (film)

text: Vincent Canby wrote: "Mr. Hurt is truly remarkable. It can't be easy to act under such a heavy mask ... the physical production is beautiful, especially Freddie Francis's black-and-white photography."


title: The Elephant Man (film)

text: A small number of critics were less favourable. Roger Ebert gave it 2/4 stars, writing: "I kept asking myself what the film was really trying to say about the human condition as reflected by John Merrick, and I kept drawing blanks." In the book "The Spectacle of Deformity: Freak Shows and Modern British Culture", Nadja Durbach describes the work as "much more mawkish and moralising than one would expect from the leading postmodern surrealist filmmaker" and "unashamedly sentimental". She blamed this mawkishness on the use of Treves' memoirs as source material.


title: The Elephant Man (film)

text: "The Elephant Man" has since been ranked among the best films of the 1980s in "Time Out" (where it placed 19th) and "Paste" (56th). The film also received five votes in the 2012 "Sight & Sound" polls.


title: The Elephant Man (film)

text: "The Elephant Man" was nominated for eight Academy Awards, tying "Raging Bull" at the 53rd Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Actor in a Leading Role (Hurt), Art Direction-Set Decoration (Stuart Craig, Robert Cartwright, Hugh Scaife), Best Costume Design, Best Director, Best Film Editing, Music: Original Score, and Writing: Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium. However, it did not win any.


title: The Elephant Man (film)

text: Industry experts were appalled that the film was not going to be honoured for its make-up effects when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced its nominations at the time. A letter of protest was sent to the Academy's Board of Governors requesting to give the film an honorary award. The Academy refused, but in response to the outcry, they decided to give the make-up artists their own category. A year later, the Academy Award for Best Makeup category was introduced with "An American Werewolf in London" as its first recipient.


title: The Elephant Man (film)

text: It did win the BAFTA Award for Best Film, as well as other BAFTA Awards for Best Actor (Hurt) and Best Production Design, and was nominated for four others: Direction, Screenplay, Cinematography and Editing.


title: The Elephant Man (film)

text: The film has been issued many times on VHS, Betamax, CED, LaserDisc and DVD. The first DVD was released on December 11, 2001 by Paramount Home Entertainment. The version released as part of the David Lynch "Lime Green Box" includes several interviews with Lynch and Hurt, and a Joseph Merrick documentary. This material is also available on the exclusive treatment on the European market as part of Optimum Releasing's "StudioCanal Collection". The film has been available on Blu-ray since 2009 throughout Europe and in Australia and Japan but not in the US (however the discs will play in both region A & B players).


title: The Elephant Man (film)

text: A 4K restoration (created from the original camera negative, supervised by Lynch) was carried out for the film's 40th anniversary, and was released in a director-approved special edition in both Blu-ray and DVD formats from The Criterion Collection in the United States on September 29, 2020. The restoration was also released on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray (including a remastered Blu-ray) in the UK in April 2020.


title: The Elephant Man (film)

text: The musical score of "The Elephant Man" was composed and conducted by John Morris, and it was performed by the National Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1980, the company 20th Century Fox Records published this film's original musical score as both an LP album and as a cassette in the United States. Its front cover artwork features a masked John Merrick against a backdrop of smoke, as seen on the advance theatrical poster for the film.


title: The Elephant Man (film)

text: In 1994, the first compact disc (CD) issue of the film score was made by the company Milan, which specializes in film scores and soundtrack albums.


title: The Elephant Man (film)

text: The Jam's former bassist Bruce Foxton was inspired strongly by the film, and in response wrote the song "Freak" with the single's cover making a reference to the film.


title: The Elephant Man (film)

text: Actor Bradley Cooper credits watching the film with his father as a child as his inspiration to become an actor. Cooper played the character on Broadway in 2013.


title: The Elephant Man (film)

text: In season 3, episode 21 of "The Simpsons", "Black Widower", Lisa daydreams of Aunt Selma's new boyfriend as the Elephant Man.


title: The Elephant Man (film)

text: The 1992 film "Batman Returns" parodies the iconic line "I am not an animal. I am a man." In one scene, the Penguin, after being called Oswald, angrily yells "I am not a human being! I am an animal!"


title: The Elephant Man (film)

text: British TV presenter Karl Pilkington often has cited it as his favourite film. Pilkington's love for the film brought many new features to his various podcasts and radio shows.


title: The Elephant Man (film)

text: Musician Michael Stipe loves the film and cites it as an inspiration for the R.E.M. song "Carnival of Sorts (Boxcars)". Another R.E.M. song, "New Test Leper", quotes the line "I am not an animal."


title: The Elephant Man (film)

text: Musician Nicole Dollanganger featured a sample of the film in her 2012 song "Cries of the Elephant Man Bones".


title: The Elephant Man (film)

text: Musician Mylène Farmer's song "" from the 1991 album "L'Autre..." is a tribute to the film and John Hurt's voice is sampled throughout the song, repeating several times: "I'm a human being, I'm not an animal".


title: Antinatalism

text: Antinatalism or anti-natalism is the view that procreation is wrong. Antinatalists argue that humans should abstain from procreation because it is morally wrong. In scholarly and literary writings, various ethical arguments have been put forth in defense of antinatalism. Some of the earliest surviving formulations of the idea that it would be better not to have been born can be found in ancient Greece. The term antinatalism is in opposition to the term natalism, pronatalism or pro-natalism, and was used probably for the first time as the name of the position by Théophile de Giraud in his book "L'art de guillotiner les procréateurs: Manifeste anti-nataliste". The most prominent recent arguments in favor of antinatalism have been put forward by South African philosopher David Benatar.


title: Antinatalism

text: The teaching of the Buddha, among other Four Noble Truths and the beginning of Mahāvagga, is interpreted by Hari Singh Gour as follows:


title: Antinatalism

text: The issue of Buddhist antinatalism is also raised by Amy Paris Langenberg, she writes among others things:


title: Antinatalism

text: Buddhism was understood as antinatalist by Jack Kerouac. Masahiro Morioka argues that ancient Buddhism was both antinatalist and anti-antinatalist:


title: Antinatalism

text: The Marcionites believed that the visible world is an evil creation of a crude, cruel, jealous, angry demiurge, Yahweh. According to this teaching, people should oppose him, abandon his world, not create people, and trust in the good God of mercy, foreign and distant.


title: Antinatalism

text: The Encratites observed that birth leads to death. In order to conquer death, people should desist from procreation: "not produce fresh fodder for death".


title: Antinatalism

text: The Manichaeans, the Bogomils, and the Cathars believed that procreation sentences the soul to imprisonment in evil matter. They saw procreation as an instrument of an evil god, demiurge, or of Satan that imprisons the divine element in the matter and thus causes the divine element to suffer.


title: Antinatalism

text: Shakers believe that sex is the root of all sin and that procreation is a sign of the fallen state of humanity.


title: Antinatalism

text: Gregory of Nyssa warns that no one should be lured by the argument that procreation is a mechanism that creates children and states that those who refrain from procreation by preserving their virginity "bring about a cancellation of death by preventing it from advancing further because of them, and, by setting themselves up as a kind of boundary stone between life and death, they keep death from going forward". Søren Kierkegaard believes that man enters this world by means of a crime, that their existence is a crime, and procreation is the fall which is the culmination of human egoism. According to him, Christianity exists to block the path of procreation; it means: stop. The issue of antinatalism in early Christianity is raised by Théophile de Giraud.


title: Antinatalism

text: And I thought the dead, who have already died, more fortunate than the living, who are still alive; but better than both is the one who has not yet been, and has not seen the evil deeds that are done under the sun. (, New Revised Standard Version)


title: Antinatalism

text: Robbert Zandbergen compares modern antinatalism to Daoism, stating that they both "view the development of consciousness as an aberration in an otherwise fluid and fluent universe marked by some sense of non-human harmony, stability and tranquility." According to Zandbergen, antinatalism and Daoism view human consciousness as something that cannot be fixed, for example by returning to a more harmonious way of life, but rather it has to be undone. Humans are tasked with a project of a peaceful, non-violent dismantling of consciousness. From the Daoist perspective, consciousness is purpose-driven, which goes against the spontaneous and unconscious flow of the Dao, hence humans have an imperative to return to the Dao. Humans have to do it spontaneously, and it cannot be brought about from "the outside" (the Dao, the Heaven, or anything else). Zandbergen quotes John S. Major et al. 2010 to make the parallel between Daoism and antinatalism even clearer: