title: Jerry Sandusky

text: On June 21, 2012, after the case had gone to the jury, Matt Sandusky, one of Sandusky's six adopted children, stated through his attorney that he was also a victim of the former coach's sexual abuse. He had been ready to testify for the prosecution, but did not do so. Later, Amendola said that Jerry Sandusky had every intention of testifying in his own defense, but decided against it because he claimed that the prosecution would have called Matt to the stand.


title: Jerry Sandusky

text: Subsequently, sources close to the investigation conducted by the Office of the State attorney general have stated that the prosecutor never threatened to have Matt Sandusky testify at trial, and that "prosecutor Joseph McGettigan relished the opportunity of taking-on Jerry Sandusky in cross examination and had promised Amendola early on that they would not call any additional rebuttal witnesses".


title: Jerry Sandusky

text: The jury, consisting of seven women and five men, many with direct ties to Penn State, deliberated for 21 hours over two days. On the evening of June 22, 2012, the jury reached its verdict, finding Sandusky guilty on 45 of the 48 counts against him. Specifically, Sandusky was convicted of the following charges and counts: eight counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, seven counts of indecent assault, one count of criminal intent to commit indecent assault, nine counts of unlawful contact with minors, 10 counts of corruption of minors and 10 counts of endangering the welfare of children. Cleland immediately revoked Sandusky's bail and remanded him to the Centre County Correctional Facility to await sentencing.


title: Jerry Sandusky

text: Sandusky faced a maximum sentence of 442 years in prison. According to NBC News' Michael Isikoff, Sandusky faced a minimum sentence of 60 years under Pennsylvania sentencing guidelines — at his age, effectively a life sentence. A sentencing hearing was expected 90 days from the date of conviction.<ref name="NYT 2012/06/24"></ref> On September 17, it was announced that Sandusky would be sentenced on October 9.


title: Jerry Sandusky

text: On the evening before his sentencing hearing, Sandusky released an audio statement maintaining his innocence. The next day, Cleland sentenced Sandusky to 60 years in prison–as mentioned above, the minimum possible sentence under Pennsylvania law. He will not be eligible for parole until he serves at least 30 years. Sandusky's earliest possible release date will be October 9, 2042, when he will be 98 years old. In pronouncing the sentence, Cleland said that Sandusky was a particularly dangerous breed of child molester because he masked his manipulation and abuse of children behind a respectable facade. "It is the remarkable ability to conceal that makes these crimes so heinous," he said. While acknowledging Sandusky's "positive work," Cleland called him a "dangerous" child molester who should never be allowed to be free again. At the same hearing, Cleland granted prosecutors' request to have Sandusky declared a "sexually violent predator" under Pennsylvania's version of Megan's Law. This would subject him to stringent reporting requirements if he is released. Sandusky would not only have to report his address to police every three months for the rest of his life, but would also have to participate in a court-approved counseling program; however, this designation will likely be academic since as mentioned above, Sandusky will almost certainly die in prison. Earlier, on August 30, the Pennsylvania Sexual Offenders Assessment Board had recommended that Sandusky be declared a sexually violent predator.


title: Jerry Sandusky

text: Sandusky could also potentially face federal charges for molesting boys at both the 1999 Outback Bowl in Tampa and his final game as a collegiate coach, the 1999 Alamo Bowl in San Antonio. Although these were spelled out in the state indictment, federal authorities have jurisdiction over any crime that crosses a state line. Although federal investigators appear to be focusing their probe on a possible cover-up of Sandusky's crimes by officials at Penn State, it would not be double jeopardy to bring charges against Sandusky himself. Officials in San Antonio are conducting a probe of the 1999 Alamo Bowl case, and Sandusky could potentially face charges there; again, it would not be double jeopardy for him to be charged in Texas.


title: Jerry Sandusky

text: Penn State became the subject of significant media criticism because several members of its staff allegedly covered up Sandusky's assaults. Maureen Dowd wrote of the scandal: "Like the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy, the Penn State hierarchy appears to have covered up pedophile crimes to protect its brand."


title: Jerry Sandusky

text: In June 2012, Penn State University implemented a policy to require mandatory reporting of child abuse by any Penn State employee working with children. The policy also requires all Penn State employees working with children to go through a background check and training related to child abuse and reporting requirements.


title: Jerry Sandusky

text: The Penn State Board of Trustees commissioned a report by a special investigative group headed by former Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Louis Freeh. After interviewing over 400 people and reviewing over 3.5 million documents, the crux of the report's findings, which were released July 12, 2012, state:


title: Jerry Sandusky

text: The Freeh Report states that although the "avoidance of the consequences of bad publicity" was the main driver in failing to protect child abuse victims and report to authorities, the report outlines other causes as well, among which were: "A striking lack of empathy for child abuse victims by the most senior leaders of the University"; a failure of oversight by the Board of Trustees; a University President "who discouraged discussion and dissent"; "a lack of awareness of child abuse issues"; and "a culture of reverence for the football program that is ingrained at all levels of the campus community".


title: Jerry Sandusky

text: The report outlines how all four men were aware of the 1998 abuse incident in the locker-room shower, and had followed its investigation at the time. Freeh's investigation uncovered a file kept by Schultz in which he wrote notes about Sandusky's 1998 incident. For instance, Schultz wrote: "Is this opening of Pandora's box?" He also wondered, "other children?" Freeh stated that Schultz had "actively sought to conceal those records".


title: Jerry Sandusky

text: The evidentiary weight of Freeh's report draws heavily upon retrieved emails from 1998 and 2001, which Freeh referred to as "the most important evidence" in the report. The report asserts that these emails demonstrate that in 1998 Paterno knew of the investigation of Sandusky, and followed it closely; and suggest that it was Paterno, "long regarded as the single most powerful official at the university," who persuaded Spanier, Curley, and Schultz not to formally report Sandusky to law enforcement or child welfare authorities. According to "The New York Times", the university's handling of the 2001 report of Sandusky raping a young boy is "one of the most damning episodes laid out by Mr. Freeh's investigation ..."


title: Jerry Sandusky

text: The report states that nobody took any "responsible action after February 2001 other than Curley informing the Second Mile that Mr. Sandusky had showered with a boy" and then telling Sandusky not to bring his "guests" into the Penn State facilities; but the topic of sexual abuse was not broached with Sandusky.


title: Jerry Sandusky

text: The report criticizes Paterno for his failure to "alert the entire football staff, in order to prevent Sandusky from bringing another child into the Lasch Building".


title: Jerry Sandusky

text: According to details in the report, despite being aware of Sandusky's sexual misconduct with young boys in the locker-room showers in the Lasch Building in 1998, and 2001, Spanier, Paterno, Curley, and Schultz never restricted Sandusky's access to Penn State facilities. The report states that Sandusky had access to the Lasch Building until November 2011. Over the next ten-year period, Sandusky "was frequently at the Lasch Building working out, showing up at campus events that Penn State supported ... He was showering with young boys, staying in dormitories ... There are more red flags than you could count, over a long period of time." Consequently, out of the 10 young boys that Sandusky would be convicted of sexually assaulting, most of them were abused after he was investigated in 1998 — at least five of them were assaulted "at Penn State's football facilities and other places on campus after May 1998". After his retirement in 1999, the report notes that Sandusky continued to have "unrestricted and unsupervised access to the University's facilities and affiliation with the university's prominent football program. Indeed, the continued access provided Sandusky with the very currency that enabled him to attract his victims".


title: Jerry Sandusky

text: Beyond the question of building access, the report details that as part of Sandusky's retirement agreement he could "continue to work with young people through Penn State" for more than a decade, including Second Mile events on campus, youth football camps, etc.


title: Jerry Sandusky

text: At the July 12 press conference announcing the report's findings, Freeh stated in his prepared remarks: "The most powerful men at Penn State failed to take any steps for 14 years to protect the children Sandusky victimized." He said they "never demonstrated, through actions or words, any concern for the safety and well-being of Sandusky's victims" until after he was arrested in 2011.


title: Jerry Sandusky

text: Three men came forward and told police that they were abused in the 1970s or 1980s by Sandusky. They are the first men to allege abuse before the 1990s. CBS News also reported that the United States Postal Inspection Service is leading an investigation to see whether Sandusky sent child pornography through the mail across state lines. According to one source, child pornography was found on at least one of Sandusky's computers. Other reports indicated that individuals had come forward claiming that Sandusky had assaulted them during the 1960s, while he was living at the Brownson House in Washington, Pennsylvania.


title: Jerry Sandusky

text: On August 24, 2012, as reported by the Associated Press, the individual known as "Victim 1" who testified at the trial of Sandusky brought suit against Pennsylvania State University. They reported that the suit charged the university's conduct with regard to the complaints that Sandusky had acted towards boys with sexual impropriety was "deliberate and shameful", saying that Penn State engaged in "purposeful, deliberate and shameful subordination of the safety of children to its economic self-interests, and to its interest in maintaining and perpetuating its reputation."


title: Jerry Sandusky

text: In September 2012, former Philadelphia child prostitute Greg Bucceroni alleged that in 1979 and 1980 Philadelphia philanthropist Ed Savitz brought him from his New Jersey residence to State College Second Mile fund raiser for the purpose of child trafficking.


title: Jerry Sandusky

text: Sandusky served time on home confinement prior to his trial and sentencing. The time he served on home confinement, from the day of his second arrest, to the day of his sentencing, was not counted as credit towards his prison sentence, meaning Sandusky's sentence began on the day of his sentencing. His earliest release date is 30 years from his sentencing date.


title: Jerry Sandusky

text: On October 23, 2012, Sandusky was transferred to Camp Hill state prison in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, for pre-imprisonment evaluation. He was then moved to Greene state prison in Franklin Township, where most of the state's life and capital inmates are housed, on October 31, 2012, to serve his sentence. He was housed in protective custody.


title: Jerry Sandusky

text: On December 3, 2014, KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh reported that Sandusky received a letter from Penn State asking to renew his season ticket plan for the football team and attend a "recruiting" trip to a Penn State basketball game. The letter was reportedly sent out in error.


title: Jerry Sandusky

text: Sandusky was transferred to SCI Somerset, a medium-security prison outside Somerset, Pennsylvania, in March 2017. As of May 2017, he is currently serving his sentence at SCI Laurel Highlands, a minimum security facility near Pittsburgh that primarily serves ill or elderly inmates.


title: Jerry Sandusky

text: Sandusky has been trying to obtain a new trial. Psychologist Elizabeth Loftus would testify in his defense as a specialist of repressed memory,


title: Jerry Sandusky

text: Sandusky co-wrote an autobiography titled "Touched: The Jerry Sandusky Story" (), which was published in 2001. His co-writer was Keith "Kip" Richeal. The book also includes a quote in a foreword from football coach Dick Vermeil about Sandusky: "He could very well be the Will Rogers of the coaching profession."


title: Jerry Sandusky

text: Sandusky granted his first interview for television since his conviction on NBC's "Today" show on March 25, 2013.


title: Subway Surfers

text: Subway Surfers is an endless runner mobile game co-developed by Kiloo and SYBO Games, private companies based in Denmark. It is available on Android, iOS, HarmonyOS, Kindle, and Windows Phone platforms and uses the Unity game engine. In the game, players take the role of young graffiti artists who, upon being caught in the act of "tagging" a metro railway site, run through the railroad tracks to escape from the inspector and his dog. As they run, they grab gold coins, power-ups, and other items along the way while simultaneously dodging collisions with trains and other objects. They can also jump on top of the trains and surf with hoverboards to evade capture until the character crashes into an obstacle, gets caught by the inspector, or gets hit by a train, at which point the game ends. Special events, such as the Season Hunt, can result in in-game rewards and characters.


title: Subway Surfers

text: "Subway Surfers" is an endless runner video game. The game starts by tapping the touchscreen, while Jake (the game's starter character) or any other character sprays graffiti on a subway, and gets caught in the act by the inspector and his dog, who starts chasing the character. While running, the player can swipe up, down, left, or right to avoid crashing into oncoming obstacles especially moving subways, poles, tunnel walls and barriers. By swiping rapidly as speed increases, more points can be acquired. A crash results in a game over, but the player can continue running by using keys, or watching an ad. The player can collect various items such as coins, keys, score multipliers, super sneakers, jetpacks, magnets, mystery boxes and power jumpers. A power jumper provides combustion by launching up the character, a jetpack gives the ability to fly, a coin magnet attracts coins on the track, super sneakers give the ability to jump higher, and a score multiplier multiplies the rate at which the score counts. Items, such as a hoverboard, allow the character to avoid collisions and last about 30 seconds.


title: Subway Surfers

text: Daily Challenges and Season Hunts give rewards for unique movements throughout gameplay. In daily challenges, the player needs to collect letters that constitute a word related to the game, such as "score" and "jump"; also known as "word hunt". Missions have various tasks measured by player accuracy. Up to 18 characters can be unlocked using coins, keys, in-game purchases, collecting specific items, or connecting to a Facebook account. Most characters have up to 2 different outfits. Meanwhile, up to 17 hoverboards can be unlocked with the same methods. Each have different abilities that can assist the player. When the game updates to a new location, a new character and hoverboard will be available temporarily until the next update.


title: Subway Surfers

text: "Subway Surfers" was released on 24 May 2012 with updates based on seasonal holidays. Since January 2013, updates have been based on a "World Tour" theme, which updates the setting of the game every three (or four, usually for seasonal holidays) weeks.


title: Subway Surfers

text: In March 2018, "Subway Surfers" became the first game on the Google Play Store to cross the one billion downloads threshold. In May 2018, "Subway Surfers" crossed the two billion download mark. App Annie reported "Subway Surfers" as the #2 downloaded game of all time in iOS App Store.


title: Subway Surfers

text: In December 2019, SYBO Games announced that "Subway Surfers", according to AppAnnie statistics, crossed the 2.7 billion download mark. "Subway Surfers" was the most downloaded mobile game of the decade from 2012 to 2019.


title: Subway Surfers

text: "Subway Surfers" received mixed to positive reviews. Critics praised the game's visual style and entertaining gameplay, but criticized it for its monotonous world and unresponsive controls. Review aggregator website Metacritic gave the game 71 out of 100 based on 8 reviews.


title: Subway Surfers

text: Dan Griliopoulos of "Pocket Gamer" gave the game a score of 5 out of 10, praising the game's fun gameplay and free access, but criticizing the game's controls and parsimonious game design.


title: Subway Surfers

text: Gamezebo's Dant Rambo scored the game 3.5 out of 5, writing "It makes little attempt to stand out from other endless runners, but it's hard not to appreciate the polish of "Subway Surfers". The controls are responsive, the gameplay is addictive, and it doesn't try and force you into spending cash on in-game items."


title: Subway Surfers

text: The game was nominated for "Action Game" and "Family & Kids Game" at the 2019 Webby Awards. It was the most downloaded mobile game of the decade.


title: Subway Surfers

text: On 1 June 2018, a series of animated shorts debuted on SYBO Games' YouTube channel. The 10 x 4-minute episodic series is scripted by Brent Friedman and Francesca Marie Smith, and produced by Sander Schwartz. Chris Bartleman is the supervising director and Michael Hegner is the director. Denmark's William provides post-production services. The series has 11 episodes.


title: Steve Cohen (businessman)

text: Steven A. Cohen (born June 11, 1956) is an American hedge fund manager and owner of the New York Mets of Major League Baseball. Cohen and the New York Mets finalized a deal on September 14, 2020, to become majority owner, owning roughly 97.2% of the team. He is the founder of hedge fund Point72 Asset Management and now-closed S.A.C. Capital Advisors, both based in Stamford, Connecticut.


title: Steve Cohen (businessman)

text: In 2013, the Cohen-founded S.A.C. Capital Advisors pleaded guilty to insider trading and agreed to pay $1.8 billion in fines ($900 million in forfeiture and $900 million in fines) in one of the biggest criminal cases against a hedge fund. Cohen was prohibited from managing outside money for two years as part of the settlement reached in the civil case over his accountability for the scandal. The hedge fund agreed to plead guilty to wire fraud and four counts of securities fraud and to close to outside investors.


title: Steve Cohen (businessman)

text: Cohen loosely inspired the character Bobby Axelrod, played by Damian Lewis, on the Showtime series "Billions".


title: Steve Cohen (businessman)

text: Cohen grew up in Great Neck, New York, where his father was a dress manufacturer in Manhattan's garment district, and his mother was a piano teacher. He is the third of seven brothers and sisters. He took a liking to poker as a high school student, often betting his own money in tournaments, and credits the game with teaching him "how to take risks." Cohen graduated from John L. Miller Great Neck North High School in 1974, where he played on the school's soccer team.


title: Steve Cohen (businessman)

text: Cohen received an economics degree from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in 1978. While in school, Cohen was initiated as a brother of Zeta Beta Tau fraternity's Theta chapter where he served as treasurer. While in school, a friend helped him open a brokerage account with $1,000 of his tuition money.


title: Steve Cohen (businessman)

text: In 1978, after graduating from Wharton, Cohen got a Wall Street job as a junior trader in the options arbitrage department at Gruntal & Co. His first day on the job at Gruntal & Co., he made an $8,000 profit. He would eventually go on to make the company around $100,000 a day and eventually managed a $75 million portfolio and six traders. Cohen was running his own trading group at Gruntal & Co. by 1984, and continued running it until he started his own company, SAC in 1992.


title: Steve Cohen (businessman)

text: Throughout the late 1980s, the Securities and Exchange Commission became suspicious that Cohen had used inside information in December 1985 when he bet that RCA and GE would merge, ahead of the announcement. The SEC called him to testify, but he refused to answer any questions, invoking his right against self-incrimination. Then, the SEC started looking into his other investments from the same period, especially those involving Brett K. Lurie.


title: Steve Cohen (businessman)

text: In 1992, Cohen started S.A.C. Capital Advisors with $10 million of his own money and another $10 million from outside capital. The company's name 'SAC Capital' derived from Steven A. Cohen's initials.


title: Steve Cohen (businessman)

text: In 2003, the "New York Times" wrote that "SAC is one of the biggest hedge funds and is known for frequent and rapid trading." In 2006, "The Wall Street Journal" reported that while Cohen was once a rapid-fire trader who never held trading positions for extended periods of time, he now holds an increasing number of equities for longer periods of time.


title: Steve Cohen (businessman)

text: In December 2009, Cohen and his brother Donald T. Cohen were sued by Steven's ex-wife Patricia Cohen for racketeering and insider trading charges. On March 30, 2011, the United States District Court in Lower Manhattan dismissed the case, but on April 3, 2013, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York said a lower court had erred in dismissing fraud-based claims by his former spouse and revived the lawsuit. The appeals court also revived claims of racketeering and breach of fiduciary duty while upholding the dismissal of an unjust enrichment claim.


title: Steve Cohen (businessman)

text: Writing for a three-judge panel, Circuit Judge Pierre N. Leval said Patricia Cohen had made a "plausible" allegation that Steven Cohen had concealed the $5.5 million during negotiations on a separation agreement in 1989, which preceded the divorce. The revival of the lawsuit comes amid mounting pressure on Steven Cohen over an insider trading investigation that led to the arrest of Michael Steinberg, one of Cohen's closest confidantes at SAC Capital. SAC affiliates reached two civil insider trading settlements totaling nearly $616 million with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. SAC neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing in either case.


title: Steve Cohen (businessman)

text: On November 20, 2012, Cohen was implicated in an alleged insider trading scandal involving an ex-SAC manager, Mathew Martoma. The SEC brought charges against a number of other S.A.C. employees from 2010 to 2013 with various outcomes. Martoma was convicted in 2014, in what federal prosecutors billed as the most profitable insider-trading conspiracy in history. The SEC later brought a civil lawsuit against Cohen, alleging his failure to supervise Martoma and Michael Steinberg, who was a senior employee and confidant of Cohen's. Cohen settled his civil case with regulators in January 2016; the agreement with the SEC prohibited Cohen from managing outside money until 2018.


title: Steve Cohen (businessman)

text: S.A.C. Capital Advisors "pleaded guilty to insider trading charges in 2013 and paid $1.8 billion in penalties" and was required to stop handling investments for outsiders. Cohen "escaped criminal indictment himself despite being the living, breathing heart of S.A.C. Capital," but Dr. Sidney Gilman, the star prosecution witness against Martoma, testified that FBI agents told him that Cohen was the investigation's ultimate target. He was featured in a January 2017 "The New Yorker" article titled "When the Feds Went After the Hedge-Fund Legend Steven A. Cohen".


title: Steve Cohen (businessman)

text: In 2014, Cohen founded Point72 Ventures, "a venture capital fund that makes early-stage investments".


title: Steve Cohen (businessman)

text: In January 2021, Cohen's hedge fund Point72 joined Ken Griffin's Citadel in putting $2.75 billion into Melvin Capital, the hedge fund of former Cohen protege Gabe Plotkin, as a result of the GameStop short squeeze. Cohen was criticized by Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy for his role, to which Cohen responded that he was just "trying to make a living" via Twitter; Cohen's behavior in this exchange was subsequently criticized by former New York sports icon Boomer Esiason, who said Cohen's comment "actually makes me sick to my stomach." When asked by a New York Mets fan on Twitter, Cohen denied that his involvement with the short squeeze would have an effect on his willingness to spend money on the team, namely in the ongoing free agent signing period. Cohen deactivated his Twitter account on the evening of January 29, 2021, purportedly an action taken by Cohen himself. Cohen later stated that he stepped away from the platform due to an influx of threats against himself and his family.


title: Steve Cohen (businessman)

text: In 2016, "Forbes Magazine" estimated Cohen's fortune at $13 billion, ranking him the 30th richest person in the United States. Cohen was dubbed "the hedge fund king" in a 2006 "The Wall Street Journal" article. His 2005 compensation was reportedly $1 billion, considerably higher than his 2001 compensation of $428 million. In February 2015, Forbes listed Cohen as the highest-earning hedge fund manager in 2014. In December 2013, Cohen's New York penthouse in the Bloomberg Tower was listed for sale for $98 million. According to "Institutional Investor", Cohen made an estimated $1.7 billion in 2020.


title: Steve Cohen (businessman)

text: Cohen became a minority owner of the New York Mets of Major League Baseball (MLB) in 2012, with an 8% stake in the baseball team. On August 27, 2020, news sources announced that Cohen had entered into exclusive negotiations with Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz to buy a controlling interest in the Mets. On September 14, 2020, an agreement was made to give Cohen majority control of the Mets, pending approval from MLB owners. On October 20, MLB's ownership committee approved the Mets' sale to Cohen, awaiting final approval. On October 30, MLB owners officially approved the sale, making Cohen the new majority owner of the Mets and the richest owner in baseball. On November 6, Cohen closed out the deal with Sterling Equities to officially become the new owner of the team.


title: Steve Cohen (businessman)

text: Cohen has also been active on Twitter, often taking suggestions from fans on how to improve the Mets baseball experience or giving his opinions on news around Major League Baseball. Cohen briefly deactivated the account in January 2021 in relation to his involvement with the GameStop short squeeze fallout. He later re-activated his account on February 23, 2021.


title: Steve Cohen (businessman)

text: Cohen has given $715 million to philanthropic causes throughout his life, including to charitable causes relating to veterans and children's health.


title: Steve Cohen (businessman)

text: Via the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation, the Cohens have donated to projects involved in health, education, arts and culture, and the New York community. In 2014, the Cohen Foundation provided funding, via the New York University Langone Center, for the study of post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injury. The foundation gave a grant in excess of $100,000 to the Bruce Museum of Arts and Science in 2014. In 2019, the foundation contributed $50 million of the more than $400 million raised for the New York Museum of Modern Art. The museum announced in 2017 that MoMA's largest contiguous gallery will be called the Steven and Alexandra Cohen Center for Special Exhibitions. Cohen is on the board of the MoMa and LA MOCA.


title: Steve Cohen (businessman)

text: In April 2016, Cohen announced the creation and a commitment of $275 million to the Cohen Veterans Network. The CVN's goal is to establish mental health centers for veterans and their families throughout the U.S. The goal is the establishment of 20–25 centers by 2020.


title: Steve Cohen (businessman)

text: Cohen Veterans Bioscience, also funded by Cohen, conducts research into the effects of posttraumatic stress disorder on combat veterans.


title: Steve Cohen (businessman)

text: In 2015, Steven Cohen and his wife, Alexandra, donated $2.25 million to a Super PAC called America Leads that supported Chris Christie's presidential candidacy.


title: Steve Cohen (businessman)

text: In 2021, Cohen donated $500,000 to a Super PAC supporting Andrew Yang's candidacy in the 2021 New York City Democratic mayoral primary, and a further $1.5 million to a Super PAC supporting Eric Adams.


title: Steve Cohen (businessman)

text: "The New York Times" reported that Cohen began seriously collecting art in 2000. Cohen's tastes and collection began with Impressionist painters, acquiring works by Manet and Monet, after which he moved quickly into contemporary art.


title: Steve Cohen (businessman)

text: While he has collected works from important emerging artists such as Adam Pendleton, he is most famous for collecting 'trophy' art—signature works by famous artists—including a Pollock drip painting from David Geffen for $52 million and Damien Hirst's "The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living", a piece that the artist had bought back from Charles Saatchi for $8 million.


title: Steve Cohen (businessman)

text: In 2006, Cohen attempted to make the most expensive art purchase in history when he offered to purchase Picasso's "Le Rêve" from casino mogul Steve Wynn for $139 million. Just days before the painting was to be transported to Cohen, Wynn, who suffers from poor vision due to retinitis pigmentosa, accidentally thrust his elbow through the painting while showing it to a group of acquaintances inside of his office at Wynn Las Vegas. The purchase was canceled, and Wynn still held the painting until early November 2012, when Cohen finally acquired the painting for $150 million.


title: Steve Cohen (businessman)

text: In May 2019, Cohen bought Jeff Koons's "Rabbit" for $91.1 million; the purchase was made through Robert Mnuchin and was the most expensive work sold by a living artist at auction at the time.


title: Steve Cohen (businessman)

text: Cohen owns or has owned artworks by Lucio Fontana, Alberto Giacometti, Willem de Kooning, Jeff Koons, Edvard Munch, Pablo Picasso, and Andy Warhol. In 2015, he reportedly bought the world's most expensive sculpture, Alberto Giacometti's "Man Pointing". A 2015 estimate valued his art collection at about $1 billion. Cohen is reportedly building a private museum for some of his artwork on his Greenwich property. Cohen had also placed Marc Quinn's "Self", a head sculpture made of frozen blood, in the SAC lobby.


title: Steve Cohen (businessman)

text: In 2008 he was inducted into the Institutional Investors Alpha's Hedge Fund Manager Hall of Fame along with Alfred Jones, Bruce Kovner, David Swensen, George Soros, Jack Nash, James Simons, Julian Robertson, Kenneth Griffin, Leon Levy, Louis Bacon, Michael Steinhardt, Paul Tudor Jones and Seth Klarman.


title: Steve Cohen (businessman)

text: Cohen has been married twice. In 1979, he married Patricia Finke, a New York native from a working-class background who grew up in the Washington Heights, Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. They have two children together. They divorced in 1990.


title: Steve Cohen (businessman)

text: In 1991 Cohen met Alexandra Garcia, a single mother of Puerto Rican descent. Garcia grew up in Washington Heights, moving there from her original home in the projects of Harlem. They met through a dating service and was described that she "always wanted to marry a millionaire". In 1998, he purchased a home on in Greenwich.


title: Spirituality

text: The meaning of spirituality has developed and expanded over time, and various meanings can be found alongside each other. Traditionally, spirituality referred to a religious process of re-formation which "aims to recover the original shape of man", oriented at "the image of God" as exemplified by the founders and sacred texts of the religions of the world. The term was used within early Christianity to refer to a life oriented toward the Holy Spirit and broadened during the Late Middle Ages to include mental aspects of life.


title: Spirituality

text: In modern times, the term both spread to other religious traditions and broadened to refer to a wider range of experiences, including a range of esoteric and religious traditions. Modern usages tend to refer to a subjective experience of a sacred dimension and the "deepest values and meanings by which people live", often in a context separate from organized religious institutions. This may involve belief in a supernatural realm beyond the ordinarily observable world, personal growth, a quest for an ultimate or sacred meaning, religious experience, or an encounter with one's own "inner dimension".


title: Spirituality

text: The term spirit means "animating or vital principle in man and animals". It is derived from the Old French "espirit", which comes from the Latin word "spiritus" (soul, ghost, courage, vigor, breath) and is related to "spirare" (to breathe). In the Vulgate the Latin word "spiritus" is used to translate the Greek "pneuma" and Hebrew "ruach".


title: Spirituality

text: The term "spiritual", meaning "concerning the spirit", is derived from Old French "spirituel" (12c.), which is derived from Latin "spiritualis", which comes by "spiritus" or "spirit".


title: Spirituality

text: The term "spirituality" is derived from Middle French "spiritualité", from Late Latin "spiritualitatem" (nominative spiritualitas), which is also derived from Latin "spiritualis".


title: Spirituality

text: There is no single, widely agreed-upon definition of spirituality. Surveys of the definition of the term, as used in scholarly research, show a broad range of definitions with limited overlap. A survey of reviews by McCarroll, each dealing with the topic of spirituality, gave twenty-seven explicit definitions among which "there was little agreement". This impedes the systematic study of spirituality and the capacity to communicate findings meaningfully. Furthermore, many of spirituality's core features are not unique to spirituality; for example, self-transcendence, asceticism and the recognition of one's connection to all were regarded by the atheist Arthur Schopenhauer as key to ethical life.


title: Spirituality

text: William James in his study of "The Varieties of Religious Experience" makes a distinction early in this lecture series that there exists "one great partition which divides the religious field. On the one side of it lies institutional, on the other personal religion." He defines "personal religion" as, "the feelings, acts, and experiences of individual men in their solitude, so far as they apprehend themselves to stand in relation to whatever they may consider the divine". Here as well, this notion of the divine is non-sectarian and non-institutional. The divine can be found, according to William James, in spiritual spaces without a Godhead, such as "Buddhism", for instance, and he even claims that this notion of divinity is found in "modern transcendental idealism" and in what he terms "Emmersonianism", both of which "seems to let God evaporate into abstract Ideality. Not a deity "in concreto", not a superhuman person, but the immanent divinity in things, the essentially spiritual structure of the universe [...]".


title: Spirituality

text: According to Kees Waaijman, the traditional meaning of spirituality is a process of re-formation that "aims to recover the original shape of man, the image of God. To accomplish this, the re-formation is oriented at a mold, which represents the original shape: in Judaism the Torah, in Christianity there is Christ, for Buddhism, Buddha, and in Islam, Muhammad." Houtman and Aupers suggest that modern spirituality is a blend of humanistic psychology, mystical and esoteric traditions, and Eastern religions.


title: Spirituality

text: In modern times the emphasis is on subjective experience and the "deepest values and meanings by which people live", incorporating personal growth or transformation, usually in a context separate from organized religious institutions. Spirituality can be defined generally as an individual's search for ultimate or sacred meaning, and purpose in life. Additionally it can mean to seek out or search for personal growth, religious experience, belief in a supernatural realm or afterlife, or to make sense of one's own "inner dimension".


title: Spirituality

text: Words translatable as "spirituality" first began to arise in the 5th century and only entered common use toward the end of the Middle Ages. In a Biblical context the term means being animated by God. The New Testament offers the concept of being driven by the Holy Spirit, as opposed to living a life in which one rejects this influence.


title: Spirituality

text: In the 11th century, this meaning changed. "Spirituality" began to denote the mental aspect of life, as opposed to the material and sensual aspects of life, "the ecclesiastical sphere of light against the dark world of matter". In the 13th century "spirituality" acquired a social and psychological meaning. Socially it denoted the territory of the clergy: "the ecclesiastical against the temporary possessions, the ecclesiastical against the secular authority, the clerical class against the secular class". Psychologically, it denoted the realm of the inner life: "the purity of motives, affections, intentions, inner dispositions, the psychology of the spiritual life, the analysis of the feelings".


title: Spirituality

text: In the 17th and 18th centuries a distinction was made between higher and lower forms of spirituality: "A spiritual man is one who is Christian 'more abundantly and deeper than others'." The word was also associated with mysticism and quietism, and acquired a negative meaning.


title: Spirituality

text: Modern notions of spirituality developed throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, mixing Christian ideas with Western esoteric traditions and elements of Asian, especially Indian, religions. Spirituality became increasingly disconnected from traditional religious organizations and institutions. It is sometimes associated today with philosophical, social, or political movements such as liberalism, feminist theology, and green politics.


title: Spirituality

text: Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) was a pioneer of the idea of spirituality as a distinct field. He was one of the major figures in Transcendentalism, an early 19th-century liberal Protestant movement, which was rooted in English and German Romanticism, the Biblical criticism of Johann Gottfried Herder and Friedrich Schleiermacher, the skepticism of Hume, and Neoplatonism.


title: Spirituality

text: The Transcendentalists emphasized an intuitive, experiential approach to religion. Following Schleiermacher, an individual's intuition of truth was taken as the criterion for truth. In the late 18th and early 19th century, the first translations of Hindu texts appeared, which were also read by the Transcendentalists, and influenced their thinking. They also endorsed universalist and Unitarianist ideas, leading to Unitarian Universalism, the idea that there must be truth in other religions as well since a loving God would redeem all living beings, not just Christians.


title: Spirituality

text: A major influence on modern spirituality was the Theosophical Society, which searched for 'secret teachings' in Asian religions. It has been influential on modernist streams in several Asian religions, notably Neo-Vedanta, the revival of Theravada Buddhism, and Buddhist modernism, which have taken over modern western notions of personal experience and universalism and integrated them in their religious concepts. A second, related influence was Anthroposophy, whose founder, Rudolf Steiner, was particularly interested in developing a genuine Western spirituality, and in the ways that such a spirituality could transform practical institutions such as education, agriculture, and medicine. More independently, the spiritual science of Martinus was an influence, especially in Scandinavia.


title: Spirituality

text: The influence of Asian traditions on western modern spirituality was also furthered by the perennial philosophy, whose main proponent Aldous Huxley was deeply influenced by Swami Vivekananda's Neo-Vedanta and universalism, and the spread of social welfare, education and mass travel after World War II.


title: Spirituality

text: An important influence on western spirituality was Neo-Vedanta, also called "neo-Hinduism" and "Hindu Universalism", a modern interpretation of Hinduism which developed in response to western colonialism and orientalism. It aims to present Hinduism as a "homogenized ideal of Hinduism" with Advaita Vedanta as its central doctrine. Due to the colonisation of Asia by the western world, since the 19th century an exchange of ideas has been taking place between the western world and Asia, which also influenced western religiosity. Unitarianism, and the idea of Universalism, was brought to India by missionaries, and had a major influence on neo-Hinduism via Ram Mohan Roy's Brahmo Samaj and Brahmoism. Roy attempted to modernise and reform Hinduism, from the idea of Universalism. This universalism was further popularised, and brought back to the west as neo-Vedanta, by Swami Vivekananda.


title: Spirituality

text: After the Second World War, spirituality and theistic religion became increasingly disconnected, and spirituality became more oriented on subjective experience, instead of "attempts to place the self within a broader ontological context". A new discourse developed, in which (humanistic) psychology, mystical and esoteric traditions and eastern religions are being blended, to reach the true self by self-disclosure, free expression, and meditation.


title: Spirituality

text: The distinction between the spiritual and the religious became more common in the popular mind during the late 20th century with the rise of secularism and the advent of the New Age movement. Authors such as Chris Griscom and Shirley MacLaine explored it in numerous ways in their books. Paul Heelas noted the development within New Age circles of what he called "seminar spirituality": structured offerings complementing consumer choice with spiritual options.


title: Spirituality

text: Among other factors, declining membership of organized religions and the growth of secularism in the western world have given rise to this broader view of spirituality. The term "spiritual" is now frequently used in contexts in which the term "religious" was formerly employed. Both theists and atheists have criticized this development.


title: Spirituality

text: Spirituality in Judaism may involve practices of Jewish ethics, Jewish prayer, Jewish meditation, Shabbat and holiday observance, Torah study, dietary laws, teshuvah, and other practices. It may involve practices ordained by halakhah or other practices.


title: Spirituality

text: Kabbalah (literally "receiving") is an esoteric method, discipline and school of thought of Judaism. Kabbalah is a set of esoteric teachings meant to explain the relationship between an unchanging, eternal and mysterious Ein Sof (no end) and the mortal and finite universe (his creation). Interpretations of Kabbalistic spirituality are found within Hasidic Judaism, a branch of Orthodox Judaism founded in 18th-century Eastern Europe by Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov. Hasidism often emphasizes the Immanent Divine presence and focuses on emotion, fervour, and the figure of the Tzadik. This movement included an elite ideal of nullification to paradoxical Divine Panentheism.


title: Spirituality

text: The Musar movement is a Jewish spiritual movement that has focused on developing character traits such as faith, humility, and love. The Musar movement, first founded in the 19th century by Israel Salanter and developed in the 21st century by Alan Morinis and Ira F. Stone, has encouraged spiritual practices of Jewish meditation, Jewish prayer, Jewish ethics, tzedakah, teshuvah, and the study of musar (ethical) literature.


title: Spirituality

text: Reform Judaism and Conservative Judaism have often emphasized the spirituality of Jewish ethics and tikkun olam, feminist spirituality, Jewish prayer, Torah study, ritual, and musar.


title: Spirituality

text: Catholic spirituality is the spiritual practice of living out a personal act of faith ("fides qua creditur") following the acceptance of faith ("fides quae creditur"). Although all Catholics are expected to pray together at Mass, there are many different forms of spirituality and private prayer which have developed over the centuries. Each of the major religious orders of the Catholic Church and other lay groupings have their own unique spirituality – its own way of approaching God in prayer and in living out the Gospel.


title: Spirituality

text: Christian mysticism refers to the development of mystical practices and theory within Christianity. It has often been connected to mystical theology, especially in the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions. The attributes and means by which Christian mysticism is studied and practiced are varied and range from ecstatic visions of the soul's mystical union with God to simple prayerful contemplation of Holy Scripture (i.e., "Lectio Divina").


title: Spirituality

text: Progressive Christianity is a contemporary movement which seeks to remove the supernatural claims of the faith and replace them with a post-critical understanding of biblical spirituality based on historical and scientific research. It focuses on the lived experience of spirituality over historical dogmatic claims, and accepts that the faith is both true and a human construction, and that spiritual experiences are psychologically and neurally real and useful.


title: Spirituality

text: An inner spiritual struggle and an outer physical struggle are two commonly accepted meanings of the Arabic word "jihad": The "greater jihad" is the inner struggle by a believer to fulfill his religious duties. This non-violent meaning is stressed by both Muslim and non-Muslim authors.


title: Spirituality

text: Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, an 11th-century Islamic scholar, referenced a statement by the companion of Muhammad, Jabir ibn Abd-Allah:


title: Spirituality

text: The best known form of Islamic mystic spirituality is the Sufi tradition (famous through Rumi and Hafiz) in which a Sheikh or "pir" transmits spiritual discipline to students.


title: Spirituality

text: Sufism or () is defined by its adherents as the inner, mystical dimension of Islam. A practitioner of this tradition is generally known as a "" (). Sufis believe they are practicing ihsan (perfection of worship) as revealed by Gabriel to Muhammad,


title: Spirituality

text: Sufis consider themselves as the original true proponents of this pure original form of Islam. They are strong adherents to the principal of tolerance, peace and against any form of violence. The Sufi have suffered severe persecution by more rigid and fundamentalist groups such as the Wahhabi and Salafi movement. In 1843 the Senussi Sufi were forced to flee Mecca and Medina and head to Sudan and Libya.


title: Spirituality

text: Classical Sufi scholars have defined Sufism as "a science whose objective is the reparation of the heart and turning it away from all else but God". Alternatively, in the words of the Darqawi Sufi teacher Ahmad ibn Ajiba, "a science through which one can know how to travel into the presence of the Divine, purify one's inner self from filth, and beautify it with a variety of praiseworthy traits".


title: Spirituality

text: Jainism, traditionally known as Jain Dharma, is an ancient Indian religion. The three main pillars of Jainism are ahiṃsā (non-violence), anekāntavāda (non-absolutism), and aparigraha (non-attachment). Jains take five main vows: ahiṃsā (non-violence), satya (truth), asteya (not stealing), brahmacharya (sexual continence), and aparigraha (non-possessiveness). These principles have affected Jain culture in many ways, such as leading to a predominantly vegetarian lifestyle. Parasparopagraho jīvānām (the function of souls is to help one another) is the faith's motto and the Ṇamōkāra mantra is its most common and basic prayer.


title: Spirituality

text: Jainism traces its spiritual ideas and history through a succession of twenty-four leaders or Tirthankaras, with the first in the current time cycle being Rishabhadeva, whom the tradition holds to have lived millions of years ago; the twenty-third tirthankara Parshvanatha, whom historians date to 9th century BCE; and the twenty-fourth tirthankara, Mahavira around 600 BCE. Jainism is considered to be an eternal dharma with the tirthankaras guiding every time cycle of the cosmology.


title: Spirituality

text: Buddhist practices are known as Bhavana, which literally means "development" or "cultivating" or "producing" in the sense of "calling into existence." It is an important concept in Buddhist praxis ("Patipatti"). The word "bhavana" normally appears in conjunction with another word forming a compound phrase such as "citta-bhavana" (the development or cultivation of the heart/mind) or "metta-bhavana" (the development/cultivation of loving kindness). When used on its own "bhavana" signifies 'spiritual cultivation' generally.


title: Spirituality

text: Various Buddhist Paths to liberation developed throughout the ages. Best-known is the Noble Eightfold Path, but others include the Bodhisattva Path and Lamrim.


title: Spirituality

text: Hinduism has no traditional ecclesiastical order, no centralized religious authorities, no governing body, no prophet(s) nor any binding holy book; Hindus can choose to be polytheistic, pantheistic, monistic, or atheistic. Within this diffuse and open structure, spirituality in Hindu philosophy is an individual experience, and referred to as ksaitrajña (Sanskrit: क्षैत्रज्ञ). It defines spiritual practice as one's journey towards moksha, awareness of self, the discovery of higher truths, true nature of reality, and a consciousness that is liberated and content.


title: Spirituality

text: Traditionally, Hinduism identifies three "mārga" (ways) of spiritual practice, namely Jñāna(ज्ञान), the way of knowledge; Bhakti, the way of devotion; and Karma yoga, the way of selfless action. In the 19th century Vivekananda, in his neo-Vedanta synthesis of Hinduism, added Rāja yoga, the way of contemplation and meditation, as a fourth way, calling all of them "yoga".


title: Spirituality

text: Jñāna marga is a path often assisted by a "guru" (teacher) in one's spiritual practice. Bhakti marga is a path of faith and devotion to deity or deities; the spiritual practice often includes chanting, singing and music – such as in "kirtans" – in front of idols, or images of one or more deity, or a devotional symbol of the holy. Karma marga is the path of one's work, where diligent practical work or "vartta" (Sanskrit: वार्त्ता, profession) becomes in itself a spiritual practice, and work in daily life is perfected as a form of spiritual liberation and not for its material rewards. Rāja marga is the path of cultivating necessary virtues, self-discipline, "tapas" (meditation), contemplation and self-reflection sometimes with isolation and renunciation of the world, to a pinnacle state called "samādhi". This state of "samādhi" has been compared to peak experience.


title: Spirituality

text: There is a rigorous debate in Indian literature on relative merits of these theoretical spiritual practices. For example, Chandogyopanishad suggests that those who engage in ritualistic offerings to gods and priests will fail in their spiritual practice, while those who engage in "tapas" will succeed; Svetasvataropanishad suggests that a successful spiritual practice requires a longing for truth, but warns of becoming 'false ascetic' who go through the mechanics of spiritual practice without meditating on the nature of Self and universal Truths. In the practice of Hinduism, suggest modern era scholars such as Vivekananda, the choice between the paths is up to the individual and a person's proclivities. Other scholars suggest that these Hindu spiritual practices are not mutually exclusive, but overlapping. These four paths of spirituality are also known in Hinduism outside India, such as in Balinese Hinduism, where it is called "Chatur Marga" (literally: four paths).


title: Spirituality

text: Different schools of Hinduism encourage different spiritual practices. In Tantric school for example, the spiritual practice has been referred to as "sādhanā". It involves initiation into the school, undergoing rituals, and achieving moksha liberation by experiencing union of cosmic polarities. The Hare Krishna school emphasizes bhakti yoga as spiritual practice. In Advaita Vedanta school, the spiritual practice emphasizes jñāna yoga in stages: samnyasa (cultivate virtues), sravana (hear, study), manana (reflect) and dhyana (nididhyasana, contemplate).


title: Spirituality

text: Sikhism considers spiritual life and secular life to be intertwined: "In the Sikh Weltanschauung...the temporal world is part of the Infinite Reality and partakes of its characteristics." Guru Nanak described living an "active, creative, and practical life" of "truthfulness, fidelity, self-control and purity" as being higher than a purely contemplative life.


title: Spirituality

text: The 6th Sikh Guru Guru Hargobind re-affirmed that the political/temporal (Miri) and spiritual (Piri) realms are mutually coexistent. According to the 9th Sikh Guru, Tegh Bahadhur, the ideal Sikh should have both Shakti (power that resides in the temporal), and Bhakti (spiritual meditative qualities). This was developed into the concept of the Saint Soldier by the 10th Sikh Guru, Gobind Singh.


title: Spirituality

text: According to Guru Nanak, the goal is to attain the "attendant balance of separation-fusion, self-other, action-inaction, attachment-detachment, in the course of daily life", the polar opposite to a self-centered existence. Nanak talks further about the one God or akal (timelessness) that permeates all life). and which must be seen with 'the inward eye', or the 'heart', of a human being.


title: Spirituality

text: In some African contexts, spirituality is considered a belief system that guides the welfare of society and the people therein, and eradicates sources of unhappiness occasioned by evil.


title: Spirituality

text: In traditional society prior to colonization and extensive introduction to Christianity or Islam, religion was the strongest element in society influencing the thinking and actions of the people. Hence spirituality was a sub-domain of religion. Despite the rapid social, economic and political changes of the last century, traditional religion remains the essential background for many African people. And that religion is a communal given, not an individual choice. Religion gives all of life its meaning and provides ground for action. Each person is "a living creed of his religion." There is no concern for spiritual matters apart from ones physical and communal life. Life continues after death but remains focused on pragmatic family and community matters.


title: Spirituality

text: The term "spiritual" has frequently become used in contexts in which the term "religious" was formerly employed. Contemporary spirituality is also called "post-traditional spirituality" and "New Age spirituality". Hanegraaf makes a distinction between two "New Age" movements: New Age in a restricted sense, which originated primarily in mid-twentieth century England and had its roots in Theosophy and anthroposophy, and "New Age" in a general sense, which emerged in the later 1970s


title: Spirituality

text: Those who speak of spirituality outside of religion often define themselves as "spiritual but not religious" and generally believe in the existence of different "spiritual paths", emphasizing the importance of finding one's own individual path to spirituality. According to one 2005 poll, about 24% of the United States population identifies itself as "spiritual but not religious".


title: Spirituality

text: The new Western spiritual landscape, characterised by consumerism and choice abundance, is scattered with novel religious manifestations based in psychology and the Human Potential Movement, each offering participants a pathway to the Self.


title: Spirituality

text: Modern spirituality centers on the "deepest values and meanings by which people live". It often embraces the idea of an ultimate or an alleged immaterial reality. It envisions an inner path enabling a person to discover the essence of his or her being.


title: Spirituality

text: Not all modern notions of spirituality embrace transcendental ideas. Secular spirituality emphasizes humanistic ideas on moral character (qualities such as love, compassion, patience, tolerance, forgiveness, contentment, responsibility, harmony, and a concern for others). These are aspects of life and human experience which go beyond a purely materialist view of the world without necessarily accepting belief in a supernatural reality or any divine being. Nevertheless, many humanists (e.g. Bertrand Russell, Jean-Paul Sartre) who clearly value the non-material, communal, and virtuous aspects of life reject this usage of the term "spirituality" as being overly-broad (i.e. it effectively amounts to saying "everything and anything that is good and virtuous is "necessarily" spiritual"). In 1930 Russell, a self-described agnostic renowned as an atheist, wrote "... one's ego is no very large part of the world. The man who can centre his thoughts and hopes upon something transcending self can find a certain peace in the ordinary troubles of life which is impossible to the pure egoist."


title: Spirituality

text: Similarly, Aristotle – one of the first known Western thinkers to demonstrate that morality, virtue and goodness can be derived without appealing to supernatural forces – argued that "men create Gods in their own image" (not the other way around). Moreover, theistic and atheistic critics alike dismiss the need for the "secular spirituality" label on the basis that it appears to be nothing more than obscurantism in that:


title: Spirituality

text: Although personal well-being, both physical and psychological, is said to be an important aspect of modern spirituality, this does not imply spirituality is "essential" to achieving happiness (e.g. see). Free-thinkers who reject notions that the numinous/non-material is important to living well can be just as happy as more spiritually-oriented individuals (see)


title: Spirituality

text: Contemporary proponents of spirituality may suggest that spirituality develops inner peace and forms a foundation for happiness. For example, meditation and similar practices are suggested to help the practitioner cultivate her/his inner life and character. Ellison and Fan (2008) assert that spirituality "causes" a wide array of positive health outcomes, including "morale, happiness, and life satisfaction.". However, Schuurmans-Stekhoven (2013) actively attempted to replicate this research and found more "mixed" results. Nevertheless, spirituality has played a central role in some self-help movements such as Alcoholics Anonymous:


title: Spirituality

text: Spiritual experiences play a central role in modern spirituality. Both western and Asian authors have popularised this notion. Important early-20th century Western writers who studied the phenomenon of spirituality, and their works, include William James, "The Varieties of Religious Experience" (1902) and Rudolph Otto, especially "The Idea of the Holy" (1917)


title: Spirituality

text: James' notions of "spiritual experience" had a further influence on the modernist streams in Asian traditions, making them even further recognisable for a western audience.


title: Spirituality

text: William James popularized the use of the term "religious experience" in his "The Varieties of Religious Experience". He has also influenced the understanding of mysticism as a distinctive experience which allegedly grants knowledge.


title: Spirituality

text: Wayne Proudfoot traces the roots of the notion of "religious experience" further back to the German theologian Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768–1834), who argued that religion is based on a "feeling" of the infinite. Schleiermacher used the idea of "religious experience" to defend religion against the growing scientific and secular critique. Many scholars of religion, of whom William James was the most influential, adopted the concept.


title: Spirituality

text: Major Asian influences on contemporary spirituality have included Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902) and D.T. Suzuki. (1870–1966) Vivekananda popularised a modern syncretic Hinduism, in which an emphasis on personal experience replaced the authority of scriptures. Suzuki had a major influence on the popularisation of Zen in the west and popularized the idea of enlightenment as insight into a timeless, transcendent reality. Other influences came through Paul Brunton's "A Search in Secret India" (1934), which introduced Ramana Maharshi (1879–1950) and Meher Baba (1894–1969) to a western audience.


title: Spirituality

text: Spiritual experiences can include being connected to a larger reality, yielding a more comprehensive self; joining with other individuals or the human community; with nature or the cosmos; or with the divine realm.


title: Spirituality

text: Spiritual practices may include meditation, mindfulness, prayer, the contemplation of sacred texts, ethical development,


title: Spirituality

text: and spiritual retreats in a convent. Love and/or compassion are often described as the mainstay of spiritual development.


title: Spirituality

text: Within spirituality is also found "a common emphasis on the value of thoughtfulness, tolerance for breadth and practices and beliefs, and appreciation for the insights of other religious communities, as well as other sources of authority within the social sciences."


title: Spirituality

text: Since the scientific revolution of the 18th-century Enlightenment, the relationship of science to religion and to spirituality has developed in complex ways. Historian John Hedley Brooke describes wide variations:


title: Spirituality

text: Brooke has proposed that the currently held popular notion of antagonisms between science and religion has historically originated with "thinkers with a social or political axe to grind" rather than with the natural philosophers themselves. Though physical and biological scientists today see no need for supernatural explanations to describe reality, some scientists continue to regard science and spirituality as complementary, not contradictory, and are willing to debate,


title: Spirituality

text: William James, one of the preeminent philosophers of religious experience & spirituality termed the general critique of religious experience by Science as the "Survival Theory". He writes, "There is a notion in the air about us that religion is probably only an anachronism, a case of 'survival,' an atavistic relapse into a mode of thought which humanity in its more enlightened examples has outgrown; and this notion our religious anthropologists at present do little to counteract". He makes the claim that theology, or the science of religion will never truly understand its subject matter, "just as Al Ghazzali told us [...] that to understand the causes of drunkenness, as a physician understands them, is not to be drunk. A science may come to understand everything about the causes and elements of religion, and might even decide which elements were qualified, by their general harmony with other branches of knowledge, to be considered true; and yet the best man at this science might be the man who found it hardest to be personally devout".


title: Spirituality

text: A few religious leaders have shown openness to modern science and its methods. The 14th Dalai Lama, for example, has proposed that if a scientific analysis conclusively showed certain claims in Buddhism to be false, then the claims must be abandoned and the findings of science accepted.


title: Spirituality

text: During the twentieth century the relationship between science and spirituality has been influenced both by Freudian psychology, which has accentuated the boundaries between the two areas by accentuating individualism and secularism, and by developments in particle physics, which reopened the debate about complementarity between scientific and religious discourse and rekindled for many an interest in holistic conceptions of reality. These conceptions were championed by New Age spiritualists in a type of quantum mysticism that they claim justifies their spiritual beliefs, though quantum physicists themselves on the whole reject such attempts as being pseudoscientific.


title: Spirituality

text: Various studies (most originating from North America) have reported a positive correlation between spirituality and mental well-being in both healthy people and those encountering a range of physical illnesses or psychological disorders. Although spiritual individuals tend to be optimistic, report greater social support, and experience higher intrinsic meaning in life, strength, and inner peace, whether the correlation represents a causal link remains contentious. Both supporters and opponents of this claim agree that past statistical findings are difficult to interpret, in large part because of the ongoing disagreement over how spirituality should be defined and measured. There is also evidence that an agreeable/positive temperament and/or a tendency toward sociability (which all correlate with spirituality) might actually be the key psychological features that predispose people to subsequently adopt a spiritual orientation and that these characteristics, not spiritually "per se", add to well-being. There is also some suggestion that the benefits associated with spirituality and religiosity might arise from being a member of a close-knit community. Social bonds available via secular sources (i.e., not unique to spirituality or faith-based groups) might just as effectively raise well-being. In sum, spirituality may not be the "active ingredient" (i.e., past association with psychological well-being measures might reflect a reverse causation or effects from other variables that correlate with spirituality), and that the effects of agreeableness, conscientiousness, or virtue – personality traits common in many non-spiritual people yet known to be slightly more common among the spiritual – may better account for spirituality's apparent correlation with mental health and social support.


title: Spirituality

text: Masters and Spielmans conducted a meta-analysis of all the available and reputable research examining the effects of distant intercessory prayer. They found no discernible health effects from being prayed for by others. In fact, one large and scientifically rigorous study by Herbert Benson and colleagues revealed that intercessory prayer had no effect on recovery from cardiac arrest, but patients told people were praying for them actually had an "increased risk" of medical complications. Knowing others are praying for you could actually be medically detrimental.


title: Spirituality

text: In the health-care professions there is growing interest in "spiritual care", to complement the medical-technical approaches and to improve the outcomes of medical treatments. Puchalski et al. argue for "compassionate systems of care" in a spiritual context.


title: Spirituality

text: Neuroscientists have examined brain functioning during reported spiritual experiences finding that certain neurotransmitters and specific areas of the brain are involved. Moreover, experimenters have also successfully induced spiritual experiences in individuals by administering psychoactive agents known to elicit euphoria and perceptual distortions. Conversely, religiosity and spirituality can also be "dampened" by electromagnetic stimulation of the brain. These results have motivated some leading theorists to speculate that spirituality may be a benign subtype of psychosis – benign in the sense that the same aberrant sensory perceptions that those suffering clinical psychoses evaluate as distressingly incongruent and inexplicable are instead interpreted by spiritual individuals as positive (personal and meaningful transcendent experiences).


title: Spirituality

text: Considerable debate persists about — among other factors — spirituality's relation to religion, the number and content of its dimensions, its relation to concepts of well-being, and its universality. (ref) A number of research groups have developed instruments which attempt to measure spirituality quantitatively, including the Spiritual Transcendence Scale (STS), the Brief Multidimensional Measure of Religiousness/Spirituality (BMMRS) and the Daily Spiritual Experiences Scale. MacDonald et al. gave an "Expressions of Spirituality Inventory" (ESI-R) measuring five dimensions of spirituality to over 4000 persons across eight countries. The study results and interpretation highlighted the complexity and challenges of measurement of spirituality cross-culturally.


title: Alexis Denisof

text: Alexis Denisof (born February 25, 1966) is an American actor. He is primarily known for playing Wesley Wyndam-Pryce in the television series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and its spin-off "Angel". He also had a recurring role on "How I Met Your Mother". His wife, Alyson Hannigan, starred in both "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "How I Met Your Mother".


title: Alexis Denisof

text: Denisof was born in Salisbury, Maryland, the son of Christiana Taylor and Gerald Denisof. He is of Russian, Russian-Jewish, French, and Irish ancestry. He moved to Seattle, Washington, when he was three years old. He attended Highline College, where his mother was head of the drama department. After graduating from St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire, he moved to London, England, at age 17, where he lived and worked for several years. While there, he studied at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.


title: Alexis Denisof

text: Beginning his career in the film industry, Denisof was the fight director for a stage production of "Hamlet", and in 1991 was the fight director for the BBC's "The Other Side", "Romeo and Juliet", and "The Soul's Dark Night". His first lead role was alongside Sir Christopher Lee in the feature film "Murder Story" (1989) where he played an investigative reporter. One of his first known works in television was on the arcade version of the video for "Got My Mind Set On You" by George Harrison. In 1995, he landed a small part in the 1995 movie "First Knight", appearing as one of Arthur's round table knights in multiple scenes with Sean Connery and Richard Gere. Following those roles, Denisof worked with Sean Bean in three episodes of "Sharpe" as Lord John Rossendale in 1997.


title: Alexis Denisof

text: His best-known character, Wesley Wyndam-Pryce, was first introduced in 1999 to season 3 of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" as Buffy's replacement Watcher. Originally, Wyndam-Pryce was supposed to be killed off in the season 3 finale but, due to Whedon's surprise at how well he fit into the series, Denisof was given the choice about his character's fate and chose for him to live. As a result, he later showed up in season one, episode 10 of "Angel", and was an official main cast member from episode 11 (effectively replacing Doyle), appearing in 100 out of the 110 episodes of the series.


title: Alexis Denisof

text: The end of the series in 2004 saw a lag in Denisof's career. Save for appearing in three episodes of the hit series "How I Met Your Mother", as the goofy philandering Sandy Rivers, Denisof would not work as much as he used to for the next several years. During this time he appeared in several stage productions, including "Rope" at Chichester Festival Theatre's Minerva Theatre with Anthony Head, who played Wesley's predecessor Rupert Giles on "Buffy". Denisof was among 200 actors considered for the role of James Bond in "Casino Royale", but lost out to Daniel Craig. Later, in 2008, he appeared in season 2 of "Private Practice" as a man named Daniel, a bigamist who has two pregnant wives who don't know about each other. In 2009, he appeared in four episodes of Joss Whedon's "Dollhouse" as Senator Daniel Perrin.


title: Alexis Denisof

text: In 2011, Denisof reprised his recurring role in "How I Met Your Mother", as Sandy Rivers; he ultimately appeared in 10 episodes total, and his last appearance was in the episode "Gary Blauman". In a season 1 commentary, creators Craig Thomas and Carter Bays speculated that Denisof was initially reluctant to take the role back in 2006 because he feared it was just charity work on account of his wife, Hannigan, playing a main character on the show. They went on to state that he was not aware, until they actually told him, that they were huge fans of his work dating back to his time on "Angel".


title: Alexis Denisof

text: Since 2011, Denisof has been relatively active. He played a voice role in the animated DC movie "". He was featured in the majority of episodes in the AOL webseries, "Little Women, Big Cars". He was then cast as a lead in Bryan Singer's new webseries "". He then reunited with Joss Whedon for two different film projects. The first was a minor role in the summer blockbuster "The Avengers", as The Other, a servant of the character Thanos, and a cohort of Loki. The second was the lead male role in a modern version of Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing", which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival, to positive reviews from critics. The film was released worldwide in June 2013.


title: Alexis Denisof

text: In August 2013 he was cast in the third season of NBC's "Grimm" as a recurring character named Viktor Albert Wilhelm George Beckendorf. In 2014, Denisof reprised his role as The Other in "Guardians of the Galaxy". In the same year he began starring in the MTV television series "Finding Carter" as David Wilson. As of 2018, Denisof starred in the web series "I Love Bekka & Lucy" as Glenn, and was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Actor in a Short Form Comedy or Drama Series, his first such nomination.


title: Alexis Denisof

text: On November 28, 2018, "Deadline Hollywood" reported that Denisof would play the recurring role of Adam Masters in the second season of Netflix's "Chilling Adventures of Sabrina". In 2019 he began playing the recurring role of Professor Vardemus in the supernatural television show "Legacies".


title: Alexis Denisof

text: According to the DVD release of "Angel"s season five, three weeks before the filming of the season premiere, Denisof was stricken with Bell's palsy, from which he later recovered. Due to the paralysis of the left side of his face, scenes were structured to not show its effects.


title: Alexis Denisof

text: Denisof married past co-star Alyson Hannigan, who played Willow Rosenberg in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", on October 11, 2003. The couple live in Encino, Los Angeles. They have two daughters, Satyana Marie, born in March 2009 and Keeva Jane, born in May 2012.


title: Sashimi

text: The word "sashimi" means "pierced body", i.e. "刺身" = "sashimi", where 刺 し = "sashi" (pierced, stuck) and 身 = "mi" (body, meat). This word dates from the Muromachi period and was possibly coined when the word "切る" = "kiru" (cut), the culinary step, was considered too inauspicious to be used by anyone other than samurai. This word may derive from the culinary practice of sticking the fish's tail and fin to the slices for the purpose of identifying the fish being eaten.


title: Sashimi

text: Another possibility for the name is the traditional method of harvesting. ""Sashimi"-grade" fish is caught by individual handline. As soon as the fish is landed, its brain is pierced with a sharp spike, and it is placed in slurried ice. This spiking is called the ikejime process, and the instantaneous death means that the fish's flesh contains a minimal amount of lactic acid. This means that the fish will keep fresh on ice for about ten days, without turning white or otherwise degrading.


title: Sashimi

text: Many non-Japanese use the terms "sashimi" and sushi interchangeably, but the two dishes are distinct and separate. Sushi refers to any dish made with vinegared rice. While raw fish is one traditional sushi ingredient, many sushi dishes contain seafood that has been cooked, and others have no seafood at all including stuff like seaweed and vegetables. "Sashimi" by contrast is always served on its own. The practice of eating raw fish was introduced to Japan from China, perhaps as early as the Kamakura Period (1185-1333). An early cookbook in Japanese, written in 1489, directs that the raw flesh should be sliced and mixed with vinegar and seasonings such as salt and herbs.


title: Sashimi

text: "Sashimi" is often the first course in a formal Japanese meal, but it can also be the main course, presented with rice and miso soup in separate bowls. Japanese chefs consider "sashimi" the finest dish in Japanese formal dining and recommend that it be eaten before other strong flavors affect the palate.


title: Sashimi

text: The sliced seafood that composes the main ingredient is typically draped over a garnish. The typical garnish is Asian white radish, "daikon", shredded into long thin strands, or single leaves of the herb "shiso" (perilla). Garnishes for sashimi are generally called "tsuma" and may also include slices of other raw vegetables, such as cucumbers and carrots, as well as seaweeds, flowers and leaves and stems of other plants.


title: Sashimi

text: "Sashimi" is popularly served with a dipping sauce (soy sauce) and condiments such as wasabi paste, grated fresh ginger, "gari" or pickled ginger, grated fresh garlic, or ponzu for meat "sashimi", and such garnishes as shiso and shredded daikon radish.


title: Sashimi

text: Wasabi paste is sometimes mixed directly into soy sauce as a dipping sauce, which is generally not done when eating sushi (which itself normally includes "wasabi"). A reputed motivation for serving wasabi with "sashimi" and also "gari", besides its flavor, is killing harmful bacteria and parasites that could be present in raw seafood.


title: Sashimi

text: To highlight the delicate flavor as well as for texture, the chef cuts fish into different thicknesses by variety of the fish, its age and by the season. The "hira-zukuri" cut (literally "flat slice"), is the standard cut for most "sashimi". Typically this style of cut is the size of a domino and thick. Tuna, salmon, and kingfish are most commonly cut in this style. The "usu-zukuri" cut (literally "thin slice"), is an extremely thin, diagonally cut slice that is mostly used to cut firm fish, such as bream, whiting, and flounder. The dimensions of this cut are usually long and wide. The "kaku-zukuri" cut (literally "square slice"), is the style in which "sashimi" is cut into small cubes that are on each side. The "ito-zukuri" cut (literally "thread slice"), is the style in which the fish is cut into fine strips, less than in diameter. The fish typically cut with the "ito-zukuri" style include garfish and squid; squid dish prepared in "ito-zukuri" is also called "ika sōmen" and is dipped in dashi or "men-tsuyu" like eating "sōmen" noodle.


title: Sashimi

text: Some sashimi ingredients, such as octopus, are sometimes served cooked given their chewy nature. Most seafood, such as tuna, salmon, and squid, are served raw. "Tataki" (たたき or 叩き, "pounded") is a type of sashimi that is quickly and lightly seared on the outside, leaving it raw inside.


title: Sashimi

text: Less common, but not unusual, sashimi ingredients are vegetarian items, such as yuba (bean curd skin), and raw red meats, such as beef (known as "gyuunotataki") or horse (known as "basashi"). Chicken "sashimi" (known as "toriwasa") is considered by some to be a delicacy; the Nagoya kōchin, French "poulet de Bresse" and its American derivative, the blue foot chicken, are favored by many for this purpose, as, besides their taste, they are certified to be free of "Salmonella". Chicken sashimi is sometimes slightly braised or seared on the outside.


title: Sashimi

text: Food cut into small pieces and eaten with wasabi and soy sauce may be called sashimi in Japan, including the following ingredients. Like bamboo shoots, the food is enjoyed raw to appreciate the freshness, and producers and farmers offer those sashimi at their properties in top season. Some of the vegetables are enjoyed as thin sliced strips and called sashimi while they resemble fish meat, like avocado as salmon and konnyaku as puffer fish.


title: Sashimi

text: As a raw food, consuming sashimi can result in foodborne illness when bacteria or parasites are present; for example, anisakiasis is a disease caused by the accidental ingestion of larval nematodes in the family Anisakidae, primarily "Anisakis simplex" but also "Pseudoterranova decipiens". In addition, incorrectly prepared Fugu fish may contain tetrodotoxin, a potent neurotoxin.


title: Sashimi

text: Another type of food borne illness that could occur after consuming tainted sashimi is Diphyllobothriasis. This disease is an infection within the intestines that occurs when the tapeworm "Diphyllobothrium latum" is consumed. Common fish such as trout, salmon, pike, and sea bass harbor this parasitic larvae in their muscles. Due to the innovation of the chilled transport system paired with the salmon and trout consumption, an increasing number of cases have been recorded annually in northern Japan due to the spread of this disease.


title: Sashimi

text: Traditionally, fish that spend at least part of their lives in brackish or fresh water were considered unsuitable for sashimi because of the possibility of parasites. For example, salmon, an anadromous fish, is not traditionally eaten straight out of the river. A study in Seattle, Washington, showed that all wild salmon had roundworm larvae capable of infecting people, while farm-raised salmon did not have any roundworm larvae. However a study commissioned by the Pew Foundation found that total organic contaminants were consistently and significantly more concentrated in the farmed salmon as a group than in wild salmon.


title: Sashimi

text: Freezing is often used to kill parasites. According to European Union regulations, freezing fish at −20 °C (−4 °F) for 24 hours kills parasites. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommends freezing at −35 °C (−31 °F) for 15 hours, or at −20 °C (−4 °F) for 7 days.


title: Sashimi

text: While Canada does not federally regulate freezing fish, British Columbia and Alberta voluntarily adhere to guidelines similar to the FDA's. Ontario attempted to legislate freezing as part of raw food handling requirements, though this was soon withdrawn due to protests by the industry that the subtle flavors and texture of raw fish would be destroyed by freezing. Instead, Ontario has decided to consider regulations on how raw fish must be handled prior to serving.


title: Sashimi

text: Some fish for sashimi are treated with carbon monoxide to keep the flesh red for a longer time in storage. This practice can make spoiled fish appear fresh.


title: Sashimi

text: Eating chicken sashimi is a serious food poisoning risk. Despite it being on menus, it is hard to find, and many chefs cook it incorrectly. Chicken sashimi is also often sourced at certain restaurants from the thigh, liver and outer breast.


title: Sashimi

text: With the constant amount of fishing, bluefin tuna population rates have been steadily declining. A proposed solution has been farming bluefin tuna in fisheries. Historically, this has posed a problem in that the captive fish are not raised from spawn, but rather from small wild fish that are netted and transported to the farms, mostly in the Mediterranean. However, Japanese scientists have found a way to successfully breed and raise the fish entirely in captivity. Despite this technical accomplishment, this may not lead to a viable solution to maintain a sustainable bluefin population, because chefs and consumers see wild bluefin to be more appetizing, and look down upon farmed bluefin.


title: Tremors (1990 film)

text: Tremors is a 1990 American monster horror comedy film directed by Ron Underwood, produced by Brent Maddock and S. S. Wilson, written by Maddock, Wilson, and Underwood and starring Kevin Bacon, Fred Ward, Finn Carter, Michael Gross, and Reba McEntire.


title: Tremors (1990 film)

text: In the film, handymen Val McKee (Bacon) and Earl Bassett (Ward) wish to leave the small desert town of Perfection, Nevada, as they are tired of their dull lives. However, they happen upon a series of mysterious deaths and a concerned seismologist Rhonda (Carter) studying unnatural readings below the ground. With the help of eccentric survivalist couple Burt and Heather Gummer (Gross and McEntire), the group fights for survival against giant, prehistoric, worm-like monsters hungry for human flesh.


title: Tremors (1990 film)

text: Released by Universal Pictures, the film is the first installment of the "Tremors" franchise and was followed by five direct-to-video sequels and one prequel: "" (1996), "" (2001), "" (2004), "" (2015), "" (2018), and "" (2020). A television series titled "Tremors: The Series" aired from March through August 2003. A second television series was set to air in 2018 after a pilot had been shot with Bacon reprising his role for the first time since the original film, but multiple networks including Syfy passed on the series.


title: Tremors (1990 film)

text: Valentine "Val" McKee and Earl Bassett are handymen working in Perfection, Nevada, an isolated settlement in the high desert east of the Sierra Nevada mountains. They eventually get tired of their jobs and leave for Bixby, the nearest town. As they leave, they discover the dead body of another resident, Edgar Deems, perched atop an electrical tower, still grasping the tower's crossbeams and his rifle. Jim Wallace, the town's doctor, determines that Edgar died of dehydration, apparently having been too afraid to climb down.


title: Tremors (1990 film)

text: Later on, an unseen creature kills shepherd Fred and his flock of sheep. Val and Earl discover his severed head and believe that a serial killer is on the loose. Two construction workers ignore Val and Earl's warning and are killed by the same creature, causing a rock slide. Val and Earl try to find help after warning the residents, but find the phone lines are dead and that the rock slide has blocked the only road out of town. Out of sight, a snake-like creature wraps itself around their truck's rear axle, but is torn apart when Val stomps on the accelerator and drives away, and is discovered when they return to town.


title: Tremors (1990 film)

text: Val and Earl borrow horses to ride to Bixby for help. They come upon Wallace and his wife's buried station wagon near their trailer, but the couple is missing (having been killed the previous night). As they press on, an enormous burrowing worm-like monster suddenly erupts out of the ground, revealing the snake-like creature to be one of the worm's many tentacled "tongues". Thrown from their horses, the men flee with the monster in pursuit. The chase ends when the eyeless creature crashes through the concrete wall of an aqueduct, dying from the impact. Rhonda LeBeck, a graduate student conducting seismology tests in the area, stumbles onto the scene; she deduces from previous readings that three other worms are in the area. Rhonda, Val, and Earl become trapped overnight atop a cluster of boulders near one of the worms, and surmise that the creatures hunt their prey by detecting seismic vibrations. The trio then find some discarded poles and use them to pole vault over to nearby boulders, eventually reaching Rhonda's truck and escaping.


title: Tremors (1990 film)

text: After the three return to town, the worms attack and kill general store owner Walter Chang, forcing everyone to hide on the town's various rooftops. Meanwhile, survivalist couple Burt and Heather Gummer manage to kill one of the creatures after unwittingly luring it to their basement armory. In town, the two remaining worms attack the building foundations, knocking over a trailer belonging to Nestor before dragging him under and devouring him. Realizing they cannot stay in the town any longer, Earl, Rhonda, and Miguel distract the monsters while Val commandeers a track loader and chains a semi-trailer to the rear; the survivors use it to try to escape to a nearby mountain range. En route, both worms create a sinkhole trap that disables the track loader, and the survivors flee to some nearby boulders for safety. Earl then has an idea to lure in the worms and trick them into swallowing Burt's homemade pipe bombs. The strategy successfully kills one worm, but the last one spits a bomb back towards the survivors, forcing them to disperse as the explosion destroys all but one of the remaining bombs.


title: Tremors (1990 film)

text: Val lures the final worm into chasing him to the edge of a cliff and then explodes the remaining bomb behind it, frightening the worm into charging through the cliff face, where it plummets to its death onto the rocks below. The group returns to town, where they call in the authorities to begin an investigation while Earl encourages Val to pursue a romantic relationship with Rhonda.


title: Tremors (1990 film)

text: The concept of "Tremors" was originally conceived in the early 1980s, when writers S. S. Wilson and Brent Maddock were working for the United States Navy as filmmakers in charge of creating educational safety videos. While getting footage, the two climbed a large desert boulder and asked the question "What if there was something that wouldn't let us off of this rock?" This inspired the two to start brainstorming ideas for a monster movie, which was eventually dubbed "Land Sharks". They shared their idea to their friend Ron Underwood, who was working with National Geographic as a documentary director, and used his knowledge of zoology to better develop the "land sharks" into creatures that could realistically exist.


title: Tremors (1990 film)

text: After their script for "Short Circuit" spawned a major box office hit, Wilson and Maddock quickly began shopping around their idea for "Tremors". The name "Land Sharks" was changed owing to a then-popular "Saturday Night Live" sketch featuring a character of the same name. The original screenplay, titled 'Beneath Perfection', was finished in June 1988.


title: Tremors (1990 film)

text: Filming began in early 1989 and lasted over 50 days. Principal photography took place around Lone Pine, California, and the isolated community of Darwin, California, which the crew liked because of its similitaries to the fictional town of Perfection, Nevada. The town, which was entirely a set, was built near Olancha, California. The mountains in the distance are the Sierra Nevada, and Owens Lake is visible in the background during the film's climax.


title: Tremors (1990 film)

text: The creature for "Tremors" was designed by Amalgamated Dynamics. The full-scale graboid seen after being dug up by Val was cast in lightweight foam. It was placed in a trench and buried and dug up again to achieve the desired "used" effect.


title: Tremors (1990 film)

text: Burt's elephant gun, an 8-gauge Darne shotgun, was rented from a private collector for use in the film. It "fired" dummy cartridges custom made from solid brass rod stock.


title: Tremors (1990 film)

text: Composer Ernest Troost's musical score for the film went mostly unused. The studio thought it was "too goofy" and cut most of it, later hiring composer Robert Folk to write a new score that was more "serious and action-y". Despite his contributions, Folk ultimately went uncredited.


title: Tremors (1990 film)

text: "Tremors" was set for a November 1989 release. However, the MPAA gave the film an R rating owing to language, and the creators decided at the last minute to make the film more commercially available. Over 20 or so uses of the word "fuck" were either cut or redubbed with softer words; examples include "Can you fly, you sucker?" and "We killed that motherhumper", among several others. The film was pushed back to allow more time for editing, and the film was eventually released in January 1990 with a PG-13 rating. Wilson and Maddock later stated they were very happy with the decision to make "Tremors" appeal to a more family-friendly audience rather than an adult-oriented audience.


title: Tremors (1990 film)

text: Tremors opened on January 19, 1990, in 1,457 theaters against no new releases and debuted at the #5 spot, behind "Born on the Fourth of July", "Tango & Cash", "The War of the Roses", and "Internal Affairs", grossing $3,731,520 in its opening weekend. It dropped to #6 on its second week but would stay in the top 10 for four weeks before finally dropping to #11 in week 5. Tremors had a budget of $10 million and ended up grossing $16,667,084 at the domestic box office, which made it financially successful, though far below projected numbers. In 2019, Kevin Bacon hinted that Tremors only made "a fifth of what the charts at Universal said it would." Its creators blamed the subpar theatrical performance on its marketing campaign; S. S. Wilson felt that the film was not well promoted once its release date was delayed, while Brent Maddock stated the theatrical trailer was "cringeworthy" and likely deterred audiences.


title: Tremors (1990 film)

text: "Tremors" was hailed by critics for its diverse cast and humor. As of August 2022, the film holds a "certified fresh" rating of 88% at the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 50 reviews and an average score of 7.2 out of 10, with the consensus: "An affectionate throwback to 1950s creature features, "Tremors" reinvigorates its genre tropes with a finely balanced combination of horror and humor.


title: Tremors (1990 film)

text: James Berardinelli praised "Tremors" with a 3/4 star rating, feeling that "horror/comedies often tread too far to one side or the other of that fine line; Tremors walks it like a tightrope". Roger Ebert said that he "liked it enough to recommend it, just barely" and described it as "a goofy, dumb, fun movie". Ty Burr of Entertainment Weekly gave "Tremors" a B+, saying: ""Tremors" is the "Slacker" of monster movies: bemused, improvisatory, willfully low-key". Richard Harrington of "The Washington Post" called the film "a delightful throwback" that "evokes the populist spirit of '50s B-movies". Jeffery Anderson of the San Francisco Examiner gave the film a glowing 4.5/5 star review, calling "Tremors" "effectively terrifying when it needs to be, effectively exciting when it needs to be, and effectively hilarious when it needs to be... "Tremors" may very well be the best horror film, the best action flick, and the best comedy of the year".


title: Tremors (1990 film)

text: In some less enthusiastic reviews, Vincent Canby for "The New York Times" remarked that the film "was clearly more fun to make than it is for us to watch", and "Variety" gave the film a C− on the basis that "Tremors" "...has a few clever twists and characters but ultimately can't decide on what it wants to be: flat-out funny, which it's usually not, or a scarefest, which it's usually not either." Gene Siskel initially gave the film a negative review, stating: "A little of it goes an awfully long way... There are just so many tricks, though, that you can do with the worms. "Tremors" would make a cute short subject, it doesn't sustain itself for an entire film". Two years later he reevaluated the film, saying, "This picture has grown on me... I think it is worth a second viewing. There is a spirit of good fun there".


title: Tremors (1990 film)

text: While only a modest hit at the box office, "Tremors" went on to become a massive hit on home video purchases, rentals, and television, becoming one of the most rented films of 1990. Because of this, it has gained a very large cult following over the years.


title: Tremors (1990 film)

text: "Tremors" debuted on VHS on April 1, 1990, on Laserdisc on April 16, 1996, and on DVD on April 28, 1998. It was released on VHS by Universal Pictures Home Entertainment on June 2, 2000. The film was released on Blu-ray on November 9, 2010, and again on September 17, 2013, as part of the "Tremors: Attack Pack" for region 1 (U.S. and Canada). In the United Kingdom, the "Attack Pack "was not released on Blu-ray; instead, the second, third, and fourth films were released on Blu-ray separately on August 5, 2013. It was released on 4K UHD Blu-ray and Blu-ray by Arrow Video on December 15, 2020, based on a 4K restoration.


title: Tremors (1990 film)

text: The soundtrack for "Tremors" was composed by Ernest Troost and released in 2000. The album contained nine tracks from the film as well as four additional tracks, also composed by Troost, from "Bloodrush". For promotional purposes, the album was released as a limited edition CD. In 2020, La-La Land Records gave the score its first commercial release as a 2-CD set; CD 1 featured Troost's music, with CD 2 containing Robert Folk's additional music.