title: Canadian football

text: Infractions of the rules are punished with "penalties", typically a loss of yardage of 5, 10 or 15 yards against the penalized team. Minor violations such as "offside" (a player from either side encroaching into scrimmage zone before the play starts) are penalized five yards, more serious penalties (such as holding) are penalized 10 yards, and severe violations of the rules (such as face-masking [grabbing the face mask attached to a player's helmet]) are typically penalized 15 yards. Depending on the penalty, the penalty yardage may be assessed from the original line of scrimmage, from where the violation occurred (for example, for a pass interference infraction), or from where the ball ended after the play. Penalties on the offence may, or may not, result in a loss of down; penalties on the defence may result in a first down being automatically awarded to the offence. For particularly severe conduct, the game official(s) may eject players (ejected players may be substituted for), or in exceptional cases, declare the game over and award victory to one side or the other. Penalties do not affect the yard line which the offence must reach to gain a first down (unless the penalty results in a first down being awarded); if a penalty against the defence results in the first down yardage being attained, then the offence is awarded a first down.


title: Canadian football

text: If the defence is penalized on a two-point convert attempt and the offence chooses to attempt the play again, the offence must attempt another two-point convert; it cannot change to a one-point attempt. Conversely, the offence can attempt a two-point convert following a defensive penalty on a one-point attempt.


title: Canadian football

text: Penalties may occur before a play starts (such as offside), during the play (such as holding), or in a dead-ball situation (such as unsportsmanlike conduct).


title: Canadian football

text: Penalties never result in a score for the offence. For example, a point-of-foul infraction committed by the defence in their end zone is not ruled a touchdown, but instead advances the ball to the one-yard line with an automatic first down. For a distance penalty, if the yardage is greater than half the distance to the goal line, then the ball is advanced half the distance to the goal line, though only up to the one-yard line (unlike American football, in Canadian football no scrimmage may start inside either one-yard line). If the original penalty yardage would have resulted in a first down or moving the ball past the goal line, a first down is awarded.


title: Canadian football

text: In most cases, the non-penalized team will have the option of "declining" the penalty; in which case the results of the previous play stand as if the penalty had not been called. One notable exception to this rule is if the kicking team on a 3rd down punt play is penalized before the kick occurs: the receiving team may not decline the penalty and take over on downs. After the kick is made, change of possession occurs and subsequent penalties are assessed against either the spot where the ball is caught, or the runback.


title: Canadian football

text: On any kicking play, all onside players (the kicker, and teammates behind the kicker at the time of the kick) may recover and advance the ball. Players on the kicking team who are not onside may not approach within five yards of the ball until it has been touched by the receiving team, or by an onside teammate.


title: Canadian football

text: Resumption of play following a score is conducted under procedures which vary with the type of score.


title: Canadian football

text: The game consists of two 30-minute halves, each of which is divided into two 15-minute quarters. The clock counts down from 15:00 in each quarter. Timing rules change when there are three minutes remaining in a half.


title: Canadian football

text: A short break interval of 2 minutes occurs after the end of each quarter (a longer break of 15 minutes at halftime), and the two teams then change goals.


title: Canadian football

text: The clock starts again when the referee determines the ball is ready for scrimmage, except for team time-outs (where the clock starts at the snap), after a time count foul (at the snap) and kickoffs (where the clock starts not at the kick but when the ball is first touched after the kick).


title: Canadian football

text: In the last three minutes of a half, the clock stops whenever the ball becomes dead. On kickoffs, the clock starts when the ball is first touched after the kick. On scrimmages, when it starts depends on what ended the previous play. The clock starts when the ball is ready for scrimmage except that it starts on the snap when on the previous play


title: Canadian football

text: During the last three minutes of a half, the penalty for failure to place the ball in play within the 20-second play clock, known as a "time count violation" (this foul is known as "delay of game" in American football), is dramatically different from during the first 27 minutes. Instead of the penalty being 5 yards with the down repeated, the base penalty (except during convert attempts) becomes loss of down on first or second down, and 10 yards on third down with the down repeated. In addition, as noted previously, the referee can give possession to the defence for repeated deliberate time count violations on third down.


title: Canadian football

text: The clock does not run during convert attempts in the last three minutes of a half. If the 15 minutes of a quarter expire while the ball is live, the quarter is extended until the ball becomes dead. If a quarter's time expires while the ball is dead, the quarter is extended for one more scrimmage. A quarter cannot end while a penalty is pending: after the penalty yardage is applied, the quarter is extended one scrimmage. Note that the non-penalized team has the option to "decline" any penalty it considers disadvantageous, so a losing team cannot indefinitely prolong a game by repeatedly committing infractions.


title: Canadian football

text: In the CFL, if the game is tied at the end of regulation play, then each team is given an equal number of offensive possessions to break the tie. A coin toss is held to determine which team will take possession first; the first team scrimmages the ball at the opponent's 35-yard line and conducts a series of downs until it scores or loses possession. If the team scores a touchdown, starting with the 2010 season, it is required to attempt a two-point conversion. The other team then scrimmages the ball at the opponent's 35-yard line and has the same opportunity to score. After the teams have completed their possessions, if one team is ahead, then it is declared the winner; otherwise, the two teams each get another chance to score, scrimmaging from the other 35-yard line. After this second round, if there is still no winner, during the regular season the game ends as a tie. In a playoff game, the teams continue to attempt to score from alternating 35-yard lines, until one team is leading after both have had an equal number of possessions.


title: Canadian football

text: In U Sports football, for the Uteck Bowl, Mitchell Bowl, and Vanier Cup, the same overtime procedure is followed until there is a winner.


title: Canadian football

text: Officials are responsible for enforcing game rules and monitoring the clock. All officials carry a whistle and wear black-and-white striped shirts and black caps except for the referee, whose cap is white. Each carries a weighted orange flag that is thrown to the ground to signal that a foul has been called. An official who spots multiple fouls will throw their cap as a secondary signal. The seven officials (of a standard seven-man crew; lower levels of play up to the university level use fewer officials) on the field are each tasked with a different set of responsibilities:


title: Canadian football

text: Another set of officials, the chain crew, is responsible for moving the chains. The chains, consisting of two large sticks with a 10-yard-long chain between them, are used to measure for a first down. The chain crew stays on the sidelines during the game, but if requested by the officials they will briefly bring the chains on to the field to measure. A typical chain crew will have at least three people—two members of the chain crew will hold either of the two sticks, while a third will hold the down marker. The down marker, a large stick with a dial on it, is flipped after each play to indicate the current down and is typically moved to the approximate spot of the ball. The chain crew system has been used for over 100 years and is considered to be an accurate measure of distance, rarely subject to criticism from either side.


title: Canadian football

text: In the CFL, a game must be delayed if lightning strikes within of the stadium or for other severe weather conditions, or if dangerous weather is anticipated. In the regular season, if play has not resumed after 1 hour and at least half of the third quarter has been completed, the score stands as final; this happened for the first time on August 9, 2019, when a Saskatchewan–Montreal game was stopped late in the third quarter.


title: Canadian football

text: If the stoppage is earlier in the game, or if it is a playoff or Grey Cup game, play may be stopped for up to 3 hours and then resume. After 3 hours of stoppage, play is terminated at least for the day. A playoff or Grey Cup game must then be resumed the following day at the point where it left off.


title: Canadian football

text: In the regular season, if a game is stopped for 3 hours and one team is leading by at least a certain amount, then that team is awarded a win. The size of lead required is 21, 17, or 13 depending on whether the stoppage is in the first, second, or third quarter respectively. If neither team is leading by that much and they are not scheduled to play again in the season, the game is declared a tie.


title: Canadian football

text: If a regular-season game is stopped for 3 hours and neither team is leading by the required amount to be awarded a win, but the two teams are scheduled to play again later in the season, then the stopped game is decided by a "two-possession shootout" procedure held before the later game is started. The procedure is generally similar to overtime in the CFL, with two major exceptions: each team must play exactly two possessions regardless of what happens; and while the score from the stopped game is not added to the shootout score, it is used instead to determine the yard line where each team starts its possessions, so the team that was leading still has an advantage.


title: Canadian football

text: The positions in Canadian football have evolved throughout the years, and are not officially defined in the rules. However, there are still several standard positions, as outlined below.


title: Canadian football

text: The offence must have at least seven players lined up along the line of scrimmage on every play. The players on either end (usually the wide receivers) are eligible to receive forward passes, and may be in motion along the line of scrimmage prior to the snap. The other players on the line of scrimmage (usually the offensive linemen) are ineligible to receive forward passes, and once they are in position, they may not move until the play begins.


title: Canadian football

text: The primary roles of the offensive linemen (or "down linemen") are to protect the quarterback so that he can pass, and to help block on running plays. Offensive linemen generally do not run with the ball (unless they recover it on a fumble) or receive a handoff or lateral pass, but there is no rule against it.


title: Canadian football

text: Backs are behind the linemen at the start of play. They may run with the ball, and receive handoffs, laterals, and forward passes. They may also be in motion before the play starts.


title: Canadian football

text: Receivers may start the play either on or behind the line of scrimmage. They may run with the ball, and receive handoffs, laterals, and forward passes.


title: Canadian football

text: The rules do not constrain how the defence may arrange itself, other than the requirement that they must remain one yard behind the line of scrimmage until the play starts.


title: Canadian football

text: Special teams are generally used on kicking plays, which include kickoffs, punts, field goal attempts, and extra point attempts. Special teams include the following positions:


title: The Hogan Family

text: The Hogan Family (originally titled Valerie and later Valerie's Family) is an American sitcom television series that began airing on NBC on March 1, 1986, and finished its run on CBS on July 20, 1991, for a total of six seasons. It was produced in association with Lorimar Productions (1986), Lorimar-Telepictures (1986–1988), and Lorimar Television (1988–1991).


title: The Hogan Family

text: Under the title "Valerie" the show originally centered around Valerie Harper in the titular role as a mother trying to juggle her career and raising three sons with an absent airline pilot husband. After the first two seasons, Harper was replaced, following contractual disputes over salary and disputes about the direction her character was going. Her character was killed off at the start of season three and Sandy Duncan joined the cast as Valerie's sister-in-law and the boys' aunt. The series was initially retitled Valerie's Family, but for season four the series was again retitled "The Hogan Family".


title: The Hogan Family

text: Like most American sitcoms in the 1980s, the series sometimes dealt with moral conflicts, but not in a heavy-handed fashion. In the very special episode "Bad Timing", which first aired February 7, 1987, David and a former girlfriend debate whether to have sex. The episode featured the first use of the word condom on a prime time television program.


title: The Hogan Family

text: After a modest start in the ratings that was countered by critical success, "Valerie" had begun to show growth in the Nielsens by the end of the 1986–87 season. Its most significant ratings jump occurred after its moving to Mondays at 8:30/7:30c in March 1987, following "ALF". NBC renewed the series for a third season in May. In light of the show's success, Harper and her husband, Tony Cacciotti, approached their producers and NBC about per-episode salary increases and a larger cut of future syndication revenue. When all of the couple's requests were refused, Harper and Cacciotti walked out on "Valerie". Harper had prior history in this situation, as she staged a walkout in 1975 following the first season of her hit series "Rhoda" (and its parent series, "The Mary Tyler Moore Show") which successfully resulted in a pay increase.


title: The Hogan Family

text: The couple continued to negotiate with Miller-Boyett Productions, Lorimar-Telepictures and NBC during the next few months as the behind-the-scenes struggle became well publicized. NBC programming chief Brandon Tartikoff, who was unhappy with the feud, publicly stated that he would replace Harper with another actress if the fighting did not cease. Tartikoff suggested Sandy Duncan as a replacement to Miller and Boyett, who both sided with the network chief in this possible casting decision. Duncan had recently signed a contract with NBC for a starring vehicle, and Tartikoff felt that this would be the best opportunity for her to make use of it. Though the NBC case was dismissed, Harper and Cacciotti won their trial against Lorimar on September 16, 1988, and were awarded $1.82 million in damages; which they both later donated to various charities. Harper left the show and was replaced by Duncan as the female lead.


title: The Hogan Family

text: In 1990, after spending three of the last four years on Monday nights at 8:30/7:30 (having been on Sundays before that), NBC opted not to respond to an agreement made with Lorimar insisting that the network had to exercise renewal options on the series before April 1. Despite the series still sporting decent ratings, NBC stated that it chose not to renew "The Hogan Family" "because of the strength of our current development."


title: The Hogan Family

text: The theme song, "Together Through the Years", was performed by Roberta Flack and composed by Charles Fox. The lyrics were written by Stephen Geyer.


title: The Hogan Family

text: "The Hogan Family" aired in U.S. syndication on local television stations, from September 1990 until Summer 1998. From August 1998 until August 1999, startup broadcast network PAX TV aired reruns of the series weekdays at 4/3c.


title: The Hogan Family

text: ABC Family previously held the U.S. syndication rights to the program and had aired episodes twice daily for five weeks from September 25 (2005?) until October 27, 2006. It had discontinued running the show since then.


title: The Hogan Family

text: In Canada, the Crossroads Television System held the Canadian syndication rights and began airing the show Wednesday nights. It discontinued airing the show in 2011.


title: The Hogan Family

text: "The Hogan Family" title was used for syndicated showings of almost all episodes, including those originally broadcast as "Valerie" or "Valerie's Family". Also, the theme was shortened in the opening credits when the show was in syndication. During the "Valerie" seasons, the title sequence becomes slow motion at the scene where Mike and the boys begin to tackle Valerie in their football game. For the third-season episodes, the title shot from seasons four and five is used for reruns, where "The Hogan Family" is displayed over the Hogans carrying their picnic items through the park. This deleted the scene where Sandy runs out to the baseball diamond to try and get the bases unloaded. The latter was where the "Valerie's Family" title was shown on NBC airings, with "The Hogans" appearing over the park-walking scene.


title: The Hogan Family

text: Initially the only episode to retain the "Valerie" title in syndication was "Bad Timing" (February 8, 1987), which also kept the original parental advisory disclaimer from NBC. But by 2016 the first two seasons went back to their "Valerie" title. Season three however stayed as "The Hogan Family" but did not include the Jason Bateman Hockey sequence of season four.


title: The Hogan Family

text: In 2016, Antenna TV announced that they would air the series in 2017. The Christmas episode was the first to air on the network on December 16, during a marathon of holiday-themed episodes from Antenna TV programs throughout the month, before the show officially joined the lineup on January 2, 2018.


title: Thorin Oakenshield

text: Thorin Oakenshield (Thorin II) is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's 1937 novel "The Hobbit". Thorin is the leader of the Company of Dwarves who aim to reclaim the Lonely Mountain from Smaug the dragon. He is the son of Thráin II, grandson of Thrór, and becomes King of Durin's Folk during their exile from Erebor. Thorin's background is further elaborated in Appendix A of Tolkien's 1955 novel "The Return of the King", and in "Unfinished Tales".


title: Thorin Oakenshield

text: Commentators have noted that Thorin is Old Norse both in name and character, being surly, illiberal, independent, proud, aristocratic, and like all Dwarves greedy for gold. Tolkien was a Roman Catholic; from a Christian perspective, Thorin exemplifies the deadly sin of avarice, but is able to free himself from it at the time of his death. This deathbed conversion has been compared to the moral transformation of Ebenezer Scrooge in Charles Dickens's "A Christmas Carol".


title: Thorin Oakenshield

text: Thorin appears in Peter Jackson's "The Hobbit" film series, in the Rankin/Bass animated version, and in the 1982 game of the same name.


title: Thorin Oakenshield

text: In "The Hobbit", Thorin, a Dwarf-King in exile and twelve other Dwarves visited Bilbo Baggins in his home in the Shire. This was on the wizard Gandalf's advice to hire Bilbo as a burglar, to help them steal their treasure back from the dragon Smaug. Smaug had attacked the Dwarves's mountain, Erebor (the Lonely Mountain) about 150 years before, and had taken both the Dwarves' mountain and their treasure. Thorin was determined to get the treasure back, and especially wanted the Arkenstone, the Heart of the Mountain, an heirloom of his Kingdom.


title: Thorin Oakenshield

text: On the journey, the company encountered a band of trolls; Thorin was the only Dwarf not to be taken unawares. When Gandalf had rescued the company, letting dawn turn the trolls to stone, they opened the trolls' lair. Thorin found the Elven blade Orcrist in the trolls' cache, and used the sword fighting goblins in the tunnels beneath the Misty Mountains. At the same time, Bilbo found a magic ring, using it to escape from the tunnels past the goblin guards.


title: Thorin Oakenshield

text: When the Dwarves were captured by the wood-elves of Mirkwood, Thorin insisted that the others not disclose their quest to their captors. Bilbo, invisible with his magic ring, evaded capture, and organised the company's escape, floating in barrels out of the wood-elves' fastness. Thorin was the first to emerge from the barrels at Lake-town, marching up to the leaders of the town, declaring himself as King Under the Mountain.


title: Thorin Oakenshield

text: With provisions from Lake-town, Thorin led the company to Erebor. Seeing that Smaug was not there, the Dwarves reclaimed some of the treasure; Thorin gave Bilbo "a small coat of mail" made of "mithril" as the first instalment of his payment. The Dwarves then learnt from the ancient raven Roäc that Smaug had been killed: Bard the Bowman had managed to shoot Smaug as, furious at the Dwarves' theft of some of his treasure, the dragon set about destroying Lake-town.


title: Thorin Oakenshield

text: Faced with demands from Thranduil the Elvenking and Bard for a fair share of the treasure to be distributed to the wood-elves and the men of Lake-town, Thorin refused to acknowledge their right to any of the hoard. He fortified the Mountain against his new rivals and sent to his cousin Dáin Ironfoot for reinforcements. Thorin was furious when he discovered that Bilbo had stolen the Arkenstone to use as a bargaining counter, and sent him from the Mountain. Conflict amongst the Dwarves, men, and elves was averted only by an invasion of goblins and wargs, whereupon the Dwarves joined forces with the wood-elves, the men of Lake-town, and the great eagles in the Battle of Five Armies.


title: Thorin Oakenshield

text: When Thorin died, he was buried with the Arkenstone, and Orcrist was returned and laid upon his tomb. The blade would glow blue should Orcs approach, and they could thus not take the Mountain by surprise. Thorin was succeeded as leader of Durin's Folk by his cousin Dáin.


title: Thorin Oakenshield

text: Part III of Appendix A in "The Return of the King" gives an overview of the history of Durin's Folk and more of Thorin's background. When Thorin was 53 (young for a Dwarf), he marched with a mighty dwarf-army against the orcs of Moria. After the battle he led his people to establish a foothold in the Blue Mountains west of the Shire.


title: Thorin Oakenshield

text: "Unfinished Tales" elaborates on Thorin's reasons for accepting Bilbo into his company. As depicted in the story "The Quest of Erebor", Thorin met with Gandalf in Bree shortly before the quest began. Gandalf persuaded him that stealth, rather than force, was needed to infiltrate Erebor; they would therefore need a burglar. Gandalf feared that Sauron could use Smaug as a weapon, and was concerned that Thorin's pride and quick temper would ruin the mission to destroy the dragon. He thought that Bilbo would be a calming influence on Thorin, as well as a genuinely valuable addition to the company. Thorin, who did not think much of Hobbits, reluctantly agreed, calculating that Bilbo's presence would be a small price to pay for Gandalf's help.


title: Thorin Oakenshield

text: Tolkien adopted Thorin's names from the "Dvergatal", the list of Dwarves, in the Old Norse poem "Völuspá", which is part of the "Poetic Edda". The name "Thorin" ("Þorinn") appears in stanza 12, where it is used for a dwarf, and the name "Oakenshield" ("Eikinskjaldi") in stanza 13. The name "Thorin" ultimately derives from that of the Norse god Thor; it means "darer" or "bold one".


title: Thorin Oakenshield

text: Dwarfs in Germanic folklore are skilled in metalwork, including making weapons, ships, rings and jewellery; they are knowledgeable, strong, and turn to stone in sunlight. They are characterised as having a strong association with gold, mining, wealth, living underneath mountains, and being long-lived, ungrateful, and getting into arguments about payment. The Tolkien critic Tom Shippey suggests that Tolkien's "master-text" for his Dwarves was the "Hjaðningavíg". In that legend, the Dwarves are characterised by revenge, as in "the long and painful vengeance of [Thorin's father] Thráin for [Thorin's grandfather] Thrór", and Shippey argues that Tolkien chose these qualities for his Dwarves.


title: Thorin Oakenshield

text: Shippey writes that in chapters 6–8 of "The Hobbit", Tolkien explores "with delight that surly, illiberal independence often the distinguishing mark of Old Norse heroes". The philosophers Gregory Bassham and Eric Bronson contrast the way Tolkien introduces hobbits, as "plain, quiet folks who never do anything unexpected", with how Thorin would have "introduce[d] himself, with aristocratic titles and songs of ancient lineage. We do not open the book to read of the wrath of Thorin the way we learn of the wrath of Achilles in the opening lines of "The Iliad"."


title: Thorin Oakenshield

text: The Tolkien scholar Paul H. Kocher writes that Tolkien characterises Dwarves as having the "cardinal sin of 'possessiveness'", seen sharply when Bard the Bowman makes what Bilbo feels is a fair offer for a share of Smaug's treasure, and Thorin flatly refuses, his "dwarfish lust for gold fevered by brooding on the dragon's hoard".


title: Thorin Oakenshield

text: The Jesuit John L. Treloar, writing in "Mythlore", suggests that Tolkien, a Catholic, explores the seven deadly sins in his Middle-earth writings. He states that in "The Hobbit", both Smaug and Thorin exemplify avarice, but respond to it differently. In his view, Smaug is evil and lets avarice destroy him, whereas Thorin, sharing the general weakness of Dwarves for this particular vice, nevertheless has sufficient good will to free himself of it at the time of his death.


title: Thorin Oakenshield

text: Bassham and Bronson compare Thorin's deathbed "conversion" from his greed and pride, as he reconciles himself with Bilbo, to Ebenezer Scrooge's "big moral transformation" from grumpy miserliness to generosity and cheerfulness in Charles Dickens's 1843 novella "A Christmas Carol".


title: Thorin Oakenshield

text: In Soviet 1985 television play "Сказочное путешествие мистера Бильбо Беггинса Хоббита" ("The Fantastic Journey of the Hobbit Mr. Bilbo Baggins") Thorin was played by Anatoly Ravikovich.


title: Thorin Oakenshield

text: In Peter Jackson's three-film adaptation of "The Hobbit" (2012–2014), Thorin is portrayed by Richard Armitage. The film adaptation adds to Thorin's quest an arch-enemy in the form of the villainous orc leader Azog, as well as a history of enmity with Thranduil, which began with a dispute between his grandfather Thrór and the Elvenking over the White Gems of Lasgalen. In his review, Erik Kain from "Forbes" wrote that Thorin stood out as a remarkable character with shades of dark and light, at once heroic and stubborn to a fault.


title: Thorin Oakenshield

text: In the 1982 game "The Hobbit" Thorin appears as an AI controlled character and one of his seemingly random actions ("Thorin sits down and starts singing about gold", which occurs when the player does nothing for a while) became quite famous. In the 2003 video game, Thorin is voiced by Clive Revill.


title: IATA delay codes

text: IATA delay codes were created to standardise the reporting by airlines of commercial flight departure delays.


title: IATA delay codes

text: Previously, every airline had its own system, which made the sharing and aggregation of flight delay information difficult. IATA standardised the flight delay reporting format by using codes that attribute cause and responsibility for the delay; this supports aviation administration and logistics and helps to define any penalties arising. These codes are used in movement messages sent electronically by SITA from the departure airport to the destination airport and also in the internal administration of the airlines, airports and ground handling agents.


title: IATA delay codes

text: An aircraft held on the ground incurs costs, consequently airlines plan operations to minimise ground time. It is common practice for airlines and aircraft ground handling to have contracts based on a bonus–malus system, penalising the causative agent for delays caused. Delay code properties cover nine category sets for delay. Each category set can be described using either a two digit number code or a two letter alpha code; most airlines use the numeric format but some prefer the alpha. Messaging standards, such as the AHM 780 Aircraft Movement Message specification, specify that only the numeric codes should be used. Many airlines further subdivide the IATA codes with an additional character, for more granular delay analysis, but these are not standardized. In the AHM 780 specification, the two-character numeric-only codes are sent in the "DL" and "EDL" elements along with the time assigned to each code (e.g. "DL31/62/0005/0015" showing reason 31 for 5mins and reason 62 for 15 minutes), and the three-character alphanumeric codes are sent in the "DLA" element (e.g. "DLA31C/62A//" showing subreason "C" for code 31 and subreason "A" for code 62).


title: IATA delay codes

text: Delay codes starting with 0 are used for internal airline purposes. Airlines are free to define these codes and to determine particular application fields.


title: IATA delay codes

text: However the following codes are standard, even if some airlines do not use them and create their own customized delay codes:


title: IATA delay codes

text: These Codes are used for Air Traffic Control (ATC) Restrictions (81-84) and Airport or Governmental Authorities caused delays.


title: Mary Lou McDonald

text: Mary Louise McDonald (born 1 May 1969) is an Irish politician who has served as Leader of the Opposition in Ireland since June 2020 and President of Sinn Féin since February 2018. She has been a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin Central constituency since 2011. She previously served as Vice President of Sinn Féin from 2009 to 2018 and a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the Dublin constituency from 2004 to 2009.


title: Mary Lou McDonald

text: On 10 February 2018, McDonald succeeded longtime party leader Gerry Adams as President of Sinn Féin, following a special (party conference) in Dublin. In the 2020 general election, Sinn Féin's performance improved significantly and it was the first time in almost a century that neither Fianna Fáil nor Fine Gael won the most votes. Sinn Féin achieved the second-highest number of seats at 37, one behind Fianna Fáil's 38 seats.


title: Mary Lou McDonald

text: Following Micheál Martin's appointment as Taoiseach in June 2020, after the formation of a Fianna Fáil, Green Party and Fine Gael coalition, McDonald became Leader of the Opposition. She is the first woman to occupy that position and the first to come from a party other than Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael since the Labour Party's Thomas Johnson in 1927.


title: Mary Lou McDonald

text: Born into a middle-class family in south Dublin to builder and surveyor Patrick McDonald and housewife Joan, her parents separated when she was 9 years old and she stayed with her mother in Rathgar. She has an older brother Bernard and younger twin siblings Patrick and Joanne. Her sister Joanne was involved with the socialist republican party Éirígí in the late 2000s and is a teacher. Her brother Patrick works as an intellectual property lawyer and Bernard as a scientist. McDonald's great-uncle, James O'Connor, was an member of the Anti-Treaty IRA who was executed at the Curragh Camp during the Irish Civil War. He was charged with illegally possessing firearms, which carried the death penalty at the time. O'Connor was 24 years old at the time.


title: Mary Lou McDonald

text: McDonald was educated at the Catholic all-girls, Notre Dame Des Missions in Churchtown, South Dublin, where she was involved in debating.


title: Mary Lou McDonald

text: After school, McDonald attended Trinity College Dublin, from which she received a bachelor's degree in English Literature. She later studied industrial relations at Dublin City University, and also received a Master of Arts degree in European Integration Studies from the University of Limerick in 1995. She worked as a researcher for the Institute of European Affairs, a consultant for the Irish Productivity Centre (a human resources consultancy that was jointly operated by Ibec and ICTU) and a trainer in the Partnership Unit of the Educational and Training Services Trust.


title: Mary Lou McDonald

text: McDonald became involved with the Irish National Congress, a cross-party republican organisation, and became chairperson in 2000, leading a protest in Dublin against the involvement of the city's Lord Mayor in the unveiling of a plaque at the location where the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland held its first meeting in 1798.


title: Mary Lou McDonald

text: McDonald started her political career by first joining Fianna Fáil in 1998, but she left the party after a year due to core policy differences, particularly in relation to Northern Ireland and social justice. Asked in 2014 about her participation in Fianna Fáil, McDonald stated she had been "in the wrong party" and quickly realised that Sinn Féin was a more appropriate party for her Republican views after meeting Sinn Féin members through the Irish National Congress.


title: Mary Lou McDonald

text: McDonald has been a member of the Sinn Féin party leadership since 2001. She first ran for office when she unsuccessfully contested the Dublin West constituency for Sinn Féin at the 2002 general election, polling 8.02% of first preference votes.


title: Mary Lou McDonald

text: In September 2003, McDonald attracted criticism when she spoke at a rally in Dublin to commemorate Seán Russell, an IRA leader with links to Nazi Germany.


title: Mary Lou McDonald

text: In 2004, McDonald became Sinn Féin's first MEP in Ireland, when she was elected at the 2004 European Parliament election for the Dublin constituency, receiving over 60,000 first preference votes. She served as one of two Sinn Féin MEPs, the other being Bairbre de Brún who was representing Northern Ireland. In 2007, she was shortlisted for the 'MEP of the Year' award by the European Parliament magazine for "making the most valuable contribution in the field of employment policy". During her time in office she led the Sinn Féin campaign against the Treaty of Lisbon, which was rejected in the Republic in 2008 but accepted in 2009. McDonald sat as a member of the European Parliament's Employment and Social Affairs Committee, and as a substitute of the Civil Liberties Committee.


title: Mary Lou McDonald

text: McDonald became Sinn Féin Vice President, replacing Pat Doherty, following the Sinn Féin ardfheis of 22 February 2009.


title: Mary Lou McDonald

text: For the 2009 European Parliament election, the number of seats for Dublin in the European Parliament was reduced from four to three. McDonald was in a tight race for the last seat against Fianna Fáil's Eoin Ryan and the Socialist Party leader Joe Higgins. McDonald lost her seat to Higgins, being eliminated at the fifth count. Her first preference vote had declined to nearly 48,000.


title: Mary Lou McDonald

text: In June 2009, McDonald faced criticism after it emerged her campaign office was selling IRA souvenirs and memorabilia.


title: Mary Lou McDonald

text: McDonald contested the Dublin Central constituency again at the 2011 general election, this time picking up 13.1% of first preference votes; she was successful in taking the last seat in the constituency. Following the election she became Sinn Féin's Spokesperson for Public Expenditure and Reform and was a member of the Public Accounts Committee from then until 2017.


title: Mary Lou McDonald

text: In 2012, McDonald was awarded 'Opposition Politician of the Year' by TV3's "Tonight with Vincent Browne" political talk show.


title: Mary Lou McDonald

text: In November 2014, McDonald refused to leave the Dáil chamber after a vote resulted in her suspension. McDonald had questioned Tánaiste Joan Burton as to whether the government would allow payments to be taken from citizens' wages or social welfare payments if they did not comply with the payment of newly introduced water charges. McDonald argued that Burton failed to directly answer her questions and was being deliberately evasive and intractable. She, along with a number of Sinn Féin colleagues, remained in the chamber for four and a half hours in protest of Burton's alleged refusal to answer her questions. In response, the Ceann Comhairle Seán Barrett adjourned the Dáil for a number of days.


title: Mary Lou McDonald

text: In December 2015, McDonald initially backed Thomas "Slab" Murphy, who she described as a "good republican" despite him having been convicted on nine charges of tax evasion, following a trial held in the Special Criminal Court after the last person to testify against Murphy in a court was bludgeoned to death after a 1999 court case in Dublin. She later failed to back party leader Gerry Adams' assertion that Thomas Murphy is a "good republican" after a BBC Spotlight investigation accused Murphy of being a "mass murderer".


title: Mary Lou McDonald

text: After her re-election to the Dáil in 2016 general election, in which she topped the poll in Dublin Central, she became Sinn Féin's All-Ireland Spokesperson for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention, which she held until being elected president of Sinn Féin in 2018.


title: Mary Lou McDonald

text: At a Sinn Féin party conference on 18 November 2017, Gerry Adams was re-elected party leader, but announced that he would ask the Sinn Féin party leadership to call for a special Ard Fheis to be held within three months to choose a new president, and that he would not stand for re-election as TD for the Louth constituency in the next election.


title: Mary Lou McDonald

text: At the close of nominations to succeed Adams on 20 January 2018, McDonald was announced as the President-elect of Sinn Féin, as she was the sole nominee to enter the race. She was confirmed as president at a special Ard Fheis on 10 February 2018 in Dublin.


title: Mary Lou McDonald

text: In March 2019, McDonald was criticised by some, including Fine Gael politician Simon Coveney, for walking behind a banner in the New York City St. Patrick's day parade which read "England Get Out of Ireland". In the immediate aftermath of the incident support for Sinn Féin in opinion polls dropped from 18% to 13%, with McDonald apologising for her actions shortly afterwards, but stated she believed the message to be directed at the British state, not the English people.


title: Mary Lou McDonald

text: Shortly afterwards on 24 May 2019, the 2019 European Parliament election in Ireland and 2019 Irish local elections were held simultaneously. In the European elections, Sinn Féin lost 2 MEPs and dropped their vote share by 7.8%, while in the local elections the party lost 78 (almost half) of their local councillors and dropped their vote share by 5.7%. The result was considered "disastrous" for Sinn Féin. McDonald stated "It was a really bad day out for us. But sometimes that happens in politics, and it’s a test for you. I mean it’s a test for me personally, obviously, as the leader".


title: Mary Lou McDonald

text: However, at the 2020 general election, the party rebounded and attained 24.5% of the first preference votes, placing them ahead of Fine Gael by 3.6% and Fianna Fáil by 2.3%. It was the best general election result in the modern history of Sinn Féin. In the Dublin Central constituency, McDonald topped the poll with 35.7% of the first preference votes.


title: Mary Lou McDonald

text: McDonald touted the party's electoral success as a "revolution" and expressed her desire to form a coalition government, declaring that Ireland "is no longer a two-party system". Sinn Féin TD Matt Carthy credited McDonald's leadership and her ability to clarify Sinn Féin's policies to the electorate with contributing to the stark turn around between the May elections of 2019 and the general election result of 2020. McDonald's high satisfaction rating as party leader was also cited by others as another contributing factor in Sinn Féin's result.


title: Mary Lou McDonald

text: On 26 June 2020, Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, and the Green Party formed a coalition government, leaving Sinn Féin as the largest opposition party, and McDonald as Leader of the Opposition. She dismissed the coalition agreement as a "marriage of convenience", and accused Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael of conspiring to exclude Sinn Féin from government.


title: Mary Lou McDonald

text: McDonald has been credited with being part of a new generation of Sinn Féin members, who have broadened its appeal and increased its vote since she first held public office. After she became the party's first MEP in 2004 (receiving more than treble the percentage of votes the party had received five years earlier), Writing on McDonald and the 2004 election success for Sinn Féin (using the subheading '"Shopaholic Trinity girl is face of new Sinn Fein"), "The Times" described McDonald as "more Brown Thomas beret than balaclava" and "part of a new generation of Sinn Féiners." The paper continued by stating that “another Trinity graduate was elected in Donaghmede, while party candidates in Dublin also included a philosophy student and somebody called Pembroke, an unlikely name for a republican. The irony is that the smoked-salmon socialists are just as effective at mopping up working-class votes as the middle-aged Sinn Fein men who saw 'action' in the 1980s or served time in prison. McDonald stretched the Sinn Fein constituency to the full, attracting votes and transfers from leafy suburbs as well as ghettoes."


title: Mary Lou McDonald

text: McDonald has been credited for her leadership ability and popular appeal. Kathy Sheridan of "The Irish Times" wrote of McDonald: "It is a cliche to say that Mary Lou McDonald is an enigma but it's nonetheless true. Likable, warm and approachable yet never quite revealing herself. A straight-talker who appears to shoot from the hip yet says nothing that has not been thoroughly considered." Sheridan also claimed that she was "the embodiment of educated, Dublin 6 middle-class privilege who peddles a persuasive anti-establishment line and attracts the kind of adoring scrums last seen in Bertie Ahern’s heyday." Sheridan summarised that she had brought Sinn Féin into the mainstream of Irish politics." As of November 2021, Sinn Féin was the most popular party in opinion polls under her leadership.


title: Mary Lou McDonald

text: McDonald's husband, Martin Lanigan, works as a gas control superintendent for the emergency dispatch division of Gas Networks Ireland, a state infrastructure provider, and the couple has two children.


title: Mary Lou McDonald

text: McDonald has asthma. In April 2020, she announced that she had tested positive for COVID-19 following a test she took on 28 March. In a statement she said that she had recovered from the condition but had developed pleurisy in her right lung. She said that the Public Health Doctor had told her that she was no longer infected or infectious.


title: Iona

text: Iona (; (IPA:[ˈiːˈxaɫ̪ɯimˈçiʎə]), sometimes simply "Ì"; ) is a small island in the Inner Hebrides, off the Ross of Mull on the western coast of Scotland. It is mainly known for Iona Abbey, though there are other buildings on the island. Iona Abbey was a centre of Gaelic monasticism for three centuries and is today known for its relative tranquility and natural environment. It is a tourist destination and a place for spiritual retreats. Its modern Scottish Gaelic name means "Iona of (Saint) Columba" (formerly anglicised as "Icolmkill").


title: Iona

text: In 2019, the island's estimated population was 120. Residents engage in farming, using traditional methods. Other occupations include crofting and tourism-related work; some craftsmen make goods for sale locally, such as pottery, tapestries, jewellery and knitted goods. In March 1980, the Hugh Fraser Foundation donated much of the main island (and its off-lying islands) to the current owner, the National Trust for Scotland. The abbey and some church buildings are owned by the Iona Cathedral Trust.


title: Iona

text: One publication, describing the religious significance of the island, says that the island is "known as the birthplace of Celtic Christianity in Scotland,” and notes that “St Columba came here in the year 563 to establish the Abbey, which still stands".


title: Iona

text: Because the Hebrides have been successively occupied by speakers of several languages since the Iron Age, many of its islands’ names have more than one possible meaning. Nonetheless, few, if any, have accumulated as many different names over the centuries as the island now known in English as "Iona".


title: Iona

text: The place-name scholar William J. Watson has shown that the earliest recorded names of the island meant something like "yew-place". The element "Ivo-", denoting "yew", occurs in inscriptions in the ogham alphabet ("Iva-cattos" [genitive], "Iva-geni" [genitive]) and in Gaulish names ("Ivo-rix", "Ivo-magus"); it may also be the basis of early Gaelic names like "Eógan" (ogham: "Ivo-genos"). The island's name may also be related to the name of a mythological figure, "Fer hÍ mac Eogabail", the foster-son of Manannan, whose forename meaning "man of the yew".


title: Iona

text: Mac an Tàilleir (2003) has analyzed the more recent Gaelic names of "Ì", "Ì Chaluim Chille" and "Eilean Idhe". He notes that the name "Ì" was "generally lengthened to avoid confusion" with "Ì Chaluim Chille", which means "Calum's Iona" or "island of Calum's monastery". (“Calum”’s Latinized form is "Columba".) This confusion would have arisen because "ì", the original name of the island, would have been confused with the now-obsolete Gaelic noun "ì", meaning "island", which was derived from the Old Norse word for island ("ey"). "Eilean Idhe" means "the isle of Iona", also known as "Ì nam ban bòidheach" ("the isle of beautiful women"). The modern English name comes from yet another variant, "Ioua", which arose either from Adomnán's 7th-century attempt to make the Gaelic name fit Latin grammar, or spontaneously, as a derivative of "Ivova" ("yew place"). The change in the island's name from "Ioua"' to "Iona", which is attested from c.1274, resulted from a transcription error due to the similarity of "n" and "u" in Insular Minuscule script.


title: Iona

text: Despite the continuity of forms in Gaelic from the pre-Norse to the post-Norse era, Haswell-Smith (2004) speculates that the island’s name may be connected with the Norse word "Hiōe", meaning "island of the den of the brown bear". The medieval English-language version of the name was "Icolmkill" (and variants thereof).


title: Iona

text: Murray (1966) claims that the "ancient" Gaelic name was "Innis nan Druinich" ("the isle of Druidic hermits"), but there is no evidence for the "ancient" use of such a name before the twentieth century, and it probably arises from a misunderstanding of the name "Cladh nan Druineach", which means 'burial ground of the embroideresses or artificers' - a cemetery on the east shore of the island. He also repeats a Gaelic story (which he admits is apocryphal) that as Columba's coracle first drew close to the island one of his companions cried out ""Chì mi i"" meaning "I see her" and that Columba's response was "Henceforth we shall call her Ì".


title: Iona

text: The geology of Iona is quite complex given the island's size and quite distinct from that of nearby Mull. About half of the island's bedrock is Scourian gneiss assigned to the Lewisian complex and dating from the Archaean eon making it some of the oldest rock in Britain and indeed Europe. Closely associated with these gneisses are mylonite and meta-anorthosite and melagabbro. Along the eastern coast facing Mull are steeply dipping Neoproterozoic age metaconglomerates, metasandstones, metamudstones and hornfelsed metasiltstones ascribed to the Iona Group, described traditionally as Torridonian. In the southwest and on parts of the west coast are pelites and semipelites of Archaean to Proterozoic age. There are small outcrops of Silurian age pink granite on southeastern beaches, similar to those of the Ross of Mull pluton cross the sound to the east. Numerous geological faults cross the island, many in a E-W or NW-SE alignment. Devonian aged microdiorite dykes are found in places and some of these are themselves cut by Palaeocene age camptonite and monchiquite dykes ascribed to the 'Iona-Ross of Mull dyke swarm’. More recent sedimentary deposits of Quaternary age include both present day beach deposits and raised marine deposits around Iona as well as some restricted areas of blown sand.


title: Iona

text: Iona lies about from the coast of Mull. It is about wide and long with a resident population of 125. Like other places swept by ocean breezes, there are few trees; most of them are near the parish church.


title: Iona

text: Iona's highest point is Dùn Ì, , an Iron Age hill fort dating from 100 BC – AD 200. Iona's geographical features include the Bay at the Back of the Ocean and "Càrn Cùl ri Éirinn" (the Hill/Cairn of [turning the] Back to Ireland), said to be adjacent to the beach where St. Columba first landed.


title: Iona

text: The main settlement, located at St. Ronan's Bay on the eastern side of the island, is called "Baile Mòr" and is also known locally as "The Village". The primary school, post office, the island's two hotels, the Bishop's House and the ruins of the Nunnery are here. The Abbey and MacLeod Centre are a short walk to the north. Port Bàn (white port) beach on the west side of the island is home to the Iona Beach Party.


title: Iona

text: There are numerous offshore islets and skerries: Eilean Annraidh (island of storm) and Eilean Chalbha (calf island) to the north, Rèidh Eilean and Stac MhicMhurchaidh to the west and Eilean Mùsimul (mouse holm island) and Soa Island to the south are amongst the largest. The steamer "Cathcart Park" carrying a cargo of salt from Runcorn to Wick ran aground on Soa on 15 April 1912, the crew of 11 escaping in two boats.


title: Iona

text: In the early Historic Period Iona lay within the Gaelic kingdom of Dál Riata, in the region controlled by the Cenél Loairn (i.e. Lorn, as it was then). The island was the site of a highly important monastery (see Iona Abbey) during the Early Middle Ages. The monastery was founded in 563 by the monk Columba, also known as Colm Cille, who sailed here from Ireland to live the monastic life. Much later legends (a thousand years later, and without any good evidence) said that he had been exiled from his native Ireland as a result of his involvement in the Battle of Cul Dreimhne. Columba and twelve companions went into exile on Iona and founded a monastery there. The monastery was hugely successful, and may have played a role in the conversion to Christianity of the Picts and Gaels of present-day Scotland in the late 6th century, and was certainly central to the conversion of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria in 635. Many satellite institutions were founded, and Iona became the centre of one of the most important monastic systems in Great Britain and Ireland.


title: Iona

text: Iona became a renowned centre of learning, and its scriptorium produced highly important documents, probably including the original texts of the Iona Chronicle, thought to be the source for the early Irish annals. The monastery is often associated with the distinctive practices and traditions known as Celtic Christianity. In particular, Iona was a major supporter of the "Celtic" system for calculating the date of Easter at the time of the Easter controversy, which pitted supporters of the Celtic system against those favoring the "Roman" system used elsewhere in Western Christianity. The controversy weakened Iona's ties to Northumbria, which adopted the Roman system at the Synod of Whitby in 664, and to Pictland, which followed suit in the early 8th century. Iona itself did not adopt the Roman system until 715, according to the Anglo-Saxon historian Bede. Iona's prominence was further diminished over the next centuries as a result of Viking raids and the rise of other powerful monasteries in the system, such as the Abbey of Kells.


title: Iona

text: The Book of Kells may have been produced or begun on Iona towards the end of the 8th century. Around this time the island's exemplary high crosses were sculpted; these may be the first such crosses to contain the ring around the intersection that became characteristic of the "Celtic cross". The series of Viking raids on Iona began in 794 and, after its treasures had been plundered many times, Columba's relics were removed and divided two ways between Scotland and Ireland in 849 as the monastery was abandoned.


title: Iona

text: As the Norse domination of the west coast of Scotland advanced, Iona became part of the Kingdom of the Isles. The Norse "Rex plurimarum insularum" Amlaíb Cuarán died in 980 or 981 whilst in "religious retirement" on Iona. Nonetheless, the island was sacked twice by his successors, on Christmas night 986 and again in 987. Although Iona was never again important to Ireland, it rose to prominence once more in Scotland following the establishment of the Kingdom of Scotland in the later 9th century; the ruling dynasty of Scotland traced its origin to Iona, and the island thus became an important spiritual centre for the new kingdom, with many of its early kings buried there. However, a campaign by Magnus Barelegs led to the formal acknowledgement of Norwegian control of Argyll, in 1098.


title: Iona

text: Somerled, the brother-in-law of Norway's governor of the region (the "King of the Isles"), launched a revolt, and made the kingdom independent. A convent for Augustinian nuns was established in about 1208, with Bethóc, Somerled's daughter, as first prioress. The present buildings are of the Benedictine abbey, Iona Abbey, from about 1203, dissolved at the Reformation.


title: Iona

text: On Somerled's death, nominal Norwegian overlordship of the Kingdom was re-established, but de facto control was split between Somerled's sons, and his brother-in-law.


title: Iona

text: Following the 1266 Treaty of Perth the Hebrides were transferred from Norwegian to Scottish overlordship. At the end of the century, King John Balliol was challenged for the throne by Robert the Bruce. By this point, Somerled's descendants had split into three groups, the MacRory, MacDougalls, and MacDonalds. The MacDougalls backed Balliol, so when he was defeated by de Bruys, the latter exiled the MacDougalls and transferred their island territories to the MacDonalds; by marrying the heir of the MacRorys, the heir of the MacDonalds re-unified most of Somerled's realm, creating the Lordship of the Isles, under nominal Scottish authority. Iona, which had been a MacDougall territory (together with the rest of Lorn), was given to the Campbells, where it remained for half a century.


title: Iona

text: In 1354, though in exile and without control of his ancestral lands, John, the MacDougall heir, quitclaimed any rights he had over Mull and Iona to the Lord of the Isles (though this had no meaningful effect at the time). When Robert's son, David II, became king, he spent some time in English captivity; following his release, in 1357, he restored MacDougall authority over Lorn. The 1354 quitclaim, which seems to have been an attempt to ensure peace in just such an eventuality, took automatic effect, splitting Mull and Iona from Lorn, and making it subject to the Lordship of the Isles. Iona remained part of the Lordship of the Isles for the next century and a half.


title: Iona

text: Following the 1491 Raid on Ross, the Lordship of the Isles was dismantled, and Scotland gained full control of Iona for the second time. The monastery and nunnery continued to be active until the Reformation, when buildings were demolished and all but three of the 360 carved crosses destroyed. The Augustine nunnery now only survives as a number of 13th century ruins, including a church and cloister. By the 1760s little more of the nunnery remained standing than at present, though it is the most complete remnant of a medieval nunnery in Scotland.


title: Iona

text: In the 19th century green-streaked marble was commercially mined in the south-east of Iona; the quarry and machinery survive, see 'Marble Quarry remains' below.


title: Iona

text: Iona Abbey, now an ecumenical church, is of particular historical and religious interest to pilgrims and visitors alike. It is the most elaborate and best-preserved ecclesiastical building surviving from the Middle Ages in the Western Isles of Scotland. Though modest in scale in comparison to medieval abbeys elsewhere in Western Europe, it has a wealth of fine architectural detail, and monuments of many periods. The 8th Duke of Argyll presented the sacred buildings and sites of the island to the Iona Cathedral trust in 1899. Historic Environment Scotland also recommends visiting the Augustinian nunnery, "the most complete nunnery complex to survive in Scotland". It was founded at the same time as the Abbey; many ruins from the 14th century are visible. The nunnery declined after the Scottish Reformation but was still used as a burial place for women.


title: Iona

text: In front of the Abbey stands the 9th-century St Martin's Cross, one of the best-preserved Celtic crosses in the British Isles, and a replica of the 8th-century St John's Cross (original fragments in the Abbey museum).


title: Iona

text: The ancient burial ground, called the Rèilig Odhrain (Eng: Oran's "burial place" or "cemetery"), contains the 12th-century chapel of St Odhrán (said to be Columba's uncle), restored at the same time as the Abbey itself. It contains a number of medieval grave monuments. The abbey graveyard is said to contain the graves of many early Scottish Kings, as well as Norse kings from Ireland and Norway. Iona became the burial site for the kings of Dál Riata and their successors. Notable burials there include:


title: Iona

text: In 1549 an inventory of 48 Scottish, 8 Norwegian and 4 Irish kings was recorded. None of these graves are now identifiable (their inscriptions were reported to have worn away at the end of the 17th century). Saint Baithin and Saint Failbhe may also be buried on the island. The Abbey graveyard is also the final resting place of John Smith, the former Labour Party leader, who loved Iona. His grave is marked with an epitaph quoting Alexander Pope: "An honest man's the noblest work of God".


title: Iona

text: Limited archaeological investigations commissioned by the National Trust for Scotland found some evidence for ancient burials in 2013. The excavations, conducted in the area of Martyrs Bay, revealed burials from the 6th–8th centuries, probably jumbled up and reburied in the 13–15th centuries.


title: Iona

text: Other early Christian and medieval monuments have been removed for preservation to the cloister arcade of the Abbey, and the Abbey museum (in the medieval infirmary). The ancient buildings of Iona Abbey are now cared for by Historic Environment Scotland (there is an entrance charge to visit them).


title: Iona

text: The remains of a marble quarrying enterprise can be seen in a small bay on the south-east shore of Iona. The quarry is the source of 'Iona Marble', a beautiful translucent green and white stone, much used in brooches and other jewellery. The stone has been known of for centuries and was credited with healing and other powers. While the quarry had been used in a small way, it was not until around the end of the 18th century when it was opened up on a more industrial scale by the Duke of Argyle. The then difficulties of extracting the hard stone and transporting it meant that the scheme was short lived. Another attempt was started in 1907, this time more successful with considerable quantities of stone extracted and indeed exported, but the First World War put paid to this as well, with little quarrying after 1914 and the operation finally closing in 1919. A painting showing the quarry in operation, "The Marble Quarry, Iona" (1909) by David Young Cameron, is in the collection of Cartwright Hall art gallery in Bradford. Such is the site's rarity that it has been designated as a Scheduled Ancient Monument.


title: Iona

text: The island, other than the land owned by the Iona Cathedral Trust, was purchased from the Duke of Argyll by Hugh Fraser in 1979 and donated to the National Trust for Scotland. In 2001 Iona's population was 125 and by the time of the 2011 census this had grown to 177 usual residents. During the same period Scottish island populations as a whole grew by 4% to 103,702. The estimated permanent population in 2020 was 120.


title: Iona

text: The island's tourism bureau estimated that roughly 130,000 visitors arrived each year. Many tourists come to visit the Abbey and other ecclesiastical properties and the marble quarry, or to enjoy the nine beaches that are within walking distance of the main area.


title: Iona

text: Not to be confused with the local island community, Iona (Abbey) Community is based within Iona Abbey.


title: Iona

text: In 1938 George MacLeod founded the Iona Community, an ecumenical Christian community of men and women from different walks of life and different traditions in the Christian church committed to seeking new ways of living the Gospel of Jesus in today's world. This community is a leading force in the present Celtic Christian revival.


title: Iona

text: The Iona Community runs three residential centres on the Isle of Iona and on Mull, where one can live together in community with people of every background from all over the world. Weeks at the centres often follow a programme related to the concerns of the Iona Community.


title: Iona

text: The 8 tonne "Fallen Christ" sculpture by Ronald Rae was permanently situated outside the MacLeod Centre in February 2008.


title: Iona

text: Visitors can reach Iona by the 10-minute ferry trip across the Sound of Iona from Fionnphort on Mull. The most common route from the mainland is via Oban in Argyll and Bute, where regular ferries connect to Craignure on Mull, from where the scenic road runs to Fionnphort. Tourist coaches and local bus services meet the ferries.


title: Iona

text: Car ownership is lightly regulated, with no requirement for a MOT Certificate or payment of Road Tax for cars kept permanently on the island, but vehicular access is restricted to permanent residents and there are few cars. Visitors are not allowed to bring vehicles onto the island although "blue badge holders with restricted mobility ... may apply for a permit under certain exemptions". Visitors will find the village, the shops, the post office, the cafe, the hotels and the abbey are all within walking distance. Bike hire is available at the pier, and on Mull. Taxi service is also available.


title: Iona

text: Conde Nast Traveller recommends the island for its "peaceful atmosphere ... a popular place for spiritual retreats" but also recommends the "sandy beaches, cliffs, rocks, fields and bogs ... "wildflowers and birds such as the rare corncrake and puffins" as well as the "abundance of sea life".


title: Iona

text: The Iona Council advises visitors that they can find a campsite (at Cnoc Oran), a hostel (at Lagandorain), family run bed and breakfasts, and two hotels on the island in addition to several self-catering houses. The agency also mentions that distances are short, with the Abbey a mere 10 minutes’ walk from the pier. Tourists can rent bikes or use the local taxi.


title: Iona

text: The island of Iona has played an important role in Scottish landscape painting, especially during the Twentieth Century. As travel to north and west Scotland became easier from the mid C18 on, artists' visits to the island steadily increased. The Abbey remains in particular became frequently recorded during this early period. Many of the artists are listed and illustrated in the valuable book, Iona Portrayed – The Island through Artists' Eyes 1760–1960, which lists over 170 artists known to have painted on the island.


title: Iona

text: The C20 however saw the greatest period of influence on landscape painting, in particular through the many paintings of the island produced by F C B Cadell and S J Peploe, two of the ‘Scottish Colourists’. As with many artists, both professional and amateur, they were attracted by the unique quality of light, the white sandy beaches, the aquamarine colours of the sea and the landscape of rich greens and rocky outcrops. While Cadell and Peploe are perhaps best known, many major Scottish painters of the C20 worked on Iona and visited many times – for example George Houston, D Y Cameron, James Shearer, John Duncan and John Maclauchlan Milne, among many.


title: Iona

text: Samuel Johnson wrote "That man is little to be envied whose patriotism would not gain force upon the plains of Marathon, or whose piety would not grow warmer amid the ruins of Iona."


title: Iona

text: In Jules Verne's novel "The Green Ray", the heroes visit Iona in chapters 13 to 16. The inspiration is romantic, the ruins of the island are conducive to daydreaming. The young heroine, Helena Campbell, argues that Scotland in general and Iona in particular are the scene of the appearance of goblins and other familiar demons.


title: Iona

text: In Jean Raspail's novel "The Fisherman's Ring" (1995), his cardinal is one of the last to support the antipope Benedict XIII and his successors.


title: Iona

text: In the novel "The Carved Stone" (by Guillaume Prévost), the young Samuel Faulkner is projected in time as he searches for his father and lands on Iona in the year 800, then threatened by the Vikings.


title: Iona

text: "Peace of Iona" is a song written by Mike Scott that appears on the studio album "Universal Hall" and on the live recording "Karma to Burn" by The Waterboys. Iona is the setting for the song "Oran" on the 1997 Steve McDonald album "Stone of Destiny".


title: Iona

text: Kenneth C. Steven published an anthology of poetry entitled "Iona: Poems" in 2000 inspired by his association with the island and the surrounding area.


title: Iona

text: Iona is featured prominently in the first episode ("By the Skin of Our Teeth") of the celebrated arts series "" (1969).


title: Iona

text: The Academy Award–nominated Irish animated film "The Secret of Kells" is about the creation of the Book of Kells. One of the characters, Brother Aidan, is a master illuminator from Iona Abbey who had helped to illustrate the Book, but had to escape the island with it during a Viking invasion.


title: Iona

text: Frances Macdonald the contemporary Scottish artist based in Crinian, Argyll, regularly paints landscapes on Iona.


title: Iona

text: Neil Gaiman's poem "In Relig Odhrain", published in "Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances (2015)", retells the story of Oran's death, and the creation of the chapel on Iona. This poem was made into a short stop-motion animated film, released in 2019.


title: The Man with the Iron Fists

text: The Man with the Iron Fists is a 2012 American martial arts film directed by RZA and written by RZA and Eli Roth. The film stars RZA, Russell Crowe, Cung Le, Lucy Liu, Byron Mann, Rick Yune, Dave Bautista, and Jamie Chung. Set in 19th century China, the story follows a series of lone warriors who are forced to unite to defeat a common foe and save their home of Jungle Village.


title: The Man with the Iron Fists

text: Development began in 2005 when RZA shared his idea for the film with Roth. After nearly two years of development, Roth and RZA secured financial backing in May 2010. Filming began in December 2010 on a $15 million budget and concluded by March 2011. The film was shot in Shanghai and at other locations in China. RZA and Howard Drossin composed the film's musical score, and RZA produced its soundtrack, which featured several new songs by various artists. A series of concerts featuring music from the soundtrack were held to promote the film.


title: The Man with the Iron Fists

text: The film was released in North America on November 2, 2012. Critics were divided over the film's homage to martial arts films, considering it well-choreographed and representative of the genre, but offering nothing original, and the direction was criticized for a lack of refinement. The performances of Crowe and Mann were well received. The film earned $20.5 million at the box office.


title: The Man with the Iron Fists

text: In 19th-century China, Jungle Village is home to several warring clans. The village blacksmith creates deadly weapons for the clans, intending to use his payments to purchase the freedom of his lover Lady Silk, and leave the village. The region's governor tasks the Lion Clan's leader, Gold Lion, with protecting a large shipment of gold that must pass through the village. Gold is betrayed by his lieutenants Silver Lion and Bronze Lion, who plan to steal the gold. They use the chaos ensuing from a fight with the Hyena Clan to allow their co-conspirator Poison Dagger—the governor's aide—to assassinate Gold, after which Silver becomes the Lions' leader. Gold's son Zen-Yi learns of his father's murder and sets off to the village to seek revenge.


title: The Man with the Iron Fists

text: The Qing Emperor's undercover emissary Jack Knife arrives in the village to monitor the gold and takes up residence in the Pink Blossom, a brothel run by Madam Blossom, Lady Silk's madame. Silver sends members of the Rodent clan to kill Zen-Yi before he can reach the village, but Zen-Yi kills them. The mercenary Brass Body arrives in the village and meets with Silver; he is sent to kill Zen-Yi. The blacksmith meets with Silk in the brothel and delivers the final payment needed to free her. After arriving in the village, Zen-Yi and his men are confronted by Brass and find that they cannot physically harm him because his skin turns to metal on impact. Brass beats Zen-Yi and destroys his blade-laden armor. Zen-Yi's last surviving man sacrifices himself to pull a canopy support beam loose, burying Brass under heavy stone. The blacksmith is watching the fight; he rescues Zen-Yi and helps him recover as penance for crafting the weapon that killed Zen-Yi's father.


title: The Man with the Iron Fists

text: Meanwhile, the gold shipment arrives in the village, accompanied by two skilled warriors, the Geminis. The Lions soon confront the Geminis and their men, and in the ensuing fight, Poison Dagger assassinates the Geminis and the Lions capture the gold. Jack later arrives to investigate the incident and learns that the Geminis were poisoned with mercury-tipped weapons, leading him to the blacksmith. The Lions' theft prompts the governor to send his Jackal troops to recover the shipment or destroy the village. Zen-Yi asks the blacksmith to craft him a new suit of weaponized armor. The Lions suspect that the blacksmith is helping Zen-Yi and have him tortured for information. The blacksmith refuses to talk, and Brass cuts off his forearms. Jack, who had been following the blacksmith, saves him from bleeding to death. While the blacksmith recovers, he tells Jack of his past as an emancipated American slave who accidentally killed a white man who refused to let him go. He fled America by boat and went to China, where monks trained him to use his body's energy to perform superhuman feats. Jack with the aid of the blacksmith crafts his greatest weapon: a pair of iron forearms that he can animate using this energy.


title: The Man with the Iron Fists

text: Zen-Yi recovers and joins Jack and the blacksmith. Meanwhile, Blossom offers to let Silver hide the gold in a secret tomb beneath the brothel in return for payment. The gold is stored in a coffin which is raised up to the rafters. That night, Blossom has her girls serve the Lions, and Silk serves Brass. At Blossom's signal, the girls use weapons hidden in their mouths to poison many of the Lions, and they join with Blossom as the Black Widows. When Silk tries to poison Brass, his skin protects him, and he beats and almost kills her. Zen-Yi, Jack, and the blacksmith arrive and join with the Black Widows to fight the remaining Lions while Blossom and Bronze fight and kill each other. While fighting Jack, Poison Dagger is crushed to death between large moving gears. Silver and Zen-Yi fight in the tomb; Zen-Yi cuts the coffin free and it crushes Silver, killing him. The blacksmith finds Silk, who dies in his arms. He confronts Brass, and his iron fists prove capable of inflicting damage on Brass' seemingly invincible body. While Brass is in metal form, a powerful punch from the blacksmith shatters him to pieces. Jack runs outside in time to stop the soldiers from decimating the building with Gatling guns.


title: The Man with the Iron Fists

text: Ultimately, Jack leaves the village to accompany the gold, and Zen-Yi tells the blacksmith that he has gained a brother. With the clans destroyed and the village safe, the blacksmith vows to keep it that way and destroys the sign pointing to his weapon shop. During the credits, Zen-Yi's pregnant fiancée is kidnapped by a bird clan, prompting Zen-Yi to seek the blacksmith's aid.


title: The Man with the Iron Fists

text: The cast also includes Pam Grier as the blacksmith's mother Jane, Osric Chau as Blacksmith's assistant, MC Jin as Zen-Yi's ally Chan, Daniel Wu as Poison Dagger, and Andrew Lin and Grace Huang as The Geminis. Co-writer Eli Roth appears in a cameo. Several veteran martial arts actors—including Chen Kuan-tai as Golden Lion, Bryan Leung as Hyena Chief, Telly Liu as Iron Lion, Xue Jing Yao as Copper Lion, Zhu Zhu as Zen-Yi's fiancée Chi Chi, Terence Yin as the Governor, and Gordon Liu as The Abbot—appeared in the film. Liu's role was written for RZA's Shaolin teacher Shi Yan Ming, but Ming could not obtain permission to return to China for filming.


title: The Man with the Iron Fists

text: Development of the film began in 2003 when RZA produced the soundtrack for Quentin Tarantinos film "Kill Bill". RZA set himself a $50,000 budget and flew to the "Kill Bill" set in Beijing, where he spent approximately thirty days taking notes on the way Tarantino directed the film. In 2005, RZA met Eli Roth in Iceland, and they traveled together to LA. During the journey, RZA told Roth of his idea for a kung fu genre film, which attracted Roth's interest, but no further progress was made. RZA completed the story for the film, but Roth convinced him that he would need a completed screenplay for the project to gain any support. In 2007, after Roth's "" was released, Roth and RZA agreed to seriously pursue the project. The pair took the project to several studios and met with their preferred producer, Edward R. Pressman. One of the studios suggested setting the film in a post-apocalyptic situation, which RZA considered. They took the project to Strike Entertainment, which considered that it needed more development and assigned several writers to rewrite the script, which began to depart from RZA's initial idea.


title: The Man with the Iron Fists

text: RZA continued to work with Strike Entertainment's writers, but Roth, who returned from filming "Inglourious Basterds", was disappointed with the rewritten screenplay and he and RZA spent a year developing and finalizing it. In total, they spent between 18 months and 2 years developing the screenplay in between other projects, and turned RZA's 90-page story into a 130-page screenplay. Citing the specificity of the fictional universe in the "Star Wars" series, Roth said that the pair tried to fully define the aspects of "The Man with the Iron Fists" to make it interesting without fight scenes. Roth said that RZA had "imagined every tribe, every fighting style, every costume". The original script focused on several animal-themed clans fighting over territory, in particular Jungle Village, which acted as a center for shipments. As the script developed, several of the clans were removed, and the focus shifted to commerce and the transportation of government gold, which also introduced the government as a higher power over the clans. RZA and Roth approached fights in the script by introducing a new character, fighting style or weapon to avoid monotony; if a fight did not advance the story, they removed it.


title: The Man with the Iron Fists

text: RZA then financed and directed a short martial arts film called "Wu-Tang vs. the Golden Phoenix" featuring Hong Kong-based, kung-fu-trained actors. When he and Roth pitched "The Man with the Iron Fists" to producers, RZA used the short film to prove that he could handle the martial arts action and be trusted to take on his first directing role. On May 7, 2010, Universal Pictures announced it had agreed to finance and distribute the film, which Roth and Strike Entertainment's Marc Abraham and Eric Newman would produce. The producers gave RZA a $20 million budget.


title: The Man with the Iron Fists

text: During the development process, Tarantino agreed to lend his name to the film with a "presented by" credit. In October 2012, RZA said that he and Tarantino had intended to cross over "The Man with the Iron Fists" with Tarantino's 2012 Western "Django Unchained". The crossover would have included a younger version of RZA's blacksmith character in a slave auction, but scheduling conflicts prevented RZA's participation. "The Man with the Iron Fists" spent 14 weeks in pre-production including four to six weeks on location scouting. RZA insisted that six weeks of pre-production would be sufficient, but Marc Abraham told him to take 14 weeks, for which RZA was later thankful after he reached week 13 and still needed more time. During filming, RZA and Roth discussed the potential for a sequel if the film was successful.


title: The Man with the Iron Fists

text: Principal photography took place over approximately 10 weeks on a $20 million budget. Filming began in China in December 2010 in locations including the city of Shanghai and Hengdian World Studios, and continued until March 2011. Corey Yuen was the film's action choreographer. To compensate for time lost to filming issues, some scenes were filmed in a single take. Approximately 6 weeks into filming, RZA began pushing the crew to work faster to remain on schedule. His assistant director eventually informed RZA that because of the push, some stunt workers were injured and being sent to hospital. After this, RZA abandoned some of his intended shots and replaced them with Computer Generated Images (CGI). Roth also directed some shots for RZA. Crowe and Le were originally scripted to fight each other, but because of Crowe's limited shooting schedule, he did not have the time to rehearse the fight, and instead Le was scripted to fight Liu.


title: The Man with the Iron Fists

text: The first cut of the film was four hours long and RZA suggested splitting it into two films, but Roth disagreed. It was edited to 96 minutes to meet the studio's requirements and to excise graphic content that would cause it to receive a restrictive rating, limiting its audience. RZA abandoned the editing process for two weeks, feeling disgust at having to cut the film. In October 2012, he said that he intended to release a "director's cut" of the film for home viewing, and would reinsert at least 13 minutes of the cut footage. RZA described the film as an homage to the martial art films of the Hong Kong-based Shaw Brothers.


title: The Man with the Iron Fists

text: The film used mostly practical special effects in preference to CGI. An effect in which Yune's character kills six opponents whose airborne blood spray spells out "revenge" in Chinese, was specifically written to use CGI. RZA declined to subtitle the message for English audiences. The action scenes resulted in several injuries, and Bautista suffered raw and bleeding arms from RZA's sandpaper-like prop iron fists during their fight scene.


title: The Man with the Iron Fists

text: RZA launched an 11-date music concert called "The Iron Fists Tour" to promote the film in association with Rock the Bells and Guerilla Union. It featured performances by members of Wu-Tang Clan and other artists. The tour began on October 3, 2012, and visited several North American cities including New York City, Baltimore, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas. An animated short film about the blacksmith's journey to China and his first meeting with Brass Body, which RZA narrated, was released on October 20, 2012, as a prequel to the film. 16 heavily stylized posters, each by a different artist, were placed in outdoor locations in several North American cities and were designed to allow pedestrians to remove and keep them.


title: The Man with the Iron Fists

text: The marketing campaign sponsored the 2012 BET Hip Hop Awards, star Bautista's debut mixed martial arts debut fight at Classic Entertainment and Sports: Real Pain in October 2012, and the release of the video game "Assassin's Creed III". The film premiered in Los Angeles and New York City, and directly targeted minority demographics. RZA promoted the film at the Hispanic-owned Martial Arts History Museum in Burbank, California and an original Spanish-dub viral video was also released. RZA targeted African-American audiences by promoting the film on rapper Snoop Dogg's YouTube channel. An online awareness campaign included partnerships with Machinima Inc., hip-hop news site Global Grind, Ultimate Fighting Championship, IGN and Spotify.


title: The Man with the Iron Fists

text: The film features music from The Black Keys, Kanye West, Wiz Khalifa, My Chemical Romance, John Frusciante and Chinese singer Sally Yeh. RZA also developed new tracks based on excerpts from Wu-Tang Clan master tracks provided by Sony Music, and songs performed by William Bell, Isaac Hayes and Mable John, which Stax Records provided. Composer Howard Drossin wrote the original musical cues for the film.


title: The Man with the Iron Fists

text: RZA had not initially set out to score the film; he inserted temporary tracks of songs he wanted to use. After watching the temporary-track cut of the film, the music was found to be unsuitable, and it was suggested that RZA provide the music. RZA sought Tarantino's help with the score after he helped Tarantino with the score for "Kill Bill". Tarantino also suggested RZA entirely produce the score. RZA and Drossin developed and finalized the score. They then developed the film's soundtrack, which was scheduled for release on October 23, 2012, and features 15 songs from the film including original songs by Kanye West, the Wu-Tang Clan, Talib Kweli, Ghostface Killah, Pusha T, Raekwon, and collaborations by RZA with The Black Keys and Flatbush Zombies. The character Jack Knife, who was influenced by rapper Ol' Dirty Bastard, has a theme tune featuring a jaw harp cue reminiscent of the artist's song "Shimmy Shimmy Ya." The blacksmith is represented by cues from Isaac Hayes' music.


title: The Man with the Iron Fists

text: "The Man with the Iron Fists" premiered on October 25, 2012, at Mann's Chinese 6 theater in Hollywood. David Bautista attended in a yellow spandex suit, which he wore as a tribute to Bruce Lee, who wore a similar outfit in "Game of Death" (1972). The film was released in North America on November 2, 2012.


title: The Man with the Iron Fists

text: "The Man with the Iron Fists" grossed $15.6 million from North America and $4 million from other territories for a worldwide total of $19.7 million, against a $15 million budget. Pre-release tracking in North America for the week before release estimated that the film would attract a mostly male audience and would earn between $7 million and $10 million during its opening weekend. "The Man with the Iron Fists" earned $3 million during its opening day, and during its opening weekend the film earned $7.9 million from 1,868 theaters – an average of $4,235 per theater—finishing fourth behind holdover "Argo" ($10.2 million), and fellow new releases "Flight" ($25 million) and "Wreck-It Ralph" ($49.1 million). The largest demographic of the opening weekend audience was under 30 (53%) and male (64%).


title: The Man with the Iron Fists

text: "The Man with the Iron Fists" received mixed reviews from critics. It has garnered a 51% approval rating from 86 critics—an average rating of 5.1 out of 10—on the review-aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, which said, "Messy kung-fu homage "The Man with the Iron Fists" demonstrates a slavish affection for the genre it mimics, for better or worse." Metacritic provides a score of 51 out of 100 from 19 critics, which indicates "mixed or average" reviews. CinemaScore polls reported that the average grade moviegoers gave the film was "C+" on an A+ to F scale.


title: The Man with the Iron Fists

text: "Variety"s Andrew Barker called the film endearing and engagingly enthusiastic, and said it is "more fun than it ought to be". Barker considered RZA's on-screen role to be too withdrawn to carry the central character role, but praised the supporting performances, especially those of Le's crime lord and Crowe, who Barker said "smirkingly goes for broke to an extent that viewers haven't seen from him since, well ... ever." Barker also praised the film's score, but was critical of the script's uneven tone. "The New York Times"s Manohla Dargis called it an erratically enjoyable product of a deep cinephile passion for the martial arts genre. Dargis praised Crowe's performance and Byron Mann's "gaudy baddie with heavy-metal hair and a psycho grin", but considered RZA's central role a mistake, saying "with his sleepy eyes and an affect so laid-back ... [he] is too recessive a screen presence to make the character pop, much less hold your interest". The A.V. Club's Nathan Rabin credited RZA's conceptualization of the "rich, bloody, dense universe he created down to the most insignificant details", and praised RZA's "powerful inner calm" and Crowe's "defiantly theatrical turn".


title: The Man with the Iron Fists

text: The "Los Angeles Times" Betsy Sharkey called it a martial-arts spectacle that "may just be one of the best bad movies ever." Sharkey said that some uneven performances and lack of refinement were the result of RZA's lack of directing experience, but appreciated the choreography of the "extreme action" and the film's visual aesthetic, which she described as "a blend of French Baroque and ancient China". Sharkey said that the plot "goes seriously off-course" when expanding on the Blacksmith's history. "The Hollywood Reporter"s Todd McCarthy said that the film is "sufficiently well done and amusing enough to satisfy the appetites of fans who mainline this sort of thing," but considered that in directly acting as an homage to the genre, it lacked any stylistic inspiration or imaginative flair to reinvent it. McCarthy however praised the imaginative weapon designs, and the performances of Lucy Liu and Crowe. "The Village Voice"s Nick Pinkerton said "the action scenes are often too cluttered for legibility, and, curious to say of a movie made by a musician, the film has broad swaths without tempo", and added that it has a homemade charm that he found "curiously touching".


title: The Man with the Iron Fists

text: "USA Today"s Scott Bowles was critical of the film, awarding it 1.5 stars out of 4. He said that the film is "heavy on bloody kung fu action...and light on just about everything else", that it "doesn't have enough tension to be taken seriously, or enough laughs to be taken lightly", and called it "slick and hip". Bowles wrote that the film has "beautifully choreographed moments, and the action sequences won't disappoint any fans of slow-motion fistfights and arteries that gush like fire hydrants". Independent film critic Emanuel Levy wrote that Crowe's "commanding performance" and his chemistry with Liu lift the film slightly above the routine. Levy said that the film is an "ultra-violent movie that blends thrilling martial arts sequences, orchestrated and executed by some of the masters of this specific milieu, with a semi-involving tale" that would be appreciated by a young, indiscriminating audience. Leonard Maltin of "IndieWire" said that "RZA's understated performance isn't bad, but his staging of action leaves something to be desired", and that the film imitates earlier kung-fu films, which it fails to improve upon.


title: The Man with the Iron Fists

text: "The Man with the Iron Fists" was released on DVD, Blu-ray and digital download on February 12, 2013, in North America. The DVD and Blu-ray editions contain the theatrical release version of the film, an unrated cut containing approximately twelve minutes of additional footage, deleted scenes and three featurettes: "A Look Inside "The Man with the Iron Fists"", "A Path to the East", and "On the Set with RZA".


title: The Man with the Iron Fists

text: A sequel was announced by RZA in an interview with the title "The Man with the Iron Fists: Sting of the Scorpion" but revealed that he's not directing the sequel, instead Roel Reine will direct the film as RZA, Rick Yune, Zhu Zhu, Andrew Lin and Grace Huang will reprise their roles as the Blacksmith, X-Blade, Chi Chi and The Gemini Twins, joining the cast are Dustin Nguyen, Cary Tagawa, Carl Ng and Simon Yin. The sequel was released on DVD and Blu-ray on April 14, 2015.


title: Welcome to the N.H.K.

text: "Welcome to the N.H.K." was adapted into a manga series, also written by Takimoto, with art by Kendi Oiwa. The manga was serialized between June 2004 and June 2007 in Kadokawa Shoten's manga magazine "Shōnen Ace". The manga's forty chapters have been collected into eight bound volumes released in Japan and overseas. The English edition of the manga is published by Tokyopop, and the first volume was released in October 2006. The novel was also adapted into a 24-episode anime television series by Gonzo which aired in Japan between July and December 2006 on Chiba TV. In North America, the series was licensed for English release by ADV Films, who released it on DVD in 2007. In 2008, the anime became one of over 30 ADV titles acquired by Funimation.


title: Welcome to the N.H.K.

text: In Japan, NHK refers to the Japan Broadcasting Corporation ("Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai") public broadcaster, but within the series the main character believes it stands for , which is a reference to the protagonist's claim of a subversive conspiracy led by NHK (the real-life broadcaster) to create "hikikomori". While it mainly deals with the phenomenon of "hikikomori", the plot also explores many other Japanese subcultures—for example "otaku", "lolicon", and Internet suicide pacts.


title: Welcome to the N.H.K.

text: "Welcome to the N.H.K." revolves around the lives of several young adults all living in or around the city of Tokyo. Many different lifestyles are shown though most of the time the story focuses on the concepts of being a "hikikomori" (a reclusive individual who withdraws from society), anime otaku, and having most of the characters experience intense feelings of depression and loneliness.


title: Welcome to the N.H.K.

text: The main protagonist is Tatsuhiro Satō, a university dropout entering his fourth year of unemployment. He leads a reclusive life as a "hikikomori", ultimately coming to the conclusion that this happened due to some sort of conspiracy. One day just when his life seems entirely unchanging, he meets Misaki Nakahara, a mysterious girl who claims to be able to cure Tatsuhiro of his "hikikomori" ways. She presents him with a contract basically outlining that once a day they would meet in the evening in a local park where Misaki would lecture to Tatsuhiro in an effort to rid him of his lifestyle. During these outings, many subjects are discussed, though they almost always pertain in some way to psychology or psychoanalysis. One of their first meetings in fact deals with interpreting Tatsuhiro's recent dreams. Both Tatsuhiro and Misaki, however, have a tendency of over-doing things, such as hiding the truth, especially from each other and themselves. Despite Misaki's offer and pressing attempts at salvation, it is Tatsuhiro's neighbor and high school friend, Kaoru Yamazaki, whom Tatsuhiro often turns to in moments of need and support. Despite his own idiosyncrasies, Yamazaki is one of the more stable characters in the story.


title: Welcome to the N.H.K.

text: The plots within the novel, manga and anime are each rather different from one another, and many themes and personalities differ between each. The novel also regularly mentions drug use by the main character, and later, his friend, Yamazaki. This element of the story is downplayed in the manga (drugs Satō uses are referred to as "legal psychedelics purchased off the internet"), and left out of the story altogether in the anime (with the exception of Hitomi). This is likely due to several reasons, including a more public-friendly rating, as well as ultimately being unneeded for the progression of the plot. Lolita themes present within the novel and manga have also been downplayed within the anime, where most of the women the characters lust after are of mature age, although brief hints still remain.


title: Welcome to the N.H.K.

text: The of Satō's imagination is supposedly a sinister conspiracy which aims to turn people into "hikikomori" and NEETs. No clear reason why they would do this is offered, although Satō considers the potential of an "army" of displaced individuals, and it is mentioned that "hikikomori" are created for the purpose of giving society someone to look down upon, making themselves feel superior. The majority of the N.H.K.'s work is done through the media, via broadcasting anime and other material that is likely to turn the viewer into an otaku. Throughout the series, many shots of advertising hoardings or movie posters incidentally displayed in other locations bear N.H.K. references.


title: Welcome to the N.H.K.

text: Satō on occasion also believes that the N.H.K. takes a more active role via the use of agents, although of course these agents only appear in dream sequences or flashbacks. Three types of N.H.K. agents are seen: the first are classic Men in Black who appear to have the ability to disguise themselves as anyone else they wish. They occupy key roles in a target's life, ensuring that they fail to develop. The second are cute, or more precisely moé girls who directly break the hearts of targets or who, via celebrity status, induce targets to have impossible or unrealistic expectations of relationships, destroying their ability to develop them in the real world (Satō never considers how, or even if, the N.H.K. would target women). Satō at one point fears that Misaki may be an agent of this type. The final type of agents are bizarre goblin-like creatures who are grey all over but for a letter (usually "N", "H" or "K") written in yellow on their belly. These creatures appear to be the masterminds of the entire N.H.K. conspiracy, but more likely than not they are Satō's mental image of the spreading mindset or circumstances he associates with the N.H.K. In the novel, it is hinted that Tatsuhiro may not actually believe the conspiracy to exist but instead needed an imaginary enemy to vent his frustrations on and to help motivate him into overcoming his hikikomori ways.


title: Welcome to the N.H.K.

text: The real-life public broadcaster NHK, which is the source of the acronym that is parodied by the series, really does provide a support website for real-life "hikikomori". In the manga and novel, a concrete link between the public broadcaster NHK and Satō's Nihon Hikikomori Kyokai is implied; in the anime, although the conspiracy is still named NHK, no such correspondence is drawn and it appears that the NHK does not even exist as a broadcaster in the anime's version of Japan (in the anime, Misaki has never heard of the acronym when Satō says it to her). This may have been because the anime was broadcast on TV channels operated by other Japanese broadcasting companies, thus implying that it related to the real TV company and could have been interpreted as slander against a competitor.


title: Welcome to the N.H.K.

text: is a fictitious magical girl anime of which Kaoru Yamazaki is a fan, featured only in the anime version (in the novel, Yamazaki is a fan of the real-world show "Ojamajo Doremi", which is replaced by "Puru Puru Pururin" in the anime). It is never explicitly stated, but strongly suggested, that Satō believes this series to be controlled by the N.H.K.; in fact, it is after seeing an episode of the series which inspires him to think up the N.H.K. as a concept. The series had a real website, which further suggested this. For example, although it appears to be a children's style of series, the schedule on the website suggested that it is shown almost daily in the small hours of the morning, when children would not be awake, but "hikikomori" frequently are. Although the website listed the names of several real-world broadcast channels which supposedly carry the show, none of them are operated by the real-world NHK, again suggesting that in the anime's version of Japan, the N.H.K. is not a broadcasting company and is a conspiracy spanning all media. The listed broadcast times and channels are in fact the times at which the "Welcome to the N.H.K." anime aired.


title: Welcome to the N.H.K.

text: Only brief excerpts of "Puru Puru Pururin" are ever seen, and it is not possible to guess what powers the main character, Pururin, would have. It appears that Pururin is a good, heroic character and is assisted by a number of animated household objects, including a vacuum cleaner upon which she flies; her trademark is to randomly append the word "Purin" to the end of sentences, similarly to the title character in "Di Gi Charat". The theme song first heard in the first episode is sung by Rumi Shishido. This theme appears in ringtone version throughout the series.