title: Paddy field

text: The fields are tilled when the first rains arrive – traditionally measured at 40 days after Thingyan, the Burmese New Year – around the beginning of June. In modern times, tractors are used, but traditionally, buffalos were employed. The rice plants are planted in nurseries and then transplanted by hand into the prepared fields. The rice is then harvested in late November – "when the rice bends with age". Most of the rice planting and harvesting is done by hand. The rice is then threshed and stored, ready for the mills.


title: Paddy field

text: In Nepal, rice (Nepali: धान, Dhaan) is grown in the Terai and hilly regions. It is mainly grown during the summer monsoon in Nepal.


title: Paddy field

text: Paddy fields are a common sight in the Philippines. Several vast paddy fields exist in the provinces of Ifugao, Nueva Ecija, Isabela, Cagayan, Bulacan, Quezon, and other provinces. Nueva Ecija is considered the main rice growing province of the Philippines and the leading producer of onions in the Municipality of Bongabon in Southeast Asia. It is currently the 9th richest province in the country.


title: Paddy field

text: The Banaue Rice Terraces are an example of paddy fields in the country. They are located in Banaue in Northern Luzon, Philippines and were built by the Ifugaos 2,000 years ago. Streams and springs found in the mountains were tapped and channeled into irrigation canals that run downhill through the rice terraces. Other notable Philippine paddy fields are the Batad Rice Terraces, the Bangaan Rice Terraces, the Mayoyao Rice Terraces and the Hapao Rice Terraces.


title: Paddy field

text: Located at Barangay Batad in Banaue, the Batad Rice Terraces are shaped like an amphitheatre, and can be reached by a 12-kilometer ride from Banaue Hotel and a 2-hour hike uphill through mountain trails. The Bangaan Rice Terraces portray the typical Ifugao community, where the livelihood activities are within the village and its surroundings. The Bangaan Rice Terraces are accessible by a one-hour ride from Poblacion, Banaue, then a 20-minute trek down to the village. It can be viewed best from the road to Mayoyao. The Mayoyao Rice Terraces are located at Mayoyao, 44 kilometers away from Poblacion, Banaue. The town of Mayoyao lies in the midst of these rice terraces. All dikes are tiered with flat stones. The Hapao Rice Terraces are within 55 kilometers from the capital town of Lagawe. Other Ifugao stone-walled rice terraces are located in the municipality of Hungduan.


title: Paddy field

text: Sri Lankan paddy cultivation history dates back to more than 2000 years ago. The historical reports say that Sri Lanka is regarded as the "paddy store of the east" because it produced an excessive quantity of rice. Paddy cultivation can be found all over the island and a considerable amount of land is allocated for it. Both upcountry and low country wetlands use paddy cultivation. The majority of paddy land is in the dry zone, and it uses special irrigation systems for cultivation. The water storing tank called "Wewa" facilitates a supply of water to paddy lands in the cultivation period. Agriculture in Sri Lanka mainly depends on rice production. Sri Lanka sometimes exports rice to its neighboring countries. Around 1.5 million hectares of land are cultivated in Sri Lanka for paddy in 2008/2009 maha: 64% of which is cultivated during the dry season and 35% cultivated during the wet season. Around 879,000 farmer families are engaged in paddy cultivation in Sri Lanka. They make up 20% of the country's population and 32% of the employment.


title: Paddy field

text: Rice production in Thailand represents a significant portion of the Thai economy. It uses over half of the farmable land area and labor force in Thailand.


title: Paddy field

text: Thailand has a strong tradition of rice production. It has the fifth-largest amount of land used for rice cultivation in the world and is the world's largest exporter of rice. Thailand has plans to further increase its land available for rice production, with a goal of adding 500,000 hectares to the 9.2 million hectares of rice-growing areas already cultivated. The Thai Ministry of Agriculture expected rice production to yield around 30 million tons of rice for 2008. The most produced strain of rice in Thailand is jasmine rice, which has a significantly lower yield rate than other types of rice, but also normally fetches more than double the price of other strains in a global market.


title: Paddy field

text: Rice fields in Vietnam ("ruộng" or "cánh đồng" in Vietnamese) are the predominant land use in the valley of the Red River and the Mekong Delta. In the Red River Delta of northern Vietnam, control of seasonal river flooding is achieved by an extensive network of dykes which over the centuries total some 3000 km. In the Mekong Delta of southern Vietnam, there is an interlacing drainage and irrigation canal system that has become the symbol of this area. The canals additionally serve as transportation routes, allowing farmers to bring their produce to market. In Northwestern Vietnam, Thai people built their ""valley culture"" based on the cultivation of glutinous rice planted in upland fields, requiring terracing of the slopes.


title: Paddy field

text: The primary festival related to the agrarian cycle is ""lễ hạ điền"" (literally "descent into the fields") held as the start of the planting season in hope of a bountiful harvest. Traditionally, the event was officiated with much pomp. The monarch carried out the ritual plowing of the first furrow while local dignitaries and farmers followed suit. "Thổ địa" (deities of the earth), "thành hoàng làng" (the village patron spirit), Thần Nông (god of agriculture), and "thần lúa" (god of rice plants) were all venerated with prayers and offerings.


title: Paddy field

text: In colloquial Vietnamese, wealth is frequently associated with the vastness of the individual's land holdings. Paddy fields so large as for "storks to fly with their wings out-stretched" (""đồng lúa thẳng cánh cò bay"") can be heard as a common metaphor. Wind-blown undulating rice plants across a paddy field in literary Vietnamese is termed figuratively "waves of rice plants" (""sóng lúa"").


title: Paddy field

text: Paddy fields are a major source of atmospheric methane, having been estimated to contribute in the range of 50 to 100 million tonnes of the gas per annum. Studies have shown that this can be significantly reduced while also boosting crop yield by draining the paddies to allow the soil to aerate to interrupt methane production. (Studies have also shown the variability in assessment of methane emission using local, regional and global factors and calling for better inventorization based on micro level data.)


title: Intermittent explosive disorder

text: Intermittent explosive disorder (sometimes abbreviated as IED) is a behavioral disorder characterized by explosive outbursts of anger and/or violence, often to the point of rage, that are disproportionate to the situation at hand (e.g., impulsive shouting, screaming or excessive reprimanding triggered by relatively inconsequential events). Impulsive aggression is not premeditated, and is defined by a disproportionate reaction to any provocation, real or perceived. Some individuals have reported affective changes prior to an outburst, such as tension, mood changes, energy changes, etc.


title: Intermittent explosive disorder

text: The disorder is currently categorized in the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders" (DSM-5) under the "Disruptive, Impulse-Control, and Conduct Disorders" category. The disorder itself is not easily characterized and often exhibits comorbidity with other mood disorders, particularly bipolar disorder. Individuals diagnosed with IED report their outbursts as being brief (lasting less than an hour), with a variety of bodily symptoms (sweating, stuttering, chest tightness, twitching, palpitations) reported by a third of one sample. Aggressive acts are frequently reported to be accompanied by a sensation of relief and in some cases pleasure, but often followed by later remorse.


title: Intermittent explosive disorder

text: Impulsive behavior, and especially impulsive violence predisposition, have been correlated to a low brain serotonin turnover rate, indicated by a low concentration of 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA) in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). This substrate appears to act on the suprachiasmatic nucleus in the hypothalamus, which is the target for serotonergic output from the dorsal and median raphe nuclei playing a role in maintaining the circadian rhythm and regulation of blood sugar. A tendency towards low 5-HIAA may be hereditary. A putative hereditary component to low CSF 5-HIAA and concordantly possibly to impulsive violence has been proposed. Other traits that correlate with IED are low vagal tone and increased insulin secretion. A suggested explanation for IED is a polymorphism of the gene for tryptophan hydroxylase, which produces a serotonin precursor; this genotype is found more commonly in individuals with impulsive behavior.


title: Intermittent explosive disorder

text: IED may also be associated with damage or lesions in the prefrontal cortex, with damage to these areas, including the amygdala and hippocampus, increasing the incidences of impulsive and aggressive behavior and the inability to predict the outcomes of an individual's own actions. Lesions in these areas are also associated with improper blood sugar control, leading to decreased brain function in these areas, which are associated with planning and decision making. A national sample in the United States estimated that 16 million Americans may fit the criteria for IED.


title: Intermittent explosive disorder

text: It is important to note that DSM-5 now includes two separate criteria for types of aggressive outbursts (A1 and A2) which have empirical support:


title: Intermittent explosive disorder

text: The past DSM-IV criteria for IED were similar to the current criteria, however, verbal aggression was not considered as part of the diagnostic criteria. The DSM-IV diagnosis was characterized by the occurrence of discrete episodes of failure to resist aggressive impulses that result in violent assault or destruction of property. Additionally, the degree of aggressiveness expressed during an episode should be grossly disproportionate to provocation or precipitating psychosocial stressor, and, as previously stated, diagnosis is made when certain other mental disorders have been ruled out, e.g., a head injury, Alzheimer's disease, etc., or due to substance use or medication. Diagnosis is made using a psychiatric interview to affective and behavioral symptoms to the criteria listed in the DSM-IV.


title: Intermittent explosive disorder

text: The DSM-IV-TR was very specific in its definition of Intermittent Explosive Disorder which was defined, essentially, by the exclusion of other conditions. The diagnosis required:


title: Intermittent explosive disorder

text: Many psychiatric disorders and some substance use disorders are associated with increased aggression and are frequently comorbid with IED, often making differential diagnosis difficult. Individuals with IED are, on average, four times more likely to develop depression or anxiety disorders, and three times more likely to develop substance use disorders.


title: Intermittent explosive disorder

text: Bipolar disorder has been linked to increased agitation and aggressive behavior in some individuals, but for these individuals, aggressiveness is limited to manic and/or depressive episodes, whereas individuals with IED experience aggressive behavior even during periods with a neutral or positive mood.


title: Intermittent explosive disorder

text: In one clinical study, the two disorders co-occurred 60% of the time. Patients report manic-like symptoms occurring just before outbursts and continuing throughout. According to a study, the average onset age of IED was around five years earlier than the onset age of bipolar disorder, indicating a possible correlation between the two.


title: Intermittent explosive disorder

text: Similarly, alcohol and other substance use disorders may exhibit increased aggressiveness, but unless this aggression is experienced outside of periods of acute intoxication and withdrawal, no diagnosis of IED is given. For chronic disorders, such as PTSD, it is important to assess whether the level of aggression met IED criteria before the development of another disorder. In antisocial personality disorder, interpersonal aggression is usually instrumental in nature (i.e., motivated by tangible rewards), whereas IED is more of an impulsive, unpremeditated reaction to situational stress.


title: Intermittent explosive disorder

text: Although there is no cure, treatment is attempted through cognitive behavioral therapy and psychotropic medication regimens, though the pharmaceutical options have shown limited success. Therapy aids in helping the patient recognize the impulses in hopes of achieving a level of awareness and control of the outbursts, along with treating the emotional stress that accompanies these episodes. Multiple drug regimens are frequently indicated for IED patients. Cognitive Relaxation and Coping Skills Therapy (CRCST) has shown preliminary success in both group and individual settings compared to waitlist control groups. This therapy consists of 12 sessions, the first three focusing on relaxation training, then cognitive restructuring, then exposure therapy. The final sessions focus on resisting aggressive impulses and other preventative measures.


title: Intermittent explosive disorder

text: Tricyclic antidepressants and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs, including fluoxetine, fluvoxamine, and sertraline) appear to alleviate some pathopsychological symptoms. GABAergic mood stabilizers and anticonvulsive drugs such as gabapentin, lithium, carbamazepine, and divalproex seem to aid in controlling the incidence of outbursts. Anxiolytics help alleviate tension and may help reduce explosive outbursts by increasing the provocative stimulus tolerance threshold, and are especially indicated in patients with comorbid obsessive-compulsive or other anxiety disorders. However, certain anxiolytics are known to "increase" anger and irritability in some individuals, especially benzodiazepines.


title: Intermittent explosive disorder

text: Two epidemiological studies of community samples approximated the lifetime prevalence of IED to be 4–6%, depending on the criteria set used. A Ukrainian study found comparable rates of lifetime IED (4.2%), suggesting that a lifetime prevalence of IED of 4–6% is not limited to American samples. One-month and one-year point prevalences of IED in these studies were reported as 2.0% and 2.7%, respectively. Extrapolating to the national level, 16.2 million Americans would have IED during their lifetimes and as many as 10.5 million in any year and 6 million in any month.


title: Intermittent explosive disorder

text: Of US subjects with IED, 67.8% had engaged in direct interpersonal aggression, 20.9% in threatened interpersonal aggression, and 11.4% in aggression against objects. Subjects reported engaging in 27.8 high-severity aggressive acts during their worst year, with 2–3 outbursts requiring medical attention. Across the lifespan, the mean value of property damage due to aggressive outbursts was $1603.


title: Intermittent explosive disorder

text: A study in the March 2016 "Journal of Clinical Psychiatry" suggests a relationship between infection with the parasite "Toxoplasma gondii" and psychiatric aggression such as IED.


title: Intermittent explosive disorder

text: In the first edition of the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-I), a disorder of impulsive aggression was referred to as a passive-aggressive personality type (aggressive type). This construct was characterized by a "persistent reaction to frustration are "generally excitable, aggressive, and over-responsive to environmental pressures" with "gross outbursts of rage or of verbal or physical aggressiveness different from their usual behavior".


title: Intermittent explosive disorder

text: In the third edition (DSM-III), this was for the first time codified as intermittent explosive disorder and assigned clinical disorder status under Axis I. However, some researchers saw the criteria as poorly operationalized. About 80% of individuals who would now be diagnosed with the disorder would have been excluded.


title: Intermittent explosive disorder

text: In the DSM-IV, the criteria were improved but still lacked objective criteria for the intensity, frequency, and nature of aggressive acts to meet criteria for IED. This led some researchers to adopt alternate criteria set with which to conduct research, known as the IED-IR (Integrated Research). The severity and frequency of aggressive behavior required for the diagnosis were clearly operationalized, the aggressive acts were required to be impulsive in nature, subjective distress was required to precede the explosive outbursts, and the criteria allowed for comorbid diagnoses with borderline personality disorder and antisocial personality disorder. These research criteria became the basis for the DSM-5 diagnosis.


title: Intermittent explosive disorder

text: In the current version of the DSM (DSM-5), the disorder appears under the "Disruptive, Impulse-Control, and Conduct Disorders" category. In the DSM-IV, physical aggression was required to meet the criteria for the disorder, but these criteria were modified in the DSM-5 to include verbal aggression and non-destructive/noninjurious physical aggression. The listing was also updated to specify frequency criteria. Further, aggressive outbursts are now required to be impulsive in nature and must cause marked distress, impairment, or negative consequences for the individual. Individuals must be at least six years old to receive the diagnosis. The text also clarified the disorder's relationship to other disorders such as ADHD and disruptive mood dysregulation disorder.


title: Swimming (Mac Miller album)

text: Swimming is the fifth studio album by American rapper Mac Miller. It was released on August 3, 2018 by REMember Music and Warner Bros. Records. Production on the album was handled by Miller himself, as well as Jon Brion, Dev Hynes, J. Cole, ID Labs, Dâm-Funk, DJ Dahi, Tae Beast, Flying Lotus, and Cardo, among others. The album has no credited features, but contains vocal contributions from Dâm-Funk, Dev Hynes, Snoop Dogg, Syd, Thundercat, and JID. Miller died on September 7, 2018, making "Swimming" his final album to be released during his lifetime.


title: Swimming (Mac Miller album)

text: "Swimming" was supported by three singles: "Small Worlds", "Self Care", and "What's the Use?". The album received generally positive reviews from critics and debuted at number three on the US "Billboard" 200. It was nominated for Best Rap Album at the 2019 Grammy Awards.


title: Swimming (Mac Miller album)

text: Miller began work on "Swimming" in 2016. He announced the album through social media on July 12, 2018, alongside its release date.


title: Swimming (Mac Miller album)

text: Throughout the album, Miller's break up with pop singer Ariana Grande is a common theme of inspiration, as it gave him the chance to experience self-love, healing and psychological growth, similar to the themes shown in his previous album, "The Divine Feminine" (2016). Lyrically, "The Independent" stated Miller addresses the acknowledgment of his temper ("Wings") and the pitfalls of fame ("Small Worlds").


title: Swimming (Mac Miller album)

text: Concerning the album's music, "Rolling Stone" noted "Swimming" is "a continuation of 2016's "The Divine Feminine", with a silky, deep vibe redolent of the L.A. alternative soul scene". The song "So It Goes" has been said to incorporate "muted guitars and a spacey synth drone", while "Wings" has been described as "a spacious neo soul slow burner punctuated by the occasional sigh of a violin". "NME" wrote that "Ladders" is "a buoyant radio ready bop, which sees his bars skitter across glorious brass lines and earworm riffs". "Jet Fuel" was described as "sluggish, dancehall-inflected trip hop", and "What's the Use" as "synth-funk".


title: Swimming (Mac Miller album)

text: "Swimming" was released worldwide by Warner Bros. Records on August 3, 2018, amongst other high-profiled albums, such as "Astroworld" by Travis Scott and "Stay Dangerous" by YG. Miller performed "Ladders" on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" on August 13, 2018.


title: Swimming (Mac Miller album)

text: Miller announced The Swimming Tour on July 23, 2018, with Thundercat and JID as his opening acts. The tour was scheduled to have 26 shows across North America, beginning in San Francisco on October 27, 2018, and concluding in Vancouver on December 10, 2018. It was cancelled following Miller's death on September 7, 2018.


title: Swimming (Mac Miller album)

text: On May 30, 2018, Miller released the album's first single "Small Worlds", alongside two non-album singles: "Buttons" and "Programs". The album's second single, "Self Care", was released with an accompanying music video on July 13, 2018. The album's third single, "What's the Use?", was released on July 23, 2018.


title: Swimming (Mac Miller album)

text: "Swimming" was met with generally positive reviews. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from professional publications, the album received an average score of 78, based on 13 reviews. Aggregator AnyDecentMusic? gave it 7.5 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus.


title: Swimming (Mac Miller album)

text: Meaghan Garvey of "The Guardian" described "Swimming" as "a patient record in sound and concept" and "an ambling 13-song journey towards self-acceptance, one that does not end in triumph". Colin McGowan of "The A.V. Club" complimented the album's production and vocal delivery: "Miller sounds great when he's whining, croaking, stretching syllables like warm mozzarella. "Swimming"s spare, dreamy production allows him to do a lot of that." Evan Rytlewski of "Pitchfork" concluded: "An album with nothing but time on its hands and an understanding that healing is a slow, tedious process, "Swimming" is most engaging when it details the simple things Miller tells himself to keep his spirits up." Kyle Mullin from "Exclaim!" enjoyed the album, saying, "Whether Miller is singing on those funk-inflected highlights, or rapping on them with a flow that's airtight to their irresistible rhythms, he sounds like a would-be chart-topper, not to mention one of the most versatile and accomplished hip-hop artists working today". For "NME", Hannah Mylrea concluded: ""Swimming" isn't what you would have expected from Miller when he first started dropping mixtapes over a decade ago, but that doesn't matter. This album shows his growth as both an artist, and as a person who's had to deal with the most private aspects of their life being publicly dissected. It's a stellar – if somewhat overlong – artistic statement."


title: Swimming (Mac Miller album)

text: Mosi Reeves of "Rolling Stone" wrote that "Swimming" is Miller's "most impactful album of his career", though noted a lack of lyrical depth: "If he could surface those demons with more vivid details and add texture to his lyrics instead of simply using them as a rhythmic device, then he may have a genuinely classic album in him yet. But if "Swimming" doesn't quite achieve greatness, it connects. You can hear his pain and perseverance, even if he struggles to put it into words." Neil Z. Yeung of AllMusic concluded that ""Swimming" is ample evidence that Miller can pick up the pieces and continue evolving, his grasp on thoughtful, introspective hip-hop getting stronger by the album". Trey Alston of "Highsnobiety" concluded that "Swimming" is "the authentic self-destruction album so many artists have attempted before. Here, Mac is in rare form, chronicling his destruction and rebirth in a way that shows his acknowledgment of the path ahead, but reluctance to step on it without the certainty of companionship at the end. Whether he continues to walk that path is ultimately up to him, but the Mac that's featured on "Swimming" will find his way from the darkness. In the process, he's given us a beautiful means to mark the turn of his narrative".


title: Swimming (Mac Miller album)

text: In Miller's home country of the United States, "Swimming" debuted at number three on the "Billboard" 200 with 66,000 album-equivalent units, which included 30,000 pure album sales in its first week. It serves as Miller's fifth consecutive top-five album in the United States.


title: Swimming (Mac Miller album)

text: Following Miller's death on September 7, 2018, the album rose from number 71 to number six on the "Billboard" 200 with 67,000 album-equivalent units, of which 15,000 were in traditional album sales. Additionally, three tracks from the album entered the US "Billboard" Hot 100: "Self Care" (number 33), "Hurt Feelings" (number 70), and "Come Back to Earth" (number 91). "Self Care" became Miller's highest-charting song as a lead artist and second-highest entry overall, behind Ariana Grande's "The Way" featuring Miller (2013; number 9). On February 24, 2021, "Swimming" was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for combined sales and album-equivalent units of over 1,000,000 units in the United States. It is Miller's first ever album to be certified as platinum.


title: Swimming (Mac Miller album)

text: In Australia, "Swimming" opened at number 21 on the ARIA Albums Chart, becoming Miller's third top-50 album in the country. In Canada, "Swimming" debuted at number four on the Canadian Albums Chart. It serves as Miller's fifth consecutive top-10 album in the country. In the United Kingdom, the album debuted at number 37 on the UK Albums Chart, becoming the rapper's first top-40 album on the chart.


title: Margaret I of Denmark

text: Margaret I (; March 1353 – 28 October 1412) was ruler of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden (which included Finland) from the late 1380s until her death, and the founder of the Kalmar Union that joined the Scandinavian kingdoms together for over a century. She had been Norway's queen consort 1363–1380 and Sweden's 1363–1364, since then titled "Queen". Margaret was known as a wise, energetic and capable leader, who governed with "farsighted tact and caution," earning the nickname "Semiramis of the North". She was derisively called "King Breechless", one of several derogatory nicknames invented by her rival Albert of Mecklenburg, but was also known by her subjects as "Lady King", which became widely used in recognition of her capabilities. Knut Gjerset calls her "the first great ruling queen in European history."


title: Margaret I of Denmark

text: The youngest daughter of King Valdemar IV of Denmark, Margaret was born at Søborg Castle. She was a practical, patient administrator and diplomat, albeit one of high aspirations and a strong will, who intended to unite Scandinavia forever into one single entity with the strength to resist and compete against the might of the Hanseatic League.


title: Margaret I of Denmark

text: With her husband, King Haakon VI of Norway, Margaret had a son, King Olaf II of Denmark, who died before her. She was ultimately succeeded by a grandnephew, Eric of Pomerania. Although Eric came of age in 1401, Margaret continued for the remaining 11 years of her life to be sole ruler in all but name. Her regency marked the beginning of a Dano-Norwegian union which was to last for more than four centuries.


title: Margaret I of Denmark

text: Some Norwegian and Swedish historians have criticized Margaret for favouring Denmark and being too autocratic, though she is generally thought to have been highly regarded in Norway and respected in Denmark and Sweden. She was painted in a negative light in contemporary religious chronicles, as she had no qualms suppressing the Church to promote royal power. Margaret is known in Denmark as "Margrethe I" to distinguish her from the current queen, who chose to be known as Margrethe II in recognition of her predecessor.


title: Margaret I of Denmark

text: Margaret was born in March 1353 as the sixth and youngest child of King Valdemar IV and Helvig of Schleswig. She was born in the prison of Søborg Castle, where her father had already confined her mother. She was baptised in Roskilde and in 1359, at the age of six, engaged to the 18-year-old King Haakon VI of Norway, the youngest son of the Swedish-Norwegian king Magnus IV & VII. As part of the marriage contract it is presumed that a treaty was signed ensuring Magnus the assistance of King Valdemar in a dispute with his second son, Eric "XII" of Sweden, who in 1356 held dominion over Southern Sweden. Margaret's marriage was thus a part of the Nordic power struggle. There was dissatisfaction with this in some circles, and the political activist Bridget of Sweden described the agreement in a letter to the Pope as "children playing with dolls". The goal of the marriage for King Valdemar was regaining Scania, which since 1332 had been mortgaged to Sweden. Per contemporary sources, the marriage contract contained an agreement to give Helsingborg Castle back to Denmark, but that was not enough for Valdemar, who in June 1359 took a large army across Øresund and soon occupied Scania. The attack was ostensibly to support Magnus against Erik, but in June 1359, Erik died. As a result, the balance of power changed, and all agreements between Magnus and Valdemar were terminated, including the marriage contract between Margaret and Haakon.


title: Margaret I of Denmark

text: This did not result in the withdrawal of Valdemar from Scania; he instead continued his conquests on the island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea. Visby, which was populated by Germans, was the main town on the island and was the key to domination of the Baltic Sea. On 27 July 1361 a battle was fought between a well-equipped Danish army and an array of local Gotland peasants. The Danes won the battle and took Visby, while the Germans did not take part. King Magnus and the Hanseatic League could not disregard this provocation, and a trade embargo against Denmark was immediately enacted, with agreement about necessary military action. At the same time, negotiations opened between King Magnus and Henry of Holstein about a marriage between Haakon and the latter's sister Elizabeth. On 17 December 1362, a ship left with Elizabeth bound for Sweden. A storm, however, diverted her to the Danish island Bornholm, where the archbishop of Lund declared the wedding a violation of church law because Haakon had already been engaged to Margaret. The Swedish and Hanseatic armies also ultimately withdrew from their siege of Helsingborg. Following this, a truce was concluded with the Hanseatic States and King Magnus abandoning the war, meaning the marriage of the now 10-year-old Margaret and King Haakon was again relevant. The wedding was held in Copenhagen on 9 April 1363.


title: Margaret I of Denmark

text: The marriage of Haakon and Margaret was an alliance, and Margaret likely remained in Denmark for some time after the wedding, but ultimately was taken to Akershus in Oslo Fjord where she was raised by Merete Ulvsdatter. Merete Ulvsdatter was a distinguished noblewoman and daughter of Bridget of Sweden, as well as the wife of Knut Algotsson, who was one of King Magnus's faithful followers. Margaret was brought up with Merete Ulvsdatter's daughter Ingegerd, who likely instructed her in matters of religion and monarchy. Merete's daughters, Ingegerd and Catherine, became her closest female friends, with Margaret later showing favoritism to Ingegerd, who became an abbess, as well as her monastery. It is also likely, though, that her promotion of the Bridgettines was also out of piety and political interest to help the process of integration. Her academic studies were probably limited, but it is assumed that in addition to reading and writing she also was instructed in statecraft. She displayed an early talent for ruling and appears to have held real power.


title: Margaret I of Denmark

text: In the years after Margaret's wedding Scandinavia saw a series of major political upheavals. A few months after her wedding, her only brother, Christopher, Duke of Lolland, died, leaving her father without an obvious male heir. In 1364 the Swedish nobles deposed Magnus and Margaret's husband King Haakon from the Swedish throne and elected Albert of Mecklenburg as king of Sweden.


title: Margaret I of Denmark

text: Her first act after her father's death in 1375 was to procure the election of her infant son Olaf as king of Denmark, despite the claims of her elder sister Ingeborg's husband Duke Henry III of Mecklenburg and their son Albert. Margaret insisted that Olaf be proclaimed rightful heir of Sweden, among his other titles. He was too young to rule in his own right, and Margaret proved herself a competent and shrewd ruler in the years that followed. On the death of Haakon in 1380, Olaf succeeded him as King of Norway. Olaf died suddenly in 1387, aged 17, and Margaret, who had ruled both kingdoms in his name, was chosen Regent of Norway and Denmark in the following year. She had already proven her keen statesmanship by recovering possession of Schleswig from the Holstein-Rendsburg Counts. The Counts had held it for more than a generation and received it back as a fief by the Compact of Nyborg in 1386, but under such stringent conditions that the Danish Crown received all the advantages of the arrangement. By this compact, the often rebellious Jutish nobility lost the support they had previously enjoyed in Schleswig and Holstein. Margaret, free from fear of domestic sedition, could now give her undivided attention to Sweden, where mutinous nobles, led by Birger (son of Bridget and brother of Martha), were already in arms against their unpopular King Albert. Several of the powerful nobles wrote to Margaret that if she would help rid Sweden of Albert, she would become their regent. She quickly gathered an army and invaded Sweden.


title: Margaret I of Denmark

text: At a conference held at Dalaborg Castle in March 1388, the Swedes were compelled to accept all of Margaret's conditions, elected her "Sovereign Lady and Ruler", and committed themselves to accept any king she chose to appoint. Albert, who had called her "King Pantsless" returned from Mecklenburg with an army of mercenaries. On 24 February 1389, the decisive battle took place at either Aasle or Falan near Falköping. General , the Mecklenburger commander of Margaret's forces, was killed in battle, but he managed to win it for her. Margaret was now the omnipotent mistress of three kingdoms.


title: Margaret I of Denmark

text: Stockholm, then almost entirely a German city, still held out. Fear of Margaret induced both the Mecklenburg princes and the Wendish towns to hasten to its assistance; and the Baltic and the North Sea speedily swarmed with the privateers of the Victual Brothers. The Hanseatic League intervened, and under the Compact of Lindholm (1395), Margaret released Albert on his promise to pay 60,000 marks within three years. Meanwhile, the Hansa were to hold Stockholm as surety. Albert failed to pay his ransom within the stipulated time, and the Hansa surrendered Stockholm to Margaret in September 1398 in exchange for commercial privileges.


title: Margaret I of Denmark

text: It had been understood that Margaret should, at the first convenient opportunity, provide the three kingdoms with a king who was to be a kinsman of all the three old dynasties, although in Norway it was specified that she would continue ruling alongside the new king, while in Sweden, the nobles assured Margaret that they were content to do without a king throughout her lifetime, which they hoped would be long. In 1389 she proclaimed her great-nephew, Bogislav, who changed his name to Eric of Pomerania (grandson of Henry of Mecklenburg), king of Norway, having adopted him and his sister Catherine. In 1396, homage was rendered to him in Denmark and Sweden, while Margaret once again assumed the regency during his minority.


title: Margaret I of Denmark

text: On 20 July, Margaret capitalized on the general rejoicing by publishing the famous Treaty of Kalmar, "a masterly document that sealed the union of Norway, Sweden and Denmark". The date she chose was no coincidence - it was the Feast Day of St. Margaret of Antioch, who like the Lady King herself, was cast off by her father and thrown into prison. The Treaty proposed “everlasting union”, which reflected her dearest ambition, that “all three realms should exist together in harmony and love, and whatever befalleth one, war and rumors of war, or the onslaught of foreigners, that shall be for all three, and each kingdom shall help the others in all fealty ...and hereafter the Nordic realms shall have one king, and not several".


title: Margaret I of Denmark

text: Well aware of regional pride and prejudice, Margaret played a careful strategy, assuring her subjects that each state would be governed according to the laws and customs of each, no new laws would be introduced without the consent of the subjects, officials from governors to soldiers would be recruited from the native populations, thus showing her subjects that they would enjoy every benefit of union without any threat to national identity. To weld the united kingdoms still more closely together, Margaret summoned a congress of the three Councils of the Realm to Kalmar in June 1397, and on Trinity Sunday, 17 June, Eric was crowned king of Denmark, Norway and Sweden. The Act of Union resulting from this was never completed. Scholars continue to debate the reasons, but the Union existed "de facto" through the early 16th century reign of King Christian II, and the union of Denmark and Norway continued until 1814.


title: Margaret I of Denmark

text: A few years after the Kalmar Union, the 18-year-old Eric was declared of age and homage was rendered to him in all his three kingdoms, although Margaret was the effective ruler of Scandinavia throughout her lifetime.


title: Margaret I of Denmark

text: So long as the union was insecure, Margaret had tolerated the presence of the Riksråd, but their influence was minor and the Royal authority remained supreme. The offices of High Constable and Earl Marshal were left vacant; the Danehof fell into ruin, and "the great Queen, an ideal despot", ruled through her court officials, who served as a superior kind of clerk. In any event, law and order were well maintained and the licence of the nobility was sternly repressed. The kingdoms of Sweden and Norway were treated as integral parts of the Danish State, and national aspirations were frowned upon or checked, though Norway, being more loyal, was treated more indulgently than Sweden.


title: Margaret I of Denmark

text: In 1396, according to Grethe Jacobsen, she issued an ordinance that one should to a higher degree than hitherto respect and enforce peace towards church ("pax dei"), houses, farms, legal assemblies, workers in the fields – and women, expressed in the word “kvindefred”. Jacobsen believes that as punishment for rape was normally not associated with the other forms for upholding peace in the tradition of pax dei, this may be an expression of Margrete's perception of women as being particularly vulnerable in times of unrest, and for her own interpretation of the ruler as protector of "personae miserabiles", which included maidens and widows. Another testament was her dispositions of 1411 through which she distributed the sum of 500 marcs among the women who had been ‘violated and debased’ during the wars between Sweden and Denmark 1388–1389.


title: Margaret I of Denmark

text: Margaret recovered for the Crown all the landed property that had been alienated in the troubled times before the reign of Valdemar IV. This so-called "reduktion", or land-recovery, was carried out with the utmost rigour, and hundreds of estates fell into the hands of the crown. She also reformed the Danish currency, substituting good silver coins for the old and worthless copper tokens, to the great advantage both of herself and of the state. She always had large sums of money at her disposal, and much of it was given to charity.


title: Margaret I of Denmark

text: According to Thomas Kingston Derry, Margaret tried to provide the union with a sound economic basis. In the process, each of her measures (recovery of crown lands from nobility and the church, new taxes and new coins) hurt the interests of powerful classes, but she prevented them from having leadership by making little use of separate councils of her three kingdoms, relying on a body of civil and ecclesiastical officials she chose with great skills instead. She placed Danes in Swedish and Norwegian bishoprics, while royal estates and castles were managed by castellans and bailiffs of foreign extraction. While this has been criticized as promoting Danes at the expense of Swedish and Norwegian people, Derry opines that considering she employed more Germans in her native Denmark than elsewhere, she was mainly interested in securing a loyal and efficient administration.


title: Margaret I of Denmark

text: She travelled much, in her later years is said to have spent more time in Sweden than in Denmark. She encouraged intermarriages among the nobility of three realms. Her piety is well-known, and she gave strong backing to the canonisation of St.Brigitta, helped to make Vadstena into a strong cultural centre and encouraged the spread of "Brigittine language", which led to many Swedish expressions coming into use among Danes and Norwegians.


title: Margaret I of Denmark

text: In contrast with the foreign policy of her venturesome father, Margaret's was circumspect and unswervingly neutral in the bloody war between France and England as well as other European conflicts. However, she spared no pains to recover lost Danish territory. She purchased the island of Gotland from its actual possessors, Albert of Mecklenburg and the Livonian Order, and the greater part of Schleswig was regained in the same way.


title: Margaret I of Denmark

text: In 1402 Margaret entered into negotiations with King Henry IV of England about the possibility of a double-wedding alliance between England and the Nordic Union. The proposal was for King Eric to marry Henry's daughter Philippa, and for Henry's son, the Prince of Wales and future Henry V of England, to marry Eric's sister Catherine. According to Marc Shell, Margaret's vision was that one day, two unions would unite to recreate Cnut the Great's Empire of the North. The English side wanted these weddings to seal an offensive alliance that could have led the Nordic kingdoms to become involved in the Hundred Years' War against France. Margaret followed a consistent policy of not becoming involved in binding alliances and foreign wars, and therefore rejected the English proposals. However, although there was no double wedding, Eric married the 13-year-old Philippa, daughter of Henry IV of England and Mary de Bohun, at Lund on 26 October 1406, sealing a purely defensive alliance. For Eric's sister Catherine, a wedding was arranged with John, Count Palatine of Neumarkt. Margaret thus acquired a South German ally, who could be useful as a counterweight to the North German Princes and cities.


title: Margaret I of Denmark

text: In 1412, Margaret tried to recover Schleswig, and thus entered a war with Holstein. Before that she had managed the recovery of Finland and Gotland. While winning the war, Margaret died suddenly on board her ship in Flensburg Harbor.


title: Margaret I of Denmark

text: In October 1412, she set sail from Seeland in her ship. She attended several debates, which reportedly had brought matters to a state of promising forwardness. On retiring to her vessel though, with the intention of leaving the port, "she was seized with sudden and violent illness." Margaret apparently foresaw the end of her life, as she ordered thirty seven marks to be paid to the nearby monastery of Campen for a perpetual mass for her soul. Beyond this, there is no discussion in the historical record regarding her demise. She died on the night of 28 October 1412, the vigil of St. Simon and St. Jude. Possible scenarios that have been suggested include plague, shock from the death of Abraham Brodersson (whom 18th century authors have alleged was the father of a daughter Margareta had, while 19th century authors have blamed the story on a mistranslation), or poisoning by Eric.


title: Margaret I of Denmark

text: Her sarcophagus, made by the Lübeck sculptor Johannes Junge in 1423, is situated behind the high altar in the Roskilde Cathedral, near Copenhagen. She had left property to the cathedral on the condition that Masses for her soul would be said regularly in the future. This was discontinued in 1536 during the Protestant Reformation, though a special bell is still rung twice daily in commemoration.


title: Margaret I of Denmark

text: She has been described as a beautiful woman with dark hair, dark eyes, an intimidating gaze and the aura of absolute authority. She was highly energetic well into her old age, autocratic and indomitable, at the same time also described as wise, just, tactful and kind. Hudson Strode writes "Margaret, who, like St. Bridget, possessed the masculine quality of indomitability, was undoubtedly the strongest. No male public official ever worked harder at his job. She used her constructive ability, her diplomacy, and her force of will to make the Union a success and to maintain the royal prerogative."


title: Margaret I of Denmark

text: In Denmark Margaret was called "sovereign lady and lord and guardian of the entire kingdom of Denmark" (Norway and Sweden later bestowed on her similar titles). This special, double-gendered title bestowed upon the holder the power and authority of a man (lord), of a woman (sovereign lady) and of the gender-neutral guardian. Later, when Erik was elected King of Norway in 1392, she renounced this title in Norway, and in 1396, when he was crowned as King of Denmark and Sweden, she stopped the use of this title altogether, although she continued as Regent.


title: Margaret I of Denmark

text: She only styled herself Queen of Denmark in 1375, usually referring to herself as "Margaret, by the grace of God, daughter of Valdemar King of Denmark" and "Denmark's rightful heir" when referring to her position in Denmark. Her title in Denmark was derived from her father King Valdemar IV of Denmark. Others simply referred to her as the "Lady Queen", without specifying what she was queen of, but not so Pope Boniface IX, who in his letters styled her "our beloved daughter in Christ, Margaret, most excellent queen of Denmark, Sweden and Norway". (""Carissime in Christo filie Margarete Dacie Suecie et Norwegie regine illustri"".)


title: Margaret I of Denmark

text: When she married Haakon VI of Norway in 1363, he was co-King of Sweden, making Margaret queen consort, and despite being deposed, they never relinquished the title. In theory, the Swedes' expulsion of Albert I in 1389 simply restored Margaret to her original position. From 24 February 1389 to 28 October 1412, she was Queen of Denmark, Norway and Sweden and founder of the Kalmar Union, which united the Scandinavian countries for over a century. She acted as queen regnant of Denmark, although in those days it was not the Danish custom for a woman to reign.


title: Margaret I of Denmark

text: E.C. Otte writes in 1874, that "[i]f Margaret could have been certain of being followed on the throne by rulers as able and just as she had been, this Act of the Union of Calmar might have worked for the good of the three kingdoms. For it was quite true, as the Queen said, that each one alone was a poor weak state, open to danger from every side, but that the three united would make a monarchy, strong enough to defy the attacks and schemes of the Hanse traders and all foes from the side of Germany, and would keep the Baltic clear of danger from foreigners. However no ruler came after Queen Margaret equal to her, as there had been none before her to be compared to her."


title: Margaret I of Denmark

text: According to Imsen, her political genius has never been contested, but her motives have always been the target of much debate. During the first half of the nineteenth century, she was usually depicted as an idealist who fought to counterbalance the German influence. After the defeat of Denmark by the Prussians in 1864, image of Margaret the nationalist prevailed. In recent times, she has been increasingly regarded as a Machiavellist who primarily fought for her power and dynastic interests.


title: Margaret I of Denmark

text: In "The Middle Ages: Dictionary of World Biography", Volume 2, McFadden opines that "Margaret 's achievement at a time when all Scandinavia was being threatened by German cultural and economic domination was to unite the kingdoms and not only hold back the Germans but also regain lands lost to the south. At the time of her death, the Scandinavian Union was by far the most powerful force in the Baltic; it was also the second largest accumulation of European territory under a single sovereign."


title: Shaedon Sharpe

text: Shaedon Sharpe (born May 30, 2003) is a Canadian professional basketball player for the Portland Trail Blazers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was a consensus five-star recruit and considered one of the top players in his class at Dream City Christian School in Glendale, Arizona. Sharpe signed with Kentucky but did not play a college game before leaving for the NBA. He was selected seventh overall in the 2022 NBA draft.


title: Shaedon Sharpe

text: Sharpe played basketball for H. B. Beal Secondary School in his hometown of London, Ontario and led his team to an Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations AAA appearance. He moved to Sunrise Christian Academy in Bel Aire, Kansas, where he had a limited production as a sophomore. For his junior season, Sharpe transferred to Dream City Christian School in Glendale, Arizona and assumed a leading role. He averaged 21.4 points and six rebounds per game in the Grind Session. He competed for UPLAY Canada on the Amateur Athletic Union circuit, with whom he was mentored by Dwayne Washington.


title: Shaedon Sharpe

text: Sharpe was a consensus five-star recruit and was ranked as the third-best player in the 2021 class by 247Sports and Rivals. He was previously the number one player in the 2022 class before reclassifying. Sharpe was unranked by major recruiting services early in his high school career and became one of the top players in his class in about one year, in part due to his success at the Nike Elite Youth Basketball League in 2021. On September 7, 2021, he committed to playing college basketball for Kentucky over offers from Arizona, Kansas, Oklahoma State and the NBA G League Ignite. He was the first number one recruit to commit to the program since Nerlens Noel in 2012.


title: Shaedon Sharpe

text: Sharpe graduated early from high school with the intention of redshirting his first year at Kentucky and playing in the 2022–23 season. On February 7, 2022, head coach John Calipari announced that Sharpe would not play for the team in the 2021–22 season after speculation that he would play and enter the 2022 NBA draft, for which he was eligible. On April 21, Sharpe declared for the 2022 draft, forgoing his remaining college eligibility without playing a game.


title: Shaedon Sharpe

text: Sharpe was selected with the seventh overall pick in the 2022 NBA draft by the Portland Trail Blazers. On July 1, 2022, he signed his rookie scale contract with the Trail Blazers. On July 8, in his NBA Summer League debut, Sharpe suffered a shoulder injury after under six minutes of play. An MRI later revealed a small labral tear in his left shoulder, and Sharpe was unable to play for the rest of the Summer League. On October 19, he made his NBA debut, scoring 12 points in a 115–108 win over the Sacramento Kings.


title: Shaedon Sharpe

text: Sharpe represented Canada at the 2019 FIBA Under-16 Americas Championship in Brazil. He averaged 13 points, 3.7 rebounds, and 2.3 assists, helping his team win the silver medal.


title: Serum (blood)

text: Serum () is the fluid and solute component of blood which does not play a role in clotting. It may be defined as blood plasma without the clotting factors, or as blood with all cells and clotting factors removed. Serum includes all proteins not used in blood clotting; all electrolytes, antibodies, antigens, hormones; and any exogenous substances (e.g., drugs or microorganisms). Serum does not contain white blood cells (leukocytes), red blood cells (erythrocytes), platelets, or clotting factors.


title: Serum (blood)

text: The study of serum is serology. Serum is used in numerous diagnostic tests as well as blood typing. Measuring the concentration of various molecules can be useful for many applications, such as determining the therapeutic index of a drug candidate in a clinical trial.


title: Serum (blood)

text: To obtain serum, a blood sample is allowed to clot (coagulation). The sample is then centrifuged to remove the clot and blood cells, and the resulting liquid supernatant is serum.


title: Serum (blood)

text: The serum of convalescent patients successfully recovering (or already recovered) from an infectious disease can be used as a biopharmaceutical in the treatment of other people with that disease, because the antibodies generated by the successful recovery are potent fighters of the pathogen. Such "convalescent serum" (antiserum) is a form of immunotherapy.


title: Serum (blood)

text: Serum is also used in protein electrophoresis, due to the lack of fibrinogen which can cause false results.


title: Serum (blood)

text: Fetal bovine serum (FBS) is rich in growth factors and is frequently added to growth media used for eukaryotic cell culture. A combination of FBS and the cytokine leukemia inhibitory factor was originally used to maintain embryonic stem cells, but concerns about batch-to-batch variations in FBS have led to the development of serum substitutes.


title: Serum (blood)

text: Blood serum and plasma are some of the largest sources of biomarkers, whether for diagnostics or therapeutics. Its vast dynamic range, further complicated by the presence of lipids, salts, and post-translational modifications, as well multiple mechanisms of degradation, presents challenges in analytical reproducibility, sensitivity, resolution, and potential efficacy. For analysis of biomarkers in blood serum samples, it is possible to do a pre-separation by free-flow electrophoresis that usually consists of a depletion of serum albumin protein. This method enables greater penetration of the proteome via separation of a wide variety of charged or chargeable analytes, ranging from small molecules to cells.


title: Serum (blood)

text: Like many other mass nouns, the word "serum" can be pluralized when used in certain senses. To speak of multiple serum specimens from multiple people (each with a unique population of antibodies), physicians sometimes speak of sera (the Latin plural, as opposed to "serums"). Etymologically serum is derived from the Proto-Indo-European *ser- (“to flow, run”).


title: Mel Smith

text: Melvyn Kenneth Smith (3 December 1952 – 19 July 2013) was an English comedian, actor and director. Smith worked on the sketch comedy shows "Not the Nine O'Clock News" and "Alas Smith and Jones" with his comedy partner, Griff Rhys Jones. Smith and Jones founded Talkback, which grew to be one of the United Kingdom's largest producers of television comedy and light entertainment programming.


title: Mel Smith

text: Smith's father, Kenneth, was born in Tow Law, County Durham, and worked at a coal mine during the Second World War; looking after the pit ponies. After the war ended, he moved to London and married Smith's mother, whose parents owned a greengrocers in Chiswick. When the government legalised high street betting with the Betting and Gaming Act 1960, he turned the shop into the first betting shop in Chiswick.


title: Mel Smith

text: Smith was born and brought up in Chiswick. He was educated at Hogarth Primary School, Chiswick, and at Latymer Upper School, an independent school in Hammersmith. He studied Experimental Psychology at New College, Oxford.


title: Mel Smith

text: Whilst at Oxford University, Smith produced "The Tempest", and performed at the Edinburgh Fringe with the Oxford University Dramatic Society. One year they shared a venue with the Cambridge Footlights, directed by John Lloyd. His extra-curricular activities while at university led to his joining the Royal Court Theatre production team in London, and then Bristol Old Vic. He was also associate director of Sheffield's Crucible Theatre for two years. Later, he directed a theatre production of "Not in Front of the Audience".


title: Mel Smith

text: John Lloyd later gained the opportunity to develop the idea that became the satirical BBC television series "Not the Nine O'Clock News". This was followed briefly by "Smith and Goody" (with Bob Goody) and then the comedy sketch series "Alas Smith and Jones", co-starring Griff Rhys Jones, its title being a pun on the name of the American television series "Alias Smith and Jones". In 1982, he starred as the lead role in ITV drama "Muck and Brass "where he played Tom Craig, a ruthless property developer. In 1984, he appeared in the "Minder" episode "A Star Is Gorn" playing the character Cyril Ash, a record producer. He also guest-starred on "The Goodies" episode "Animals". At the end of the 1980s, he played the title role in the sitcom "Colin's Sandwich" (1988–90), playing a British Rail employee with aspirations to be a writer.


title: Mel Smith

text: In 1981, Smith and Griff Rhys Jones founded TalkBack Productions, a company that produced many of the most significant British comedy shows of the following decades, including "Smack the Pony", "Da Ali G Show", "I'm Alan Partridge" and "Big Train". In 2000, the company was sold to Pearson for £62 million. Dressed as bobbies, Smith and Jones introduced Queen on stage at Live Aid in July 1985, with Smith removing his helmet before shouting into the microphone, "her majesty, Queen!"


title: Mel Smith

text: Smith co-wrote and took the lead role in the space comedy "Morons from Outer Space" (1985), but the film failed to make much impact. His next cinema effort was better received as director of "The Tall Guy" (1989), giving Emma Thompson a major screen role. Perhaps his best-known film in America is "Brain Donors", the 1992 update of the Marx Brothers film "A Night at the Opera", starring Smith as a cheeky, opportunistic cab driver turned ballet promoter. Paramount Pictures considered this film the outstanding comedy of the year, but when the producers left Paramount for another studio, Paramount withdrew its support for the film.


title: Mel Smith

text: In 1987, Smith recorded a single with Kim Wilde for Comic Relief: a cover of the Christmas song "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" with some additional comedy lines written by Smith and Jones. The pairing of Smith and Wilde was a comic allusion to the duo Mel and Kim. The song reached number three in the UK charts. The same year he appeared in "The Princess Bride" as the Albino.


title: Mel Smith

text: Smith and Jones were reunited in 2005 for a review/revival of their earlier television series in "The Smith And Jones Sketchbook". Smith joked: "Obviously, Griff's got more money than me so he came to work in a Rolls Royce and I came on a bicycle. But it was great fun to do and we are firmly committed to doing something new together, because you don't chuck that sort of chemistry away. Of course, I'll have to pretend I like "Restoration"."


title: Mel Smith

text: In August 2006, Smith returned to the theatre stage after some 20 years, appearing at the Edinburgh Fringe festival in "Allegiance", Irish journalist and author Mary Kenny's play about Churchill's encounter with the Irish nationalist leader Michael Collins in 1921. The play initially caused some controversy, with Smith proposing to flout the Scottish ban on smoking in public places, but the scene was quickly adapted after gaining the required amount of publicity. The play was directed by Brian Gilbert and produced by Daniel Jewel. In 2006, he also appeared in Hustle as Benjamin Frasier, a pub landlord who was scammed by the Hustle team when his on-screen son Joey tried to launch a rap career.


title: Mel Smith

text: In autumn 2006, Smith starred opposite Belinda Lang in a tour of a new comedy "An Hour and a Half Late" by French playwright Gérald Sibleyras, which was adapted by Smith. He then directed a West End revival of "Charley's Aunt" starring Stephen Tompkinson. From October 2007 to January 2008, he played the role of Wilbur Turnblad in the London production of "Hairspray" at the Shaftesbury Theatre.


title: Mel Smith

text: Smith was married to Pamela (née Gay-Rees), a former model, who grew up in Easington and Durham. The couple had houses in St John's Wood, London, and the hamlet of Great Haseley, Oxfordshire, as well as a property in Barbados.


title: Mel Smith

text: Smith was hospitalised in 1999 with stomach ulcers, following an accidental overdose of over 50 Nurofen Plus tablets in one day, after previously admitting an addiction to sleeping pills. Smith said at the time that the pressures of film work were a contributing factor, along with a desperate need to ease the pain caused by gout. Partly as a result, he agreed to sell Talkback Productions. On 31 December 2008, Smith appeared on "Celebrity Mastermind" whilst suffering from severe pharyngitis.


title: Mel Smith

text: On the morning of 19 July 2013, the London Ambulance Service was called to Smith's home in north-west London. Smith was confirmed dead by the ambulance crew, with a later post-mortem confirming death from a heart attack.


title: Gravitational time dilation

text: Gravitational time dilation is a form of time dilation, an actual difference of elapsed time between two events as measured by observers situated at varying distances from a gravitating mass. The lower the gravitational potential (the closer the clock is to the source of gravitation), the slower time passes, speeding up as the gravitational potential increases (the clock getting away from the source of gravitation). Albert Einstein originally predicted this effect in his theory of relativity and it has since been confirmed by tests of general relativity.


title: Gravitational time dilation

text: This has been demonstrated by noting that atomic clocks at differing altitudes (and thus different gravitational potential) will eventually show different times. The effects detected in such Earth-bound experiments are extremely small, with differences being measured in nanoseconds. Relative to Earth's age in billions of years, Earth's core is effectively 2.5 years younger than its surface. Demonstrating larger effects would require greater distances from the Earth or a larger gravitational source.


title: Gravitational time dilation

text: Gravitational time dilation was first described by Albert Einstein in 1907 as a consequence of special relativity in accelerated frames of reference. In general relativity, it is considered to be a difference in the passage of proper time at different positions as described by a metric tensor of spacetime. The existence of gravitational time dilation was first confirmed directly by the Pound–Rebka experiment in 1959, and later refined by Gravity Probe A and other experiments.


title: Gravitational time dilation

text: Gravitational time dilation can also equivalently be interpreted as gravitational redshift: if two oscillators (attached to transmitters producing electromagnetic radiation) are operating at different gravitational potentials, the oscillator at the higher gravitational potential (farther from the attracting body) will seem to ‘tick’ faster; that is, when observed from the same location, it will have a higher measured frequency than the oscillator at the lower gravitational potential (closer to the attracting body).


title: Gravitational time dilation

text: Clocks that are far from massive bodies (or at higher gravitational potentials) run more quickly, and clocks close to massive bodies (or at lower gravitational potentials) run more slowly. For example, considered over the total time-span of Earth (4.6 billion years), a clock set in a geostationary position at an altitude of 9,000 meters above sea level, such as perhaps at the top of Mount Everest (prominence 8,848m), would be about 39 hours ahead of a clock set at sea level. This is because gravitational time dilation is manifested in accelerated frames of reference or, by virtue of the equivalence principle, in the gravitational field of massive objects.


title: Gravitational time dilation

text: According to general relativity, inertial mass and gravitational mass are the same, and all accelerated reference frames (such as a uniformly rotating reference frame with its proper time dilation) are physically equivalent to a gravitational field of the same strength.


title: Gravitational time dilation

text: Consider a family of observers along a straight "vertical" line, each of whom experiences a distinct constant g-force directed along this line (e.g., a long accelerating spacecraft, a skyscraper, a shaft on a planet). Let formula_1 be the dependence of g-force on "height", a coordinate along the aforementioned line. The equation with respect to a base observer at formula_2 is


title: Gravitational time dilation

text: where formula_4 is the "total" time dilation at a distant position formula_5, formula_1 is the dependence of g-force on "height" formula_5, formula_8 is the speed of light, and formula_9 denotes exponentiation by e.


title: Gravitational time dilation

text: On the other hand, when formula_13 is nearly constant and formula_14 is much smaller than formula_15, the linear "weak field" approximation formula_16 can also be used.


title: Gravitational time dilation

text: See Ehrenfest paradox for application of the same formula to a rotating reference frame in flat spacetime.


title: Gravitational time dilation

text: A common equation used to determine gravitational time dilation is derived from the Schwarzschild metric, which describes spacetime in the vicinity of a non-rotating massive spherically symmetric object. The equation is


title: Gravitational time dilation

text: To illustrate then, without accounting for the effects of rotation, proximity to Earth's gravitational well will cause a clock on the planet's surface to accumulate around 0.0219 fewer seconds over a period of one year than would a distant observer's clock. In comparison, a clock on the surface of the sun will accumulate around 66.4 fewer seconds in one year.


title: Gravitational time dilation

text: In the Schwarzschild metric, free-falling objects can be in circular orbits if the orbital radius is larger than formula_29 (the radius of the photon sphere). The formula for a clock at rest is given above; the formula below gives the general relativistic time dilation for a clock in a circular orbit:


title: Gravitational time dilation

text: Gravitational time dilation has been experimentally measured using atomic clocks on airplanes, such as the Hafele–Keating experiment. The clocks aboard the airplanes were slightly faster than clocks on the ground. The effect is significant enough that the Global Positioning System's artificial satellites need to have their clocks corrected.


title: Gravitational time dilation

text: Additionally, time dilations due to height differences of less than one metre have been experimentally verified in the laboratory.


title: Gravitational time dilation

text: Gravitational time dilation in the form of gravitational redshift has also been confirmed by the Pound–Rebka experiment and observations of the spectra of the white dwarf Sirius B.


title: Gravitational time dilation

text: Gravitational time dilation has been measured in experiments with time signals sent to and from the Viking 1 Mars lander.


title: Konnie Huq

text: Kanak Asha "Konnie" Huq (; born 17 July 1975) is a British television and radio presenter, screenwriter and children's author. She became the longest-serving female presenter of the British children's television programme "Blue Peter", presenting it from 1997 to 2008. She has been a presenter and guest of shows including the 2010 series of "The Xtra Factor" on ITV2.


title: Konnie Huq

text: She co-wrote the "Black Mirror" episode "Fifteen Million Merits" with her husband, Charlie Brooker. Her children's book "Cookie and the Most Annoying Boy in the World" was published in 2019. She published the follow-up, "Cookie and the Most Annoying Girl in the World", in 2020 along with her third children's book, "Fearless Fairy Tales: The Perfect Book for Homeschooling Fun and Inspiration".


title: Konnie Huq

text: Kanak Asha Huq was born in the Hammersmith district of London on 17 July 1975, the daughter of Muslim parents who emigrated from Bangladesh in the 1960s. She grew up in the Ealing district of London with her two elder sisters, Nutun, and future Labour Party politician Rupa. She attended Notting Hill & Ealing High School and obtained nine GCSEs, then gained A-levels in chemistry, mathematics, and physics. She went on to study economics at Robinson College, Cambridge, graduating with a degree.


title: Konnie Huq

text: Huq trained part-time at the National Youth Music Theatre. In 1989, at the age of 14, she appeared with them on "Blue Peter" and sang a solo. The following year, she appeared alongside Jude Law in "Captain Stirrick", a National Youth Music Theatre production.


title: Konnie Huq

text: Before the 1992 general election, Huq interviewed Labour leader Neil Kinnock for the children's programme "Newsround", and appeared as a contestant on "Blockbusters" in the same year. She appeared as an uncredited extra playing a schoolgirl in the BBC1 sitcom "2point4 Children" in the Series 2 episode "I'm Going Slightly Mad".


title: Konnie Huq

text: Her presenting debut, at the age of 16, was on the satellite television show, TVFM. She then appeared on a GMTV Saturday morning children's quiz show entitled "Eat Your Words" between 1994 and 1996. She was assisted by Mark Speight before Simon Parkin took over. In 1997, several months before joining "Blue Peter", Huq presented Channel Five's early morning children's programme "Milkshake!"


title: Konnie Huq

text: Huq presented the BBC children's television programme "Blue Peter", starting on 1 December 1997. Early in her term as a presenter, she visited the village in Bangladesh where earlier generations of her family lived. In the programme's 2004 "Summer Expedition" to India, Huq became an extra in the Bollywood film "Musafir" (2004), and practised dancing alongside its stars. For the programme's 2004 "Welcome Home" appeal, she visited Angola, hoping to reunite children and their families who had been separated due to war. In 2008, during her last programme, she broke a "Guinness World Record" by pinning 17 "Blue Peter" Badges onto fellow presenter Andy Akinwolere's shirt in a minute. In March 2007, she apologised on air on behalf of the programme to viewers, after the result of a competition to identify the celebrity owner of a pair of shoes was faked.


title: Konnie Huq

text: On 31 May 2007, Huq announced she would be leaving "Blue Peter". On 22 January 2008, she hosted her final "Blue Peter", with a clip show of her highlights through the ten years she had been on the programme. She is the third longest-serving "Blue Peter" presenter and its longest-serving female host, having passed Valerie Singleton's record on 1 October 2007. She holds the record for working with the most co-presenters while on the show, with a total of 10. These are Stuart Miles, Katy Hill, Romana D'Annunzio, Richard Bacon, Simon Thomas, Matt Baker, Liz Barker, Zoe Salmon, Gethin Jones and Andy Akinwolere.


title: Konnie Huq

text: Between 2002 and 2004, Huq co-presented the CBBC Channel's "UK Top 40" chart show and in early 2003 she was briefly a presenter for "Top of the Pops". She presented GMTV's "LK today" coverage of New York Fashion Week on the week of 10 September 2007. In June 2007 she was a guest panellist on the comedy gameshow "8 out of 10 Cats".


title: Konnie Huq

text: In December 2007, Huq appeared on a celebrity version of "Ready Steady Cook" with "Blue Peter" co-presenter Andy Akinwolere. She began presenting the ITV1 London show "London Talking", a political debate show, alongside Vanessa Feltz and Nick Ferrari in 2007, and co-presented some of the weekly "Your News" programmes for "BBC News" in 2008. Huq was the main presenter for the third series, in 2008, of Channel Five show "Zoo Days", a documentary series about the animals and staff at Chester and Colchester Zoos. Huq presented The "Red Bull Air Race" with Dougie Anderson for Channel 4 in 2008.


title: Konnie Huq

text: Huq appeared with her future husband Charlie Brooker in his satirical review programme "Screenwipe" in December 2008 on BBC Four. She hosted a mock version of a "mission documentary" entitled "Konnie's Great British Wee". She was a guest on political show "This Week" on 18 December 2008, appearing with M.P. Charles Kennedy.


title: Konnie Huq

text: She presented "Guinness World Records Smashed" with Steve Jones on Sundays on Sky1 in 2009. On 15 May 2009, Huq began to present entertainment show "Hannah-Oke" on The Disney Channel with Duncan James. The show was a "Hannah Montana themed karaoke-style game show". Huq presented the seventh series of "The Xtra Factor" on ITV2, replacing Holly Willoughby who was unable to fulfil the role due to her ongoing commitments at "This Morning".


title: Konnie Huq

text: In February 2011, Huq appeared in an episode of the ITV2 documentary programme "Under Pressure", where she attempted to learn how to be a rapper. Trailers for the show asked "Will Konnie Huq it up?" She was coached by Akala and performed at indigO2.


title: Konnie Huq

text: For two consecutive years she presented the Royal Shakespeare Company's "Live from Stratford upon Avon", a web project aimed at showing theatre productions in schools. In July 2012, the project web-streamed a performance of "I, Cinna (The Poet)", a play by Tim Crouch about the poet in Shakespeare's play "Julius Caesar" killed by a mob after being mistaken for a conspirator. In November 2013 a recording of the Globe Theatre production of "Richard II" was shown in 3,000 schools. The performances were followed by a question-and-answer session hosted by Huq.


title: Konnie Huq

text: In May 2022 the BBC announced that Huq would be one of the guest presenters to take over Richard Osman's role on Pointless.


title: Konnie Huq

text: On 15 September 2006, Huq became one of the presenters of "The Tube" with Tony Wilson, Alex James and Emily Rose on Channel 4 Radio working with production company UKoneFM. The first edition was broadcast on 3 November 2006. Huq made her debut as a news presenter on the BBC Asian Network in September 2007, in a series of documentaries on a radio current affairs programme called the "Asian Network Report". She presented an episode of "Archive on 4" in 2010, reviewing forty years of "Sesame Street". In 2013, she took part in the Radio 4 biographical series "Great Lives", where participants select someone who has inspired them, and chose Ada Lovelace.


title: Konnie Huq

text: She appeared as herself in "The Kumars at No 42" in 2001. In 2007, she had minor roles in "The Sarah Jane Adventures" episode "Invasion of the Bane", and in the CBBC series "M.I.High" episode "The Big Freeze". She played herself again in the "FM" episode "Golden Lady" in March 2009. She played a villainous servant (also called Konnie) in the last episode of the second series of "Robin Hood".


title: Konnie Huq

text: In 2013, Huq played a presenter of the fictional telethon "Help a Blameless Child" in television comedy series "A Touch of Cloth". In 2019, she appeared briefly as a breakfast television presenter of the in-universe show "Pam & Sam" in Good Omens, which was based on the book written by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett.


title: Konnie Huq

text: In December 2009, Huq won the "Best Rising Star Screenplay Angel" award at the Monaco International Film Festival for her screenplay "Ahmed and Mildred", a story described as "a superhero themed journey into the imagination of two young infants as they experience love at first sight." In March 2014, "Ahmed and Mildred" was selected as one of the projects to receive funding from Film London to enable production to take place.


title: Konnie Huq

text: She co-wrote the second episode of the Channel 4 anthology series "Black Mirror", "Fifteen Million Merits", which is a satire of entertainment shows, with her husband Charlie Brooker. An installation featuring extracts from the episode was installed at the Barbican Centre as part of the science-fiction themed exhibition "Into the Unknown" in 2017.


title: Konnie Huq

text: On 14 October 2014, Huq was one of the speakers celebrating Ada Lovelace Day at the Royal Institution. On 29 June 2016, Huq hosted "VOOM 2016", a pitch competition, for Virgin Media Business.


title: Konnie Huq

text: Her book for children "Cookie and the Most Annoying Boy in the World" was published in 2019 and is the first of a projected three-book series. The book centres around the fictional character Cookie Haque, a schoolchild who enjoys learning about science, and what happens when her best friend moves away, and a boy that Cookie considers the most annoying boy in the world moves next door. Huq wrote and illustrated the book. The character of Cookie has been described by Huq as "a cross between Wimpy Kid and Bridget Jones." As of May 2020, the next book in the series, with a theme of climate change, was due to be published in August 2020.


title: Konnie Huq

text: In 2005, Huq took part in the BBC One fundraising show "Comic Relief Does Fame Academy". She was the third contestant to be voted off, after her rendition of Kim Wilde's "Kids in America". She travelled to Uganda and met orphaned children on behalf of Comic Relief.


title: Konnie Huq

text: Huq travelled to Afghanistan with the charity Afghanaid to film a BBC "Lifelines" appeal, which was aired on 21 September 2008, and the following year she travelled to India as part of Rotary International's "Thanks for Life/End Polio Now" campaign. She administered Polio vaccine to children as part of the trip.


title: Konnie Huq

text: As a celebrity ambassador for the British Red Cross, Huq appeared in the 2009 video "If I had HIV, would you kiss me?" which was part of a campaign against the stigmatisation of people living with HIV and AIDS. She was an ambassador for Gold Challenge, part of the official mass participation legacy programme for the London 2012 Olympic Games.


title: Konnie Huq

text: On 26 July 2010, Huq married writer and satirist Charlie Brooker at the Little White Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas after a nine-month relationship. They have two sons. Huq has said she reduced her television commitments so that she could focus on her children.


title: Konnie Huq

text: Huq supported the Labour Party at the 2010 general election. Her sister, Rupa, was elected as the Labour MP for Ealing Central and Acton at the 2015 general election.


title: Konnie Huq

text: On 6 April 2008, Huq participated in the London leg of the Summer Olympics torch relay as one of 80 torch carriers on the torch's journey to Beijing. In Ladbroke Grove, a protester tried to grab the torch from her as she was about to hand it to the next runner. She was not hurt in the incident, though police wrestled the protester to the ground and arrested him.


title: National symbols of India

text: The Republic of India has several official national symbols including a historical document, a flag, an emblem, an anthem, a memorial tower as well as several national heroes. The design of the national flag was officially adopted by the Constituent Assembly just before independence, on July 22, 1947. Other symbols that were designated on various occasions include the national animal, bird, fruit and tree.


title: Billboard Year-End Hot 100 singles of 1986

text: "Billboard" magazine each year releases a Year-End chart of the most popular songs across all genres called the Hot 100 songs of the year. This is the year-end Hot 100 songs of 1986.


title: Nothing but Trouble (1991 film)

text: Nothing but Trouble is a 1991 American comedy horror film directed by Dan Aykroyd in his directorial debut, and written by Aykroyd, based on a story by his brother Peter. Chevy Chase and Demi Moore star as yuppies who are taken to court for speeding in the bizarre, financially bankrupt small town of Valkenvania. Aykroyd co-stars as the town's 106-year-old judge, Alvin Valkenheiser, who holds a personal grudge against financiers, and John Candy has a supporting role as Valkenheiser's grandson, chief of police Dennis Valkenheiser. Tupac Shakur made his acting debut in this film, as a member of the rap group Digital Underground. The film's tone was compared by critics to films such as "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein", "Psycho", "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" series and "The Rocky Horror Picture Show", as well as "The Munsters". The film's humor was described as being derived from sketch comedy and gross-out humor.


title: Nothing but Trouble (1991 film)

text: Production commenced in 1990 under the title "Git", which was changed in production to "Valkenvania". Subsequently, prior to the film's release, Warner Bros. changed the title to "Nothing but Trouble"; in a press statement released in December 1990, Aykroyd said that he preferred the "Valkenvania" title. Upon release, the film received generally negative reviews from critics, with criticism directed at its humor, screenplay, tone, and direction. Aykroyd would go on to receive a Worst Supporting Actor Razzie at the 12th Golden Raspberry Awards.


title: Nothing but Trouble (1991 film)

text: While hosting a party in his Manhattan penthouse, financial publisher Chris Thorne (Chevy Chase) meets lawyer Diane Lightson (Demi Moore) and agrees to escort her to consult a client in Atlantic City the following day. Thorne's clients, obnoxious but wealthy Brazilian siblings Fausto and Renalda Squiriniszu (Taylor Negron and Bertila Damas), meet up with them and invite themselves along. Chris takes a detour off of the New Jersey Turnpike, ultimately ending up in the run-down village of Valkenvania. After running a stop sign and subsequently attempting to escape pursuing officer Dennis Valkenheiser (John Candy), the group is captured and taken before his 106-year-old grandfather Judge Alvin Valkenheiser (Dan Aykroyd). After Chris offends the judge, the yuppies are locked in a hidden room under the courthouse to be judged the next day, and they overhear the judge violently executing a group of convicted drug dealers in a deadly roller coaster nicknamed "Mr. Bonestripper". Chris, Diane and the Brazilians attend the judge's dinner, learning that the Judge is holding them there as retribution for a coal deal which the Valkenheiser family blames for their poverty. The group attempts an escape, but Alvin's mute granddaughter Eldona (Candy, in a dual role) captures Chris and Diane. Meanwhile, after being chased by Dennis' trigger-happy cousin, Miss Purdah, the Brazilians escape by cutting a deal with Dennis, who decides to escape with them.


title: Nothing but Trouble (1991 film)

text: The Judge holds Chris and Diane hostage, but they eventually escape, get lost through hidden hallways and slides and become separated. Escaping into the property's salvage yard, Diane meets and befriends the judge's severely deformed grandchildren, Bobo (played by Aykroyd) and Lil' Debbull (played by John Daveikis), who are barred from living in the house. However, she also notices Eldona destroying Chris's BMW 733i. The Judge catches Chris sneaking into his personal quarters and punishes him per house policy, which decrees that Chris must marry Eldona. Meanwhile, in the court room, Digital Underground is being held on charges of speeding, but the Judge releases them after being charmed by an impromptu rap performance. He also asks them to stay as witnesses for the wedding, which Chris reluctantly goes through with in exchange for his life, but is later caught pleading with the band to help him escape. The band leaves without understanding him, and the Judge furiously sentences Chris to die in "Mr. Bonestripper". The machine breaks down just before Chris is fed into it, and he escapes. The Judge nearly kills Diane with another claw contraption known as the Gradertine, but Chris retrieves her at the last second and the two jump on a freight train back to New York. After the two report their plight to the authorities, local and state police raid the Judge's courthouse. Chris and Diane are asked to accompany the officers to the site, only to find out that the officers involved are fully aware of and allied with the Judge. The couple escapes when the area's underground coal fires cause a colossal earthquake, fatally destroying the town. Back in New York, Chris sees the judge on television, brandishing Chris's driver's license, announcing that he and his family plan to move in with his new grandson-in-law, causing Chris to comically flee for his life.


title: Nothing but Trouble (1991 film)

text: "Entertainment Weekly", "Vibe" and Den of Geek described the film as a horror comedy. "The Los Angeles Times" critic Peter Rainer wrote, "The intention seems to be a slap-happy cross between "Psycho" and "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein"". Lou Cedrone, writing for the "Baltimore Sun", said that the film "plays like a comedy version of the "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" films." Candice Russel, writing for the "Sun-Sentinel", called "Nothing but Trouble" a "variation on "The Rocky Horror Picture Show"". The film's humor was described by critics as deriving from gross-out humor and sketch comedy. Nathan Rabin interpreted the film's plot as "[tapping] into a fear common among wealthy Manhattan yuppies: that once they leave the cozy confines of the five boroughs, inbred hillbillies will try to kill them for being wealthy Manhattan yuppies."


title: Nothing but Trouble (1991 film)

text: The story was developed after a screening of the 1987 film "Hellraiser" that producer Robert K. Weiss attended with Dan and Peter Aykroyd. Weiss had a fractured rib and suggested the three attend a film to take his mind off his injury, but that it couldn't be a comedy because it hurt him to laugh, which is why the Aykroyd brothers chose a horror film. Once the movie started and the three saw the audience laughing at the film, Weiss suggested that they make a horror-comedy together, since audiences wanted to laugh and be scared at the same time. Peter Aykroyd related an event in which Dan had been pulled over for speeding in upstate New York and was taken to the justice of the peace to stand trial in what Dan referred to as a "kangaroo court", and after he was fined $50, the justice of the peace invited Dan to stay for tea, and he ended up staying there for four hours. It was suggested that a horror story be developed based on this event, and Aykroyd spent 6 months writing it as a screenplay titled "Git", which was later changed to "Road to Ruin"; Dan Aykroyd described the script as "a monster movie" and compared it to "Beetlejuice" and "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre". Much of the script's bizarre characters and events, such as the giant mutant babies, were based on a series of dreams Aykroyd was having, and he set the story in the fictional town of Valkenvania, which was based loosely on the town of Centralia, Pennsylvania.


title: Nothing but Trouble (1991 film)

text: Aykroyd offered the script to John Hughes, who was interested in the story, but ultimately turned it down because he only directed his own scripts. John Landis disliked the script and immediately turned it down. The script caught the attention of Warner Bros., who wanted John Candy to costar. Aykroyd wanted to play the parts of Judge Valkenheiser and Chris Thorne, but the studio wanted Chevy Chase to play Thorne, and Aykroyd agreed. With no director attached, Aykroyd said he would direct the film to secure the deal, even though he didn't want to direct the film. Aykroyd later agreed to play the giant adult baby Bobo as well, after no one else wanted to play the part, and found it stressful to play two parts in heavy makeup while simultaneously directing and producing. Warner Bros. had faith in Aykroyd, and gave him a $40 million budget.


title: Nothing but Trouble (1991 film)

text: The film commenced production on May 7, 1990 in Los Angeles, California, under the title "Trickhouse".


title: Nothing but Trouble (1991 film)

text: On July 12, the title was changed to "Valkenvania", and a release date was scheduled for Christmas 1990. The "Valkenheiser" mansion, Town Hall, and other environments were constructed on two soundstages at Warner Bros. Studios; one of the set pieces, dubbed "Autohenge", was a garden constructed of scrap metal. Designer William Sandell was inspired by his previous experience as a kinetic sculptor. The production designers acquired props and decorations from “every prop resource in town,” as well as Aykroyd's personal collection.


title: Nothing but Trouble (1991 film)

text: The Greystone Mansion in Los Angeles was used to shoot the scenes depicting Chris Thorne's New York City apartment. Exteriors were also shot in the Lehigh Valley, 60 miles North of Philadelphia; second-unit photography occurred in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York City.


title: Nothing but Trouble (1991 film)

text: "Nothing but Trouble (Music from the Motion Picture Soundtrack)" was released in 1991 through Warner Bros. Records. It is composed of ten songs.


title: Nothing but Trouble (1991 film)

text: There are four additional songs that appeared in the film but were not released on the soundtrack album:


title: Nothing but Trouble (1991 film)

text: In December 1990, Warner Bros. changed the film's title to "Nothing but Trouble". On December 20, Dan Aykroyd stated in a press release that he would always think of the film as "Valkenvania". A promotional illustration by Boris Vallejo was commissioned in 1991. The film's release was delayed to recut the film for a PG-13 rating, removing the film's over the top violence, and the studio rescheduled "The Bonfire of the Vanities" to the Christmas 1990 release date originally held by "Nothing but Trouble".


title: Nothing but Trouble (1991 film)

text: The film was released on February 15, 1991. According to Box Office Mojo, the film opened at #8 in 1,671 theaters, grossing $3,966,240 opening weekend. The site lists its total gross upon completed release as $8,479,793, with a 50.5% drop-off in its second week of release. In 1992, at the 12th Golden Raspberry Awards, Aykroyd received a Worst Supporting Actor Razzie. It also took home Worst Picture at the 1991 Stinkers Bad Movie Awards. Chevy Chase later expressed dislike for the film, saying he only accepted the role of Chris Thorne because of his friendship with Aykroyd.


title: Nothing but Trouble (1991 film)

text: "Nothing but Trouble" was negatively received by critics. Chris Hicks, writing for the "Deseret News" wrote, "though Aykroyd seems to be having the time of his life as the judge, Chase, Candy, and Moore appear much less animated than usual [and] downright embarrassed in some scenes". Writing for "The New York Times", Vincent Canby criticized Aykroyd's script, believing its narrative had "loose ends", and said "the movie looks less funny than expensive". "The Hollywood Reporter" criticized the film's comedy, considering it to be "skit-level". "The Los Angeles Times" critic Peter Rainer wrote, "if you're in the mood to be clobbered with stale jokes, it might seem fitfully amusing. Occasionally, the talents of the cast burn through the haze of misfires and remembered routines".


title: Nothing but Trouble (1991 film)

text: Lou Cedrone, writing for the "Baltimore Sun", said that "if there is a laugh here, it goes by unnoticed". "Chicago Tribune" critic Dave Kehr wrote that ""Valkenvania" bids fair to become one of the legendary disasters of the movie business, a movie so unfunny, so distasteful and so painful to watch that you can't take your eyes off it". Jay Boyar, writing for the "Orlando Sentinel" wrote: "The problem is that the neophyte director appears to believe that being gross, in itself, is enough. Even John Waters, in his "Pink Flamingos" period, realized that wit was also necessary. Besides, Waters was genuinely outrageous in a startlingly original way. The grotesquerie of Aykroyd's film reminded me of a disturbed child trying to gross out a friend on the playground." Candice Russel, writing for the "Sun-Sentinel", wrote that "this mean-spirited effort by Aykroyd proves that he cannot write an effective comedy; if he's acting, he should leave the direction to someone else". "Washington Post" writer Hal Hinson called the film "nothing but trouble and agony and pain and suffering and obnoxious, toxically unfunny bad taste; it's nothing but miserable".


title: Nothing but Trouble (1991 film)

text: "Entertainment Weekly" critic Michael Sauter wrote: "[Aykroyd and Candy] generate approximately four laughs. Chase adds maybe two. In movie-ticket terms, that's less than one laugh per dollar; as a video rental, it's a slightly better deal." The same publication printed a second review by Owen Gleiberman, writing: "Most of the jokes are so lame that Chevy Chase can't even be bothered to look nonchalant. A sadder excuse for a movie would be hard to imagine." Writing for "People", Ralph Novak wrote that "after a few minutes, it's clear that this comedy is not enigmatic—just hopelessly confused". "Empire" writer Jo Berry wrote: "Unfortunately this isn't even half as fun as the shortest bumper-car ride, with the cast lost in a sea of unfunny situations and badly executed antique jokes on loan from "The Munsters" all obviously puzzled about why they are actually there." A staff review in "Variety" opined, "it's a good bet a film is in trouble when the highlight comes from seeing John Candy in drag"; while "TV Guide" stated, "Aykroyd's film has a relentless imbecility that allows it to stand with films such as "Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla", "John Goldfarb, Please Come Home!" and "Which Way to the Front?" as one of the worst attempts at comedy ever filmed". Roger Ebert famously hated "Nothing But Trouble" so much that he refused to write a review for it after giving the movie an emphatic "Thumbs Down" and actually wanted a few noisy teenagers to make even more noise so he wouldn't hear any more of the movie while watching it in the theater auditorium. His At the Movies partner, Gene Siskel, also gave the film an emphatic "Thumbs Down" on their ""At the Movies"" program.


title: Nothing but Trouble (1991 film)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 13% based on reviews from 24 critics. The site's consensus states: "There's nothing good in "Nothing But Trouble", a grotesque comedy that is more likely to make audiences ill than make them laugh". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "D+" on an A+ to F scale. Nathan Rabin, in his "My Year of Flops" segment for "The A.V. Club", wrote: "Aykroyd here has lovingly, meticulously created a hideous, grotesque nightmare world nobody in their right mind would want to visit the first time around, let alone return to." IGN named "Nothing but Trouble" as Dan Aykroyd's worst film. The film has also received praise, with "Complex" listing "Nothing but Trouble" as one of "25 Underrated 90s Comedies"; staff writer Matt Barone called it "a strangely magnetic cluster-fuck of a high-concept comedy". IFC listed "Nothing but Trouble" as one of "10 '90s Comedies That Really Need Sequels".


title: Checkmate

text: Checkmate (often shortened to mate) is any game position in chess and other chess-like games in which a player's king is in check (threatened with ) and there is no possible escape. Checkmating the opponent wins the game.


title: Checkmate

text: In chess, the king is never actually captured—the player loses as soon as the player's king is checkmated. In formal games, it is usually considered good etiquette to an inevitably lost game before being checkmated.


title: Checkmate

text: If a player is not in check but has no legal move, then it is "stalemate", and the game immediately ends in a draw. A checkmating move is recorded in algebraic notation using the hash symbol "#", for example: 34.Qg3#.


title: Checkmate

text: A checkmate may occur in as few as two moves on one side with all of the pieces still on the board (as in Fool's mate, in the opening phase of the game), in a middlegame position (as in the 1956 game called the Game of the Century between Donald Byrne and Bobby Fischer), or after many moves with as few as three pieces in an endgame position.


title: Checkmate

text: The term "checkmate" is, according to the Barnhart Etymological Dictionary, an alteration of the Persian phrase "shāh māt" () which means "the King is helpless". Persian "māt" applies to the king but in Sanskrit "māta", also pronounced "māt", applied to his kingdom "traversed, measured across, and meted out" thoroughly by his opponent; "māta" is the past participle of "mā" verbal root. Others maintain that it means "the King is dead", as chess reached Europe via the Arab world, and Arabic "māta" () means "died" or "is dead".


title: Checkmate

text: Moghadam traced the etymology of the word "mate". It comes from a Persian verb "mandan" (), meaning "to remain", which is cognate with the Latin word and the Greek "menō" (, which means "I remain"). It means "remained" in the sense of "abandoned" and the formal translation is "surprised", in the military sense of "ambushed". "Shāh" () is the Persian word for the monarch. Players would announce "Shāh" when the king was in check. "Māt" () is a Persian adjective for "at a loss", "helpless", or "defeated". So the king is in "mate" when he is ambushed, at a loss, helpless, defeated, or abandoned to his fate.