title: Lusaka

text: Zambia's oldest and largest institution of learning is the University of Zambia which is based in Lusaka and was established in 1965 and officially opened to the general public (which included both local and international students) in July 1966. Other universities and colleges located in Lusaka include: University of Lusaka (UNILUS), Zambian Open University (ZAOU), Chainama Hills College, Evelyn Hone College of Applied Arts and Commerce, Zambia Centre for Accountancy Studies University (ZCASU), Natural Resources Development College (NRDC), National Institute of Public Administration (NIPA), Cavendish University, Lusaka Apex Medical University and DMI-St. Eugene University. Lusaka has some of the finest schools in Zambia, including the American International School of Lusaka, Rhodes Park School, the Lusaka International Community School, the French International School, the Italian international School, the Lusaka Islamic Cultural, and Educational Foundation (LICEF), the Chinese International School, Lusaka Russian Embassy School, and Baobab College. Rhodes Park School is not an international school, though there is a large presence of Angolans, Nigerians, Congolese, South Africans, and Chinese. The children of late President Levy Mwanawasa, as well as the children of late Vice-president George Kunda, attended the Rhodes Park School. Other well-known schools located in Lusaka include Matero Boys' Secondary School (MaBoys), Parklands High School, Roma Girls' Secondary School, Munali Boys' and Girls' Secondary Schools, Chudleigh House School, Kabulonga Boys' and Girls' Secondary Schools, Lake Road PTA School, David Kaunda Technical School (DK), Ibex Hill School, Kamwala Secondary, Libala Secondary, Silverest Secondary School and St. Mary's Secondary School.


title: Lusaka

text: Among the places of worship, these are the predominant Christian churches and temples: the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Lusaka (Catholic Church), seated at the Child Jesus Cathedral; the Anglican Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Cathedral Hill; the Seventh-day Adventist (SDA); United Church in Zambia (World Communion of Reformed Churches); New Apostolic Church; Reformed Church in Zambia (World Communion of Reformed Churches); Baptist Union of Zambia (Baptist World Alliance); and the Assemblies of God. The Jehovah’s Witnesses and LDS churches both have a few chapels and growing base of members. There are also several large mosques to serve the local Muslim community. Synagogues here are noticeably absent.


title: Lusaka

text: Attractions include Lusaka National Museum, the Political Museum, the Zintu Community Museum, the Freedom Statue, the Zambian National Assembly, the Agricultural Society Showgrounds (known for their annual agricultural show), the Moore Pottery Factory, the Lusaka Playhouse theatre, a cenotaph, Lusaka Golf Club, National Heroes Stadium, Woodlands Stadium, the Lusaka Central Sports Club, Kalimba Reptile Park, Mulungushi Conference Centre, Monkey Pools and the zoo, Pazuri and botanical gardens of the Munda Wanga Environmental Park.


title: Lusaka

text: Lusaka is the economic and financial hub of Zambia, serving as the country's main gateway to the rest of the world and largest business centre. Although district-level GDP figures are not recorded in Zambia, on a provincial level Lusaka Province had the second-highest gross domestic product in Zambia in 2014, contributing 27.2 per cent of the national output, a figure narrowly below that of the resource-rich Copperbelt Province.


title: Lusaka

text: In contrast to Zambia as a whole, in which agriculture and mining are the largest contributors, Lusaka's economy is dominated by the service sector, as well as wholesale and retail trade. Major employment areas in the city include finance, insurance, real estate, transport, communications, energy, construction and manufacturing. The headquarters of Zambian banks are located in the city, as is the Lusaka Stock Exchange, which launched in 1993.


title: Lusaka

text: Lusaka is home to the largest and most numerous shopping centres in the country, including Manda Hill, Levy Junction, EastPark, Cosmopolitan, and the smaller but well-known Arcade Shopping Centre. It also has newly built shopping malls such as Lewanika shopping mall, Centro mall, Novare Pinnacle malls in Woodlands and along the Great North Road.


title: Lusaka

text: Lusaka is home to Kenneth Kaunda International Airport (which is used for both civil and military operations). There is also Lusaka City Airport, which is used by the Zambian Air Force.


title: Lusaka

text: The city is served by the operating sections of the Cape to Cairo Railway, which connects it to Lubumbashi and Bulawayo. The international airport is connected to the railway line.


title: Lusaka

text: The city is crossed by Trans-African Highway 9 (TAH 9), which connects it to the cities of Harare and Lubumbashi, and by Trans-African Highway 4 (TAH 4), which connects it to Dodoma and Bulawayo.


title: Lusaka

text: Lusaka's city centre is at the crossroads of three major routes, namely the Great North Road (T2), Great East Road (T4) and Mongu Road (M9). The Great North Road connects north to Kabwe, Mpika and the republic of Tanzania (with branches linking to Ndola, Kitwe and DR Congo) and south to Choma, Livingstone and the republic of Zimbabwe. The Great East Road connects east to Chipata and the republic of Malawi (with a branch road linking to the republic of Mozambique). The Mongu Road connects west to Kaoma and Mongu (and could possibly become the main route to Angola via the Barotse Floodplain Causeway).


title: Lusaka

text: Intracity public transport is provided primarily by minibuses, but also includes larger buses and shared taxis on fixed routes. Vehicles on most routes travel between specific parts of the city and the four terminals in the central business district (referred to as "Town"): Kulima Tower, City Market, Millennium and Lumumba. There is no official map of public transport routes in Lusaka, but an initiative to create a user-generated content map was begun in 2014. All public transport vehicles in Lusaka are operated by private operators.


title: Lusaka

text: Bus services within Lusaka neighbourhoods, the CBD, and towns surrounding Lusaka, such as Siavonga and Chirundu, use the Lusaka City Market Bus station, Inter-city Bus Terminus, Millennium Bus Station, and Kulima Tower Station.


title: Lusaka

text: Zambia has five national tertiary hospitals, of which two are located in Lusaka. The larger of these is the University Teaching Hospital (UTH), which has 1655 beds and space for 250 babies. UTH serves as the highest-level hospital for a population of around 2 million people, as well as taking referrals from other health institutions around the country. It serves as Zambia's principal centre for the training of medical professionals including doctors and nurses, the latter in a specialist Nursing School within the UTH complex. Lusaka's second tertiary hospital is the Chainama Hills, which has 210 authorised beds and 167 unofficial "floor beds", is Zambia's only psychiatric hospital. The Chainama Hills site also serves as the training centre for clinical officers in Zambia.


title: Lusaka

text: Overall, Lusaka had a total of 34 health centres run by the government in 2007, as well as 134 run by the private sector. The government has sought to decentralise provision from the Ministry of Health and Lusaka's day-to-day healthcare is provided by the provincial-level Lusaka District Health Management Team and the citywide Lusaka District Health Management Team. The priorities for the district, which in 2007 accounted for 90 per cent of the city's health cases, include malaria, reproductive health, child health, tuberculosis, leprosy, HIV and other sexually-transmitted diseases, environmental health, mental health, and medicine supply. The Zambian government has a long-term aim of providing universal health care (UHC) for all Zambians. As of 2017, it had notionally achieved free primary health provision for all, but availability was often limited due to capacity constraints. To address this, the ministry of health partnered with JICA to on a project to take the necessary steps to achieve genuine UHC.


title: Lusaka

text: The largest sports venue in Lusaka is National Heroes Stadium, which was built with assistance and financing from China. Named in honour of those who died in the 1993 Zambia national football team plane crash, it opened in 2014 and has a capacity of 60,000. The stadium is used to host home matches of the Zambian national football team, and was one of two host stadia for the 2017 Africa U-20 Cup of Nations in Zambia, alongside the Levy Mwanawasa Stadium in Ndola. That tournament was won by Zambia at the National Heroes Stadium, with a 2–0 win against Senegal. The stadium is also used for athletics events, including the 2021 All Comers Tournament, which served as a qualification event for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.


title: Lusaka

text: As of 2021, six of the eighteen teams in the association football Zambia Super League are based in Lusaka. The city's most successful club is Zanaco F.C., which has won seven national titles, the most recent in 2016. Zanaco were founded in 1978 as the team of the Zambia National Commercial Bank, and have played in the top division since 1989. Green Buffaloes are another successful team in Lusaka, with six titles, although the most recent was in 1981. In addition to the National Heroes stadium, Lusaka's football teams play home games at the Nkoloma Stadium, Sunset Stadium and Woodlands Stadium.


title: Lusaka

text: The rugby union players Corné Krige and George Gregan, who respectively captained the n and n teams in both the 2002 and 2003 Tri Nations Series, were coincidentally born in the same hospital in Lusaka.


title: Lusaka

text: The former Zimbabwe cricketer Henry Olonga was also born in Lusaka. He was the first black cricketer – and the youngest person – to play for Zimbabwe.


title: Lusaka

text: Lusaka is the hometown and place of residence of Joseph and Luka Banda, the first conjoined twins to be successfully separated by Ben Carson and his team.


title: Abstract syntax tree

text: In computer science, an abstract syntax tree (AST), or just syntax tree, is a tree representation of the abstract syntactic structure of text (often source code) written in a formal language. Each node of the tree denotes a construct occurring in the text.


title: Abstract syntax tree

text: The syntax is "abstract" in the sense that it does not represent every detail appearing in the real syntax, but rather just the structural or content-related details. For instance, grouping parentheses are implicit in the tree structure, so these do not have to be represented as separate nodes. Likewise, a syntactic construct like an if-condition-then statement may be denoted by means of a single node with three branches.


title: Abstract syntax tree

text: This distinguishes abstract syntax trees from concrete syntax trees, traditionally designated parse trees. Parse trees are typically built by a parser during the source code translation and compiling process. Once built, additional information is added to the AST by means of subsequent processing, e.g., contextual analysis.


title: Abstract syntax tree

text: Abstract syntax trees are data structures widely used in compilers to represent the structure of program code. An AST is usually the result of the syntax analysis phase of a compiler. It often serves as an intermediate representation of the program through several stages that the compiler requires, and has a strong impact on the final output of the compiler.


title: Abstract syntax tree

text: ASTs are needed because of the inherent nature of programming languages and their documentation. Languages are often ambiguous by nature. In order to avoid this ambiguity, programming languages are often specified as a context-free grammar (CFG). However, there are often aspects of programming languages that a CFG can't express, but are part of the language and are documented in its specification. These are details that require a context to determine their validity and behaviour. For example, if a language allows new types to be declared, a CFG cannot predict the names of such types nor the way in which they should be used. Even if a language has a predefined set of types, enforcing proper usage usually requires some context. Another example is duck typing, where the type of an element can change depending on context. Operator overloading is yet another case where correct usage and final function are context-dependent.


title: Abstract syntax tree

text: The design of an AST is often closely linked with the design of a compiler and its expected features.


title: Abstract syntax tree

text: Some operations will always require two elements, such as the two terms for addition. However, some language constructs require an arbitrarily large number of children, such as argument lists passed to programs from the command shell. As a result, an AST used to represent code written in such a language has to also be flexible enough to allow for quick addition of an unknown quantity of children.


title: Abstract syntax tree

text: To support compiler verification it should be possible to unparse an AST into source code form. The source code produced should be sufficiently similar to the original in appearance and identical in execution, upon recompilation.


title: Abstract syntax tree

text: The AST is used intensively during semantic analysis, where the compiler checks for correct usage of the elements of the program and the language. The compiler also generates symbol tables based on the AST during semantic analysis. A complete traversal of the tree allows verification of the correctness of the program.


title: Abstract syntax tree

text: After verifying correctness, the AST serves as the base for code generation. The AST is often used to generate an intermediate representation (IR), sometimes called an intermediate language, for the code generation.


title: Abstract syntax tree

text: AST differencing, or for short tree differencing, consists of computing the list of differences between two ASTs. This list of differences is typically called an edit script. The edit script directly refers to the AST of the code. For instance, an edit action may the addition of a new AST node representing a function. The problem of computing good AST edit scripts is hard, with two main challenges: handling move actions, and scaling to fine-grained ASTs with thousands of nodes.


title: Abstract syntax tree

text: With proper AST differencing, ASTs can be used for merging versions and branches, this is known as structured merge. The advantage is to avoid spurious conflicts due to lines and formatting.


title: Spice and Wolf

text: A manga adaptation illustrated by Keito Koume began serialization in the November 2007 issue of ASCII Media Works' seinen manga magazine "Dengeki Maoh". The manga was licensed by Yen Press, which has begun releasing the volumes in English. A 12-episode anime adaptation aired between January and March 2008, plus a single original video animation (OVA) episode released in May 2008. A second OVA was released in April 2009 as a prequel to the second anime season "Spice and Wolf II", which aired 12 episodes between July and September 2009. Both anime seasons were released in English by Kadokawa Pictures USA and Funimation. Two visual novels based on the series for the Nintendo DS were released by ASCII Media Works in June 2008 and September 2009. A new anime adaptation has been announced.


title: Spice and Wolf

text: "Spice and Wolf"'s story revolves around Kraft Lawrence, a 25-year-old traveling merchant who peddles various goods from town to town to make a living in a stylized, fictional world, with a historical setting with European influences. His main goal in life is to gather enough money to start his own shop, and he already has been traveling for seven years while gaining experience in the trade. One night when stopped at the town of Pasloe, he finds in his wagon a wolf-deity named Holo who is over 600 years old. She takes the form of a 15-year-old girl, except for a wolf's tail and ears. She introduces herself as the town's goddess of harvest, who has kept it blessed with good harvests of wheat for many years. Holo has experienced increasing isolation and disillusionment at the townpeople's move away from her protection towards their own methods of increasing the harvest. She is especially hurt at their forgetting of the promise made between her and a farmer when she arrived in the village and their criticism of her as a "fickle god" for needing to replenish the soil with smaller harvests. Because of these changes, she wants to go back to her homeland in the north called Yoitsu; she believes the people have already forsaken her and that she has kept her promise to maintain the good harvests. Holo also wants to travel to see how the world has changed while she has remained in one place for many years. She manages to bargain her way out of the village by making a deal with Lawrence to take her with him. As they travel, her wisdom helps increase his profits, but at the same time, her true nature draws unwanted attention from the Church.


title: Spice and Wolf

text: "Spice and Wolf" began as a light novel series written by Isuna Hasekura, with illustrations by Jū Ayakura. Originally, Hasekura entered the first novel in the series into ASCII Media Works' twelfth Dengeki Novel Prize in 2005 and the novel won the Silver Prize. ASCII Media Works published 17 novels between February 10, 2006 and July 10, 2011 under their Dengeki Bunko imprint. The tagline for the novels is "Merchant meats spicy wolf.", an example of Engrish. The author of the novels has commented that what "meats" in the tagline really means is kept a secret, alluding to a possible intentional misspelling of "meets". In celebration of the series' 10th anniversary, Hasekura began writing a sequel in the 49th volume of "Dengeki Bunko Magazine", released on April 9, 2016. In 2016, publication of new books in the series resumed with the release of the eighteenth volume, along with the start of a spin-off series titled "Wolf and Parchment: New Theory Spice & Wolf", focusing on the characters Cole and Myuri, Lawrence and Holo's daughter.


title: Spice and Wolf

text: In September 2008, the novels were licensed by Yen Press for distribution in English. The first volume was released in December 2009, and a new volume was released every four months. While Yen Press redesigned the cover of the first novel, a dust jacket retaining the original cover art was released to select online retailers, and Yen Press also bundled the same jacket in the December 2009 issue of their manga anthology magazine "Yen Plus". Despite the different cover art, the illustrations within the novels remain unchanged. Yen Press later announced that future volumes of the series and reprints of the first volume would retain the original artwork while dust jackets would carry the new covers, citing that the redesigned covers were requested by retailers in order to appeal to a wider audience. Yen Press has also licensed the "Wolf and Parchment" series, with the first volume released in November 2017.


title: Spice and Wolf

text: A manga adaptation illustrated by Keito Koume began serialization in the November 2007 issue of ASCII Media Works' seinen manga magazine "Dengeki Maoh". The first "tankōbon" volume was released by ASCII Media Works under their Dengeki Comics imprint on March 27, 2008; 16 volumes have been published as of February 2018. Yen Press licensed the manga series at New York Comic Con 2009, and began releasing the series in English in North America.


title: Spice and Wolf

text: A manga adaption of "Wolf and Parchment" by Hidori began serialization in the July 2019 issue of "Dengeki Maoh".


title: Spice and Wolf

text: An Internet radio show hosted by Animate called aired ten episodes between December 7, 2007 and April 25, 2008. One episode was broadcast every other week on Friday, and the show was meant to mainly promote the anime series. The show is hosted by Jun Fukuyama who plays Kraft Lawrence in the anime, and Ami Koshimizu who plays Holo. The show contains eight corners, or parts to each broadcast which includes news about the series, comments and submissions from listeners, and a radio drama. A second radio show titled "Ōkamikku Radio II" aired ten episodes between June 10 and October 28, 2009 with the same producer and hosts.


title: Spice and Wolf

text: An anime adaptation produced by the animation studio Imagin aired in Japan between January 9 and March 26, 2008 on the Chiba TV Japanese television network; twelve of the thirteen episodes were broadcast, with episode seven being a DVD exclusive. The episodes are being released in six DVD compilation volumes in Japan; volume one contains three episodes while the subsequent volumes contain two episodes each. The volumes were released between April 2, 2008 and August 29, 2008 by Pony Canyon in Japan; volume three contains an original video animation (OVA) episode in addition to episode six of the television broadcast. A Blu-ray Disc box set of the series was released on January 30, 2009. The series is directed by Takeo Takahashi, written by Naruhisa Arakawa, and character designs are provided by Kazuya Kuroda. Takahashi was quoted as being a big fan of the novels. The opening theme is by Natsumi Kiyoura, and the ending theme is by Rocky Chack; both maxi singles were released on February 6, 2008. The anime's original soundtrack was released on March 12, 2008. The anime is licensed for release in English by Kadokawa Pictures USA and Funimation Entertainment, and a complete thirteen-episode DVD box set was released on December 22, 2009. The series made its North American television debut on November 16, 2010 on the Funimation Channel.


title: Spice and Wolf

text: A second season of the anime titled "Spice and Wolf II" aired twelve episodes in Japan between July 9 and September 24, 2009. Most of the staff from the first season returned, except for Toshimitsu Kobayashi replacing Kazuya Kuroda as the character designer and chief animation director, and "Spice and Wolf II" is animated by Brain's Base and Marvy Jack instead of Imagin. The voice actors from the first season retained their roles. Another OVA, animated by Brain's Base and Marvy Jack, was released bundled with a picture book entitled written and illustrated by the same creators of the light novels and was released by ASCII Media Works on April 30, 2009 under their Dengeki Bunko Visual Novel imprint. Funimation licensed "Spice and Wolf II" and released the series in English on August 30, 2011. The second season made its North American television debut on August 31, 2011 on the Funimation Channel. On September 11, 2012, Funimation released a Blu-ray/DVD combo pack of both seasons. The April 30, 2009 OVA is included on the season two disc as episode 00.


title: Spice and Wolf

text: A new anime adaptation was announced on February 25, 2022, as part of the novel's 15-year anniversary.


title: Spice and Wolf

text: A dating and business simulation visual novel based on the series, "Spice and Wolf: Holo's and My One Year", was developed by ASCII Media Works for the Nintendo DS, and was released on June 26, 2008 in Japan. The player assumes the role of a nameless character (the titular "Boku", who closely resembles Kraft Lawrence) as he travels around with Holo for a period of one year in the game. The story differs from that of the original novels or anime, and is presented as an alternate universe. Ami Koshimizu provides the voice of Holo in the game. The game was released on the same day in limited and regular editions; the limited edition was sold at a higher price, but comes with a life-sized poster of Holo, among other things.


title: Spice and Wolf

text: A sequel, also by ASCII Media Works for Nintendo DS, was released on September 17, 2009 in Japan, titled "Spice and Wolf: The Wind that Spans the Sea". The player once again assumes the role of Kraft Lawrence.


title: Spice and Wolf

text: A virtual reality adventure game titled "Spice and Wolf VR" and made by Spicy Tails, a dōjin group founded by Isuna Hasekura, was released on June 3, 2019 for Microsoft Windows supporting the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive VR headsets as well as the standalone Oculus Go headset. It was later released for the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 on September 5, 2019, supporting the Nintendo Labo VR Kit and PlayStation VR respectively. A port to the Oculus Quest headset was released in November 2019. Its sequel, "Spice and Wolf VR2", was released on December 10, 2020.


title: Spice and Wolf

text: ASCII Media Works reported that as of November 2009, over 3.5 million copies of the first twelve novels have been sold. The light novel series has ranked three times in Takarajimasha's light novel guide book "Kono Light Novel ga Sugoi!" published yearly: first in 2007, and fifth in both 2008 and 2009; in the 2007 issue, Holo won Best Female Character. The first manga volume of the English release in North America debuted at No. 4 on the "New York Times" Best Seller Manga list, while the third volume reached at No. 3.


title: Spice and Wolf

text: In April 2008, the maid café "Cafe with Cat" in Akihabara, Tokyo, Japan hosted a specially themed event called Cafe with Wolf for a period of three days between April 4 and April 6. The event included three new items on the menu and tied in with the sale of the first anime DVD volume which went on sale on April 2, 2008. People who bought the DVD from the Comic Toranoana Akihabara Honten store (which is on the first floor below Cafe with Cat) and brought the receipt with them into Cafe with Wolf were entered into a lottery to win rare "Spice and Wolf" goods.


title: Vacation Friends

text: Vacation Friends is a 2021 American buddy comedy film directed by Clay Tarver, who co-wrote the film with Tom Mullen, Tim Mullen, Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley. It stars Lil Rel Howery, John Cena, Yvonne Orji, Meredith Hagner, Robert Wisdom, Lynn Whitfield, and Andrew Bachelor.


title: Vacation Friends

text: Distributed by 20th Century Studios, "Vacation Friends" was released on Hulu on August 27, 2021, receiving mixed reviews from critics. A sequel titled "Honeymoon Friends" is in development.


title: Vacation Friends

text: Marcus and Emily are on vacation in Mexico, where he intends to propose. His plan is ruined when first their room is flooded, and then a hotel employee ruins the surprise. With no other choice, Marcus proposes to her on the spot in the lobby, and she accepts. Wild and carefree Ron and Kyla watch their special moment, inviting them to stay with them for their trip.


title: Vacation Friends

text: The four spend their vacation together, which includes Marcus and Emily eloping. Both black out due to excessive drinking but Marcus briefly regains consciousness during what appears to be Kyla having sex with him. The next day, Emily remembers nothing from the night before and Marcus decides to keep what he recalls a secret. At the end of their vacation, Marcus and Emily decide to cut ties with Ron and Kyla.


title: Vacation Friends

text: Months later, Marcus and Emily have their official wedding, hosted by Emily's parents, Harold and Suzanne. They, especially Harold, don't approve of Marcus, partly because of an incident where Marcus punched Emily's brother Gabe. Harold entrusts Marcus with the rings for the wedding, which belonged to Emily's great-grandparents.


title: Vacation Friends

text: Before the ceremony, Ron and Kyla crash the reception after discovering the wedding location online. Harold is initially furious at the intrusion, but instantly welcomes the couple after learning that Ron was a fellow Green Beret. Kyla reveals she is pregnant and Marcus is 'directly involved' in the pregnancy, making him believe that he is the baby's father. The next day, Ron speaks to Harold, convincing him to give Marcus a second chance. A grateful Marcus selects Ron to be best man, and Ron convinces Marcus to entrust him with the rings.


title: Vacation Friends

text: The next day, the men go golfing, with Gabe and his friend. To Marcus's chagrin, Ron suggests they bet on the game. Halfway through the round, Ron reveals that he bankrolled the wagers by pawning the wedding rings. On the final hole, Ron makes a massive bet that he can hit the 18th green in a single stroke. Despite Ron initially looking at the wrong green, forcing him to make a 375-yard shot to win the bet, he miraculously sinks a hole in one to win the bet. (Actually, he had bribed a golf course employee to plant the ball in the hole.)


title: Vacation Friends

text: After returning to the pawnshop to retrieve the rings, Ron accidentally causes Marcus to drop the rings in a sewer grate. Marcus chokes Ron in anger, who reveals that he was told by a doctor that he was sterile and that Kyla got pregnant 'because of Marcus'.


title: Vacation Friends

text: At the rehearsal dinner, Kyla prepares to make a speech, where it seems like she is going to announce that Marcus is the father of her child. He interrupts, sharing the full story of what he believes happened in Mexico, only for Kyla to reveal they only intend to name the baby after Marcus, and he is not the father. Marcus tells an angry Harold the rings were lost and a fight ensues. Outside the wedding hall, Marcus and Emily angrily demand that Ron and Kyla leave.


title: Vacation Friends

text: Emily's grandma, Phyllis delivers a wedding gift from Kyla. The letter inside reveals that Ron had lost his previous best friend Charlie (on military duty) and that his relationship with her and Marcus has helped him to recover. The gift is the wedding rings, which Ron retrieved from the sewer. Emily and Marcus realize they made a mistake by sending Kyla and Ron away, so they eventually find them. The four reunite, while Ron and Kyla reveal they are finally planning to marry, holding the same ceremony in Mexico where Marcus and Emily tied the knot, along with their family and friends joining.


title: Vacation Friends

text: In March 2014, it was announced Chris Pratt and Anna Faris were set to star in the film, with Steve Pink set to direct from a screenplay by Tom and Tim Mullen, and 20th Century Fox distributing. In November 2015, it was reported Ice Cube had signed on to replace Pratt, with Faris no longer attached. In December 2019, it was announced John Cena, Lil Rel Howery, and Meredith Hagner would star in the film instead, with Clay Tarver replacing Pink, 20th Century Studios attached to produce, and Hulu set to distribute. In January 2020, Yvonne Orji joined the cast of the film. In March 2020, Tawny Newsome and Barry Rothbart were added as well, and in September 2020, Lynn Whitfield, Robert Wisdom and Kamal Bolden also signed on to co-star.


title: Vacation Friends

text: Principal photography began in Georgia in March 2020. However, production was halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Production resumed in September 2020, and concluded in October 2020.


title: Vacation Friends

text: The film was released on Hulu on August 27, 2021, in the United States, Disney+ in international markets such as Canada and the United Kingdom. It was released as a launch title on Star+ on August 31 in Latin America. Disney+ Hotstar released the film in India on August 27, and in select territories on September 3, 2021.


title: Vacation Friends

text: On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an approval rating of 58% based on 74 reviews, with an average rating of 5.60/10. The critics consensus reads, "The laughs aren't always in steady supply, but the terrific cast makes "Vacation Friends" a comedy you can stream without serious reservations." According to Metacritic, which sampled 16 critics and calculated a weighted average score of 49 out of 100, the film received "mixed or average reviews".


title: Vacation Friends

text: Glenn Kenny of "The New York Times" stated that the movie's strength resides in its cast that successfully manages to provide entertainment, while finding Clay Tarver's direction skillful compared to what other buddy comedy movie directors provide. Matthew Aguilar of "Comicbook.com" rated the movie 4 out of 5 stars, found that the chemistry between the cast members delivers delight, praised the performances of the actors, while finding that Tarver's direction skillfully captures the attention of the audience with his own perspective on the buddy comedy genre. Matt Fowler of "IGN" rated the movie 7 out of 10 and praised the chemistry between the characters, complimented the performances of the cast, stating that both Cena and Meredith Hagner have a natural aptitude to provide a sharp humor, despite finding the movie unsurprising with its plot. Brandon Katz of "Observer" rated the film 2,5 out of 4 stars, claimed that the movie proves Cena is successfully able to portray characters in the comedy genre, found the soundtrack and classic humor of the movie enjoyable, despite finding it a bit generic compared to other buddy comedy movies.


title: Vacation Friends

text: In September 2021, it was reported that a sequel titled "Honeymoon Friends" was in development, with the cast and Clay Tarver set to return.


title: Cryptocurrency bubble

text: A cryptocurrency bubble is a phenomenon where the market increasingly considers the going price of cryptocurrency assets to be inflated against their hypothetical value. The history of cryptocurrency has been marked by several speculative bubbles.


title: Cryptocurrency bubble

text: Some economists and prominent investors have expressed the view that the entire cryptocurrency market constitutes a speculative bubble. Adherents of this view include Berkshire Hathaway board member Warren Buffett and several laureates of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, central bankers, and investors.


title: Cryptocurrency bubble

text: In February 2011, the price of bitcoin rose to , then fell to that April. This spike was encouraged by several "Slashdot" posts about it. In June 2011, bitcoin's price again rose, to . This came after attention from a "Gawker" article about the dark web market Silk Road. The price then fell to that November.


title: Cryptocurrency bubble

text: In November 2013, Bitcoin's price rose to . It then gradually declined, bottoming out at in January 2015.


title: Cryptocurrency bubble

text: The "2018 cryptocurrency crash" (also known as the Bitcoin "crash" and the "Great crypto crash") was the sell-off of most cryptocurrencies starting in January 2018. After an unprecedented boom in 2017, the price of Bitcoin fell by about 65% from 6 January to 6 February 2018. Subsequently, nearly all other cryptocurrencies followed Bitcoin's crash. By September 2018, cryptocurrencies collapsed 80% from their peak in January 2018, making the 2018 cryptocurrency crash worse than the Dot-com bubble's 78% collapse. By 26 November, Bitcoin also fell by 80% from its peak, having lost almost one-third of its value in the previous week.


title: Cryptocurrency bubble

text: A January 2018 article by CBS cautioned about possible fraud, citing the case of BitConnect, a British company which received a cease-and-desist order from the Texas State Securities Board. BitConnect had promised very high monthly returns but hadn't registered with state securities regulators or given their office address.


title: Cryptocurrency bubble

text: From January to February 2018, the price of Bitcoin fell 65 percent. By September 2018, the MVIS CryptoCompare Digital Assets 10 Index had lost 80 percent of its value, making the decline of the cryptocurrency market, in percentage terms, greater than the bursting of the Dot-com bubble in 2002. In November 2018, the total market capitalization for Bitcoin fell below $100 billion for the first time since October 2017, and the price of Bitcoin fell below $4,000, representing an 80 percent decline from its peak the previous January. Bitcoin reached a low of around $3,100 in December 2018.


title: Cryptocurrency bubble

text: Wired noted in 2017 that the bubble in initial coin offerings (ICOs) was about to burst. Some investors bought ICOs in hopes of participating in the financial gains similar to those enjoyed by early Bitcoin or Ethereum speculators.


title: Cryptocurrency bubble

text: Binance has been one of the biggest winners in this boom as it surged to become the largest cryptocurrency trading platform by volume. It lists hundreds of digital tokens on its exchange.


title: Cryptocurrency bubble

text: In June 2018, Ella Zhang of Binance Labs, a division of the cryptocurrency exchange Binance, stated that she was hoping to see the bubble in ICOs collapse. She promised to help "fight scams and shit coins".


title: Cryptocurrency bubble

text: From 8 March to 12 March 2020, the price of Bitcoin fell by 30 percent from $8,901 to $6,206. By October 2020, Bitcoin was worth approximately $13,200.


title: Cryptocurrency bubble

text: In November 2020, Bitcoin again surpassed its previous all-time high of over $19,000. After another surge on 3 January 2021 with $34,792.47, Bitcoin crashed by 17 percent the next day. Bitcoin traded above $40,000 for the first time on 8 January 2021 and reached $50,000 on 16 February 2021. On Wednesday, 20 October 2021, Bitcoin reached a new all-time high of $66,974.


title: Cryptocurrency bubble

text: In early 2021, Bitcoin's price witnessed another boom, rising over 700% since March 2020, and reaching above $40,000 for the first time on 7 January. On 11 January, the UK Financial Conduct Authority warned investors against lending or investments in cryptoassets, that they should be prepared "to lose all their money". On 16 February, Bitcoin reached $50,000 for the first time. On 13 March, Bitcoin surpassed $61,000 for the first time. Following a smaller correction in February, Bitcoin plunged from its peak above $64,000 on 14 April to below $49,000 on 23 April, representing a 23% mini-crash in less than 10 days, dipping below the March bottom trading range and wiping half a trillion dollars from the combined crypto market cap.


title: Cryptocurrency bubble

text: On 14 April, Coinbase, a much hyped crypto exchange went public on the NASDAQ. Their shared grew by over 31% on their first day to $328.28 pushing their market cap to $85.8B.


title: Cryptocurrency bubble

text: Other cryptocurrencies' prices also sharply rose, then followed by losses of value during this period. In May 2021, the value of Dogecoin, originally created as a joke, increased to 20,000% of value in one year. It then dropped 34% over the weekend.


title: Cryptocurrency bubble

text: By 19 May, Bitcoin had dropped in value by 30% to $31,000, Ethereum by 40%, and Dogecoin by 45%. Nearly all cryptocurrencies were down by double-digit percentages. Major cryptocurrency exchanges went down amid a market-wide price crash. This was partly in response to Elon Musk's announcement that Tesla would suspend payments using the Bitcoin network due to environmental concerns, along with an announcement from the People's Bank of China reiterating that digital currencies cannot be used for payments.


title: Cryptocurrency bubble

text: Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies experienced a solid recovery after Elon Musk met with leading Bitcoin mining companies to develop more sustainable and efficient Bitcoin mining. After bottoming out on July 19, by early September Bitcoin had reached $52,633.54 while Ethereum grew by over 100% to $3,952.13. After a short but significant fall, both crypto's peaked on November 7, 2021 at $67,566.83 and $4,812.09, respectively. The NASDAQ would peak 12 days later on November 19 at 16,057.44. Since bottoming out after the covid crash in 2020, Bitcoin had grown over 1,200% in value while Ethereum had grown over 4,000% in value while the NASDAQ had only grown around 134%.


title: Cryptocurrency bubble

text: In September, Bitcoin officially became a legal tender in El Salvador with many news sources wondering what countries would be next.


title: Cryptocurrency bubble

text: As of October 2021, China has continued shutting down crypto trading and mining activities, and Tesla has not yet resumed payments with Bitcoin.


title: Cryptocurrency bubble

text: After their peak, the crypto market began to fall with the rest of the market. By the end of 2021, Bitcoin had fallen nearly 30% from its peak down to $47,686.81 and Ethereum had fallen about 23% to $3,769.70. In December 2022, the Washington Post reported "the sense that the crypto bubble has definitively popped, taking with it billions of dollars of investments made by regular people, pension funds, venture capitalists and traditional companies."


title: Cryptocurrency bubble

text: In May 2022, the stablecoin TerraUSD fell to 10 US cents. This was supposed to be pegged to the US dollar via a complex algorithmic relationship with its support coin Luna. The loss of the peg resulted in Luna falling to almost zero, down from its high of $119.51. The collapse wiped out $45billion of market capitalization in a week. On 25 May, a proposal was approved to reissue a new Luna cryptocurrency and to decouple from and abandon the devalued UST stablecoin. The new Luna coin lost value in the opening days of being listed on exchanges.


title: Cryptocurrency bubble

text: In the wake of Terra-Luna's collapse, another algorithmic stablecoin, DEI, lost its peg to the dollar and started to collapse.


title: Cryptocurrency bubble

text: On January 7, 2022, a class-action lawsuit was filed against EthereumMax alleging it to be a pump and dump scheme with media personality Kim Kardashian, former professional boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr., former NBA player Paul Pierce, and other celebrities also being named in the lawsuit for promoting the Ether cryptocurrency on their social media accounts.


title: Cryptocurrency bubble

text: On February 18, the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in a lawsuit against Bitconnect that the Securities Act of 1933 extends to targeted solicitation using social media.


title: Cryptocurrency bubble

text: On the same day, a class-action lawsuit was filed against SafeMoon alleging it to also be a pump and dump scheme with professional boxer Jake Paul, musician Nick Carter, rappers Soulja Boy and Lil Yachty, and social media personality Ben Phillips also being named in the lawsuit for promoting the SafeMoon cryptocurrency with misleading information on their social media accounts.


title: Cryptocurrency bubble

text: On April 1, a class-action lawsuit was filed in Florida against the LGBcoin cryptocurrency company, NASCAR, professional stock car racing driver Brandon Brown, and political commentator Candace Owens alleging that the defendants made false or misleading statements about the LGBcoin and that the founders of the company had engaged in a pump and dump scheme.


title: Cryptocurrency bubble

text: On April 13, Coinbase received a class-action securities fraud lawsuit from its shareholders for including false and misleading statements and omissions in the registration statement and prospectus of its initial public offering.


title: Cryptocurrency bubble

text: On June 13, Binance received a class-action lawsuit from more than 2,000 investors accusing the company of false advertising in promoting terraUSD.


title: Cryptocurrency bubble

text: On June 17, TerraForm Labs received a class-action lawsuit in the United States alleging the company misled investors in violation of federal and California securities laws in marketing its cryptocurrencies in a manner that resembled securities.


title: Cryptocurrency bubble

text: On July 7, Celsius Network received a lawsuit from a former cryptocurrency investment manager alleging the company failed to implement adequate risk management strategies or accounting practices to hedge the firm against cryptocurrency price fluctuations and protect its ability to repay its depositors, and that the company was operating an effective Ponzi scheme.


title: Cryptocurrency bubble

text: On July 21, an ex-Coinbase employee and 2 other men were charged with wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. This marked the first time charges were brought to people involving crypto assets.


title: Cryptocurrency bubble

text: In early November, Binance, one of the largest crypto exchanges in the world, announced it would be dissolving its holdings in FTX Token (FTT) with reports that most of FTX liquidity was based in this coin and was very unstable. This resulted in a "bank run" on FTX resulting in 90% of all FTT being withdrawn. The price of FTT fell from $22 on November 7 to under $5.00 on November 8, an 80% drop. Abracadabra.com's stablecoin "magic internet money" (MIM) also briefly lost its peg to the US Dollar for the first time since May 2022. This all resulted in a liquidity crisis with the company unable to pay off the withdrawls. On November 8, rival Binance announced plans to buy the company to save it from collapse. This sent shockwaves through the crypto market and led to a 10% drop in Bitcoin price and a 15% drop in Ether price. The following day, however, Binance immediately withdrew its offer causing Bitcoin and Ether to plummet another 14% and 16%, respectively, to their lowest levels since November 2020. The same day, the SEC and Justice Department launched an investigation into the company. FTX filed for bankruptcy protection on November 11.


title: Cryptocurrency bubble

text: Bitcoin has been characterized as a speculative bubble by eight winners of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences: Paul Krugman, Robert J. Shiller, Joseph Stiglitz, Richard Thaler, James Heckman, Thomas Sargent, Angus Deaton, and Oliver Hart; and by central bank officials including Alan Greenspan, Agustín Carstens, Vítor Constâncio, and Nout Wellink.


title: Cryptocurrency bubble

text: The investors Warren Buffett and George Soros have respectively characterized it as a "mirage" and a "bubble", while the business executives Jack Ma and J.P. Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon have called it a "bubble" and a "fraud", respectively. However, Dimon said later he regrets calling Bitcoin a fraud.


title: Cryptocurrency bubble

text: Other notable skeptics are Bill Gates, Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist, Paul Krugman, economist and Nobel prize laureate, Bruce Schneier, cryptographer, computer security expert, and public policy lecturer at Harvard University, and Molly White, author of the "Web3 Is Going Just Great" website.


title: Gomburza

text: Gomburza, alternatively stylized as GOMBURZA or GomBurZa, refers to three Filipino Catholic priests, Mariano Gomez, José Burgos, and Jacinto Zamora, who were executed by garrote on February 17, 1872, in Bagumbayan, Philippines by Spanish colonial authorities on charges of subversion arising from the 1872 Cavite mutiny. The name is a portmanteau of the priests' surnames.


title: Gomburza

text: Gomburza incurred the hatred of Spanish authorities for fighting for equal rights among priests and leading the campaign against the Spanish friars. They fought on the issues of secularization in the Philippines that led to the conflict of religious and church seculars.


title: Gomburza

text: Their execution had a profound effect on many late 19th-century Filipinos; José Rizal, later to become the country's national hero, would dedicate his novel "El filibusterismo" to their memory. Mutiny by workers in the Cavite Naval Yard was the pretext needed by the authorities to redress a perceived humiliation from the principal objective, José Burgos, who threatened the established order.


title: Gomburza

text: During the Spanish colonial period, four social class distinctions were observed in the islands: Spaniards who were born in Spain, "peninsulares"; Spaniards born in the colonies of Spain (Latin America or the Philippines), "insulares" or "creoles"; Spanish "mestizos", Chinese or 'Indios' (natives) dwelling within or near the city (or town), and the church; and Chinese, Sangley, and rural "Indios".


title: Gomburza

text: Burgos was a Doctor of Philosophy and Arts whose prominence extended even to Spain, such that when the new Governor and Captain-General Carlos María de la Torre arrived from Spain to assume his duties, he invited Burgos to sit beside him in his carriage during the inaugural procession, a place traditionally reserved for the archbishop and who was a peninsular Spaniard. The arrival of the liberal de la Torre was opposed by the ruling minority of friars, regular priests who belonged to an order (Dominicans, Augustinians, Recollects, and Franciscans) and their allies in civil government. It was supported by the secular priests, most of whom were "mestizos" and "darnas" assigned to parishes and far-flung communities, who believed that the reforms and the equality that they wanted with peninsular Spaniards were finally coming. In less than two years, de la Torre was replaced by Rafael de Izquierdo.


title: Gomburza

text: Mariano Gomes de los Angeles was a well-known Roman Catholic priest during their time, part of the trio accused of mutiny by Spanish colonial authorities in the Philippines in the 19th century. Gomez was the child of Alejandro Francisco Gomez and Martina Custodia. He was born in the suburb of Santa Cruz, Manila on August 2, 1799. He was a "Tornatras", one born from mixed native (Filipino), Chinese, and Spanish ancestries. He studied at the Colegio de San Juan de Letrán and later studied theology at the University of Santo Tomas, preparing himself for the priesthood in the Seminary of Manila. Gomez was designated as the head priest of Bacoor, Cavite on June 2, 1824. He also taught for the agriculture and cottage industries aside from taking care of spiritual necessities. He fought for the rights of his fellow native priests against Spanish abuses. He was also active in the publication of the newspaper "La Verdad". On February 17, 1872, he was one of the priests executed due to the false accusations of treason and sedition, taking a supposed active role in the Cavite Mutiny. He was later on sentenced to death by garrote in a military court at Bagumbayan field.


title: Gomburza

text: José Apolonio Burgos y García was born in Vigan, Ilocos Sur on February 9, 1837, and was baptized on the 12th of the same month. His parents were Jose Burgos, a Spanish lieutenant in the Spanish militia of Ilocos, and Florencia Garcia, a native of Vigan. During his early teenage years, he studied at the Colegio de San Juan de Letran and later went to the University of Santo Tomas, receiving a Bachelor of Philosophy in 1855, Bachelor of Theology in 1859, Licentiate in Philosophy in 1860, Licentiate in Theology in 1862, Doctor of Theology, and Doctor of Canon Law in 1868.


title: Gomburza

text: Jacinto Zamora y del Rosario was born on August 14, 1835, in Pandacan, Manila. His parents were Venancio Zamora and Hilario del Rosario. He studied at the Colegio de San Juan de Letran and graduated with a degree of Bachelor of Arts. He later transferred to the University of Santo Tomas and obtained a degree of Bachelor of Canon and Civil Laws. He prepared for the priesthood in the Seminary of Manila. He had dreamt of becoming a priest at a young age. After being given ministerial and priestly authority, Zamora was able to establish parishes in Marikina, Pasig, and Batangas and was assigned to also oversee Manila Cathedral on December 3, 1864.


title: Gomburza

text: The execution of Gomburza remains one of the most controversial issues deeply embedded in Philippine history. However, their tragic end led to the dawn of Philippine Nationalism in the 19th century, intensified by Dr. Jose P. Rizal, in dedicating his second novel entitled "El Filibusterismo" which condemned the Spanish rule and the elite Filipinos. In his novel, Rizal wrote "To the memory of the priests, Don Mariano Gomez (89 years old), Don Jose Burgos (40 years old), and Don Jacinto Zamora (55 years old). Executed in Bagumbayan Field on 28th of February, 1872. The church, by refusing to degrade you, has placed in doubt the crime that has been imputed to you; the government, by surrounding your trials with mystery and shadows causes the belief that there was some error, committed in fatal moments; and all the Philippines, by worshiping your memory and calling you martyrs, in no sense recognizes your capability. In so far, therefore, as your complicity in the Cavite Mutiny is not proved, as you may or may not have been patriots, and as you may or may not cherish sentiments for justice and liberty, I have the right to dedicate my work to you as victims of the evil which I undertake in combat." It must be noted, however, that Rizal's account was erroneous in detail as the execution took place on February 17, 1872, not on February 28, 1872, as Rizal mistakenly mentions. Additionally, the ages of the priests were listed down inaccurately. At the time of the execution, Gomez was 72 years old, Burgos was 35 years old, and Zamora was 36 years old.


title: Gomburza

text: Their deaths were facilitated in a public execution at Bagumbayan (Luzon) using a garrote due to false accusations charged against them by Spanish authorities. Their alleged crimes included treason and sedition for being the supposed masterminds of the insurrection of Indios (native Filipinos) working in the Cavite arsenal. Furthermore, according to the Spanish military tribunal, they were believed to have been a part of a clandestine movement aimed to overthrow the Spanish government, making them a threat to the Spanish Clergy. The execution has since been labeled the Terror of 1872 and is recognized as a pivotal event contributing to the later Philippine Revolution from 1896 to 1898.


title: Gomburza

text: The Execution of Gomburza was documented by a Spanish historian named Jose Montero y Vidal who wrote a book entitled Historia General de Filipinas that centers on a Spaniard's perspective of the Cavite Mutiny. The inclusion of biased story-telling of the reasons for the execution of Gomburza later gained widespread criticisms.


title: Gomburza

text: Vidal's account was corroborated by the then Governor-General Rafael Izquierdo y Gutiérrez. In his report, he narrated that the abolition of privileges enjoyed by the workers of Cavite arsenals caused the "revolution". He also blamed the media, specifically the Spanish press, regardless of democratic, liberal, or republican affiliation, for the circulation of unrestrained media. The latter is said to have featured propaganda such as overthrowing a secular throne, which allegedly inspired the Indios (native Filipinos) to organize the mutiny. General Izquierdo also mentioned the native clergy being a part of the rebels who were against the Spanish friars. The clergy supposedly wanted to end the hold of Spain over the Philippines to elect a new "hari" who would rule the land and named Fathers Jose Burgos and Jacinto Zamora to be the ones responsible. The accounts of these two Spaniards supported one another, thus pointing to a planned conspiracy among educated leaders, mestizos, abogadillos, Manila and Cavite residents, and native clergy. Furthermore, on June 20, 1872, the feast of the Virgin Loreto was celebrated in the district of Sampaloc, involving a fireworks display as a normal tradition. However, according to Izquierdo and Vidal, the fireworks mislead those in Cavite, causing them to attack Spanish officers, fulfilling republican wishes to eradicate the Spanish presence. There was also a mass murder of friars, which made the arrest of Gomburza legal. Through a quick court trial, they were sentenced to death by strangulation.


title: Gomburza

text: However, much speculation arose with their swift end that stirred the public, with some of the controversies published by Philippine News Agency. The reports stated that the Spanish prosecutors bribed a witness to testify against the three priests who were charged with sedition and treason, which led to their death by garrote. Moreover, according to Edmund Plauchut, as quoted by Jaime Veneracion, late on the night of February 15, 1872, the three priests were found guilty of treason as instigators of mutiny in the Cavite Navy-yard and were sentenced to death by Spanish Court martial. The judgement of the court was read to the priest in Fort Santiago the next morning, and they were told that they would be executed the following day (February 17, 1872). After they heard the sentence, Burgos broke into sobs, Zamora lost his mind and never recovered it, and only Gomez listened impassively.


title: Gomburza

text: Almost forty thousand of Filipinos, who were at different places surrounding the platform, witnessed the execution of the Filipino priest and saw Saldua (the artilleryman who testified for the conviction of the priest). When Gomez's confessor, a Recollect friar, exhorted him loudly to accept his fate, he replied: "Father, I know that not a leaf falls to the ground but by the will of God. Since He wills that I should die here, His holy will be done."


title: Gomburza

text: Nonetheless, Dr. Trinidad Hermenegildo Pardo de Tavera, a Filipino scholar and researcher, informed the world of the Filipino side of the controversy. According to him, it was a mere mutiny by the laborers of the cavite arsenal for their dissatisfaction from the abolition of their privileges due to the orders of General Izquierdo on January 20, 1872. About 200 men, including soldiers, laborers, and residents of Cavite, headed by Sergeant Lamadrid, assassinated all Spanish officers in sight, including the commanding officer. But then, Gen. Izquierdo, along with the friars, exaggerated the event to alarm the Spanish Government in order to delay installing reforms for the native Filipinos. Such reforms included the establishment of a school of arts and trades, which aimed to improve the education of Filipinos but would mean that the friars would lose their power in the government. Gen. Izquierdo took advantage of the event to instill fear in the minds of native Filipinos. Unfortunately, the Spanish Government in Spain relied on the report of Gen. Izquierdo and made no more attempts to investigate the issue. They believed that the said movement was indeed a big and well-planned conspiracy to dissolute the Spanish Sovereignty in the Philippines.


title: Gomburza

text: The so-called Cavite Mutiny of workers in the arsenal of the naval shipyard over a pay reduction produced a witness willing to implicate the three priests, each of whom was summarily tried and sentenced to death by garrote on February 17, 1872. The bodies of the three priests were buried in a common, unmarked grave in the Paco Cemetery, in keeping with the practice of burying enemies of the state. Notably, in the archives of Spain, there is no record of how Izquierdo, a liberal, could have been influenced to authorize these executions. Gregorio Meliton Martinez, the Archbishop of Manila, refused to defrock the priests, as they did not break any canon law. He ordered the bells of every church to be rung in honor of the executed priests. The aftermath of the investigation produced scores of suspects, most of whom were exiled to Guam in the Marianas.


title: Gomburza

text: In 1998, the remains, believed to belong to the trio, were discovered at the Paco Park Cemetery by the Manila City Engineers Office. A gravesite commemorating the trio was then erected at the same spot where the remains were discovered.


title: George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham

text: George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, (; 28 August 1592 – 23 August 1628), was an English courtier, statesman, and patron of the arts. He was a favourite and possibly also a lover of King James I of England. Buckingham remained at the height of royal favour for the first three years of the reign of James's son, King Charles I, until a disgruntled army officer assassinated him.


title: George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham

text: Villiers was born in Brooksby, Leicestershire, on 28 August 1592, the son of the minor gentleman Sir George Villiers (1550–1606). His mother, Mary (1570–1632), daughter of Anthony Beaumont of Glenfield, Leicestershire, was widowed early. She educated her son for a courtier's life and sent him to travel in France with John Eliot.


title: George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham

text: Villiers took to the training set by his mother: he could dance and fence well, spoke a little French, and overall became an excellent student. Godfrey Goodman (Bishop of Gloucester from 1624 to 1655) declared Villiers "the handsomest-bodied man in all of England; his limbs so well compacted, and his conversation so pleasing, and of so sweet a disposition".


title: George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham

text: In August 1614, at age twenty-one, Villiers caught the eye of King James I at a hunt in Apethorpe. Opponents of the king's favourite Robert Carr, Earl of Somerset, saw an opportunity to displace Somerset and began promoting Villiers. Money was raised to purchase Villiers a new wardrobe, and intense lobbying secured his appointment as Royal Cup-bearer, a position that allowed him to make conversation with the king. Villiers began to appear as a dancer in masques from 1615, in which he could exhibit his grace of movement and beauty of body, a recognised avenue to royal favour since the time of Elizabeth I.


title: George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham

text: Under the king's patronage, Villiers advanced rapidly through the ranks of the nobility, and his court appointments grew in importance. In 1615 he was knighted as a Gentleman of the Bedchamber. In 1616, when he became the King's Master of the Horse, he was elevated to the peerage as Baron Whaddon, Viscount Villiers, and made a Knight of the Garter. The next year he was made Earl and in 1618 promoted Marquess of Buckingham, then finally in 1623 Duke of Buckingham. Villiers' new rank allowed him to dance side by side with the royal heir Charles I, with whom his friendship developed through his tutoring of the prince in dance.


title: George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham

text: Villiers was appointed Lord High Admiral of England in 1619, and in 1623 the former dukedom of Buckingham was recreated for him when he was negotiating abroad on the king's behalf. Since the dukedom of Norfolk had lapsed in 1572 with the attainder and execution of Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, Buckingham now became the only English duke who, at the time, was not a member of the royal family (James's two sons were Duke of Cornwall and Duke of York).


title: George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham

text: Villiers was the last in a succession of handsome young favourites on whom the king lavished affection and patronage. The extent to which the relationship between the two was sexual has been much discussed. James's nickname for Buckingham was "Steenie", after St. Stephen who was said to have had "the face of an angel". Speaking to the Privy Council in 1617, James tried to clarify the situation:


title: George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham

text: Speculation about the close relationship between king and favourite was not confined to Great Britain. It was carried back to France by the poet Théophile de Viau, who was resident in England in 1621 and had then addressed to Buckingham the flattering ode "Au marquis du Boukinquan". On his return, he went on to justify his own masculine preferences by a witty appeal both to Classical mythology and to the contemporary gossip:


title: George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham

text: Until James I died in 1625, Buckingham was the king's constant companion and closest advisor, enjoying control of all royal patronage. Buckingham used his influence to prodigiously enrich his relatives and advance their social positions, which soured public opinion towards him.


title: George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham

text: In his rise to power, Buckingham became connected with the philosopher and jurist Francis Bacon. Bacon wrote letters of advice to the young favourite and drafted the patent of nobility when Buckingham ascended to the peerage. With Buckingham's support, Bacon was appointed Lord Chancellor in 1618. In gratitude, Bacon honoured Buckingham's many requests for favours from the court for friends and allies. Following an investigation by Parliament into royal grants of monopoly, financial speculation and corrupt officials, Bacon was convicted of corruption and forced into retirement. Neither Buckingham nor the King attempted to intervene on Bacon's behalf. Many of Buckingham's contemporaries believed he had sacrificed Bacon to save himself from Parliamentary scrutiny, as he had been liberally spending public funds and accepting gifts and bribes.


title: George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham

text: From 1616, Buckingham also established a dominant influence in Irish affairs, beginning with the appointment of his client, Sir Oliver St John, as Lord Deputy, 1616–22. Thence, he acquired control of the Irish customs farm (1618), dominated Irish patronage at court, particularly with the sale of Irish titles and honours, and (from 1618) began to build substantial Irish estates for himself, his family and clients—with the aid of a plantation lobby, composed of official clients in Dublin. To the same end, he secured the creation of an Irish Court of Wards in 1622. Buckingham's influence thus crucially sustained an aggressive Irish plantation policy into the 1620s.


title: George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham

text: When Parliament began its investigation into monopolies and other abuses in England, and later Ireland in 1621, Buckingham made a show of support to avoid action being taken against him. However, the king's decision to send a commission of inquiry to Ireland, which included parliamentary firebrands, threatened to expose Buckingham's growing, often clandestine, interests there. Knowing that the king had assured the Spanish ambassador that the Parliament would not be allowed to imperil a Spanish matrimonial alliance, he therefore surreptitiously instigated a conflict between the Parliament and the king over the Spanish Match, which resulted in the Parliament's premature dissolution in December 1621 and a hobbling of the Irish commission in 1622. Irish reforms introduced in 1623–24 by Lionel Cranfield, Earl of Middlesex and Lord Treasurer, were largely nullified by Middlesex's impeachment and disgrace in the violently anti-Spanish 1624 parliament—spurred on by Buckingham and Prince Charles.


title: George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham

text: In 1623 Buckingham, now Lord Admiral and effective Foreign Minister, accompanied Charles I, then Prince of Wales, to Spain for marriage negotiations regarding the Infanta Maria. The negotiations had long been stuck, but it is believed that Buckingham's crassness was key to the total collapse of the agreement, and they returned in a black mood. The Spanish ambassador asked Parliament to have Buckingham executed for his behaviour in Madrid, but Buckingham gained popularity by calling for war with Spain on his return.


title: George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham

text: He headed further marriage negotiations, but when, in December 1624, the betrothal to Henrietta Maria of France was announced, the choice of a Catholic was widely condemned. Buckingham, whose popularity had suffered a further setback, took a decision to help the rebellious Huguenot Admiral Benjamin, Duke of Soubise. An ardent Protestant, Buckingham ordered Sir John Penington to help; but the Navy only succeeded in attacking Richelieu's enemies, defeating his objects in August 1625 and losing La Rochelle. Similarly he was blamed for the failure of the military expedition under the command of Ernst von Mansfeld, a famous German mercenary general, sent to the continent to recover the Electorate of the Palatinate (1625), which had belonged to Frederick V, Elector Palatine, son-in-law of King James I of England. However, when the Duke of York became King Charles I, Buckingham was the only man to maintain his position from the court of James.


title: George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham

text: These failures provoked the Commons to refuse further levies of taxation to fund Buckingham's extravagant adventures, while at the same time the duke was accused of being enraptured by intrigues; of dealing a blow to the international Catholic conspiracy. Yet even before they set sail the food was consumed awaiting the Board of Ordnance to deliver the cannonry and musket balls. On this occasion, the Lord Admiral was not in command. The experienced admirals were unavailable, so it fell to the newly created Viscount Wimbledon to lead the expedition with one eye on history; to repeat the actions of Sir Francis Drake by seizing the main Spanish port at Cádiz and burning the fleet in its harbour.


title: George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham

text: Although this plan was tactically sound—landing further up the coast and marching the militia army on the city—the troops were badly equipped, ill-disciplined and poorly trained. Coming upon a warehouse filled with wine, they simply got drunk, and the attack was called off. The English army briefly occupied a small port further down the coast before re-boarding its ships. Pennington's curse was a lack of money, but public opinion blamed Buckingham for another disaster. The King too was hurting; England was heading towards war with France.


title: George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham

text: This was followed by Buckingham leading the Army and the Navy to sea to intercept an anticipated Spanish silver fleet from its American territories. However, the Spanish were forewarned by their intelligence and easily avoided the planned ambush. With supplies running out and men sick and dying from starvation and disease, the English limped home in embarrassment.


title: George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham

text: Buckingham then negotiated with the French Chief Minister, Cardinal Richelieu, for English ships to aid Richelieu in his fight against the French Protestant Huguenots, in return for French aid against the Spanish occupying the Palatinate. Seven English warships participated in operations against La Rochelle and in the siege of Saint-Martin-de-Ré, but Parliament was disgusted and horrified at the thought of English Protestants fighting French Protestants. The plan only fuelled their fears of crypto-Catholicism at court. Buckingham fought bravely throughout, but Richelieu's ships blocked the narrow channel, and he had to accept defeat by withdrawal. Believing that the failure of his enterprise was the result of treachery, he formulated an alliance among the churchman's many enemies, a policy that included support for the very Huguenots whom he had recently attacked.


title: George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham

text: In 1627, Buckingham led another expeditionary force. Shortly before departure, Buckingham had authorized a new dry dock at Portsmouth to bring Navy Administration up to date; yet it was never built. The Lord Admiral was already bankrupt when he attempted to aid his new Huguenot allies besieged at La Rochelle in France, by leading the renewed siege of Saint-Martin-de-Ré. He funded the force with Sir William Russell raising £70,000 between them, responsible for the officers out of their own pockets in addition to the victuals. Unpaid for 10 months they looted the King's stores: during the campaign they lost more than 4,000 of a force of 7,000 men. The Admiral Earl of Denbigh was tentative in his attacks on a large French fleet. On 18 September the Earl of Lindley arrived with fireships but they did not prove decisive.


title: George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham

text: During the course of the duke's incompetent leadership, Parliament had twice attempted to impeach him. The king had rescued him by dissolving Parliament both times, but public feeling was so inflamed as a result that the duke was widely blamed as a public enemy. Eventually, his physician, Dr. Lambe, popularly supposed to assert a diabolic influence over him, was mobbed in the streets and died as a result. Among the pamphlets issued afterwards was one that prophesied


title: George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham

text: The duke was stabbed to death, on 23 August 1628, at the Greyhound Pub in Portsmouth, where he had gone to organise yet another campaign. According to the eyewitness account sent by Dudley Carleton, 1st Viscount Dorchester to the queen, "he turned about, uttering only this word, "villaine!" and never spoke more: but presently, plucking out the knife from himself, before he fell to the ground, he made towards the traitor two or three paces, and then fell against a table." The assassin was John Felton, an army officer who had been wounded in the earlier military adventure and believed he had been passed over for promotion by Buckingham.


title: George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham

text: Such was the duke's unpopularity by this time that Felton was widely acclaimed as a hero by the public. A large number of poems celebrating Felton and justifying his action were published. Copies of written statements Felton carried in his hat during the assassination were also widely circulated. Many of these described Buckingham as effeminate, cowardly and corrupt, and contrasted him with Felton, who was held up as an example of manliness, courage and virtue. The son of Alexander Gill the Elder was sentenced to a fine of £2000 and the removal of his ears, after being overheard drinking to the health of Felton, and stating that Buckingham had joined King James I in hell. However, these punishments were remitted after his father and Archbishop Laud appealed to King Charles I. Felton was hanged on 29 November and his body was taken to Portsmouth for public display. However, this proved to be a miscalculation by the authorities as it became an object of veneration by the public.


title: George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham

text: Buckingham was buried in Westminster Abbey. His lavish tomb bears a Latin inscription that may be translated as "The Enigma of the World". Here, too, he was depicted surrounded by mythical figures. The black marble sculptures at each corner include Mars and Neptune, in reference to his military and naval exploits; on the catafalque lie bronze-gilt effigies of the duke and his wife (who long survived him), cast by Hubert Le Sueur. Buckingham is clad in armour, enriched with crossed anchors and with an ermine cloak over it. He wears on his breast the chain and George of the Garter and on his head a ducal coronet, summing up the principal steps in his brief career. He had died at the age of 35.


title: George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham

text: As a means of manoeuvring for political as well as court advancement, Villiers commissioned masques in which he was able to promote himself in a leading role. By appearing there as a dancer himself his grace of movement and beauty of body was put on show. By 1618 his elevation in rank allowed him to dance side by side with the royal heir, with whom his friendship developed through his tutoring of the prince in dance. "Command over his body had provided him with the privilege of commanding the moves of a future king". This culminated in connivance by his supporters in licensing Thomas Middleton's notorious play "A Game at Chess" (1624) as an extension of their anti-Spanish foreign policy. The duke and Prince Charles are acknowledged as figuring there as The White Duke and The White Knight, while very obvious depictions of the Spanish monarch and his former ambassador in England eventually brought about the play's closure.


title: George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham

text: Villiers also commissioned portraits of himself as "a medium for the cultivation of his personal image". William Larkin's portrait of 1616 records the start of his climb, showing him in the dress of a Knight of the Garter and emphasising the felicity of his stance and sumptuousness of dress. A 1619 portrait by Daniel Mytens the Elder is equally elegant. There he is dressed in white brocade and white silk hose, wearing the Garter and standing in a decor of costly silks. Another full-length portrait by the same artist celebrates his succession as Lord High Admiral in 1619. Here he wears three-quarter armour; on the right, behind a balustrade, is a shoreline with the fleet beyond. Buckingham's growing wealth was emphasised by the detail of his clothes. This is evident in the lovingly depicted lace about his collar and cuffs in the full-length portrait by Cornelis Janssens van Ceulen. and the head and shoulders by Anthony van Dyck. The 1625 painting by Michiel van Miereveld is not only of unparalleled magnificence, with a jacket encrusted with pearls which also hang in ropes across it, but may also contain a reference to his diplomatic coup that year in negotiating the marriage of the future Charles I. At his entry to the French Court, he is recorded as wearing a grey velvet suit from which the loosely threaded pearls dropped to the ground as he advanced to make his bow to the queen, to the general wonder.


title: George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham

text: A series of more theatrical depictions heighten Buckingham's self-dramatisation and in certain cases make policy statements as well. Two of these are connected with his betrothal to and marriage with Lady Katherine Manners in 1620. In Van Dyck's historical painting "The Continence of Scipio", Buckingham is clearly recognisable standing at the centre, receiving from Scipio the hand of his captured betrothed. A mythical composition commissioned from Van Dyck later commemorates the actual marriage. In contrast to the former painting, this was highly unconventional at the time. The couple are pictured all but naked as Venus and Adonis, emphasising heterosexual love and so countering all the rumours of the duke's relations with the king. There is a further literary connection since the story is found in Ovid, but the picture again defies convention by hinting at a different, happier ending.


title: George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham

text: Buckingham probably met Peter Paul Rubens while conducting the royal marriage negotiations in Paris in 1625 and commissioned two ambitious advertisements of his standing from the painter. The first of these was destined for the ceiling of his York House residence and depicts a masque-like theme in which "Minerva and Mercury conduct the Duke of Buckingham to the Temple of Virtue" (also known as "The Apotheosis of the Duke of Buckingham" and "The Duke of Buckingham Triumphing over Envy and Anger"). In front of the marble temple to which he is carried upwards are the probable figures of Virtue and Abundance; the three Graces offer the duke a crown of flowers, while Envy seeks to pull him down and a lion challenges him. The picture is an allegory of Buckingham's political aspirations and the forces that he saw as impeding him. Though the painting was destroyed in a fire in 1949, it was survived by a preparatory sketch now held in the National Gallery in London and by a copy made by William Etty. Yet another Rubens portrait was rediscovered in 2017, when the painter's preparatory portrait of Buckingham was identified at Pollok House in Scotland.


title: George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham

text: Rubens' other major commission, "Equestrian Portrait of the Duke of Buckingham" (1625) is accounted "the finest state portrait of its date in England". The original was destroyed in a fire at the Le Gallais depository in St Helier, Jersey, on 30 September 1949, but a sketch by Rubens is now in the Kimbell Art Museum. A summation of his career to date, it depicts Buckingham as Lord High Admiral of the fleet that is just visible in the background. Several other personal references are also incorporated. As Master of the King's Horses, he sits on a Spanish jennet (a breed he introduced to Britain), lifting a baton as his horse rears on command. Beneath him, the sea god Neptune and a naiad adorned with pearls indicate the duke's dominion over the sea. Overhead, a winged allegory of Fame signals victory (which nevertheless evaded the commander in real life) with trumpet in hand. Privately Rubens noted Buckingham's "arrogance and caprice" and predicted that he was "heading for the precipice".


title: George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham

text: Popular prints, often drawing on his painted portraits, particularly Miervelt's of 1625, had served to advertise Buckingham's position more broadly over the years. These now form part of the collection at the National Portrait Gallery. At the same time martial statements were being made through this medium in support of Buckingham's foreign policy, as for instance in Willem de Passe's equestrian portrait of the duke, executed at the same time as Rubens was engaged on his monumental work on the same theme. There he is similarly depicted as Lord Admiral with a military baton in his right hand. During the 1627 expedition that he led personally, Buckingham was recorded as sponsoring "an unprecedented campaign of intensive print propaganda".


title: George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham

text: In 1628, during the political turmoil that culminated in his assassination, Buckingham commissioned another masque-like painting from Gerrit van Honthorst, "The Liberal Arts presented to King Charles and Henrietta Maria". In this the duke is cast as Mercury, the patron of the arts, the procession of whom is brought in his train to the presence of the king and queen in the guise of Apollo and Diana. In this validation of his artistic credentials, it is appropriate to remember that Buckingham had taken part in the masque "Mercury Vindicated" at the start of his career in 1615.


title: George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham

text: Buckingham married the daughter of the 6th Earl of Rutland, Lady Katherine Manners, later "suo jure" Baroness de Ros, on 16 May 1620, against her father's objections. The children of this marriage were:


title: George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham

text: During the duke's short tenure as Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, he had initiated the purchase of Thomas van Erpe's collection of oriental books and manuscripts on its behalf, although his widow only transferred it to Cambridge University Library after his death. With it came the first book in Chinese to be added to the Library's collections.


title: George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham

text: After Buckingham's assassination, a large amount of satirical verse was circulated on the subject. Most of this reflected on how pride goes before a fall and the damage he had done to the kingdom, while several pieces commended John Felton's action. The dagger, claimed to have been used by him, was recorded by a late Victorian gazetteer as still on display at the now demolished Newnham Paddox in Warwickshire. This was the seat of the Earls of Denbigh, whose first earl married Buckingham's sister Susan.


title: George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham

text: The duke's residence of York House occupied what eventually became the Adelphi district in London. When his son sold the area to developers, it was on condition that his father and titles were commemorated in naming the new streets. These were, accordingly, George Court, Villiers Street, Duke Street, Of Alley and Buckingham Street.


title: George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham

text: A fictionalised Buckingham is one of the characters in Alexandre Dumas's celebrated 1844 novel "Les Trois Mousquetaires" ("The Three Musketeers"), which paints him as in love with Anne of Austria as well as dealing with the siege of La Rochelle and his assassination by Felton. He is described:


title: George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham

text: In the 1973 two-film, Anglo-American adaptation of the book—"The Three Musketeers" and "The Four Musketeers"—Buckingham also has a prominent role as an ally of the main characters. The second film includes his assassination by Felton, but (following the original novel in this) depicts the killing as being orchestrated by the fictional Milady de Winter, an agent of the principal villain, Cardinal Richelieu.


title: George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham

text: Taylor Caldwell's "The Arm and the Darkness" (1943) also deals with this period in France, while Hilda Lewis' "Wife to Great Buckingham" (1959) goes so far as to make Buckingham's love for the French queen the main cause of his undoing. The duke also figures in historical romances like Evelyn Anthony's "Charles, The King" (1963) and Bertrice Small's "Darling Jasmine" (2007), although the main focus there is on other protagonists. The Spanish Match and Buckingham's part in it is made an episode in Spanish author Arturo Pérez-Reverte's novel "El Capitán Alatriste" (1996). There he and the then Prince of Wales are the subjects of an assassination attempt by Spanish plotters.


title: George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham

text: In Philippa Gregory's "Earthly Joys" (1998), which has as its subject the famous gardener John Tradescant the Elder, the bewitching Duke appears halfway through the novel as the object of Tradescant's love. Another historical fiction, Ronald Blythe's "The Assassin" (2004), is written from his killer's point of view as a final confession while awaiting execution in the Tower of London.


title: George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham

text: David Mark's "Anatomy of a Heretic" (2022) begins with the unhistorical premise that Buckingham orders a revenge assassination in the Dutch East Indies.


title: Ploughman's lunch

text: A ploughman's lunch is an English cold meal based around bread, cheese, and fresh or pickled onions. Additional items can be added such as ham, green salad, hard boiled eggs, and apple, and usual accompaniments are butter and "pickle", which in Britain denotes a chutney-like condiment. As its name suggests, it is most commonly eaten at lunchtime. It is particularly associated with pubs, and often served with beer.


title: Ploughman's lunch

text: Beer, bread, and cheese have been combined in the English diet since antiquity, and have been served together in inns for centuries. However, the specific term "ploughman's lunch" is believed to date from the 1950s, when the Cheese Bureau, a marketing body, began promoting it in pubs as a way to increase the sales of cheese, which had recently ceased to be rationed. Its popularity increased as the Milk Marketing Board promoted the meal nationally throughout the 1960s.


title: Ploughman's lunch

text: "Pierce the Ploughman's Crede" (c. 1394) mentions the traditional ploughman's meal of bread, cheese, and beer. Bread and cheese formed the basis of the diet of English rural labourers for centuries: skimmed-milk cheese, supplemented with a little lard and butter, was their main source of fats and protein. In the absence of access to expensive seasonings, onions were the "favoured condiment", as well as providing a valuable source of vitamin C.


title: Ploughman's lunch

text: The reliance on cheese rather than meat protein was especially strong in the south of the country. As late as the 1870s, farmworkers in Devon were said to eat "bread and hard cheese at 2d. a pound, with cider very washy and sour" for their midday meal. While this diet was associated with rural poverty, it also gained associations with more idealised images of rural life. Anthony Trollope in "The Duke's Children" has a character comment that "A rural labourer who sits on the ditch-side with his bread and cheese and an onion has more enjoyment out of it than any Lucullus".


title: Ploughman's lunch

text: While farm labourers usually carried their food with them to eat in the fields, similar food was for a long time served in public houses as a simple, inexpensive meal. In 1815, William Cobbett recalled how farmers going to market in Farnham, forty years earlier, would often add "2d. worth of bread and cheese" to the pint of beer they drank at the inn stabling their horses. In the 19th century the English fondness for serving cheese and bread with beer was noted, as "the very dryness and saltness heighten thirst, and therefore the relish of the beer". In the early 20th century, bread and cheese was still the only food available in many rural pubs: in 1932 Martin Armstrong described stopping at village inns for a lunch of bread, cheese and beer, noting that "On these occasions in country inns when bread, cheese and beer seem so extraordinarily good, the alternative is generally nothing; and compared with nothing bread, cheese, and beer are beyond compare".


title: Ploughman's lunch

text: While "Oxford English Dictionary" states the first recorded use of the phrase "ploughman's luncheon" occurred in 1837, from the "Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott" by John G. Lockhart, this stray early use may have meant merely the sum of its parts, "a lunch for a ploughman". The "OED"s next reference is from the July 1956 "Monthly Bulletin" of the Brewers' Society, which describes the activities of the Cheese Bureau, a marketing body affiliated with the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency. It describes how the Bureau


title: Ploughman's lunch

text: By the 1950s, the traditional combination of bread, cheese, beer and onions was certainly being referred to by forms of the name later used to promote it. In 1956, author Adrian Bell reported: "There's a pub quite close to where I live where ... all you need say is, 'Ploughboy's Lunch, Harry, please'. And in a matter of minutes a tray is handed across the counter to you on which is a good square hunk of bread, a lump of butter and a wedge of cheese, and pickled onions, along with your pint of beer". Only a year later, in June 1957, another edition of the "Monthly Bulletin" of the Brewers' Society referred to a ploughman's lunch using that name, and said that it consisted of "cottage bread, cheese, lettuce, hard-boiled eggs, cold sausages and, of course, beer". The Glasgow newspaper "The Bulletin" from 15 April 1958 and "The Times" from 29 April 1958 refer to a ploughman's lunch consisting of bread, cheese and pickled onions.


title: Ploughman's lunch

text: The meal rose rapidly in popularity during the 1970s. This has been argued to be at least partially based on a British cultural "revulsion from technology and modernity and a renewed love-affair with an idealised national past", although it appears the main reasons the ploughman's lunch was favoured by caterers were that it was simple and quick to prepare even for less skilled staff, required no cooking, and involved no meat, giving a potential for high profit margins.


title: Ploughman's lunch

text: The film "The Ploughman's Lunch" (1983), from a screenplay by Ian McEwan, has a subtext that is "the way countries and people re-write their own history to suit the needs of the present". The title alludes to the debatable claim that the supposedly "traditional" meal was the result of a marketing campaign of the 1960s devised to encourage people to eat meals in pubs.


title: Charles Esten

text: Charles Esten Puskar III (born September 9, 1965), also known professionally as Charles Esten, and Chip Esten, is an American actor, musician and comedian.


title: Charles Esten

text: Esten played the role of country singer Deacon Claybourne on the ABC/CMT drama "Nashville" from 2012 to 2018, which subsequently kickstarted his own musical career. He also played Ward Cameron on the Netflix teen drama series "Outer Banks". He appeared in the improvisation show "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" as a series regular between 1999–2005 and returned in 2019 as a regular.


title: Charles Esten

text: Esten was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and moved to Alexandria, Virginia at age nine, after his parents divorced. He and his younger sister were raised by their mother.


title: Charles Esten

text: His late father, Charles, was a prominent local businessman and business partner of former Pittsburgh Steelers center Ray Mansfield.


title: Charles Esten

text: Esten is a 1983 graduate of Alexandria's T.C. Williams High School, where he played football for the Titans a decade after the events of the film "Remember the Titans". He has noted in several interviews that his "Nashville" costar Hayden Panettiere appeared in the film as the daughter of his real-life coach. He then attended his parents' and sister's "alma mater", the College of William and Mary, where he was a member of Theta Delta Chi fraternity and graduated with a degree in economics in 1987. At William and Mary, he was the lead vocalist in the local band "N'est Pas" from 1985–88. Following graduation, Esten moved to the United Kingdom to make his theatrical debut, playing the title role in the musical "Buddy" in the early 1990s.


title: Charles Esten

text: Esten's first television appearance was in December 1988 as a contestant on the NBC game show "Sale of the Century" (under the name Chip Puskar). He won over $32,000 in cash and prizes in five episodes (December 13-19); he later sold his prizes.


title: Charles Esten

text: In 1992, Esten made his debut on "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" in the fourth series and "won" the episode. He subsequently appeared in more episodes later the same year when the show did a run in New York City. At the time, the show needed a second specialist improvisational singer to fill in for Mike McShane.


title: Charles Esten

text: Esten made his final appearance in the UK edition in 1994 before moving back to the US. Although appearing on stage and screen thereafter, his 1999 return to "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" — in the show's American format with Drew Carey as host — established him as a regular "fourth contestant" on the show. Due to his singing abilities, he was often paired with series regular Wayne Brady on musical games. Although he did not return as a regular when the show was revived in 2013 and only appeared as a special guest during the 13th and 14th seasons (as he was one of the main cast members of "Nashville"), he eventually returned as a fourth seater in season 15.


title: Charles Esten

text: Following his return to "Whose Line Is It Anyway", Esten made a guest appearance as himself with fellow regular cast members from the show Wayne Brady, Greg Proops and Brad Sherwood on "The Drew Carey Show". In 2003, he hosted a semi-scripted semi-improvised comedy mini series called "On the Spot". Between 2004–06, he was a member of the touring group "Improv All-Stars" and recurring cast member on "Drew Carey's Green Screen Show".


title: Charles Esten

text: In 2011, he was a regular on "Drew Carey's Improv-A-Ganza" on GSN. Esten and fellow former "Whose Line Is It Anyway" stars Greg Proops, Ryan Stiles and Jeff Davis regularly teamed up and tour around the country doing live improv under the name "Whose Live Anyway?". In April 2014, Esten ceased work with "Whose Live Anyway?" due to his role in "Nashville", and was replaced by Joel Murray.


title: Charles Esten

text: In 2001, Esten appeared in Billy Crystal's TV movie "61*" as Kevin Maris, the son of legendary New York Yankees slugger Roger Maris. He had small roles in three Kevin Costner movies, "The Postman", "Thirteen Days" as downed U-2 pilot Major Rudolf Anderson, and "Swing Vote".


title: Charles Esten

text: Esten also starred in a public service video, "Riding Straight", produced for the Motorcycle Safety Foundation's curriculum, "Motorcycle Rider Course: Riding and Street Skills" (MRC:RSS), in which he portrayed a surfer dude, a snuff-dipping hick, and a concerned friend in a bar.


title: Charles Esten

text: Esten has appeared as a guest star in various TV series, including "Married... with Children", "The New Adventures of Old Christine", "", "", "ER", "", "Jessie", "The Mentalist", and "The Office".


title: Charles Esten

text: From 2012 to 2018 he was part of the main cast of "Nashville", starring as Deacon Claybourne. He has also contributed to the soundtracks as both a singer and songwriter. He co-wrote "I Know How to Love You Now" with Deana Carter, which was featured in the season 3 premiere.


title: Charles Esten

text: In 2013, Esten appeared as a celebrity contestant on "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" and won $500,000 for his charity.


title: Charles Esten

text: In 2017, Esten was cast in a series of television and radio advertisements as Carl Hardee Sr., the fictional founder of the Carl's Jr. and Hardee's fast food chains.


title: Charles Esten

text: On July 9, 2018, it was announced that Esten was cast in a recurring role in the TNT thriller Tell Me Your Secrets. According to TVLine, "The drama follows three characters with equally disturbing backstories: Emma (played by American Horror Story‘s Lily Rabe) once faced down a dangerous killer, John (Legion‘s Hamish Linklater) is a former serial predator in search of redemption, and Mary (Private Practice‘s Amy Brenneman) is a grieving mother determined to find her missing daughter. Per the synopsis, 'As each of them is pushed to the edge, the truth about their pasts and motives grows ever murkier, blurring the lines between victim and perpetrator.'"


title: Charles Esten

text: July 25, 2018, Esten was awarded the Guinness World Records title of "The most consecutive weeks to release an original digital single by a music act". He was presented with the certificate following a performance of his single, Halfway Home, on NBC's "TODAY" show. His #EverySingleFriday project was announced via his Twitter page July 1, 2016 and ran from July 15th of that year through July 21, 2017. Over the course of 54 weeks Esten delivered a new single each Friday, which he himself wrote or co-wrote. Artists featured throughout the project include Ashley Campbell, Colin Linden, Steve Mandile of Sixwire, Sarah Siskind, Karla Davis, and Miss Jackie Wilson.


title: Charles Esten

text: Esten is a frequent performer on the Grand Ole Opry. His 100th performance was celebrated with his appearance on the program on July 20, 2018.


title: Charles Esten

text: On May 15, 2019, it was announced that Esten had signed with APA's concert division for music representation. He continues to tour across the U.S. and Europe, performing his original music.


title: Charles Esten

text: Esten is married to Patty Puskar (née Hanson), whom he met in college. They have three children. The family moved to Nashville after Esten was cast as a series regular on "Nashville".


title: Charles Esten

text: Esten is national chairman for the annual Light the Night Walks, a fundraiser benefiting The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS). His daughter is a leukemia survivor.


title: Internal rate of return

text: Internal rate of return (IRR) is a method of calculating an investment’s rate of return. The term "internal" refers to the fact that the calculation excludes external factors, such as the risk-free rate, inflation, the cost of capital, or financial risk.