title: Scotiabank Arena

text: The structure's most notable features, which have been retained, are the exterior 13-part series of limestone bas relief carvings by Louis Temporale Sr. CM, which depicts the history of transportation and communication in Canada. Carved in 1938–39, the bas relief begins with scenes showing human speech, a runner carrying a message, aboriginals communicating by smoke signal, a group of voyageurs, a schooner and a Royal Mail steamship crossing the Atlantic Ocean from England, the CN train used during the 1939 Royal Tour, the mythical flying boat named 'Canopus' and northern travel by dog sled. The sculptor's son Louis Temporale Jr. helped with restoration efforts in 1998 and in 2016 was still critical of the lack of protection of the artwork by stadium ownership for over 20 years since the creation of the artwork. Being near the elevated Gardiner Expressway results in salt spray, which is speeding up the deterioration of the limestone.


title: Scotiabank Arena

text: In the late 1980s, the building and antiquated sorting equipment was in need of major renovations and expensive upgrades. In a cost-cutting move (part of larger overall service changes and cuts made to the Crown Corporation under the Brian Mulroney Progressive Conservatives), Canada Post decided to close the facility and move operations to an alternate more modern circa 1970s letter processing faculty on nearby Eastern Avenue. A structure with easy access to highways was designed specifically for transport truck bulk delivery of mail. By 1989, all of the old building's work was transferred here. The 1980s real estate boom saw the building site become surrounded by numerous skyscrapers, hotels, convention centres, SkyDome stadium and condo towers. In the early 1990s, real estate developers Bramalea Limited and Trizec arranged to purchase the building from Canada Post, with plans to redevelop the site into a office, retail and residential space. Financial and development details of the purchase imposed various conditions prior to development, including rezoning by the city and remediation of soil contamination by Canada Post.


title: Scotiabank Arena

text: By this time, a deep prolonged recession had taken hold in the province, which saw many downtown Toronto high-rise construction projects paused or cancelled outright. There was limited market demand for new office space, one of the key requirements for acquiring bank loans. The resulting financing difficulties resulted in the building's ownership being reverted to Canada Post in 1993 with the structure remaining unused and abandoned. The Toronto Raptors' owners purchased the unused building from Canada Post the following year.


title: Scotiabank Arena

text: By 1993, it had been decided that the NBA would expand into Canada. Three competing bids were entertained in July of the same year. The NBA Expansion committee visited the various proposed stadium sites. Major selling points to the committee were a downtown location, easy underground access to the subway and Path system and proximity to the business core, which would hopefully make corporate boxes enticing to corporations.


title: Scotiabank Arena

text: On September 30, 1993, the NBA awarded the team to Professional Basketball Franchise Inc. (PBF), a company headed by Canadian businessman John Bitove. The Toronto Raptors were created and were required as terms of the winning bid to provide a suitable arena to play in. As part of the PBF proposal, the Canada Post building was ultimately chosen to be the new home of the Raptors in part due to its downtown location, proposed design and features along with lot size. Other sites considered included government-owned lands at Exhibition Place, North York City Centre, and downtown at Bay Street and Wellesley Street (a site of the planned Canadian Opera Hall in the 1980s). Another site under consideration by the MLSE bid group was at Bay Street and Dundas Street and would have been part of the neighbouring Eaton Centre. PBF purchased the Canada Post building and the land the building is on for million.


title: Scotiabank Arena

text: The Raptors would initially play their first two seasons just a few hundred metres (a few thousand feet) away in the multipurpose SkyDome (now Rogers Centre) stadium while the arena was constructed. Groundbreaking took place in March 1997. The building retained the Art Deco Queenston limestone façade of the Toronto Postal Delivery Building along the east (along Bay Street) and south (Lake Shore Boulevard) walls of that structure, but the rest of the building (facing Union Station) was demolished to make room for the arena, through the process of facadism. The original building is protected under the "Ontario Heritage Act".


title: Scotiabank Arena

text: When MLGL (Maple Leaf Gardens Limited, at the time, the controlling company of the Toronto Maple Leafs) lost out on their desire to be the franchise owners of the Raptors, competition between the two organizations heated up centred around venues. MLGL declined to allow Maple Leaf Gardens to be used for the NBA upstart as a result, pushing Bitove to secure rights to have the Raptors' opening seasons played at SkyDome until construction of the new stadium was complete.


title: Scotiabank Arena

text: The 1930s-era Maple Leaf Gardens was showing its age; the Maple Leafs in desperate desire for a new facility began developing plans for building an all-new stadium with one of the key criteria for the new location that it must be within close walking proximity to both the subway system and GO Transit. During the early stages of construction, MLGL floated to the media plans of their own to build a competing single-use stadium on adjacent property just to the north of the stadium atop the train sheds at Union Station (similar to how Madison Square Garden was constructed) as the new home for the Toronto Maple Leafs. The reaction from Raptors was nothing but anger. "This proposed (Maple Leaf) location really disturbs us," stated team president Richard Peddie, who went on to say that they would fight the Leafs "every step of the way" and he did not understand why the Leafs have refused to join with the Raptors at their site, claiming that the Leafs want to "build virtually on top of us". The major problem of the Union Station proposal was that the land that the stadium would have been built on was actually City of Toronto land that was leased out to Canadian National Railway and Canadian Pacific Railway, which were in a major, long-standing dispute over rent payments (dating back to 1969). As a result, MLGL offered the city $156 million (in 1997 dollars) in cash and assets to settle any and all outstanding claims and to buy the air rights above the Union Station train platforms.


title: Scotiabank Arena

text: During this period, the Raptors were twice fined a million dollars (which were donated to their charitable foundation) by the NBA for missing deadlines to begin construction of their new arena, and disputes over the future of the arena resulted in John Bitove being forced to sell his stake to Allan Slaight as a result of a shotgun clause. Slaight—who wanted a joint arena deal with MLGL—then had majority ownership and immediately went into talks with MLGL, which eventually purchased both the Raptors and their partially completed arena. This subsequently resulted in major modifications to the original design, which was basketball-specific, to make the arena become more suitable for hockey. Originally planned to cost $217 million, MLGL increased the budget to $265 million after taking control.


title: Scotiabank Arena

text: After the purchase of the Raptors and the Air Canada Centre, the new owners entered into a design-build contract with PCL Construction with the commitment to finish the stadium in 24 months by March 1, 1999. The integration of the Maple Leafs into the new structure would result in a 25% increase in construction costs (over $25 million CAD in 1999).


title: Scotiabank Arena

text: The completed structure included a 15-storey tower (reduced from a proposed 30-storey tower), four restaurants, and an underground parking lot.


title: Scotiabank Arena

text: In 1998, a strange twist of scheduling conflicts had the Toronto Raptors playing their final regular-season game at Copps Coliseum in Hamilton, as the Toronto Blue Jays had first right of refusal for all SkyDome dates. The Raptors had attempted to play the April 19 match at Maple Leaf Gardens, but were unsuccessful.


title: Scotiabank Arena

text: On December 30, 1998, the building's construction was completed, nine days ahead of schedule. Opening events took place early the next year and Steve Stavro (who was the majority shareholder of MLGL) was named CEO. The initial hockey game took place February 20, 1999 (Toronto Maple Leafs vs. Montreal Canadiens), the first basketball Game on February 21, 1999 (Toronto Raptors vs. Vancouver Grizzlies), and the opening concert on February 22, 1999 (The Tragically Hip). Features of the new building consist of a arena and a office tower. There is also an east–west covered, climate controlled galleria and walkway onsite that contains restaurants, the ticket office, and other commercial units. The Galleria also connects Scotiabank Arena to popular locations in the downtown core such as Union Station, Bay Street and York Street. Scotiabank Arena is connected to the underground PATH network. The Galleria also doubles as a historical museum by displaying numerous artifacts from the old Canada Post building.


title: Scotiabank Arena

text: In its first ten years of operation, the new arena had an estimated economic benefit of $2.4 billion. This boosted Toronto's economy and led to further construction in the downtown core. Many projects in the area were completed ahead of schedule as a result of a desire to increase the infrastructure of downtown Toronto, and also from private funding (approximately $13 million) that was invested in seeing the economic growth of Toronto. These projects included the Bay West Teamway, Union Plaza, the Galleria (shopping centre), and Bremner Boulevard.


title: Scotiabank Arena

text: Air Canada purchased naming rights to the arena for US$30 million for 20 years. Several nicknames for the arena would emerge including 'The Hangar', but it would be the acronym 'ACC' which became the most commonly referenced shorthand for the stadium and is still commonly used by local residents.


title: Scotiabank Arena

text: In 2003, MLSE completed a $5-million upgrade of the arena, including a new LED signage system. During the summer of 2015, a $10-million upgrade of the arena was carried out, which included the installation of a new scoreboard four times larger than the previous one. The old scoreboard was later installed at Ricoh Coliseum.


title: Scotiabank Arena

text: In the winter of 2003–2004, the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario imposed a seven-day penalty on the arena for "permitting drunken patrons to be in the licensed patrons" in the fall of 2002 at a Toronto Maple Leafs game and also a Rolling Stones concert. As a result of these misdemeanours, there was no alcohol served at the arena from December 21 to 28 in 2003. The venue had multiple major events during this time frame, which included a Toronto Raptors–Orlando Magic game on December 21, a Toronto Maple Leafs–Florida Panthers game on December 23, and Disney on Ice: Toy Story 2, which ran from December 25, 2003 to January 1, 2004.


title: Scotiabank Arena

text: On September 6, 2014, a group of statues known as "Legends Row" was unveiled outside the arena at the southwest corner of the building. The statues were situated in multiple waves from 2014 to 2016 and include Ted Kennedy, Johnny Bower, Darryl Sittler, Borje Salming, Syl Apps, George Armstrong, Mats Sundin, Dave Keon, Turk Broda, and Tim Horton. In 2017, the final four statues were unveiled including Red Kelly, Frank Mahovlich, Charlie Conacher, and Wendel Clark. "Legends Row" now features 14 life-sized statues of former Maple Leaf players alongside a granite players' bench.


title: Scotiabank Arena

text: The Air Canada Centre was renamed Scotiabank Arena on July 1, 2018. The landmark 20-year sponsorship agreement between Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment and Scotiabank is worth about C$800 million. This is believed to be the highest-priced annual building and team sponsorship in North American sports history. The arena is the third in Canada to bear naming rights to Scotiabank.


title: Scotiabank Arena

text: During the 2020–21 NBA season the Toronto Raptors relocated their home games in Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Toronto.


title: Scotiabank Arena

text: On May 11, 2021, Toronto Rock announced the relocation from Scotiabank Arena in Toronto to FirstOntario Centre in Hamilton, Ontario, beginning with the 2021–22 NLL season in December. The team retained the name "Toronto Rock" while in Hamilton.


title: Scotiabank Arena

text: On June 27, 2021, Scotiabank Arena was used as a COVID-19 vaccine pop-up clinic for 26,771 people. This clinic set a new record for the most COVID-19 vaccinations delivered at a single location in North America, beating out a pop-up drive-thru clinic that vaccinated 17,003 people at the Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas.


title: Scotiabank Arena

text: In late 2005, Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment announced that they would be renovating the western side of the Air Canada Centre during the 2008 off-season to connect it with the Maple Leaf Square development. Maple Leaf Square is jointly owned by MLSE, Cadillac Fairview and Lantera Developments. The $500 million development includes two restaurants, Hotel Le Germain at Maple Leaf Square boutique hotel, extensive retail shopping, including a Leafs, Marlies, Raptors, and Toronto FC store, two 54-storey condominiums, a Longo's supermarket, and a public square. It opened in 2010. The two-year, $48 million renovation of the ACC added a new atrium that includes a High-Definition broadcast studio for Leafs Nation Network (formerly Leafs TV), NBA TV Canada and GolTV Canada.


title: Scotiabank Arena

text: The outside wall of the atrium features a video screen overlooking the plaza, which often broadcasts games taking place inside the arena. During NHL and NBA playoff runs, the square attracts thousands of Leafs and Raptors fans, respectively, sometimes broadcasting away playoff matches featuring the Leafs and/or the Raptors as well. A section of the square is designated Ford Fan Zone at Maple Leaf Square, with naming rights given to the Ford Motor Company of Canada. During Raptors playoff runs, the square has acquired the nickname "Jurassic Park" after the 1993 film adaptation that inspired the team's name. During the 2019 NBA playoffs and especially during the 2019 NBA Finals, other city squares across Canada also acquired the Jurassic Park nickname, such as in Halifax, Nova Scotia.


title: Scotiabank Arena

text: In 2003, the governing Liberal Party of Canada held their leadership convention at the Air Canada Centre. Paul Martin was elected as the new leader of the party and thus also became prime minister, succeeding Jean Chrétien.


title: Scotiabank Arena

text: Maple Leaf home games are generally sold out, and there is a waitlist since the start of 2015 for Season Ticket Holders for upcoming seasons.


title: Scotiabank Arena

text: The Toronto Rock also moved to the Air Canada Centre from Maple Leaf Gardens for the 2001 NLL season. The Rock's first game was a 17–7 win over the Ottawa Rebel on December 21, 2000.


title: Scotiabank Arena

text: In 2017, the Air Canada Centre hosted the opening and closing ceremonies for that year's Invictus Games.


title: Scotiabank Arena

text: On September 23, 2017, the ACC presented the opening ceremony as a live two-hour event spectacular. This ceremony was designed to welcome and honour the 550 competitors and their families who come from 17 different competing nations. The show featured hundreds of cast members, including honorary men and women from the Canadian Armed Forces. The cast showed a display of ceremony in multiple different productions and the raising of the flag. Other guests of the event included celebrities, world dignitaries, headline music stars and other special guests. They gathered to celebrate the service and stories of the members of the 2017 Invictus Games. Headline performers included Laura Wright, Alessia Cara, The Tenors, Sarah McLachlan, and La Bottine Souriante.


title: Scotiabank Arena

text: The ACC hosted the Invictus Games Toronto 2017 Closing Ceremony on September 20, 2017. The event featured an arrangement of international headline music artists, coming together to celebrate and recognize the Invictus Games competitors. The closing ceremony featured headline musical guests Bachman & Turner, Bryan Adams, Coeur de Pirate, Bruce Springsteen, and Kelly Clarkson. This celebration also included words from world dignitaries as the Games are passed to the host nation of the Invictus Games 2018, Sydney, Australia.


title: Scotiabank Arena

text: On August 27 and 28, 2016, Air Canada Centre hosted the sixth season of the Summer North American Championship Series of "League of Legends" (LoL), marking the first professional "League of Legends" competition in Canada. "League of Legends" is a popular multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) computer game by American video game developer Riot Games; "League of Legends" competitions are among the most viewed among professional video game competitions worldwide. During the final round, Team SoloMid (TSM) defeated Cloud9 (C9) three matches to one in a best-of-five format. The Summer North American Championship Series serve as the qualifiers for the annual League of Legends World Championship for North American teams.


title: The Mexican

text: The Mexican is a 2001 American dark comedy adventure crime film directed by Gore Verbinski and stars Julia Roberts and Brad Pitt in lead roles. Its plot is a mixture of different genres.


title: The Mexican

text: In Los Angeles, a traffic light changes to red and there are offscreen sounds of an automobile collision.


title: The Mexican

text: Five years later, Jerry Welbach has been working off a debt to imprisoned mob boss Arnold Margolese. After Jerry fouls up what was meant to be his final errand, Margolese's second-in-command, Bernie Nayman sends Jerry on a new final errand: retrieving an antique pistol for Margolese in Mexico from a man named Beck. Jerry's additional job for Margolese proves to be the last straw for Jerry's girlfriend Sam, who leaves him to move to Las Vegas.


title: The Mexican

text: Arriving in Mexico, Jerry finds the pistol with Beck, who explains the history of the legendary gun known as "the Mexican". When Beck is killed by a stray bullet from celebratory gunfire, Jerry calls his colleague Ted and learns that Beck was Margolese's grandson. Just then, Jerry's car is stolen, with Beck's body and the pistol inside. Jerry recovers the car and the gun, shooting one of the thieves in the foot and burying the body.


title: The Mexican

text: En route to Las Vegas, a well-dressed hitman tries to abduct Sam, but is shot by another hitman who captures her instead. The second hitman introduces himself as Leroy, explaining that he was hired to hold Sam hostage to ensure Jerry delivers the pistol.


title: The Mexican

text: Sam explains to Leroy that Jerry became indebted to Margolese five years ago, after crashing into Margolese's car, while running a red light. This was the accident heard at the beginning of the film. The police discovered someone tied up in Margolese's trunk that he intended to kill. Margolese was sent to prison for five years and Jerry was forced to run errands for Margolese for that same period.


title: The Mexican

text: Bonding with Leroy, Sam deduces that he is gay and encourages him to pick up Frank, a traveling postal worker. The three of them reach Las Vegas, and Leroy and Frank spend the night together.


title: The Mexican

text: In Mexico, Jerry is briefly arrested after a police officer notices Beck's blood in his car. Confiscating the pistol, the officer elaborates on its cursed history and takes it to a pawn shop. Ted arrives and reveals that the infamous Leroy has been sent after Sam. Jerry overhears a call with Nayman ordering Ted to kill him. They recover the pistol from the pawn shop, but Jerry confronts Ted and leaves with the gun. Realizing he grabbed Ted's passport instead of his own, he returns to find Ted has already fled.


title: The Mexican

text: In Las Vegas, the well-dressed hitman murders the innocent Frank and returns for Sam, but is killed by a vengeful Leroy. Sam and Leroy fly to Mexico to meet Jerry, who crashes the car in an argument with Sam. Leroy finds the pistol and prepares to kill Jerry, but Jerry kills him first. He explains to a distraught Sam that Leroy was an imposter – his driver’s license reveals he is actually Winston Baldry – and that Jerry once met the real Leroy: the well-dressed hitman. Jerry realizes that Margolese hired the real Leroy, but Nayman sent Baldry to intercept Sam and the pistol, allowing him to sell it himself and frame Jerry.


title: The Mexican

text: Sam and Jerry prepare to go their separate ways, but Sam remembers Baldry's advice to never give up when you truly love someone, and reconciles with Jerry. Soon after, Jerry gets kidnapped by the thieves who stole his car. He is brought to Margolese, newly released from prison, who explains the true story of the pistol: it was crafted by a gunsmith for his daughter's marriage to a nobleman's cruel son, but the daughter and the gunsmith's assistant were truly in love. When the gun refused to fire for the nobleman's son, he killed the assistant, leading the daughter to take her own life with the pistol.


title: The Mexican

text: Margolese reveals that his cellmate was the gunsmith's great-grandson; he was killed protecting Margolese, who swore to return the pistol to his cellmate's father. Jerry agrees to give him the pistol, but Nayman kidnaps Sam. A Mexican standoff ensues, until Sam kills Nayman with the pistol; the shot dislodges a ring from the gunbarrel, which Jerry uses to propose to Sam. The Mexican pistol is restored to the gunsmith's family, as Jerry and Sam drive off together.


title: The Mexican

text: The script was originally intended to be filmed as an independent production without major motion picture stars, but Roberts and Pitt, who had for some time been looking for a project they could do together, decided to make it, following Roberts' introduction and encouragement of the project to Pitt. Roberts also suggested the casting of James Gandolfini, in what is regarded as one of his greatest roles.


title: The Mexican

text: Kevin Reynolds and David Fincher were both considered to direct. Reynolds turned it down because no cast was confirmed, and Fincher was too busy with the release of "Fight Club". Ben Stiller and Meg Ryan had both expressed interest in the lead roles.


title: The Mexican

text: "The Mexican" made use of Real de Catorce, San Luis Potosí, Mexico, as a film location, as well as various areas in Las Vegas, Nevada and Los Angeles, California. Aeropuerto internacional Adolfo Lopez Mateos Toluca, Estado de México was used as well.


title: The Mexican

text: The film opened at #1 at the North American box office making $20,108,829 USD in its opening weekend, although the film had a 39% decline in earnings the following week, it was enough to keep the film at the top spot for another week. Ultimately, the film earned $147.8 million worldwide.


title: The Mexican

text: The film holds a 54% rating on Rotten Tomatoes from 133 critics, with an average rating of 5.6/10. The critical consensus states that "Though "The Mexican" makes a good attempt at originality, its ponderous length makes it wear out its welcome. Also, those looking forward to seeing Roberts and Pitt paired up may end up disappointed, as they are kept apart for most of the movie." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 43 out of 100, based on 35 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C" on an A+ to F scale.


title: The Mexican

text: "The scenes between Roberts and Gandolfini make the film special. ... Their dialogue scenes are the best reason to see the film."


title: The Mexican

text: "Pitt and Roberts are good too – maybe better like this than if they were together. ... If it had been a Pitt/Roberts two-hander, there wouldn't have been room for Gandolfini's wonderful character, and that would have been a shame."


title: The Mexican

text: ""The Mexican" is sporadically entertaining. It works when Gandolfini is on screen; when he leaves, he takes the movie with him. ... From here, director Gore Verbinski, intercuts between two road movies, one of which (the one with Pitt) is downright boring".


title: The Mexican

text: "Roberts and Pitt are generally terrific. In "The Mexican" they are horrid. ... Gandolfini is a star on the rise. His work in "The Mexican" is solid. Frankly, he's the only bright spot in this dark and pointless movie."


title: The Mexican

text: "Moviegoers who have seen "The Mexican" aren't coming out of cinemas talking about the romantic chemistry between Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts. They're talking about the presence of tough guy James Gandolfini in the unlikely role of a gay hit man named Leroy."


title: Lahar

text: A lahar (, from ) is a violent type of mudflow or debris flow composed of a slurry of pyroclastic material, rocky debris and water. The material flows down from a volcano, typically along a river valley.


title: Lahar

text: Lahars are extremely destructive: they can flow tens of metres per second, they have been known to be up to deep, and large flows tend to destroy any structures in their path. Notable lahars include those at Mount Pinatubo and Nevado del Ruiz, the latter of which killed thousands of people in the town of Armero.


title: Lahar

text: The word "lahar" is of Javanese origin. Berend George Escher introduced it as a geological term in 1922.


title: Lahar

text: The word "lahar" is a general term for a flowing mixture of water and pyroclastic debris. It does not refer to a particular rheology or sediment concentration. Lahars can occur as normal stream flows (sediment concentration of less than 30%), hyper-concentrated stream flows (sediment concentration between 30 and 60%), or debris flows (sediment concentration exceeding 60%). Indeed, the rheology and subsequent behaviour of a lahar may vary in place and time within a single event, owing to changes in sediment supply and water supply. Lahars are described as 'primary' or 'syn-eruptive' if they occur simultaneously with or are triggered by primary volcanic activity. 'Secondary' or 'post-eruptive' lahars occur in the absence of primary volcanic activity, e.g. as a result of rainfall during pauses in activity or during dormancy.


title: Lahar

text: In addition to their variable rheology, lahars vary considerably in magnitude. The Osceola Lahar produced by Mount Rainier in modern-day Washington some 5600 years ago resulted in a wall of mud deep in the White River canyon and covered an area of over , for a total volume of . A debris-flow lahar can erase virtually any structure in its path, while a hyperconcentrated-flow lahar is capable of carving its own pathway, destroying buildings by undermining their foundations. A hyperconcentrated-flow lahar can leave even frail huts standing, while at the same time burying them in mud, which can harden to near-concrete hardness. A lahar's viscosity decreases the longer it flows and can be further thinned by rain, producing a quicksand-like mixture that can remain fluidized for weeks and complicate search and rescue.


title: Lahar

text: Lahars vary in speed. Small lahars less than a few metres wide and several centimetres deep may flow a few metres per second. Large lahars hundreds of metres wide and tens of metres deep can flow several tens of metres per second (22 mph or more), much too fast for people to outrun. On steep slopes, lahar speeds can exceed . A lahar can cause catastrophic destruction along a potential path of more than .


title: Lahar

text: Lahars from the 1985 Nevado del Ruiz eruption in Colombia caused the Armero tragedy, burying the city of Armero under of mud and debris and killing an estimated 23,000 people. A lahar caused New Zealand's Tangiwai disaster, where 151 people died after a Christmas Eve express train fell into the Whangaehu River in 1953. Lahars have caused 17% of volcano-related deaths between 1783 and 1997.


title: Lahar

text: In particular, although lahars are typically associated with the effects of volcanic activity, lahars can occur even without any current volcanic activity, as long as the conditions are right to cause the collapse and movement of mud originating from existing volcanic ash deposits.


title: Lahar

text: Several mountains in the world – including Mount Rainier in the United States, Mount Ruapehu in New Zealand, and Merapi and Galunggung in Indonesia – are considered particularly dangerous due to the risk of lahars. Several towns in the Puyallup River valley in Washington state, including Orting, are built on top of lahar deposits that are only about 500 years old. Lahars are predicted to flow through the valley every 500 to 1,000 years, so Orting, Sumner, Puyallup, Fife, and the Port of Tacoma face considerable risk. The USGS has set up lahar warning sirens in Pierce County, Washington, so that people can flee an approaching debris flow in the event of a Mount Rainier eruption.


title: Lahar

text: A lahar warning system has been set up at Mount Ruapehu by the New Zealand Department of Conservation and hailed as a success after it successfully alerted officials to an impending lahar on 18 March 2007.


title: Lahar

text: Since mid-June 1991, when violent eruptions triggered Mount Pinatubo's first lahars in 500 years, a system to monitor and warn of lahars has been in operation. Radio-telemetered rain gauges provide data on rainfall in lahar source regions, acoustic flow monitors on stream banks detect ground vibration as lahars pass, and manned watchpoints further confirm that lahars are rushing down Pinatubo's slopes. This system has enabled warnings to be sounded for most but not all major lahars at Pinatubo, saving hundreds of lives. Physical preventative measures by the Philippine government were not adequate to stop over of mud from flooding many villages around Mount Pinatubo from 1992 through 1998.


title: Lahar

text: Scientists and governments try to identify areas with a high risk of lahars based on historical events and computer models. Volcano scientists play a critical role in effective hazard education by informing officials and the public about realistic hazard probabilities and scenarios (including potential magnitude, timing, and impacts); by helping evaluate the effectiveness of proposed risk-reduction strategies; by helping promote acceptance of (and confidence in) hazards information through participatory engagement with officials and vulnerable communities as partners in risk reduction efforts; and by communicating with emergency managers during extreme events. An example of such a model is TITAN2D. These models are directed towards future planning: identifying low-risk regions to place community buildings, discovering how to mitigate lahars with dams, and constructing evacuation plans.


title: Lahar

text: In 1985, the volcano Nevado del Ruiz erupted in central Colombia. As pyroclastic flows erupted from the volcano's crater, they melted the mountain's glaciers, sending four enormous lahars down its slopes at . The lahars picked up speed in gullies and coursed into the six major rivers at the base of the volcano; they engulfed the town of Armero, killing more than 20,000 of its almost 29,000 inhabitants.


title: Lahar

text: Casualties in other towns, particularly Chinchiná, brought the overall death toll to over 25,000. Footage and photographs of Omayra Sánchez, a young victim of the tragedy, were published around the world. Other photographs of the lahars and the impact of the disaster captured attention worldwide and led to controversy over the degree to which the Colombian government was responsible for the disaster.


title: Lahar

text: Lahars caused most of the deaths of the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo. The initial eruption killed six people, but the lahars killed more than 1500. The eye of Typhoon Yunya passed over the volcano during its eruption on 15 June 1991, and the resulting rain triggered the flow of volcanic ash, boulders, and water down rivers surrounding the volcano. Angeles City in Pampanga and neighbouring cities and towns were damaged by lahars when Sapang Balen Creek and the Abacan River became channels for mudflows and carried them to the heart of the city and surrounding areas.


title: Lahar

text: Over of mud inundated and damaged the towns of Castillejos, San Marcelino and Botolan in Zambales, Porac and Mabalacat in Pampanga, Tarlac City, Capas, Concepcion and Bamban in Tarlac. The Bamban Bridge on the MacArthur Highway, a major north–south transportation route, was destroyed, and temporary bridges erected in its place were inundated by subsequent lahars.


title: Lahar

text: On the morning of 1 October 1995, pyroclastic material which clung to the slopes of Pinatubo and surrounding mountains rushed down because of heavy rain, and turned into an lahar. This mudflow killed at least 100 people in Barangay Cabalantian in Bacolor. The Philippine government under President Fidel V. Ramos ordered the construction of the FVR Mega Dike in an attempt to protect people from further mudflows.


title: Grok

text: Grok is a neologism coined by American writer Robert A. Heinlein for his 1961 science fiction novel "Stranger in a Strange Land". While the "Oxford English Dictionary" summarizes the meaning of "grok" as "to understand intuitively or by empathy, to establish rapport with" and "to empathize or communicate sympathetically (with); also, to experience enjoyment", Heinlein's concept is far more nuanced, with critic Istvan Csicsery-Ronay Jr. observing that "the book's major theme can be seen as an extended definition of the term." The concept of "grok" garnered significant critical scrutiny in the years after the book's initial publication. The term and aspects of the underlying concept have become part of communities such as computer science.


title: Grok

text: Critic David E. Wright Sr. points out that in the 1991 "uncut" edition of "Stranger", the word "grok" "was used first "without any explicit definition" on page 22" and continued to be used without being explicitly defined until page 253 (emphasis in original). He notes that this first intensional definition is simply "to drink", but that this is only a metaphor "much as English 'I see' often means the same as 'I understand'". Critics have bridged this absence of explicit definition by citing passages from "Stranger" that illustrate the term. A selection of these passages follows:


title: Grok

text: Robert A. Heinlein originally coined the term "grok" in his 1961 novel "Stranger in a Strange Land" as a Martian word that could not be defined in Earthling terms, but can be associated with various literal meanings such as "water", "to drink", "life", or "to live", and had a much more profound figurative meaning that is hard for terrestrial culture to understand because of its assumption of a singular reality.


title: Grok

text: According to the book, drinking water is a central focus on Mars, where it is scarce. Martians use the merging of their bodies with water as a simple example or symbol of how two entities can combine to create a new reality greater than the sum of its parts. The water becomes part of the drinker, and the drinker part of the water. Both "grok" each other. Things that once had separate realities become entangled in the same experiences, goals, history, and purpose. Within the book, the statement of divine immanence verbalized among the main characters, "thou art God", is logically derived from the concept inherent in the term "grok".


title: Grok

text: Heinlein describes Martian words as "guttural" and "jarring". Martian speech is described as sounding "like a bullfrog fighting a cat". Accordingly, "grok" is generally pronounced as a guttural "gr" terminated by a sharp "k" with very little or no vowel sound (a narrow transcription might be ). William Tenn suggests Heinlein in creating the word might have been influenced by Tenn's very similar concept of "griggo", earlier introduced in Tenn's story "Venus and the Seven Sexes" (published in 1949). In his later afterword to the story, Tenn says Heinlein considered such influence "very possible".


title: Grok

text: Uses of the word in the decades after the 1960s are more concentrated in computer culture, such as a 1984 appearance in "InfoWorld": "There isn't any software! Only different internal states of hardware. It's all hardware! It's a shame programmers don't grok that better."


title: Grok

text: The Jargon File, which describes itself as a "Hacker's Dictionary" and has been published under that name three times, puts "grok" in a programming context:


title: Grok

text: The entry existed in the very earliest forms of the Jargon File, dating from the early 1980s. A typical tech usage from the "Linux Bible, 2005" characterizes the Unix software development philosophy as "one that can make your life a lot simpler once you grok the idea".


title: Grok

text: The book "Perl Best Practices" defines "grok" as understanding a portion of computer code in a profound way. It goes on to suggest that to "re-grok" code is to reload the intricacies of that portion of code into one's memory after some time has passed and all the details of it are no longer remembered. In that sense, "to grok" means to load everything into memory for immediate use. It is analogous to the way a processor caches memory for short term use, but the only implication by this reference was that it was something a human (or perhaps a Martian) would do.


title: Grok

text: The main web page for cURL, an open source tool and programming library, describes the function of cURL as "cURL groks URLs".


title: Grok

text: The keystroke logging software used by the NSA for its remote intelligence gathering operations is named GROK.


title: Grok

text: One of the most powerful parsing filters used in ElasticSearch software's logstash component is named "grok".


title: Grok

text: A reference book by Carey Bunks on the use of the GNU Image Manipulation Program is titled Grokking the GIMP


title: Grok

text: A common tool used for cloud development is a tool called ngrok, which stands for 'network grok'. It is a tool that allows you to create a secure tunnel on your local machine along with a public URL that you can use for accessing your local webserver. This is mainly useful for local debugging.


title: Old-growth forest

text: An old-growth forestalso termed primary forest, virgin forest, late seral forest, primeval forest, or first-growth forestis a forest that has attained great age without significant disturbance, and thereby exhibits unique ecological features, and might be classified as a climax community. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations defines primary forests as naturally regenerated forests of native tree species where there are no clearly visible indications of human activity and the ecological processes are not significantly disturbed. More than one-third (34 percent) of the world's forests are primary forests. Old-growth features include diverse tree-related structures that provide diverse wildlife habitat that increases the biodiversity of the forested ecosystem. Virgin or first-growth forests are old-growth forests that have never been logged. The concept of diverse tree structure includes multi-layered canopies and canopy gaps, greatly varying tree heights and diameters, and diverse tree species and classes and sizes of woody debris.


title: Old-growth forest

text: The world has 1.11 billion ha of primary forest remaining. Combined, three countries (Brazil, Canada, and Russia) host more than half (61 percent) of the world's primary forest. The area of primary forest has decreased by 81 million ha since 1990, but the rate of loss more than halved in 2010–2020 compared with the previous decade.


title: Old-growth forest

text: Old-growth forests are valuable for economic reasons and for the ecosystem services they provide. This can be a point of contention when some in the logging industry desire to harvest valuable timber from the forests, while environmentalists seek to preserve the forests in their pristine state for benefits such as maintenance of biodiversity, water purification, flood control, and nutrient cycling. Moreover, old-growth forests are more efficient at sequestering carbon than newly planted forests and fast-growing timber plantations, thus preserving the forests is important to climate change mitigation.


title: Old-growth forest

text: Old-growth forests tend to have large trees and standing dead trees, multilayered canopies with gaps that result from the deaths of individual trees, and coarse woody debris on the forest floor.


title: Old-growth forest

text: A forest regenerated after a severe disturbance, such as wildfire, insect infestation, or harvesting, is often called second-growth or 'regeneration' until enough time passes for the effects of the disturbance to be no longer evident. Depending on the forest, this may take from a century to several millennia. Hardwood forests of the eastern United States can develop old-growth characteristics in 150–500 years. In British Columbia, Canada, old growth is defined as 120 to 140 years of age in the interior of the province where fire is a frequent and natural occurrence. In British Columbia's coastal rainforests, old growth is defined as trees more than 250 years, with some trees reaching more than 1,000 years of age. In Australia, eucalypt trees rarely exceed 350 years of age due to frequent fire disturbance.


title: Old-growth forest

text: Forest types have very different development patterns, natural disturbances and appearances. A Douglas-fir stand may grow for centuries without disturbance while an old-growth ponderosa pine forest requires frequent surface fires to reduce the shade-tolerant species and regenerate the canopy species. In the boreal forest of Canada, catastrophic disturbances like wildfires minimize opportunities for major accumulations of dead and downed woody material and other structural legacies associated with old growth conditions. Typical characteristics of old-growth forest include presence of older trees, minimal signs of human disturbance, mixed-age stands, presence of canopy openings due to tree falls, pit-and-mound topography, down wood in various stages of decay, standing snags (dead trees), multilayered canopies, intact soils, a healthy fungal ecosystem, and presence of indicator species.


title: Old-growth forest

text: Old-growth forests are often biologically diverse, and home to many rare species, threatened species, and endangered species of plants and animals, such as the northern spotted owl, marbled murrelet and fisher, making them ecologically significant. Levels of biodiversity may be higher or lower in old-growth forests compared to that in second-growth forests, depending on specific circumstances, environmental variables, and geographic variables. Logging in old-growth forests is a contentious issue in many parts of the world. Excessive logging reduces biodiversity, affecting not only the old-growth forest itself, but also indigenous species that rely upon old-growth forest habitat.


title: Old-growth forest

text: Some forests in the old-growth stage have a mix of tree ages, due to a distinct regeneration pattern for this stage. New trees regenerate at different times from each other, because each of them has a different spatial location relative to the main canopy, hence each one receives a different amount of light. The mixed age of the forest is an important criterion in ensuring that the forest is a relatively stable ecosystem in the long term. A climax stand that is uniformly aged becomes senescent and degrades within a relatively short time to result in a new cycle of forest succession. Thus, uniformly aged stands are less stable ecosystems. Boreal forests are more uniformly aged, as they are normally subject to frequent stand replacing wildfires.


title: Old-growth forest

text: Forest canopy gaps are essential in creating and maintaining mixed-age stands. Also, some herbaceous plants only become established in canopy openings, but persist beneath an understory. Openings are a result of tree death due to small impact disturbances such as wind, low-intensity fires, and tree diseases.


title: Old-growth forest

text: Old-growth forests are unique, usually having multiple horizontal layers of vegetation representing a variety of tree species, age classes, and sizes, as well as "pit and mound" soil shape with well-established fungal nets.


title: Old-growth forest

text: Because old-growth forest is structurally diverse, it provides higher-diversity habitat than forests in other stages. Thus, sometimes higher biological diversity can be sustained in old-growth forests, or at least a biodiversity that is different from other forest stages.


title: Old-growth forest

text: The characteristic topography of much old-growth forest consists of pits and mounds. Mounds are caused by decaying fallen trees, and pits (tree throws) by the roots pulled out of the ground when trees fall due to natural causes, including being pushed over by animals. Pits expose humus-poor, mineral-rich soil and often collect moisture and fallen leaves, forming a thick organic layer that is able to nurture certain types of organisms. Mounds provide a place free of leaf inundation and saturation, where other types of organisms thrive.


title: Old-growth forest

text: Standing snags provide food sources and habitat for many types of organisms. In particular, many species of dead-wood predators such as woodpeckers must have standing snags available for feeding. In North America, the spotted owl is well known for needing standing snags for nesting habitat.


title: Old-growth forest

text: Fallen timber, or coarse woody debris, contributes carbon-rich organic matter directly to the soil, providing a substrate for mosses, fungi, and seedlings, and creating microhabitats by creating relief on the forest floor. In some ecosystems such as the temperate rain forest of the North American Pacific coast, fallen timber may become nurse logs, providing a substrate for seedling trees.


title: Old-growth forest

text: Intact soils harbor many life forms that rely on them. Intact soils generally have very well-defined horizons, or soil profiles. Different organisms may need certain well-defined soil horizons to live, while many trees need well-structured soils free of disturbance to thrive. Some herbaceous plants in northern hardwood forests must have thick duff layers (which are part of the soil profile). Fungal ecosystems are essential for efficient "in-situ" recycling of nutrients back into the entire ecosystem.


title: Old-growth forest

text: Stand age can also be used to categorize a forest as old-growth. For any given geographical area, the average time since disturbance until a forest reaches the old growth stage can be determined. This method is useful, because it allows quick and objective determination of forest stage. However, this definition does not provide an explanation about forest function. It just gives a useful number to measure. So, some forests may be excluded from being categorized as old-growth even if they have old-growth attributes just because they are too young. Also, older forests can lack some old-growth attributes and be categorized as old-growth just because they are so old. The idea of using age is also problematic, because human activities can influence the forest in varied ways. For example, after the logging of 30% of the trees, less time is needed for old-growth to come back than after removal of 80% of the trees. Although depending on the species logged, the forest that comes back after a 30% harvest may consist of proportionately fewer hardwood trees than a forest logged at 80% in which the light competition by less important tree species does not inhibit the regrowth of vital hardwoods.


title: Old-growth forest

text: From a forest dynamics perspective, old-growth forest is in a stage that follows understory reinitiation stage. A review of the stages helps to understand the concept:


title: Old-growth forest

text: Of importance is that while the stand switches from one tree community to another, the stand will not necessarily go through old-growth stage between those stages. Some tree species have a relatively open canopy. That allows more shade-tolerant tree species to establish below even before the understory reinitiation stage. The shade-tolerant trees eventually outcompete the main canopy trees in stem-exclusion stage. Therefore, the dominant tree species will change, but the forest will still be in stem-exclusion stage until the shade tolerant species reach old-growth stage.


title: Old-growth forest

text: Tree species succession may change tree species' composition once the old-growth stage has been achieved. For example, an old boreal forest may contain some large aspen trees, which may die and be replaced by smaller balsam fir or black spruce. Consequently, the forest will switch back to understory reinitiation stage. Using the stand dynamics definition, old-growth can be easily evaluated using structural attributes. However, in some forest ecosystems, this can lead to decisions regarding the preservation of unique stands or attributes that will disappear over the next few decades because of natural succession processes. Consequently, using stand dynamics to define old-growth forests is more accurate in forests where the species that constitute old-growth have long lifespans and succession is slow.


title: Old-growth forest

text: Common cultural definitions and common denominators regarding what comprises old-growth forest, and of the variables that define, constitute and embody old-growth forests include:


title: Old-growth forest

text: Additionally, in mountainous, temperate landscapes (such as Western North America), and specifically in areas of high-quality soil and a moist, relatively mild climate, some old-growth trees have attained notable height and girth (DBH: diameter at breast height), accompanied by notable biodiversity in terms of the species supported. Therefore, for most people, the physical size of the trees is the most recognized hallmark of old-growth forests, even though the ecologically productive areas that support such large trees often comprise only a very small portion of the total area that has been mapped as old-growth forest. (In high-altitude, harsh climates, trees grow very slowly and thus remain at a small size. Such trees also qualify as old growth in terms of how they are mapped, but are rarely recognized by the general public as such.)


title: Old-growth forest

text: The debate over old-growth definitions has been inextricably linked with a complex range of social perceptions about wilderness preservation, biodiversity, aesthetics, and spirituality, as well as economic or industrial values.


title: Old-growth forest

text: In logging terms, old-growth stands are past the economic optimum for harvestingusually between 80–150 years, depending on the species. Old growth forests were often given harvesting priority because they had the most commercially valuable timber, they were considered to be at greater risk of deterioration through root rot or insect infestation, and they occupied land that could be used for more productive second-growth stands. In some regions, old growth is not the most commercially viable timberin British Columbia, Canada, harvesting in the coastal region is moving to younger second-growth stands.


title: Old-growth forest

text: A 2001 scientific symposium in Canada found that defining old growth in a scientifically meaningful, yet policy-relevant, manner presents some basic difficulties, especially if a simple, unambiguous, and rigorous scientific definition is sought. Symposium participants identified some attributes of late-successional, temperate-zone, old-growth forest types that could be considered in developing an index of "old-growthness" and for defining old-growth forests:


title: Old-growth forest

text: Old-growth forests provide ecosystem services that may be far more important to society than their use as a source of raw materials. These services include making breathable air, making pure water, carbon storage, regeneration of nutrients, maintenance of soils, pest control by insectivorous bats and insects, micro- and macro-climate control, and the storage of a wide variety of genes.


title: Old-growth forest

text: The effects of old-growth forests in relation to global warming has been contested in various studies and journals.


title: Old-growth forest

text: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said in its 2007 report: "In the long term, a sustainable forest management strategy aimed at maintaining or increasing forest carbon stocks, while producing an annual sustained yield of timber, fibre, or energy from the forest, will generate the largest sustained mitigation benefit."


title: Old-growth forest

text: Old-growth forests are often perceived to be in equilibrium or in a state of decay. However, evidence from analysis of carbon stored above ground and in the soil has shown old-growth forests are more productive at storing carbon than younger forests. Forest harvesting has little or no effect on the amount of carbon stored in the soil, but other research suggests older forests that have trees of many ages, multiple layers, and little disturbance have the highest capacities for carbon storage. As trees grow, they remove carbon from the atmosphere, and protecting these pools of carbon prevents emissions into the atmosphere. Proponents of harvesting the forest argue the carbon stored in wood is available for use as biomass energy (displacing fossil fuel use), although using biomass as a fuel produces air pollution in the form of carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds, particulates, and other pollutants, in some cases at levels above those from traditional fuel sources such as coal or natural gas.


title: Old-growth forest

text: Each forest has a different potential to store carbon. For example, this potential is particularly high in the Pacific Northwest where forests are relatively productive, trees live a long time, decomposition is relatively slow, and fires are infrequent. The differences between forests must, therefore, be taken into consideration when determining how they should be managed to store carbon.


title: Old-growth forest

text: Old-growth forests have the potential to impact climate change, but climate change is also impacting old-growth forests. As the effects of global warming grow more substantial, the ability of old-growth forests to sequester carbon is affected. Climate change showed an impact on the mortality of some dominant trees species, as observed in the Korean pine. Climate change also showed an effect on the composition of species when forests were surveyed over a 10- and 20-year period, which may disrupt the overall productivity of the forest.


title: Old-growth forest

text: According to the World Resources Institute, as of January 2009, only 21% of the original old-growth forests that once existed on earth are remaining. An estimated one-half of Western Europe's forests were cleared before the Middle Ages, and 90% of the old-growth forests that existed in the contiguous United States in the 1600s have been cleared.


title: Old-growth forest

text: The large trees in old-growth forests are economically valuable, and have been subjected to aggressive logging around the world. This has led to much controversy between logging companies and environmental groups. From certain forestry perspectives, fully maintaining an old-growth forest is seen as extremely economically unproductive, as timber can only be collected from falling trees, and also potentially damaging to nearby managed groves by creating environments conducive to root rot. It may be more productive to cut the old growth down and replace the forest with a younger one.


title: Old-growth forest

text: The island of Tasmania, just off the southeast coast of Australia, has the largest amount of temperate old-growth rainforest reserves in Australia with around 1,239,000 hectares in total. While the local Regional Forest Agreement (RFA) was originally designed to protect much of this natural wealth, many of the RFA old-growth forests protected in Tasmania consist of trees of little use to the timber industry. RFA old-growth and high conservation value forests that contain species highly desirable to the forestry industry have been poorly preserved. Only 22% of Tasmania's original tall-eucalypt forests managed by Forestry Tasmania have been reserved. Ten thousand hectares of tall-eucalypt RFA old-growth forest have been lost since 1996, predominantly as a result of industrial logging operations. In 2006, about 61,000 hectares of tall-eucalypt RFA old-growth forests remained unprotected. Recent logging attempts in the Upper Florentine Valley have sparked a series of protests and media attention over the arrests that have taken place in this area. Additionally, Gunns Limited, the primary forestry contractor in Tasmania, has been under recent criticism by political and environmental groups over its practice of woodchipping timber harvested from old-growth forests.


title: Old-growth forest

text: The increased understanding of forest dynamics in the late 20th century has led the scientific community to identify a need to inventory, understand, manage, and conserve representative examples of old-growth forests with their associated characteristics and values. The literature around old growth and its management is inconclusive about the best way to capture the true essence of an old-growth stand.


title: Old-growth forest

text: A better understanding of natural systems has resulted in new ideas about forest management, such as managed natural disturbances should be designed to achieve the landscape patterns and habitat conditions that are normally maintained in nature. This coarse filter approach to biodiversity conservation recognizes ecological processes and provides for a dynamic distribution of old growth across the landscape.


title: Old-growth forest

text: And all seral stagesyoung, medium and, oldsupport forest biodiversity. Plants and animals rely on different forest ecosystem stages to meet their habitat needs.


title: Old-growth forest

text: In Australia, the Regional Forest Agreement (RFA) attempted to prevent the clearfelling of defined "old-growth forests". This led to struggles over what constitutes "old growth". For example, in Western Australia, the timber industry tried to limit the area of old growth in the karri forests of the Southern Forests Region; this led to the creation of the Western Australian Forests Alliance, the splitting of the Liberal Government of Western Australia and the election of the Gallop Labor Government. Old-growth forests in this region have now been placed inside national parks. A small proportion of old-growth forest also exists in South-West Australia, and is protected by federal laws from logging, which has not occurred there for more than 20 years.


title: Old-growth forest

text: In British Columbia, Canada, old-growth forests must be maintained in each of the province's ecological units to meet biodiversity needs.


title: Old-growth forest

text: In 2006, Greenpeace identified that the world's remaining intact forest landscapes are distributed among the continents as follows:


title: Jared Isaacman

text: Jared Isaacman (born February 11, 1983) is an American entrepreneur, pilot, philanthropist, and commercial astronaut. He is the founder, CEO of Draken International, a private air force provider and Shift4 Payments, a payment processor. As of September 2022, his estimated net worth is US$1.5 billion.


title: Jared Isaacman

text: Isaacman was the commander of Inspiration4, a private spaceflight using SpaceX's Crew Dragon "Resilience", launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on September 16, 2021. The crew returned to Earth on September 18, 2021, after orbiting at in altitude. The mission was part of a fundraiser for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, to which Isaacman pledged to donate $100 million.


title: Jared Isaacman

text: Isaacman will command the Polaris Dawn mission, the first private spaceflight in a series of missions named the Polaris Program. Isaacman is currently undergoing commercial astronaut training at SpaceX.


title: Jared Isaacman

text: Jared Isaacman was born on February 11, 1983 to Donald and Sandra Marie Isaacman. He is Jewish, although he has said he is not a religious person despite donating to synagogues. He is a youngest child, and has three siblings: two brothers, Marc and Michael, and a sister, Tiffany. While living in Westfield, New Jersey, he attended Wilson Elementary School. Around 1993, the Isaacman family moved from Westfield to the Liberty Corner section of Bernards Township. Isaacman attended William Annin Middle School (6–8th grade) from ages 11 to 13, where he met his future wife Monica. He attended Aviation Challenge in Huntsville, Alabama as a child, inspiring his love of aviation.


title: Jared Isaacman

text: As a ninth grader and a freshman at Ridge High School in Bernards Township, New Jersey, Isaacman discovered that he and his best friend, Brendan Lauber, had a knack for fixing computers and started a computer repair business in his parents' basement called Deco Systems. He also worked at CompUSA in nearby Somerville, NJ. He had begun working, doing computer technical service and repair, when he was 14. Two years later, that work resulted in an offer of a full-time job from one of his clients, and he chose to drop out of high school to take the job, obtaining a GED along the way.


title: Jared Isaacman

text: In 1999, Isaacman founded a retail payment processing company named United Bank Card, which was later renamed Harbortouch, a point-of-sale payment company based in Pennsylvania. He was the founding CEO, and retained that role in 2015 with the company having "been profitable for over a decade [while processing] a year from 60,000 merchants, generating in revenues." By 2020, the company had been renamed Shift4 Payments, Isaacman remained CEO, and the company was processing in payments annually.


title: Jared Isaacman

text: In 2012, he co-founded Draken International, a Florida-based company that trains pilots for the United States Armed Forces. The company operates one of the world's largest fleets of privately owned fighter jets.


title: Jared Isaacman

text: In 2004, Isaacman began taking flying lessons. In 2009, he set a world record for circumnavigating the globe. He received a bachelor's degree in professional aeronautics from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in 2011. He is flight qualified in multiple military jet aircraft. In his 20s, he flew in many airshows, but by his 30s, he had stopped flying as such.


title: Jared Isaacman

text: He is married and has two daughters. Isaacman married Monica of New Jersey in 2011. She went to middle school with Jared, and later worked at UBC. Isaacman entered into a relationship with Monica in 2002. Isaacman has been a resident of Washington Township, New Jersey.


title: Jared Isaacman

text: In 2008, he tried to set the world record for circumnavigating the globe in a light jet, falling just short, by traveling around the world in 83 hours, just beyond the existing record of 82 hours. The record attempt was a fundraising event for Make-A-Wish Foundation.


title: Jared Isaacman

text: In April 2009, he set a world record for circumnavigating the globe in a light jet, making the flight in 61:51:15, about 20 hours faster than the previous record of 82 hours. The world record attempt was made as a fundraising event for Make-A-Wish Foundation of New Jersey. He flew a Cessna Citation CJ2 with two other crew members, skipping stops in India and Japan, where he encountered hours-long ground delays in his previous attempt in 2008.


title: Jared Isaacman

text: In February 2021, Isaacman announced that he would serve as commander of Inspiration4, the first private human spaceflight where none of the people aboard are from a government agency. The mission, operated by SpaceX, on board an autonomous Crew Dragon spacecraft launched by a Falcon 9 launch vehicle.


title: Jared Isaacman

text: Isaacman received the call sign "Rook" during flight training. He is featured on the cover of a "Time" magazine double issue with the rest of the crew of Inspiration4 in August 2021. Inspiration4 launched on September 15, 2021 (UTC), achieved orbit and splashed down 3 days later.


title: Jared Isaacman

text: During the Inspiration4 mission, Isaacman made history by making the first-known sports bet from space, placing two bets on NFL football with the BetMGM Sportsbook, while over Las Vegas.


title: Jared Isaacman

text: Isaacman will return to space on the upcoming Polaris Dawn mission, scheduled for launch no earlier than March 2023.


title: Control (Janet Jackson album)

text: Control is the third studio album by American singer Janet Jackson, released on February 4, 1986, by A&M Records. Her collaborations with the songwriters and record producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis resulted in an unconventional sound: a fusion of rhythm and blues, rap vocals, funk, disco, and synthesized percussion that established Jackson, Jam and Lewis as the leading innovators of contemporary R&B. The distinctive triplet swing beat utilized on the record is also considered to be a precursor to the new jack swing genre. The album became Jackson's commercial breakthrough and enabled her to transition into the popular music market, with "Control" becoming one of the foremost albums of the 1980s and contemporary music.


title: Control (Janet Jackson album)

text: Containing autobiographical themes, a majority of the album's lyrics came as the result of a series of changes in her life: a recent annulment of her marriage to singer James DeBarge, severing her business affairs from her father and manager Joseph and the rest of the Jackson family, hiring the A&M executive John McClain as her new management, and her subsequent introduction to Jam and Lewis. The album has been praised by critics as both an artistic feat and as a personal testament of self-actualization. It has also been regarded as a template upon which numerous female artists have modeled their careers, particularly Black women.


title: Control (Janet Jackson album)

text: Following its release, "Control" became Jackson's first album to top the "Billboard" 200 albums chart in the United States and five of its commercial singles—"What Have You Done for Me Lately", "Nasty", "Control", "When I Think of You", and "Let's Wait Awhile"—peaked within the top five of the "Billboard" Hot 100 singles chart, making Jackson the first female artist to have five top five hits from one album on the Billboard Hot 100 chart; "When I Think of You" became the singer's first number one hit. "Control" also set a record for the longest continuous run of charting singles on the Hot 100, at 65 consecutive weeks. Music videos created to promote the album's singles showcased her dancing ability and became a catalyst for MTV's evolving demographics. The album remained on the "Billboard" 200 chart for over two years. It has been certified five times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and has sold more than 10 million copies worldwide.


title: Control (Janet Jackson album)

text: "Control" went on to receive several accolades, including a nomination for the Grammy Award for Album of the Year and winning Producer of the Year, Non-Classical for Jam and Lewis in 1987. It is listed by the National Association of Recording Merchandisers and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as one of the 200 Definitive Albums of All Time, in addition to being included in several publications "best of" album lists. In 2016, it was selected for exhibition in the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC).


title: Control (Janet Jackson album)

text: Joseph Jackson, patriarch of the Jackson family of musicians, was known for managing the careers of all nine of his children – most notably, the successful career of The Jackson 5. After arranging a recording contract with A&M in 1982 for a then 16-year-old Janet, he oversaw the entire production of her debut album, "Janet Jackson", and its follow-up, "Dream Street" (1984); the latter of which was written and produced by her brothers Marlon and Michael, and Jesse Johnson. Best known as a television actress, she was initially reluctant to begin a recording career. She said, "I was coming off of a TV show that I absolutely hated doing, "Fame". I didn't want to do [the first record, "Janet Jackson"]. I wanted to go to college. But I did it for my father ..." and elaborated that she was often in conflict with her producers. Amidst her professional struggles, she rebelled against her family's wishes by marrying James DeBarge of the family recording group DeBarge in 1984. The Jacksons disapproved of the relationship, citing DeBarge's immaturity and substance abuse. Jackson left her husband in January 1985 and was granted an annulment later that year.


title: Control (Janet Jackson album)

text: Jackson subsequently fired her father as her manager and employed John McClain, then A&M Records' senior vice president of artists and repertoire and general manager. Commenting on the decision, she stated, "I just wanted to get out of the house, get out from under my father, which was one of the most difficult things that I had to do, telling him that I didn't want to work with him again." Joseph Jackson resented John McClain for what he saw as an underhanded attempt to steal his daughter's career out from under him, stating, "I've worked hard for my family. The problem comes, though, when others come in behind you and try to steal them away. The wheels have already been set for Janet Jackson. Anyone who jumps on now will be getting a free ride." McClain responded by saying "I'm not trying to pimp Janet Jackson or steal her away from her father." He subsequently introduced her to the songwriting/production duo of James "Jimmy Jam" Harris III and Terry Lewis, former Prince associates and ex-members of The Time.


title: Control (Janet Jackson album)

text: When Jam and Lewis agreed to produce Jackson's third studio album, they wanted to appeal primarily to the African American community, in addition to achieving crossover success on the pop music charts. Jam commented in an interview with "Rolling Stone" magazine, "We wanted to do an album that would be in every black home in America ... we were going for "the" black album of all time." Before their association with Jackson, Jam and Lewis had originally planned to record an album with tracks they wrote for Sharon Bryant, but she found their lyrics and sound to be too "rambunctious". The duo presented the same set of recordings to Jackson, who gave her input and took co-writing and co-production credits for the album's content. Jam and Lewis recalled that to collaborate with Jackson on the material, they spent the first week simply getting to know their new client. Lewis explained, "We got into her head. We saw what she was capable of, what she wanted to say, where she wanted to be, what she wanted to be. We put together some songs to fit her as we saw her, as she revealed herself to us. It was as simple as that."


title: Control (Janet Jackson album)

text: For the song "What Have You Done for Me Lately", which was originally penned for one of Jam and Lewis's own records, the lyrics were rewritten to convey Jackson's feelings about her recent annulment from James DeBarge. The song was chosen as the lead single for "Control", as Jam and Lewis felt it best represented Jackson's outlook on life. "Nasty", which in Jackson's opinion was the most innovative song on the album, was inspired by her experience with street harassment in Minneapolis by a group of men outside the hotel she resided at during the recording of "Control". She recalled, "They were emotionally abusive. Sexually threatening. Instead of running to Jimmy or Terry for protection, I took a stand. I backed them down. That's how songs like 'Nasty' and 'What Have You Done for Me Lately' were born, out of a sense of self-defense." Jimmy Jam wrote and played the keyboard arrangement, with Jackson playing the accompaniment. Background vocals were sung by Jackson, Jam and Lewis. The distinctive triplet swing beat of the song was developed by Jam on an Ensoniq Mirage keyboard. "Let's Wait Awhile" was centered on safe sex and abstinence, a subject of significant social commentary at the time. Jam commented that it is common practice for songwriters to use current events as a means of inspiration for lyrics and that the AIDS pandemic had raised awareness about sexually transmitted diseases. He commented, "The theme of the song ('Let's Wait Awhile') was Janet's idea. She's not a preachy person. She's not telling people how to live their lives. All she's doing is offering an opinion."


title: Control (Janet Jackson album)

text: Although Joseph Jackson initially demanded that his daughter's new album be recorded in Los Angeles so that he could keep an eye out for her, Jam and Lewis refused. They required the entire production of the album to be done at their own studio in Minneapolis, Minnesota, "far from the glitter and distractions of Hollywood and the interference of manager-fathers." Jam stated, "We required that they put her in our hands. We had to do it on our turf, with no bodyguards, no star trips and none of Joe Jackson's people hanging around making suggestions." "Control" was recorded at Flyte Tyme Studios, the site for Flyte Tyme Records, founded by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis in Minneapolis. "There's a little radiator I used to sit on when we did the "Control" album," Jackson recalled in 1993. John McClain served as the executive producer.


title: Control (Janet Jackson album)

text: Jam and Lewis were the primary instrumentalists for the recording, including percussion, piano, drums, and also provided background vocals. Jackson accompanied Jam and Lewis on keyboard and took part in composing the arrangements. Stephen Holden of "The New York Times" observed the album was a prominent example of the developing relationship with musicians and modern technology, stating "... technology has altered the form, shape, scale and even the meaning of popular music ... The album wasn't created by a studio band, as were most pop-rock albums in the 1960s and '70s, but by the producers and the singer programming mechanized drum and keyboard textures." Jackson's father disapproved of the new material and image of "Control", claiming it would never sell. In a cover story for "Spin" magazine titled "Damn It, Janet: The Battle for Control of Janet Jackson," Joseph was reported saying "[i]f Janet listens to me, she'll be as big as Michael." She and McClain disregarded his objections. Commenting on the final product, Jackson stated: "It's aggressive, cocky, very forward. It expresses exactly who I am and how I feel. I've taken control of my own life. This time I'm gonna do it my way."


title: Control (Janet Jackson album)

text: Fashion photographer and illustrator Tony Viramontes created the stylized cover for the new album and the singles "Nasty" and "Control". Jackson said of Viramontes, "He was very creative, and I believe one day his work will be iconic. He was such a joy to work with. I miss him." Author Dean Rhys Morgan in "Bold, Beautiful and Damned: The World of Fashion Illustrator Tony Viramontes" discusses how Jackson was "transformed from a former child star into an assured fashion forward figure with her trendsetting big hair and severe all black ensemble. Until this point, Jackson had been more a reflection than pioneer, more interpreter than innovator. This album was all about Janet and who she wanted to be." Alexander Fury wrote in "The Independent", "the artwork created with Eighties illustrator Tony Viramontes for "Control" stands the test of time."


title: Control (Janet Jackson album)

text: Although A&M did not consider a full concert tour to promote Jackson's album, the label funded a three-week promotional tour across the United States in 13 cities following its release. In addition to the studio release, a remix album, "", was released in select countries in November 1987. Jackson's lyrical expression has been noted as one of the key elements of the album's success. Author Dave Marsh in "The Heart of Rock & Soul: The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made" (1999) comments: "Certainly, Janet must have written her own lyrics, which went after men—in particular, not very well disguised stand-ins for her father and former husband—more venomously than another guy would have dared. "Control", the resulting album, was one of the best-sellers of 1986–1987, producing five hit singles."


title: Control (Janet Jackson album)

text: Jesus Garber, then-director of A&M's black music marketing and promotion, noted that in addition to crossover promotion from black to pop music charts, music video was utilized to launch Jackson into superstardom. Eric Henderson of "Slant Magazine" credits the release of "Control" as "the birth of Janet the music video star, as six of the nine tracks were turned into popular videos that all but announced her as queen of the production dance number." Henderson commented that Jackson's dancing ability, trained by a then-unknown Paula Abdul, only served to propel her into further stardom. Charlie Minor, then-senior vice president of promotion for A&M stated: "The images completed the image of Janet Jackson with the buyer ... They gave her a face, dance, action identity with the songs, and a visual image of her as a rock 'n' roll star." Jonathan Cohen of "Billboard" magazine commented "[Jackson's] accessible sound and spectacularly choreographed videos were irresistible to MTV, and helped the channel evolve from rock programming to a broader, beat-driven musical mix." The video for "Nasty" received three nominations for the fifth annual 1987 MTV Video Music Awards, winning Best Choreography for Paula Abdul.


title: Control (Janet Jackson album)

text: "Control" debuted at number 84 on the "Billboard" 200 on March 8, 1986, and at number 26 on the Top R&B/Black Albums on March 1, 1986. After twenty weeks, it topped the "Billboard" 200 and the Top R&B/Black Albums chart, selling 250,000 copies in a single week, a record for an album by a female artist. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) first certified "Control" gold in April 1986, denoting 500,000 units shipped within the United States. Two months later, in June 1986, the album was RIAA certified platinum, denoting 1 million units shipped. Three years later, "Control" was RIAA certified fivefold platinum in October 1989. By 1990, "Control" had sold 5 million copies in the United States and as of December 2009, the album has sold 496,000 copies in the U.S. since 1991 according to Nielsen SoundScan, which does not count albums sold through clubs like the BMG Music, where she sold 883,000. Combined, it has sold over 6,379,000 copies in the U.S. Since its debut, "Control" has sold over 10 million copies worldwide.


title: Control (Janet Jackson album)

text: The album's lead single, "What Have You Done for Me Lately", peaked at number four on the "Billboard" Hot 100 singles chart and at number one on the Hot Black Singles chart. The single was certified gold by the RIAA in November 1990. The song was compared favorably to similar recordings of female empowerment released by black women, such as "New Attitude" by Patti LaBelle, "Better Be Good to Me" by Tina Turner, and "Sisters Are Doin' It for Themselves" by Aretha Franklin. Oprah Winfrey commented: "What you're seeing in all the areas of arts and entertainment is black women internalizing the idea of black power and pride ... Black women started listening to their inner cues, rather than society or even the black community's idea of what they are supposed to be and can be." "Nasty", the album's second single, beat "What Have You Done for Me Lately" by one position, peaking at number three on the Hot 100 and at number one on the Hot Black Singles chart. It was certified gold in November 1990. Critic Jon Bream noted "the songwriters have slyly juxtaposed a nasty-sounding groove and the repetition of the word 'nasty' with a subtle antinasty message."


title: Control (Janet Jackson album)

text: "When I Think of You" reached number one on the Hot 100, becoming Jackson's first single to top the chart, and was certified gold in November 1990. The album's fourth single and title track, "Control", reached its peak position at number five on the Hot 100 and at number one on the Hot Black Singles chart, later certified gold by the RIAA in November 1990. "Let's Wait Awhile" reached the number two position on the Hot 100 and number one on the Hot Black Singles chart. Clarence Page of the "Chicago Tribune" commented in a similar vein to "Nasty", the ballad "throw[s] cold water on the passions of young love 'before we go too far'." Unlike its predecessors, "The Pleasure Principle" did not reach within the top five of the Hot 100, instead peaking at number fourteen. It did, however, become Jackson's fifth number one single on the Hot Black Singles chart. Each of the album's singles excluding "Let's Wait Awhile" peaked within the top five of the "Billboard" Club Play Singles. "Funny How Time Flies (When You're Having Fun)" was not released as a commercial single in the United States. It peaked at number 59 on the UK Singles Chart.


title: Control (Janet Jackson album)

text: Upon its release, the album received widespread critical acclaim from critics. "Rolling Stone"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s Rob Hoerburger commented that the "sharp-tongued" Janet Jackson is "more concerned with identity than with playlists", as "Control" declares she is no longer the Jacksons' baby sister. Hoerburger expressed the view that tracks such as "Nasty" and "What Have You Done for Me Lately" erased the former "pop-ingénue image" of Jackson's first two albums, and that ""Control" is a better album than Diana Ross has made in five years and puts Janet in a position similar to the young Donna Summer's—unwilling to accept novelty status and taking her own steps to rise above it." Steven Ivory of "Billboard" expressed "[v]ocally, Jackson is more aggressive than ever. Indeed, her exhibition of sass and funkiness is certainly more provocative" in comparison to her previous work. "NME" wrote: "Jackson has gone a long way in shaking off the experience of being a shadow Jackson child. She is an artist in her own right." "Newsweek" stated "[i]n an era of big-voiced pop-soul divas ... her current hit album, is taut, funky, hard as nails, an alternative to the sentimental balladry and opulent arrangements of Patti LaBelle and Whitney Houston." In "The Village Voice", Robert Christgau "scoffed at Janet's claims of autonomy", but applauded Jam & Lewis's beats as "their deepest ever" while finding Jackson's contribution entertaining enough. "Los Angeles Times" critic Connie Johnson wrote: "Though still a teen-ager, this singer's stance is remarkably nervy and mature. She has a snotty sort of assurance that permeates several cuts, plus the musical muscle to back it up." Jon Pareles of "The New York Times" notes "Control" takes obvious influence from Prince, describing "[t]he album's pacing, its clipped vocal lines—even the spoken introduction that starts things off" as pure Minneapolis sound; he adds "[b]ut where the Prince style is usually connected with heavy-breathing come-ons, Miss Jackson is cheerfully standoffish."


title: Control (Janet Jackson album)

text: For the 29th Annual Grammy Awards, "Control" received four nominations: Album of the Year, Best R&B Song for "What Have You Done for Me Lately", Best Female R&B Vocal Performance and Non-Classical Producer of the Year for Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. Jam and Lewis won Producer of the Year. The album earned a record-breaking twelve nominations from the American Music Awards, winning four. Jackson also won three Soul Train Music Awards and six "Billboard" Music Awards.


title: Control (Janet Jackson album)

text: Later reviews continue to find the album favorable. Eric Henderson of "Slant Magazine" expressed that the misconception that "Control" is Jackson's debut album only confirmed the "quintessential statement on personal and artistic self-actualization" that it set out to accomplish. Henderson claimed critics who judged Jackson harshly for her thin voice "somehow missed the explosive 'gimme a beat' vocal pyrotechnics she unleashes all over "Nasty" ... Or that they completely dismissed how perfect her tremulous hesitance fits into the abstinence anthem "Let's Wait Awhile." However, Henderson also commented that the "Jam-Lewis formula wasn't completely infallible" as "You Can Be Mine" and "Funny How Time Flies (When You're Having Fun)", were two of the album's least impressive misfires. While William Ruhlmann of AllMusic commented Jackson "came across as an aggressive, independent woman", he asserts the album's true value is the production talents of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. In "The New Rolling Stone Album Guide" (2004), Laura Sinagra said that on "Control", "Jam and Lewis perfected their melodic, full-blown funk attack", while Jackson "filled each track with a breathy believability" with vocal performances that ranged from yearning to seductive. In 2020, Rolling Stone ranked "Control" number 111 on the reboot of its list of 'The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time'.


title: Control (Janet Jackson album)

text: "Control" is widely considered to be the breakthrough in Jackson's career, establishing her independence and dominance in the realm of popular music. In "The Sex Revolts: Gender, Rebellion, and Rock'n'roll" (1996) author Simon Reynolds wrote that "Janet Jackson became a superstar with the immaculately designed soft-core feminism of "Control"." "Jet" magazine commented that although the Jackson family's musical legacy had given her an opportunity to tap into an international audience, "Control" was the turning point at which "her career took off and she became a bona fide superstar. "Control" showcased Janet as a person who was firmly and finally in control of her own life." Dennis Hunt of the "Los Angeles Times" wrote: "Previously, she had recorded two unsophisticated, kiddie soul albums. If you listened carefully to that kid stuff, there was a grown-up singer there somewhere struggling to get out. [Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis] liberated the real Janet Jackson."


title: Control (Janet Jackson album)

text: Lyrically, Jackson's album is said to exhibit a "politically driven feminist" message, as stated by Lilly Goren in "You've Come A Long Way, Baby: Women, Politics, and Popular Culture" (2009). Musically, according to Rickey Vincent, author of "Funk: The Music, The People, and The Rhythm of The One" (1996), Jam and Lewis's collaboration with her is said to be one of the high points of the 1980s, as they redefined dance music by mixing a youthful sound with industrial-strength beats. As documented by musicologist Richard J. Ripani, author of "The New Blue Music: Changes in Rhythm & Blues, 1950–1999" (2006), "Control" is regarded as one of the most influential albums in the history of rhythm and blues and the first album to bridge the gap between R&B and rap music. Its success in both the mainstream R&B and pop music charts "led to the incorporation of many of the stylistic traits of rap over the next few years, and Janet Jackson was to continue to be one of the leaders in that development." Furthermore, the album's second single "Nasty" has been credited with influencing the new jack swing genre, pioneered by Teddy Riley. Laura Sinagra in "The New Rolling Stone Album Guide" wrote that the album impacted popular music with a "blockbuster momentum all its own", while Eric Henderson of "Slant Magazine" noted "Control" "was every bit the hit machine that her brother's "Thriller" was." Additionally, "Control" made "Billboard" Hot 100 history having the longest continuous run on the Hot 100 with singles from one album at 65 consecutive weeks, breaking her brother Michael's record by one week; "Thriller" by comparison charted singles for 64 consecutive weeks. Steve Morse of "The Boston Globe" commented: "All things considered, 1986 was a stellar year for the black female vocalist—the best, in fact, since the disco era of a decade back ... Black music crossed over to the pop charts in dramatic fashion, with Whitney Houston, Patti LaBelle and Janet Jackson each having No. 1 albums."


title: Control (Janet Jackson album)

text: In addition to stepping out of the Jackson family shadow, "Control" established Jackson as one of the preeminent female artists of popular music, rivaling fellow pop star Madonna, as critics began to acknowledge their influence on the record industry and younger artists. "Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World Volume 8: Genres: North America" (2012) documents that both women redefined house music, repackaging it "as part of a global metropolitan pop aesthetic." With regard to marketing singles, Paul Grein of "Billboard" reported: "10 or 20 years ago you would have had two singles from an album at the most. Now we're in an era where Madonna is on her fifth single from the album "True Blue" and Janet Jackson is on her sixth from the LP "Control"." Jackson subsequently became the first female artist to produce six top 40 hits on the "Billboard" Hot 100 from a single album. "Los Angeles Times" writer Paul Grein wrote a segment titled "The influence of Madonna and Janet Jackson", reporting Debbie Gibson's manager Doug Breitbart claimed "Madonna has brought back a really strong, melodic component to pop music", while "Teen Beat" editor Maggie Murphy remarked "Janet Jackson may have started this more than anyone else." Anthony DeCurtis, author of "Present Tense: Rock & Roll and Culture" (1992) wrote that "Madonna and Janet Jackson have produced videos that explore the female gaze," and described Jackson's music video for "Nasty" as feminist theory on film that deconstructs the objectification of women. Laura Sinagra documented that within two years of the release of "Control", "a new crop of female singers (such as Paula Abdul and Karyn White) were charged with imitating Janet." Anthony DeCurtis of "Rolling Stone" remarked: ""Control"—with its quintuple-platinum sales and string of hit singles—established" a then-twenty-year-old Jackson "as one of the most popular recording artists in the world." "The Guardian" described the album's release as one of the 50 key events in the history of R&B and hip hop.


title: Control (Janet Jackson album)

text: Upon the 30th anniversary of the album's release, Julian Kimble of "Billboard" magazine wrote: "In hindsight, "Control" is both evolutionary and revolutionary. As Jackson’s first album to land atop the "Billboard" 200, it marked professional and personal breakthroughs. Distancing herself from the immense Jackson family shadow, she created one of the most influential projects across contemporary R&B and pop music. And not only was Jackson’s maiden voyage with producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis at the forefront of R&B, pop and hip-hop’s intersection, it birthed a novel sound in the process." Morgan Y. Evans for "PopMatters"' wrote: "Janet Jackson's "Control" is worth reconsidering as, perhaps boldly, one of the top three or four pop records of the '80s...It is unquestionably the most coherent and powerful full album statement from any female solo pop artist during much of the '80s, some of Kate Bush's more eccentric triumphs that decade notwithstanding." Kyle Anderson of "Entertainment Weekly" commented: "The videos from "Control" were all over MTV, and Janet established herself as an instantly dominant pop figure talked about in the same sentences as Madonna and her older brother Michael." MTV's Meaghan Garvey asserted "it's hard to overstate the significance of "Control", whether in terms of the pop landscape, the evolution of the music video as a vessel for promotion and expression, or Top 40 feminist anthems." She also argued "it's important to note that "Control"’s self-actualization anthems were expressions of black female pride. "Control" spawned a whopping six videos—great ones, at that—which played an immeasurable role in the shift toward visible black pop." Gerrick D. Kennedy of "Los Angeles Times" wrote that Jackson's continued influence is evident in the careers of Rihanna, Beyoncé, Ciara, FKA Twigs and Tinashe in that "all of them take cues from Jackson's blueprint. And all that began with "Control"." In 2016, a cassette of "Control" was added to the "Musical Crossroads" exhibition of the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC).


title: Cloud Strife

text: Cloud reappears as the protagonist in the 2005 computer-animated sequel film, "", in which he fights a new threat composed of a trio attacking his allies while also dealing with his own terminal illness, "Geostigma". He acts in a supporting role in other "Compilation of Final Fantasy VII" titles, and is featured in several other games in the wider "Final Fantasy" series. Additionally, he has been featured in the fighting game "Dissidia", various titles outside the franchise such as the "Kingdom Hearts" series by Square Enix and Disney, and as a playable fighter in the "Super Smash Bros." series by Nintendo.


title: Cloud Strife

text: Cloud was designed by Tetsuya Nomura, a character artist for the "Final Fantasy" series, whose role expanded during the title's development to include supervision over Cloud's personality. Yoshinori Kitase, director of "VII", and Kazushige Nojima, one of the game's events planners, developed the story and wanted to create a mysterious character who acted atypically for a hero. After "VII", Nomura assumed greater responsibility for Cloud's development, and his design was revised to better conform with the series' shift to a more realistic style.


title: Cloud Strife

text: Cloud has garnered a primarily positive reception from critics. Described as iconic, Cloud has been cited favorably as an example of complex character writing in video games, as one of its first unreliable narrators, and for the game's depiction of his mental disorder. He is also mainly known for his physical appearance, such as his spiky-styled hair, and his signature weapon, the Buster Sword. He has ranked highly in various character lists compiled by video game publications, and remains popular among fans, continuing to place highly in popularity polls conducted by "Famitsu", "Guinness", and other organizations. His characterization and design have also served as a trope for other characters, most notably Lightning from "Final Fantasy XIII". He has also become the basis for a variety of merchandise, such as action figures and jewelry. Cloud has been voiced by multiple actors, with Steve Burton and Cody Christian's English vocal performances being the subject of praise.


title: Cloud Strife

text: In contrast to "Final Fantasy VI", which featured multiple "main characters", Square's staff decided at the outset of "Final Fantasy VII" development that the game would follow a single identifiable protagonist. In Hironobu Sakaguchi's first plot treatment, a prototype for Cloud's character belonged to an organization attempting to destroy New York City's "Mako Reactors". After a pause in development so that the team could help finish "Chrono Trigger", Square began experimenting with next-generation hardware. A small group including Kitase and Nomura worked in secret to develop a demo for a Nintendo 64 emulation kit running on an SGI Onyx. In addition to testing models ported from Square's , Nomura and a handful of other artists created new characters, including an early design of Cloud.


title: Cloud Strife

text: Sakaguchi, impressed with Nomura's illustrations and detailed handwritten notes for "Final Fantasy V" "and VI", tasked Nomura with designing "Final Fantasy VII" main characters. Kitase and Nomura discussed that Cloud would be the lead of three protagonists, but Nomura did not receive character profiles or a completed scenario in advance. Left to imagine the stories behind the characters he designed, Nomura shared these details in discussions with staff or in separately penned notes. Frustrated by the continued popularity of "Final Fantasy IV" characters despite the release of two sequels, Nomura made it his goal to create a memorable cast.


title: Cloud Strife

text: Cloud's design underwent several revisions. Nomura's first draft of Cloud featured slicked-back black hair to contrast with the long silver hair of the game's primary antagonist, Sephiroth, and to minimize the model's polygon count. However, to make Cloud stand out more and emphasize his role as the game's lead protagonist, Nomura altered Cloud's design to give him spiky, bright blond hair. Nomura also made Cloud taller than he appeared in the SGI Onyx demo, while a discarded iteration drawn "more on the realistic side" depicted Cloud with an even taller head and body and a more muscular physique.


title: Cloud Strife

text: Yoshitaka Amano, who had handled character illustrations for previous "Final Fantasy" titles, painted promotional images for the game by taking Nomura's "drawings and put[ting his] own spin on them". According to Amano, because of the hardware limitations of the PlayStation, the platform Square had settled on for "Final Fantasy VII", characters could not be rendered realistically. Amano thought Cloud's baggy pants, which taper at the bottom, reflected a "very ... Japanese style", resembling the silhouette of a "hakama". The contrast between Cloud, a "young, passionate boy", and Sephiroth, a "more mature and cool" individual, struck Amano as "intriguing", though not unusual as a pairing. When designing Cloud and Sephiroth, Nomura imagined a rivalry mirroring that of Miyamoto Musashi and Sasaki Kojirō, with Cloud and Sephiroth representing Musashi and Kojirō, respectively.