title: Bender (Futurama)

text: Bender is powered by alcohol-based fuels, which he can convert into an electrical power source sufficient to operate not only himself, but also small household appliances plugged into his power receptacle. Low alcohol intake levels decrease his production of electricity: when he stops drinking and begins to "sober", his behavior grows increasingly ebrious and dysfunctional, and he grows a red beard of rust. He is also, apparently, able to sustain himself by consuming mineral oil, though he considers this to be only 'functional'.


title: Bender (Futurama)

text: Due to Professor Farnsworth's flawed design, the energy conversion process inside Bender's body produces an inordinate amount of waste gases and heat. He can expel these products from his rear end or, more often, as a flaming belch.


title: Bender (Futurama)

text: He also has a nuclear pile inside his body, as seen in "Godfellas". However, its location and purpose are not clear.


title: Bender (Futurama)

text: Bender often exhibits sociopathic behavior; he is a pathological liar and rarely shows any empathy (his most frequent catchphrase to any bothersome person is "Bite my shiny metal ass!"). He has a mostly voluntary morality and constantly steals, ranging from the petty theft of wallets to crimes such as kidnapping Jay Leno's head and stealing Fry's blood and kidney. He also once stole Amy's earrings while giving her a hug. It was shown in "Roswell That Ends Well" that even in a disassembled state, his individual limbs carry on attempting to steal anything in proximity; the hand on his dismembered arm steals a wallet out of a scientist's pocket before becoming inactive again.


title: Bender (Futurama)

text: He is shown throughout the series as having a secret desire to be a folk musician that only manifests itself when a magnet is placed on or near his head. This desire is finally fulfilled in the episode "Bendin' in the Wind": an accident involving a giant can opener leaves him with a mutilated chest and paralyzed from the neck down. An encounter with Beck during his hospitalization leads to his becoming lead washboard player and the two teaming up for a musical tour that turns Bender into a folk hero for other broken robots, only for his career to end when he finally recovers.


title: Bender (Futurama)

text: He is also fascinated with cooking, being the chef of the "Planet Express Ship", though he is shown to have no sense of actual taste. In fact, his early dinners were so horrible that even the omnivorous Zoidberg could not eat it. In his first attempt, he creates a dinner for the crew that is so over-salted they all gag (which is aggravated further when their drinks turn out to be "salt with water in them"); he then remarks that the food was fine since the salt content was 10% below a lethal dose (unfortunately, Zoidberg had seconds). In "The Problem with Popplers", he creates dinner consisting of nothing but capers and baking soda, and mistakenly expresses his belief that humans eat rocks. He seems to improve his cooking skills over the series, cooking a lavish cake for Nibbler's birthday party and beating Elzar for the title of Iron Cook (though he uses a potion called "The Essence of Pure Flavor", which consists of water and a generous portion of LSD to make the judges hallucinate that his food tastes good). In "Into the Wild Green Yonder", he mistakenly bakes prison guards a cake with nutmeg thinking it was a natural human sleep drug, before being corrected by Amy that nutmeg is in fact a baking ingredient.


title: Bender (Futurama)

text: As a robot, he possesses an incredible amount of patience. In "Roswell That Ends Well", he is shown to wait over a thousand years in sand after his head is lost during a trip back in time to 1947, as well as many thousands of years in caverns under New New York City (although on this occasion he was also in the presence of multiple alternate versions of himself that had previously made the same 'trip'). Despite the long wait, it is implied that Bender does not power down, apparently enjoying his own company so much that he does not consider it necessary. However, in one episode, he shows next to no patience as a one-time joke.


title: Bender (Futurama)

text: Although the consumption of alcohol is necessitated by Bender's design and should not be generally viewed as a vice for alcohol-fueled robots, he apparently drinks far more than he needs for energy. His excessive drinking contributes to his characterization as an alcoholic ("Hell Is Other Robots" reveals that robots can function equally well on mineral oil instead of alcohol, also contributing to the perception of Bender's alcohol use as a vice). If he is deprived of alcohol, for instance during periods of depression, he ceases to function properly and shows signs similar to human drunkenness, including developing a rusty five o'clock shadow. As noted above, his disembodied head has survived for millennia with, presumably, no source of alcohol, so it may be that, when a mere head, Bender neither requires alcohol nor suffers from its absence.


title: Bender (Futurama)

text: When he is sufficiently frightened or sickened, bricks fall from his backside (a reference to the slang "shitting bricks"). When sufficiently fascinated by something, he may pull out a camera and snap a picture, adding the catchphrase "Neat!". He has also been shown to be able to use his eyes as cameras. In addition to drinking, he also has an affinity for cigars, which he ignites with a lighter built into his finger, although in "Decision 3012" he uses a Zippo. Unlike drinking alcohol for fuel, Bender tells Fry that he smokes cigars simply because they "make [him] look cool".


title: Bender (Futurama)

text: Despite being a robot, he has been seen to show emotion on many occasions, even shedding a tear in "Crimes of the Hot". One of the series' running jokes revolves around Bender having emotions, when technically he should be an unfeeling machine. Bender is seemingly unaware of his emotions, stating in the episode "Anthology of Interest II", "I mean, being a robot's great, but we don't have emotions, and sometimes that makes me very sad". In his very first appearance, he tries to commit suicide via a suicide booth out of guilt for having unknowingly contributed to their creation. He has also been known to be nonchalant to the point of appearing both uncaring and incredibly brave, even in life-threatening situations.


title: Bender (Futurama)

text: Bender is a classic narcissist. He considers himself flawless, a "towering inferno of physical perfection", and refers to himself in both the first and third person. In "The Farnsworth Parabox" Bender seemingly falls in love with an alternate gold-plated version of himself, stating that he has finally found someone "as great as me". Even his personal email address, <nowiki>bender@ilovebender.com</nowiki>, reflects his self-absorption.


title: Bender (Futurama)

text: Despite these human characteristics, he has no verifiable soul, as seen in "Obsoletely Fabulous" when he passes through a "soul detector" without setting off the alarm. However, in "Ghost in the Machines", Bender becomes a ghost who can't interact with people directly but can possess machinery: he uses this ability to "scare Fry to death". He eventually makes a deal with the Robot Devil (Dan Castellaneta) to get a new body.


title: Bender (Futurama)

text: His relationships with the rest of the crew of Planet Express vary over time, although he treats nearly all biological organisms with disdain. The only one of his friends who he has openly shown affection for is Fry, his best friend and roommate. "Of all the friends I've had, [he is] the first." Although he is verbally and physically abusive towards Fry and considers him to be vastly inferior to him, he has been shown to care for him a great deal. In "Jurassic Bark" he states that he loves Fry "the way a human loves a dog, or the way a gorilla loves a kitty", and in "I Second That Emotion" when Bender gets jealous of Leela’s pet Nibbler and flushes him down the toilet, a distraught Leela asks how he would feel if she did the same to Fry, describing Fry as Bender's pet (Bender responds with an apathetic "Only one way to find out."). He routinely takes advantage of his friends, including framing them for crimes, robbing them, stealing Fry's blood on more than one occasion, stealing Fry's power of attorney, using Fry's body to smash open a window, taking Fry's kidney and trying to sell it (it eventually gets eaten by Leela), and stealing jewelry from Amy. He is prone to using the ship’s doctor, Zoidberg, in various get-rich-quick schemes, although it is probable he does not consider Dr. Zoidberg a friend, since in "Obsoletely Fabulous" Bender begged the 1X Robot to "save (his) friends, and Zoidberg" (Though it is seen that he helps Zoidberg from time to time, as seen in "That's Lobstertainment!"). He even betrays Leela to Zapp Brannigan in "Into the Wild Green Yonder" when she becomes a wanted criminal, out of jealousy of her steadily growing rap sheet, only to break her out of prison again to ensure his own sheet remains lengthier. Although he regularly frustrates the crew, they have demonstrated a certain affection for him in return. During "How Hermes Requisitioned His Groove Back", the entire crew travels to the Central Bureaucracy to recover Bender’s brain after Morgan Proctor burned it onto a floppy disk and sent it away. Hermes Conrad (Phil LaMarr) subsequently risks his bureaucratic license to locate the disc with Bender's brain on it by sorting the entire pile in just under four minutes. In the same episode, when Amy asked why they had to fix him, after being met with a brief period of uncertain silence, Leela says, "Those arguments aside, we're still going." Amy and Bender date for a time in "Proposition Infinity"; the relationship becomes so serious that Bender proposes to Amy and participates in a campaign to legalize human/robot marriage, although the relationship ends after he realizes that such marriage rights would necessitate monogamy.


title: Bender (Futurama)

text: Despite his often immoral attitude, he does not lack a softer side; he can feel guilt and remorse over his actions if he goes too far (even by his own standards), indicating that he is not as selfish or unkind as he appears to be. In "Bendless Love", Bender intends to murder Flexo in order to win the love of fem-bot Angelyne, but when Flexo gets stuck under a gigantic steel girder, Angelyne shows sorrow for him. Bender decides that her happiness is more important than his own, and ends up saving Flexo. Also, in "Jurassic Bark", when Bender becomes jealous of Fry's petrified dog, Seymour, he decides to throw him in magma. But when he realizes how his actions hurt Fry, Bender apologizes for his behavior and rescues the dog. In "Godfellas", he becomes the god of a microscopic alien race and abuses this position by commanding them to produce beer for him. When his abuse of power causes the entire species' demise, however, he cries in mourning and remorse.


title: Bender (Futurama)

text: In 2008, Bender took second place behind the Terminator in a poll for the "Baddest Movie Robot" on Techradar.com.


title: Bender (Futurama)

text: The song "Bend It Like Bender!" from the Devin Townsend Project album "Addicted", is a direct reference to Bender and contains the quote "Game's over, losers! I have all the money!"


title: Bender (Futurama)

text: Being the show's breakout character, Bender has made several cameos in different episodes of "The Simpsons", another series by Matt Groening. Within "The Simpsons", Bender has appeared in episodes "Future-Drama", "Bart vs. Lisa vs. the Third Grade", "" and "Replaceable You". Bender, along with Professor Farnsworth and Fry, also makes a cameo appearance in Matt Groening's latest series "Disenchantment", in the episode "Dreamland Falls" as a hologram from a crystal ball, within the one-way time machine from the "Futurama" episode "The Late Philip J. Fry".


title: Bender (Futurama)

text: In the "Simpsons"-"Futurama" crossover episode "Simpsorama", Bender travels back in time in the 21st century to Springfield to kill Homer Simpson, whose DNA is tied to the creatures rampaging in the 31st century. Bender ends up befriending Homer before learning that the creatures are in fact Bart's genetic offspring. Once the crisis is averted, Bender goes into shutdown mode in the Simpsons' basement. Bender was still resting inert in the Simpsons' basement as of 2015 episode "Cue Detective" in which his empty body cavity was used to store the family's cash nest-egg. Bender also makes a background cameo appearance in the "Simpsons" episode "My Fare Lady", holding a shovel and bucket at the end of Homer's dream about "The Jetsons". Bender briefly appears in the episode "Simprovised" holding a sign that says "Bring Back Futurama Again".


title: Bender (Futurama)

text: In the episode "Real Veal / Celebrity Wife Swamp" of the TV show "Mad", Bender makes a cameo appearance in the segment "Real Veal", a parody of the 2011 film "Real Steel". He is seen in a robot boxing championship losing to "Real Veal", a robot-cow hybrid.


title: Bender (Futurama)

text: Bender makes cameo appearances in several "Family Guy" episodes. In "Blue Harvest", he can be seen at the Mos Eisley cantina, and in "The Splendid Source", he is one of the repeaters of a dirty joke whose original author Peter Griffin, Joe Swanson, and Glenn Quagmire are seeking. In the episode "Boopa-dee Bappa-dee", Peter attempts to use the guide on the television remote, turning Stewie Griffin into a host of past and present Animation Domination characters, including Bender. In "Throw it Away", Lois Griffin drags Stewie's time machine down the stairs which takes them to, in order, the 1950s, the 18th century, the future, with Chris Griffin replaced by Bender, and the prehistory.


title: Grand Marnier

text: Grand Marnier () is a French brand of liqueurs. The brand's best-known product is Grand Marnier Cordon Rouge, an orange-flavored liqueur created in 1880 by Alexandre Marnier-Lapostolle. It is made from a blend of Cognac brandy, distilled essence of bitter orange, and sugar, containing 40% alcohol (70 proof in UK, 80 proof in US). It is commonly consumed "neat" as a cordial or a digestif, and can be used in mixed drinks and desserts. Popular examples of the latter include crêpes Suzette and crêpes au Grand Marnier.


title: Grand Marnier

text: Aside from Cordon Rouge, the Grand Marnier line includes other liqueurs, most of which can be used similarly.


title: Grand Marnier

text: According to its official website, Grand Marnier's first distillery was built in 1827 by Jean Baptiste Lapostolle in the small city of Neauphle-le-Château. His granddaughter Julia married Louis-Alexandre Marnier in 1876 and, four years later, the Marniers released a signature cognac with Haitian bitter orange.


title: Grand Marnier

text: Swiss hotelier César Ritz (1850–1918) reportedly came up with the name "Grand Marnier" for Marnier-Lapostolle, who in return helped him purchase and establish the Hotel Ritz Paris. During the extravagant Belle Époque, Grand Marnier was served in the Ritz Hotel as well as the Savoy Hotel. The brand has released anniversary editions of its well-known liqueur lines and became popular in the United States in the 1980s.


title: Grand Marnier

text: On 15 March 2016, the Campari Group announced a friendly takeover offer for Société des Produits Marnier Lapostolle S.A., the owner of Grand Marnier.


title: Grand Marnier

text: Cordon Rouge ("Red Ribbon") is an orange-flavored cognac liqueur and the original Grand Marnier liqueur, which was created in 1880 by Alexandre Marnier-Lapostolle. It is consumed neat and is also used in mixed drinks and desserts.


title: Grand Marnier

text: "Cordon Jaune" ("Yellow Ribbon") was a triple-sec Curaçao-like liqueur that was made with neutral grain spirit instead of Cognac. The production stopped on 1 January 2017, after the company was taken over by Campari.


title: Grand Marnier

text: "Cuvée du Centenaire" ("Centennial Edition") was first released in limited quantities in 1927 to commemorate the 100th anniversary. It is made with up to 25-year-old fine cognacs and is consumed neat. On average, Cuvée du Centenaire is $145 per bottle.


title: Grand Marnier

text: The "Cuvée Spéciale Cent Cinquantenaire" ("Special Sesquicentennial Edition") was created in 1977 to honor the 150th anniversary of the brand, and is currently the most expensive variety of Grand Marnier. It is made with up to 50-year-old cognacs in frosted glass bottles featuring hand-painted Art Nouveau decorations. In 2005, it was marketed with the slogan "Hard to find, impossible to pronounce, and prohibitively expensive."


title: Grand Marnier

text: Cuvée Louis-Alexandre Marnier-Lapostolle is a special tribute to the founder of Grand Marnier, Louis-Alexandre Marnier Lapostolle. Made from 82% Cognac and 18% orange liqueur, it has a rich intensity of macerated citrus combines with the warming flavors of Cognac, pine and Earl Grey tea on the finish.


title: Grand Marnier

text: Grand Marnier can be used in mixed drinks. It can be used as an alternative to Cointreau or triple sec, orange flavored liqueurs made from neutral spirits. Some examples of these include the Cosmopolitan, Margarita, Sangria, Sidecar, and the B-52.


title: Grand Marnier

text: Grand Marnier is used in the preparation of flambé dishes, such as crêpes Suzette, Grand Marnier soufflé and crème brûlée. It can also be used in the sauce of the "Canard à l'orange" roasted duck dish. It is also an ingredient in several kinds of pastries, such as liquor cream buns and the French Christmas dessert known as "Bûche de Noël" (Yule log). It is frequently used in recipes for cranberry sauce, as sweetness and citrus can be a contrast to the bitterness of cranberries. It can be used in some fruitcake recipes instead of brandy. It can also be simply drizzled over vanilla ice cream.


title: Grand Marnier

text: In 2001, Grand Marnier's Cordon Rouge won the Gold Medal at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition. It was also awarded the 4 Star recommendation from F. Paul Pacult's Kindred Spirits in the Spirit Journal Guide.


title: Generation X (band)

text: Generation X (later known as Gen X) were an English punk rock band, formed in London in 1976. They were the musical starting point of the career of their frontman Billy Idol, and issued six singles that made the UK Singles Chart and two albums that reached the UK Albums Chart.


title: Generation X (band)

text: During the punk rock movement in London in late 1976, William Broad, a 21-year-old guitar-playing university drop-out from Bromley and associate of the Bromley Contingent; the drummer John Towe, a West End music shop assistant; and at Broad's suggestion, having already met via an advertisement previously placed in the "Melody Maker" by Broad seeking other musicians – Tony James, a 23-year-old university graduate bass player from Twickenham and former member of the London S.S. all replied to an advert placed in the "Melody Maker" by John Krivine, the owner of a fashion clothing shop called "Acme Attractions" on the King's Road in Chelsea, seeking musicians to form a new West London band around the vocalist/frontman John O'Hara aka Gene October. After a few weeks of rehearsals the band became known as Chelsea, and began by playing a few support gigs in West London and Manchester, primarily playing cover versions of rock and roll songs from the 1960s. However, by November, Gene October felt that Broad and James were becoming too dominant creatively and were beginning to make music that he considered too lightweight, and that his personal chemistry with them was not good - a feeling which they reciprocated. Consequently, Broad and James along with Towe abandoned Chelsea (jettisoning October on stage from the line-up in the midst of a gig), and formed a new band called Generation X, named after the title of a book belonging to Broad's mother, that James found when visiting his family home. The new band was initially managed by Andrew Czezowski, Acme Attractions' accountant.


title: Generation X (band)

text: With his photogenic looks and inherent egotism, Broad – styling himself with a punk pseudonym of "Billy Idol" – abandoned the guitar to be the frontman and lead singer of the new unit. When the 17 year old lead guitarist Bob "Derwood" Andrews was recruited from the Fulham rocker band Paradox, 'Generation X' took the stage for the first time in public at the Central School of Art and Design on 10 December 1976. The new band played its second gig four days later at the newly opened The Roxy, which Czezowski had also begun managing. Generation X was the first band to play at the venue. Soon after formation Generation X abandoned playing cover versions in its live performances around London, and began writing its own material, with Idol writing music around James' lyrical song constructions.


title: Generation X (band)

text: In early 1977, the management for the band was passed from Czezowoski, who preferred club management to live acts, to a dual management of Stewart Joseph, a fanzine promoter from Rough Trade Records, with the "Sounds" journalist Jonh Ingham, who professionalized the act's business aspect, and began approaching record companies to secure a recording deal for it.


title: Generation X (band)

text: On 16 February 1977, the band went into a studio for the first time to record a demo session of five songs at De Lane Lea Studios in Wembley, North London, sponsored by Chiswick Records. The lyrics of some of the songs possessed a partially politicized tone (with a critique of The National Front, and The Troubles) that the band would abandon after its early months. Later in the year, Generation X's first record was released by the band itself in the form of an unmarked white label for promotional purposes, with the song "Your Generation" as its A-side, and "Listen" as the B-side, taken from the De Lane Lea demo session. 250 copies were initially pressed, followed by another 500 copies, all in unmarked white paper sleeves.


title: Generation X (band)

text: In mid-March 1977, amidst a heavy performance schedule in London and increasingly beyond the confines of the capital city into England's provinces, a gig had to be abandoned at the University of Leicester mid-performance, due to Derwood Andrews requiring hospitalization from being struck on the head by a beer bottle thrown from the crowd. In mid-April 1977, having just played their first international date in Paris in a joint billing alongside the upcoming bands The Jam and The Police, and recorded their first live radio session at the British Broadcasting Corporation's Maida Vale Studios, John Towe was asked to leave the band by James and Idol as they felt that his style of playing was too overt for what they wanted from a drummer, and James, the band's strategist, had come to the view that Towe's personality did not fit with the image that he was formulating the act into. Towe moved on to join a new outfit called Alternative TV. He was replaced on drums by the 18 year old Mark Laff from North Finchley, recruited from Subway Sect after an extensive audition process for the vacancy organized by Idol and James in May 1977. From June to August 1977 in between gigs the band practiced in a rehearsal space in the basement beneath a Beggars Banquet record shop in the Fulham Road.


title: Generation X (band)

text: In mid-July Generation X signed a recording contract with Chrysalis Records, and went into Wessex Sound Studios in North London for the band's first formal recording session for commercial release. Under the supervision of the producer Bill Price the session proved to be abortive due to the band being unhappy with the results, and Chrysalis Records sought another producer, which it found in Phil Wainman. At the end of July 1977, the band worked with Wainman at Morgan Studios in Willesden, recording its first single "Your Generation". Wainman was not impressed with the musical ability of the band, particularly with Laff's technical proficiency or with Idol's capacity as a singer, and in response to Idol asking for his opinion during production as to whether he thought Generation X were "going to make it", answered with some dubiety. On release at the start of September 1977, "Your Generation", with a b-side of the high-energy disaffected punk-rock song "Day by Day" (with a title taken by James from the recent publication of Robin Day's autobiography), went to No. 36 in the UK Singles Chart, after being critiqued by Elton John in a review column in the "Record Mirror" as 'dreadful garbage'. The band played the song on Marc Bolan's afternoon variety show, "Marc", a few days later using Granada Television's Manchester studio instruments for the performance, afterwards making off with the drum-kit and being banned by Granada for 10 years as a result.


title: Generation X (band)

text: Along with writing and performing the band's musical output, James and Idol around this period sought to extend the band's brand identity beyond purely the musical sphere, by designing and manufacturing a series of op-art and pop-art T-shirts for use in Generation X's photo-shoots and live performances, and James was attentive to its public image conveyed in the act's dress and styling. The band's co-manager Jonh Ingham introduced them to the graphic artist Barney Bubbles, who with them created the cover for the "Your Generation" single release, drawing inspiration from the 1920s abstract geometric work of Russian designer El Lissitzky, which introduced the Russian Constructivist school into English pop music design, which would be utilized by other bands into the 21st Century. Bubbles was also commissioned by the band to design its newspaper adverts and posters.


title: Generation X (band)

text: In September 1977, Generation X was one of the first punk units to appear on the BBC's mainstream pop music programme "Top of the Pops", and began to acquire some mass media recognition as one of the punk-rock acts that had an accessibility of sound and image, with the potential to achieve commercial pop music success. Contrarily, the same analysis led to recurring adverse criticism of the band in the media of the alternative music scene from which it had emerged, with a number of reviewers dismissing the act as artistically and intellectually vapid, and suggesting that it was using the guise of being a part of the punk movement cynically as a stepping-stone in pursuance of more prosaic pop music fame and fortune. As punk-rock developed an increasingly radical overtone, driven partly by the politicized content of the songs of The Clash, Generation X also faced accusations of being middle-class interlopers upon what was increasingly espoused as a working-class sub-culture movement; evidence for this being a story in circulation within the scene originating from the music journalist Tony Parsons of the "New Musical Express" that when Idol and James had turned up in "The Ship" pub in Wardour Street for an interview with him, on being asked what they wanted to drink, had requested orange juices, and had openly criticized and rejected on an intellectual basis the hedonism of the "Sex, drugs and Rock 'n' Roll" lifestyle. The interview had been conducted shortly after the band's formation, and James and Idol (particularly the latter) had since moved some way from this stance as they moved through the social circles of London's pop music scene, but the initial impression from it lingered in the British punk rock movement.


title: Generation X (band)

text: Generation X stood out in the burgeoning milieu of punk-music bands for its combination of the raw raucous energy of punk-rock, with a more commercially melodic sound and visual image in the tradition of earlier British pop music styles of the 1960s, drawing influences from bands such as The Who, The Kinks, The Small Faces, and The Beatles. It also produced songs that lyrically focused on the concerns of being an adolescent in West London in the late 1970s and, apart from playing a few gigs in support of Rock Against Racism, eschewed the societal commentary, cultural nihilism and radical politics of the punk movement, for which it drew some criticism from its peers, including John Lydon, the frontman-lyricist of the preeminent Sex Pistols.


title: Generation X (band)

text: In late September/early October 1977, the band spent several days recording demo sessions, overseen by Phil Wainman, at Utopia Studios in Primrose Hill, North London, in preparation for its first album release.


title: Generation X (band)

text: In mid-November 1977, the band released the single "Wild Youth", written on the spur of the moment during a publicity photo-shoot with the photographer Ray Stevenson, in the streets of London's West End a few weeks earlier, the song being inspired by street graffiti. The single's cover-art comprised individual colourized rotoscoped band portraits, taken by the photographer Peter "Kodick" Gravelle. It was produced by Phil Wainman at Utopia Studios, with an experimental b-side track entitled "Wild Dub" attempting an early fusion, before the subsequent Two-tone movement, of the ska music of the West and South London Afro-Caribbean immigrant communities with Generation X's punk-pop sound, following on from The Clash's foray into the same area a few months earlier, with their cover of the song "Police and Thieves". On release, "Wild Youth" was the only commercial single issued by Generation X that failed to enter the UK Singles Chart.


title: Generation X (band)

text: Towards the end of 1977, Jonh Ingham resigned from Generation X's management as a preliminary to his going to live in the United States, and after having come into conflict with Tony James, leaving Stewart Joseph in sole charge.


title: Generation X (band)

text: In February 1978, the single "Ready Steady Go" (with a b-side track entitled "No No No") was released with cover art taken from the design of one of the band's self-produced T-shirts, but it failed to enter the top 40 of the UK Singles Chart. The band kept a hectic touring schedule throughout Great Britain through 1978, which included the event of a Hells Angel in the crowd at a gig in Derby in mid-March, climbing up on to the stage and punching Idol in the face hard enough to cause him to fly backwards "like a ping-pong ball", landing in the drum-kit - Idol getting back on to his feet, dusting himself down and resuming the band's performance as if nothing had happened. In the same month, the band's first long-player was released, entitled "Generation X" (1978), produced by Martin Rushent and engineered by Alan Winstanley at T.W. Studios in Fulham, with a cover portrait shot photographed by Gered Mankowitz. The collection went to No. 29 in the UK Albums Chart.


title: Generation X (band)

text: In April the "New Musical Express" featured Generation X in a two-page centre-spread interview with the band, to facilitate the first LP's retail sales, with a front-page full feature photo of Idol and James on the foreshore of the River Thames beneath the Embankment, taken by Pennie Smith. The article's illustration, atypically for band photography, displayed Idol with James separately from Andrews with Laff, and gave rise to talk within the punk scene that this was indicative of an inherent divide of some nature within the act, with it possessing an inner core which Andrews and Laff were not party to.


title: Generation X (band)

text: The band maintained a high work rate of live performances as the year developed, with Idol also going on a first promotional visit for the band to the United States in May 1978, followed by another international gig for the band in Paris in June, several live BBC radio performances, and being supported by a new West Sussex band named The Cure for several dates in November and December 1978. In October, Generation X went into Wessex Sound Studios in Islington, with Ian Hunter acting as record producer, to record their second album, entitled "Valley of the Dolls", which saw the band moving to a style of mainstream rock music, with the incorporation of aspects of the early 1970s glam punk movement and progressive rock into its sound and look, along with the mid-1970s song-writing techniques of Bruce Springsteen.


title: Generation X (band)

text: In January 1979, the band with its manager Stewart Joseph was called into the offices of Chrysalis Records, where they were told that the label was unhappy that the money that it had invested into the act since mid-1977 was not being reflected in its chart success, and that if its next single, entitled "King Rocker", was not a hit its contract would be dropped. After the meeting, Joseph announced a cut in the band's members' weekly wages as an inducement to harder work. On release in the same month "King Rocker" (1979), with a b-side cover of John Lennon's "Gimme Some Truth", taken from a BBC live radio performance in 1977, became the band's commercial career high point, going to No. 11 in the UK Singles Chart, assisted by being issued in the format of a variety of differently coloured discs with distinctive band portrait cover art, which required multiple purchases of the single to acquire the complete set, designed by Barney Bubbles, who had worked on the band's graphic art previously in 1977.


title: Generation X (band)

text: However, after a couple of propitious opening years, the band's third year saw a deterioration in its chart success from the high of the "King Rocker" single, with the "Valley of the Dolls" (1979) album, also released in January, performing disappointingly in the UK Albums Chart, reaching only No. 51. The new LP also received a critical mauling in the music press, with reviewers slating it as overblown and artistically hollow, which had the effect of undermining Idol's confidence in Tony James' judgement, given that the record had been personally dominated by James' ideas throughout its production. The situation was not improved by Generation X being driven off stage by an onslaught of missiles from a mob of U.K. Subs fans, during a triple-bill concert at the Lyceum Ballroom in London in February 1979, as a part of an ongoing violent tendency from a proto-street punk element that dogged the band's live appearances. As the year progressed amidst a continuing heavy touring and increasing television performance schedule, induced by the commercial failure of the "Valley of the Dolls", and a lessening impact on the UK Singles Chart of its releases, with the title song from the LP peaking at No. 23 in March 1979 and the song "Friday's Angels" dying at No. 62 in June, consequential differences began to surface within the band in terms of personality antagonisms, centered upon Andrews and Idol. Andrews was in antipathy with Idol's changing character caused by Idol's increasingly severe narcotic use, and his sensing of a soloist career intent within Idol (who was beginning to create a performance-persona based on elements from the solo acts of Gary Glitter, Elvis Presley and Billy Fury in their prime), which was in combination destabilizing the band's internal relationships. Rifts were also opening as to Generation X's future musical direction post "Valley of the Dolls" sales failure. Andrews, who had been impressed by the recent work of the critically acclaimed Joy Division, favoured a move into the new indie rock sound, and wanted more of an involvement in the band's song composition, whilst Idol and James were drawn to a more mainstream and apparently commercial dance-punk one, were flirting with the idea of incorporating elements of shock rock into the band's act, and refused to admit his material into their song-writing partnership. These internal disagreements, complicated by the loss - in legal acrimony - of the band's manager Stewart Joseph, came to a head towards the end of 1979, after the band had returned from its first international tour in Japan. During uncompleted production sessions at Olympic Studios in Barnes for what was to have been Generation X's third album (released retrospectively 20 years later under the title "K.M.D. - Sweet Revenge"), and a fragmentary brief tour of small venues ending in the West Country, Andrews quit the band just before Christmas. At Idol's instigation, Mark Laff was also asked to leave the band a few weeks later after a disagreement with Idol and James about its song-writing credits, with Laff objecting to the drumming tracks that he was creating, not being recognized in its legal and financial arrangements regarding rights. Idol in return was of the view that Laff's playing style, heavily influenced by that of Keith Moon's, was unsuited to the new sound that Idol wished the act to pursue, and had developed doubts about Laff's professional capabilities since the recording of the "Valley of the Dolls", when Laff was judged to be technically inadequate by its producer Ian Hunter, to the degree that a session drummer had to be hired by the band for the work in the studio. Laff departed to join Andrews in a new band entitled Empire, which found little commercial success; Andrews would return to the British chart in the late 1980s with the pop rock/rockabilly band Westworld. Generation X's last live performance was at Gloucester's Jamaican Club on 30 November 1979.


title: Generation X (band)

text: With Andrews and Laff gone (with James putting out a line to the music press's questions as to why Generation X had split that he and Idol had fired them, because they "had a terrible tendency to sound like Deep Purple"), Idol and James recruited Terry Chimes as a replacement drummer. James also found a manager for the new formation in the form of Bill Aucoin, however after assessing the act's potential, Aucoin was surreptitiously more interested in the commercial possibilities of Idol as a solo artist in the American marketplace than the band, and began moving behind the scenes to this end.


title: Generation X (band)

text: This new line-up re-titled itself as Gen X, styling itself as a new romantic band with a Neo-Victorian/Victorian Gothic look, influenced by Idol's interest in the writings of Samuel Taylor Coleridge.


title: Generation X (band)

text: In March 1980, Gen X went into Eel Pie Studios in Soho with the lead guitarist Steve New to record a demo session. Idol and James wanted New to be Gen X's guitarist, but, after recording and rehearsing with him through the early months of 1980, they abandoned the idea over concerns about his professional reliability due to a narcotic habit.


title: Generation X (band)

text: In mid-1980, Gen X went into AIR Studios in Oxford Street to re-record some of the "Sweet Revenge" material and several new songs for a new long-player. Chrysalis Records, now subject to the influence of Aucoin, had shown reluctance to fund it after the commercial failure of "Valley of the Dolls" in the previous year, and the debacle at the Olympic Studios a few months before, and to secure the new financing, Idol had to recourse to entering into discussions with the label of the option of a potential solo career signed to it beyond the band's existence. Also involved in the recording sessions, along with Steve New, was a selection of some of the best lead guitarists in London's post-punk scene that were looking for new units to team up with, viz., John McGeoch, Steve Jones, and Danny Kustow, who acted as session musicians in what was essentially a tryout for the new band's guitar slot. In January 1981, a long-player produced by Keith Forsey was released entitled "Kiss Me Deadly" (1981).


title: Generation X (band)

text: However, the production of the new record had been problematic. Tony James later described narcotic use by other members of the line-up, including Idol, during the recording sessions as hampering it, and his personal working relationship with Idol was becoming distanced by James' unease at Idol's intensifying attraction to opiates (James would later ascribe the cause of the end of the band and his professional partnership with Idol to: "really, drugs destroyed us"). This distancing was exacerbated by Idol's increasing self-sufficiency in song-writing, a wearying of James's company due to what Idol perceived as an uptight and intense demeanor that had developed in James's personality, and an increasing allure to Idol of the prospects of a solo career for himself, which had been waxing in his mind since the failure of the "Valley of the Dolls" in 1979. Also, during the recording of the "Kiss Me Deadly", James had got on badly with its producer Keith Forsey, with whom Idol had established a professional rapport and was eager to work with again.


title: Generation X (band)

text: The record itself, despite the innovation of its sound as a part of the new wave movement in pop music, and its display of Idol and James' maturing talent as songwriters, failed to chart on release, regardless of a brief low-key tour in November 1980 to January 1981 (with James Stevenson playing guitar) to promote it. A lacklustre pre-release in October 1980 of the song "Dancing with Myself", backed by a B-side of a Rocksteadyesque dub song entitled "Ugly Rash", with a stark cover art portrait of Idol photographed by Iain McKell utilizing a child model in a disturbing way, had also failed to launch the new act, reaching only No. 62 in the UK Singles Chart. A hotchpotch EP, entitled "Gen X - 4", containing Generation X and Gen X material was also released in January to little effect. Critical reviews of the new LP in the music press were also generally indifferent, or hostile, with "Smash Hits" magazine giving it 2 out of 10. In consequence, after receiving notification from Aucoin that Idol was now willing to abandon the band, Chrysalis Records dropped the contract, writing off the quarter of a million pounds that it had invested into the act's development over four years, and Gen X broke up in February 1981. Its last public performances were an appearance on BBC Television's Oxford Road Show (with Idol wearing cross-dressing stage clothes of a male neo-Gothic high collared coat combined with female knickers and black-tights), and a gig recorded live by BBC Radio at the Paris Theatre in London on 7 January 1981.


title: Generation X (band)

text: Idol and James parted company in February 1981 (with some discord from James' corner, with an unnamed party briefing the music press that the premature end of Gen X had been brought about due to a "chemical imbalance"), after Gen X's ex-manager Bill Aucoin advised Idol to relocate from London to New York City. James went on to form and perform with the rockabilly/cyberpunk act Sigue Sigue Sputnik, with which he returned to the British chart in the late 1980s, with a single and a long-player entering the Top 10. Idol left England with a solo artist contract from Chrysalis Records to start anew in the United States, taking Gen X's single "Dancing with Myself" as a calling card. During the 1980s he became one of the most commercially successful pop/rock stars that originated from the 1970s punk rock movement.


title: Generation X (band)

text: On 20 September 1993, during the England leg of Idol's 'No Religion' tour, the late 1970s Generation X reformed for a one-off performance at the Astoria Theatre in London's West End.


title: Generation X (band)

text: On 30 October 2018, Billy Idol and Tony James along with Steve Jones and Paul Cook, formerly of the Sex Pistols, performed a free entry gig at The Roxy in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, under the name Generation Sex, playing a combined set of the two former bands' material. Entrance tickets were allotted to applicants via a lottery.


title: Syreeta Wright

text: Syreeta Wright (February 28, 1946 – July 6, 2004), who recorded professionally under the single name Syreeta, was an American singer-songwriter, best known for her music during the early 1970s through the early 1980s. Wright's career heights were songs in collaboration with her ex-husband Stevie Wonder and musical artist Billy Preston.


title: Syreeta Wright

text: Wright was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, in 1946, and started singing at the age of four. Her father served in the Korean War and Wright and her sister Kim were raised by their mother Essie and their grandmother. The Wrights moved back and forth from Detroit to South Carolina, before finally settling in Detroit just as Wright entered high school. Money problems kept Wright from pursuing a career in ballet, so she focused her attention on a music career joining several singing groups, before landing a job as a receptionist for Motown in 1965. Within a year, she became a secretary for Mickey Stevenson, just as Martha Reeves had done before her.


title: Syreeta Wright

text: A year later, Edward Holland of the Holland–Dozier–Holland songwriting team noticed Wright's singing and decided to try her out for demos of Supremes' songs. However, in those days, the team of composers Ashford and Simpson had joined Motown and their songs were initially supervised by established producers. Edward's brother, composer and producer Brian Holland, co-wrote "I Can't Give Back the Song I Feel for You" with the couple, and produced it with Lamont Dozier for Syreeta. Brian felt Syreeta was a hard name to pronounce, and that Rita Wright would make a good stage name, so Wright's first solo single was released in January 1968 under that name, with "Something On My Mind" on the flip side. It is often said that the song was initially written for the Supremes (by then billed as "Diana Ross & the Supremes"), but Motown session logos indicate that the backing track was not recorded for anyone else previously. Later, Diana Ross re-recorded the song for her solo album, "Surrender", released in 1971.


title: Syreeta Wright

text: Wright also performed demo vocals for the Supremes hit "Love Child" and for Ross' version of "Something On My Mind", released on her self-titled debut album. When Diana Ross left the Supremes in early 1970, Motown boss Berry Gordy considered replacing her with Wright, but offered the place in the group to Jean Terrell. According to several sources, Gordy then changed his mind and tried to replace Terrell with Wright, but this was vetoed by Supreme Mary Wilson since Terrell had already been formally announced as the new Supreme in the media and at the final performance of the Diana Ross led incarnation of the group.


title: Syreeta Wright

text: Wright also sang background on records by the Supremes and by Martha and the Vandellas, notably singing the chorus to the group's modest hit single, "I Can't Dance to That Music You're Playing". Wright met labelmate Stevie Wonder in 1968, and the two began dating the following year. On the advice of Wonder, Wright became a songwriter. Their first collaboration, "It's a Shame", was recorded by The Spinners, in 1969. Motown withheld its release until July 1970. The song reached number 14 on the "Billboard" Hot 100. Wright also began singing backing for Wonder, most notably on the hit "Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I'm Yours)", which Wright co-wrote with Wonder. On 14 September 1970, after a year-long courtship, Wright, 24, and Wonder, 20, married in Detroit. The couple then wrote and arranged songs for Wonder's "Where I'm Coming From", which was released much to Berry Gordy's chagrin in the spring of 1971. The Wonder–Wright composition "If You Really Love Me" (which also featured Wright prominently singing background vocals) reached number 8 in the US that year. In 1971 the couple relocated to New York City.


title: Syreeta Wright

text: In between working with Wonder on his albums, Wright decided to return to her own singing career. Motown reassigned the singer from Motown's Gordy imprint, where "I Can't Give Back the Love I Feel for You" was released, to Motown's L.A.-based MoWest subsidiary. Wonder and Wright had marriage troubles and divorced in the summer of 1972, ending their 18-month marriage. Following their divorce, Wonder oversaw the production of Wright's first solo album, "Syreeta" (released on June 20, 1972), which included her take of Wonder's "I Love Every Little Thing About You" from "Music of My Mind", the Smokey Robinson classic "What Love Has Joined Together", and The Beatles' "She's Leaving Home", which featured both Wonder and Wright applying background vocals via the talk box. MoWest issued "I Love Every Little Thing About You" in the late winter of 1972, but it failed to chart. Remaining best friends, Wright would continue to provide background vocals and compositions with Wonder for the next two decades.


title: Syreeta Wright

text: In 1974, Wright was again reassigned, this time to the Motown label proper (in the U.S.), and issued her second release, the aptly titled "" that June. Following the success of Minnie Riperton's "Perfect Angel", which Wonder also produced, Wonder wanted to present Wright in the same light as Riperton as a sensual vocalist. The covers also were very similar to each other. Riperton added background vocals to the album, primarily at the end of the album track "Heavy Day". The album yielded the UK singles "I'm Goin' Left" (covered by Eric Clapton and Jerry Butler), "Spinnin' and Spinnin'" and the reggae-flavored "Your Kiss Is Sweet", which became a UK Top 40, reaching number 12 in 1975. The album also featured one duet with G. C. Cameron, formerly of the Spinners.


title: Syreeta Wright

text: Production on Wright's third album, "One to One" mainly produced by Leon Ware, who also produced Marvin Gaye and Riperton, went on for two years. The album featured the sole Wonder production, "Harmour Love", which later would find some success after being featured on the 2005 movie "Junebug". During this period Syreeta also made vocal contributions to two albums by American jazz saxophonist Gary Bartz - "Juju Man" (1976) and "Music Is My Sanctuary" (1977). In 1977, she teamed up again with G.C. Cameron on the duet album, "Rich Love, Poor Love".


title: Syreeta Wright

text: Wright's next effort came courtesy of a chance meeting with Billy Preston, who had signed with Motown in early 1979. Motown assigned the two to collaborate on a pop ballad for the movie "Fast Break". Wright and Preston provided the soundtrack of the film and their first collaboration, "With You I'm Born Again", resulted in an international hit reaching number-four US and number-two UK in late 1979. The success of the song led Motown to renew Wright's contract, which was due to expire that year, with neither side looking to renegotiate. Wright and Preston continued their collaborations until the early 1980s including the 1981 duet album, "Billy Preston & Syreeta".


title: Syreeta Wright

text: Wright still worked with Wonder during this period singing the lead vocals for their composition "Come Back as a Flower" for Wonder's 1979 album "Journey through the Secret Life of Plants" and also sung alongside Wonder on his 1980 song "As If You Read My Mind" for his "Hotter than July" album. Wright continued to provide background vocals until Wonder's 1995 album "Conversation Peace".


title: Syreeta Wright

text: Wright continued to record for Motown into the 1980s, releasing her second self-titled album in 1980, and the funk/boogie-oriented "Set My Love in Motion" in late 1981. The album featured the minor R&B hit "Quick Slick", which peaked at number 41 R&B in early 1982. During that same time period, she added vocals to the theme song for the Canadian slasher-horror flick "Happy Birthday to Me", known for starring "Little House on the Prairie"′s Melissa Sue Anderson. Wright then issued "The Spell" in 1983 produced by Jermaine Jackson, and left Motown two years later after collaborating with Smokey Robinson for the soundtrack to Berry Gordy's "The Last Dragon" in 1985. She briefly recorded for Motorcity Records before retiring from show business for good in the mid-1990s and settling in Los Angeles with her four children. In 1993, she joined the national touring cast of "Jesus Christ Superstar" in the role of Mary Magdalene, alongside original film stars Ted Neeley and Carl Anderson. She stayed in the cast until 1995. In 1997, she guested on British soul singer Omar's album, "This Is Not A Love Song", singing the duet "Lullaby".


title: Syreeta Wright

text: Wright was married three times and had four children. Her first marriage, to longtime collaborator Stevie Wonder, lasted 18 months, from September 1970 until 1972. In 1975, Wright married bassist Curtis Robertson Jr., with whom she had two children, Jamal Robertson (b. 1976) and Hodari Robertson (b. 1979). Wright and Robertson divorced in 1982.


title: Syreeta Wright

text: Wright briefly lived in Ethiopia in the mid-1970s, where she worked as a Transcendental Meditation teacher. She eventually settled in Los Angeles, where she lived for the rest of her life.


title: Syreeta Wright

text: Born and raised a Baptist, she converted to Islam following her third marriage and had two children: Harmoni and Takiyah Muhammad.


title: Syreeta Wright

text: Wright died in 2004 of congestive heart failure, a side effect of chemotherapy and radiation treatments she was receiving for breast and bone cancer. She was buried in Inglewood Park Cemetery.


title: Korra

text: Avatar Korra is the title lead character in Nickelodeon's animated television series "The Legend of Korra" (a sequel to ""), in which she is depicted as the current incarnation of Raava's Avatar—the spiritual embodiment of balance and change—responsible for maintaining peace and harmony in the world. She is the immediate reincarnation of Avatar Aang (title character and main protagonist from the original series). The character was created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko and is voiced by Janet Varney, and by Cora Baker as a child.


title: Korra

text: Korra debuted in the first episode of "The Legend of Korra", "Welcome to Republic City", originally airing on Nickelodeon on April 14, 2012. At the start of the series, she meets Bolin and Mako after arriving in Republic City, where she first experiences independence after living a secluded life of training, led by the Order of the White Lotus. The series' final scene, indicating the beginning of a romantic relationship between Korra and Asami Sato, was unprecedented in its LGBT representation in western children's television.


title: Korra

text: After the death of Aang, Korra is born among the Southern Water Tribe, her bending abilities over Water, Earth and Fire manifesting by age 4.


title: Korra

text: In Book One: "Air", Korra, now seventeen, and having mastered three of the elements, needs to learn airbending from the only living airbending master, Aang's son, Tenzin. Korra moves to Republic City to go after him following a brief encounter with , being taken in by Tenzin and meeting both Mako and Bolin before joining their pro-bending team. After saving Bolin and having her first sighting of Amon, Korra's romantic struggles lead to difficulty with the pro-bending team, which the group recovers from to successfully win their match and make it to the finals, where they are defeated and Amon strikes with his group of followers, the Equalists. Korra afterward discovers Hiroshi Sato's ties to the Equalists, then allowing Asami Sato, Bolin and Mako to live with her, forming a team with the group that Councilman Tarrlok breaks up by arresting the others and revealing himself as a bloodbender in an encounter with Korra where he subdues her. She is locked in a secluded cabin that holds her for a short time before she breaks out once it is ambushed by Amon and his Equalists, the group launching an assault on Republic City that Korra and the others are overpowered in, forcing them to retreat until General Iroh and the United Forces come to the city as reinforcements, who are also overwhelmed. Following saving Tenzin and his children and seemingly losing her bending of three of the elements to Amon, Korra engages in a battle with Amon where she emerges victorious thanks to her newly acquired airbending, having the other elements restored by Aang and in doing so gaining the power to restore bending as well.


title: Korra

text: In Book Two: "Spirits", taking place six months after the Anti-bending Revolution, Korra learns from her uncle Unalaq of her seclusion being set by both Tenzin and her father, causing her to break off with Tenzin and have Unalaq become her mentor. During her training, Korra has to mend fences between both factions of the Water Tribe and after learning that her father had nothing to do with an attempted kidnapping of Unalaq, she participates in freeing him. Her actions prompt a civil war between the Southern and Northern Water Tribes, Korra afterward making a move to have General Iroh's assistance without President Raiko's authority, which Mako reveals to Raiko. Korra loses consciousness after an attack by her cousins Desna and Eska and a dark spirit swallowing her. She was left without her memory, learning the origins of Wan, the first Avatar, and entering the Spirit World to prevent Vaatu's escape with the aid of Jinora. After the two are separated, Korra reverts to her child self and meets Iroh, then meets her again before opening the Northern spirit portal per Unalaq's request in exchange for Jinora's soul not being destroyed by him. Korra escapes but is unable to bring Jinora with her, returning to the physical world where she makes plans to counter Unalaq, engaging him in battle where she is not only bested, but has her connections to her past lives disconnected with the destruction of the Light Spirit. In another confrontation not long after, Korra destroys Unalaq by purifying him, ending the Civil War and ushering the coexistence of humans and spirits.


title: Korra

text: Two weeks later, marking the beginning of Book Three: "Change", Korra leaves Republic City to offer training to new airbenders across the Earth Kingdom after further straining her relations with President Raiko, recruiting Kai and freeing airbenders who Earth Queen Hou-Ting had been training underground to join her army. She traveled to Zaofu next, meeting Suyin Beifong, who taught her metalbending, nearly being kidnapped after, by Zaheer, Ghazan, P'Li and Ming-Hua though she is saved by her allies. With it being discovered Aiwei was part of the conspiracy to kidnap her, Korra sets out to find him, staking out his room and entering the Spirit World after him, where she learns Zaheer and his followers are part of the Red Lotus from the latter. Though managing to escape the Red Lotus, she is captured by Earth Kingdom soldiers, the Earth Queen having declared Korra an enemy. Korra and Asami succeed in escaping, but Korra is forced to give herself up so Zaheer will not harm the captive airbenders. Zaheer double-crosses Korra, taking her unconscious body with him, poisoning her with mercury so she can enter the Avatar State and be killed in it to end the Avatar Cycle. She breaks free and is able to combat Zaheer while battling the poison, though succumbs to it before Suyin attempts to bend it out of her, Korra being left in a fragile emotional state and being confined to a wheelchair as well.


title: Korra

text: In the final season, Book Four: "Balance", Korra returns to the Southern Water Tribe to recuperate under Katara's care, regaining her ability to walk but losing her ability to enter the Avatar State. She then travels the world though is haunted by a spirit of herself, even losing to it in battle. With the help of Toph Beifong, she removes the mercury from her body and reconnects with the world. Initially planning to reach a peace agreement with Kuvira, Korra duels her and loses her advantage when being haunted once more, being saved by Jinora and Opal. She is then reunited with Asami and Mako when they as a group of three are successful in recovering a kidnapped Prince Wu, though Korra soon begins doubting her effectiveness as Avatar prior to Asami and Tenzin encouraging her. Korra has a reunion with Zaheer who aids her in rescuing trapped souls in the Spirit World, preparing afterward for a showdown with Kuvira by requesting the aid of spirits in the conflict and tries to interrogate Baatar Jr., Kuvira's fiancé, nearly being killed when the Future Industries factory is destroyed by Kuvira. After convincing Kuvira to surrender following showing sympathy with her motivations, she begins a romantic relationship with Asami.


title: Korra

text: Avatar Korra and Asami spend time in the Spirit World exploring their romantic feelings for each other. The pair travel to the Southern Water Tribe to reveal their relationship to Korra's parents. Upon returning to Republic City, Korra attempts to stop tycoon Wongyong Keum's plans to form an amusement park.


title: Korra

text: Avatar Korra agrees to travel to Gaoling with the Earth King Wu, along with Asami Sato, Mako, Bolin, and the now-imprisoned Kuvira, who had offered to try and talk her former subordinate Guan down from disrupting the upcoming democratic elections of state governors as part of Wu's efforts to reform the nation.


title: Korra

text: Korra is featured in "The Legend of Korra" video game, which takes place in between the second and third seasons of the series. She has her bending abilities taken away from her at the beginning of the game and she has to regain them as it progresses. She is the only "The Legend of Korra" character, besides Naga and Jinora, to make an appearance in the game's story mode, which earned it criticism.


title: Korra

text: In March 2015, Bryan Konietzko posted artwork of Korra and Asami embracing, entitled "Turtle-duck Date Night". The art was announced to be sold as an exclusive print for "The Legend of Korra / Avatar: The Last Airbender Tribute Exhibition" at Gallery Nucleus with its proceeds donated by Konietzko to a LGBTQ suicide prevention hotline. After same-sex marriage was declared legal in all 50 states of the U.S., Konietzko posted a rainbow version of the artwork. Korra and her predecessor Aang were featured on a print available for attendees of the 2015 San Diego Comic-Con.


title: Korra

text: Korra appears in "The Legend of Korra" books "Revolution" and "Endgame", two novels that together adapt the first season of the series. Korra is also a playable character in "Super Brawl Universe", a playable character in "", and a skin for Skadi in "Smite". She also appeared as a playable character in "Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl".


title: Korra

text: Korra appears in the epilogue of RE:Anime fan film "" in a silent cameo appearance, portrayed by Katrina Rosita, partially adapting the events of "Sozin's Comet" with the difference of Katara accidentally killing Azula, as explained to Korra by an older Katara.


title: Korra

text: Bryan Konietzko's interest in martial arts influenced him to draw inspirations from various female MMA fighters for the design of Korra's character, one inspiration being Gina Carano. In addition, she was indirectly inspired by one of Bryan Konietzko's sisters. Korra was also designed to be an inversion of Aang, the title character of the preceding story "". Instead of the young, spiritual Aang, Korra is a more physical character who has trouble grasping the spiritual side of being the Avatar while being able to already bend three elements at the age of four. In contrast, Aang takes a while to master each of the elements, but connects with the spirit world instantaneously. Korra's name was settled long after her character was imagined. Konietzko and DiMartino couldn't agree to a name for her until they learned "Cora", the name of a hotel operator's dog. The name was kept, and only changed in spelling.


title: Korra

text: The creators felt the second season was built around Korra becoming more in-tuned with her spiritual side, reinforcing their belief that a giant spirit version of herself would be the "ultimate manifestation". DiMartino wrote that Korra's lack of usage of the Avatar State during the third season was purposefully done to show her connection with Raava as being full-fledged, her developed understanding that type of power should be reserved for the "most extreme circumstances."


title: Korra

text: Along with Asami Sato, Korra is half of the first major acknowledged LGBT couple in western children's animation. Regarding Korra's sexuality, Konietzko admitted that the idea of a romantic relationship between Korra and Asami had been discussed by the creators during production of season one, but had not been given much weight due to assumptions that the show would not be permitted to openly depict a same-sex relationship. As development of the last two seasons went on and Korra and Asami's friendship progressed, "the more the idea of a romance between them organically blossomed for [the creators]," and so the show started hinting at the possibility of such a relationship. In the end, Konietzko and DiMartino chose to openly depict Korra and Asami's relationship in the series finale because they didn't want to regret not doing so after the series ended. While still having limits on what could be shown, Nickelodeon was supportive of the relationship when approached.


title: Korra

text: Before drawing the character, Konietzko and DiMartino discussed her athleticism and physicality which factored into the earliest illustrations of Korra. It took the pair and Joaquim Dos Santos's combined efforts to finalize her character design. In the pilot (2012) episode "Welcome to Republic City", Korra is introduced as a teenager wearing Fire Nation attire over her traditional Water Tribe garb. She is briefly seen wearing it again during a flashback in the fourth season. Konietzko thought it was "fun to play with" the familiar Water Tribe outfit. After her defeat of Amon, she underwent an outfit change, gaining an asymmetrical top and sleeves.


title: Korra

text: Korra for the first three seasons is depicted with long hair that is usually kept in a ponytail, though she has it down on several occasions such as when attending festivities, during her final battle with Unalaq, while entering the Avatar State after being poisoned by the Red Lotus, and during her final battle with Zaheer shortly afterward. Korra is so rarely seen with her hair down that DiMartino wrote that whenever the character had her hair down, "you know something bad has happened." She maintains the hairstyle for the next three years as she recovers until shortly after regaining her mobility, at which point she cuts it. The hairstyle change was revealed in September 2014 by Konietzko, who wrote that the character was returning to her roots by sporting a bob cut similar to the one she was given by Dos Santos in his original concept for her, Konietzko adding that the alteration was carrying on a tradition in the "Avatar" franchise to have hairstyle changes over the course of a series. Korra's initial clothing in the fourth season is purposely designed to mirror that of her Water Tribe attire in the previous seasons, consisting of a sleeveless shirt and baggy pants, DiMartino finding it paramount that it resemble her prior clothing due to the duration for which she wore it. Korra gains another outfit midway through the fourth season. This outfit's boots are based on an existing pair of faux suede flat winter buckle boots.


title: Korra

text: Korra's voice is provided by Janet Varney. Varney stated that she loved the character, describing her as being "complicated" while reasoning that this was due to her age and responsibilities and summarized her experience voicing Korra as having been "such a privilege to be a part of". Varney understood the criticism of her character and felt it was one of the compelling aspects of the series, as Korra was someone that "you're not always looking up to" and mentioned Superman while saying that a character is more interesting to her when they are flawed. Responding to being questioned about negative reception for the series in general, Varney admitted to preferring to live in a world of "unicorns and rainbows" and only pay attention to the positive feedback she received since she believed she would not "do a better job on the show if my feelings are crushed by someone who's just angry at me for no reason." Friends with Grey DeLisle, who voiced Azula in the original series "Avatar: The Last Airbender", Varney remembered her advice about the fandom where DeLisle told her to be ready for her "life to change."


title: Korra

text: Unlike her predecessor Aang, Korra is described by her creators as "very tough, very headstrong, and not scared to get into a fight." Her stubborn and hot-headed personality detracts from her talents, preventing her from easily learning airbending or connecting with the Spirit World. The Avatar traditionally has the greatest difficulty mastering the element diametrically opposed to the Avatar's personality. For instance, Avatar Roku—a firebender—took longer to learn waterbending and Aang—an airbender—took longer to learn earthbending. The waterbender Korra, on the other hand, had little difficulty with firebending but had considerable trouble with airbending, a situation noted to be spiritual and not elemental.


title: Korra

text: Her best friend and animal guide is a polar bear-dog named Naga, whose strength helps Korra out of many dangerous situations. Although wild polar bear dogs were originally feared and hunted by Water Tribes, Korra is the first person to ever tame one. Korra is good friends with her pro-bending teammates, the brothers Mako (her romantic interest in seasons 1 and 2) and Bolin. She also develops a strong friendship, and later romance, with Asami Sato, a wealthy industrialist. Korra has strong relationships with the family of her previous life: Having learned waterbending from Katara and then airbending from Tenzin, Tenzin's children Jinora, Ikki, and Meelo look up to her as an older sister, and Kya and Bumi regard her as a friend. Korra is generally on good terms with her own parents, but has little contact with her uncle or cousins, whom she considers weird (and her father considers dangerous). Korra is unusual amongst her past lives in that she is technically royalty: her father Tonraq was in line to be the chief of the Northern Water Tribe before being banished and relocating to the South.


title: Korra

text: Korra's character develops and matures during episodes 11 through 12 of the first season when she is confronted with detachment from her main three bending skills, leaving her only with airbending, which she had unlocked to save Mako from Amon. Later, she connects to her spiritual self through Aang. Once the connection to her Avatar predecessors is established, Aang is able to bestow energybending upon Korra (as well as her main three bending skills lost earlier). Although Korra is able to bend all four elements, while being capable of entering the Avatar State, Korra is still in the process of perfecting her airbending skills as well as having a true connection and understanding of her spiritual self to complete her training as a fully realized Avatar. Combined with the events of seasons 2 and 3 placing her in life and death situations, the former having her no longer able to contact her past lives for advice, Korra begins to suffer post traumatic stress by the events of "Book Four: Balance" while doubting her abilities as the Avatar to maintain balance after those she faced have each disrupted the order she was struggling to protect in massive ways. But ultimately, once able to let go of the pain she went through and realizing the significance to her past suffering, Korra returns to her usual self while becoming a more kind, mature, compassionate, levelheaded, thoughtful and intelligent (and a bit more sarcastic) person from her ordeals.


title: Korra

text: Korra has impeccable athleticism and acrobatics, shown being capable of simultaneously lifting Tenzin and his children with relative ease. She has surprising speed that go along with her agility and reflexes, which make her a skilled combatant in and of themselves. Her physical strength and stamina makes her capable of swimming across large bodies of water for days, or lift and throw significantly larger opponents. She can punch with enough force to break iron pipes or shatter large chunks of ice launched at her. Her dexterity and balance allows her to skillfully dodge a large barrage of projectiles and easily leap across long distances and over high obstacles from a stationary position. She is shown to be quite flexible, able to bend and twist effectively enough to attack from various angles or squeeze through tight spaces.


title: Korra

text: The series' creators consulted a professional martial artist in the design of the show's fighting system. Under the White Lotus' watchful protection, Korra was educated in all known academic fields, and trained by the best martial arts instructors. She was a fast-learner and considerable prodigy, seemingly "driven". Eventually, she sought out training from Aang's original teachers—Katara, Zuko, and Toph—but had great difficulty under the mentorship of Aang's son, Tenzin. Her predecessor lived with personal grief over the genocide of his people, and his personal failure as The Avatar in his inability to prevent the century long world war that destroyed millions of lives. He had vowed "never-again" would he allow himself to be unprepared in his subsequent live(s), and Korra unconsciously channels this oath in her insatiable quest to master every known martial arts that exists in her world, including:


title: Korra

text: As the Avatar, Korra is capable of bending all four elements (air, water, earth and fire). Even as a young child, she was already a child prodigy, able to bend them with ease since and displayed a level of proficiency that would have rivaled her predecessor, Avatar Aang. At the start of the series, Korra is proficient in water, earth and fire, but struggles with airbending due to the difficulties of embracing her spiritual side. She utilizes all elements equally, but favors each one for different strategies: airbending mostly for crowd control and non-lethal purposes, such as gliding and evasive manoeuvres; waterbending for both defensive and offensive manoeuvres; earthbending for strong attacks; firebending for raw "all-in" aggression. She learned metalbending, being the first metalbending Avatar. She also tends to use firebending when she is angered or acts with hostility towards an opponent, as she demonstrated when threatening the Red Lotus when expressing outrage to Zaheer for attempting to murder her father.


title: Korra

text: After learning energybending thanks to Aang's spirit, she becomes capable of restoring bending to those who had blocked their abilities. Her duties as Avatar and her personal feelings towards people did come into play with the restoring power, as she did not grant bending abilities back to individuals with backgrounds in crime. During Harmonic Convergence she was able to use energybending to connect with her inner spirit and gain cosmic energy from the universe to project her giant spirit.


title: Korra

text: As the Avatar, Korra is as a bridge between "Material World" and the "Spirit World", the plane of existence where the universe's disembodied spirits dwell. As her training under Tenzin progressed, she had slowly reconnected with her spirituality, seeing visions and accessing various memories from her past lives. Korra is able to purify "dark spirits" by balancing the energy within them. She learned to enter the Spirit World through the guidance of Jinora, her spiritual guide. Due to some residual traces of mercury in her body and mental pain after Zaheer poisoned her, Korra temporarily lost the ability to contact Raava and was unable to enter the Spirit World for three years, but regained these spiritual powers in the last season.


title: Korra

text: As her predecessors, her most powerful ability is the Avatar State, in which she receives a massive boost in raw power from the cosmic energy, enabling her to easily overcome any opponent that tries to fight her head on. In the series it was revealed the Avatar State, and the Avatar itself, were created after the spirit of light Raava and the firebender Wan merged forever. In addition, this state allows her to access bending techniques she would not have learned during her own lifetime but throughout that of her past lives. If she is killed in this state, then this would cause the Avatar to cease being reincarnated. After the events of second season, Korra's Avatar State isn't able to access to the knowledge of her predecessors since she lost her connection to them indefinitely. However, she can communicate with Raava directly instead, something her predecessors were generally unable to do.


title: Korra

text: Korra has been widely praised as a realistic, well-developed and sophisticated character by critics and viewers alike. Her position as a female protagonist, unusual for American animation, caused Nickelodeon to originally suspend production on the series. According to co-creator Bryan Koniezko, this was because the executives believed that "girls will watch shows about boys, but boys won't watch shows about girls". Production resumed though when "Korra" performed well during test screenings, with young boys saying they "didn't care that Korra was a girl," only that "she was awesome."


title: Korra

text: Common Sense Media praised Korra as a good role model, citing her dedication to her goals and open-mindedness towards new ideas.


title: Korra

text: Noel Kirkpatrick felt the character had become unlikeable during the second season, though applauded the show for putting her at the center of its narrative as we saw the character "without a moderating influence, like Tenzin".


title: Korra

text: Korra's experience with post traumatic stress disorder during Book Four has been highly praised as a realistic approach to the subject. Max Nicholson of IGN wrote that it was "heartbreaking" to see Korra following her battle with Zaheer "in such a vulnerable, weakened state." Janet Varney's acting received particular praise, with "The A.V. Club" describing it as "an exceptional performance that fully captures the Avatar's pain, fear, and sadness. [Varney's] voice work is essential to bringing a sense of reality to Korra's struggle".


title: Korra

text: Following the conclusion of the series, Zach Blumenfeld of "Paste" ranked Korra as the second-best character from the "Avatar" universe, concluding that Korra was more interesting, relatable and inspiring than her predecessor, Avatar Aang. "Screen Rant" ranked Korra #8 on its "30 Best Animated TV Characters Of All Time" list.


title: Korra

text: Korra's position as a bisexual protagonist, as well as her eventual relationship with Asami Sato have been the subject of many very positive reviews from the media. In light of the finale, "Vanity Fair" called the show "one of the most powerful, subversive shows of 2014", saying that the show "challenged expectations and bravely explored content outside the scope of children's television". "IGN" commended the action-packed and emotional finale, noting that ending was one that "fans will be talking about for a long time". "Forbes" predicted that, in the future, Korra holding Asami's hand and leaping into the Spirit World "will become one of the hallmarks of this series". Megan Farokhmanesh of "Polygon" wrote that by portraying Korra and Asami as bisexual, the series even avoided the error of assuming sexual orientation, as many other TV series did, to be a strict divide between "gay" and "straight". Reviewers have noted that the two characters complement each other well as a couple, with Korra's brashness balancing Asami's levelheadedness.


title: Korra

text: Korra and Asami's relationship has also been noted for being a "landmark moment for American and family animation." "The Advocate" included Korra and Asami in their 2017 list of "35 LGBT Characters Who Redefined Family TV", noting that the series "ended on a note that changed family television forever." In 2018, "io9" ranked the series finale's reveal of Korra and Asami's relationship #55 on its list of "The 100 Most Important Pop Culture Moments of the Last 10 Years".


title: Korra

text: Among the critics who viewed the pairing negatively, Daniel Rodrigues-Martin of "Geeks Under Grace" agreed that the pairing was a detriment to the characters and the story, opining that there was no foreshadowing of a romantic relationship between the two characters until the series' final moments.


title: Korra

text: In response to criticism that Korra and Asami's relationship was thrown in to appeal to fans who "shipped" the two of them together, Konietzko pointed out that any decision they made regarding Korra's romantic life could be interpreted as caving to a specific group of fans who supported Korra being paired with a certain character, and claimed that at the end of the day, the creators went for the relationship that felt right to them. He also suggested that anyone who felt the relationship was not adequately foreshadowed had watched the last two seasons only expecting to see heterosexual relationships.


title: Sylhet

text: Sylhet () is a metropolitan city in northeastern Bangladesh. It is the administrative seat of the Sylhet Division. Located on the north bank of the Surma River at the eastern tip of Bengal, Sylhet has a subtropical climate and lush highland terrain. The city has a population of more than half a million and is one of the largest cities in Bangladesh after Dhaka, Chittagong and Khulna. Sylhet is one of Bangladesh's most important spiritual and cultural centres. Furthermore, it is one of the most economically important cities after Dhaka and Chittagong. The city produces the highest amount of tea and natural gas.


title: Sylhet

text: The hinterland of the Sylhet valley is the largest oil and gas-producing region in Bangladesh. It is also the largest hub of tea production in Bangladesh. It is notable for its high-quality cane and agarwood. The city is served by the Osmani International Airport, named after General Bangabir M A G Osmani, the Commander-in-Chief of the Mukti Bahini during the Bangladesh Liberation War. People from Sylhet form a significant portion of the Bangladeshi diaspora, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States and other countries in the Middle East.


title: Sylhet

text: The name of Sylhet descended from Sanskrit word "Srihatta" (श्रीहट्ट / শ্রীহট্ট) which literally means "elegant market". The name "Sylhet" is an anglicisation of "Shilhot" (শিলহট). Its origins seem to come from the Sanskrit according to the words of শিলা śilā (meaning stone) and হট্ট haṭṭa (meaning marketplace). These words match the landscape and topography of the hilly region. The shila stones were abundant across Sylhet and the King Gour Govinda is known to have used stones to guard his capital. The word had changed to Shilhot due to the elision of letter-final "ô" in the Bengali language.


title: Sylhet

text: After the Conquest of Sylhet in 1303, the city colloquially became nicknamed as Jalalabad (জালালাবাদ). It is made up of two words "Jalal" (), a name of Arabic origin meaning majesty but in this case referring to Shah Jalal, and "Abad" (), meaning settlement. This colloquial name continued to be used in the Mughal period. Currently, in the Sylhet City Corporation, there exists a metropolitan thana known as the Jalalabad Thana as well an area in its 7th ward.


title: Sylhet

text: In 1303, the Sultan of Lakhnauti Shamsuddin Firoz Shah conquered Sylhet by defeating Gour Govinda. Sylhet was a realm of the Bengal Sultanate. In the 16th-century, Sylhet was controlled by the Baro-Bhuyan zamindars and later became a sarkar (district) of the Mughal Empire. Sylhet emerged as the Mughals' most significant imperial outpost in the east, and its importance remained as such throughout the seventeenth century. British rule began in the 18th century under the administration of the East India Company. Sylhet became a key source of lascars in the British Empire with its ancient seafaring tradition. The Sylhet municipal board was established in 1867. Originally part of the Bengal Presidency and later Eastern Bengal and Assam; the town was part of Colonial Assam between 1874 and 1947 when following a referendum and the partition of British India, it became part of East Pakistan. The Sylhet City Corporation was constituted in 2001. The Government of Bangladesh designated Sylhet a metropolitan area in 2009.


title: Sylhet

text: In 1995, the Government of Bangladesh declared Sylhet as the sixth divisional headquarters of the country. Sylhet has played a vital role in the Bangladeshi economy. Several of Bangladesh's finance ministers have been Members of Parliament from the city of Sylhet. Badar Uddin Ahmed Kamran was a longtime mayor of Sylhet. Humayun Rashid Choudhury, a diplomat from Sylhet, served as President of the UN General Assembly and Speaker of the Bangladesh National Parliament.


title: Sylhet

text: In 2001, the municipality was upgraded to the Sylhet City Corporation. It was made a metropolitan city in 2009.


title: Sylhet

text: Sylhet is located at , in the northeastern region of Bangladesh within the Sylhet Division, the Sylhet District and Sylhet Sadar Upazila. Sylhet has a typical Bangladeshi tropical monsoon climate (Köppen "Am") bordering on a humid subtropical climate ("Cwa") at higher elevations. The rainy season starts from April to October and it is so hot and humid with very heavy showers and thunderstorms almost every day, whilst the short dry season starts from November to February and it is very warm and fairly clear. Nearly 80% of the annual average rainfall of occurs between May and September.


title: Sylhet

text: The city is located within the region where there are hills and basins which constitute one of the most distinctive regions in Bangladesh. The physiography of Sylhet consists mainly of hill soils, encompassing a few large depressions known locally as "beels" which can be mainly classified as oxbow lakes, caused by tectonic subsidence primarily during the earthquake of 1762.


title: Sylhet

text: Geologically, the region is complex having diverse sacrificial geomorphology; high topography of Plio-Miocene age. Available limestone deposits in different parts of the region suggest that the whole area was under the ocean in the Oligo-Miocene. In the last 150 years three major earthquakes hit the city, at a magnitude of at least 7.5 on the Richter Scale, the last one took place in 1918, although many people are unaware that Sylhet lies on an earthquake prone zone.


title: Sylhet

text: Sylhet is divided into 6 metropolitan thanas(police station) and consists of 27 wards and 224 mahallas. The thanas are:


title: Sylhet

text: It is a small city with an area of 26.50 km. The rapid growth and expansion of Sylhet occurred during the colonial period. Sylhet Municipality was established in 1878. A devastating earthquake demolished almost the entire town on 12 June 1897 following which a modern and European model new town was built on the wreckage. Many new roads were constructed in the late 1890s and Sylhet became really connected to the other parts of the country with the establishment of an extension line of Assam Bengal Railway in 1912–15. From the beginning of the 20th century, the importance of Sylhet increased with the establishment of the tea industry. In the 1950s and 1960s, rapid urbanisation took place in the town, fostered by the expatriate Sylhetis and the process is still ongoing.


title: Sylhet

text: On 10 April 2001, Sylhet was changed to a city corporation from a municipal board, and currently the city is administrated by the "Sylhet City Corporation". At present, Sylhet is the district-headquarters as well as the divisional headquarters of the districts of Sunamganj, Habiganj, Moulvibazar and Sylhet District. The Sylhet City Corporation is responsible for the services that are provided within the city which includes traffic, roads, garbage collection, water supply, registrations and many others. The corporation consists of the Mayor and 22 other commissioners, and focuses on the development of the city.


title: Sylhet

text: Sylhet is strategically important for the Bangladesh Armed Forces. The Bangladesh Army's 17th Infantry Division is based at Jalalabad Cantonment in Sylhet. The cantonment is also home of the School of Infantry and Tactics (SI&T) and the 1st Para-commando Battalion, an elite commando unit of the Bangladesh Army.


title: Sylhet

text: Sylhet is also home to many hospitals that strategically provide healthcare to the community such as the Shahid Shamsuddin Hospital District Hospital, Sylhet MAG Osmani Medical College, Jalalabad Ragib-Rabeya Medical College, North East Medical College, Sylhet Women's Medical College, Parkview Medical College, "Ibn Sina Hospital Sylhet Ltd", "Noorjahan Hospital (pvt) Ltd", Oasis Hospital, "Mount Adora Hospital", Square Medical Service, Popular Medical Service, Medinova Medical Service, Labaid Ltd and the Mohanagar Hospital as well as world's leading five star hospital such as the Al Haramain Hospital.


title: Sylhet

text: Recently a medical university called Sylhet Medical University has been established in the city. According to the Prime Minister's order to strictly monitor whether medical standards are being properly maintained in medical colleges, a medical university will be set up in each division. According to the order, Chittagong and Rajshahi Medical University have already been established. Sylhet Medical University is the 4th Medical University of the directive.


title: Sylhet

text: According to the 2011 Bangladesh census, the city had a population of 485,138. The population growth rate of the city is 1.73%, which has reduced from 1.93% in 1991. Sylhet has a sex ratio of 861 females to 1000 males and a literacy rate of 67.8%. As of 2001, It had average literacy rate of 69.73%. The highest literacy rate was 84.24% in Ward 22 and the lowest was 48.15% in Ward 10 (2001). The total number of households was 97,991.


title: Sylhet

text: The majority of the population are Bengali Muslims of Sylheti background, while there are significant minority groups which includes the Bengali Hindus, Bishnupriya Manipuri and others. Sylheti is spoken by the vast majority of the people, while Standard Bengali is the official language used by the state government and officials.


title: Sylhet

text: The majority of Sylhetis are Muslims (87.3%), other religious groups include Hindus (12.5%) and less than 0.2% of other religions, mainly Buddhists and Christians. The majority of the Muslims are mainly Sunni Hanafis; and there are significant numbers of people who also follow Sufi ideals, the most influential are the teachings of Abdul Latif Fultali.


title: Sylhet

text: The Sylhet Metropolitan Area is one of Bangladesh's main business centres. Sylhet's economy is closely linked with the Bangladeshi diaspora, especially the British Bangladeshi community. The city receives a significant portion of the country's annual remittances, which have driven growth in real estate and construction. A number of shopping centres, restaurants and hotels have opened as a result. Sylhet also relies on religious tourism, with thousands of devotees visiting its Sufi shrines annually, as well as ecotourism in its broader natural hinterland. Nature resorts have been built in the city's outskirts. Several important Bangladeshi companies are based in Sylhet, including Jalalabad Gas Transmission and Distribution, Sylhet Gas Fields and Alim Industries. Biman Bangladesh Airlines operates several flights from Sylhet to the United Kingdom and the Middle East. Roads connect Sylhet with the Indian states of Meghalaya and Assam.


title: Sylhet

text: Sylhet's hinterland plays a vital role in the economy of Bangladesh. It is home to the country's largest natural gas fields, sole crude oil field, largest tea plantations, rubber, palm oil, cane, agarwood and citrus farms. Rice production in the region is one of the country's highest. Heavy industries include power plants, fertilizer plants, cement plants and liquefied petroleum gas plants. Other major industries in the region include ceramics, machinery and equipment, ready-made garments and pharmaceuticals. Most of the tea production in Bangladesh is based around Sylhet, and the industry also has significant exports. The area is also known for producing oranges and other similar fruits. One of these fruit is called "Satkara" which is a variety of grapefruit that can be used in pickles and even as an ingredient in traditional Sylheti curry dishes.


title: Sylhet

text: Two Bangladeshi finance ministers from the city have been elected to the Jatiyo Sangshad: Saifur Rahman of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Abul Maal Abdul Muhith of the Awami League. The present foreign affairs minister DR. A K Abdul Momen who is younger brother of the former finance minister Abdul Muhith represents the Sylhet-1 seat in parliament.


title: Sylhet

text: Sylhet has high rates of electric power shortage and water shortage. According to the Power Development Board, Sylhet is only receiving 50 MW, which is half of the required demand of 100 MW. The city corporation is also supplying only 22,500 gallons of water, far less than the demand of about 65,000. The major sources of water to the city is the tube wells and the Surma River. Tests of tube wells in Sylhet District by the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology in 1997 found that about 27.6% contained more arsenic than the acceptable limit set by Bangladesh of 50 micrograms per liter, and 49.2% contained more arsenic than the World Health Organization standard of 10 micrograms per liter. There are about 331 registered restaurants in the city, only 15% maintain sanitary facilities and 85% have unhygienic conditions that are unsafe for the public.


title: Sylhet

text: Cricket is the most popular sport in Sylhet. Bangladesh Premier League franchise Sylhet Sunrisers are based in Sylhet International Cricket Stadium (M.A.G. Osmani Stadium), which was built in 2007 and has a capacity of 18,500 spectators. The Sylhet International Cricket Stadium was renovated in 2013 especially to host matches of 2014 ICC World Twenty20. It is situated near lush green tea gardens on the city fringe. In the National Cricket League Sylhet Division has not won any titles however did win in the One-Day Cricket League in 2001–02 season. Notable players from Sylhet who have played for the Bangladesh national cricket team include Rajin Saleh, Enamul Haque Jr, Tapash Baisya, and Alok Kapali. Chess player Rani Hamid was awarded the FIDE Women's International Master (WIM) title in 1985, while her son Kaiser Hamid was the captain of the Bangladesh national football team in the early 90s.


title: Sylhet

text: The main transport systems used in the city are cycle rickshaws, auto rickshaws (mainly known as baby-taxis or CNGs), buses, mini-buses and cars. There are about 80,000 rickshaws running each day. Bus service prices have increased as of 2008, up to 30% higher, prices ranges from Tk 4 to 15.95.


title: Sylhet

text: The N2 is the national highway that connects the city with country's capital and largest city Dhaka as well as with many other parts of the country. The N2 highway is also part of AH1 and AH2- two longest routes of the Asian Highway Network.


title: Sylhet

text: The city of Sylhet is served by Osmani International Airport, located at the north of the city. It is Bangladesh's third busiest airport and became an international airport due to the demand of expatriate Bangladeshis and their descendants from the United Kingdom and the United States. The main frequent airlines of the airport are Biman Bangladesh Airlines, US-Bangla Airlines and Novoair. The airport received its first international arrival on 3 November 2002, with Biman arriving from Kuwait via Abu Dhabi en route to Dhaka. Meanwhile, it received first direct international arrival on 15 March 2017 as a direct flight of Dubai based carrier Flydubai landed at the airport. Work started in 2006 to upgrade the airport to international standards, including a new terminal building, a jetway, a taxiway, and expansion of the runway to accommodate wide-bodied aircraft. It was confirmed that in May 2007, Biman will be operating Hajj flights directly from the airport later in 2007. Biman operates direct flight to London from Sylhet. All Bangladeshi airlines operate regular domestic flights to Dhaka and Biman operates regular domestic flights to Cox's Bazar. Government will construct a 34,919 square-metre high-quality international passenger terminal building, cargo building, control tower, parking, taxiway and other important infrastructures to meet the growing demand in line with the increase of passengers and cargo transportation at the airport.


title: Sylhet

text: The Sylhet Railway Station is the main railway station providing trains on national routes operated by the state-run Bangladesh Railway.


title: Sylhet

text: There are two public universities in Sylhet: Shahjalal University of Science and Technology and Sylhet Agricultural University. There are some prominent colleges in Sylhet such as Jalalabad Cantonment Public School and College, MAG Osmani Medical College, Sylhet, Sylhet Women's Medical College, North East Medical College, Sylhet Engineering College, Sylhet Cadet College, Murari Chand College, Institute of Health Technology, Sylhet, Scholarshome, Blue Bird High School and College, Sylhet Science And Technology College and Sylhet Polytechnic Institute, Sylhet Government Women's College


title: Sylhet

text: The friendship link with St Albans was established in 1988 when the District council supported a housing project in Sylhet as part of the International Year of Shelter for the Homeless. Sylhet was chosen because it is the area of origin for the largest ethnic minority group in St Albans.


title: Sylhet

text: In March 2009, the Mayor of Sylhet, Badar Uddin Ahmed Kamran, signed a Memorandum of Understanding to form another friendship link between Sylhet and Rochdale, home to around 10,000 people with Sylhet heritage, with the Mayor of Rochdale Cllr Keith Swift at the Sylhet City Corporation.


title: High Tension

text: High Tension (French: Haute Tension, ; released in the United Kingdom as Switchblade Romance) is a 2003 French slasher film directed by Alexandre Aja, co-written with Grégory Levasseur, and starring Cécile de France, Maïwenn, and Philippe Nahon. Its plot follows two female students who arrive at a secluded farmhouse to study, where they are shortly invaded by a serial killer.