title: Waddesdon Manor

text: Prior to the construction of Waddesdon Manor, no house existed on the site. Ferdinand de Rothschild wanted a house in the style of the great Renaissance châteaux of the Loire Valley. Ferdinand chose as his architect Gabriel-Hippolyte Destailleur. Destailleur was already experienced in working in this style, having overseen the restoration of many châteaux in that region, in particular that of the Château de Mouchy.


title: Waddesdon Manor

text: Through Destailleur's vision, Waddesdon embodied an eclectic style based on the châteaux so admired by his patron, Baron Ferdinand. The towers at Waddesdon were based on those of the Château de Maintenon, and the twin staircase towers, on the north facade, were inspired by the staircase tower at the Château de Chambord. However, following the theme of unparalleled luxury at Waddesdon, the windows of the towers at Waddesdon were glazed, unlike those of the staircase at Chambord. They are also far more ornate.


title: Waddesdon Manor

text: The structural design of Waddesdon was not entirely retrospective. Hidden from view were the most modern innovations of the late 19th century including a steel frame, which took the strain of walls on the upper floors, and which consequently permitted the layout of these floors to differ completely from the lower floors. The house also had hot and cold running water in its bathrooms, central heating, and an electric bell system to summon the numerous servants. The building contractor was Edward Conder & Son.


title: Waddesdon Manor

text: After the Manor was completed in 1883, Ferdinand quickly decided it was too small, as his architect had prophesied. The Bachelors' Wing to the east was extended after 1885 and the Morning Room, built in late-Gothic style, was added to the west after 1888. The stables to the west of the Manor were built in 1884. Ferdinand and his stud groom devised the plan, working with Conder. Destailleur designed the façades in a French 17th-century style.


title: Waddesdon Manor

text: The Wine Cellars in the Manor were created during the Centenary Restoration and opened in 1994. They are modelled on the private cellars at Château Lafite Rothschild. More than 15,000 bottles are stored in the Cellars, some 150 years old, the majority from the Château Lafite Rothschild and Château Mouton Rothschild estates. It is the largest private collection of Rothschild wines in the world. There are also wine labels designed by artists such as Salvador Dalí and Andy Warhol.


title: Waddesdon Manor

text: Once his château was complete, Baron Ferdinand installed his extensive collections of English 18th-century portraits by artists like Gainsborough and Reynolds, as well as French 18th-century boiseries, Savonnerie carpets, Gobelins and Beauvais tapestries, furniture, Sèvres ceramics, books, Dutch paintings and Renaissance treasures.


title: Waddesdon Manor

text: Works were acquired for their exquisite quality and fine provenance, particularly those belonging to French royalty of the Ancien Régime. One of the highlights of the collection is the extraordinary musical automaton elephant, dating from 1774 and made by the French clockmaker H Martinet.


title: Waddesdon Manor

text: Of the ten surviving examples of the Sèvres pot-pourri vase in the shape of a ship from the 1760s, three are at Waddesdon, including one with a very rare scene of a battle connected to the Seven Years' War.


title: Waddesdon Manor

text: In the 1890s, Baron Ferdinand focused on the Renaissance collection for his small museum in the New Smoking Room. This collection was bequeathed to the British Museum and is now known as the Waddesdon Bequest.


title: Waddesdon Manor

text: The interior of Waddesdon Manor was photographed in 1897 for Baron Ferdinand's privately published "The Red Book".


title: Waddesdon Manor

text: Subsequent members of the family added noted collections of paintings, Limoges enamel, arms and armour, maiolica, manuscripts, prints and drawings.


title: Waddesdon Manor

text: Waddesdon's internationally famous collection has thus been formed principally by four members of the Rothschild family: Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild (1839–1898), his sister Alice de Rothschild (1847–1922), their cousin Edmond James de Rothschild (1845–1934) and the present Lord Jacob Rothschild (b. 1936).


title: Waddesdon Manor

text: Baron Ferdinand wanted a garden to entertain his guests during his weekend house parties. To make the gardens, extensive landscaping of the hill was carried out, including leveling the top of the hill. The gardens and landscape park were laid out by the French landscape architect Elie Lainé. An attempt was made to transplant full-grown trees by chloroforming their roots, to limit the shock. While this novel idea was unsuccessful, many very large trees were successfully transplanted. Elaborate flower beds were planted, centred on the south Parterre. Several artificial rock formations were created by James Pulham, including to house mountain goats and llamas, part of Ferdinand's zoo. Altogether, the creation of his garden cost £153,000, which (in terms of average wages then and in 2015) equates to £68.8 million.


title: Waddesdon Manor

text: After her brother's death Alice brought the care she had taken with her garden at Eythrope to Waddesdon. Alice was a keen gardener with a good understanding of flowers and plants; she would often walk around and weed the paths. With her head gardener, George Frederick Johnson who worked at Waddesdon from 1905 to 1954, Alice grew flowers for competition. Alice was responsible for introducing three-dimensional bedding in the shape of a bird, recreated in the gardens today.


title: Waddesdon Manor

text: Under James, the gardens were less impressive. The South Parterre was grassed over in the 1930s. It was replanted with flowers for the opening of the house under the National Trust in 1959.


title: Waddesdon Manor

text: As part of the 1990s restoration, Beth Rothschild led a team re-introducing Ferdinand's colour scheme of trees, shrubs and bedding plants. The carpet bedding is now designed on computer allowing the schemes to be quickly installed. The patterns change each year to reflect different themes.


title: Waddesdon Manor

text: Though the trees are not of a great age there are many specimens of deciduous and coniferous trees that have now reached maturity creating the desired effect in the Waddesdon landscape. Some of these trees were planted in the 1870s and responsibility for this fell to William Barron whose job it was to transplant trees from the surrounding countryside to give the grounds of Waddesdon a sense of maturity, creating vistas and focal points under the instructions from Elie Lainé.


title: Waddesdon Manor

text: Deciduous trees were selected on their form, flowering and array of autumnal colour. Conifers were selected for their evergreen nature, cones and berries. Today many species such as chestnuts, limes and maples as well as yew, cedars and redwoods can be seen.


title: Waddesdon Manor

text: From Baron Ferdinand's time to today, distinguished visitors have been invited to plant memorial trees. Queen Victoria, King Edward VII, King George V and Queen Mary were early royal visitors. More recently, The Prince of Wales and Prime Ministers Sir John Major and Tony Blair have also planted trees.


title: Waddesdon Manor

text: Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild acquired many fine statues and fountains to add interest to the gardens. A notable feature is his love of 18th-century Italian pieces. The fountains to the north and south of the house include sculptures of Pluto, Proserpina, tritons and nereids originally made by Giuliano Mozani around 1720 for the Ducal Palace of Colorno. A bust of the muse Erato has been recently attributed to Filippo Parodi.


title: Waddesdon Manor

text: A fine example of French early 18th-century sculpture is sited near the Aviary: Apollo by Jean Raon, 1699, associated with a commission at Versailles. There are also Dutch vases in the style of Albert Jansz Vinckenbrinck and sculptures by Jan van Logteren, the latter were originally displayed at Aston Clinton House.


title: Waddesdon Manor

text: In 2001, Stephen Cox's tomb-like sculpture "Interior Space: Terra degli Etruschi" was installed at the end of the Baron's Walk. Inscribed on a nearby marble slab are the names of the Rothschilds who built and have cared for Waddesdon.


title: Waddesdon Manor

text: Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild also created a cast-iron aviary, inspired by 18th-century pavilions at the Palace of Versailles and Château de Chantilly, as well as his childhood home at Grüneburg. It was completed in 1889. Like other members of his family, such as Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild, Ferdinand was also keen animal lover. He stocked the aviary with exotic birds and enjoyed feeding them for his guests.


title: Waddesdon Manor

text: The aviary's paint and gilding were restored in 2003 and it now houses endangered species with a focus on breeding programs. It is a registered zoo.


title: Waddesdon Manor

text: In Ferdinand's time, there was a large kitchen garden and extensive glass houses growing fruit and flowers, including Ferdinand's beloved orchids. They were near the Dairy Water garden which has elaborate rock formations by James Pulham. As part of the day's entertainments, Ferdinand's guests were taken to the ornamental Dairy to taste milk from cows who wore Meissen porcelain name tags.


title: Waddesdon Manor

text: In recent years, commissions to contemporary architects have occurred on the wider estate. Windmill Hill Archive (2011) was designed by Stephen Marshall. Flint House (2015) was designed by Skene Catling de la Peña. It won RIBA House of the Year in 2015.


title: Waddesdon Manor

text: In 2012, it was announced that Waddesdon Manor would be one of the sites for Jubilee Woodlands, designated by the Woodland Trust to commemorate Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee.


title: Waddesdon Manor

text: Many films have been shot at Waddesdon Manor, including the "Carry On" film "Don't Lose Your Head" (1966); "Never Say Never Again" (1983); "An Ideal Husband" (1999); "Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham..." (2001), "Ladies in Lavender" (2004); "Ripley Under Ground" (2005); "The Queen" (2006); "" (2008); "" (2011); "A Little Chaos" (2014); "Victor Frankenstein" (2015), "Our Kind of Traitor" (2016); and "The Infiltrator" (2016).


title: Waddesdon Manor

text: Waddesdon Manor has also been used as a location for a number of television programmes. These include "Howards' Way" (1985), "Downton Abbey" (2011), "And Then There Were None" BBC One (2015), "The Crown" (2016), "Endeavour" and "Rebecca".


title: Aerosmith (album)

text: Aerosmith is the debut studio album by American rock band Aerosmith, released on January 5, 1973 by Columbia Records. "Dream On", originally released as a single in 1973, became an American top ten hit when re-released on 27 December 1975. The album peaked at number 21 on the US "Billboard" 200 album chart in 1976.


title: Aerosmith (album)

text: After entering a partnership with Frank Connelly, David Krebs and Steve Leber invited members of two record labelsAtlantic Records and Columbia Recordsto view an Aerosmith concert at Max's Kansas City. Clive Davis, the president of Columbia, was impressed with the band and Aerosmith signed with Columbia in the summer of 1972.


title: Aerosmith (album)

text: Although lead singer Steven Tyler had been in several previous groups, most of the band members had never been in a studio before. The band was heavily influenced by many of the British blues/rock bands of the 1960s, including the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, the Yardbirds, and Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac.


title: Aerosmith (album)

text: "Dream On" was also written by Tyler and became Aerosmith's first major hit and classic rock radio staple. The single peaked at number 59 nationally but hit big in the band's native Boston, where it was the number 1 single of the year on the less commercial top 40 station, WVBZ-FM, number 5 for the year on highly rated Top 40 WRKO-AM, and number 16 on heritage Top 40 WMEX-AM. The album version of "Dream On" (4:28, as opposed to the 3:25 1973 45rpm edit) was re-issued late in 1975, debuting at number 81 on January 10, 1976, breaking into the Top 40 on February 14 and peaking at number 6 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 national chart on April 10. Columbia chose to service Top 40 radio stations with a re-issue of the 3:25 edited version, thus, many 1976 Pop Radio listeners were exposed to the group's first Top 10 effort through the 45 edit. The song is famous for its building climax to showcase Tyler's trademark screams, and is notable for being the only track on the album that displays Tyler's real singing voice. It was written on piano but the recording contains a two-guitar arrangement, with guitarist Brad Whitford explaining to "Guitar World"s Alan Di Perna in 1997, "The idea was just to transcribe what Steven was doing with his left and right hands on the piano." The song is composed in the key of F minor.


title: Aerosmith (album)

text: In the authorized Stephen Davis band memoir "Walk This Way", Tyler speaks at length about the origins of the songs:


title: Aerosmith (album)

text: The group recorded their debut album at Intermedia Studios in 331 Newbury Street, Boston, Massachusetts with record producer Adrian Barber. For the most part, the production is sparse and drytwo guitars, bass, drums, a singer, and occasionally pianobut the most remarkable feature of the album is how different Tyler sounds compared to the albums that followed. In his autobiography Tyler recalls, "The band was very uptight. We were so nervous that when the red recording light came on we froze. We were scared shitless. I changed my voice into the Muppet, Kermit the Frog, to sound more like a blues singer." In 1997 the singer told Stephen Davis, "Yes, I changed my voice when we did the final vocals. I didn't like my voice, the way it sounded. I was insecure, but nobody told me not to." Tyler added that producer Adrian Barber was "good for his time" but it was like "being with a retarded child in there, and I'm not sure if it was because he was so high, or because we all were." In his autobiography "Rocks", Joe Perry is more critical of Barber:


title: Aerosmith (album)

text: Bassist Tom Hamilton later confessed, "The album was done so fast I barely remember anything but overdubbing some tracks and running to the bathroom for a hit of blow". Perry reflected, "We were uptight, afraid to make mistakes... We were total novices with no idea what to go for." The collection also includes a cover of the Rufus Thomas hit "Walking the Dog," also covered by the Rolling Stones on their first LP.


title: Aerosmith (album)

text: On the original cover, the song "Walkin' the Dog" was misprinted as "Walkin' the Dig". When a second pressing of the album was released, this error was corrected. Sometime after June 1973, but before January 1975, a third cover was printed. This has a modified version of the original, made up entirely of the photo of the band members, adding the 'Featuring "Dream On"' text and removing the biography information on the back. This third pressing is the more commonly available version of the LP. "Cash Box" magazine lists an "Aerosmith II" (Columbia KC 32045) release in the February 1, 1975 issue. As this catalog number is consistent with a June 1973 date, it is possible Columbia used this number to identify the 'Featuring "Dream On"' cover, but stayed with the original KC 32005 catalog number on the actual release. In January 1975 "Aerosmith" was re-issued with the "PC" prefix, so there may have been some confusion as to the correct number. When reissued on CD in 1993 as a remastered version, the original artwork was used.


title: Aerosmith (album)

text: Recalling the album art, Perry commented in 2014, "Unfortunately the packaging was lame. We didn't even see the cover until the first printing. It was something that Columbia just threw together... The whole thing was sloppy. It marked the start of our education in dealing with labels."


title: Aerosmith (album)

text: The album was not a success when it was released on January 5, 1973. To the band's disappointment, it was not reviewed in "Rolling Stone" magazine. Moreover, Columbia released "Aerosmith" at the same time as Bruce Springsteen's debut album, for which they made a greater promotional effort. Critics compared the band unfavorably to the Rolling Stones and the New York Dolls.


title: Aerosmith (album)

text: In a modern review for AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine described Aerosmith as "truly an American band, sounding as though they were the best bar band in your local town, cranking out nasty hard-edged rock"; he considered "Dream On" "the blueprint for all power ballads" and the album a worthy debut where the band's "sleazoid blues-rock" sound is fully present but not yet perfected as in the next album. Canadian journalist Martin Popoff described the album as "raw, dirty and steeped with squalid integrity", but observed that "every successive release sounds light years ahead in terms of production, songcraft, maturity, everything".


title: Aerosmith (album)

text: In an interview to "Classic Rock" magazine, Guns N' Roses guitarist Izzy Stradlin recalled: "Growing up in Indiana, I "loved" fucking Aerosmith, man... Smoke a joint, listen to the first record." Aerosmith was considered a big influence on Guns N' Roses and helped shape their sound.


title: St Trinian's (film)

text: St Trinian's is a 2007 British comedy film and the sixth in a long-running series of British films based on the works of cartoonist Ronald Searle set in St Trinian's School. The first five films form a series, starting with "The Belles of St. Trinian's" in 1954, with sequels in 1957, 1960, 1966 and a reboot in 1980. The release of 2007, 27 years after the last entry, and 53 years after the first film, is a rebooting of the franchise, rather than a direct sequel, with certain plot elements borrowed from the first film.


title: St Trinian's (film)

text: Whereas the earlier films concentrated on the adults, this film gives the school pupils greater prominence. St Trinian's is an anarchic school for uncontrollable girls run by eccentric headmistress Camilla Dagey Fritton (the reboot continues the tradition, established by Alastair Sim in the original film, of casting a male actor to play the female headmistress, with Rupert Everett inheriting the role).


title: St Trinian's (film)

text: "St Trinian's" received mixed reviews but remains one of the highest-grossing British independent films of the last thirty years.


title: St Trinian's (film)

text: Annabelle Fritton, an uptight daddy's girl, unwillingly transfers to St Trinian's from the distinguished Cheltenham Ladies' College at the request of her father, Carnaby Fritton. Annabelle is clearly different and doesn't fit in, telling her father that the school is "like Hogwarts for pikeys". She is taken around the school by Kelly Jones, the head girl, who introduces her to the various cliques within the school.


title: St Trinian's (film)

text: On her first night, Annabelle is pranked by the girls, resulting in her being poured in slime and pillow feathers, the temperature of her shower water being tampered with, and a video of her running around the school naked and wet being broadcast live on the internet leading to her getting knocked unconscious after slipping on wet floor and slides into the doors. She calls her father to pick her up, but Carnaby pretends to have bad phone reception so he can stay at a bar. Annabelle is drafted to the hockey team when she hits her phone with her hockey stick, smashing a statue. The girls of St Trinian's are involved in business with spiv Flash Harry, who pays them to make cheap vodka. Flash is shown to be romantically interested in Kelly, who initially turns him down.


title: St Trinian's (film)

text: The Cheltenham Ladies' College hockey team arrive at St Trinian's, along with Education Minister Geoffrey Thwaites. Thwaites is shown to have romantic history with the headmistress of St Trinian's, Camilla Fritton. Annabelle is forced to face her former bullies, including captain Verity Thwaites. The hockey match is violent, ending in Kelly shooting a winning goal for St Trinian's, which is followed by a brawl between the two schools. As the match is being played, Thwaites inspects the school, finding the illegal vodka-making business and the chatline being run by the Posh Totty clique.


title: St Trinian's (film)

text: The following morning, a banker arrives at the school and serves Camilla with a foreclosure notice, as the school owes the bank in excess of £500,000 and has ignored six previous final demands. A subsequent meeting between Camilla and Carnaby is watched by the girls using hidden cameras, in which Carnaby confesses his distaste towards his daughter. Annabelle is clearly upset, despite Camilla defending her. Carnaby encourages Camilla to turn the school into a boutique hotel, telling her that "when this school closes down, you'll have lost everything. More importantly, so will I."


title: St Trinian's (film)

text: Kelly and Flash work with the students to devise a plan to save the school. They must get into the final of "School Challenge", a TV quiz show held in the National Gallery in London, as a cover for stealing Vermeer's "Girl With a Pearl Earring". Chelsea, Peaches and Chloe (the Posh Totty clique) are chosen as the "School Challenge" Team. By cheating in every round, they make it to the grand final. As the final is being filmed, Kelly, Taylor and Andrea manage to steal the painting, with help from the Geeks, as well as Annabelle and Camilla.


title: St Trinian's (film)

text: Camilla paints an exact copy of the painting and has Flash, posing as a German art dealer, sell it to Carnaby in a black market deal. The school then receives a further £50,000 reward for returning the real painting to the National Gallery. The loans are able to be repaid and the school is saved.


title: St Trinian's (film)

text: The members of Girls Aloud (Nicola Roberts, Kimberley Walsh, Sarah Harding, Nadine Coyle and Cheryl) all make cameo appearances as the members of St Trinian's school band in the film. Zöe Salmon also makes a cameo as an emo girl, while Nathaniel Parker, the director's real life brother, makes a short appearance as the Chairman of the National Gallery. Newscaster Jeremy Thompson also briefly appears, as himself.


title: St Trinian's (film)

text: The film's soundtrack was released on 10 December 2007 via Universal Music Group. The album featured two original songs by British pop group Girls Aloud, including the single, "Theme to St. Trinian's". A music video for the song was released to promote the film and soundtrack.


title: St Trinian's (film)

text: The film's cast also recorded the theme, as well as a cover of Shampoo's "Trouble". A music video of the cast performing "Trouble" was also released. Rupert Everett and Colin Firth, who star in the film, recorded the John Paul Young song "Love Is in the Air". A number of popular singles or current album tracks by artists, such as Mark Ronson, Lily Allen, Noisettes, Gabriella Cilmi, and Sugababes, were included on the soundtrack.


title: St Trinian's (film)

text: "St Trinian's" premiered in London on 10 December 2007 and was theatrically released on 21 December 2007 by Entertainment Film Distributors.


title: St Trinian's (film)

text: The film grossed £12,042,854 in the United Kingdom, surpassing its £7 million production budget. As of 18 July 2010 the film had grossed a worldwide total of $29,066,483. It was the fifth highest-grossing film during the Christmas season of 2007, behind "Enchanted", "I Am Legend", "" and "The Golden Compass". It ranks in the top grossing independent British films of the past decade.


title: St Trinian's (film)

text: "St Trinian's" received mixed reviews. "Empire" wrote that the film "fuse[s] an understanding of what made the originals great with a modern feel – the writers have fulfilled their end of the bargain, even tweaking some of the weaker points of the original story."


title: St Trinian's (film)

text: "The Observer" wrote that it "is raucous, leering, crude and, to my mind, largely misjudged, with Rupert Everett playing Miss Fritton as a coquettish transvestite with the manners of a Mayfair madam. The attempts to shock us fail, though Cheltenham Ladies College may well be affronted to hear one of its teachers say 'between you and I'. But the preview was packed with girls aged from seven to 14 who found it hilarious, and especially enjoyed Russell Brand."


title: St Trinian's (film)

text: Derek Malcolm, in "The Evening Standard", wrote: "Structurally, the new movie is a mess, and it doesn't look too convincing either, with cinematography that uses all sorts of old-fashioned dodges to raise a laugh", and "when you look at it again, the old film was not only superior but rather more radical. This St Trinian's looks as if it is aiming at the lowest common denominator, and finding it too often."


title: St Trinian's (film)

text: On the film-critics aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, "St Trinian's" holds a 31% positive rating, with the consensus "Both naughtier and campier than Ronald Searle's original postwar series, this St. Trinian's leans on high jinks instead of performances or witty dialogue."


title: St Trinian's (film)

text: It was announced at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival that the sequel, "The Legend of Fritton's Gold", also directed by Parker and Thompson, would be released in 2009. Filming began on 6 July 2009, and on 7 July 2009, it was announced that David Tennant, Sarah Harding and Montserrat Lombard had all signed on to appear in the sequel.


title: Joe Shuster

text: Joseph Shuster (; July 10, 1914 – July 30, 1992), professionally known simply as Joe Shuster, was a Canadian-American comic book artist best known for co-creating the DC Comics character Superman, with Jerry Siegel, in "Action Comics" #1 (cover-dated June 1938).


title: Joe Shuster

text: Shuster was involved in a number of legal battles over ownership of the Superman character. His comic book career after Superman was relatively unsuccessful, and by the mid-1970s, Shuster had left the field completely due to partial blindness.


title: Joe Shuster

text: He and Siegel were inducted into both the comic book industry's Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 1992 and the Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1993. In 2005, the Canadian Comic Book Creator Awards Association instituted the Joe Shuster Awards, named to honor the Canada-born artist.


title: Joe Shuster

text: Joseph Shuster was born in Toronto to a Jewish family. His father, Julius Shuster (originally Shusterowich), an immigrant from Rotterdam, had a tailor shop in Toronto's garment district. His mother, Ida (Katharske), had come from Kyiv in Ukraine. His family, including his sister, Jean, lived on Bathurst, Oxford, and Borden Streets, and Shuster attended Ryerson and Lansdowne Public Schools. One of his cousins was comedian Frank Shuster of the Canadian comedy team Wayne and Shuster. He also had a brother named Frank.


title: Joe Shuster

text: As a youngster, Shuster worked as a newspaper boy for the "Toronto Daily Star". The family barely made ends meet, and the budding young artist would scrounge for paper, which the family could not afford. He recalled in 1992,


title: Joe Shuster

text: Sometime in 1924, when Shuster was 9 or 10, his family moved to Cleveland, Ohio. There Shuster attended Glenville High School and befriended his later collaborator, writer Jerry Siegel, with whom he began publishing a science fiction fanzine called "Science Fiction". Siegel described his friendship with the similarly shy and bespectacled Shuster: "When Joe and I first met, it was like the right chemicals coming together."


title: Joe Shuster

text: The duo broke into comics at Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson's National Allied Publications, the future DC Comics, working on the landmark "New Fun"—the first comic-book series to consist solely of original material rather than using any reprinted newspaper comic strips—debuting with the musketeer swashbuckler "Henri Duval" and the supernatural crime-fighter strip Doctor Occult, both in "New Fun" #6 (Oct. 1935). In a 1992 interview, in which he used the fledgling publisher's future name, he said the two sample strips were not the ones eventually published:


title: Joe Shuster

text: Siegel and Shuster created a bald telepathic villain, bent on dominating the world, as the title character in the short story "The Reign of the Superman", published in Siegel's 1933 fanzine "Science Fiction" #3. The story was not successful, and the character was not used again.


title: Joe Shuster

text: Eventually, Siegel re-used the name "The Superman" for a new character that became one of the most famous superheroes of all time. Shuster modelled the hero on Douglas Fairbanks Sr., and modelled his bespectacled alter ego, Clark Kent, on a combination of Harold Lloyd and Shuster himself, with the name "Clark Kent" derived from movie stars Clark Gable and Kent Taylor. Lois Lane was modeled on Joanne Carter, a model hired by Shuster. (She later married co-creator Jerry Siegel in 1948.) Siegel and Shuster's origins as children of Jewish immigrants is also thought to have influenced their work. Timothy Aaron Pevey argued that they crafted "an immigrant figure whose desire was to fit into American culture as an American", something which Pevey feels taps into an important aspect of American identity.


title: Joe Shuster

text: Siegel and Shuster then began a six-year quest to find a publisher. Titling the character "The Superman", Siegel and Shuster offered it to Consolidated Book Publishing, who had published a 48-page black-and-white comic book entitled "Detective Dan: Secret Operative" #48. Siegel and Shuster each compared this character to Slam Bradley, an adventurer the pair had created for "Detective Comics" #1 (March 1937). Although the duo received an encouraging letter, Consolidated never again published comic books. Shuster was distraught over the rejection, and, by varying accounts, either burned every page of the story, with the cover surviving only because Siegel saved it from the fire, or he tore the story to shreds, with only two cover sketches remaining.


title: Joe Shuster

text: In 1938, the proposal was languishing among others at "More Fun Comics", published by National Allied Publications, the primary precursor of DC Comics. Editor Vin Sullivan chose it as the cover feature for National's "Action Comics" #1 (June 1938). The following year, Siegel & Shuster initiated the syndicated "Superman" comic strip.


title: Joe Shuster

text: When "Superman" first appeared, Superman's alter ego Clark Kent worked for the "Daily Star" newspaper, named by Shuster after the "Toronto Daily Star", his old employer in Toronto. When the comic strip received international distribution, the company permanently changed the name to the "Daily Planet". Shuster said he modeled the cityscape of Superman's home city, Metropolis, on that of his old hometown.


title: Joe Shuster

text: As part of the deal which saw Superman published in "Action Comics", Siegel and Shuster sold the rights to the character in return for $130 and a contract to supply the publisher with material.


title: Joe Shuster

text: Due to financial difficulties, Wheeler-Nicholson had formed a corporation with Harry Donenfeld and Jack Liebowitz called Detective Comics, Inc. It was under the DC label that "Action Comics" #1 (cover-dated June 1938) was published. A series of mergers and name changes resulted in the publisher becoming National Periodical Publications, and then, in 1977, DC Comics (which had been its nickname since 1940).


title: Joe Shuster

text: In 1946, near the end of their ten-year contract to produce Superman stories, Siegel and Shuster sued Detective Comics, Inc. to have their contract annulled and regain their rights to Superman. The following year, the New York State Supreme Court ruled the publisher had validly purchased the rights to Superman when it bought the first Superman story, saying the duo had "transferred to Detective Comics, Inc., all of their rights in and to the comic strip Superman, including the title, names, characters and conception..."


title: Joe Shuster

text: A subsequent interlocutory judgment found that rights to Superboy, however, belonged to Siegel. Detective Comics Inc. subsequently paid Siegel and Shuster $94,000 for the rights to Superboy and the duo's written agreement acknowledging the rights to Superman belonged to the publisher.


title: Joe Shuster

text: In 1947, the team rejoined editor Sullivan, by then the founder and publisher of the comic-book company Magazine Enterprises where they created the short-lived comical crime-fighter Funnyman. Shuster continued to draw comics after the failure of "Funnyman", although exactly what he drew is uncertain. Comic historian Ted White wrote that Shuster continued to draw horror stories into the 1950s.


title: Joe Shuster

text: Shuster was also the anonymous illustrator for "Nights of Horror", an underground sadomasochistic fetish paperback book series. In 1954, "Nights of Horror" garnered controversy because of its involvement in the trial of the Brooklyn Thrill Killers, where it was alleged by psychiatric expert and anti-comics crusader Fredric Wertham that the gang's leader had read the books and that they were responsible for his crimes. The "Nights of Horror" series was seized and banned in the State of New York, and the case eventually went to the Supreme Court. However, the books' artist was never identified at the time. In 2004, Gerard Jones revealed that Shuster had drawn the books. The claim was backed in 2009 by comics historian Craig Yoe. This was based on character similarities, and comparison of the artistic style between the illustrations and those of the cast of the Superman comics.


title: Joe Shuster

text: In 1964, when Shuster was living on Long Island with his elderly mother, he was reported to be earning his living as a freelance cartoonist; he was also "trying to paint pop art—serious comic strips—and hope[d] eventually to promote a one-man show in some chic Manhattan gallery". At one point, his worsening eyesight prevented him from drawing, and he worked as a deliveryman in order to earn a living. Jerry Robinson claimed Shuster had delivered a package to the DC building, embarrassing the employees. He was summoned to the CEO, given one hundred dollars, and told to buy a new coat and find another job.


title: Joe Shuster

text: In 1967, when the Superman copyright came up for renewal, Siegel launched a second lawsuit, which also proved unsuccessful.


title: Joe Shuster

text: In 1975, Siegel launched a publicity campaign, in which Shuster participated, protesting DC Comics' treatment of him and Shuster. The Association of American Editorial Cartoonists' president, Jerry Robinson, was involved in the campaign along, with comic-book artist Neal Adams. By 1976, Shuster was almost blind and living in a California nursing home. Due to a great deal of negative publicity over their handling of the affair, and the upcoming "Superman" movie, DC's parent company Warner Communications reinstated the byline dropped more than thirty years earlier and granted the pair a lifetime pension of $20,000 a year, later increased to $30,000, plus health benefits. The first issue with the restored credit was "Superman" #302 (Aug. 1976).


title: Joe Shuster

text: Although Shuster was now supported by a lifetime stipend from DC Comics, he fell into debt—close to $20,000 by the time of his death. After he died, DC Comics agreed to pay off his unpaid debts in exchange for an agreement from his heirs to not challenge ownership over Superman.


title: Joe Shuster

text: Shuster died on July 30, 1992, at his West Los Angeles home of congestive heart failure and hypertension. He was 78.


title: Kaiserslautern

text: Kaiserslautern (; Palatinate German: "Lautre") is a city in southwest Germany, located in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate at the edge of the Palatinate Forest. The historic centre dates to the 9th century. It is from Paris, from Frankfurt am Main, 666 kilometers (414 miles) from Berlin, and from Luxembourg.


title: Kaiserslautern

text: Kaiserslautern is home to about 100,000 people. Additionally, approximately 45,000 NATO military personnel are based in the city and its surrounding district ("Landkreis Kaiserslautern"), contributing approximately US$1 billion annually to the local economy.


title: Kaiserslautern

text: Prehistoric settlement in the area of what is now Kaiserslautern has been traced to at least 800 BC. Some 2,500-year-old Celtic tombs were uncovered at Miesau, a town about west of Kaiserslautern. The recovered relics are now in the Museum for Palatinate History at Speyer.


title: Kaiserslautern

text: Kaiserslautern received its name from the favourite hunting retreat of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa who ruled the Holy Roman Empire from 1155 until 1190. The small river Lauter made the old section of Kaiserslautern an island in medieval times. Ruins of Frederick's original castle, built 1152–1160, can still be seen in front of the "Rathaus" (city hall). A second castle, Nanstein Castle, was built at Landstuhl to guard the western approach to the city. Barbarossa's influence on Kaiserslautern remains today, both in its nickname as a "Barbarossa city" and the open-mouthed pike on the city's coat of arms, reportedly his favorite dish.


title: Kaiserslautern

text: The "Stiftkirche", Kaiserslautern's oldest church, was constructed in 1250–1350. As the population of Kaiserslautern grew, King Rudolf von Habsburg chartered the town an imperial city in 1276. St. Martin's Kirche (church) was built from 1300–1350 for an order of monks. Today a section of the original city wall still stands in the courtyard of the church.


title: Kaiserslautern

text: By 1375, the city of Kaiserslautern was pledged to Electoral Palatinate and therefore became subsequently part of the Wittelsbach inheritance.


title: Kaiserslautern

text: In 1519, Franz von Sickingen became the owner of Nanstein Castle. He became a Protestant, and in 1522 Nanstein was a stronghold for local nobles favouring the Reformation. Sickingen and the local nobles began their battle against the Archbishop of Trier; but the attack was unsuccessful, and they retreated to Nanstein. Nanstein was then besieged by cannon-armed German Catholic princes. Sickingen died after the castle surrendered, and the Protestant nobility of the Electoral Palatinate were subdued by the Catholic princes.


title: Kaiserslautern

text: Count of the Electoral Palatinate Johann Casimir, came to Kaiserslautern during the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648). Spanish occupation in 1621–1632 ended when Protestant Swedish armies liberated the area. The city would fall to invading forces again in an especially violent incident in 1635. Croatian troops within the Austrian emperor's army plundered the city, killing 3,000 of its 3,200 residents. It would not be repopulated for about another 160 years.


title: Kaiserslautern

text: Conflict did not end with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. The Elector of the Pfalz had difficulty with many of his subjects and ordered all castles, including Nanstein, destroyed. The French repeatedly invaded and occupied the area, residing in Kaiserslautern in 1686–1697. Nevertheless, after the treaty of Utrecht it was restored to be part of the Palatinate. During the unquiet episodes in the 18th century, the Palatinate was the scene of fighting between French and German troops of different states. In 1713, the French destroyed Barbarossa's castle and the city's wall towers. From 1793 until Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo in 1815, the area was under French administration.


title: Kaiserslautern

text: As French power declined after 1815, Kaiserslautern and the Palatinate became a Bavarian province and remained so until 1918. After World War I, French troops again occupied the Palatinate for several years.


title: Kaiserslautern

text: In World War II, Allied bombing destroyed more than 85% of Kaiserslautern. The railway and several main roads were primary targets, with the heaviest attacks occurring on 7 January, 11 August, and 28 September 1944. On 20 March 1945, as the last of the 1st Army crossed the Rhine at Remagen, the U.S. 80th Division, 319th Infantry, part of the 3rd US Army, seized Kaiserslautern without resistance.


title: Kaiserslautern

text: The city became part of the French occupation zone after the Second World War. The establishment of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate was ordered on 30 August 1946 as the last state in the western occupation zones by ordinance No. 57 of the French military government under General Marie-Pierre Kœnig. Little reconstruction took place until the currency reform of 1948. The pace of the economy remained slow until 1952, when construction for newly established garrisons of American troops brought economic growth to the area.


title: Kaiserslautern

text: Unexploded ordnance from WWII continues to be discovered in and around Kaiserslautern. In May 2012 an unexploded Allied bomb was found, buried deeply and reportedly covered by water pipe, during a construction project in the downtown area of the city. On 5 September 2013, another WWII bomb was found during construction near the train station in Enkenbach-Alsenborn.


title: Kaiserslautern

text: In the late 1940s, Kaiserslautern area became the largest U.S. garrison outside the United States (Kaiserslautern Military Community).


title: Kaiserslautern

text: On 14 November 1956, a U.S. Air Force F-86 fighter jet crashed into the district office in the Burgstrasse / Maxstrasse area. In addition to the pilot, two civilians were killed, and numerous wounded.


title: Kaiserslautern

text: With the incorporation of the previously independent communities of Dansenberg, Erfenbach, Erlenbach, Hohenecken, Mölschbach, Morlautern and Siegelbach on 7 June 1969, Kaiserslautern became a city. The University of Kaiserslautern was founded in 1970.


title: Kaiserslautern

text: Industry flourished around the time of the first oil crisis (1973). In the 1970s, many industrial companies went through a crisis. In 1981, the spinning mill went bankrupt; Pfaff and Opel fired employees. The downsizing of the American garrison and the withdrawal of the French garrison cost more jobs.


title: Kaiserslautern

text: Kaiserslautern has a moderate climate with adequate rainfall year-round. It is classified as a "" (Marine West Coast Climate/Oceanic climate) by the Köppen Climate Classification system.


title: Kaiserslautern

text: Modern-day Kaiserslautern is a centre of information and communications technology, home to a well-known university, a technical college and many international research institutes located throughout the city. Kaiserslautern is a popular destination for tourists, offering a range of attractions, and sites for tourists to visit.


title: Kaiserslautern

text: Town Hall Kaiserslautern is one of the tallest buildings and is located in the city centre. The bar and coffee shop on the top floor provides a panoramic view of the city and surrounding countryside.


title: Kaiserslautern

text: The tallest building in the centre of Kaiserslautern is St. Mary's, a Roman Catholic church, whilst the highest structure in all Kaiserslautern is the television tower in the suburb of Dansenberg, southwest of the city centre.


title: Kaiserslautern

text: Kaiserslautern's large botanical gardens feature a Japanese-style garden. Another unusual feature is the Waschmühle (also known as "Wesch"), an enormous public swimming pool that is the largest in Europe. There are several pedestrian-only shopping zones with numerous and varied restaurants and bars located in the city centre surrounding the old city ("Altstadt"). In the Altstadt you will find the "Kaiserbrunnen", a large ornamental fountain with symbols of the city's history such as a sewing machine, as produced by the Pfaff company in the city, a football representing the city's football club and various animals that children can climb.


title: Kaiserslautern

text: Kaiserslautern has a diverse culinary sector, offering visitors the chance to sample dishes from across the world.


title: Kaiserslautern

text: Kaiserslautern is located in one of the largest contiguous forested areas in Central Europe, the Palatinate Forest, which offers numerous hiking trails and lakes to visitors.


title: Kaiserslautern

text: Local theatre Pfalztheater employs more than 300 people and features plays, operas, ballets, concerts, and musicals. The first German performance of "West Side Story" took place there. As the arts in Germany are significantly subsidized by the government, its ticket prices are reasonably low. Pfalztheater Kaiserslautern hosts the Else-Lasker-Schüler-Preis awards for German literature.


title: Kaiserslautern

text: The Kammgarn is classified as a historical site. It served as a spinning factory before being transformed into the cultural heart of Kaiserslautern. This renovation has preserved its historical character while incorporating the latest sound and lighting technologies. The Kammgarn stands among the top venues in Germany and serves as a first-call club for rising groups and performers as well as established jazz, rock, blues and pop artists in Europe. Performances have included international stars B.B. King, Manfred Mann's Earth Band, Pat Metheny, Uriah Heep and Jan Garbarek.


title: Kaiserslautern

text: Better known as the 'Dino Park' because of its lifesize dinosaur models, the Gartenschau is open from April through October and is popular with families. Having begun as a series of botanical displays and enjoying success at the first State Garden Exhibition of Rhineland-Palatinate in Kaiserslautern in 2000, this park has been transformed into one of the most multi-dimensional cultural centres in Germany.


title: Kaiserslautern

text: The "Fritz-Walter-Stadion" is a football stadium that accommodates 48,500 fans. In June 2006, after renovation, the stadium was one of 12 to host the 2006 FIFA World Cup. It is also home to 1. FC Kaiserslautern, which won the Bundesliga four times and the wheelchair basketball team FCK Rolling Devils.


title: Kaiserslautern

text: The Kaiserslautern Zoo was founded in 1968 and is located in Kaiserslautern's Siegelbach neighbourhood. It is home to many different animals including some nearly extinct regional species.


title: Kaiserslautern

text: Kaiserslautern has a broad-based commercial economy. Among the big companies located in the city are:


title: Kaiserslautern

text: The largest church is St. Mary's ("Marienkirche"), a Roman Catholic church. There is also the historic Protestant Church of the Apostle ("Apostelkirche"). At the heart of the city is the large and old "Stiftskirche" (also Protestant). All three have large pipe organs and occasionally host concerts.


title: Kaiserslautern

text: In Kaiserslautern there is an Islamic Centre for the Muslim communities situated at the center of the city. The Ditib Fatih Camii is a Turkish mosque in Kaiserslautern. There is also a university mosque at the University of Kaiserslautern. There is a total 3 mosques in Kaiserslautern.


title: Kaiserslautern

text: The city was once the site of the magnificent Moorish Revival Kaiserslautern synagogue. Built in 1886, the synagogue's great dome could be seen from across the city skyline. The Nazi government forcibly demolished the synagogue on 31 August 1938. The reason provided for the synagogue’s demolition was to create a route for a Nazi parade, but the event served as an example of the Nazis’ underlying intentions including ethnic cleansing in The Holocaust, even a few months before the Kristallnacht. A memorial archway was constructed at the site in 2002.


title: Kaiserslautern

text: Between 1950 and 1955, Kaiserslautern developed into the largest US military community outside of the United States. For this reason Kaiserslautern is also referred to as "K-town"; a term coined by the early American military population who had difficulty pronouncing the name. The Kaiserslautern Military Community (KMC) is a combined community consisting of Army and Air Force components. The KMC consists of Army facilities at Kleber 32nd Air Defense HQ and Signal Core, Panzer, Dänner-Kaserne, Landstuhl, Miesau, Einsiedlerhof, Pirmasens, Sembach, Rhine Ordnance Barracks and Pulaski Barracks along with Air Force facilities located at Ramstein Air Base, Vogelweh, and Kapaun Air Station.


title: Constantin Film

text: The Constantin Film AG is a German mini-major film production and distribution company based in Munich. The company, which belongs to Swiss media conglomerate Highlight Communications AG, is a large independent German maker and distributor of productions in the entire field of audio-visual fiction and non-fiction. Company activity is based on the five pillars of film production/procurement of rights, TV production, film distribution, home entertainment and licence trading/TV exploitation. Constantin Film AG has released 36 of the 100 most successful German films of the last 20 years, including four of the Top 5: "Manitou's Shoe" (11.7 million viewers), "Traumschiff Surprise – Periode 1" (9 million), "Fack ju Göhte" (7.3 million) and "Fack ju Göhte 2" (7.7 million). The "Fack ju Göhte" trilogy was concluded in 2017 with "Fack ju Göhte 3" (6 million viewers) and is now the most successful German film series of all time. Internationally, Constantin Film is best known for the successful "Resident Evil" film franchise, which has earned worldwide to date and is also known as the highest-grossing film series based on a video game. Most recent successes include TV series "Shadowhunters", which won four People's Choice Awards in 2018, and the live action Resident Evil. Constantin has also been involved in 20th Century Fox's "Fantastic Four" film franchise. Other productions include bestseller adaption "The Silence" and "Monster Hunter".


title: Constantin Film

text: "Constantin Filmverleih GmbH" was founded in West Germany on 1 April 1950 by Preben Philipsen and Waldfried Barthel, who would later become the head of publicity for the company. It was originally the country's national distributor of films produced by Columbia Pictures and United Artists. Throughout the 1950s, Constantin distributed both popular and art-house films from several nations as well as medium-budgeted domestic films.


title: Constantin Film

text: Constantin's popularity grew through the late 1950s to the 1960s by not only distributing popular films but creating its own in-house talent roster of contract players (Joachim Fuchsberger, Heinz Drache), directors and producers (Wolf C. Hartwig), as well as co-financing international co-production films shot in Italy, such as the Clint Eastwood spaghetti westerns, the films of Harry Alan Towers and others using their own stable of stars. Constantin also had great success with their Jerry Cotton film series, though projected film series of Sherlock Holmes, Jules Maigret and Perry Rhodan only had one entry.


title: Constantin Film

text: Constantin Filmverleih was renamed to "Constantin Film GmbH" on 21 September 1964, and on 1 July 1965, Bertelsmann Publishing became the majority shareholder of Constantin. They attempted to increase output without increasing investment that resulted in the demise of many of the studio's popular film series, investment in sex films, and a stronger emphasis on releasing films from other nations rather than shooting their own. Bertelsmann sold its shares in 1969. The "old" Constantin Film GmbH was eventually declared bankrupt in October 1977.


title: Constantin Film

text: Founded in 1979 by Bernd Eichinger, with Bernd Schaefers, as "Neue Constantin Film" after acquiring the assets of the bankrupt "old" Constantin Film GmbH the previous year, Constantin Film developed into the first German film distributor with its own production company in just six years, with production activities extending to the international market. In 1986, the Kirch Group (at the time Europe's biggest film and TV license traders) acquired a minority stake in Neue Constantin Film. Eichinger retained one of the company's leading executives and a major shareholder to his death in 2011.


title: Constantin Film

text: In the following years, Constantin Film fixed its position on the international movie market by establishing various production subsidiaries across Europe in 1996. At the end of the 1990s, Constantin Film acquired majority stakes in the film production companies Olga Film GmbH, Engram Pictures and MOOVIE GmbH. In September 1999, the company then went public on the German stock market as "Constantin Film AG". Deutsche Börse placed the Constantin Film share on the selection index Nemax 50 in March 2000.


title: Constantin Film

text: Constantin Film AG founded Rat Pack Filmproduktion GmbH with producer Christian Becker and his team in 2001. The Swiss Highlight Communications AG (a strategy and finance holding with the operative segments of film and sports and event marketing) acquired 23 percent of the capital stock of Constantin Film AG from Kirch Beteiligungs GmbH und Co. KG and from diversified holdings for the first time in 2002. In 2003, the board of Constantin Film AG embarked on a new strategic path for the company: the traditional business areas of production and distribution were expanded to include the three areas of license trading, home entertainment exploitation and increased TV service production (especially TV entertainment). Constantin Film AG also acquired 61 percent of the shares in KirchMedia Entertainment GmbH (now renamed Constantin Entertainment GmbH), one of the market leaders in German show and entertainment production. The stake was increased to 100 percent in 2005.


title: Constantin Film

text: At the end of 2009, the listing of Constantin Film AG expired; all the shares were transferred to Highlight Communications after a squeeze-out. As of 7 October 2009, Constantin Film is no longer listed at the Frankfurter Börse.


title: Constantin Film

text: Since January 2017 Bernhard Burgener is chairman of the supervisory board, with Martin Moszkowicz as chairman of the executive board. In this capacity, Moszkowicz is responsible for the company's film business, including worldwide production and distribution, world sales, marketing and publicity as well as corporate communication and legal affairs.


title: Constantin Film

text: Oliver Berben has joined the Constantin Film AG Managing Board on 1 January 2017. The newly created division “TV, Entertainment and Digital Media” concentrates the development and manufacture of all national and international productions of the company that are not intended for cinema exploitation. Oliver Berben founded the MOOVIE GmbH in 1996, which became a subsidiary of Constantin Film AG in 1999. In January 2019, Oliver Berben also assumed the position of Managing Director "Production" of Constantin Film Production GmbH. Oliver Berben will continue his work as a producer.


title: Constantin Film

text: The most successful license titles and internal or co-productions in Germany include (in terms of numbers of viewers) "The Never Ending Story" (approx. 5 million), "The Name of the Rose" (5.9 million), "The House of the Spirits" (nearly 4 million), "Dances With Wolves" (nearly 6.8 million), "Seven" (more than 2.8 million), "The Sixth Sense" (more than 4 million), "Maybe... Maybe Not" (more than 6.6 million), "Werner – Beinhart!" (more than 4.9 million), ' (more than 3.2 million), ' (more than 2.4 million), "Asterix & Obelix vs. Caesar" (nearly 3.6 million), "Werner – Volles Rooäää!!!" (nearly 2.8 million), "American Pie" (more than 6 million viewers, the biggest film of 2000), "Downfall" (more than 4.6 million viewers. Oscar-nominated), "" (nearly 5.6 million), "The Baader-Meinhof Complex" (more than 2.4 million), "Manitou's Shoe" (the second-most successful German film ever with more than 11.7 million viewers), "Dreamship Surprise – Period 1" (9 million), "Lissi and the Wild Emperor" (more than 2.2 million), "Vicky the Viking" (nearly 5 million), "Nowhere in Africa" (1.66 million viewers. Oscar winner for "Best Foreign Language Film" in 2003), "The Wave" (more than 2.5 Mio), "Hui Buh" (more than 2 million), "The White Massai" (more than 2.2. million), ' (1.8 million), "Horst Schlämmer – Isch kandidiere!" (1.35 million), ' (1.3 million), "Pope Joan" (2.3 million), the "Wild Chicks" series (3.2 million), "Girls on Top" (nearly 1.8 million), "" (2.4 million), "Suck me Shakespeer" (7.3 million) and the international self-production "Resident Evil" (3.6 million viewers), which developed into a successful international franchise.


title: Constantin Film

text: In October 2021, the Writers Guild of America West advised its members not to work for the company due it not being a signatory to the 2020 Minimum Basic Agreement. However, the company hit back stating that it “has paid, and the WGA Plan has accepted, all WGA fringe payments.”


title: Time in Arizona

text: Time in Arizona, as in all U.S. states, is regulated by the United States Department of Transportation as well as by state and tribal law.


title: Time in Arizona

text: All of Arizona is in the Mountain Time Zone. Since 1968, most of the state—with exceptions noted below—does not observe daylight saving time and remains on Mountain Standard Time (MST) all year. This results in most of Arizona having the same time as neighboring California each year from March to November, when locations in the Pacific Time Zone observe daylight saving time.


title: Time in Arizona

text: Unlike most of the United States, Arizona does not observe daylight saving time (DST), with the exception of the Navajo Nation, which does observe DST. The Hopi Reservation, which is not part of the Navajo Nation but is geographically surrounded by it, also does not observe DST. For this reason, driving the length of Arizona State Route 264 east from Tuba City while DST is in place involves six time zone changes in less than .


title: Time in Arizona

text: Because of Arizona's hot climate, DST is largely considered unnecessary. The argument against extending the daylight hours into the evening is that people prefer to do their activities in the cooler morning temperatures.


title: Time in Arizona

text: The Navajo Nation, a semi-autonomous Native American territory, follows the United States DST schedule. It lies in northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, and southeastern Utah and thus maintains the same time throughout tribal lands despite state borders.


title: Time in Arizona

text: On March 21, 1968, the Arizona legislature passed the final version of SB 1, placing Arizona under standard time. The bill had been working its way through the legislature since January of that year, and was sponsored by state Senators Tenney, Goetze, Porter, Halacy, Garfield, Campbell, Lewis, Gregovich, Giss, Crowley, and Holsclaw. It passed the Senate 25–3–2, and afterwards the bill was passed by the House 49–1–10. It was approved by Governor Jack Williams the same day.


title: Time in Arizona

text: When daylight saving is not active, the time in Phoenix and Albuquerque, New Mexico is the same (Mountain Standard Time), and both are one hour ahead of Los Angeles, California (Pacific Standard Time).


title: Time in Arizona

text: When daylight saving is active, the time in Phoenix (Mountain Standard Time) and Los Angeles (Pacific Daylight Time) is the same, and both are one hour behind Albuquerque (Mountain Daylight Time).


title: Turn Down for What

text: "Turn Down for What" is a song by French DJ and record producer DJ Snake and American rapper Lil Jon released on December 18, 2013. The song and its viral music video popularized the use of the phrase. The song was particularly successful in North America where it has earned six platinum certifications in both the United States and Canada.


title: Turn Down for What

text: Lil Jon and DJ Snake had met several years prior to recording the song. In December 2013, "Turn Down for What" was premiered on Columbia Records website and released via iTunes shortly after. In an interview about the song, DJ Snake said, Lil Jon said in an interview,


title: Turn Down for What

text: "Turn Down for What" contains the lyrics of Lil Jon rapping "Fire up that loud, another round of shots" and "Turn down for what" throughout the song. It also contains bass and trap music elements that are original to Atlanta, GA, Lil Jon's hometown. "Turn Down for What" is written in the E Phrygian mode and is set in common time at a moderate tempo of 100 beats per minute.


title: Turn Down for What

text: "Turn Down for What" entered the top 10 on "Billboard"s Dance/Electronic chart during the last week of December. In January 2014, the single entered the top 5 on the Dance/Electronic chart and debuted at No. 38 on the "Billboard" Hot 100. It peaked at number 4 on the chart, becoming DJ Snake's first and Lil Jon's ninth top ten, and was certified gold in February 2014. It reached its first million copies sold in the U.S. in March 2014. The song reached its 3 million sales mark in July 2014. It became the seventh best-selling song of 2014 in the US with 3,449,000 copies sold for the year.


title: Turn Down for What

text: "Turn Down for What" received generally positive reviews from music critics and publications. "Rolling Stone" voted "Turn Down For What" as the second best song of the year 2014, saying, "The year's nutsiest party jam was also the perfect protest banger for a generation fed up with everything. DJ Snake brings the synapse-rattling EDM and Southern trap music; Lil Jon brings the dragon-fire holler for a hilarious, glorious, glowstick-punk fuck you." In January 2015, "Turn Down for What" was ranked at No. 9, tied with Beyoncés "Flawless", on "The Village Voice"s annual year-end Pazz & Jop critics' poll.


title: Turn Down for What

text: An accompanying music video for "Turn Down for What" was directed by the filmmaking duo Daniels, composed of Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, and released on March 13, 2014. The clip stars co-director Daniel Kwan with Sunita Mani. He explained: "For a while Daniel and I had been wanting to explore male sexuality in a really weird way. For some reason our brains came up with this image, and this other universe where dudes are so pumped up on their own dicks—and they're so into their testosterone—that the way that they show that is by breaking shit with their dicks. So, whatever happens, that would just be a funny logical progression."


title: Turn Down for What

text: Jason Newman of "Rolling Stone" described the video as "perfect insanity" and added, "It's hard to pinpoint specifically what makes the video for DJ Snake and Lil Jon's 'Turn Down for What' so compelling and ripe for repeat viewings." Edwin Ortiz of "Complex" called it "incredibly absurd and awesome" and wrote, "The hard-hitting EDM record delivers an undeniable vibe that listeners can't help but mosh out to, and that's clearly evident in the accompanying music video." Writing for Idolator, Robbie Daw said the video "takes things to a whole new level of WTF-ness not quite seen before."


title: Turn Down for What

text: On April 26, 2014, the official remix featuring Juicy J, 2 Chainz and French Montana was released, followed by the second official remix on April 28, 2014, titled the Dancehall Remix, featuring Chi Ching Ching, Assassin and Konshens, and a third release on May 7, 2014, titled "Turn Down for What (Lil Jon Remix)", featuring Pitbull and Ludacris.


title: Turn Down for What

text: The music video won Video of The Year and Best Dance Video-International at UK Music Video Awards held in London. It also received 3 additional nominations.


title: Turn Down for What

text: The music video won "Best Direction" at the 2014MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) held in Inglewood. It also received 3 additional nominations including "MTV Clubland Award", "Best Visual Effects" and "Best Art Direction".


title: Turn Down for What

text: The song was nominated for out of its genre for "Choice Music: R&B/Hip-Hop Song" at the 2014 Teen Choice Awards held in Los Angeles.


title: Turn Down for What

text: The song won a Billboard Music Award for Top Dance/Electronic Song at the 2015 Billboard Music Awards held in Vegas and the music video won the "Clio Bronze in Film and Music" at the 2015 Clio Awards.


title: Turn Down for What

text: "Turn Down for What" has been featured in various films, commercials and television programs. Uses include a TV commercial for Sol Republic, to introduce a wireless speaker, which aired in October 2013. The song was used in the films "22 Jump Street", briefly, "Furious 7" and "The Angry Birds Movie 2", and in the trailers for "Horrible Bosses 2" and "Brick Mansions". The song was also used in a TV spot for the 2019 film, "Pokémon Detective Pikachu". In May 2014, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Rogen and Zac Efron danced dressed as girls to the song during an episode of "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon". In July 2014, Robin Wright also danced to the song during an appearance on "The Tonight Show".


title: Turn Down for What

text: In October 2014, Lil Jon and various other celebrities appeared in an online video that featured a remix of the song, renamed to "Turn Out for What", that was organized by Rock the Vote and intended to encourage young people to vote in the upcoming elections.


title: Turn Down for What

text: On October 15, 2014, Michelle Obama posted a video clip of herself dancing to "Turn Down For What" while holding a turnip as a Vine response to US comedian and impressionist Iman Crosson's post hashtagged #AskTheFirstLady. In Alphacat's original post Michelle Obama was asked, "On average how many calories do you burn every time you 'turn up'?!" Her response was "Turnip for what?" The Vine was posted as part of a Q&A organized by the First Lady's office to promote her Let's Move! healthy lifestyle campaign.


title: Turn Down for What

text: In December 2014, a portion of the song was used in an AT&T Wireless commercial announcing the "completion" of their network export's goal of providing improved LTE connectivity.


title: Turn Down for What

text: In March 2015, Disney Channel used the song in a promo for the "Tune in 4 What?" 4 night event, which promoted new episodes of "Liv and Maddie", "Dog With a Blog", "Jessie", "Austin & Ally", "I Didn't Do It", "Girl Meets World", and "K.C. Undercover".


title: Turn Down for What

text: In April 2017, the song was featured in a "Saturday Night Live" commercial parody called "Turtle Shirt".


title: Turn Down for What

text: In November 2017, "Turn Down For What?" was the title of a research paper in the American Journal of Transplantation written by Mary Grace Bowring, Dorry Segev, and colleagues, about the decision to turn down offers of certain deceased donor kidneys for transplantation.


title: Turn Down for What

text: The song was featured during a montage of an episode from the HBO Max animated sitcom, "Close Enough".


title: Turn Down for What

text: In 2021, "Turn Down for What" was used as the soundtrack in a series of TV commercials for British Gas which focused on sustainability.


title: Copernican heliocentrism

text: Copernican heliocentrism is the astronomical model developed by Nicolaus Copernicus and published in 1543. This model positioned the Sun at the center of the Universe, motionless, with Earth and the other planets orbiting around it in circular paths, modified by epicycles, and at uniform speeds. The Copernican model displaced the geocentric model of Ptolemy that had prevailed for centuries, which had placed Earth at the center of the Universe.


title: Copernican heliocentrism

text: Although he had circulated an outline of his own heliocentric theory to colleagues sometime before 1514, he did not decide to publish it until he was urged to do so later by his pupil Rheticus. Copernicus's challenge was to present a practical alternative to the Ptolemaic model by more elegantly and accurately determining the length of a solar year while preserving the metaphysical implications of a mathematically ordered cosmos. Thus, his heliocentric model retained several of the Ptolemaic elements, causing inaccuracies, such as the planets' circular orbits, epicycles, and uniform speeds, while at the same time using ideas such as:


title: Copernican heliocentrism

text: Philolaus (4th century BCE) was one of the first to hypothesize "movement of the Earth", probably inspired by Pythagoras' theories about a spherical, moving globe. In the 3rd century BCE, Aristarchus of Samos proposed what was, so far as is known, the first serious model of a heliocentric Solar System, having developed some of Heraclides Ponticus' theories (speaking of a "revolution of the Earth on its axis" every 24 hours). Though his original text has been lost, a reference in Archimedes' book "The Sand Reckoner" ("Archimedis Syracusani Arenarius & Dimensio Circuli") describes a work in which Aristarchus advanced the heliocentric model. Archimedes wrote:


title: Copernican heliocentrism

text: It is a common misconception that the heliocentric view was rejected by the contemporaries of Aristarchus. This is the result of Gilles Ménage's translation of a passage from Plutarch's "On the Apparent Face in the Orb of the Moon". Plutarch reported that Cleanthes (a contemporary of Aristarchus and head of the Stoics) as a worshiper of the Sun and opponent to the heliocentric model, was jokingly told by Aristarchus that he should be charged with impiety. Ménage, shortly after the trials of Galileo and Giordano Bruno, amended an accusative (identifying the object of the verb) with a nominative (the subject of the sentence), and vice versa, so that the impiety accusation fell over the heliocentric sustainer. The resulting misconception of an isolated and persecuted Aristarchus is still transmitted today.


title: Copernican heliocentrism

text: In 499 CE, the Indian astronomer and mathematician Aryabhata propounded a planetary model that explicitly incorporated Earth's rotation about its axis, which he explains as the cause of what appears to be an apparent westward motion of the stars. He also believed that the orbits of planets are elliptical. Aryabhata's followers were particularly strong in South India, where his principles of the diurnal rotation of Earth, among others, were followed and a number of secondary works were based on them.


title: Copernican heliocentrism

text: Several Islamic astronomers questioned the Earth's apparent immobility and centrality within the universe. Some accepted that the Earth rotates around its axis, such as Abu Sa'id al-Sijzi, who invented an astrolabe based on a belief held by some of his contemporaries "that the motion we see is due to the Earth's movement and not to that of the sky". That others besides al-Sijzi held this view is further confirmed by a reference from an Arabic work in the 13th century which states: "According to the geometers [or engineers] ("muhandisīn"), the earth is in constant circular motion, and what appears to be the motion of the heavens is actually due to the motion of the earth and not the stars".


title: Copernican heliocentrism

text: In the 12th century, Nur ad-Din al-Bitruji proposed a complete alternative to the Ptolemaic system (although not heliocentric). He declared the Ptolemaic system as an imaginary model, successful at predicting planetary positions but not real or physical. Al-Btiruji's alternative system spread through most of Europe during the 13th century. Mathematical techniques developed in the 13th to 14th centuries by the Arab and Persian astronomers Mo'ayyeduddin al-Urdi, Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, and Ibn al-Shatir for geocentric models of planetary motions closely resemble some of the techniques used later by Copernicus in his heliocentric models.


title: Copernican heliocentrism

text: The prevailing astronomical model of the cosmos in Europe in the 1,400 years leading up to the 16th century was the Ptolemaic System, a geocentric model created by the Roman citizen Claudius Ptolemy in his "Almagest," dating from about 150 CE. Throughout the Middle Ages it was spoken of as the authoritative text on astronomy, although its author remained a little understood figure frequently mistaken as one of the Ptolemaic rulers of Egypt. The Ptolemaic system drew on many previous theories that viewed Earth as a stationary center of the universe. Stars were embedded in a large outer sphere which rotated relatively rapidly, while the planets dwelt in smaller spheres between—a separate one for each planet. To account for apparent anomalies in this view, such as the apparent retrograde motion of the planets, a system of deferents and epicycles was used. The planet was said to revolve in a small circle (the epicycle) about a center, which itself revolved in a larger circle (the deferent) about a center on or near the Earth.


title: Copernican heliocentrism

text: A complementary theory to Ptolemy's employed homocentric spheres: the spheres within which the planets rotated could themselves rotate somewhat. This theory predated Ptolemy (it was first devised by Eudoxus of Cnidus; by the time of Copernicus it was associated with Averroes). Also popular with astronomers were variations such as eccentrics—by which the rotational axis was offset and not completely at the center. The planets were also made to have exhibit irregular motions that deviated from a uniform and circular path. The eccentrics of the planets motions were analyzed to have made reverse motions over periods of observations. This retrograde motion created the foundation for why these particular pathways became known as epicycles.


title: Copernican heliocentrism

text: Ptolemy's unique contribution to this theory was the equant—a point about which the center of a planet's epicycle moved with uniform angular velocity, but which was offset from the center of its deferent. This violated one of the fundamental principles of Aristotelian cosmology—namely, that the motions of the planets should be explained in terms of uniform circular motion, and was considered a serious defect by many medieval astronomers. In Copernicus' day, the most up-to-date version of the Ptolemaic system was that of Peurbach (1423–1461) and Regiomontanus (1436–1476).


title: Copernican heliocentrism

text: Since the 13th century, European scholars were well aware of problems with Ptolemaic astronomy. The debate was precipitated by the reception by Averroes' criticism of Ptolemy, and it was again revived by the recovery of Ptolemy's text and its translation into Latin in the mid-15th century. Otto E. Neugebauer in 1957 argued that the debate in 15th-century Latin scholarship must also have been informed by the criticism of Ptolemy produced after Averroes, by the Ilkhanid-era (13th to 14th centuries) Persian school of astronomy associated with the Maragheh observatory (especially the works of al-Urdi, al-Tusi and al-Shatir).


title: Copernican heliocentrism

text: The state of the question as received by Copernicus is summarized in the "Theoricae novae planetarum" by Georg von Peuerbach, compiled from lecture notes by Peuerbach's student Regiomontanus in 1454, but not printed until 1472. Peuerbach attempts to give a new, mathematically more elegant presentation of Ptolemy's system, but he does not arrive at heliocentrism. Regiomontanus was the teacher of Domenico Maria Novara da Ferrara, who was in turn the teacher of Copernicus. There is a possibility that Regiomontanus already arrived at a theory of heliocentrism before his death in 1476, as he paid particular attention to the heliocentric theory of Aristarchus in a late work and mentions the "motion of the Earth" in a letter.


title: Copernican heliocentrism

text: Copernicus' major work, "De revolutionibus orbium coelestium" - "On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres" (first edition 1543 in Nuremberg, second edition 1566 in Basel), was a compendium of six books published during the year of his death, though he had arrived at his theory several decades earlier. The work marks the beginning of the shift away from a geocentric (and anthropocentric) universe with the Earth at its center. Copernicus held that the Earth is another planet revolving around the fixed Sun once a year and turning on its axis once a day. But while Copernicus put the Sun at the center of the celestial spheres, he did not put it at the exact center of the universe, but near it. Copernicus' system used only uniform circular motions, correcting what was seen by many as the chief inelegance in Ptolemy's system.


title: Copernican heliocentrism

text: The Copernican model replaced Ptolemy's equant circles with more epicycles. 1,500 years of Ptolemy's model help create a more accurate estimate of the planets motions for Copernicus. This is the main reason that Copernicus' system had even more epicycles than Ptolemy's. The more epicycles proved to have more accurate measurements of how the planets were truly positioned, "although not enough to get excited about". The Copernican system can be summarized in several propositions, as Copernicus himself did in his early "Commentariolus" that he handed only to friends, probably in the 1510s. The "little commentary" was never printed. Its existence was only known indirectly until a copy was discovered in Stockholm around 1880, and another in Vienna a few years later.


title: Copernican heliocentrism

text: Inspiration came to Copernicus not from observation of the planets, but from reading two authors, Cicero and Plutarch. In Cicero's writings, Copernicus found an account of the theory of Hicetas. Plutarch provided an account of the Pythagoreans Heraclides Ponticus, Philolaus, and Ecphantes. These authors had proposed a moving Earth, which did "not" revolve around a central Sun. Copernicus cited Aristarchus and Philolaus in an early manuscript of his book which survives, stating: "Philolaus believed in the mobility of the earth, and some even say that Aristarchus of Samos was of that opinion". For unknown reasons (although possibly out of reluctance to quote pre-Christian sources), Copernicus did not include this passage in the publication of his book.


title: Copernican heliocentrism

text: Copernicus used what is now known as the Urdi lemma and the Tusi couple in the same planetary models as found in Arabic sources. Furthermore, the exact replacement of the equant by two epicycles used by Copernicus in the "Commentariolus" was found in an earlier work by al-Shatir. Al-Shatir's lunar and Mercury models are also identical to those of Copernicus. This has led some scholars to argue that Copernicus must have had access to some yet to be identified work on the ideas of those earlier astronomers. However, no likely candidate for this conjectured work has come to light, and other scholars have argued that Copernicus could well have developed these ideas independently of the late Islamic tradition. Nevertheless, Copernicus cited some of the Islamic astronomers whose theories and observations he used in "De Revolutionibus", namely al-Battani, Thabit ibn Qurra, al-Zarqali, Averroes, and al-Bitruji.


title: Copernican heliocentrism

text: When Copernicus' compendium was published, it contained an unauthorized, anonymous preface by a friend of Copernicus, the Lutheran theologian Andreas Osiander. This cleric stated that Copernicus wrote his heliocentric account of the Earth's movement as a mathematical hypothesis, not as an account that contained truth or even probability. Since Copernicus' hypothesis was believed to contradict the Old Testament account of the Sun's movement around the Earth (Joshua 10:12-13), this was apparently written to soften any religious backlash against the book. However, there is no evidence that Copernicus himself considered the heliocentric model as merely mathematically convenient, separate from reality.


title: Copernican heliocentrism

text: Copernicus' actual compendium began with a letter from his (by then deceased) friend Nikolaus von Schönberg, Cardinal Archbishop of Capua, urging Copernicus to publish his theory. Then, in a lengthy introduction, Copernicus dedicated the book to Pope Paul III, explaining his ostensible motive in writing the book as relating to the inability of earlier astronomers to agree on an adequate theory of the planets, and noting that if his system increased the accuracy of astronomical predictions it would allow the Church to develop a more accurate calendar. At that time, a reform of the Julian Calendar was considered necessary and was one of the major reasons for the Church's interest in astronomy.


title: Copernican heliocentrism

text: From publication until about 1700, few astronomers were convinced by the Copernican system, though the work was relatively widely circulated (around 500 copies of the first and second editions have survived, which is a large number by the scientific standards of the time). Few of Copernicus' contemporaries were ready to concede that the Earth actually moved. Even forty-five years after the publication of "De Revolutionibus", the astronomer Tycho Brahe went so far as to construct a cosmology precisely equivalent to that of Copernicus, but with the Earth held fixed in the center of the celestial sphere instead of the Sun. It was another generation before a community of practicing astronomers appeared who accepted heliocentric cosmology.


title: Copernican heliocentrism

text: For his contemporaries, the ideas presented by Copernicus were not markedly easier to use than the geocentric theory and did not produce more accurate predictions of planetary positions. Copernicus was aware of this and could not present any observational "proof", relying instead on arguments about what would be a more complete and elegant system. The Copernican model appeared to be contrary to common sense and to contradict the Bible.


title: Copernican heliocentrism

text: Tycho Brahe's arguments against Copernicus are illustrative of the physical, theological, and even astronomical grounds on which heliocentric cosmology was rejected. Tycho, arguably the most accomplished astronomer of his time, appreciated the elegance of the Copernican system, but objected to the idea of a moving Earth on the basis of physics, astronomy, and religion. The Aristotelian physics of the time (modern Newtonian physics was still a century away) offered no physical explanation for the motion of a massive body like Earth, but could easily explain the motion of heavenly bodies by postulating that they were made of a different sort of substance called aether that moved naturally. So Tycho said that the Copernican system “... expertly and completely circumvents all that is superfluous or discordant in the system of Ptolemy. On no point does it offend the principle of mathematics. Yet it ascribes to the Earth, that hulking, lazy body, unfit for motion, a motion as quick as that of the aethereal torches, and a triple motion at that.” Thus many astronomers accepted some aspects of Copernicus's theory at the expense of others.


title: Copernican heliocentrism

text: The Copernican Revolution, a paradigm shift from the Ptolemaic model of the heavens, which described the cosmos as having Earth as a stationary body at the center of the universe, to the heliocentric model with the Sun at the center of the Solar System, spanned over a century, beginning with the publication of Copernus' "De revolutionibus orbium coelestium" and ending with the work of Isaac Newton. While not warmly received by his contemporaries, his model did have a large influence on later scientists such as Galileo and Johannes Kepler, who adopted, championed and (especially in Kepler's case) sought to improve it. However, in the years following publication of "de Revolutionibus", for leading astronomers such as Erasmus Reinhold, the key attraction of Copernicus's ideas was that they reinstated the idea of uniform circular motion for the planets.


title: Copernican heliocentrism

text: During the 17th century, several further discoveries eventually led to the wider acceptance of heliocentrism:


title: Copernican heliocentrism

text: From a modern point of view, the Copernican model has a number of advantages. Copernicus gave a clear account of the cause of the seasons: that the Earth's axis is not perpendicular to the plane of its orbit. In addition, Copernicus's theory provided a strikingly simple explanation for the apparent retrograde motions of the planets—namely as parallactic displacements resulting from the Earth's motion around the Sun—an important consideration in Johannes Kepler's conviction that the theory was substantially correct. In the heliocentric model the planets' apparent retrograde motions' occurring at opposition to the Sun are a natural consequence of their heliocentric orbits. In the geocentric model, however, these are explained by the ad hoc use of epicycles, whose revolutions are mysteriously tied to that of the Sun's.


title: Copernican heliocentrism

text: Whether Copernicus' propositions were "revolutionary" or "conservative" has been a topic of debate in the historiography of science. In his book "The Sleepwalkers: A History of Man's Changing Vision of the Universe" (1959), Arthur Koestler attempted to deconstruct the Copernican "revolution" by portraying Copernicus as a coward who was reluctant to publish his work due to a crippling fear of ridicule. Thomas Kuhn argued that Copernicus only transferred "some properties to the Sun's many astronomical functions previously attributed to the earth." Historians have since argued that Kuhn underestimated what was "revolutionary" about Copernicus' work, and emphasized the difficulty Copernicus would have had in putting forward a new astronomical theory relying alone on simplicity in geometry, given that he had no experimental evidence.


title: Jade Jones (singer)

text: Jade Jones (born 12 February 1979) is a British R&B singer turned chef. He is best known for being the lead singer of the band Damage. He was born to a Jamaican father and a British mother.


title: Jade Jones (singer)

text: After leaving Damage, Jones joined CherryBlackStone, which appeared on Channel 4's "Bo in the USA". In 2006, he participated in and went on to win the Channel 4 reality show "The Games".


title: Jade Jones (singer)

text: In 2014, Jones appeared with three of the original Damage members—Rahsaan J Bromfield, Andrez Harriott and Noel Simpson—in the second series of "The Big Reunion" on ITV2.


title: Jade Jones (singer)

text: Since 1998, he has been in an on/off relationship with Spice Girls singer Emma Bunton. The couple became engaged on 21 January 2011. The couple have two children, born on 10 August 2007, and born on 6 May 2011. Jones and Bunton married on 13 July 2021.


title: Conspiracy Theory (film)

text: Conspiracy Theory is a 1997 American political action thriller film directed by Richard Donner. The original screenplay by Brian Helgeland centers on an eccentric taxi driver (Mel Gibson) who believes many world events are triggered by government conspiracies, and the Justice Department attorney (Julia Roberts) who becomes involved in his life. The film was a financial success, but critical reviews were mixed.


title: Conspiracy Theory (film)

text: Conspiracy-theorist and New York City taxi driver Jerry Fletcher continually expounds his ideas to Alice Sutton, a lawyer at the Justice Department. She humors him because he once saved her from a mugging, but is unaware he spies on her at her home. Her own work is to solve the mystery of her father's murder. Seeing suspicious activity everywhere, Jerry identifies some men as CIA workers, follows them into a building, and is captured. The interrogator injects a wheelchair-bound Jerry with LSD and questions him using torture. Jerry experiences terrifying hallucinations and flashbacks, panics, and manages to escape by incapacitating the interrogator by biting his nose and kicking him.


title: Conspiracy Theory (film)

text: Later, after being captured again, Jerry is handcuffed to a hospital bed and forced into a drug-induced sleep. Alice visits, and Jerry persuades her to switch his chart with the criminal in the next bed or he will be dead by morning. When Alice returns the next day, the criminal is dead, allegedly from a heart attack. The CIA, FBI and other agencies are there, led by CIA psychiatrist Dr. Jonas, whose nose is bandaged. Meanwhile, Jerry fakes a heart attack and, with Alice's help, escapes again and later hides in Alice's car. While Alice and FBI Agent Lowry are examining Jerry's personal items, the CIA arrive and confiscate everything. She declines Lowry's offer to work with her, and later finds Jerry hiding in her car. They leave the hospital and, on the way to Jerry's apartment, Jerry explains someone is likely following her. On Jerry's instruction, Alice switches lanes and finds that that someone is Lowry, whom they manage to lose track of. They go inside Jerry's well secured apartment, where he tells her about the conspiracy newsletter he produces.


title: Conspiracy Theory (film)

text: Just when Alice has decided Jerry is crazy, a SWAT team breaks in. Jerry sets everything on fire and they leave through his elaborate secret trapdoor exit. In the room below, there is a large mural on the wall, which features both Alice on her horse and the triple smokestacks of the Ravenswood Generating Station. As Jerry's apartment is burning, Jerry and Alice escape, with Jerry disguised as a firefighter to avoid suspicion. The pair go to her apartment, where Jerry accidentally reveals he had been watching her. Upon hearing this, Alice kicks him out of her apartment. On the street below, Jerry confronts Lowry and his partner staking out her place, and he warns them at gunpoint not to hurt her. After being tracked to a bookstore, Jerry sees operatives rappelling down from black helicopters and hides in a theater, escaping by causing a panic by saying "Bomb!"


title: Conspiracy Theory (film)

text: Alice calls each person on Jerry's newsletter mailing list and finds that all have recently died, except one. Jerry uses a ruse to get her out of the office, and then immobilizes the operatives watching her. During their escape, he tells her that he fell in love with her at first sight, then flees on a subway train when she brushes off his feelings. She goes to see the last surviving person on the subscription list, and finds that it is Jonas. He tells her that Jerry was brainwashed using techniques developed by Dr. Jonas at Project MKUltra to become an assassin and was stolen by another party, which only Jerry can identify. He also claims that Jerry killed her father. She agrees to help find Jerry, who sends her a message to meet him. He ditches the agents following them with a pre-arranged car transfer, and he drives her to her father's private horse stables in Connecticut. Meanwhile, Alice secretly calls her office so that Jonas can track her phone. At the stables, Jerry remembers that he was sent to kill her father, but found that he could not and had become his friend instead. Jerry tells Alice that he had promised to watch over her before the judge was killed by another assassin. Jonas' men capture Jerry, kill her hierarchical superior and attempt to kill or capture her without success.


title: Conspiracy Theory (film)

text: Having escaped, Alice brings Lowry to the offices where she met Jonas, which they find cleared out. She then forces him at gunpoint to admit that he is not from the FBI, but from a "secret agency that watches the other agencies". He says that they have been using the unwitting Jerry to uncover and stop Jonas. Alice goes to the site of the Ravenswood Generating Station smokestacks from Jerry's mural and sees a mental hospital next door. There she hears and talks to Jerry through a vent, and an attendant she had bribed shows her to an unused wing. She breaks in and finds Jerry. As Jonas catches them, Lowry arrives with his men and attacks Jonas' men. Jerry attempts to drown Jonas, but is shot by Jonas from underwater. Alice, who has regained consciousness after being knocked out, then shoots Jonas six times. After killing Jonas, Alice tells Jerry that she loves him before he is taken away in an ambulance. Some time later, a grieving Alice visits Jerry's grave and leaves a pin that he had given her. She returns to riding her horse that she had stopped riding after her father's murder. While watching Alice from a car with Lowry, Jerry keeps to his agreement to not contact her until all of Jonas' other subjects are caught. As they drive away singing "Can't Take My Eyes Off You", Alice finds the pin she had left at Jerry's "grave" attached to her saddle, and smiles as she continues riding.


title: Conspiracy Theory (film)

text: All scenes filmed at the horse farm used Lionshare Farm in Greenwich, Connecticut. That facility is owned by United States Equestrian Team member Peter Leone—who coached Julia Roberts through the scene at movie's end, where she gallops her horse across a field while Gibson's character looks on longingly from a vehicle driving on a nearby road.


title: Conspiracy Theory (film)

text: "Conspiracy Theory" was released August 8, 1997, to 2,806 theaters, and had an opening weekend gross of $19,313,566 in the United States. The film opened at number 1 in the U.S., displacing "Air Force One". The film eventually grossed $75,982,834 in the U.S. and $61,000,000 internationally, for a worldwide total of $136,982,834. This final gross made "Conspiracy Theory" the 19th highest-grossing film in the U.S. in 1997.


title: Conspiracy Theory (film)

text: Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 57% based on reviews from 44 critics. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Conspiracy Theory (film)

text: In her review in "The New York Times", Janet Maslin said, "The only sneaky scheme at work here is the one that inflates a hollow plot to fill 2¼ hours while banishing skepticism with endless close-ups of big, beautiful movie-star eyes ... Gibson, delivering one of the hearty, dynamic star turns that have made him the Peter Pan of the blockbuster set, makes Jerry much more boyishly likable than he deserves to be. The man who talks to himself and mails long, delusional screeds to strangers is not usually the dreamboat type ... After the story enjoys creating real intrigue ... it becomes tied up in knots. As with too many high-concept escapades, "Conspiracy Theory" tacks on a final half-hour of hasty explanations and mock-sincere emotion. The last scene is an outright insult to anyone who took the movie seriously at its start."


title: Conspiracy Theory (film)

text: Lisa Schwarzbaum of "Entertainment Weekly" graded the film B− and commented, "Richard Donner ... switches the movie from a really interesting, jittery, literate, and witty tone poem about justified contemporary paranoia (and the creatively unhinged dark side of New York City) to an overloaded, meandering iteration of a "Lethal Weapon" project that bears the not-so-secret stamp of audience testing and tinkering."


title: Conspiracy Theory (film)

text: In the "San Francisco Chronicle", Mick LaSalle stated, "If I were paranoid I might suspect a conspiracy at work in the promoting of this movie—to suck in audiences with a catchy hook and then give them something much more clumsy and pedestrian ... "Conspiracy Theory" can be enjoyed once one gives up hope of its becoming a thinking person's thriller and accepts it as just another diversion ... When all else fails, there are still the stars to look at—Roberts, who actually manages to do some fine acting, and Gibson, whose likability must be a sturdy thing indeed."


title: Conspiracy Theory (film)

text: Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" observed the film "cries out to be a small film—a quixotic little indie production where the daffy dialogue and weird characters could weave their coils of paranoia into great offbeat humor. Unfortunately, the parts of the movie that are truly good are buried beneath the deadening layers of thriller cliches and an unconvincing love story ... If the movie had stayed at ground level—had been a real story about real people—it might have been a lot better, and funnier. All of the energy is in the basic material, and none of it is in a romance that is grafted on like an unneeded limb or superfluous organ."


title: Conspiracy Theory (film)

text: In "Rolling Stone", Peter Travers said, "The strong impact that Gibson makes as damaged goods is diluted by selling Jerry as cute and redeemable. Instead of a scalding brew of mirth and malice, served black, Donner settles up a tepid latte, decaf. What a shame—"Conspiracy Theory" could have been a contender."


title: Conspiracy Theory (film)

text: Todd McCarthy of "Variety" called the film "a sporadically amusing but listless thriller that wears its humorous, romantic and political components like mismatched articles of clothing ... This is a film in which all things ... are treated lightly, even glibly ... One can readily sympathize with ... the director's desire to inject the picture with as much humor as possible. But he tries to have it every which way in the end, and the conflicting moods and intentions never mesh comfortably."


title: Conspiracy Theory (film)

text: Pauline Kael in an interview said "the first half of "Conspiracy Theory" was terrific, then it went to hell" but that Mel Gibson was "stunningly good."


title: Conspiracy Theory (film)

text: In his 2003 book "A Culture of Conspiracy", political scientist Michael Barkun notes that a vast popular audience has been introduced by the film to the notion that the U.S. government is controlled by a deep state whose secret agents use black helicopters — a view once confined to the radical right.


title: Communist Party of India (Maoist)

text: The Communist Party of India (Maoist) is a Marxist–Leninist–Maoist banned communist political party and militant organization in India which aims to overthrow the "semi-colonial and semi-feudal Indian state" through protracted people's war. It was founded on 21 September 2004, through the merger of the Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) People's War (People's War Group) and the Maoist Communist Centre of India (MCCI). The CPI (Maoist) are also known as the Naxalites, in reference to the Naxalbari insurrection conducted by radical Maoists in West Bengal since 1967. The party has been designated as a terrorist organisation in India under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act since 2009.