title: Lichtenberg figure

text: This discovery was also the forerunner of the modern day science of plasma physics. Although Lichtenberg only studied two-dimensional (2D) figures, modern high voltage researchers study 2D and 3D figures (electrical trees) on, and within, insulating materials.


title: Lichtenberg figure

text: Two-dimensional (2D) Lichtenberg figures can be produced by placing a sharp-pointed needle perpendicular to the surface of a non-conducting plate, such as of resin, ebonite, or glass. The point is positioned very near or contacting the plate. A source of high voltage such as a Leyden jar (a type of capacitor) or a static electricity generator is applied to the needle, typically through a spark gap. This creates a sudden, small electrical discharge along the surface of the plate. This deposits stranded areas of charge onto the surface of the plate. These electrified areas are then tested by sprinkling a mixture of powdered flowers of sulfur and red lead (PbO or lead tetroxide) onto the plate.


title: Lichtenberg figure

text: During handling, powdered sulfur tends to acquire a slight negative charge, while red lead tends to acquire a slight positive charge. The negatively electrified sulfur is attracted to the positively electrified areas of the plate, while the positively electrified red lead is attracted to the negatively electrified areas.


title: Lichtenberg figure

text: In addition to the distribution of colors thereby produced, there is also a marked difference in the form of the figure, according to the polarity of the electrical charge that was applied to the plate. If the charge areas were positive, a widely extending patch is seen on the plate, consisting of a dense nucleus, from which branches radiate in all directions. Negatively charged areas are considerably smaller and have a sharp circular or fan-like boundary entirely devoid of branches. Heinrich Rudolf Hertz employed Lichtenberg dust figures in his seminal work proving Maxwell's electromagnetic wave theories.


title: Lichtenberg figure

text: If the plate receives a mixture of positive and negative charges as, for example, from an induction coil, a mixed figure results, consisting of a large red central nucleus, corresponding to the negative charge, surrounded by yellow rays, corresponding to the positive charge. The difference between positive and negative figures seems to depend on the presence of air; for the difference tends to disappear when the experiment is conducted in vacuum. Peter T. Riess (a 19th-century researcher) theorized that the negative electrification of the plate was caused by the friction of the water vapour, etc., driven along the surface by the explosion which accompanies the disruptive discharge at the point. This electrification would favor the spread of a positive, but hinder that of a negative discharge.


title: Lichtenberg figure

text: It is now known that electrical charges are transferred to the insulator's surface through small spark discharges that occur along the boundary between the gas and insulator surface. Once transferred to the insulator, these excess charges become temporarily stranded. The shapes of the resulting charge distributions reflect the shape of the spark discharges which, in turn, depend on the high voltage polarity and pressure of the gas. Using a higher applied voltage will generate larger diameter and more branched figures. It is now known that positive Lichtenberg figures have longer, branching structures because long sparks within air can more easily form and propagate from positively charged high voltage terminals. This property has been used to measure the transient voltage polarity and magnitude of lightning surges on electrical power lines.


title: Lichtenberg figure

text: Another type of 2D Lichtenberg figure can be created when an insulating surface becomes contaminated with semiconducting material. When a high voltage is applied across the surface, leakage currents may cause localized heating and progressive degradation and charring of the underlying material. Over time, branching, tree-like carbonized patterns are formed upon the surface of the insulator called electrical trees. This degradation process is called "tracking". If the conductive paths ultimately bridge the insulating space, the result is catastrophic failure of the insulating material. Some artists purposely apply salt water to the surface of wood or cardboard and then apply a high voltage across the surface to generate complex carbonized 2D Lichtenberg figures on the surface.


title: Lichtenberg figure

text: The branching, self-similar patterns observed in Lichtenberg figures exhibit fractal properties. Lichtenberg figures often develop during the dielectric breakdown of solids, liquids, and even gases. Their appearance and growth appear to be related to a process called diffusion-limited aggregation (DLA). A useful macroscopic model that combines an electric field with DLA was developed by Niemeyer, Pietronero, and Weismann in 1984, and is known as the dielectric breakdown model (DBM).


title: Lichtenberg figure

text: Although the electrical breakdown mechanisms of air and PMMA plastic are considerably different, the branching discharges turn out to be related. The branching forms taken by natural lightning also have fractal characteristics.


title: Lichtenberg figure

text: Lichtenberg figures are examples of natural phenomena which exhibit fractal properties. The emergence and evolution of these and the other tree-like structures that abound in nature are summarized by the constructal law. First published by Duke professor Adrian Bejan in 1996, the constructal law is a first principle of physics which summarizes the tendency in nature to generate configurations (patterns, designs) that facilitate the free movement of the imposed currents that flow through it. The constructal law predicts that the tree-like designs described in this article should emerge and evolve to facilitate the movement (point-to-area) of the electrical currents flowing through them.


title: Lichtenberg figure

text: Lichtenberg figures are fern-like patterns that may appear on the skin of lightning strike victims and typically disappear in 24 hours.


title: Lichtenberg figure

text: A lightning strike can also create a large Lichtenberg figure in grass surrounding the point struck. These are sometimes found on golf courses or in grassy meadows. Branching root-shaped "fulgurite" mineral deposits may also be created as sand and soil is fused into glassy tubes by the intense heat of the current.


title: Lichtenberg figure

text: Electrical treeing often occurs in high-voltage equipment prior to causing complete breakdown. Following these Lichtenberg figures within the insulation during post-accident investigation of an insulation failure can be useful in finding the cause of breakdown. An experienced high-voltage engineer can see from the direction and the shape of trees and their branches where the primary cause of the breakdown was situated and possibly find the initial cause. Broken-down transformers, high-voltage cables, bushings and other equipment can usefully be investigated in this manner. The insulation is unrolled (in the case of paper insulation) or sliced in thin slices (in the case of solid insulating materials). The results are then sketched or photographed to create a record of the breakdown process.


title: Lichtenberg figure

text: Modern Lichtenberg figures can also be created within solid insulating materials, such as acrylic (polymethyl methacrylate or PMMA) or glass by injecting them with a beam of high speed electrons from a linear electron beam accelerator (or Linac, a type of particle accelerator). Inside the Linac, electrons are focused and accelerated to form a beam of high speed particles. Electrons emerging from the accelerator have energies up to 25 MeV and are moving at an appreciable fraction (95 - 99+ percent) of the speed of light (relativistic velocities).


title: Lichtenberg figure

text: If the electron beam is aimed towards a thick acrylic specimen, the electrons easily penetrate the surface of the acrylic, rapidly decelerating as they collide with molecules inside the plastic, finally coming to rest deep inside the specimen. Since acrylic is an excellent electrical insulator, these electrons become temporarily trapped within the specimen, forming a plane of excess negative charge. Under continued irradiation, the amount of trapped charge builds, until the effective voltage inside the specimen reaches millions of volts. Once the electrical stress exceeds the dielectric strength of the plastic, some portions suddenly become conductive in a process called dielectric breakdown.


title: Lichtenberg figure

text: During breakdown, branching tree or fern-like conductive channels rapidly form and propagate through the plastic, allowing the trapped charge to suddenly rush out in a miniature lightning-like flash and bang. Breakdown of a charged specimen may also be manually triggered by poking the plastic with a pointed conductive object to create a point of excessive voltage stress. During the discharge, the powerful electric sparks leave thousands of branching chains of fractures behind - creating a permanent Lichtenberg figure inside the specimen. Although the internal charge within the specimen is negative, the discharge is initiated from the positively charged exterior surfaces of the specimen, so that the resulting discharge creates a positive Lichtenberg figure. These objects are sometimes called "electron trees", "beam trees", or "lightning trees".


title: Lichtenberg figure

text: As the electrons rapidly decelerate inside the acrylic, they also generate powerful X-rays. Residual electrons and X-rays darken the acrylic by introducing defects (color centers) in a process called solarization. Solarization initially turns acrylic specimens a lime green color which then changes to an amber color after the specimen has been discharged. The color usually fades over time, and gentle heating, combined with oxygen, accelerates the fading process.


title: Lichtenberg figure

text: Lichtenberg figures can also be produced on wood. The types of wood and grain patterns affect the shape of the Lichtenberg figure produced. By applying a coat of electrolytic solution to the surface of the wood, the resistance of the surface drops considerably. Two electrodes are then placed on the wood and a high voltage is passed across them. Current from the electrodes will cause the surface of the wood to heat up, until the electrolyte boils and the wooden surface burns. Because the charred surface of the wood is mildly conductive, the surface of the wood will burn in a pattern outwards from the electrodes. The process can be dangerous, resulting in deaths every year from electrocution.


title: FV107 Scimitar

text: The FV107 Scimitar is an armoured tracked military reconnaissance vehicle (sometimes classed as a light tank) used by the British Army. It was manufactured by Alvis in Coventry. It is very similar to the FV101 Scorpion, but mounts a high-velocity 30 mm L21 RARDEN cannon instead of a 76 mm gun. It was issued to Royal Armoured Corps armoured regiments in the reconnaissance role. Each regiment originally had a close reconnaissance squadron of five troops, each containing eight FV107 Scimitars. Each Main Battle Tank Regiment also employed eight Scimitars in the close reconnaissance role.


title: FV107 Scimitar

text: Initially, the engine was the Jaguar J60 4.2-litre 6-cylinder petrol engine, the same as used by several Jaguar cars. This was replaced by a Cummins BTA 5.9 diesel engine in British Army Scimitars under the CVR(T) Life Extension Program (LEP).


title: FV107 Scimitar

text: The UK initiated the Tactical Reconnaissance Armoured Combat Equipment Requirement (TRACER) to replace the Sabre and Scimitar. In 1996 the U.S. joined in on the project. In 2001, both the UK and U.S. dropped out of the joint program.


title: FV107 Scimitar

text: Following a risk mitigation programme, in December 2010 a contract was awarded for the development, testing and management of an upgraded Scimitar. This was undertaken by the Vehicles Military & Technical Services team, BAE Systems Telford, which co-ordinated the build of 50 vehicles at the nearby DSG (Defence Support Group), Donnington, to be completed in early 2012. The Scimitar Mark 2 combat vehicle is one of five enhanced CVR(T) types. It was created in early 2010, and continues in service.


title: FV107 Scimitar

text: The resulting vehicles have since been re-engined with a Cummins BTA 5.9 litre diesel engine and David Brown TN15E+ automatic gearbox. In addition to providing power for an air conditioning system, the new more fuel-efficient engine extends the vehicle's operational range, while the re-designed internal layout allows better-protected fuel tanks to be repositioned for reduced vulnerability to blast and ballistic threats.


title: FV107 Scimitar

text: The new engine and transmission package promised straightforward servicing and support for the Mk II during its in-service life, refurbished dampers simultaneously improving crew comfort - and hence reducing fatigue - while extending the life of vehicle components and maintaining the tactical mobility of the original vehicle despite an increase to an operation weight of c12,000 kg.


title: FV107 Scimitar

text: BAE Systems have proposed improved road wheels, new conventional metal tracks with guaranteed mileage (which could reduce the vehicle's running costs) and continuous 'rubber' band tracks, which significantly decrease both vibration and noise, allowing crew to operate more effectively and for longer, even in the harshest environments, while reducing the vehicle's acoustic signature.


title: FV107 Scimitar

text: In September 2014, Latvia signed a contract with Great Britain for the purchase of 123 armoured combat vehicles as part of the Latvian National Armed Forces infantry brigade mechanization program.


title: FV107 Scimitar

text: Two troops from B Squadron, Blues and Royals served in the Falklands War. One troop was equipped with four Scorpions, the other with four Scimitars. These CVR(T)s were the only armoured vehicles used in action by the British Army during the conflict. At least one Scimitar was seriously damaged by an Argentinian landmine, but the crew were unscathed, and the vehicle was salvaged by a Chinook HC.1 helicopter and soon brought back into service by the attached REME section. Scorpion and Scimitar also provided air defence support with machine guns and 30 mm guns; on 23 May 1982, a Scimitar claimed a 30 mm hit on a Skyhawk at 1,000 m.


title: FV107 Scimitar

text: First Gulf War, 1st The Queen's Dragoon Guards, with attached reinforcements, fought as a regiment during this war and was equipped with Scimitar. A troop of Scimitars engaged and knocked out Iraqi T-62s, penetrating their frontal armour with sabot rounds. One Scimitar was engaged and hit by an Iraqi T-55 and the penetrating round passed through the thin aluminium armour without injuring the crew.


title: FV107 Scimitar

text: Scimitars of C Squadron were used in the Battle of Al Faw in the opening days of the 2003 Invasion of Iraq. Plans for an amphibious landing by Scimitars were abandoned due to extensive mining of the beaches; instead, they crossed into Iraq by land.


title: FV107 Scimitar

text: In Afghanistan, during Operation Herrick, Scimitars were deployed either in standard troop organisations or as part of Jackal composite troops, in which role they provided additional firepower to complement the Jackal's high mobility.


title: P. J. O'Rourke

text: Patrick Jake O'Rourke (November 14, 1947 – February 15, 2022) was an American libertarian political satirist and journalist. O'Rourke was the H. L. Mencken Research Fellow at the libertarian Cato Institute and a regular correspondent for "The Atlantic Monthly", "The American Spectator", and "The Weekly Standard", and frequent panelist on National Public Radio's game show "Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!" He was a columnist at "The Daily Beast" from 2011 to 2016.


title: P. J. O'Rourke

text: He authored more than 20 books, the best known of which is "Holidays in Hell", about his visits to war zones as a foreign correspondent. Three of his books made "The New York Times" Best Seller list. The "Forbes Media Guide Five Hundred, 1994" states, "O'Rourke's original reporting, irreverent humour, and crackerjack writing makes for delectable reading. He never minces words or pulls his punches, whatever the subject."


title: P. J. O'Rourke

text: O'Rourke was born in Toledo, Ohio, the son of Delphine (née Loy), a housewife, and Clifford Bronson O'Rourke, a car salesman. O'Rourke had Irish ancestry that traces back to County Roscommon. He graduated from Toledo's DeVilbiss High School in 1965, received his undergraduate degree from Miami University in 1969 and earned a Master of Arts in English at Johns Hopkins University. Many of O'Rourke's essays recount that during his student days he was a leftist, anti-war hippie, but that in the 1970s his political views underwent a "volte-face". He emerged as a political observer and humorist rooted in libertarian conservatism.


title: P. J. O'Rourke

text: O'Rourke wrote articles for several publications, including "A.J. at N.Y.U." for "The Rip Off Review of Western Culture", an underground magazine/comic book, in 1972, as well as pieces for the Baltimore underground newspaper "Harry" and the "New York Ace", before joining "National Lampoon" in 1973, where he served as editor-in-chief, among other roles, and authored articles such as "Foreigners Around the World" and "How to Drive Fast on Drugs While Getting Your Wing-Wang Squeezed and Not Spill Your Drink".


title: P. J. O'Rourke

text: O'Rourke received a writing credit for "National Lampoon's Lemmings" which helped launch the careers of Chevy Chase, and Christopher Guest. He also co-wrote "National Lampoon's 1964 High School Yearbook" with Douglas Kenney. This inspired the cult comedy, "Animal House", which launched the career of John Belushi.


title: P. J. O'Rourke

text: Going freelance in 1981, O'Rourke had his work published in "Playboy," "Vanity Fair," "Car and Driver", and "Rolling Stone". He became foreign-affairs desk chief at "Rolling Stone", where he remained until 2001. In 1996, he served as the conservative commentator in the point-counterpoint segment of "60 Minutes". During the Bosnian genocide, O'Rourke referred to the American public's lack of interest in Bosnia as a way to joke about "the unspellables killing the unpronounceables".


title: P. J. O'Rourke

text: O'Rourke published over 20 books, including three "New York Times" bestsellers. "Parliament of Whores" and "Give War a Chance" reached No. 1 on "The New York Times" Best Seller list. He also wrote "Modern Manners" and "Holidays in Hell." O'Rourke was a "Real Time Real Reporter" for "Real Time with Bill Maher" covering the 2008 presidential election. In the UK, he was known as the face of a long-running series of television advertisements for British Airways in the 1990s.


title: P. J. O'Rourke

text: In 2009, O'Rourke described the nascent presidency of Barack Obama as "the Carter administration in better sweaters". However, in 2016, he endorsed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump. O'Rourke stated that his endorsement included her "lies and empty promises" and added "She's wrong about absolutely everything, but she's wrong within normal parameters".


title: P. J. O'Rourke

text: From 1990 to 1993, O'Rourke was married to Amy Lumet, a daughter of movie director Sidney Lumet and a granddaughter of Lena Horne. In 1995, he married Tina Mallon; they had three children: daughters Elizabeth and Olivia and son Clifford. In an interview with the "New Statesman" published in January 2012, O'Rourke said, "Despite my name, I wasn't raised a Catholic. My mother was a Protestant, of a traditional American, vague kind: she belonged to the church that the nice people in the neighbourhood went to. My wife is a Catholic, the kids are Catholic, so I'm a Catholic fellow-traveller."


title: P. J. O'Rourke

text: In September 2008, O'Rourke announced that he had been diagnosed with treatable rectal cancer, from which he expected "a 95% chance of survival". O'Rourke died from lung cancer at his home in Sharon, New Hampshire, on February 15, 2022, at the age of 74.


title: P. J. O'Rourke

text: O'Rourke was a proponent of gonzo journalism; one of his earliest and best-regarded pieces was "How to Drive Fast on Drugs While Getting Your Wing-Wang Squeezed and Not Spill Your Drink", a "National Lampoon" article in March 1979. The article was republished in two of his books, "Republican Party Reptile" (1987) and "Driving Like Crazy" (2009).


title: P. J. O'Rourke

text: O'Rourke's best-received book is "Parliament of Whores," subtitled "A Lone Humorist Attempts to Explain the Entire U.S. Government", whose main argument, according to the author, "is that politics are boring". He described himself as a libertarian.


title: P. J. O'Rourke

text: O'Rourke typed his manuscripts on an IBM Selectric typewriter, though he denied being a Luddite, asserting that his short attention span would have made focusing on writing on a computer difficult.


title: Backpacker murders

text: The backpacker murders were a spate of serial killings that took place in New South Wales, Australia, between 1989 and 1993, committed by Ivan Milat. The bodies of seven missing young people aged 19 to 22 were discovered partially buried in the Belanglo State Forest, south-west of the New South Wales town of Berrima. Five of the victims were foreign backpackers (three German, two British) and two were Australians from Melbourne. Milat was convicted of the murders on 27 July 1996 and was sentenced to seven consecutive life sentences, as well as 18 years without parole. He died in prison on 27 October 2019, never having confessed to the murders for which he was convicted.


title: Backpacker murders

text: Up until the mid-1990s, hitchhiking in Australia was viewed as an adventurous and inexpensive, if not completely safe, means of travel. However, unsolved Australian missing-person cases such as that of Trudie Adams (1978), Tony Jones (1982), Naoko Onda (1987) and Anna Rosa Liva (1991) led those who still hitchhiked to begin to travel in pairs for safety.


title: Backpacker murders

text: By the time of the first Belanglo State Forest discoveries, several other backpackers had also disappeared. One case involved a young Victorian couple from Frankston, Deborah Everist (19) and James Gibson (19), who had been missing since leaving Sydney for ConFest, near Albury, on 30 December 1989. Another related to Simone Schmidl (21), from Germany, who had been missing since leaving Sydney for Melbourne on 20 January 1991. Similarly, a German couple, Gabor Neugebauer (21) and Anja Habschied (20), had disappeared after leaving a Kings Cross hostel for Mildura on 26 December 1991. Another involved missing British backpackers Caroline Clarke (21) and Joanne Walters (22), who were last seen in Kings Cross on 18 April 1992.


title: Backpacker murders

text: On 19 September 1992, two runners discovered a concealed corpse while orienteering in Belanglo. The following morning, police discovered a second body from the first. Police quickly confirmed, via dental records, that the bodies were those of Clarke and Walters. Walters had been stabbed 15 times; four times in the chest, once in the neck, and nine times in the back which would have paralysed her. Clarke had been shot 10 times in the head at the burial site, and police believe she had been used as target practice. After a thorough search of the forest, investigators ruled out the possibility of further discoveries within Belanglo State Forest.


title: Backpacker murders

text: In October 1993, a local man searching for firewood discovered bones in a particularly remote section of the forest. He returned with police to the scene where two bodies were quickly discovered and later identified as Gibson and Everist. Gibson's skeleton, found in a foetal position, showed eight stab wounds. A large knife had cut through his upper spine causing paralysis, and stab wounds to his back and chest would have punctured his heart and lungs. Everist had been savagely beaten; her skull was fractured in two places, her jaw was broken and there were knife marks on her forehead. She had been stabbed once in the back. The presence of Gibson's body in Belanglo puzzled investigators as his camera had previously been discovered on 31 December 1989, and his backpack later on 13 March 1990, by the side of the road at Galston Gorge, in the northern Sydney suburbs, over to the north.


title: Backpacker murders

text: On 1 November 1993, a skeleton was found in a clearing along a fire trail in the forest during a police sweep. It was later identified as that of Schmidl, and bore at least eight stab wounds: two had severed her spine and others would have punctured her heart and lungs. Clothing found at the scene was not Schmidl's, but matched that of another missing backpacker, Habschied. The bodies of Habschied and Neugebauer were then found on a nearby fire trail, on 4 November 1993, in shallow graves apart. Habschied had been decapitated, and despite an extensive search, her skull was never found. Neugebauer had been shot in the head six times.


title: Backpacker murders

text: In response to the finds, on 14 October 1993, Task Force Air, containing more than 20 detectives and analysts, was set up by the NSW Police. On 5 November 1993, the NSW government increased the reward in relation to the Belanglo serial killings to $500,000. Public warnings were also given, particularly aimed at international backpackers, to avoid hitchhiking along the Hume Highway. After developing their profile of the killer, the police faced an enormous volume of data from numerous sources. Investigators applied link analysis technology to Roads & Traffic Authority vehicle records, gym memberships, gun licensing, and internal police records. As a result, the list of suspects was progressively narrowed to a short list of 230, then to an even shorter list of 32.


title: Backpacker murders

text: There were similar aspects to all the murders. Each of the bodies had been dumped in remote bush-land and covered by a pyramid of sticks and ferns. Forensic study determined that each had suffered multiple stab wounds to the torso, and many showed signs of sexual assault. The killer, probably a local with a 4WD, had evidently restrained and spent considerable time with the victims both during and after the murders, as campsites were discovered close to the location of each body. Matching .22 bullets, shell casings, and cartridge boxes from two weapons also linked the crime scenes. Speculation arose that the crimes were the work of several killers, given that most of the victims had been attacked while as pairs, had been killed in different ways, and buried separately.


title: Backpacker murders

text: On 13 November 1993, police received a call from Paul Onions (24) in the UK. On 25 January 1990, Onions had been backpacking in Australia and, while hitchhiking from Liverpool station towards Mildura, had accepted a ride south out of Casula from a man known only as "Bill". South of the town of Mittagong, and less than 1 km from Belanglo State Forest, Bill stopped and pulled out a revolver and some ropes stating it was a robbery, at which point Onions managed to flee while Bill pursued and shot at him. Onions flagged down Joanne Berry, a passing motorist, and together they sped off and described the assailant and his vehicle to the Bowral police. On 13 April 1994, detectives re-found the note regarding Onions' call and sought the original report from Bowral police, but it was missing. Fortunately, a constable had recorded details in her notebook. Onions' statement was corroborated by Berry, who had also contacted the investigation team, along with the girlfriend of a man who worked with Ivan Milat, who thought he should be questioned over the case.


title: Backpacker murders

text: On 26 February 1994, police surveillance of the Milat house at Cinnabar Street, Eagle Vale commenced. Police learnt that Milat had recently sold his silver Nissan Patrol four-wheel drive shortly after the discovery of the bodies of Clarke and Walters. Police also confirmed that Milat had not been working on any of the days of the attacks and acquaintances also told police about Milat's obsession with weapons. Milat's brother, Bill, who often had his identity used by his brother for work or vehicle registrations, was questioned by investigators. When the connection between the Belanglo murders and Onions' experience was made, Onions flew to Australia to help with the investigation. On 5 May 1994, Onions positively identified Milat as the man who had picked him up and attempted to murder him.


title: Backpacker murders

text: Milat was arrested at his home on 22 May 1994 on robbery and weapon charges related to the Onions attack after 50 police officers surrounded the premises, including heavily armed officers from the Tactical Operations Unit. The search of Milat's home revealed various weapons, including a .22-calibre Anschütz Model 1441/42 rifle and parts of a .22 calibre Ruger 10/22 rifle that matched the type used in the murders, a Browning pistol, and a Bowie knife. Also uncovered was foreign currency, clothing, a tent, sleeping bags, camping equipment and cameras belonging to several of his victims. Homes belonging to his mother and five of his brothers were also searched at the same time by over 300 police, uncovering a total of 24 weapons, 250 kg of ammunition, and several more items belonging to the victims.


title: Backpacker murders

text: Milat appeared in court on 23 May, but he did not enter a plea. On 31 May, Milat was also charged with the seven backpacker murders. On 28 June, Milat sacked his defence lawyer, Marsden, and sought legal aid to pay for his defence. Meanwhile, brothers Richard and Walter were tried in relation to weapons, drugs and stolen items found on their properties. A committal hearing for Milat regarding the murders began on 24 October and lasted until 12 December, during which over 200 witnesses appeared. Based on the evidence, at the beginning of February 1995, Milat was remanded in custody until June that same year.


title: Backpacker murders

text: On 26 March 1996, the trial opened at the NSW Supreme Court and was prosecuted by Mark Tedeschi. His defence argued that, in spite of the evidence, there was no non-circumstantial proof Milat was guilty and attempted to shift the blame to other members of his family, particularly Richard. 145 witnesses took the stand, including members of the Milat family who endeavoured to provide alibis, and, on 18 June, Milat himself. On 27 July 1996, after 18 weeks of testimony, a jury found Milat guilty of the murders. He was given a life sentence on each count without the possibility of parole. He was also convicted of the attempted murder, false imprisonment and robbery of Onions, for which he received six years' jail each.


title: Backpacker murders

text: Police maintain that Milat could have been involved in more attacks or murders than the seven for which he was convicted. Based on MO similarities, examples include Keren Rowland (20, disappeared 26 February 1971, found in the Fairbairn Pine Plantation in May 1971), Peter Letcher (18, missing November 1987, found in the Jenolan State Forest in 1988), and Dianne Pennacchio (29, disappeared 6 September 1991, found in the Tallaganda State Forest in November 1991). Further, given the possibility of an accomplice, the murder cases were kept open. On 18 July 2005, Milat's former lawyer, Marsden, made a deathbed statement in which he claimed that Milat had been assisted by his sister, Shirley Soire (1946–2003), in the killings of the two British backpackers.


title: Backpacker murders

text: In 2001, Milat was ordered to give evidence at an inquest into the disappearances in the Newcastle area of three other female backpackers (Leanne Goodall, 20, disappeared 30 December 1978; Robyn Hickie, 18, disappeared 7 April 1979; Amanda Robinson, 14, disappeared 21 April 1979). A related cold case is that of Gordana Kotevski (16) who disappeared in 1994. Although Milat was working in the area at the time of the crimes, no case has been brought against him due to a lack of evidence. Similar inquiries were launched in 2003, in relation to the disappearance of two nurses and again in 2005, relating to the disappearance of hitchhiker Annette Briffa, but no charges were laid.


title: Backpacker murders

text: In 2010, in a media interview, Onions described how he accepted, but did not use, a $200,000 reward granted for his part in the conviction of Milat.


title: Backpacker murders

text: The case has been extensively covered in the media in Australia and gained notoriety around the world. On 8 November 2004, Milat gave a televised interview on "Australian Story", in which he denied that any of his family had been implicated in the seven murders. In March 2017, the case was covered by Australian crime podcasts "Felon True Crime", and in March 2019, "Casefile True Crime Podcast" began airing a five-part series on the Belanglo crimes. On the day Milat died in 2019, "The Daily Telegraph" released a 4-part podcast called "Monster Trial" which re-enacted the 1996 trial of Milat.


title: Backpacker murders

text: The 2005 Australian film "Wolf Creek" is based on the backpacker murders of two British women. A sequel, "Wolf Creek 2", based on backpacker murders of two Germans, was released in 2013.


title: Super NES Classic Edition

text: The Super NES Classic Edition is a dedicated home video game console released by Nintendo, which emulates the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The console, a successor to the NES Classic Edition, comes with twenty-one Super NES titles pre-installed, including the first official release of "Star Fox 2". It was released in North America and Europe on September 29, 2017.


title: Super NES Classic Edition

text: The console is distributed in three variations, featuring the unique design of the original systems released in Japan, North America, and Europe respectively. While the North American release features an appearance based on the straight-angled grey-and-purple design of the Super NES, the Japan and PAL region releases are modelled after the rounded edge Super Famicom/PAL Super NES design as originally released in these regions.


title: Super NES Classic Edition

text: Internally, the console uses an Allwinner R16 system on a chip with four ARM Cortex-A7 central processing units, an ARM Mali 400 MP2 graphics processing unit, and 512 MB of flash storage and 256 MB of DDR3 memory. The same hardware was used in the previous NES Classic Edition product.


title: Super NES Classic Edition

text: The system features 720p/60 Hz HDMI display output and two controller ports; two wired SNES controllers are bundled with the system. The controller ports are hidden behind a faux front flap which is designed to appear like the original Super NES controller ports. Similarly to the predecessor's controllers, the Super NES Classic Edition controllers have connectors that can be inserted into the Wii Remote, and be used to play Super NES games on the Wii and Wii U Virtual Console. The Wii's Classic Controller is also compatible with the Super NES Classic Edition. While the NES Classic Edition controller is technically functional with the Super NES Classic Edition, gameplay is impractical in most games due to the absence of the X and Y face buttons and the shoulder buttons.


title: Super NES Classic Edition

text: The console uses the Linux operating system and runs a set of emulators developed by Nintendo's European Research & Development (NERD). These emulators provide the basic compatibility with the Super NES system, and for specific games, chipsets that were included on the cartridges, such as the Super FX chip used for "Star Fox".


title: Super NES Classic Edition

text: The Super NES Classic Edition includes two controllers with cables, addressing complaints about the short ones used for the NES Classic.


title: Super NES Classic Edition

text: An anonymous user who previously discovered a means to hack the NES Classic Edition discovered a similar hacking ability to install additional SNES games onto the unit. Not all SNES games can work due to missing emulation of custom cartridge chipsets.


title: Super NES Classic Edition

text: The microconsole contains 21 built-in games. These include "Star Fox 2", a sequel to "Star Fox" that had been cancelled near the very end of its development in 1996; while Nintendo had given no official word to the cancellation, developer Dylan Cuthbert said that Nintendo feared how "Star Fox 2" would look compared to similar games on the more advanced PlayStation and Sega Saturn consoles. Players can unlock "Star Fox 2" on the SNES Classic upon clearing the first level of "Star Fox".


title: Super NES Classic Edition

text: Despite the fact that the hardware shells are different, both western editions of the microconsole feature identical software, and all included games are based on their American localizations, running at 60 Hz, similarly to the NES Classic Edition. Consequently, games that originally had different titles in the PAL regions now use their respective American monikers, such as "Contra III: The Alien Wars" (originally "Super Probotector: Alien Rebels"), "Star Fox" (originally "Starwing") and "Kirby Super Star" (originally "Kirby's Fun Pak").


title: Super NES Classic Edition

text: From the 21 included titles, 16 are common between all regions, while the five remaining ones are exclusive to either Japan's Super Famicom Mini or the west's SNES Mini respectively.


title: Super NES Classic Edition

text: The Super NES Classic Edition was revealed on June 26, 2017, as the successor to the widely-popular NES Classic. Nintendo announced that the system would come with 21 Super Nintendo games, including the unreleased "Star Fox 2". It was released in North America on September 29, 2017, with a price of $79.99.


title: Super NES Classic Edition

text: With the release of the NES Classic Edition, Nintendo was strongly criticized for the system's lack of availability for the console, which reached levels of popularity that they had not been fully prepared for. On July 21, 2017, the console was mistakenly made available for pre-order at Walmart in the United States due to a "technical glitch", and all pre-orders were cancelled on July 26, leading to widespread criticism among the gaming press. "PC Magazine" called the situation "badly handled by Walmart" and said that the future availability of the console was "not looking good". "USGamer" called attempting to obtain a Super NES Classic Edition a "waking nightmare" and stated the availability would likely be as low as the NES Classic, saying the situation was "because we can't have nice things". "GameSpot" stated that there was "frustratingly little word" from Nintendo as to when pre-orders would be made available. Nintendo gave no comment about the situation.


title: Super NES Classic Edition

text: On August 22, 2017, pre-orders officially opened at several major retailers, causing many of their sites to crash before customers could buy the system, as well as at physical GameStop locations in limited amounts, which also sold out quickly on a first-come, first-served basis. The Target website became "glitched out", removing the items from users' carts, and pre-orders from Walmart were sold out in less than a minute. This led to Nintendo of America being criticized as "inept or underhanded", and that they contributed to a "chaotic" situation.


title: Super NES Classic Edition

text: "Polygon" also confirmed that the Tai Ding internet bot was being used to quickly pre-order systems before humans could get the chance to order them, which was proving successful due to a lack of CAPTCHAs on store websites. Scalpers soon flooded eBay with pre-order listings, some at markups of over 300%.


title: Super NES Classic Edition

text: Nintendo of America CEO Reggie Fils-Aimé stated in September 2017 that people should not buy SNES Classic pre-orders from scalpers, and suggested SNES Classics would be readily available. He also stated that the company was not trying to create artificial scarcity, saying that the issues with pre-orders were "outside our control". Nintendo has also stated that there would be more SNES Classics available on launch day than the entire amount of NES Classics that were shipped in 2016, and that shipments would continue into 2018 unlike originally planned due to high demand.


title: Super NES Classic Edition

text: With the Super NES Classic Edition, Nintendo originally said that although they were prepared to produce significantly more Super NES Classics than NES Classics, they would be halting production at the end of 2017. Due to overwhelming demand, Nintendo changed their plans, with Reggie Fils-Aimé confirming the continued production of the system throughout 2018 alongside announcing the return of the NES Classic in 2018, which many people were unable to get after scalpers bought masses of them and resold them for much more than their MSRP. Fils-Aimé also discouraged consumers from buying from these scalpers and said there would be plenty stock of both NES and SNES. In May 2018, Nintendo of America announced via Twitter that both consoles would be in stock throughout the second half of 2018, with the NES Classic returning to stores on June 29.


title: Super NES Classic Edition

text: On December 13, 2018, Reggie Fils-Aimé affirmed that both the NES and SNES Classic Editions will not be restocked after the 2018 holiday season, nor does Nintendo anticipate producing any similar mini-console version of its other home consoles in the future.


title: Super NES Classic Edition

text: Despite slightly criticizing its library of titles and issues carried over from the NES Classic, "IGN"'s Jonathon Dornbush praised the Super NES Classic's features and enjoyability. "Eurogamer" praised the games library, the selection of border arts, the improved scaling over the NES Classic Mini, and the support of 60 Hz as well as the fact that there are now two controllers with longer cables in the scope of delivery in contrast to the NES Classic Mini. "Eurogamer" also found the emulation of the SNES Classic Mini to be superior to that of the Virtual Console. "IGN" rated the SNES Classic Mini 8.5 out of 10 points, praising the included games, the image quality, the longer controller cables and the rewind feature.


title: Super NES Classic Edition

text: The SNES Mini sold 368,913 units within its first four days on sale in Japan. By the end of October 2017, it had sold more than 2 million units worldwide. By its fiscal year 2017 report, ending March 31, 2018, the SNES Classic had sold more than 5 million units. Combined sales of the NES and SNES Classic editions by September 30, 2018 exceeded 10 million units.


title: Super NES Classic Edition

text: According to Nintendo, there are currently no plans for a Nintendo 64 Classic Mini. Doug Bowser, current President of Nintendo of America, said that "Our focus right now is absolutely on our dedicated platforms such as Nintendo Switch Lite and our flagship Nintendo Switch." Reggie Fils-Aimé said "For us, these were limited time opportunities that were a way for us as a business to bridge from the conclusion of Wii U as a hardware system to the launch of Nintendo Switch. That was the very strategic reason we launched the NES Classic system."


title: Tom Austen

text: Thomas Michael Carter (born 15 September 1987), known professionally as Tom Austen, is an English actor, known for his television appearances portraying Jasper Frost on "The Royals" and Guy Hopkins on "Grantchester".


title: Tom Austen

text: Born in the county of Hampshire and raised in Taunton, Somerset, Austen attended Queen's College, Taunton and then the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. His younger brother, Freddy Carter, is also an actor.


title: Tom Austen

text: Austen's first acting job was portraying rent boy Anto in an episode of the UK series "Shameless" in 2010. He played multi-episode roles on "The Borgias" and "Beaver Falls" in 2012, and starred as Marc Bayard in the police procedural series "Jo" in 2013. After his costarring role as "Grantchester" Guy Hopkins in 2014, Austen began portraying duplicitous bodyguard Jasper Frost on the E! drama series "The Royals" in 2015. In October 2019, Austen was cast as Daimon Helstrom in the Hulu series "Helstrom".


title: Caroline Cossey

text: Caroline Cossey (born 31 August 1954) is a British model and actress who often worked under the name Tula, which she also used for two memoirs. She appeared in the 1981 James Bond film "For Your Eyes Only." Following her appearance in the film, she was outed as transgender by British tabloid "News of the World". In 1991, she became the first trans woman to pose for "Playboy". Cossey has since then fought for her right to legally marry and be legally recognised as a woman.


title: Caroline Cossey

text: Cossey was born in Brooke, Norfolk. Through puberty, Cossey was distinctly feminine in appearance due to XXXY syndrome. In Cossey's autobiography "My Story", she describes an unhappy childhood, where she suffered confusing feelings and bullying by peers due to her femininity. Growing up, Cossey's closest companion was her sister, Pam, with whom she played dress-up in their mother's clothes. Cossey left formal schooling when she was fifteen and found work in a clothing store and as a butcher's apprentice. At sixteen, she moved to London and worked at a variety of low-wage jobs.


title: Caroline Cossey

text: Cossey started transitioning while working as an usherette in London's West End. By 17, Cossey was receiving hormone therapy, working full-time in a female gender role as a showgirl. Following breast augmentation surgery, Cossey worked as a showgirl in Paris and as a topless dancer in Rome to save up for sex reassignment surgery (SRS). After years of hormonal treatment and counseling, and legally changing her name, Cossey had her final surgery on 31 December 1974 at Charing Cross Hospital, London.


title: Caroline Cossey

text: Cossey now began an active social life as a woman, concealing her transition. Asked about her dating life, Cossey replied, "I'm afraid I went a little wild". She told tabloids she had a romance with the television presenter Des Lynam, though Lynam says he does not recall it. Lynam however mentions going on dates with her in his autobiography. Cossey worked as a model under the name "Tula". She appeared in top magazines such as Australian "Vogue" and "Harper's Bazaar", and worked extensively as a glamour model. She was a Page Three Girl for the British tabloid "The Sun" and appeared in "Playboy" in 1991.


title: Caroline Cossey

text: In 1978, Tula won a part on the game show "3-2-1". A tabloid journalist then contacted her, revealing he had discovered she was transgender, and planned to write about it. Other journalists researched her past, attempting to interview her family members. Cossey dropped out of the show, convincing the producers to release her from her contract. After this incident, Tula maintained a lower profile, accepting only smaller assignments.


title: Caroline Cossey

text: Tula was cast as an extra in the 1981 James Bond film "For Your Eyes Only". Shortly after the film's release, the tabloid "News of the World" came out with a front-page headline that read "James Bond Girl Was a Boy." By her own accounts, Tula was so upset she contemplated suicide. However, she continued her modelling career. Tula responded by releasing "I Am a Woman", her first autobiography.


title: Caroline Cossey

text: Tula became engaged to Count Glauco Lasinio, an Italian advertising executive, who was the first man to date her knowing of her past. He encouraged her to petition for changes in the British law concerning transsexuals. The engagement ended, but her legal efforts continued for seven years, eventually reaching the European Court of Human Rights.


title: Caroline Cossey

text: In 1985, Tula appeared extensively in the video for The Power Station's "Some Like It Hot", also appearing in the band's video for "Get It On". After breaking up with Lasinio, Tula met Elias Fattal, a businessman, who was unaware of her history until he proposed marriage on St Valentine's Day 1988. When she told him, rather than rejecting her, he merely asked if she would convert to Judaism. She agreed. They were married on 21 May 1989, weeks after the European Court of Human Rights decided legally to recognise Tula as a woman. They returned from their honeymoon to find that the "News of the World" had published a story on their wedding.


title: Caroline Cossey

text: On 27 September 1990, the European Court overturned its decision on a British government appeal. (The right of transgender people in the United Kingdom to change their legal sex would not be granted until the Gender Recognition Act 2004.) Tula returned to modelling, which she had given up four years earlier.


title: Caroline Cossey

text: In 1991, Tula released "My Story", her second autobiography. In it she gave details of her transition and her unsuccessful battle with the European Court. She was featured in the September 1991 issue of "Playboy" in the pictorial "The Transformation of Tula" as an acknowledged transgender person.


title: Long John Silver's

text: Long John Silver's (formerly known as Long John Silver's Seafood Shoppes and sometimes abbreviated as LJS) is an American chain of fast-food restaurants that specializes in seafood. The brand's name is derived from the novel "Treasure Island" by Robert Louis Stevenson, in which the pirate Long John Silver is one of the main characters.


title: Long John Silver's

text: Formerly a division of Yum! Brands, the company was sold to a group of franchisees in September 2011 and is now 80% franchise-owned. Aside from the U.S., the restaurant also has outlets in Singapore, as well as 30 other countries like South Africa, United Kingdom and United Arab Emirates.


title: Long John Silver's

text: The first restaurant opened on August 18, 1969, in Lexington, Kentucky. The original location, on 301 Southland Drive, was previously the Cape Codder seafood carry-out restaurant. The original Cape Codder concrete block building was redesigned by architect Druce Henn, who created the New England style of Long John Silver's early chain restaurants. That original location is now a styling salon.


title: Long John Silver's

text: Earlier restaurants were known for their Cape Cod style buildings, blue roofs with square cupolas, wood benches/tables, lobster pots, and ship's wheels. Later, more nautically themed decorations were added such as seats made to look like nautical flags.


title: Long John Silver's

text: The restaurant chain arrived in Singapore in 1983 and has had a continuous presence in the country ever since. It remains one of 30 countries outside of the United States to have Long John Silver's outlets.


title: Long John Silver's

text: Those early restaurants also featured separate entrance and exit doors, a corridor-like waiting line area, deep fryers with food heaters that were transparent so customers could view the food to be served, and wrought iron 'sword' door handles. These buildings had dock-like walkways, lined with pilings and thick ropes.


title: Long John Silver's

text: Newer restaurants retained the basic structural design and theme, but eliminated most of the interior features. Its parent company, Jerrico was taken private in 1989 through a highly leveraged management buyout, and one year later, the other restaurant concepts were divested to focus on Long John Silver's.


title: Long John Silver's

text: After struggling for the next several years under its heavy debt load, Jerrico Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in June 1998. In September 1999, A&W announced to acquire the chain out of bankruptcy. As a result Yorkshire Global Restaurants was formed.


title: Long John Silver's

text: In 2000, Yorkshire Global Restaurants agreed to test multi-branded locations with Louisville, Kentucky-based Tricon Global, owner of the KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell chains.


title: Long John Silver's

text: The parent company of Long John Silver's and A&W, Yorkshire was acquired by Tricon Global and Tricon was renamed Yum! Brands, Inc in May 2002. By January 2011, Yum! announced it was seeking a buyer for its Long John Silver's and A&W All-American Restaurants divisions, citing poor sales and a desire to shift its focus to international expansion.


title: Long John Silver's

text: In September 2011, Yum! announced the impending sale of Long John Silver's to LJS Partners – a group consisting of franchisees and other private investors.


title: Long John Silver's

text: In July 2013, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a nutrition and health policy watchdog group, named Long John Silver's "Big Catch" meal the worst restaurant meal in America, noting that it contained 33 grams of trans fat, 19 grams of saturated fat, 1,320 calories, and almost 3,700 milligrams of sodium. The company announced that it had eliminated trans fats from its menu, by January 2014.


title: Long John Silver's

text: In March 2015, James O'Reilly, who had previously worked for KFC (another Yum! Brands holding), was appointed as the CEO. He stated that he expected the chain to maintain its 1,132 stores, refocus its marketing following negative press about the fat and sodium content of the menu, and looked to the possibility of future expansion.


title: Long John Silver's

text: On May 22, 2018, Long John Silver's announced the acquisition of 76 franchised restaurants, primarily owned and renovated by ServUS, located primarily in Indiana. On October 19, 2019, Warren W. Rosenthal, former president of Jerrico and developer of 1,350 Long John Silver's restaurants, died, aged 96.


title: Christopher Lawford

text: Christopher Kennedy Lawford (March 29, 1955 – September 4, 2018) was an American author, actor, and activist. He was a member of the prominent Kennedy family, and son of English actor Peter Lawford and Patricia "Pat" Kennedy Lawford, who was a sister of President John F. Kennedy. He graduated from Tufts University in 1977 and earned a Juris Doctor degree from Boston College in 1983. He later earned a master's certificate in Clinical Psychology from Harvard University and was a lecturer on drug addiction.


title: Christopher Lawford

text: After struggling with addiction for 17 years, he became an actor, performing in several movies and television shows for over 20 years. He wrote several books, based on his own experience, about addiction and recovery. He also traveled around the U.S. speaking about his experiences with addiction for 20 years, and was a public health campaigner, working with organizations like the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations (UN), and for the U.S. federal government.


title: Christopher Lawford

text: Lawford was born on March 29, 1955, at Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica, California . He was named for Saint Christopher and because his mother liked the name. He was the eldest child and only son of actor and "Rat Pack" member Peter Lawford (1923–1984) and Patricia "Pat" Kennedy Lawford (1924–2006), who was President John F. Kennedy's sister. His three younger sisters were Sydney Lawford McKelvy (born 1956), Victoria Pender (born 1958), and Robin Lawford (born 1961). Lawford described himself as a "second-string Kennedy" because he did not get as much attention as his cousins. His parents divorced in 1966; Patricia Lawford moved from California to New York City with her son and daughters.


title: Christopher Lawford

text: Before his parents' divorce, Lawford attended St. Martin of Tours Elementary School in Los Angeles, where at the age of 8, he was informed about his uncle John F. Kennedy's assassination. After moving to New York City with his mother, he attended the Middlesex School, a prep school in Concord, Massachusetts. He graduated from Tufts University in 1977 and earned a J.D. degree from Boston College Law School in 1983. He later earned a master's certificate in Clinical Psychology from Harvard University, and lectured on drug addiction at Harvard, Columbia University, and other colleges.


title: Christopher Lawford

text: In 1969, the year after his uncle Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated, when Lawford was 14, he was introduced to LSD by his peers at school. He was addicted to alcohol, cocaine, uppers, downers, and "any other drugs he could buy" for the next 17 years. During that time, he was "in and out of hospitals and arrested three times", including in 1980, for impersonating a doctor in Aspen, Colorado in order to purchase prescription medication. The charges were later dropped when Lawford completed his probation. In 2000, Lawford was diagnosed with hepatitis C, which he contracted due to his years of drug use.


title: Christopher Lawford

text: Lawford briefly attended Fordham Law School, but dropped out after a few months due to his dependency on heroin. In April 1984, the same year his father Peter Lawford died at the age of 61, after years of alcohol and drug abuse, Lawford's cousin and best friend David Kennedy, and third oldest son of Robert Kennedy, who also battled substance abuse issues, died of a drug overdose at the age of 28. David's death prompted Lawford to seek professional help for his issues. In 1986, at the age of 30, Lawford entered rehab and got treatment for his drug addiction, and remained clean and sober until his death in 2018.


title: Christopher Lawford

text: Lawford chose to become, like his father, an actor in the mid-1980s, after realizing that a law career would not suit him. He performed in commercials in Boston for two years, and then he and his wife moved to Southern California in 1988 so that he could pursue an acting career. He worked in film and television for over 20 years. His acting credits included the sitcom "Frasier" and the drama "The O.C." . In 2003, he had a brief stint on the soap opera "General Hospital", but was best known for playing Philip “Charlie” Brent, Jr. on "All My Children" from 1992 to 1995.


title: Christopher Lawford

text: Lawford had small roles in films such as "The Russia House", a 1990 spy thriller co-starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Sean Connery, and the 1991 rock-music film "The Doors", which was directed by Oliver Stone. Lawford played a Navy officer in the 2000 film "Thirteen Days", a drama about the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. In 1997, Lawford had a role in the independent comedy "Kiss Me Guido" as the gay lover of the main character. He also had a small role in "", co-starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, who directed Lawford in a 1990 episode of the HBO anthology series "Tales from the Crypt" ("The Switch") and was married to Lawford's cousin Maria Shriver at the time. In 2005, Lawford appeared in the motorcycle racing film "The World's Fastest Indian", co-starring Anthony Hopkins.


title: Christopher Lawford

text: Lawford wrote several books "that described his efforts to recover from drug addiction". In 2005, he published his memoir, "Symptoms of Withdrawal", in which he recounted decades of "better living through chemistry". In 2009, he wrote "Moments of Clarity", a compilation of first-person recollections by famous addicts, including Ed Begley, Jr., Alec Baldwin, Buzz Aldrin, Richard Dreyfuss, Martin Sheen, Judy Collins, and musician and federal prisoner Dejuan Verrett. The book was dedicated to Lawford's cousin David Kennedy, and another cousin, Patrick J. Kennedy, wrote the introduction. Lawford told interviewer Connie Martinson that although writing "Moments of Clarity" was "difficult" and he did not want to do it, the book was "meant to happen".


title: Christopher Lawford

text: In 2013, Lawford published "Recover to Live: Kick Any Habit, Manage Any Addiction", in which he interviewed 100 addiction specialists and described treatments for alcohol and drug dependence, gambling, sex and porn, eating disorders, smoking, and hoarding. In 2014, he published "What Addicts Know: 10 Lessons From Recovery To Benefit Everyone"; Dr. Drew Pinsky wrote the foreword. Lawford's final book about addiction and recovery was 2016's "When Your Partner Has an Addiction", "a how-to manual for people who want to stay with their addicted partners", which he co-authored with psychotherapist Beverly Engel.


title: Christopher Lawford

text: Lawford also wrote a book about dealing with hepatitis C, called "Healing Hepatitis C", which he co-wrote with Diana Sylvestre in 2009.


title: Christopher Lawford

text: Lawford traveled around the U.S. speaking about his experiences with addiction for 20 years. He was a public health campaigner, and worked with the World Health Organization (WHO), the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, and the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse, and was a public advocacy consultant to Caron Treatment Centers, an organization that ran treatment programs. In 2001, Lawford founded and was CEO of the Global Recovery Initiative, a not-for-profit organization that "seeks to remove barriers and provide opportunities for people in recovery".


title: Christopher Lawford

text: Lawford also worked with the United Nations (UN). In March 2010, he traveled to Ukraine on behalf of the UN, to participate in a discussion with health officials and advocates about "issues related to hepatitis C (Hep C) prevention in Ukraine", and to raise awareness. In 2011, was named a Goodwill Ambassador on Drug Dependence Treatment and Care, in 2012, was involved in a campaign against opiate use in Afghanistan, and served on the UN's Office on Drugs and Crime. His cousin, former Rhode Island congressman Patrick J. Kennedy, said about Lawford: "Chris was one of those people who had a way of telling stories that lifted people’s perceptions and judgments of those who suffer from the disease of addiction".


title: Christopher Lawford

text: Lawford was married and divorced three times. He had three children, David Christopher Kennedy Lawford (named after his cousin David Kennedy), Savannah Rose Lawford, and Matthew Peter Valentine Lawford with his first wife Jeannie Olsson, an ad-sales assistant for "New York Magazine". They divorced in 2000. In 2005, he married Russian actress Lana Antonova; they divorced in 2009. In 2014, Lawford married yoga instructor Mercedes Miller in Hawaii. At the time of his death in 2018, he had been in a relationship with his girlfriend Kyla Resch since August 2017.


title: Christopher Lawford

text: On September 4, 2018, Lawford died of a heart attack in Vancouver, British Columbia, where he was living with his girlfriend and working to open a recovery center. He had a medical emergency at a yoga studio and later died. Patrick Kennedy told the Associated Press that Lawford had been doing "hot yoga, which he did often, but the strain of it 'must have been too much for him at that point'". Lawford's cousins Maria Shriver, Patrick Kennedy, and Kerry Kennedy took to Twitter after his death, honoring Lawford's work in the recovery community.


title: My Two Dads

text: My Two Dads is an American sitcom television series that was produced by Michael Jacobs Productions in association with Tri-Star Television (later Columbia Pictures Television) and distributed by TeleVentures. It starred Paul Reiser, Greg Evigan, and Staci Keanan. The series premiered on NBC on September 20, 1987, airing three seasons through April 30, 1990.


title: My Two Dads

text: The series begins after Marcy Bradford (played by Emma Samms in the second-season episode "In Her Dreams"), the mother of 12-year-old Nicole Bradford (Keanan), has died. The two men who had competed for Marcy's affections in Key West during the summer of 1974 – Michael Taylor (Reiser), a successful financial advisor, and Joey Harris (Evigan), a struggling artist, former friends who grew to hate one another over their mutual interest in the woman – are awarded joint custody of Nicole.


title: My Two Dads

text: Each week, the mix-ups and trials of two single men raising a teenage daughter provide the stories. Judge Margaret W. Wilbur (Florence Stanley), a family court judge who gave custody of Nicole to Michael and Joey, frequently visits the new family. She bought the building in which Joey lived, so is now the live-in landlord. Michael originally has his own condo uptown, but in Episode 2, Nicole stages a sit-in at school because she feels she had no home, and the men decide it is better to all live in one home. They choose Joey's loft.


title: My Two Dads

text: Nicole's actual paternity is never revealed on the show, but in the episode "Pop, the Question," Michael and Joey — after a falling out — have a DNA test to determine which of them is Nicole's biological father. The test is conducted against Nicole's wishes; she is happier not knowing who her true father is, and she destroys the results before opening them. Michael and Joey later resolve their differences and reconcile. Judge Wilbur looks at the results, but throws them away without revealing them to the audience.


title: My Two Dads

text: The series comes to an end (in the episode called "See You in September?") when Joey reconnects with a former girlfriend named Sarah, and eventually moves to San Francisco to live with her and her daughter, Grace. He stays in contact with Nicole, Michael and Judge Wilbur, all of whom remain in New York. Nicole writes a letter to Joey, in which she makes reference to going out to San Francisco to visit, and she ends by saying that no matter what, or where he is, or who he is with, she would always be happy with him as one of her two dads.


title: My Two Dads

text: The series regularly featured Giovanni Ribisi and Chad Allen as two boys (Cory Kupkus and Zach Nichols, respectively) who competed for Nicole's affections, similar to how her two dads had done for her mother's. Florence Stanley appeared as Judge Margaret Wilbur, who was responsible for assigning Nicole's custody, and who regularly looked over the family; she was also their landlady, being the resident owner of the apartment building where the family lived. Amy Hathaway played Nicole's worldly best friend, Shelby Haskell. The cast was rounded out by former football player Dick Butkus, who managed the cafe on the building's first floor. The cafe (Klawicki's) was the second spot in the show around which a plot usually revolved; the first being the family's apartment. In the third season, when Dick Butkus left the series, the diner was then run by cook Julian (Don), but there was no explanation as to what happened to Ed Klawicki. Ownership of the diner was explained to have been taken over by Judge Wilbur at this point, and it was renamed The Judge's Court Cafe.


title: My Two Dads

text: "My Two Dads" had crossovers with another NBC show, "Night Court". Judge Margaret W. Wilbur, played by Florence Stanley, appeared on "Night Court". In turn, Richard Moll guest starred as his "Night Court" character Bull Shannon in the "My Two Dads" episode "Playing with Fire", protecting Judge Wilbur from a recently released criminal that she had sent to prison years before.


title: My Two Dads

text: In August 1990, USA Network paid Columbia Pictures Television Distribution about $250,000 an episode, for as many as 15 runs over a three-year period, a price that was the syndication record until "Major Dad" surpassed that price two years later. Reruns of the show aired on the USA Network through the 1990s and again in the early 2000s.


title: My Two Dads

text: Shout! Factory (under license from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment) has released the first two seasons of "My Two Dads" on DVD in Region 1. Season 2 was released as a "Shout! Factory Exclusives" title, available exclusively through their online store.


title: My Two Dads

text: Mill Creek Entertainment released a 10 episode best-of set entitled "My Two Dads- You Can Count on Me" on March 22, 2011. The single disc release features episodes from the first 2 seasons.


title: Ghanaian cedi

text: The cedi ( ) (currency sign: GH₵; currency code: GHS) is the unit of currency of Ghana. It is the fourth historical and only current legal tender in the Republic of Ghana. One cedi is divided into one hundred pesewas (Gp).


title: Ghanaian cedi

text: After independence Ghana separated itself from the British West African pound, which was the currency of the British colonies in the region. The new republic's first independent currency was the Ghanaian pound (1958–1965). In 1965, Ghana decided to leave the British colonial monetary system and adopt the widely accepted decimal system. The African name Cedi (1965–1967) was introduced in place of the old British pound system. Ghana's first President Dr. Kwame Nkrumah introduced Cedi notes and Pesewa coins in July 1965 to replace the Ghanaian pounds, shillings and pence. The cedi bore the portrait of the President and was equivalent to eight shillings and four pence (8s 4d), i.e. one hundred old pence, so that 1 pesewa was equal to one penny.


title: Ghanaian cedi

text: After the February 1966 military coup, the new leaders wanted to remove the face of Nkrumah from the banknotes. The "new cedi" (1967–2007) was worth 1.2 cedis, which made it equal to half of a pound sterling (or ten shillings sterling) at its introduction. Decades of high inflation devalued the new cedi, so that in 2007 the largest of the "new cedi" banknotes, the 20,000 note, had a value of about US$2. The new cedi was gradually phased out in 2007 in favor of the "Ghana cedi" at an exchange rate of 1:10,000. By removing four digits, the Ghana cedi became the highest-denominated currency unit issued in Africa. It has since lost over 90% of its value.


title: Ghanaian cedi

text: The word "cedi" is the Akan word for cowry shell. Cowries (plural of cowry) were formerly used as currency in what is now Ghana. The "Monetaria moneta" or money cowry is not native to West African waters but is a common species in the Indian Ocean. The porcelain-like shells came to West Africa, beginning in the 14th century, through trade with Arab merchants. The first modern coins exclusively used at the Gold Coast were produced in 1796 but cowries were used alongside coins and gold dust as currency until 1901.


title: Ghanaian cedi

text: The first cedi was introduced in 1965, replacing the pound at a rate of 2.4 cedi = 1 pound, or 1 pesewa = 1 penny. The first cedi was pegged to sterling at a rate of 2.4 cedis = 1 pound or 8s 4d per cedi.


title: Ghanaian cedi

text: The first cedi was replaced in 1967 by a "new cedi" which was worth 1.2 first cedis. This allowed a decimal conversion with the pound, namely 2 second cedis = 1 pound. The change also provided an opportunity to remove Kwame Nkrumah's image from coins and notes.


title: Ghanaian cedi

text: The second cedi was initially pegged to sterling at a rate of ₵2 = £1 stg. However, within months, the second cedi was devalued to a rate of ₵2.45 = £1 stg, less than the initial value of the first cedi. This rate was equivalent to ₵1 = 0.98 U.S. dollars and the rate to the dollar was maintained when sterling was devalued in November 1967. Further pegs were set of $0.55 in 1971, $0.78 in 1972, and $0.8696 in 1973 before the currency was floated in 1978. High inflation ensued, and so the cedi was re-pegged at ₵2.80 = $1.00.


title: Ghanaian cedi

text: The cedi's value continued to be eaten away on the black market. In the early 1980s, the government started cracking down hard on the retail of products at prices other than the official established sale price (also known as price controls). This had the effect of driving nearly all commerce underground, where black market prices for commodities were the norm, and nothing existed on store shelves. By 1983 the cedi was worth about 120 to one U.S. dollar on the black market, a pack of cigarettes cost about ₵150 (if they could be found), but the bank rate continued at ₵2.80 = $1.00. Finally, with foreign currency completely drying up for all import transactions, the government was forced to begin a process of gradual devaluation, and a liberalization of its strict price controls. This process ended in 1990 with a free float of the cedi against foreign currencies. Inflation continued (see the exchange rate chart) until by July 2007, one US dollar was worth about ₵9500, and a transition to the third cedi was initiated.


title: Ghanaian cedi

text: In 1979 a currency confiscation took place. New banknotes were issued which were exchanged for old ones at a rate of 10 old notes for 7 new ones. Coins and bank accounts were unaffected.


title: Ghanaian cedi

text: A second confiscation took place in 1982, when the ₵50 note (the highest denomination) was demonetized. Ghanaians, in theory, could exchange any number of ₵50 notes for coins or other banknotes without loss, but foreigners could not make any exchange. However, many Ghanaians who were hoarding large amounts of cedis feared reprisal if they tried to convert all of it, and so simply burned a lot of their money. Many other Ghanaians received "promise payment notes" from the banks, but never received compensation. This confiscation was publicly justified as a means to create a disincentive for the flourishing black market. However, from a monetary perspective, currency confiscations have the effect of reducing the available cash in the economy, and thereby slowing the rate of inflation. After the ₵50 note confiscation, the ₵20 note was the highest cedi denomination, but had a street value of only about $0.35 (U.S.)


title: Ghanaian cedi

text: After the ₵50 note confiscation, fears existed that the government could also confiscate the ₵20 or even the ₵10 notes. This fear, along with inflation running at about 100% annually, started causing Ghanaians to lose their faith in their country's own currency. Some transactions could only then be done in foreign currencies (although that was technically illegal), and other, more routine transactions began to revert to barter.


title: Ghanaian cedi

text: In 1991, 10, 20, 50, and 100 cedi coins were introduced, followed by 200 and 500 cedis in 1996. These six denominations were still in circulation until 2007. However, the 10 cedis (~0.1 U.S. cents) and 20 cedis (~0.2 U.S. cents) coins were not seen much due to their small value.


title: Ghanaian cedi

text: Because of the rampant inflation in the decades before the exchange the second cedi was only worth a small fraction of its original value. The government decided to "cut" four zeros off the currency by switching to the third cedi. The new currency was not introduced as the third cedi but is instead officially called the "Ghanaian cedi" (GH₵), in contrast to the second cedi that was officially known as the "new cedi". In the second half of 2007 both the second and third cedi were legal tender as the old currency was being gradually withdrawn. At the end of December 2007, more than 90% of all old coins and notes had been withdrawn. From January 2008 old banknotes could only be exchanged at banks and were no longer legal tender.


title: Ghanaian cedi

text: On 14 May 2010, a GH₵2 banknote was issued to meet public need for an intermediate denomination and reduce the frequency, and associated cost, of printing large volumes of the GH₵1 banknote. The introduction of the new denomination coincided with the conclusion of the year-long centenary celebrations of the birth of Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana's first president, and has the commemorative text "Centenary of the Birth of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah".


title: Ghanaian cedi

text: Due to periods of "sustained high inflation" and "perennial depreciation of the currency", the Bank of Ghana on 29 November 2019, announced the issuance of a new 2-cedi coin and as well as new 100 and 200-cedi banknotes. Existing 1 and 2 cedi banknotes remain legal tender, though these denominations will be gradually replaced by coins to reduce costs.


title: Ghanaian cedi

text: The third Cedi has been losing value continuously since it was introduced. In 2014, the inflation rose rapidly as the value of the third cedi fell to a fourth of its original value. The devaluation was temporarily halted in the last quarter of 2014 as the currency stabilized due to a pending IMF bailout of Ghana.


title: Ghanaian cedi

text: Due to its negligible purchasing power, the one pesewa coin is rarely seen in circulation. In September 2021, the Bank of Ghana began the process of withdrawing GH₵1 and GH₵2 notes from circulation to encourage the use of coins of their corresponding face values.


title: Ghanaian cedi

text: In August 2022, accelerating inflation and continued economic mismanagement has caused the cedi's value to drop to 10 U.S. cents (GH₵10 = US$1). , the annual inflation rate of 37.2% as reported by the Ghana Statistical Service was the highest since 2001.


title: Ghanaian cedi

text: By October 2022, the cedi became the world's worst performing currency, having lost 60% of its value relative to the U.S. dollar since the end of 2021. The exchange rate was about GH₵15 per U.S. dollar.


title: Ghanaian cedi

text: The Bank of Ghana has been issuing all Ghanaian coins since 1958. Beside the coins in general circulation the bank have also issued commemorative coins These special coins have been issued in shillings (1958), crowns (1965), pounds (1958–1977), sikas (1997–2003) and cedis (2013-). It is unclear if the Bank of Ghana considered commemorative crowns and sikas together with the commemorative pounds that were coined after 1965 as legal tender or simply as medallions.


title: Ghanaian cedi

text: Only coins that have been or are in general circulation are included in this list. The years of issue does not indicated that the series have been coined every year in the period but that the coin has been issued more than once in the stated period. Some coins are held back and released years after they are issued. This means that in the general circulation there are worn out coins and coins in mint condition from the same issuing year. The Bank of Ghana has never stated if they are simply holding back already stamped coins until they are needed or if they are stamping coins successively with old issue years.


title: Ghanaian cedi

text: The new coins are 1 pesewa (100 old cedi), 5 pesewas (500), 10 pesewas (1,000), 20 pesewas (2,000), 50 pesewas (5,000), 1 cedi (10,000) and 2 cedis (20,000).


title: Ghanaian cedi

text: The Bank of Ghana has been issuing all Ghanaian banknotes since 1958. Most of the Ghanaian banknotes have been changed slightly from one year's issue to the next year's issue in the ongoing technological fight against counterfeit money. The signature on the notes also changes when a new governor takes over the management of the Bank of Ghana. Such changes are frequent and are not covered in this list. The years of issue do not indicate that the series has been printed every year in the period, but that the banknote has been issued more than once in the given period.


title: Devon Werkheiser

text: Devon Joseph Werkheiser (born March 8, 1991) is an American actor and musician. As an actor, Werkheiser is known for his starring role as Ned Bigby on the Nickelodeon sitcom "Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide", and for his role as the lead character Nolan Byrd in the 2007 Nickelodeon television movie "Shredderman Rules". Werkheiser also played Peter Parkes in the fourth and final season of the ABC Family series "Greek".


title: Devon Werkheiser

text: Werkheiser was born in Atlanta, Georgia, and raised in Johns Creek, Georgia. His parents enrolled him in acting classes at the Talent Factory, a local children’s acting program.


title: Devon Werkheiser

text: After landing a minor role in "We Were Soldiers", Werkheiser and his mother moved to Los Angeles to pursue his acting career. In 2003, he had a main role as Max Korda in the TV movie "Recipe for Disaster". Since his arrival in Hollywood, Werkheiser has landed several television and film roles, the biggest of which is that of Ned Bigby on "Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide". Werkheiser lent his voice in movies such as: "Casper's Scare School" the voice of as Casper the Friendly Ghost, Casper's Shadow, and Good Dragon and "The Wizzard of Krudd" as the voice of Gordo.


title: Devon Werkheiser

text: In 2007, Werkheiser starred in a Nickelodeon movie based on Wendelin Van Draanen's "Shredderman" book series "Shredderman Rules" as Nolan Byrd/Shredderman. Later that year, Werkheiser played the role of Chris Marino in Lifetime original movie "Christmas in Paradise". In 2009, Werkheiser starred as Victor in the movie "The First Time". He played the role of Victor, who has an incurable crush on hot senior Anya, who is way out of his league and she doesn't have a clue he exists. He also had a significant role in the movie "The Prankster", in which he played the role of Brad Burris.


title: Devon Werkheiser

text: In 2011, Werkheiser played the role of Danny in the horror thriller movie "Beneath the Darkness". In 2012, he played the lead role of Cassidy Warren in web series "Never Fade Away". In 2013 Werkheiser starred as Max in the horror film "The Wicked". He played the supporting role of Brett in Lifetime movie "Zephyr Springs" also known as "Deadly Spa." In 2014, Werkheiser starred as Nick Behrle in the movie "California Scheming" and had a role as Fitch in the movie "Helicopter Mom".


title: Devon Werkheiser

text: In 2016, Werkheiser starred as Jason in the television movie "Bad Sister," which premiered on Lifetime on January 4, 2016; in the movie his character is stalked by the school's newest nun. He hosted DanceOn's first competition series "Dance-Off Juniors" on free mobile-streaming service Go90, which premiered on April 20, 2016. In summer 2016, Werkheiser starred as Logan in the romantic comedy film "Sundown" directed by Fernando Librrija and co-starring Camilla Belle, Sean Marquette, and Sara Paxton. On December 5, 2016, he guest starred in an episode of "2 Broke Girls". In 2017, Werkheiser played the role of Brock in the comedy film "Where's the Money" alongside Andrew Bachelor and Logan Paul"."


title: Devon Werkheiser

text: In 2018, he had a supporting role as Joey in the indie crime drama "Break Night" and played the role of a judge in the dance film "To The Beat!" alongside Alyson Stoner. Werkheriser played the role of Charlie in the web mini-series "Rough Draft", which was released on YouTube on February 11, 2019. Werkheiser played the supporting role of Floyd Stiles in the crime film "Crown Vic". In 2019, Werkheiser starred as Sam in the romantic comedy film "Santa Girl" alongside Jennifer Stone.


title: Devon Werkheiser

text: In 2021, Werkheiser was a member of the cast in the film "Rust", when production was suspended after a prop gun held by Alec Baldwin unintentionally discharged, resulting in the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. Production on the film was later scheduled to resume in early 2023.


title: Devon Werkheiser

text: Werkheiser was signed with Universal Motown, however his label status on Myspace later changed to unsigned. He performed live shows with female vocalists Kristen Marie Hollyin and Britney Christian.


title: Devon Werkheiser

text: His first single, "If Eyes Could Speak", was released April 1, 2010 on iTunes. The official music video was released via YouTube on June 15, 2010. It stars himself and his partner at the time, Molly McCook. His second single, "Sparks Will Fly", was released July 29, 2010 on iTunes.


title: Devon Werkheiser

text: He released his first EP "I Am" on June 25, 2013. On June 9, 2015, he released his second EP "Here and Now". On January 3, 2016, Werkheiser released the single "Stuck On the Ground". He released the single "Fire" on January 22, 2016. On January 29, 2016, Werkheiser released a stripped version of "Stuck on the Ground".


title: Karen (film)

text: Karen is a 2021 American crime thriller film written and directed by Coke Daniels, and starring Taryn Manning, Cory Hardrict, Jasmine Burke, Roger Dorman, Brandon Sklenar, and Gregory Alan Williams. The title of the film is a reference to the American "Karen" stereotype. The film was critically panned upon release.


title: Karen (film)

text: Malik and Imani Jeffries, a young black couple, move into a new house in the fictional affluent suburban Atlanta community of Harvey Hill, named after Confederate general Daniel Harvey Hill. Harvey Hill Homeowners Association president Karen Drexler, their next-door neighbor, quickly introduces herself to Malik; she refuses to shake his hand, callously comments about not "having any cash" in her home, and installs a security camera directed towards their house. Although perplexed by Karen's behavior, the couple decides to ignore their concerns and focus on settling in.


title: Karen (film)

text: Unbeknownst to both of them, the virulently racist Karen has Neo-Confederate memorabilia in her home and a reputation for abusing her power as president to target local black residents, often recruiting her equally racist brother, Atlanta Police Department patrolman Michael Wind, to assist her. She soon starts harassing and stalking the couple, trying to find something she can use to get them out of Harvey Hill. She discovers that Malik secretly smokes marijuana and catches her teenage son Kyle watching the couple have sex in front of an open window, but when she raises the issue at a meeting of the Association's executive board, the other members, disturbed by her bigoted remarks about African Americans, decide against taking any action.


title: Karen (film)

text: After learning that the couple is holding a housewarming party for their friends, Karen convinces Imani that she wants to make amends and is invited. At the party, she quickly offends everyone present, including the couple, by insinuating that black Americans are being too angry and that if they dislike the country, they should just return to Africa. The next day, Karen encounters three young black men, demanding that they identify themselves. They refuse, and she calls Mike, falsely accusing them of harassment. He arrests them, but they are quickly released after video footage of Karen's phone call, recorded by the trio, and their subsequent arrest, recorded by Imani on her cellphone, surfaces. The Association then fires her as president after being sued by prominent civil rights lawyer Charles Wright, the father of one of the young men.


title: Karen (film)

text: Growing more deranged and frustrated, Karen gets Mike to pull Malik over while driving home from work by revealing his past marijuana usage. Finding no marijuana in Malik's car, Mike plants a bag of the substance in the trunk, subsequently arresting him following a physical altercation. After his rookie partner, Officer Hill, accuses him of racism, Mike threatens to kill Hill if he ever double-crosses him again in the field, warning that a secret brotherhood within the police force shields him from any charges. Malik manages to post his own bail and arrives home the following morning. Karen then visits Imani, asking her and Malik to leave the neighborhood to avoid any more trouble, but Imani defiantly declines. The couple then hires Charles to represent them, who shows them a file suggesting that after a Black vigilante killed Karen's police officer husband Ken Drexler and two other officers a few years earlier, Karen became unhinged and was later dismissed from her job as an elementary school teacher for making racist remarks towards her students.


title: Karen (film)

text: That night, Mike, alerted by Karen of recent events, arrives with a falsified search warrant and arrests Malik again for owning an unregistered handgun, and Imani tearfully calls Charles, who calls the precinct and discovers Malik was not formally booked. Meanwhile, Karen cuts the power to the couple's house and breaks in with a gun. While Imani defends herself with a sword, Karen shoots at her several times, prompting a neighbor to call the police. Mike immediately rushes to Imani's house, where the siblings threaten her at gunpoint before Karen shoots her in the shoulder, seemingly killing her. Hill rushes in, and a standoff ensues until Mike and Hill shoot each other at close range; Mike is killed while Hill is only slightly wounded. Karen prepares to finish him off, but a still-alive Imani grabs Mike's gun and kills her in self-defense.


title: Karen (film)

text: Malik is released from custody, and he and Imani receive a full apology and compensation from the city for their ordeal. Imani, now pregnant, assumes Karen's position within the Homeowners Association and successfully renames the community to John Lewis.


title: Karen (film)

text: In August 2021, it was announced that Quiver Distribution acquired North American distribution rights to the film, which was released theatrically and on demand on September 3, 2021.


title: Karen (film)

text: The film received mostly negative reviews from critics. Writing for RogerEbert.com, Nick Allen wrote that "The movie is clueless about to how be a thriller, in either a serious or tongue-in-cheek way. ... Even with the most basic forms of gratuitous schlock, "Karen" does not try."


title: Karen (film)

text: Michael Nordine, in "Variety", said that "Anyone subjected to this ... will want to get out of the theater as quickly as possible. Writer-director Coke Daniels’ satirical thriller offers little in the way of incisive social commentary or thrills. ... "Karen" plays out instead as a parade of clichés that escalate in terms of intensity but not tension. Karen reveals herself as an irredeemable racist the moment we meet her, and so there’s never any depth to her character. ... Shaky production values – abrupt cuts, image quality that feels more made-for-TV than silver screen – don’t help, but the main culprit is Daniels’ painfully unsubtle script."


title: Karen (film)

text: Richard Roeper commented in the Chicago Sun-Times that this "poorly executed tale of a hateful racist isn’t even worth watching as a curiosity. [It] contains no valuable insight or social commentary and simply plays like a Greatest Hits (or should we say Biggest F-Bombs) of horrific, racist, hateful behavior by the title character. This movie is so broad and so poorly executed it comes across as an extended "SNL" parody of a Jordan Peele film."


title: Karen (film)

text: On TheWrap website Elizabeth Weitzman observed that the film was a "genuine jaw-dropper on multiple levels, Coke Daniels’ "Karen" is a misbegotten thriller about a woman named Karen who actually is a Karen. ... Considering that there’s not a single twist or surprising moment, "Karen" fails as a thriller. Given that it delivers its messages – that Black lives matter, and that Karens and some cops are racist – with all the subtlety of a meme, it fails as a cultural critique."


title: Tōhoku region

text: The , Northeast region, or consists of the northeastern portion of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. This traditional region consists of six prefectures ("ken"): Akita, Aomori, Fukushima, Iwate, Miyagi, and Yamagata.


title: Tōhoku region

text: Tōhoku retains a reputation as a remote, scenic region with a harsh climate. In the 20th century, tourism became a major industry in the Tōhoku region.


title: Tōhoku region

text: In mythological times, the area was known as Azuma (吾妻, あづま) and corresponded to the area of Honshu occupied by the native Emishi and Ainu. The area was historically the Dewa and the Michinoku regions, a term first recorded in (654). There is some variation in modern usage of the term "Michinoku".


title: Tōhoku region

text: Tōhoku's initial historical settlement occurred between the seventh and ninth centuries, well after Japanese civilization and culture had become firmly established in central and southwestern Japan. The last stronghold of the indigenous Emishi on Honshu and the site of many battles, the region has maintained a degree of autonomy from Kyoto at various times throughout history.


title: Tōhoku region

text: The "Northern Fujiwara" (奥州藤原氏 "Ōshū Fujiwara-shi") were a Japanese noble family that ruled the Tōhoku region during the 12th century as their own realm. They kept their independence vis-a-vis the Imperial Court in Kyoto by the strength of their warrior bands until they were overwhelmed by Minamoto no Yoritomo in 1189.


title: Tōhoku region

text: Date Masamune (1567–1636), feudal lord of Date clan, expanded trade in the Tōhoku region. Although initially faced with attacks by hostile clans, he managed to overcome them after a few defeats and eventually ruled one of the largest fiefdoms of the later Tokugawa shogunate. He built many palaces and worked on many projects to beautify the region. He is also known to have encouraged foreigners to come to his land. Even though he funded and promoted an envoy to establish relations with the Pope in Rome, he was likely motivated at least in part by a desire for foreign technology, similar to that of other lords, such as Oda Nobunaga.


title: Tōhoku region

text: He showed sympathy for Christian missionaries and traders in Japan. In addition to allowing them to come and preach in his province, he also released the prisoner and missionary Padre Sotelo from the hands of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Date Masamune allowed Sotelo as well as other missionaries to practice their religion and win converts in Tōhoku.


title: Tōhoku region

text: Further, once Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543–1616) outlawed Christianity, Masamune reversed his position, and though disliking it, let Ieyasu persecute Christians in his domain. For 270 years, Tōhoku remained a place of tourism, trade and prosperity. Matsushima, for instance, a series of tiny islands, was praised for its beauty and serenity by the wandering haiku poet Matsuo Bashō.


title: Tōhoku region

text: The haiku poet Matsuo Bashō (1644–1694) wrote "Oku no Hosomichi" ("The Narrow Road to the Deep North") during his travels through Tōhoku.


title: Tōhoku region

text: In the 1960s, ironworks, steelmaking, cement, chemical industry, pulp, and petroleum refining industries began developing. The region is traditionally known as a less developed area of Japan.


title: Tōhoku region

text: The catastrophic 9.0-Magnitude earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011, inflicted massive damage along the east coast of this region, caused and was the costliest natural disaster ever which left 500,000 people homeless along with radioactive emissions from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster.


title: Tōhoku region

text: Tōhoku, like most of Japan, is hilly or mountainous, with the Ōu Mountains running north–south. The inland location of many of the region's lowlands has led to a concentration of much of the population there. Coupled with coastlines that do not favor seaport development, this settlement pattern resulted in a much greater than usual dependence on land and rail transportation. Low points in the central mountain range make communications between lowlands on either side of the range moderately easy.


title: Tōhoku region

text: Tōhoku was traditionally considered the granary of Japan because it supplied Sendai and the Tokyo-Yokohama market with rice and other farming commodities. Tōhoku provided 20 percent of the nation's rice crop.


title: Tōhoku region

text: The most often used subdivision of the region is dividing it to consisting of Aomori, Akita, and Iwate Prefectures and consisting of Yamagata, Miyagi, and Fukushima Prefectures.


title: Tōhoku region

text: The climate is colder than in other parts of Honshū due to the stronger effect of the Siberian High, and permits only one crop a year on paddy fields. The Pacific coast of Tohoku, however, is generally much less snowy than the region's popular image and has among the smallest seasonal temperature variation in Japan. The city of Iwaki, for instance, has daily mean temperatures ranging from in January to in August.


title: Tōhoku region

text: The population decline of Tōhoku, which began before the year 2000, has accelerated, now including previously dynamic Miyagi. Despite this, Sendai City has grown, in part due to relocations of people affected by the 2011 disaster. The population decline of Aomori, Iwate and Akita Prefectures, Honshu's three northernmost, began in the early 1980s after an initial loss of population in the late 1950s. Fukushima Prefecture, prior to 1980, had traditionally been the most populated, but today Miyagi is the most populated and urban by far.


title: S.Pellegrino

text: S.Pellegrino is an Italian natural mineral water brand, owned by the company Sanpellegrino S.p.A, part of Swiss company Nestlé since 1997. The principal production plant is located in San Pellegrino Terme in the Province of Bergamo, Lombardy, Italy, at 358 metres above sea level. Products are exported to most countries in Europe, the Americas, Australia and the Middle East, as well as in Asia in Japan, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong.


title: S.Pellegrino

text: On April 20, 1970, the company changed its name from Società Anonima Delle Terme di S.Pellegrino to Sanpellegrino S.p.A.


title: S.Pellegrino

text: In 1997, Sanpellegrino S.p.A. was bought by Perrier Vittel SA, a division of Nestlé which also owned the Perrier and Vittel bottled water brands.


title: S.Pellegrino

text: Paolo Luni, who joined the company as a consultant, then became General Manager and eventually CEO, left the company in 1999 after having inaugurated the Sanpellegrino Centennial celebrations, which took place in Teatro La Scala in Milan.


title: S.Pellegrino

text: The Sanpellegrino Company has ten production sites in Italy including its headquarters. More than 1,850 people work in the company. It also manages other brands like Vera, Levissima and Acqua Panna, and its revenue, according to the balance sheet of the year 2016, amounts to 895 million euros, about 96 million euros less than the previous year. 50,000 bottles of water are produced every hour in the San Pellegrino plant, for a total amount of one million bottles a day including soft drinks, sparkling water and cocktails. The bottles are then sorted to be exported to major countries around the world.


title: S.Pellegrino

text: In 2005, five hundred million bottles were sold globally. In 2017, that number had increased to one billion bottles.


title: S.Pellegrino

text: S.Pellegrino mineral water is produced in San Pellegrino Terme. The water may originate from a layer of rock below the surface, where it is mineralized from contact with limestone and volcanic rocks. The springs are located at the foot of a dolomite mountain wall which favours the formation and replenishment of a mineral water basin. The water then seeps to depths of over and flows underground to a distant aquifer.