title: Yue Chinese

text: It is the oral language of instruction in Chinese schools in Hong Kong and Macau, and is used extensively in Cantonese-speaking households. Cantonese-language media (Hong Kong films, television serials, and Cantopop), which exist in isolation from the other regions of China, local identity, and the non-Mandarin speaking Cantonese diaspora in Hong Kong and abroad give the language a unique identity. Colloquial Hong Kong Cantonese often incorporates English words due to historical British influences.


title: Yue Chinese

text: Most "wuxia" films from Canton are filmed originally in Cantonese and then dubbed or subtitled in Mandarin, English, or both.


title: Yue Chinese

text: When the Chinese government removed the prohibition on emigration in the mid-19th century, many people from rural areas in the coastal regions of Fujian and Guangdong emigrated to Southeast Asia and North America. Until the late 20th century, the vast majority of Chinese immigrants to North America came from the Siyi (four counties) to the southwest of Guangzhou.


title: Yue Chinese

text: The speech of this region, particularly the Taishan dialect, is thus the most common Yue variety in these areas.


title: Yue Chinese

text: Yue varieties are among the most conservative of Chinese varieties regarding the final consonants and tonal categories of Middle Chinese, so that the rhymes of Tang poetry are clearer in Yue dialects than elsewhere. However they have lost several distinctions in the initial consonants and medial vowels that other Chinese varieties have retained.


title: Yue Chinese

text: In addition to aspirated and unaspirated voiceless initials, Middle Chinese had a series of voiced initials, but voicing has been lost in Yue and most other modern Chinese varieties apart from Wu and Old Xiang.


title: Yue Chinese

text: In the Guangfu, Siyi and Gao–Yang subgroups, these initials have yielded aspirated consonants in the level and rising tones, and unaspirated consonants in the departing and entering tones.


title: Yue Chinese

text: In many Yue varieties, including Cantonese, Middle Chinese has become or in most words; in Taishanese, has also changed to , for example, in the native name of the dialect, "Hoisan".


title: Yue Chinese

text: Most Yue varieties have merged the Middle Chinese retroflex sibilants with the alveolar sibilants, in contrast with Mandarin dialects, which have generally maintained the distinction. For example, the words "jiāng" and "zhāng" are distinguished in Mandarin, but in modern Cantonese they have the same sound, "jeung1".


title: Yue Chinese

text: Many Mandarin varieties, including Beijing dialect, have a third sibilant series, formed through a merger of palatalized alveolar sibilants and velars, but this is a recent innovation, which has not affected Yue and other Chinese varieties. For example, 晶, 精, 經 and 京 are all pronounced as "jīng" in Mandarin, but in Cantonese the first pair is pronounced "jīng", and the second pair "gīng". The earlier pronunciation is reflected in historical Mandarin romanizations, such as "Peking" (Beijing), "Kiangsi" (Jiangxi) and "Tientsin" (Tianjin).


title: Yue Chinese

text: Some Yue speakers, such as many Hong Kong Cantonese speakers born after World War II, merge with , but Taishanese and most other Yue varieties preserve the distinction.


title: Yue Chinese

text: Younger Cantonese speakers also tend not to distinguish between and the zero initial, though this distinction is retained in most Yue dialects.


title: Yue Chinese

text: Yue varieties retain the initial in words where Late Middle Chinese shows a shift to a labiodental consonant, realized in most Northern varieties of Chinese as .


title: Yue Chinese

text: Nasals can be independent syllables in Yue words, e.g. Cantonese "ńgh" (五) "five", and "m̀h" (唔) "not", although Middle Chinese did not have syllables of this type.


title: Yue Chinese

text: In most Yue varieties (except for Tengxian), the rounded medial has merged with the following vowel to form a monophthong, except after velar initials.


title: Yue Chinese

text: Most Yue varieties have retained the Middle Chinese palatal medial, but in Cantonese it has also been lost to monophthongization, yielding a variety of vowels.


title: Yue Chinese

text: Middle Chinese syllables could end with glides or , nasals , or , or stops , or . Syllables with vocalic or nasal endings could occur with one of three tonal contours, called level ("píng" 平), rising ("shàng" 上) or departing ("qù" 去). Syllables with final stops were traditionally treated as a fourth tone category, the entering tone ("rù" 入), because the stops were distributed in the same way as the corresponding final nasals.


title: Yue Chinese

text: While northern and central varieties have lost some of the Middle Chinese final consonants, they are retained by most southern Chinese varieties, though sometimes affected by sound shifts. They are most faithfully preserved in Yue dialects.


title: Yue Chinese

text: Final stops have disappeared entirely in most Mandarin dialects, including the Beijing-based standard, with the syllables distributed across the other tones.


title: Yue Chinese

text: For example, the characters , , , , , , , , , and are all pronounced "yì" in Mandarin, but they are all different in Yue (Cantonese "jeoi6", "ngat6", "ngai6", "jik1", "jik6", "ji3", "ji6", "ai3", "jap1", and "jat6", respectively).


title: Yue Chinese

text: Similarly, in Mandarin dialects the Middle Chinese final has merged with , but the distinction is maintained in southern varieties of Chinese such as Hakka, Min and Yue.


title: Yue Chinese

text: For example, Cantonese has "taahm" (譚) and "tàahn" (壇) versus Mandarin "tán", "yìhm" (鹽) and "yìhn" (言) versus Mandarin "yán", "tìm" (添) and "tìn" (天) versus Mandarin "tiān", and "hàhm" (含) and "hòhn" (寒) versus Mandarin "hán".


title: Yue Chinese

text: Middle Chinese is described in contemporary dictionaries as having four tones, where the fourth category, the entering tone, consists of syllables with final stops.


title: Yue Chinese

text: Many modern Chinese varieties contain traces of a split of each of these four tones into two registers, an upper or "yīn" register from voiceless initials and a lower or "yáng" register from voiced initials.


title: Yue Chinese

text: Mandarin dialects retain the register distinction only in the level tone, yielding the first and second tones of the standard language (corresponding to the first and fourth tones in Cantonese), but have merged several of the other categories.


title: Yue Chinese

text: Most Yue dialects have retained all eight categories, with a further split of the upper entering tone conditioned by vowel length, as also found in neighbouring Tai dialects.


title: Yue Chinese

text: A few dialects spoken in Guangxi, such as the Bobai dialect, have also split the lower entering tone.


title: Yue Chinese

text: While most Chinese varieties form compounds consisting of a qualifier followed by a qualified element, Yue dialects use the reverse order. For example, the Standard Chinese word for "guest" is 客人 "kèrén" "guest-person", but the same morphemes are interchanged in Cantonese "jɐn ha:k", Taishanese "ŋin hak" and Tengxian "jən hɪk". This is generally attributed to the influence of Tai languages, in which modifiers normally follow nouns.


title: Yue Chinese

text: Some Yue dialects, including Cantonese, can use the same word "bīn-go" (), meaning "which one", for both "who" and "which".


title: Yue Chinese

text: Other dialects, including Taishanese, use "sŭe" (, cognate with the word used in Mandarin) for "who", and words meaning "which one" for "which".


title: Jazakallah

text: JazakAllah (, ') or Jazāk Allāhu Khayran (, ') is a term used as an Islamic expression of gratitude meaning "May Allah reward you [with] goodness." The phrase "JazakAllah" itself is incomplete. It includes Allah, the Arabic word for God, and "jazaka", which refers to the act of rewarding, but it leaves out "khayr", which refers to the "good". Stating "Jazak Allahu Khayran" in full leaves no presumption regarding what the reward is because it is specified by the word "khayr".


title: Jazakallah

text: Although the common Arabic word for "thanks" is "shukran" (), "Jazāk Allāhu Khayran" is often used by Muslims instead, in the belief that Allah's reward is superior. The common response to "Jazāk Allāhu Khayran" is "wa ʾiyyāk" (), or "wa ʾiyyākum" () for plural, which means "and to you". A more formal reply is ""wa ʾantum fa-jazākumu-llāhu khayran"" () which means "And you too, may Allah reward you with goodness".


title: Jazakallah

text: Usamah bin Zaid narrated that the Messenger of Allah (s.a.w) said: “Whoever some good was done to him, and he says: ‘May Allah reward you in goodness’ then he has done the most that he can of praise.”


title: Rich Cronin

text: Richard Burton Cronin (August 30, 1974September 8, 2010) was an American singer, songwriter and rapper, best known for being the lead singer and primary songwriter for the pop and hip hop group LFO.


title: Rich Cronin

text: Cronin was born in the West Roxbury neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, on August 30, 1974, the son of Richard and Doris (Eddy) Cronin. He grew up in Kingston, Massachusetts, and was of Irish and Swedish ancestry. He had a brother Michael and a sister Cassandra. Cronin attended Sacred Heart High School, graduating in 1993. He also attended Bridgewater State College and worked part-time in a Blockbuster video store.


title: Rich Cronin

text: Cronin was a founding member of the pop group LFO. The group started in Germany on BMG in 1997 with member Brian Gillis, aka "Brizz". In the spring 1998, the group opened for *NSYNC and by this time were signed to BMG/Logic Records in the U.S. They were labeled as the "bad boys of pop" and cited The Beastie Boys and New Edition as influences. They released two singles "Sex U Up (The Way You Like It)" and "Can't Have You" with original member Brian Gillis, who left the group frustrated with the direction of the group and lack of success. Rich's brother Mike Cronin was a manager for the pop group O-Town.


title: Rich Cronin

text: Harold "Devin" Lima was added to the group to replace Brian Gillis six months before the hit "Summer Girls" was released. By this time, the group had transitioned from Logic Records to Arista Records. Executive Clive Davis worked closely with Cronin on the group's self-titled debut album.


title: Rich Cronin

text: The group's breakout hit "Summer Girls" was written by Cronin in 1999, hit #3 on Billboard's Hot 100, and was #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 Single Sales chart for six weeks. The single also went platinum in the U.S. with sales of over 1 million units.


title: Rich Cronin

text: The group's second album "Life is Good" was released on Davis' new label, J Records, with Cronin writing or co-writing each song on the album. The group had success with the album's first single "Every Other Time". LFO disbanded in 2002.


title: Rich Cronin

text: In 2007, Cronin was a cast member for the VH1 reality show "". The show also starred Chris Kirkpatrick of 'N Sync, Jeff Timmons of 98 Degrees and Bryan Abrams of Color Me Badd. The four former pop stars came together in Orlando, Florida to reestablish their music careers and to pitch their new music to major record labels over the period of three weeks in hopes of getting a record deal.


title: Rich Cronin

text: In 2008, Cronin released his only solo album "Billion Dollar Sound". He recorded two hit songs, "Impossible" and "Story of My Life". Cronin also formed a rap duo with Doug Ray (formerly of Bad Ronald) called Loose Cannons. They released one album entitled "Life Goes On". The band performed shows from 2006 until 2008.


title: Rich Cronin

text: On June 3, 2009, LFO posted a blog entitled "LFO IS BACK" on their official MySpace page which announced that they had reunited and were going on tour beginning July 9, 2009, with Rookie of the Year, Go Crash Audio, and Kiernan McMullan. A new song titled "Summer of My Life" also was announced in association with the reunion. In September 2009, however, LFO announced that they had again broken up.


title: Rich Cronin

text: Cronin's final song "It Only Gets Better" was recorded in 2009 after the LFO reunion tour. It was released shortly after his death from a stroke on September 8, 2010. "Billboard" described the song as an "upbeat tune...reminiscent of the boy band's past hits 'Summer Girls' and 'Girl on TV', but the lyrics discuss Cronin's health struggles and how they altered his view of the world".


title: Rich Cronin

text: In 1999, Cronin began dating actress Jennifer Love Hewitt, after meeting her backstage at the Blockbuster Entertainment Awards. Cronin wrote the song "Girl on TV" about Hewitt, and she also appeared in the video. They broke up in 2000.


title: Rich Cronin

text: In March 2005, Cronin sought treatment for constant headaches and he was diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia. He underwent chemotherapy at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. By January 2006, his leukemia was in remission, but recurred in 2007. He subsequently started the Rich Cronin Hope Foundation for Leukemia to raise awareness.


title: Rich Cronin

text: In the summer of 2010, Cronin suffered a relapse, and he was treated at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Boston. On the afternoon of September 8, 2010, Cronin died at the Brigham and Women's Hospital after suffering a stroke secondary to his leukemia due to complications from medicine he was taking to offset GVHD (graft-versus-host disease), which he had been struggling with after having a stem cell transplant. He was 36 years old. His funeral was held at St. Joseph Church in Kingston, Massachusetts, on September 13, attended by family and friends. He is buried at Vine Hills Cemetery in Plymouth County, Massachusetts.


title: Battenberg family

text: The Battenberg family is a non-dynastic cadet branch of the House of Hesse-Darmstadt, which ruled the Grand Duchy of Hesse until 1918. The first member was Julia Hauke, whose brother-in-law Grand Duke Louis III of Hesse created her Countess of Battenberg in 1851, with the style of "Illustrious Highness" (H.Ill.H.), at the time of her morganatic marriage to Grand Duke Louis's brother Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine. The name of the title refers to the town of Battenberg in Hesse. In 1858, the countess' title was elevated to Princess of Battenberg, with the style of "Serene Highness" (H.S.H.).


title: Battenberg family

text: The Battenberg name was last used by Prince Francis Joseph of Battenberg, youngest son of the Princess of Battenberg, who died childless in 1924. In 1917, most members of the family had been residing in the British Empire and had renounced their Hessian titles, due to rising anti-German sentiment among the British during the First World War. At that point, they changed the family name to Mountbatten, an anglicised version of Battenberg. However, Juan, Count of Barcelona, a son of Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg, Queen of Spain, bore the surname of Borbón y Battenberg until his death in 1993.


title: Battenberg family

text: Prince Alexander (1823–1888) was the third son of Grand Duke Louis II of Hesse and by Rhine and of Wilhelmina of Baden, yet it was openly rumoured that his biological father was actually Baron Augustus de Senarclens, his mother's chamberlain. Prince Alexander's spouse, Julia von Hauke (1825–1895), was a mere countess, the orphaned daughter of Count von Hauke, a Polish nobleman of German ancestry who had served as a general in the Imperial Russian Army and then as Deputy Minister of War of Congress Poland.


title: Battenberg family

text: Count von Hauke's rank was too low for his daughter's children with Prince Alexander to qualify for the succession to the throne of the Grand Duchy of Hesse. For this reason, her new brother-in-law Louis III of Hesse created the title of Countess of Battenberg () for her and for the couple's descendants.


title: Battenberg family

text: In 1858, the title, which referred to the town of Battenberg in Hesse, was elevated to princely status. There was never a corresponding principality of Battenberg; the title was a non-sovereign one in the nobility of the Grand Duchy of Hesse. A previous family of counts of Battenberg had become extinct in the 14th century.


title: Battenberg family

text: After 1858, the children of this union bore the title of Prince () or Princess (), with the style of Serene Highness (). Battenberg thus became the name of a morganatic cadet branch of the Grand Ducal family of Hesse, without the right of succession.


title: Battenberg family

text: One of the original couple's sons, Prince Alexander of Battenberg, was made Sovereign Prince of Bulgaria; he was later forced to abdicate.


title: Battenberg family

text: Another son, Prince Henry of Battenberg, married Princess Beatrice, the youngest daughter of Queen Victoria; their daughter, Victoria Eugenia Julia Ena, became queen consort of Spain. Her uncle Edward VII elevated her style to Royal Highness, so that she would have the necessary status to marry into the Spanish royal house.


title: Battenberg family

text: Alexander and Julia's eldest son, Prince Louis of Battenberg, became the First Sea Lord of the Royal Navy. Due to anti-German feelings prevalent in Britain during the First World War, he anglicised his name to Mountbatten, as did his children and nephews, the sons of Prince Henry and Princess Beatrice.


title: Battenberg family

text: One of the couple's four sons and one of their grandsons renounced their Hessian titles and were granted peerages by their cousin, George V: Prince Louis became the first Marquess of Milford Haven, while Prince Alexander, Prince Henry's eldest son, was created Marquess of Carisbrooke.


title: Battenberg family

text: Prince Louis's second daughter, Princess Louise of Battenberg, in 1923 married the future Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden and in 1950 became Queen Consort of Sweden. His younger son, Louis, became the last Viceroy of India. His elder daughter, Princess Alice of Battenberg, married Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark; their son, Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark (later styled as Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh), married the heir presumptive of the British throne, later Elizabeth II, after having renounced his Greek titles and taken his maternal grandfather's and uncle's surname, Mountbatten. The name Battenberg, in its anglicised form, is now a part of the personal surname, Mountbatten-Windsor, of some members of the British Royal Family.


title: Battenberg family

text: In 1897, Prince Francis Joseph of Battenberg married Princess Anna of Montenegro, a sister of Queen Elena of Italy and a maternal aunt of Alexander I of Yugoslavia.


title: Lurcher

text: A lurcher is a cross-bred dog resulting from mating a Greyhound or other sighthound with a dog of another type, commonly a herding dog or a terrier. The lurcher was for hundreds of years strongly associated with poaching; in modern times it is kept as a hunting dog or companion dog.


title: Lurcher

text: "Lurcher" is an old English term for a cross-bred dog - specifically the result of mating a sighthound with a dog of another type, typically a working breed. The term 'lurcher' was first used with this meaning in 1668; it is considered to be derived from the verb 'lurch', apparently a variant form of 'lurk', and meaning 'lurk' or 'steal'.


title: Lurcher

text: In England from 1389, the right to keep a dog of any kind used in hunting - specifically stated in the Act of Parliament: "None shall hunt but they which have sufficient living" in the Anglo-Norman and English of the time: "null leverer, ne lerce, nautre chien pur chacer",


title: Lurcher

text: translated as, no ""Greyhound, Hound nor other Dog to hunt;" – was limited by law to those "qualified", which meant anyone who had lands or holdings or income worth more than 10 pounds per annum; in other words: royalty, nobility, the gentry and the wealthy.


title: Lurcher

text: In the nineteenth century, the word was used to describe some rough-haired regional Greyhounds, which were banned from competition by Coursing Clubs such as Swaffham and Newmarket, due to the perception that they cut "turns" to kill instead of working the hare to gain points.


title: Lurcher

text: A lurcher is a cross, generally between a sighthound and a working dog breed. Generally, the aim of the cross is to produce a sighthound with more intelligence, a canny animal suitable for poaching rabbits, hares and game birds. Over time, poachers and hunters discovered that the crossing of certain breeds with sighthounds produced a dog better suited to this purpose, given the lurcher's combination of speed and intelligence.


title: Lurcher

text: Lurchers were traditionally bred in England to assist poachers in hunting rabbits and hares. Around the world they are kept as sporting dogs and family pets, or to compete in sports such as lure coursing and dog racing. In the USA they may compete in lure coursing events through the AKC and the UKC. Cross-breeds are not recognized by any major kennel club. In Canada, where the Canadian Kennel Club prohibits crossbreeding, and in the USA they can be registered with the North American Lurcher and Longdog Association.


title: Matthew Hayden

text: Matthew Lawrence Hayden (born 29 October 1971) is an Australian cricket commentator and former cricketer. His career spanned fifteen years. Hayden was a powerful and aggressive left-handed opening batsman, who along with opening partners, Justin Langer and Adam Gilchrist contributed heavily to Australia's success during its "golden era" (2004-2011) in Test and ODI (One Day International) cricket respectively. He is widely considered to be one of the best openers in Test cricket and holds the record of highest individual score by an Australian batsman, where he scored 380 against Zimbabwe during Zimbabwe's 2003 tour of Australia. This stands as the second highest individual score in test cricket (being behind Brian Lara‘s 400*) and is the highest score by an opening batsman in tests.


title: Matthew Hayden

text: Domestically, Hayden played for the state he was born in, Queensland, and also played for the state's Twenty20 (T20) competition team, the Brisbane Heat. Hayden retired from all forms of cricket in September 2012. In 2017, Hayden was inducted into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame. In September 2021, Hayden was appointed as the Batting Coach of Pakistan for the 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup.


title: Matthew Hayden

text: Hayden competed in the Gladiator Team Sports Challenge in 1995, Hayden's boat capsized near North Stradbroke Island; he and his two companions (one of whom was Queensland and Australian teammate Andrew Symonds and the other was Trent Butler) were forced to swim a kilometre to safety. Hayden subsequently appeared in a campaign promoting marine safety. In his spare time, Hayden is a keen cook and occasionally prepared meals for his teammates while on tour. A collection of his recipes was published in Australia in 2004 as "The Matthew Hayden Cookbook". A second book, "The Matthew Hayden Cookbook 2", was published in 2006. Prior to using a Mongoose, Hayden used a Gray-Nicolls bat with a fluorescent pink grip, to highlight and support research into a cure for breast cancer. This is at least in part inspired by his teammate Glenn McGrath's wife, who passed away due to breast cancer. He is married to Kellie and has three children


title: Matthew Hayden

text: Hayden is a devout Roman Catholic and said, ""When I’m in trouble, I ask: ‘What would Christ do?"'" He also routinely crossed himself on the field after reaching a century. When asked about faith in modern society, Hayden said, “"I think it’s very challenging to live as a Christian, or any sort of religion, in terms of modern day society. I think it’s very difficult as a young adult, and I think I really struggled with that over a long period of time”". Hayden was awarded the Australian Sports Medal on 14 July 2000. In 2009, as part of the Q150 celebrations, Matthew Hayden was announced as one of the Q150 Icons of Queensland for his role as a "sports legend". On 26 January 2010 he was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for service to cricket, and to the community through support for a range of health, youth and charitable organisations. Hayden is an Ambassador for the Australian Indigenous Education Foundation.


title: Matthew Hayden

text: Hayden played Sheffield Shield cricket for Queensland, playing 101 matches, and scoring 8831 runs at an average of 54.85. He also played in the English County Championship, first with Hampshire in 1997 and prominently as captain of Northamptonshire in 1999–2000; his County record is 3461 runs at 55.82. Hayden's first-class career yielded 24,603 runs at an average of 52.57.


title: Matthew Hayden

text: Matthew Hayden played for the Chennai Super Kings in the inaugural Indian Premier League (IPL) in April 2008, contracted for $375,000. Hayden became one of the foremost players in the league, and in 2009 won the Orange Cap as the season's highest run-scorer, with 572 runs.


title: Matthew Hayden

text: In 2011–12, Hayden resigned from his positions on the Queensland and Australian cricket boards to take part for the Brisbane Heat in Australia's Big Bash League.


title: Matthew Hayden

text: On 11 March 2010, Hayden announced his intention to use the Mongoose Cricket Bat, a bat specially tailored to the needs of Twenty20 cricket, during the 2010 IPL. Reactions to the bat were mixed. Stuart Law said that he would think 'twice' before using the Mongoose, while MS Dhoni said in his column that he believed in Hayden's ability 'no matter what means he uses'. After a quiet start to the third edition of the IPL, Hayden scored 93 off 43 deliveries to kickstart his campaign.


title: Matthew Hayden

text: Hayden and Michael Slater were both picked for the 1993 tour of England, but Slater performed better in the tour games, and secured the opening position alongside vice-captain Mark Taylor for the next few years. Hayden played a single test in the 4–8 March 1994 Test Match against South Africa in Johannesburg, scoring 15 and 5, filling in for an injured Taylor.


title: Matthew Hayden

text: His next Test selection was in the 1996–97 season, with three tests each against the West Indies and South Africa. He made his maiden century (125 against the West Indies in Adelaide), but averaged only 24.1 over the six tests, including four ducks. He was dropped from the team, as the selectors favoured other openers, initially Taylor and Matthew Elliott, then later Slater and Greg Blewett, for the next few years. At the time, he was compared occasionally to Graeme Hick, a fine domestic performer but not quite good enough to make it at the highest level.


title: Matthew Hayden

text: During these years, Hayden was a prolific batsman for the Queensland first-class cricket team. Weight of domestic cricket runs, and persistence, resulted in a resurrection of his international career for the 1999–2000 tour of New Zealand and the following 2000-01 summer against the West Indies. His results in those series were unconvincing, but he was still picked for the 2001 tour of India.


title: Matthew Hayden

text: On that tour of India, Hayden scored 549 runs, an Australian record for a three-Test series, at an average of 109.80. Before the 2001 India tour, Hayden averaged 24.36 from 13 Tests, with one century. After that, he was an automatic selection for the Test side. He scored over 1,000 Test runs in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005, the first man to achieve the feat five times. He was selected as one of Wisden's five 2003 Cricketers of the Year.


title: Matthew Hayden

text: In the first innings of the First Test against Zimbabwe on 10 October 2003 at the WACA, Hayden scored 380 runs from only 437 balls to set a new world record for an individual Test innings, passing the previous record of Brian Lara (375), set in April 1994. Hayden's total remained the record until 12 April 2004, when Lara scored 400 not out. As of May 2020, it remains the second-highest innings in Test history, and is the highest ever by an Australian. For his performances in 2004, he was named in the World Test XI by ICC.


title: Matthew Hayden

text: Hayden suffered a considerable form-slump towards the end of 2004, and went for sixteen consecutive tests without scoring a century. This continued into the highly anticipated 2005 Ashes, where Hayden failed to reach 40 in any of the first four tests, which put pressure on his position in the team; a hard-fought 138 from 303 balls in the Fifth Test at The Oval arguably saved his career. This signalled a return to form for Hayden for the 2005/06 season, and he scored centuries in four consecutive Tests, including the Oval Test, then home Tests against the ICC World XI and West Indies.


title: Matthew Hayden

text: Hayden's form in the 2006-07 Ashes series against England was average; he failed to reach 40 in the first three innings of the series, but again returned to form with scores of 92 in Perth, and 153 in the Boxing Day Test. For his performances in 2006, he was again named in the World Test XI by ICC.


title: Matthew Hayden

text: Hayden scored 30 centuries in his 103 tests. As of January 2019, this makes him one of only three Australians to have scored more test centuries than Don Bradman (29 centuries in 52 tests), the other two being Ricky Ponting and Steve Waugh. He also scored 29 half-centuries in Tests.


title: Matthew Hayden

text: In 2007–2008, Hayden became the third Australian, after Donald Bradman (four centuries in five Tests in 1947–48) and David Boon (three tons in five Tests in 1991–92) to register three or more hundreds in a Test series against India. For his performances in 2007, he was named in the World Test XI by ICC.


title: Matthew Hayden

text: Hayden has recorded three or more centuries in successive Tests three times: 2001–02 season, he registered four centuries in successive Tests against South Africa, at Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Johannesburg; during 2005–06 with centuries against England at The Oval in 2005, against a World XI at Sydney, and against the West Indies at Brisbane and Hobart in 2005–06; and in 2007-2008 he scored three centuries in successive Tests against India.


title: Matthew Hayden

text: The 2008–09 season was Hayden's final season of Test cricket. In nine Tests against India, New Zealand and South Africa, Hayden managed only 383 runs at 23.94, with two half-centuries and three ducks. His career ended when he was dropped from the ODI Australian team. Soon after Hayden announced his retirement from all international and first-class cricket prior to the tour of South Africa in 2008–09. His place was filled by young New South Wales opener Phillip Hughes. He finished his test career with 8625 runs at an average of 50.73.


title: Matthew Hayden

text: Hayden's most notable opening batting partner was Justin Langer. The opening pair represented Australia in more than 100 Test innings. The pair made 5654 runs while batting together in opening partnerships, with an average of 51.88 runs per partnership; as of January 2019, only Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes of the West Indies have scored more Test runs as an opening partnership, with 6,482 at an average of 47.31.


title: Matthew Hayden

text: Hayden was a regular and successful slip fielder for Australia, and he took 128 catches during his Test career.


title: Matthew Hayden

text: Hayden played as an opening batsman in the Australian team in 160 One Day Internationals throughout his career. He made his ODI debut for Australia in 1993 against England, but after playing 13 ODIs in 1993 and 1994, he was dropped from the team until 2000.


title: Matthew Hayden

text: Hayden played in the Australian side that won the 2003 One Day International Cricket World Cup. He was dropped from the ODI squad because of poor form after The Ashes in 2005, but returned to the Australian squad in the 2006–07 Australian season after Simon Katich fell out of favour and Shane Watson was injured.


title: Matthew Hayden

text: On 20 February 2007, Matthew Hayden posted his highest ODI score (181 not out) against New Zealand at Seddon Park in Hamilton. It was at the time the highest ODI score ever by an Australian and gave Hayden the unique distinction of holding both the Test and ODI record scores for an Australian batsman until the ODI record was broken by Shane Watson who scored 185* in 2011. His knock of 181* is the second highest ODI innings in a losing cause in ODI history just after Charles Coventry's 194*.


title: Matthew Hayden

text: He dominated the 2007 Cricket World Cup in the West Indies the tournament's best batsman, scoring three centuries before the completion of the Super 8s section of the tournament; he was only the third person to achieve this feat (the previous being Mark Waugh and Sourav Ganguly). The century against South Africa came off just 66 balls and broke John Davison's record for the fastest century in a World Cup. The Prime Minister of St Kitts and Nevis awarded Hayden with honorary citizenship after the match. His record was broken by Irish batsman Kevin O'Brien in the 2011 World Cup when he struck a century off 50 balls against England. Hayden also became only the second player in World Cup history to surpass 600 runs in a single tournament; he scored 659 runs for the tournament at an average of 73.22. In September 2007, Hayden was named ODI Player of the Year after his dominating performance throughout the World Cup. He was named in the 'Team of the Tournament' by Cricinfo. For his performances in 2007, he was named in the World ODI XI by the ICC and Cricinfo.


title: Matthew Hayden

text: Hayden played only one more season of ODI cricket, his last match for Australia being the second final of the 2007–08 Commonwealth Bank Series.


title: Matthew Hayden

text: Hayden played nine Twenty20 Internationals for Australia, including the 2007 ICC World Twenty20. He was the tournament's top scorer, with 265 runs. He scored 308 runs in T20Is with the average of 51.33 when retiring. He was named in the 'Team of the Tournament' by Cricinfo for the 2007 T20I World Cup.


title: Matthew Hayden

text: In the 2003 New Year's Test in Sydney against England, Hayden smashed a pavilion window in anger, after disagreeing with an umpire's decision to give him out. He was fined for this incident.


title: Matthew Hayden

text: He was a party to the controversy that emerged from the Second Test, 2007-08 Border-Gavaskar Trophy racism charges pressed by Australia against India, and was one of the witnesses for Andrew Symonds's charges against Harbhajan Singh. As a fallout of that instance in February 2008, Hayden was charged for a code of conduct violation by Cricket Australia, for calling the Indian spinner Harbhajan Singh an "obnoxious little weed", and for inviting Indian fast bowler Ishant Sharma for a boxing bout, during an interview aired on Brisbane radio station. He was reprimanded for his comment by Cricket Australia,


title: Matthew Hayden

text: He was strongly criticized by the BCCI and former Pakistan team captain Wasim Akram for reportedly calling India a third world country. Back home after a 2–0 series defeat by India, Hayden spoke about what he perceived to be poor ground conditions and inordinate delays during the matches "that happen in Third World countries". However, Hayden defended his remarks.


title: Matthew Hayden

text: On 13 January 2009, Hayden held a press conference at the Gabba and officially announced his retirement from representative cricket. The announcement followed a series of relatively poor performances in New Zealand and South Africa's tour of Australia, in which he failed to pass fifteen runs in nine innings. Paying tribute on his retirement, Hayden was hailed by teammates Ricky Ponting and Justin Langer as being the greatest ever opener from Australia. Hayden was recognised as statistically the best opener ever produced by the country.


title: Matthew Hayden

text: Hayden was appointed by the Queensland Government in March 2013 to head a tourism campaign aiming to attract more Indian tourists to Australia.


title: Matthew Hayden

text: With 30 Tests and 10 ODI centuries, Hayden is considered one of the best Australian openers of his era. He also scored 29 Test, 36 ODI and three T20I half-centuries.


title: Matthew Hayden

text: Hayden has also been working with Cricket Australia in raising the profile of cricket among the indigenous population of Australia. In 2010, he captained the Indigenous All-stars XI against the ACA Masters XI as part of the Imparja Cup held in Alice Springs, Northern Territory. Hayden is also an Ambassador of the Australian Indigenous Education Foundation.


title: Matthew Hayden

text: He was inducted into Australian Cricket Hall of Fame at the 2016/17 Allan Border Medal ceremony in Sydney. On September 13, 2021, he was announced as a head coach of Pakistan for 2021 T20 World Cup. This was his first major coaching assignment. In September 2022, he was appointed as the Pakistan team’s mentor for 2022 T20 World Cup.


title: Francis Pangilinan

text: Francis Pancratius "Kiko" Nepomuceno Pangilinan (; born August 24, 1963) is a Filipino lawyer, politician, and farm owner who served as a Senator from 2001 to 2013 and from 2016 to 2022. He was the Senate Majority Leader from 2004 to 2008.


title: Francis Pangilinan

text: A graduate of the University of the Philippines College of Law and Harvard Kennedy School, Pangilinan was first elected to the Quezon City Council, serving from 1988 to 1992. In between his stints in the Senate, he was the Presidential Assistant for Food Security and Agricultural Modernization to President Benigno Aquino III from 2014 to 2015.


title: Francis Pangilinan

text: Pangilinan ran for vice president of the Philippines in the 2022 election under the Liberal Party as the running mate of Vice President Leni Robredo. However, he lost his vice-presidential bid to Sara Duterte, running mate of eventual president Bongbong Marcos.


title: Francis Pangilinan

text: Francis Pancratius Nepomuceno Pangilinan was born on August 24, 1963, in Manila to Donato Tongol Pangilinan, Jr., an engineer and entrepreneur from Pampanga, and Emma Monasterial Nepomuceno, a public school teacher from Nueva Ecija and Marinduque. He has eight siblings.


title: Francis Pangilinan

text: Pangilinan completed his primary and secondary education at La Salle Green Hills in 1977 and 1981, respectively. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in English, Major in Comparative Literature degree at the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman, and was a varsity athlete for the UP Men's Volleyball Team.


title: Francis Pangilinan

text: As an undergraduate, Pangilinan was elected as chairperson of the UP Diliman University Student Council in 1986, and served as a student regent of the UP Board of Regents in 1987. He was a member of Upsilon Sigma Phi while in attendance at the university, where he would subsequently obtain his Bachelor of Laws degree from the UP College of Law.


title: Francis Pangilinan

text: In 1997, Pangilinan moved to Boston, Massachusetts to pursue a Master of Public Administration degree at Harvard Kennedy School, where he graduated with a general average of A-.


title: Francis Pangilinan

text: In 1988, Pangilinan was elected as the youngest councilor of Quezon City from the 4th district. During his stint as councilor, he became the founding president of the National Movement of Young Legislators. In 1992, he unsuccessfully ran in the congressional elections in Quezon City.


title: Francis Pangilinan

text: Pangilinan was elected to the senate in 2001 and was re-elected six years thereafter. In 2002, he and then-National Youth Commission (NYC) chairman Bam Aquino established the Ten Accomplished Youth Organizations (TAYO) Awards, which recognizes the contributions of youth organizations in public service and nation-building.


title: Francis Pangilinan

text: He was first elected as senate majority leader in 2004. On July 23, 2007, Jinggoy Estrada was voted Senate president pro tempore, while Pangilinan became the majority leader following the assumption of Manuel Villar to the chamber's leadership of the 14th Congress.


title: Francis Pangilinan

text: In 2008, Pangilinan created the Judicial Executive Legislative Advisory and Consultative Council, first proposed on the July 16–17, 2007 Manila Hotel summit on extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances in the Philippines.


title: Francis Pangilinan

text: He chaired the Senate Committee on Agriculture in 2010, during which he authored the Organic Agriculture Act of 2010, which aimed to further promote the development of organic agricultural practices and protect indigenous organic farmers in the country.


title: Francis Pangilinan

text: In May 2014, Pangilinan was appointed as the presidential assistant for food security and agricultural modernization, a cabinet-level position under the Office of the President of the Philippines, by President Benigno Aquino III. As OPAFSAM head, he pushed for the creation of the coco levy trust fund for coconut farmers, in an attempt to rectify the ills created by the Coco Levy Fund scam involving former president Ferdinand Marcos and his cronies who collected taxes from farmers purportedly to develop the industry. In September 2015, Pangilinan announced his resignation from the post to run for senator in 2016.


title: Francis Pangilinan

text: In October 2016, he was appointed interim Liberal Party president, succeeding former Transportation and Communications Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya. His appointment became permanent in August 2017. In May 2019, Pangilinan announced his resignation as Liberal Party president following the failure of Otso Diretso, where he served as its campaign manager, to win a single seat in the 2019 senatorial election. However, his resignation was rejected by Liberal Party chairperson Leni Robredo.


title: Francis Pangilinan

text: Originally a part of the majority, Pangilinan became part of the minority bloc in the Senate after the 2019 election, together with Senators Franklin Drilon, Risa Hontiveros, Leila de Lima, Bam Aquino and Antonio Trillanes. He principally authored the "Sagip Saka" Act signed on April 17, 2019. The bill aims to boost incomes for both fisherfolk and farmers through entrepreneurship by mandating government agencies to buy produce directly from them, eliminating middlemen that raise food prices. Pangilinan was also the principal author of Republic Act 11478, which would increase the bed capacity of the Bicol Medical Center from 500 beds to 1,000 beds. This also included upgrading its service facilities and professional health care services and authorizing the increase of its medical workforce complement. As a member of the minority, Pangilinan has been critical of the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte, including the War on Drugs with its "iron-fist" approach.


title: Francis Pangilinan

text: In 2020, Pangilinan authored the Coconut Farmers and Industry Trust Fund Act, which seeks to create a trust fund for coconut farmers to be used for several purposes such as management, utilization, and reconstitution for the purposes of the Philippine Coconut Authority Board. He had also co-authored laws pertaining to education, such as the GMRC and Values Education Act, institutionalizing values education in the K-12 curriculum, and the Alternative Learning System Act, which institutionalizes the alternative learning system in basic education for out-of-school children.


title: Francis Pangilinan

text: Pangilinan co-authored the COVID Vaccination Program Act of 2021, which aims to expedite the procurement and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines across the country.


title: Francis Pangilinan

text: On October 8, 2021, Pangilinan filed his certificate of candidacy to run as vice president, alongside presidential candidate Leni Robredo, in the 2022 Philippine presidential election. Unlike Robredo who is running as an independent candidate, Pangilinan ran as the candidate of the Liberal Party. He initially chose to seek reelection as senator.


title: Francis Pangilinan

text: One of his opponents in the vice-presidential election was his uncle-by-marriage and colleague, Senate President Tito Sotto (the husband of his aunt-in-law Helen Gamboa), who is running alongside Senator Panfilo Lacson. Pangilinan has stated that the conflictive situation was "painful" for his family.


title: Francis Pangilinan

text: Pangilinan's campaign slogan was ""Goodbye Gutom, Hello Pagkain"" (), as his platform focused on the agricultural sector, particularly boosting food security by providing fishermen and farmers priority attention.


title: Francis Pangilinan

text: Pangilinan placed second in the official tally with 9,329,207 votes, and lost to Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte by a wide margin of over 22 million votes.


title: Francis Pangilinan

text: On April 28, 1996, Pangilinan married singer, actress, and television personality Sharon Cuneta. The couple has two daughters, including singer-songwriter Kakie, and an adopted son. He is also the stepfather of actress and singer KC Concepcion, Cuneta's daughter from a previous marriage, whom Pangilinan legally adopted.


title: Generation Jones

text: Generation Jones is the social cohort of the latter half of the Baby boomer generation to the first years of Generation X. The term Generation Jones was first coined by the cultural commentator Jonathan Pontell, who identified the cohort as those born from 1954 to 1965 in the U.S., who were children during Watergate, the oil crisis, and stagflation rather than during the 1950s, but slightly before Gen X.


title: Generation Jones

text: Unlike "leading-edge boomers", most of Generation Jones did not grow up with World War II veterans as fathers, and, as they reached adulthood, there was no compulsory military service and no defining political cause, as opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War was for the older boomers. Their parents' generation was sandwiched between the Greatest Generation and the Baby Boomers. Also, by 1955, a majority of U.S. households had at least one television set, and so unlike Leading-Edge Boomers born in the 1940s, many members of Generation Jones (trailing-edge boomers) have never lived in a world without television—similar to how many members of Generation Z (1997—2012) have never lived in a world without personal computers or the internet, or mobile phones. Generation Jones were children during the sexual revolution of the 1960s and '70s and were young adults when HIV became a threat.


title: Generation Jones

text: The name "Generation Jones" has several connotations, including a large anonymous generation, a "keeping up with the Joneses" competitiveness and the slang word "jones" or "jonesing", meaning a yearning or craving. Pontell suggests that Jonesers inherited an optimistic outlook as children in the 1960s, but were then confronted with a different reality as they entered the workforce during Reaganomics and the shift from a manufacturing to a service economy, which ushered in a long period of mass unemployment. Mortgage interest rates increased to above 12 percent in the mid-eighties, making it virtually impossible to buy a house on a single income. De-industrialization arrived in full force in the mid-late 1970s and 1980s; wages would be stagnant for decades, and 401Ks replaced pensions, leaving them with a certain abiding "jonesing" quality for the more prosperous days of the past.


title: Generation Jones

text: Generation Jones is noted for coming of age after a huge swath of their older brothers and sisters in the earlier portion of the Baby Boomer population had; thus, many note that there was a paucity of resources and privileges available to them that were seemingly abundant to older Boomers. Therefore, there is a certain level of bitterness and "jonesing" for the level of doting and affluence granted to older Boomers but denied to them.


title: Generation Jones

text: The term has enjoyed some currency in political and cultural commentary, including during the 2008 United States presidential election, where Barack Obama (born 1961) and Sarah Palin (born 1964) were on the presidential tickets.


title: Generation Jones

text: While charismatic leaders like John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. inspired millions of older Boomers to work for — and witness — positive social change, younger Boomers were in preschool or not yet born. The Woodstock pop festival (1969) was a defining moment for older Boomers; younger Boomers have few memories from before the Watergate scandal (1972-1974) and the cultural cynicism it begat. While in high school, members of Generation Jones had a distinct feeling of having just missed the real hippie era.


title: Generation Jones

text: Many came of age during the 70s and early 80s. They shared similar pop culture and MTV with Gen X'ers. They were young adults navigating the workforce in the 80s and 90s, but still felt the 2008 economic crisis. This hit them hard because they had to help and advise their older Millennial children while also providing for their older Gen Z kids.


title: Generation Jones

text: Generation Jones has been covered and discussed in newspapers, magazines, TV, and radio shows. Pontell has appeared on TV networks such as CNN, MSNBC, and BBC, discussing the cultural, political, and economic implications of this generation's emergence.


title: Generation Jones

text: In the business world, Generation Jones has become a part of the strategic planning of many companies and industries, particularly in the context of targeting Jonesers through marketing efforts. Carat UK, a European media buying agency, has done extensive research into Generation Jones consumers.


title: Generation Jones

text: Politically, Generation Jones has emerged as a crucial voting segment in Western elections. In the U.S. 2006 congressional and 2004 presidential elections, and the 2005 U.K. elections, Generation Jones's electoral role was widely described as pivotal by the media and political pollsters. In the 2008 U.S. Presidential election, Generation Jones was again seen as a key electoral segment because of the high degree to which its members were swing voters during the election cycle. Influential journalists, like Clarence Page and Peter Fenn, singled out Generation Jones voters as crucial in the final weeks of the campaign.


title: Generation Jones

text: Numerous studies have been done by political pollsters and publications analyzing the voting behavior of Gen Jonesers. Generation Jones voters are likely to contain the highest proportion of Brexit voters.


title: Generation Jones

text: The election to the presidency of Barack Obama, born in 1961, plus Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, born 1964, focused more attention on Generation Jones. Many journalists, publications, and experts – including Jonathan Alter ("Newsweek"), David Brooks ("The New York Times") and Karen Tumulty ("Time") – have characterized Obama as a member of Generation Jones.


title: Generation Jones

text: In Pontell's opinion, the cohort shifted left in 2020, which he attributed to Trump’s response to the Covid-19 crisis and Trump’s mocking of Joe Biden’s senior moments. "There are lots of seniors out there that also have senior moments," Pontell says. "They don’t really like the president mocking those one bit."


title: Band Baaja Baaraat

text: Band Baaja Baaraat (; also known as Wedding Planners) is a 2010 Indian Hindi-language romantic comedy film directed by Maneesh Sharma in his directorial debut from a screenplay by Habib Faisal, and produced by Aditya Chopra for Yash Raj Films. It stars Anushka Sharma and Ranveer Singh in his debut lead acting role. In the film, Shruti Kakkar (Sharma) and Bittoo Sharma (Singh) team up to create a wedding planning enterprise


title: Band Baaja Baaraat

text: "Band Baaja Baaraat" released worldwide on 10 December 2010, and proved to be a commercial success, despite initial competition from "No Problem" and "Tees Maar Khan". Upon release, it received widespread critical acclaim, with praise for its novel setting, screenplay, soundtrack and the leads' performances.


title: Band Baaja Baaraat

text: At the 56th Filmfare Awards, "Band Baaja Baaraat" received 6 nominations, including Best Film, Best Director (Maneesh Sharma) and Best Actress (Anushka Sharma), and won 2 awards – Best Male Debut (Singh) and Best Debut Director (Maneesh Sharma).


title: Band Baaja Baaraat

text: A Tamil remake titled "Aaha Kalyanam" also produced by Aditya Chopra under the Yash Raj Films banner, starring Nani and Vaani Kapoor in the lead roles was released on 21 February 2014.


title: Band Baaja Baaraat

text: Shruti is a final-year college student who wants to start a wedding-planning business. Bittoo, also in the same college, wants to avoid becoming a farmer like the rest of his family. He begs Shruti to let him work with her, so he can put off going back home after graduation. Shruti agrees, on the condition that they keep their relationship strictly professional, never trying to get romantically involved. Together, they start a company called "Shaadi Mubarak" (lit. Happy Wedding), which manages weddings for clients in Delhi. Soon, their business becomes a success with a steady stream of local, middle-class clients.


title: Band Baaja Baaraat

text: Bittoo wants to break into a higher market segment, so they pitch their company to a young couple, who are looking to have a typical, Indian-style "loud" wedding. Their parents, who are industrialists, are harder to convince, but they agree to hire Bittoo and Shruti for the event. The wedding becomes a huge success, and Bittoo and Shruti throw a party to celebrate. Guests drink into the late hours of the night. They slowly depart leaving Bittoo and Shruti alone with each other. Drunk from the night's events, they end up sleeping together, something that Bittoo immediately regrets. He is worried about the fallout this will have on their work-relationship, and is afraid Shruti might fall in love with him. He starts being awkward around Shruti, who brings up the topic. After discussing the encounter with each other, they agree to return to their original no-romance policy, and go about planning their next wedding.


title: Band Baaja Baaraat

text: The event goes off well in typical "Shaadi Mubarak" style, but Shruti is still irked over Bittoo having treated her as a one-night stand. She yells at him and asks to break up the business. The next day, Bittoo leaves "Shaadi Mubarak" and sets up his own rival company. The two go about growing their respective businesses, taking turns to sabotage the other. Slowly, their reputations suffer as clients start to complain. Their debts grow as disgruntled clients are unwilling to pay. Despite all of this, neither is willing to make peace with the other. A few months later, Shruti and Bittoo are both called to a joint meeting with a wealthy client, who wants his daughter's wedding planned by "Shaadi Mubarak". He is not interested in their separate companies, but is willing to offer them the job if they work together. With business prospects drying up, they agree to do so for one event, and hire a team to plan the wedding.


title: Band Baaja Baaraat

text: The initial ceremonies go off smoothly, but Bittoo notices that Shruti seems distracted. He soon finds out that she has agreed to marry a groom chosen for her by her parents, for whom she will leave her business and move to another country. He confronts her, causing them to argue again. This time, Shruti slaps him and calls him immature. Bittoo finally realizes that he loves her, and that he drove her away when he treated their night together as a casual encounter. He calls up her fiancé and tells him everything, knowing he will convey this to Shruti. When Shruti finds out that Bittoo loves her as well, she calls off her engagement. The two agree to permanently work together again, and end up getting married. Their wedding, planned for them by themselves, takes place in typical "Shaadi Mubarak" fashion.


title: Band Baaja Baaraat

text: Anushka Sharma was given the female lead in the film, completing the three-film contract she signed to do "Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi" (2008), her first film. Her role was described as "challenging" by media publications prior to the film's release. Describing the way the lead characters in the film talk as "crude but cute", the actress declared that the hardest part of her job was speaking like a typical Delhi wali girl, which called for her to "talk fast, sometimes mix words and even omit words completely". Director Maneesh Sharma, with whom she's been great friends since her first film, said that the model-turned-actress was a very feisty person, and a natural actress who didn't like doing multiple takes. She described the film as "very much, a young love story set in Delhi".


title: Band Baaja Baaraat

text: The male lead was given to Mumbai-native Ranveer Singh, a complete newcomer with no prior acting or modelling experience whatsoever, who impressed producer Aditya Chopra so much that he cast him after his first audition, signing a three-film contract with the actor. Singh, who took acting classes, and hung out at Delhi University prior to shooting said about his casting "I’m the first solo hero Yash Raj is launching. It’s a huge deal for me. I don’t know how I got here. I guess I happened to be in the right place at the right time". As such, this marks the first time a film rests mainly on Sharma's shoulders, as opposed to her prior films "Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi" and "Badmaash Company" (2010) where she shared the screen with more experienced co-stars, Shah Rukh Khan and Shahid Kapoor respectively, a fact the actress remarked upon, stating "some people will refer to "Band Baaja Baaraat" as Anushka Sharma’s film because they have seen me in another film before".


title: Band Baaja Baaraat

text: Filming started in Delhi on 4 February 2010, the same day the production company announcement was made. Singh was very nervous about his first day but was eventually proud that his first scene only took three takes to shoot. An 18 February article by Minakshi Saini for the "Hindustan Times" entertainment supplement "HT City" reported that during the previous day's early morning shoot in West Delhi's Subhash Nagar, Singh's newcomer status led many to speculate on whether he was Ranbir Kapoor, Ranvir Shorey or even Riteish Deshmukh. Police officers were eventually called in to secure the set from curious onlookers, however some expressed discontentment at having to be out in the cold despite both lead actors being virtual unknowns. The film features a kiss between the lead actors, which only necessitated a single take. Reportedly, Singh accidentally hit Sharma while filming an undisclosed intense scene. Other than Subhash Nagar DDA Market, locations in Delhi include Janakpuri, Delhi University, North and West Delhi, Ring Road, Mehrauli Farms and Akbar Road. Some scenes were also shot in director Maneesh Sharma's almamater, Hans Raj College in University campus. The film was additionally shot in Mumbai in March and Rajasthan in April.


title: Band Baaja Baaraat

text: The assistant directors for the film were Akshat Kapil and Rohit Philip who'd previously held the job on "Aaja Nachle" (2007) and "Do Dooni Chaar" (2010) respectively. Aseem Mishra handled the cinematography after working on such films as "Contract" (2008), "New York" (2009) and "Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai" (2010). The various dance sequences were choreographed by Vaibhavi Merchant, who has previously worked on countless films including such hits as "Lagaan" (2001), "Devdas" (2002), "Veer-Zaara" and "Swades" (both 2004). Sonal Choudhry and T. P. Abid were the film's production designers while Niharika Khan was the costume designer.


title: Band Baaja Baaraat

text: Several rumours surrounded the film's shoot, such as speculation that the lead pair were more than just friends. Early media reports alternatively titled the film "Shaadi Mubarak" or "Shaadi Mubarak Ho", however Yash Raj Films eventually issued a press release in late April claiming that this was not the film's title, and that film was actually still untitled. The title was eventually revealed to be "Band Baaja Baaraat" in late July.


title: Band Baaja Baaraat

text: Lead actors Sharma and Singh got along well during the shoot, and are strongly believed to have dated and broken up before the film's release. Speaking about his co-star, Singh declared "She’s intelligent, well-read and great to hang out with. Actually, she’s pretty close to my dream girl". Later, he joked "She is the best co-star I have ever worked with! It's also because she is the only co-star I have ever worked with!".


title: Band Baaja Baaraat

text: The score and songs of the film were composed by the duo Salim–Sulaiman who've composed music for many other Yash Raj Films productions before, including "Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi", which had already united lead actress Anushka Sharma with director Maneesh Sharma, who was then still an assistant director. The lyrics to the various songs were written by Amitabh Bhattacharya and playback singers include Sunidhi Chauhan, Benny Dayal, Shreya Ghoshal, Natalie Di Luccio, Himani Kapoor, Harshdeep Kaur, Labh Janjua, Shrraddha Pandit, Master Saleem, Sukhwinder Singh, Amitabh Bhattacharya and Salim Merchant.


title: Band Baaja Baaraat

text: The soundtrack was revealed on 19 October 2010, at the Yash Raj Studios in Andheri, Mumbai, and was commercially released on 3 November with a launch event happening at the Reliance TimeOut store in Bandra. The album consists of nine tracks, including two remixes and Yash Raj Films issued a press release giving a description of each track. They described the opening song "Ainvayi Ainvayi" as "a funky, energetic number", "Tarkeebein" as a "youthful song with cool lyrics", "Aadha Ishq" as a "perfect love ballad", "Dum Dum" as a "unique, unabashed item number with a Sufi-rock feel", "Mitra" as "cool and contemporary", "Baari Barsi" as a "superbly re-orchestrated" traditional Punjabi wedding song and "Band Baaja Baaraat (Theme)" as "a pulsating track which perfectly represents the spirit of the movie".


title: Band Baaja Baaraat

text: Critical reception for the soundtrack was mixed-to-positive, with "Ainvayi Ainvayi" receiving particular praise ("SawfNews" even stated that one would "probably want to see the movie just for this song") and agreeing that the album was a superior effort than the composing duo's previous solo soundtrack for "Teen Patti" (2010), while several criticized the track "Dum Dum" and lamented the similarity to previous Salim–Sulaiman scores. Writing for "ApunKa Choice", Usha Lakra titled her review "Band, Baaja, Bland" and noted that while "the album has its moments" and "the tracks are composed strictly keeping in mind the theme of the movie", all-in-all "Ainvayi Ainvayi" was the only chartbuster of the album. Lakra listed "Ainvayi Ainvayi", "Aadha Ishq" and "Band Baaja Baaraat (Theme)" as the album's best tracks. Prateeksha Khot of "Bolly Spice" only truly disliked "Dum Dum" and praised the "unconventional" lyrics by Amitabh Bhattacharya, but felt the album failed "to live up to the expectations generated by the initial tracks" and criticized the similarities with previous Salim-Sulaiman efforts such as "" (2009) and "Aaja Nachle" (2007). "The Economic Times" writer Ruchika Kher gave a positive review, describing the album as a "fun-filled soundtrack" and noting the similarities between "Tarkeebein" and compositions by A. R. Rahman. "Music Aloud" also published a positive review, noting that while the soundtrack wasn't Salim–Sulaiman's best, it was still "a definite winner with some fantastic tracks". The reviewer however did dislike the song "Dum Dum", and remarked that while "Ainvayi Ainvayi" resembled the song "Dance Pe Chance" from "Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi", it was "far more engaging". One of the album's most enthusiastic reviews was written by Joginder Tuteja for "Bollywood Hungama". Tuteja described the music as "one of the better soundtracks that one has heard from the house of Yash Raj Films in the last couple of years", "one of the best works of Salim-Sulaiman" and "much more than just a regular fun album". He selected "Ainvayi Ainvayi", "Aadha Ishq" and "Dum Dum (Sufi Mix)" as the disc's best tracks. "Moviehattan"s Gurpreet Bhuller also liked the soundtrack, which he described as a "quality album" with "a good collection of songs".


title: Band Baaja Baaraat

text: As with all films from the studio since "Mohabbatein" (2000), publicity design was handled by Fayyaz Badruddin. Stills were taken by Abhay Singh and Zahir Abbas Khan.


title: Band Baaja Baaraat

text: Prior to the film's release, Anushka Sharma referred to it as her "best film till date". "Band Baaja Baaraat"s trailer and official website were both unveiled on 19 October 2010, a couple of months before the theatrical release. In addition to the film's synopsis and trailer, the website initially also contained five wallpapers and a press kit for visitors to download. The number of available wallpapers later grew to twenty-five and the website eventually allowed visitors to send e-cards to their acquaintances, with the virtual cards dubbed ""Band Baaj-O-Grams"". A number of contests were organized by Yash Raj Films, including one where the company, along with partners Radio Mirchi and BIG Cinemas, offered the winning couple a free wedding in December, in time for the film's release and supposedly planned the film's heroes, and another in which a couple would win a trip to Switzerland and visit the filming locations of the various Yash Raj Films productions to have been shot there. In addition to the website, Yash Raj Films also had regularly updated official pages on Facebook and Twitter and a Blogspot blog in an effort to reach the widest audience possible. The company finally uploaded a number of videos on their YouTube account, including the trailer but also several videos promoting the songs "Tarkeebein" and "Ainvayi Ainvayi".


title: Band Baaja Baaraat

text: On 21 October, lead actors Anushka Sharma and Ranveer Singh went to the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi with director Maneesh Sharma to take part in their annual festival and promote the film. The next day, the trio appeared at the GIP Mall in Noida. On 26 October, a fight broke out between Ranveer Singh and a man alternatively described as a 29-year-old called Uday Khanolkar or a 30-year-old called Uday Sahay. The incident occurred on Kingfisher Airlines flight IT 331 from Mumbai to Delhi, where both Singh and Anushka Sharma were travelling in business class to promote the movie. The two actors noticed a passenger taking pictures of them with his cellphone, and demanded that he hand over his phone so that they could delete the pictures. The man refused and claimed to be an IAS officer. The ensuing argument grew so heated that the cabin crew had to intervene and both parties went to the police station upon arrival and stayed there for over an hour and a half, eventually sorting the matter out amicably without lodging any complaints.


title: Band Baaja Baaraat

text: Prior to "Band Baaja Baaraat"s release, some pundits have expressed doubts that the film would be successful, citing the middling response to Yash Raj Films' last few productions, the lack of a male star and the fact that the female lead, Anushka Sharma, was by then an "almost-forgotten" actress. Some have even speculated that the 22-year-old's career might not thrive for much longer with her three-film contract with Yash Raj Films being over.


title: Band Baaja Baaraat

text: On 24 September 2010, Yash Raj Films announced that the film would release worldwide on 10 December of that year, almost two years since the release of Anushka Sharma's debut "Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi". Some people have speculated that this was not coincidence but an attempt to repeat the success of her first film.


title: Band Baaja Baaraat

text: Upon release, "Band Baaja Baaraat" received universal critical acclaim. Taran Adarsh of "Bollywood Hungama" gave it 4/5 stars commenting, "Thankfully, "Band Baaja Baaraat" works on every level. The writing is crisp, the execution of the material [director: Maneesh Sharma] is worthy and the lead actors [Anushka, Ranveer] steer the film to the destination smoothly. Of course, there are minor hiccups halfway through the film, but the fact remains that "Band Baaja Baaraat" is, without doubt, one of the most appealing films to come out of the production house. Final word? "Band Baaja Baaraat" is honest, fresh, youthful and extremely entertaining. Recommended!" Pankaj Sabnani of "Glamsham" gave it 4.5/5 stars and wrote,"There's an interesting blend of humour, drama and romance in the film. It's replete with great scenes. Make sure you join the celebrations and groove with this "Band Baaja Baaraat". Strongly recommended!" Anupama Chopra of "NDTV" awarded it 4/5 stars and commented, ""Band Baaja Baaraat" is reasonably entertaining. It's definitely the most fun you'll have in a theater this weekend." Rajeev Masand gave it 3/5 stars writing, ""Band Baaja Baaraat" works because it’s invested with an earnestness that’s become increasingly rare to find at the movies I’m going with 3/5 for director Maneesh Sharma’s "Band Baaja Baaraat". It’s a romantic comedy done correctly. Fun, but with warmth at its heart. Don’t miss it!" Nikhat Kazmi of "The Times of India" gave the film 3/5 stars and opined,"As long as you view "Band Baaja Baaraat" as a loving, heartfelt take on what makes Delhi go dhak-dhak, the film holds your attention. "Band Baaja Baaraat" engages you with its fond look at fun-loving Dilliwalas." Sonal Dedhia of "Rediff" gave it 3/5 commenting,"On the whole, "Band Baaja Baaraat" is a refreshing film—very different from the usual romantic comedy movies we're so used to. It is a well-made film that should connect with the audience. Give this one a chance, you won't regret it."


title: Band Baaja Baaraat

text: The movie had an opening of below 60 million. It grossed 280.0 million in the first weekend. The movie grossed 340.0 million in week 2, taking 2 weeks collection to 620 million. It earned 700.1 million. The film was declared an "hit" by "Box Office India". It earned approx 965.1 million in its full theatrical run.


title: One Piece: Stampede

text: One Piece: Stampede is a 2019 Japanese animated fantasy action adventure film directed by Takashi Otsuka and produced by Toei Animation. It is the fourteenth feature film of the "One Piece" film series, based on the manga of the same name written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda, and commemorates the anime's 20th anniversary. Oda was involved with the film as creative supervisor. It had its world premiere at the Osaka Station City Cinema in Osaka on August 1, 2019, and later released in Japan on August 9, 2019.


title: One Piece: Stampede

text: The Straw Hat Pirates come to Delta Island for the Pirate Fest, a large pirate gathering organized by Buena Festa. Festa sends the pirates to a floating island to hunt for a treasure that belonged to the Pirate King, Gol D. Roger. The Straw Hats and many other pirate crews, including those from the Worst Generation as well as other past allies and enemies, set sail on a Knock Up Stream and battle each other as they race toward the treasure. However, this event is secretly set up as part of a plan between Festa and legendary pirate Douglas Bullet, who had been in the great prison Impel Down for two decades until being freed two years ago. Trafalgar Law discovers this and is attacked, but escapes onto the Thousand Sunny and warns the Straw Hats. Robin, Sanji, Chopper and Brook go with him to investigate, followed by the undercover Smoker. After sneaking into Festa's hideout, they discover that he has conspired with the Marines to send a Buster Call on Delta Island, which would destroy it and everyone on it.


title: One Piece: Stampede

text: As the treasure is found, a ship arrives and destroys the floating island. The pirates fall into the bay below, where Bullet takes the treasure and challenges the members of the Worst Generation to a fight. Luffy and the other Worst Generation members are quickly overwhelmed by his strength and Clank-Clank Fruit powers. He attempts to kill Luffy, but Usopp distracts him, causing Bullet to attack him instead. Meanwhile, the other pirates attempt to flee from Delta Island, but find the Marine Buster Call fleet headed toward them. As the pirates fight the Marines, Law's group encounters Smoker in Festa's lair, and Sanji battles him while Law and Robin escape. Sanji reveals to Smoker that Festa arranged for a Buster Call to arrive; Smoker was unaware and realizes that the Marines were set up. Meanwhile, Law and Robin run into the former Warlord Crocodile, who wants to involve Law in a plan. Bullet confronts the Buster Call fleet and reveals his awakened Devil Fruit powers, destroying the fleet and the town around him and forming it into a gigantic colossus, with which he overwhelms the pirates and Marines.


title: One Piece: Stampede

text: Festa reveals that the treasure in Bullet's possession is an Eternal Pose that can guide ships to Laugh Tale, the location of the most famous treasure One Piece. Bullet's dream is to become Pirate King by defeating the world's strongest people, and Festa intends to use his warpath and treasure to start a new era. After hearing of Bullet's actions, Marine Fleet Admiral Sakazuki orders a second Buster Call to attack the island. Sanji, Robin, Chopper, and Brook meet up, and the former two attempt to find a way to escape the island while the latter two look for Luffy. Chopper and Brook find Luffy and Usopp half dead, and Chopper treats them. After regaining consciousness, Luffy sets off to attack Bullet, but is overwhelmed. The Warlord Boa Hancock attempts to find Luffy, and she does so while running into Buggy, Smoker, Law, and Sabo in the process. Law shares his plan to defeat Bullet by tearing apart his colossus, and Crocodile as well as a lurking Rob Lucci join them. Their combined attacks destroy one of its arms, and Luffy destroys the other one with Gear Fourth.


title: One Piece: Stampede

text: Shots fired by Usopp then destroy the rest of the colossus. Luffy and Bullet engage in a fistfight, and Luffy defeats him. Crocodile and Lucci attempt to obtain the Eternal Pose, but Luffy destroys it, claiming he will find the One Piece with his crew without help. Festa mourns the failure of his plans, and is defeated and captured by Sabo. Luffy reunites with his crew and they attempt to escape along with the other pirates, but are confronted by the second Buster Call fleet. However, Smoker contacts his superiors to say there is no longer a need for the Buster Call, and Sabo helps the pirates pass through the fleet safely with his abilities. It is revealed that Roger disapproved of the Eternal Pose and threw it away, believing that the One Piece could not be obtained by someone who would rely on it. Luffy's crew is shocked that he destroyed the Eternal Pose, except for Usopp. Luffy claims that if that they had taken it, they would have missed out on many great adventures.


title: One Piece: Stampede

text: The film was first announced following the broadcast of a "One Piece" Television special, "Episode of Skypiea" on August 25, 2018 and the title was announced alongside a teaser trailer on December 11, 2018. In December 2018, at Jump Festa 2019, Shueisha released several of Eiichiro Oda's new costume and character designs for the film. On February 20, 2019, a second trailer was released announcing Oda as the film's creative supervisor and featuring his characters designs for Bullet and Festa, movie original characters.


title: One Piece: Stampede

text: The film score is composed by Kohei Tanaka. The original soundtrack, containing more than 40 tracks, was released on October 30, 2019 by Avex Trax. On June 14, 2019, it was announced that WANIMA would perform the film's theme song "GONG", which was released on July 17, 2019.


title: One Piece: Stampede

text: As a promotion, it was announced that the first 3 million moviegoers will receive the "One Piece Comic -Kan-Banpaku" manga. A two part prequel story aired as episodes 895 and 896 of the anime series in the two weeks leading up to the film's release.


title: One Piece: Stampede

text: Collaborated with Uniqlo to release T-shirts based on films's designs. On August 3, 2019, Puma announced collaboration with "One Piece," released shoes based on "One Piece: Stampede" on same day of the film release.


title: One Piece: Stampede

text: On August 26, 2019, it was announced that from August 30, 2019, five hundred thousand moviegoers will receive an exclusive DVD with voice acting bloopers from the movie and behind the Scenes.


title: One Piece: Stampede

text: The film was released in Japan on August 9, 2019 by its distributor Toei Company, on 429 screens in 352 theatres across the country.


title: One Piece: Stampede

text: In Asia, the film was released in Taiwan on August 21, 2019, and Neofilms released the film in Hong Kong on August 22, 2019. ODEX acquired the license to screen the film in Southeast Asia that is Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia and Philippines. It released the film in Singapore on September 5, 2019. Dream Express and Five Stars Agency had special previews of the film in select theaters in Thailand during September 2 to 8, 2019 and JAM released the film in Thailand nationwide on September 19, 2019. With ODEX, CBI Pictures released the film in Indonesia on September 18, 2019, GSC Movies released the film in Malaysia on September 19, 2019, The Mall Cineplex released the film in Brunei on September 19, 2019, SM Cinema released the film in Philippines on September 20, 2019. The film released in China on October 18, 2019.


title: One Piece: Stampede

text: In Europe, CGR Events premiered the film in France, Belgium and Luxembourg on September 12, 2019 and released in theaters on October 9, 2019 in France. Kazé screened the film in Germany and Austria on September 24, 2019 as part of the Kazé anime nights. On October 13, 2019, "Stampede" was screened during Scotland Loves Anime as a "mystery film", with an additional screening after its identity was announced. Koch Media released the film in Italy on October 24, 2019. Selecta Visión released the film in Spain on November 15, 2019. NOS Audiovisuais released the film in Portugal on November 28, 2019. Manga Entertainment released the film in select cinemas with both Subs and Dubs in United Kingdom on February 2, 2020 .


title: One Piece: Stampede

text: In Australia, Madman Entertainment premiered the film in Australia on September 15, 2019, during the Madman Anime Festival with English-subtitled and Australian wide release is on November 14, 2019.


title: One Piece: Stampede

text: In North America, Funimation Films released the film in select theaters in United States on October 24, 29 and 31, 2019 (Sub), October 26 and 30, 2019 (Dub) and in Canada on October 25 and November 5, 2019 (Sub), October 28 and November 8, 2019 (Dub).


title: One Piece: Stampede

text: In Middle East, the film was released on November 14, 2019. VOX Cinemas released the film in United Arab Emirates, Cinescape released the film in Kuwait and also the film released in Oman, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Bahrain on November 14, 2019.


title: One Piece: Stampede

text: The film saw the largest first day attendance in Japan in 2019. It opened at number one in the Japanese box office, earning ¥1,646,321,500 (about US$15.64 million) from 1,254,372 ticket sales in its first four days. The film sold 2.31 million tickets in nine days, earning ¥3.05 billion (about US$28.7 million), making it the fastest Toei-distributed film to reach ¥3 billion milestone since 2000. As of August 25, 2019, the movie has earned ¥4,133,257,100 (about US$39 million) from 3,117,929 ticket sales in seventeen days. As of September 8, 2019, the film has earned over ¥5 billion (about US$47 million) and has sold more than 3.7 million tickets. The US box office grossed $1,298,528 as of June 12, 2020.


title: One Piece: Stampede

text: The film has grossed () in Japan , and in China . As of November 13, 2019, the film earned (US$93 million) worldwide.


title: One Piece: Stampede

text: The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported that of critics have given the film a positive review based on reviews, with an average rating of .


title: Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union

text: The Supreme Soviet of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics () was, beginning in 1936, the most authoritative legislative body of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), and the only one with the power to approve constitutional amendments. Prior to 1936, the Congress of Soviets was the supreme legislative body. During 1989–1991 a similar, but not identical structure was the supreme legislative body. The Supreme Soviet elected the USSR's collective head of state, the Presidium; and appointed the Council of Ministers, the Supreme Court, and the Procurator General of the USSR.


title: Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union

text: By the Soviet constitutions of 1936 and 1977, the Supreme Soviet was defined as the highest organ of state power in the Soviet Union and was imbued with great lawmaking powers. In practice, however, it was a pseudo-parliament that did little more than rubber-stamp decisions already made by the USSR's executive organs and the CPSU — always by unanimous consent — and listen to the General Secretary's speeches. This was in accordance with the Stalinist CPSU's principle of democratic centralism and became the norm for other Communist legislatures.


title: Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union

text: The Supreme Soviet was composed of two chambers, each with equal legislative powers, with members elected for four-year terms:


title: Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union

text: The Supreme Soviet convened twice a year, usually for less than a week. For the rest of the year, the Presidium performed its ordinary functions. Often, the CPSU bypassed the Supreme Soviet altogether and had major laws enacted as Presidium decrees. Nominally, if such decrees were not ratified by the Supreme Soviet at its next session, they were considered revoked. In practice, however, the principle of democratic centralism rendered the process of ratifying Presidium decrees a mere formality. In some cases, even this formality was not observed.


title: Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union

text: After 1989 it consisted of 542 deputies (divided into two 271 chambers). (decreased from previously 1,500). The meetings of the body were also more frequent, from six to eight months a year. In September 1991, after the August Coup, it was reorganised into the Soviet (council) of Republics and the Soviet of The Union, which would jointly amend the Soviet Constitution, admit new states, hear out the President of the Soviet Union on important home and foreign policy issues, approve the union budget, declare war and conclude peace. The Soviet of Republics would consist of 20 deputies from each union republic, plus 1 deputy to represent each autonomous region of each republic, delegated by the republics legislatures. Russia was an exception with 52 deputies. The Soviet Union consisted of deputies apportioned by the existing quotas.


title: Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union

text: Between 1938 and February 1990, more than 50 years, only 80 laws were passed by the Supreme Soviet, less than 1% of total legislative acts.


title: Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union

text: Beside the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union, each of its constituting union republics and each autonomous republic had a supreme soviet. These supreme soviets also had presidiums, but all consisted of only one chamber. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, some soviets of the succeeded independent republics simply changed their name to their more historic name or to emphasise their importance as a national parliament, while others changed to double-chamber assemblies.


title: Fictional universe of Avatar

text: In the 2009 science-fiction film "Avatar", director James Cameron conceived a fictional universe in which humans seek to mine unobtanium on the fictional exoplanetary moon Pandora. The Earth-like moon is inhabited by a sapient indigenous humanoid species called the Na'vi, as well as varied fauna and flora. Resources Development Administration (RDA―which, despite the name, is a public company which evolved from a Silicon Valley startup) scientists, administrators, recruits, support, and security personnel travel to Pandora in the 22nd century to discover this beautiful, lush world, which is inhabited by many lifeforms including the human-like Na'vi. The clan with which the humans have contact in the film "[lives] in a giant tree that sits on a vast store of a mineral called unobtainium, which humans want as an energy supply."


title: Fictional universe of Avatar

text: The Na'vi are humanoid creatures that inhabit Pandora along with other creatures. They use animals ranging from direhorses to even viperwolves.


title: Fictional universe of Avatar

text: The Pandoran biosphere teems with a biodiversity of bioluminescent species ranging from six-legged animals to other types of exotic fauna and flora. The Pandoran ecology forms a vast neural network spanning the entire lunar surface into which the Na'vi and other creatures can connect. The strength of this collective consciousness is powerfully illustrated when the human invaders are defeated in battle by the Pandora ecology after the resolute Na'vi were nearly defeated. Cameron used a team of expert advisors in order to make the various examples of fauna and flora as scientifically feasible as possible.


title: Fictional universe of Avatar

text: In the film, Pandora is depicted as being located in the Alpha Centauri A system, about from Earth. It is one of the many natural satellites orbiting the gas giant Polyphemus, named for the Polyphemus of Greek mythology. Pandora's atmosphere is a mix of nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, xenon, methane, ammonia and hydrogen sulfide, the latter three of which are unbreathable for humans, who wear Exo-Packs when outside their buildings or vehicles. The atmosphere of Pandora does have enough oxygen for humans (21%-22%), but too much carbon dioxide (16%-18%). The Na'vi have special organs (similar to kidneys) called Wichow that take advantage of this atmosphere to extract greater amounts of oxygen for their bloodstream. These organs use carbon dioxide and water in their bodies and convert them into methane and oxygen. The methane is exhaled back into the atmosphere. The extra oxygen is added to the Na'vi bloodstream to help power their extra-large bodies and powerful muscles. This process accounts for the small amount of methane in the Pandoran atmosphere. At rest or when the Na'vi are dormant, those same organs can convert some small amounts of methane back into carbon dioxide and water to replenish their water supply if needed. This is why humans can survive with just a filtration system (Exo-Packs), but the Navi need higher amounts of carbon dioxide to function. The high level of carbon dioxide and other gases such as hydrogen sulfide also help keep the Na'vi bloodstream a slightly acidic pH around 5.25-5.75 (humans 7.35-7.45).


title: Fictional universe of Avatar

text: Leri Greer, a designer at Weta Workshop, explained the unusual day/night cycle experienced by the Na'vi, who inhabit a moon orbiting a planet, that in turn orbits around a star.


title: Fictional universe of Avatar

text: Pandora has tropical rainforests that cover much of its continents. Pandora also possesses a weaker gravitational force than Earth. The geology of Pandora is strongly affected by the presence of unobtanium, a mineral whose superconductive properties allow it to float in magnetic fields (flux pinning). This property makes it highly valued by humans, who mine it for transport back to Earth. Pandora's levitating Hallelujah Mountains contain significant quantities of unobtanium, which allows them to ride the strong magnetic fields in their region.


title: Fictional universe of Avatar

text: In the "Avatar" universe (set in the year 2154), humans have achieved a very technologically advanced, post-industrial society ruled/dominated by powerful corporations and industries. One of Earth's most powerful corporations is the globally integrated Resources Development Administration (RDA), a public company which evolved from a Silicon Valley startup, that owns all resources off Earth. The Interplanetary Commerce Administration granted these sole rights to the RDA under the stipulation that the use of weapons of mass destruction is prohibited. Known RDA personnel on Pandora include head administrator Parker Selfridge, Colonel Miles Quaritch, Private Sean Fike, Corporal Lyle Wainfleet, Dr. Max Patel, Dr. Grace Augustine, Dr. Norm Spellman, and Samson 16 pilot Trudy Chacon.


title: Fictional universe of Avatar

text: Although Earth is never seen in the film, other than in the extended collector's edition, Cameron developed the future Earth of "Avatar" as a dystopian, overpopulated, overpolluted, global urban slum wrecked by corrupt, nature-destroying industrialism; the movie's background cyberpunk theme is a regular feature of his work. According to Jake, one of the main characters, the Earth is a "dying world" where humans have "killed their mother", suggesting that there is very little, if any, functioning natural ecosystem left. By the film's 22nd century timeframe, Earth faces a worldwide economic/energy crisis due to the depletion of natural resources. Earth is also apparently so politically unstable that the services of private security contractors and the militaries of Earth's nations are in high demand; Colonel Miles Quaritch boasts about serving three combat tours of duty in Nigeria before coming to Pandora and notes that Jake is a veteran of a military operation in Venezuela. The planet has also suffered serious natural and man-made disasters, such as an intra-continental conflict and tsunamis hitting the east and west coasts of the United States.


title: Fictional universe of Avatar

text: Technologically, humans have achieved monumental advancements by 2154: interplanetary and interstellar space travel and colonization; virtual 3D printing and holography mapping; and advanced methods of cryonics and psionics (via synthetic telepathy interface) are employed. Using their capability of advanced genetic engineering, humans develop "Avatar" hybrid bodies from genetically distinct modified-human DNA and Na'vi alien genetic material. Through psionics, genetically matched humans are then mind-linked to these "Avatars" for remote control operation. In the area of medicine, humans have developed advanced stem cell neuroregeneration technology that can cure Jake's paralysis. However, in 2154, it is still extremely expensive and is not covered by Veterans Affairs benefits. Thus, RDA is initially able to use Jake's desire to regain the use of his legs as leverage against him.


title: Fictional universe of Avatar

text: As with many science fiction films, many space vehicles, aircraft, ground vehicles, weapons, and technologies were created to fit the story. Many were patterned after historical or contemporary technologies to give the film a sense of futuristic realism. Concept artist Ryan Church based many drawings on aerodynamic research from previously classified NASA and DARPA technical papers. Unlike the movie "Aliens" which employed one drop ship from de-orbit to ground combat, several vehicles cover specific roles of utility transport, gunship, and base resupply. This is similar to the specialization of aircraft and helicopters in the United States military since the Vietnam war.


title: Fictional universe of Avatar

text: Amplified Mobility Platforms (also known as AMP suits) are MK-6 vehicles redesigned for Pandora's hostile environment. They are worn and controlled as a large "mech" motorized suit. They are exoskeletons powered by ceramic turbines. Soldiers at Hell's Gate use these for patrol and for battle. AMP suits are controlled via a semi-master-slave system – with the AMP's arm motion slaved to the pilot's arm motion. Motion-sensing gloves worn by the pilot are used to control the AMP arms – the result being that the AMP's arm movements exactly match the pilot's movement. In their military role, AMP's are usually armed with 30mm GAU-90 autocannons, (occasionally equipped with a blade below the barrel, allowing the AMP to cut its way through denser foliage without putting the weapon aside) which the suit deploys as a soldier or Marine would hold and use a rifle. There is an ammo belt that extends into the gun, into an ammo canister on the shoulder, over the arm, into a socket at the back. The GAU-90 fires 350 rounds per minute. The AMP suit has GPS, thermal imaging display, FLIR, and radar. Stan Winston Studios animator and Avatar Design Supervisor John Rosengrant described the AMP suit as "An Apache helicopter with legs". It also has a ceramic knife that is three feet long. Quaritch owns an AMP suit and has named it "Beyond Glory". Its GAU-90 has a dragon painted on the ammo tube.


title: Fictional universe of Avatar

text: The SA-2 Samson is a twin-ducted fan VTOL utility aircraft, similar in role and appearance to the real-world UH-60 Black Hawk, Mi-8 or UH-1 Huey utility helicopters. It is armed with two door-mounted machine guns and two pylons near the cockpit with missile pods mounted on them. The pair of ducted-fan assemblies, each with two coaxial propellers, enable the Samson of 6,000 kilograms lifting capability by manufacturers specifications, but lifting performance is rated at 150% of that on Pandora due to the thicker atmosphere. Both ducted-fan assemblies are capable of changing blade pitch independently. From the pilot perspective, forward and aft, lift, yaw, and roll authority are accomplished by similar sets of controls found in conventional helicopters. Propulsion is twin Goetz-Korman turbine generators.


title: Fictional universe of Avatar

text: The AT-99 Scorpion Gunship is the heavily armed gunship counterpart to the SA-2 Samson and is similar in role and appearance to the AH-64 Apache, Mi-28 or AH-1 Cobra gunships. Dual co-axial ducted-fan rotor systems with a total of four prop-rotors each with three blades lead as the aircraft's primary propulsion. It drives on redundant fuel cells. Twin turbine generators driving counter-rotating annular ceramic motors. It is equipped with radar and sonar generators. It is armed with hex-cluster pylon-mounted .50 caliber rotary chain gun systems that can rotate a full 360 degrees with 700 rounds per minute cyclic rate of fire as close-range primary weapons. The Scorpion has two pairs of stub-wing pylons to carry its armament. Scorpions carry 190 TK-411 WAFAR (Wrap-Around Fin Aerial Rocket) rockets in ten 19-tube rocket launchers. The use of the rocket varies according to the warhead that can range from tactical applications to impact-based sensor systems. Eight Hawkeye NPB-9 Hellfire (Helicopter Launched Fire-and-forget) missiles are used to engage air-to-air targets in conjunction with the nose-mounted sensor suite. The tail doubles as a rear stabilizer.


title: Fictional universe of Avatar

text: The C-21 Dragon Assault Ship is a large four-post ducted-fan VTOL heavily armed transport and gunship which can deliver AMP suits through drop doors. Quaritch led RDA forces with one of these. Its myriad arsenal of heavy machine guns, dozens upon dozens of rocket and missile pods, and door-gunners makes it the RDA's largest ship so far, with the Valkyrie shuttle being the only larger vehicle designed for extended use in the atmosphere of Pandora. Quad turbine generators drive the four-posted ceramic propellers. The Dragon is heavily armed with multiple weapons systems including grenades, rockets, missiles, and point-defense Gatling cannons. Ability to deploy many troops and AMP suits, variety of medium automatic guns, ATG and ATA missiles, incendiary rockets, grenades, door gunners, plus dual and quad Gatling gun systems. All gun and missile systems are constrained by friendly fire avoidance codes (IFF Lockout). It has twin cockpits. Its propellers counter-rotate to navigate, plus the nose-mounted radar suite. There are eight 50 mm sentry guns mounted below the right cockpit.


title: Fictional universe of Avatar

text: The GAV Swan is a six-wheeled terrain assault vehicle. Its full name is the Ground Assault Vehicle JL-723. It has a gyrostabilized platform so when it travels over rough terrain, the gunner platform is stabilized. The extended gunner's chair can rise up 3.6 meters above the vehicle to see over obstructions between the gun and the target, like the long neck of a swan, hence the name. This 6x6 is built for all-terrain, and its permalloy armor and four turret-mounted sixty-millimeter rotary autocannons provide protection from the Pandoran environment. The wheels have little armor and are designed with a thick polymer alloy. Swans have a gyrostabilized system that rotates a full 360 degrees. Swans also have a roll bar and four rear headlights. Swans have redundant fuel cells in the rear. When the chair extends, the ammunition storage canister is located at the back.


title: Fictional universe of Avatar

text: Hell's Gate is a secure forward operating base with an airfield, resembling a "modern-day Khe Sanh". Slightly more than a third of the site is taken up by the shuttle runway, VTOL pads, hangars, equipment storage areas, and garage structures. The armor bay is where vehicles come to get stored, repaired, or refitted. This building is the main storage area of all AMP suits. There is also a small weight room inside a weapons locker that Quaritch uses. Designed for security and rapid force deployment, the Armor Bay is the core of Hell's Gate's defenses. Housed inside its fortified hangar and at ready are Dragon Assault Ships configured for forward strike operations, Scorpion Gunships, Samson Helicopters, Model 10 Slash-Cutters, an array of AMP Suits, and other attack craft including support vehicles and assorted battle-ready machinery.