title: Benzyl alcohol

text: Benzyl alcohol is not considered to be a carcinogen, and no data are available regarding teratogenic or reproductive effects.


title: Imperial Chinese harem system

text: The ranks of imperial consorts have varied over the course of Chinese history but remained important throughout owing to its importance in management of the inner court and in imperial succession, which ranked heirs according to the prominence of their mothers in addition to their strict birth order. Regardless of the age, however, it is common in English translation to simplify these hierarchy into the three ranks of Empress, consorts, and concubines. It is also common to use the term "harem", an Arabic loan word used in recent times to refer to imperial women's forbidden quarters in many countries. In later Chinese dynasties, these quarters were known as the back palace (後宮; "hòugōng"). In Chinese, the system is called the Rear Palace System (後宮制度; "hòugōng zhìdù").


title: Imperial Chinese harem system

text: There exists a class of consorts called Ying (媵; "yìng") during early historical times in China. These were people who came along with brides as a form of dowry. It could be the female cousin or sister of the bride, or people from other countries (not necessarily from another race).


title: Imperial Chinese harem system

text: Worth noting is the fact that during the Shang Dynasty, there were times where two Empresses reigned at the same period.


title: Imperial Chinese harem system

text: The Rites of Zhou contains great details of an imperial consort ranking system. However, as the "Rites of Zhou" is considered by modern scholars to be merely a fictitious constitution for a utopian society, the system listed in that work of literature cannot be taken word for word. Rather, it offers a rough glimpse into the inner harem during the time.


title: Imperial Chinese harem system

text: It was suggested that a system (not necessarily resembling the one listed above) was set up to prevent the situation of having two Queens/Empresses.


title: Imperial Chinese harem system

text: According to the "Rites of Zhou", Feudal Lords are entitled to 9 consorts in total, and cannot marry again after having 9 consorts, which makes for 1 wife and 8 consorts. For other officers, they are entitled to 1 wife and 1 consort. For normal citizens, only 1 wife is allowed.


title: Imperial Chinese harem system

text: The principal wife of the Crown Prince was called (妃; "fēi"). There also exists a sub-ranking system for concubines; they were called Ladies of Excellence (良娣; "liáng dì") and (孺人; "rú rén"). For grandchildren of the Emperor, their principal wives were called Madame (夫人; "fū rén"). Concubines for these people have no titles, and were simple called (家人子; " jiā rén zǐ").


title: Imperial Chinese harem system

text: No limits were set for these consorts. This later created situations when more than 20,000 women were living in the palace during the reigns of Emperor Huan and Emperor Ling.


title: Imperial Chinese harem system

text: In 479, at the ascension of Emperor Gao, the Minister for Ceremonies (禮司) successfully petitioned the Emperor to establish the following system:


title: Imperial Chinese harem system

text: In 483, when Emperor Wu ascended to the throne, the Minister for Ceremonies (禮司) successfully petitioned the Emperor to expand the system. This involved elevating the position of Noble Consort (貴妃; "guì fēi") to a category all unto itself, with the following ranks:


title: Imperial Chinese harem system

text: The new category was just underneath the Empress. In 489, the position of Lady of Bright Countenance (昭容; "zhāo róng") was created to fill the gap created when Pure Consort (淑妃; "shū fēi") was elevated to an independent category.


title: Imperial Chinese harem system

text: Initially, during the reign of Gaozu, no specific ranking system for consorts were devised, due to the Emperor's desire to live a simple life. It was only until Emperor Wen's reign did a ranking system came into being:


title: Imperial Chinese harem system

text: During the reign of Emperor Daowu, the consort ranking system was very simple, and only contained the rank of Madame (夫人; "fū rén"). However, there existed an unwritten, subjective system of prestige rankings in between. It was during the reign of Emperor Taiwu that the system of rankings listed below came into force:


title: Imperial Chinese harem system

text: During the sinification of the Northern Wei Dynasty, Emperor Xiaowen reformed the consort ranking system to the system below:


title: Imperial Chinese harem system

text: In the beginning, there were only three ranks for consorts: Madame (夫人; "fū rén"), Imperial Concubine (嬪; "pín"), and Imperial Ladies (禦; "yù"). However, as Emperor Wucheng ascended to the throne, a system of rankings more sophisticated than any devised before was promulgated:


title: Imperial Chinese harem system

text: There also existed a system of Women Palace Officials (女官; "nǚ guān") to manage ceremonial affairs in the harem. The system was based on similar systems in the past.


title: Imperial Chinese harem system

text: During the reign of Emperor Yang, the ranking system was expanded yet again, based on systems in the past, to the following:


title: Imperial Chinese harem system

text: Imperial consorts of Tang China are organized in eight or nine ranks, in addition to the empress. They are also called the "inner officials" (內官), as opposed to "palace officials" (宮官), the bureaucracy.


title: Imperial Chinese harem system

text: In 662, the titles were temporarily changed to be devoid of feminine and superficial quality. This seemingly feminist change was reverted in the twelfth month of 670. The rationales were not explained in official records in both instances. However, some scholars have speculated it to be the suggestion of Empress Wu to her husband.


title: Imperial Chinese harem system

text: The principal wife of the Crown Prince is called Crown Princess (太子妃; "tài zǐ fēi"), which is held by only one person at any given time. There are 5 other ranks of consorts:


title: Imperial Chinese harem system

text: During these times, governments were replaced frequently, and as a result, it is difficult for modern scholars to derive any solid information on ranking systems during these times.


title: Imperial Chinese harem system

text: The ranking system was at its simplest, and only consists of Empress, Consort, and Concubine. No limits were set on the number of people who could enjoy the title, but only one empress can exist.


title: Imperial Chinese harem system

text: Although the number of ranks were few, there existed a subsystem of ranking by prestige inside the Yuan harem. The "tent" (Chinese: 宮帳, translated term from Mongolian: 斡兒垜) that a consort lives in often determines their status. These tents often contain multiple Empresses, Consorts, and Concubines. In the many tents that existed, the first Empress of the first tent is considered to be the most prestigious consort.


title: Imperial Chinese harem system

text: As with all parts of the Mongol Empire, Goryeo provided palace women to the Yuan dynasty. Korean concubines were procured by the Khan. One of them was Empress Gi, who, through her political command and incorporation of Korean females and eunuchs in the court, spread Korean clothing, food, and lifestyle in the capital. Empress Gi intervened in Goryeo and her family contended with the Goryeo royal family; her family was purged by Gongmin of Goryeo, and Gi retaliated with a failed Yuan invasion of Korea in 1364. The entry of Korean women into the Yuan court was reciprocated by the entry of Yuan princesses into the Goryeo court, beginning with the marriage of Chungnyeol of Goryeo and a daughter of Kublai Khan; in total, 9 princesses of the Yuan imperial court married into the Goryeo royal family.


title: Imperial Chinese harem system

text: Imperial marriages between the imperial clan of the Yuan existed between certain states and tribes. These included the Onggirat tribe, Idug-qut's Uighur tribe, the Oirat tribe, and the Goryeo royal family.


title: Imperial Chinese harem system

text: The Emperor Gong of Song surrendered to the Yuan dynasty in 1276 and was married off to a Yuan princess of the imperial Borjigin family. Zhao Xian had one son with the Yuan princess, Zhao Wanpu. Zhao Xian's son Zhao Wanpu was kept alive by the Yuan court because of his mother's imperial Borjigin ancestry even after the Emperor Gong of Song was ordered to be killed by Gegeen Khan. Zhao Wanpu was only moved and exiled. The outbreak of the Song loyalist Red Turban Rebellion in Henan led to a recommendation that Zhao Wanpu should be transferred somewhere else by an Imperial Censor in 1352. The Yuan did not want the Chinese rebels to get their hands on Zhao Wanpu so no one was permitted to see him and Zhao Wanpu's family and himself were exiled to Shazhou near the border by the Yuan Emperor. Paul Pelliot and John Andrew Boyle commented on Rashid-al-Din Hamadani's chapter "The Successors of Genghis Khan" in his work Jami' al-tawarikh, identified references by Rashid al-Din to Zhao Xian in his book where he mentions a Chinese ruler who was an "emir" and son-in-law to the Qan (Khan) after being removed from his throne by the Mongols and he is also called "Monarch of Song", or Suju (宋主 Songzhu) in the book.


title: Imperial Chinese harem system

text: Human tribute, including servants, eunuchs, and virgin girls came from: China's various ethnic tribes, Mongolia, Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Central Asia, Siam, Champa, and Okinawa.


title: Imperial Chinese harem system

text: Joseon sent a total of 114 women to the Ming dynasty, consisting of 16 virgin girls (accompanied by 48 female servants), 42 cooks (執饌女), and 8 musical performers (歌舞女). The women were sent to the Yongle and Xuande emperors in a total of 7 missions between 1408 and 1433. Xuande was the last Ming emperor to receive human tribute from Korea; with his death in 1435, 53 Korean women were repatriated. There was much speculation that the Yongle Emperor's real mother was a Korean or Mongolian concubine. Relations between Ming China and Joseon Korea improved dramatically and became much more amicable and mutually profitable during Yongle's reign. Yongle and Xuande were said to have a penchant for Korean cuisine and women.


title: Imperial Chinese harem system

text: Central Asian women were provided to the Zhengde Emperor by a Muslim guard and Sayyid Hussein from Hami. The guard was Yu Yung and the women were Uighur. It is unknown who really was behind the anti-pig slaughter edict. The speculation of him becoming a Muslim is remembered alongside his excessive and debauched behavior along with his concubines of foreign origin. Muslim Central Asian girls were favored by Zhengde like how Korean girls were favored by Xuande. A Uighur concubine was kept by Zhengde. Foreign origin Uighur and Mongol women were favored by the Zhengde emperor.


title: Imperial Chinese harem system

text: There were limits placed on how many consorts could hold the ranks of Imperial Concubine (嬪; "pín"), and above. An Emperor could have up to 1 Empress, 1 Imperial Noble Consort, 2 Noble Consorts, 4 Consorts and 6 Imperial Concubines at a time.


title: Imperial Chinese harem system

text: Consorts that attained the rank of Imperial Concubine (嬪) and above would be honoured with a residence in the main section of a palace in the Forbidden City. Consorts that attained the rank of Imperial Concubine and above, when being addressed by lower ranked concubines and servants, would have to be addressed as Your Highness (娘娘; "níangniang"). All people were expected to use deprecating self-titles when addressing higher ranks, and concubines were no different.


title: Imperial Chinese harem system

text: For an Empress who lived well into the reigns of at least two subsequent Emperors, she would be referred to as Empress Dowager (皇太后; "huáng tài hòu") if her husband's son was the Emperor, or Grand Empress Dowager (太皇太后; "tài huáng tài hòu") if her husband's grandson was the Emperor. If a consort was never an Empress during her husband's reign but her son became the next Emperor, she would be referred to as Empress Dowager (皇太后; "huáng tài hòu") and be posthumously honoured as an Empress, same as the Empress of her husband. The other consort will referred as Dowager Consort according their rank. For example, an imperial concubines will refer as Dowager Imperial Concubines (太嬪) and Noble Consort will refer as Dowager Noble Consorts (太貴妃). The present empress must pay respect to her elders whose holding position Dowager Consort (太妃) and above.


title: Imperial Chinese harem system

text: The system was solid, but the number of consorts an emperor actually had during the Qing dynasty was subject to wild variations. The Kangxi Emperor (r. 1661-1722) holds the record for having the most consorts with 79, while the Guangxu Emperor (r. 1875-1908) holds the record for having the fewest consorts, with one empress and two consorts – a total of just three consorts.


title: Imperial Chinese harem system

text: The tradition of ranking concubines ended when the Qing dynasty was overthrown. However, the practice of giving rank to people who "unofficially" (lives with, but never marry) have more than one wife is still widespread. In addition, the term (夫人; "fū rén") is still used, albeit rarely and only in very formal settings, as an honorific title towards another person's wife in China.


title: Imperial Chinese harem system

text: After the Second Manchu invasion of Korea, the Joseon kingdom was forced to give several of their royal princesses as concubines to the Qing prince-regent Dorgon. In 1650, Dorgon married the Korean Princess Uisun, a distant relative of the king, who was adopted and given the royal princess title so she can be married off to Dorgon. Joseon court revoked Princess Uisun's title and royal privileges after Dorgon died. Dorgon married two Korean princesses at Lianshan. However, there is no evidence of Dorgon marrying any other Joseon princess besides Princess Uisun in Joseon records and it is extremely unlikely as Dorgon died in December 1650, only few months after his marriage to Princess Uisun.


title: Head of the Chechen Republic

text: The Head of the Chechen Republic or Head of Chechnya (, ; formerly President of the Chechen Republic or President of Chechnya until 5 March 2011) is the highest office within the political system of the Chechen Republic, as Head of State and Head of Government of Chechnya. The office was instituted in 2003 during the course of the Second Chechen War, when the Russian federal government regained control over the region and after a constitutional referendum approved the current Constitution of the Chechen Republic.


title: Head of the Chechen Republic

text: According to the article 66 of the Constitution of the Chechen Republic, a citizen of Russia, no younger than thirty years old, may be elected Head. The term is for five years, with no limits on serving multiple terms (prior to the 2007 constitutional referendum the Head was elected for four years, with a two term limit). The Head is not allowed to be at the same time a deputy of the Parliament of the Chechen Republic, or deputy of a representative body of local self-government.


title: Sodom (band)

text: Sodom is a German thrash metal band from Gelsenkirchen, formed in 1981. They have gone through many lineup changes, leaving bassist/vocalist Tom Angelripper as the only constant member. The band is currently composed of Angelripper, guitarists Frank "Blackfire" Gosdzik (who was a member of Sodom from 1987 to 1989 and rejoined in 2018) and Yorck Segatz, and drummer Toni Merkel. Along with Kreator, Destruction and Tankard, Sodom has been referred to as one of the "Big Four" of Teutonic thrash metal. While three of those bands (except Tankard) created a sound that would influence the death metal and black metal genres, Sodom's early music style would greatly influence many late 1980s and early 1990s black metal bands more than others.


title: Sodom (band)

text: Sodom has released seventeen studio albums, three live albums, two compilation albums and seven EPs. They achieved their first commercial success with their fourth studio album "Agent Orange" (1989), which was one of the first thrash metal albums to enter the German album charts, where it reached number 36. Their most recent studio album, "Genesis XIX", was released on 27 November 2020. Sodom is one of the best-selling thrash metal acts of all time, having sold over two million records.


title: Sodom (band)

text: Sodom's original line-up consisted of Tom Angelripper, Bloody Monster, Arius "Blasphemer", and Aggressor. Reportedly named in reference to the Venom song "One Thousand Days in Sodom", the band was initiated by Tom as a desperate attempt to get out of having to work in coal mines in his home town of Gelsenkirchen. The band became a cohesive unit when Chris Witchhunter (Christian Dudek) from Essen replaced Bloody Monster on drums, bringing songwriting experience from his time in school, and spearheading the creativity process after Arius had been fired. Taking inspiration from bands such as Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Motörhead, Venom, Kiss, Tank, Accept, Raven, Rainbow, AC/DC and UFO, the group continued as a three-piece in the Motörhead-fashion and released two demos which led to a record deal with Steamhammer. Aggressor left the band shortly before releasing the "In the Sign of Evil" EP (which is generally regarded as an important early black metal release), and was replaced by Grave Violator, who himself did not last long, and left following the recording of "In the Sign of Evil". Michael "Destructor" Wulf was found as a replacement, after which the band went and recorded "Obsessed by Cruelty", their full-length debut featuring music that was mostly in the vein of "In the Sign of Evil." Wulf did not last in the band long, and later went and joined Kreator (where he also only had a short stint; he died after a tragic motorcycle accident in 1993).


title: Sodom (band)

text: For the most part, Sodom was at first not taken seriously, with various press sources describing them as "a second-rate Venom clone with semi-inventive lyrics". One member would change that. Frank "Blackfire" Gosdzik came in to fill the guitar spot Wulf had left behind. Frank convinced Tom that thrash metal was moving beyond horror/occult/satanic themes of bands like Venom to embrace political, societal, and war themes. Tom was already interested in various wars yet remained a peacenik. New inspiration culminated into Frank's full-length debut with the band, "Persecution Mania". The new lyrical approach and increased musicianship on the part of Frank gave the band great acclaim (as well as a gas-masked mascot Knarrenheinz, who appeared for the first time on "Persecution Mania"'s cover). They subsequently toured Europe with Whiplash, Destruction, and Coroner, and embarked on their only North American tour to date. After that, the band returned to the studio to make another album. The resulting album, "Agent Orange" (1989), sold 100,000 copies in Germany alone. It was this album that made Sodom famous, giving them worldwide critical acclaim, and secured their place alongside Kreator and Destruction as one of the great Teutonic thrash metal bands. To this date, "Agent Orange" has sold more than any other German thrash metal album in the world. In support of the album, Sodom went on tour with a then-relatively unknown Sepultura.


title: Sodom (band)

text: Problems were brewing inside of the band, however. Tom and Chris descended further into alcoholism. Furthermore, Frank had grown tired of composing music that his bandmates would often perform poorly live. Mille Petrozza offered Frank a position with his band Kreator, after they lost their second guitarist, and Frank accepted. Angelripper went out looking for a replacement and found Michael Hoffmann, formerly of German thrashers Assassin.


title: Sodom (band)

text: With a new line-up, the album "Better off Dead" was released in 1990, and another grueling tour in Europe followed, playing with bands like Acid Drinkers, Destruction, Accu§er, Running Wild, Coroner, Tankard and Atrocity. During the South American tour, Hoffmann decided to stay in Brazil and was therefore forced to quit. Andy Brings replaced him, and a new album was recorded, "Tapping the Vein" (1992), with more of a death metal sound. This proved to be the last album with the drummer Witchhunter: He was kicked out of the band, and Atomic Steif formerly of both Holy Moses and Living Death became his replacement behind the drum kit.


title: Sodom (band)

text: On 15 September 1991, Sodom played in Sofia, Bulgaria. The show was notable for the band because the audience of fifteen thousand people was one of the largest they had ever as a headliner. It was notable for the audience because it was the first show of a Western metal band in Bulgaria after the fall of communism (the only remotely similar event being a performance of the hard rock band Uriah Heep in 1987).


title: Sodom (band)

text: The group's next album, "Get What You Deserve" (1994), saw them tone down the death metal sound of its predecessor in favor of a hardcore punk-influenced sound. "Get What You Deserve" had an arguably grotesque album cover (featuring a dead man shot and lying in his bed with a woman tied-up nearby), and many fans did not take to the band's new direction. This period also marked the beginning of less international visibility for the band as thrash lost its commercial viability for the remainder of the 1990s due to Grunge and alternative rock. Angelripper also started a solo career doing metal impressions of drinking songs, German Schlagers and even Christmas-type carols. A live album was recorded of the tour in support of the resulting album called "Marooned – Live".


title: Sodom (band)

text: "Masquerade in Blood", saw the death metal influences return, as well as some groove metal elements kicking in, but still was pretty much in the same vein as their previous studio effort. It was released in 1995. Again another guitarist had to be found. The new choice, Strahli, did not stay very long with the band. He was arrested and imprisoned on drug-related matters, and the band had since lost contact with him, until January 2011, when they learned he had died in Düsseldorf. Atomic Steif also left and again Angelripper needed to search for new members. These were found: a guitarist in Bernemann and a drummer in Bobby Schottkowski. This line-up stabilized the band significantly and lasted until December 2010, when Schottkowski left.


title: Sodom (band)

text: The album "'Til Death Do Us Unite" featured a controversial album cover, depicting a woman's pregnant belly and a man's beer gut pressing in a human skull together. This album marked the beginning of Sodom's return to thrash but was still more along the lines of a thrash-crossover sound and had much in common with bands like Suicidal Tendencies. It also spawned the song for which Sodom would make their most famous music video, the highly-controversial song "Fuck the Police". After this album, Sodom returned to the studio and released "Code Red" in 1999 which marked a full return to the Teutonic thrash metal sound of the 1980s, and it was met with praise from fans and press alike. A limited edition featured a bonus CD containing a tribute to Sodom album, "Homage to the Gods". With 2001 came the release of "M-16", a concept album about the movie "Apocalypse Now", which took its title from the famed M16 assault rifle.


title: Sodom (band)

text: In 2003, a double live album was recorded in Bangkok, Thailand, titled ""One Night in Bangkok"". A new album simply titled "Sodom" was released in 2006, in the same vein as "M-16". The title was chosen – as Angelripper explained it – "because every band needs a self-titled album", and the band had never released one. The album was delayed however, because the DVD "Lords of Depravity" took more time to compose than initially thought.


title: Sodom (band)

text: In 2007, Tom was asked by the record label Steamhammer for any tracks to be released on the "In the Sign of Evil" EP. Tom believed there were, and the label floated the idea to Tom to get ex-members Chris Witchhunter and Grave Violator (real name: Franz Josef "Peppi" Dominik) to re-record the EP with the bonus tracks. The result became "The Final Sign of Evil". Chris "Witchhunter" Dudek died on 7 September 2008 from liver failure after a long battle with illness.


title: Sodom (band)

text: "In War and Pieces", Sodom's thirteenth studio album, was released in Europe on 22 November 2010, and released in North America on 11 January 2011. On 30 November 2010, it was announced that Bobby Schottkowski would be leaving the band, due to "personal and private problems" between Tom Angelripper and Schottkowski. On 8 December 2010, Markus "Makka" Freiwald was announced to be Sodom's new drummer.


title: Sodom (band)

text: In late January 2012, Sodom began writing their fourteenth studio album, which they planned to record in May 2012 for a late summer release. On 17 December 2012, the band announced the album would be released on 29 April 2013. The album is titled "Epitome of Torture" and features 13 tracks. The album was released in Germany on 26 April, and in the US on 7 May.


title: Sodom (band)

text: In November 2014, Sodom released the EP "Sacred Warpath" as a preview of their fifteenth studio album. The EP contains one original studio track, and live versions of three previously released songs.


title: Sodom (band)

text: On 9 June 2016, Sodom announced their fifteenth studio album "Decision Day" on their Facebook page. It was released on August 26 of that year.


title: Sodom (band)

text: Sodom released the compilation album, "Demonized", on 1 September 2017. Available only on cassette and 12" vinyl, it features the band's first two demo recordings, "Witching Metal" from 1982 and "Victims of Death" from 1984.


title: Sodom (band)

text: Shortly after the release of "Decision Day", Angelripper stated that Sodom had "some ideas for [their] next album which [they] want to bring out in 2018."


title: Sodom (band)

text: On 3 December 2017, Sodom announced that they would reunite with three of their former guitarists Josef "Grave Violator" Dominic (who performed on "In the Sign of Evil"), Frank "Blackfire" Gosdzik ("Persecution Mania" and "Agent Orange") and Andy Brings ("Tapping the Vein" and "Get What You Deserve") during their 35th anniversary show on 26 December in Bochum, Germany, marking the first time since Dominic, Gosdzik and Brings left the band in 1985, 1989, and 1995, respectively, that either guitarist had performed live with Sodom. Their previous performances were at Wacken in 2007. They performed three songs separate from one another's appearances from the respective albums they appeared on.


title: Sodom (band)

text: On 5 January 2018, Angelripper announced his partings from Bernemann and Makka "to pave the way for new challenges." He then said that he would introduce the new members on 7 April at the 2018 edition of the Full Metal Mountain festival, and that they would work on a new album together. Bernemann and Makka later said that they were fired from the band via WhatsApp without Angelripper listening to the new material they were working on for the band's next album. On 22 January 2018, Angelripper announced that he had expanded the band's line-up as a four piece. He was rejoined by guitarist Frank "Blackfire" Gosdzik and added Stefan "Husky" Hüskens and Yorck Segatz as the band's new drummer and second guitarist respectively. On 26 February 2018, Sodom cancelled their appearance at the Full Metal Mountain festival "due to the short-term change of line-up and the restructuring of my band Sodom", as explained by Angelripper. He then said that the time was "simply too short to put the new line-up in a solid live set". The new line-up of the band made their live debut on 18 May at the 2018 edition of the Rock Hard Festival. Sodom also participated in the 2018 installment of the MTV Headbangers Ball European Tour with Death Angel, Suicidal Angels and Exodus from late November to mid-December. This new lineup recorded the EPs "Partisan" (2018) and "Out of the Frontline Trench" (2019).


title: Sodom (band)

text: On 13 January 2020, drummer Stefan "Husky" Hüskens departed the band due to "some changes at [his] full-time job, as well as a few other matters", and would not return in the future. He was replaced by Toni Merkel.


title: Sodom (band)

text: On 12 June 2020, Sodom announced that they had begun recording their sixteenth studio album, entitled "Genesis XIX", at Woodhouse Studio in Hagen, Germany with producer Siggi Bemm. Mixing of the album was completed in August 2020. A month later, it was announced that the album would be released on 27 November.


title: Sodom (band)

text: On 11 May 2021, Sodom announced an upcoming EP titled "Bombenhagel", containing a re-recorded version of the song "Bombenhagel" from their 1987 studio album "Persecution Mania" as well as two new tracks, set to be released on 20 August.


title: Sodom (band)

text: In a December 2021 interview with Rockman, Tom Angelripper revealed that Sodom has begun writing new material for their next album. A month later, Sodom was announced as one of the bands to have its contract with SPV/Steamhammer Records renewed. In May 2022, Angelripper said that the band's new album will be released in 2023.


title: Sodom (band)

text: To coincide with its 40th anniversary, Sodom released the compilation album "40 Years at War – The Greatest Hell of Sodom" on October 28, 2022. The set includes one song from each of the band's studio albums between "Obsessed by Cruelty" and "Genesis XIX", in addition to "Sepulchral Voice" from the "In the Sign of Evil" EP.


title: Sodom (band)

text: In the early days Sodom's lyrics focused on Satanic and occult themes, but since "Persecution Mania", most of their songs have covered topics based on, inspired by, or related to the concepts of war, politics, fascism and world history. Some of their songs have also covered topics dealing with religion, rape or sexual intercourse, hatred, violence, racism and xenophobia, almost often presented in a humorous light. Their political-related lyrics had led some people to think that the band was militarist, but on closer observation the listener would find the lyrics actually being anti-war. In an interview with Metalkings.com Tom Angelripper said: "Why are we writing about war? Because we don't want war. We wanna describe how bad the war is." The chorus of the song "Ausgebombt" also gives a very clear message: "No trade with death, No trade with arms, Dispense the war, Learn from the past."


title: Sodom (band)

text: Sodom has been influenced or inspired by a variety of music, including AC/DC, Accept, Anvil, Jeff Beck, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Fates Warning, Jimi Hendrix, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, the Mahavishnu Orchestra, Mercyful Fate, Motörhead, Pink Floyd, Queen, Rainbow, Santana, Saxon, Scorpions, Slade, Slayer, Tank, Thin Lizzy, Uriah Heep, Steve Vai, Venom and Frank Zappa. In turn, the band has influenced numerous heavy metal acts such as Burzum, Cannibal Corpse, Dark Tranquility, Deicide, Enslaved, Evildead, Evile, Incantation, Mayhem, Morbid Angel, Necrodeath, Necromantia, Obituary, Rotting Christ, Sepultura and Tsjuder.


title: The Gruffalo

text: The Gruffalo is a British children's picture book by author Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Scheffler. Its tells the story of a mouse taking a walk in the woods and deceiving different predators, including the Gruffalo. "The Gruffalo" was first published in 1999 in the United Kingdom by Macmillan Children's Books. It is about 700 words long and is written in rhyming couplets featuring repetitive verse. It is an example of a trickster story and was inspired by a Chinese folk tale called "The Fox that Borrows the Terror of a Tiger". "The Gruffalo" has sold over 13.5 million copies and has won several prizes for children's literature including the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize.


title: The Gruffalo

text: It has been adapted into plays and an Oscar-nominated animated film. The book has inspired a range of merchandise, a commemorative coin, a theme park ride in Chessington World of Adventures, and a series of woodland trails. In 2004, "The Gruffalo" was followed by a sequel—"The Gruffalo's Child—"also written by Donaldson and illustrated by Scheffler.


title: The Gruffalo

text: Julia Donaldson is an author of children's books, the most famous of which being "The Gruffalo". Before writing "The Gruffalo", Donaldson had a background in drama and performance. She studied drama at the University of Bristol and then busked in Europe and the United States. She began her career as a writer by writing children's songs for television programmes. In 1993, one of her songs that she sang and performed with her husband—"A Squash and Squeeze", about an elderly lady with a small house—was turned into a book, published by Methuen and illustrated by Axel Scheffler. Scheffler was born and grew up in Germany before moving to the UK to study art. He first worked with Donaldson on "A Squash and Squeeze", published in 1993.


title: The Gruffalo

text: In an interview in the book "The Way We Write" (2006), Donaldson writes that although "It can take months or years for the germination of a book ... writing "The Gruffalo" probably took two weeks, with all the rewriting". She said that writing the second half of the book was difficult and almost forced her to stop altogether. Donaldson said that she had admired Scheffler's illustrations for "A Squash and Squeeze", and when her publisher did not suggest he would also be illustrating "The Gruffalo", she sent him the text of the book herself. Scheffler showed the text to Macmillan, who were his publisher at the time and subsequently published the book.


title: The Gruffalo

text: A mouse walks through a wood and encounters three predators—first a fox, then an owl, and finally a snake. Each of these animals invites the mouse into their home for a meal, the implication being that they intend to eat the mouse. The mouse declines each offer, telling the predators that it plans to dine with a "gruffalo". The mouse then describes the gruffalo's frightening features, such as "terrible tusks, terrible claws, and terrible teeth in his terrible jaws". The mouse tells each predator that they are the gruffalo's favourite food. Frightened that the gruffalo might eat them, each animal flees. Convinced the Gruffalo is fictional, the mouse says:


title: The Gruffalo

text: After getting rid of the last animal, the mouse is shocked to encounter a real Gruffalo, which has all the features the mouse thought that it was inventing. The Gruffalo threatens to eat the mouse. Instead, the mouse insists that they themselves are the scariest animal in the wood. Laughing, the Gruffalo agrees to follow the mouse. The two walk through the wood, encountering each of the three predators again. Each predator is terrified by the sight of the Gruffalo and escapes to their home. The Gruffalo believes that they are actually scared of the mouse. Exploiting this, the mouse threatens to eat the Gruffalo. The Gruffalo flees, leaving the mouse to eat a nut in peace.


title: The Gruffalo

text: "The Gruffalo" is an example of a trickster story—a genre which has examples in traditions including West African folklore, Native American stories, Russian fairy tales, and Bornean folk tales. In every example, the story features a trickster—a character who is neither good nor bad—fooling another character by making them think something beneficial to the trickster. In "The Gruffalo", the mouse is the trickster. It lies, is assertive, does not make it clear to the audience what it is thinking, and uses humour to get away with its deception. Michael Burke writes that deception occurs when the mouse tells the Gruffalo that everyone is afraid of it, seemingly proves that assertion when the predators run away from it, and then says that its favourite food is "Gruffalo crumble". Burke writes that this trickery requires a theory of mind, with which the mouse in the story can understand the Gruffalo's "intentions, his beliefs, desires, emotions and knowledge". In an article on the language of power in picture books, Brittany A. Stone writes that the mouse uses deception to trick the predators; when they invite mouse for a meal it appears to be a simple invitation, but mouse notices their true intention and gains control of the situation.


title: The Gruffalo

text: In an article for the Royal Society, Sergio Castellano and Paolo Cermelli write that "The Gruffalo" is about "the 'irrational' nature of fear" which makes people succumb to deception. From an evolutionary perspective, they say that "The Gruffalo" is about the methods of deception used by prey against their predators, such as when caterpillars inflate themselves to resemble a snake. Burke writes that the mouse in the story is a quick thinker and demonstrates a reaction to the fight-or-flight response when presented with danger.


title: The Gruffalo

text: In an article titled "Humour and the locus of control in 'The Gruffalo'", Betsie van der Westhuizen identifies the following types of humour used in "The Gruffalo": "humour with regard to the narrative aspects, humour with regard to the poetic aspects, visual humour and humour and the performing arts". She writes that the most common use of humour in the story is incongruity, arising from the sense that "everything is not as it should be". Some examples include the mouse averting the predators and the unusual descriptions of food, such as "owl ice cream" and "scrambled snake". She writes that there are different experiences of humour among different ages of children who read "The Gruffalo": three to five year olds will appreciate the elements of surprise and repetition in the story; six to eight year olds will enjoy the rhyme and rhythm of the text and the story's hyperbole. As for visual representations of humour, van der Westhuizen writes that an example occurs when the mouse scares away the snake, accompanied by fragmented images of the imaginary gruffalo's features, then immediately afterwards comes across the real Gruffalo.


title: The Gruffalo

text: Mice often feature as the main character in stories for children, and one key characteristic of the animal in this context is humour. Both Ghassan Fadhil Radhi and van der Westhuizen write that children relate to the character of the mouse who triumphs in difficult situations, along with the humour that is a key element of many mouse stories.


title: The Gruffalo

text: Donaldson has said that the story of "The Gruffalo" was inspired by a Chinese folk tale known as "The Fox that Borrows the Terror of a Tiger" (狐假虎威).The folk tale is about a hungry tiger who tries to catch a fox. The fox is clever and tells the tiger that God has made the fox king of all animals. Whilst accompanying the fox, the tiger notices that other animals run away in fear. Not realising that they are actually running away from the tiger, the tiger believes that fox is indeed a feared king. Donaldson was originally going to have the beast in her book be a tiger, but was unable to think of rhymes for "tiger" so instead invented a new word—"gruffalo".


title: The Gruffalo

text: The Taiwanese translator of "The Gruffalo" recommended the book for publication in Taiwanese because he noticed the story bore resemblance to the traditional tale. Teachers have used this translated book to demonstrate a modern retelling of the Chinese folk tale. In an article on the traditional Chinese translation of "The Gruffalo" in Taiwan, Chen-Wei Yu writes that the "resourcefulness" of the mouse in Donaldson's story represents a Western association with "individual autonomy" and "self-achievement", whereas the fox in the original fable is to be looked down upon because it does not accept its correct place in society nor an individual's obligation to others. This latter interpretation of the story has led the phrase "The Fox that Borrows the Terror of a Tiger" to mean someone who makes use of another person's power for their own gain.


title: The Gruffalo

text: "The Gruffalo" is a short children's story around 700 words long. It is intended to be read aloud as it is written for a target audience of children who do not know or are learning how to read. It is written in rhyming couplets in primarily dactylic tetrameter. This is a relatively uncommon metre, consisting of one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables, for instance:


title: The Gruffalo

text: The rhythm of the text is broken at key points in the story. For example, when the mouse announces that he is going to meet the gruffalo "here, by the rocks", the pause on the word "here" lets the reader know the importance of the location and makes them more likely to remember it when the mouse and Gruffalo return there later in the story. The rhythm is broken again after the mouse fools the predators and sees the Gruffalo for the first time, saying "Oh, help! Oh, no! It's a gruffalo".


title: The Gruffalo

text: To create a satisfying rhyming scheme for the story, Donaldson tried a few different names for the creature that would eventually become the Gruffalo.


title: The Gruffalo

text: In Burke's view, the name is "fittingly crafted by the author". The use of the "Gr" sound at the start of the name evokes negativity, harshness and discomfort, owing to the fact that it is a common consonant cluster in words with that connotation (for example: growl, groan, grumble). The first syllable in the name—"gruff—"is shared with the other children's literary characters of the Three Billy Goats Gruff. The sound of the word "Gruffalo" is used to emphasise the first time the Gruffalo is seen in the story: the mouse begins saying the sentence "Silly old snake, doesn't he know, there's no such thing as a Gruffal ...", then the reader turns the page to see the picture of the Gruffalo and the mouse finishes it's sentence with an the exclamation "Oh!". Burke writes that this exclamation works particularly well when the text is read out loud. Van der Westhuizen writes that there is some "very subtle wordplay/manipulation of spelling" when the real Gruffalo is first introduced to make him "more specific, more substantial": from that point on in the text, "Gruffalo" is spelled with a capital 'G'; up until in the story, it was spelled with a lower case 'g'. There is typographic variation in the text, in that the Gruffalo's and predator's dialogue is written in italic font whereas the mouse's dialogue is not.


title: The Gruffalo

text: The text contains a mixture of predictable rhymes (such as mouse-house and wood-good) and unpredictable rhymes (such as toowhoo-flew). It utilises alliteration from the very start (such as "deep, dark woods" in the opening line), which gives more emphasis to the descriptions and helps children remember them easier. The word "terrible" is repeated as an adjective to describe the Gruffalo's features (for example "terrible tusks", "terrible claws"), which Burke writes may remind readers of "Where the Wild Things Are"—another children's book to use the word. "The Gruffalo" mainly uses concrete nouns (such as "lake" and "wood") rather than abstract nouns.


title: The Gruffalo

text: When writing the story, Donaldson did not have an exact vision of what the Gruffalo would look like. She said that she imagined he would be "more weird and less furry" than Scheffler's final illustrations. She read the story in schools prior to the book being published and invited the children to draw the Gruffalo, which resulted in creatures which she described as looking "more like aliens and less like cuddly animals". In early sketches for the book, the Gruffalo was depicted as being humanoid, troll-like, and wearing a T-shirt and trousers. The book's editor, Alison Green, said that they instead decided that the Gruffalo would look more like a woodland creature and predator, and Donaldson said the resulting illustration is "more natural looking". Scheffler's depiction of the creature relied on the physical descriptions within the text with along with features which aren't mentioned, such as a pair of bovine horns. He created a version of the character which is cuddly and furry but still scary. Donaldson describes the Gruffalo's appearance as a "mixture of scary but stupid". Burke writes that the image of the Gruffalo has become "iconic".


title: The Gruffalo

text: When the Gruffalo first appears in the story, he takes up a large part of the visual space on the page with strong, contrasting colours. He appears menacing with his arms raised in an attack stance, claws extended, and a drooling tongue. The mouse in comparison looks threatened, but the humorous grin of the Gruffalo—who looks directly at the audience rather than the mouse—alongside the playfulness of the text implies that the creature is less scary than he appears. As the story progresses, the Gruffalo gradually appears less menacing and more frightened. Throughout the nine visual depictions of the Gruffalo in the book, he becomes, as Burke writes, more "buffoon-like". In the penultimate picture of the Gruffalo, he holds his hand to his neck area which makes him look uncomfortable. The final picture is of the Gruffalo is him running away.


title: The Gruffalo

text: "The Gruffalo" is set in a forest. Scheffler was inspired by the forests in Hamburg when drawing rough initial sketches for the book. The setting contains a footpath, stream, lake, mushrooms and other wildlife. He depicts the "deep dark wood" with deep green and brown tones and dark outlines. The darkness of the hues add to the feeling of suspense when reading the story. Burke writes that the trees and tree roots are "reminiscent of the Gruffalo itself, it is as if the forest has in part spawned the creature, and they serve in the story to foreshadow what is to come". Throughout the book, the setting doesn't change—the illustrations at the end of the book are a mirror image of the forest at the beginning.


title: The Gruffalo

text: "The Gruffalo" was published by Macmillan in 1999—a year after its completion. An audiobook version, narrated by Imelda Staunton, was released in 2002 and a jigsaw book version was published in 2004. The "Gruffalo song" was released with the audiobook on a musical CD with other songs from Donaldson's books. Scheffler and Donaldson continued to work together in an author-illustrator partnership and as of 2022 have created over 20 best-selling books. In 2019, 20 years after the publication of "The Gruffalo", over 13.5 million copies had been sold. It has been translated into more than 50 languages, including Cornish, Scots and Latin. The sequel to the book by Donaldson and Scheffler—"The Gruffalo's Child—"was published in 2004. It tells the story of the Gruffalo's daughter discovering the mouse after hearing stories about it from her father. The character of the Gruffalo occasionally appears in other books by Donaldson and Scheffler.


title: The Gruffalo

text: The book has been adapted into a 30 minute animated film, which was broadcast on BBC One in the UK on 25 December 2009. This version features Robbie Coltrane in the title role, James Corden as the mouse, Helena Bonham Carter as the mother squirrel narrator, John Hurt as the Owl, Tom Wilkinson as the Fox and Rob Brydon as the Snake. The production was animated at Studio Soi in Germany and produced through Magic Light Pictures. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Short Film (Animated) in 2011. The film was nominated for a BAFTA in 2010.


title: The Gruffalo

text: The Gruffalo has been adapted for the stage by Tall Stories theatre company, premiering in 2001. The production has toured the West End, Broadway, and Sydney Opera House. A review in "The Scotsman" says that the play "develops Donaldson's words with perfect understanding". A review in "British Theatre" praises the "dynamic movements in all the scenes", including fourth wall breaks, but writes that the musical numbers and scenery are not as inspiring. The Gruffalo has also been adapted for the stage by Dutch theatre company Meneer Monster.


title: The Gruffalo

text: A range of official "The Gruffalo" merchandise includes clothing, accessories, games, and soft toys. A Gruffalo Woodland Trail was opened on 31 March 2012 at the Dean Heritage Centre in the Forest of Dean. The trail depicts scenes and characters from the book carved by chainsaw artists. Other Gruffalo-themed woodland walks and trails have been established in Great Britain, including those at Kilmardinny Loch in Bearsden, Mount Vernon Park in Glasgow, Ardkinglas in Argyll, Whinlatter Forest Park in Cumbria, and several locations managed by Forestry England. In 2017, Chessington World of Adventures opened The Gruffalo River Ride Adventure after securing a licensing deal with the studio Magic Light Pictures, which created The Gruffalo film. This ride replaced the park's Bubbleworks Ride. Another ride based on Donaldson's book, and Magic Light Picture's film, "Room on the Broom" was also opened.


title: The Gruffalo

text: Sterling silver, gold, and UK 50p commemorative coins featuring "The Gruffalo" were issued in 2019 to mark the 20th anniversary of the book's publication. The coins were not introduced into general circulation, but were sold through the Royal Mint website. The 50p coins sold out within a day of being released. The same year, characters from the book featured on a series of UK postage stamps issued by the Royal Mail.


title: The Gruffalo

text: "The Gruffalo" won the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize and Blue Peter Book Award's Best Book to Read Aloud. In November 2009 the book was voted "best bedtime story" by listeners of BBC Radio 2. In a 2010 survey by UK charity Booktime, the book came first in a list of children's favourite books.


title: Carolco Pictures

text: Carolco Pictures, Inc. was an American independent film studio that existed from 1976 to 1995, founded by Mario Kassar and Andrew G. Vajna. Kassar and Vajna ran Carolco together until 1989, when Vajna left to form Cinergi Pictures. Carolco hit its peak in the 1980s and early 1990s, with blockbuster successes including the first three films of the "Rambo" franchise, "Total Recall", "", "Basic Instinct", "Universal Soldier", "Cliffhanger" and "Stargate". Nevertheless, the company was losing money overall and required a corporate restructuring in 1992. The 1995 film "Cutthroat Island", intended to be a comeback for the studio, instead lost $147 million and brought the company to an end.


title: Carolco Pictures

text: The company was founded through the partnership of two film investors, Mario Kassar and Andrew Vajna. The two were hailed by "Newsweek" as some of the most successful independent producers. By the age of 25, Vajna went from wig-maker to the owner of two Hong Kong theaters. Then, Vajna ventured into the production and distribution of feature films. One of Vajna's early productions was a 1973 martial-arts film entitled "The Deadly China Doll" which made $3.7 million worldwide from a $100,000 budget.


title: Carolco Pictures

text: Their goal was to focus on film sales, with their first venture being "The Sicilian Cross"; eventually it went into financing low-budget films. Their earliest films were produced by American International Pictures and ITC Entertainment with Carolco's financial support, and co-produced with Canadian theater magnate Garth Drabinsky. The name "Carolco" was purchased from a defunct company based in Panama, and according to Kassar, "it has no meaning."


title: Carolco Pictures

text: Carolco's first major success was "First Blood" (1982), an adaptation of David Morrell's novel of the same name. Kassar and Vajna took a great risk buying the film rights to the novel (for $385,000) and used the help of European bank loans to cast Sylvester Stallone as the lead character, Vietnam War veteran John Rambo, after having worked with him on the John Huston film "Escape to Victory" (1981). The risk paid off after "First Blood" made $120 million worldwide, and placed Carolco among the major players in Hollywood.


title: Carolco Pictures

text: On May 15, 1984, Carolco Pictures entered into a long-time agreement with then-up-and-coming film distributor and fledging studio Tri-Star Pictures, whereas Tri-Star would distribute films in North America, whereas HBO handled pay cable TV rights, and Thorn EMI Video, which handled North American home video distribution rights. The first film under the agreement was "Rambo: First Blood Part II". TriStar released the majority of Carolco's films from that point on in the U.S. and some other countries until 1994.


title: Carolco Pictures

text: The sequel "" (1985), was timed for the 10th anniversary of the United States' exit from the Vietnam War; that event garnered publicity for the new film, which also became a hit. Tri-Star and Carolco would eventually renew its partnership in 1986 so that was enabled to distribute future films like "Rambo III", and called for Tri-Star to distribute upcoming Carolco product for a new multi-feature agreement.


title: Carolco Pictures

text: The release of the two "Rambo" films were so instrumental to Carolco's financial success that the studio focused more on big-budget action films, with major stars such as Stallone (who later signed a ten-picture deal with the studio) and Arnold Schwarzenegger attached. These films, aimed at appealing to a worldwide audience, were financed using a strategy known as "pre-sales", in which domestic and foreign distributors invested in these marketable films in exchange for local releasing rights. On May 14, 1986, Carolco decided to restructure their corporation into a new structure with Peter Hoffman hired as president and CEO of the studio, and decided to set up subsidiaries and alliances within the branch of the own Carolco movie studio.


title: Carolco Pictures

text: Carolco entered home video distribution as well. Independent video distributor International Video Entertainment (IVE) was going through financial difficulties and was near bankruptcy. In 1986, Carolco purchased IVE in the hopes of "turning the company around." The deal was finalized a year later. On December 17, 1986, Carolco had closed a deal with HBO/Cannon Video, bringing Carolco back the rights to the two pictures "Angel Heart" and "Extreme Prejudice" for $43 million, and decided was in talks to purchase a small independent production studio, The IndieProd Company, for an undisclosed price amount of $40 million, in order to relicense the pictures to International Video Entertainment, which the company held a controlling interest in the studio. IVE merged with another distributor, Lieberman, and became LIVE Entertainment in 1988.


title: Carolco Pictures

text: On December 24, 1986, Carolco expanded into video retail holdings by acquiring Filk's Video, which was a Woolbridge, New Jersey video store that has been officially opened shortly and that they teamed up with Tom House of the New York-area American Video Enterprises chain, in order to expand the distribution channels of the Carolco material, and it would be simultaneously with Paramount's move into video retailers. On January 21, 1987, they set up a licensing subsidiary to handle various worldwide merchandise of the "Rambo" series, Carolco Licensing, which would be headed up by Bob Mislrowski, which would handle licensing for characters in motion pictures that were produced by the studio. In the late 1980s, Carolco attempted to buy film distributor Orion Pictures and home video distributor Media Home Entertainment, but the deal failed.


title: Carolco Pictures

text: In late July 1987, Carolco set up a new overseas division Carolco Films International, by acquiring the overseas rights to the four pictures by John Carpenter and Alive Films, which were the first pickups for the foreign sales operation, which will be headed by former Goldcrest employee and then-future Intermedia co-founder Guy East, and delivered to four years with a budget of $4–5 million, and the first of the titles were "Prince of Darkness", followed by "They Live", "Victory Out of Time", and a fourth title that was to be announced, and expand into producing partnerships with TV systems in Europe and various home video companies and moves into exhibition and television ownership, and the company will look into 3-5 English-language films annually to accomplish the 3-4 in-house productions, and profits generated by Carolco Films International, to be held into production investments that were going to be on hand. The company was then expanded in October 1987 to set up a London office that hired two ousted employees from the ousted Goldcrest studio, Greg Dinner, who will serve as vice president of development at Carolco Films International, and Barbara Booker was named manager of foreign sales administration. In late 1987, the company received a tax shelter agreement with Canadian production and distribution studio Alliance Entertainment Corporation, to finance multiple pictures for Carolco, such as "Food of the Gods II", "Iron Eagle II" and "Pound Puppies and the Legend of Big Paw", which was to be released in foreign sales by the Carolco Films International division.


title: Carolco Pictures

text: On August 28, 1987, Carolco acquired television syndicator Orbis Communications for $15.4 million and initiated television production and distribution. The company decided to invest money in launching pilots for first-run syndicated series, and as many as eight television movies a year for primetime, and Orbis decided to focus on action/suspense movies, which tend to be the ones most in demand for foreign domestic TV syndication and home video, and Orbis will handle domestic syndication for the movies after two network runs in network primetime, and Carolco to do the honors for its foreign syndication unit, and through its subsidiary International Video Entertainment for home video. They also purchased the former De Laurentiis Entertainment Group production facility in Wilmington, North Carolina, and established Carolco Home Video, with LIVE Entertainment as output partner.


title: Carolco Pictures

text: Vajna sold his share of Carolco in December 1989 for $106 million to Kassar due to increasing disagreement with Kassar over the direction of the company. That November, Vajna formed Cinergi Pictures, with The Walt Disney Company as a distribution partner. Kassar's ownership of the company increased to 62%.


title: Carolco Pictures

text: Carolco acquired the rights to make a sequel to "The Terminator" from Hemdale Film Corporation in 1990 (the company already had the television rights to the original film courtesy of a television distribution deal with Hemdale). The company re-hired "Terminator" director James Cameron (who had worked as a screenwriter on "Rambo II") and Arnold Schwarzenegger to star in a multi-million-dollar budgeted sequel, "" (1991). It was the highest-grossing film of the year and the most successful film in Carolco's history. Halfway through the year, Carolco entered into a joint venture with New Line Cinema to start Seven Arts, a distribution company which primarily released much of Carolco's low-budget output. In 1991, syndicator Orbis Communications was renamed to Carolco Television, and Hilary Hendler said they wanted to better emphasize the Carolco connection.


title: Carolco Pictures

text: Carolco struggled for some years to secure the rights to "Spider-Man", a property that Cameron was keen to produce as a film. Plans fell through, though Columbia Pictures would eventually produce several Spider-Man films. Toward the end of shooting "True Lies", "Variety" carried the announcement that Carolco had received a completed screenplay from Cameron. This script bore the names of Cameron, John Brancato, Ted Newsom, Barry [sic] Cohen and "Joseph Goldmari", a typographical scrambling of Menahem Golan's pen name, "Joseph Goldman", with Marvel executive Joseph Calimari. (Golan had previously, and unsuccessfully, tried to produce a Spider-Man film for his own studio, Cannon Films.) The script's text was identical to what Golan had submitted to Columbia the previous year, with the addition of a new 1993 date. Cameron stalwart Arnold Schwarzenegger was frequently linked to the project as the director's choice for Doctor Octopus. As late as 1995, Internet industry sources such as Baseline Hollywood still listed both Neil Ruttenberg (author of one of the 1990 "Doc Ock" variations submitted to Columbia) and Cameron as co-writers.


title: Carolco Pictures

text: Carolco also attempted to make "Bartholomew vs. Neff", a comedy film that was to have been written and directed by John Hughes and would have starred Sylvester Stallone and John Candy.


title: Carolco Pictures

text: Though Carolco made several successful films through the 1990s, including "Total Recall", "", and "Basic Instinct", the studio was gradually losing money as the years went on. Carolco mixed blockbusters with small-budget arthouse films which were not profitable. In addition, the studio was criticized for overspending on films through reliance on star power and far-fetched deals (Schwarzenegger received then-unheard-of $10–14 million for his work on "Total Recall" and "Terminator 2"; Stallone also had similar treatment). Losses of partnerships also threatened the studio's stability and drove it towards bankruptcy.


title: Carolco Pictures

text: In 1992, Carolco went under a corporate restructuring, invested in by a partnership of Rizzoli-Corriere della Sera of Italy, Le Studio Canal+ of France, Pioneer, and MGM. Each partner helped infuse up to $60 million into the studio's stock and another $50 million for co-financing deals. MGM also agreed to distribute Carolco products domestically after a previous deal with TriStar expired. In 1993, Carolco was forced to sell its shares in LIVE Entertainment to a group of investors led by Pioneer; it was later renamed Artisan Entertainment, which was bought by Lions Gate Entertainment.


title: Carolco Pictures

text: Cutbacks at Carolco also forced the studio to make a deal with TriStar over the funding of the Stallone action film "Cliffhanger": Carolco would have to sell full distribution rights in North America, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, and France to TriStar in exchange for half of the film's budget. Although a major box-office success, Carolco saw little revenue from "Cliffhanger" since it ended up becoming a minority owner in the film. Before plans to produce their own "Spider-Man" film with James Cameron fell through, the studio filed a lawsuit against Columbia Pictures and Viacom in an attempt to gain the home video and television rights to "Spider-Man", but the suit backfired when Columbia and Viacom counter-sued Carolco, and the studio also became sued by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Since court did not rule in their favor, these lawsuits caused Carolco to lose an additional amount of money, along with the film rights to "Spider-Man". Carolco's attempt to make more of its specialties proved to be more strenuous: the studio had to shelve "Crusade", an upcoming Schwarzenegger vehicle based on a script by Walon Green and with Paul Verhoeven attached as director, in 1994 when the budget exceeded $100million. However, Carolco was able to complete a merger with The Vista Organization in late October 1993.


title: Carolco Pictures

text: Carolco attempted a comeback with the big-budget swashbuckler "Cutthroat Island", with Michael Douglas in the lead. Douglas dropped out early in its production and was replaced by the less-bankable Matthew Modine. Geena Davis, cast as the female lead through her ties with then-husband, the director Renny Harlin, was already an established A-lister but was coming off a string of flops. MGM hoped to advertise "Cutthroat Island" based on spectacle rather than cast. In an attempt to raise more financing for the projected $90–100million film, Carolco sold off the rights to several films in production, including "Last of the Dogmen", "Stargate" and "Showgirls". In October 1994, Carolco ran out of funds and Pioneer invested another $8 million. In April 1995, Carolco announced that it was unable to make interest payments on $55 million of debt. In November 1995, Carolco filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. "Cutthroat Island" was released that Christmas and became a box-office disaster. Carolco agreed to sell its assets to 20th Century Fox for $50 million. But when Canal+ made a $58 million bid for the library in January 1996, Fox, which by then lowered their purchase price to $47.5 million, dropped their deal.


title: Carolco Pictures

text: A new partnership was formed between Carolco's owner (Mario Kassar) and Cinergi's owner (Andrew G. Vajna) in 1998. The duo formed C2 Pictures and produced "" and "Basic Instinct 2", among other films.


title: Carolco Pictures

text: Film producer Alexander Bafer purchased the Carolco name and logo years later. On January 20, 2015, Bafer renamed his production company Carolco Pictures, formerly known as Brick Top Productions. Bafer then recruited Mario Kassar as the chief development executive of the new Carolco. However, on April 7, 2016, it was announced that both Bafer and Kassar had left the company, Kassar taking with him one of Carolco's planned projects, a remake of the 1999 Japanese horror film "Audition" which he was producing. Investor Tarek Kirschen was then inducted as Carolco's CEO. In 2017, StudioCanal and Carolco reached an agreement whereby StudioCanal would have sole control of the Carolco name and logo and the Carolco Pictures company would be renamed Recall Studios. That agreement settled a legal dispute over the Carolco mark brought by StudioCanal. The arrangement took effect on November 29 of that year.


title: Carolco Pictures

text: After its bankruptcy, the assets of Carolco were sold off to other companies, most already sold during Carolco's existence. In March 1996, Canal+ purchased the library in bankruptcy court for a value of approximately $58 million. The ancillary rights to Carolco's library (up to 1995 with certain exceptions) are held by French production company StudioCanal, since its parent company, Canal+ Group, owned a stake in Carolco, eventually buying out its partners.


title: Carolco Pictures

text: On September 17, 1991, Multimedia Entertainment acquired selected assets of Carolco's television distribution unit Orbis Communications, which included the telefilm subsidiary Carolco Television Productions.


title: Carolco Pictures

text: In 1992, Carolco Pictures licensed television distribution rights to its library to Spelling Entertainment’s Worldvision Enterprises in order to pay off debt. In North America, with certain exceptions, those rights were (and currently still are) held by Paramount Television Studios through Trifecta Entertainment & Media as the successor to Spelling/Worldvision. All other rights in terms of home video were (and for a majority of the library, still are) licensed to Lionsgate under an ongoing deal with StudioCanal. Lionsgate, in turn, licensed those rights in Canada to Entertainment One, although theatrical rights to most of the library were split between Sony Pictures (for "Cliffhanger"), and Rialto Pictures (for the rest of the library not already retained by its original distributors or passed on to other companies). The video rights to most titles previously released by Lionsgate in North America are now held outright by StudioCanal, and sublicensed to Kino Lorber.


title: Carolco Pictures

text: StudioCanal itself held full distribution rights in France, Germany, Australia, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. In other territories, StudioCanal licensed home video rights to Universal Pictures Home Entertainment until StudioCanal's global distribution deal with Universal expired in January 2022.


title: Flag of Liberia

text: The flag of Liberia or the Liberian flag, sometimes called the Lone Star, bears a close resemblance to the flag of the United States, representing Liberia's founding by former black slaves from the United States and the Caribbean. They are both a part of the stars and stripes flag family.


title: Flag of Liberia

text: The Liberian flag has similar red and white stripes, as well as a blue square with a white star in the canton. It was adopted on 24 August 1847.


title: Flag of Liberia

text: The flag of Liberia was designed and hand-stitched by a committee of seven women. The chair of the committee was Susannah Elizabeth Lewis. The other members of the committee were Matilda Newport, Rachel Johnson, Mary Hunter, Mrs. J. B. Russwurm, Colonette Teage Ellis, and Sara Draper. All of the women were born in the United States, and many of them were wives of prominent men in Liberia. Lewis was the daughter of former vice colonial agent Colston Waring, the sister of the first First Lady of the Republic, Jane Roberts, and wife of John N. Lewis, one of the signers of the Liberian Declaration of Independence. The flag they designed was adopted on 24 August 1847, about a month after Liberia had declared independence on 26 July 1847. The day the flag was adopted, the nation held a celebration in Monrovia. There, the flag was unfurled to the public for the first time, and Susannah Lewis gave a patriotic speech. The ceremony also featured speeches by a number of notable Liberian politicians and religious leaders, as well as entertainment in the form of band music.


title: Flag of Liberia

text: In the 1850s and 1860s, the "Eusibia N. Roye" became the first Liberian owned ship to display the flag in New York City and Liverpool ports. The vessel was owned by Edward James Roye. In 1860, the Liberian flag was featured on the first known stamp to be issued by the Liberian government. On 24 October 1915, President Daniel Edward Howard signed into law an act which proclaimed 24 August as Flag Day, a national holiday.


title: Flag of Liberia

text: On 22 July 1974, the Legislature of Liberia passed an act giving authorization to the president to establish a commission to give consideration to possible changes to a number of national symbols, including the flag and national anthem. The commission was headed by McKinley Alfred Deshield Sr. The commission sought to reexamine the symbols, and remove divisive aspects of them. President William Tolbert appointed 51 members to the Commission on National Unity. The commission was also called the Deshield Commission, after the man who headed it. The commission submitted their report on 24 January 1978. The report ultimately recommended no changes to the flag.


title: Flag of Liberia

text: The flag is seen on many ships around the world as Liberia offers registration under its flag. Shipping companies do this to avoid taxes and restrictions that other countries enforce. As the second most popular flag of convenience (after the flag of Panama), it is estimated that 1,700 foreign-owned ships fly the Liberian flag. This brings in much of the country's revenue.


title: Flag of Liberia

text: The eleven stripes symbolize the signatories of the Liberian Declaration of Independence and the red and white symbolize courage and moral excellence. The white star represents the first independent republic in Africa, above the blue square representing the African continent. The Liberian flag is modeled after and resembles the United States flag because Liberia was founded, colonized, established, and controlled by free people of color and formerly enslaved black people from the United States and the Caribbean with the help and support of both the United States government and the American Colonization Society (ACS), a private organization dedicated to the removal of free people of color from across North America. Some time after the African Americans began arriving in Liberia in 1822, they came to be identified as "Americo-Liberians" in an effort to separate them from native groups and enslaved Africans rescued from illegal slaving ports and ships by the American navy.


title: Flag of Liberia

text: Keep the length 110 units and width as 209 units. The canton's each side is 50 units, the circumscribed square of the 5-point star has all sides 30 units and its center is 25 units from the left and upper edge of the flag of the canton/flag.


title: Flag of Liberia

text: Liberia is subdivided into 15 counties, each of which is entitled to its own flag. Each county flag bears the national flag of Liberia in the canton. The county flags are flown at regional offices and together encircling the national flag of Liberia at the Presidential Palace.


title: Flag of Liberia

text: The flags were introduced in 1965 by William Tubman for the purpose of promoting the counties as meaningful entities. Their design was inspired by Liberia's quilting tradition.


title: Flag of Liberia

text: The flags have been the subject of widespread ridicule by members of online vexillology communities on social media platforms such as Reddit and Facebook, but vexillologist Steven A. Knowlton argues that these discussions demonstrate a lack of understanding of the political and cultural context of the flags and of the material construction of flags from textiles as opposed to digital creation.


title: Elizabeth Gaskell

text: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell ("née" Stevenson; 29 September 1810 – 12 November 1865), often referred to as Mrs Gaskell, was an English novelist, biographer and short story writer. Her novels offer a detailed portrait of the lives of many strata of Victorian society, including the very poor. Her work is of interest to social historians as well as readers of literature. Her first novel, "Mary Barton", was published in 1848. Gaskell's "The Life of Charlotte Brontë", published in 1857, was the first biography of Charlotte Brontë. In this biography, she wrote only of the moral, sophisticated things in Brontë's life; the rest she omitted, deciding certain, more salacious aspects were better kept hidden. Among Gaskell's best known novels are "Cranford" (1851–53), "North and South" (1854–55), and "Wives and Daughters" (1865), all having been adapted for television by the BBC.


title: Elizabeth Gaskell

text: Gaskell was born Elizabeth Cleghorn Stevenson on 29 September 1810 in Lindsey Row, Chelsea, London, at the house that is now 93 Cheyne Walk. The doctor who delivered her was Dr Anthony Todd Thomson, and Thomson's sister Catherine later became Gaskell's stepmother. She was the youngest of eight children; only she and her brother John survived infancy. Her father, William Stevenson, a Unitarian from Berwick-upon-Tweed, was minister at Failsworth, Lancashire, but resigned his orders on conscientious grounds; he moved to London in 1806 with the intention of going to India after he was appointed private secretary to the Earl of Lauderdale, who was to become Governor General of India. That position did not materialise, however, and instead, Stevenson was nominated Keeper of the Treasury Records.


title: Elizabeth Gaskell

text: His wife, Elizabeth Holland, came from a family established in Lancashire and Cheshire that was connected with other prominent Unitarian families, including the Wedgwoods, the Martineaus, the Turners and the Darwins. When she died 13 months after giving birth to her youngest daughter, she left a bewildered husband who saw no alternative but to send Elizabeth to live with her mother's sister, Hannah Lumb, in Knutsford, Cheshire. Elizabeth's future while she was growing up was uncertain, as she had no personal wealth and no firm home, though she was a permanent guest at her aunt and grandparents' house.


title: Elizabeth Gaskell

text: Her father remarried, to Catherine Thomson, in 1814. They had a son, William, in 1815, and a daughter, Catherine, in 1816. Although Elizabeth spent several years without seeing her father, to whom she was devoted, her older brother John often visited her in Knutsford. John was destined for the Royal Navy from an early age, like his grandfathers and uncles, but he did not obtain preferment into the Service and had to join the Merchant Navy with the East India Company's fleet. John went missing in 1827 during an expedition to India.


title: Elizabeth Gaskell

text: A beautiful young woman, Elizabeth was well-groomed, tidily dressed, kind, gentle, and considerate of others. Her temperament was calm and collected, joyous and innocent, she revelled in the simplicity of rural life. Much of Elizabeth's childhood was spent in Cheshire, where she lived with her aunt Hannah Lumb in Knutsford, the town she immortalized as "Cranford". They lived in a large red-brick house called The Heath (now Heathwaite).


title: Elizabeth Gaskell

text: From 1821 to 1826 she attended a school in Warwickshire run by the Misses Byerley, first at Barford and from 1824 at Avonbank outside Stratford-on-Avon, where she received the traditional education in arts, the classics, decorum and propriety given to young ladies from relatively wealthy families at the time. Her aunts gave her the classics to read, and she was encouraged by her father in her studies and writing. Her brother John sent her modern books, and descriptions of his life at sea and his experiences abroad.


title: Elizabeth Gaskell

text: After leaving school at the age of 16, Elizabeth travelled to London to spend time with her Holland cousins. She also spent some time in Newcastle upon Tyne (with the Rev William Turner's family) and from there made the journey to Edinburgh. Her stepmother's brother was the miniature artist William John Thomson, who in 1832 painted a portrait of Elizabeth Gaskell in Manchester (see top right). A bust was sculpted by David Dunbar at the same time.


title: Elizabeth Gaskell

text: On 30 August 1832 Elizabeth married Unitarian minister William Gaskell, in Knutsford. They spent their honeymoon in North Wales, staying with her uncle, Samuel Holland, at Plas-yn-Penrhyn near Porthmadog. The Gaskells then settled in Manchester, where William was the minister at Cross Street Unitarian Chapel and longest-serving Chair of the Portico Library. Manchester's industrial surroundings and books borrowed from the library influenced Elizabeth's writing in the industrial genre. Their first daughter was stillborn in 1833. Their other children were Marianne (1834), Margaret Emily, known as Meta (1837), Florence Elizabeth (1842), and Julia Bradford (1846). Marianne and Meta boarded at the private school conducted by Rachel Martineau, sister of Harriet, a close friend of Elizabeth. Florence married Charles Crompton, a barrister and Liberal politician, in 1863.


title: Elizabeth Gaskell

text: In March 1835 Gaskell began a diary documenting the development of her daughter Marianne: she explored parenthood, the values she placed on her role as a mother; her faith, and, later, relations between Marianne and her sister, Meta. In 1836 she co-authored with her husband a cycle of poems, "Sketches among the Poor", which was published in "Blackwood's Magazine" in January 1837. In 1840 William Howitt published "Visits to Remarkable Places" containing a contribution entitled "Clopton Hall" by "A Lady", the first work written and published solely by her. In April 1840 Howitt published "The Rural Life of England", which included a second work titled "Notes on Cheshire Customs".


title: Elizabeth Gaskell

text: In July 1841 the Gaskells travelled to Belgium and Germany. German literature came to have a strong influence on her short stories, the first of which she published in 1847 as "Libbie Marsh's Three Eras", in "Howitt's Journal", under the pseudonym "Cotton Mather Mills". But other influences including Adam Smith's "Social Politics" enabled a much wider understanding of the cultural milieu in which her works were set. Her second story printed under the pseudonym was "The Sexton's Hero". And she made her last use of it in 1848, with the publication of her story "Christmas Storms and Sunshine".


title: Elizabeth Gaskell

text: For some 20 years beginning in 1843, the Gaskells took holidays at Silverdale on Morecambe Bay, and in particular stayed at Lindeth Tower. Daughters Meta and Julia later built a house, "The Shieling", in Silverdale.


title: Elizabeth Gaskell

text: A son, William, (1844–45), died in infancy, and this tragedy was the catalyst for Gaskell's first novel, "Mary Barton". It was ready for publication in October 1848, shortly before they made the move south. It was an enormous success, selling thousands of copies. Ritchie called it a "great and remarkable sensation." It was praised by Thomas Carlyle and Maria Edgeworth. She brought the teeming slums of manufacturing in Manchester alive to readers as yet unacquainted with crowded narrow alleyways. Her obvious depth of feeling was evident, while her turn of phrase and description was described as the greatest since Jane Austen.


title: Elizabeth Gaskell

text: In 1850 the Gaskells moved to a villa at 84 Plymouth Grove. She took her cow with her. For exercise, she would happily walk three miles to help another person in distress. In Manchester, Elizabeth wrote her remaining literary works, while her husband held welfare committees and tutored the poor in his study. The Gaskells' social circle included writers, journalists, religious dissenters, and social reformers such as William and Mary Howitt and Harriet Martineau. Poets, patrons of literature and writers such as Lord Houghton, Charles Dickens and John Ruskin visited Plymouth Grove, as did the American writers Harriet Beecher Stowe and Charles Eliot Norton, while the conductor Charles Hallé, who lived close by, taught piano to one of their daughters. Elizabeth's friend Charlotte Brontë stayed there three times, and on one occasion hid behind the drawing room curtains as she was too shy to meet the Gaskells' other visitors.


title: Elizabeth Gaskell

text: In early 1850 Gaskell wrote to Charles Dickens asking for advice about assisting a girl named Pasley whom she had visited in prison. Pasley provided her with a model for the title character of "Ruth" in 1853. "Lizzie Leigh" was published in March and April 1850, in the first numbers of Dickens's journal "Household Words", in which many of her works were to be published, including "Cranford" and "North and South", her novella "My Lady Ludlow", and short stories.


title: Elizabeth Gaskell

text: In June 1855 Patrick Brontë asked Gaskell to write a biography of his daughter Charlotte, and "The Life of Charlotte Brontë" was published in 1857. This played a significant role in developing Gaskell's own literary career. In the biography, Gaskell chose to focus more on Brontë as a woman than as a writer of Romantic fiction. In 1859 Gaskell travelled to Whitby to gather material for "Sylvia's Lovers", which was published in 1863. Her novella "Cousin Phyllis" was serialized in "The Cornhill Magazine" from November 1863 to February 1864. The serialization of her last novel, "Wives and Daughters", began in August 1864 in "The Cornhill". She died of a heart attack in 1865, while visiting a house she had purchased in Holybourne, Hampshire. "Wives and Daughters" was published in book form in early 1866, first in the United States and then, ten days later, in Britain.


title: Elizabeth Gaskell

text: Gaskell's reputation from her death to the 1950s was epitomized by Lord David Cecil's assessment in "Early Victorian Novelists" (1934) that she was "all woman" and "makes a creditable effort to overcome her natural deficiencies but all in vain" (quoted in Stoneman, 1987, from Cecil, p. 235). A scathing unsigned review of "North and South" in "The Leader" accused Gaskell of making errors about Lancashire which a resident of Manchester would not make and said that a woman (or clergymen and women) could not "understand industrial problems", would "know too little about the cotton industry" and had no "right to add to the confusion by writing about it".


title: Elizabeth Gaskell

text: Gaskell's novels, with the exception of "Cranford", gradually slipped into obscurity during the late 19th century; before 1950, she was dismissed as a minor author with good judgment and "feminine" sensibilities. Archie Stanton Whitfield wrote that her work was "like a nosegay of violets, honeysuckle, lavender, mignonette and sweet briar" in 1929. Cecil (1934) said that she lacked the "masculinity" necessary to properly deal with social problems (Chapman, 1999, pp. 39–40).


title: Elizabeth Gaskell

text: However, the critical tide began to turn in Gaskell's favour when, in the 1950s and 1960s, socialist critics like Kathleen Tillotson, Arnold Kettle and Raymond Williams re-evaluated the description of social and industrial problems in her novels (see Moore, 1999 for an elaboration), and—realizing that her vision went against the prevailing views of the time—saw it as preparing the way for vocal feminist movements.


title: Elizabeth Gaskell

text: In the early 21st century, with Gaskell's work "enlisted in contemporary negotiations of nationhood as well as gender and class identities", "North and South" – one of the first industrial novels describing the conflict between employers and workers – was recognized as depicting complex social conflicts and offering more satisfactory solutions through Margaret Hale: spokesperson for the author and Gaskell's most mature creation.


title: Elizabeth Gaskell

text: In her introduction to "The Cambridge Companion to Elizabeth Gaskell" (2007), a collection of essays representing the current Gaskell scholarship, Jill L. Matus stresses the author's growing stature in Victorian literary studies and how her innovative, versatile storytelling addressed the rapid changes during her lifetime.


title: Elizabeth Gaskell

text: Gaskell's first novel, "Mary Barton", was published anonymously in 1848. The best-known of her remaining novels are "Cranford" (1853), "North and South" (1854), and "Wives and Daughters" (1865). She became popular for her writing, especially her ghost stories, aided by Charles Dickens, who published her work in his magazine "Household Words". Her ghost stories are in the "Gothic" vein, making them quite distinct from her "industrial" fiction.


title: Elizabeth Gaskell

text: Even though her writing conforms to Victorian conventions, including the use of the name "Mrs. Gaskell", she usually framed her stories as critiques of contemporary attitudes. Her early works were highly influenced by the social analysis of Thomas Carlyle and focused on factory work in the Midlands. She usually emphasized the role of women, with complex narratives and realistic female characters. Gaskell said she was influenced by the writings of Jane Austen. She then felt qualified to write a book on one of the greatest authors of all time, smoothing over patches in her life that were too rough for the sophisticated society woman. Her treatment of class continues to interest social historians as well as fiction lovers.


title: Elizabeth Gaskell

text: Unitarianism urges comprehension and tolerance toward all religions and even though Gaskell tried to keep her own beliefs hidden, she felt strongly about these values which permeated her works; in "North and South", "Margaret the Churchwoman, her father the Dissenter, Higgins the Infidel, knelt down together. It did them no harm."


title: Elizabeth Gaskell

text: Gaskell's style is notable for putting local dialect words into the mouths of middle-class characters and the narrator. In "North and South" Margaret Hale suggests "redding up" (tidying) the Bouchers' house and even offers jokingly to teach her mother words such as "knobstick" (strike-breaker). In 1854 she defended her use of dialect to express otherwise inexpressible concepts in a letter to Walter Savage Landor:


title: Elizabeth Gaskell

text: The house on Plymouth Grove remained in the Gaskell family until 1913, after which it stood empty and fell into disrepair. The University of Manchester acquired it in 1969 and in 2004 it was acquired by the Manchester Historic Buildings Trust, which then raised money to restore it. Exterior renovations were completed in 2011 and the house is now open to the public. On 25 September 2010, a memorial to Elizabeth Gaskell was dedicated in Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey. It takes the form of a panel in the Hubbard memorial window, above the tomb of Geoffrey Chaucer. The panel was dedicated by her great-great-great-granddaughter Sarah Prince and a wreath was laid. Manchester City Council have created an award in Gaskell's name, given to recognize women's involvement in charitable work and improvement of lives. A bibliomemoir "Mrs. Gaskell and me: Two Women, Two Love Stories, Two centuries Apart", by Nell Stevens was published in 2018.


title: Elizabeth Gaskell

text: Her novel "Wives and Daughters" aired on BBC television in 1999. In 2004, a television film miniseries aired on BBC television of her 1854 novel "North and South". In 2007, her three part novella "Cranford" starring Judi Dench aired on BBC television.


title: Elizabeth Gaskell

text: The Gaskell Memorial Hall, Silverdale's village hall, is so named because while funds were being raised for the building of the hall in 1928 a donor offered £50, or £100 if it was named thus: the conversation is recorded by novelist Willie Riley in his autobiography.


title: Ian Harding

text: Ian Michael Harding (born September 16, 1986) is an American actor. He is known for his role as Ezra Fitz in the Freeform mystery drama "Pretty Little Liars" from 2010 to 2017.


title: Ian Harding

text: Harding was born in Heidelberg, West Germany, to an American military family. His family moved to Virginia a few years later, where he joined the drama club at his high school, Georgetown Preparatory School in North Bethesda, Maryland. He later graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Carnegie Mellon University.


title: Ian Harding

text: Harding was cast as Ezra Fitz, the love interest of Aria Montgomery (Lucy Hale) on the Freeform mystery drama "Pretty Little Liars", based on Sara Shepard's book series of the same name. The series ran from June 8, 2010 to June 27, 2017. Harding won seven Teen Choice Awards for his role.


title: Ian Harding

text: Harding has been working with the Lupus Foundation of America to raise funds and awareness for lupus research and education to support his mother, who has been living with lupus for more than 20 years.


title: Nuclear medicine

text: Nuclear medicine or nucleology is a medical specialty involving the application of radioactive substances in the diagnosis and treatment of disease. Nuclear imaging, in a sense, is "radiology done inside out" because it records radiation emitting from within the body rather than radiation that is generated by external sources like X-rays. In addition, nuclear medicine scans differ from radiology, as the emphasis is not on imaging anatomy, but on the function. For such reason, it is called a physiological imaging modality. Single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) and positron emission tomography (PET) scans are the two most common imaging modalities in nuclear medicine.


title: Nuclear medicine

text: In nuclear medicine imaging, radiopharmaceuticals are taken internally, for example, through inhalation, intravenously or orally. Then, external detectors (gamma cameras) capture and form images from the radiation emitted by the radiopharmaceuticals. This process is unlike a diagnostic X-ray, where external radiation is passed through the body to form an image.


title: Nuclear medicine

text: Nuclear medicine tests differ from most other imaging modalities in that diagnostic tests primarily show the physiological function of the system being investigated as opposed to traditional anatomical imaging such as CT or MRI. Nuclear medicine imaging studies are generally more organ-, tissue- or disease-specific (e.g.: lungs scan, heart scan, bone scan, brain scan, tumor, infection, Parkinson etc.) than those in conventional radiology imaging, which focus on a particular section of the body (e.g.: chest X-ray, abdomen/pelvis CT scan, head CT scan, etc.). In addition, there are nuclear medicine studies that allow imaging of the whole body based on certain cellular receptors or functions. Examples are whole body PET scans or PET/CT scans, gallium scans, indium white blood cell scans, MIBG and octreotide scans.


title: Nuclear medicine

text: While the ability of nuclear metabolism to image disease processes from differences in metabolism is unsurpassed, it is not unique. Certain techniques such as fMRI image tissues (particularly cerebral tissues) by blood flow and thus show metabolism. Also, contrast-enhancement techniques in both CT and MRI show regions of tissue that are handling pharmaceuticals differently, due to an inflammatory process.


title: Nuclear medicine

text: Diagnostic tests in nuclear medicine exploit the way that the body handles substances differently when there is disease or pathology present. The radionuclide introduced into the body is often chemically bound to a complex that acts characteristically within the body; this is commonly known as a tracer. In the presence of disease, a tracer will often be distributed around the body and/or processed differently. For example, the ligand methylene-diphosphonate (MDP) can be preferentially taken up by bone. By chemically attaching technetium-99m to MDP, radioactivity can be transported and attached to bone via the hydroxyapatite for imaging. Any increased physiological function, such as due to a fracture in the bone, will usually mean increased concentration of the tracer. This often results in the appearance of a "hot spot", which is a focal increase in radio accumulation or a general increase in radio accumulation throughout the physiological system. Some disease processes result in the exclusion of a tracer, resulting in the appearance of a "cold spot". Many tracer complexes have been developed to image or treat many different organs, glands, and physiological processes.


title: Nuclear medicine

text: In some centers, the nuclear medicine scans can be superimposed, using software or hybrid cameras, on images from modalities such as CT or MRI to highlight the part of the body in which the radiopharmaceutical is concentrated. This practice is often referred to as image fusion or co-registration, for example SPECT/CT and PET/CT. The fusion imaging technique in nuclear medicine provides information about the anatomy and function, which would otherwise be unavailable or would require a more invasive procedure or surgery.


title: Nuclear medicine

text: Although the risks of low-level radiation exposures are not well understood, a cautious approach has been universally adopted that all human radiation exposures should be kept As Low As Reasonably Practicable, "ALARP". (Originally, this was known as "As Low As Reasonably Achievable" (ALARA), but this has changed in modern draftings of the legislation to add more emphasis on the "Reasonably" and less on the "Achievable".)


title: Nuclear medicine

text: Working with the ALARP principle, before a patient is exposed for a nuclear medicine examination, the benefit of the examination must be identified. This needs to take into account the particular circumstances of the patient in question, where appropriate. For instance, if a patient is unlikely to be able to tolerate a sufficient amount of the procedure to achieve a diagnosis, then it would be inappropriate to proceed with injecting the patient with the radioactive tracer.


title: Nuclear medicine

text: When the benefit does justify the procedure, then the radiation exposure (the amount of radiation given to the patient) should also be kept as low as reasonably practicable. This means that the images produced in nuclear medicine should never be better than required for confident diagnosis. Giving larger radiation exposures can reduce the noise in an image and make it more photographically appealing, but if the clinical question can be answered without this level of detail, then this is inappropriate.


title: Nuclear medicine

text: As a result, the radiation dose from nuclear medicine imaging varies greatly depending on the type of study. The effective radiation dose can be lower than or comparable to or can far exceed the general day-to-day environmental annual background radiation dose. Likewise, it can also be less than, in the range of, or higher than the radiation dose from an abdomen/pelvis CT scan.


title: Nuclear medicine

text: Some nuclear medicine procedures require special patient preparation before the study to obtain the most accurate result. Pre-imaging preparations may include dietary preparation or the withholding of certain medications. Patients are encouraged to consult with the nuclear medicine department prior to a scan.


title: Nuclear medicine

text: The result of the nuclear medicine imaging process is a dataset comprising one or more images. In multi-image datasets the array of images may represent a time sequence (i.e. cine or movie) often called a "dynamic" dataset, a cardiac gated time sequence, or a spatial sequence where the gamma-camera is moved relative to the patient. SPECT (single photon emission computed tomography) is the process by which images acquired from a rotating gamma-camera are reconstructed to produce an image of a "slice" through the patient at a particular position. A collection of parallel slices form a slice-stack, a three-dimensional representation of the distribution of radionuclide in the patient.


title: Nuclear medicine

text: The nuclear medicine computer may require millions of lines of source code to provide quantitative analysis packages for each of the specific imaging techniques available in nuclear medicine.


title: Nuclear medicine

text: Time sequences can be further analysed using kinetic models such as multi-compartment models or a Patlak plot.


title: Nuclear medicine

text: Radionuclide therapy can be used to treat conditions such as hyperthyroidism, thyroid cancer, skin cancer and blood disorders.


title: Nuclear medicine

text: In nuclear medicine therapy, the radiation treatment dose is administered internally (e.g. intravenous or oral routes) or externally direct above the area to treat in form of a compound (e.g. in case of skin cancer).


title: Nuclear medicine

text: The radiopharmaceuticals used in nuclear medicine therapy emit ionizing radiation that travels only a short distance, thereby minimizing unwanted side effects and damage to noninvolved organs or nearby structures. Most nuclear medicine therapies can be performed as outpatient procedures since there are few side effects from the treatment and the radiation exposure to the general public can be kept within a safe limit.


title: Nuclear medicine

text: In some centers the nuclear medicine department may also use implanted capsules of isotopes (brachytherapy) to treat cancer.