title: 2006 United States Senate elections

text: On September 19, after her defeat in the Democratic primary, Hong Tran lamented to the Seattle Times of "how undemocratic the Democratic Party really is" saying the state Democratic party had tried to keep her from getting attention, forbidding her from putting up signs at Coordinated Campaign events and not giving her access to the state party voter rolls. Cantwell, whose campaign hired two of her early critics, had also refused to debate Tran. When asked before the primary whether she would endorse the senator if her primary bid proved unsuccessful, Tran had responded, "certainly not."


title: 2006 United States Senate elections

text: In early hypothetical matchups in 2005 compiled by conservative pollster Strategic Vision, Rossi led Cantwell. Republican leadership reportedly pleaded with Rossi to jump into the ring. Rossi declined.


title: 2006 United States Senate elections

text: Speculation next centered on Rick White (who had taken Cantwell's House seat in 1994), state GOP chair Chris Vance, former Seattle television reporter Susan Hutchinson, and former 8th district Congressional candidate and Republican National Committee member Diane Tebelius. None of those chose to enter the race. Republican leaders finally got behind former Safeco Insurance CEO Mike McGavick.


title: 2006 United States Senate elections

text: Before the 2000 presidential election, West Virginia had been won by the Democratic nominee every time since 1932 (except for the Republican landslides of 1956, 1972, and 1984). In 2000, then Republican Governor George W. Bush of Texas won West Virginia's five electoral college votes over then Vice President Al Gore of Tennessee by a margin of 52-46. Also in the 2000 election, Republican Shelley Moore Capito, the daughter of Former West Virginia Governor Arch A. Moore, Jr., won a surprise victory over Democrat Jim Humphreys for West Virginia's 2nd Congressional District seat to the United States House of Representatives. She would become the first Republican in West Virginia to hold a Congressional office for more than one term since her father in 1969. Before these two major victories for national and West Virginia Republicans, it was difficult to find a Republican who could mount a formidable campaign against Democrats running for public office in West Virginia.


title: 2006 United States Senate elections

text: President Bush won West Virginia again in the 2004 presidential election over John F. Kerry, the Democratic junior Senator from Massachusetts by a margin of 56-43. Both Representative Alan Mollohan (D-1st District) and Representative Nick Rahall (D-3rd District) had more formidable challenges from Republicans when compared to 2000 and 2002. Republican Brent Benjamin defeated Democratic incumbent West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals Justice Warren McGraw, and Republican Betty Ireland defeated liberal-Democrat Ken Hechler, a former congressman and secretary of state, for West Virginia Secretary of State.


title: 2006 United States Senate elections

text: Since 2000, the Republicans have gained seven net seats in both the West Virginia Senate and the West Virginia House of Delegates. However, the Democrats hold 60% of the seats in the Senate and 68% of the seats in the House.


title: 2006 United States Senate elections

text: Along with continued majorities in the legislature, Democrats have also had some other victories. Even though both Bush and Capito won their respective offices in 2000, Senator Byrd sailed to an eighth term with 78% of the vote over Republican David Gallaher. Senator John D. Rockefeller, IV, easily won a fourth term to the Senate in 2002 by a margin of 63-37 over Republican Jay Wolfe. In 2000, 2002, and 2004, both Representative Mollohan and Representative Rahall were re-elected by much stronger margins than Capito. In 2004, Republican Monty Warner failed to defeat Democratic West Virginia Secretary of State Joe Manchin for governor.


title: 2006 United States Senate elections

text: After the Republicans failed to win the governor's race, West Virginia Republican Committee Chairman Kris Warner, the brother of Monty, was put under pressure to resign his post; he did so in May 2005. Wheeling attorney Rob Capehart took his place. (Dr. Doug McKinney of Bridgeport now holds the post.) Another brother of Monty, Kasey, who was appointed by President Bush in 2001, was removed as the United States Attorney for the Southern District of West Virginia on August 1, 2005. No explanation has been given for his departure and First Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles T. Miller currently represents the district.


title: 2006 United States Senate elections

text: Both state and national Republicans chose Shelley Moore Capito as their first choice to challenge Byrd. Early polling showed Byrd with only around a ten-point lead. Capito had even met with National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) Chairwoman Elizabeth Dole, whose husband, Robert Dole, served alongside Byrd as majority and minority leader in the Senate, to discuss a possible run. Despite party leaders pushing for her to run, on October 3, 2005, Capito announced she would seek a fourth term for her congressional seat rather than run against Byrd. She cited the negativity of a possible Byrd-Capito race as a reason for not running. Other reasons for Capito not running include the following: Capito's seat is widely considered safe; Capito is rising in House leadership; if Capito ran against Byrd, her seat could possibly have fallen back into the Democratic column; and Capito's large amount of contributions from former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay could be brought into question.


title: 2006 United States Senate elections

text: After Capito decided not to run, Republicans hoped to recruit Secretary of State Betty Ireland, the first woman elected to the executive branch of West Virginia. On October 27, 2005, however, Ireland announced she would not run against the eight-term senator. She said that the office of Secretary of State should not be used as a political stepping stone. Ironically, Joe Manchin held the office of Secretary of State during his campaign for governor.


title: 2006 United States Senate elections

text: Conservative columnist Robert Novak wrote in a September 24, 2005, article that Gale Catlett's, the former Head Coach of the West Virginia University Men's Basketball team, name had been floated around as a possible challenger to Byrd. Catlett had in fact talked to West Virginia Republican Committee Chairman Capehart about either running against Byrd or possibly Representative Mollohan. It was also reported that if Capito had run against Byrd, Catlett would seek her seat. However, on November 11, 2005, Catlett decided not to run against Senator Byrd or Representative Mollohan. (A side note: On November 12, 2005, Ohio County Delegate Chris Wakim (R) announced his intentions to run against Representative Mollohan.)


title: 2006 United States Senate elections

text: On January 11, 2006, TheHill.com reported that NRSC Chairwoman Dole met with John Raese, the 1984 Republican United States Senate candidate and 1988 Republican Gubernatorial primary-candidate to discuss a possible run for the nomination in May. Raese did file for the primary by the deadline of January 28, 2006.


title: 2006 United States Senate elections

text: Byrd was extremely popular as he had approval ratings in the low 60% range. Raese, a millionaire, self-financed his campaign. He spent campaign ads on attacking Byrd.


title: 2006 United States Senate elections

text: Robert Lorge was the Republican candidate for the seat after being the only Republican candidate to file before the filing deadline on July 11, 2006. Despite receiving no money or support from the State or National Republican Republican party he fared better than Republican Senate candidates in New York, Massachusetts, North Dakota, and was the only major party candidate in 2006 able to deliver votes for under $1 in the Post McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Law era.


title: 2006 United States Senate elections

text: Kohl won a majority in every county in the state. Kohl's weakest performance in the state was suburban Washington County, Wisconsin, which Kohl won with just 49.6%. Kohl's strongest performance was in rural Menominee County, where he won with over 90% of the vote. Vogeler's best performance was in Dane County, where she came in third place with over 5%, a county where Lorge had his second weakest performance.


title: 2006 United States Senate elections

text: Incumbent Republican Craig Thomas won re-election to a third term. Thomas died 5 months into his term on June 4, 2007 after battling leukemia.


title: 2006 United States Senate elections

text: Thomas was a very popular two term incumbent, having a 68% approval rating. Despite doing very well in the polls, Thomas agreed to a debate. An October debate was sponsored by the Casper Star-Tribune and KCWY in Casper. Thomas said the nation has made progress in its energy policy, while Groutage said the nation's energy policy has failed because Congress has done more for special interests than the people.


title: 45th Academy Awards

text: The 45th Academy Awards were presented Tuesday, March 27, 1973, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, California, honoring the best films of 1972. The ceremonies were presided over by Carol Burnett, Michael Caine, Charlton Heston, and Rock Hudson.


title: 45th Academy Awards

text: The ceremony was marked by Marlon Brando's boycott of the Oscars and his sending of Sacheen Littlefeather to explain why he couldn't show up to collect his Best Actor award for "The Godfather", and by Charlie Chaplin's only competitive Oscar win for Best Original Dramatic Score for his 20-year-old film "Limelight", which was eligible because it did not screen in Los Angeles until 1972. Chaplin had received honorary Academy Awards in 1929 and 1972.


title: 45th Academy Awards

text: "Cabaret", Bob Fosse's adaptation of the Broadway stage musical, set a record for the most Oscars won without winning Best Picture. Best Picture winner "The Godfather" received only three Academy Awards.


title: 45th Academy Awards

text: This was also the first year when all the Oscar winners were brought out on stage at the end of the ceremony. The show drew a television audience of viewers.


title: 45th Academy Awards

text: It was initially announced, on February 12, 1973, that "The Godfather" received 11 nominations, more than any other film that year. This was reduced to 10 nominations (tied with "Cabaret" for the most) after a new vote by the Academy's music branch, following a controversy over whether Nino Rota's score for "The Godfather" was eligible for the nomination it received. For the re-balloting, members of the music branch chose from six films: "The Godfather" and the five films that had been on the shortlist for best original dramatic score but did not get nominated. John Addison's score for "Sleuth" won this new vote, and thus replaced Rota's score on the official list of nominees. The controversy arose, according to Academy President Daniel Taradash, because the love theme in "The Godfather" had previously been used by Rota in "Fortunella", an Italian movie from several years earlier.


title: 45th Academy Awards

text: The nominations in the category of Best Original Song were not announced in February with the rest of the nominations, reportedly because of "a mixup in balloting". It was later reported that the Academy had been considering whether Curtis Mayfield's song "Freddie's Dead" from the film "Super Fly" should be eligible. The song was ruled ineligible for a nomination because its lyrics were not sung in the film. (The song was released as a single with lyrics, but the version in the film was an instrumental.) Academy governor John Green was quoted as saying: "Times have changed. In the old days, Hollywood made 30 or 40 musicals a year, and there were plenty of songs to choose from. Now there are hardly any, and most of the eligible songs are themes. Both the lyric and the music must be heard on the sound track to be eligible."


title: 45th Academy Awards

text: The following individuals, listed in order of appearance, presented awards or performed musical numbers. Notably, Charlton Heston was late for his role presenting the voting rules, reportedly due to a flat tire. Clint Eastwood, who was slated to present for Best Picture, was asked to fill in. Heston's written dialogue leaned heavily on his role in the movie "The Ten Commandments", leading Eastwood to quip “Come on, flip the card, man. This isn’t my bag.” Eastwood also famously said on filling in at the last minute, "...They pick the guy who hasn’t said but three lines in 12 movies to substitute for him [Heston]”. Heston arrived part of the way through the bit, allowing Eastwood to escape.


title: Digital Playground

text: Digital Playground Inc. is an American pornographic film studio, headquartered in Burbank, California. It has been called one of the five biggest porn studios and, in 2006, was described by Reuters as one of the handful of studios that dominate the U.S. porn industry.


title: Digital Playground

text: Adult director Joone founded the company in 1993, originally making adult CD-ROM computer games. The company became an innovator in making pornography available on personal computers.


title: Digital Playground

text: In 2003, DP began working with a company specializing in hologram technology, with the aim of bringing the actress "into the viewer's living room". DP began filming in high-definition in 2005. In January 2006 the company chose Blu-ray Disc over rival format HD DVD because Joone felt Blu-ray Disc was more future-proofed. DP initially had difficulty finding a company prepared to produce its films in the Blu-ray Disc format, as companies that replicated DVDs were reluctant to deal with the pornography industry.


title: Digital Playground

text: The Digital Playground studios have been at the forefront for iPads, HD and three-dimension technology for cinema and television in the porn industry. The company has claimed that "many technology brands have used the adult industry (and DP, in particular), to test new markets" because of "the sheer scale of the porn industry".


title: Digital Playground

text: In 2018, the Government of India banned the websites of Digital Playground, among other porn websites, after a Uttarakhand High Court court order demanding the same in a rape case where the perpetrators stated they were motivated to do so after watching online pornography.


title: Digital Playground

text: Digital Playground introduced the virtual sex genre of CD-ROMs and DVDs, in which the viewer can control a famous pornographic actress by selecting from a menu of explicit scenes. The first film in the series was released in 1998. In the series the actress looks directly at the camera, and appears to talk directly to the viewer. "Virtual Sex with Jenna Jameson" is one of the best-selling adult DVDs of all time according to adultdvdempire.com sales charts.


title: Digital Playground

text: In 2004, Digital Playground produced the first HD pornographic film, "Island Fever 3", shot on location in Tahiti and Bora Bora.


title: Digital Playground

text: On March 12, 2012, it was reported that the website for Digital Playground was breached, resulting in customer information being compromised. Included in the information breached and portions made public were usernames, e-mail addresses, passwords, credit card numbers and expiration dates.


title: Digital Playground

text: The membership page on that date stated that their member services were "temporarily unavailable" and that "We are currently verifying the security parameters on this site and upgrading the entire system in order to better safeguard your information."


title: Digital Playground

text: Digital Playground's production team is led by director Robby D. and producer/director Joone who directed the "Virtual Sex" series.


title: Arlene Alda

text: Arlene Alda ( Weiss; born March 12, 1933) is an American musician, photographer and writer. She began her career playing clarinet professionally, then moved on to photography and writing children's books. She is married to actor Alan Alda.


title: Arlene Alda

text: Alda was born Arlene Weiss in the Bronx, New York City to Jewish parents. She attended Evander Childs High School and Hunter College, graduating in January 1954 as a music major, Phi Beta Kappa, Cum Laude. She became a member of the National Orchestra, a training orchestra, conducted by Leon Barzin. She studied clarinet with Abraham Goldstein and Leon Russianoff, becoming a member of the Houston Symphony Orchestra, playing assistant first clarinet and bass clarinet under the baton of Leopold Stokowski.


title: Arlene Alda

text: Weiss played first clarinet in the Ridgefield Orchestra. She pursued an early interest in photography by studying with Mort Shapiro and Lou Bernstein, ultimately changing careers and becoming a photographer and writer. As a photographer, Alda had several one-person shows, including those in Nikon House in New York City and the Mark Humphrey Gallery in Southampton, New York. As a freelance photographer, her photographs have appeared in "The Saturday Evening Post", "Vogue", "People Magazine", "Life Magazine", and "Today"'s Health Magazine, for which she received a Chicago Graphics Communications Award for her photo essay, "Allison's Tonsillectomy".


title: Arlene Alda

text: Alda is the author of 15 children's books, including the best seller, "Sheep, Sheep Sheep, Help Me Fall Asleep" (Doubleday Books for Young Readers, 1992), "Arlene Alda's 1,2,3" (Tricycle Press 1998), which won an American Library Notable citation, "The Book of ZZZs" (Tundra 2005), "Did You Say Pears?" (Tundra 2006) and "Except the Color Grey" (Tundra 2011). She also wrote the popular "Hurry Granny Annie" (Published by Tricycle Press in 1999) as well as "Hold the Bus" (Published by Troll Press in 1996), "Iris Has a Virus" (2008) and "Lulu's Piano Lesson" (2010). For much, but not all, of her career as an author, she has provided her own photography as illustrations used in her children's books.


title: Arlene Alda

text: She is also represented in photo anthologies, "Women of Vision", and "Soho Gallery 2". Alda is the author of "On Set" (Fireside/Simon and Schuster 1981) illustrated with over one hundred of her photographs and "The Last Days of Mash" (Unicorn, 1983) with photos by Alda and co-written with her husband, Alan Alda. Her most recent book, "Just Kids from the Bronx" (Henry Holt and Co. March 2015.) an Oral History of 64 interviews with prominent Bronxites. The story tellers include Al Pacino, Regis Philbin, Colin Powell, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Mary Higgins Clark, Avery Corman, Chazz Palminteri, TATS CRU Graffiti Artists, Grandmaster Melle Mel, and the others, from age 93 to age 23.


title: Arlene Alda

text: Arlene is married to actor Alan Alda. They wed on March 15, 1957, and they have three daughters, Eve (b. 1958), Elizabeth (b. 1960), and Beatrice (b. 1961), as well as eight grandchildren.


title: Verka Serduchka

text: Andriy Mykhailovych Danylko (; born 2 October 1973), better known as his drag persona Verka Serduchka (, ; ), is a Ukrainian comedian, actor, and singer. He represented Ukraine in the Eurovision Song Contest 2007 as Verka, finishing in second place. He has sold over 600,000 records. He has appeared in films, most notably a cameo as Verka in the American comedy film "Spy" (2015).


title: Verka Serduchka

text: Andriy Mykhailovych Danylko was born to a working-class family in Poltava on 2 October 1973. His mother, Svitlana Volkova, came from the noble Khomentovsky family, who were friends with the artist Ilya Repin. In 1980, at the age of seven, he lost his father to lung cancer. Since childhood, he had a talent for drawing and music, and he entered art school in 1984. His talents were manifested in other areas as well; he was the captain of the KVN school team, played as a schoolboy for the CPTU No. 30 team, and performed annually on the stage in the summer children's camp. In addition, he became interested in theater and entered the local theater studio in the seventh grade, where he was engaged in a studio called Grotesque and was part of the theater group Compote. In 1991, he graduated from Poltava Secondary School No. 27, and later graduated from the Kyiv State College of Circus and Variety Arts.


title: Verka Serduchka

text: In 1990, Danylko began to create the character of Verka Serduchka, a flamboyant middle-aged woman from a rural family, working as a railroad sleeping car attendant. He presented Serduchka publicly for the first time in a Poltava comedy competition on 4 January 1991. He invented the character's name by combining the randomly picked first name Verka and the last name of a former school classmate, Anna Serduk. Danylko later gave his Serduchka character a "mother," played by actress Inna Bilokon, who had been Danylko's close friend since school.


title: Verka Serduchka

text: After Verka Serduchka, Danylko created other characters, such as a police officer, a soldier, and a female ballet dancer. He established a troupe called the Danylko Theater to tour Ukraine and Russia. In 2002, Danylko, along with his group, toured in the CIS and Baltic countries with the program "I Am a Revolution" for the whole year. The following year he was awarded the title of Honored Artist of Ukraine soon after the Danylko Theater concert tour "I Was Born for Love".


title: Verka Serduchka

text: In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Danylko hosted a talk show called "SV-show" ("SV" is an abbreviation for , which means "sleeping car") on various Ukrainian television channels. In 2001, Danylko made his first appearance in one of several musicals produced for television, mostly in female comic portrayals based on the Serduchka character (see Filmography). Several of these productions were shown in the New Year's Eve broadcasts of Russia-1 television.


title: Verka Serduchka

text: Apart from pop and dance performances as Serduchka, Danylko has also performed ambient musical compositions under his real name, including the 2005 album После тебя ("Posle tebya": "After you").


title: Verka Serduchka

text: After Verka Serdyuchka, Danylko created other characters, such as a policeman, a soldier and a ballerina. He created the "Danylko Theater" troupe for tours in the cities of Russia and Ukraine. In 2002, Danylko and his group toured the CIS and Baltic countries with the program "I am Revolution" for a whole year.


title: Verka Serduchka

text: Verka Serduchka was chosen to represent Ukraine at the Eurovision Song Contest 2007 in Helsinki, Finland, with the song "Dancing Lasha Tumbai". One of Ukraine's nationwide FM radio stations organized a protest action in February 2007 to express their disapproval of the selection. Some Ukrainians and even members of the Ukrainian Parliament also expressed their disapproval, viewing the character of Serduchka as "grotesque and vulgar".


title: Verka Serduchka

text: Serduchka's song "Dancing Lasha Tumbai" was sung in two languages: German and English. The invented words "lasha tumbai" caused some controversy after the performance, as many people noted the phrase's similarity to "Russia goodbye". In early publicity appearances, Serduchka explained that "lasha tumbai" was a Mongolian expression for "whipped cream." His statement was denied by several Mongols who gave the correct phrase on a talk show broadcast by Channel One (Russia) just before the Eurovision Song Contest 2007. The Mongolian embassy in Moscow also said that "lasha tumbai" was total gibberish.


title: Verka Serduchka

text: In the final, "Dancing Lasha Tumbai" came in second with 235 points. The "Dancing Lasha Tumbai" single reached No. 6 in the French charts and went on to be No. 28 on The Official UK Singles Chart on 20 May 2007. This was the first time a non-UK, non-winning Eurovision entry had made UK charts since 1974.


title: Verka Serduchka

text: Danylko later made a brief phone-in appearance on the BBC's "The Graham Norton Show," in which his comments made no sense whatsoever. Another call was made, but with a translator in the audience. In this instance, he appeared to tell guest Andrew Lloyd Webber he was "rubbish". However, in an interview with Andrew Williams in the 60 Seconds column of metro.co.uk (30 July 2007), Danylko clarified his meaning:


title: Verka Serduchka

text: In the same interview, he stated that "lasha tumbai" was a somewhat made-up phrase that sounds like the Mongolian phrase for "milkshake" and that many Russians nevertheless managed to interpret it as saying "Russia goodbye!".


title: Verka Serduchka

text: In 2011, a writer from British newspaper "The Guardian" described "Dancing Lasha Tumbai" as the "best song never to win Eurovision" before going on to describe Serduchka as "an oven-ready Christopher Biggins".


title: Verka Serduchka

text: Danylko announced in 2007 that he would front a new political party, "For Ours!", to run in that year's Ukrainian parliamentary election, but he later abandoned the idea. A public opinion poll in July 2007 placed "For Ours! Verka Serduchka" at 2% overall support.


title: Verka Serduchka

text: Serduchka had planned to participate in the Ukrainian national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest 2011. He automatically qualified for the final, but withdrew his nomination in October 2010.


title: Verka Serduchka

text: In January 2013, Andriy Danylko bought a 1974 Rolls-Royce, once owned by Freddie Mercury, at the Autosport International Show in Birmingham with the intention of donating it to a museum. This idea fell through over the years because there was no suitable museum on the subject in Ukraine. The deal was made over the phone and he paid £75,000 for the car.


title: Verka Serduchka

text: Danylko has said in interviews that he does not engage in transvestism outside of his public performances, with a distinction between his stage persona and his personal life. He is reluctant to discuss his private affairs beyond this, though he has stated in interviews that he had a difficult relationship with a woman with whom he lived for eight years. In January 2015, photos of Danylko kissing actress Inna Bilokon were posted online by a friend.


title: Verka Serduchka

text: Danylko appeared as the character Verka Serduchka in a cameo role in the 2015 American action comedy movie "Spy", which premiered 22 May 2015 in New York City and 4 June 2015 in Ukraine. In the scene, set in Paris, Serduchka's open-air performance of "Dancing Lasha Tumbai" is interrupted by CIA agents Susan Cooper (Melissa McCarthy) and Rick Ford (Jason Statham).


title: Verka Serduchka

text: Since 2016, Andriy has been a constant judge at Vidbir, Ukraine's National Selection for the Eurovision Song Contest. In the 2016 telecast of the Eurovision Song Contest, Serduchka announced the results from the Ukrainian jury. Bilokon, portraying Serduchka's mother, accompanied Danylko.


title: Verka Serduchka

text: For the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest hosted in Ukraine, a series of short video clips, titled "Verkavision", were produced that chronicled the fictional back story of the character of Verka Serduchka and her journey as a Eurovision "star". Verka also appeared on stage during the final, and opened the televote.


title: Verka Serduchka

text: In May 2017, Andriy Danylko announced that he had decided to "bury" Verka Serdyuchka's stage image. The actor stated that he no longer wants to perform on the big stage in such a role. Despite this, Andriy continued his active concert activity.


title: Verka Serduchka

text: On June 28, 2017, on the Constitution Day of Ukraine, he gave a big free solo concert in Kyiv, as part of the Atlas weekend festival. The event gathered a record number of spectators – more than 100 thousand people came to the square in front of the stage.


title: Verka Serduchka

text: In 2019, Verka appeared in the Eurovision Song Contest final hosted in Tel Aviv, Israel, singing the previous year's winning song, "Toy" by Netta Barzilai, as part of the "Switch Song" interval act.


title: Verka Serduchka

text: In 2021, he became a judge on "Mask", the Ukrainian adaptation of "The Masked Singer". Also in 2021, as Verka Serdyuchka, he hosted an anniversary episode of the travel show "Oryol i Reshka" with Vera Brezhneva.


title: Verka Serduchka

text: In march 2022, after Russia invaded Ukraine, Danylko repeatedly condemned Vladimir Putin's actions on Instagram and many interviews. During the Kyiv offensive, he refused to leave Kyiv, where he lives.


title: Verka Serduchka

text: On 21 June 2022, he performed as Verka at the international charity TV marathon “Embrace Ukraine - #StrivingTogether”, arranged in support of Ukraine with the participation of former Eurovision winners. The event took place at the Museum Square in Amsterdam with an objective to raise funds for purchasing medical equipment for health care facilities that assist wounded and injured people during the war in Ukraine.


title: Verka Serduchka

text: In the fall of 2022, he put up his previously purchased Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow 1974, which belonged to Freddie Mercury, for the Sotheby’s auction, in order to help support the construction of a modern rehabilitation and prosthesis center in Ukraine with the sale of the car. On November 5, 2022, the car was auctioned off by WhiteBIT CEO and co-founder "Volodymyr Nozov" for £250,000 (11 million hryvnias). The auction house waived the usual fees, so the buyer's premium of £36,250 also went to the Superhumans Center project - totally £286,250.


title: Verka Serduchka

text: In 2003, Danylko was honored with the title People's Artist of Ukraine. In 2007, Verka Serduchka received the Barbara Dex Award for worst outfit in the Eurovision Song Contest 2007.


title: Verka Serduchka

text: Verka Serdyuchka's performance with the song "Dancing Lasha Tumbai" is one of the 8 brightest numbers in the history of "Eurovision".


title: Verka Serduchka

text: In 2016, Serduchka's costume from the performance at "Eurovision-2007" went to the (Stockholm), where in honor of the 60th anniversary of the competition was an interactive exhibition "Good Evening, Europe!"


title: Verka Serduchka

text: In 2020, the song "Dancing Lasha Tumbai" was heard in the BBC America thriller series "Killing Eve" in the episode "Are You From Pinner?" The character Villanelle dances to the song at a harvest festival while visiting her rural Russian hometown.


title: U Turn (2018 film)

text: U Turn is a 2018 Indian supernatural thriller film written and directed by Pawan Kumar and produced by Srinivasa Chitturi and Rambabu Bandaru under the banners BR8 Creations, V. Y. Combines and Srinivasa Silver Screen. The plot revolves around the death of motorists who break a traffic rule at a particular flyover and subsequent pinning down of the culprit by an intern journalist and police inspector duo. Filmed simultaneously in Tamil and Telugu languages, it is a remake of the director's own 2016 Kannada film of the same name.


title: U Turn (2018 film)

text: The film stars Samantha, Aadhi Pinisetty, Bhumika Chawla, and Rahul Ravindran. Principal photography commenced in February 2018 and ended in June. "U-Turn" is a songless film, featuring background score composed by Poornachandra Tejaswi and a promotional song composed by Anirudh Ravichander. The cinematography was handled by Niketh Bommireddy and editing by Suresh Arumugam.


title: U Turn (2018 film)

text: The film released on 13 September 2018 and received a positive response from critics, despite becoming unsuccessful at the box office.


title: U Turn (2018 film)

text: Rachana, an intern with The Times of India, is working on an article on the incidents at a flyover. She also has a crush on the crime reporter Aditya, whose help she seeks for research material on accidents on the flyover. She finds that each day some motorists move the concrete blocks that partition the road just to take a quick U-turn and avoid traffic. They do not move the blocks back and are left to lie randomly on the road, leading to many accidents. A homeless man sitting on the flyover notes down the vehicle numbers of commuters who violate the rule to take the U-turn and gives the list to Rachana. She obtains the details of the culprits using her contact in the traffic department, with the intention of confronting them for their "shortcut" and writing an article for the paper. Her attempt to meet the first person on the list goes in vain.


title: U Turn (2018 film)

text: Later that day, the police arrest Rachana and accuse her of killing the same person she wanted to meet. She is shocked and tells her side of the story. Though the senior police officer rejects it, sub-inspector Pradeep Nayak finds it believable and does some investigation. It is revealed that all the people whom Rachana has on her list have committed suicide. The police also noticed that they have committed suicide the same day they took the wrong "U-turn". Rachana and Nayak find that another number has been noted by the homeless man, which is to be delivered to Rachana the next day. The duo traces the address and tries to rescue the man, a lawyer, who has taken the U-turn that day. As nothing seems suspicious, both leave only to encounter the death of the lawyer, who jumps off his balcony and dies falling on the police car in which Nayak and Rachana were leaving.


title: U Turn (2018 film)

text: Later, Rachana tries to confront the homeless man for the injuries in the fly-over. Meanwhile, she sees two young men violate the U-turn and reports it to Nayak, who first disagrees and does not believe that they would die. Later, he locks them up in an old police lock-up and sees them with CCTV cameras to save them. But one of them, who behaves like a ghost, possesses him and fights with the other, who dies. The former steals a gun of Nayak and shoots himself. Aditya gives an article of news with incidents on the flyover. Meanwhile, Senior Inspector Chandrashekhar suspends Nayak until the investigation is over as the two men died in police custody. Rachana interviews Ritesh about accidents on the flyover. Ritesh tells about his wife Maya and their daughter Jharna, who both died in an accident on the flyover. He tells that she should find who is responsible for Maya and his daughter's death.


title: U Turn (2018 film)

text: With no way of finding the real cause of the death of the culprits, Rachana herself takes the U-turn and waits for something to happen. She dreams of Maya and her daughter Jharna, who died in an accident due to the concrete roadblocks that were moved. In her house, Maya and Jharna are there and say that Rachana is the reason for their death. Maya, using her supernatural powers, tries to kill Rachana, but Rachana promises to find the person who was responsible for Maya's death. She wakes up and goes to Nayak's home, where she finds some pictures of the people who died by the U- turn. With the help of Nayak, she tries to find the person who moved the blocks on the day of Maya's accident. They found out the phone number and address of the man who moved the block. Rachana writes this on a balloon and leaves it on the flyover for Maya to find. Rachana calls and finds the number to be Aditya's brother's mobile number, but he shifted to the US two years back, and Aditya is using the number and his bike. Devastated, she tells Aditya that due to his negligence, a mother and daughter died. Aditya says it was not him who made the U-turn. He merely exchanged his bike with his friend. In a final twist, it is revealed that the man who moved the block was Ritesh. Maya's ghost is waiting in Aditya's house to kill him, when Ritesh, whom Rachana has informed about the incident, arrives. They save Aditya, while Ritesh sees Maya and Jharna and tells them that because of him, they died. He then tries to commit suicide by jumping off the balcony. Maya's ghost saves Ritesh and tells him that his punishment is to suffer in this world without his wife and daughter.


title: U Turn (2018 film)

text: "U Turn" is a remake of the 2016 Kannada film of the same name. It was filmed simultaneously in Tamil and Telugu languages, to bank on the popularity of lead actress Samantha in the Tamil and Telugu film industries. Pawan Kumar, who directed the original, returned to direct the bilingual remake, marking his debut in Tamil and Telugu. He also made the last 30 minutes different from the Kannada original. The remake was produced by Srinivasa Chitturi and Rambabu Bandaru under the banners BR8 Creations, V. Y. Combines and Srinivasa Silver Screen. Cinematography was handled by Niketh Bommireddy, and editing by Suresh Arumugam. Filming began in February 2018 at Rajahmundry, and ended in June.


title: U Turn (2018 film)

text: "U Turn" is a songless film. The film features background score composed by Poornachandra Tejaswi and a promotional song composed by Anirudh Ravichander, which was not included in the film itself. The song "The Karma Theme" which was sung by Anirudh Ravichander with Alisha Thomas on backing vocals, was released on 5 September 2018 as a promotional song for the film, and a promotional video song was released on the same day. Directed by Krishna Marimuthu, with cinematography handled by Niketh Bommireddy the music video, features Samantha and Anirudh making onscreen appearances in the video. The song was released in both Tamil and Telugu languages and turned out to become an instant hit from listeners.


title: U Turn (2018 film)

text: "U Turn" was released on 13 September 2018, during Ganesh Chaturthi. Thinkal Menon of "The Times of India" rated the Tamil version 3 out of 5, writing "An interesting remake with enough twists and turns, and a climax that could have been more convincing."


title: U Turn (2018 film)

text: The film collected approximately in Tamil Nadu in its opening weekend (in 4 days) and in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana in first weekend and The film collected approximately in United States, in Australia and in international box office. The film collected in overseas in first weekend. The film approximately collected worldwide in first weekend.


title: Arunachalam Muruganantham

text: Arunachalam Muruganantham (Padman) is a social entrepreneur from Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, India. He is the inventor of a low-cost sanitary pad-making machine and is credited for innovating grassroots mechanisms for generating awareness about traditional unhygienic practices around menstruation in rural India. His mini-machines, which can manufacture sanitary pads for less than a third of the cost of commercial pads, have been installed in 23 of the 29 states of India in rural areas. He is currently planning to expand the production of these machines to 106 nations. The movie "Period. End of Sentence." won the Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject) for the year 2018. The 2018 Hindi film "Pad Man" was made on his invention, where he was portrayed by Akshay Kumar.


title: Arunachalam Muruganantham

text: In 2014, he was included in "Time" magazine's list of 100 Most Influential People in the World. In 2016, he was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India.


title: Arunachalam Muruganantham

text: Muruganantham was born in 1961. Muruganantham grew up in poverty after his father died in a road accident. His mother worked as a farm laborer to help in his studies. However, at the age of 14, he dropped out of school. He supplied food to factory workers and took up various jobs as a machine tool operator, yam-selling agent, farm laborer, and welder, to support his family.


title: Arunachalam Muruganantham

text: In 1998, he married Shanthi. Shortly after, Muruganantham discovered his wife collecting filthy rags and newspapers to use during her menstrual cycle, as sanitary napkins made by multinational corporations were expensive. Troubled by this, he started designing experimental pads. Initially, he made pads out of cotton, but these were rejected by his wife and sisters. Eventually, they stopped co-operating with him and refused to be the test subjects for his innovations. He realised that the raw materials cost , but the end product sold for 40 times that price. He looked for female volunteers who could test his inventions, but most were too shy to discuss their menstrual issues with him. He started testing it on himself, using a bladder with animal blood, but became the subject of ridicule when the "sanitary pad" was discovered in his village. As menstruation was a taboo subject in India, it left him ostracized by his community and family. He distributed his products free to girls in a local medical college, hoping that they would give him feedback.


title: Arunachalam Muruganantham

text: It took him two years to discover that the commercial pads used cellulose fibers derived from pine bark wood pulp. The fibres helped the pads absorb while retaining shape. Imported machines that made the pads cost . He devised a low-cost machine that could be operated with minimal training. He sourced the processed pine wood pulp from a supplier in Mumbai, and the machines would grind, de-fibrate, press and sterilize the pads under ultraviolet light before packaging them for sale. The machine costs .


title: Arunachalam Muruganantham

text: In 2006, he visited IIT Madras to show his idea and receive suggestions. They registered his invention for the National Innovation Foundation's Grassroots Technological Innovations Award; it won the award. He obtained seed funding and founded Jayaashree Industries, which now markets these machines to rural women across India. The machine has been praised for its simplicity and cost-effectiveness, and his commitment to social aid has earned him several awards. Despite offers from several corporate entities to commercialize his venture, he has refused, and continues to provide these machines to self-help groups (SHGs) run by women.


title: Arunachalam Muruganantham

text: Muruganantham's invention is widely praised as a key step in changing women's lives in India. The machine creates jobs and income for many women, and affordable pads enable many more women to earn their livelihood during menstruation. In addition to his own outreach, Muruganantham's work has also inspired many other entrepreneurs to enter this area, including some who propose to use waste banana fibre or bamboo for the purpose.


title: Arunachalam Muruganantham

text: Muruganantham has become well known as a social entrepreneur. He has given lectures at many institutions including IIT Bombay, IIT Madras, IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore, Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani – Goa Campus and Harvard University. He has also given a TED talk.


title: Arunachalam Muruganantham

text: Muruganantham's story was the subject of a prize-winning documentary by Amit Virmani, "Menstrual Man", and the film "Phullu" (2017) directed by "Abhishek Saxena". Director R. Balki cast Indian actor Akshay Kumar as Laxmikant Chauhan in a film based on Muruganantham's life, titled "Pad Man".


title: Eurofighter Typhoon variants

text: The Eurofighter Typhoon is in service with seven nations: United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Spain, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Austria. It has been ordered by Kuwait and Qatar, with orders for all eight customers still pending as of September 2017. The aircraft has, as of 2016, been provided in a basic air-defense form and has been upgraded to newer production standards which include internal IRST, air-to-ground precision strike capability (with Royal Air Force Typhoons participating in air strikes destroying tanks in Libya in 2011 as their combat debut), and HMSS (helmet-mounted symbology system) helmets. Most of the major systems including the CAPTOR radar and the Defence Aids Sub-System (DASS) are expected to be improved and updated over time, with the radar being updated to an AESA, being the CAPTOR-E/CAESAR, of which the Kuwait Air Force will be the inaugural operator, with first deliveries of their 28 new-built aircraft to commence in 2019.


title: Eurofighter Typhoon variants

text: The instrumented production aircraft (IPA) are five production standard aircraft fitted with telemetry instruments for dedicated flight testing and further systems development.


title: Eurofighter Typhoon variants

text: These are the operational and training aircraft. The model is known as Typhoon in the United Kingdom and export markets and as EF-2000 in Germany, Italy and Spain. However, all Italian aircraft carry the "Typhoon" logo on their tails.


title: Eurofighter Typhoon variants

text: As of July 2006 the Italian Air Force (Aeronautica Militare Italiana) had one EF-2000 wing, 4º Stormo (4th Wing), which received its first aircraft on 19 February 2004. The 36º Stormo received its first Typhoon on 1October 2007. By 2018 the Italian Air Force had three Eurofighter wings.


title: Eurofighter Typhoon variants

text: On August 25, 2022, three newly built Eurofighter Typhoons jets destined to the QEAF (Qatar Emiri Air Force) departed the BAE Systems factory at Warton, UK, to Qatar on their delivery flight to Tamim Airbase, near Dukhan, approximately 80 kilometres west of Doha via Athens.


title: Eurofighter Typhoon variants

text: As of December 2006 the Spanish Air Force (Ejército del Aire) has one squadron of aircraft. The first aircraft was delivered to Wing 11 in October 2003 at Moron airbase, Spain. In Spanish service, the aircraft is designated the C.16 Typhoon.


title: Eurofighter Typhoon variants

text: As of October 2006 Germany had two active EF-2000 fighter wings, Jagdgeschwader 73 and Jagdgeschwader 74. JG 73 began converting to the Eurofighter in April 2004. JG 74 received its first aircraft on 25 June 2006.


title: Eurofighter Typhoon variants

text: The Typhoon replaced the RAF's Tornado F3 (fighter) and Jaguar (ground attack) forces. They will equip five front-line squadrons, one front-line flight and one reserve squadrons, the Operational Conversion Unit (OCU).


title: Eurofighter Typhoon variants

text: The UK agreed to approve production of "Tranche 2" in December 2004, this tranche will see the RAF receive a further 89 aircraft, bringing its Typhoon inventory to 144. This followed protracted negotiations regarding the early introduction of ground attack capabilities of the aircraft and hence its swing-role capability. While this was always planned it was intended to come at a much later date.


title: Eurofighter Typhoon variants

text: As of June 2018, the RAF has 67 Tranche 2 Typhoons and has contracted to purchase 40 Tranche3 Typhoons. 107 Tranche2 and3 Typhoons will be modified via "Project Centurion", allowing them to utilise Meteor missiles, Brimstone and Storm Shadow missiles. 24 Tranche1 Typhoons will be retained for UK Quick Reaction Alert purposes, and will not be modified under Centurion. No. IX Squadron, based at RAF Lossiemouth, retains the Tranche1 Typhoon for QRA purposes but also serves the purpose of acting as an aggressor aircraft, similar to that of the USAF Lockheed Martin F-16 Fighting Falcon. These aircraft work in conjunction with the 100 Squadron BAe Hawk T.1 aircraft based at RAF Leeming, providing air combat training and dogfight training to RAF and Royal Navy pilots.


title: Eurofighter Typhoon variants

text: In December 2021, the Ministry of Defence stated RAF Typhoons had shot down a drone in Syria, making this their first operational air-to-air engagement.


title: Eurofighter Typhoon variants

text: Owing to the withdrawal of France from the Eurofighter 2000 project, in part due to France's desire to have a greater role in the development and marketing of the aircraft, the pursuit of a naval Typhoon has never seriously been considered. However, a navalised variant of the aircraft was first proposed in the late 1990s as a potential solution to the UK Royal Navy's need for a Future Carrier-Borne Aircraft (FCBA) for its new ("Queen Elizabeth"-class) aircraft carriers, In January 2001, the UK Ministry of Defence formally discounted the option of a navalised Eurofighter for its new aircraft carriers, in favour of the Joint Strike Fighter, which (at that time) promised to be a capable, low-cost and more stealthy aircraft that would enter into service circa 2012—a date that tied in well with the in-service date for the new UK aircraft carriers as it stood at that time. It was rejected by the United Kingdom on "cost effectiveness grounds".


title: Eurofighter Typhoon variants

text: , the navalised Typhoon remained only a proposal but there has been some interest expressed by other nations, such as India, in adapting the Typhoon for aircraft carrier operations.


title: Eurofighter Typhoon variants

text: The proposed variant design would enable the Typhoon to operate from carriers on a Short Take-Off but Arrested Recovery (STOBAR) basis, using a 'ski jump' ramp for aircraft launch and arresting gear for conventional landing.


title: Eurofighter Typhoon variants

text: In February 2011, BAE debuted a navalised Typhoon in response to the Indian tender. The model offered is STOBAR capable, corresponding to the Indian Navy's future aircraft carrier, . The changes needed to enable the Typhoon to launch by ski-jump and recover by arrestor hook added about 500 kg to the airframe, however this is now thought to be substantially more given the Typhoons's "unfriendly" design in terms of adapting the airframe to suit sustained naval operations. If the Indian Navy pursues a catapult launch carrier, the Typhoon is completely uncompetitive against tender rivals (e.g. Rafale and Super Hornet) since meeting "...catapult requirements would add too much weight to the aircraft, blunt performance and add substantially to modification costs".


title: Eurofighter Typhoon variants

text: On 5 November 2019, Kurt Rossner, Head of Combat Aircraft Systems at Airbus, proposed an Electronic Combat Role (ECR)/SEAD capability for the aircraft. The Typhoon ECR/SEAD would be configured with two Escort Jammer pods under the wings and two Emitter Location Systems built into the wingtips. Armament configuration would include four MBDA Meteor, two IRIS-T and six SPEAR-EW in addition to three drop tanks. The plane would be a two-seat variant carrying a mission specialist with access to dedicated electronic warfare and mission control screens.


title: Eurofighter Typhoon variants

text: On 14 March 2022, Christine Lambrecht, German Defense Minister announced that the German government would fund development of the Eurofighter ECR version


title: Pia Cramling

text: Pia Ann Rosa-Della Cramling (born 23 April 1963) is a Swedish chess player. In 1992, she became the fifth woman to earn the FIDE title of Grandmaster (GM). Since the early 1980s, she has been one of the strongest female players in the world as well as having been the highest rated woman in the FIDE World Rankings on three occasions. She was the clear number one rated woman in the January 1984 rating list, and joint number one rated woman in the July 1984 list.


title: Pia Cramling

text: Cramling is, aside from Judit Polgar (who chose not to play in women's events), the only woman to have earned the grandmaster title before 2000 who has never won the Women's World Champion crown. According to Cramling, one explanation for this is that the World Championship is a team effort and more prominent chess nations are able to give their players better support in important events. Nevertheless, Cramling has been in reasonably close contention for the crown on four occasions (all in different decades). In the 1986 and 1996 Candidates cycle she came in fourth and third respectively. Since the Women's World Championship has been held with the knock-out format, she reached the semifinals in 2008 and 2015. These latter results qualified her to play in the FIDE Women's Grand Prix series in 2009–11 and 2015–16 respectively. She has had greater success in Europe where she won the Women's European Individual Chess Championship in 2003 and 2010. In 2006, she won the Accentus Ladies Tournament in Biel.


title: Pia Cramling

text: In team competitions, Cramling represented Sweden in the Chess Olympiad in both the open and women's events, European Team Chess Championship in both open and women's sections, Telechess Olympiad and Nordic Cup. In the Women's Chess Olympiad, she has won the individual gold medal as the best player on board 1 (according to the rating performance) in 1984, 1988 and 2022. In the European Club Cup for Women, Cramling has won the team gold medal in 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013 and 2016 playing for team Cercle d'Echecs Monte Carlo.


title: Pia Cramling

text: Cramling earned the International Master (IM) title in 1983 and the Grandmaster (GM) title in 1992. She defeated Raymond Keene in the tournament where she earned her first IM norm. She earned her three GM norms in Italy in 1989, in Las Palmas in 1990, and Bern in 1992.


title: Pia Cramling

text: Cramling is married to the Spanish grandmaster Juan Manuel Bellón López. She lived in Spain for a number of years, but later moved back to Sweden. They have a daughter, Anna Cramling Bellón, a Woman FIDE Master and a chess YouTuber. At the 42nd and 44th Chess Olympiad mother and daughter both played for Sweden, Pia being team captain on board 1 and Anna playing on board 5 and 3, respectively.


title: Florian Zeller

text: Florian Zeller (; born 28 June 1979) is a French novelist, playwright, theatre director, screenwriter, and film director. He won the Prix Interallié for his 2004 novel "The Fascination of Evil" and several awards for his plays. He wrote and directed his first film, 2020's "The Father", based on his play of the same name, starring Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Colman. The film received six nominations at the 93rd Academy Awards, including Best Picture, with Zeller co-winning Best Adapted Screenplay. It also received four nominations at the 78th Golden Globe Awards and six nominations at the 74th British Academy Film Awards.


title: Florian Zeller

text: Zeller wrote his first novel "Artificial Snow" when he was twenty-two years old. But it was his third novel, "The Fascination of Evil", which made him a household name in France. It was selected for the Prix Goncourt.


title: Florian Zeller

text: His play, "The Father", played in London's West End to critical acclaim and top listings in the Best Plays of the Year. It was considered as "the most acclaimed new play of the last decade". and won several awards and nominations in Paris, London and New York. According to "The Times", "The Father" is "one of the greatest plays of the century".


title: Florian Zeller

text: His comedy, "The Truth", opened in London's West End in June 2017 and received an Olivier Award nomination for Best Comedy.


title: Florian Zeller

text: His play, "The Height of the Storm", starring Jonathan Pryce and Eileen Atkins, opened in London's West End in September 2018 and on New York's Broadway in September 2019. It has been named "best play of 2018" and "one of the best plays of the 21st century" by "The Guardian".


title: Florian Zeller

text: "The Son" opened in London in February 2019 and transferred to the West End in September 2019 with rave reviews.


title: Florian Zeller

text: Zeller wrote the screenplays for the 2008 film "Castle in Sweden", the 2014 film "Do Not Disturb", and the 2018 film "The Other Woman". He wrote and directed his first film, 2020's "The Father", based on his play. It had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 27, 2020. The film received acclaim from critics, who lauded Hopkins and Colman's performances and praised its depiction of dementia. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 98% based on 165 reviews, with an average rating of 8.50/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Led by stellar performances and artfully helmed by writer-director Florian Zeller, "The Father" presents a devastatingly empathetic portrayal of dementia." At Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 88 out of 100, based on 42 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". At the 78th Golden Globe Awards, the film received four nominations, including Best Motion Picture – Drama. It also received six nominations at the 74th British Academy Film Awards, including Best Film, and six Oscars nominations. Zeller and Christopher Hampton won a BAFTA and an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for the film.


title: Florian Zeller

text: In March and April 2021, it was announced that Zeller co-wrote with Christopher Hampton and will direct their adaptation of "The Son" (which serves as Zeller's and Hampton's follow-up to "The Father"), with Hugh Jackman, Laura Dern and Vanessa Kirby to star in the film.


title: Florian Zeller

text: Zeller lives in Paris. In 2010, he married ex-model, actress and sculptor Marine Delterme, who played one of the main roles in the Parisian production of his play "Le Manège". Their son, Roman, was born in December 2008.


title: Superiority complex

text: Superiority complex is a term coined by Alfred Adler in the early 1900s, as part of his school of individual psychology.


title: Superiority complex

text: A superiority complex is a defense mechanism that develops over time to help a person cope with feelings of inferiority. Individuals with this complex typically come across as supercilious, haughty, and disdainful toward others. They may treat others in an imperious, overbearing, and even aggressive manner.


title: Superiority complex

text: In everyday usage, the term "superiority complex" is used to refer to an overly high opinion of oneself.


title: Superiority complex

text: Alfred Adler was the first to use the term superiority complex. He claimed that a superiority complex essentially came from the need to overcome underlying feelings of inferiority: an inferiority complex. Throughout his works Adler intertwines the occurrence of an inferiority complex and a superiority complex as cause and effect. Among his writings touching on the topic were "Understanding Human Nature" (1927), and "Superiority and Social Interest: A Collection of Later Writings", a collection of twenty-one papers written by Adler and published posthumously in 1964.


title: Superiority complex

text: Adler distinguished a normal striving to achieve from superiority complexes, the latter being attempts in order to overcompensate a feeling of inferiority. He states that those with an inferiority complex develop a superiority complex to overcome the difficulties presented by the former, primarily by inflating their sense of self-importance in some way. Dreams of heroism, and a false assumption of success, revealed for Adler the reactive nature of such strivings.


title: Superiority complex

text: While Adler considered what he refers to in his writing as striving for superiority was a universal of human nature, he thought sound-minded individuals do not strive for personal superiority over others, rather for personal ambition and success through work. By contrast, those with an actual superiority complex were riddled with conceited fantasies, and with dreams of immutable supremacy.


title: Openness to experience

text: Openness to experience is one of the domains which are used to describe human personality in the Five Factor Model. Openness involves six facets, or dimensions: active imagination (fantasy), aesthetic sensitivity, attentiveness to inner feelings, preference for variety (adventurousness), intellectual curiosity, and challenging authority (psychological liberalism). A great deal of psychometric research has demonstrated that these facets or qualities are significantly correlated. Thus, openness can be viewed as a global personality trait consisting of a set of specific traits, habits, and tendencies that cluster together.


title: Openness to experience

text: Openness tends to be normally distributed with a small number of individuals scoring extremely high or low on the trait, and most people scoring moderately. People who score low on openness are considered to be "closed to experience". They tend to be conventional and traditional in their outlook and behavior. They prefer familiar routines to new experiences, and generally have a narrower range of interests.


title: Openness to experience

text: Openness has moderate positive relationships with creativity, intelligence and knowledge. Openness is related to the psychological trait of absorption, and like absorption has a modest relationship to individual differences in hypnotic susceptibility.


title: Openness to experience

text: Openness has more modest relationships with aspects of subjective well-being than other Five Factor Model personality traits.


title: Openness to experience

text: Openness to experience is usually assessed with self-report measures, although peer-reports and third-party observation are also used. Self-report measures are either lexical or based on statements. Which measure of either type is used is determined by an assessment of psychometric properties and the time and space constraints of the research being undertaken.


title: Openness to experience

text: A number of studies have found that "openness to experience" has two major subcomponents, one related to intellectual dispositions, the other related to the experiential aspects of openness, such as aesthetic appreciation and openness to sensory experiences. These subcomponents have been referred to as "intellect" and "experiencing openness" respectively, and have a strong positive correlation (r = .55) with each other.


title: Openness to experience

text: According to research by Sam Gosling, it is possible to assess openness by examining people's homes and work spaces. Individuals who are highly open to experience tend to have distinctive and unconventional decorations. They are also likely to have books on a wide variety of topics, a diverse music collection, and works of art on display.


title: Openness to experience

text: Openness to experience has both motivational and structural components. People high in openness are motivated to seek new experiences and to engage in self-examination. Structurally, they have a fluid style of consciousness that allows them to make novel associations between remotely connected ideas. Closed people by contrast are more comfortable with familiar and traditional experiences.


title: Openness to experience

text: Openness to experience correlates with creativity, as measured by tests of divergent thinking. Openness has been linked to both artistic and scientific creativity as professional artists, musicians, and scientists have been found to score higher in openness compared to members of the general population.


title: Openness to experience

text: Openness to experience correlates with intelligence, correlation coefficients ranging from about "r" = .30 to "r" = .45. Openness to experience is moderately associated with crystallized intelligence, but only weakly with fluid intelligence. A study examining the facets of openness found that the Ideas and Actions facets had modest positive correlations with fluid intelligence ("r"=.20 and "r"=.07 respectively).


title: Openness to experience

text: These mental abilities may come more easily when people are dispositionally curious and open to learning. Several studies have found positive associations between openness to experience and general knowledge. People high in openness may be more motivated to engage in intellectual pursuits that increase their knowledge. Openness to experience, especially the Ideas facet, is related to need for cognition, a motivational tendency to think about ideas, scrutinize information, and enjoy solving puzzles, and to typical intellectual engagement (a similar construct to need for cognition).


title: Openness to experience

text: Openness to experience is strongly related to the psychological construct of "absorption" defined as "a disposition for having episodes of 'total' attention that fully engage one's representational (i.e. perceptual, enactive, imaginative, and ideational) resources.” The construct of absorption was developed in order to relate individual differences in hypnotisability to broader aspects of personality. The construct of absorption influenced Costa and McCrae's development of the concept of openness to experience in their original NEO model due to the independence of absorption from extraversion and neuroticism. A person's openness to becoming absorbed in experiences seems to require a more general openness to new and unusual experiences. Openness to experience, like absorption has modest positive correlations with individual differences in hypnotisability. Factor analysis has shown that the fantasy, aesthetics, and feelings facets of openness are closely related to absorption and predict hypnotisability, whereas the remaining three facets of ideas, actions, and values are largely unrelated to these constructs. This finding suggests that openness to experience may have two distinct yet related subdimensions: one related to aspects of attention and consciousness assessed by the facets of fantasy, aesthetics, and feelings; the other related to intellectual curiosity and social/political liberalism as assessed by the remaining three facets. However, all of these have a common theme of ‘openness’ in some sense. This two-dimensional view of openness to experience is particularly pertinent to hypnotisability. However, when considering external criteria other than hypnotisability, it is possible that a different dimensional structure may be apparent, e.g. intellectual curiosity may be unrelated to social/political liberalism in certain contexts.


title: Openness to experience

text: Although the factors in the Big Five model are assumed to be independent, openness to experience and extraversion as assessed in the NEO-PI-R have a substantial positive correlation. Openness to experience also has a moderate positive correlation with sensation-seeking, particularly, the experience seeking facet. In spite of this, it has been argued that openness to experience is still an independent personality dimension from these other traits because most of the variance in the trait cannot be explained by its overlap with these other constructs. A study comparing the Temperament and Character Inventory with the Five Factor model found that Openness to experience had a substantial positive correlation with self-transcendence (a "spiritual" trait) and to a lesser extent novelty seeking (conceptually similar to sensation seeking). It also had a moderate negative correlation with harm avoidance.


title: Openness to experience

text: The Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) measures the preference of "intuition," which is related to openness to experience. Robert McCrae pointed out that the MBTI sensation versus intuition scale "contrasts a preference for the factual, simple and conventional with a preference for the possible, complex, and original," and is therefore similar to measures of openness.


title: Openness to experience

text: There are social and political implications to this personality trait. People who are highly open to experience tend to be liberal and tolerant of diversity. As a consequence, they are generally more open to different cultures and lifestyles. They are lower in ethnocentrism, right-wing authoritarianism, social dominance orientation, and prejudice. Openness has a stronger (negative) relationship with right-wing authoritarianism than the other five-factor model traits (conscientiousness has a modest positive association, and the other traits have negligible associations). Openness has a somewhat smaller (negative) association with social dominance orientation than (low) agreeableness (the other traits have negligible associations). Openness has a stronger (negative) relationship with prejudice than the other five-factor model traits (agreeableness has a more modest negative association, and the other traits have negligible associations). However, right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation are each more strongly (positively) associated with prejudice than openness or any of the other five-factor model traits. Recent research has argued that the relationship between openness and prejudice may be more complex, as the prejudice examined was prejudice against conventional minority groups (for example sexual and ethnic minorities) and that people who are high in openness can still be intolerant of those with conflicting worldviews.


title: Openness to experience

text: Regarding conservatism, studies have found that cultural conservatism was related to low openness and all its facets, but economic conservatism was unrelated to total openness, and only weakly negatively related to the Aesthetics and values facets. The strongest personality predictor of economic conservatism was low agreeableness ("r"= -.23). Economic conservatism is based more on ideology whereas cultural conservatism seems to be more psychological than ideological and may reflect a preference for simple, stable and familiar mores. Some research indicates that within-person changes in levels of openness do not predict changes in conservatism.


title: Openness to experience

text: Openness to experience has been found to have modest yet significant associations with happiness, positive affect, and quality of life and to be unrelated to life satisfaction, negative affect, and overall affect in people in general. These relationships with aspects of subjective well-being tend to be weaker compared to those of other five-factor model traits, that is, extraversion, neuroticism, conscientiousness, and agreeableness.


title: Openness to experience

text: Openness to experience was found to be associated with life satisfaction in older adults after controlling for confounding factors.


title: Openness to experience

text: Openness appears to be generally unrelated to the presence of mental disorders. A meta-analysis of the relationships between five-factor model traits and symptoms of psychological disorders found that none of the diagnostic groups examined differed from healthy controls on openness to experience.


title: Openness to experience

text: In addition, openness to experience may contribute to graceful aging, facilitating healthy memory and verbal abilities as well as a number of other significant cognitive features in older adults.


title: Openness to experience

text: At least three aspects of openness are relevant to understanding personality disorders: cognitive distortions, lack of insight and impulsivity. Problems related to high openness that can cause issues with social or professional functioning are excessive fantasizing, peculiar thinking, diffuse identity, unstable goals and nonconformity with the demands of the society.


title: Openness to experience

text: High openness is characteristic to schizotypal personality disorder (odd and fragmented thinking), narcissistic personality disorder (excessive self-valuation) and paranoid personality disorder (sensitivity to external hostility). Lack of insight (shows low openness) is characteristic to all personality disorders and could explain the persistence of maladaptive behavioral patterns.


title: Openness to experience

text: The problems associated with low openness are difficulties adapting to change, low tolerance for different worldview or lifestyles, emotional flattening, alexithymia and a narrow range of interests. Rigidity is the most obvious aspect of (low) openness among personality disorders and that shows lack of knowledge of one's emotional experiences. It is most characteristic of obsessive-compulsive personality disorder. Its opposite, known as impulsivity (here: an aspect of openness that shows a tendency to behave unusually or autistically), is characteristic of schizotypal and borderline personality disorders.


title: Openness to experience

text: Openness to experience has mixed relationships with different types of religiosity and spirituality. General religiosity has a weak association with low openness. Religious fundamentalism has a somewhat more substantial relationship with low openness. Mystical experiences occasioned by the use of psilocybin were found to increase openness significantly (see 'Drug Use,' below).


title: Openness to experience

text: A study examining gender differences in big five personality traits in 55 nations found that across nations there were negligible average differences between men and women in openness to experience. By contrast, across nations women were found to be significantly higher than men in average neuroticism, extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. In 8 cultures, men were significantly higher than women in openness, but in 4 cultures women were significantly higher than men. Previous research has found that women tend to be higher on the feelings facet of openness, whereas men tend to be higher on the ideas facet, although the 55 nation study did not assess individual facets.


title: Openness to experience

text: A study on individual differences in the frequency of dream recall found that openness to experience was the only big five personality trait related to dream recall. Dream recall frequency has also been related to similar personality traits, such as absorption and dissociation. The relationship between dream recall and these traits has been considered as evidence of the continuity theory of consciousness. Specifically, people who have vivid and unusual experiences during the day, such as those who are high in these traits, tend to have more memorable dream content and hence better dream recall.


title: Openness to experience

text: Openness is related to many aspects of sexuality. Men and women high in openness are more well-informed about sex, have wider sexual experience, stronger sex drives, and more liberal sexual attitudes. In married couples, wives' but not husbands' level of openness is related to sexual satisfaction. This might be because open wives are more willing to explore a variety of new sexual experiences, leading to greater satisfaction for both spouses. Compared to heterosexuals, people who are homosexual, asexual, or bisexual—particularly bisexuals—average higher in openness.


title: Openness to experience

text: Openness to experience, like the other traits in the five factor model, is believed to have a genetic component. Identical twins (who have the same DNA) show similar scores on openness to experience, even when they have been adopted into different families and raised in very different environments.


title: Openness to experience

text: One genetic study with 86 subjects found Openness to experience related to the 5-HTTLPR polymorphism associated with the serotonin transporter gene. A meta-analysis by Bouchard and McGue of four twin studies found openness to be the most heritable (mean = 57%) of the Big Five traits.


title: Openness to experience

text: Higher levels of openness have been linked to activity in the ascending dopaminergic system and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Openness is the only personality trait that correlates with neuropsychological tests of dorsolateral prefrontal cortical function, supporting theoretical links among openness, cognitive functioning, and IQ.


title: Openness to experience

text: An Italian study found that people who lived on Tyrrhenian islands tended to be less open to experience than those living on the nearby mainland, and that people whose ancestors had inhabited the islands for twenty generations tended to be less open to experience than more recent arrivals. Additionally, people who emigrated from the islands to the mainland tended to be more open to experience than people who stayed on the islands, and than those who immigrated to the islands.


title: Openness to experience

text: People living in the eastern and western parts of the United States tend to score higher on openness to experience than those living in the Midwestern United States and the Southern United States. The highest average scores on openness are found in the states of New York, Oregon, Massachusetts, Washington, and California. Lowest average scores come from North Dakota, Wyoming, Alaska, Alabama, and Wisconsin.


title: Openness to experience

text: Psychologists in the early 1970s used the concept of openness to experience to describe people who are more likely to use marijuana. Openness was defined in these studies as high creativity, adventuresomeness, internal sensation novelty seeking, and low authoritarianism. Several correlational studies confirmed that young people who score high on this cluster of traits are more likely to use marijuana. More recent research has replicated this finding using contemporary measures of openness.


title: Openness to experience

text: Cross-cultural studies have found that cultures high in Openness to experience have higher rates of use of the drug ecstasy, although a study at the individual level in the Netherlands found no differences in openness levels between users and non-users. Ecstasy users tended to be higher in extraversion and lower in conscientiousness than non-users.


title: Openness to experience

text: A 2011 study found Openness (and not other traits) increased with the use of psilocybin, an effect that held even after 14 months. The study found that individual differences in levels of mystical experience while taking psilocybin were correlated with increases in Openness. Participants who met criteria for a 'complete mystical experience' experienced a significant mean increase in Openness, whereas those participants who did not meet the criteria experienced no mean change in Openness. Five of the six facets of Openness (all except Actions) showed this pattern of increase associated with having a mystical experience. Increases in Openness (including facets as well as total score) among those whose had a complete mystical experience were maintained more than a year after taking the drug. Participants who had a complete mystical experience changed more than 4 T-score points between baseline and follow up. By comparison, Openness has been found to normally decrease with ageing by 1 "T"-score point per decade.


title: Nippon Kaigi

text: The is Japan's largest ultra-conservative and ultranationalist far-right non-governmental organization and lobby group. It was established in 1997 and has approximately 38,000 to 40,000 members as of 2020. The group influences the legislative and executive branches of the Japanese government through its affiliates. Former prime minister Shinzo Abe, an LDP politician, served as a special advisor to the group's parliamentary league. The group's membership includes grassroots activists as well as national and local politicians; with most of its active members being retired men over 60 years of age as the organization has faced difficulty attracting young people.


title: Nippon Kaigi

text: The number of National Diet members associated with the group's parliamentary league was 252 in 2013, peaking at 289 in 2014. As of 2022 the number stands at 206, out of 710 Diet seats.


title: Nippon Kaigi

text: The organization describes its aims as to "change the postwar national consciousness based on the Tokyo Tribunal's view of history as a fundamental problem" and to revise Japan's current Constitution, especially Article 9 which forbids the maintenance of a standing army. The group also aims to promote patriotic education, support official visits to Yasukuni Shrine, and promote a nationalist interpretation of State Shinto.


title: Nippon Kaigi

text: In the words of Hideaki Kase, an influential member of Nippon Kaigi, "We are dedicated to our conservative cause. We are monarchists. We are for revising the constitution. We are for the glory of the nation."


title: Nippon Kaigi

text: "Nippon Kaigi" believes that "Japan should be applauded for liberating much of East Asia from Western colonial powers; that the 1946–1948 Tokyo War Crimes tribunals were illegitimate; and that killings by Imperial Japanese troops during the 1937 Nanjing Massacre were exaggerated or fabricated". The group vigorously defends Japan's claim in its territorial dispute over the Senkaku Islands with China, and denies that Japan forced the "comfort women" during World War II. Nippon Kaigi is opposed to feminism, LGBT rights, and the 1999 Gender Equality Law.


title: Nippon Kaigi

text: Nippon Kaigi was founded in 1997 through the merger of two groups whose agendas included constitutional revision:


title: Nippon Kaigi

text: The founding President was Koichi Tsukamoto, the founder of Japanese clothier Wacoal. Yuzo Kabashima, the secretary general of Nippon Kaigi, established a sister organization "Nihon Seinen Kyogikai" in 1977, which is headquartered in the same building as Nippon Kaigi and acts as the organization's secretariat.


title: Nippon Kaigi

text: The organisation saw remarkably swift success in establishing strong connections among the establishment and in passing legislation that was congruent with the group's aims. In 1999, the Diet at last formally recognised Kimigayo as Japan's national anthem and the Hi no Maru as Japan's national flag. After the legislation passed, ensuing years saw the Ministry of Education and prefectural educational committees such as those of Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara issue guidelines forcing school teachers to adhere to specific procedures concerning these national symbols in the educational context.


title: Nippon Kaigi

text: Nippon Kaigi claims 40,000 individual members, 47 prefectural chapters, and about 230 local chapters. The organization's website lists the members depending on their seniority in the organization headed by a President seconded by Vice Presidents and a pool of "advisors", including Shinto priests leading key shrines, some of them belonging to the Imperial family.


title: Nippon Kaigi

text: Following the 2014 reshuffle, 15 of the 18 of Third Abe Cabinet members, including the Prime Minister himself (as 'special adviser'), were members of Nippon Kaigi. As of October 2014, the group claimed 289 of the 480 Japanese National Diet members. Among the members, former members, and affiliated are countless lawmakers, many ministers and a few prime ministers including Tarō Asō, Shinzō Abe, and Yoshihide Suga. Abe's brother Nobuo Kishi is also a member of the Nippon Kaigi group in the Diet. Its former chairman, Toru Miyoshi, was the former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Japan.


title: Nippon Kaigi

text: After campaigning actively for LDP candidates in July 2016, Nippon Kaigi campaigned for constitutional revisionism in September 2016.


title: Nippon Kaigi

text: Journalist Norimitsu Onishi says that the organization promotes a revival of the values of the Empire of Japan; Tamotsu Sugano, the author of the bestselling exposé on the group, "Research on Nippon Kaigi" () describes them as a movement democratic in method but intent on turning back sexual equality, restoring patriarchal values, and returning Japan to a pre-war constitution that is neither democratic nor modern. On 6 January 2017, sale of the book was banned by a district court for defamation pending removal of the offending portion; a revised digital edition continued to be sold. Sales resumed that March when the court allowed a revised edition with 36 characters deleted to appear.


title: Nippon Kaigi

text: Muneo Narusawa, the editor of "" ("Weekly Friday") says that, in parallel with historical revisionism, the organization often highlights historical facts that convey Japan as a victim such as with the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, when the Soviets declared war and invaded Manchuria or the North Korean abductions of Japanese citizens. Former education minister Hakubun Shimomura, the secretary general of the Discussion Group of "Nippon Kaigi" Diet Members ("Nippon Kaigi kokkai giin kondankai", ), argues for patriotic education and opposes a "masochistic view of history".


title: Nippon Kaigi

text: The Hankyoreh, a centre-left/liberal newspaper in South Korea, denounced right-wing nationalism led by Shinzo Abe and Nippon Kaigi as "anti-Korean nationalism", in its English column. However, the Hankyoreh is also a media that shows a resistant nationalist tendency toward Japan. "Jacobin", an American left-wing magazine, said the LDP and "Nippon Kaigi" carry the legacy of Japanese fascism.


title: Concord, Massachusetts

text: Concord () is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, in the United States. At the 2020 census, the town population was 18,491. The United States Census Bureau considers Concord part of Greater Boston. The town center is near where the confluence of the Sudbury and Assabet rivers forms the Concord River.


title: Concord, Massachusetts

text: The area that became the town of Concord was originally known as Musketaquid, an Algonquian word for "grassy plain." Concord was established in 1635 by a group of English settlers; by 1775, the population had grown to 1,400. As dissension between colonists in North America and the British crown intensified, 700 troops were sent to confiscate militia ordnance stored at Concord on April 19, 1775. The ensuing conflict, the battles of Lexington and Concord, were the incidents (including the shot heard round the world) that triggered the American Revolutionary War.


title: Concord, Massachusetts

text: A rich literary community developed in Concord during the mid-19th century, centered around Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emerson's circle included Nathaniel Hawthorne, Louisa May Alcott and Henry David Thoreau. Major works written in Concord during this period include Alcott's novel "Little Women", Emerson's essay "Self-Reliance", and Thoreau's "Walden" and "Civil Disobedience". In this era, the now-ubiquitous Concord grape was developed in Concord by Ephraim Wales Bull.


title: Concord, Massachusetts

text: In the 20th century, Concord developed into an affluent Boston suburb and tourist destination, drawing visitors to the Old North Bridge, Orchard House and Walden Pond. The town retains its literary culture and is home to notable authors, including Doris Kearns Goodwin, Alan Lightman and Gregory Maguire. Concord is also notable for its progressive and environmentalist politics, becoming in 2012 the first community in the United States to ban single-serving PET bottles.


title: Concord, Massachusetts

text: The area which became the town of Concord was originally known as "Musketaquid", situated at the confluence of the Sudbury and Assabet rivers. The name was an Algonquian word for "grassy plain", fitting the area's low-lying marshes and kettle holes. Native Americans had cultivated corn crops there; the rivers were rich with fish and the land was lush and arable. The area was largely depopulated by the smallpox plague that swept across the Americas after Europeans arrived.


title: Concord, Massachusetts

text: In 1635, a group of English settlers led by Rev. Peter Bulkeley and Major Simon Willard received a land grant from the General Court and negotiated a land purchase with the local indigenous tribes. Bulkeley was an influential religious leader who "carried a good number of planters with him into the woods"; Willard was a canny trader who spoke the Algonquian language and had gained the trust of Native Americans. They exchanged wampum, hatchets, knives, cloth, and other useful items for the six-square-mile purchase from Squaw Sachem of Mistick, which formed the basis of the new town, called "Concord" in appreciation of the peaceful acquisition.


title: Concord, Massachusetts

text: The Battle of Lexington and Concord was the first conflict in the American Revolutionary War. On April 19, 1775, a force of British Army regulars marched from Boston to Concord to capture a cache of arms that was reportedly stored in the town. Forewarned by Samuel Prescott (who had received the news from Paul Revere), the colonists mustered in opposition. Following an early-morning skirmish at Lexington, where the first shots of the battle were fired, the British expedition under the command of Lt. Col. Francis Smith advanced to Concord. There, colonists from Concord and surrounding towns (notably a highly drilled company from Acton led by Isaac Davis) repulsed a British detachment at the Old North Bridge and forced the British troops to retreat. Subsequently, militia arriving from across the region harried the British troops on their return to Boston, culminating in the siege of Boston and the outbreak of the war.


title: Concord, Massachusetts

text: The colonists initially publicized the battle as an example of British brutality and aggression; one colonial broadside decried the "Bloody Butchery by the British Troops". But a century later, the conflict was remembered proudly by Americans, taking on a patriotic, almost mythic status ("the shot heard 'round the world") in works like the "Concord Hymn" and "Paul Revere's Ride". In 1894, the Lexington Historical Society petitioned the Massachusetts State Legislature to proclaim April 19 "Lexington Day". Concord countered with "Concord Day". Governor Greenhalge opted for a compromise: Patriots' Day. In April 1975, Concord hosted a bicentennial celebration of the battle, featuring an address at the Old North Bridge by President Gerald Ford.


title: Concord, Massachusetts

text: Concord has a remarkably rich literary history centered in the 19th century around Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882), who moved there in 1835 and quickly became its most prominent citizen. A successful lecturer and philosopher, Emerson had deep roots in the town: his father, Rev. William Emerson (1769–1811), grew up in Concord before becoming an eminent Boston minister, and his grandfather, William Emerson Sr., witnessed the battle at the North Bridge from his house, and later became a chaplain in the Continental Army. Emerson was at the center of a group of like-minded Transcendentalists living in Concord. Among them were the author Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–1864) and the philosopher Amos Bronson Alcott (1799–1888), the father of Louisa May Alcott (1832–1888). A native Concordian, Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) was another notable member of Emerson's circle. This substantial collection of literary talent in one small town led Henry James to dub Concord "the biggest little place in America."


title: Concord, Massachusetts

text: Among the products of this intellectually stimulating environment were Emerson's many essays, including "Self-Reliance" (1841), Louisa May Alcott's novel "Little Women" (1868), and Hawthorne's story collection "Mosses from an Old Manse" (1846). Thoreau famously lived in a small cabin near Walden Pond, where he wrote "Walden" (1854). After being imprisoned in the Concord jail for refusing to pay taxes in political protest against slavery and the Mexican–American War, Thoreau penned the influential essay "Resistance to Civil Government", popularly known as "Civil Disobedience" (1849). Evidencing their strong political beliefs through actions, Thoreau and many of his neighbors served as station masters and agents on the Underground Railroad.


title: Concord, Massachusetts

text: The Wayside, a house on Lexington Road, has been home to a number of authors. It was occupied by scientist John Winthrop (1714–1779) when Harvard College was temporarily moved to Concord during the Revolutionary War. The Wayside was later the home of the Alcott family (who referred to it as "Hillside"); the Alcotts sold it to Hawthorne in 1852, and the family moved into the adjacent Orchard House in 1858. Hawthorne dubbed the house "The Wayside" and lived there until his death. The house was purchased in 1883 by Boston publisher Daniel Lothrop and his wife, Harriett, who wrote the Five Little Peppers series and other children's books under the pen name Margaret Sidney. Today, The Wayside and the Orchard House are both museums. Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, and the Alcotts are buried on Authors' Ridge in Concord's Sleepy Hollow Cemetery.


title: Concord, Massachusetts

text: The 20th-century composer Charles Ives wrote his "Concord Sonata" () as a series of impressionistic portraits of literary figures associated with the town. Concord maintains a lively literary culture to this day; notable authors who have called the town home in recent years include Doris Kearns Goodwin, Alan Lightman, Robert B. Parker, and Gregory Maguire.


title: Concord, Massachusetts

text: In 1849, Ephraim Bull developed the now-ubiquitous Concord grape at his home on Lexington Road, where the original vine still grows. Welch's, the first company to sell grape juice, maintains a headquarters in Concord. The Boston-born Bull developed the Concord grape by experimenting with seeds from some of the native species. On his farm outside Concord, down the road from the Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne and Alcott homesteads, he planted some 22,000 seedlings before producing the ideal grape. Early ripening, to escape the killing northern frosts, but with a rich, full-bodied flavor, the hardy Concord grape thrives where European cuttings had failed to survive. In 1853, Bull felt ready to put the first bunches of Concord grapes before the public and won a prize at the Boston Horticultural Society Exhibition. From these early arbors, the fame of Bull's ("the father of the Concord grape") Concord grape spread worldwide, bringing him up to $1,000 a cutting, but he died a relatively poor man. The inscription on his tombstone reads, "He sowed—others reaped."


title: Concord, Massachusetts

text: On September 5, 2012, Concord became the first community in the United States to approve a ban of the sale of water in single-serving plastic bottles. The law banned the sale of PET bottles of or less starting January 1, 2013. The ban provoked significant national controversy. An editorial in the "Los Angeles Times" characterized the ban as "born of convoluted reasoning" and "wrongheaded." Some residents believed the ban would do little to affect the sales of bottled water, which was still highly accessible in the surrounding areas, and that it restricted consumers' freedom of choice. Opponents also considered the ban to unfairly target one product in particular, when other, less healthy alternatives such as soda and fruit juice were still readily available in bottled form. Nonetheless, subsequent efforts to repeal the ban have failed in open town meetings. An effort to repeal Concord's ban on the sale of plastic water bottles was resoundingly defeated at a Town Meeting. Resident Jean Hill, who led the initial fight for the ban, said, "I really feel at the age of 86 that I've really accomplished something." Town Moderator Eric Van Loon didn't even bother taking an official tally because opposition to repeal was so overwhelming. It appeared that upwards of 80 to 90 percent of the 1,127 voters in attendance raised their ballots against the repeal measure. The issue had been bubbling in Concord for several years. In 2010, a ban approved in a town meeting, which wasn't written as a bylaw, was rejected by the state attorney general's office. In 2011, a new version of the ban narrowly failed at town meeting by a vote of 265 to 272. The ban on selling water in polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles of one liter or less passed in 2012 by a vote of 403 to 364, and a repeal effort in April failed by a vote of 621 to 687.


title: Concord, Massachusetts

text: According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , of which is land and , or 3.75%, is water. The city of Lowell is to the north, Boston is to the east, and Nashua, New Hampshire, is to the north.


title: Concord, Massachusetts

text: Massachusetts state routes 2, 2A, 62, 126, 119, 111, and 117 pass through Concord. The town center is near the confluence of the Sudbury and Assabet rivers, forming the Concord River, which flows north to the Merrimack River in Lowell. Gunpowder was manufactured from 1835 to 1940 in the American Powder Mills complex extending upstream along the Assabet River.


title: Concord, Massachusetts

text: Local government consists of a five-member executive Select Board and a legislature utilizing open town meeting.


title: Concord, Massachusetts

text: On the federal level, Concord is part of Massachusetts's 3rd congressional district, represented by Lori Trahan. The state's senior (Class I) member of the United States Senate is Elizabeth Warren. The junior (Class II) senator is Ed Markey.


title: Concord, Massachusetts

text: At the 2000 census, there were 16,993 people, 5,948 households and 4,437 families residing in the town. The population density was 682.0 per square mile (263.3/km). There were 6,153 housing units at an average density of 246.9 per square mile (95.3/km). The racial makeup of the town was 91.64% White, 2.24% African American, 0.09% Native American, 2.90% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 2.12% from other races, and 0.99% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.80% of the population.


title: Concord, Massachusetts

text: There were 13,090 households, of which 37.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 65.5% were married couples living together, 7.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 25.4% were non-families. 22.0% of all households were made up of individuals, and 10.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.62 and the average family size was 3.08.


title: Concord, Massachusetts

text: 25.1% of the population were under the age of 18, 4.2% from 18 to 24, 25.8% from 25 to 44, 28.4% from 45 to 64, and 16.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 42 years. For every 100 females, there were 100.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 101.8 males.


title: Concord, Massachusetts

text: In 2017, the median household income was $155,393. About 2.1% of families and 3.9% of the population were below the poverty line, including 3.7% of those under age 18 and 3.3% of those age 65 or over.


title: Concord, Massachusetts

text: The town's name is pronounced by its residents as , in a manner indistinguishable from the American pronunciation of the word "conquered." In the local dialect, it frequently is heard with the in the second syllable replaced by ().


title: Concord, Massachusetts

text: According to Concord's 2016 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the principal employers in the town are:


title: Concord, Massachusetts

text: Concord and West Concord stations are served by the MBTA's Fitchburg Line. Yankee Line provides commuter bus service between Concord and Boston.


title: Concord, Massachusetts

text: Concord is featured in the 2012 video game "Assassin's Creed 3", and the 2015 video game "Fallout 4". The video game "Walden, a game", based on Henry David Thoreau's Walden, is set in the town.


title: Concord, Massachusetts

text: Scenes from the 2017 comedy film "Daddy's Home 2" were shot at Concord scout house. Parts of the 2019 film "Little Women" were shot on the Concord River.