title: Youth (2015 film)

text: "Youth" is Sorrentino's second English-language film and the follow-up to his Academy Award-winning film "The Great Beauty" (2013). Principal photography began in Flims, Switzerland in May 2014. The primary location was the Waldhaus Flims, a 5-star hotel built in the nineteenth century, where the cast and crew all stayed while filming. Other scenes were filmed in Davos, Switzerland, particularly in the Hotel Schatzalp (the location of Thomas Mann's "The Magic Mountain"). Some filming was also done in Rome and Venice.


title: Youth (2015 film)

text: Sorrentino's regular cinematographer Luca Bigazzi returned to photograph the film. David Lang contributed in composing the film's music, including the piece "Simple Song #3" that is fictionally performed for Queen Elizabeth at the end. The scene was shot with soprano Sumi Jo, violinist Viktoria Mullova, the BBC Concert Orchestra, and the Berlin Radio Choir.


title: Youth (2015 film)

text: "Youth" premiered at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, where it competed for the Palme d'Or, and was simultaneously released in Italy. The film was also selected for the Special Presentations section of the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival.Fox Searchlight distributed the film in the United States on 4 December 2015 in a limited release. It was released in the United Kingdom on 29 January 2016, by StudioCanal. By the end of its box office run, "Youth" had earned $24,035,045 worldwide.


title: Youth (2015 film)

text: "Youth" received positive reviews. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a 72% approval rating based on 212 reviews, with an average of 7 out of 10. The site's consensus reads, "Gorgeously filmed and beautifully acted, "Youth" offers an enticing – albeit flawed – opportunity to witness an impressive array of seasoned veterans combining their cinematic might." On Metacritic, the film has received a weighted average score of 64 out of 100 based on 41 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: Youth (2015 film)

text: Kenneth Turan of the "Los Angeles Times" wrote, ""Youth" is a film that goes its own way. Quixotic, idiosyncratic, effortlessly moving, it's as much a cinematic essay as anything else, a meditation on the wonders and complications of life, an examination of what lasts, of what matters to people no matter their age." Todd McCarthy of "The Hollywood Reporter" called the film "a voluptuary's feast, a full-body immersion in the sensory pleasures of the cinema", and praised Caine and Keitel's performances. Jay Weissberg of "Variety" described it as Sorrentino's "most tender film to date, an emotionally rich contemplation of life's wisdom gained, lost, and remembered". In more mixed reviews, Robbie Collin of "The Telegraph" described the film as "gorgeous but chilly" and said it "never grasps its central theme", while Peter Bradshaw of "The Guardian" said it "has a wan eloquence and elegance, though freighted with sentimentality and a strangely unearned and uninteresting macho-geriatric regret for lost time."


title: Youth (2015 film)

text: The soundtrack for "Youth" was released by Milan Records in December 2015. Among various songs the soundtrack also includes the opening track of the film "You Got The Love" performed by The Retrosettes, "Simple Song #3" composed by David Lang, as well as "Just (After Song of Songs)," also composed by David Lang.


title: The Infiltrator (2016 film)

text: The Infiltrator is a 2016 American biographical crime film directed by Brad Furman and written by his mom Ellen Brown Furman. The film is based on the eponymous autobiography by Robert Mazur, a U.S. Customs special agent, who in the 1980s helped bust Pablo Escobar's money-laundering organization by going undercover as a corrupt businessman. The film stars Bryan Cranston as Mazur, with Diane Kruger, Benjamin Bratt, John Leguizamo, Saïd Taghmaoui, Joe Gilgun and Amy Ryan in supporting roles.


title: The Infiltrator (2016 film)

text: Filming began on February 23, 2015, in London. Both Mazur and Cranston received executive producer credits. The film premiered at the Tampa Theatre on July 6, 2016 and was released the following week in theaters. The film received a generally positive response from critics, but a poor response from audiences, as it grossed $22 million against a budget of between $28 and $47 million.


title: The Infiltrator (2016 film)

text: During the 1980s, U.S. Customs Service special agent Robert Mazur uses his undercover alias "Bob Musella" to become a pivotal player for drug lords laundering their dirty cash. Later, he infiltrates the world's largest cartel, and helps expose the money-laundering organization of drug lord Pablo Escobar and take down the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI), which had secretly taken illegal ownership of First American Bankshares in Washington, D.C.


title: The Infiltrator (2016 film)

text: The project was first announced by "The Hollywood Reporter" on October 8, 2014, with Brad Furman as director and Bryan Cranston as Robert Mazur; Miriam Segal produced the film for her Good Films banner along with George Films. Relativity International was announced to sell the film to foreign distributors at the American Film Market. On February 13, 2015, Diane Kruger was chosen to star for the unspecified female lead role. Benjamin Bratt was selected to star in the film as Roberto Alcaino, the agent's contact who dealt directly with cartel board members, including Escobar. On March 10, 2015, additional cast members were chosen, including John Leguizamo, Amy Ryan, Olympia Dukakis, Elena Anaya, and Juliet Aubrey. Broad Green Pictures acquired the US rights to the film on May 21, 2015.


title: The Infiltrator (2016 film)

text: Filming was previously set to begin in March 2015 in Tampa, Florida, but then moved to London and Paris. According to "SSN Insider", filming began on February 23, 2015. On March 11, 2015, the studio confirmed that filming was underway in London and released a first-look image from the film.


title: The Infiltrator (2016 film)

text: The production moved to Florida at the end of April; filming began in Tampa on April 22, 2015, on location at Port Tampa Bay. On April 28, 2015, they filmed in Parkland Estates, near the former home of Santo Trafficante, an infamous Tampa mob boss.


title: The Infiltrator (2016 film)

text: In the United States and Canada, "The Infiltrator" opened on Wednesday, July 13, 2016, and was projected to gross $5–8 million from 1,600 theaters in its opening five days. The film grossed $773,761 on its first day and $5.3 million in its opening weekend (a five-day total of $6.7 million), finishing eighth at the box office.


title: The Infiltrator (2016 film)

text: , the film holds a 72% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 179 reviews and an average rating of 6.4/10. The website's critical consensus reads, ""The Infiltrator"s compelling fact-based story and tremendously talented cast are often just enough to balance out its derivative narrative and occasionally clunky execution." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 66 out of 100, based on 38 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.


title: The Infiltrator (2016 film)

text: In 2016, Javier Ospina Baraya sued Robert Mazur and the makers of the film for what he alleged was an erroneous impression given of him. In 2019 the Florida State Appeals Court ruled the suit could proceed.


title: Roy Wood Jr.

text: Roy Norris Wood Jr. (born December 11, 1978) is an American humorist, stand-up comedian, radio personality, actor, producer, podcaster, and writer best known for his correspondent appearances on "The Daily Show with Trevor Noah". A native of Manhattan, Wood was raised in Birmingham, Alabama, and Memphis, Tennessee. After graduating from Ramsay High School in 1996, Wood began his career in stand-up comedy as the opening act for Tommy Davidson. He had a position as head writer on the WBHJ radio series "Buckwilde Morning Show" from 2001 to 2006. Wood has been featured on NBC's reality television series "Last Comic Standing" in 2010 and the TBS sitcom "Sullivan & Son" from 2011 to 2014. He currently hosts two podcasts for Comedy Central: Roy's Job Fair and Beyond the Scenes.


title: Roy Wood Jr.

text: Wood was honored at "Entertainment Weekly"'s "12 Rising Stars of Comedy" in 2008 and the 2010 Florida A&M University Young Alumni Awards. Since 2015, Wood has served as a correspondent for "The Daily Show" on Comedy Central. He hosted the fourth season of Comedy Central's "This Is Not Happening" from 2018 to 2019. In addition to his "Daily Show" appearances, Wood has starred in the stand-up comedy specials "Father Figure" (2017), "No One Loves You" (2019), and "Imperfect Messenger" (2021). He has also been featured in television series and movies.


title: Roy Wood Jr.

text: Wood was born in Manhattan, New York City, New York. His father, Roy Wood Sr., was a Birmingham, Alabama, radio broadcasting and journalism pioneer who covered the civil rights movement; the racism encountered by African-American soldiers in the Vietnam War; the Soweto uprising; and the Rhodesian Bush War, among other topics. His mother is Joyce Dugan Wood, a college administrator. His paternal three times great-grandfather, Sam Wood, was born c. 1790 in Africa. His parents separated for a time, and Wood lived with his mother in Memphis, Tennessee. When Wood was in the second grade, his parents reconciled, so the family moved to Birmingham; they lived on South Park Road in Birmingham's West End neighborhood. His half-brother is Roy L. Wood, a news anchor.


title: Roy Wood Jr.

text: Wood attended Central Park Elementary and Center Street Middle School. He graduated from Ramsay High School in 1996. In 2001, Wood received a B.S. in broadcast journalism from Florida A&M University.


title: Roy Wood Jr.

text: While in college, Wood worked as a morning news reporter for Birmingham, Alabama, radio station WBHJ 95.7 Jamz Hot 105.7. He began focusing on a career in comedy after filling in for the station's in-house comedian, Rickey Smiley.


title: Roy Wood Jr.

text: In 1998, when he was 19, Wood began his career as a standup. Wood recalls that he passed on his midterm tests, essentially failing the semester, in order to open for Tommy Davidson. Wood spent his last two years of college doing dishes on the weekends.


title: Roy Wood Jr.

text: In 2001, after graduating from college, Wood returned to Birmingham and became the head writer/producer for the "Buckwilde Morning Show" (WBHJ 95.7 JAMZ), a position he held until 2006. He continued working in radio, providing prank calls and content to various morning shows nationally and contributing to Jamie Foxx's Foxxhole station on Sirius XM Radio. Wood released three prank call CDs: "My Momma Made Me Wear This" (2003), "Confessions of a Bench Warmer" (2005), and "I'll Slap You to Sleep" (2007). Wood's pranks have been featured on numerous hip-hop mix tapes.


title: Roy Wood Jr.

text: In 2010, Wood finished third in the seventh season of NBC's "Last Comic Standing" and began hosting his own morning show, "The Roy Wood Jr Show". The show garnered top ratings and won 'Large Market Morning Show of the Year' from the Alabama Broadcasters Association for several years.


title: Roy Wood Jr.

text: From 2011 to 2014, Wood appeared on the TBS sitcom "Sullivan & Son". He had a guest starring role in the first season, but was then promoted to series regular for the second and third seasons. "Sullivan & Son" was canceled in 2014.


title: Roy Wood Jr.

text: In 2015, he was cast by ABC to play alongside Whoopi Goldberg in the comedy pilot "Delores and Jermaine"; the show did not make it beyond the pilot stage.


title: Roy Wood Jr.

text: In 2015, Wood joined "The Daily Show" as a correspondent. Wood moved to New York City to take the job. Wood has said that his background in standup coupled with his degree in journalism prepared him for the job. Wood said that his work doing guest roles in sports on ESPN and related companies prepared him for "The Daily Show", giving him experience with acting, timing, and building characters.


title: Roy Wood Jr.

text: His first Comedy Central stand-up special, "Father Figure", premiered in 2017, with an extended uncensored album of the same name released by Comedy Central Records. In 2017, he was named the new host of Comedy Central's storytelling series "This Is Not Happening". Wood's second Comedy Central special, "Roy Wood Jr.: No One Loves You", premiered in 2019.


title: Roy Wood Jr.

text: Wood has appeared as a comic on many late night talk shows, including the "Late Show with David Letterman", "The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson", "Chelsea Lately", "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon", "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert", "Late Night with Seth Meyers", and "Conan". Wood has performed for the troops on numerous USO tours in the Middle East and the Pacific Islands.


title: Roy Wood Jr.

text: In 2018, it was announced that Wood planned on shooting a TV show in Jefferson County, Alabama. The pilot, called "Jefferson County Probation", started shooting in May 2019. As of March 2020, a completed pilot for the show, now called "Jefferson County: Probation", was shot for Comedy Central, with the show in development. The show, created in collaboration with Aaron McGruder ("The Boondocks"), is about two probation officers in Jefferson County, Alabama. It is loosely inspired by a 1998 experience Wood had as a 19-year-old college student, when he was arrested for stealing $400 to $500 worth of blue jeans and was sentenced to probation.


title: Roy Wood Jr.

text: In 2019, Wood did a series of YouTube videos centered on the Popeyes chicken sandwich craze called "The Coalition (Chicken Sandwich Coalition)".


title: Roy Wood Jr.

text: In 2021, he was a guest on the PBS series "Finding Your Roots", where he described how he unexpectedly got probation at 19 for using credit cards he stole while a mail sorter for the US Postal Service to buy fashion jeans, and where it was revealed that he was a distant cousin of Congressman and civil rights activist John Lewis.


title: Capital One Arena

text: Capital One Arena is an indoor arena in Washington, D.C. Located in the Penn Quarter neighborhood, the arena sits atop the Gallery Place rapid transit station of the Washington Metro. It has been largely considered to be a commercial success and is regarded as one of the driving catalysts of the revitalization of Washington, D.C.'s Chinatown neighborhood. Like many storefront signs in Chinatown, a part of the arena's large sign is written in Chinese characters, right below the English name of the sponsor.


title: Capital One Arena

text: Owned and operated by Monumental Sports & Entertainment, it is the home arena of the Washington Capitals of the National Hockey League (NHL), the Washington Wizards of the National Basketball Association (NBA), and the Georgetown University men's basketball team. It was also home to the Washington Mystics of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) from 1998 to 2018 until they moved to the St. Elizabeths East Entertainment and Sports Arena in southeast Washington for the 2019 season.


title: Capital One Arena

text: The block where the arena was built, between 6th and 7th and F and G Streets, historically held a mix of residences and small businesses. By the 1960s, it was suffering from urban decay, like much of the eastern end of Downtown Washington. In 1973, while the Gallery Place Metro station was being developed below it, the District government bought the land in hopes of redeveloping it. Capital Landmark Associates was selected in 1979 to develop the site with a planned mixed-use complex including retail, offices, apartments, and a hotel. Most of the remaining buildings on the site were demolished in 1985. The project languished for many years but never materialized, and was finally canceled in 1992.


title: Capital One Arena

text: Before the arena's opening, the Capitals and the Wizards (then known as the Washington Bullets) played at USAir Arena in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland. The teams experienced subpar attendance because the location was inconvenient for both Washington and Baltimore residents, and their arena, though only 20 years old, was not up to the standards of other NBA and NHL venues. In December 1993, Abe Pollin, the owner of both teams, began studying options to move the teams to a new arena to be built with public financing, with possible locations including Baltimore, downtown Washington, and Laurel, Maryland.


title: Capital One Arena

text: A group of Washington business leaders brokered a deal between Pollin and the District government to build an arena at the Gallery Place site, with the District paying for the $150-million project, which was envisioned to have shopping, food, and exhibitors for daily use even when there was no arena event. The D.C. Council approved a special tax on businesses to finance the deal. However, a competing proposal soon emerged, when Robert Johnson, head of Black Entertainment Television, offered to build the arena with mostly private financing. With the arena deal facing criticism amid the District's budget crisis, Pollin eventually agreed to privately fund the construction of the building, which ultimately came to $200 million (US$ in dollars). The District would pay for other costs, including purchasing the portion of the land it did not already own, preparing the site, and expanding the Metro station; these eventually amounted to $79 million (US$ in dollars). The District leased the land to Pollin at a below-market rate of $300,000 per year.


title: Capital One Arena

text: A naming rights deal was struck with MCI Communications to name the arena as the MCI Center. The groundbreaking ceremony for the project was held in October 1995. On December 2, 1997, the arena held its first event, a game between the Wizards and the Seattle SuperSonics, with President Bill Clinton in attendance. The arena had a 25,000 square foot Discovery Channel Store from 1998 to 2001 and the MCI National Sports Gallery, an interactive sports museum with interactive games, memorabilia, and the American Sportscasters Hall of Fame inside from 1998 to 2000 or 2001 which was repurposed for office space. Clinton toured the gallery before the game, playing the museum games. A block of F Street NW between 6th and 7th Street NW outside the arena was declared Fun Street, complete with signage. This block later was declared Abe Pollin Way in 2007. The arena was noted for building spectator seats vertically rather than out, creating better views for all attending albeit with limited leg room in the upper levels, as well as spacious quarters for players and coaches with advanced competitive research technology. The arena concourse featured multimedia arenaNet stations where fans could check scores, watch highlights, and send digital postcards over email. These replaced an abandoned idea to have smart seats with televisions and technology that was scrapped due to technological challenges. Arena technology was powered by a virtual LAN software and switching technology called ArenaNET from Cabletron Systems.


title: Capital One Arena

text: In 1999, a group led by technology executive Ted Leonsis bought a 36% stake in Pollin's holdings, including the MCI Center, as well as full ownership of the Capitals. The Leonsis group increased its stake to 44% in 2000.


title: Capital One Arena

text: In January 2006, Verizon Communications purchased MCI and the arena's name was changed accordingly to Verizon Center. VIDA Fitness opened its first location in the arena that same year. The following year, in 2007, the "first true indoor high-definition LED scoreboard" was installed in the arena.


title: Capital One Arena

text: In June 2010, following Pollin's death in November 2009, the Leonsis group, newly organized as Monumental Sports & Entertainment, bought out Pollin's interests, gaining full ownership of the arena and the Wizards.


title: Capital One Arena

text: A report emerged in May 2015 that Verizon would not renew its naming rights to the Verizon Center when its agreement with Monumental was to end in 2018. In the same week, it was announced that Etihad Airways signed a deal to become the official airline of the arena, sparking speculation that Etihad might be the leading contender to assume naming rights in 2017. However, on August 9, 2017, it was announced the bank Capital One had purchased the rights, renaming the venue Capital One Arena.


title: Capital One Arena

text: In 2019 and 2020, Monumental Sports and Entertainment Network undertook a $30 million renovation of the stadium. This included completely replacing the arena's seating, improving the concourse, and altering many of the arena's dining options. A new, larger overhead video board was also added as well as a new SkyRing video screen that goes around the top of the arena.


title: Capital One Arena

text: In July 2020, bookmaker William Hill opened a sportsbook at the arena, following the 2018 legalization of sports betting in Washington. It was the first brick-and-mortar sportsbook in the District, and the first to open at a professional sports venue in the United States.


title: Capital One Arena

text: The arena has been home to the Capitals NHL team since its opening. As a result, numerous memorable moments in franchise history have occurred in the arena. The arena hosted games three and four of the 1998 Stanley Cup Finals, when the Capitals lost to the Detroit Red Wings in four games. The Red Wings hoisted the cup in the arena on June 16, 1998, after winning game four by a score of 4–1. On April 5, 2008, the Capitals won the Southeast Division in the last game of the regular season, after beating the Florida Panthers 3–1. May 4, 2009 saw dueling hat tricks from Ovechkin and rival Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins during a playoff game. The arena also hosted games three and four of the 2018 Stanley Cup Finals. The Capitals won both games and then went on to win game five in Las Vegas, which won them the Stanley Cup. This was the first major sports championship for a Washington, D.C. team since the 1991 Washington Redskins. The Capitals had their Stanley Cup banner ceremony in the arena before their first game of the next season, which took place on October 3, 2018.


title: Capital One Arena

text: Also, the arena hosted the 2009 "Frozen Four," the final round of the 2009 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Tournament.


title: Capital One Arena

text: The arena has been home to the Wizards NBA team since its opening and was home to the Washington Mystics WNBA team from 1998 to 2018, before moving to a new, smaller arena in the Congress Heights area of southeast Washington. The Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball team has also played there since the arena's opening. The arena has hosted three basketball all star games: the 2001 NBA All-Star Game and the 2002 and 2007 WNBA All-Star Games. The arena has been home to many playoff games for the various playoff teams but has yet to host an NBA finals series.


title: Capital One Arena

text: The arena has hosted NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament rounds several times. It hosted first and second round games in 1998, 2002, 2008 and 2011, and hosted the regional finals in 2006, 2013 and 2019. Most notably the 2005–06 George Mason Patriots men's basketball team from nearby Fairfax, Virginia advanced to the Final Four in the arena. The arena also hosted the Atlantic 10 men's basketball tournament in 2018 and 2022. It hosted the ACC men's basketball tournament in 2005 and 2016.


title: Capital One Arena

text: In the professional fighting world, the arena has hosted WWE events. The arena was also home to Mike Tyson's final fight (Mike Tyson vs. Kevin McBride) on June 11, 2005 and on October 1, 2011, was held at the arena.


title: Capital One Arena

text: On October 2, 2019, the Capital One Arena hosted "AEW Dynamite", the first televised professional wrestling event by All Elite Wrestling. It was broadcast on TNT in the United States of America and on ITV4 in the United Kingdom.


title: Capital One Arena

text: In 2017, the Washington Valor began play at the arena for their inaugural season in the Arena Football League. The Valor folded in 2019 and the arena has not hosted an Arena League game since.


title: Capital One Arena

text: The arena hosted the 2003 World Figure Skating Championships and the 2016 Kellogg's Tour of Gymnastics Champions.


title: Capital One Arena

text: The arena is a major location for concerts and cultural events in the D.C. region. Among the musical performers, cultural figures, and entertainment shows that have performed at the arena are Mariah Carey, Paul McCartney, U2, Iron Maiden, Lady Gaga, Madonna, the Three Tenors, Drake, Barbra Streisand, Bon Jovi, Prince, Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Beyoncé, the Dalai Lama, Tina Turner, Keith Urban, Paul Simon, Sting, Taylor Swift, Tyler, the Creator, Elton John, Usher, Green Day, the Who, Bad Bunny, Billie Eilish, Dua Lipa, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, and Disney on Ice.


title: Capital One Arena

text: When the arena opened, there was concern that it would lead to the displacement of Chinese businesses and culture in the area that is the city's Chinatown. The surrounding area has indeed been dramatically gentrified, and most of the Chinese residents and businesses who lived and operated in the neighborhood when the arena first opened have been displaced because of the spike in real estate prices. 2011 estimates hold that the number of Chinese in the neighborhood is down to around 400 to 500. The Chinese-owned restaurants and businesses in the Chinatown area are largely gone and there has not been a full-service Chinese grocery in the neighborhood since 2005.


title: Capital One Arena

text: In December 2007, then-Capitals captain Chris Clark stated that he believed the arena had the worst ice in the NHL. "There's a lot of ruts in the ice. It's soft. It's wet half the time. I could see a lot of injuries coming from the ice there. It could cost [players] their jobs... Even guys on other teams say the same thing. When we're facing off, they say, 'How do you guys play on this?'" Capitals owner Ted Leonsis addressed this criticism directly. The ice quality issue has been persistent both since the opening of the facility and with the Capitals franchise in general. Since Leonsis' acquisition of the facility, the quality of the ice has got better and number of complaints has noticeably decreased. During playoff games, the arena installs additional portable refrigeration units outside the arena to aid the ice conditions during the warm and humid summer months.


title: Finn the Human

text: Finn Mertens, also known as Finn the Human, is a fictional character and one of the two protagonists in the American animated television series "Adventure Time" created by Pendleton Ward. He also appeared in the spin-off series "". He is voiced by Jeremy Shada in most appearances. The character made his debut in the original pilot, where he is named Pen and voiced by Zack Shada, Jeremy's older brother. Jonathan Frakes voices Finn as an adult in some appearances.


title: Finn the Human

text: Prior to the start of "Adventure Time", Finn was adopted as an infant by two anthropomorphic dogs named Joshua and Margaret, who found him in the woods. His best friend and adoptive brother Jake the Dog (John DiMaggio) accompanies him on many of his adventures in Ooo, the fictional world that the series is set in. The mystery surrounding Finn's origins and whether he is the last human left in Ooo is a major part of the character's narrative arc. Later in the series, it is revealed that there are other humans still living in Ooo and that Finn's parents Martin and Minerva came from a community of survivors living on a chain of islands.


title: Finn the Human

text: Finn has received universal praise for his character development and coming-of-age narrative, which saw the character mature from a boy into a wise young man. Adam Muto, former showrunner for "Adventure Time", has stated that Finn's progression from an aggressive and reckless boy into a more mature wise person was one of his favorite character arcs to write. A gender-swapped version of Finn called Fionna appeared in the third-season episode "Fionna and Cake", and is the main character of the upcoming spinoff series "".


title: Finn the Human

text: Series creator Pendleton Ward has stated that he wrote Finn, and "Adventure Time" as a whole, as though he were playing a session of "Dungeons & Dragons," a tabletop role-playing game. Ward commented that Finn's motivations are noble, with a desire to "slay monsters, explore dungeons, find loot." Ward spent much of his childhood at home, and he described his "[indoor] adventure experience" as inspiring Finn and Jake the Dog's adventures. Early on in the development of the show, Ward had intended for Finn and Jake to be nomads who lived in tents. However, this was changed to having them live in a permanent home at Cartoon Network's request. The character first appeared in the short film "Adventure Time", which centers around rescuing Princess Bubblegum (Hynden Walch) from the evil Ice King (John Kassir). This short aired as part of Nickelodeon's "Random! Cartoons" showcase in 2008. Zack Shada voiced the character, then called Pen, in the short.


title: Finn the Human

text: Zack Shada was too old for the role when the series was picked up by Cartoon Network, and his younger brother Jeremy, 12 years old at the time, auditioned. According to Jeremy Shada, the showrunners did not at first realize that he was Zack's younger brother. He said that: "they just thought they got lucky with someone that sounded like the original." Shada's voice noticeably cracked and changed during the filming of Adventure Time as he was undergoing puberty. Ward decided that Shada would not be recast when his voice changed. Instead, the character of Finn was gradually aged as Shada's voice naturally deepened, and the themes of the show matured with the character. Older versions of Finn appear in several episodes of the show. Jonathan Frakes voices two alternate adult versions of Finn in the season 5 episodes "Puhoy" and "Dungeon Train".


title: Finn the Human

text: Like other "Adventure Time" characters, Finn is drawn with rubbery "limp noodle" limbs and a simple but expressive face. He has several missing teeth, which Ward explained as being due to the character never having been to a dentist. He typically wears a signature white bear hat, and form-fitting clothing. Finn's visual design resembles Bueno the Bear, another character created by Ward. Finn and Bueno share some other similarities, including an enjoyment of beatboxing.


title: Finn the Human

text: The show depicts Finn dealing with the struggles of adolescence and coming to terms with the complexities of life. Over time, the show's creators decided to further develop Finn's backstory, including his parents and whether he was truly the last human left in Ooo. A major theme of the series is that Finn begins to see the world in more nuanced terms, rather than the naive outlook he demonstrated in earlier seasons. Although many of the show's conflicts were about good versus evil at the start of the series, they become more complex as it progresses. "Adventure Time" composer Tim Kiefer said that the show had gradually became an exploration of the "Hero's journey", through Finn.


title: Finn the Human

text: In the early seasons of the series, Finn is enthusiastic and readily resorts to violence to settle conflicts. About this aspect of Finn's character, Ward said that he chose to "add a little wrath" to add depth to the character. By the end of the series, Finn is much more reserved. "Adventure Time" showrunner Adam Muto stated that this theme is part of the reason why Finn did not have a sword for much of the finale. Muto said that this story arc made Finn had one of the most satisfying characters for him to write on the show.


title: Finn the Human

text: Finn the Human is the main character of "Adventure Time" and often appears alongside his best friend and adoptive brother Jake the Dog. Finn was adopted by Jake's parents Joshua and Margaret as an infant. He is originally believed to be the only human left in Ooo after the "Great Mushroom War", a mysterious conflict that occurred 1,000 years prior to the start of the series. It is later shown that he was born on Hub Island, part of an isolated archipelago populated by humans. Finn's biological father Martin (Stephen Root) is a conman, while his mother Minerva (Sharon Horgan) is a doctor. Martin fled Hub Island with an infant Finn after being found by disgruntled acquaintances from his past. He was separated from Finn, who was left on a raft floating towards the mainland.


title: Finn the Human

text: In the first-season episode "The Enchiridion!", Finn and Jake complete a series of challenges to win the Enchiridion, a legendary handbook for heroes. In "His Hero", Finn meets the legendary adventurer Billy (Lou Ferrigno), who unsuccessfully tries to convince Finn to give up violence. Finn and Jake go on a quest to find the Lich (Ron Perlman), an ancient undead king, in the second-season episodes "Mortal Folly / Mortal Recoil". The Lich returns in the fourth season finale "The Lich", and kills Billy. After taking control of Billy's body, the Lich attempts to trick Finn and Jake into giving him the Enchiridion. Billy's death profoundly impacts Finn, as shown in the season five episode "Billy's Bucket List".


title: Finn the Human

text: Finn experiences other alternate lives and versions of himself throughout the series, all of whom have lost their right arm. This foreshadows Finn's eventual loss of his arm in the season 6 premiere "Wake Up / Escape from the Citadel". In "Escape from the Citadel", Finn discovers that his father Martin is an inmate of the Citadel, a multiversal prison reserved for those who commit a "cosmic crime". Finn and Jake go to the Citadel to find Martin. The Lich arrives and attempts to free its prisoners so he can use them as an army. Finn loses his arm when the Lich destroys the Citadel, and Martin escapes. Finn is changed by the loss of his arm and becomes disillusioned with his father.


title: Finn the Human

text: A flower blooms from the stump where Finn's arm used to be, and eventually grows into a new arm. He loses his control of his regrown arm, which transforms into a grass doppelgänger called Fern in the eighth season two-part episode "Preboot / Reboot". The violent and reckless Fern acts as a foil to Finn, who has matured over the course of the series. Finn later attempts to redeem Fern, who shares many of the shortcomings Finn had when he was younger. In the following episode, "Two Swords," Finn is fitted with a robotic arm by Princess Bubblegum.


title: Finn the Human

text: The miniseries "Islands", which aired as part of season eight, sees Finn search for the surviving humans who left the continent and moved to an archipelago centuries after the Great Mushroom War. Finn meets his mother Minerva, a doctor who has uploaded her mind to a network of robots. Minerva tries to force Finn to stay on the island where she can protect him until Finn convinces her to let him go. He invites the humans to return to Ooo, but they choose to remain on their islands.


title: Finn the Human

text: In the series finale "Come Along With Me," Finn and Jake help Princess Bubblegum fight her dictatorial uncle Gumbald. Realizing that violence is not the answer to the conflict, they ally with Gumbald to defeat the evil deity GOLB, who is intent on destroying Ooo. Finn's robotic arm is snapped off when he and the other protagonists are eaten by GOLB. GOLB is defeated, although Fern dies in the aftermath. Finn promises to plant Fern's seedling in the ruins of the treehouse, which has been destroyed. The seedling grows into a new treehouse, with a grass sword inside. Finn and Jake are shown relaxing on a beach.


title: Finn the Human

text: The "" special "Together Again" takes place sometime after the end of the series, when Finn has died of old age. He then journeys through the Dead Worlds to be reunited with Jake, who is also deceased. After reuniting with Jake in the afterlife, the two choose to reincarnate back into the living world.


title: Finn the Human

text: Since "Adventure Time"'s inception, Finn has appeared in various comic book series, video games, and other merchandise. Finn's first console game appearance was as a playable character in "", which was released on Nintendo DS and 3DS in 2012. He was subsequently a playable character in "" (2013), "" (2014), and "" (2018).


title: Finn the Human

text: Finn has also made crossover appearances in other franchises and media. He appeared in the seventh season "Futurama" episode "Leela and the Genestalk". The opening sequence couch gag in the 28th season "The Simpsons" episode "Monty Burns' Fleeing Circus" featured Bart Simpson as "Bart the Boy", a parody of Finn. He also appeared in the "OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes" episode, "Crossover Nexus". Finn is a playable character in toys-to-life game "Lego Dimensions" (2015), beat 'em up game "" (2016), crossover game "Bloons Tower Defense: Adventure Time" (2018), fighting game "Brawlhalla" (2019), and action-adventure game "Immortals Fenyx Rising" (2020). In November 2021, Finn was confirmed to appear as a playable character in the fighting game "MultiVersus" (2022).


title: Finn the Human

text: A gender-swapped version of Finn called Fionna appeared in the season 3 episode "Fionna and Cake", voiced by Madeleine Martin. Fionna inhabits the land of Aaa, a fictional world created by the Ice King (Tom Kenny) as a form of in-universe fanfiction. The concept for Fionna and Cake came from drawings made by "Adventure Time" storyboard artist Natasha Allegri. The tomboy-ish character of Fionna has much the same personality as Finn and has similar struggles with romantic attractions. Both Fionna and Cake the Cat, the alternate version of Jake the Dog, became popular with "Adventure Time" fans. Fionna later appeared in the fifth-season episode "Bad Little Boy", the sixth-season episode "The Prince Who Wanted Everything", the eighth-season episode "Five Short Tables", and the ninth season episode "Fionna and Cake and Fionna". Fionna will star in the upcoming spin-off series "".


title: Finn the Human

text: Finn is a teenage boy with a childlike personality, boyish enthusiasm, and a love of adventure. He is 12 years old at the beginning of the series but ages throughout the show and is 17 by the series finale. He is talented at beatboxing and sword fighting. Finn is prone to outbursts of phrases like "Mathematical!" and "Algebraic!". He develops thalassophobia in the season one episode "Ocean of Fear" but overcomes his fear of the sea in "Billy's Bucket List". In the fifth-season episode "Red Starved", it is implied that Finn is color blind.


title: Finn the Human

text: Finn is shown to be enthusiastic and reckless, although he becomes more reserved over the course of the series. He is motivated by a desire to live by a heroic code and a thirst for adventure. Having once been lost in the woods as a helpless infant, he "vowed to help anyone in need, no matter how small their problem". Many of Finn and Jake's early adventures revolve around them exploring the land of Ooo and battling monsters. Finn's life with Jake is modelled after the archetypal knight-errant, as they frequently explore dungeons, fight evil creatures, rescue various princesses, and save the world.


title: Finn the Human

text: Finn has a close relationship with his adoptive older brother Jake the Dog, an anthropomorphic dog with the ability to change shape. At the time of the series, Finn and Jake live together in a treehouse. Their relationship is at times strained by the differences in their maturity and outlook on life. Jake often finds himself frustrated by Finn's childish antics and infatuations with various princesses. Finn's life revolves around adventuring and fighting monsters, while Jake likes to pursue more varied interests. After Jake ends up in a relationship with Lady Rainicorn and has five children with her, his focus shifts towards being a father. This creates distance between them, but they remain close friends and Finn enjoys being an uncle.


title: Finn the Human

text: Finn is also friends with BMO (pronounced Beemo), a sentient handheld game console who is Finn and Jake's roommate. Finn creates the robot NEPTR (Never Ending Pie Throwing Robot) as part of a prank, but NEPTR soon becomes a friend to him. Finn ends up developing a close friendship with Marceline the Vampire Queen (Olivia Olson), despite her initial role as an antagonist.


title: Finn the Human

text: Finn is shown to have an unrequited love for Princess Bubblegum throughout much of the series. He and Jake frequently have to rescue Princess Bubblegum from the obsessive Ice King. Finn's past life as Shoko, an orphaned thief who befriends and then betrays Princess Bubblegum, influences his present-day infatuation with Bubblegum. Finn's friendship with Bubblegum becomes more distant as the series progresses.


title: Finn the Human

text: Finn begins dating Flame Princess (Jessica DiCicco) in the third-season finale "Incendium", after realizing that Princess Bubblegum is too old to be compatible with him. Although Flame Princess' fiery nature makes their relationship difficult, they try to make it work. Finn and Flame Princess eventually break up. Finn's relationships with both Princess Bubblegum and Flame Princess cause him to have to deal with rejection and reconciliation, and he emotionally matures as a result.


title: Finn the Human

text: Finn has a complex relationship with his biological father, Martin Mertens, who is shown to be a scoundrel. In season 6, Martin reveals to Finn that he was forced to abandon him as an infant after reaching a crossroads too dangerous for an infant and that he always meant to return for him. Adam Muto said that they did not want Finn to be a "carbon copy" of Martin since he had an adoptive father in Joshua. Muto said they wanted to "embrace the idea of Martin being as and dishonorable as Finn is heroic".


title: Finn the Human

text: The season six episode "Breezy" deals with Finn's depression after losing his arm, being disappointed by his father, and breaking up with Flame Princess. Finn makes out with various princesses in an attempt to feel something positive but is left emotionally unfulfilled. During the episode, he explores a complicated relationship with a honeybee named Breezy, who falls in love with a flower sprouting from where his arm was cut off.


title: Finn the Human

text: Both Finn and his mother Minerva are shown to be selfless and dedicated to helping others. However, Minerva is fearful and overprotective due to the losses she has experienced, in contrast with Finn's adventurousness. Upon reuniting with Finn in the miniseries "Islands", she is both alarmed by his dangerous lifestyle and proud that he devotes his life to helping others. She attempts to trap Finn on the island so that he will be out of harm's way. After convincing her to release him, Finn leaves her behind and returns to Ooo, though the separation causes him grief. Various critics have interpreted the portrayal of Finn and Minerva's opposing views as a commentary on the repression of emotions, overreliance on technology, the sacrifice of freedom in exchange for safety, an exploration of Nietzschean philosophy, and an allegory for "American self-absorption."


title: Finn the Human

text: Finn the Human's character arc has been highlighted by critics for its honest realistic portrayal of adolescence and universal struggles associated with coming-of-age. Brandon Zachary of "Comic Book Resources" described "Adventure Time" as "one of the most expansive fantasy series in modern history, centering around a kind but unassuming boy growing into a noble young man." Writing for "Vox", Emily VanDerWerff called the series "this era's finest coming-of-age story", mentioning how Finn grew "from boy to almost-man, an adolescent who's slowly figuring out how to be both a good friend and a good person." Oliver Sava of "The A.V. Club" praised the episode "Breezy" for its relatable depiction of Finn's developing sexuality and his search for emotional fulfillment.


title: Finn the Human

text: Finn's story arc as the last remaining human and his eventual discovery of other humans has been praised by critics. Zach Blumenfeld of "Paste" contrasted Finn's rootless and heroic existence to the passionless, technology-dependent lives of the other human survivors in "Islands". Blumenfeld considered Finn to be an example of Friedrich Nietzsche's hypothetical Übermensch.[Finn] affirms life as it happens (both the good and the bad), constantly creates a value system and exists completely unfettered by society or the past. [...] He's grown up without the weight of human history and custom, has guided his own way through a flood of adolescent emotions and has become a hero in a dangerous land of his own free will. His moral code, once crafted in the image of his idol, Billy, is now of his own making. The character also became extremely popular among "Adventure Time"'s fanbase. In 2019, Rich Goldstein of "The Daily Beast" commented on Finn's popularity among cosplayers, saying "Halloween nights and comic conventions of the last few years have seen an increase in the number of children (and adults) all over the U.S. who wore Finn and Jake costumes." John DiMaggio recalled "walking around at conventions and seeing everybody wearing their Finn costumes and their Jake costumes and how the characters endeared themselves to people". A float in Finn's likeness was included in the 2013 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.


title: Finn the Human

text: Finn's narrative and impact on younger audiences has been compared to that of Harry Potter, the titular character in J. K. Rowling's book series of the same name. In particular, Finn's growth from a child to a young man was compared to that of Harry Potter, with Darren Franich of "Entertainment Weekly" saying that Finn "[aged] with his audience like last decade's "Harry Potter" kids."


title: Pierre Bouvier

text: Pierre Charles Bouvier (born May 9, 1979) is a Canadian singer and musician best known for being the lead vocalist and studio bassist of the rock band Simple Plan.


title: Pierre Bouvier

text: Bouvier was born to Réal and Louise Bouvier. He has two older brothers, Jay and Jonathan. He attended Collège Beaubois in Pierrefonds, Quebec, with bandmates Chuck Comeau, Jeff Stinco, and Sébastien Lefebvre. Before and partly during his early musical career, Bouvier worked as a cook at St-Hubert in Montréal. Bouvier has two daughters, and has been married to Lachelle Farrar since 2013.


title: Pierre Bouvier

text: When Bouvier was 13 or 14 years old, he founded the punk rock band Reset with his best friend Chuck Comeau in which he was the bass guitarist and lead vocalist. He was not happy with Reset and left the band in 1999, a year after Comeau's departure in 1998. His former bandmate David Desrosiers took his place as lead vocalist and bass guitarist. He later met Comeau at a Sugar Ray concert and joined him in creating Simple Plan with old schoolmates Desrosiers, Jeff Stinco, and Sébastien Lefebvre.


title: Pierre Bouvier

text: Bouvier is best known for owning a collection of Takamine acoustic guitars which he uses on every album and while playing live. He also owns a few of Fender electric guitars. Since 2020, he also multitasks as bass guitarist and lead singer following departure of David Desrosiers.


title: House (1986 film)

text: House is a 1986 American comedy horror film directed by Steve Miner, with a screenplay by Ethan Wiley, from an original story written by Fred Dekker. Produced by Sean S. Cunningham, the movie is the first installment in the "House" film series, and stars William Katt, George Wendt, Richard Moll, and Kay Lenz. The plot tells the story of a troubled author who lives in his deceased aunt's house and soon falls victim to the house being haunted. It collected $22.1 million worldwide, and was followed by three sequels.


title: House (1986 film)

text: Author Roger Cobb is a troubled man: he and his wife have separated, their only son Jimmy has disappeared without a trace,


title: House (1986 film)

text: and his aunt has committed suicide by hanging. On top of everything else, he has been pressured by his publisher to write another book. To the chagrin of his fans and publisher, Roger plans a novel based on his experiences in the Vietnam War, instead of another horror story, as a way to purge himself of the horrors that he had experienced while there.


title: House (1986 film)

text: After his aunt's funeral, Roger decides to live inside her house to write instead of selling it, as recommended by the estate attorney. After moving in, Roger begins to have powerful graphic nightmares, including thoughts about his comrade, Big Ben, who died in Vietnam. In addition, strange phenomena spring forth from the house, haunting him in his waking hours. He tries communicating his fears to his next-door neighbor Harold Gorton who only thinks that Roger is crazy.


title: House (1986 film)

text: One night while investigating a noise coming from his late aunt's bedroom, Roger is attacked by a deformed monster inside the closet. Soon, more attacks occur: levitating garden tools attack him, his wife appears and transforms into a hideous hag-like creature to attack him (whom he believes he kills), and gremlin creatures attempt to kidnap a neighbor's child whom Roger is reluctantly babysitting. Eventually he harpoons the closet monster and is dragged into a flashback where he sees Big Ben's kidnap. Shortly after he escapes, the author discovers an entry into a sinister other-world through the bathroom medicine cabinet and is pulled into the darkness, where he fortuitously locates his lost son Jimmy but is chased by a strange figure.


title: House (1986 film)

text: Roger manages to escape with Jimmy but is soon confronted by an undead Big Ben who wants revenge on him; Ben was taken prisoner and tortured before dying, and he blames Roger for failing to kill him before he could be captured by the enemy. Roger confronts Ben, no longer afraid of his fears, and destroys him with a grenade as he and his son escape the burning house. In the end, he triumphantly glances back at the house while regaining control of his life and reunites with his wife and child.


title: House (1986 film)

text: "House" began filming on April 22, 1985. The first two weeks of production comprised shooting exteriors at the estate known today as Mills View, a Victorian style home first built in 1887 and located on Melrose Avenue in Monrovia, California. At the time, the building was owned by two Los Angeles firemen, brothers Brian and John Wade.


title: House (1986 film)

text: Production designer Gregg Fonseca and a crew of five spent about four weeks modifying the existing Victorian manor that included repainting the whole of the exterior, bordering the front yard with a wrought iron fence supported by stone pillars, and attaching foam spires to the roof. The back of the house had its clapboard façade covered with brick, and landscapers were brought in to plant flowers and reseed the dying lawn. The yard had no sidewalk at the time, so a faux walkway - made from plywood painted gray to look like concrete, and positioned to lead straight to the front porch - was added as a finishing touch. This sidewalk was pivotal in the finished film. Some time after production, a true concrete walkway was then installed in the same spot, capturing the evil nature of the one in the film.


title: House (1986 film)

text: The final six weeks of production moved operations to Ren-Mar Studios in Hollywood, where two floors of the interior of the Monrovia house were recreated on sound stages. This included sets for the living room, staircase, den and three upstairs bedrooms. On a separate adjacent set, the jungle exteriors for the Vietnam flash-back scenes were also built on sound stages, taking three days to put together.


title: House (1986 film)

text: A total of seven monsters were designed and fabricated for the production. These creatures – which included the obese witch, the zombified corpse of Big Ben, three demonic kids, the flying skull-faced monster in the void, the plaque mounted marlin that comes to life and the war demon from the closet – were constructed by seventeen special effects artists, over a period of three-and-a-half months. The war demon, in particular, was an elaborately built puppet, measuring eighteen feet, fully mechanized, operated by fifteen people and featured a fully working lower bowel system.


title: House (1986 film)

text: "House" opened in 1,440 theaters on February 28, 1986 and grossed $5.9 million in its opening weekend, missing first place to "Pretty in Pink". By the end of its run, "House" grossed $22.1 million worldwide, of which $19.4 million was from the North American box office.


title: House (1986 film)

text: On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 57% based on reviews from 13 critics.


title: House (1986 film)

text: Janet Maslin of the "New York Times" wrote: "Scares are not its strong suit, but it has a trim, bright look and better performances than might be expected."


title: House (1986 film)

text: "Variety" wrote, "Though much of this nonsense is played tongue-in-cheek, an audience can hardly be expected to swallow the screenplay’s arbitrary approach to Cobb's character."


title: House (1986 film)

text: Ryan Pollard at "Starburst" wrote at the time of the Blu-ray release: "As a film, House is still as much of a warm, at times bonkers, family-friendly horror as it's ever been." Alex Stewart of "White Dwarf" wrote that although the film has a good premise, it is "squandered on yet another tired old haunted house story" whose supernatural horrors can not compare to the real life trauma of war.


title: House (1986 film)

text: In 1987, Richard Moll and Kay Lenz were both nominated for Saturn Awards. Director Steve Miner won a Critics' Award for his work on the film and was nominated for an International Fantasy Film Award.


title: House (1986 film)

text: The soundtrack for "House" was released on vinyl, cassette tape and CD in 1987. The soundtrack runs approximately 51:14 and has 25 songs that were featured in "House" and "".


title: House (1986 film)

text: "House" successfully launched a film series, with: "" in 1987, "House III: The Horror Show" in 1989, and "House IV: The Repossession" in 1992. Each film was met with mixed critical and financial reception.


title: Taylor Hicks

text: Taylor Reuben Hicks (born October 7, 1976) is an American singer who won the fifth season of "American Idol" in May 2006. Hicks got his start as a professional musician in his late teens and performed around the Southeastern United States for well over the span of a decade, during which he also released two independent albums. Upon winning "Idol", he was signed to Arista Records, under which his self-titled major label debut was released on December 12, 2006.


title: Taylor Hicks

text: His energetic stage performances and influences derived from classic rock, blues, and R&B music had earned him a following of devout fans dubbed the "Soul Patrol". Hicks performed on Broadway in 2008 and on national tour in 2009 in "Grease" playing Teen Angel, the role originated by Alan Paul. He is the first Idol winner to secure a long-term residency at a Las Vegas casino. He began his residency at Bally's Las Vegas in June 2012 and moved to a larger venue, Paris Las Vegas, in January 2013. In 2016, Hicks began hosting the INSP original series "State Plate", and released a new single, "Six Strings and Diamond Rings", in 2017.


title: Taylor Hicks

text: Taylor Hicks was born in Birmingham, Alabama, on October 7, 1976, to Bradley Hicks and Pamela Dickinson. He and his family moved to the suburb of Hoover when he was eight years old. His hair started turning gray by the time he was 14. His parents divorced, and stepmother Linda shared custody of their son until he came of age. Hicks has suggested his difficult childhood as the reason for his turning to soul and blues music for solace. He has a younger half-brother, Sean, who later convinced him to audition for "American Idol".


title: Taylor Hicks

text: He bought his first harmonica when he was 16, for $2 at a flea market in Bessemer, Alabama, and taught himself to play blues harp. He discovered that he possessed perfect pitch when he was able to recognize the pitches of ordinary noises and mimic them on the harmonica. Hicks was 18 when he wrote his first song, "In Your Time", and he taught himself to play electric guitar and the church organ when he was 19. When he was in college, he played in a Widespread Panic cover band.


title: Taylor Hicks

text: Hicks graduated from Hoover High School in 1995. He played varsity baseball, soccer, and basketball while studying in Hoover. He then pursued a major in business and journalism at Auburn University.


title: Taylor Hicks

text: While in college, Hicks was part of a band called Passing Through, which he later quit to start his own band. In 1997, he independently recorded "In Your Time", an album which included both studio and live tracks. In 2000, he moved to pursue a music career in Nashville, Tennessee, where he worked with Nashville veterans Billy Earl McClelland and Percy Sledge to record a three-track demo but was unable to find a label that would sign him. He left Nashville after a year due to what he called the "oversaturation of the market". Hicks returned to Alabama and launched a professional music career, performing at various venues and parties mostly around the Southeastern United States, including The War Eagle Supper Club (a popular college bar) in Auburn, Alabama. Hicks has performed with the likes of Widespread Panic, James Brown, Tom Petty, Jackson Browne, Drive-By Truckers, Robert Randolph, Snoop Dogg and Keb Mo. He also performed in the huge infield of Talladega Superspeedway in 2004 during a NASCAR race weekend.


title: Taylor Hicks

text: He recorded, produced, and released a second album, "Under the Radar", in 2005. Despite releasing two albums prior to appearing on "American Idol", he did not violate their requirements for contestants, as he had never held a recording contract.


title: Taylor Hicks

text: Hicks has allowed audience members to record his concerts for personal, non-commercial use, and has authorized the Internet Archive to create a section for fans to upload and share their recordings. The Archive does not accept the upload of concerts recorded after January 1, 2006, due to the terms of his "American Idol" contract.


title: Taylor Hicks

text: Hicks auditioned for "American Idol" in Las Vegas, Nevada, on October 10, 2005. Hicks passed the audition with the approval of judges Randy Jackson and Paula Abdul, but not Simon Cowell, who said that Hicks would never make it to the final round. On Hicks's first performance for the voting public, Cowell called back to this quote, admitting he was wrong.


title: Taylor Hicks

text: On the May 10, 2006, results show, Hicks along with Katharine McPhee and Elliott Yamin, were announced as the top 3 finalists. On May 12, Idol producers brought Hicks to Birmingham for a weekend of promotional events including television interviews for the local Fox affiliate, a downtown parade, concerts, and an audience with Governor Bob Riley. May 12 was proclaimed "Taylor Hicks Day" and Hicks was given the Key to the City. Also on May 12, Gov. Riley issued a proclamation making May 16 "Taylor Hicks Day".


title: Taylor Hicks

text: Hicks was named the new American Idol on May 24, 2006, winning the title over McPhee, with over 63.4 million votes cast in total. The proclamation was aired to a worldwide audience of 200 million television viewers. With his win at age 29, Hicks became the oldest contestant to win "American Idol". He was also the first male contestant to win the competition without ever being in the bottom two or three.


title: Taylor Hicks

text: In June 2006, Ford Motor Company, the show's major sponsor, signed Hicks to promote Ford's "Drive on Us" year-end sales event. He was also named Hottest Bachelor by "People" for 2006, appearing on the magazine's cover.


title: Taylor Hicks

text: Hicks signed a recording contract with 19 Recordings Limited/Arista Records, managed by "American Idol" creator Simon Fuller, in May 2006. Hicks's debut single "Do I Make You Proud" debuted on the number one spot on the "Billboard" Hot 100 and was subsequently certified gold by the RIAA.


title: Taylor Hicks

text: Hicks joined his fellow Top 10 "Idol" finalists on the American Idols LIVE! Tour which ran from July to September. The members of the former Taylor Hicks Band, formed by Hicks two years prior, regrouped as the Little Memphis Blues Orchestra and shadowed the Idols' tour route. Hicks occasionally appeared as a "special guest" when circumstances permitted, and was accompanied at times by the other Idols, such as Elliott Yamin, Chris Daughtry, Ace Young, and Bucky Covington.


title: Taylor Hicks

text: In August 2006, Hicks's lawyers sued a producer with whom he worked in Nashville, for redistributing without permission songs that Hicks had copyrighted in 1997. The lawsuit was dropped when the masters were handed over to Hicks.


title: Taylor Hicks

text: Hicks received a US$750,000 deal to write his memoir. Titled "Heart Full of Soul: An Inspirational Memoir About Finding Your Voice and Finding Your Way" and ghostwritten by "Rolling Stone" writer David Wild, the book was released in July 2007 by Random House.


title: Taylor Hicks

text: On June 6, 2008, Hicks joined the cast of the Broadway musical "Grease" in the Brooks Atkinson Theatre. He played the role of "Teen Angel". Once his 18-month tour in the traveling Broadway show 'Grease' ended, Hicks performed in over 20 live shows.


title: Taylor Hicks

text: Studio recording sessions for the eponymous major label debut "Taylor Hicks" ran in Calabasas, California between October and November 2006, and took six weeks in total. The album was released on December 12, 2006, and debuted at the number two spot on the "Billboard" 200 charts. It was certified as a platinum album by the RIAA on January 17, 2007. Hicks embarked on a three-month US promotional tour for his album that started on February 21 in Jacksonville, Florida, and ended in Seattle, Washington on May 12.


title: Taylor Hicks

text: Arista Records confirmed in January 2008 that it had dropped Hicks from its roster. Hicks had, at that stage, the lowest selling American Idol winner's album.


title: Taylor Hicks

text: As of June 2008, Hicks has signed a distribution deal with Vanguard/Welk records to distribute a compilation album "Early Works". He also starred in "Grease" in the national tour as the Teen Angel after playing the role on Broadway. "Early Works" was released on August 12, 2008.


title: Taylor Hicks

text: In 2009 Hicks released his second album, "The Distance", on his own label, Modern Whomp Records, on March 10, 2009. The first single, "What's Right Is Right", was added to AC adds on January 27, 2009. The single reached number 24 on Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks. It was produced by Simon Climie and Dennis Morgan.


title: Taylor Hicks

text: In May 2009, Taylor Hicks made "Forbes"' "Top Ten earning American Idol stars" list, coming in at number 10, with over $300,000 earned from album sales and from his role as "Teen Angel" in the national tour of "Grease".


title: Taylor Hicks

text: In May 2011, Taylor Hicks opened ORE Drink and Dine restaurant in Birmingham, Alabama. Birmingham Magazine readers voted ORE as Birmingham's "Best New Restaurant" in the fall of 2011. ORE Drink and Dine re-opened as Saw's Juke Joint, a barbecue and live music bar, on October 30, 2012.


title: Taylor Hicks

text: On June 14, 2011, Taylor Hicks performed at Bama Rising: A Benefit Concert For Alabama Tornado Recovery at the Birmingham Jefferson Convention Center. According to "Billboard", the Bama Rising benefit concert raised an estimated $2.2 million for Alabama tornado relief efforts.


title: Taylor Hicks

text: On April 19, 2012, Hicks appeared on "American Idol" and announced he would begin a one-year residency at Bally's in Las Vegas on June 26 that has been extended until December 2013. "Entertainment Weekly" magazine revealed that Hicks would be a celebrity contestant on Fox's dating show "The Choice".


title: Taylor Hicks

text: Hicks was the first male Idol to be featured on a Grammy-winning album when he performed "Friday" on Jimmy Fallon's "Blow Your Pants Off", which won for Best Comedy Album in 2013.


title: Taylor Hicks

text: In July 2013, Hicks attended the Evolution 2013 fighting game tournament as a competitor for "Super Smash Bros. Melee". Hicks finished tied for 257th overall out of 709 players.


title: Taylor Hicks

text: In September 2017, Taylor Hicks premiered his song, "Six Strings and Diamond Rings" with Billboard Music, his first musical release in eight years.


title: Taylor Hicks

text: Hicks hosted "State Plate" via the INSP channel for three season from 2016 to 2018 where he featured iconic dishes and ingredients from each state in the United States.


title: Taylor Hicks

text: Hicks debuted in his starring role as Charlie Anderson in the Serenbe Playhouse production of "Shenandoah" in March 2019.


title: ABBA (album)

text: ABBA is the third studio album by the Swedish pop group ABBA. It was originally released on 21 April 1975 through Polar Music and featured the hits "SOS", "I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do" and "Mamma Mia".


title: ABBA (album)

text: Following the Eurovision success of "Waterloo", "ABBA" saw the band gaining worldwide recognition. "I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do" topped the charts in Australia, as did "Mamma Mia" shortly after. "SOS" and "Mamma Mia" became hits in both the United States and the United Kingdom. The album saw ABBA dabble with reggae on "Tropical Loveland" and includes a grand, pseudo-classical keyboard instrumental in the traditions of Keith Emerson and Rick Wakeman with "Intermezzo No. 1" (early working title: "Mama").


title: ABBA (album)

text: "ABBA" was first released on CD in Japan in 1986 by Polydor Records. This release contains a slightly different mix of "Man in the Middle" not found on any subsequent CD pressing and thus is highly sought after by collectors. "ABBA" was released on CD throughout Europe in 1987 also by Polydor, with five songs added from the "Waterloo" and "Ring Ring" albums, which were not available on CD until 1990. "ABBA" was released on CD in Sweden by Polar Music in 1988, featuring the original 11 tracks only. The album has been reissued in digitally remastered form several times: in 1997 as part of "The ABBA Remasters" series with two bonus tracks, in 2001 with an updated cover artwork, in 2005 as part of "The Complete Studio Recordings" box set, and most recently in 2012 as a "Deluxe Edition". On the original UK cassette release of the album, "Bang-A-Boomerang" was split in two parts, being faded during the second verse at the end of side one and continued at the beginning of side two.


title: ABBA (album)

text: Recorded 18 October 1974 at Glen Studio. The lyrics for the song were later re-written and became "Rock Me". "Baby" was first released on CD on the box set "Thank You for the Music" as part of the "ABBA Undeleted" section.


title: ABBA (album)

text: "Crazy World" was recorded on 16 October 1974 at Glen Studio during sessions for this album. The track was left unreleased until it surfaced again during the "Arrival" sessions, and was eventually released as the b-side to the "Money, Money, Money" single in November 1976. "Crazy World" was first released on CD on the box set "Thank You for the Music", and then appeared as a bonus track on the CD re-issue of the album "ABBA".


title: ABBA (album)

text: "Here Comes Ruby Jamie" was recorded on 16 September 1974 at Glen Studio, and is one of the rare occasions where Benny Andersson sings the lead vocals. The song was first released on CD on the box set "Thank You for the Music" as part of the "ABBA Undeleted" section.


title: ABBA (album)

text: Recording began on 6 May 1975 at Glen Studio. It remains ABBA's only studio recorded release of material not written by themselves, and was originally released on the 1975 German charity album "Stars Im Zeichen Eines Guten Sterns". In 1978, it featured (with a slight audio tweak, for many years mistakenly referred to as a 'remix') as the B-side of the "Summer Night City" single. The song was first released on CD on the box set "Thank You for the Music", then the 1978 version appeared as a bonus track on the CD re-issue of the album "ABBA".


title: ABBA (album)

text: "Rikky Rock 'N' Roller" was recorded on 15 September 1974 at Glen Studio, and was first released on CD on the box set "Thank You for the Music" as part of the "ABBA Undeleted" section. Later released by Jerry Williams on the album Kick Down in 1976.


title: Slugging percentage

text: In baseball statistics, slugging percentage (SLG) is a measure of the batting productivity of a hitter. It is calculated as total bases divided by at bats, through the following formula, where "AB" is the number of at bats for a given player, and "1B", "2B", "3B", and "HR" are the number of singles, doubles, triples, and home runs, respectively:


title: Slugging percentage

text: Unlike batting average, slugging percentage gives more weight to extra-base hits such as doubles and home runs, relative to singles. Plate appearances resulting in walks, hit-by-pitches, catcher's interference, and sacrifice bunts or flies are specifically excluded from this calculation, as such an appearance is not counted as an at bat (these are not factored into batting average either).


title: Slugging percentage

text: The name is a misnomer, as the statistic is not a percentage but an average of how many bases a player achieves per at bat. It is a scale of measure whose computed value is a number from 0 to 4. This might not be readily apparent given that a Major League Baseball player's slugging percentage is almost always less than 1 (as a majority of at bats result in either 0 or 1 base). The statistic gives a double twice the value of a single, a triple three times the value, and a home run four times. The slugging percentage would have to be divided by 4 to actually be a percentage (of bases achieved per at bat out of total bases possible). As a result, it is occasionally called slugging average, or simply slugging, instead.


title: Slugging percentage

text: A slugging percentage is always expressed as a decimal to three decimal places, and is generally spoken as if multiplied by 1000. For example, a slugging percentage of .589 would be spoken as "five eighty nine," and one of 1.127 would be spoken as "eleven twenty seven."


title: Slugging percentage

text: A slugging percentage is not just for the use of measuring the productivity of a hitter. It can be applied as an evaluative tool for pitchers. It is not as common but it is referred to as slugging-percentage against.


title: Slugging percentage

text: The maximum slugging percentage has a numerical value of 4.000. However, no player in the history of the MLB has ever retired with a 4.000 slugging percentage. Five players tripled in their only at bat and therefore share the Major League record, when calculated without respect to games played or plate appearances, of a career slugging percentage of 3.000. This list includes Eric Cammack (2000 Mets); Scott Munninghoff (1980 Phillies); Eduardo Rodríguez (1973 Brewers); and Charlie Lindstrom (1958 White Sox).


title: Slugging percentage

text: For example, in 1920, Babe Ruth played his first season for the New York Yankees. In 458 at bats, Ruth had 172 hits, comprising 73 singles, 36 doubles, 9 triples, and 54 home runs, which brings the total base count to . His total number of bases (388) divided by his total at bats (458) is .847 which constitutes his slugging percentage for the season. This also set a record for Ruth which stood until 2001 when Barry Bonds achieved 411 bases in 476 at bats bringing his slugging percentage to .863, which has been unmatched since.


title: Slugging percentage

text: Long after it was first invented, slugging percentage gained new significance when baseball analysts realized that it combined with on-base percentage (OBP) to form a very good measure of a player's overall offensive production (in fact, OBP + SLG was originally referred to as "production" by baseball writer and statistician Bill James). A predecessor metric was developed by Branch Rickey in 1954. Rickey, in "Life" magazine, suggested that combining OBP with what he called "extra base power" (EBP) would give a better indicator of player performance than typical Triple Crown stats. EBP was a predecessor to slugging percentage.


title: Slugging percentage

text: Allen Barra and George Ignatin were early adopters in combining the two modern-day statistics, multiplying them together to form what is now known as "SLOB" (Slugging × On-Base). Bill James applied this principle to his runs created formula several years later (and perhaps independently), essentially multiplying SLOB × at bats to create the formula:


title: Slugging percentage

text: In 1984, Pete Palmer and John Thorn developed perhaps the most widespread means of combining slugging and on-base percentage: On-base plus slugging (OPS), which is a simple addition of the two values. Because it is easy to calculate, OPS has been used with increased frequency in recent years as a shorthand form to evaluate contributions as a batter.


title: Slugging percentage

text: In a 2015 article, Bryan Grosnick made the point that "on base" and "slugging" may not be comparable enough to be simply added together. "On base" has a theoretical maximum of 1.000 whereas "slugging" has a theoretical maximum of 4.000. The actual numbers do not show as big a difference, with Grosnick listing .350 as a good "on base" and .430 as a good "slugging." He goes on to say that OPS has the advantages of simplicity and availability and further states, "you'll probably get it 75% right, at least."


title: Slugging percentage

text: The maximum numerically possible slugging percentage is 4.000. A number of MLB players (117 through the end of the 2016 season) have momentarily had a 4.000 career slugging percentage by homering in their first major league at bat.


title: Rachel Roberts (actress)

text: Rachel Roberts (20 September 192726 November 1980) was a Welsh actress. She is best remembered for her screen performances as the older mistress of the central male character in "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning" (1960) and "This Sporting Life" (1963). For both films, she won the BAFTA Award for Best British Actress. She was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for "This Sporting Life". Her other notable film appearances included "Murder on the Orient Express" (1974), "Picnic at Hanging Rock" (1975) and "Yanks" (1979).


title: Rachel Roberts (actress)

text: Roberts' theatre credits included the original production of the musical "Maggie May" in 1964. She was nominated for the 1974 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for the plays, "Chemin de Fer" and "The Visit", and won a Drama Desk Award in 1976 for "Habeas Corpus".


title: Rachel Roberts (actress)

text: Roberts was born in Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, Wales. After a Baptist upbringing (against which she rebelled), followed by study at the University of Wales and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, she began working with a repertory company in Swansea in 1950. She made her film debut in the Welsh-set comedy "Valley of Song" (1953), directed by Gilbert Gunn.


title: Rachel Roberts (actress)

text: Her portrayal of Brenda in Karel Reisz's "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning" (1960) won her a British Academy Film Award. Lindsay Anderson cast her as the suffering Mrs Hammond in "This Sporting Life" (1963), earning another BAFTA and an Oscar nomination. Both films were significant examples of the British New Wave of film-making.


title: Rachel Roberts (actress)

text: In theatre, she performed at the Royal Court and played the title role as the life-enhancing tart in Lionel Bart's musical "Maggie May" (1964). In films, she continued to play women with lusty appetites as in Lindsay Anderson's "O Lucky Man!" (1973), although the haunting Australian-made "Picnic at Hanging Rock" (1975), directed by Peter Weir, provided her with a different kind of role, as the authoritarian head teacher of a Victorian girls' school.


title: Rachel Roberts (actress)

text: After relocating to Los Angeles in the early 1970s, she appeared in supporting roles in several American films such as "Foul Play" (1978). Her final British film was "Yanks" (1979), directed by John Schlesinger, for which she received a Supporting Actress BAFTA.


title: Rachel Roberts (actress)

text: In 1979, Roberts co-starred with Jill Bennett in the London Weekend Television production of Alan Bennett's "The Old Crowd", directed by Lindsay Anderson and Stephen Frears.


title: Rachel Roberts (actress)

text: Roberts was married twice and had no children. She first married actor Alan Dobie in 1955. They divorced in 1960. The following year, Roberts married actor Rex Harrison in Genoa, Italy. The marriage was tumultuous; Roberts and Harrison both drank excessively and engaged in public fights. Harrison later left Roberts and they divorced in 1971. Later that year, Harrison married British socialite Elizabeth Rees-Williams, Roberts's former best friend.


title: Rachel Roberts (actress)

text: Roberts was known in the entertainment industry for the eccentric behaviour that stemmed from her alcoholism. She had a habit of imitating a Welsh Corgi when intoxicated and once, at a party thrown by Richard Harris, attacked actor Robert Mitchum on all fours, chewing his trousers and chomping on his bare skin, while he patted her on the head, saying "there, there". At the time of her death, Roberts was living on and off with Darren Ramirez, an attractive Mexican almost 20 years younger, but it was a largely platonic relationship and her last years were plagued by the obsession of winning back Harrison.


title: Rachel Roberts (actress)

text: She moved to Hollywood in 1975 and tried to forget the relationship. In 1980, Roberts attempted to win Harrison back. The attempt proved futile as Harrison was then married to his sixth and final wife, Mercia Tinker.


title: Rachel Roberts (actress)

text: On 26 November 1980, Roberts died at her home in Los Angeles at the age of 53. Her death was initially attributed to a heart attack. Her gardener found her body on her kitchen floor, lying amidst shards of glass; she had fallen through a decorative glass divide between two rooms. An autopsy later determined that her death was a result of swallowing lye or another alkali, or another unidentified caustic substance, as well as barbiturates and alcohol, as detailed in her posthumously published journals. The corrosive effect of the alkali was the immediate cause of death. The coroner documented the cause of death as "swallowing a caustic substance" and, later, "acute barbiturate intoxication." Her death was ruled a suicide.


title: Rachel Roberts (actress)

text: Roberts was cremated at the Chapel of the Pines Crematory in Los Angeles. Her journals became the basis for "No Bells on Sunday: The Memoirs of Rachel Roberts" (1984).


title: Rachel Roberts (actress)

text: In 1992, Roberts's ashes, along with those of her friend Jill Bennett (who took her own life in 1990), were scattered on the River Thames in London by director Lindsay Anderson during a boat trip, with several of the two actresses' professional colleagues and friends aboard; musician Alan Price sang "Is That All There Is?" The event was included as a segment in Anderson's BBC documentary film, also titled "Is That All There Is?"


title: Cell culture

text: Cell culture or tissue culture is the process by which cells are grown under controlled conditions, generally outside of their natural environment. The term "tissue culture" was coined by American pathologist Montrose Thomas Burrows. This technique is also called micropropagation. After the cells of interest have been isolated from living tissue, they can subsequently be maintained under carefully controlled conditions the need to be kept at body temperature (37 °C) in an incubator. These conditions vary for each cell type, but generally consist of a suitable vessel with a substrate or rich medium that supplies the essential nutrients (amino acids, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals), growth factors, hormones, and gases (CO, O), and regulates the physio-chemical environment (pH buffer, osmotic pressure, temperature). Most cells require a surface or an artificial substrate to form an adherent culture as a monolayer (one single-cell thick), whereas others can be grown free floating in a medium as a suspension culture. This is typically facilitated via use of a liquid, semi-solid, or solid growth medium, such as broth or agar. Tissue culture commonly refers to the culture of animal cells and tissues, with the more specific term plant tissue culture being used for plants. The lifespan of most cells is genetically determined, but some cell culturing cells have been “transformed” into immortal cells which will reproduce indefinitely if the optimal conditions are provided.


title: Cell culture

text: In practice, the term "cell culture" now refers to the culturing of cells derived from multicellular eukaryotes, especially animal cells, in contrast with other types of culture that also grow cells, such as plant tissue culture, fungal culture, and microbiological culture (of microbes). The historical development and methods of cell culture are closely interrelated to those of tissue culture and organ culture. Viral culture is also related, with cells as hosts for the viruses.


title: Cell culture

text: The laboratory technique of maintaining live cell lines (a population of cells descended from a single cell and containing the same genetic makeup) separated from their original tissue source became more robust in the middle 20th century.


title: Cell culture

text: The 19th-century English physiologist Sydney Ringer developed salt solutions containing the chlorides of sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium suitable for maintaining the beating of an isolated animal heart outside the body. In 1885 Wilhelm Roux removed a section of the medullary plate of an embryonic chicken and maintained it in a warm saline solution for several days, establishing the basic principle of tissue culture. In 1907 the zoologist Ross Granville Harrison demonstrated the growth of frog embryonic cells that would give rise to nerve cells in a medium of clotted lymph. In 1913, E. Steinhardt, C. Israeli, and R. A. Lambert grew vaccinia virus in fragments of guinea pig corneal tissue. In 1996, the first use of regenerative tissue was used to replace a small length of urethra, which led to the understanding that the technique of obtaining samples of tissue, growing it outside the body without a scaffold, and reapplying it, can be used for only small distances of less than 1 cm. Ross Granville Harrison, working at Johns Hopkins Medical School and then at Yale University, published results of his experiments from 1907 to 1910, establishing the methodology of tissue culture.


title: Cell culture

text: Gottlieb Haberlandt first pointed out the possibilities of the culture of isolated tissues, plant tissue culture. He suggested that the potentialities of individual cells via tissue culture as well as that the reciprocal influences of tissues on one another could be determined by this method. Since Haberlandt's original assertions, methods for tissue and cell culture have been realized, leading to significant discoveries in biology and medicine. His original idea, presented in 1902, was called totipotentiality: “Theoretically all plant cells are able to give rise to a complete plant.”


title: Cell culture

text: Cell culture techniques were advanced significantly in the 1940s and 1950s to support research in virology. Growing viruses in cell cultures allowed preparation of purified viruses for the manufacture of vaccines. The injectable polio vaccine developed by Jonas Salk was one of the first products mass-produced using cell culture techniques. This vaccine was made possible by the cell culture research of John Franklin Enders, Thomas Huckle Weller, and Frederick Chapman Robbins, who were awarded a Nobel Prize for their discovery of a method of growing the virus in monkey kidney cell cultures. Cell culture has contributed to the development of vaccines for many diseases.


title: Cell culture

text: In modern usage, "tissue culture" generally refers to the growth of cells from a tissue from a multicellular organism "in vitro". These cells may be cells isolated from a donor organism (primary cells) or an immortalised cell line. The cells are bathed in a culture medium, which contains essential nutrients and energy sources necessary for the cells' survival. Thus, in its broader sense, "tissue culture" is often used interchangeably with "cell culture". On the other hand, the strict meaning of "tissue culture" refers to the culturing of tissue pieces, i.e. explant culture.


title: Cell culture

text: Tissue culture is an important tool for the study of the biology of cells from multicellular organisms. It provides an "in vitro" model of the tissue in a well defined environment which can be easily manipulated and analysed. In animal tissue culture, cells may be grown as two-dimensional monolayers (conventional culture) or within fibrous scaffolds or gels to attain more naturalistic three-dimensional tissue-like structures (3D culture). Eric Simon, in a 1988 NIH SBIR grant report, showed that electrospinning could be used to produced nano- and submicron-scale polymeric fibrous scaffolds specifically intended for use as "in vitro" cell and tissue substrates. This early use of electrospun fibrous lattices for cell culture and tissue engineering showed that various cell types would adhere to and proliferate upon polycarbonate fibers. It was noted that as opposed to the flattened morphology typically seen in 2D culture, cells grown on the electrospun fibers exhibited a more rounded 3-dimensional morphology generally observed of tissues "in vivo".


title: Cell culture

text: Plant tissue culture in particular is concerned with the growing of entire plants from small pieces of plant tissue, cultured in medium.


title: Cell culture

text: Cells can be isolated from tissues for "ex vivo" culture in several ways. Cells can be easily purified from blood; however, only the white cells are capable of growth in culture. Cells can be isolated from solid tissues by digesting the extracellular matrix using enzymes such as collagenase, trypsin, or pronase, before agitating the tissue to release the cells into suspension. Alternatively, pieces of tissue can be placed in growth media, and the cells that grow out are available for culture. This method is known as explant culture.


title: Cell culture

text: Cells that are cultured directly from a subject are known as primary cells. With the exception of some derived from tumors, most primary cell cultures have limited lifespan.


title: Cell culture

text: An established or immortalized cell line has acquired the ability to proliferate indefinitely either through random mutation or deliberate modification, such as artificial expression of the telomerase gene.


title: Cell culture

text: For the majority of isolated primary cells, they undergo the process of senescence and stop dividing after a certain number of population doublings while generally retaining their viability (described as the Hayflick limit).


title: Cell culture

text: Aside from temperature and gas mixture, the most commonly varied factor in culture systems is the cell growth medium. Recipes for growth media can vary in pH, glucose concentration, growth factors, and the presence of other nutrients. The growth factors used to supplement media are often derived from the serum of animal blood, such as fetal bovine serum (FBS), bovine calf serum, equine serum, and porcine serum. One complication of these blood-derived ingredients is the potential for contamination of the culture with viruses or prions, particularly in medical biotechnology applications. Current practice is to minimize or eliminate the use of these ingredients wherever possible and use human platelet lysate (hPL). This eliminates the worry of cross-species contamination when using FBS with human cells. hPL has emerged as a safe and reliable alternative as a direct replacement for FBS or other animal serum. In addition, chemically defined media can be used to eliminate any serum trace (human or animal), but this cannot always be accomplished with different cell types. Alternative strategies involve sourcing the animal blood from countries with minimum BSE/TSE risk, such as The United States, Australia and New Zealand, and using purified nutrient concentrates derived from serum in place of whole animal serum for cell culture.


title: Cell culture

text: Plating density (number of cells per volume of culture medium) plays a critical role for some cell types. For example, a lower plating density makes granulosa cells exhibit estrogen production, while a higher plating density makes them appear as progesterone-producing theca lutein cells.


title: Cell culture

text: Cells can be grown either in suspension or adherent cultures. Some cells naturally live in suspension, without being attached to a surface, such as cells that exist in the bloodstream. There are also cell lines that have been modified to be able to survive in suspension cultures so they can be grown to a higher density than adherent conditions would allow. Adherent cells require a surface, such as tissue culture plastic or microcarrier, which may be coated with extracellular matrix (such as collagen and laminin) components to increase adhesion properties and provide other signals needed for growth and differentiation. Most cells derived from solid tissues are adherent. Another type of adherent culture is organotypic culture, which involves growing cells in a three-dimensional (3-D) environment as opposed to two-dimensional culture dishes. This 3D culture system is biochemically and physiologically more similar to "in vivo" tissue, but is technically challenging to maintain because of many factors (e.g. diffusion).


title: Cell culture

text: There are different kinds of cell culture media which being used routinely in life science including the following:


title: Cell culture

text: Cell line cross-contamination can be a problem for scientists working with cultured cells. Studies suggest anywhere from 15 to 20% of the time, cells used in experiments have been misidentified or contaminated with another cell line. Problems with cell line cross-contamination have even been detected in lines from the NCI-60 panel, which are used routinely for drug-screening studies. Major cell line repositories, including the American Type Culture Collection (ATCC), the European Collection of Cell Cultures (ECACC) and the German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures (DSMZ), have received cell line submissions from researchers that were misidentified by them. Such contamination poses a problem for the quality of research produced using cell culture lines, and the major repositories are now authenticating all cell line submissions. ATCC uses short tandem repeat (STR) DNA fingerprinting to authenticate its cell lines.


title: Cell culture

text: To address this problem of cell line cross-contamination, researchers are encouraged to authenticate their cell lines at an early passage to establish the identity of the cell line. Authentication should be repeated before freezing cell line stocks, every two months during active culturing and before any publication of research data generated using the cell lines. Many methods are used to identify cell lines, including isoenzyme analysis, human lymphocyte antigen (HLA) typing, chromosomal analysis, karyotyping, morphology and STR analysis.


title: Cell culture

text: One significant cell-line cross contaminant is the immortal HeLa cell line. Hela contamination was first noted in the early 1960s in non-human culture in the USA. Intraspecies contamination was discovered in nineteen cell lines in the seventies. In 1974, five human cell lines from the Soviet Union were found to be Hela. A follow-up study analysing 50-odd cell lines indicated that half had Hela markers, but contaminant Hela had hybridised with the original cell lines. Hela cell contamination from air droplets has been reported. Hela was even unknowingly injected into human subjects by Jonas Salk in a 1978 vaccine trial.


title: Cell culture

text: As cells generally continue to divide in culture, they generally grow to fill the available area or volume. This can generate several issues:


title: Cell culture

text: The choice of culture medium might affect the physiological relevance of findings from cell culture experiments due to the differences in the nutrient composition and concentrations. A systematic bias in generated datasets was recently shown for CRISPR and RNAi gene silencing screens, and for metabolic profiling of cancer cell lines. Using a growth medium that better represents the physiological levels of nutrients can improve the physiological relevance of in vitro studies and recently such media types, as Plasmax and Human Plasma Like Medium (HPLM), were developed.


title: Cell culture

text: Among the common manipulations carried out on culture cells are media changes, passaging cells, and transfecting cells.


title: Cell culture

text: These are generally performed using tissue culture methods that rely on aseptic technique. Aseptic technique aims to avoid contamination with bacteria, yeast, or other cell lines. Manipulations are typically carried out in a biosafety cabinet or laminar flow cabinet to exclude contaminating micro-organisms. Antibiotics (e.g. penicillin and streptomycin) and antifungals (e.g.amphotericin B and Antibiotic-Antimycotic solution) can also be added to the growth media.


title: Cell culture

text: As cells undergo metabolic processes, acid is produced and the pH decreases. Often, a pH indicator is added to the medium to measure nutrient depletion.


title: Cell culture

text: In the case of adherent cultures, the media can be removed directly by aspiration, and then is replaced. Media changes in non-adherent cultures involve centrifuging the culture and resuspending the cells in fresh media.


title: Cell culture

text: Passaging (also known as subculture or splitting cells) involves transferring a small number of cells into a new vessel. Cells can be cultured for a longer time if they are split regularly, as it avoids the senescence associated with prolonged high cell density. Suspension cultures are easily passaged with a small amount of culture containing a few cells diluted in a larger volume of fresh media. For adherent cultures, cells first need to be detached; this is commonly done with a mixture of trypsin-EDTA; however, other enzyme mixes are now available for this purpose. A small number of detached cells can then be used to seed a new culture. Some cell cultures, such as RAW cells are mechanically scraped from the surface of their vessel with rubber scrapers.


title: Cell culture

text: Another common method for manipulating cells involves the introduction of foreign DNA by transfection. This is often performed to cause cells to express a gene of interest. More recently, the transfection of RNAi constructs have been realized as a convenient mechanism for suppressing the expression of a particular gene/protein. DNA can also be inserted into cells using viruses, in methods referred to as transduction, infection or transformation. Viruses, as parasitic agents, are well suited to introducing DNA into cells, as this is a part of their normal course of reproduction.


title: Cell culture

text: Cell lines that originate with humans have been somewhat controversial in bioethics, as they may outlive their parent organism and later be used in the discovery of lucrative medical treatments. In the pioneering decision in this area, the Supreme Court of California held in "Moore v. Regents of the University of California" that human patients have no property rights in cell lines derived from organs removed with their consent.


title: Cell culture

text: It is possible to fuse normal cells with an immortalised cell line. This method is used to produce monoclonal antibodies. In brief, lymphocytes isolated from the spleen (or possibly blood) of an immunised animal are combined with an immortal myeloma cell line (B cell lineage) to produce a hybridoma which has the antibody specificity of the primary lymphocyte and the immortality of the myeloma. Selective growth medium (HA or HAT) is used to select against unfused myeloma cells; primary lymphoctyes die quickly in culture and only the fused cells survive. These are screened for production of the required antibody, generally in pools to start with and then after single cloning.


title: Cell culture

text: A cell strain is derived either from a primary culture or a cell line by the selection or cloning of cells having specific properties or characteristics which must be defined. Cell strains are cells that have been adapted to culture but, unlike cell lines, have a finite division potential. Non-immortalized cells stop dividing after 40 to 60 population doublings and, after this, they lose their ability to proliferate (a genetically determined event known as senescence).


title: Cell culture

text: Mass culture of animal cell lines is fundamental to the manufacture of viral vaccines and other products of biotechnology. Culture of human stem cells is used to expand the number of cells and differentiate the cells into various somatic cell types for transplantation. Stem cell culture is also used to harvest the molecules and exosomes that the stem cells release for the purposes of therapeutic development.