title: Melita Norwood

text: In "The Mitrokhin Archive: The K.G.B. in Europe and the West", co-authored by Christopher Andrew, she is described as "both the most important British female agent in KGB history and the longest serving of all Soviet spies in Britain." She is also described by the Communist Party of Britain (CPB), as "a real heroine" and "a consistent fighter in defence of peace and socialism." She was also widely known as a life-long supporter of the "Morning Star" newspaper, and its predecessor the "Daily Worker."


title: Melita Norwood

text: In popular culture she is most known for her depiction in the 2018 spy drama "Red Joan", whose protagonist was loosely inspired by Norwood's life.


title: Melita Norwood

text: Norwood was born Melita Sirnis at 402 Christchurch Road in Bournemouth on 25 March 1912, the daughter of British mother Gertrude Stedman Sirnis and Latvian father Peter Alexander Sirnis (). Her father was a close associate of both the Bolsheviks and Leo Tolstoy, before he died of tuberculosis when Norwood was six years old. He produced a newspaper entitled "The Southern Worker: A Labour and Socialist Journal", which was influenced by the October Russian Revolution, and the paper published his translations of works by Lenin and Trotsky. Her mother joined the Co-operative Party. Norwood won a scholarship in 1923 for an education at Itchen Secondary School, becoming school captain in 1928. She then went on to study Latin and Logic at the University College of Southampton, before dropping out in 1931. After leaving University, Norwood moved to the German city of Heidelberg, where she stayed for a year and became involved in anti-fascist activism.


title: Melita Norwood

text: From 1932, Sirnis worked as a secretary with the British Non-Ferrous Metals Research Association. Towards the end of 1935, she married Hilary Nussbaum, who was of Russian Jewish descent (he later changed his name to Norwood), a chemistry teacher, teachers' trades union official, and lifelong Communist.


title: Melita Norwood

text: Melita Norwood left the Independent Labour Party (ILP) after the group splintered in 1936, after which she joined the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB), and became an active supporter of the party's newspaper "The Daily Worker". The UK authorities were not aware of her party affiliation until very much later. In 1935 she was recommended to the NKVD (forerunner of the KGB) by Andrew Rothstein, a leading member of the CPGB, and became a full agent in 1937. In the same year, the Norwoods bought their semi-detached house in Bexleyheath, which was at that time a town in Kent; there they led an apparently unremarkable life together, and Melita Norwood would continue to live there until she was 90.


title: Melita Norwood

text: Norwood’s NKVD espionage career began in the mid-1930s as a member of the Woolwich Spy ring in London. Three of its members were arrested in January 1938 and sentenced to between three and six years in prison, but Melita Norwood was not then detained. Meanwhile, a wave of purges in Moscow led the NKVD to cut back on its overseas espionage activities, and Norwood's new Soviet employers became the GRU, the Military Overseas Intelligence Service of the Soviet Union. Her Soviet handlers gave her a succession of different code names, the last being "Agent Hola".


title: Melita Norwood

text: Her position as secretary to G.L. Bailey, head of a department at the British Non-Ferrous Metals Research Association, enabled Norwood to pass her Soviet handlers material relating to the British atomic weapons project, known at the time by the innocuous name of Tube Alloys. Bailey was on an advisory committee to Tube Alloys. According to Jeremy Bernstein, Bailey was "warned about Norwood’s political associations and was careful not to reveal anything to her."


title: Melita Norwood

text: The British security services eventually identified Norwood as a security risk in 1965, but refrained from questioning her in order to avoid disclosing their methods. She retired in 1972. Her husband died in 1986, and Norwood said in 1999 that he had disapproved of her activities as an agent. Her neighbours in Bexleyheath, while aware of her left-wing beliefs, reacted with astonishment, as did her daughter, when she was unmasked as a spy in 1999.


title: Melita Norwood

text: Norwood's espionage activities were first publicly revealed by former KGB archivist Vasili Mitrokhin, in the book "The Mitrokhin Archive: The K.G.B. in Europe and the West" (1999), co-written by the historian Christopher Andrew. Mitrokhin defected in 1992, giving the British authorities six trunkloads of KGB files. Norwood was well known to be a communist sympathiser but a separate report in 1999 stated that British intelligence became aware of her significance only after Mitrokhin's defection; to protect other investigations it was then decided not to prosecute her. Some have questioned the validity of evidence from the Mitrokhin archive. In any event, Norwood was never charged with an offence.


title: Melita Norwood

text: Norwood said she gained no material benefits from her spying activities. While she said she did not generally "agree with spying against one's country", she had hoped her actions would help "Russia [the Soviet Union] to keep abreast of Britain, America and Germany". In 2014, newly released files from the Mitrokhin archive suggest she was more highly valued by the KGB than the Cambridge Five.


title: Melita Norwood

text: "Red Joan" is a 2018 film very loosely inspired by Norwood's life, starring Judi Dench and Sophie Cookson. It was directed by Trevor Nunn, and produced by David Parfitt, with a screenplay by Lindsay Shapero. The film was shot in the UK. It premiered at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival.


title: Rose Ayling-Ellis

text: Rose Lucinda Ayling-Ellis (born 17 November 1994) is an English actress. Deaf since birth, she is a British Sign Language user. She is best known for playing the role of Frankie Lewis in the BBC soap opera "EastEnders" (2020–2022).


title: Rose Ayling-Ellis

text: In 2021, she became the first deaf contestant to appear on "Strictly Come Dancing" and, with Giovanni Pernice, won the nineteenth series. She is the recipient of the Visionary Honours for Inspirational Person of the Year.


title: Rose Ayling-Ellis

text: Ayling-Ellis was born on 17 November 1994, in Hythe, Kent and grew up in Hythe. She was born deaf. As a child, she took part in a filming weekend run by the National Deaf Children's Society. During the weekend, she met deaf film director Ted Evans, who later cast her in his award-winning short film "The End". She then applied to Deafinitely Youth Theatre.


title: Rose Ayling-Ellis

text: Ayling-Ellis's first role was in a short film called "The End" directed by deaf filmmaker Ted Evans. The 25-minute short is summarised as: "Starting in the 1980s, "The End" follows four deaf children over 60 years."


title: Rose Ayling-Ellis

text: She has taken part in a number of stage productions, including "Mother Courage" (Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester); "Faith, Hope And Charity R&D" (National Theatre, London) and "Herons Workshop" (Lyric Hammersmith, London). Her television credits include "Summer of Rockets" and "Casualty". She appeared in The Vamps music video for "Middle of the Night", and in the short film "Almost" with Vilma Jackson. Since 2020, Ayling-Ellis has been playing Frankie Lewis in the BBC soap opera "EastEnders". Her character was originally written by the deaf journalist and scriptwriter Charlie Swinbourne. Her departure from the series was announced in August 2022, with her final scenes set to air in the autumn.


title: Rose Ayling-Ellis

text: In 2021, Ayling-Ellis became the first deaf contestant on BBC's "Strictly Come Dancing". She participated in and won the show's nineteenth series, with professional Giovanni Pernice. In an interview before the start of the series she said: Ayling-Ellis and Pernice scored 40 (full marks) for their tango in week six, which was the earliest "perfect score" in the show's history. In week eight, their Couple's Choice dance featured a period of silence, included as a tribute to the deaf community. Described by judge Anton Du Beke as "the greatest thing I've ever seen on the show", it earned them the 2021 Heat Unmissables Award for TV Moment of the Year. It also won the British Academy Television Award for Virgin TV's Must-See Moment in 2022.


title: Rose Ayling-Ellis

text: In May 2022, Ayling-Ellis became the first celebrity to sign a bedtime story on CBeebies. In August 2022, she unveiled the first deaf Barbie doll equipped with behind-the-ear hearing aids as part of the campaign Rose, Barbie and Friends, which includes a number of diverse dolls; Ayling-Ellis worked with Mattel during the production of the doll.


title: Rose Ayling-Ellis

text: In an interview with the National Deaf Children's Society, Ayling-Ellis explained that she often has to perform using Sign-supported English (SSE) to reflect her own communication style and make it clear for audiences. Her deafness has not stopped her from enjoying music, and she told "The Guardian" that her favourite artists are Dolly Parton and Stevie Wonder, and that she is a big fan of soul music.


title: Havells

text: Havells India Limited is an Indian multinational electrical equipment company, based in Noida, India. It was founded by Late Sh. Haveli Ram Gandhi, later sold to Gupta who was his distributor. This company manufactures home appliances, lighting for domestic, commercial and industrial applications, LED lighting, fans, modular switches and wiring accessories, water heaters, industrial and domestic circuit protection switchgear, industrial and domestic cables and wires, induction motors, and capacitors among others.


title: Havells

text: The company has 23 branches or representative offices with over 6,000 workers in over 50 countries. India's first Lloyd's exclusive outlet is acquired by businessman Mr. Rajan Bansal. The store is situated in western part of New Delhi, Paschim Vihar. As of 2016, it has 11 manufacturing plants in India located at Haridwar, Baddi, Noida, Faridabad, Alwar, Neemrana, and Bengaluru. In 2014, Havells was listed 125th among 1200 of India's most trusted brands according to the Brand Trust Report 2014, a study conducted by Trust Research Advisory.


title: Havells

text: In 1983, it bought the loss-making Delhi-based Towers and Transformers Ltd and turned it around in a year. Between 1997 and 2001, Havells also bought ECS, Duke Arnics Electronics, Standard Electricals and Crabtree India. There was a 50:50 joint venture between Havells and the UK-based Crabtree, and Havells later acquired Crabtree's stake in the JV. The latest acquisition of Lloyd Electricals has marked its entry in new segments of consumer electronics.


title: Havells

text: Havells provides mid-day meals for school children in Alwar district, covering 50,000 students per day. This has greatly increased the number of children attending school regularly and also alleviates hunger. Besides this, the company has acquired land for constructing a larger kitchen with all the modern facilities to serve freshly cooked food to 50,000 students in the area.


title: Air Force Two

text: Air Force Two is the air traffic control designated call sign held by any United States Air Force aircraft carrying the U.S. vice president, but not the president. The term is often associated with the Boeing C-32, a modified 757 which is most commonly used as the vice president's transport. Other 89th Airlift Wing aircraft, such as the Boeing C-40 Clipper, C-20B, C-37A, and C-37B, have also served in this role. The VC-25A, the aircraft most often used by the president as Air Force One, has also been used by the vice president as Air Force Two.


title: Air Force Two

text: Richard Nixon was one of the first senior officials in American government to travel internationally via jet aircraft on official business, taking a Boeing VC-137A Stratoliner on his visit to the Soviet Union in July 1959 for the Kitchen Debates as Eisenhower's vice president.


title: Air Force Two

text: Domestically, non-presidential VIP travel still relied on the prop powered Convair VC-131 Samaritan aircraft until Nelson Rockefeller was named Gerald Ford's vice president in 1974. Rockefeller personally owned a Grumman Gulfstream II jet that he preferred to the much slower Convair; Rockefeller's Gulfstream II then used the "Executive Two" callsign while he was in office. This would prompt the 89th Airlift Wing's acquisition of 3 McDonnell Douglas VC-9Cs in 1975, adding to their 3 VC-137s jets used for senior executive international travel.


title: Air Force Two

text: Prior senior executive aircraft included the former presidential Douglas VC-54 Skymaster, Douglas VC-118A, and Lockheed C-121 Constellations, held in reserve as back-up aircraft for the newer aircraft designated for presidential travel.


title: Air Force Two

text: Aircraft allocated for use by the vice president and senior executives authorized to travel under the Special Air Mission designation operated by the 89th Airlift Wing can be distinguished from the distinctive Raymond Loewy Air Force One livery by the lack of the Steel blue cheatline and cap over the cockpit.


title: Air Force Two

text: Former presidential aircraft that has been redesignated for non-presidential VIP travel will be repainted in the secondary livery as illustrated in the difference between VC-137C SAM 26000 and VC-137C SAM 27000's current paint schemes. Both SAM 26000 and SAM 27000 were relegated to a non-presidential VIP role upon delivery of their replacements, but SAM 27000 was repainted by the Reagan Library to match its Reagan era paint scheme (see chronology of images under Reagan, George W. Bush, and as currently maintained by the library).


title: Air Force Two

text: In 2012, Joe Biden switched to another plane after a bird strike happened to the plane in which he was flying in California. A similar incident in 2020 involving a bird strike in the engine during takeoff caused Air Force Two to land back at a nearby New Hampshire airport while it was carrying Mike Pence and some of his staff. In June 2021, Air Force Two, with Kamala Harris on board, was forced to return to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland after suffering a "technical issue." Harris, who was on her way to Guatemala, resumed her flight on a different aircraft approximately an hour and a half later.


title: Blue Moon (1934 song)

text: "Blue Moon" is a popular song written by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart in 1934 that has become a standard ballad. Early recordings included those by Connee Boswell and by Al Bowlly in 1935. The song was a hit twice in 1949, with successful recordings in the U.S. by Billy Eckstine and Mel Tormé.


title: Blue Moon (1934 song)

text: In 1961, "Blue Moon" became an international number-one hit for the doo-wop group The Marcels, on the "Billboard" 100 chart and in the UK Singles Chart, and later that same year, an instrumental version by The Ventures charted at No. 54. Over the years, "Blue Moon" has been covered by many artists, including versions by Frank Sinatra, Jo Stafford, Ella Fitzgerald, Under the Streetlamp, Ray Stevens, Billie Holiday, Al Bowlly, Amália Rodrigues, Elvis Presley, Bobby Vinton, Sam Cooke, The Platters, The Mavericks, Dean Martin, Yvonne De Carlo, The Supremes, Cyndi Lauper, New Edition, Bob Dylan, Chromatics, and Rod Stewart. Bing Crosby included the song in a medley on his album "On the Happy Side" (1962). The Cowboy Junkies recorded the song on their album "The Trinity Sessions".


title: Blue Moon (1934 song)

text: Rodgers and Hart were contracted to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in May 1933. They were soon commissioned to write the songs for "Hollywood Party", a film that was to star many of the studio's top artists. Rodgers recalled,


title: Blue Moon (1934 song)

text: One of our ideas was to include a scene in which Jean Harlow is shown as an innocent young girl saying—or rather singing—her prayers. How the sequence fitted into the movie I haven't the foggiest notion, but the purpose was to express Harlow's overwhelming ambition to become a movie star ('Oh Lord, if you're not busy up there,/I ask for help with a prayer/So please don't give me the air ...').


title: Blue Moon (1934 song)

text: The song was not recorded (the movie was released without Harlow in 1934) and MGM Song "Prayer (Oh Lord, make me a movie star)" dated June 14, 1933, was registered for copyright as an unpublished work on July 10, 1933.


title: Blue Moon (1934 song)

text: Hart wrote new lyrics for the tune to create a title song for the 1934 film "Manhattan Melodrama": "Act One:/You gulp your coffee and run;/Into the subway you crowd./Don't breathe, it isn't allowed". The song, which was also titled "It's Just That Kind of Play", was cut from the film before release, and registered for copyright as an unpublished work on March 30, 1934. The studio then asked for a nightclub number for the film. Rodgers still liked the melody so Hart wrote a third lyric: "The Bad in Every Man" ("Oh, Lord ... /I could be good to a lover,/But then I always discover/The bad in ev'ry man"), which was sung by Shirley Ross.


title: Blue Moon (1934 song)

text: After the film was released by MGM, Jack Robbins—the head of the studio's publishing company—decided that the tune was suited to commercial release but needed more romantic lyrics and a punchier title. Hart was initially reluctant to write yet another lyric but he was persuaded. Robbins licensed the final version of the song to "Hollywood Hotel", a radio program that used it as the theme. The cover of Robbins' 1934 sheet music edition credits Ted Fio Rito (vocal by Muzzy Marcellino) as introducing the song, recorded on Brunswick 7315, October 19, 1934. The song charted in the Top Ten for 18 weeks in "Variety", reaching number 1 on January 26, 1935. The song was also recorded by Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra for Decca Records in November 1934 and Connee Boswell for Brunswick Records in 1935. It subsequently was featured in at least seven MGM films, including the Marx Brothers' "At the Circus" (1939) and "Viva Las Vegas" (1964). There are two introductory verses in the original Robbins sheet music edition. Eric Clapton and Rod Stewart sang the first verse in their 2004 version of the song (""). The last line of the first verse is: "Life was a bitter cup for the saddest of all men."


title: Blue Moon (1934 song)

text: On September 16, 2018, an article in "The New York Times" said that Liz Roman Gallese, a documentary filmmaker, claimed on her website a 1936 lawsuit that "Blue Moon" was written by her late father, Edward W. Roman. The family story was "that her father had sold the song for $900 to buy a car, or maybe that he had 'settled' with the rich and famous Rodgers and Hart for that amount." Ted Chapin, the chief creative officer of the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization, said that he had not heard of Gallese's story and that it seemed "a little far-fetched."


title: Blue Moon (1934 song)

text: "Blue Moons first crossover recording to rock and roll came from Elvis Presley in 1954, produced by Sam Phillips. His cover version of the song was included on his 1956 debut album "Elvis Presley", issued on RCA Records. Presley's remake of "Blue Moon" was coupled with "Just Because" as a single in August 1956. "Blue Moon" spent seventeen weeks on the "Billboard" Top 100, although it reached only .


title: Blue Moon (1934 song)

text: In Jim Jarmusch's 1989 film "Mystery Train", the three distinct stories that make up the narrative are linked by a portion of Presley's version of "Blue Moon" (as heard on a radio broadcast) and a subsequent offscreen gunshot, which are heard once during each story, revealing that the three stories occur simultaneously in real time.


title: Blue Moon (1934 song)

text: The Marcels, a doo-wop group, recorded the track for their album "Blue Moon". In 1961, the Marcels had three songs left to record and needed one more. Producer Stu Phillips did not like any of the other songs except one that had the same chord changes as "Heart and Soul" and "Blue Moon". He asked them if they knew either, and one knew "Blue Moon" and taught it to the others, though with the bridge or release (middle section – "I heard somebody whisper ...") wrong. The famous introduction to the song ("bomp-baba-bomp" and "dip-da-dip-da-dip") was an excerpt of an original song that the group had in its act.


title: Blue Moon (1934 song)

text: The record reached number one on the "Billboard" Pop chart for three weeks and number one on the R&B chart. It also peaked at on the UK Singles Chart. The Marcels' version of "Blue Moon" sold a million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. It is featured in the "Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll". The Marcels doo-wop version is one of three different versions used in the 1981 film "An American Werewolf in London" with this version appearing at the end credits of the film. A version by Bobby Vinton plays during the film's opening titles while a version by Sam Cooke plays during the film's famous werewolf transformation scene. The Marcels' version of the song is referenced in the 1962 Academy Award-nominated animated short Disney musical film, "A Symposium on Popular Songs" during the song, "Puppy Love Is Here to Stay" written by Robert & Richard Sherman.


title: Blue Moon (1934 song)

text: American swing era singer Billy Eckstine did a cover version of "Blue Moon" that reached the "Billboard" charts in 1949. It was released by MGM Records as catalog number 10311. It first reached the Juke Box chart on March 5, 1949, and lasted three weeks on the chart, peaking at number 21.


title: Blue Moon (1934 song)

text: American jazz singer Mel Tormé did a cover version of "Blue Moon" that reached the "Billboard" charts in 1949. It was released by Capitol Records as catalog number 15428. It first reached the Best Seller chart on April 8, 1949, and lasted five weeks on the chart, peaking at number 20. The record was a two-sided hit, as the flip side, "Again", also charted.


title: Blue Moon (1934 song)

text: American country music group the Mavericks covered the song for the soundtrack of the 1995 film "Apollo 13". Their version peaked at number 57 on the "RPM" Country Tracks chart in Canada. It also charted on the "RPM" Adult Contemporary Tracks chart, peaking at number 15. A music video was produced, directed by Todd Hallowell.


title: Blue Moon (1934 song)

text: British singer Rod Stewart recorded the song with Eric Clapton for Stewart's 2004 album "". Their version was released as a single in early 2005 and peaked at number 23 on the "Billboard" Adult Contemporary chart in the US.


title: Islam and music

text: In many parts of the Muslim world devotional/religious music and secular music is well developed and popular. However, whether music is allowed under Islamic law is historically disputed. Views of legal scholars range from music being strictly forbidden, to generally forbidden but with varying restrictions such as singing is allowed, or some instruments such as drums are allowed, or allowed if it does not lead listeners into temptation. This can change considering their own decision. In recent decades, "the advent of a whole new generation of Muslim musicians who try to blend their work and faith", has given the issue "extra significance."


title: Islam and music

text: One scholar, Jacob M. Landau, discerns "four main groups" in the dispute over whether music is haram:


title: Islam and music

text: Those who believe the Quran and hadith "strictly" prohibits music include the Salafi and Deobandi denominations, respectively.


title: Islam and music

text: The Quran does not specifically refer to music itself. Yet, some scholars (Ibn ‘Abbaas, Al-Hasan al-Basri, Al-Sa’di, Ibn al-Qayyim, Abu’l-Sahbaa’) have interpreted the phrase "idle talk" in Sura (chapter) of Luqman as referring to music:


title: Islam and music

text: Several scholars have also proposed as evidence that music is forbidden the passage in which Allah says to Iblis: "And befool them gradually, those whom you can fool among them, with your voice, mobilize against them all your cavalry and infantry, manipulate them in their wealth and children, and make them promises." [al-Israa’ 17:64]


title: Islam and music

text: In his survey of Islamic scholarship of "enjoined what was good and forbade what was bad" in accordance to Islamic law, historian Michael Cook found that


title: Islam and music

text: "Attacks on offending objects are a ubiquitous theme ... There are, for example, chess-boards to be overturned, supposedly sacred trees to be cut down and decorative images to destroy or deface ... But the targets that are mentioned again and again are liquor and musical instruments. (An exception was sometimes made for tambourines which were used to announce marriages)."


title: Islam and music

text: Prohibitions of music are rare or non-existent in majority-Muslim states since the coming to power of Muhammad bin Salman in Saudi Arabia, but have often been enforced where Islamist insurgents have gained power – in Afghanistan under Taliban rule; and at least as of January 2013, "across much of the two-thirds of Mali ... controlled by Islamic rebel groups".


title: Islam and music

text: There is a fairly wide difference of opinion over what exceptions can be made to the prohibition on music. Examples of what is allowed include: vocals but not instruments; vocals but only if the audience is of the same gender; vocals and drums, or vocals and traditional one sided drum and tambourine, but no other instruments; any kind of music provided it is not passionate, sexually suggestive, or has lyrics in violation of Islam.


title: Islam and music

text: Imam al-Ghazali, reported several hadith and came to the conclusion that music in and of itself is permitted, saying: "All these Ahadith are reported by al-Bukhari and singing and playing are not haram." He also references a narration from Khidr, wherein a favorable opinion of music is expressed.


title: Islam and music

text: Although al-Ghazali was reported to be weak in hadeeth according to Majmoo al-Fatawa which was written by Ibn Taymiyyah. Considering al-Ghazali's opinion is very weak and the majority of islamic scholars declared that music is haram including imam Abu Hanifa and Imam Malik thus according to Imam Malik and Imam Abu Hanifa whom was the strictest when it came to this matter both of them considered whoever listens to music is considered a faasiq (major sinner).


title: Islam and music

text: According to Hussein Rashid, "contemporary scholars including Shaykh al-Azhar Mahmud Shaltut, Shaykh Yusuf Qaradawi, and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini have all issued legal rulings that audio arts [including music] that do not encourage people to go against the faith are permitted."


title: Islam and music

text: Notable people who are regarded as having believed music is halal include Abu Bakr ibn al-Arabi, Ibn al-Qaisarani, Ibn Sina, Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, Rumi, Ibn Rushd, and Ibn Hazm.


title: Islam and music

text: Yusuf al-Qaradawi in his book "The Lawful and the Prohibited in Islam", states songs/singing is not haram unless:


title: Islam and music

text: Based upon the authentic Islamic ahadith, numerous Iranian Grand Ayatollahs; Sadiq Hussaini Shirazi, Mohammad-Reza Golpaygani, Lotfollah Safi Golpaygani, Mohammad-Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi, Ahmad Jannati and others, ruled that all music and instrument playing is haram, no matter the purpose. Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini held similar religious position, stating on 23 July 1979: "If you want independence for your country, you must suppress music and not fear to be called old‐fashioned. Music is a betrayal of the nation and of youth." During the Iranian Revolution, Khomeini said: "...music is like a drug, whoever acquires the habit can no longer devote himself to important activities. We must completely eliminate it." From 1979 to 1989, all the music on radio and television was banned except occasional "revolutionary songs" that were performed in a strong martial style. After Khomeini's death, reformist Rafsanjani and Khatami administrations gradually lifted the ban on music. The current supreme leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei, in 2014 has stated his admiration of Western music, and nowadays music is officially permitted in Iran by the government as long as it is Iranian -- Iranian folk music, classical music, and pop music is allowed.


title: Islam and music

text: At least a few sources blame prohibition of music not on rigorous interpretation of scripture but the association of "fashionable" secular music "with erotic dance and drinking" (Jacob M. Landau), or "illicit behavior tied to music, rather than to the music itself" (Hussein Rashid). According to Rashid, the Quran, "contains no direct references to music", and hadith contains "conflicting evidence"; Landau states that scholars antagonistic to music "relied on forced interpretations of a few unclear passages in the Qurʾān" or Hadīth".


title: Islam and music

text: Notwithstanding prohibitions on music by Islamic scholars, in many parts of the Muslim world devotional/religious music and secular music is well developed and popular.


title: Islam and music

text: Secular and folk musical styles in the Muslim Middle East are found in Arabic music, Egyptian music, Iranian music, Turkish classical music. In North Africa, Algerian, and Moroccan music. South Asia has distinctive Afghan, Bangladeshi, Maldivian, Pakistani music


title: Islam and music

text: Nasheed is a Muslim devotional recitation music recited in various melodies by some Muslims of today without any musical instruments, or possibly with percussion.


title: Islam and music

text: At least according to one scholar, Jacob M. Landau, not only is secular and folk music found in regions throughout the Muslim world, but Islam has its own distinctive category of music -- "Islamic music" or "classical Islamic music"—that began development "with the advent of Islam about 610 CE" as a "new art". It formed from pre-Islamic Arabian music with "important contributions" from Persians, Byzantines, Turks, Imazighen (Berbers), and Moors. This music "is characterized by a highly subtle organization of melody and rhythm", where "the vocal component predominates over the instrumental", there is no harmony, only "a single line of melody", and the individual musician "is permitted, and indeed encouraged, to improvise". The core area where it is found stretches "from the Nile valley to Persia", and the farther away one travels, "the less one finds undiluted Islamic music."


title: Admiralty law

text: Admiralty law or maritime law is a body of law that governs nautical issues and private maritime disputes. Admiralty law consists of both domestic law on maritime activities, and private international law governing the relationships between private parties operating or using ocean-going ships. While each legal jurisdiction usually has its own legislation governing maritime matters, the international nature of the topic and the need for uniformity has, since 1900, led to considerable international maritime law developments, including numerous multilateral treaties.


title: Admiralty law

text: Admiralty law may be distinguished from the law of the sea, which is a body of public international law dealing with navigational rights, mineral rights, jurisdiction over coastal waters, and the maritime relationships between nations. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea has been adopted by 167 countries and the European Union, and disputes are resolved at the ITLOS tribunal in Hamburg.


title: Admiralty law

text: Seaborne transport was one of the earliest channels of commerce, and rules for resolving disputes involving maritime trade were developed early in recorded history. Early historical records of these laws include the Rhodian law (), of which no primary written specimen has survived, but which is alluded to in other legal texts (Roman and Byzantine legal codes), and later the customs of the Consulate of the Sea or the Hanseatic League. In southern Italy the (1063) at Trani and the Amalfian Laws were in effect from an early date.


title: Admiralty law

text: Bracton noted further that admiralty law was also used as an alternative to the common law in Norman England, which previously required voluntary submission to it by entering a plea seeking judgment from the court.


title: Admiralty law

text: A leading sponsor of admiralty law in Europe was the French Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine. Eleanor (sometimes known as Eleanor of Guyenne) had learned about admiralty law whilst on a crusade in the eastern Mediterranean with her first husband, King Louis VII of France. Eleanor then established admiralty law on the island of Oléron, where it was published as the Rolls of Oléron. Some time later, while she was in London acting as regent for her son, King Richard I of England, Eleanor instituted admiralty law into England as well.


title: Admiralty law

text: In England and Wales, a special Admiralty Court handles all admiralty cases. Despite early reliance upon civil law concepts derived from the of Justinian, the English Admiralty Court is a common law, albeit "sui generis" court that was initially somewhat distanced from other English courts. After around 1750, as the industrial revolution took hold and English maritime commerce burgeoned, the Admiralty Court became a proactive source of innovative legal ideas and provisions to meet the new situation. The Judicature Acts of 1873–1875 abolished the Admiralty Court as such, and it became conflated in the new Probate, Divorce and Admiralty division of the High Court. However, when the PDA was abolished and replaced by a new Family Division, admiralty jurisdiction passed to a so-called Admiralty Court which was effectively the Queen's Bench sitting to hear nautical cases. The Senior Courts Act 1981 then clarified the admiralty jurisdiction of the Queen's Bench, so England and Wales once again has a distinct Admiralty Court (albeit no longer based in the Royal Courts of Justice, but in the Rolls Building).


title: Admiralty law

text: English Admiralty courts were a prominent feature in the prelude to the American Revolution. For example, the phrase in the Declaration of Independence "For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury" refers to the practice of the UK Parliament giving the Admiralty Courts jurisdiction to enforce the Stamp Act 1765 in the American colonies. The Stamp Act was unpopular in America, so a colonial jury would be unlikely to convict any colonist of its violation. The Admiralty Court, which has never had trial by jury, was thus given jurisdiction so a colonist charged with breaching the Stamp Act could be more easily convicted by the Crown.


title: Admiralty law

text: Admiralty law gradually became part of United States law through admiralty cases arising after the adoption of the U.S. Constitution in 1789. Many American lawyers who were prominent in the American Revolution were admiralty and maritime lawyers. Those included are Alexander Hamilton in New York and John Adams in Massachusetts.


title: Admiralty law

text: In 1787, Thomas Jefferson wrote to James Madison proposing that the U.S. Constitution, then under consideration by the States, be amended to include "trial by jury in all matters of fact triable by the laws of the land and not by the laws of Nations". The result was the United States Bill of Rights. Alexander Hamilton and John Adams were both admiralty lawyers and Adams represented John Hancock in an admiralty case in colonial Boston involving seizure of one of Hancock's ships for violations of customs regulations. In the more modern era, Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes was an admiralty lawyer before ascending to the bench.


title: Admiralty law

text: Matters dealt by admiralty law include marine commerce, marine navigation, salvage, maritime pollution, seafarers' rights, and the carriage by sea of both passengers and goods. Admiralty law also covers land-based commercial activities that are maritime in character, such as marine insurance. Some lawyers prefer to reserve the term "admiralty law" for "wet law" (e.g. salvage, collisions, ship arrest, towage, liens and limitation), and use "maritime law" only for "dry law" (e.g. carriage of goods and people, marine insurance, and the Maritime Labour Convention).


title: Admiralty law

text: The doctrine of maintenance and cure is rooted in Article VI of the Rolls of Oléron promulgated in about 1160 A.D. The obligation to "cure" requires a shipowner to provide medical care free of charge to a seaman injured in the service of the ship, until the seaman has reached "maximum medical cure". The concept of "maximum medical cure" is more extensive than the concept "maximum medical improvement". The obligation to "cure" a seaman includes the obligation to provide him with medications and medical devices which improve his ability to function, even if they don't "improve" his actual condition. They may include long-term treatments that permit him to continue to function well. Common examples include prostheses, wheelchairs, and pain medications.


title: Admiralty law

text: The obligation of "maintenance" requires the shipowner to provide a seaman with his basic living expenses while he is convalescing. Once a seaman is able to work, he is expected to maintain himself. Consequently, a seaman can lose his right to maintenance, while the obligation to provide cure is ongoing.


title: Admiralty law

text: A seaman who is required to sue a shipowner to recover maintenance and cure may also recover his attorneys fees. "Vaughan v. Atkinson", 369 U.S. 527 (1962). If a shipowner's breach of its obligation to provide maintenance and cure is willful and wanton, the shipowner may be subject to punitive damages. See "Atlantic Sounding Co. v. Townsend", 557 U.S. 404 (2009) (J. Thomas).


title: Admiralty law

text: Shipowners owe a duty of reasonable care to passengers. Consequently, passengers who are injured aboard ships may bring suit as if they had been injured ashore through the negligence of a third party. The passenger bears the burden of proving that the shipowner was negligent. While personal injury cases must generally be pursued within three years, suits against cruise lines may need to be brought within one year because of limitations contained in the passenger ticket. Notice requirements in the ticket may require a formal notice to be brought within six months of the injury. Most U.S. cruise line passenger tickets also have provisions requiring that suit to be brought in either Miami or Seattle.


title: Admiralty law

text: In England, the 1954 case of "Adler v Dickson (The Himalaya)" [1954] allowed a shipping line to escape liability when a bosun's negligence resulted in a passenger being injured. Since then, the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 has made it unlawful to exclude liability for death or personal injury caused by one's negligence. (Since then, however, the so-called "Himalaya clause" has become a useful way for a contractor to pass on the protection of a limitation clause to his employees, agents and third-party contractors.)


title: Admiralty law

text: Banks which loan money to purchase ships, vendors who supply ships with necessaries like fuel and stores, seamen who are due wages, and many others have a lien against the ship to guarantee payment. To enforce the lien, the ship must be arrested or seized. In the United States, an action to enforce a lien against a U.S. ship must be brought in federal court and cannot be done in state court, except for under the reverse-"Erie" doctrine whereby state courts can apply federal law.


title: Admiralty law

text: When property is lost at sea and rescued by another, the rescuer is entitled to claim a salvage award on the salvaged property. There is no "life salvage": all mariners have a duty to save the lives of others in peril without expectation of reward. Consequently, salvage law applies only to the saving of property.


title: Admiralty law

text: There are two types of salvage: contract salvage and pure salvage, which is sometimes referred to as "merit salvage". In contract salvage the owner of the property and salvor enter into a salvage contract prior to the commencement of salvage operations and the amount that the salvor is paid is determined by the contract. The most common salvage contract is called a "Lloyd's Open Form Salvage Contract".


title: Admiralty law

text: In pure salvage, there is no contract between the owner of the goods and the salvor. The relationship is one which is implied by law. The salvor of property under pure salvage must bring his claim for salvage in court, which will award salvage based upon the "merit" of the service and the value of the salvaged property.


title: Admiralty law

text: Pure salvage claims are divided into "high-order" and "low-order" salvage. In high-order salvage, the salvor exposes himself and his crew to the risk of injury and loss or damage to his equipment to salvage the damaged ship. Examples of high-order salvage are boarding a sinking ship in heavy weather, boarding a ship which is on fire, raising a ship or boat which has already sunk, or towing a ship which is in the surf away from the shore. Low-order salvage occurs where the salvor is exposed to little or no personal risk. Examples of low-order salvage include towing another vessel in calm seas, supplying a vessel with fuel, or pulling a vessel off a sand bar. Salvors performing high-order salvage receive substantially greater salvage award than those performing low-order salvage.


title: Admiralty law

text: In both high-order and low-order salvage the amount of the salvage award is based first upon the value of the property saved. If nothing is saved, or if additional damage is done, there will be no award. The other factors to be considered are the skills of the salvor, the peril to which the salvaged property was exposed, the value of the property which was risked in effecting the salvage, the amount of time and money expended in the salvage operation, etc.


title: Admiralty law

text: A pure or merit salvage award will seldom exceed 50 percent of the value of the property salved. The exception to that rule is in the case of treasure salvage. Because sunken treasure has generally been lost for hundreds of years, while the original owner (or insurer, if the vessel was insured) continues to have an interest in it, the salvor or finder will generally get the majority of the value of the property. While sunken ships from the Spanish Main (such as "Nuestra Señora de Atocha" in the Florida Keys) are the most commonly thought of type of treasure salvage, other types of ships – including German submarines from World War II which can hold valuable historical artifacts, American Civil War ships (the USS "Maple Leaf" in the St. Johns River, and the CSS "Virginia" in Chesapeake Bay), and sunken merchant ships (the SS "Central America" off Cape Hatteras) – have all been the subject of treasure salvage awards. Due to refinements in side-scanning sonars, many ships which were previously missing are now being located and treasure salvage is now a less risky endeavor than it was in the past, although it is still highly speculative and expensive.


title: Admiralty law

text: Prior to the mid-1970s, most international conventions concerning maritime trade and commerce originated in a private organization of maritime lawyers known as the Comité Maritime International (International Maritime Committee or CMI). Founded in 1897, the CMI was responsible for the drafting of numerous international conventions including the Hague Rules (International Convention on Bills of Lading), the Visby Amendments (amending the Hague Rules), the Salvage Convention and many others. While the CMI continues to function in an advisory capacity, many of its functions have been taken over by the International Maritime Organization (IMO), which was established by the United Nations in 1958 but did not become truly effective until about 1974.


title: Admiralty law

text: The IMO has prepared numerous international conventions concerning maritime safety including the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), the Standards for Training, Certification, and Watchkeeping (STCW), the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (Collision Regulations or COLREGS), Maritime Pollution Regulations (MARPOL), International Convention on Maritime Search and Rescue (SAR Convention) and others. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) defined a treaty regarding protection of the marine environment and various maritime boundaries. Restrictions on international fishing such as International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling also form part of the body of conventions in international waters. Other commercial conventions include the "International Convention relating to the Limitation of the Liability of Owners of Sea-Going Ships", Brussels, 10 October 1957. and International Convention for Safe Containers.


title: Admiralty law

text: Once adopted, most international conventions are enforced by the individual signatory nations, either through their Port State Control, or through their national courts. Cases within the ambit of the European Union's EMSA may be heard by the CJEU in Luxembourg. By contrast, disputes involving the Law of the Sea may be resolved at ITLOS in Hamburg, provided that the parties are signatories to UNCLOS.


title: Admiralty law

text: Throughout history, piracy has been defined as "hostis humani generis", or the enemy of all mankind. While the flag state normally has jurisdiction over a ship on the high seas, there is universal jurisdiction in the case of piracy, which means that any nation may pursue pirates on the high seas, including pursuing them into a country's territorial waters. Most nations have signed onto the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea which dictates the legal requirements for pursuing pirates.


title: Admiralty law

text: Merchant vessels transiting areas of increased pirate activity (i.e. the Gulf of Aden, Somali Basin, Southern Red Sea and Bab-el-Mandeb straits) are advised to implement self-protective measures, in accordance with most recent best management practices agreed upon by the members of the merchant industry and endorsed by the NATO Shipping Centre, and the Maritime Security Centre Horn-of-Africa (MSCHOA).


title: Admiralty law

text: The common law of England and Wales, of Northern Ireland law, and of US law, contrast to the continental law (civil law) that prevails in Scottish law and in continental Europe, which trace back to Roman law. Although the English Admiralty court was a development of continental civil law, the Admiralty Court of England and Wales was a common law court, albeit somewhat distanced from the mainstream King's Bench.


title: Admiralty law

text: Most of the common law countries (including Pakistan, Singapore, India, and many other Commonwealth of Nations countries) follow English statute and case law. India still follows many Victorian-era British statutes such as the Admiralty Court Act 1861 [24 Vict c 10]. Whilst Pakistan now has its own statute, the Admiralty Jurisdiction of High Courts Ordinance, 1980 (Ordinance XLII of 1980), it also follows English case law. One reason for this is that the 1980 Ordinance is partly modelled on old English admiralty law, namely the Administration of Justice Act 1956. The current statute dealing with the Admiralty jurisdiction of the England and Wales High Court is the Senior Courts Act 1981, ss. 20–24, 37. The provisions in those sections are, in turn, based on the International Arrest Convention 1952. Other countries which do not follow the English statute and case laws, such as Panama, also have established well-known maritime courts which decide international cases on a regular basis.


title: Admiralty law

text: Admiralty courts assume jurisdiction by virtue of the presence of the vessel in its territorial jurisdiction irrespective of whether the vessel is national or not and whether registered or not, and wherever the residence or domicile or their owners may be. A vessel is usually arrested by the court to retain jurisdiction. State-owned vessels are usually immune from arrest.


title: Admiralty law

text: Canadian jurisdiction in the area of navigation and shipping is vested in the Parliament of Canada by virtue of s. 91(10) of the Constitution Act, 1867.


title: Admiralty law

text: Canada has adopted an expansive definition of its maritime law, which goes beyond traditional admiralty law. The original English admiralty jurisdiction was called "wet", as it concerned itself with things done at sea, including collisions, salvage and the work of mariners, and contracts and torts performed at sea. Canadian law has added "dry" jurisdiction to this field, which includes such matters as:


title: Admiralty law

text: Canadian jurisdiction was originally consolidated in 1891, with subsequent expansions in 1934 following the passage of the Statute of Westminster 1931, and in 1971 with the extension to "dry" matters.


title: Admiralty law

text: Recent jurisprudence at the Supreme Court of Canada has tended to expand the maritime law power, thus overriding prior provincial laws based on the provinces' power over property and civil rights.


title: Admiralty law

text: Article III, Section 2 of the United States Constitution grants original jurisdiction to U.S. federal courts over admiralty and maritime matters; however, that jurisdiction is not exclusive, and most maritime cases can be heard in either state or federal courts under the "saving to suitors" clause.


title: Admiralty law

text: The common element of those cases are that they require the court to exercise jurisdiction over maritime property. For example, in a petitory and possession action, a vessel whose title is in dispute, usually between co-owners, will be put in the possession of the court until the title dispute can be resolved. In a limitation action, the shipowner will post a bond reflecting the value of the vessel and her pending freight. A sixth category, that of prize, relating to claims over vessels captured during wartime, has been rendered obsolete due to changes in the laws and practices of warfare.


title: Admiralty law

text: Aside from those five types of cases, all other maritime cases, such as claims for personal injuries, cargo damage, collisions, maritime products liability, and recreational boating accidents may be brought in either federal or state court.


title: Admiralty law

text: From a tactical standpoint it is important to consider that in federal courts in the United States, there is generally no right to trial by jury in admiralty cases, although the 1920 Jones Act grants a jury trial to seamen suing their employers.


title: Admiralty law

text: Maritime law is governed by a uniform three-year statute of limitations for personal injury and wrongful death cases. Cargo cases must be brought within two years (extended from the one-year allowance under the Hague-Visby Rules), pursuant to the adoption of the Rotterdam Rules. Most major cruise ship passenger tickets have a one-year statute of limitations.


title: Admiralty law

text: A state court hearing an admiralty or maritime case is required to apply the admiralty and maritime law, even if it conflicts with the law of the state, under a doctrine known as the "reverse-"Erie" doctrine". While the ""Erie" doctrine" requires that federal courts hearing state actions must apply substantive state law, the "reverse-"Erie" doctrine" requires state courts hearing admiralty cases to apply substantive federal admiralty law. However, state courts are allowed to apply state procedural law. This change can be significant.


title: Admiralty law

text: Claims for damage to cargo shipped in international commerce are governed by the Carriage of Goods by Sea Act (COGSA), which is the U.S. enactment of the Hague Rules. One of its key features is that a shipowner is liable for cargo damaged from "hook to hook", meaning from loading to discharge, unless it is exonerated under one of 17 exceptions to liability, such as an "act of God", the inherent nature of the goods, errors in navigation, and management of the ship. The basis of liability for the shipowner is a bailment and if the carrier is to be liable as a common carrier, it must be established that the goods were placed in the carrier's possession and control for immediate carriage.


title: Admiralty law

text: Seamen injured aboard ship have three possible sources of compensation: the principle of maintenance and cure, the doctrine of unseaworthiness, and the Jones Act. The principle of maintenance and cure requires a shipowner to both pay for an injured seaman's medical treatment until maximum medical recovery (MMR) is obtained and provide basic living expenses until completion of the voyage, even if the seaman is no longer aboard ship.


title: Admiralty law

text: Admiralty law in Pakistan is also classified as shipping law. The Pakistan Merchant Shipping Ordinance 2001 has replaced the Merchant Shipping Act 1923. This replacement was done in 2001 to handle the constantly upgrading modern shipping industry. The purpose of the Pakistan Merchant Shipping Ordinance 2001 is to provide a strategy and rules under which the government authorities will function in dealing with stuff related to the shipping industry. This law also handles duties internationally required under the ILO (International Labour Organization) conventions as Pakistan is an active member of the ILO.


title: Admiralty law

text: There are several universities that offer maritime law programs. What follows is a partial list of universities offering postgraduate maritime courses:


title: Admiralty law

text: A pseudolegal conspiracy theory of American origin, notably present among the anti-government sovereign citizen and freeman on the land movements, asserts that at some point maritime law - which they consider to be the law of international commerce - substituted for the original, legitimate "common law" system as part of a broader conspiracy which secretly replaced governments with corporations. The judiciary hence became admiralty courts with no actual jurisdiction over people.Sovereign citizens notably claim that the presence of gold fringes on the American flags displayed in courtrooms is evidence of maritime law being in effect.


title: Admiralty law

text: One variation of this theory is based on a misinterpretation of the English Cestui Que Vie Act 1666 which stated that a person missing at sea shall be assumed to be dead after seven years; conspiracy theorists claim that the government uses this Act to secretly enslave people, by assuming any person to be legally dead from the age of seven and thereafter considering their person and/or property as its possessions.


title: Admiralty law

text: The origin of the maritime law conspiracy theory is unknown, though it may stem from a misunderstanding of some nautical-sounding words in common usage in the English-language judiciary such as "ownership", "citizenship", "dock" or "birth (berth) certificate". This theory is entirely devoid of merit: when invoked by litigants, it has been consistently dismissed as frivolous.


title: Alfie (2004 film)

text: Alfie is a 2004 romantic comedy-drama film inspired by the 1966 British film of the same name and its 1975 sequel, starring Jude Law as the title character, originally played by Michael Caine in the 1966 film and Alan Price in the 1975 sequel. The film was co-written, directed, and produced by Charles Shyer.


title: Alfie (2004 film)

text: Alfie Elkins is a Cockney limo driver in Manhattan. A sex addict, he regularly beds women on one-night stands. In addition, he maintains a casual relationship with single mother Julie, his "semi-regular-quasi-sort-of-girlfriend thing", and unhappily married Dorie. Once Dorie wants more than casual sex, he stops calling.


title: Alfie (2004 film)

text: Alfie and his coworker and best friend Marlon want to open a company together, but Marlon needs to get back with his ex, Lonette. When Alfie goes to put in a good word for him, he finds her at her bar. But after getting drunk, they have sex. Alfie meets Marlon the next day, terrified he knows about it, but is relieved when Marlon says he and Lonette got back together and are getting married.


title: Alfie (2004 film)

text: When Alfie goes to Julie's for a booty call, she throws him out, confronting him as she had discovered Dorie's panties in her rubbish bin—he had discarded them after finding them in his pocket. Intending to reconcile with her at her son's birthday, Alfie sees Julie has returned to her estranged husband. He later discovers Lonette is pregnant with his child, and (without telling Marlon) they go to a clinic for an abortion. Soon afterward, Marlon and Lonette unexpectedly move upstate, without saying goodbye.


title: Alfie (2004 film)

text: Following repeated failures to achieve an erection, Alfie sees a doctor, who tells him he is perfectly healthy, and his impotence is due to stress. However, he finds a lump on Alfie's penis. They immediately run a test at the clinic and he spends a few anxious days awaiting the results. On a trip to the hospital, Alfie meets Joe, a widower, in the bathroom. Joe gives life advice to the depressed Alfie: "Find somebody to love, and live every day like it's your last". Soon afterward, Alfie finds out he's cancer-free.


title: Alfie (2004 film)

text: Believing he's been given a second chance, Alfie decides to "aim higher" in his love life. He meets Nikki, a beautiful but unstable woman, and they quickly embark on a passionate, turbulent relationship. Moving in together, Alfie finds it hard to put up with her mood swings, especially after she goes off her medication. Distancing himself, he focuses on an older woman, Liz. A sultry cosmetics mogul, she inspires him to "aim higher". He becomes infatuated, but she wants to keep it strictly sexual. Alfie then ends it with Nikki.


title: Alfie (2004 film)

text: Running into Julie in a coffee shop, Alfie realizes he has feelings for her; however, she's now with someone else. On a trip upstate to visit Marlon and his now-wife, Lonette, she reveals she never had the abortion, and, Marlon knows Alfie is the father, but nonetheless decided to stay. Upon seeing Marlon with hurt in his eyes, Alfie visits Joe, who tells him to get his life together. Alfie turns to Liz for comfort but is crushed that she has an even younger man in her life.


title: Alfie (2004 film)

text: Alfie has a chance meeting with Dorie late one night. As he tries to get back into her life, she wants no part of him. Apologizing for not calling, he admits he has trouble expressing himself, running from relationships when they become too serious. She wishes him luck. The film ends with Alfie talking about genuinely changing his ways.


title: Alfie (2004 film)

text: A black and white photograph of Michael Caine representing Alfie Elkins Sr. appears during the film's credits.


title: Alfie (2004 film)

text: The film was shot throughout England, mostly locations doubling for New York City, along with on-set shooting in Manhattan.


title: Alfie (2004 film)

text: The music score was composed by Mick Jagger, Dave Stewart and John Powell, featuring 13 original songs and a remake of the original 1966 title song. Further songs are by Wyclef Jean and The Isley Brothers.


title: Alfie (2004 film)

text: For the song "Old Habits Die Hard", Jagger and Stewart won the BFCA Award, the Golden Globe, a Sierra Award and the World Soundtrack Award.


title: Alfie (2004 film)

text: "Alfie" grossed $13,399,812 in the US and $21,750,734 in other countries for a worldwide total of $35,150,546 on a $60 million budget. The film opened on November 5, 2004 in the United States and grossed $2,206,738 on the first day. That weekend, the film was #5 in the box office with $6,218,335 behind "The Incredibles" opening weekend, "Ray"s second, "The Grudge"s third, and "Saw"s second. When compared to its $60 million budget, "Alfie" was a box office bomb.


title: Alfie (2004 film)

text: "Alfie" received mixed reviews. Based on 155 reviews collected by the film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 48% of critics gave "Alfie" a positive review, with an average rating of 5.6/10. The site's consensus states: "This unnecessary remake wants "Alfie" to have his cake and eat it, too, but a lack of sexual fizz and a sour performance by Jude Law conspire to deliver audiences a romantic comedy that isn't romantic or funny."


title: Alfie (2004 film)

text: Todd McCarthy from "Variety" describes the film as "a breezy, sexy romp with a conscience that reflects in obvious but interesting ways on societal changes over the intervening 38 years."


title: Alfie (2004 film)

text: Roger Ebert enjoyed the film, praising Law's performance and saying that "on its own terms, it's funny at times and finally sad and sweet."


title: Alfie (2004 film)

text: "Entertainment Weekly" gave the film a "B−", praising the actresses and Law, but also noting "Jude Law would appear to have all the attributes of a movie star: looks, humor, rogue charm. Yet there's one he could use more of — an anger that might ignite his smooth presence."


title: Alfie (2004 film)

text: Unlike the 1966 British film on which it is based, with its abrasive star-making turn from Michael Caine, the new "Alfie" doesn't chase social significance - it just wants us to have a good time. The story's observations about male behavior aren't earth shattering...but what gives it its kick is how Alfie takes the film audience into his confidence. In both films, the character talks directly into the camera, a disarming strategy that brings us closer to this serial seducer than we might want. Playing narrator turns Alfie into a tour guide and something of his own defense attorney; it also means he has to enrapture the audience along with his conquests.


title: Vashti Bunyan

text: Jennifer Vashti Bunyan (born 1945) is an English singer-songwriter. Beginning her career in the mid-1960s, she released her debut album, "Just Another Diamond Day", in 1970. The album sold very few copies and Bunyan, discouraged, abandoned her musical career. By 2000, her album had acquired a cult following; it was re-released and Bunyan recorded more songs, initiating the second phase of her musical career after a gap of thirty years. She subsequently released two more albums: "Lookaftering" in 2005, and "Heartleap" in 2014.


title: Vashti Bunyan

text: Bunyan was born in South Tyneside in 1945 to John Bunyan and Helen Webber, the youngest of three children. She was told that she was named after a boat that belonged to her father, a name that was also a nickname for her mother inspired by queen Vashti. The family moved to London when she was six months old. Although she has been said to be descended from "The Pilgrim's Progress" author John Bunyan, this is a claim she has herself denied. In the early 1960s, she studied at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art at Oxford University, but was expelled for focusing on music instead of art.


title: Vashti Bunyan

text: At age 18, Bunyan travelled to New York and discovered the music of Bob Dylan through his "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan" album and decided to become a full-time musician. Returning to London, she was introduced to The Rolling Stones' manager Andrew Loog Oldham by an agent. In June 1965, under his direction, she released her first single, "Some Things Just Stick in Your Mind", penned by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. Released using simply the name "Vashti", it was backed with her own song "I Want to Be Alone". This single and her follow-up "Train Song", released on Columbia in May 1966, produced by Canadian Peter Snell, received little attention.


title: Vashti Bunyan

text: Also at this time, her distinctive vocal appeared on "The Coldest Night of the Year" by Twice as Much, eventually included on their second and final LP, "That's All", released by Oldham's Immediate Records in 1968. After recording additional (and unreleased) songs for Immediate Records, and making a brief appearance in the 1967 documentary "Tonite Let's All Make Love in London" with her song "Winter Is Blue", she decided to travel with her then-boyfriend Robert Lewis by horse and cart to the Hebrides to join a commune planned by a friend, fellow singer-songwriter Donovan ("...from South London up to the Hebrides. Initially to Skye but we carried on to the Outer Hebrides."). During the trip she began writing the songs that would eventually appear on her first album, "Just Another Diamond Day".


title: Vashti Bunyan

text: At Christmas 1968, during a break from her trip, she met producer Joe Boyd through a friend and he offered to record an album of her travelling songs for his Witchseason Productions. A year later, Bunyan returned to London and recorded her first LP with assistance from Simon Nicol and Dave Swarbrick of Fairport Convention, Robin Williamson of The Incredible String Band and string arranger Robert Kirby. The album appeared on Philips Records to warm reviews in December 1970, but struggled to find an audience.


title: Vashti Bunyan

text: Disappointed, she left the music industry and moved to The Incredible String Band's Glen Row cottages, then Ireland, and back to Scotland. Much of the ensuing 30 years were spent raising her three children. In this time, entirely unknown to her, the original album slowly became one of the most sought-after records of its time. It has sold online on Discogs for as much as US$3,946.


title: Vashti Bunyan

text: In 2000, "Just Another Diamond Day" was re-released on CD (with bonus tracks), assuring Bunyan's influence over a new generation of folk artists such as Devendra Banhart and Joanna Newsom. In 2001, Banhart wrote to her asking for her advice, beginning her connection with many of the contemporary performers who cite her work. In 2002, she was invited by Piano Magic musician Glen Johnson to sing guest vocals on his song "Crown of the Lost", her first recording in over 30 years. Since then, she has appeared on releases by Devendra Banhart and Animal Collective.


title: Vashti Bunyan

text: In 2005, she recorded and released her second album, "Lookaftering" on Fat Cat Records, some 35 years after her first. The album was produced by composer Max Richter and featured many of her contemporary followers including Banhart, Joanna Newsom, Adem, Kevin Barker of Currituck Co, Otto Hauser of Espers and Adam Pierce of Mice Parade. It was well received by critics and fans alike.


title: Vashti Bunyan

text: During the autumn of 2006, Bunyan assembled an "ad hoc" band and embarked on a brief North American tour, with performances in both Canada and the US. She performed songs from both of her solo albums, as well as some of the rare material from the unreleased Oldham sessions.


title: Vashti Bunyan

text: Her music reached a much wider audience when "Just Another Diamond Day" was covered and used in a TV advert for T-Mobile. "Train Song" gained her further attention when it was used in 2008 by Reebok for an ad for the NFL, in 2014 as part of the soundtrack for the TV series "True Detective", as well as in 2015 as the opening credits song for the Amazon Original Series "Patriot".


title: Vashti Bunyan

text: In 2007, she collaborated with novelist Rodge Glass on the song "The Fire" for the compilation album "Ballads of the Book" which was devised to combine Scottish writers with Scottish singers (Bunyan lives in Edinburgh).


title: Vashti Bunyan

text: Bunyan also provided vocals on three songs for former Jack frontman Anthony Reynolds' debut solo album "British Ballads". Bunyan sang with Reynolds on the songs "Country Girl", "Just So You Know" and "Song of Leaving".


title: Vashti Bunyan

text: In October 2007 a compilation album of her mid-1960s singles and unreleased demos was released entitled "Some Things Just Stick in Your Mind - Singles and Demos 1964 to 1967".


title: Vashti Bunyan

text: In January 2008, Bunyan said she was in the process of recording a new album: "I'm supposed to be writing just now. I have one complete song and a whole lot of fragments. I'm supposed to have them finished by May and there's no way."


title: Vashti Bunyan

text: In June 2008, she appeared at London's Royal Festival Hall with The Heritage Orchestra as part of Massive Attack's Meltdown, in a live performance of Vangelis' "Blade Runner" soundtrack, singing "Rachel's Song" as sung by Mary Hopkin on the original recorded soundtrack.


title: Vashti Bunyan

text: In October 2008, a feature documentary about her, "Vashti Bunyan: From Here To Before", directed by Kieran Evans, had its world premieres at the Times BFI London Film Festival. It retraces Bunyan's journey across the U.K. and Ireland and sets it against the backdrop of her first high-profile London concert. It uses her trip through the U.K. and Ireland as its main narrative structure. The album provides the soundtrack to that journey, just as it did the first time.


title: Vashti Bunyan

text: In 2011, Bunyan's cover of the late John Martyn's "Head and Heart" appeared on the tribute album, "Johnny Boy Would Love This...A Tribute to John Martyn".


title: Vashti Bunyan

text: In June 2014, she announced her third and final album, "Heartleap". She wrote, "The whole point of the album was finally to learn a way that would enable me to record the music that is in my head, by myself. I neither read nor write music, nor can I play piano with more than one hand at a time, but I have loved being able to work it all out for myself and make it sound the way I wanted. I've built these songs over years. The album wouldn't have happened any other way." "Heartleap" was released on 7 October in the U.S. via DiCristina and 6 October in the UK via FatCat Records. The cover artwork was by Bunyan's daughter, Whyn Lewis, who also did the artwork for "Lookaftering".


title: Vashti Bunyan

text: In 2008, Bunyan was labelled "the Godmother of Freak Folk" for her role in inspiring the "new generation of folk experimentalists including Devendra Banhart and Adem". Her music has also been categorized as folk, psychedelic folk, or new folk.


title: Vashti Bunyan

text: Despite these classifications, she has stated multiple times she is not a folk singer: "[...] I find it quite hard to read myself described as a folk singer, because I'm not." Her former producer Joe Boyd also underlines this in the 2008 Kieran Evans' film "From Here to Before", explaining how he never considered Bunyan to be "[...] much of a folkie".


title: Shot heard round the world

text: "The Shot Heard 'Round the World" is a phrase that refers to the opening shot of the battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775, which began the American Revolutionary War and led to the creation of the United States of America. It was an early event in the first wave of the Atlantic Revolutions, an 18th- and 19th-century revolutionary wave in the Atlantic World that includes the mostly-unrelated French Revolution.


title: Shot heard round the world

text: The phrase has subsequently been applied to the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914, a catalyst event for World War I, and hyperbolically applied to feats in sports.


title: Shot heard round the world

text: The phrase comes from the opening stanza of Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Concord Hymn" (1837) and refers to the first shot of the American Revolution at the Old North Bridge in Concord, Massachusetts, where the first British soldiers fell in the battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775.


title: Shot heard round the world

text: Historically, no single shot can be cited as the first shot of the battle or the war. Shots were fired earlier that day at Lexington, Massachusetts, where eight Americans were killed and a British soldier was slightly wounded, but accounts of that event are confusing and contradictory, and the encounter has been described as a skirmish or a massacre rather than a battle. The North Bridge skirmish did see the first shots by Americans acting under orders, the first organized volley by Americans, the first British fatalities, and the first British retreat.


title: Shot heard round the world

text: The towns of Lexington and Concord have debated over the point of origin for the Revolutionary War since 1824 when the Marquis de Lafayette visited the towns. He was welcomed to Lexington hearing it described as the "birthplace of American liberty", but he was then informed in Concord that the "first forcible resistance" was made there. President Ulysses S. Grant considered not attending the 1875 centennial celebrations in the area to evade the issue. In 1894, Lexington petitioned the state legislature to proclaim April 19 as "Lexington Day", to which Concord objected; the current name for the holiday is Patriots' Day.


title: Shot heard round the world

text: Regardless, "Concord Hymn" itself, which established the phrase, was written about the action at the North Bridge. Emerson lived in a house known as the Old Manse at the time when he was composing the "Concord Hymn", from which his grandfather and father (then a young child) had witnessed the skirmish. The house is located approximately from the North Bridge.


title: Shot heard round the world

text: Internationally, the phrase "shot heard round the world" (alternatively "shots heard round the world" or "shot heard around the world") has become primarily associated with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914, an event considered to be one of the immediate causes of World War I. Serbian Gavrilo Princip fired two shots, the first hitting Franz Ferdinand's wife Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, and the second hitting the Archduke himself. The death of Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, propelled Austria-Hungary and the rest of Europe into World War I.


title: Shot heard round the world

text: The phrase "Shot heard round the world" continues to be a stock phrase in the 21st century, widely used to refer to extraordinary events in general. The phrase has been applied to several dramatic moments in sports history.


title: Shot heard round the world

text: In baseball, the "Shot Heard 'Round the World" refers to the game-winning walk-off home run by New York Giants outfielder Bobby Thomson off Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Ralph Branca to win the National League pennant on October 3, 1951. The Giants won the game 5–4 as a result of the home run, defeating their traditional rivals in the pennant playoff series, although they eventually lost the World Series to the Yankees.


title: Shot heard round the world

text: In association football, the shot heard round the world refers to Paul Caligiuri's winning goal for the United States men's national soccer team in the final qualifying round for the 1990 FIFA World Cup on 19 November 1989. The US had not qualified for the World Cup since 1950. The team was in third position of the CONCACAF playoffs before their final game against Trinidad and Tobago in Port of Spain. The US had to win to go to the finals, their opponents only needed a draw. Defensive midfielder Caliguri received the ball 40 yards out from goal, and instead of passing it to a striker, beat one defender and launched a 30-yard shot that looped into the goal.


title: Shot heard round the world

text: In golf, the shot heard round the world refers to a double eagle (or albatross) made by Gene Sarazen on the 15th hole in the final round of the 1935 Masters. Sarazen would go on to win the tournament in a 36-hole playoff.


title: Shot heard round the world

text: In popular culture, the "slap" heard around the world refers to an event that happened during the oscars where famous actor Will Smith slapped/punched Chris Rock after a joke he made at Will's wife, Jada Smith.


title: Beale ciphers

text: The Beale ciphers are a set of three ciphertexts, one of which allegedly states the location of a buried treasure of gold, silver and jewels estimated to be worth over US$43 million Comprising three ciphertexts, the first (unsolved) text describes the location, the second (solved) ciphertext accounts the content of the treasure, and the third (unsolved) lists the names of the treasure's owners and their next of kin.


title: Beale ciphers

text: The story of the three ciphertexts originates from an 1885 pamphlet called The Beale Papers, detailing treasure being buried by a man named Thomas J. Beale in a secret location in Bedford County, Virginia, in about 1820. Beale entrusted a box containing the encrypted messages to a local innkeeper named Robert Morriss and then disappeared, never to be seen again. According to the story, the innkeeper opened the box 23 years later, and then decades after that gave the three encrypted ciphertexts to a friend before he died. The friend then spent the next twenty years of his life trying to decode the messages, and was able to solve only one of them, which gave details of the treasure buried and the general location of the treasure. The unnamed friend then published all three ciphertexts in a pamphlet which was advertised for sale in the 1880s.


title: Beale ciphers

text: Since the publication of the pamphlet, a number of attempts have been made to decode the two remaining ciphertexts and to locate the treasure, but all efforts have resulted in failure.


title: Beale ciphers

text: There are many arguments that the entire story is a hoax, including the 1980 article "A Dissenting Opinion" by cryptographer Jim Gillogly, and a 1982 scholarly analysis of the "Beale Papers" and their related story by Joe Nickell, using historical records that cast doubt on the existence of Thomas J. Beale. Nickell also presents linguistic evidence demonstrating that the documents could not have been written at the time alleged (words such as "stampeding", for instance, are of later vintage). His analysis of the writing style showed that Beale was almost certainly James B. Ward, whose 1885 pamphlet brought the Beale Papers to light. Nickell argues that the tale is thus a work of fiction; specifically, a "secret vault" allegory of the Freemasons; James B. Ward was a Mason himself.


title: Beale ciphers

text: A pamphlet published in 1885, entitled "The Beale Papers", is the source of this story. The treasure was said to have been obtained by an American named Thomas J. Beale in the early 1800s, from a mine to the north of Nuevo México (New Mexico), at that time in the Spanish province of Santa Fe de Nuevo México (an area that today would most likely be part of Colorado). According to the pamphlet, Beale was the leader of a group of 30 gentlemen adventurers from Virginia who stumbled upon the rich mine of gold and silver while hunting buffalo. They spent 18 months mining thousands of pounds of precious metals, which they then charged Beale with transporting to Virginia and burying in a secure location. After Beale made multiple trips to stock the hiding place, he then encrypted three messages: the location, a description of the treasure, and the names of its owners and their relatives. The treasure location is traditionally linked to Montvale in Bedford County, Virginia.


title: Beale ciphers

text: Beale placed the ciphertexts and some other papers in an iron box. In 1822 he entrusted the box to a Lynchburg innkeeper named Robert Morriss. Beale told Morriss not to open the box unless he or one of his men failed to return from their journey within 10 years. Sending a letter from St. Louis a few months later, Beale promised Morriss that a friend in St. Louis would mail the key to the cryptograms; however, it never arrived. It was not until 1845 that Morriss opened the box. Inside he found two plaintext letters from Beale, and several pages of ciphertext separated into Papers "1", "2", and "3". Morriss had no luck in solving the ciphers, and decades later left the box and its contents to an unnamed friend.


title: Beale ciphers

text: The friend, then using an edition of the United States Declaration of Independence as the key for a modified book cipher, successfully deciphered the second ciphertext which gave a description of the buried treasure. Unable to solve the other two ciphertexts, the friend ultimately made the letters and ciphertexts public in a pamphlet entitled "The Beale Papers", which was published by yet another friend, James B. Ward, in 1885.


title: Beale ciphers

text: Ward is thus not "the friend". Ward himself is almost untraceable in local records, except that a man with that name owned the home in which a Sarah Morriss, identified as the spouse of Robert Morriss, died at age 77, in 1863. He also is recorded as becoming a Master Mason in 1863.


title: Beale ciphers

text: The images below, transcribed from the pamphlet, show the original line-breaks for easy comparison. In the second cryptogram, the original cipher errors are highlighted in red.


title: Beale ciphers

text: I have deposited in the county of Bedford, about four miles from Buford's, in an excavation or vault, six feet below the surface of the ground, the following articles, belonging jointly to the parties whose names are given in number three, herewith:


title: Beale ciphers

text: The first deposit consisted of ten hundred and fourteen pounds of gold, and thirty-eight hundred and twelve pounds of silver, deposited Nov. eighteen nineteen. The second was made Dec. eighteen twenty-one, and consisted of nineteen hundred and seven pounds of gold, and twelve hundred and eighty-eight of silver; also jewels, obtained in St. Louis in exchange to save transportation, and valued at thirteen thousand dollars.


title: Beale ciphers

text: The above is securely packed in iron pots, with iron covers. The vault is roughly lined with stone, and the vessels rest on solid stone, and are covered with others. Paper number one describes the exact locality of the vault, so that no difficulty will be had in finding it.


title: Beale ciphers

text: The second cipher can be decrypted fairly easily using a modified copy of the United States Declaration of Independence, but some editing is necessary. To decrypt it, one finds the word corresponding to the number (e.g., the first number is 115, and the 115th word in the Declaration of Independence is "instituted"), and takes the first letter of that word (in the case of the example, "I").


title: Beale ciphers

text: Beale used a version of United States Declaration of Independence slightly different from the original, and made mistakes in numbering it. To extract the hidden message, the following five modifications must be applied to the original text:


title: Beale ciphers

text: Finally, in the decoded text there are six errors, probably due to wrong transcription of the original paper:


title: Beale ciphers

text: Additional Declaration differences affect paper number 1: word 210 of the modified text ("more") is shown as "now"; words 919 and 920 of the modified text ("fellow citizens") are shown hyphenated (also affects paper number 3); two extra words ("made" and "the") are shown in modified text positions 1058 and 1188; a word is removed ("of") after modified text position 1125. The other slight changes probably have no consequences.


title: Beale ciphers

text: Many versions of the Declaration of Independence have been printed, with various adjustments to paragraphing, word inclusion, word changing, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation.


title: Beale ciphers

text: The lack of clear images of the original ciphers, combined with the large quantity of numerals, has led to numerals being misprinted or omitted in many sources.


title: Beale ciphers

text: The Beale Papers text, on pages 20 to 21, gives an alleged translation of the second ciphertext, but it has nine differences from the actual one. The differences are shown here as {alleged decipherment | actual decipherment}:


title: Beale ciphers

text: I have deposited, in the county of Bedford, about four miles from Buford's, in an excavation or vault, six feet below the surface of the ground, the following articles, belonging jointly to the parties whose names are given in number {“3,” | three} herewith:


title: Beale ciphers

text: The first deposit consisted of {one thousand | ten hundred} and fourteen pounds of gold, and {three thousand | thirty-} eight hundred and twelve pounds of silver, deposited {November, 1819 | Nov. eighteen nineteen}. The second was made {December, 1821 | Dec. eighteen twenty-one}, and consisted of nineteen hundred and seven pounds of gold, and twelve hundred and eighty-eight {pounds | } of silver; also jewels, obtained in St. Louis in exchange {for silver | } to save transportation, and valued at {$13,000 | thirteen thousand dollars}.


title: Beale ciphers

text: The above is securely packed in iron pots, with iron covers. The vault is roughly lined with stone, and the vessels rest on solid stone, and are covered with others. Paper number {“1” | one} describes the exact locality of the vault, so that no difficulty will be had in finding it.


title: Beale ciphers

text: A translation of the Cipher from the actual Declaration of Independence shows in fact very poor spelling:


title: Beale ciphers

text: "I haie deposoted in the copntt ol bedoort aboup four miles from bulords in an epcaiation or iault six fest below the surlact of thh gtound ths fotlowing articiss beaonging joiotlt to the partfes whosl namfs ate giiet in number thrff httewith.."


title: Beale ciphers

text: The treasure's total weight is about 3 tons as described in inventory of the second cryptogram. This includes approximately 35,052 troy oz gold, 61,200 troy oz silver (worth about US$42 m and US$1 m, respectively, in January 2017) and jewels worth around US$220,000 in 2017.


title: Beale ciphers

text: There has been considerable debate over whether the remaining two ciphertexts are real or hoaxes. An early researcher, Carl Hammer of Sperry UNIVAC, used supercomputers of the late 1960s to analyze the ciphers and found that while the ciphers were poorly encoded, the two undeciphered ones did not show the patterns one would expect of randomly chosen numbers and probably encoded an intelligible text. Other questions remain about the authenticity of the pamphlet's account. In the words of one researcher "To me, the pamphlet story has all the earmarks of a fake . . . [There was] no evidence save the word of the unknown author of the pamphlet that he ever had the papers."


title: Beale ciphers

text: The pamphlet's background story has several implausibilities, and is based almost entirely on circumstantial evidence and hearsay.


title: Beale ciphers

text: There have been many attempts to break the remaining cipher(s). Most attempts have tried other historical texts as keys (e.g., Magna Carta, various books of the Bible, the U.S. Constitution, and the Virginia Royal Charter), assuming the ciphertexts were produced with some book cipher, but none have been recognized as successful to date. Breaking the cipher(s) may depend on random chance (as, for instance, stumbling upon a book key if the two remaining ciphertexts are actually book ciphers); so far, even the most skilled cryptanalysts who have attempted them have been defeated. Of course, Beale could have used a document that he had written himself for either or both of the remaining keys or either a document of his own or randomly selected characters for the third source, in either case rendering "any" further attempts to crack the codes useless.


title: Beale ciphers

text: A survey of U.S. Census records in 1810 shows two persons named Thomas Beale, in Connecticut and New Hampshire. However, the population schedules from the 1810 U.S. Census are completely missing for seven states, one territory, the District of Columbia, and 18 of the counties of Virginia. The 1820 U.S. Census has two persons named Thomas Beale, Captain Thomas Beale of the battle of New Orleans 1815 in Louisiana originally from Virginia Botetourt County – Fincastle area 12 miles from Bedford County and one in Tennessee, and a Thomas K. Beale in Virginia, but the population schedules are completely missing for three states and one territory.


title: Beale ciphers

text: Before 1850 the U.S. Census recorded the names of only the heads of households; others in the household were only counted. Beale, if he existed, may have been living in someone else's household.


title: Beale ciphers

text: In addition, a man named "Thomas Beall" appears in the customer lists of St. Louis Post Department in 1820. According to the pamphlet, Beale sent a letter from St. Louis in 1822.


title: Beale ciphers

text: Additionally, a Cheyenne legend exists about gold and silver being taken from the West and buried in mountains in the East, dating from roughly 1820.


title: Beale ciphers

text: Edgar Allan Poe has been suggested as the pamphlet's real author because he had an interest in cryptography. It was well known he placed notices of his abilities in the Philadelphia paper "Alexander's Weekly (Express) Messenger", inviting submissions of ciphers which he proceeded to solve. In 1843 he used a cryptogram as plot device in his short story "The Gold-Bug". From 1820, he was also living in Richmond, Virginia at the time of Beale's alleged encounters with Morriss. In February 1826 Poe enrolled as a student at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. But with mounting debts, Poe left for Boston in April 1827.


title: Beale ciphers

text: However, research and facts debunk Poe's authorship. He died in 1849, well before "The Beale Papers" were first published in 1885. The pamphlet also mentions the American Civil War that started in 1861. William Poundstone, an American author and skeptic, had stylometric analysis performed on the pamphlet for his 1983 book "Biggest Secrets", and found that Poe's prose is significantly different from the grammatical structure used by the author who wrote "The Beale Papers".


title: Beale ciphers

text: Another method to check the validity of the ciphers is to investigate some statistical aspects in different number bases. For example, one can investigate the frequency of the last digit in each number in the ciphers. These frequencies are not uniformly distributed – some digits are more common than others. This is true for all three ciphers.


title: Beale ciphers

text: However, if one considers a base that is relatively prime to 10, then the last digits of the numbers in the unsolved ciphers turn uniform – each digit is equally common. The frequency of the solved cipher stays non-uniform. This indicates a complex behaviour in the solved cipher as one might expect from an encoded message, while the unsolved ciphers have a simpler behaviour.


title: Beale ciphers

text: Humans have limited abilities when it comes to generating random numbers out of thin air. One explanation for the difference between base 10 and the other ones is that the numbers were produced by a human in base 10, which would mean that the ciphers are fraudulent.


title: Beale ciphers

text: Despite the Beale Papers' unproven veracity, treasure hunters have not been deterred from trying to find the vault. The "information" that there is buried treasure in Bedford County has stimulated many expeditions with shovels, and other implements of discovery, looking for likely spots. For more than a hundred years, people have been arrested for trespassing and unauthorized digging; some of them in groups as in the case of people from Pennsylvania in the 1990s.


title: Beale ciphers

text: Several digs were completed at the top of Porter's Mountain, one in the late 1980s with the land owner's permission as long as any treasure found was split 50/50. However, the treasure hunters only found Civil War artifacts. As the value of these artifacts paid for time and equipment rental, the expedition broke even.


title: Beale ciphers

text: The story has been the subject of multiple television documentaries, such as the UK's "Mysteries" series, a segment in the seventh special of "Unsolved Mysteries"; and the 2011 "Declaration of Independence" episode of the History Channel TV show "Brad Meltzer's Decoded". There are also several books, and considerable Internet activity. In 2014, the National Geographic TV show "The Numbers Game" referred to the Beale ciphers as one of the strongest passwords ever created. In 2015 the UKTV series "Myth Hunters" (also known as "Raiders of the Lost Past") devoted one of its season 3 episodes to the topic. Also in 2015, the Josh Gates series "Expedition Unknown" visited Bedford to investigate the Beale Ciphers and search for the treasure.


title: Beale ciphers

text: In 2010, an award-winning animated short film was made concerning the ciphers called "The Thomas Beale Cipher".


title: Vairamuthu

text: Vairamuthu Ramasamy (born 13 July 1953) is an Indian lyricist, poet, and novelist working in the Tamil film industry. He is a prominent figure in the Tamil literary world. A master's graduate from the Pachaiyappa's College in Chennai, he first worked as a translator, while also being a published poet. He entered the Tamil film industry in the year 1980, with the film "Nizhalgal", an Ilaiyaraaja musical, directed by Bharathiraja. During the course of his 40-year film career, he has written over 7,500 songs and poems which have won him seven National Awards, the most for any Indian lyricist. He has also been honored with a Padma Shri, a Padma Bhushan and a Sahitya Akademi Award, for his abundant literary output.


title: Vairamuthu

text: Vairamuthu was born on July 13, 1953, to Ramasamy and his wife Angammal, who were agriculturalists based in the village of Mettoor, in the district of Theni, Tamil Nadu. In 1957, his family was forced to move to Vadugapatti, another village in the Theni district, due to the construction of Vaigai Dam across the river Vaigai, which led to evacuation of 14 villages (including Mettur). In his new surroundings, he also took up agriculture in addition to his academics.


title: Vairamuthu

text: From a very young age, Vairamuthu was drawn towards the language and literature of Tamil. The Dravidian movement in Tamil Nadu during the 1960s, made a significant impression on his youth and he was inspired by several prominent individuals associated with language, such as Periyar E. V. Ramasamy, 'Perarignar' Annadurai, Kalaignar Mu. Karunanidhi, Subramania Bharathi, Bharathidasan and Kannadasan. He began writing poems from the age of ten and by his early teens, he was noted as a prominent orator and poet in his school. At the age of fourteen, he wrote a group of "venba" poems, having been inspired by Thiruvalluvar’s "Tirukkuṛaḷ".


title: Vairamuthu

text: During the stint of his under-graduation at Pachaiyappa’s College in Chennai, he was acclaimed as a speaker and poet. In his sophomore year, he published his first anthology of poems, titled "Vaigarai Megangal" ('Clouds at Dawn'), at the age of nineteen. The book was prescribed as part of the curriculum in the Women's Christian College, giving Vairamuthu the distinction of being a writer whose work was part of a syllabus, while he was still a student. He completed a 2 year Master's program in Arts in the field of Tamil literature at the Madras University.


title: Vairamuthu

text: After his education, he began his professional career at the Tamil Nadu Official Language Commission in the mid-1970s, as a translator of law books and documents from English to Tamil, working under Justice Maharajan. In addition to this, he continued writing poetry, bringing out a second anthology of poems in 1979, titled "Thiruthi Ezhuthiya Theerpugal" ('Revised and rewritten').


title: Vairamuthu

text: He is married to Ponmani, a Tamil scholar and former professor at the Meenakshi College for Women. They have two sons, Madhan Karky and Kabilan, who both work as lyricists and dialogue writers for Tamil films.


title: Vairamuthu

text: Upon reading his poems, he was signed on as a lyricist by the director Bharathiraja for the film "Nizhalgal" in the year 1980. The first song he wrote in his career, was "Pon Maalai Pozhuthu", which was composed by "Isaignani" Ilaiyaraaja and sung by S.P. Balasubrahmanyam. The first song of his that was released, was "Batrakali Uttamaseeli" (also composed by Ilaiyaraaja) from the film "Kaali", which was released four months before "Nizhalgal". Vairamuthu quit his career as a translator to work full-time in the film industry.


title: Vairamuthu

text: After "Nizhalgal", Vairamuthu and Ilaiyaraaja kicked off a successful collaboration which would last a little more than half a decade. Their joint association with director Bharathiraja, led to some of the most critically acclaimed soundtracks such as "Alaigal Oivathillai" (which won Vairamuthu his first Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Lyricist), "Kaadhal Oviyam", "Mann Vasanai", "Pudhumai Penn", "Oru Kaidhiyin Diary", "Muthal Mariyathai" (which won Vairamuthu his first National Award for Best Lyricist) and "Kadalora Kavithaigal". During the period he was working with Ilaiyaraaja, Vairamuthu collaborated with director Mani Ratnam for the first time in "Idhaya Kovil" in 1985, penning the song "Naan Padum Mouna Ragam" (which inspired the title of Ratnam's breakthrough "Mouna Ragam", which was released in the following year).


title: Vairamuthu

text: Besides their work with Bharathiraja, the combination of the lyricist and the composer tasted success with more soundtracks such as "Raja Paarvai", "Ninaivellam Nithya", "Nallavanukku Nallavan", "Salangai Oli" and "Sindhu Bhairavi" (the latter two yielding Ilaiyaraaja his first two National Awards for Music Direction).


title: Vairamuthu

text: Vairamuthu also worked as a lyricist with composer M.S. Viswanathan on the film "Thanneer Thanneer" and V. S. Narasimhan on the films "Achamillai Achamillai" and "Kalyana Agathigal". All three films were directed by K. Balachander.


title: Vairamuthu

text: In 1986, he debuted as screenwriter for the film "Natpu", directed by Ameerjan. He later had three further collaborations as a writer with the director in "Thulasi" (1987), "Vanna Kanavugal" (1987) and "Vanakkam Vathiyare" (1991). He also penned the dialogues for "Andru Peytha Mazhaiyil" (1989), which was directed by the National award-winning cinematographer Ashok Kumar.