title: Seconds (1966 film)

text: Tony and Nora host a cocktail party for neighbors. Tony gets drunk over the course of the night and begins to speak openly about his former identity. The male guests remove Tony to a bedroom, where he learns that they are also "reborns".


title: Seconds (1966 film)

text: Tony receives a phone call from Charlie, who warns him that he has put himself in danger by violating the Company's rules. Charlie also reveals that Nora is an employee of the Company who covertly helps new "reborns" to a smooth transition.


title: Seconds (1966 film)

text: Disenchanted by his new contrived life, Tony defiantly returns to New York. He arranges a meeting with Emily at his former home, claiming that he was once a friend of Arthur's. Emily shares that she felt Arthur was emotionally disconnected from his life and was in a constant state of longing that she could not understand. After the meeting, a melancholic Tony is met by associates of the Company, and he requests that they give him a different identity. They agree to do so, but only if he can provide them with another referral to the Company.


title: Seconds (1966 film)

text: Returning to the Company’s headquarters, Tony is placed in a waiting room with various other men, including his friend Charlie, all of whom have asked to undergo another 'rebirth'. An elated Charlie is chosen and is escorted from the waiting room. Frustrated at the unknown amount of time the men have been waiting to be chosen and being unable to think of anyone that he can refer to the Company, Arthur angrily demands that his procedure be performed without further delay.


title: Seconds (1966 film)

text: During the night, the owner of the Company discusses with Tony/Arthur his original purpose for founding the organization and assures him that the issues he has brought up will be looked into. As he is wheeled into the operating room, Dr. Morris gives his last rites. As Dr. Innes sedates him, he tells Arthur that he is to be killed, with his body to be staged as the corpse for a new client to be reborn.


title: Seconds (1966 film)

text: In the film "The Pervert's Guide to Ideology", the psychoanalytical Marxist philosopher Slavoj Žižek discusses the film as an example of what happens when desires are fulfilled.


title: Seconds (1966 film)

text: Frankenheimer had recently completed several successful films prior to his involvement with the project, namely "Birdman of Alcatraz" (1962), "The Manchurian Candidate" (1962), and "Seven Days in May" (1964). These last two films together with "Seconds" are sometimes referred to as Frankenheimer's 'paranoia trilogy'.


title: Seconds (1966 film)

text: For the central role of Antiochus "Tony" Wilson, Frankenheimer had sought Kirk Douglas, whose company, Joel Productions, was producing the film. When Douglas was unavailable due to other commitments, Frankenheimer offered the role to Laurence Olivier. After reading the screenplay, Olivier agreed to take the part, but Paramount Pictures objected to the casting, believing that Olivier was not a big enough star at the time. Hudson was ultimately cast in the feature, despite attempts by friends and colleagues to dissuade him. He wanted to expand his range, feeling that he had been typecast because of his work in numerous romantic comedies. "He was one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met," Frankenheimer recounted. "He really wanted to do this picture, but he would only do it as the second character. He didn’t think he could handle the older character."


title: Seconds (1966 film)

text: Principal photography of "Seconds" began on June 14, 1965, on a budget of $2.5 million. Filming primarily occurred in Malibu, California, where much of the film is set, with additional photography occurring in Scarsdale, New York, where the first act of the film takes place, as well as New York City. In order to successfully shoot a transition sequence in Grand Central Station, Frankenheimer hired a Playboy Bunny to pose as an actress filming a scene, during which she stripped down into a bikini in the terminal; this distracted onlookers, allowing Frankenheimer to successfully capture the footage he needed without interruption. The Dionysian-themed party sequence was shot on location with a handheld camera in Santa Barbara, California, during an annual wine festival held there.


title: Seconds (1966 film)

text: The director of photography for "Seconds" was James Wong Howe, who pioneered novel techniques in black-and-white cinematography, and whose career spanned nearly five decades. While shooting the sequences inside The Company's headquarters (which were constructed on the Paramount Studios lot), Howe employed an innovative system, which featured "complete lighting of sets for closeups, long shots, etc., sans separate setups, plus the use of ceilinged sets." Filming was completed in August 1965.


title: Seconds (1966 film)

text: The opening titles of the film were designed by Saul Bass, using Helvetica set in white over optically warped black-and-white motion picture photography. During the editing process, Frankenheimer chose to excise a scene in which Arthur meets with his daughter in California after his transformation into Tony. Frankenheimer's wife, Evans Evans, portrayed Arthur's daughter in the scene. Frankenheimer later lamented his decision to remove the scene from the film, suggesting that it weakened the second act.


title: Seconds (1966 film)

text: Additionally, a sequence in which Arthur encounters a father and his young daughter on the beach was removed from the final cut. A brief portion appears as the film's final shot, which Arthur recounts as he dies. The film's screenwriter, Lewis John Carlino, confirmed this in a 1997 interview: "That refers to a previous scene that was also cut. Hudson encounters a father and his young daughter on the beach. It’s the key scene for me. Without it, the last image doesn’t make sense."


title: Seconds (1966 film)

text: "Seconds" premiered at the 1966 Cannes Film Festival on May 16, 1966, where it was nominated for the prestigious Palme d'Or. Despite the nomination, the film was not well-received by the audience, and its screening ended with boos of disapproval.


title: Seconds (1966 film)

text: The film premiered in the United States in New York City on October 5, 1966, and opened in Los Angeles the following month, on November 9, 1966.


title: Seconds (1966 film)

text: Paramount Pictures, the American distributor of the film, demanded that Frankenheimer cut approximately seven minutes of the film for its release in the United States. The footage that was ultimately excised for the American theatrical release consisted of the grape-stomping sequence that occurs at the party Arthur attends with Nora. The sequence, which features full-frontal nudity from the various extras, was deemed too controversial by the studio. Frankenheimer recalled: "The Catholic Church objected to the nudity, so it was cut. But it made the grape-stomping [seem] like an orgy. That was not my intention. It was supposed to be a release for [Arthur]."


title: Seconds (1966 film)

text: The original 107-minute cut of the film had only been shown in Europe until May 1997, when the film was rereleased in the United States in its full form to commemorate its thirtieth anniversary.


title: Seconds (1966 film)

text: "Seconds" performed poorly on its initial American release, and was considered a box office bomb. The film grossed an estimated $1.75 million in U.S. and Canadian rentals.


title: Seconds (1966 film)

text: A reviewer in "Time" commented: "Director John Frankenheimer and veteran photographer James Wong Howe manage to give the most improbable doings a look of credible horror. Once Rock appears, though, the spell is shattered, and through no fault of his own. Instead of honestly exploring the ordeal of assuming a second identity, the script subsides for nearly an hour into conventional Hollywood fantasy. [...] "Seconds" has moments, and that's too bad, in a way. But for its soft and flabby midsection, it might have been one of the trimmest shockers of the year."


title: Seconds (1966 film)

text: "Seconds" has since gained an overall positive reaction, currently holding a 79% "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 61 reviews. Rotten Tomatoes' consensus reads: "Featuring dazzling, disorienting cinematography from the great James Wong Howe and a strong lead performance by Rock Hudson, "Seconds" is a compellingly paranoid take on the legend of Faust."


title: Seconds (1966 film)

text: Writing in "Time Out New York", Andrew Johnston observed: ""Seconds" is easily one of the most subversive films ever to have come out of Hollywood: Even as it exposes the folly of selfishly abandoning one's commitments, it also makes a passionate case for following one's heart and rejecting conformity. [...] This chilling portrayal of a well-meaning guy stuck in a Kafkaesque nightmare is unlike anything else [Hudson] did."


title: Seconds (1966 film)

text: "Seconds" was released on home video for the first time in May 1997. The film was released on DVD on January 8, 2002, and later went out of print. The Criterion Collection released a newly restored version of "Seconds" on DVD and Blu-ray on August 13, 2013.


title: Seconds (1966 film)

text: In the years since its release, "Seconds" has earned a reputation as a cult film. Directors Park Chan-Wook and Bong Joon-Ho have stated that it is one of their favorite movies.


title: Seconds (1966 film)

text: "Seconds" became known for its connection to Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys. According to the October 1967 magazine article "Goodbye Surfing, Hello God!", he arrived late to a theater showing of the film, whereupon he appeared to be greeted with the onscreen dialogue, "Come in, Mr. Wilson." He was convinced for some time that rival producer Phil Spector, one of the investors in "Seconds", was using the film to taunt him, and had based it on Wilson's recent traumatic experiences and intellectual pursuits. Wilson noted that "even the beach was in it, a whole thing about the beach." In 1967, Wilson's deteriorating mental state would be one reason for his shelving the Beach Boys album "Smile". He reportedly was so disturbed by "Seconds" that he did not visit another movie theater until he saw 1982's "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial".


title: Gulaal (film)

text: Gulaal (gulal, Crimson) is a 2009 Indian Hindi-language socio-political drama film directed by Anurag Kashyap, starring Raj Singh Chaudhary, Kay Kay Menon, Abhimanyu Singh, Deepak Dobriyal, Ayesha Mohan, Jesse Randhawa, Piyush Mishra and Aditya Srivastava. It explores themes such as pursuit of power, quest for legitimacy, perceived injustices and hypocrisy of the powerful. The film is set in present-day Rajasthan, a state in northwestern India. The plot is provided by student politics of a university and a fictitious secessionist movement consisting of former Rajput leaders who have become present-day elite. "Gulaal" was initially stalled due to financial concerns but was later released with support from Zee Limelight.


title: Gulaal (film)

text: In the fictional town of Rajpur, Dilip (Raj Singh Chaudhary), a law student who is a Rajput from Bikaner, secures housing in an old, run-down British-era pub. There, Dilip meets Rananjay Singh "Ransa" (Abhimanyu Singh), a prince who despises the ideologies of his father and the aristocracy. Ransa's fiery and fearless personality makes an impression on the mild-mannered Dilip.


title: Gulaal (film)

text: Dilip visits the university hostel where he is ragged by a gang of university thugs, led by Jadwal (Pankaj Jha). They strip him and lock him in a room with Anuja (Jesse Randhawa), a young lecturer in the same university. Dilip and Anuja are released naked. Dilip's brother advises him to let it go, but Ransa disagrees and encourages Dilip to seek revenge. Initially reluctant, Dilip gives in and goes with Ransa to attack Jadwal, but the tables are turned and Dilip and Ransa are beaten, ragged, and thrown out of the hostel. Ransa meets Dukey Banna (Kay Kay Menon), a local leader who is gathering support for the Rajputana separatist movement, who promises protection from Jadwal. When Ransa and Dilip find themselves outnumbered by Jadwal's gang, Dukey intervenes and rescues them. Dukey convinces Ransa to contest the General Secretary elections at the university, where his opponent is Kiran, his (out-of-wedlock) half-sister.


title: Gulaal (film)

text: Ransa is kidnapped by Kiran's brother Karan (Aditya Srivastava), who asks him to withdraw from the elections. When Ransa refuses and mocks him, Karan kills him. Dukey forces Dilip to take Ransa's place in the election, and bribes the electoral panel to rig the count in Dilip's favour. Dilip wins the election to become the general secretary. Kiran then seduces Dilip and convinces him to allow her to become the cultural secretary. Dukey starts using university funds for the Rajputana movement, which Dilip ostensibly controls. When Dilip discovers the funds being siphoned out, he confronts Dukey, who tells Dilip about the separatist movement. Dilip tries to reason with Dukey but realizes that he holds no leverage in the situation.


title: Gulaal (film)

text: Dukey's gang kills Jadwal and Dukey shows the body to Dilip to intimidate him and keep him in line. Anuja is thrown out of the hostel and moves in with Dilip, who is also pursuing a relationship with Kiran. When Kiran accidentally gets pregnant, she gets an abortion and ends her relationship with Dilip. Anuja tries to explain to Dilip that Kiran has no interest in him or in traditional married life. A frustrated Dilip resigns from his post, allowing Kiran steps in. An irate Dukey threatens Karan and Kiran by telling them that the only reason they're alive is because they are the king's offspring. Kiran tries to seduce Dukey, but they are interrupted by Dukey's second-in-command, Bhati.


title: Gulaal (film)

text: Dilip, blinded by his love for Kiran, becomes violent and aggressive. He finds out about Kiran and Dukey's relationship from Dukey's mistress Madhuri. In a fit of rage, he goes to Dukey's house and shoots him. While dying, Dukey tells him that Kiran used Dilip to get to him. Karan reveals his masterplan: once Dukey Banna is eliminated, the Rajputana movement will choose him as their leader and legitimize him. Karan's gang decide to eliminate Bhati so that Dukey's defenses will be weakened. Dilip wants to hear the truth from Kiran, but she refuses to answer his calls. When Bhati goes off to find her, he is killed by Karan's gang. Dilip finds Kiran, who confirms that she used him, but he cannot bring himself to kill her. In his indecision, he is shot and mortally wounded by Karan's gang. He manages to drag himself home and dies there, alone. The film ends with Karan as the head of the Rajputana movement, while Kiran sheds a tear as one of the loyal faithful.


title: Gulaal (film)

text: Production on "Gulaal" began in 2001, when Anurag Kashyap was listening to songs from "Pyaasa" and his film "Paanch" was struggling with censors.


title: Gulaal (film)

text: Inspired by Mohammad Rafi songs from "Pyaasa" ("Yeh duniya agar mil bhi jaaye to kya hai") and "Zeenat" ("Haye re duniya") the film is a dedication to Sahir Ludhianvi, the lyricist of the song and all other poets who had a vision of India. The story was partially based on a story idea by Raj Singh Chaudhary who eventually played the role of Dilip Singh in the film. The film was delayed for three years. It was released in March 2009. The first trailer was released with the director's other movie "Dev D".


title: Gulaal (film)

text: "Gulaal" received positive reviews from critics. Anupama Chopra of NDTV gave three stars and referred to Anurag Kashyap as Anti-Yash Chopra. Raja Sen of Rediff.com gave it three stars and said that "fantastically watchable film that scores high on moments." Nikhat Kazmi gave three stars and said that "the film scores in having taut performances and a gritty screenplay as well." Noyon Jyoti Parasara of AOL.in gave the film 3.5 stars and said "Anurag scripts every character cleverly providing an identity to even the smallest characters and also a contrast in form of another character – true playwright style. He even has the jesters coming in to bring some comic relief but also more importantly they bring in a message."


title: Gulaal (film)

text: It was screened at the 2009 London Film Festival. Since then, the film has gained significant cult following.


title: Gulaal (film)

text: "Gulaal" is one of the films featured in Avijit Ghosh's book "40 Retakes: Bollywood Classics You May Have Missed".


title: Gulaal (film)

text: Although the critics' reviews were favourable, the movie opened to only 30 percent capacity during its first week in theatres across India. In addition, word of mouth was poor, which could lead to slowdown at the box office for its runs in the weeks that followed. Box Office India stated that "Gulaal" netted in its first week, which was below expectations. The opening, at around 30% occupancy, was poor, though marginally better than some other recent films.


title: Taliban insurgency

text: The Taliban insurgency was an insurgency that began after the group's fall from power during the 2001 War in Afghanistan. The Taliban forces fought against the Afghan government, led by President Hamid Karzai, and later by President Ashraf Ghani, and against a US-led coalition of forces that has included all members of NATO; the 2021 Taliban offensive resulted in the collapse of the government of Ashraf Ghani.


title: Taliban insurgency

text: The insurgency had spread to some degree over the border to neighboring Pakistan, in particular Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The Taliban conducted warfare against Afghan National Security Forces and their NATO allies, as well as against civilian targets. Regional countries, particularly Pakistan, Iran, China and Russia, were often accused of funding and supporting the insurgent groups.


title: Taliban insurgency

text: The allied Haqqani Network, Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin (until 2016), and smaller al-Qaeda groups had also been part of the Taliban insurgency.


title: Taliban insurgency

text: Following the United States invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, the Taliban was defeated and many Taliban fighters left the movement or retreated to sanctuaries in the country of Pakistan. In May and June 2003, high-ranking Taliban officials proclaimed that the Taliban regrouped and were ready to wage a guerrilla war in order to expel US forces from Afghanistan. Omar assigned five operational zones to Taliban commanders such as Dadullah. Dadullah took charge in Zabul province.


title: Taliban insurgency

text: In late 2004, the then hidden Taliban leader Mohammed Omar announced that the Taliban were launching an insurgency against "America and its puppets" (i.e. transitional Afghan government forces) in order to "regain the sovereignty of our country".


title: Taliban insurgency

text: The Taliban spent several years regrouping, and launched a re-escalation of the insurgency campaign in 2006.


title: Taliban insurgency

text: As of 2018, the Taliban was composed of four different shuras, or representative councils. The first is the Quetta Shura. Two smaller shuras are subordinated to it, the Haqqani network (also known as the Miran Shah Shura) and the Peshawar Shura. The Peshawar Shura was established in March 2005, and is based in eastern Afghanistan. The majority of its fighters are former members of the Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin. The Haqqani network declared its autonomy from the Quetta Shura in 2007, and rejoined in August 2015. The Peshawar Shura was autonomous from 2009 until 2016.


title: Taliban insurgency

text: The second autonomous shura is the Shura of the North, based in Badakhshan Province. The third is the Mashhad Shura, sponsored by Iran, and the fourth is the Rasool Shura, led by Muhammad Rasul and also known as the High Council of the Islamic Emirate.


title: Taliban insurgency

text: While the pre-2001 Taliban suppressed opium production, the current insurgency "relies on opium revenues to purchase weapons, train its members, and buy support." In 2001, Afghanistan produced only 11% of the world's opium. Today it produces over 80% of the global crop, and the drug trade accounts for half of Afghanistan's GDP. However, later estimates show that drugs might not be the major source of income of the Taliban. Taxation and mineral sales under the group's shadow governments since 2001 have also been major sources.


title: Taliban insurgency

text: On 28 July 2009, Richard Holbrooke, the United States special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, said that money transfers from Western Europe and the Gulf States exceeded the drug trade earnings and that a new task force had been formed to shut down this source of funds.


title: Taliban insurgency

text: The United States Agency for International Development is investigating the possibility that kickbacks from its contracts are being funneled to the Taliban.


title: Taliban insurgency

text: A report by the London School of Economics (LSE) claimed to provide the most concrete evidence yet that the Pakistani intelligence agency ISI is providing funding, training and sanctuary to the Taliban on a scale much larger than previously thought. The report's author Matt Waldman spoke to nine Taliban field commanders in Afghanistan and concluded that Pakistan's relationship with the insurgents ran far deeper than previously realized. Some of those interviewed suggested that the organization even attended meetings of the Taliban's supreme council, the Quetta Shura. A spokesman for the Pakistani military dismissed the report, describing it as "malicious".


title: Taliban insurgency

text: The Taliban's victory was facilitated in support from Pakistan. Although Pakistan was a major US ally before and after the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, elements of the Pakistan government (including the military and intelligence services) have for decades maintained strong logistical and tactical ties with Taliban militants, and this support helped support the insurgency in Afghanistan. For example, the Haqqani Network, a Taliban affiliate based on Pakistan, had strong support from Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the Pakistan intelligence agency. Taliban leaders found a safe haven in Pakistan, lived in the country, transacted business and earned funds there, and receiving medical treatment there. Some elements of the Pakistani establishment sympathized with Taliban ideology, and many Pakistan officials considered the Taliban as an asset against India. Bruce Riedel noted that "The Pakistani army believes Afghanistan provides strategic depth against India, which is their obsession."


title: Taliban insurgency

text: In 2007, Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf admitted Taliban getting cross-border aid and said that "There is no doubt Afghan militants are supported from Pakistan soil. The problem that you have in your region is because support is provided from our side."


title: Taliban insurgency

text: Pakistan's Interior minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmad on 1 September 2021, said in an interview with "Hum News" that "All top Taliban leaders were born and brought up in Pakistan. This has been our 'service' that we trained them and many more might be studying."


title: Taliban insurgency

text: Dr. Antonio Giustozzi, a senior research fellow at Royal United Services Institute on terrorism and conflict, wrote, "Both the Russians and the Iranians helped the Taliban advance at a breakneck pace in May–August 2021. They contributed to funding and equipping them, but perhaps even more importantly they helped them by brokering deals with parties, groups and personalities close to either country, or even both. [...] The Revolutionary Guards helped the Taliban's advance in western Afghanistan, including by lobbying various strongmen and militia commanders linked to Iran not to resist the Taliban."


title: Taliban insurgency

text: Following the Battle of Tora Bora and Operation Anaconda, the Taliban was defeated and many Taliban fighters left the movement or retreated to sanctuaries in Pakistan, where they began the initial stages of re-grouping.


title: Taliban insurgency

text: Pamphlets by Taliban and other groups turned up strewn in towns and the countryside in early 2003, urging Islamic faithful to rise up against US forces and other foreign soldiers in holy war. On 27 January 2003, during Operation Mongoose (War in Afghanistan), a band of fighters were assaulted by US forces at the Adi Ghar cave complex north of Spin Boldak. Eighteen rebels were reported killed with no US casualties. The site was suspected to be a base for supplies and fighters coming from Pakistan. The first isolated attacks by relatively large Taliban bands on Afghan targets also appeared around that time.


title: Taliban insurgency

text: In May 2003, the Taliban Supreme Court's chief justice, Abdul Salam, proclaimed that the Taliban were back, regrouped, rearmed, and ready for guerrilla war to expel US forces from Afghanistan. Omar assigned five operational zones to Taliban commanders such as Dadullah, who took charge in Zabul province.


title: Taliban insurgency

text: Small mobile Taliban training camps were established along the border to train recruits in guerrilla warfare, according to senior Taliban warrior Mullah Malang in June 2003. Most were drawn from tribal area madrassas in Pakistan. Bases, a few with as many as 200 fighters, emerged in the tribal areas by the summer of 2003. Pakistani will to prevent infiltration was uncertain, while Pakistani military operations proved of little use.


title: Taliban insurgency

text: As the summer of 2003 continued, Taliban attacks gradually increased in frequency. Dozens of Afghan government soldiers, NGO humanitarian workers, and several US soldiers died in the raids, ambushes and rocket attacks. Besides guerrilla attacks, Taliban fighters began building up forces in the district of Dai Chopan in Zabul Province. The Taliban decided to make a stand there. Over the course of the summer, up to 1,000 guerrillas moved there. Over 220 people, including several dozen Afghan police, were killed in August 2003.


title: Taliban insurgency

text: Operation Valiant Strike was a major United States military ground operation in Afghanistan announced on 19 March 2003 that involved 2nd and 3rd battalions of 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, Romanian and Afghan troops. The combined forces moved through Kandahar and parts of Southern Afghanistan with the objective of eliminating Taliban enemy forces and weapons caches while also attempting to gather intelligence on Taliban activity in the area. At the conclusion of the operation on 24 March 2003, coalition forces had detained 13 suspected Taliban fighters and confiscated more than 170 rocket-propelled grenades, 180 land mines, 20 automatic rifles and machine guns, as well as many rockets, rifles, and launchers.


title: Taliban insurgency

text: United States led-coalition forces carried out Operation Asbury Park on 2 June 2004, and 17 June 2004, of taskforce 1/6 BLT of the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit engaged in fighting with Taliban and other anti-coalition forces in both Oruzgan Province and Zabul Province culminating in the Dai Chopan region of Afghanistan. This operation was characterized by atypical fighting on the side of the tactics of the Taliban and the other guerillas encountered. culminating in a large battle on 8 June. During "Asbury Park", the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit was faced with an opponent that frequently would dig in and engage the Marine forces, rather than the traditional hit and run (or "asymmetric attack") methods. As such, Marines, with the aid of B-1B Lancer, A-10 Warthog, and AH-64 Apache aircraft, engaged in "pitched battles each day," culminating in a large battle on 8 June. The last of the fighting which took place near Dai Chopan on 8 June was decisive in that enemy forces were depleted to such an extent that no further contact was made with the enemy for the duration of the operation. What was meant by the enemy to be a three pronged attack 8 June 2004 resulted in over eighty-five confirmed kills, with estimates well in excess of 100 enemy dead, an estimated 200–300 wounded, with dozens captured. While throughout the entire operation a "handful" of US forces and Afghan Militia were injured.


title: Taliban insurgency

text: In late 2004, the then hidden Taliban leader Mohammed Omar announced an insurgency against "America and its puppets" (i.e. transitional Afghan government forces) to "regain the sovereignty of our country".


title: Taliban insurgency

text: In late June through mid-July 2005, United States Navy Seals carried out Operation Red Wings as a combined / joint military operation in the Pech District of Afghanistan's Kunar Province, on the slopes of a mountain named Sawtalo Sar, approximately west of Kunar's provincial capital of Asadabad, . Operation Red Wings was intended to disrupt local Taliban anti-coalition militia (ACM) activity, thus contributing to regional stability and thereby facilitating the Afghan Parliament elections scheduled for September 2005. At the time, Taliban anti-coalition militia activity in the region was carried out most notably by a small group, led by a local man from Nangarhar Province, Ahmad Shah, who had aspirations of regional Islamic fundamentalist prominence. He and his small group were among the primary targets of the operation.


title: Taliban insurgency

text: In between 13 and 18 August 2005, United States Marine Corps carried out a military operation, called Operation Whalers that took place in Afghanistan's Kunar Province, just weeks after the disastrous Operation Red Wings. Like Operation Red Wings, the objective of Operation Whalers was the disruption of Taliban Anti-Coalition Militia (ACM) activity in the region in support of further stabilizing the region for unencumbered voter turnout for the September 18, 2005 Afghan National Parliamentary Elections. Operation Whalers was planned and executed by the 2nd Battalion of the 3rd Marine Regiment (2/3). The emphasis of the operation was an Anti-Coalition Militia cell led by Ahmad Shah, which was one of 22 identified ACM groups operating in the region at that time, and was the most active. Ahmad Shah's cell was responsible for the Navy SEAL ambush and subsequent MH-47 shootdown that killed, in total, 19 US special operations personnel during Operation Red Wings. Operation Whalers, named after the Hartford / New England Whalers professional hockey team, was the "sequel" to Operation Red Wings in that it was aimed at furthering stabilization of the security situation in the restive Kunar Province of Eastern Afghanistan, a long-term goal of American and coalition forces operating in the area at that time. Operation Whalers, conducted by a number of Marine infantry companies of 2/3 with attached Afghan National Army soldiers and supported by conventional Army aviation, intelligence, and combat arms forces units and US Air Force aviation assets, proved a success. Taliban Anti-Coalition Militia activity dropped substantially and subsequent human intelligence and signals intelligence revealed that Ahmad Shah had been seriously wounded. Shah, who sought to disrupt the September 18, 2005 Afghan National Parliamentary Elections, was not able to undertake any significant Taliban Anti-Coalition operations subsequent to Operation Whalers in Kunar or neighboring provinces.


title: Taliban insurgency

text: In 2006, Afghanistan began facing a wave of attacks by improvised explosives and suicide bombers, particularly after NATO took command of the fight against insurgents in spring 2006.


title: Taliban insurgency

text: Afghan President Hamid Karzai publicly condemned the methods used by the western powers. In June 2006 he said:


title: Taliban insurgency

text: Insurgents were also criticized for their conduct. According to Human Rights Watch, bombing and other attacks on Afghan civilians by the Taliban (and to a lesser extent Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin), are reported to have "sharply escalated in 2006" with "at least 669 Afghan civilians were killed in at least 350 armed attacks, most of which appear to have been intentionally launched at civilians or civilian objects." 131 of insurgent attacks were suicide attacks which killed 212 civilians (732 wounded), 46 Afghan army and police members (101 wounded), and 12 foreign soldiers (63 wounded).


title: Taliban insurgency

text: The United Nations estimated that for the first half of 2011, the civilian deaths rose by 15% and reached 1462, which is the worst death toll since the beginning of the war and despite the surge of foreign troops.


title: Taliban insurgency

text: The US warned that in 2008 the Taliban has "coalesced into a resilient insurgency", and would "maintain or even increase the scope and pace of its terrorist attacks". Attacks by Taliban insurgents in eastern Afghanistan increased by 40% when compared to the same period in 2007.


title: Taliban insurgency

text: During 2009 the Taliban regained control over the countryside of several Afghan provinces. In August 2009, Taliban commanders in the province of Helmand started issuing ""visa"" from the "Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan" in order to allow travel to and from the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah.


title: Taliban insurgency

text: During 2010, the Taliban were ousted from parts of Helmand Province by the ISAF Operation Moshtarak that started in February 2010. In the meantime the Taliban insurgency spread to the northern provinces of the country. The new policy of the Taliban was to shift militants from the south to the north, to show they exist ""everywhere"", according to Faryab Province Governor Abdul Haq Shafaq. With most Afghan and NATO troops stationed in the southern and eastern provinces, villagers in the once-peaceful north found themselves confronted with a rapid deterioration of security, as insurgents seized new territory in provinces such as Kunduz and Baghlan, and even infiltrated the mountains of Badakhshan Province in the northeast.


title: Taliban insurgency

text: The Taliban continued attacking and ambushing NATO and Afghan troops as well as the targeted assassination of government officials.


title: Taliban insurgency

text: On 3 April, Taliban gunmen and bombers attacked Farah, killing 34 civilians and 10 members of the security forces. Nine attackers were killed.


title: Taliban insurgency

text: In Kabul in June, a Taliban suicide car bomber killed 16 people on the 11th. Gunmen and bombers killed three security guards on the 25th; eight attackers were killed.


title: Taliban insurgency

text: On 13 September, Taliban gunmen and bombers killed eight security guards and a policeman in Herat. All seven attackers were killed.


title: Taliban insurgency

text: As the American troops began to depart, and the number of Taliban attacks increased, there was speculation that the Taliban were waiting for an American withdrawal before launching a major offensive.


title: Taliban insurgency

text: 2015 saw the Taliban make various gains in Afghanistan in an attempt to fracture the fledgling Afghan government with successes not seen since NATO intervened in 2001. The Taliban has increased suicide attacks and has made multiple territorial gains across the country.


title: Taliban insurgency

text: Beginning in April, the Taliban fought for the city of Kunduz in the northern Kunduz Province with them capturing the city by September. Afghan Armed Forces recaptured the city in October but local sources dispute this claim. The quick fall of the city resulted in calls by some government officials for President Ashraf Ghani and CEO Abdullah Abdullah to resign.


title: Taliban insurgency

text: In December, the Taliban made more territorial gains by besieging Afghan forces in the cities of Lashkar Gah, Sangin and outlying towns in the Helmand Province in Southern Afghanistan. By late December, most of Sangin was captured by the Taliban with local Afghan forces surrounded and forced to rely on airlifts for ammunition and food.


title: Taliban insurgency

text: The gains made by the Taliban have hampered peace talks between them and the government and made rifts appear in the Taliban over negotiations. In response to the new offensives, it was reported that the United States would slow down their withdrawal of troops to help in counter-insurgency operations.


title: Taliban insurgency

text: On 10 January, the Taliban killed dozens of people in bombings in Kabul and Lashkargah, Helmand Province.


title: Taliban insurgency

text: On 21 April, a least 10 Taliban members attacked Camp Shaheen in Mazar-i-Sharif, Balkh Province, killing at least 140 soldiers. All attackers were killed.


title: Taliban insurgency

text: On 27 January, a Taliban suicide bomber killed over 100 people in Kabul using a bomb in an ambulance.


title: Taliban insurgency

text: Throughout most of the year, the US government maintained high-level talks with the Taliban, in an effort to secure a peace deal with the insurgency. However, a suicide bombing in Kabul on 7 September 2019 which killed 11 people and one American soldier prompted the US president to break-off peace talks with the Taliban. In mid September, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo alleged that the Taliban had suffered more than 1,000 war casualties in the space of only one week since the US broke off peace negotiations with the Taliban.


title: Taliban insurgency

text: On 29 February, the US–Taliban deal was signed in Doha, Qatar. The agreement called for the withdrawal of all 13,000 US and allied troops over the next 14 months, on the condition that the Taliban continues with the peace process. The first withdrawal, of around 5,000 personnel, would occur within the next 135 days.


title: Taliban insurgency

text: The peace deal stipulated that the Taliban not allow terrorist organizations like al-Qaeda "to use the soil of Afghanistan to threaten the security of the United States and its allies." If successful, the peace deal will bring an end to 18-years of conflict. Only days after signing the historic deal, US forces conducted airstrikes on Taliban soldiers as a "defensive" measure, as Taliban fighters were "actively attacking" an Afghan government checkpoint.


title: Taliban insurgency

text: On 2 May, the US revealed that the agreement included an informal commitment for both sides to cut violence by 80%. Since the agreement was signed, attacks on cities and coalition forces had decreased, but overall attacks had increased 70% compared with the same period in 2019, according to "Reuters". The Taliban claim that attacks have fallen since the agreement was signed.


title: Taliban insurgency

text: On 14 May, a Taliban suicide truck bomber killed five civilians in Gardez, Paktia Province. On 18 May, the Taliban killed nine people in a similar attack in Ghazni Province.


title: Taliban insurgency

text: On 29 May, it was revealed that numerous Taliban and Taliban-aligned Haqqani Network leaders were infected with COVID-19. This resulted in the late founder Mullah Mohammad Omar's son Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob being made the entire organization's acting leader.


title: Taliban insurgency

text: In 2021, the United States forces and allies started to withdraw from Afghanistan which allowed the Taliban to intensify their insurgency.


title: Taliban insurgency

text: On 16 June, the Taliban executed 22 soldiers from the Afghan National Army as they tried to surrender; local eyewitnesses stated that the language the militants used among themselves was foreign, indicating that the fighters were not from the area.


title: Taliban insurgency

text: On 29 June, intense fighting between Taliban insurgents and government forces killed 28 civilians and injured another 290 during the past week, according to the head of a hospital in Kunduz, with the majority of the dead being children, women and elderly people. The Taliban had moved beyond its southern strongholds and had intensified the fighting in the north, according to military experts.


title: Taliban insurgency

text: On 2 July, US troops fully left Bagram Airfield, handing it to the Afghan Armed Forces as the coalition, including the US, prepared to leave Afghanistan after 20 years. Meanwhile, fighting continued between the Taliban and government forces, with analysts said that the Taliban would be "at the door of Kabul". Afterwards, Bagram Airfield was looted by locals following the sudden American withdrawal from the airbase, which was conducted without any coordination with local officials. Afghan troops later cleared the airbase of looters and secured control of it.


title: Taliban insurgency

text: However, it was reported that, during June, the Taliban captured 700 Humvees as well as dozens of armored vehicles and artillery systems from the Afghan National Army as more districts fall under the group's control during their offensive in the north.


title: Taliban insurgency

text: On 4 July, the Taliban took control of several further districts overnight as Afghan troops abandoned their posts and fled into neighboring Tajikistan via Badakhshan Province. The State Committee for National Security of Tajikistan reported that more than 300 Afghan troops crossed the Tajik border as Taliban spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid confirmed that most of the territory gaining occurred without a fight.


title: Taliban insurgency

text: On 5 July, Afghan presidential advisor Hamdullah Mohib said that there would be a counter-offensive against the Taliban in the north after the group captured six districts in Badakhshan Province. A day earlier, at least 1,037 Afghan troops abandoned their positions and fled into Tajikistan.


title: Taliban insurgency

text: On 7 July, Taliban insurgents entered Qala e Naw, the provincial capital of Badghis Province, with heavy fighting reported as the militants moved "towards the centre of the city". All government officials in the city had been moved to a nearby army base, while the Taliban had freed about 400 prisoners from the city's prison.


title: Taliban insurgency

text: On 9 July, the Taliban captured the border town of Islam Qala, Herat, Afghanistan's biggest border crossing with Iran. On the same day, Taliban insurgents captured the border town of Torghundi on the border with Turkmenistan as the Afghan National Security Forces collapsed in Herat. The Interior Ministry said that troops had been "temporarily relocated" and that efforts were underway to recapture the border crossing. In addition, a spokesperson for Kandahar Province Governor Rohullah Khanzada mentioned that the Taliban had started fighting to capture the city of Kandahar.


title: Taliban insurgency

text: On 3 August, a suicide car bomber and gunmen attacked Kabul. Eight people were killed, not including the attackers.


title: Taliban insurgency

text: On 9 August, #SanctionPakistan became one of the top Twitter trends in Afghanistan and worldwide, with Afghans holding Pakistan responsible for its support of the Taliban.


title: Taliban insurgency

text: On 12 August, about two-thirds of the country was in Taliban hands, with only four cities outside of Taliban control. Sectors of the United States government (CIA) estimated that Kabul would fall within 90 days, and American diplomats were reportedly requesting that the Taliban not deface the American embassy there.


title: Taliban insurgency

text: The end of the Taliban insurgency resulted in the beginning of a new insurgency against the restored Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan by the National Resistance Front and allied groups which fight under the banner of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.


title: Rhapsody of Fire

text: Rhapsody of Fire (formerly known as Rhapsody) is an Italian symphonic power metal band formed by Luca Turilli and Alex Staropoli, widely seen as a pioneer of the symphonic power metal subgenre.


title: Rhapsody of Fire

text: Since forming in 1993 as Thundercross, the band has released twelve studio albums, two live albums, three EPs, and a Live DVD. Rhapsody of Fire is known for its conceptual lyrics that constitute a fantasy story throughout all of their albums from 1997 to 2011. After using the moniker of Rhapsody for nearly ten years, the band changed its name to Rhapsody of Fire in 2006 due to trademark issues.


title: Rhapsody of Fire

text: In 2011, following the release of their album "From Chaos to Eternity" which concluded The Dark Secret Saga, and after 18 years as co-leader of the band, Turilli left Rhapsody of Fire (on good terms) to form a new Rhapsody band, Luca Turilli's Rhapsody, along with two other members who left with him, Dominique Leurquin, Patrice Guers. They describe their discography as a parallel continuation of Rhapsody of Fire's discography, with their first album being their own "Rhapsody's 11th album" and consider that they didn't leave the band, rather that it amicably split in two.


title: Rhapsody of Fire

text: In 2016, other long-term members Fabio Lione and Alex Holzwarth left the band, and reunited with Turilli, Leurquin, and Guers, to play again under the name Rhapsody for their 20th Anniversary Farewell Tour; in December 2018, several months after announcing that Luca Turilli's Rhapsody was now inactive, Turilli announced the creation of a new Rhapsody band named Turilli / Lione Rhapsody, with the lineup of the 20th Anniversary Farewell Tour (recreating, minus Staropoli, the original band's 2002–2011 lineup).


title: Rhapsody of Fire

text: The power metal band Thundercross was formed in 1993 by Luca Turilli, Alex Staropoli, and Daniele Carbonera. Turilli has said in interviews that both Thundercross and the early Rhapsody material were heavily influenced by Helloween, Crimson Glory and Manowar's style of heavy metal, and that Yngwie Malmsteen and Jason Becker were a big influence from a guitar playing perspective.


title: Rhapsody of Fire

text: In 1994, Thundercross released their first demo, "Land of Immortals", with vocalist Cristiano Adacher. During this period of time, they went through a few bassist changes in their lineup.


title: Rhapsody of Fire

text: After accepting a proposal from "Limb Music Products & Publishing", the band started recording their second demo, "Eternal Glory". At this time they also changed their name to "Rhapsody". Shortly after the release of "Eternal Glory", Adacher and bassist Furlan left the band. Former vocalist of Labyrinth and "Athena" Fabio Lione joined Rhapsody afterwards.


title: Rhapsody of Fire

text: With these four members, the band started recording their debut album, "Legendary Tales", which was released in 1997. Rhapsody incorporated classical music, baroque and heavy metal styles in a subgenre they call "film score metal" due to its resemblance to movie soundtracks. The album was recorded in Germany by the well-known producer Sascha Paeth (Heaven's Gate), who also helped Rhapsody with their bass parts. The album was also the beginning story of the Emerald Sword Saga. The lyrics on the album (written by Turilli) often refer to mystical medieval folklore and the heroic valor of those times and are centered around high fantasy, highlighting, in particular, the everlasting fight between good and evil.


title: Rhapsody of Fire

text: In the years that followed, Turilli, Staropoli, and Lione developed their new sound even more with their second album, "Symphony of Enchanted Lands", in 1998, having been joined by bass player Alessandro Lotta. They wrote pieces such as "Emerald Sword", drawing on Russian folklore and Celtic style elements and adding to the "Emerald Sword Saga". 1999 was a quiet year for Rhapsody, but Luca and Fabio both released solo albums.


title: Rhapsody of Fire

text: In the spring Rhapsody started their first tour, starting in Sweden. They performed with Stratovarius and Sonata Arctica in Spring 2000 supported by their new drummer Alex Holzwarth.


title: Rhapsody of Fire

text: After the tour, they began recording their new album, "Dawn of Victory". The first single "Holy Thunderforce" was released in 2000 with some success. The new album showed Rhapsody in a whole new light, with a more aggressive style and sped-up tempo. It continued the third part of the Emerald Sword Saga, and the orchestra still played an important part of the album, with songs such as "Lux Triumphans", "The Village of Dwarves" and "The Bloody Rage of the Titans", played beside more bombastic melodies as "Dawn of Victory", "Triumph for My Magic Steel", "Dargor, Shadowlord of the Black Mountain" and "Holy Thunderforce". It was more successful than any of their previous outings, and "Dawn of Victory" ranked at #32 in the German charts, while in Japan it peaked in 4th place. In early summer 2001, Rhapsody toured through South America and Europe.


title: Rhapsody of Fire

text: "Rain of a Thousand Flames" served as a bridge between the last part of the Emerald Sword Saga and "Power of the Dragonflame". "Power of the Dragonflame" was released in February 2002 and saw incredible success worldwide. Marking the end of the Emerald Sword Saga, it contained soft ballads, upbeat metal melodies, and the epic 19-minute-long concluding song, "Gargoyles, Angels of Darkness". The band was joined by another two members, Patrice Guers (bass) and Dominique Leurquin (guitars). Alex Holzwarth, who had been playing drums for Rhapsody onstage since 2000 was listed in the official band line-up on these releases, although Holzwarth has played drums in the studio since The Dark Secret EP.


title: Rhapsody of Fire

text: "The Dark Secret" EP was released on 28 June 2004. It gave listeners a taste of what could be expected from the new album, labeled "" which was released several months later in September. Christopher Lee was involved in this project, narrating part of the storyline. "Symphony of Enchanted Lands II" was a follow-up to the Emerald Sword Saga called The Dark Secret Saga.


title: Rhapsody of Fire

text: In July 2006 the band formerly known as Rhapsody changed their name to Rhapsody of Fire due to trademark issues. The band's website goes into further detail:


title: Rhapsody of Fire

text: "The band members consider this a great new start, reflecting the emboldened and increasingly grandiose direction that their music has taken. "The power of the Dragonflame will burn brighter than ever before," says guitarist/songwriter Luca Turilli. Keyboardist/songwriter Alex Staropoli adds, "The name Rhapsody of Fire better represents the energy that has always been present in this band and its music.""


title: Rhapsody of Fire

text: The band released "Triumph or Agony" on 25 September 2006 in Europe. The second chapter in The Dark Secret Saga, "Triumph or Agony", continues the bombastic Rhapsody of Fire tradition with a live 70-piece orchestra and choir as Turilli and Staropoli continued to self-produce the band's work with the assistance of co-producer Sascha Paeth.


title: Rhapsody of Fire

text: Newer songs include "Silent Dream", "Son of Pain" and the epic 16-minute-long "The Mystic Prophecy of the Demonknight", an example of a cinema soundtrack adapted to a metal song. In addition, vocalist Fabio Lione gave his songwriting debut for Rhapsody of Fire with the song "Il canto del Vento".


title: Rhapsody of Fire

text: In June 2008, Luca Turilli reported on the band's official website about a "hard legal fight with Magic Circle Music and his main representative Mr. Joey DeMaio". Since then, the band had gone on a hiatus for nearly a year and a half. Any studio or live activity was suspended for the period. Luca Turilli concentrated on his solo albums, Fabio Lione collaborated with Vision Divine and Kamelot, Alex Holzwarth collaborated with his brother Oliver, and Staropoli also announced his plans to record a solo album.


title: Rhapsody of Fire

text: In late 2009 Limb Music re-released their back-catalogue from 1997 to 2001, along with the compilation album "Tales from the Emerald Sword Saga" on digital music stores.


title: Rhapsody of Fire

text: On 18 November 2009, it was announced that the band had signed with Nuclear Blast Records and that their new album, "The Frozen Tears of Angels", would be released on 5 March 2010. However, Nuclear Blast stated that the album would not be released until 30 April. On 5 March 2010, the official Rhapsody of Fire website announced that it would indeed be released on 30 April. A new song was made available to download soon after. The album was produced by Luca Turilli and Alex Staropoli and mixed and mastered by Sascha Paeth at the Gate Studio in Wolfsburg. As well as the standard edition, it was released as a "special limited deluxe digipak" which included two bonus tracks and a 32-page booklet, and on vinyl.


title: Rhapsody of Fire

text: A 35-minute EP entitled "The Cold Embrace of Fear – A Dark Romantic Symphony" was released in Europe on 15 October 2010 and in the United States on 25 January 2011. The story is directly connected to "The Frozen Tears of Angels".


title: Rhapsody of Fire

text: Rhapsody of Fire's ninth studio album, "From Chaos to Eternity", was released on 12 July 2011. "From Chaos to Eternity" is the final album in the band's fantasy storyline, The Algalord Chronicles, which began with the release of "Legendary Tales". It also marks the conclusion of The Dark Secret Saga, which began on "Symphony of Enchanted Lands II: The Dark Secret". The final song on the album, the five-part "Heroes of the Waterfalls' Kingdom", is the band's longest, at almost twenty minutes long.


title: Rhapsody of Fire

text: After the release of "From Chaos to Eternity", the band underwent many line-up changes. On 15 April 2011, it was announced that Tom Hess had become Rhapsody of Fire's second guitarist. Hess had actually joined the band in December 2010, recording all the rhythm guitar parts and contributing several solos for "From Chaos to Eternity". Hess began touring with the band starting in 2011.


title: Rhapsody of Fire

text: On 16 August 2011, Rhapsody of Fire announced the friendly departure of long-time guitarist, songwriter, and founding member Luca Turilli, along with bassist Patrice Guers. They went on to found a new Rhapsody band, Luca Turilli's Rhapsody. With the departure of Turilli, Tom Hess became the lead guitarist of the band. Oliver Holzwarth, brother of drummer Alex Holzwarth, was announced to be Guers' replacement on 1 September 2011. Soon after, on 27 September 2011, the band announced that Roberto De Micheli had joined them as a second guitar player.


title: Rhapsody of Fire

text: The band embarked on their "From Chaos to Eternity World Tour" in the Spring of 2012. This tour was their largest yet, spanning three continents. Later that year, on 11 December 2012, the band signed with AFM Records. On 3 May 2013, a second live album was released, titled "Live – From Chaos to Eternity", recorded during the European dates of their "From Chaos to Eternity World Tour 2012".


title: Rhapsody of Fire

text: In July 2013, Tom Hess respectfully parted ways with the band due to "philosophical differences" with Alex Staropoli. Hess would not be replaced, with the band continuing with just one guitarist. Recording for the band's next studio album, "Dark Wings of Steel", also began in July 2013. "Dark Wings of Steel" was released at the end of the year and was the band's first album not to be based on the band's fantasy saga, "The Algalord Chronicles", which spanned from "Legendary Tales" to "From Chaos to Eternity". A European tour followed the release of the album.


title: Rhapsody of Fire

text: Bassist Oliver Holzwarth left the band in August 2014. Alessandro Sala was announced as his replacement in June 2015, although he had joined the band a few months prior. Sala had previously been a bandmate of Roberto De Micheli in the band Sinestesia.


title: Rhapsody of Fire

text: Songwriting for a followup to "Dark Wings of Steel" began in the Fall of 2014. Album artwork and the track listings for the new album, titled "Into the Legend", were revealed in November 2015. The album was released in January 2016.


title: Rhapsody of Fire

text: After a short tour to promote the new album, Fabio Lione announced his departure on 28 September 2016. Drummer Alex Holzwarth also announced his departure on the band's Facebook page a couple of days later on 9 October 2016.


title: Rhapsody of Fire

text: On 21 November 2016, former members Luca Turilli, Fabio Lione, Alex Holzwarth, Patrice Guers and Dominique Leurquin announced a Rhapsody "20th Anniversary Farewell Tour", in parallel to the current band. The tour celebrated the 20th anniversary of Rhapsody's first album "Legendary Tales" and featured, among other songs, the album "Symphony of Enchanted Lands" played in its entirety. The 20th Anniversary Farewell Tour started on 26 April 2017 in Annecy, France, and ended on 20 March 2018 in Madrid, Spain.


title: Rhapsody of Fire

text: On 11 November 2016, the band announced their new lead vocalist, Giacomo Voli. Manu Lotter was announced as the new drummer on 22 December 2016.


title: Rhapsody of Fire

text: On 20 January 2017, the band announced that their new album will be 14 classic Rhapsody songs re-recorded. The new album titled "Legendary Years" was announced on 17 March 2017 from the band's Facebook page. The album was released on 26 May 2017.


title: Rhapsody of Fire

text: The new lineup performed for the first time at the Trieste Summer Rock Festival at the castle of San Giusto on 29 July 2017 in Trieste, Italy. Following after the new line-up's debut performance was a tour with Orden Ogan in the fall of 2017.


title: Rhapsody of Fire

text: On 14 March 2018, the band had posted a narrative extract on their Facebook page, hinting that another album was being made.


title: Rhapsody of Fire

text: The band later revealed the title of their twelfth album "The Eighth Mountain", as the first chapter of a new saga titled The Nephilim's Empire Saga on 16 November 2018. The album was released on 22 February 2019.


title: Rhapsody of Fire

text: On 6 April 2020, Vocalist Giacomo Voli in an exclusive interview revealed that the band is currently working on their next album. Giacomo said, "This year we will record the new album and probably start already in the summer. At the end of the tour, I will start working on the lyrics with Roby De Micheli because some songs are already in the pre-production phase so they can be released in the spring of next year. As for the development of the saga, we will continue to narrate the events of this strange protagonist who was able to get out of hell thanks to the Nephilim. There are many possible ways and we will see what will happen."


title: Rhapsody of Fire

text: On 22 June 2020, it was announced that drummer Manu Lotter had departed from the band. The band announced Paolo Marchesich as their new drummer on 14 July 2020.


title: Rhapsody of Fire

text: Rhapsody of Fire had announced that the recording of the album had been completed on 24 September 2020, and were confirmed to be mixing the album with Sebastian "Seeb" Levermann in April 2021.


title: Rhapsody of Fire

text: On 23 April 2021, it was announced that Rhapsody of Fire would be releasing their upcoming EP, "I'll Be Your Hero", on 4 June 2021 which contains a song recorded for the band's thirteenth studio album, "Glory for Salvation", the second chapter to The Nephilim's Empire Saga which was released on 26 November 2021. A second single named after the title of the next album was released on 9 July 2021. The third single off of the album, "Magic Signs", was released on 2 September 2021. The fourth single, "Terial the Hawk", was released on 15 October 2021. The fifth single, "Chains of Destiny" was released on 7 November 2021, along with a music video.


title: Wins Above Replacement

text: Wins Above Replacement or Wins Above Replacement Player, commonly abbreviated to WAR or WARP, is a non-standardized sabermetric baseball statistic developed to sum up "a player's total contributions to his team". A player's WAR value is claimed to be the number of additional wins his team has achieved above the number of expected team wins if that player were substituted with a replacement-level player: a player who may be added to the team for minimal cost and effort.


title: Wins Above Replacement

text: Individual WAR values are calculated from the number and success rate of on-field actions by a player (in batting, baserunning, fielding, and pitching), with higher values reflecting larger contributions to a team's success. WAR value also depends on what position a player plays, with more value going to key defensive positions like catcher and shortstop than positions with less defensive importance such as first base. A high WAR value built up by a player reflects successful performance, a large quantity of playing time, or both.


title: Wins Above Replacement

text: For example, FanGraphs rates Clayton Kershaw's 2014 regular season performance at 7.9 WAR, suggesting his team won roughly eight more games than would be expected if his innings had been pitched by a replacement level player. Kershaw achieved this high WAR total by pitching many innings while maintaining a high rate of strikeouts and low rates of home runs and walks.


title: Wins Above Replacement

text: The basis for a WAR value is the estimated number of runs contributed by a player through offensive actions such as batting and base running, and runs denied to opposition teams by the player through defensive actions like fielding and pitching. Statistics such as weighted on-base average (wOBA), ultimate zone rating (UZR), ultimate base running (UBR), and defense independent pitching statistics (DIPS) measure the effectiveness of a player at creating and saving runs for their team, on a per-plate appearance or per-inning basis. These statistics can be multiplied by the playing time of a player to give an estimate of the number of offensive and defensive runs contributed to their team.


title: Wins Above Replacement

text: Additional runs contributed to a team lead to additional wins, with 10 runs estimated to be equal to roughly one win. Therefore, a 1.0 WAR value for a player signifies a contribution of roughly 10 more runs than a replacement-level player, over a specified period of time. A replacement-level player is defined by FanGraphs as contributing 17.5 runs fewer than a player of league-average performance, over 600 plate appearances. Therefore, a 1.0 WAR player has contributed an estimated −7.5 runs relative to average over the same number of plate appearances, a 2.0 WAR player has contributed +2.5 runs, and a 5.0 WAR player has contributed +32.5 runs.


title: Wins Above Replacement

text: For an individual player, WAR values may be calculated for single seasons or parts of seasons, for several seasons, or across the whole career of the player. Collective WAR values for multiple players may also be estimated, for example to determine the contribution a team receives from its outfielders, its relief pitchers or from specific positions such as catcher. It is also possible to extrapolate a future WAR value from a player's past performance data.


title: Wins Above Replacement

text: No clearly established formula exists for WAR. Sources that provide the statistic calculate it differently. These include Baseball Prospectus, Baseball-Reference, and FanGraphs. All of these sources publish the method they use to calculate WAR, and all use similar basic principles to do so. The version published by Baseball Prospectus is named WARP, that by Baseball-Reference is named bWAR or rWAR ("r" derives from Rally or RallyMonkey, a nickname for Sean Smith, who implemented that site's version of the statistic) and that for Fangraphs is named "fWAR". Compared to rWAR, the calculation of fWAR places greater emphasis on peripheral statistics.


title: Wins Above Replacement

text: WAR values are scaled equally for pitchers and batters; that is, pitchers and position players will have roughly the same WAR if their contribution to their team is deemed similar. However, the values are calculated differently for pitchers and position players: position players are evaluated using statistics for fielding and hitting, while pitchers are evaluated using statistics related to the opposing batters' hits, walks, and strikeouts in FanGraphs' version and runs allowed per 9 innings with a team defense adjustment for Baseball-Reference's version. Because the independent WAR frameworks are calculated differently, they do not have the same scale and cannot be used interchangeably in an analytical context.


title: Wins Above Replacement

text: Baseball-Reference uses six components to calculate WAR for position players: The components are batting runs, baserunning runs, runs added or lost due to grounding into double plays in double play situations, fielding runs, positional adjustment runs, and replacement level runs (based on playing time). The first five factors are compared to league average, so a value of 0 represents an average player.


title: Wins Above Replacement

text: The term formula_2 may be calculated from the first five factors, and the other term from the remaining factor.


title: Wins Above Replacement

text: Batting runs depends on weighted Runs Above Average (wRAA), weighted to the offense of the league, and is calculated from wOBA.


title: Wins Above Replacement

text: Here, "AB" is the number of at bats, "BB" the number of base on balls ("uBB" is unintentional base on balls and "IBB" is intentional base on balls), HBP the number of times hit by pitch, "SF" the number of sacrifice flies, "SH" the number of sacrifice hits, "1B" the number of singles, "2B" the number of doubles, "3B" the number of triples, "HR" the number of home runs, "SB" the number of stolen bases, and "CS" the number of caught stealing. formula_5 to formula_6 represent weighting coefficients. Baseball-Reference eliminates pitcher batting results from its data, computes linear weights and wOBA coefficients for each league, then scales the values for each league and season.


title: Wins Above Replacement

text: The positional adjustment is a value dependent on the player's position: +10.0 for a catcher, −10 for a first baseman, +3.0 for a second baseman, +2.0 for a third baseman, +7.5 for a shortstop, −7.5 for a left fielder, +2.5 for a center fielder, −7.5 for a right fielder, and −15.0 for a designated hitter. These values are set assuming 1,350 innings played (150 games of 9 innings). A player's positional adjustment is the sum of the positional adjustment for each position played by the player scaled to the number of games played by the player at that position, normalized to 1,350 innings.


title: Wins Above Replacement

text: The FanGraphs formula for position players involves offense, defense, and base running. These are measured using weighted Runs Above Average, Ultimate zone rating (UZR), and Ultimate base running (UBR), respectively. These values are adjusted using park factors, and a positional adjustment is applied, resulting in a player's "value added above league average". To this is added a scaled value to reflect the player's value compared to a replacement-level player, which is assumed to be 20 runs below average per 600 plate appearances. All four values are measured in runs.


title: Wins Above Replacement

text: The positional adjustment is a value dependent on the players position: +12.5 for a catcher, −12.5 for a first baseman, +2.5 for a second or third baseman, +7.5 for a shortstop, −7.5 for a left fielder, +2.5 for a center fielder, −7.5 for a right fielder, and −17.5 for a designated hitter. These values are scaled to the number of games played by the player at each position.


title: Wins Above Replacement

text: Baseball-Reference uses two components to calculate WAR for pitchers: runs allowed (both earned and unearned) and innings pitched. These statistics are then used in a number of further calculations to better contextualize the numbers.


title: Wins Above Replacement

text: Rather than focus on actual runs allowed, Fangraphs uses fielding independent pitching (FIP) as their main component to calculate WAR as they feel it better reflects the contributions of the pitcher.


title: Wins Above Replacement

text: In 2009, Dave Cameron stated that fWAR does an "impressive job of projecting wins and losses". He found that a team's projected record based on fWAR and that team's actual record has a strong correlation (correlation coefficient of 0.83), and that every team was within two standard deviations (σ=6.4 wins).


title: Wins Above Replacement

text: In 2012, Glenn DuPaul conducted a regression analysis comparing the cumulative rWAR of five randomly selected teams per season (from 1996 to 2011) against those teams' realized win totals for those seasons. He found that the two were highly correlated, with a correlation coefficient of 0.91, and that 83% of the variance in wins was explained by fWAR (R=0.83). The standard deviation was 2.91 wins. The regression equation was:


title: Wins Above Replacement

text: in which a team of replacement-level players is expected to have a .320 winning percentage, or 52 wins in a 162-game season.


title: Wins Above Replacement

text: To test fWAR as a predictive tool, DuPaul executed a regression between a team's cumulative player WAR from the previous year to the team's realized wins for that year. The resultant regression equation was:


title: Wins Above Replacement

text: which has a statistically significant correlation of 0.59, meaning that 35% (the square of 0.59) of the variance in team wins could be accounted for by the cumulative fWAR of its players from the previous season.


title: Wins Above Replacement

text: WAR is recognized as an official stat by Major League Baseball and by the Elias Sports Bureau, and ESPN publishes the Baseball-Reference version of WAR on its own statistics pages for position players and pitchers.


title: Wins Above Replacement

text: The importance of WAR compared to typical statistical categories has been the subject of ongoing debate.


title: Wins Above Replacement

text: For example, nearing the end of the 2012 Major League Baseball season and afterward, there was much debate about which player should win the Major League Baseball Most Valuable Player Award for the American League. The two candidates considered by most writers were Miguel Cabrera, who won the Triple Crown, and Mike Trout, who led Major League Baseball in WAR. The debate focused on the use of traditional baseball statistics, such as RBIs and home runs, compared with sabermetric statistics such as WAR.


title: Wins Above Replacement

text: Cabrera led the American League in batting average, home runs, and RBIs, but Trout was considered a more complete player by some. Relative to the average player, Cabrera contributed an extra 53.1 runs through batting, but −8.2 through defense and −2.9 through baserunning, while Trout contributed 50.1 batting runs, 13.0 defensive runs, and 12.0 baserunning runs. Cabrera, the only one of the two players whose team entered the postseason, won the award in a landslide, with 22 of 28 first-place votes from the Baseball Writers' Association of America. He and Trout posted similar seasons in 2013; Cabrera again won the MVP. Dave Cameron disagreed, in a FanGraphs article:


title: Wins Above Replacement

text: Over the last two years, we have seen two of the very best seasons in baseball history, and they've gone essentially unrecognized by the organization that has been tasked with recording history. We have been lucky enough to see an in-his-prime Mickey Mantle in modern times, and instead of celebrating that, we’ve spent Novembers explaining why his teammates' inferiority should keep him from winning an individual award.


title: Wins Above Replacement

text: Bill James states that there is a bias favoring players from earlier eras because there was greater variance in skill levels at the time, so "the best players were further from the average than they are now". That is, in modern baseball, it is more difficult for a player to exceed the abilities of his peers than it was in the 1800s and the dead-ball and live-ball eras of the 1900s. James's criticism originates from the evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould who, in 1996, published the book "" which argued the same point with respect to batting averages. The bias mentioned by Gould and James was confirmed in a statistical study which showed that ranking lists based on WAR do in fact include too many players from the earlier eras. This study challenges the stance that WAR properly adjusts for era differences.


title: Wins Above Replacement

text: James's criticism has also stemmed from the application and usage of WAR in recent years. In the 2017 Major League Baseball season, there was debate similar to 2012 regarding who should be the recipient of the American League Most Valuable Player Award: Jose Altuve or Aaron Judge. Judge outranked Altuve in FanGraphs' calculation of WAR that season, finishing first with a WAR of 8.2, to Altuve's 7.5. Based on Baseball-Reference's calculation, Altuve had the edge, 8.3 to 8.1. However, in James's words, the usage of WAR in this particular MVP argument was "...nonsense. Aaron Judge was nowhere near as valuable as Jose Altuve….  It is "not" close. The belief that it is close is fueled by bad statistical analysis.” He goes on to say that WAR,“...is dead wrong because the creators of that statistic have severed the connection between performance statistics and wins, thus undermining their analysis.” He goes on to point out that Judge performed worse than Altuve in critical situations, such as the late innings of close games, and that WAR does not properly take this into account.


title: Wins Above Replacement

text: Some sabermetricians "have been distancing themselves from the importance of single-season WAR values" because some of the defensive metrics incorporated into WAR calculations have significant variability. For example, during the 2012 season, the Toronto Blue Jays employed an infield shift against some left-handed batters, such as David Ortiz or Carlos Peña, in which third baseman Brett Lawrie would be assigned to shallow right field. This resulted in a very high Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) total for Lawrie, and hence a high rWAR, which uses DRS as a component. Ben Jedlovec, an analyst for DRS creator Baseball Info Solutions, said that Lawrie was "making plays in places where very few third basemen are making those plays" because of the "optimal positioning by the Blue Jays". Another fielding metric, Ultimate Zone Rating (UZR), uses the DRS data but excludes runs saved as a result of a shift.


title: Wins Above Replacement

text: Jay Jaffe, a writer for Baseball Prospectus and a member of the Baseball Writers' Association of America, adapted WAR for a statistic he developed in 2004 called "Jaffe Wins Above Replacement Score," or JAWS. The metric averages a player's career WAR with their seven-year peak WAR (not necessarily consecutive years). The final number is then used to measure the player's worthiness of being inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame by comparing it to the average JAWS of Hall of Fame players at that position. Baseball-Reference's explanation of JAWS says, "The stated goal is to improve the Hall of Fame's standards, or at least to maintain them rather than erode them, by admitting players who are at least as good as the average Hall of Famer at the position, using a means via which longevity isn't the sole determinant of worthiness."


title: Wins Above Replacement

text: For example, as of November 30, 2021, retired third baseman Adrián Beltré has accumulated 93.5 career WAR, and 48.7 WAR from his best seven seasons combined. Averaged together, these numbers give Beltré a JAWS of 71.1, which ranks higher than the average JAWS of 55.9 for the 15 third basemen currently in the Hall of Fame. By JAWS' measure, Beltré is a worthy candidate for the Hall of Fame.


title: Musical form

text: In music, form refers to the structure of a musical composition or performance. In his book, "Worlds of Music", Jeff Todd Titon suggests that a number of organizational elements may determine the formal structure of a piece of music, such as "the arrangement of musical units of rhythm, melody, and/or harmony that show repetition or variation, the arrangement of the instruments (as in the order of solos in a jazz or bluegrass performance), or the way a symphonic piece is orchestrated", among other factors. It is, "the ways in which a composition is shaped to create a meaningful musical experience for the listener."


title: Musical form

text: These organizational elements may be broken into smaller units called phrases, which express a musical idea but lack sufficient weight to stand alone. Musical form unfolds over time through the expansion and development of these ideas. In tonal harmony, form is articulated primarily through cadences, phrases, and periods. ""Form" refers to the larger shape of the composition. Form in music is the result of the interaction of the four structural elements," of sound, harmony, melody, and rhythm.


title: Musical form

text: Compositions that do not follow a fixed structure and rely more on improvisation are considered free-form. A fantasia is an example of this. Composer Debussy in 1907 wrote that, "I am more and more convinced that music is not, in essence, a thing that can be cast into a traditional and fixed form. It is made up of colors and rhythms."


title: Musical form

text: To aid in the process of describing form, musicians have developed a simple system of labeling musical units with letters. In his textbook "Listening to Music", professor Craig Wright writes:


title: Musical form

text: Some writers also use a prime label (such as B′, pronounced "B prime", or B″, pronounced "B double prime") to denote sections that are closely related, but vary slightly.


title: Musical form

text: The smallest level of construction concerns the way musical phrases are organized into musical sentences and "paragraphs" such as the verse of a song. This may be compared to, and is often decided by, the verse form or meter of the words or the steps of a dance.


title: Musical form

text: For example, the twelve bar blues is a specific verse form, while common meter is found in many hymns and ballads and, again, the Elizabethan galliard, like many dances, requires a certain rhythm, pace and length of melody to fit its repeating pattern of steps. Simpler styles of music may be more or less wholly defined at this level of form, which therefore does not differ greatly from the loose sense first mentioned and which may carry with it rhythmic, harmonic, timbral, occasional and melodic conventions.


title: Musical form

text: The next level concerns the entire structure of any single self-contained musical piece or movement. If the hymn, ballad, blues or dance alluded to above simply repeats the same musical material indefinitely then the piece is said to be in strophic form overall. If it repeats with distinct, sustained changes each time, for instance in setting, ornamentation or instrumentation, then the piece is a theme and variations. If two distinctly different themes are alternated indefinitely, as in a song alternating verse and chorus or in the alternating slow and fast sections of the Hungarian czardas, then this gives rise to a simple binary form. If the theme is played (perhaps twice), then a new theme is introduced, the piece then closing with a return to the first theme, we have a simple ternary form.


title: Musical form

text: Great arguments and misunderstanding can be generated by such terms as 'ternary' and 'binary', as a complex piece may have elements of both at different organizational levels. A minuet, like any Baroque dance, generally had simple binary structure (AABB), however, this was frequently extended by the introduction of another minuet arranged for solo instruments (called the "trio"), after which the first was repeated again and the piece ended—this is a ternary form—ABA: the piece is binary on the lower compositional level but ternary on the higher. Organisational levels are not clearly and universally defined in western musicology, while words like "section" and "passage" are used at different levels by different scholars whose definitions, as Schlanker points out, cannot keep pace with the myriad innovations and variations devised by musicians.


title: Musical form

text: The grandest level of organization may be referred to as "cyclical form". It concerns the arrangement of several self-contained pieces into a large-scale composition. For example, a set of songs with a related theme may be presented as a song-cycle, whereas a set of Baroque dances were presented as a suite. The opera and ballet may organize song and dance into even larger forms. The symphony, generally considered to be one piece, nevertheless divides into multiple movements (which can usually work as a self-contained piece if played alone). This level of musical form, though it again applies and gives rise to different genres, takes more account of the methods of musical organisation used. For example: a symphony, a concerto and a sonata differ in scale and aim, yet generally resemble one another in the manner of their organization. The individual pieces which make up the larger form may be called movements.


title: Musical form

text: Scholes suggested that European classical music had only six stand-alone forms: simple binary, simple ternary, compound binary, rondo, air with variations, and fugue (although musicologist Alfred Mann emphasized that the fugue is primarily a method of composition that has sometimes taken on certain structural conventions).


title: Musical form

text: This form is built from a sequence of clear-cut units that may be referred to by letters but also often have generic names such as introduction and coda, exposition, development and recapitulation, verse, chorus or refrain, and bridge. Sectional forms include:


title: Musical form

text: Medley, potpourri or chain form is the extreme opposite, that of "unrelieved variation": it is simply an indefinite sequence of self-contained sections (ABCD...), sometimes with repeats (AABBCCDD...).


title: Musical form

text: The term "Binary Form" is used to describe a musical piece with two sections that are about equal in length. Binary Form can be written as AB or AABB. Using the example of Greensleeves provided, the first system is almost identical to the second system. We call the first system A and the second system A′ (A prime) because of the slight difference in the last measure and a half. The next two systems (3rd and 4th) are almost identical as well, but a new musical idea entirely than the first two systems. We call the third system B and the fourth system B' (B prime) because of the slight difference in the last measure and a half. As a whole, this piece of music is in Binary Form: AA′BB′.


title: Musical form

text: Ternary form is a three-part musical form in which the third part repeats or at least contains the principal idea of the first part, represented as ABA. There are both simple and compound ternary forms. Da capo arias are usually in simple ternary form (i.e. "from the head"). A compound ternary form (or trio form) similarly involves an ABA pattern, but each section is itself either in binary (two sub-sections which may be repeated) or (simple) ternary form.


title: Musical form

text: This form has a recurring theme alternating with different (usually contrasting) sections called "episodes". It may be asymmetrical (ABACADAEA) or symmetrical (ABACABA). A recurring section, especially the main theme, is sometimes more thoroughly varied, or else one episode may be a "development" of it. A similar arrangement is the ritornello form of the Baroque concerto grosso. Arch form (ABCBA) resembles a symmetrical rondo without intermediate repetitions of the main theme.


title: Musical form

text: Theme and Variations: a theme, which in itself can be of any shorter form (binary, ternary, etc.), forms the only "section" and is repeated indefinitely (as in strophic form) but is varied each time (A,B,A,F,Z,A), so as to make a sort of sectional chain form. An important variant of this, much used in 17th-century British music and in the Passacaglia and Chaconne, was that of the ground bass—a repeating bass theme or "basso ostinato" over and around which the rest of the structure unfolds, often, but not always, spinning polyphonic or contrapuntal threads, or improvising divisions and descants. This is said by Scholes (1977) to be the form "par excellence" of unaccompanied or accompanied solo instrumental music. The Rondo is often found with sections varied (AABACABA) or (ABACABA).


title: Musical form

text: Sonata-allegro form (also "sonata form" or "first movement form") is typically cast in a greater ternary form, having the nominal subdivisions of "exposition, development" and "recapitulation". Usually, but not always, the "A" parts (exposition and recapitulation, respectively) may be subdivided into two or three themes or theme groups which are taken asunder and recombined to form the "B" part (the development)—thus, e.g. (AabB[dev. of a and/or b]Aab+coda).


title: Musical form

text: The sonata form is "the most important principle of musical form, or formal type from the classical period well into the twentieth century." It is usually used as the form of the first movement in multi-movement works. So, it is also called "first-movement form" or "sonata-allegro form" (because usually the most common first movements are in allegro tempo).


title: Musical form

text: Some forms are used predominantly within popular music, including genre-specific forms. Popular music forms are often derived from strophic form (AAA song form), 32-bar form (AABA song form), verse-chorus form (AB song form) and 12-bar blues form (AAB song form).


title: Musical form

text: Extended form are forms that have their root in one of the forms above, however, they have been extended with additional sections. For example:


title: Musical form

text: In the 13th century the song cycle emerged, which is a set of related songs (as the suite is a set of related dances). The oratorio took shape in the second half of the 16th century as a narrative recounted—rather than acted—by the singers.


title: Gloria Trevi

text: Gloria de los Ángeles Treviño Ruiz (born February 15, 1968), known as Gloria Trevi (), is a Mexican singer, songwriter, dancer, actress, television hostess, music video director and businesswoman known as "The Supreme Diva of Mexican Pop".


title: Gloria Trevi

text: Born in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico, Gloria Trevi left Monterrey for Mexico City to pursue her music career.


title: Gloria Trevi

text: In 1985, Trevi became a member of a short-lived girl group named Boquitas Pintadas. After the group broke up in 1988, she approached for the production of her first solo album, "¿Qué Hago Aquí?" ("What Am I Doing Here?"), which was released in 1989 and scored a number one hit across Latin America, "Dr. Psiquiatra". Trevi was often dubbed as the "Madonna of Mexico".


title: Gloria Trevi

text: In 1991, Trevi released her second album, "Tu Ángel de la Guarda" ("Your Guardian Angel"), which is widely regarded as one of her best albums. "Pelo Suelto", the lead single from the album, was a worldwide success, reaching number 1 in several Latin America countries and in Spain. Billboard magazine included Tu Angel de la Guarda in their list of greatest Latin albums of all time. Her third album, "Me Siento Tan Sola" ("I Feel So Lonely"), was released in 1992 garnering another hit, "Zapatos Viejos". Trevi starred in the film of the same name in 1993. In 1994, she released two singles, "El Recuento De Los Daños" and "La Papa Sin Catsup", from her fourth studio album "Más Turbada Que Nunca" ("More Turbulent than Ever"). Both singles reigned the "Billboard" Top Latin Albums. In December 1995, Trevi released her final studio album of the decade, and her final album produced by Andrade, "Si Me Llevas Contigo" ("If You Take Me with You"). The album produced two moderate hits, "Ella Que Nunca Fue Ella" ("She Who Never Was Herself") and "Si Me Llevas Contigo" ("If You Take Me with You"). On March 13, 1996, Trevi announced that she would retire to care for Andrade during his cancer battle. She offered her last two concerts at the National Auditorium, March 16 and 17.


title: Gloria Trevi

text: Following her release, Trevi released her sixth studio album, "Como Nace el Universo" ("How the Universe was Born"). The album was preceded by the moderate hit "En el Medio de la Tempestad" ("In the Midst of the Storm"). While her sixth record was well-received as her comeback, her seventh studio album "Una Rosa Blu" was a massive critical and commercial success. Released in 2007, the album produced several successful singles included "Psicofonia, Pruebamelo" ("Prove it to Me"), "El Favor de la Soledad" ("The Favor of Solitude"), "Cinco Minutos" ("Five Minutes"), and "Todos Me Miran" ("Everyone Looks at Me"). During award season, Trevi won Female Artist of the Year at the coveted Premio Lo Nuestro Awards and Female Airplay Song of the Year for "Cinco Minutos" at the Billboard Music Awards. Producer Sergio George earned a nomination at the Latin Grammy for producer of the year for his work on Una Rosa Blu In 2010, Trevi released her eighth, self-titled studio album "Gloria". The album included the successful singles "Vestida de Azucar" ("Dressed in Sugar"), "Fuego con Fuego" ("Fire with Fire"), "Me Rio de Ti" ("I Laugh at You"), "La Noche" ("The Night"), and "Esa Hembra es Mala" ("That Female is Evil"). The latter was used as the theme song for the telenovela "Teresa".


title: Gloria Trevi

text: In 2013, Trevi released her tenth studio album "De Pelicula". The album produced the single "No Querias Lastimarme" ("You Didn't Want to Hurt Me"), which was a critical and massive success. The song reached the top ten of the Latin "Billboard" charts and topped the charts of several Latin American countries. In 2015, Trevi embarked on a new passion project, which would become her eleventh studio album, "El Amor". The concept album included covers of popular Latin American love ballads, including previous songs from Trevi's catalog as well as original work. Trevi had two alter-egos for the album, Mr. Trevi and Mrs. Gloria. The album debuted at the top of the "Billboard" charts and produced two successful singles, "Como Yo Te Amo" ("How I Love You") and "Las Pequeñas Cosas" ("The Little Things"). In 2017, Trevi collaborated with fellow Mexican artist Alejandra Guzmán for the album "Versus". The album included two singles, "Cuando un Hombre te Enamora" and "Mas Buena". The two singers embarked on the "Versus" World Tour during summer and fall 2017.


title: Gloria Trevi

text: Trevi married Armando Gómez, a lawyer, in 2009. She now lives in McAllen, Texas, with Gómez and her two sons. Trevi received the BMI President's Award on March 2, 2016, at the 23rd BMI Latin Awards for her impact on Latin pop.


title: Gloria Trevi

text: In 2000, Trevi, Andrade, and backup singer Maria Raquenel Portillo were arrested in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on charges of corrupting minors. A year later, while in prison, Trevi announced that she was pregnant. The father was Andrade, according to DNA tests by Brazilian authorities (Trevi and her defense claimed that the results of the DNA test had been doctored). Trevi was cleared of the charges in 2004, due to lack of evidence, after spending four years and eight months in prison.


title: Group velocity

text: The group velocity of a wave is the velocity with which the overall envelope shape of the wave's amplitudes—known as the "modulation" or "envelope" of the wave—propagates through space.


title: Group velocity

text: For example, if a stone is thrown into the middle of a very still pond, a circular pattern of waves with a quiescent center appears in the water, also known as a capillary wave. The expanding ring of waves is the wave group, within which one can discern individual waves that travel faster than the group as a whole. The amplitudes of the individual waves grow as they emerge from the trailing edge of the group and diminish as they approach the leading edge of the group.


title: Group velocity

text: where is the wave's angular frequency (usually expressed in radians per second), and is the angular wavenumber (usually expressed in radians per meter). The phase velocity is: .


title: Group velocity

text: Assume that the wave packet is almost monochromatic, so that is sharply peaked around a central wavenumber .


title: Group velocity

text: There are two factors in this expression. The first factor, formula_9, describes a perfect monochromatic wave with wavevector , with peaks and troughs moving at the phase velocity formula_10 within the envelope of the wavepacket.


title: Group velocity

text: gives the envelope of the wavepacket. This envelope function depends on position and time "only" through the combination formula_12.


title: Group velocity

text: If the wavepacket has a relatively large frequency spread, or if the dispersion has sharp variations (such as due to a resonance), or if the packet travels over very long distances, this assumption is not valid, and higher-order terms in the Taylor expansion become important.


title: Group velocity

text: As a result, the envelope of the wave packet not only moves, but also "distorts," in a manner that can be described by the material's group velocity dispersion. Loosely speaking, different frequency-components of the wavepacket travel at different speeds, with the faster components moving towards the front of the wavepacket and the slower moving towards the back. Eventually, the wave packet gets stretched out. This is an important effect in the propagation of signals through optical fibers and in the design of high-power, short-pulse lasers.


title: Group velocity

text: The idea of a group velocity distinct from a wave's phase velocity was first proposed by W.R. Hamilton in 1839, and the first full treatment was by Rayleigh in his "Theory of Sound" in 1877.


title: Group velocity

text: For waves traveling through three dimensions, such as light waves, sound waves, and matter waves, the formulas for phase and group velocity are generalized in a straightforward way:


title: Group velocity

text: where formula_19 means the gradient of the angular frequency as a function of the wave vector formula_20, and formula_21 is the unit vector in direction k.


title: Group velocity

text: If the waves are propagating through an anisotropic (i.e., not rotationally symmetric) medium, for example a crystal, then the phase velocity vector and group velocity vector may point in different directions.


title: Group velocity

text: The group velocity is often thought of as the velocity at which energy or information is conveyed along a wave. In most cases this is accurate, and the group velocity can be thought of as the signal velocity of the waveform. However, if the wave is travelling through an absorptive or gainful medium, this does not always hold. In these cases the group velocity may not be a well-defined quantity, or may not be a meaningful quantity.


title: Group velocity

text: In his text “Wave Propagation in Periodic Structures”, Brillouin argued that in a dissipative medium the group velocity ceases to have a clear physical meaning. An example concerning the transmission of electromagnetic waves through an atomic gas is given by Loudon. Another example is mechanical waves in the solar photosphere: The waves are damped (by radiative heat flow from the peaks to the troughs), and related to that, the energy velocity is often substantially lower than the waves' group velocity.


title: Group velocity

text: Despite this ambiguity, a common way to extend the concept of group velocity to complex media is to consider spatially damped plane wave solutions inside the medium, which are characterized by a "complex-valued" wavevector. Then, the imaginary part of the wavevector is arbitrarily discarded and the usual formula for group velocity is applied to the real part of wavevector, i.e.,


title: Group velocity

text: It can be shown that this generalization of group velocity continues to be related to the apparent speed of the peak of a wavepacket. The above definition is not universal, however: alternatively one may consider the time damping of standing waves (real , complex ), or, allow group velocity to be a complex-valued quantity. Different considerations yield distinct velocities, yet all definitions agree for the case of a lossless, gainless medium.


title: Group velocity

text: The above generalization of group velocity for complex media can behave strangely, and the example of anomalous dispersion serves as a good illustration.


title: Group velocity

text: At the edges of a region of anomalous dispersion, formula_24 becomes infinite (surpassing even the speed of light in vacuum), and formula_24 may easily become negative


title: Group velocity

text: Since the 1980s, various experiments have verified that it is possible for the group velocity (as defined above) of laser light pulses sent through lossy materials, or gainful materials, to significantly exceed the speed of light in vacuum . The peaks of wavepackets were also seen to move faster than .


title: Group velocity

text: In all these cases, however, there is no possibility that signals could be carried faster than the speed of light in vacuum, since the high value of does not help to speed up the true motion of the sharp wavefront that would occur at the start of any real signal. Essentially the seemingly superluminal transmission is an artifact of the narrow band approximation used above to define group velocity and happens because of resonance phenomena in the intervening medium. In a wide band analysis it is seen that the apparently paradoxical speed of propagation of the signal envelope is actually the result of local interference of a wider band of frequencies over many cycles, all of which propagate perfectly causally and at phase velocity. The result is akin to the fact that shadows can travel faster than light, even if the light causing them always propagates at light speed; since the phenomenon being measured is only loosely connected with causality, it does not necessarily respect the rules of causal propagation, even if it under normal circumstances does so and leads to a common intuition.


title: Jugular vein

text: The jugular veins are veins that take deoxygenated blood from the head back to the heart via the superior vena cava. The internal jugular vein descends next to the internal carotid artery and continues posteriorly to the sternocleidomastoid muscle.